LIVING IN MY OWN LITTLE SNOW GLOBE

It has snowed for the past six days.  So much so, that they have said the amount of snow we have received, has exceeded all of the snow that they had last season.  I've told Craig that our timing really sucks when it comes to when we decide to go home during the winter.  Of course last year, we packed up and left it for four months, when in hindsight, that would have been the year to spend some time there.

This year, the whole coming home thing was turned upside down, with Craig having to remain on that load of meat going into Montana and Utah.  After being shut down on Highway 20 for over 8 hours, they were finally told to divert, as the Highway would not be opening anytime soon, and head north with an additional 150 miles tacked onto their trip.  After traveling that secondary route, it was soon closed as well due to a big rig flipping over and blocking the highway.

Onto plan C, and being diverted back up to Bozeman, then over to I90 to Butte and then south on I15 into Salt Lake City.  They finally managed to get into the Salt Lake City area by 10pm Wednesday night, almost 12 hour past their appointment time.  Speaking of which, they were able to reschedule their appointment to 5am Friday, which left them to sit and relax on Thanksgiving day at a local truck stop and at least enjoy a hot meal.

Yesterday, they were given the assignment to dead head over 900 miles to Salinas, CA to pick up a load of produce today.  Looking at the weather radar maps, they saw an approaching storm and wanted to beat that storm going over Donner Pass in California.  They were safely in the company yard, having avoided the storm by 9pm last night, and in Salinas this morning by 8am.

We still don't know when he will exactly be back in Spokane and in position to rescue me from my own personal snow globe that I've been in for the past 6 days.  There is a chance of it letting up on Sunday and Monday, and I'll either get up enough nerve to drive down to Spokane, or Craig will rent a SUV and drive up to take care of things at home and then I can drive the SUV back down while Craig follows in our pickup.  In either case, we will have yet another story to reminisce about in the years to come.

BLIZZARDS (NOT THE DAIRY QUEEN ONE)

After surviving my little spin out and getting the truck safely home, I snuggled up warm and cozy at home, and watched as blizzard warnings were being flashed across my television screen for Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning.  Growing up in California, blizzards only happened when you were lucky enough to be treated at the local Dairy Queen, with the white fluffy stuff that was sweet and tasty, not the fluffy stuff that seemed to continually fall from the sky with blustery winds.

But I was safe and warm inside, but not so much my husband who was valiantly, along with Roy, trying to make the meat deliveries during some pretty adverse conditions.  Craig said the drive into Helena, Montana wasn't too bad, some patchy, icy roads, but all in all pretty mild stuff.  Then, after the delivery, as they headed into Billings for their next stop, it got progressively worse.  They cautiously drove on through blowing snow, low visibility, and icy roads, and succeeded in making the delivery.

I wish I could say the same for their last stop in Salt Lake City.  It is due to be delivered at 10:30am today, but Craig and Roy, along with hundreds of other trucks, are stalled on Highway 20 in Idaho, since 7pm last night, where they have been shut down with the road being closed.  Over the past five years of driving truck, we have come close to being stranded on the road with highway closures, but have either just gotten through before the closing, or have made it into a truck stop.

I know they have plenty of food and water on board, along with the help of the APU to keep them warm and cozy inside the truck, but as far as making the delivery today?  Odds are they won't, but my hope is that they at least get moving and into Utah where they can be at a truck stop and try to make the most of what will definitely be a Thanksgiving we will remember for years to come.

THANKFULNESS

I may be a few days early for the traditional day of thankfulness, but my heart is so full of thanks and appreciation today.  I guess with any good story, you should start at the beginning, so let me get started.

Craig had asked for home time for today, and even when given an assignment while in Boise, ID which had him driving to Wallula, WA to pick up meat, and then with four deliveries attached to it, Post Falls, ID, Helena and Billings, Montana and lastly in Salt Lake City, Utah he was still confident that there was a plan in the works.  Myself?  Almost always the person who thinks the glass is half full, muttered several times that there was no way he was getting home time, and that the communication between the weekday people and the weekend person has always been nonexistent.

So after going loaded in Wallula, Craig calls into the weekend dispatcher to find that he knew nothing about Craig going home and that he would have to at least make the delivery in Post Falls, ID (just a short distance from Spokane) and then call into the office to see what would be decided.  To add even more to a complicated situation, Craig didn't even have enough hours to make the deliveries into Montana, let alone deal with the snow storm which had hit the region.

After making the delivery in Post Falls, he is told to come back to the yard, where a team driver (his previous trainee Roy who was now without a partner), would join him in the truck to ensure the deliveries were made.  It was a holiday week, as he was told, and they really had no other option.  Craig tried to protest, especially since that left me to fend for myself, (not that I'm incapable or anything), but he was concerned with the snowfall, and making sure everything was okay at home.

I put on a brave front, and told him that people for hundreds of years have lived in areas where it snowed, and in modern times even drive in it, and even though I have never driven in the snow, I would be okay and not to worry.  We parted ways with a hug and a kiss, and I love you, and off I went on my way, while he waited for Roy to come into the yard to join him.

Interstate 90 was pretty much asphalt.  The snow had let up and I confidently made my way up Division Street towards Highway 2 making a slow journey home.  The roads where pretty much covered in snow, but I had the Disneyland Utopia tire marks to follow.  I made it up Highway 2 okay, and then I made my turn onto a less traveled Highway 211.  Here is where any indication of a road started to vanish, and the snow started to fall quite heavily.  It was getting hard to see, and not having a four wheel drive vehicle concerned me a little, but to tell you the truth, I was so busy praying for help and guidance that my mind was on little else other than trying to stay on what I thought was the road.

I made it through to our little town of Usk, where in the beginning of this journey, I thought I would stop at the little store to pick up some milk and other supplies, but the snow had built up so much on the road, with no indication of any snowplows in sight, I made the decision to just keep going, knowing I had some food staples at home, and who was I kidding, I had enough stored fat on me, I wouldn't starve anytime soon.

With a sigh of relief, I hit the entry road into our development, the snow even thicker here, I kept the truck  moving forward, until I felt it go loosey goosey in the tail end.  I started spinning, remembering Craig's words of wisdom during just this type of thing, foot off the gas, no brakes, and steer in the direction the tail end is fishtailing.  I tried to do all those things, and being a rookie at this snow driving I don't think I did too bad until I caught the road sign with my side mirror and it spun me even more dramatically until the pickup was sideways across the road and the rear wheels in the ditch.

Now what?  I knew there was probably someone at the club house that could help me, but I didn't have the phone number.  Directory assistance did no good as they connected me to their fax machine instead of the office number.  Just as I was calling Craig to get his input on the situation, (like he could really do anything from where he was at, but it was nice to hear his voice just the same), one of our neighbors, Terry, comes by and says....." Now how did you manage to do that?"   To which I will forever say..."It's my first time driving in these conditions" and hope that gives me a pass for ending up in the ditch.

He immediately tells me to get in his vehicle and he will take me home, and then proceeds to call his wife to call a couple of the other guys who live in the area to come by our house to get the keys to the truck and pull it out of the ditch for me.  Within 15 minutes, John and Chuck are at my door, taking my keys and telling me to relax, and that they will take care of it for me.  Twenty minutes later, our pickup is in our driveway, minus the glass on the passenger side mirror, and none the worse for the whole experience.  I don't even think there were any note worthy scratches either.

To say that I am thankful and appreciative of their help is truly an understatement.  Not only did they take care of the truck for me, but made sure the heat and water were running in the house, but Terry called from the store to see if there was anything he could pick up for me while he was there.  I was also told to stop by the clubhouse for pizza tomorrow night, and to bring my appetite on Thanksgiving for dinner on Thursday as well.

I can sit back and laugh about it now, but as Craig says, there isn't anyone who lives in the snow that hasn't spun out at least one time in their life......I just got mine done early!  Let's hope it's the last time, or if not, it has the same great ending.  Thankful I will be this Thanksgiving, and every day for the blessings in my life!

WORKING IN THE DARK (hence why there are no photos lately)

We were up at 1am Friday morning, to take showers and then start our day by getting to the Fred Meyer DC in Clackamas, OR for our 5am delivery.  Don't know why they wanted us there at 5am, they didn't even start unloading us until 7am.  Oh well, just money in our pockets for sitting and waiting.  Can't complain too much, other than the whole sleep issue thing.

We sent in our empty call, and should have known better than to leave the premises, because as soon as we got down the road to the K-Mart to park, we got the news to drop the trailer back at Fred Meyer for a nice overnight drive to Idaho.  Back we went, dropped the trailer, and then bob tailed back to the parking lot of K-Mart, where we did a little shopping.  We basically had the store to ourselves, as it was still pretty early, and the employees were all having a meeting.

We tried to get some sleep on and off during the day, before our 10 hour break was up, and I think I managed an hour before we had to head back to pick up our loaded trailer.  It had been raining on and off all day, so we were wondering if we would be getting any snow going over cabbage outside of Pendleton.  With a stop in Troutdale, OR for fuel, we were off on Interstate 84, where we noticed the temperature dropping to as low as 23, but did not see a snowflake until we hit our first delivery stop in Nampa, ID at about 5am.

It was two hours ahead of schedule, but they were ready and waiting for us, and we were in and out in record time and onto our last stop in Garden City, ID about 22 miles away.  Just like our first stop, we were way ahead of schedule, but they unloaded us quickly, and we were headed to the TA truck stop in Boise to get some much needed sleep.

We had already been given our next assignment, to dead head to Wallula, WA for a load of meat on Sunday afternoon.  That meant, barring any pressing weather related issues which would make us leave earlier than we wanted to, we would be able to get somewhat normal sleep tonight, after a 3 hour power nap.  The meat load, with 5 stops, the first in Post Falls, ID, then ending with Salt Lake City, will most likely be handed over to another driver at the Company yard in Spokane, as Craig has requested a couple of days of home time.  We'll see just how well that all works out come tomorrow!

BORING UPDATE

So we waited over 6 hours before finally getting into a dock in Vernon, CA Monday.  It finally took our Customer Service department to call them to get them to assign us a dock.  Once we were backed in, it took all of 20 minutes for them to off load their product.  The only think that makes less frustrating, is the detention pay we started receiving at the start of our appointment time until the time we went empty.

Immediately after going empty, we were sent a dispatch to head to San Diego to pick up bananas.  We had just made the maneuver to get onto southbound Interstate 5, when the QualComm beeped with a cancellation of that dispatch.  Then the phone rang while we were stopped at the traffic light, and we were told to head to Castaic to repower a load.  We bypassed I5 and saw the on ramp to eastbound Highway 60 which we took, and then took I710 north to hook back up with north I5.  We only had about 90 minutes left of driving time, so were hoping that we would not run into traffic.

Thankfully, we made it to Castaic, CA in time, but finding a parking space would be a challenge.  As any truck driver knows, the Pilot there is a zoo, with absolutely no parking, and after driving through and not seeing the truck we were repowering, we called in to see what his ETA was.  After being told that it would be another hour before he arrived, we went in search of parking.  We ended up in a large parking lot which truckers had taken over for parking next to an abandoned hotel.  Finding a spot for our trailer, we unhooked and then parked the truck two spaces over to hold a spot for the other driver.

While sitting there, Craig looks to his left and sees a Panda Express, and that was all he needed to make his day.  He loves his Chinese food, and was off in a flash to grab some food and wait until we could swap trailers.  At 6pm, and without another parking space in sight, the other driver shows up and we do the trailer swap shuffle, and then settle in for the night.  We were now in possession of a trailer with only 8,000 pounds of meat, which we would deliver to Pomona, CA at 8am Tuesday morning.

We left a little after 5am to make the drive, and arrived with plenty of time to make our appointment.  Even better was that they took us early to unload, and by 8:30am we were empty and being told to head to San Diego for bananas.  We stopped by the company yard to fuel and scan paperwork, and then headed south to the Port of San Diego.  After almost four hours at the port, we had our bananas and decided to just stay down the street in National City for the night.

At 2am Wednesday morning we were on the road, confident that we would have a clear sailing through LA.  With a stop in Lebec for fuel, we powered on and made it as far as Dunnigan, CA where we stayed last night.  This morning we started driving at 3am, stopping for fuel in Corning and then our plans are to stop at the TA in Coberg, OR , where we will stop for the day and take showers.  Our load is set to deliver at 5am tomorrow morning in Clackamas, OR.

DID I SAY JINX MYSELF?

I should have known better than to even write down what a great load assignment we had, because jinx myself I did.  We had a restful sleep, or should I say Craig did, as I had a battle with a rattle from the reefer going on most of the night, that kept me tossing and turning.  Never could figure out exactly where it was coming from, because no matter where I placed my hand it would stop for about 45 seconds and then start up again.  Anyway, back to Sunday.

We took off from the Pilot Truck Stop in Dunnigan, CA and was bebopping up Interstate 5 when Craig's phone starts ringing.  We both looked at each other and knew exactly what was going to happen.  Sure enough, we're told to head back to Dunnigan and wait for a driver that was on his way there from Weed, CA.  We did the math and figured it was going to take him over 3 hours to get there, so we kicked back and do what we do best........wait.

The other driver arrives around 10am and we go about swapping trailers and handing off paperwork.  We inherited a trailer full of meat to take right back down to Vernon where we were just at on Friday. We drove as far as Wheeler Ridge, CA where we stopped for the night and awoke this morning to take showers and do battle with the LA Monday morning commute.  It took a lot longer this morning than it did on Friday to get into Vernon, but we were still about an hour early for our appointment so we hung out for awhile before checking in.

Once we actually got to the receiver, we found a security guard who took our paperwork, had us write down our phone number, then promptly sent us off the property to go find a parking space on the street somewhere.  Thankfully in Vernon, that isn't too terribly hard to do, and we have been waiting ever since.  It's now starting our third hour of waiting to be called to a dock, with no signs of us getting unloaded any time soon.   Guess it's time to start that new book!

SLEEP DEPRIVED

It's been a couple of days since I have posted, mostly because we have been doing nothing but driving at night, and then making the deliveries in the morning, and then finally trying to get some sleep before they send us on yet another load assignment.  I'm happy to report that last night we were able to go back to a normal sleeping pattern, but with falling dead asleep by 7pm, we were up and ready to hit the road with our newest load assigment at 3am.

To finish up on our last load, we left Weed, CA at 1am Thursday morning to get into Fremont for our first delivery at 10am.  We were concerned with commute traffic, but then we remembered that it was Vertern's Day and that most likely traffic would be dramatically reduced, and it was.  We arrived about two hours early for our appointment, but was given a dock right away.  You'd think we would be done early since we got that dock assignment, but nope!  We ended up being there over 4 hours, and on top of that they refused 3 cases of hamburger because the boxes were torn. ( by the way, the hamburger had to be dumped)

After all the phone calls and paperwork were completed, we headed out with only enough drive time left to get us into Santa Nella, CA.  Then it was trying to sleep again before getting up 1am to drive into Vernon, CA for our last delivery.  Again, with the holiday the previous day, traffic was much lighter than it would normally be.  We had a bit of a wait to get into the dock at King Meat, and then were hoping for a day of rest.  What we heard instead was a preplan to pick up a loaded trailer in the yard in Bloomington and be in Clackamas, OR by Sunday morning.

Well, Craig does the math quickly and with us having to drive two more nights to get there by 7am Sunday, he would be about 2 hours short on driving hours on his 70hr clock to make it.  I was never more relieved than when the message came across that the load would be assigned to someone with more hours and for us to head to the yard and await a different assignment.  That dispatch came across at 6pm for us to pick up a trailer loaded with bananas in the yard, and deliver in Puyallup, WA on Tuesday morning.  Praise the Lord!  A load assignment with more than enough time on it, which would allow us to go back to normal operations.
Now let's just hope I didn't jinx ourselves by saying so!

AND SO IT BEGINS

We arrived in Salinas, CA yesterday mid morning, got the trailer washed out, and then dropped it at Fresh Express.  I could already see two of our trailers in the dock, and that told me that we would most likely be getting a dispatch later in the day.  The Pilot was packed, so much so, that we couldn't even find a small spot to park bob tailed, so we went across the street, parked and tried to get some sleep.  We got about 4 hours when the QualComm came a calling.

We were to pick up our trailer at 7pm and deliver to Clackamas, OR at 4am on Thursday.  It didn't take too much figuring to know with what hours Craig had left, that we would not be able to deliver the load on time.  In fact, to even pick up the load on time, we would have to do the split sleeper berth option yet again, leaving our parking space and heading to Fresh Express after 8 hours off duty.  Thankfully, our trailer was out of the dock and parked so that we could just hook up and stay there after getting the paperwork, and put in another 2 hours to complete our 10 hour break.

At 9:30pm we were once again driving into the night and trying to get as far as we could.  We stopped in Corning for fuel and showers, but even the showers didn't refresh us all that much.  Our sights were set on Weed, and as the first hint of lightness began to appear, we could see that it had snowed!  And so it begins.....winter has arrived with our first snowfall of the season,  Another shock for us was that when we took the exit for the truck stop in Weed, we found the road closed and the truck stop deserted and boarded up.  Word on the street is that Pilot will be taking ownership and reopening the truck stop in about 4 months. 

The closure of that truck stop sure took away some prime truck parking real estate, and we were lucky to find a spot on a side street to park and get some sleep.  We had informed dispatch of our location and the need for a swap before we went to sleep.  Still not hearing anything back after about 6 hours, Craig called to find out that the relay team responding was still 250 miles away, but with a load of meat that we would have to deliver at 10am in Fremont, CA tomorrow morning.  Oh boy!  Yet another night of driving and trying to work around the Bay Area commute traffic.

This new load has yet another drop for us back in Vernon, CA on Friday morning.  We don't have the particulars yet on that one as to the time, but I'm planning on another late night/early morning departure to make that delivery on time as well.  I guess we are destined to be creatures of the night for a few more days!

I LOVE TRUCKER FRIENDLY SHIPPERS/RECEIVERS

What is so great about this load we got yesterday morning, is that at Regional Western Delivery Service in Fullerton, it is a drop/hook situation, plus they let you stay on their property to sleep if you need to.  We would in fact be needing to since we started yesterday at 4:30am and would have to be on the road by 10pm.  That meant parking and trying to grab a few hours of sleep while trucks and trailers were being moved back and forth in their yard.  It's the usual game, trying to sleep when you're not tired, and yadda yadda yadda...... but just knowing we had a place to park and put in our 10 hour break was a blessing.

By 9:30pm we were hooking up to our trailer and heading towards Tracy.  Thankfully while at one of our earlier drops, a driver asked me if we listened to audio books and if we wanted to swap.  He had a Tom Clancy audio book and I knew right away that would be one that Craig would be interested in.  So I swapped out three of ours for three of his, and Craig had something to keep his interest while he drove through the night.

Once we arrived in Tracy at 5am, we were unloaded immediately, then parked in their lot to await the office crew to arrive.  Long about 7am we got the word to head to Salinas, CA to drop the trailer at Fresh Express, and we are currently enroute there now.  I won't be predicting when we'll get our new assignment, but I am hoping we don't hear anything until tomorrow afternoon.......We sure could use a good night's sleep!

BACK TO NORMAL DRIVING ONCE AGAIN

We've had a great couple of days since picking up this load in Wallula, WA on Friday morning.  With a nice paced delivery schedule we drove into La Pine, OR by 4pm Friday evening.  Then on Saturday we stopped in Corning, CA for fuel, grabbed us a Subway sandwich to share, and was comfortably in the company yard in French Camp at 3pm.  That set us up nicely for our delivery in Newark, CA at 6am Sunday morning.

We have been to Western Food Products in Newark several times before.  It's an easy off and on the freeway kinda place.  We only had to wait a short time before getting into one of their three docks, and it took only an hour to get their portion of the load off the trailer.  Our next stop would be Santa Nella, CA for a Starbucks stop.  My iced latte never tasted so good!  With drinks in hand, the rest of our journey was a piece of cake into Wheeler Ridge and the Petro Truck stop for fuel.

Since we were there at 1pm, we took showers, started a a couple of loads of laundry, and treated ourselves to some soup and salad.  Just what the overcast, drizzly day called for.  While the clothes were drying, we caught the last 90 minutes of a movie playing in the driver's lounge.  Then it was off to relax a few more hours before grabbing some sleep for this morning's deliveries.

After making our way through LA commute traffic, we found ourselves way ahead of schedule, so we pulled into our not so special or secret parking place in Vernon, the one where last December we got a parking ticket for staying there between 2am and 4am, but it suited us to wait out the hour until our appointment time at Randall Foods two miles away.

I have to say, of all the hole in the wall places we have delivered to in Vernon, it sure was nice to have a place with ample parking for the trucks staged to get unloaded, and plenty of room for backing into the docks.  A two hour stop there, and then it was off to our final delivery at Pilot Dist. about 2 miles away.  When we drove by this place early this morning, there were several trucks crammed into their small lot, but we were happy to see we would be the only ones there when we arrived at 10am.

This place had us unloaded so quickly, we were in and out in under 20 minutes and thinking that we would have the rest of the day sitting at the yard in Bloomington, especially with only 3 hours left of drive time for the day.  But wouldn't you know it, the QualComm started beeping and we are sent 25 miles away to Fullerton, CA for an overnight load into Tracy, CA at 5am tomorrow morning.  So much for that back to normal driving thing!

THE GHOST TOWN OF SHANIKO, OREGON

I wish I could tell you that we got to sleep last night, and in reality we did, but only until 3am, so I'm not sure that counts.  We got back to the yard yesterday after making the delivery in Coeur d'Alene, ID and promptly took showers and got into our pickup and drove over for Mongolian BBQ for lunch/dinner.  It worked out that we each had left overs which we took back to the truck for breakfast this morning.  With stomachs full, we had no energy left to do anything but lay on our beds and pray we would not get beeped with a new assignment.

At 5pm, we were beeped to hook up to a trailer and head to the Tyson Meat plant in Wallua, WA.  The message only said " take 70793 to Tyson".  Since there were no times added, and since we still had no sleep, and couldn't even leave until 11pm, we made the executive decision to stay put and sleep until at least 3am, because no one would be in the office to even give us any dispatch info until 6am.  We pulled into Tyson at 6am, dropped our empty trailer, and was then shortly there after given our new assignment.

We were happy to find out that the load was ready 5 hours ahead of schedule and we hooked up, scaled the load, and were on our way south by 9am.  This load has three deliveries, one in Newark, CA Sunday morning, and the other two in Vernon, CA on Monday morning.  Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this will be a nice easy run, during normal day time hours, and all the night sleeping we could want.

So with a little extra time on our hands, we decided, that after passing through the town of Shaniko hundreds of times over the past 5 years, that we would actually stop and take a look around.  Obvious to us, was that this town is not much more than a ghost town.  I imagine it is a bit more active during the summer months when the candy and ice cream store are open for business, but today there was only the Post Office and a gas station, with inoperable gas pumps that were open.

I love the feel of old buildings, and especially fell in love with the hotel, which is up for sale.  I love old brick buildings, and I could see this place coming back to life, along with the cafe next door.  Meandering around, I joked to Craig about finding him a new truck to drive, which looked like it has been parked in the same location since before my birth.  In all it took about 15 minutes for us to check out the town, and then it was back on the road to La Pine, OR where we made our home for the night.

DREAMING OF SLEEPING AT NIGHT

I can't even remember the last time I posted.  Even though it was only a couple of days ago, it seems like at least a week.  My sense of time gets a bit warped when we do a lot of night driving.  It all started with that Foster Farms run, where we were delayed 5 hours with waiting for the load and then the bad tire.  That put our backs up against the wall to get to our three deliveries.  Craig has had to push it to the last few minutes of his driving hours the last three days.

They changed our appointment at Foster Farms in Kelso, WA, and thankfully this time there was no DOT officer looking through binoculars for seat belt infractions, not that he would have seen us not wearing ours.  From there, with the electronic QualComm sending out verbal warning messages, we made it to Toledo, WA and into the lot at Gee Cee's Truck Stop.  A short 8 hours later, we were on the road at 1:30am to get to our 4am appointment in Auburn, WA at the Safeway DC.  After getting their portion of the load removed from our trailer,  we were able to drive to the company yard in Pacific, WA to put in a 2 hour break to complete the split sleeper berth option, before heading up to Everett, WA to Food Service of America for our final delivery.


Even with leaving at 8:30am for our 11am appointment, and having only 50 miles to drive, we were sweating it a bit with the commute traffic headed to Seattle.  It was bumper to bumper traffic for the majority of the ride, but as soon as we got north of Seattle, it thinned out and we made our appointment time with minutes to spare.  Of course, wouldn't you know it, the place with the least amount coming off the trailer, (4 pallets), took the most amount of time.  We were there almost 4 hours waiting for the unload and the paperwork, while we watched Craig's 14 hour clock start ticking away.

Both of us were certain that we would be spending the rest of the day relaxing and dreaming of actually sleeping at night as we placed our empty call and started heading towards the truck stop about 10 miles away.  Even when the QualComm started beeping, we were confident that it was a load for the next day, and then as we listened to the information, shock set in that it was a load 120 miles away for 9pm that night.  It doesn't take a math scholar to figure out that starting at 1:30am, finishing up at 1:30pm would not get us to that appointment at 9pm.

They must have been short handed, because as Craig explained what he could do with the new assignment, with the hours that he had, he was told to do the best that he could.  That meant driving as close as we could get to the Fred Meyer DC in Chehalis, WA........we got as far as Olympia, sweating bullets through some stop and go traffic as the QualComm kept assaulting us with reminders of how rapidly Craig's driving hours were dwindling down.  Then we did yet another 8 hour break, and left at 11:45 pm to drive into the shipper, drop and hook, and start heading to Coeur d'Alene, ID for an 8am delivery that would not be met.

The drop/hook went like clock work, a stop for fuel and caffeine in Tacoma, and then an all too quck 2 hour break at a rest stop along the way to get some much needed sleep and complete the split sleeper berth requirement.  With the sun shining in our eyes, we are presently 39 miles away from delivery, and it looks like we will only be 90 minutes past the original delivery time.  Not too shabby if I say so myself.  Now do we dare think of getting the rest of the day/night off when we go empty?   A girl can only dream!



ROAD SHOW

I just realized, that last year I missed this road show of the changing colors along Interstate 5.  I was home while Craig was training.  Sure enjoying the scenery this year!

DELAYS BEYOND OUR CONTROL

We couldn't get any TV reception to watch the World Series last night in Livingston, CA at the Foster Farms facility, so we had to watch for updates on the computer......definitely not as fun as watching the action live, but the Giants won, and we're not complaining.  What we could complain about is the driver that dropped the dirty trailer at Foster Farms, which delayed our load getting onto the trailer by over two hours, and then the trailer they did load, had a tire that was so bad,  it would have never have passed an inspection.

By the time we scaled, and had the tire replaced, we were 5 hours behind schedule, and would not be able to make our first appointment.  If Customer Service can change the appointment, without effecting the other two drops on this load, we may just be able to keep it.  What isn't so great, is driving until 1am tonight.  Thank goodness for Diet Mt Dew!

As we approached Stockton, we saw warning signs of an accident ahead, and once again, we were delayed as we inched our way, with the backed up traffic, pass the accident scene.  At this point we really can't afford to have any more glitches along our route.  We did an Indy 500 pit stop for fuel and Mt Dew in Corning, CA at the TA truck stop, and were back on the road in record time.  We will use up just about every minute of Craig's driving hours to get us into Rice Hill, OR late tonight.  We'll have to wait to hear in the morning if we will continue with this load with a later delivery, or swap out with another driver. 

On a very happy note.....the Giants win the World Series......fun times in our truck tonight!.