Our Big Adventure

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Day 5

We left from Mitchell South Dakota about 11 a.m. going toward Billings Montana. On the way, we traveled through the best kept secret in America........South Dakota. What a surprise. I always figured it would be a crappy state, but I was very wrong. It is a gorgeous, sprawling, rolling, green, lovely place, in the summer at least. The sky seemed to go on forever and sometimes, the sky would meet the road and it looked like a giant beautiful backdrop. It was mile after mile of beauty. We went past the exit to see Mt. Rushmore, but of course, we could not stop. That is my only complaint about truck driving........you go all these great places and you can only experience what you can see out the window. There is never time to stop and sightsee. But, I am grateful that I have seen what I have.

South Dakota

Be sure to enlarge this picture and see what we found!

South Dakota

1880 Town in South Dakota

South Dakota

Then, we moved into Wyoming. Also, a gorgeous place with rolling hills and mountains. We saw the Continental Divide, prong horn deer, lots and lots of the biggest pastures I have ever seen with horses and cows. It rained on us some and we could see lightning way into the distance. The West is really something to see.

Nothing exciting happened today, which is a good thing. We just drove and looked and laughed, and of course, I napped. We are now parked in Billings Montana at a very nice truck stop. We are headed to bed so we can be ready for our delivery in the morning early. No load after that yet, but there should be soon.

As is standard with truck driving, change change change. After we got settled in at the super nice Pilot truck stop, Jon calculated that we would be in violation if we waited until the morning to get to the receiver, so we would have to leave right then and drive to the receiver and spend the night in the parking lot. We had 24 minutes to get here. We will sleep for a few hours and then get unloaded at 6:00 a.m. No wonder these guys are exhausted all the time.

Wyoming

My future residence!

Wyoming

Wyoming-Look for the prong horn deer.

Wyoming

Wyoming-Another deer here, too.

Continental Divide Mountain Range-See the snow?

Manning our post!

Wanna know what truck drivers do when nobody is looking?

They play with the camera!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Day 4

New blogging technique.........the old format was a pain in the behind, so each new day will have its own post and pictures. It will be out of order at first, but it will be better in the long run.

Drum roll, please........without further delay, introducing Bigfoot's new girlfriend. I finally got some pictures of his new obsession. The Confederate Flag is a one of his additions picked up at the Iowa 80. Enjoy!

My competition!

Kenworth W900

So, we have had a blessedly uneventful day today. We left the Iowa 80 around noon time. We ate lunch at the Wendy's, did a little more looking around, and headed out. We made it across Iowa to Marshalltown for our pick up and started moving across Iowa into Minnesota and we are almost into South Dakota, where we will stop for the night. There are lots of corn fields in Iowa and big pretty farm land. We passed a section of Iowa that had lots of huge windmills on both sides of the interstate. There must have been fifty on each side. You may have to enlarge the pictures to see them.

Bigfoot made a friend today. He got to visit with an Iowa State trooper. He was nice enough to pull him over for a meet and greet, even though he admitted that he was doing nothing wrong. They chatted for a minute, he checked out his license, and told him to have a good day and a safe trip.

We just showered at a Pilot Truck Stop (sure isn't the Iowa 80) in Mitchell South Dakota. It is 4:30 a.m. mountain time. We are going to sleep for a few hours and get back on the road.

That's all for this day, folks!

Windmills in Iowa

Windmills in Iowa

Iowa

I am so disgusted I can't even look at you.

Sparkle in the pretty Iowa grass.

We are invaluable to this mission.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Here We Go!!!!!!!

Day 1
The time finally came for me to go on the road with Jonathan. He was home for a few days and we got things ready. We were supposed to be leaving on Wednesday, June 10, but that got changed and we had to rush around and be ready to leave Tuesday night late. We managed to get it together and be ready, but it was an ordeal. First stop was outside of Macon, GA, headed to Elloree, SC. We will leave here in a little while, go to Newberry, SC and off to Davenport Iowa tomorrow. Not sure of the route, but its west. Nothing exciting or noteworthy so far. We did go through Harlem Georgia, birthplace of Oliver Hardy of Laurel and Hardy. Little bitty town but several businesses had paintings of them on their buildings.
One difference this trip is that Jonathan surprised me (and not the good kind of surprise) with a new Kenworth W900 truck he leased. I will reserve additional comments on the matter and just say that it is red. I like red. He is tickled to death, which is all that matters, right?
At this moment, work is a bust for me. Everything worked perfectly in the driveway and has been working perfectly for over a week at home. I got all set up here tonight to work and my foot pedal will not work.....at all. I am dead in the water without it. Hopefully the computer guy at the office will work some magic on it tomorrow.

Laurel and Hardy in Harlem, Georgia

Day 2
We got up this morning and needed to head out early and get on the road. However, the day had different plans. The truck was dead. Seems that the fuel from one tank drained into the other tank, drying out the fuel pump causing the truck to think it was out of fuel. Poor Jonathan hauled fuel, 5 gallons at a time, from the pump to the truck, which did not work. Thankfully, a driver parked next to us knew what to do and he got us up and running. We headed off to our pick up location, but got lost along the way and could not find the place. After much swearing and stomping, the day straightened out and turned out to be very nice. We traveled through South Carolina, into North Carolina, East Tennessee, up into Kentucky, and over into Indiana. We saw the Smokey Mountains and the Gorge (which may be the same, just different states?) and Kentucky was lovely with lots of beautiful horse farms and rolling pastures. Indiana was kind of flat and vast and nondescript. We drove in sunshine for a while and then through torrential downpours for a while. Now, we are at a truck stop outside of Indianapolis for the night. We are very tired and ready for a shower and a full night of sleep.
Sparkle has been a miserable traveler this time. Something scared her yesterday and she has been up my behind ever since. I have been calling her the hemorrhoid. She will not stay on the bed and she is very nervous. I cannot settle her down at all. She is driving us crazy. All I need is for her to puke in Jon's truck and we may be hitchhiking back to Georgia.
I think I got my foot pedal to work, so hopefully I will be able to work soon. I think I am too tired tonight. We got another load already. We pick up in Iowa shortly after we deliver this load and deliver in Billings Montana. I have never been to Big Sky, so I am really looking forward to that.
We are having fun, though it was touch and go this morning. Stay tuned.........

What a SHITORIFIC day!

My day is SHITORIFIC, too.

Snuggled in the trees.

Smokey Mountains/the Gorge.

The Gorge in North Carolina

Jellico Mountain, Tennessee

Louisville, Kentucky

Day 3

Another banner day truck driving. We had to get up super early to leave to make it to Iowa on time for our delivery. Jon set the alarm for 5:00 am. The alarm goes off, I jump up so I can make it to the bathroom and take Sparkle out too and not hold up the show. I dress and dash around and make it back to the truck and Jon realizes that he set the clock wrong and we were up two hours before we needed to be. I could have choked him to death. We lay back down and sleep for a while longer and head out. We make it up here with no problems and we have been sitting all afternoon. For them to unload 3 cases of product. I am about to die to go to the bathroom and we are sitting in an empty lot with nothing around. So during all this sitting I figure I will at least get some of my work done since my foot pedal is working now. I transcribe two jobs and my foot pedal dies again. We cannot get it to do anything AGAIN! Most frustrating. Sparkle is feeling a little better now, but she is still nervous and does not like it when the truck is moving. She will nap while it is still, but while it is moving, she is very uneasy, which is unfortunate because we are only getting paid to move!

So far today, we traveled through Indiana, into Illinois, and then across the Mississippi River into Iowa. It all looks so much the same, I missed the crossing over from state to state all three times. They are not unattractive places, but I have not yet seen anything worth remembering. We did go through a town called Normal, and it was. Not sure right now how much more driving we can do today, but we have a pick up somewhere here in Iowa. Hopefully, a full night's sleep is in the immediate future.

Well, finally something tourist-worthy! We went to the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, the largest truck stop in the world. And it is! It is HUGE! There are at least a thousand truck parking spots, which is impressive! Trucks everywhere and it is so huge that it makes the tractor trailers look small. There are several restaurants, a huge shopping area of truck equipment and accessories, gift shops, theater, dentist, hair salon...........you name it! Jon bought a lot of stuff for his truck and he is well pleased. We ate Taco Bell for supper (so I am super happy). We are going to spend the night here, which is GREAT! I bought the movie Step Brothers and we are going to watch it on the computer tonight and eat ice cream from the Dairy Queen. It's trucker Disney World. Check out the pictures of this place.