Sunday, October 31, 2010
We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Wow. So we have been all over the East coast for the past week. We went from Indiana, to Illinois, to Pennsylvania, to North Carolina. In the meantime we’ve gone through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, down to North Carolina. Now we are headed back to Illinois and the route we’re going on takes us back through Virginia, West Virginia (where we’re driving through right now), Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, then Illinois. It’s been awesome, I still love it out here and so does Rick. Last night before we went to bed we were looking at pictures of Kitty, and we realized we miss him too much. So if we ever get directed through Salt Lake City again we are going to see if he likes it in the truck. We didn’t take him before because 1, the whole shitbox issue; and 2, I’m afraid he will run away. If he ever got lost, it would be the worst ever. But it’s too hard to leave him at home. We’re a family, and it just doesn’t feel right leaving him behind L
Anyways. When we were in Illinois, we started listening to the weather channel. First of all, the voice is totally creepy. You can tell it’s one of those computer voices, where they type stuff in and it just reads it. And they go on a loop, occasionally updating where the storms are and stuff. It was really windy in Illinois and Indiana, and we were listening to it. They said winds 40 MPH with gusts up to 70 MPH, and we were like, what?? Because semi’s are pretty much moving walls. And in Illinois, there are lots of corn fields on both sides of the road and you can feel the truck swaying. Very nerve wracking. So we took our load to Indiana, and we got there a day early so we got to dink around a bit while we were waiting for our unload time. We checked out a casino in Michigan City, and it was pretty cool. A huge hotel, it was called the Blue Chip casino. Then we went to a truck stop and slept until it was time. Our load was due at 7 in the morning, but they opened at 5, so we decided to go and see if they would unload us early. They didn’t, so we just chilled in their truck lot for a while just listening to the weather channel, and feeling the truck rock from the wind. There was a severe thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning, and high wind warning. We were like oh shit! And it just happened to be in the area that we were at, and the area back in Illinois where we were heading- two more stops, and getting unloaded each time. Yeeeah. So it starts raining, like really raining, not the piddly shit we think is ‘rain’ in Utah. Sheets of rain being pelted against the truck by the high winds. We were getting nervous and we told our dispatch that we might have to pull over because the weather channel told everyone to ‘seek shelter immediately’ and was giving tips on where to hide in your house- ‘in the basement or a closet, with blankets wrapped around you, and stay away from windows.’ Rick and I had a disagreement on where we would go if we were stuck on the highway if a tornado came. He said he would get under the concrete bridges and hang on tight, and I said you’re supposed to get in a ditch. I won that one, the radio guy said to get in a ditch if you’re not near a house. So ha! Anywho.
So they finally finish unloading us, and we are getting ready to drive away cautiously, when a siren and then a woman’s voice came over the intercom system (it was a warehouse and it broadcasted outside too where the trucks are sitting) and it said “Everybody get into the tornado shelter immediately!” Rick and I looked at each other in panic, then grabbed our wallets, phones, and purse (mine) and just booked ass back inside. We followed everyone to the tornado shelter, which was a huge concrete room with lots of racks. You could tell we were still in the warehouse, I guess it was in the center of the place because it looked the same as everywhere else. We talked with another trucker, a lady named Holly from Missouri, and it really helped us to not freak out. She had grown up in Kansas so she was like, “this is just like school all over again.” She had the Southern accent, which is oddly soothing. We hear it a lot lately, and I really like it. Anyways, nothing happened, the truck didn’t blow away (thank God) and we headed back on our way. Zoom zoom!
When we got to Ohio, it was pretty exciting, we drove on the Turnpike the whole time. It was badass. Instead of rest stops, they had a nice fancy building with a food court, bathrooms, travel information, free WiFi (I know, but we didn’t have time to get on the computer L), and the showers were free! We wanted to stop there so bad but we couldn’t because we had to hurry. And we ended up stopping at a truck stop as usual. They also had laundry facilities and they were pretty cheap. It was so cool. We didn’t know if the ones in Pennsylvania had the free showers and shit, so we just went to a truck stop. Did our laundry, and showered. Showers at truck stops cost ten dollars. Ten dollars! But we have a points card, so if we fill up, we usually get a free shower. Which is nice.
Anyways. We headed through Maryland, and the traffic sucked monkey butt! It took us an hour to get like 5 miles. And in Virginia it sucked too! Ugh. But we still made it on time, yay! And now we are on our weekend load. A weekend load is usually a load where they give you plenty of time to get there, so you can kinda take it easy. And it’s a load with plenty of miles, so it’s nice J the more miles, the more money in the bank!
Until next time,
Peace out,
~Lola
Anyways. When we were in Illinois, we started listening to the weather channel. First of all, the voice is totally creepy. You can tell it’s one of those computer voices, where they type stuff in and it just reads it. And they go on a loop, occasionally updating where the storms are and stuff. It was really windy in Illinois and Indiana, and we were listening to it. They said winds 40 MPH with gusts up to 70 MPH, and we were like, what?? Because semi’s are pretty much moving walls. And in Illinois, there are lots of corn fields on both sides of the road and you can feel the truck swaying. Very nerve wracking. So we took our load to Indiana, and we got there a day early so we got to dink around a bit while we were waiting for our unload time. We checked out a casino in Michigan City, and it was pretty cool. A huge hotel, it was called the Blue Chip casino. Then we went to a truck stop and slept until it was time. Our load was due at 7 in the morning, but they opened at 5, so we decided to go and see if they would unload us early. They didn’t, so we just chilled in their truck lot for a while just listening to the weather channel, and feeling the truck rock from the wind. There was a severe thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning, and high wind warning. We were like oh shit! And it just happened to be in the area that we were at, and the area back in Illinois where we were heading- two more stops, and getting unloaded each time. Yeeeah. So it starts raining, like really raining, not the piddly shit we think is ‘rain’ in Utah. Sheets of rain being pelted against the truck by the high winds. We were getting nervous and we told our dispatch that we might have to pull over because the weather channel told everyone to ‘seek shelter immediately’ and was giving tips on where to hide in your house- ‘in the basement or a closet, with blankets wrapped around you, and stay away from windows.’ Rick and I had a disagreement on where we would go if we were stuck on the highway if a tornado came. He said he would get under the concrete bridges and hang on tight, and I said you’re supposed to get in a ditch. I won that one, the radio guy said to get in a ditch if you’re not near a house. So ha! Anywho.
So they finally finish unloading us, and we are getting ready to drive away cautiously, when a siren and then a woman’s voice came over the intercom system (it was a warehouse and it broadcasted outside too where the trucks are sitting) and it said “Everybody get into the tornado shelter immediately!” Rick and I looked at each other in panic, then grabbed our wallets, phones, and purse (mine) and just booked ass back inside. We followed everyone to the tornado shelter, which was a huge concrete room with lots of racks. You could tell we were still in the warehouse, I guess it was in the center of the place because it looked the same as everywhere else. We talked with another trucker, a lady named Holly from Missouri, and it really helped us to not freak out. She had grown up in Kansas so she was like, “this is just like school all over again.” She had the Southern accent, which is oddly soothing. We hear it a lot lately, and I really like it. Anyways, nothing happened, the truck didn’t blow away (thank God) and we headed back on our way. Zoom zoom!
When we got to Ohio, it was pretty exciting, we drove on the Turnpike the whole time. It was badass. Instead of rest stops, they had a nice fancy building with a food court, bathrooms, travel information, free WiFi (I know, but we didn’t have time to get on the computer L), and the showers were free! We wanted to stop there so bad but we couldn’t because we had to hurry. And we ended up stopping at a truck stop as usual. They also had laundry facilities and they were pretty cheap. It was so cool. We didn’t know if the ones in Pennsylvania had the free showers and shit, so we just went to a truck stop. Did our laundry, and showered. Showers at truck stops cost ten dollars. Ten dollars! But we have a points card, so if we fill up, we usually get a free shower. Which is nice.
Anyways. We headed through Maryland, and the traffic sucked monkey butt! It took us an hour to get like 5 miles. And in Virginia it sucked too! Ugh. But we still made it on time, yay! And now we are on our weekend load. A weekend load is usually a load where they give you plenty of time to get there, so you can kinda take it easy. And it’s a load with plenty of miles, so it’s nice J the more miles, the more money in the bank!
Until next time,
Peace out,
~Lola
We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Wow. So we have been all over the East coast for the past week. We went from Indiana, to Illinois, to Pennsylvania, to North Carolina. In the meantime we’ve gone through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, down to North Carolina. Now we are headed back to Illinois and the route we’re going on takes us back through Virginia, West Virginia (where we’re driving through right now), Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, then Illinois. It’s been awesome, I still love it out here and so does Rick. Last night before we went to bed we were looking at pictures of Kitty, and we realized we miss him too much. So if we ever get directed through Salt Lake City again we are going to see if he likes it in the truck. We didn’t take him before because 1, the whole shitbox issue; and 2, I’m afraid he will run away. If he ever got lost, it would be the worst ever. But it’s too hard to leave him at home. We’re a family, and it just doesn’t feel right leaving him behind L
Anyways. When we were in Illinois, we started listening to the weather channel. First of all, the voice is totally creepy. You can tell it’s one of those computer voices, where they type stuff in and it just reads it. And they go on a loop, occasionally updating where the storms are and stuff. It was really windy in Illinois and Indiana, and we were listening to it. They said winds 40 MPH with gusts up to 70 MPH, and we were like, what?? Because semi’s are pretty much moving walls. And in Illinois, there are lots of corn fields on both sides of the road and you can feel the truck swaying. Very nerve wracking. So we took our load to Indiana, and we got there a day early so we got to dink around a bit while we were waiting for our unload time. We checked out a casino in Michigan City, and it was pretty cool. A huge hotel, it was called the Blue Chip casino. Then we went to a truck stop and slept until it was time. Our load was due at 7 in the morning, but they opened at 5, so we decided to go and see if they would unload us early. They didn’t, so we just chilled in their truck lot for a while just listening to the weather channel, and feeling the truck rock from the wind. There was a severe thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning, and high wind warning. We were like oh shit! And it just happened to be in the area that we were at, and the area back in Illinois where we were heading- two more stops, and getting unloaded each time. Yeeeah. So it starts raining, like really raining, not the piddly shit we think is ‘rain’ in Utah. Sheets of rain being pelted against the truck by the high winds. We were getting nervous and we told our dispatch that we might have to pull over because the weather channel told everyone to ‘seek shelter immediately’ and was giving tips on where to hide in your house- ‘in the basement or a closet, with blankets wrapped around you, and stay away from windows.’ Rick and I had a disagreement on where we would go if we were stuck on the highway if a tornado came. He said he would get under the concrete bridges and hang on tight, and I said you’re supposed to get in a ditch. I won that one, the radio guy said to get in a ditch if you’re not near a house. So ha! Anywho.
So they finally finish unloading us, and we are getting ready to drive away cautiously, when a siren and then a woman’s voice came over the intercom system (it was a warehouse and it broadcasted outside too where the trucks are sitting) and it said “Everybody get into the tornado shelter immediately!” Rick and I looked at each other in panic, then grabbed our wallets, phones, and purse (mine) and just booked ass back inside. We followed everyone to the tornado shelter, which was a huge concrete room with lots of racks. You could tell we were still in the warehouse, I guess it was in the center of the place because it looked the same as everywhere else. We talked with another trucker, a lady named Holly from Missouri, and it really helped us to not freak out. She had grown up in Kansas so she was like, “this is just like school all over again.” She had the Southern accent, which is oddly soothing. We hear it a lot lately, and I really like it. Anyways, nothing happened, the truck didn’t blow away (thank God) and we headed back on our way. Zoom zoom!
When we got to Ohio, it was pretty exciting, we drove on the Turnpike the whole time. It was badass. Instead of rest stops, they had a nice fancy building with a food court, bathrooms, travel information, free WiFi (I know, but we didn’t have time to get on the computer L), and the showers were free! We wanted to stop there so bad but we couldn’t because we had to hurry. And we ended up stopping at a truck stop as usual. They also had laundry facilities and they were pretty cheap. It was so cool. We didn’t know if the ones in Pennsylvania had the free showers and shit, so we just went to a truck stop. Did our laundry, and showered. Showers at truck stops cost ten dollars. Ten dollars! But we have a points card, so if we fill up, we usually get a free shower. Which is nice.
Anyways. We headed through Maryland, and the traffic sucked monkey butt! It took us an hour to get like 5 miles. And in Virginia it sucked too! Ugh. But we still made it on time, yay! And now we are on our weekend load. A weekend load is usually a load where they give you plenty of time to get there, so you can kinda take it easy. And it’s a load with plenty of miles, so it’s nice J the more miles, the more money in the bank!
Until next time,
Peace out,
~Lola
Anyways. When we were in Illinois, we started listening to the weather channel. First of all, the voice is totally creepy. You can tell it’s one of those computer voices, where they type stuff in and it just reads it. And they go on a loop, occasionally updating where the storms are and stuff. It was really windy in Illinois and Indiana, and we were listening to it. They said winds 40 MPH with gusts up to 70 MPH, and we were like, what?? Because semi’s are pretty much moving walls. And in Illinois, there are lots of corn fields on both sides of the road and you can feel the truck swaying. Very nerve wracking. So we took our load to Indiana, and we got there a day early so we got to dink around a bit while we were waiting for our unload time. We checked out a casino in Michigan City, and it was pretty cool. A huge hotel, it was called the Blue Chip casino. Then we went to a truck stop and slept until it was time. Our load was due at 7 in the morning, but they opened at 5, so we decided to go and see if they would unload us early. They didn’t, so we just chilled in their truck lot for a while just listening to the weather channel, and feeling the truck rock from the wind. There was a severe thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning, and high wind warning. We were like oh shit! And it just happened to be in the area that we were at, and the area back in Illinois where we were heading- two more stops, and getting unloaded each time. Yeeeah. So it starts raining, like really raining, not the piddly shit we think is ‘rain’ in Utah. Sheets of rain being pelted against the truck by the high winds. We were getting nervous and we told our dispatch that we might have to pull over because the weather channel told everyone to ‘seek shelter immediately’ and was giving tips on where to hide in your house- ‘in the basement or a closet, with blankets wrapped around you, and stay away from windows.’ Rick and I had a disagreement on where we would go if we were stuck on the highway if a tornado came. He said he would get under the concrete bridges and hang on tight, and I said you’re supposed to get in a ditch. I won that one, the radio guy said to get in a ditch if you’re not near a house. So ha! Anywho.
So they finally finish unloading us, and we are getting ready to drive away cautiously, when a siren and then a woman’s voice came over the intercom system (it was a warehouse and it broadcasted outside too where the trucks are sitting) and it said “Everybody get into the tornado shelter immediately!” Rick and I looked at each other in panic, then grabbed our wallets, phones, and purse (mine) and just booked ass back inside. We followed everyone to the tornado shelter, which was a huge concrete room with lots of racks. You could tell we were still in the warehouse, I guess it was in the center of the place because it looked the same as everywhere else. We talked with another trucker, a lady named Holly from Missouri, and it really helped us to not freak out. She had grown up in Kansas so she was like, “this is just like school all over again.” She had the Southern accent, which is oddly soothing. We hear it a lot lately, and I really like it. Anyways, nothing happened, the truck didn’t blow away (thank God) and we headed back on our way. Zoom zoom!
When we got to Ohio, it was pretty exciting, we drove on the Turnpike the whole time. It was badass. Instead of rest stops, they had a nice fancy building with a food court, bathrooms, travel information, free WiFi (I know, but we didn’t have time to get on the computer L), and the showers were free! We wanted to stop there so bad but we couldn’t because we had to hurry. And we ended up stopping at a truck stop as usual. They also had laundry facilities and they were pretty cheap. It was so cool. We didn’t know if the ones in Pennsylvania had the free showers and shit, so we just went to a truck stop. Did our laundry, and showered. Showers at truck stops cost ten dollars. Ten dollars! But we have a points card, so if we fill up, we usually get a free shower. Which is nice.
Anyways. We headed through Maryland, and the traffic sucked monkey butt! It took us an hour to get like 5 miles. And in Virginia it sucked too! Ugh. But we still made it on time, yay! And now we are on our weekend load. A weekend load is usually a load where they give you plenty of time to get there, so you can kinda take it easy. And it’s a load with plenty of miles, so it’s nice J the more miles, the more money in the bank!
Until next time,
Peace out,
~Lola
Fun Fun Stuff
Yes I know I am the biggest slacker in the world. So sue me We are still trying to get the hang of our driver logs. They are the biggest pain in the ass. We are supposed to be able to drive 11 hours a day, but we haven’t had 11 available hours to drive in a while. We have 11 hours driving, 10 hours in the sleeper berth, and then 3 hours for like fuel stops and rest stops. Then we have four ‘duty’ lines, so when we start driving, it puts us on line 3. Line 2 is sleeper berth, line 4 is on duty not driving, and 1 is off duty. If you don’t do it right, you can lose driving time and then you get in trouble for being late for your load. Plus, you want all the driving time you can get, because we get paid by the mile, not by the hour. I know, it’s kinda lame, and definitely hard to get used to. We are trying to not take any time off either, for many reasons. One, because we don’t get money if the truck isn’t rolling. Two, because sometimes it’s hard to get a load that takes you close to home. Some people don’t get to go near home for months at a time. Three, because we are trying to be able to take time off in six months for when we get married, we want to take two weeks off for our honeymoon, so we figure if we kiss ass for the next six months we can get it J We miss the families, and our baby so much, but this is what we have to do if we want a life someday. We want our own house, and kids, and cats. Hopefully we can be able to work locally in a few years after saving our trucking money, and when I team drive, we will be making a lot more.
Anyways. The last post was written when we were driving out of Oregon, heading to Wisconsin. So, we went North through Washington a little bit, and I got to see my bestie! It was only for like ten minutes, but I was so happy! She lives so far away so I don’t ever hardly get to see her, and I was glad Rick let me J that was when we were able to drive 11 hours a day. So I got to show her and her kids the truck, which we keep pretty clean compared to other trucks we’ve seen. It helps that I can vacuum while he’s driving though, and just clean while he drives, and he helps too a lot. Anyway. So after we said goodbye, we headed off to Montana. Ugh. Trucker’s nightmare, in my opinion. We went through it long ways, and it took us freaking forever just to get through. Yes, it was really pretty in some places, but so not worth how long the drive was. And we kept having to slow down because of the canyons. We drive slow uphill because we’re heavy (durr) but we have to drive slow going downhill too otherwise we could roll the truck. So it’s slow both ways, and hard to do without burning the brakes up unless you know what you’re doing. Lucky Rick knows what he’s doing, so I don’t have to worry about him rolling the truck. That’s how his dad died, so he’s overly cautious because of it.
So we finally after two days of driving made it to Fargo, North Dakota, which was the first state we got to go to that I’d never been in before. I’ve been in all the western states, plus Texas and Florida, so I was definitely excited to visit the East side. I’ve only read about the East, but never been there. We stayed the night in Fargo because it was our fuel stop, and the next day we started driving again. (Sorry, all the days go really fast and run together so it’s hard to keep track of what day it is and how long we’ve been out lol.) We went through North Dakota, which I’m sorry, was boring as hell. We hit some fog, which was pretty exciting, but the rest of the state was filled with fields and hay rolls. I’m not kidding, there are more hay rolls than people in that state. I don’t think I got too many pictures, because there wasn’t really anything to take a picture of, haha. Finally we got to Minnesota, which I kinda slept through, because I wasn’t feeling too good, and it was night anyways, so we couldn’t see anything. Finally we got to Wisconsin, and dropped our load. Then we got another load to take to Illinois, so that’s where we were putting around for a couple days. Picking up trailers and dropping them off at other yards. It’s hard to remember all the loads we’ve done, because they switch stuff on us all the time. It’s cool if we get loads that are more miles, but when they switch and it’s a low mile job, it kinda blows. Oh well, that’s trucking for ya J
Driving through Illinois was interesting. First, the areas we drove through had corn field after corn field, with an occasional dilapidated farm and sometimes a creepy random cemetery. No kidding. It was very creepy and I was glad it was during the day and not at night. I still have yet to see a spirit walking on the highway, which is something I kind of want to see, kind of not. Morbid curiosity J Anyhoo, I really didn’t like driving through Illinois. We took an empty trailer from one city to another, and the wind going through the corn fields was pretty strong. When I was learning to drive, when I was like 15, I had a semi tip over in front of me going down Point of the Mountain, and it was very scary. It almost fully crushed a car, but thank god everyone was alright. I found out years later he tipped because he was empty. You don’t drive through extremely windy areas when you’re loaded, because you could die from tipping over. Common sense here. Anyways, the wind wasn’t too bad for us, just enough to freak us out a little. We got to our place seven hours early, and they would have loaded us but the night crew was in charge of our load so we just had to sit. It was alright, we ate at Ihop, and there was a little blue shack across the street that we walked to. The sign on it said “Over 21 Only,” which translates to us as dirty bad fun J we thought it would have a shitty selection of videos and a few magazines, but holy shit. There were so many videos there, we spent an hour looking around. They had other stuff too, and it was a pretty cool place! Beat the one in Evanston Wyoming for sure, and their place was three times bigger. After we finished there, we went down to the Walmart to look around. It’s so cool seeing the huge aisle of wines. Just wines. It’s still new to me, and I love it. And at the gas stations, there’s the lottery and power ball, and wine, and the alcoholic energy drinks, and Mike’s Hard Lemonade- basically all the good stuff that is banned in Utah. Sigh.
So we finally got loaded, then waited until morning to drive. This one was going to Wichita, Kansas. We learned first hand why they say to ignore the GPS and just use our Qualcomm (they communicate with us through it, send our loads and fuel routes, and other routes, through it to us. It’s like a really ghetto computer, it’s green and black, no color haha. Pretty handy.) So the GPS told us to go through this city, instead of the way we came, and we ended up going down one of those one way roads, and there was a bridge in our way. We were like, “oh shit, we probably wont clear it,” but there was really no way for us to turn around. Rick found a construction worker, and he tried to guide us under the bridge, but we were two inches too tall to get under, so we backed up. Eventually, Rick found an alley we could go down, and it took us back to the main road. Phew! We were really lucky, sometimes they have the police department and fire department close off the road for us, and they charge because it’s the driver’s job to not get effing stuck. So we finally got back to the main road, and off we went!
We’ve been in Kansas for the past few days now, and I have to say, I really like it here. Yes there are a lot of fields, and we’ve seen corn, random green fields, barley, and even cotton; but for some reason I just really like this state. The wind is bad here too, and we saw a wind farm with lots of windmills which was cool. There are random forests everywhere, random little towns, and random creeks and rivers. It is so pretty here though, and you can actually see for miles. I like not having stupid mountains block my view J now I just have to convince Rick to let us move here, hehe.
Yesterday we got to Dodge City to get a load of raw meat (I know, yummy) and it took us forever to get loaded. We talked to a bunch of other drivers from our company, and one guy had been there for a whole day and a half waiting to go get loaded. I guess it’s normal for meat loads, which we didn’t know before because we’re noobs, but now we know. So right now we are loaded with raw meat (don’t worry, this company hauls mostly refrigerated shit- the refrigerated trailers are mostly called reefers, and they run off diesel fuel so when they aren’t connected to a truck they still run, and they just run by themselves anyway. Pretty cool stuff!) and we are taking it from Dodge City to Westville, Indiana. They will unload some of it, then we are taking it to Oak Lawn, Illinois, and then some other place in Illinois. We have to go to all three locations in just one day! All within a few hours of each other. So, they better book ass when they unload us.
I’ll try not to slack so much next time, because then I forget stuff :/ soo yup! It’s been fun so far, it has been hard too, but mostly fun. I’ve gotten sick a few times and had to put myself in the back, but for the most part I’ve been up here with Rick.
Until next time,
Peace out
~Lola
Anyways. The last post was written when we were driving out of Oregon, heading to Wisconsin. So, we went North through Washington a little bit, and I got to see my bestie! It was only for like ten minutes, but I was so happy! She lives so far away so I don’t ever hardly get to see her, and I was glad Rick let me J that was when we were able to drive 11 hours a day. So I got to show her and her kids the truck, which we keep pretty clean compared to other trucks we’ve seen. It helps that I can vacuum while he’s driving though, and just clean while he drives, and he helps too a lot. Anyway. So after we said goodbye, we headed off to Montana. Ugh. Trucker’s nightmare, in my opinion. We went through it long ways, and it took us freaking forever just to get through. Yes, it was really pretty in some places, but so not worth how long the drive was. And we kept having to slow down because of the canyons. We drive slow uphill because we’re heavy (durr) but we have to drive slow going downhill too otherwise we could roll the truck. So it’s slow both ways, and hard to do without burning the brakes up unless you know what you’re doing. Lucky Rick knows what he’s doing, so I don’t have to worry about him rolling the truck. That’s how his dad died, so he’s overly cautious because of it.
So we finally after two days of driving made it to Fargo, North Dakota, which was the first state we got to go to that I’d never been in before. I’ve been in all the western states, plus Texas and Florida, so I was definitely excited to visit the East side. I’ve only read about the East, but never been there. We stayed the night in Fargo because it was our fuel stop, and the next day we started driving again. (Sorry, all the days go really fast and run together so it’s hard to keep track of what day it is and how long we’ve been out lol.) We went through North Dakota, which I’m sorry, was boring as hell. We hit some fog, which was pretty exciting, but the rest of the state was filled with fields and hay rolls. I’m not kidding, there are more hay rolls than people in that state. I don’t think I got too many pictures, because there wasn’t really anything to take a picture of, haha. Finally we got to Minnesota, which I kinda slept through, because I wasn’t feeling too good, and it was night anyways, so we couldn’t see anything. Finally we got to Wisconsin, and dropped our load. Then we got another load to take to Illinois, so that’s where we were putting around for a couple days. Picking up trailers and dropping them off at other yards. It’s hard to remember all the loads we’ve done, because they switch stuff on us all the time. It’s cool if we get loads that are more miles, but when they switch and it’s a low mile job, it kinda blows. Oh well, that’s trucking for ya J
Driving through Illinois was interesting. First, the areas we drove through had corn field after corn field, with an occasional dilapidated farm and sometimes a creepy random cemetery. No kidding. It was very creepy and I was glad it was during the day and not at night. I still have yet to see a spirit walking on the highway, which is something I kind of want to see, kind of not. Morbid curiosity J Anyhoo, I really didn’t like driving through Illinois. We took an empty trailer from one city to another, and the wind going through the corn fields was pretty strong. When I was learning to drive, when I was like 15, I had a semi tip over in front of me going down Point of the Mountain, and it was very scary. It almost fully crushed a car, but thank god everyone was alright. I found out years later he tipped because he was empty. You don’t drive through extremely windy areas when you’re loaded, because you could die from tipping over. Common sense here. Anyways, the wind wasn’t too bad for us, just enough to freak us out a little. We got to our place seven hours early, and they would have loaded us but the night crew was in charge of our load so we just had to sit. It was alright, we ate at Ihop, and there was a little blue shack across the street that we walked to. The sign on it said “Over 21 Only,” which translates to us as dirty bad fun J we thought it would have a shitty selection of videos and a few magazines, but holy shit. There were so many videos there, we spent an hour looking around. They had other stuff too, and it was a pretty cool place! Beat the one in Evanston Wyoming for sure, and their place was three times bigger. After we finished there, we went down to the Walmart to look around. It’s so cool seeing the huge aisle of wines. Just wines. It’s still new to me, and I love it. And at the gas stations, there’s the lottery and power ball, and wine, and the alcoholic energy drinks, and Mike’s Hard Lemonade- basically all the good stuff that is banned in Utah. Sigh.
So we finally got loaded, then waited until morning to drive. This one was going to Wichita, Kansas. We learned first hand why they say to ignore the GPS and just use our Qualcomm (they communicate with us through it, send our loads and fuel routes, and other routes, through it to us. It’s like a really ghetto computer, it’s green and black, no color haha. Pretty handy.) So the GPS told us to go through this city, instead of the way we came, and we ended up going down one of those one way roads, and there was a bridge in our way. We were like, “oh shit, we probably wont clear it,” but there was really no way for us to turn around. Rick found a construction worker, and he tried to guide us under the bridge, but we were two inches too tall to get under, so we backed up. Eventually, Rick found an alley we could go down, and it took us back to the main road. Phew! We were really lucky, sometimes they have the police department and fire department close off the road for us, and they charge because it’s the driver’s job to not get effing stuck. So we finally got back to the main road, and off we went!
We’ve been in Kansas for the past few days now, and I have to say, I really like it here. Yes there are a lot of fields, and we’ve seen corn, random green fields, barley, and even cotton; but for some reason I just really like this state. The wind is bad here too, and we saw a wind farm with lots of windmills which was cool. There are random forests everywhere, random little towns, and random creeks and rivers. It is so pretty here though, and you can actually see for miles. I like not having stupid mountains block my view J now I just have to convince Rick to let us move here, hehe.
Yesterday we got to Dodge City to get a load of raw meat (I know, yummy) and it took us forever to get loaded. We talked to a bunch of other drivers from our company, and one guy had been there for a whole day and a half waiting to go get loaded. I guess it’s normal for meat loads, which we didn’t know before because we’re noobs, but now we know. So right now we are loaded with raw meat (don’t worry, this company hauls mostly refrigerated shit- the refrigerated trailers are mostly called reefers, and they run off diesel fuel so when they aren’t connected to a truck they still run, and they just run by themselves anyway. Pretty cool stuff!) and we are taking it from Dodge City to Westville, Indiana. They will unload some of it, then we are taking it to Oak Lawn, Illinois, and then some other place in Illinois. We have to go to all three locations in just one day! All within a few hours of each other. So, they better book ass when they unload us.
I’ll try not to slack so much next time, because then I forget stuff :/ soo yup! It’s been fun so far, it has been hard too, but mostly fun. I’ve gotten sick a few times and had to put myself in the back, but for the most part I’ve been up here with Rick.
Until next time,
Peace out
~Lola
Just Keep Rollin!
So early Wednesday morning we got ourselves ready, finished grabbing our shit, and then Grandma took us to the yard. Tuesday was spent setting the truck up, plugging our stuff in and Velcro-ing most of the stuff down so it didn’t fly and hit us in the head. We didn’t get much sleep that night because we stayed up late working on the truck, but it didn’t matter because we were very excited to finally hit the road!
We got the orders to pick up an empty trailer in the yard and take it to the Hershey factory in Ogden, and they would load it for us there. But there wasn’t an empty trailer in the yard. While Rick was putting around the yard looking for a trailer, I put our things away and noticed that we had forgotten some important things. The atlas that he had bought a while ago, which we definitely needed in case the GPS decided to be a piece. Our pillows, which would be handy when we need to sleep. And my winter jacket. So while we waited for our dispatcher to tell us what to do next because there was no empty trailer, we called Rick’s little sister to bring our things up from downstairs. Grandma drove back there, picked up our stuff, and by that time they told us to just go pick up a full trailer from Hershey’s and we would be taking it to Portland. We met Grandma on the road where Bangerter leads to the freeway, and she gave us our stuff. One last hug and we were off!
Bobtailing means you’re driving without a trailer, and you’re usually not supposed to do that because Central has soooo many trailers, but we didn’t have a choice. We bobtailed over to Ogden to pick up the trailer, and finally we got it. I helped Rick get it on the trailer and he showed me how to plug it into the truck, and lift the ‘landing gear’ (basically the jacks that hold the trailer up when it’s not attached to a truck). It was pretty fun. He bought me gloves to wear so I wouldn’t get my hands dirty. They are huge- I have small hands so it’s hard to find gloves to fit. Grr. But at least my hands stayed clean!
We drove through Idaho, and were in Oregon in no time, even though Rick had to pull over a lot for me to pee. Sorry my bladder is so small! I inherited that from my mum J hehe. Anyway, we slept at a random truck stop in Oregon and surprisingly, the bed was really comfortable. We slept great! And yes, we actually slept. Haha.
The next morning we woke up and continued to Portland. We dropped the Hershey’s load off in a yard, and picked up an empty trailer so we could get it loaded in Salem. So our first load was done! They had changed things on us, which happens all the time, so we have to keep an eye on our Qualcomm, which is a computer thing that we use to log our hours and communicate with our dispatcher. My job is to make sure we enter in everything we’re supposed to. Oh, that and making sure to secure the shit that falls on our heads. The Clorox wipes tried taking me out three times before I just threw them on the bed.
We also have a thing called E-Zpass that secures to our windshield on the inside. It’s for when we pass through the weigh stations, it scans us and is supposed to make it so we can drive through and not stop at the weigh station. If we get a green light we get to keep on driving, but when the red light flashes, it beeps at us and we have to pull into the next weigh station. We have had to stop at every effing weigh station so far. It was kinda a joke yesterday, I was like, “I think they flagged you on purpose because you’re a newbie.” He was like “Probably, ha ha ha.” We had a good laugh about it- until we got another red light. Today is Saturday and he was like, “They should all be closed on the weekends.” So we drive through the scanner, and we get a red light. Oh yes, more laughter, but sprinkled with annoyance. This E-Zpass is supposed to make it so we don’t stop, but so far, it’s not working so well. Anyway, he said that the weigh station could still be closed but nope, it was open. Roll over the scales at 3 MPH, and we get a green light to go.
ANYWAYS
We took the empty trailer to a place that has tons of frozen food, and we got there two and a half hours early. Sometimes they’ll load you early, other times they will make you wait. It depends on a lot of things. Well, there were other drivers ahead of us so we had to wait. We were going to shower at a truck stop but didn’t have enough points for a free one, so we just bought Taco Bell and watched some Family Guy in the truck. Then we waited back at the place to get loaded. I fell asleep, and Rick napped with me for a while until they finished. He drove us to the truck stop to sleep for the night. I woke up for a little bit, went in and brushed my teeth and stuff. Then we went to bed for the night.
This morning we found the truck stop that we were going to shower at, and we found out we had no points there either L but we needed the shower so bad and just paid for it. Ten bucks for a shower! But it was so worth the money. I pulled a stupid because the machine only took cash, and went over to the quarter machine and put a $20 in… Oops… So now we have $20 worth of quarters rolling around. Rick thought it was funny and called me a duh, and yeah, it was a pretty duh move. Haha. After we showered we got chicken from Popeye’s, with mashed potatoes and a biscuit. Mmmm. And now we are headed to Wisconsin! We have to take the trailer to one place, have them unload some stuff, and then go to another place in Wisconsin and they will unload the rest. It’s frozen food this time.
So Oregon. Omg. We want to move here really bad. It’s so gorgeous. I took plenty of pictures and junk, and will try to post them up. We drove through Portland downtown, and the freeway was like a roller coaster, it was so awesome. And we saw a bunch of bums living under an overpass, it was kinda sad. We’ve been driving next to a big river for forever (I think it’s the Hood river? I dunno.) We also saw Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood. I didn’t get a picture of St. Helens, but I told Rick about how it erupted the year we were born- 1989 (correct me if I’m wrong, I think it was that year) and stuff. He teaches me about cars and stuff, I teach him random shit. It’s awesome. We keep passing by wineries, there’s about a million up here. I want to stop at one sometime J And we saw tons of windmills yesterday, lots and lots of them, I took pictures of those too. It’s interesting to see how different places can be!
So finally I’ll be going through states I’ve never been through before! I’m psyched for that. Been trying to take plenty of pictures, hopefully I can find some internet service soon! But if you’re reading this, I obviously found some. Lol durrr.
Well, peace out for now!
~Lola
We got the orders to pick up an empty trailer in the yard and take it to the Hershey factory in Ogden, and they would load it for us there. But there wasn’t an empty trailer in the yard. While Rick was putting around the yard looking for a trailer, I put our things away and noticed that we had forgotten some important things. The atlas that he had bought a while ago, which we definitely needed in case the GPS decided to be a piece. Our pillows, which would be handy when we need to sleep. And my winter jacket. So while we waited for our dispatcher to tell us what to do next because there was no empty trailer, we called Rick’s little sister to bring our things up from downstairs. Grandma drove back there, picked up our stuff, and by that time they told us to just go pick up a full trailer from Hershey’s and we would be taking it to Portland. We met Grandma on the road where Bangerter leads to the freeway, and she gave us our stuff. One last hug and we were off!
Bobtailing means you’re driving without a trailer, and you’re usually not supposed to do that because Central has soooo many trailers, but we didn’t have a choice. We bobtailed over to Ogden to pick up the trailer, and finally we got it. I helped Rick get it on the trailer and he showed me how to plug it into the truck, and lift the ‘landing gear’ (basically the jacks that hold the trailer up when it’s not attached to a truck). It was pretty fun. He bought me gloves to wear so I wouldn’t get my hands dirty. They are huge- I have small hands so it’s hard to find gloves to fit. Grr. But at least my hands stayed clean!
We drove through Idaho, and were in Oregon in no time, even though Rick had to pull over a lot for me to pee. Sorry my bladder is so small! I inherited that from my mum J hehe. Anyway, we slept at a random truck stop in Oregon and surprisingly, the bed was really comfortable. We slept great! And yes, we actually slept. Haha.
The next morning we woke up and continued to Portland. We dropped the Hershey’s load off in a yard, and picked up an empty trailer so we could get it loaded in Salem. So our first load was done! They had changed things on us, which happens all the time, so we have to keep an eye on our Qualcomm, which is a computer thing that we use to log our hours and communicate with our dispatcher. My job is to make sure we enter in everything we’re supposed to. Oh, that and making sure to secure the shit that falls on our heads. The Clorox wipes tried taking me out three times before I just threw them on the bed.
We also have a thing called E-Zpass that secures to our windshield on the inside. It’s for when we pass through the weigh stations, it scans us and is supposed to make it so we can drive through and not stop at the weigh station. If we get a green light we get to keep on driving, but when the red light flashes, it beeps at us and we have to pull into the next weigh station. We have had to stop at every effing weigh station so far. It was kinda a joke yesterday, I was like, “I think they flagged you on purpose because you’re a newbie.” He was like “Probably, ha ha ha.” We had a good laugh about it- until we got another red light. Today is Saturday and he was like, “They should all be closed on the weekends.” So we drive through the scanner, and we get a red light. Oh yes, more laughter, but sprinkled with annoyance. This E-Zpass is supposed to make it so we don’t stop, but so far, it’s not working so well. Anyway, he said that the weigh station could still be closed but nope, it was open. Roll over the scales at 3 MPH, and we get a green light to go.
ANYWAYS
We took the empty trailer to a place that has tons of frozen food, and we got there two and a half hours early. Sometimes they’ll load you early, other times they will make you wait. It depends on a lot of things. Well, there were other drivers ahead of us so we had to wait. We were going to shower at a truck stop but didn’t have enough points for a free one, so we just bought Taco Bell and watched some Family Guy in the truck. Then we waited back at the place to get loaded. I fell asleep, and Rick napped with me for a while until they finished. He drove us to the truck stop to sleep for the night. I woke up for a little bit, went in and brushed my teeth and stuff. Then we went to bed for the night.
This morning we found the truck stop that we were going to shower at, and we found out we had no points there either L but we needed the shower so bad and just paid for it. Ten bucks for a shower! But it was so worth the money. I pulled a stupid because the machine only took cash, and went over to the quarter machine and put a $20 in… Oops… So now we have $20 worth of quarters rolling around. Rick thought it was funny and called me a duh, and yeah, it was a pretty duh move. Haha. After we showered we got chicken from Popeye’s, with mashed potatoes and a biscuit. Mmmm. And now we are headed to Wisconsin! We have to take the trailer to one place, have them unload some stuff, and then go to another place in Wisconsin and they will unload the rest. It’s frozen food this time.
So Oregon. Omg. We want to move here really bad. It’s so gorgeous. I took plenty of pictures and junk, and will try to post them up. We drove through Portland downtown, and the freeway was like a roller coaster, it was so awesome. And we saw a bunch of bums living under an overpass, it was kinda sad. We’ve been driving next to a big river for forever (I think it’s the Hood river? I dunno.) We also saw Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood. I didn’t get a picture of St. Helens, but I told Rick about how it erupted the year we were born- 1989 (correct me if I’m wrong, I think it was that year) and stuff. He teaches me about cars and stuff, I teach him random shit. It’s awesome. We keep passing by wineries, there’s about a million up here. I want to stop at one sometime J And we saw tons of windmills yesterday, lots and lots of them, I took pictures of those too. It’s interesting to see how different places can be!
So finally I’ll be going through states I’ve never been through before! I’m psyched for that. Been trying to take plenty of pictures, hopefully I can find some internet service soon! But if you’re reading this, I obviously found some. Lol durrr.
Well, peace out for now!
~Lola
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Landslide
So, Rick is going to be home in a few days!!!! (Cue applause). YES I will no longer have to sleep alone. I hate sleeping alone, mostly because I'm scared of the dark. That's one of the reasons I don't go to bed until the sun comes up. And I work better at night. My body just likes night so much better than day.
ANYWAYS
I'm so excited!! He gets a few days off so we can spend it with kitty, and family, and getting ready to hit the road! We probably won't be coming home much, which is fine with me, it will make us miss it more. Plus I'm tired of Utah, for a zillion reasons, maybe I'll elaborate some other day. But not right now. :)
So my brother turns 19 today, sweet! I get to go down to celebrate at my mom's on Monday. It might be the last time I see them before I leave! :( Must get Skype... And then Tuesday, I babysit for probably the last time. I'm sad, because I've been babysitting for the same people for a year. Their kids are really cute, and fun. And they are really super nice people. I will miss them for sure :( And my friends too. I'm going to miss the people but the state overall? HELL NO! :)
I will hopefully have the opportunity to see family while I'm out though. I have a cousin in Texas, a cousin in Georgia, grandparents+aunt/uncle in Florida. And my best friend lives in Washington state, I hope I get to see her too! *Crossing fingers* I know I'll be going to the East coast a lot, Rick's been there most of the time he's been training. Woot!
Soo anyways not much else to say, I can't wait to get going and be able to write about how fun it is to travel on the road, and take tons of pictures for y'all :)
Peace out,
Lola
ANYWAYS
I'm so excited!! He gets a few days off so we can spend it with kitty, and family, and getting ready to hit the road! We probably won't be coming home much, which is fine with me, it will make us miss it more. Plus I'm tired of Utah, for a zillion reasons, maybe I'll elaborate some other day. But not right now. :)
So my brother turns 19 today, sweet! I get to go down to celebrate at my mom's on Monday. It might be the last time I see them before I leave! :( Must get Skype... And then Tuesday, I babysit for probably the last time. I'm sad, because I've been babysitting for the same people for a year. Their kids are really cute, and fun. And they are really super nice people. I will miss them for sure :( And my friends too. I'm going to miss the people but the state overall? HELL NO! :)
I will hopefully have the opportunity to see family while I'm out though. I have a cousin in Texas, a cousin in Georgia, grandparents+aunt/uncle in Florida. And my best friend lives in Washington state, I hope I get to see her too! *Crossing fingers* I know I'll be going to the East coast a lot, Rick's been there most of the time he's been training. Woot!
Soo anyways not much else to say, I can't wait to get going and be able to write about how fun it is to travel on the road, and take tons of pictures for y'all :)
Peace out,
Lola
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)