Larry's Pizza and Hurricane Irene

We did some traveling from Texas to Arkansas and back a couple of times this week. We got to have dinner with my sister, Lori, on Tuesday and Thursday. It was great to see her again and too bad that her husband was working nights this week. Sorry, James. Lori took us to a unique pizza place on Tuesday. It's called Larry's Pizza and is a total buffet 3 days a week. What makes it unique is that they walk around with the fresh pizzas to each table and ask if you'd like a slice. They have every combination under the sun. The usuals as well as loaded baked potato, chicken alfredo, buffalo wing, taco, and they will take special orders. One little boy at the next table ordered cheese with chopped dill pickles. Too bizarre for me to taste! They also have dessert pizzas: bavarian cream, blueberry bavarian, blueberry or apple or cherry pie, and peanut butter chocolate chip. I'm sure there are more but that's all we saw or tasted. I said that this chain needs to go up north. Lori told me that the owner opened one near Detroit. My response was "Not that far north!"

I'm asking for prayers for everyone dealing with hurricane Irene. Ron and I will be traveling from Memphis to New Castle, Delaware and must be there by Monday morning. We're hoping to avoid most of the storm and that she has moved on before we get there. After that we will head back to the Midwest.

Just one more little gem before I go. Ron is trying to devise a new way of driving-in neutral! He will release the parking brake and step on the gas, going nowhere but gunning the engine. He does this at least once every couple of days. The other day we were fueling up and as we were leaving he did it again. I started laughing and told him I wish he would perfect this because if he could find a way to go uphill in neutral we could retire to the Smokies! Until next time . . . . . . . .

IT'S HOT-HOT-HOT

We are in Dallas and have been for the weekend. It is so hot here with no relief in sight. Yesterday we went to Denny's for dinner and had to park in the back 40 in the only available spot. We walked to the restaurant and had a delicious meal in the cool comfort. After eating I told Ron that he had to go get the truck and come up front to pick me up because I burned too easily and the heat felt like I was on fire even in a breeze. All I wanted to do was stay in the truck for the rest of the time. Opening the door is like having a blast furnace in your face.

We are picking up a load this evening and heading out for a morning delivery in Houston. Hopefully we will be getting out of this "oven" and heading for someplace cooler soon. This kind of heat can certainly make a person lazy!

We did our usual socializing Saturday at Walmart. What a crowd! Then I discovered that Texas, as well as a few other states, offers TAX-FREE back to school sales. No wonder there were people everywhere. It's too bad that Indiana doesn't offer such a thing. They offer no sales tax on school supplies as well as school clothing for a limited time. Texas has a 3-day weekend and Ron told me that Florida holds the sale for a week. How wonderful for the working class and single parents.

We watched a delightful movie on Saturday night on the gmc channel(gospel music channel). The movie title is "Trinity Goodheart". It's a story of broken families trying to be brought together by a young girl. It was sponsored by Focus on the Family and was just a touching story that we highly recommend. Since we're still sharing this computer I better close and let Ron have his turn. Until next time . . . . . . . .

Vacation's Over

I know I've been a little lax on this blog lately. It's not because I've forgotten, it's just that we have been so busy while we've been off this week. The testing on the truck box was very enlightening (our first time) and also a success. Yay! What a proceedure! First you start the reefer at 3 p.m. and leave, come back at 9 a.m. the next morning, adjust the settings and leave, come back at 11 p.m. that night, adjust the settings again and leave, come back at 1 p.m. the next afternoon, shut everything down, remove the equipment and you are done. That's the first part. Now we get a temp-controlled run over 6 hours long and run one more test and we are cleared for the next 18 months. At that point we start all over again with it. Fun, huh?
After we finished in Ohio that Friday we came home for a week. It was time to check out a few things. We had our garage torn down and a new slab poured for a carport. We lost our only tree during one of the great storms of the summer. The place sure doesn't look the same. I almost drove past it coming from the store. It's amazing how much we depend on our landmarks to locate places. Besides a quick trip to the doctor we had the contractor over to discuss the finishing of the driveway, the landscaper came to make plans when the driveway is done, and we had a roofer over for an estimate. Oh, the joys of being a homeowner!!
We spent the weekend in Lafayette for a family gathering at an aunt's house. All six children from my dad's family were there, along with spouses, some of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Two days of fun and craziness. There is always a theme (this year was wild, wild west), a talent show, and tons of great food. That's just Saturday, on Sunday there is more great food and loads of silliness, usually by the adults. Aunt Doris kept repeating "We are just a normal family!" NOT !! Normal is boring. We had a wonderful time and came home exhausted without even trying. Now we're waiting to hear from dispatch for our next load because it's time to get back to work. The truck is loaded and time is awastin'. So until next time . . . . . .

New Experiences

Hi everyone, we are in Uniontown, Ohio for the second night while the truck undergoes a routine testing for the refrigeration box. The only drawback is that periodically we have to go back to it and reset the temps. This started Wednesday at 3 p.m., we had to change it at 9 a.m. this morning, and Ron is going at 11 p.m tonight for the last change. Tomorrow we shut it off at 1 p.m. and turn in our paperwork. Hopefully everything will be in order. After that we are heading for home for about 10 days. Yea! This is the second night in a motel with a real bed and room to move around, not to mention a daily shower! And we are driving a Kia Sedona minivan as our rental. I'm not sure I feel right about driving around in a regular vehicle!

I had to have my DOT physical today. This is something I have to do every year to keep my CDL license valid. Lucky Ron only has to do it every two years. Ah, well! I went to a clinic this morning and ended up taking a nap there. Because it was a different place and doctor my blood pressure was a little elevated so after the exam they had me lay back and shut the lights down. In a while all was well again and the bp was back to normal. In the meantime Ron was about to send in the cavalry to look for me.

The weather has been a bit milder the last couple of days and I, for one, am truly grateful! It's been partly cloudy and dry here in Ohio. This is good here because we are battling traffic from the World Golf Championship here. We were just lucky to get a room because out of 6 motels I called only Super 8 had two nights available. Someone was looking out for us. Until next time . . . . . . . .