A beautiful day in Oregon.

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Anne Leonard

We are sitting at the shipper waiting to be loaded and head to Memphis. We have 4 days to get there and they are not open on the weekends. Trying to decide if we take a leisurely drive or just haul ass and hope we can drop it at a terminal. Today I found out that in Oregon you have to watch out for ferries. Who the heck knew the didn’t have bridges. Learn something new every day.

Home time was awesome. We had a great time with 3 of our kids and I love going home when the weather is perfect LOL. We had Lil Bit fixed while home and she ended up having 8 teeth pulled. Poor baby is only 3 years old and now she looks like an old man with no teeth. At least on the front bottom. We were suppose to head out on Sunday night but there was nothing leaving so we got to sleep in our own bed for another night. Monday morning I took Lil Bit back to the vet since her incision wasn’t looking right and tissue was coming out. They had to take her in for another emergency surgery. Her interior sutures  had torn and they had to restitch both inside and out. She is doing much better now and we are trying to keep her quiet in the truck HA HA HA. Glad it all worked out and she is going to be okay.

Coming out of home time is the worst usually but this time because of the time we had, it was the easiest yet. Love that. Anyway. I am going to let Craig post the pics of our weekend. Oh yeah I forgot he posted that video of me shooting. Have I told you I don’t like guns!!! Well you can see it for yourself LOL

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Just had to post this

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Craig

We are on home time and actually, for once, at home in Colorado.  We are having a blast with the kids and we went out this morning to go shooting out in the Pawnee Grasslands.  Here is a video of my Son helping Anne shoot a 9mm handgun for the first time.  Pretty dang funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbrINt-FddQ&feature=youtu.be

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Okay I am going to gush a little.

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Anne Leonard

When you are on the road a majority of the time and are lucky enough to do it with your best friend. Life is not too shabby. Craig and I have been out here for 15 months now and still love it.  We have made so many new friends and seen 47 states so far. But what I wanted to gush about was my husband.

The man still opens all my doors for me. Whether it’s in the car, hotel, truck stop or even the truck door. Craig is there being a gentleman. I have to say I love it. I realize how lucky I am to have him. Now you all know I don’t always feel that way but he is a pretty darn amazing man and I adore him. I think kudos where kudos are deserved. It’s funny when you sit at a truck stop and watch all the different people walk by. Talk about a reality show.

We have sat for the past couple days. We picked up a load in Livermore Ca after being in breakdown for 5 days UGH.  First off at the consignee. Our appt time was 4 am and we showed up then. Short version is we sat on the road for hours. Did I mention it was in that lovely state of NEW JERSEY. By the time we unloaded it had been 9 hours. It was a pretty dirty place and just made me happy I had the truck to sit in. Then we had to wait for a pick up at a truck stop in Pa that really didn’t have much to offer. Couldn’t even do our laundry but did get to take a shower and had a nice place for the puppies. But we sat in the truck together for a day and realize that we love being together. I forgot to mention there was no tv reception either LOL. This job is perfect for us. At least today I feel that way and truthfully we all have days that we don’t like our jobs. I get to spend everyday with my best friend and that is pretty darn cool.

We also are meeting so many cool people. That is one of my favorite things about this job. The people you meet and make friends with and those people you watch at truck stops. LOL Sorry I couldn’t resist. What surprises me that probably shouldn’t anymore is how many people are so like us. It is pretty cool how we all ended up on this road and how much fun we are all having. Now we are heading to Chattanooga to see the grandkids and their parents. We were suppose to be there for Easter but due to breakdown it didn’t work. First time since we have been with this company that they didn’t get us home for home time. I think that is a pretty good track record. Our FM really takes care of us.

Anyway that is all I have to say for the moment. Hope everyone is having a great day!!

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Beginning to feel like the hotel is our new home.

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Anne Leonard

We checked out of the hotel because we thought our truck was going to be ready. Silly us. We went and nope. Truck isn’t ready. I guess the bracket for the onguard didn’t fit and they had to reorder one. The first couple days were awesome. I am ready to get back in the truck and we were suppose to be in Chattanooga this weekend for Easter. Still keeping our fingers crossed that we may make it by Sunday.

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We need to buy a car for California

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Craig

We are here so much we are actually talking about buying a cheap car to leave at the Colton terminal.  We are spending $150 to $200 a month for rental cars here so if we can find a deal we are going to do it I think.

The truck is back in the shop and because it is a warranty issue we had to take it back to the black hole called Freightliner of Fontana.  We dropped it off on Monday and it is now Thursday.  They have promised us the truck will be done today but confidence on that is pretty low.  We are supposed to be in Chattanooga for Easter and that is starting to look kinda tough.  Since we had the Secondary Air Tank replaced last month we have had an intermittent issue with the air compressor sometimes running continuously which means the overflow valve keeps spitting and driving us crazy.  The last week it would not shut off if the truck is running and then when we got to LA, it would hardly refill the tanks.  They say it is fixed and they are working on one other issue that needed parts.  (the radar for the adaptive cruise control)  Fingers crossed for today.

We have had a blast in LA this week.   We arrived on Sunday early morning and ran and got the rental cart so we could do some errands like get a new awesome mattress at Ikea for the truck.  Anne had Tyler (her son) come to the Terminal and they drove up to Yucca Valley to visit her mom while I made our delivery late that night.  I then made another delivery on Monday morning for a team that was trying to start their home time.  I ran the truck over to Freightliner and took a nap until Anne and Tyler got there and picked me up.  We checked into the hotel and then went to Benihana’s for Tyler’s birthday dinner.  Happy hour n the bar was pretty epic.  Friends of ours who also drive for USX and were staying in the same hotel joined us for dinner…….eventually.  Anne had made plans to meet for dinner at 7:30.  She dropped me at the bar to watch the NCAA finals while she went clothes shopping for Tyler.  She then joined me at about 7:00 and I kept checking the lobby for Jeff and Melissa.  At almost 8:00 I finally convinced Anne to call them and they were waiting in the Hotel lobby for us as they did not have a car (something my lovely wife had discussed with Melissa earlier)  I quickly ran and got them and dinner was wonderful.

The next morning all five of us ran over to our favorite breakfast spot.  The Rodeo Cafe in Mira Loma.  Seriously scary looking from the outside and awesome on the inside.  The  first time I took Anne there we pulled up and she said “There is no way I am going into that place”  Obviously she followed me in and was shocked.  We have learned to buy one breakfast here and split it.  The food is off the hook.  We spent the rest of the day shopping and eating and drinking and Tyler had to go home to work on homework.

On Wednesday we called my sister Lisa who joined us at another of my favorite restaurants, Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen in Orange CA.  LOVE this place and luck was perfect.  My sister has recently started a very cool theater company in Hermosa Beach and they are working on their second and third productions so lots of fun news.  You can check them out on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/SurfCityTheatre

If you would all “Like” that page my sister will owe me big-time which is always useful around Christmas.

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Map who needs a map.

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Anne Leonard

I have had a rough couple days with trying to get out of certain cities and driving through others. I think I know where I am going but I end up listening to my rand mcnally who is NOT ALL KNOWING. I just seem to have the gremlin taking me the wrong direction and the wrong freeway and figure it out a little too late. New Jersey was a nightmare and I ended up on freeways I shouldn’t be on. Finally ended up on a side road. To the right was bridges that I couldn’t get under and on the left streets that were too small for my truck. I finally found a place to turn around and was trying to be polite when Craig says you just have to go. No one is going to let you in. By the time I made it to the freeway I should have been on an hour ago I was shaking. But made it without taking out any light poles or NJ drivers.

Then today I am mozing along the 70 on my way through Missouri/Kansas and somehow I missed my turn off. Now I had looked but didn’t realize that I had already passed my turn. My rand mcnally was taking me the shortest route which was not the way I was suppose to go. Of course my husband wakes up wants to know why I didn’t get off where I should. I am trying to explain it is the computers fault but the bottom line is I am the professional driver and I need to pay closer attention to certain cities.

I guess the moral of this story is I NEED A MAP. I can’t just assume the GPS is going to take me the correct way. Sometimes there is a gremlin living in it and he is NOT a nice gremlin. I can admit when I am wrong. I usually don’t have trouble but lately I am jinxed. I see a map in a lot of my future.

UGH is all I have to say in  a very disgusted voice!!!!!!!

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The Great White North

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Craig

So, before Anne threw herself from the truck (there is a nasty rumor she was pushed) there we were, happily running on I-80 across Ohio very early in the morning when the truck computer dings with a message. “We need you to repower a load going to Canada” next message was “other team will meet you in Toledo”. Usually when we have a repower, they ask us if we can do it, not this time. this sounds like an order. They told us the load was currently at our terminal in Springfield Ohio and there was a problem with the trailer. So we shut down on the Turnpike at an Oasis about 50 miles from Toledo and went to sleep waiting to be contacted. Six hour later still no word so I sent a message and they told us to drive to Springfield and get the load. Got there in about three hours, dropped our load and got the new one heading to Montreal Quebec. We drove up to Detroit to the border crossing and found out we were pre-cleared (Yea Someone) and drove through the night through Toronto to Montreal.  Our regular Fleet Manager came in from her weekend and called to ask us why we did not refuse the Canada load, we told her they did not ask us, they ordered us.  I am sure somebody heard about that.  Got to delivery 30 minutes before scheduled time. The thing that drives me crazy about Canada is that every Province in the Country must list all of their road signs and all packaging in both English and French due to Quebec being a French-speaking Province. HOWEVER, when you get to Quebec, they ONLY list everything in French with no english. A pathetic cave in to the French Separatists. My high school French pretty much just allows me to get into trouble where I can then use one of the few complete sentences I can utter in French. “Je parle en peu francais” (I only speak a little French) It was gorgeous weather in Canada with the temp at 76 degrees in Montreal in mid-March. We got a preassign from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania so we dropped down into one of the only two States we had not driven in yet…Vermont! All we have left is Maine of the lower 48.  We also want to drive to Alaska at least once.  What a beautiful drive and we had all day to goof off as our pick up was early the next morning. We tried to stop in Williston VT as it was one of the prettiest towns I have ever seen but could find nowhere to park the truck. We will get back there in a car. We stopped in Montpelier at a little truck stop with an Applebees next door so since we were shut down for the day we had a couple of drinks with lunch and spent a very nice and relaxing day watching TV and reading. Picked up in New Hampshire and dropped in PA (Where Anne fell out of the truck) then back to New Jersey to pick up a load to Los Angeles. Other than a LOT of complaining by my very sore wife, the run across country was uneventful. Got to LA a couple of days early so we dropped our load at the Colton Terminal and spent a few hours the next morning (after our amazing breakfast at the Rodeo Cafe in Mira Loma) searching for an empty Reefer (refrigerated) trailer. Finally found one at a FedEx and headed out to Oxnard to pick up a load of Strawberries headed to Maryland. We had to wait for six hours to load as they pick the strawberries that day and then have to chill them to between 33 and 35 degrees before they can load them on our trailer. We are now heading West just East of Albuquerque New Mexico. Weather is perfect and life is good. Anne is also starting to feel better.

I also wanted to say that before we headed to Canada we ran into Jon and Jade, a great young couple who have been following this blog for a while and joined USX in part due to our experiences. Jon upgraded first and drove Solo for three weeks as it takes longer for women to get a trainer. They have been running together for a few weeks and I saw a post on Facebook that they were at the Iowa 80 Truckstop (worlds largest) we were a couple hours away in Des Moines heading their way so I sent Jon a text. I took a nap and woke up when we stopped to meet them. We really love meeting the people we have been talking to for a while. Just a really nice surprise. I am posting a picture of them below with their dog Lucy.

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Some new digs for the truck.

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Anne Leonard

This morning we have been running around looking for a reefer trailer. Luckily our load doesn’t pick up till noon. Hate when this happens but usually it doesn’t take us this long to find one. It did give me some time to organize the truck….. again.

We met a couple that followed our blog while driving the 80 through Iowa. Love that part of this job. We stopped at a truck stop and walked our dogs and chatted. Jon and Jade have been driving for a few weeks and are an awesome couple. We both checked out each others truck and they had the coolest bins behind their chairs. 3 tiered drawer units that fit perfectly and needless to say. We drove out and tried to find them. Took a few wal marts in  few different states till we did but we now have them in our truck and it has made a huge difference. Now all the crap on the floor is now in a drawer and suddenly we have floor space. A huge deal in 63 square feet of living space. We changed them up and have two drawers behind the driver seat and 4 behind the passenger seat. I will post pictures so you can see how cool they are.

The truck is a constant source of moving and changing. Trying new things and seeing what others do to their trucks gives you lots of ideas. Some you like and some you don’t. But there is always something new that works super well. I still have way to much stuff in here and in April plan to do a spring cleaning…. again. I know it is a constant battle. But when you get your truck all nice and clean and everything is put away it just makes you smile.

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Remember those famous last words…. 3 points of contact.

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Anne Leonard

REMEMBER THEM!!!!!

We had just pulled into a receiver and was ready to drop the load. I was a little confused by the set up. At the entrance they had a barrel so you couldn’t pull in. I was distracted and grabbed my info and next thing I know I am laying on the ground out side the truck. My glasses went flying and luckily Craig heard something and looked out. My saviour picked me up and got me back in the truck.

Luckily nothing was seriously hurt but 3 days later and I still can’t sit on my tailbone. I was pretty miserable the first day and the second was a little better. Weird thing is you hurt and then you hurt somewhere else. Still taking ibuprofen and sitting on pillows. Now it’s just my hips and my tailbone. It could have been a lot worse!! I figure a few more days and it will be ALL better. After driving I definitely feel a lot worse and my poor husband has to deal with my whining. But I can tell you that I will never get out of the truck without 3 points of contact. It is a LONG WAY down and I didn’t fall the entire way.

We have been running hard since. We are about to drop our load in Colton and pick up another one tomorrow running back to Maryland. Hoping I might be able to sneak a visit with my dad and a couple friends if possible. We are going to try and make a visit down to Chattanooga to see the grandkids and their parents LOL. Craig has decided that I may need a couple days out of the truck. I think he may be right.

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Oooops….That is where I wanted to park

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Craig

So….I had my first accident.  It was just a fender bender and a combination of me being distracted, tired and just bad timing.  We will get back to this later.

We had a great week coming out of home time from my Fathers 80th birthday.  It was a complete surprise and I heard him exclaim twice that it was the best day of his life.  A pretty significant statement for an 80 year old.  And I quote “I have never been in a room with all the people who love me and that I care about”  That was actually a paraphrase but very close.  It was so nice to spend time with my brothers and sisters and all of my Nieces and Nephews.  My Nephew Brett and I TOTALLY dominated at Canasta.  That was a very good night.   I love my huge, crazy family.

We got back on the road and headed to Phoenix on the first of three high value product loads in a row.  HVP loads are kind of a pain as we cannot leave the truck unattended.  One of us has to be in or near the truck at all times and we have to send a message in every time we stop for any reason.  Miles are Miles however so we did our Amazon.com duty and sucked it up.  From Phoenix we ran to Toledo Ohio and then back to Sacramento California.  Weather has just been awesome.  Blue skies and warm everywhere…..until we hit Reno.  As we crossed into California we were told that it was snowing hard on Donner Pass and chains were required.  We decided when we started that we were not going to chain up ever so I pulled over and grabbed my tablet to check the weather forecast.  The storm had just started, it was Monday night and the storm warning was in effect until Wednesday morning.  30 hours!  I could not help myself, I decided we (and by “we” I mean “me”) were going to chain.  Chains went on pretty easy and the drive over the pass was uneventful.  Got the chains off on the other side and headed on down to Sacramento.  As I was coming into town the freeway splits, four lanes go left and three lanes go right.  It was 6:45 am and rush hour was getting into full swing.  I was only driving about 45 miles per hour.  My GPS told me go right so I moved over one lane.  I looked down to check my truck computer at the wrong time.  Looked up and traffic was completely stopped.  I slammed on the brakes with about 150 yards to the car in front of me.  This is where our very light, 10,000 pound, load failed me.  With no weight in the trailer I got no help at all from the trailer brakes.  I could actually feel the trailer skipping.  I hit the little Nissan Altima going about 5 mph.  Really just a fender bender……for me.  The poor lady in front of me lost her trunk.  The good news is nobody was hurt (other than my pride) and I did not get a ticket.  Our bumper, grill and radiator where damaged and the truck could not be driven with the radiator leaking so  a tow truck was called.  If you have ever seen the movie Cars and know the character Tow Mater, you would have freaked out when the tow truck arrived.  This guy WAS Tow Mater.  I am posting a picture below.  Awesome guy.  We did the tow of shame and got towed to FedEx to drop our load.  Then towed to Penskie Truck Body Repair in Woodland to get the truck fixed.  They were awesome.  They had the parts ordered and truck torn apart that day.  We  checked into the Holiday Inn Express, rented a car and proceeded to spend way too much  money on food and alcohol.  Only 48 hours later the truck is fixed and we are back on the road.  We grabbed a load in Valencia California headed to Nashua New Hampshire and we are rolling……..

Very weak internet where we are sitting tonight.  I have a bunch of pictures and another post I will try to get up tomorrow.

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