Anne & Craigs Great Adventure

We haven’t even finished our first fed ex load and we have our next one. Guess where we are going? Right back up to Dulles. Too funny. Have I told you how much I love our job. Yesterday we had lunch with my dad and he finally got to meet Craig. Had an awesome lunch and then we ended up seeing  dear friends from college. Lisa-Marie and Jim Lane. Totally unexpected and we took a walk down memory lane. I love when you can meet up with friends that you haven’t seen in 14 years and it’s as if you saw them last week. One of the perks of this job!!! You never know where you may head. There is definitely times though that you can’t make the stop and I hate when that happens. But love when it works out and you have these unexpected memory makers.  Can’t wait to get back and actually spend some time in DC. It has changed so much since I lived there.

600 mile Fedex runs kinda suck. We do not get any extra time in the schedule on the shorter runs and so have to keep moving. I was pretty darn tired when we pulled in to Dulles Virginia at 4 AM in the pouring rain. We then ran to a Walmart parking lot and I got a couple of hours of sleep. We would normally not be very happy about 19 hours between dropping a load and getting our next but we are scheduled to run a Fedwx load from Dulles to Atlanta tonight ( I am sitting at Fedex now while they finish loading) and it gave us a chance to spend a pretty awesome day with friends and family. First, I finally got to meet my father in law. Anne’s Dad came and picked us up and we went to lunch. What a marvelous time and I really like him. Then we went over to visit with friends on Anne’s from college. Wonderful people with great kids. One of the things that I knew I loved about Anne from day one was the awesome circle of friends she had. The people you choose to surround yourself with tells a lot about you. We had a great dinner (I had a nap) and a fun time as I listened to all of the stories. Very relaxing evening and we look forward to getting back to DC soon.

We are heading back to the terminal in Tunnel Hill so they can fix the GPS receiver on our truck computer. They HATE it when they cannot track us on a Fedex load. I hate it too as I have to send in updates. I also found the license plate and prepass for the old truck in my briefcase. I guess they want them back.

Well, we should be ready to go in a minute so I have to get my act together. I will update from Tunnel Hill

Okay it isn’t raining at this moment but thought it was a better title. We are waiting outside Indianapolis for our next load that should be heading really close to my dad’s house. Keeping my fingers crossed that nothing changes but not calling him yet. We drove through some heavy rain last night and this morning. Lot of black clouds at the moment but no rain. Craig is sleeping since he drove through the night and I’m waiting for our orders. Just talked to my trainer who is down in Alabama with Fema. He said stay away…..lot of red trucks just waiting to get out.
Right now nothing to do but wait for an assignment or for Craig to wake up so I have some company. Keep your fingers crossed we get to see my dad!!!!!!

Yeah we have a new truck!! After waiting a week for our truck to be fixed we found out it would be at least another week. USX rented a car for us, we unloaded our old truck which I definitely need to explain in detail. Chattanooga and surrounding areas where hit with those horrible tornadoes. I can honestly say I would rather have an earthquake any day!! Anyway we had to get up to Chattanooga from Tunnel Hill to pick up our rental. Since the 75 was backed up we decided to drive around and went through a town called Ringgold, GA. We drove through SLOWLY since there was so much damage from the tornado. I have never in my life since such destruction. It broke my heart. It took awhile to make it through. We picked up the rental car and headed to Dalton to unload. We knew they closed at 4:30 and arrived at 4:05. We were madmen scrambling to get everything out. Luckily they had a delivery they needed to wait for and gave us an extra 15 minutes. I have no idea how we fit everything in the car. I was stuffing things in every nook and  cranny.  We made it to Ellenwood where our new truck was and they hadn’t finished detailing it. It turned into a LONG day. Great thing was Katie came and picked us up and we went out to dinner with Max too. One of perks of this job!! And remember the one thing you have to be  is patient!!! It all works out in the end but sometimes there are glitches. We ended up with our new truck and a load and we headed to New Hampshire. One of the three states I haven’t been to. Now it’s down to two!!!

Craig drove and when I woke up you will never guess where we were. Gaffney, SC at the scene of my incident!!!! Deep breaths LOL. We fueled and had breakfast and hit the road with out any misfortune. Phew. We had a pretty uneventful trip north. Dropped our load and am waiting to pick up our next load which is 10 am tomorrow morning. What is great is I got the new truck pretty organized and only need a couple more things and I think it will be perfect. Haven’t decided what to name our new lady. Working on a couple names. I don’t get to use my cuban accent anymore. For any of you who heard it know that it was in no way a cuban accent. But I tried. Have no idea why I can’t talk like Ricky Ricardo. For those that don’t know what I am talking about. We named our old truck Lucy and I would try to use a cuban accent when talking about her. Also to tell the truth… our new truck looks exactly like our old truck with a different number on her side. :=)

We are so happy to be back in the truck. Feels like coming home and love the feeling. Wish we could have a longer run without the sitting but remember my comment about being patient. This is one of those times. It been great Craig has been running into people from the trucking forum which is way cool and I have been talking to some ladies who are in the waiting for a trainer mode and I am trying to give some sage advice since I remember it well. Deep breaths, patience and a smile will go very far in this profession. Stay positive. There are so many negative forces out there don’t be one of them.

Always always smile. If nothing else it makes you feel better and you have no idea who’s day you’ll make.

The truck is in the shop and we have been visiting with family over the holiday weekend. Awesome way to be broke down but I must say. I miss our truck. We don’t know how long it will be till she is fixed but I was sort of surprised how much I miss driving.  It is so great to see the kids and grand kids. One of the surprising things I’ve noticed is we are really tired. I asked Craig if it’s because we aren’t doing much LOL. Sleeping in a bed that isn’t moving has been nice but am totally ready to hit the road again. We have places to go and people to see. Bad thing is my charger for the camera battery is in the truck so we haven’t been able to take pictures for the past few days. Total bummer when you are with the grand kids. Well that is about all I have to say. Keep your fingers crossed that our truck will be rolling SOON.

Since Anne decided to talk about the mishap, I figured I would post a picture of the damage. The truck is sitting at the main terminal and we will find out in the morning how long it will take to fix. I cannot wait until it is pretty again.

Ooopps

So the truck is really fixed (he says with fingers crossed)  They found a broken sensor-pump-heater unit in the Diesel emissions Fluid tank and replaced it.  We ran a Walmart load 600 miles from SLC to Apple Valley California and then got sent empty to San Diego to pick up a load right on the border and we took it 3150 miles to Boston Massachusetts.   We went from California to Arizona to New Mexico to Texas to Oklahoma to Missouri to Illinois to Indiana to Ohio to Pennsylvania to New York to Massachusetts.  We have now been sitting for 24 hours waiting for a load.  They sent us at 2:00 AM to a plastics manufacturer in Rhode Island but the paperwork was not at the gate house.  We slept here last night and we are still waiting for them to figure it out as we approach noon.  Very frustrating.  There are five loaded US Xpress trailers here that need to go to Atlanta but we still have not received a load and they said something about “production line problems” and I have heard this means they have defective product in one of the trailers and they do not know which one.  They have a load going to Wisconsin we could take but we need to get to Tunnel Hill GA for service.

Here are a few pictures from this week.

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So I have been asked by a number of people what it is like living in the truck and also if I can post pictures.  The truck is about 45 square feet inside (that is an educated guess) or about the size of a bathroom.  Behind the front seats is about a 4 by 5 foot area in front of the bunk.  This is our only real floorspace.  There are floor to ceiling cabinets on both sides for storage and there are openings on both sides.  One opening on the passenger side is designed for a refrigerator but the only one that will fit is a Dacor refer that Freightliner sells for $700.  So we found some drawers that fit in the whole.  In the tall cabinet on top behind the driver is where we keep most of our food (our pantry)  We found a three drawer unit that fit very nicely so we do not have to dig for stuff.  One of the really nice things about being a husband/wife team is that we can use the entire upper bunk for storage.  That is where we have our refrigerator strapped on and to make extra space we use the same strap from the refrigerator to hang the microwave below the top bunk.  For equipment we have purchased (or have been given) a 1500 watt inverter, a CB, refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, small toaster oven, George Foreman grill and a teapot.  We also bought two lawn chairs and a wooden tv tray that folds and fits behind the passenger chair that we can use to play games or for sitting outside.  We also bought a small 12 volt shop vac.

We keep the GF Grill and toaster oven stored under the bed with the extra water.

Here are some pictures.  You can see the plastic drawers we have put into the cabinets and also how we have the refrigerator/microwave strapped to the bunk.  I also took a picture to the right of the top bunk to show the clothes bar we put up there for hanging clothes and one of the bed.

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I have been wanting to write this for a couple weeks but things have been a little crazy. I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell everyone about this but decided that it’s part of this adventure. You have to take the good and the bad. This is the bad. A few weeks ago while driving through South Carolina. I am going to give a brief version. Fueled the truck. Moved forward so I could run in and use the bathroom. Craig was sleeping in the bunk since he had driven all night. Came out of the bathroom to a truck driver telling me my truck had rolled into another truck. I thought I’d pulled the air brake. The truck rolled 150 feet head on into another truck. Luckily no one was hurt and the other truck had one of those massive flat steel bumpers. My truck wasn’t so lucky. It was a stupid mistake and 5 policeman later… we were on our way. I cried for two days I will admit. When I talked to safety the second day they were awesome. I was crying and she told me to stop beating myself up and accidents happen and honestly this was more of an incident than an accident. On a positive note. Thank goodness the truck hit that truck, otherwise my truck would have continued rolling another 200 feet, down an embankment and into a lake with Craig still sleeping in the bunk. I wasn’t sure I was ready to tell everyone what a fool I was but then realize how many people this happens too. The policman told me he knew what the call was about. It was the third time he had been at the same truck stop with the same accident. I won’t tell you all the lovely comments from the truckers watching over the CB.

All I can say is I will ALWAYS make sure my brakes are pulled!! Makes you realize how easy things can go down hill. Craig and I are still learning and you really have to make sure you follow all the steps that keep you safe. It’s easy to get laxidasical and somtimes you need a wake up call. I could have done with one that was a little less serious but all the same. Makes me take a step back and remember I am a newbie at this. Take your time and be aware.

Prior to my misshap I was all set to write the blog regarding the slamming curtain. Living in tight quarters you will have times you want to kill your husband/wife/partner. There is no way around it. I love my husband but sometimes I would love to throw him out of the truck and visa versa. Those are the times you want to slam a door HARD. Well in the truck you can only do that when you are parked. Inside there is a curtain that separates the front of the truck from the back. That is the curtain that we SLAM when we are angry LOL

It doesn’t have the same effect as a good solid door. I find myself giggling after I try to slam it realizing how juvenile I am being (or Craig is being) Yes he does it too. But sometimes being juvenile feels really really good.

We just drove 3100 miles from San Diego to Quincy MA. Took us forever to find somewhere to park until we get our next load assignment. We are trying to get to Tunnel Hill to get the truck fixed. Today our bumper fell off. I need to make sure they know that Craig is responsible for the bumper. Remember he hit the deer and we needed a new bumper. I’ll take the hood and all the other damage. Not sure they will see it my way but hey I can hope. It took me awhile to talk about the accident. Still hate it but things happen. Like I said you have to take the good and the bad. Most of the time it is really really good.

We are still loving it! Still learning and getting into a groove. The truck is set up well this time and hoping to get some pictures up soon. Still smiling though and loving our adventure.

Yep, we have broken down.  The good news is that we were able to limp into Salt Lake City and deliver our Fedex load.  We are at a huge Freightliner dealer and they are working on the truck and expect to get us out of here in a couple of hours.  That is, again, a big step forward (if true) since it has taken four days each time before.

The weather has been awesome.  Warm and no snow.  We are so ready for summer.  We had a great vacation with the kids in Crested Butte.  We got the truck reorganized (again) and headed out on Monday to grab a quick load within Denver then over to Coors Brewing to get a load heading to Topeka Kansas.  We got to Topeka about 1:00 AM and slept next door.  They had us unloaded by 6:45 AM and we headed to Kansas City to pick up a Fedex load to Salt Lake City. While waiting for our load we met a great couple, Kathi and Ken who have been driving for about four years.  We love the people we are meeting on the road.

We bought the Rand McNally Truckers GPS with the 7″ screen on ebay and since I thought we were heading to Chattanooga right away I had it shipped to my son’s house. It has arrived and now we just need to get there to pick it up.  Even with all of the truck issues, we are loving this life.