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 . . . . . . . .

A Weekend of Much-Needed R & R

We are back in Indiana for a 3-day weekend but not close enough to go home. We're in Evansville waiting for a pickup on Tuesday morning. That load will take us near Columbus, Ohio which is a good thing because we need to be in Green, Oh. on Wednesday morning so the truck can undergo a routine test on the reefer box. As soon as the testing is done we are going home for a much needed rest until after a family reunion in Lafayette the following weekend.

I want to wish my dad a belated 80th birthday. It was yesterday and we didn't stop the truck until after 10:00 to eat dinner and get to bed. I did talk to him on the phone at least. Happy Birthday, Dad. We love you.

This has been a very tiring week, physically and emotionally. We have had to try to keep in the midwest area because of the testing next week. Consequently we've had a bunch of little short runs that will run a person ragged. The hot, humid weather isn't helping much. The rain only makes it more humid and when I open the truck door it feels like a blast furnace. Ron says it's been storming during the night a couple of times but I never heard a thing. Either he's dreaming it or I'm doing my best sleeping through it all. :)

I have a few more things to take care of on the computer so I better get busy. Ron likes to have his turn on it once in a while. We are seriously considering buying a notebook so he can do his thing at the same time as me. If he's playing a game or surfing I could wait for hours for him to finish so I get a chance. So, until next time . . . . . .

47 Out of 48

We have made it to Vermont, making it 47 of the continental 48 states. Maine is still out there just waiting for us. On the way to our pick up we were guided by Tom (gps) and brought to a ferry crossing to get from New York to Vermont. We were a little skeptical but willing to give it a try. We paid our fare and drove onto the ferry along with about a dozen cars. We happened to make it to the last crossing of the day. The ride was smooth, water like glass and the sun was setting behind us. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL !!! We didn't come back the same way. Darn!

In my last blog I mentioned how busy we were the previous week. I did some calculations and discovered we had logged over 6,000 miles in one week. No wonder we were so exhausted. This week was a little slower but not much. We are now spending the weekend in Bordentown, New Jersey. We do have a load out of Philadelphia Monday morning that will bring us to Columbus, Ohio.

I don't know about you but I am tired of all the heat. No matter where we go, north-south-east-west there is nothing but hot, hot, hot! We had a nasty thunderstorm yesterday afternoon that made no difference in themperature or humidity. The wind did a little rock-n-roll number with the truck which was a welcome to our naptime since we had been driving all night before.

P.S. The rest areas in Vermont shut down after dark and don't open until after sun up. We learned that lesson the hard way. Fortunately we found a small 24 hr. truck stop not too long after and spent the night there. Until next time . . . . . . . . .

TGIF

Thank Goodness It's Friday !!!! It has been an even crazier week than last week and I didn't think that was possible. We left California last Friday evening, arrived in New Jersey Monday morning, picked up in Pennsylvania, then to Tennessee, on to Alabama, then Georgia and delivered today in Upstate New York. It had to be well over 5,000 miles just this week. Whew !

And to top it all off, Ron caught a terrible cold. Summer colds are the worst and his is no exception. He's been doctoring with everything and we have the next 2 days off because we ran out of weekly hours (We each started with 70 and now have 5 & 10 respectively so must be off over 34 straight hours to reset) so maybe he can get caught up on some much needed rest. One thing that is helping is something I read in an email. I made him rub Vicks VapoRub on the soles of his feet. I read that it stops coughing at night. Guess What---IT REALLY WORKS !!!!!!

I must tell you about the latest "Tom, the GPS Guy" episode. Yesterday morning as we were going to our pick up, a load of weapons, and were following Tom's directions and thought he led us astray. I checked the Qualcomm in the truck and the local directions from our dispatch was exactly the same as Tom's. Let me just say that in the middle of Farmer's Market the only weapons were rotten fruit and veggies! After asking directions from Market security we finally made it to our pickup about 20 miles later. It seems the street we needed stops and picks up quite a distance away. Always a learning experience! Until next time . . . . . . .