Anne & Craigs Great Adventure

Let me start this by apologizing for being negative here.

So last night I stopped at a Pilot in Arkansas at 3:00 AM to get ice and clean the windshield.  I was approached by a lady asking for money.  At first I thought,…..well, you know.  But she said she was traveling across country and someone had smashed her window and stolen her purse.  She had no money, credit cards or ID.  She was out of gas and stuck.  I had no idea if she was telling the truth, you get hit up pretty often at truck stops for money, but I figured it was not up to me to judge.  I gave her five bucks and went into the store for ice.  I kept thinking about her predicament and decided that I was not OK with leaving it like that.  I went back out and found her talking to another driver and I asked her to pull her car up to the gas pumps and I would fill it.  The good news is that prompted the other driver to offer her $10 so now she had $15.  Unfortunately she only had an 11 gallon tank.  So I filled it and then asked if she was hungry.  We went in and I got her a sandwich, carrots and a Gatorade.  I wish I could have done more and I have no idea what she does when that all runs out.  As we walked into the store I told her that she should be able to get help at truck stops, she told me that I was the first that had been willing to help her for “free”.  I got sick to my stomach.  Three drivers had offered to help her if she worked it off.  What kind of pigs are there?  I can see saying no, but what jerk would say something like that.  There are hookers who hang out at truck stops and they are not hard to find, why terrorize someone?

Please keep her in your prayers.

I was talking to my trainer yesterday and reminiscing about our adventures this winter. I had totally forgotten that we had slid into a snow bank. Wait let me clarify. Carl slid into the snow bank. When it happened I asked Carl “What do we do now?”  Carl’s answers was “We wait until a good ole boy comes and pulls us out.” I respond “No really what do we do?”

Carl found this hysterical. What was funnier was a few good ole boys tried to pull us out and finally the monster truck pulled us out. I found out that the bigger the truck the bigger the bragging rights are.

So I am sitting on a back highway in the Oklahoma Panhandle at 4:30 in the morning.  There is an accident a ways ahead of us with multiple Semi’s and multiple injuries at the other end of a construction zone.  VERY weak internet here so I am typing this on my tablet and I will upload later.  I was just told that it will be 2 to 3 hours to clear so since I am wide awake, it seems like a good time to get caught up here.

{edit} Here are a couple of pictures of the aftermath of the accident that held us up.  It was a very bad one with a number of people flown out to hospitals.

Now, back  to my post…….

We have been having a great time.  The miles have  been great and the loads have been scheduled in such a way that we are just in the slot and rolling with really no pressure.
As Anne posted, we had a wonderful few days off in Los Angeles where we  spent time with Tyler (Anne’s son) and some great friends. The trips are all  starting to blur together.  We ran from  LA to Denver on a Fedex load and then got a request to run up to Grand Island
to get a Fedex load from a solo driver to get the load to Salt Lake City on time.  We got to the truck stop and met  with the guy who had a trailer with a very bad tire on a flammable hazmat load.  He told me he had not had time to fix it and I was a bit upset since it was now up to us to take the time to get it fixed.  That is when he told me that I just continue to drive on it like that since he had been driving with it for over 450 miles.  That is when I kind  of lost it.  It was Anne’s first  experience with seeing me really lose my temper.  This driver was just a total jerk.  There was a shop at the truck stop we were at  so I took it over there and they fixed it after it took us about 3 hours to get in.   Here is a picture of the tire.  Very illegal.

So we got the load to SLC on time and then ran a Fedex load from there to Salem Oregon, then up to Portland to pick up a load going to Laredo Texas (where it will then be taken into Mexico by another driver) So we turned around and back through the Columbia Gorge and into Boise where we met Ken and Kathi, another team we had met a Fedex yard a few months ago, for dinner.  Had a great time with them and then drove through the night to Loveland where we met our youngest daughter and went out to dinner with her.  What a great time and it really helps to have face time with any of the kids.  After Laredo we have a preplan to head to San Antonio and then run a round trip to Memphis, we will then be heading to our main terminal in Tunnel Hill Georgia so we can get a number of things fixed on the truck and get our periodic maintenance done.  That means time with Jason, Anna and the GRANDKIDS!  I will also try to get over to Charlotte to see my youngest son play some football.  Hard to call him my baby boy since he is taller than me now.

We continue to get questions from new drivers on how we have our truck/apartment set up so I will put up a separate page with pictures and a list of all of the equipment we have purchased.

We are sitting in the driveway of our Laredo delivery waiting for them to open at 10 AM.  Not a very nice town I must say.

Here are some pictures from the last 10 days or so.

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It has been a crazy few weeks. I keep meaning to blog and am just too tired by the end of the day. We have had a great month out. We have run hard and dropped  loads and picked loads up. We almost ran out of hours for the first time and finally ended up in Los Angeles and asked to do a 34 hour reset (more like 52 but who’s counting). My mother had just had surgery and we got to visit with her. I also got to see my son and my best friends. We had such an amazing time. We had great food, great conversation and a great time. It was totally exhausting but so worth it. AND I AM BACK TO BEING BLONDE!!!!! We were exhausted from our visit and were psyched to get back to work so we could get some sleep LOL.

I tell people that I am shocked at how much I love doing this with Craig. He definitely loves it more than I do but when I get to see my family and friends. I love it just as much.  I really love our 63 sq ft apartment.  Right now it needs to be hosed out LOL. About once a week we do a spring cleaning or when we have been running hard. We are out of cleaning supplies so we need to make a run to Walmart and stock up. We have so much fun together. Not that we get along every second of the day but I wouldn’t change a thing.Driving through Oregon is beautiful and I have to say this part of the country is stunning. Idaho and Utah are absolutely beautiful. At least this time of the year they are. Not sure I’d like to drive these roads in the winter.

We are running from Portland to Laredo, TX and will be stopping for dinner in Boise to visit with another team who is in Boise broken down. Then we are off to Colorado and they are running us right by our house. Planning on stopping and doing some shopping and hug my daughter and that is about all we will have time for on this trip. Fill up the dog food bins and check the mail.

Is there anything anyone wants to know or wants to see pictures of ?

That is the only word I could think of while getting ready to write. I have no idea where we have been for the past week or what we have been doing. Everything is running together and if I had to tell you where I was 3 days ago. I couldn’t. We have been running hard which is super nice and as hard as we have been running. It hasn’t seemed like it. We ran out of time on our 70 and had to sit for awhile until we got some time back. Luckily it has all worked out in our favor and we have run and sat. Run and sat. Always a good thing. Looking forward to spending some time with family one of these days but not sure which family LOL. Have no idea where or when  but that is one of the cool things about this job. Had some great news. My son made the Dean’s list at CSUN (California State University Northridge) and my daughter is officially enrolled as a full time student at our community college.  Life is good!!!!

Things have been really good. We just celebrated our anniversary. Lucky ducks that we are we spent part of our day doing laundry at our terminal in Lincoln. The one that a horror movie should be shot at. It’s a freaky place to say the least. BUT I do have clean clothes and got all the bedding clean. I love how excited I get over the stupidest things. Clean clothes and sheets in a truck goes a long long way!!

We are now trying to figure out where to go next. We have a bunch of holidays coming up and trying to figure out where to spend them. Another of the perks of this job. We have the ability to do it. It’s a good day in our truck. We are trying to give Craig a 34 hour reset today so I get to drive and then we get to sit until the morning when we pick up our next load. Love when everything just goes according to plan.

Even though my title is lost. It has been an awesome week and looking forward to what next week will bring!

So we got into Phoenix and dropped our load at the Amazon.com facility and then picked up another Amazon load heading to Hebron Kentucky.  So nice to unhook one trailer and grab the one next to it and head out.   Like all Amazon loads, it was a High Value Product (HVP) load which means we are not allowed to leave it unattended….ever.  One of us has to stay in the truck at all times.  It is also OK to both be out of the truck as long as we can see the truck, such as in a restaurant.  It is really a pain in the butt but a load is a load and it keeps us moving.  I have no problem with HVP loads really but I look on the bill of lading for this one and it is 4200 EMPTY plastic totes being returned to Hebron.  I call our FM and ask him to take the HVP designation off of us and he tells me he cannot as all Amazon loads are HVP.  This is just stupid, I tell him so and he agrees.  So I tell him “I am going to send in each Macro (message) that I am required to send in”  He laughs and says he understands.  There is no way I am babysitting a load of empty plastic totes.

We drop that load in Hebron KY and run empty to Indianapolis to pick up a Fedex load heading to Mira Loma California.  As we are rolling through the Mojave Desert, I call our fleet manager to tell him we are running out of hours and need a day off in California.  Since we are running way ahead of schedule on the load, he tells us he will just leave our PTA for 10:00 AM the next day.  We ask if we can take the truck up to Palm Springs to see Anne’s Mother and Johnathan says “no problem”.  An hour later we get the pre-assign for the next load and it is a Fedex load out of Mira Loma heading to Kent WA.  So now we can Bobtail to Yucca Valley instead of hauling an empty trailer since we are coming back to the same facility.  Sweet.

We had an awesome time with Anne’s Mom as we met her for a Sushi lunch, a nap and shower for me, Anne went and got a pedicure.  This morning we had breakfast on the patio and then Anne got some gardening done while I did some work on her Mom’s computers.  It was a very nice but very short break.  On the way back down to the Colton terminal this afternoon we stopped and did some shopping at Trader Joe’s and picked up our favorite burgers at In-N-Out.  Tasty.  So we get to the terminal and finish up our last load of laundry,  Then head over to Fedex to get our load for the 10:00 PM pickup.  We get the trailer and it has issues.  A bald tire and a missing marker light.  This is California and I am not about to roll the dice with the DOT.  Any tickets we get are paid by us, even on company equipment so we are waiting on a service truck to come to Fedex and fix us.

Here a few pictures from this week

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Great miles again this week, 6236 miles.

I actually can’t complain. This is our second blown tire on the trailer. I am stranded on the side of the freeway on I70 near Dayton Oh. Craig is sleeping again thank goodness. He drove all night and then gets to wake up to me yelling that I blew a tire. It’s a little scary when it happens and just my luck. Both times I have been driving. This time I’m not sure who was more scared. Me or the car next to me. He flew over two lanes LOL. It made a HUGE pop sound and I looked out the side mirror and see the remnants of my tire flying everywhere. Doesn’t look as bad as last time except my mud flap is folded over the tire and it bent the bar that the mud flap attaches too. Waiting for tire repair to show up and they gave me an  ETA of 45 minutes. I am keeping my fingers crossed cuz it is getting hot out here. The sun is baking on the front window and my truck is rocking from all the traffic. I wish I could have made it to a safer space but breakdown said I did the right thing.

So here I sit. Max is asleep. Craig is asleep and I get to wait LOL. I just hope they show up quick so we can hit the road. We are heading to Phoenix for a Saturday delivery so at least we have time in the schedule.

So Anne kinda hates the NorthEast, trucking companies HATE to pay tolls.  Actually, it is the customer who hates to pay tolls so we don’t usually go the easy way when we get to New Jersey.  Always having to take some stupid side route.   The route solution that we get on the computer is just a list of roads and can be cryptic at best.  It can be very hard to figure out where we should go sometimes.  Heading South from Boston going to Edison New Jersey, I was sleeping and I woke up to hear Anne talking to a VERY heplful man.  I lay there on the bed wondering who this very knowledgible and friendly guy was, who was trying to figure out how we had gotten so lost and where we were trying to go.  I assumed it was some great truck driver who was helping her.  SO I opened the curtain……

 

 

He was awesome and we are back on the route.  Everybody loves Anne.

We ran through Texas, Louisiana, Missisippi, Alabama and into Florida.   Stopped for a great Shrimp PoBoy and some Gumbo just outside of Baton Rouge, it was awesome.   Got to our delivery in Medway Florida at Noon on Tuesday and it took them 5 1/2 hours to unload the trailer.  Everytime I checked they were taking a break. It was the first time I have lost my temper at a drop.  After I read them the riot act and refused to accept their lies I called my FM and he had the Customer Service Rep get on it.  15 minutes later we are done and head the 10 miles to our second drop of 4 pallets in Miami.  Get there just before six PM and we are empty five minutes later.  We head to the Seminole Truck Stop about 20 miles North and we pull in with Anne having 30 minutes left on her 70 hour clock.  Due to this our fleet manager put us into home status and said to call him when we want to go back to work.  We were shut down for the evening since we were both out of hours.  That means…..WE CAN DRINK!  The cool thing about this truck stop  is it is the only one I have ever seen with a Tiki Bar!  That is what I call trip planning.

After spending a great evening there we rolled out about Noon to drive North toward Vero Beach to spend the rest of the week with our wonderful friends Mike and Brandi Lafferty.   We have been having a great time and love the beach (they live one block away)  The main plan was the very last shuttle launch on Friday July 8th.  Mike has a very good friend who is a shuttle astronaut and he called to ask Shane if he could find us friends and family passes to get onto Kennedy Space Center.  He said it would be  tough but he would look into it.  Wednesday evening Mike got a call from Shane telling him that he had found a car pass but we would need to drive over to Orlando Thursday evening  to pick it up.  Since we needed to go to Orlando, it seemed a trip to Margaritaville was in order.  We packed up the kids in the car and all six of us drove the 90 miles to the Grand Cypress Resort where all of the NASA contractors stay.  Mike and I went in to get the pass while the girls sat in the car.  We first met Van, who is the Bell Captain and after a few minutes he decided we needed champagne while we waited.

Deciding that this could only get us in trouble Van went and got us two more glasses for the girls in the car.

So then Liz, who heads up the team from Boeing came to see us and said that the pass was not here yet, the person who had it was close but had been stuck in traffic.  She told us Boeing would buy us drinks and dinner while we waited.  Mike and I decided that we would rather remain married.  About 15 minutes (and a couple more glasses of champagne later) two engineers from Goodard Space Flight Center arrived and gave us the pass.

The only problem was that the Pass was for Employees only and a NASA badge was required to use it.  Mike called Shane and he said not to worry, he would get us in.  We headed over to Universal Citywalk to Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville where we had a great time.  We got back to Vero Beach about 12:30 with a 4:30 wake up time to get headed to KSC.  Brandi had to work so it was Anne and I with Mike, Hannah and Mckenna.  We drove up Hwy 1 on the coast and no traffic issues.  We heard the Freeway from Orlando was a nightmare as NASA was going to have One Million visitors today.  A normal launch has about 200,000 visitors so I was not alone in my desire to see the last one ever.  We got to the first checkpoint and they would not let us through.  Mike called Shane and he had another astronaut drop him off with us to ride in.  Shane had spent the night in the cockpit of the Atlantis on the pad getting all of the controls and switches set for the launch.  What a great guy.  I would say “down to earth” but how can that be said about an astronaut?  We got front row seats and what an amazing day.  I am very emotional so it was no surprise that I cried at the launch but when I looked at Anne and she was crying I knew it was not just me.  I was 9 years old 42 years ago when Neil Armstong stepped onto the Moons surface for the first time and this was the culmination of a promise I had made to myself on that day.

The rest of this week has been amazing and we have had such a wonderful time with Mike and Brandi.  Spent the afternoon at their club yesterday and then home where Brandi made the most amazing shrimp dish for dinner.  We are packed and heading back to the truck today (Sunday) after a crazy, fun and restful week.  Ready to get rolling again.

This has been an awesome week and will end with Craig crossing off an item on his bucket list. Not sure he actually has one written down but he has always wanted to see a shuttle launch. I”m just along for the ride and plan to have some drinks on the beach. We deserve it. We have been running hard!! This is our best week since joining this company. We will have over 6600 miles for the week. I see smooth sailing in our future. I figure we got all those breakdowns out of the way and now its time to roll. I only have 14 hours left on my clock and no hours coming back for a few days. Home time couldn’t come at a better time.

This past week has been great also because I got to see my mother and my son. We were lucky enough to take Tyler and Richie out to dinner. Richie is my other son. These boys have been friends since kindergarten and are now seniors in college. Love seeing what amazing human beings they have become and so handsome. Had a wonderful dinner and filled Tyler’s gas tank. Okay that makes the fourth child’s gas tank we have filled Too funny!

This morning we stopped in someplace in Texas. As Craig was making coffee I took Max for  a walk. The maintenance man warned me that they have lost a few dogs lately and to be careful. Guess they have some hawks that have taken a couple dogs under 15 pounds. Smart bird, grabbed the dog with one talon and broke the leash with the other. Let’s just say I spent a lot of the walk looking up in the sky. We made it home safely, meaning back to the truck. Waiting for me was a lovely cup of coffee. I do have the best husband. I don’t know if you know this but I am not a morning person and my husband is. Coffee makes me very happy.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone. I hope you have a wonderful day whatever you may be doing. I hope we may see some fireworks on the way.