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.
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 
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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 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.
