It was late and I was tired!!!!!

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Okay, I forgot Alaska.  We have not been to Alaska.  It would seem that I have managed to block Alaska from my mind since all the election hoop-a-la.  I understand you can see Russia from there and that made me nervous!

Thanks to those of you who e-mailed and commented.  I will respond quickly.  I'm glad to know you were reading all along and I just didn't know it.

WELCOME BACK

It has been a full year since Tony and I finished our training and started out together in our own truck.  I used to send out a group e-mail to an assortment of friends an family.  From the response I got, everyone seemed to like that.  When I switched to writing a blog, lots of folks didn't make the switch with us.  

To celebrate our first anniversary, I sent out a final group e-mail and invited everyone to come and visit us here.  

So, welcome to all who came back. Go through the archives (there aren't that many posts) if you are curious about where we have been this last year.  Otherwise, just start here and go forward.  And please drop me an e-mail or leave a comment and let me know you were here. 

 I missed communicating with you!

 Oh yea . . . we have managed to make it to 45 states (haven't been to Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and of course Hawaii) and 2 Canadian Provinces (British Columbia and Toronto).  Not bad for 12 months! 

Miles for 2008

My dad kept a running tally of the miles we traveled last year. 

Here is what we did:

January 15,439

February 19,516

March 20,921

April 17,900

May 17,110

June 15,990

July 21,075

August 21,722

September 15,291

October 21,571

November 17,394

December 17,258

Listen to this . . .

When I drive, I have 11 to 12 hours to listen to the radio.  We have XM in the truck, but even the gazillion channels on it get stale after awhile.  My iPod provides a nice change.  We have a transmitter that sends it to the radio and it plays through the speakers.  

I listen to my own "Groove" Playlist.

(I'll share the goofiness of my playlist in another post)

 

I also listen to podcasts.  

They are one of the newest things to hit the web, and one of my favorites.

If you do any amount of driving, dishwashing, gardening, walking, waiting around, then podcasts could be for you.  You don't even need an iPod.  Any mp3 player will work.  I think there are some relatively inexpensive ones out now.  You could also download to your computer and burn discs.  I did that before we got our iPods. 

 iTunes is a great way to find out about podcasts.  All of mine come from the iTunes store, but there are lots of others out there too.  I just find so many on iTunes that I'll never listen my way through all of them!

So, here is a list of my favorite podcasts along with a brief description:

(Hang on a sec while I hunt down my iPod)

A Way With Words - this one is all about the usage, origin and pronunciation or words.  Very entertaining, actually.

The Splendid Table - mmmmmm, this one is about food.  Can you tell that I am a foodie?

The Story - This is done by American Public Media and is hosted by Dick Gordon.  This may be my favorite podcast.  I think he does one each day.  They are always timely and usually I learn a new way of looking at something.  Even if I don't think I'll be interested in an episode from the title, I have learned to just listen anyway.  I am almost always glad that I did.  If you don't try any of these other titles, try this one.

Travel With Rick Steves - This is probably my other favorite.  I don't do much travel outside of the United States, but Rick Steves takes me to the most wonderful far flung places.

Backstory - With the American History Guys - This is really a great podcast.  These guys take a current hot topic and spin it through the last 3 centuries of American History.  

I have a bunch of other podcasts, but these are my favorites.  These are the ones that I look forward to listening to.

Do Not Call List

In February, cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketing companies.  You might start to receive calls AND you will be charged for the calls.

To prevent this, call the following number FROM YOUR CELL PHONE:  888-382-1222.  This is the National Do Not Call list.  It will block your numbers for five years.  Remember, you must call from the cell phone that you wish to have blocked.  

I just did this and it doesn't take too long.  

I think it is well worth it!

The Whirl Wind of our Days

note:  I tried really hard to make this neat and orderly.  I apparently don't know the super secret undercover password, because I can't get it to line up when it makes the transition from the composition to the published form.  Please try and read though - it is a pretty good look at the whirlwind of our days.

I love my job.

No, really, I LOVE my job.

We are in Alabama headed to North Carolina and the weather is wonderful.  In fact, life at the moment is wonderful.

I know I sound PollyAnna'ish, but I can't help it!

I'm going to open my logbook and write down the names of the places that I have logged so far in just 2009.  I think we'll be surprised and amazed.

Here we go:

1/1 Little America, WY (really nice truckstop with a very nice hotel/restaurant). Ended the day in Oregon. 450 miles (these are just my miles, not Tony's)

1/2 Portland, OR over to Aurora, OR where we stopped.  149 miles

1/3 Took over at Canyonville, OR after a lovely lunch of Duck and Spinach Salad.   Cruised through the Cascade Mts. and over Mt. Shasta on into California.  421 miles

1/4 Tony took us on through to Phoenix where we stopped for the day/night.  Ate great Mediterranean food, discovered Trader Joe's and found a neat re-sale shop.

1/5 still in Phoenix

1/6 Cline's Corner, NM (just East of Albuquerque).  Drove through Texas and on through Oklahoma City and ended up somewhere West of Tulsa.  659 miles.

1/7 Richmond, IN through Ohio and on into Pennsylvania. 502 miles

1/8 Still in Pennsylvania, but headed West now, back through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and ended the night at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in Walcott, IA.  I remember it was snowing really hard this night. 615 miles

1/9 Big Springs, Nebraska (still blowing and snowing) across the Great Plains through to Kimball, NE where I had to stop for 2 hours and wait for the wind to die down at sunset so I could make the run across Cheyenne, Wyoming and on to Laramie where I fueled and caught my breath.  There were some scary moments on this run.  Ended the shift in Echo, WY at 539 miles.

1/10 Tony took us into Utah ( I think it was Salt Lake Cit), but I got to take back over in Evanston, WY where I drove back into the wind again.  Stopped at a rest area on the Continental Divide and thought the truck was going to blow over.  It was so windy (60+ mph) that the wind blew me into the bathroom.  Had a hard time negotiating the ice/snow piled up with the wind throwing me around! Finished the night in Gothenburg, Nebraska with 611 miles.

1/11 Rest Area in Illinois - took us down to Rantoul, IL where I docked and we spent the night waiting for an unload the next morning.  Snowing ALOT! 165 miles.

1/12 We were tucked in at a Con-Way terminal in LaSalle, IL.  A great blow of a snow storm blew through.

1/13 Tony broke us out of the snow in Illinois, and I took over in Joplin, MO as we head South.  Yea - great weather and wonderful driving.  370 miles ending in our terminal just south of Dallas - Lancaster, TX.

1/14 Tony took us down to Laredo, TX (another terminal) and we stopped and shopped.  I picked up our load and headed us back up I-35 to the Lancaster, TX terminal.  415 miles.

1/15 Took over in Newton, Kansas headed up to Denver.  Got there and docked to be unloaded at midnight.  490 miles.

1/16 We are headed over the Rockies to California.  Yipeee.  I took over about half way through the Rockies in Colorado and took us down to St. George, Utah.   440 miles

1/17 Spent the afternoon in Las Vegas where we got to see a movie (Gran Torino - wonderful) and have a nice Sunday Buffet at a casino.  I left Las Vegas late in the evening and took us down to Four Corners, CA (just West of Barstow).  195 miles

1/18 Tony took us into Kettleman City, CA where we dropped and hooked and headed out for LA.  We stopped there waiting for our load the next morning - I got a day off!  We snuck off to Trader Joe's again and then spent some down time watching videos and tv.

1/20 Tony took us out of LA and into Arizona.  I took over in Eloy, AZ and drove through New Mexico and down to Marfa, Texas.  558 miles

1/21 Tony drove us from Marfa to Laredo where we dropped and hooked (got a little shopping done). I took us out 1-35 then 1-10 headed East through Houston and on toward Louisiana. 400 miles.

1/22 We are now somewhere in Alabama ( just South of Montgomery I believe) and will head up around Atlanta and on to Marion, North Carolina tonight.

Is your head spinning?  Did you even make it through all of that?  That would explain why when I talk to some of you on the phone, I don't actually know where I am, where I am going, or where I have been.  

It all becomes a blur!  

But what a great blur it is!!!!!!!

The Yawning Chasm of Death

Each time we go through Joplin, Missouri we are asked to take our truck and trailer through the "INSPECTION BAY'.  I could say that we had never sailed through Joplin on I-44 waving merrily at the Glass House (that's what we call our HQ . . . cuz its a big building with alot of glass), but that would be a lie.  Sometimes we are just too tight on time to be able to stop.

In addition to taking the rig through the Inspection Bay, we also take on fuel and if we really have time to waste/spare, we get the truck washed.

When you pull up to the INSPECTION BAY, the doors are shut and you have no idea what lies behind them.  I can tell you this, because my trainer (Chris) deliberately did NOT mention what was behind those doors.  The first time he and I made it back through Joplin, I pulled up and stopped at the little stop sign outside the bay.  Then the door opened and I saw this:

OMG

OMG

OMG

Luckily, one of the guys saw the look of stark terror on my face and walked to the top of that yawning chasm waiting to swallow my truck and started waving to guide me in.

I have to tell you that I almost passed out with fright.  Seriously.  I know I turned white (Chris regaled me with these details later) and had such a death grip on the steering wheel that my hands hurt for days.  I had to go on manual override of my flight or fight response and take over control of breathing in order to stay conscious.

So . . . I start inching forward - left foot jamming the clutch into the floorboard, right foot not wanting to come off the brake, right hand sweating on the gear shift trying to find the safest gear (there isn't one) and left hand steering into the Valley of Certain Death and Mayhem (at the very least the end of my trucking career).  Here I go . . .

Yes, they really do expect a professional driver to be able to do this.  You can't see it, but there is about a 1" curb on the inside of each of the lanes.  That is all.  In some shops, there isn't any curb.  NONE.  The outside curb is about 2".  I think there is about 2-3" of wiggle room on this whole maneuver.  I'm sure some GUY (Tony) would tell you there is lots more, but on that first time, there wasn't . . . I swear . . . they made them larger with more room to move after I went through  . . . yeah, that's the way it was!!!!!

This is what we look like after we are all the way in.  It is nice to take a break while they inspect and / or repair the truck and trailer.  Our shop does a really good job.  It takes 10 - 15 minutes and then . . . you have to drive on out.   Over the yawning chasm of death.  Surprisingly, it is much easier to do if you aren't looking at it.  On the way out, there are just yellow lines painted on the cement that you need to stay inside of.  That is really easy if you remember to breath and stuff.

I do it easily now.

Leo even likes to watch now as we go in.