Monday, May 31, 2010

PROJECT #5

As my days in Walla Walla come quickly to an end this week, we are still working hard on projects and finding treasures at yard sales and thrift stores. Our latest project was this old office chair we found neglected at a yard sale for only $5. I knew right away it was a solid piece of furniture, with many years under it's belt, and the perfect specimen for a face lift. Cori and I conferred and agreed it needed a rustic charm, so we decided to recover it in burlap. Cori put the crowning touch, (pun intended) by doing a hot transfer design of a crown on the back support piece. After that was completed, I took to the garage with my upholstery tacks feeling a bit like Geppetto. But after I was done, we loved what we had created. For an additional $2 worth of material, and a total cost of $7, I think we found a real treasure! In trucking news, Craig enjoyed his 24 hours of down time, until I called him bright and early Sunday morning and woke him up. Oh well, it was a great excuse for him to treat himself to a hot breakfast at the diner before heading over to Kennewick, WA to pick up his load of frozen french fries. While there, he noticed a bad spot on one of his trailer tires that he had not seen on his pre inspection earlier in the morning.

A call to road service brought out an on call tire guy to respond to change out the bad tire. By 2pm he was finally on his way south, headed towards Bakersfield which will be his first drop of four on this load. While he is busy driving tomorrow, Cori and I will continue to take on and repurpose some yard sale finds before it will be time for me to pack up and head home.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

PROJECT #4

This project is entirely the brainchild of my BFF Cori. She is a lover of all things vintage and adores dress forms. When unable to locate one which did not cost her an arm and a leg, she found a supplier to purchase a basic dress form from. Then she let her imagination run wild and created her own personal vintage dress form. She starts the process by applying old vintage sheet music to the form in such a way as to make it appear as though it is dressed. Then applied some vintage designs using transfer paper. I had recently given her some of my Grandmother's handmade doilies, which are well over 60 years old, and we were inspired to use them to adorn the neck and base of the form. When completed it looked absolutely gorgeous in her bedroom. Fittingly, we named her "Amelie". Cori sells these in her Etsy store here. The trucking news for the day is that Craig indeed did get an overnight run from the Fred Meyer DC in Puyallup, WA. He had three stops to complete, one in Ellensburg, and two in Spokane. By 7am he had successfully completed his run and was instructed to come into the company yard in Spokane to pick up 24 pallets for his next assignment. He had just enough time to pick them up and head to Pasco, WA to stage for his 11am appointment tomorrow in Kennewick to pick up frozen french fries.

I know he will appreciate the 24 hours of down time he will have before his appointment tomorrow to catch up on sleep and enjoy relaxing to recharge his body after that all night run he had. His dispatch has him delivering to four different stops as he heads south. We've already done the calculations and figure he will miss his requested home time date by a few days, but that will work out okay for us. It will give me a couple of days to restock the house and get it ready for our home time......not to mention putting in the house all the treasures I have found while junking with Cori!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

PROJECT #3

And the projects just keep coming, but this one has a special place in my heart.....because it belongs to me. I rescued this old foot stool at the local thrift store. It stole my heart the minute I saw it stashed away, long forgotten in the corner, with a price tag too steep for anyone to even give it a second look......except for me. I fell in love with it but couldn't bring myself to pay the listed price. I stayed away for a couple of days and went back. It pained me, but when I had the salesperson come over to me, I pointed out all the flaws it had, which I'm sure caught everyone else's attention as well. But I could see past the flaws to the gem it would be, and after detailing what I saw, asked if maybe the price could be reduced. It was music to my ears when I heard a price that fit within my budget. A little espresso brown spray paint, and a beautiful tapestry yard of fabric later, it was transformed into this: And because I had plenty of fabric left over, I made this pillow to go along with it. It was a good day enjoying a new hobby of thrift store shopping. In trucking news, Craig as hhad a nice long trip up Interstate 5. After leaving the company yard in Bloomington Wednesday morning, he made the uneventful drive into Corning, CA. Today, he left Corning, under grey and raining skies, and made his way to Toledo, WA to stage for his delivery in Puyallup 80 miles away. After his 5am delivery, he will have all of a total of 3.5 hours left on his 70 hour driving clock. We don't suspect he'll get much of anything except maybe a dreaded night driving run into Spokane....but we can always hope for the best!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

PROJECT #2

Thinking about it, there just maybe more projects going on during my stay in Walla Walla, WA than I have days to post about them. But you know what? I'm having a blast riding the coat tails of my BFF and getting my hands dirty trying different crafting techniques, and thankfully, a hot glue gun has not been seen.......yet. The latest project is similar to the school desks. This little child's table and chairs just screamed out for a bright coat of colonial red paint, and then what better than to make the tabletop a chalkboard. Can you believe this little beauty was found at a thrift store for only $5? What a great addition to any home where small children live. The trucking news for the day is that Craig had a full day on Monday delivering to three locations. At his first stop in Vernon, he was delayed getting unloaded so as to not make his second stop on time. Of course the 90 minute slow down on Highway 101, due to an overnight shooting didn't help matters either. But alls well that ends well, and after his third stop, he made it safely into the company yard in Bloomington for a well deserved nights sleep.

Prior to actually getting that sleep, he received his next dispatch to head to the Port of San Diego for a load of Dole bananas Tuesday morning. It seems like it has been quite awhile since he has made this trek south, and after arriving at the Port, and taking possession of a loaded trailer, he was told to transport it only 3 miles down the road to hand it off to another driver who was not in possession of a TWIC credential. After hooking up to that driver's empty trailer, it was back to the Port for another load of bananas. This time, he kept the trailer after being loaded, and had just enough time to get back once again to the company yard in Bloomington for the night.

This morning Craig is headed north with an eventual delivery in Puyallup, WA at the Fred Meyer DC Friday morning. As for me? I'll be busy working along side my friend Cori, as we complete another project or two, but don't tell our husbands, as we just may be hitting another thrift store or two, in search of that special something that is just screaming out for us to reinvent it.

Monday, May 24, 2010

PROJECT #1

It didn't take long to delve into the list of projects that my friend Cori had. She found these great old school desks at a thrift store for only $5 each. After thinking of different approaches to tackle making them usable, we came up with painting them entirely, and then painting the desktop in chalkboard paint. She had three of them, and since Memorial Day is right around the corner, we decided to paint them red, white, and blue. I think they turned out great and would be a wonderful addition to a child's room as an alternative to a desk when there is limited room.On the trucking side of things, Craig left the rest stop he stayed at on Saturday morning, and had a pleasant day of driving which ended with him making it all the way into French Camp, CA. While there, he was able to use the laundry and shower facilities. He was on the move early Sunday morning, and made it into Lebec, CA where he staged for his Monday morning deliveries. He will be getting up and leaving by 3am to make his first delivery in Vernon, CA at 5am. From there he will have two more stops, one in Oxnard, and the last being in El Monte. No doubt by the time he is completely unloaded, he will be close to the end of of his 14 hour clock, where he will head to the Company yard in Bloomington and await to see what Tuesday has in store for him.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

TOUR OF THE COMPANY YARDS

I had been asked to show some pictures of the company yards we stay at, so I thought I would start with the main yard in Spokane, WA first and then do follow up posts with some of the smaller yards as we pass through them on our travels. Trans System Inc, as it is officially known as, has several different divisions within it network of trucks: System Transport (flatbed and equipment heavy haul), TWT (reefer and heavy haul refrigerated), and JJ Williams (tanker & bulk). They also operate a driving school called DTS (driver training solutions). If you have been following Craig and I since we started our adventures in trucking, you also know that they had a Marine Division as well, which we started on back in 2006, which no longer exists.The company is family owned, and on the mornings we are there in the yard, I watch as Mr. Williams drives up at 7:30am sharp to start his day. What we like about this company, even though it is large, with over 1,000 company trucks, we have always been treated like family when interacting with anyone including Mr. Williams. They just renovated and added onto the main office area, which included a new driver's lounge, laundry and shower facilities. During the latest construction phase, they built a new truck and trailer shop with additional work bays. Around back of the shop area is the tire shop. This main yard is located off of I90 exit 272 and directly across from the Petro Truck Stop what was recently built within the last few years. I hope this pictorial satisfied the curiosity of those who asked about our yards, and I'll be sure to do another post in the future on some of the smaller yards that we visit on our travels.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

THERE HE GOES

This was my view Friday morning for a couple of hours as I followed Craig as he left the Company yard in Spokane. He was headed to Wallula, WA to drop his empty trailer at the Tyson meat plant, and I was headed to my BFF Cori's home in Walla Walla, WA. As we suspected when we finished up our previous load at the Safeway DC in Spokane on Thursday morning, after waiting only 3 hours to unload instead of the 5 we thought they would take, we were told to head to the yard to await our next assignment. That waiting lasted until late Thursday afternoon when Craig was told to go to Tyson and drop the trailer. No actual dispatch information yet, but obviously one would be in his future.So as I merrily went on my way to Walla Walla, Craig had the pleasure of staging in the oh so wonderful smelling staging area at Tyson, waiting to hear what his assignment would be. I enjoyed looking at the patterns of the alfalfa drying in the fields, and missed being higher up in the big truck to get a better shot. In no time at all I had arrived at my destination and began enjoying my visit by doing a little bit of junking at yard sales. My friend Cori has a small retail space in a Country Store in town, and has become adept at finding vintage treasures to sell and refurbish. We had quite the busy first day of my two week stay, which will end with the grand finale of going to the Farm Chicks Show in Spokane on June 5th.

Around noon Craig called saying he had his dispatch and was already hooked up and heading down the street to scale. He has a load of boxed meat headed to three different locations for a Monday delivery: Vernon, Oxnard, and El Monte, CA. With his driving hours looking just a tad bit slim, he could only make it to a small rest area just north of Madras, OR and was there and comfortably kicking back and playing his computer games by 4pm. He'll have a nice couple of weekend days to travel to get him down to the Grapevine to stage on Sunday night for his deliveries on Monday. As for me? Cori has a long list of fun, crafty projects, that will keep us very busy over the next two weeks!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

SAY WHAT??????

As we passed by this sign, I had to do a double take. Did it really say what I thought it said? I knew I had to take a picture of it the next time we rolled by it, like this morning, and it did indeed say ........."WE NOW SERVE GOOD FOOD". Makes me nervous to think about what they served before! To be honest, it doesn't even give me that much confidence to try eating there now. I think if I were them, I'd look for a different ad campaign to lure people in.Craig was sound asleep by 3pm Tuesday afternoon, after being up all night and driving. We got as far as Redding, CA where his driving hours ran out. He slept for 12 hours, and by 4am we were on the road again. It was an uneventful drive up Interstate 5 and then onto Highway 97, with the usual road kill providing feasts for the scavenger birds who successfully flew out of our way as we passed by. The Pilot truck stop in Biggs, OR was the usual cluster. It doesn't matter what time you are there, the fuel islands are always packed and slow moving, but with an afternoon treat of a mocha frappe again from McDonald's, we didn't seem to mind the delay.
We powered on into Pasco, WA to one of our drop yards, as Craig's driving hours were again maxed out. This will set us up nicely with about 140 miles to our delivery in Spokane,WA at 8am at the Safeway DC. We're planning on it being a slow unload due to the multiple items and invoices that will have to be inventoried. I had to take a picture of them, there were 19 in all, which is very unusual for us, as we never have more than a few pages normally. Our only concern is getting something out of Spokane, as it seems that the last few times we have been there it has taken a day to get back out. When Craig does get his next assignment, I will be staying behind again. I know, what a life I lead, hopping on and off the truck whenever the mood hits, but honestly, how can I turn down staying at my BFF Cori's cottage on their property and being pampered and spoiled. It gives me an idea of how Craig feels whenever his Mother or my Mother is around him. I'll stay with Cori until Craig comes in for a couple of days of home time the first week of June. That will give Cori and I an opportunity to take in the Farm Chicks Antique Show in Spokane on June 5th. Yep, I love my life!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

A VIRTUAL PRODUCE STORE

I got dropped off in French Camp this morning while Craig was there on a mandatory 2 hour break. He wasn't able to leave LA until midnight, and with the pile of bill of ladings he has, it's a wonder he was ready by then. The shipper he went to in downtown LA receives small truck loads of produce from all over the valley, to then be sorted and put together for large trucks to deliver to the Safeway distributions centers around the west coast. I started looking through them and we are hauling items such as avocados, cucumbers, potatoes, pineapples, a variety of citrus fruits, tomatoes, and several different kinds of peppers, to include the hot habanero.
I would imagine, by the time we get to the Safeway DC in Spokane, WA on Thursday morning, we better have packed a lunch, because we expect to be sitting there, while they unload and inventory the items, at least 4-5 hours. Add that onto the 4 hours that it took to load the items and that my friends will be a very nice detention payout. Thankfully, Craig has planned this trip out, so that last night will be the only night of driving we will have to do, and for that I am very happy.

Monday, May 17, 2010

I HAVE THE BLISTERS TO SHOW FOR IT

If they don't already, there really should be a warning label on glue guns that you will, with all certainty, burn your fingers should you decide to use one. I had been thinking of a little craft project while out on the truck, and decided to act on it while I am at my Mom's house. It's simple really, find yourself a round Styrofoam ball, or any circular object, and cover it in buttons. I used solely metal buttons, gold and silver, and different sizes of balls, and after muttering to myself under my breath a few times, and at first hating the looks of it, grew to like it as I finished it. Not sure if the mere fact that I finished it, weighed heavily on the liking part of it or not. My Mom didn't have any qualms about claiming the gold one as hers and proudly took possession of it and placed it on her dining room table. I tend to go more towards silver, so I made one for me, and since I had so many more gold buttons than silver, I went ahead and made a smaller one as well. If I can handle getting more blisters on my fingers from the glue gun, I just may have a stab at making one more today since I have quite a few more buttons to use.

While I was busy causing pain and mayhem on my fingers, Craig had a leisurely day on Sunday driving under 300 miles into Wheeler Ridge, CA to set up for his delivery of the frozen french fries in Oxnard this morning. No doubt when he goes empty he will either get sent to Port Hueneme for pineapples or maybe up Highway 101 to pick up strawberries. I don't really care much what he gets, as long as he swings back by French Camp, CA on his way back and picks me up. I could use some TLC for my mangled fingers!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

AIR LEAK OR NO AIR LEAK.....THAT IS THE QUESTION.

After leaving Othello, WA we had a fuel stop at Biggs Junction at the Pilot. We took that opportunity to try out the new frappe's at the McDonald's there. Being a Starbucks snob, I got to admit, they are pretty darn good. The Pilot was the usual tangle of trucks trying to inch their way to the fuel island, always at least two or three deep. We really detest having to go there, but the frappe's took the pain out of it.

We called it a night in LaPine, OR where taking into consideration other driver's around us, knowing we had a Carrier reefer, which can quite literally wake the dead, we parked as far away from everyone as we could. As I have mentioned here before, I love having the reefer running, and Craig doesn't mind it either, except for Carriers where it can be quite loud even for him on the top bunk.

After eating our fruit and granola bar for breakfast, Craig went about doing his pre trip inspection and noticed a very slight air leak on an air line on the trailer. He tightened the coupler and that seemed to do the trick. We stopped a ways down the road in Chemult, OR to check on the air line again, and found that it had gotten worse. A quick call to Road Service had us driving into Klamath Falls where they would have a on call service tech come to our location at Molly's truck stop. When we arrived, we checked on the air line again and couldn't hear anything. Craig dumped the air in the lines, filled them back up again, we pulled and pushed, twisted and turned the lines and nothing. Not a bit of air was escaping from them no matter how hard we tried. Another call into road service had them canceling the service call, as we would keep an eye on it throughout the day. Around 3pm we finally pulled into our yard in French Camp, CA happy to have not received a call to repower a load, or be detained with repairs. My Mother and Niece arrived to pick me up, armed with a trunk full of food for Craig. You would have thought that the poor guy never gets fed with the haul he took in when he handed me off to my Mother. As I drove away, Craig was seen happily retreating to the comfort of his truck, no doubt busy sampling all those goodies. Let's just hope he remembers to pick me again on his way back through!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

NOW THAT'S JUST RUDE!

While relaxing in our bunks late afternoon on Thursday, we had the windows and vents open, letting the cool breezes keep us very comfortable, we heard this continuous yapping of a dog. I looked out our window to see a small dog, sitting in the drivers seat of a truck parked next to us. With their windows rolled down as well, it was impossible to ignore the barking. We were left with having to close the vents and windows and fire up the APU to drown it out.

A couple of hours later we tried again with the windows open and upon not hearing anything we drifted off to sleep..............only to be awakened by the non stop barking again at 4am. I rolled the windows up for Craig and not being able to go back to sleep, I decided to head into the driver's lounge to take a shower. I saw a lone driver sitting at a table eating breakfast as I walked in and gave him a cheerful "good morning". I then asked if he was the owner of the yellow truck with the dog. I kid you not, this was that conversation.He nodded his head in the affirmative that he was indeed the owner. I then asked, "are you aware that when you are not in your truck that your dog barks continuously"? He looks at me and says "yep", I try to continue the conversation and say, "are you aware how difficult it is to try and sleep while your dog is barking"? Once again I get a very sarcastic "yep". Alrighty then. It was then that I knew that trying to have any type of civilized conversation with him wasn't going to happen, so I give up and realized that there are just some very rude, socially awkward people in the world.

We received a dispatch bright and early Friday morning to head to Othello, WA and pick up a load of frozen french fries. On the way there, I was busy reading all the blogs I do on a daily basis, and read about Trucking Tiger and his BBQ and real fried pork skins he had recently in North Carolina. After his description of this tasty morsels, I am making it a point when we travel to that neck of the woods to give them a try, and hopefully without the heartburn afterwards.We arrived in Othello right on time for our appointment and watched as all around us various activities involving potatoes were going on. There were the trucks loaded with fresh from the ground potatoes being conveyed into the warehouse, and some peeled and cut potatoes being tossed onto a conveyor belt up to a large holding bin. After about 2 hours of watching this activity around us, we were finally loaded, scaled, sealed, and on our way south.This load is headed to Oxnard, CA to Seaboard Produce, where it will be placed on a cargo ship headed to Nicaragua. If all goes as planned, Craig will be dropping me off in French Camp, CA on the way down to Oxnard, for a couple of days to visit with my Mom. However, the way things have gone lately, we can't be too sure if we'll actually make it down that way before we might be needed to repower a load again, but we're going to give it our best shot.

Friday, May 14, 2010

AUDIO BOOK DISAPPOINTMENT

Remember how night before last the audio book saved us by keeping us awake? Let's just say if we had listened to the second one while trying to get some sleep, we probably would have gotten a full 8hrs of sleep in before driving. Yeah it was that boring, and you wouldn't have thought so given it was based on a true life murder in our old neck of the woods in California. But boring it was with detail after boring detail with no side interest story behind the murder. The author who also recorded it didn't do much for us either.So we powered through with enough time to stop about 90 miles away from our delivery for a good 2 hour power nap. With this being the second night of driving for Craig, I know better than to engage too much with him as he gets a wee bit grumpy as the lack of sleep accumulates. I kept to my laptop as we relied on listening to Howard Stern on Sirius radio to get us through to our delivery in North Spokane.

Back at the yard by 6am, we took to our beds for about 4 hours of sleep. Waking up to growling stomachs, Craig retrieved our pick up from the employee parking lot and we took off to check out a new Mongolian BBQ that had just opened up by the Wal Mart down the street. I'll go on record saying that we will definitely be making that a mandatory stop every time we come into the yard, it was that good.Back at the yard I finally had to deal with the laundry issue, while Craig scanned in our last couple of trips. While in the driver's lounge, we met up with our marine division dispatcher, who happens to be the owner of the company's daughter. Then we finally ran into one of Craig's ex-coworker from his NorCal Beverage days, who is now driving for TWT as well. So now he is back to being his coworker again. Then we met up with one of our favorite people in the office, Curtis, from recruiting, who was wanting to know when I would be gifting them again with some cookies. I told him he should have his next care package by the end of the month.

By then our laundry was done, and we packed up and headed to our truck for a nice relaxing evening. As with the rest of the trucks sitting int he yard, it looks like we won't receive our next dispatch until sometime Friday. Let the sleeping commence.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A SHOW OF HANDS

Could I have a show of hands from those of you who know the routine by now? You remember it? The old song and dance of not being able to drive when you're awake, and legally driving when you want to sleep? Yes, the governments hand in the "hours of service" regulations have once again played a role in we can and can not get rest to drive, which in turn, disrupts our bodies natural body clocks.

Our swap of trailers occurred around 5pm Tuesday evening, when the other driver showed up at the Pilot truck stop in Rice Hills, OR. Even though we were wide awake, we were forced to sit around until 10pm before being able cover the 300 miles to our delivery Wednesday morning. Just by luck, we were able to grab about 2 good hours of sleep before hand. It also helped that we had recently been given John Grisham's audio book "The King of Torts", which actually made the drive go by very quickly.

Arriving at the Fred Meyer DC in Puyallup, WA thirty minutes early for our 5am appointment, we were surprised that by 5:30am we were unloaded and putting in our empty call. By using the split sleeper berth option on Craig's driving hours, his 14 hour clock would run out at 7:30am which didn't leave any wiggle room for doing anything but drop our empty and stay put at Fred Meyers for a load later that evening, or drive over to the drop yard in Pacific, WA and enjoy our 10 hour break. Let's roll the dice and see what happened shall we?Craps it is, and we remain at the Fred Meyer DC and drop our trailer. Trying to get sleep with the yard goats moving trailers all around us, and the constant beep when they back up, can be a bit difficult at times. We managed about 4 hours of sleep on and off, when the beep of the QualComm let us know that we would be picking up a loaded trailer at 8pm, for a wonderful overnight drive into Spokane for a 6am delivery.

Can't really complain, it's an easy drive, it gets us into the yard where we can do some long overdue laundry, and we have access to our pickup if we have any energy left over to go anywhere. With any luck we'll have a load of meat or french fries waiting for us either Thursday evening or Friday morning to hopefully get us back into a more normal driving pattern.......that is if there is such a thing.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

THAT'S TRUCKING

Once again, as soon as we think we got it all figured out, with a nice little run south of over 1,300 miles, comes the beep of the QualComm. We had just left the TA in Aurora, OR after getting the air bag fixed, when we were beeped to stay where we were to repower a load. Great..... I already knew if they were stopping us this early it was going to be a load that would require night driving, and just when we have gotten real used to sleeping at night like normal people. HA

We turn around and head back to the TA to await further information. We're told it would be a Fresh Express load headed to Puyallup, WA for a 5am delivery in the morning. We're not feeling so bad, it's only 175 miles from Aurora and would make for an easy 3hr plus ride.....piece of cake. Feeling really smug, we start to settle in for a nice relaxing day, when we are beeped again with the information that the other driver doesn't have enough hours to get to Aurora, and to head to Rice Hill, OR about 130 miles away.

Well that just added 5 hours onto what was going to be an easy little overnight trip. It messes with Craig's driving hours enough so that we are now going to have to do a split sleeper berth 8 hr break in order to leave early enough tonight to make our appointment time. On top of that we'll most likely get an overnight run out of Puyallup to Spokane. Oh well, we're just happy to have a job we love, and as they say....that's trucking!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

PEAS & CARROTS

Quoting a line from the movie Forrest Gump, "Me and Craig goes together like peas and carrots", and wouldn't you know it, our latest assignment actually has us hauling peas and carrots, and a slew of other frozen vegtables. When we went empty in Auburn,WA at 8:30am, we were dispatched to Stanwood, WA for a load picking up at 9:30am. Stanwood is 80 miles from Auburn, and with the Seattle morning commute traffic, we relayed into dispatch that we would not make our appointment time, but that we would get there as soon as possible. Two hours later we arrived. I don't think there was any worries about the actual appointment time, as the Twin City Foods facility looked like a ghost town. We were the only ones there and as soon as we were backed into a dock, they were loading the vegtables into the trailer. Then it was a return trip back down Interstate 5 through Seattle, but at least this time, the commute traffic had thinned out. We managed to get through Portland as traffic was becoming congested and darted into the TA truck stop in Aurora, OR for our fuel stop. It was there, that Craig noticed an air leak in one of the truck air bags, so it was decided that we would stay put for the night and take care of the air leak in the morning.
Up at 5am for showers and then to the shop for the repairs, only to find out that they did not have the part in stock and that they would have to wait for the dealership in Portland to open before they could get it. What option did we have. but to kick back and enjoy a hot breakfast while we waited in the coffee shop? And that's exactly what we did.Currently this is our view from inside the shop while we wait for the part to arrive. With any luck we will be out of here within the hour and on our way south towards Riverside, CA where we will be parting ways with our vegtables............and "That's all I have to say about that".

Monday, May 10, 2010

EASY DAY

After our night at the quirky little stop in Pollard Flats, we headed out for a nice day of driving on Saturday. We originally were planning on going all the way into the company yard in Pacific, WA, but after stopping in Portland, OR at the Jubitz Truck Stop to fuel and get the truck washed, we decided to drive only as far as Toledo, WA to Gee Cee's Truck Stop. It was so nice weather wise there, that we had the pleasure of being able to sleep with the vents and windows open.

We woke up at 4:30 to a rather brisk cool pre dawn morning, and quickly got dressed and warmed up. We only had 85 miles to go to the Fred Meyer DC in Puyallup, WA to deliver the strawberries. While being unloaded, Craig and I made out phone calls to our Mothers to wish them a Happy Mother's Day. After going empty at 10am, we were told to drop our empty trailer there and bob tail to our yard in Pacific. We took the opportunity to hit the Fred Meyer Store about a mile away to stock up on supplies.We could have stayed in their deli area for hours looking at all the great food they were offering. It was a hard decision to only pick a few items, as our refrigerated space is limited. The Starbucks kiosk nearby soon took my full attention as we enjoyed our mid morning cafeine fix as we continued shopping the grocery aisles.

We had been given a new assignment when we returned to the truck which would essentially give us the rest of the day off. We were to hook up to a loaded trailer of juice and take it to the Safeway DC in Auburn, WA a mere 8 miles away. We kicked back and took to our laptops the remainder of the day/evening, with a break to talk to another TWT driver that was also in the yard with a delivery for Safeway too. This morning we awoke to rain and grey skies. We are presently sitting at the Safeway, in a dock, waiting for our paperwork. From here we have no idea where we will be headed, but our fridge is full, Craig's hours are good, and I have the new issue of People magazine. Life is good.

Saturday, May 08, 2010

A NICE CHANGE OF PACE

As most of the followers of my blog know, ever since we switched to the refrigerated division of our company two years ago, our lives have pretty much been spent going up and down Interstate 5. It was a big change from when we were on the marine division, and delivered boats all over the USA and Canada. We never knew from dispatch to dispatch where we would be headed, and what we would encounter. These days, staying mainly on one route, although at times mundane, it also offers up a sense of comfort and security of knowing every turn and bump of the road, and some of those bumps can quite literally jolt the laptop right off my lap. Yesterday, when we received our latest assignment, I knew we would be spending a bit of time on a portion of Highway 101 which we have never traveled before in the truck. We enjoyed viewing portions of the Pacific coastline, saw thousands and thousands of acres of grape vineyards, wondered why of all the military bases they closed, they kept Camp Roberts open, and just enjoyed the change of pace from our normal routine. Some times we are asked if we ever get tired of the same routing, and I have to be honest.......we don't. Case in point was yesterday evening. We decided to stop at a place we have never been to before, Pollard Flats at exit 712 on Interstate 5. It is a hole in the wall place with a large lot for truck parking. Upon entering the store/restaurant, there is barley room to turn around, and is the smallest little store I have ever seen. Attached to it are several rooms, including a kitchen and dining area.

I was in need of using the restroom, and having been pointed in the right direction, opened the door of the unisex restroom to find this: I don't think many people would enjoy company while taking care of personal business, but I had to laugh at the quirkiness of this establishment. Throughout the dining area were old antiques and license plates hanging from the wall, along with a rusted old tractor and gas pump in front of the building. So you see, we may travel extensively along the same route day in and day out, but at just about every turn you can find something new and different to discover. Makes life just that much more interesting out on the road.

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