Many Miles from the Rocky Mtns. to the Boston Harbor

From Salt Lake City to San Antonio  was the last update I submitted. But in the last week, Michael and I have been so busy that we have maybe gotten 4 hours of sleep a night. Not complaining, I still sit with childlike delight in the passenger seat oooing and ahhhing at the various things that I see out the windshield. So here's the nut shell version of where we've been. I'm going to write another blog that will actually be more of a tribute to the marvels of my imagination.

January 16, 2011

• Pick up load in Seguin, TX (outside San Antonio) @ 5:34 p.m.
• Drive, swap drivers and drive some more through the states of Texas, Arkansas, Missouri (Dexter), Illinois, and up to Michigan
• Deliver load on January 17 @ 8:22 p.m. to Woodhaven, MI outside of Detroit

January 18, 2011

• Pick up load in Clinton Township, MI @ 5:00 a.m.
• Drive to the capitol of Michigan, Lansing, and deliver load at 8:30 a.m.
• Pick up next load in Grand Rapids, MI @ 10::30 a.m.
• Drive back toward Detroit (east) and deliver load to Wixom, MI @ 2:30 p.m.
• SLEEP and shower  -yay!

January 19, 2011

• Deadhead from Detroit, MI to Toledo, OH (I love Ohio) -2 hours
• Pick up load in Toledo @ 7:45 a.m.
• Drive $23.70 worth of toll roads through Ohio and Illinois to Glendale Heights
• Deliver load in Glendale Heights, IL @ 3:35 p.m.
• Relax for a few hours
• Pick up load in Des Plaines, IL @ 4:00 p.m.
• Drive through more toll roads in IL, travel through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota
• Deliver load to Gwinner, North Dakota to the home  of where Bobcats are  made @ 8:00 a.m. January 20.
• Dead Head to St. Paul Minnesota
• By the way, Missouri is like Florida compared to -22 degree temps in Gwinner and St. Paul.  . . .BRRR.

January 21, 2011

• Pick up load in St. Paul, MN @ 10:00 a.m.
• Drive back East on I -94 (we've now travelled 94 three times)
• Pay the tolls as we go through Wisconsin,  Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and finally Massachusetts all the way to the Boston Harbor.
• So driving all day the 22nd.
• We'll deliver this load at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning (Sunday, January 23).

Grand total of miles for the week: 3,955 miles, not counting deadhead. AND we have at least one more trip to go to get back to St. Louis!

Happy Birthday, Dad! I wish I could be there to eat cake with you, I would make you a mayonaise chocolatee cake with chocolate icing!

HOPEFULLY, we will be home to St. Louis next week for a reprieve before we do it all over again for three weeks straight.

1,422 Miles from Salt Lake City to San Antonio

The salt in the air, the chill of the lake effect snow, the prominence of the mountains, all played a role in boosting my curiosity about Salt Lake City, Utah. This area is stunning. Staying at a Truck Stop at the base of a mountain reminded me every morning of how small I am compared to the grandure of God's magnificent creation, Earth.

Exploring the geographic variances from state to state and seeing only the surface of these marvels at 70 miles an hour down the interstate still hold my fascination. I want to STOP!! I want to go explore Arches National Park and see the rock outcrops carved by a Mighty Hand, before all the minor (in comparison) historical events comprising the settlement of the United States. I want to explore eras of history that cannot even be fathomed except through a child's imagination at Dinosaur National Park.I want to know the rock composition of the mountains in Colorado, compared to that in Utah and New Mexico. What makes them different? What makes them similar? How did people traverse these imposing barricades and create historic towns that are now huge metropolis centers? I don't know if the gold rush and the promise of the almighty dollar could have made me uproot my family and move to these isoloated parts unkown.
I want to pause and research how Salt Lake City was founded and settled in 1847 by Brigham Young and how it became the International Headquarters of Mormonism.

Then, as we travelled from Salt Lake City to San Antonio with our hydraulic cylinders on board, I drove for the first official time yesterday. Eight hours through New Mexico and into the bordering area of Texas.

I still found my imagination and curiosity yelling Stop! Stop in Roswell and find all the Aliens that adorn fences, billboards, lamp posts, and businesses; stay a night and learn about the UFO sightings, eplore the  thought that crossed my mind -"If there isn't something to the UFO sightings, why is there a millitary fort?"; explore the UFO research institute -why in Roswell?? In a nutshell, as I drove through New Mexico, I can see why an alien space ship would land there -no habitation of land for miles and miles, barren and unchanging for centuries. But, every 20 miles or so, the land would be vaguely titled things like "Last Dollar Ranch."

As Toby Keith sings, "God Bless Texas, I sing "I hate (driving through) Texas." Perhaps it's because the only scenery I observed was scrub brush and mesquite trees, inoperable oil rigs, and bales of cotton that were as big as a railroad box cars for endless miles along Texas Highway 137. By the time we reached the Interstate, I was physically overloaded on Texan miles and my stomach was in knots. Not because of hills, but because of overwhelmingly flat miles that seemed to take an eternity to drive. I would look at the GPS and swear that two hours ago, the mileage was reflecting the same 232 miles to go.

But, when we arrived in San Antonio, my curiosity begin to get the best of my imagination again. And that small voice said STOP! I want to see the Alamo, the River Walk, go shopping and get a feel for the southwestern decor and jewelry and lifestyle. In this huge city, I want to learn about why there is such a blend of cultures between Spanish, Mexican, and American that has been present for centuries, it seems to run deeper than history books reveal about fought wars. I want to taste authentic Tex-Mex and listen to the music that blends with a flare.

See what truck driving does, it makes me want to retire. Lol. Now I want to buy an RV and go back to all these places that I barely saw while flying down the Interstate in the dark. Snippets of burried treasures glamorized in my very colorful imagination.

All this traveling has me pondering other things, too. Many things like WHAT AM I DOING???!!!

So many times, especially when I'm exhausted, I want to throw myself on the bed shake my fists and cry saying this is the most stupid thing I could have ever done. I get bored, I have never been so exhausted, I have no routine! I, I, I, . . . . I'm "better than this."  I miss socializing, I miss 8-5 Monday through Friday, I miss swimming, I miss tanning, I miss pedicures, I miss bills.

But then comes the raw truth. I am focusing on the essence of humanity, the simplicity of being, the joy of fellowship with my Creator, the complication of loving my husband -wink. There could be nothing better.

So, lesson I hope you draw from these past 1,422 miles of my travels. . . LOVE with all your heart, and everything you do, do it for the Lord. Focus on the importance of simplifying and realizing that blessings do not necessarily cost a fortune, and that mystery lies all around you.


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Links you might enjoy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio

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Pictures

 Truck Stop across from the Great Salt Lake in Tooele County Utah

 Another view of the snow covered Great Salt Lake on 1-80 headed East into Salt Lake City

I-80 headed east into Salt Lake City

Road outside of Albequerque, NM . . . my truck should never see this much air again! The on ramp to the highway was higher than a plane taking off!

 "Wanna play softball?" -Alien on a fence around a baseball field in Roswell, NM

Roswell, NM lamp post near downtown area -"I'll be watching!"

Status Update

Hey. Wanted to submit a quick blog to let you all know where I am.

• 1/5/11 Parsons, KS: Pick up 5 skids of steel concrete reinforcers, 10,455 pounds
• Drive 11 hours to Denver, Colorado, arriving at 8 a.m. 1/6/11
• Take 10 hour break
• Drive 11 more hours through the mountains to Provo, Utah arrive at 6:30 a.m. 1/7/11
• This was very tough, since we drove 35 max the whole way. We are drained!
• Drop off load at Joaquin University at a student housing construction site.
• Sleeping until 8 p.m.
• Ready for dispatch

Panther still hasn't received my drug test results, so I am not considered a co-driver for Michael yet. Looks like next week . . .

****  Pray for my Grandpa. He is back in the hospital, very weak and sick from CHF.

All in Time

Jauary 4, 2011

I found myself waking up to my alarm at 6 p.m. caught in this middle realm between today and tomorrow. Should I say good morning or good evening?

Time, why has society placed an absolute value on something so relative?

Some cultures, like Belize, consider it customary to be hours late to events, where other societies, like the US, says you are the arse of the evening if you are ten minutes late.  Never mind the crazy traffic or the bad hair day.

Then you have the ultimate double standard. . . daylight savings time and time zones. These imposed rules based on nothing more than a mere idea govern everything from the time the coffee brews to opening of the stock exchange.

Bringing it home, Michael and I work in Eastern millitary time, and live in central time, with the cultural imposition of Ozark central time. If we are late two minutes, our driver rating goes down, but if we are early, no one is offering any extra bonuses, or even a good ole' pat on the back. The joys of corporate eastern time. . .

Uncertainty, perhaps is the only certainty in life. I find myself uncertain of what time to sleep, what time to wake up. My circadian rythm has stayed the same, so although I wake up at 2:30 am., I'm sleepy until 6 a.m. When I wake up at 6 p.m. I still get sleepy at 10 p.m.

More than just my sleep time is uncertain, I find uncertainty in when our next load will be, we had more than we could say grace over, then nothing for two weeks.  I am uncertain of what next week's paycheck will be, uncertain of what part of the country I will be in. . . 

However, one thing I will clarify is uncertainty does not insinuate and is definitely not synonomous with un-stable /instability. The greatest example of us actually answering everyone's question of  "What are you thinking?!" Is Matthew 6:25-34. Or, as my friend Kerri would say, "No worries!"

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?
   ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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First load of 2011

• January 4,  8 p.m. cst -Leave West Plains and head to Poplar Bluff
• 10 p.m. cst - Pick  up swap load of braced 1x3 frames for Lazy Boy furniture
• Drive all night
• January 5, 7a.m. cst -deliver load to Lazy Boy mfg. plant in Neosho, MO

As Michael says, from one end of the road to the other!

Hopefully, tomorrow Panther will have my status changed to a co-driver for our truck and we will begin the New Year as official team drivers. I passed my Class B CDL on December 29.  There's still (somehow) money in the bank. God really does provide!