A lot has happened since my last blog -mostly I got to spend two wonderful weeks home enjoying family. March 5-12 Michael and I returned to St. Louis after a stressful week in a loaner truck with a diferent company. Long story short, the brakes didn't work! So, we swapped our load in Memphis and took the truck back to the company. The reason we were driving this truck is because our original truck's transmission went out (previous blog).
The week in St. Louis was spent figuring out what truck we were going to drive, and enjoying time with Michael's parents, Nancy and Gerry. We also spent a good two days organizing a lifetime of memories from Michael's room. I loved it! I know Michael very well, but as we packed up baseball cards to high school and college graduation momentos, it was priceless to share in his memories and hear the stories of his youth. So, now his room is our room and looks completely different!
Going home to West Plains always grounds me and makes my heart swell with pride as I return to the town and family that stands steadfast as my rock and my strength. Plus, I know my way around the city streets! I spent two and a half full days with my grandparents enjoying great conversation and basking in the sunshine. Michael helped Grandpa tune up the ole lawn mower, changing the oil and sharpening the blades. Now Grandpa can tend to the spring plantings of his garden and amaze me with how he still manages to make the lawn look as manicured as a golf course.
Spending time with Mom and Dad and Tara was precious. Mom and Dad are getting a new driveway put in the back of the house, so Michael layed a sketch with the garden hoses to help measure out how many cubic feet of concrete they were going to need. Boy, I need to go back to high school math! I had to Google how to figure square yards for asphalt and cubic feet for concrete! By the way, square yards measures area, cubic feet measures volume, so they cannot be converted into each other. Lol. Hats off to Uncle Google!
Mom, Tara and I went shopping in Springfield on Friday, the 18th and mom bought me new spring clothes -much needed! They will definitely get their wear as I packed them to wear while on the road. So, as mom says, I won't have to look like a trucker every day. Wink. THEN, as if that wasn't enough of a present, on me and Tara's b-day, the 19th, mom treated us to a day at the beauty shop, getting our hair highlighted and cut for spring, plus new manicures and pedicures. We had a blast yucking it up with the girls at the shop! That evening, the family came over to celebrate # 28 with us and ate cake, ice cream, and yummy finger foods.
I cried all day. I guess 28 hit hard. It started with the dozen roses from Michael being delivered to the beauty shop, and then I cried at the drop of a dime the rest of the day! Lol. I'm going to have to skip the country on the "dirty 30." Perhaps a cruise. . .
Then back to work the next week, we drove from St. Louis to Weyers Cave, VA to pick up our new truck, again with our original company, National Hot Shot out of Fort Smith, AR. The truck is just like our first one, except half of it is brand new from being in a wreck.
Ah, Weyers Cave. . . beautiful country in the valley of the Blue Ridge Mtns. about 30 miles south of Harrisonburg. It is in the middle of chicken farming country. Michael and I said we could see ourselves relocating to Weyers Cave and opening a KOA campground. Food for thought.
We then drove to Ohio to get our Panther decals (March 24). The minute we got all the decals done, we were dispatched to pick up a load in Walloughby, Ohio and deliver to Steens, Mississippi -720 miles. Woo-Hoo! We then relocated to Birmingham, AL (March 26) and were dispatched at 1 a.m. to drive 130 miles to swap a load with another driver in Chatanooga, TN and take it all the way to Marlborough, MA (our current load). We will deliver this load at 6 a.m. on Monday, March 28.
If you read one of my first blogs, I compared expediting to water, well again I allude to water -no wading, baby, it's sink or swim!
Enjoy spring and as Easter approaches, I encourage you all to dwell on the life of Christ and His love that was not bound by human expectations or social acceptances. He lived every day modeling the essence of pure love. I think often of the disciples of Christ, and the saying "In the dust of my Rabbi." How closely the disciples walked to Christ, that they would be covered in the dust from the ground of which Jesus walked. How I desire to walk so closely to Jesus that I too absorb just a bit of what He teaches. Maybe I can then be a contagious spirit that stains the hearts of those around me.
~Pictures~
These pics are of our second truck, we named it Clifford the Big Red Dog. Seeing that it is a full size semi - tractor, you guessed right -I couldn't drive it for anything! I am too short and a big wimp. Plus, the breaks were crap and we had a headache from the overwhelming third hand cigarette smoke, we cleaned for two days, shampooed carpets, scrubbed walls, etc. and still couldn't get the overwhelming smell out.
More pics on next blog! Plus, keep reading, I hope to have a very special video posted soon.