God's Blessings

On the road again! We were able to spend Holy Week and Easter at home with family and friends. We were also able to get the back doors replaced and a new rear deck put on the house. I just wish we had enough time to rest from that. Ron says next time we wait a few more days so we can get caught up on the rest we needed. It didn't help that all the runs so far this week have been all-nighters. AAhhh, this, too, shall pass!

One of the best things that happened while we were home was that we got to spend time with our grandson, Caleb. He told me on the phone that I probably would not recognize him when I see him because he has gotten a whole lot taller! It's hard to believe he's 8 yrs. old already and in the 2nd grade. He thinks and talks about 15 years older. But I suppose all kids are that way. He's the biggest drawback to this job. It's been hard not having him around almost every day.

Another blessing we've received this week has been safe travels! I'm going to ask everyone to keep us in your prayers for travel mercies while we're on this job. On Wednesday we were traveling from a delivery in Anniston, Alabama, where we had already sit out a severe thunderstorm in the morning. Talk about "rockin' & rollin' "! We drove through Alabama and Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee for our next pick-up. After much hard rain, black clouds and high wind we were settling in at a truck stop for the layover time when we turned on the tv and saw the devastation that occurred a mere 2 hours (at most) after we'd driven through there. This morning we heard the death toll has reached over 200 for Alabama alone. This is the first really bad weather we've had on the road since we started in September. God's blessings and grace continue to amaze me!

We will be traveling to Illinois this weekend and then on to Arkansas the first of the week. Only the Lord knows where to after that! All we can count on is being together and taking it one day at a time. Thanks for letting me ramble. Until next time . . . . .

A Much-needed Home Rest

It's been a while since posting my last blog. We have been home for a week now and could have been enjoying it much better had the weather cooperated! But we have been able to accomplish a few things around the house.
We hired someone to build a new back porch/deck for us. We bought and arranged for installation of 2 new back doors. Arranged for lawn service while we're gone. And today Robyn and I organized the attic in preparation for a huge yard sale whenever we manage to get home again.
Since we eat out a lot on the road I decided that some genuine home cooking was in order this week. Ron has been really enjoying all the great foods. I've cooked things I haven't made in a long time and made some great desserts to go with them--pecan pie, pineapple upside down cake, ice cream. Yummy!! Maybe it's a good thing we don't get home but once in a great while :)
We also had to do a little business with the Post Office this week. Besides mailing a couple of packages we got a PO Box. With us gone for such long periods at a time we felt it safer to get a po box so we didn't have to worry about our mail. What a process! The worst part is informing EVERYONE about an address change. Took us about 2 days and I hope I haven't forgotten anyone.
We want to wish everyone a very blessed Easter. It's been wonderful to be able to attend all Holy week services at home this week. It doesn't get any better than that! And add the fact that the Easter Bunny is making several trips to our house this weekend: the doors on Saturday and the deck on Monday. Too bad we can't enjoy them much since we have to pick up a load in Ft. Wayne by 8 a.m. Monday. AAAhhhhhh, such is life. Until later . . . . .

Visitations

Greetings from a very wet Memphis! It started raining in earnest about 30 minutes ago. At least it waited until we got back to the truck stop after making our delivery. We had a load that delivered along with 2 other trucks the size of ours. We all had the same time and helped each other unload and uncrate all the freight. Talk about work! That dock was warm and very humid. It took us about 2 hours in all to complete the assignment. If you can visualize the type of hair I have, expand the volume about 3 times. Now add the curl, waves and fuzz. That's me at the moment. We have been so very fortunate being able to visit friends and family while on our many travels. Ron's sister, Donna, lives with her husband near Tampa, Fl. We have been able to visit with them twice--once before Christmas for only an hour (they brought us breakfast while we waited for a load) and again exactly two months later for a long weekend. It was wonderful to see them and spend time enjoying each other's company. The thing is that Donna was feeling a little lonely to see her brother and prayed that God would send us down there. Four hours later we called to say we had a load and were coming down. She has decided that she'll pray that every couple of months or so and see what happens! We've been to see my sister, Lori, and her husband on several occasions, including one time while my dad was there visiting on his way to Texas for the winter. Twice some friends of theirs came along to dinner. I hadn't seen them in several years and it was a great time for them to get to know Ron. (We do seem to get to their part of Arkansas a lot.) Once we had to take the truck in to be repaired and had to spend the night out of the truck. Again God seemed to be coming through. The repair shop was only about 3 miles from some friends. Bless their hearts for opening their home and offering their guest room to us, even though they were in turmoil getting ready to leave in 3 days for the Holy Land. Thanks a lot, Colleen and Randy. I'm sorry this post has taken so long to get on. I wrote the first half Monday afternoon, we got a load that had to start immediately, and have just finished the second one. We are in Norfolk, Virginia spending the night while waiting for a load at the same place we delivered this morning. We will then head to deliver in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The weather has been rainy with sun today. Lots of flooding all over the country. April needs to stop the showers! Thanks for letting me ramble. Until later . . . . .

Modern Technology

Sorry it's been a while but we have been continuously busy. Our recent runs have been start- to-finish, non-stop, all-nighters. I haven't been on the computer since Sunday. We left Arkansas, went to Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama and back to Arkansas, where we will again have dinner with my sister and her husband. This is great! In the morning we head to Texas, then Tennessee. Still hoping to get home for Easter week.

Having gotten caught up reading other blogs, I discovered that my friend Kevin was experiencing the same problem this week that I was planning to write about: GPS . Kevin, I totally sympathize! These little gems are marvelous most of the time, but don't bet the house on them.

For the first 6 months on this job we had our Qualcomm. This is the device, installed by FedEx and most other trucking firms, which allows communications between drivers and dispatchers, utilizes electronic logs instead of paper log books and has truck-routing GPS. Most of the time she is right on the money. Usually the only problem is she gets us to the front door and we have to find the loading docks on our own. Then there are the times when she gets us to the church but not the right pew! Sometimes she is on the wrong side of the street or around the block. One time we were in a rather remote area on a major interstate, following the given directions when she announced we could find our destination straight ahead--the middle of a 4-lane interstate in the middle of nowhere. We resorted to the old fashioned method of stopping and asking for directions.

A couple of months ago we brought our GPS from the car with us to use for finding local attractions: stores, movies, church, etc. This was a great help in those searches. We began to set both for loads and were being entertained by the differences in directions. Of course, we had to remember that the small one wasn't programmed for trucks. On one particular run neither one could find our destination. We ended up in the middle of the night on a country road that a truck of any size bigger than a pickup had no business being on. This was when my country upbringing came into good use. We managed to get turned around and out of there. Can you believe the road they said was correct was only a gate to a cow pasture! After this experience we bought a new GPS for trucks.

I wrote a little about this experience a while ago. Ron loves his new toy with one exception: we had to retire Samantha because her voice and attitude were much too snippy for us. We now have Tom to guide us along with the Qualcomm. His attitude is very laid back--he tells us to "slide right" or "slide left" onto the next road. His voice is pretty soothing too. Of course, I think maybe they could use Sam Elliott or James Earl Jones for the voice and I'd be more than happy to follow those directions.

One problem they both seem to occasionally have is the hiccups. By this I mean that they show us in one spot and the road off to either side and inform us that this route is not approved and to recalculate when we have been in a straight line for miles and not turned. Maybe the signal got blocked or maybe it's sunspots. Sometimes I think there are just too many streets congregated together, like in NYC, and they get confused. Who knows? But if we just keep on as we were they eventually get back on the right path, thank goodness.

Yesterday we encountered a problem that could have been potentially disastrous as far as deadlines and loads are concerned. Our Qualcomm went out. I happened to look up to see a message stating that is was shutting down. We cannot shut it down manually and it is ALWAYS on when the truck is running. Just as I was trying to figure it out the screen went totally black. I tried calling dispatch but evidently this was a system failure and everyone else was doing the same thing because I was on hold for the longest time. Before I could talk to anyone the system came back up and was restored to the exact location we were at. No explanation whatsoever. Isn't modern technology wonderful?!!!!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Until next time . . . . . .

Truck Stops

It's been another hectic week for us. We left Dallas Monday afternoon, delivered in Arkansas Tuesday morning, picked up in Mississippi Tuesday afternoon, delivered in Virginia Wednesday morning, picked up in Virginia Wednesday afternoon, delivered in Alabama Thursday morning and ended up in Arkansas Thursday evening. We did enjoy a wonderful dinner at Applebee's in El Dorado, Ar. with my sister Lori and some friends of hers. We are now spending the weekend in North Little Rock. We do have a load ready for Monday so this will be a time to catch up on some much needed rest. We are staying at the Petro truck stop. We've been here a few times and like it. There are several chain truck stops all over the country along the major interstates. TA TravelCenters also own Petro. Most of these have full service restaurants as well as convenience stores. Pilot truckstops own Flying J. Pilot has fast food restaurants while Flying J has Denny's restaurants. Love's is a stand alone chain and has fast food services. They also have convenience stores. All of these chains have showers and laundry facilities, thus making life on the road a little bit more bearable. Some have driver's lounges with cable tv and others have actual movie theatres in them. And some offer Sunday church services along with during-the-week chapel. The way most of them work is: when we buy fuel we accumulate points and showers. When we acquire 1000 points we are allowed $10 free food in the restaurants. One shower point for the driver and the co-driver is free. If you have no shower points the charge is $10 per person. They're pretty nice and are cleaned after each shower. Thank goodness!! Laundry facilities are usually $2 per load--washer and dryer. It allows us to get through another week! The convenient stores carry anything you could possibly want (for a price). Everything from pop, coffee, milk to food, clothing, office supplies, small truck parts (light bulbs, fuses, plugs,antennas), electronics (tv's, radios, gps, cb's), dvds, cd's, coolers, appliances (12 volt). The TA and Petro truckstops also have 24 hr. garage service that can come in very handy if you have some sort of breakdown. All of them have car parking as well as truck parking. All of them except Pilot have RV parking and most allow us to use the rv parking since we are a straight truck. I love that because it's usually closer to the door and facilities. Most convenient for the occasional middle of the night stroll to the facilities! If you decide to take a trip on the road you might consider using the services of truck stops. Some are set in beautiful surroundings and most are around when a stop is in order. Whether it be for gas, restroom, food or store needs. Thanks for taking the time to join me on the road. Until next time. . . .