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