Wilmington, North Carolina

We are enjoying the double luxury of getting a 34 hour restart for our hours 

AND 

doing it in a great place (basically that would mean any place other than a truck stop).

We are exploring Wilmington, NC today.

Started the day off at the Battleship North Carolina.

Tony was in the Navy, so it was a real treat for me to explore the ship with him.

I just love the "arm's length" photo.  

You never know what you are going to get.  

'Course I wish I didn't always take the shot with my nose up in the air!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy evening to welcome in the New Year.

We are parked within walking distance of our dinner choice

I feel a gin and tonic in my future . . . 

Whimsy

As I was going back through photos I ran across this fellow.

I have now idea which artist did him, but I love them.

We were in a gallery 

in a town 

in a state  

somewhere.

He makes me smile.

Diners

When we have a chance to eat a meal together on the road, we try to avoid chain eateries.

Instead, we usually take a chance on local diners and such.  

Especially if they are NOT in a truck stop!

McAlester, Oklahoma is a town that we have ended up in several times and even without a trailer now and then.  That is always a treat, because we can park in parking lots not made for trucks.

Angels Diner was one of our best finds this year.

Just take a look at this place . . . 

You can really tell that some good food is coming from behind that counter.

I had a patty melt smothered in delish grilled onions and Tony had a frito pie that would hold it's own in Texas.  

We also got to have one of my all time favorite starters - fried green beans with spicy dipping sauce.  Oh man . . . do I love those!

The cooks were focused on their orders while I was focused on those pies! 

 I love love love homemade pies.

We will definitely be visiting Angels again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I tried to upload some photos, but the interwebs are painfully slow tonight.

We are tucked in our truck, warm and cozy.

Leo is curled up in his bed.

and

There are apple slices with cinnamon and sugar on them drying in the dehydrator.

The cab smells wonderful.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

My New Kindle

My sister and brother-in-law sent me a wonderful early Christmas present

a Kindle with 3G!

it has TOTALLY changed my life in the truck . . .

The first book I loaded was John Steinbeck's

"Travels With Charley".

I read this in high school and wanted to revisit it.

What a great read - just as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.

I also loaded up on free classics and indulged in a couple of new books.

What a wonderful invention this new way of reading is.

I was shut down in a snow storm last night and was quite happy to spend a couple of hours reading!

Thank You Brenda and Wayne.

I Made a Terrible Mistake Today . . .

We are have a 24 hour layover to pick up a load.

Love to have some time off to get laundry done,

showers taken,

and shopping dealt with.

We spend a lot of time shuffling through various manuals and books and notebooks -

believe it or not, trucking involves lots of paperwork.  And then triple the amount if any sort of Hazardous Materials are involved.

I spotted a Staples with enough parking and told Tony that I wanted to go in to look at paper containment devices and systems.

Walked in the front door 

and 

there 

it 

was . . . 

I had only seen them online.  

Never actually held one.

Now, I can't live without one.

Even worse,

I had been online shopping for the newer, smaller, cheaper model.

Still sweet

but

now

pale in comparison

to the DX.

Honestly,

It takes my breath away . . . 

Now We're Cookin'

We have a new cooker to use in the truck.

It is called a Burton Oven

or

a Lunch Box Oven

(cuz it looks like an old style black lunch box)

Basically, it is a slow cooker sort of thing that seals and locks.

This prevents those nasty floods of hot food when the driver needs to suddenly apply the brakes!

The inside is aluminum and can be cooked in as is.  

When you are in a truck without a sink though, liners are the way to go.

I hate cooking food in plastic, but I'd rather have good food cooked in plastic than bad food cooked in something else. 

It's all about choices out here.

 Here is the oven all lined and filled and ready to seal up.

This is a frozen stir-fry that I picked up at Wal-Mart.  Good ingredients and not alot of junk.

So. . . . 

a couple of hours later, we had a nice hot dinner ready to eat

Carolina Coast

We had a quick run from Charleston, SC up the beautiful Carolina Coast to drop an empty flatbed and pick an empty trailer.

Along the way, I got to do something I have wanted to do for many years . . . 

I got to stop and buy a SweetGrass Basket from the woman who made it.

These baskets are handmade by a small group of Gullah women on this piece of the Carolina Coast.

Angelika with her baskets

Each basket usually combines sweetgrass with long leaf pine needles and palmetto strips as the binder.

This was a Grand Prize winner - priced at $3,500.

I only had a few moments to chat with Angelika, but left with a hug from her and a very special basket for me.  

I have managed to coil 2 tiny pine needle baskets in the past and I can tell you how laborious the prep work is in addition to the actual coiling and binding.  This craft is also pretty hard on your hands.

What a treat for me.

Getting Settled

Our new truck is an '07 Kenworth with lots of power and the transmission that Tony and I both prefer (i.e., lots of finesse with the gears . . . all 13 of them!)

However

the inside is the smallest we have been in since our first truck just out of truck driving school.

We are 

adjusting 

and

sorting

and 

cussing

and 

sorting some more

and 

finding places for all of our crap

Oh . . . 

and we are doing it while touring Lake Champlain and UpState New York.

I guess it is going to be okay!

UP AND RUNNING AGAIN

We have . . . 

New Jobs (both of us driving together)

Truck

Load

Dispatch

Destination

Updating as soon as we get settled in and have internet access.

Yipeeeeeee

We Interrupt Our Regular Programming . . .

Well, just when you think you have all your ducks collected up into a nice neat flock . . . 

All Hell breaks loose.

As I write this, Tony, Jana and Leo are ensconced in a Penske rental truck with the faithful old '93 Taurus on a dolly behind.  We parted ways with our fleet owner and with FedEx in Atlanta and are headed back to Joplin.  All is well . . . we are healthy and in good spirits and have very loving family surrounding both of us to help us over this slight hurdle.

Stay tuned . . . there will be more interesting stuff coming soon (like next week).

More From Manhattan

If you know me, you know that I love food and I love to take pictures of food.

This was a bowl of noodle soup that we had for lunch at a hole in the wall Noodle place just off of Broadway. 

 It was very hot and steamy inside and was the perfect lunch on a cold day.

Manhattan

We had a grand day in Manhattan.

Not a big deal, unless you have never done anything like that before.

We rode the train into Penn Station and checked out Macy's first thing.  I had to indulge in just the tiniest bit of "Martha" and bought 2 mini rubber scrapers - just perfect for the truck.

On to the Subway system to wend our way to The Museum of Natural History.  First up on the subway was a great show by 3 enterprising young men who put on quite a dancing/spinning spectacle.  Wouldn't see that in Joplin or Terlingua - for sure!

We enjoyed our navigations on the subway and actually were getting quite good at it by the time we were worn out and took the train back home.

Changing My Tune

Okay . . . 

That last post should have stated that we don't like driving around NYC in a 70' big rig.  That experience is NOT fun.

However, we hope we are going to enjoy exploring NYC with out the big rig.  We are on a layover waiting to pick up in the area on Sunday.  That leaves us with time on our hands to dive into the city and see what we can see!  We are layingover in a rest area on The New Jersey Turnpike and are armed with just enough information to hopefully find the train that will take us to The Port Authority Terminal on 8th Ave. and from there make our way to The Museum of Natural History.  That is basically our only agenda and the rest of the day will be spontaneous.  Got some good info from a blogger friend and we'll make up the rest as we go . . . 

I'll be sure to take pics and post.

Quick Post from New York

Oh how we love New York.  Especially NYC . . . (NOT NOT NOT).  We finally got moving and did a quick pick up and deliver from Atlanta to Columbia, SC.  Then jumped up the coast to Richmond, VA and plowed our way through Washington D.C., Baltimore and on up the East Coast to Queens in NYC.  

As I was sliding through D.C., I was just able to catch a quick glance of The Washington Monument shining in the twilight.  What a sweet glimpse.  That is as close as I have ever gotten - a visit is very much on my list for lifetime achievements.

So, we are getting unloaded here in Queens and turning down load offers (more about load offers in a later post) that will keep us tied up on the Eastern Seaboard for the weekend. 

Interwebbing is spotty at best, but I will get something posted as often as possible.

Thank you for your comments, always appreciate them.

Presenting . . .

When Tony and I first started driving in 2007, we would look at the FedEx Custom Critical rigs as they went by and wonder what their life might be like and how it would be different from the life of an Over The Road type company driver.

We are about to find out . . .

Mid October, we started packing up the old white '93 Taurus and started out on a 2,000 mile journey that would hopefully end in the picture you see above.  

Let me tell you . . . 

We are feeling every single one of those 2,000 miles right now - but we are about to fly off the launch pad from Atlanta, Georgia.

We hooked up with a small (3 trucks) fleet owner via the interwebs and telephone.  After working out details, we embarked on the journey to Akron, Ohio (900 miles from Joplin) to begin orientation with FedEx Custom Critical.  After stuffing our brains for 3 days, we headed down to Atlanta to pick up the truck.  Some details still needed to be ironed out and some actually needed to be steamed pressed, but after all was said and done, we are now installed in that beautiful truck and ready to go on the FedEx Custom Critical board in the morning.  

Due to some equipment issues, we will only be running as a solo right now, but we will both take turns with the driving and get some time behind the wheel of our new rig.

So . . . that is the news from this end.

Please send me comments and let me know you are there and want us to continue this blog.

STAY TUNED . . .

Maybe . . . 

Probably . . . 

Stay tuned . . . 

I've Moved . . .

I have stepped off the truck - maybe forever.

Tony and I had an original goal to get closer to the production or our food and become as self sufficient as possible.

In that vein, I have started a new blog - click here and go see what I am doing now.