A New Feature

I have added a new feature that might or might not work like I hope it will.  Over to the right, you will see a new thingy that says SUBSCRIBE.   Many of my readers have hinted/asked for me to "just let me know when you post a new blog entry".  Now, if you can just jump through the required hoops, you can subscribe to this blog and you will assumedly be notified when I post something new.

If someone tries this, please either leave a comment or send me an e-mail and let me know if it works.

In the meantime, please send healing thoughts and prayers  out for our dear Janet as she is recovering from double aneurysms, surgery and now a series of strokes.  Last word from Charlotte, who is with Janet in Dallas, is that her condition is improving by the hour.

Our Version of Black Friday

What a wonderful day in Atlanta on Friday.  

We thought that most folks would be shopping since it is Black Friday, but they were all at the Georgia Aquarium and The CocaCola Center instead!  

Tony and I agreed that the  people watching was equally as fun as the paid attractions.

We thought LA was the most diverse place that we had ever been - our day in Atlanta proved that wrong. 

We saw every race and culture that we could think of and in large numbers too.

We saw saris and long flowing jilbab, head scarves of a dozen varieties, cowboy hats, baseball caps and even a yarmulke on a young boy.  

I think even better than the variety was the way that they were mixed up.  

Hardly any multigenerational large family group was "pure". 

The weather was just overcast enough to be cool and spirits were high. 

The Georgia Aquarium is located smack in the middle of downtown Atlanta and easy to get to.  It is the world's largest fresh water aquarium and was absolutely incredible.  There were a variety of different sections to explore and lots of places to sit and just watch the marine life on display.  We were captivated by the whale sharks (largest fish on earth!).  This aquarium has 4 and at 23', they are only half grown.  One of the coolest things they do at this park is have several places where the fish are swimming over your head - it is really cool to be underneath a giant catfish as it cruises along the bottom of the tank.  Lots of sharks and rays as well as a myriad of unbelievably brilliant tropical fish.

My favorites are always the otters and there were 2 different kinds here.  We were able to stand and watch them as long as we wanted.

  

The CocaCola Center was really interesting too.  Basically, it was a giant advertisement for Coke.  John Pemberton invented CocaCola in Columbia, Georgia and eventually the company moved headquarters to Atlanta.  Inside the center were lots of great Coke memorabilia, CocaCola art, fun facts about this giant beverage company and tastings of Coke products marketed around the world.

This is a beaded bottle that was probably 7' tall. 

The photo doesn't even come close to showing the brilliance of the beads, but you can get the idea.

 There were several of these done in different mediums as the entry piece to the Center.

Our favorite part was the tasting room where we got to try about some of the soda and juices that are marketed in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa.  

My favorite was called Kinley Bitter Lemon (much drier than Sprite) and Tony's was Inca Kola which tasted like a banana soda.

  

After these 2 tourist attractions, it was definitely time for adult beverages and food

Several locals pointed us to Luckies.  

We were most assuredly "lucky" on this one!

We started off with some delicious Lump Crab Cakes with Green Apple-Mango Salsa.  and I had a glass of Menage A Trois Rose to go with it.  

Nice enough wine, so I had another!  

For an entree, it was a toss-up between the Fish Tacos (grilled Chilean Sea Bass with Jicama/Roasted Poblano Slaw) and the Crispy 1/2 Duck with Sweet Potato Hash, Medjool dates, and Asparagus.

As you can see, the Duck won.  Well, really. . .  we won cuz it was so good!  Tony thinks he doesn't like duck, but he loved this.  

I asked for the dessert menu and ordered the Berries-n-Cream Napoleon. 

 Mmmmm

The waiter came to tell me that they didn't have any.  

No one ever orders it (third item on the dessert menu and there isn't any?).  

Okay, I'll have the White Chocolate and Strawberry Panna Cotta.

(Second item on the dessert menu)

What?  None of that either ?

I finally ended up with a less than stellar piece of layered cake with strawberries and whipped cream.  

I can't really call it Strawberry Shortcake (even though they did), but it ended the meal on a sweet note

All in all, it was a wonderful day.

Today is a rare treat for us as well, another day spent puttering in the truck and napping.

Ahhhhhhh - what a nice weekend.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

(excuse the truck butts please...)

We are parked outside of Birmingham, Alabama. 

WE ARE THANKFUL FOR SO MUCH!

Shopping Cart Nightmare

I am learning how to do different things with the blog. 

 Below is my first attempt at embedding a video.

Somehow, I'm not able to center the clip, but I think it will do for now.

  

This quick clip is truly a truck driver nightmare.  

You can bet that I will always double check that the shipper has secured the load before pulling from the dock to close my doors.

That might seem simplistic, but actually, its not.

Often, we back into a dock that has a red/green light visible to the driver in their side mirror.

After the driver backs in and sets the trailer brakes, a mechanical "grabber" reaches out from the dock and basically secures the trailer to the loading dock so that a "brow" can be deployed to bridge the gap between trailer and dock.  At this point, the light will turn RED indicating that the driver cannot move the truck/trailer away from the dock.  The "brow" enables the forklifts to whiz in and out of the trailer either loading or unloading.  

As you can see by the black outline around the opening there at the dock in the video, the trailer has backed up INTO a sleeve that seals the trailer to the loading dock.  

In other words, the driver can't actually see into the dock to either make sure that the load has been secured or communicate with the dock hands.

Ideally, when the loading is finished and the load has been secured, the  "brow" will be  lifted and the light will turn GREEN.  Upon seeing a green light, the driver pulls away from the dock and adjacent trailers to be able to close and lock the doors of the trailer.

I laughed until I cried last night when I saw this.

We are Palm Springs, CA hanging out waiting to pick up a load in Blythe, CA and head out with it to Charlotte, NC.  The timing is REALLY loose on this particular run, so we are going to do some exploring along the way.

There is a hot springs in Tonapah, AZ and I would love to figure out how to visit the Aquarium in Atlanta.  We  might even get to check out some real estate in the Smokies of North Carolina as well.

I'll take pictures!

Mmmm. . . doughnuts with sprinkles!

I had a craving for doughnuts last night.

We deadheaded (drug an empty trailer) from Albuquerque  down to El Paso.

Once in El Paso, I had some time on my hands,

so I decided to whip up a batch of doughnuts.

I have NEVER allowed myself to have a chocolate doughnut with sprinkles

and I have wanted one all my life.

Why do we deny ourselves things like that?

Anyway . . . now I have one.  

I also wanted one with pink icing . . .  got one of those now too.

We are off to pick up a load here in El Paso and head up to our terminal

in West Memphis, Arkansas with it.

The terminal there is nice and has really soft water.

We especially like to shower and do laundry there.

Our HQ in Joplin

This is the company headquarters for Con-Way Truckload

located in Joplin, MO.

We have our main repair facilities there: tractor, body, tire and trailer.

We can also wash the truck, laundry and ourselves at this terminal.

All company support personnel are here as well as Operations/Dispatch.

We keep our car here and have a mail drop in Joplin.

When we arrive at the terminal, our truck and trailer

have to go through a pretty thorough inspection.

As we pull up to the inspection bay, we are greeted with this sign,

It scrolls too fast to get the whole thing, but basically

welcomes us home by name and tractor number.

Pretty nifty - makes us feel warm and fuzzy!

We just made a drop in Albuquerque and are waiting to see where we go next,

The "not knowing" is one of the more interesting aspects of our job -

we could head out to anywhere in the country or even Canada.

Lush Autumn Colors and some Lush Music

Isn't this beautiful?

I'd love to tell you that I snapped this picture 

as we came through the Poconos this morning.  

Actually, I took it when we were in Detroit recently.

You didn't know that there was such loveliness in Detroit these days. . .

did you?

I am amazed every day by the incredible beauty of this country.

I even like it at night.

Except, of course, 

when we are trying to find our way on crowded interstates!

I am going to really try to get more photos up on here - you can't imagine what wonderful things we encounter

And for your listening pleasure. 

I came upon the amazing talent of Victoria Vox recently 

and would encourage to give her a listen .  

Did you smile?

I did.