Before they were even done with their delivery in Long Beach, CA on Tuesday morning, they had another assignment waiting for them just 3 miles away. After going empty, Craig called the shipper to see if they couldn't get loaded prior to their 8pm appointment, and learned a couple of things: That this would be a drop and hook, and that they were welcome to drop their empty trailer there, but that the other trailer that they would be picking up, would in fact not be ready until 8pm. On a positive note, they were able to bobtail to a restaurant and enjoy a good meal and make use of their parking lot to park all day.
Upon driving back to the shipper around 7pm, they found their trailer ready, and with only a 14,000 pound payload of electronics, there was no need to find a scale. This particular load was a straight over nighter to Tracy, CA with a delivery time of 5am. That gave them a small window of opportunity to get a couple of hours of non moving sleep, which they did in Santa Nella, CA a little after midnight.
After going empty, and not hearing anything via the QualComm, they headed to the company yard in French Camp. They no sooner arrived when the beeping started. When it was all sorted out, they were to pick up a loaded trailer of juice in the yard and take it to Auburn, WA by Thursday morning at 7am. Boy, the team loads just keep coming in for them. So, off they go to scale out the load and and start heading north, and wouldn't you know it? About three hours later the QualComm started beeping.
Now they get information to head to Chemult, OR and swap loads with another driver that is there waiting for them. They are to take a loaded trailer of meat and head right back the same direction from where they just came from and make the first of four deliveries in Sacramento this morning at 6am. So off they go with the plan to make it as far as Corning, CA where they will stop and get yet another few hours of non moving sleep.
After their delivery in Sacramento, their second drop is of all places Modesto, right where I am, but since they had a fuel stop in Ripon, about 15 miles away at the Flying J, I drove there this morning with a surprise box of hot fresh donuts and cold milk from our local donut shop. You should have seen the look on their faces. You would have thought Christmas had come early! After a short 30 minute visit, it was off to make the delivery and then head to Wheeler Ridge to grab some sleep before their first delivery Friday morning at 5am in Vernon, CA.
They sure have been getting a crazy amount of miles over the past 6 days and both of them are getting close to running out of driving hours on their 70 hour clock. I don't think either one of them will be complaining if after they finish with this load that they will finally get a day of rest.
It wouldn't be an elaborate remodel, as the kitchen was way too small to change the layout, and let's face it, in these times of economic woes, there was not an abundance of money to spend. But after living with a kitchen with the original cabinets from the 1950's, with way too many coats of paint on them, it was time to do something. Oh....and should I mention that there were not one, but four layers of wall paper in the kitchen that would need to be taken down? Yeah, I thought that might get your attention. 
So first, my niece and I start the process of taking down the wallpaper, as my Mom relived some memories as each layer was revealed, and after two days, we finally reached the bare wall. Oh! and while we were at it, we took down the wall paper in the laundry room too, which only had three layers on it. Yes, I can hear some of you more decorating forward people out there saying, " But wallpaper is coming back into style", to which I will say to you....."never, never, never again" will wallpaper be put up in any house I live in! 
To make a long story short, we ended up redoing her bathroom off the laundry room with new paint, a new vanity and mirror, repainting her laundry room, rearranging and redecorating her family room, all while watching as professionals went to town on her kitchen. To say we were living in a construction zone and total chaos is an understatement. Three weeks later, after a fresh coat of paint in her kitchen, we are happy to report that half of her house is done, and she is so happy with the results. 
As for me? I'm happy to say that the living room and entry way, which has been taunting me now for weeks, awaiting my attention, only has one layer of paper waiting for me to take down this week. Let's hear it for small victories my friends!
On a lighter note, take a look at this picture they took while in Long Beach the other day. Seems this driver failed to make sure his 5th wheel had fully engaged and locked onto his trailer, and when he started to make a turn, the trailer became undone from the 5th wheel. That would tend to make for a start of a bad day.
I had a good laugh the other day in Ripon when I met Craig with his donuts. He was in the fuel island, and as I approached his rig from behind, I saw what you see in the photo above written in the grime on his trailer door. It isn't so much that we are definitely more right wing then left wing, but Craig sure didn't want that staring people in the face as he drove down the road. He quickly went back and cleaned it off the trailer. I joked with him about what a great job he must have done on his last pre trip inspection, but as he said, he was more into looking at tires and lights. Might I suggest he add checking for political views written on trailer doors to his next pre trip inspection!
I also refurbished a picture and frame that my Mom was going to donate, by tossing the picture and painting and staining the frame, then using chalkboard paint and making a cute chalkboard. Only thing missing so far is buying some chalk to write something cleaver on it. With at least another three weeks of Craig training and me off of the truck, I'll have to start thinking of some other projects to keep me busy.
Immediately after going empty, they were beeped with a new assignment to pick up a load of wine in Auburn, WA and take it to the RailEx facility in Burbank, WA. From there it will be loaded onto rail cars to be transported to New York. Eric will be taking over the driving duties while Craig gets some well deserved sleep, however as most of you know who live the life out in the road on a big rig, trying to get decent sleep while the truck is moving can be a bit of a struggle, especially over rough roads. 
Their delivery time is set for 3pm this afternoon, and although you would like to keep this run of dispatches going, Craig and I agreed that with any luck, they would have the rest of the afternoon and evening to catch up on some rest. But with Tyson being not even a mile away from RailEx, I have a hunch that they will once again get an immediate dispatch to pick up some meat. One can only hope there is some extra time factored into their next dispatch to at least slow things down a little bit to get some much needed rest.
The store was anxious to know when the other trucks from TWT would be arriving, as well as several other trucks from another company. It wouldn't surprise me if they don't get a return trip there since the store doesn't open until March 13. I should also mention that Eric did a fine job of backing into the dock. Craig sees a bit of improvement each week, and really, that's about as good as you can hope to get with a trainee. 
They were beeped with a pre plan while on their way to Gilbert, AZ, to pick up a load of bananas in the company yard in Bloomington, CA and head them up north to Puyallup, WA. Their delivery time is 5am Tuesday morning, so with very little slack time they will definitely be doing quite a bit of team driving to get it up there and on time for their appointment. This pay period is shaping up to be a good one if they keep getting these types of loads with the quick turn around, and I'm happy to be able to put a little extra away for a rainy day!
Along with two other drivers, they were dispatched to Liberty Lake, WA, just outside of Spokane with dry vans to pick up three trailers full of a product that shall not be named. This operation was supervised by a team of Federal Agents who watched over every pallet of this product being loaded into the trailers. When the trailers were sealed, and the paperwork signed for, they all took off in a convoy to Arlington, OR. 
In Arlington, they went go to a hazardous material dump site to have that same product unloaded and disposed of, again being supervised by the Federal Agents. Only problem was that not only was the dump site difficult to even find, it was basically a big mud pit. Craig had to admit to having a bit of fun trying to drive through the mud and managed to get quite a bit of it all over the tires, trailer, truck, and even himself. 
They finally get to where they will unload the unnamed product, and they soon find out that the lifts they use to hoist the trailers into the air will not handle a 53 foot trailer. Now what do they do? After some phone calls and the powers that be consult one another, they finally come with a pallet jack, and have the drivers move the product to the edge of the trailer and then off lift it with a fork lift. Needless to say, Craig got plenty of exercise today! 
Tonight finds them in Biggs Junction, chowing down on a foot long Subway sandwich and falling into bed bone tired. Since they still have the non refrigerated trailer, they will be routed to Salem, OR in the morning to either pick up some potato chips or transport some transformers to Oakland, CA. No matter where they might be sent, the first order of business will be finding a truck wash to get rid of the mud they collected on their rig.
After getting those four new tires put on yesterday afternoon, Craig and Eric made it as far as the rest area just outside of Cle Elum, WA, but not before stopping at the Subway in Ellensburg for a good old $5 foot long. Those Subways are a truck drivers best friend for a decent sandwich out on the road. From the rest area, they only had about 90 miles into Seattle for their delivery this morning at 8am. All of the trucks that they had seen at AmeriCold in Wallula while loading had also made it into the port area this morning when they arrived, so it took a few hours for the meat to get off loaded and put into containers bound for Hong Kong. 
They had a decent view of the Space Needle while they were there, along with getting an eyeful of the vast amount of containers being loaded onto ships and the cranes that are used in that process. This is the third time that Craig has been to this particular receiver, and each time without me. I would have loved to have been able to take some better quality photos with my good camera, than rely on Craig's cell phone. 
They had already received a pre plan yesterday, so when they went empty, they headed to Chehalis, WA to the Fred Meyer DC to pick up a loaded trailer. They have two stops this evening, one in Richland, WA and the other in Kennewick, WA at the local Fred Meyer store. From there they will head over to the truck stop in Pasco to await their next dispatch in the morning.
And as to the other burning question as to whether Eric would come back from home time to continue his training? Just like the swallows that return to San Juan Capistrano, CA every March, Eric came back to the truck this morning. But I guess you already figured that out after the first sentence of this entry.
After getting the new tires put on the trailer, they are headed to Seattle, WA to the port area to drop his load of meat destined to some foreign country. Their appointment time is for 8am tomorrow morning and from there our guess is maybe a load of apples or another load of meat headed to the Los Angeles area. With them heading south, at least I'll be able to meet up with Craig again for a little cuddle time and to given him his new reflective fluorescent yellow safety vest I ordered after he was so pleased with the new jacket. After all, safety first before fashion!
When Craig and Eric pulled into the facility in Othello, WA it looked like a TWT convention. There were already two other trucks backed into the docks with another one waiting besides themselves. By the time they were loaded, 3 more TWT trucks pulled in to get loaded too. By 3:30pm they were scaled and on their way south. Thankfully, weather would not be an issue for them this run down Highway 97, as the pavement was bare and no snow or rain falling from the sky. Tonight will find them in LaPine, OR where they will shut down to get some sleep, and speaking of sleep, that is where I am headed as well.
By the time they hit Weed, CA it was snowing pretty good, and not wanting to put chains on if he doesn't have to, even though he does have a trainee to do the grunt work, they decided to shut down. I had also been monitoring the road conditions and was happy to receive his phone call saying that they would not be going any further, and would wait until after a good nights sleep to tackle the snowy, icy roads.
They are simply called 
Granted, Ted Neeley has been performing as Jesus for just shy of 40 years, but the hair on my arms stood straight up as the opening chords rang out through the theatre and the spotlights lit him up. Several times throughout the performance chills ran through me and I was transported back to relive the thrill of my first time seeing this performed live. And the Crucifixion scene? Words can not describe it, it has to be experienced in person. If you ever get the chance to see this while Ted Neeley is still performing it, run don't walk, and treat yourself, it is so worth the cost of admission.
Once we managed to suffer through the morning commute traffic, which by the way, never thinned out, we arrived at the coast and into the welcome arms of plenty of sunshine and blue skies. Seems for a least a few hours we would be between storm systems and we took advantage of it by spending some time sightseeing and enjoying a lunch looking out over the water.
Presently, we are enjoying some R&R inside our hotel room, with a fire roaring in the fireplace, and the rain and wind trying to get back into the act again outside our sliding door. But we have no worries, we are just enjoying our alone time together and watching the latest Harry Potter movie on pay per view. Life for us really doesn't get much better than this.
We had the opportunity to test this out on Sunday when Craig was making his deliveries. It worked like a charm for those times when he isn't fully prepared by wearing his Blueparrot headset. When a call comes in, he answers by hitting the blue button on the front of the mic and then he can converse via the radio and still remain relatively hands free.
Sheez......will y'all get your minds out of the gutter. I know where your minds went with the title of this entry...........ahem......or maybe it's just my dirty little mind! But a little pre trip entertainment we did partake in this morning before heading out to pick up our load of frozen french fries in Quincy, WA but I'll explain what it was a little later on in the post.
That dispatch didn't come across the computer until 5pm, and since Craig's 14 hour clock was only an hour away from running out, we stayed put and enjoyed an early night of relaxing and watching TV. This morning, we got up and walked over to the lounge to enjoy our morning coffee and do our laundry. Then it was off to track down the forklift guy to load some pallets into the trailer. With that accomplished, we decided to drive over to the Petro truck stop across the street and take in a movie courtesy of the management, hence the pre trip entertainment. We enjoyed the movie "Knowing", and then grabbed a subway sandwich and hit the road.
We are picking up at Columbia Cold Storage in Quincy, WA. This is the third time we have been there and Craig has been already doing the math on the load knowing that we will have only about 20 pounds short of the 80,000 pound limit on the truck and trailer. I swear they shove every last possible frozen french fry that they can into these loads, but as long as his math is correct and we scale out good, it is the load that will get us to time off.