WHO SAYS BBQ'ING IS A SUMMERTIME THING



We made it home this past Thursday for home time.  With as mild as the weather has been lately, we really didn't expect to see much snow when we arrived at home.  Boy, were we surprised.  It looked like a winter wonderland.

We had a bit of surprise when Craig went to turn the water on.  Seems our heat strip was malfunctioning and with the minus degree weather we had the previous week the water had frozen.   Craig had to drive into town to purchase a new one and within about 10 minutes the water was flowing again.

During our first night, there was an additional showering of snow, just enough to cover our Jeep.  With all this snow around us, we figured we'd BBQ some New York steak that Tyson so generously donated to us before our last home time, when a shipper refused a case because the box was torn.  We love those kind of rejects right before home time when our cooler is empty!

 

Craig managed to do the lazy man BBQ'ing from his recliner in the living room. We made sure to cook extra to take back out with us on the truck.  Looking at the weather forecast for the next 10 days or so, it still appears that we'll have milder than normal snowfall and temperatures.  We'll take that as we look forward to another couple of days at home in a mere 14 days.

JACK FROST VISITS THE COLUMBIA GORGE

 

 

 

 

The weather.  Seems like that was all everyone was talking about last week, and no more so than on Facebook.  My California friends were lamenting about the cold, a mere 26 degrees, while at home in Usk, WA we had minus 9 degrees.  When we're in the truck and traveling we hit just about everything Mother Nature throws out there,  but we always manage to remain toasty warm inside our moving semi truck.

When we received a load of meat for the Portland, OR area, we were shocked as we traveled our favorite scenic route, Highway 84 along the Columbia Gorge.  Jack Frost had payed a visit and threw in a fair amount of snow.  Craig and I both commented that we had never seen this much snow in this area in all our previous winters of traveling through it.  It almost reminded us of our days of traveling through some areas of Canada.


I know I'm jinxing myself, but so far, this is the latest into the season that we haven't had a fair amount of snow fall.  I'm not complaining, I like the roads clear and bare, as it makes for much safer travels with all the four wheelers out on the roadways.  I'd much rather enjoy all the snow in the comforts of home, which we will be for a couple of days this week.

THANKSGIVING & FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON

 

 

 

 

We went back to work the day before Thanksgiving getting a dispatch to deliver juice to Wal Mart.  I love these runs, short and sweet, and by 7pm we were empty and headed into Prosser, WA for the night.  This is the first time since driving truck that we haven't been able to find someplace to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.  Craig tried to make things better by finding an app on his tablet with a roaring fire.  It did make our simple in truck dinner a little cosier.

Thanksgiving morning we walked to the Starbucks across the street and enjoyed a hot coffee and read about the storm that was heading our way.  We did a little local pickup on Friday and on Saturday was given a Tyson meat load with 5 deliveries over three days.  With our routing we knew we would be in Union Gap, WA on Sunday, and with an Outback Steakhouse next door to the truck stop, we could enjoy a Thanksgiving meal then.

While we were eating several of the other diners were getting phone calls on their cells regarding Snoqualmie Pass and the snow that was expected.  We went to sleep that night not knowing what we would encounter when we made our own trek over the pass at daybreak.  In the morning I checked on road conditions and found that the pass had been closed due to high winds and trees removal, so we went about our deliver in Union Gap and hoped for the best.



By the time we finished up and had to make our way to Everett, WA the pass was opened up with snow and slush on the roadway.  We expected it to be worse than it was, but by the time we got up the hill it was looking pretty good.  We can only hope the rest of the winter snow driving is as nice.