Anne & Craigs Great Adventure

I am sitting in the bunk with Max curled up next to me (I know BIG surprise there). Heading west and then south and then some home time with family for another graduation (this time in Oshkosh Wi,). This past week I have had varying moods on our choice of driving. Call it PMS or whatever but we really work hard for the amount of money we make. I thought we would be making more but truthfully we are doing better than we were. I am so grateful to have a job and then I read what Craig wrote and it changed my thought process. Not sure we will ever be rich doing this, at least not until we are owner/operators but still we usually have a blast every day. We have met so many amazing new friends who are on this great adventure same as us, or are about to start and those that have been doing it forever.

I will say I do love the traveling and visiting friends and family all over the country. Actually that may be the biggest perk of all. I was having a hard time because I was missing my daughter. I realized that I don’t know when I will see her again. That sounds sort of melodramatic but that was the way it felt. Craig and my girlfriends point out that she is growing up and doesn’t need me. She is starting her own life. WELL I DON’T LIKE IT. Just kidding. I just wasn’t ready for it. My son is off finishing his final year of college and I  sort of got use to him being away. I get the call once a week or so. But  suddenly I don’t get the daily calls from Shelby and realize days go by without contact. First you have to understand, Shelby and I have been glued to the hip for a long time. It is time for her to grow up but I hate not being there for her on that daily basis. I guess that is what growing up is about but it is really hard on the mom when she is freaking driving a big rig cross country. We really do  have a ball everyday we are out here. Some are more fun than others and of course you have those days that you just wonder what you were thinking. Those are the days that something spectacular happens around you and you realize how blessed you are to be doing this job. Those are the times you wish you could share this with all the people we love.

I am grateful that I have amazing children, fabulous friends and an awesome family.

I think if I sat down and figured what we are making by the hour I would be dismayed….so I will not do that. This is a seven day a week, 12 to 14 hours a day job and we are usually out for 4 to 6 weeks before we go “home” for 3 or 4 days off. Home can be anywhere we want, which is kinda nice, but by day 3 of home time, I start to get antsy to get back on the road. Part of it is just wanting to get some savings built up but it is mostly that I just love what we do. I love, and I feel fortunate, to spend every day with my amazing wife. More than anything else, she is the reason this does not feel like work. We really do have a lot of fun doing this. Even though we were not home this weekend we spent the last 36 hours or so camping out at a truck stop in Cedar Falls Iowa. Laying on the bed last evening watching “The Hangover” and laughing our tails off was as good as any date I have been on.

The other things that make this life pretty awesome are the other people we meet out here, the friends and loved ones we get to stop and see and the ever changing scenery. I usually get to see the sunrises and it is freaking amazing Thanks to the internet and cell phones (and Anne’s VERY outgoing and bubbly personality), we have built a pretty cool circle of new friends who are living the same experiences we are. We have also gotten to spend a lot of time with our Grand Kids in Chattanooga, time we would have NEVER had if we had regular jobs. We have spent time with some of my oldest friends, some of Anne’s oldest friends and lots of family all over the country. The company is giving us a load to Wisconsin in two weeks so we can go to my Nieces high school graduation. Pretty cool.

I have no idea how long it will be until the new shine wears off on this lifestyle but every day seems to bring something new so I do not expect that to happen any time soon.

We have been sitting in a truck stop in Iowa since yesterday and we will finally head out at 3 am. Good news is it gave us a 34 hour reset. (Gives us a new 70 hour clock to work with) It is blowing like a mother out there. It feels like the truck is going to tip over. I asked Craig if it could and he laughed and said no. They are about 50 mph and hot. We have been idling the entire time since it is so warm outside and we have our blinds on the front windows. We have shades that we put across the front and side windows to keep the sun out and for privacy. Got our laundry done so we have clean clothes…. first time we’ve ever used the laundry facilities at a truck stop. Tomorrow is going to be a fast paced day. We need to get from Iowa to Florida in about 24 hours. We have a couple hours built in but we do have a live unload at 5am so hopefully that goes smoothly so we can hit the road. It’s been a nice trip so far. Looking forward to finishing and see where they send us next. I’m thinking I don’t mind the upper part of the country. LOL Kind of nice when you can sleep with the windows open. We just got screens that pop in the front windows so we can leave them open at night. Of course the first time we get to use them it’s freaking hot.

We arrived late last night or early this morning in Kent, Wa and found out the address was wrong and we had to drive to Tacoma. Now when I say we, I of course am talking about Craig. Poor baby had driven the night shift and was ready to be done, just to find out it would be another 30 minutes to get there. Trooper that he is, we got there and of course on time still.

Stopped at a Love’s but there was no parking and we got our assignment for Florida via Iowa. First time we will be heading to Florida and now then I only have Vermont and Alaska to drive in. Hawaii I seriously doubt I will ever drive. I am sitting in the truck waiting to be loaded so we can hit the road again. It will be a little different pace this time. Monday is a holiday and we can’t drop our first half of the load until Tuesday morning. Not sure we will know what to do with the snail pace but I for one will enjoy it immensely. We put in a request for some home time in Oshkosh, Wi so we can see Craig’s niece graduate. Not sure we will make it to the graduation but will definitely make it to the party, and next home time will be California!!! Need some family and friend time. It is nice to be up and running, we have had a few hurdles on this journey but we love it and its an amazing way to see the country and visit people you love.

Craig, Max and I are sitting in a truck stop in Davenport IA. We had a fabulous home time. Youngest child is now a high school graduate. Family came in to celebrate a graduation and a birthday. We had a wonderful few days and I must say I really love being home, Craig gets antsy but once we get back in the truck it takes me a couple days to readjust. We ran a load of beer from Coors to Markham IL. Then we ran to East Moline, IL to pick up our Fed Ex load which was cancelled 30 minutes prior to our pick up which totally sucked. We drove 20 miles to a truck stop and we have been sitting here all day. Great weather this morning but some heavy storms this afternoon and getting tired of the rain.  Craig has been reading his Kindle,  I’ve been crocheting and we both have been playing on the computer. We just got WiFi for the truck which has been awesome. No more tethering with our phones. Just really really BORED. Our fleet manager told us we will have a load in the morning heading to Kent, WA which will be a nice long run. Sitting is really hard when you have nothing to do. Especially when you just had home time and are ready to run! Waiting for a break in the storm to take Max out. Not sure I want to be walking outside with lightening, rain and the wind is blowing now. Okay I am BORED. Have I said that lately. LOL Been reading the news about Joplin, Mo, We stayed at the flying j there last week. Wild photos of the truck stop. I have decided I really don’t like storms or tornadoes AT ALL. Give me an earthquake any day. Never thought I’d say that but 20+ years in LA I never worried about it. You had your emergency  kits and other than that there wasn’t much to worry about.

I will say I am very happy with the way the truck is set up. Love having everything have a place and it just feels good. I wish I had something crafty to do. I have been crocheting but you can’t do that all day. We finished the final book of Harry Potter which is a bit sad. That really made time fly by. Not sure which series we will start next. Listening to the Seattle Mariners baseball game which isn’t going so great. I do have some movies to watch and thinking it might be a good night to watch the Hangover.  Tomorrow will be a great day!!

Can I tell you how nice it is to be home. Got in on Tuesday night late and yesterday went and got my nails done :-), went shopping with Shelby and went to dinner with Craig, Shelby and her boyfriend Scott. Tonight we have family coming in for CJ’s graduation party. Weather is horrible but would much rather be home than driving in it. Saturday we will celebrate Aleena’s bday so it is a fun filled weekend. Busy few days but love having family in. The truck is finally set the way we want it. Really nice to be organized and have a place for most everything. I want to take some pictures this weekend so you can see how awesome our apartment is LOL. Took a couple pics of Lil Bit in the truck. She should be a trucker dog too but can’t have two dogs yet. Max likes being an only child though.

So after sitting most of the day in that dusty truck stop in North Denver, we got a load assignment from Sterling CO to Kansas City. We drove to Sterling and picked up 42,000 pounds of dried beans for Sams Club. (being me, I of course thought “if civilization ends today, we are in good shape”…I know, I know) For the first time ever, we could not get the load to scale legally. We can run at 80,000 pounds gross but you are only allowed 12,000 lbs on the steering axle, 34,000 lbs on the drive axles and 34,000 lbs on the tandems (trailer axles) You can move the tandems forward and back to adjust the weight distribution but even with the tandems all the way forward we were still 1500 lbs over on the drive axles. I had to have the shipper reload the trailer to make it work. That took an extra 90 minutes or so but if we had gotten caught the ticket, which starts at $500 and goes up, would have been on us.

So as we got to Lincoln NE and headed South, I get a message on the satcom from a Fleet Manager asking us to repower a load near Kansas City. I replyed that we would love to as long as we did not have to sit all day waiting for the load. After a bunch of very confusing messages back and forth I called and got through to my night fleet manager and we finally got it straightened out. We dropped the beans in Kansas City at about 2:30 in the morning were it was still 82 degrees and then headed West to a rest stop just outside of Topeka KS to meet the other team. We took their trailer heading for Salt Lake City and headed West. So Anne got her request to stop by home. We were going through Fort Collins at dinner time so we started calling the kids to see if they could meet us. The only one available was Shelby so she met us at Johnson’s Corner and we went to PF Changs, then ran home for showers. Shelby ran us back to the truck and we were off. We took Hwy 287 to bypass I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie where it was snowing hard. We found out later that I-80 was closed over the pass so it was a very good call. We fueled in Laramie in snow and 27 degrees. So I drove across Wyoming and into Salt Lake City where we dropped at UPS. As I was filling out a message to our Fleet Manager asking him to keep us moving we received our next load. We were heading to San Leandro CA (The Bay Area)

Something pretty cool happened here. We went to get an empty trailer and we saw another USX team hooked to one with the only other USX trailer a couple over. They told me that the other trailer had a flat tire. I was pretty bummed out but then the other driver asked me if we had another load and I told him we did in two hours. He said they had to wait all day so he unhooked the one they were on and gave it to us. What a cool thing for them to do.

With perfect weather we ran across Utah, Nevada and over Donner Pass into California. As we got near our delivery we got another load assignment to run empty to San Bernardino and then to Albuquerque. We thought we were going to get to have breakfast with Anne’s Mother but the route did not allow it, we were very bummed about this. As we were getting near Albuquerque, we got a repower request to wait there and a solo driver would bring us a load heading to Hebron KY (Cincinnatti). So we dropped our load six hour early and went to a truck stop near by to wait. The driver got in a couple of hours late but he finally made it and we were off.

We are in Kansas on that run and we already have our next load assignment heading back West. This is going to be a great week as I think we will have about 6500 miles for the week. We will be home on Wednesday for CJ’s High School graduation and Aleena’s 20th birthday. We are really looking forward to spending four days with the family.

Thanks for all the emails and texts. I was just having one of those days and was acting like a baby. We are back up and running so we have that to be grateful for. Time to pull on the big girl pants LOL. It isn’t always perfect out here but I wouldn’t trade it in!! Its hard when you have been down for so many days and you just want to get back in the groove. That damn patience rears her head…..again. We will be down next week too but for a happy reason….high school graduation. Thanks for all the messages it means a lot!!

50 miles from home and we are sitting in a dusty truck stop.  We dropped our load at Fed Ex last night and have been waiting for another one. We had one but it was cancelled so here we sit. I’m not a happy camper at the moment. I want to take a shower, do some laundry and there is NO where for Max to take a walk. Might be ok if we were at a nicer truck stop but this isn’t it. Good news is we have lots of tv channels but at the moment Craig is watching Maury Povich and I am cringing.  It is horrible what these people are doing. Paternity tests UGH. We are on book 5 of Harry Potter but I think I’ve been reading (listening) too much because I am now having dreams with him in them. Bizarre. What else can I complain about?? Today I am really not liking my job. There is a guy walking around the truck stop with his dog trying to get a ride and it just made me really sad. I hope he finds a ride!!! I hope we get on the road soon or find someplace new to hang out. Need to find my positive pills since I seem to be out at the moment.

So we dropped our Fedex Load in Atlanta and bobtailed (no trailer) up to our Tunnel Hill GA terminal to get the computer worked on as well as an air leak that I cannot pinpoint. After we parked and I checked in with the shop I was walking back to the truck and there, three trucks over was #21928…our old truck. The new driver had just gotten it today. He is a trainer and he was waiting for his trainee. It was just kind of weird to see it all pretty again and the new driver got a kick out of it’s short but violent history.

They will not get our truck in until tomorrow morning so we are just going to be lazy as I am very tired this evening. Just had sushi and our tummies are very happy.

There are two things that are making the miles roll by quickly. I downloaded all of the Harry Potter books (Anne has never read them) they are unabridged and incredibly well done and we are loving listening to them. Currently we are nearing the end of book four. The other thing is the satellite radio where I get every baseball game broadcast every day. Man I love baseball. The only problem is I am a screamer during a game and Anne is usually trying to sleep. She loves baseball also so I seem to get a pass on this. GO MARINERS!!!

We are not going back to Dulles as the truck will not be fixed in time. Our fleet manager said that may be a good thing and he will look for a longer run for us. We just want the truck back so we can get back on the road.