Finally Here

Our new truck finally arrived. We cannot believe it. It's been a long time coming. The load box is only 20 feet so we will be hauling small expedited freight. I think it's lovely.

I like all the storage boxes. You cannot have enough storage. These trucks are designed to haul for FEMA and the Military. They are self-contained. In other words, we have a fridge, freezer, cooking ability, microwave, potty and shower along with a generator to tun everything. Also it comes with satellite TC with a flat screen. These trucks don't come easy as Tc and I have had to pay our dues. These trucks cost over 150,000 dollars so the owner really has to trust the driver.

Looking from the back forward. And yes, those are hard wood floors. We can't wait until we can make this truck ours with our stuff. I think TC is going with a country look.

A sink with hot water. Even a window above the sink

Looking back from the cab. The table turns into the bed at night.

Yea, that's right a toilet and a shower...

A great Trip

Just thought I would put a pic of the truck our boss let us borrow for the weekend and this week. He is bringing our big truck on Wednesday and taking his pick up back to Detroit. Great truck, but with the HEMI engine, the gas mileage sucked. Thanks again Jim.

Hello Chicago, here we come

What the heck is that. Stop looking at me you mean looking thing. Oh, that's just a gargoyle

Can you even think of how much it cost to stay here, "Think I'll pass"

Of course that is Soldier field. I love seeing how these cities place these large stadiums in the inner part of the city.

Sure enough, we saw the horse drawn carriages. Pretty cool

We were pretty overwhelmed by being downtown Chicago. TC loved it.

What a Time

We made it to Rockford. Monday was a great day. We started out and went downtown Chicago. The parks and beaches was really nice along with the downtown area. TC really liked it, I on the other hand was glad to be leaving. I think TC could tell I'd had my fill. What is crazy is about an hour outside of town(not counting traffic backups) it turns back to farms and country. Anyway, it was neat to see. We start our classes with Landstar this morning. They are extremely boring but necessary. A big Thanks goes out to our truck owners who are given us the opportunity. This was a great weekend and a time of decompression. Thanks Jim for your pick up as we did clean it up for you.

Our Memorial Tribute

Located in St. Joesph Michigan a wonderful memorial to those who have served and fallen.

Just had to add this memorial to fallen fireman. This is right in the middle of town in South Haven Michigan.

Enjoying Nature

We came across the Baily Homestead. We took the 1.3 mile walking tour. It was a great hike through the woods. We came across a doe. You have to look in the middle of the pic to see it just under the bushes. Later we saw several more. This was a great day and we were wore out. We stopped just outside Gary Indiana. The guy we work for let us borrow his pick up to enjoy this weekend and we are on the way to Rockport Ill for orientation at Landstar.

This was where he traded furs and pelts.

This was his home. To the right was the road where he would trade with the Indians.

The view behind me was incredible. Who would have ever thought something like this in Indiana.

From the Top of Mt. Baldy looking at the beach of Lake Michigan

From the top of Mt Baldy looking back.

On Saturday we left Michigan and entered Indiana, to what is called the National lakeshore Dunes.. Here we stopped at Mt. Baldy. These trees are very tall and the dunes are 126 feet and according to them they move four feet each year. I never knew this about Indiana

A Mini-Vacation

From our front door looking out. This place is about a mile from south Haven. Absolutely Gorgeous

Inside view of our room

Lower middle room was ours. It was awesome.

We were just riding and we asked God, please lead us to the right place...This was it.

Ok, so we left Detroit and made it to Jackson Michigan for the night on Friday. We had a wonderful meal. On Saturday we went up North on the western Michigan coast. Lake Michigan was beautiful. We stopped at a place called South Haven, a little beach town.

Catching up on some Pics

Our four legged kids. Benji has always been good to Smudges.

One Last shot of our days at Fed EX Custom Critical

Fort Wayne Assembly Plant(GM) No Camera's allowed, but we were able to grab this shot. All I would need is the body. This will one day be a Chevy or GMC 1/2 Ton Pickup.

"The gorge" I-40 from Tennesee to North Carolina

Following the covered Wagon through Kentucky

Hello Jesus, taken from I-75 near Lexington KY

Coming in to West Virginia

Trucking through Cinncinatti Ohio

One more shot of the "Lady"

TC Captured this picture on our last trip to NYC.

Wave Old Glory Wave...with New York in the background.

Very busy week

This week has been crazy. Monday evening we got the call to change companies, so we took the dogs to our daughters, picked up a load Tuesday in Morganton NC and headed for Kalamazoo Michigan. After delivering Wednesday morning, we picked up a load in fort Wayne In at the GM plant. It was cool because I got to see the actual assembly line for the Chevy and GMC 1/2 ton truck. We swapped this load off at the Detroiter truckstop near Detroit Michigan because this load was going to Canada. After that we met our owners right next door and we spent all day Thursday with them. Lots of paperwork for Landstar. Today we are turning in our Fed EX equipment and cleaning out the truck. While the same people own this truck that owns the one we are going in to, we are still cleaning this thing so it will be better than we got it. It's just the way we roll. We spent time going over our new truck yesterday with the owner. Lots of things to know. I can't wait to post some pics of it. It has a shower, toilet, satellite TV, and all kinds of extras. We will leave Detroit sometime Saturday and take a few days off. We are planning on going over to the West side of Michigan and seeing the beaches. We are to be in Rockford Ill on Tuesday and stay there through Thursday. Must run for now, stay safe. Busy as a bee

The Lord's Day....

Wow-Saturday wore us out. We took our camper up to Tom Johnson's RV
Center in Marion NC to see about trading it in, but of course they wanted us to just give it to them. That's coll, as we will just sit it out in the front yard and sell it ourselves. We did find several campers that we liked. Here is the deal....Because we are only home maybe twice a month and then for only a couple of days, living in my grandparents is just too much. The up keep falls on my parents and they travel a bit too, so we are going to do something. We looked at building a small cabin, but time prevents that right now or at least the lack of it. Tc agreed that we will just a larger camper and put it beside my parents house and perhaps add a nice deck or perhaps a Florida room. The point is to minimize our responsibilities while we are home so we can relax and visit friends and family more. That's the idea so we will see how long that takes. There is one thing that we thought about yesterday that is of the most importance. We must trust God with all our endeavours. Some of you may know that I am a former pastor and i know that God is not done with me, but I cannot see my filling that role again. God has been so good and we want to serve him and we hope that He makes it clear soon what He wants us to do.
We are going to the house church this morning we use to attend to see some great friends and then picking up Chad so he can spend the night with us. We will be leaving again sometime Monday we think. About two more weeks b4 we make the change to Landstar. So, its off for a great Lord's Day and i hope the Lord blesses everyone with an awesome day...

This weeks has been very good. We laid over in Lexington KY(Great Horse farms as you may know) and accomplished a great deal. We mailed off our applications to Landstar. This the company the people we work for are going to be sending us. the money seems to be better, plus the large truck is already leased on there. That should happen in a week or so. After picking up in Louisville KY we left around 10"00 AM Wednesday morning and arrived in Queens NY around 2:00 AM Thursday morning. After sleeping a few hours we unloaded and headed for Trenton New Jersey. On the way, we were dispatched to Phili PA and picked up another Haz Mat load headed for Praise God Georgia. We could have not ask for better. These Haz Mat loads pay more so just the two loads this week paid enough, so after unloading in Atlanta this morning, we just put it in the wind for the house. You see good week. We left on Monday and back home on Friday. Good miles and Good money.

Our load delivered to Lexington KY ans we will load later at Loiusville KY and deliver some Haz Mat to guess where.....New York city...again. Man, we cannot get away from that place. See ya

Some Pics from Mothers Day

After all these years things really don't change much. They just get bigger.

Our Canadian Brother in law clever picture angles.

That's good mama loving

Daddy's two girls

A Happy Mom with both of her kids.

A great weekend home. We are picking up a load in Anderson SC headed for Canada, but we are not allowed to go there yet, so we are dropping it off in Toledo Ohio, where we just left from. Funny how things work. Post again in a few days. God bless and stay safe

Happy Mothers Day

It's Sunday morning and I thought I would just check in with a short note. Hometime is nice but it comes with tons on the to do list. it takes about 4 hours to cut the grass and that's without trimming. I sprayed the heck out of weedkiller b4 I left. Mom and Dad are trying to keep it up but I think I am going to hire someone to do it. Anyway, we went and looked at the cabin that could be built on Dad's land. We are not sure what to do, so for now we are going to hold off. We are only home a few days a month and it don't make sense to tie up that money for something we will not have time to finish. My thoughts are those Mothers who cannot see their sons and daughters because they are overseas serving our country and those who have lost children. God's blessing to them. For the rest of us, lets enjoy our time together today. God bless everyone....

Back Home

We rolled the dice and came up short. I guess the upper Ohio area was sort of slow, so we didn't get anything out. TC was feeling poorly so we decided on Wednesday night to start heading south. I stopped near Lexington KY for some rest and the possible load, but no such luck. WE just woke up around 4 am and headed home. With current fuel prices it cost us about 250 dollars to come home empty but, we were ready. After all it's just money and they make it new every day, right? Where can we get some of that? Anyway, we had a wonderful supper with my parents and are looking forward to a great Mother's Day weekend. We plan on heading out again on Monday. We have much to do; running around, looking at a cabin, cleaning out Daddy's barn and just some fun stuff. I hope and pray that everyone has a great weekend. More later, stay safe.

PS, Please don't get the wrong idea, I love trucking, it's just I want to bring a total look from all sides. God Bless!

Random Thoughts

This is our daughter whome we are very proud of. We had stopped their house in Brevard NC to visit and Christie was checking out the top bunk.

Trucking today has changed. Not to mention the nicer things in the trucks themselves, here is an example....This is called Idle-Aire. You pull into the parking spot and hook the yellow hose into your window. The services included are cable, telephone, air and heat. Many states do not allow you to idle your truck anymore, in fact some states the fine is pretty hefty for doing so. I guess so many trucks idling can be harmful to the ozone. I guess they can think of some way to attach yellow hoses to all the ones who sit on the freeways each day. It's amazing that the ones who come up with these laws probably do not take public transportation. Just another example of hypocrisy. Notice not too many trucks do it because it cost about a dollar and fifty cents per hour.

I was just thinking.....

I was just sitting here tonight thinking on some things. I was looking around the truck stop and watching trucks come in and out. Sometimes this is a tough life. Most drivers do not have their wife with them so they say out here for two or more weeks at a time. It's the only way for some to make decent wages. At times there is nothing like it. To got to bed in a different location than you woke up, that is cool. But, at other times it seems almost unbearable. The same food, and junk that comes with trucks. They are for the most part large, loud and long. Most folks do not want us to come in their parking lot so we have to go truck stops and there they charge sometimes double for what you need. I am not complaining, but more I think considering the ones who really have it tough out here. The Hours of Service suck, the DOT is always hounding, although it is their job, and everyone from the shipper to the consignee dumps on the driver. Why pay for someone to unload you when you can get the driver to do it for free sometimes. Oh well enough about that. I saw a sign one time that said, "If you got it, a truck brought it". That is true. God bless all the truckers out there.

Tuesday,Waiting

So, after spending the day at the Ohio Turnpike Service Plaza, we made our Monday morning delivery. Pfizer drug company was much nicer to deal with than GlaxoSmithclinuree. Sure they had security as well, but everyone was very nice, a pleasure to deal with. After that, we picked up another load of GE appliances just outside Chicago and made a delivery Tuesday morning in Cleveland Ohio and a second drop in Toledo. That's where we are now, Toledo waiting on another load. This is where we have to decide. We are probably second in line now for a load, but tomorrow is Wednesday. We must start working our way toward NC. The question, when do we start heading south for Mothers Day. It would be great to get a load gong that way, but expediting does not work that way necessarily. Anyway, we have rested, did some personal things and just waiting. One thing is for sure, we will be in NC by the weekend, even if we have to just do it at our cost. Also, while we were waiting I went inside the Petro Truck Stop and watched, "Man Of The year" with Robin Williams. It was pretty funny and it helped kill two hours. All for now, Stay Safe

Pics

Just a small TV room for drivers comfort, with laundry and showers down the hall.

Keep in mind this is a service plaza in a turnpike, not a truckstop. It's nice to see folks that make it a little nicer and easier for us truckers.

Looking out toward the truck parking. Hats off to Ohio Turnpike for the up keep and the nice landscaping.

This is taken from the Long Island Expressway. It is the Globe at a park. We took it because it can also be seen on the opening of the show "The King of Queens". We love this show.

This is where Smudges likes to ride so can she cab see where we are going, plus she likes to be near her Daddy. Only problem is there is a light just above her back and she keeps turning it on and she won't turn it off.