Thursday- On the East coast again. Friday- on to Amy and Tim's

Thursday Kurt drove the rest of the way to our delivery location in Londonderry New Hampshire. We are delivering yogurt from California. Next week we will be back here LOADING yogurt to TAKE TO CALIFORNIA! Go figure!

By funny coincidence we were able to meet up with our good friends from Vancouver WA Mike and Catherine this afternoon. They has just driven from Washington to Massachusetts to pick up some classic motorcycles they plan to restore and they were 30 miles from us. We met up for dinner and had a nice time to catch up on all our travels.

Friday morning we picked up another load- this time bottled water- that will be delivered in Philadelphia on Monday morning. We drove to Philly and parked the trailer 10 miles from Doylestown PA then drove the tractor right to Amy and Tim's. Ah a weekend off :)

Here are a couple photos from Amy's front yard.

Wednesday -- Iowa to Pennsylvania

We were really thankful for our close in parking spot this morning when we woke up to a pouring rain storm. The rain lasted for the next 150 miles with visibility down to about one mile- it was as if we were driving through the rain cloud.
Fortunetly the rain subsided before we reached Chicago. So we had good visibility through that traffic mess. Actually made it through the city with ease- only one slowdown. Even with the clouds and intermittent showers it was a muggy 85 degrees outside.
We stopped at a rest area and took a walk across a foot bridge over the "Big Blue River". Not well named at this time of year because of a bloom of a thick green plant growth that coated the entire surface. While we marveled at the intensity of the green layer on the water we noticed movement. A lump of green the size of a grapefruit was rising out of the surface. We could see it was head shaped with a slightly pointed snout- but the green layer stayed in place so we never could figure out what animal it was. I went back for the camera and took a couple shots of turtles on branches in the water. Truly the creature from the green lagoon.
Today we drove through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and 78 miles into PA. It still amazes me!

Tuesday July 25th Kurt's Brithday

Happy Birthday Kurt
NO rest for Kurt on his birthday- we have lots of miles to cover today. We have the rest of Nebraska to plus most of Iowa. NE is pretty- the road is VERY straight and the views are of gently rolling farm ground- mostly growing corn and to a lesser degree soybeans. More trees appear the further east you go.
We stopped for the night at the IOWA 80 truck stop. Billed as the "largest in the world". We lucked into finding a parking spot right at the front door. Saved us quite a bit of walking as we made numerous trips inside- today was a laundry day.
We had dinner in the onsite buffet restaurant- I asked for a candle to decorate a piece of cake- instead the waitress brought an overfilled plate of ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream with the piece of cake. We waddled back out to the truck!

Monday- Wells NV to Sidney Nebraska

Monday
Up early- the truck was stuffy. Drove the last 50 miles of Nevada, went over a ridge of mountains and dropped down to the great basin. White salt flats for as far as the eye could see- 40 miles it turned out. Then over another ridge and dropped down to the salt lake basin. the highway doesn't get clost enough to see the whole lake but we did pass some smaller water filled flats and on the calm morning the mountains reflected on the water.
Passed through Salt Lake City- you can see some of the Olympic venues from the highway- we were amazed at how steep the two ski jump hills are- nearly straight down. Utah is greener than Nevada too.
Next came 400 miles of Wyoming. Pretty inhospitable land. Towns are few and far between. Billboards for “Little America” stops at each end of the state are highlights. Stopped at the Lincoln Memorial rest area- the highest point on I-80 at something near 8000 feet.
Stopped for the night in Sidney Nebraska-it’s windy and hot and home of a huge Cabela’s store and a super Wal-Mart- we walked to both.

Sunday- Antioch CA to Wells NV

We were at the loading dock in Antioch before 6am. And on our way with a full load of yogurt by 8:30. Drove a local highway along the Sacramento delta to Lodi then picked up I-5 north and then I-80 east. We will be on I-80 until we get to Pennsylvania.

Donner Pass was a pretty drive-here are a couple pictures. We took a half mile nature walk at the top.

Then down to Reno and across most of Nevada. Stopped for the night at a truck stop in Wells-thanks to some passing thunderstorms we decided it was cool enough and we were tired enough-to turn off the truck for the night

Friday-drive to the Bay / Saturday- IN SAN FRANCISCO!

Friday
Only a couple hundred miles to our delivery at the PSI warehouse in Alameda. We were all empty and on our way by 11 AM. Drove east of Oakland to Pittsburg and found a motel 6. We were able to leave the trailer at the Antioch warehouse where we would be loading on Sunday- so we could drive the tractor right to the motel. Thankfully too because it was now over 100 degrees in the shade.
Rested and used the pool in the afternoon. Also walked to nearby shopping center for provisions and take out dinner foods.

Saturday- In SAN FRANCISCO!
We have the whole day off- so we got up early and drove the truck to the BART station only 4 miles away. An hour later we were on Powell Street in downtown San Francisco. There was already a long line to get on a cable car so, tourist map in hand, we started walking. We found our way to Chinatown- enjoyed the sights and sounds there and continued on roughly in the direction of fisherman’s wharf.
Next thing we knew we were at the base of Telegraph hill. We explored the neighborhood with its lovely terraces, stairways and views of the Bay Bridge and back towards downtown to the TransAm pyramid shaped tower. We found ourselves at a dead end and the stairway out ended at the base of the Coit tower. Glad to find an ice cream vendor and a toilet there. Walked again towards the wharf and found a tiny pocket park- just an 8x8 viewing platform accessed by a nearly hidden gate and steep set of stairs.
A couple more blocks and we were at the wharf area. We had a sit down lunch at the Fisherman’s Grotto Restaurant. Later we took the Blue and Gold sightseeing boat under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. Finally took the trolley bus back to Union Square and the BART back to the east side.
While SF had been an almost too warm 80 degrees with a nice breeze- Pittsburg was way over 100. We retreated to our motel room- save for a cooling dip in the pool.

Thursday - Tacoma to Corning CA

Our trailer got loaded out of the PSI warehouse yesterday so we pulled out of the parking lot about 5:30 am with our load of jam. Had to return 15 minutes later when the load proved to be over the legal limit. Dropped a couple pallets and we were off again.

Another Beautiful day. All the mountains were out. At Eugene we turned east on route 58 to cross over to 97. Very scenic drive over Willamette pass and through the high desert. Not too hot- but will did need the AC.

Mt Shasta was out in all her glory too.
Kurt drove all the way to Corning CA - specifically so we could have internet access- then the wireless system at the truck stop was down. Ah well. Slept with the motor and AC on all night.

Wednesday - Reedsport back to Tacoma

Headed north again. This time on route 38 from Reedsport to I-5. This route also turned out to be very pretty. We started out pretty early so we got to see the valley as the sun was rising. Elk were out in the elk viewing area. The Umpqua River was smooth and misty. Several little towns along the route featured historic markers for their older buildings. Elkton was especially cute—and featured several new wineries- would be fun to return to visit.
The drive up I-5 was without any difficulties - even through Portland. Mt St. Helens was “out”. We made our delivery a few blocks from Safeco field and managed to get out of Seattle before rush hour traffic set in.
Went to Bob and Margaret’s for showers and then out to dinner in Fife- the White Sport- good food. Slept in the truck in the PSI lot.

NEW TRIP- to the Oregon Coast-Tuesday July 18th

Today we have a short haul to Coos Bay Oregon with a delivery also in Rainier, Oregon on the way. The trailer was loaded for us on Monday. We arrived at the truck last night and got reasonable settled before falling asleep exhausted. After all, we started Monday morning in Spokane, drove to Kettle Falls, unloaded a 6x12 trailer and then drove back to Tacoma.
Anyway, back to today. We are taking 20 “totes” – big plastic containers of environmentally friendly wood stain. Each tote weighs about 2500 lbs. We are excited to be going to the Oregon coast- will be a nice break from all the interstate driving we have been doing. We still ended up traveling I-5 all the way to Eugene and then we took the very scenic- and a little scary for a big truck- route 126 to Florence. I took lots of pictures of the road- with its tight curves and overhanging tree branches forming a canopy at times.
From Florence to Coos Bay we were traveling highway 101- also very scenic. A highlight was seeing how the massive dunes of nearly white sand are overrunning the forests in places. Since today was a very windy day we could easily see the forces that are blowing the sand further onshore.
After our delivery, we drove back as far as Reedsport and found a turnout on the highway to park the truck. We have a view overlooking the Umpqua River— priceless.

Thursday- Homeward bound

Homeward bound. Drove from the rest area at the California border to Tacoma. Got going early enough to watch the sun coming up over the Siskyou Mountains. No traffic problems at all- made great time. Parked the truck at the warehouse and headed over for dinner and showers at Maureen and Jerry’s. Shared a bottle of Red Truck Wine that we had carried up from California- our new signature beverage.

Friday
Kurt got up early- leaving me to sleep in the guest room at Maureen’s. He made the delivery of the Costco sneakers and then came and retrieved me. We were back in Sequim by 4 pm. Read the mail and started packing for our trip to Kettle Falls planned for Sunday.

Saturday
Packing the trailer-
Sunday
Drove to Spokane towing the 12' trailer containing the bulk of Kurt's garage. Dinner with
Tim, Kathy and Jim at The Elk. Very Nice
Monday
Drove to Kettle Falls, unloaded the trailer, got the word on our next trip and drove back to
Tacoma.

Wednesday - Top of the Grapevine to Oregon border

Wednesday
Since our delivery isn’t scheduled until Friday, there is no rush to get north. We are aiming for the last rest stop at the California- Oregon border. California is much drier, hotter and browner than it was the last time I came thorough here in April. Kurt could identify several grass fires that were not there the last time he passed by just 3 weeks ago.
We arrived at the rest stop while the sun was still shining. Had time to take out our chairs and loll around on the grass before dinner. Later we ate our rewarmed truck stop ribs while sitting at a picnic table overlooking the Klamath River. Again it cooled down after sunset so that we slept with the windows open and the engine off.

Tuesday- leaving LA

We ‘slept in ‘ today and had breakfast at the truck stop restaurant but when we checked with our dispatcher we found out we had loads to pick up as soon as we could get there so we were soon on our way. One pallet to pick up in Rialto- that went fine. A truckload of Adidas sneakers to pick up in Mira Loma was not so efficient. Despite being the ONLY truck in this 50-door warehouse we waited for four hours before they started loading us- and it was another hour to figure out how to jimmy the over stacked pallets of shoes into the truck. Eventually we were on our way and this time, though we were once again in rush hour traffic we seemed to be going in the good direction so we never hit any snags.
We stopped for the night at a truck stop at the top of the grapevine on I-5. It was cool enough to sleep without the truck running. Especially after showers and a nice Mexican meal at a small restaurant across from the truck stop.

LA Delivery day

My -oh- my 3 am came early. Kurt is all buisiness on delivery days. We had 5 stops to make this day. First one only 5 miles from the truck stop came off quickly and without a hitch. When we arrived at the next delivery there were 20 trucks ahead of us and a gate guard who was friendly but non committal about how long the wait would be. We decided to go make our third delivery and return. Good thing too because there was still a long line when we returned to the second stop. We ended up waiting to unload for a total of 5 hours for our 3 pallets!
Our last two deliveries were about 10 blocks from downtown LA. After an hours drive on 3 LA freeways we discover that the loading dock for one delivery was in a one-lane alley off a city street. We were lucky that there were only a couple other trucks waiting on the street and they were able to move to make room for Kurt to back up. See pictures. The last delivery was at a newly built loading area with more than enough room for today's 70’ long trucks. Our trip back to the truck stop was through LA rush hour traffic—and just as slow as one would expect. We walked back to the mall for dinner again and this time made a few purchases.

Sunday - The final push into LA

The final push day to get into LA by late afternoon. Interstate 15 takes you through several pretty spectacular rock canyons.
The hightlight of our day was stopping over in the Virgin River canyon- which is actullay located in the extreme NW coner of Arizona. We parked the truck on an exit ramp and took an hour walk through an abandoned state campgouund and down to the river’s edge. A still-signed interpretive trail taught me the name of the major vegetation- Joshua trees and Creosote bushes. It was well over 100 degrees on our walk at 9 am—probably would have been a good idea to take some water with us! I was very red faced when we returned to the truck—but the AC brought my temp back down quick enough.
After the walk there was more desert to cross, then we cut right through the middle of Las Vegas, crossed some more desert and crossed a mountain range to drop into the LA basin. All Hot-hot- hot. We had the truck running with the AC on from Our Virgin River stop on Sunday until we stopped at the top of the Grapevine leaving LA on Tuesday night.
Anyway, Sunday was a shower night for us. We also walked to the Ontario Mills shopping center about a mile from the tuckstop for a nice dinner and some window shopping.

Saturday - Denver

Up by 5:00 our time so that we could get to Lisa land by 7:30 her time. Ben and Lisa met us at the Denver truck stop and took us back to their new house. Kurt and Lisa headed off to Home Depot while Ben and I walked the dogs. Then we all started into projects. Lisa constructed a kitchen cabinet including cutting the countertop plywood with her skilsaw. Kurt adjusted the hinges and the fit of the front door. Ben rehung the dog fence gates that cross the driveway. (see picture) I did the motherly housekeeping thing-making one corner of the living room ready to live in.
We got a lot done in 4 hours and then it was time to get back on the road. Denver was enjoying its first real rain in many months—good for them but that meant no vista of the mountains as we went over Eisenhower Pass. Also meant it wasn’t too hot- so that was nice.
What a contrast of terrain in 24 hours. Grassland plains to rugged, forested mountains to red rock desert.
We`stopped for the night at our now ‘favorite’ Utah rest area—up at the top of a rock ridge. Only space for about 10 trucks- so it feels intimate and private. Also cool enough at that altitude to forgo the AC overnight.

Friday- Nebraska and Wyoming

This day was mostly about Nebraska—and Nebraska is spelled C-O-R-N. Several hundred miles of nothing but corn growing on both sides of the road. We also covered several hundred miles of Wyoming.
At Cheyenne we turned south towards Denver. This chunk of Colorado- the Front Range- is wide open with mostly open grassland. As we went south we could see rain clouds gathering.
We parked for the night at a rest area about 60 miles from Denver. We got out our camp chairs and sat on the edge of the parking lot to read the paper, complete the daily crossword puzzle and eat our dinner. The rain clouds missed us but we got quite a lightening show off in the distance.

Thursday the 6th. Put the Hammer down

Since we want to have plenty of time to see Lisa and Ben in Denver on Saturday we need to get in a lot of miles today. So we are up early and underway. Check off PA, OHIO, and Indiana. That put us arriving in the Chicago metro area about 6 pm. This time we took the outer loop on I-80. Since this stretch is always under construction we were in a tie up for about an hour. But our slow progress allowed me to get several pictures of the BIG PIT that the highway crosses. It is the rock quarry that provides the granite or limestone that Chicago is made from. The pit is on both sides of the road and seemingly it is about a mile square. The interstate is like a rock bridge that crosses the center. From my vantage in the passenger seat I could look over the guard rail and down into the pit. I don’t think the pictures give the full perspective of how huge this hole is- it is amazing.
We started listening to a book-on-tape on this leg of the journey - and it distracted us from the driving well enough to keep Kurt going all the way to Davenport IOWA before we parked for the night.

July 5th - Back to work

Good Bye York Beach

Back to work.
Had to get up early to get the rental car back. Retrieved our truck and found a place to do laundry and reprovision.
We loaded a truck full of yogurt at the Stonyfield plant in the late afternoon and headed WEST again.
More quick trips though states- leave NH, go through MA and CT and NY and into PA.
Everything is very green and lush—thanks to record rains in recent weeks. We make good time and arrive in Scranton before dark.

July 4th- Maine Coast

Fourth of July 2006
We woke up to a typical Maine coastal morning- very dense fog. We actually couldn’t see the waters edge looking out our balcony. However it was still warm and humid outside. We decided to drive to a walking path located at the next beach town- Ogunquit. Turned out that our little tourist maps left out a lot of detail. Ogunquit and Perkins Cove-the two ends of the path were both teaming with people and shops and the path crossed in front of several fancy beach front hotels-not exactly the remote, rugged Maine beach walk we were expecting. None the less it was great people watching and hanging out with the other half.
We were lucky to find a parking place at the Ogunquit beach end. Even as the fog continued to hover overhead, hundreds of families were arriving at the beach with their chairs and coolers and umbrellas in handy netted wheelbarrows. We got overpriced egg sandwiches from a beach front stand and walked into the little town and purchased souvenir sweatshirts and hat.
Then we drove to the other end of the trail- Perkins Cove, thinking, wrongly again, that we would have the place to ourselves. We again lucked into a parking space and found our way to the beach path. At this end we did find some of the rugged coastline we expected- see our pictures.
After returning to our motel we rode the tourist trolley to the York Beach commercial district where the merchants were happily ringing up sales as this was apparently the first decent weather of the summer. We found a couple more t-shirts we couldn’t resist before we reboarded the trolley to take us back to our beach. The sun never did fully break through all day but there were still families camped on the beach in the late afternoon.

Day 6 - July 3rd - York Beach, Maine

2 Sets of Happy Feet- On vacation at the Maine seashore

OK. now with a day off I have figured out that date.
This morning we checked into the dispatch office, dropped the trailer in the yard, dropped the tractor off at the repair shop, rented a car and began a mini-vacation. Vowing to stay off the interstate we found our way to the 'Shore Road'. As hoped it was a scenic coast hugging route and we headed north because I wanted to say that we made in to Maine. Of course, all the little towns, harbors and coves we traveled through were to-die-for-quaint.
We were surprised at the amount of very new housing stock—and the large size of the new homes- apparently this is where money comes to retire in the NE. Anyway we crossed from Portsmouth NH to Maine via the low, local bridge, did a drive through tour of cute Kittery and kept going north.
It was early afternoon by now and the sun was hot, the sky was blue and we found ourselves in a long line of beach goers headed to the ocean. The line came to a stop as it passed along the edge of York Beach boardwalk. Everyone was looking for parking spaces and we could see the beach was already packed. We pulled into the Lobster Pot restaurant-where there was parking-and went inside to watch the spectacle from their front window. We scarfed down a bucket of delicious steamers then agreed- lets stay here tonight. To our delight there was a room with a balcony and a view available right next door.
We spent the afternoon walking the whole length of the beach. (Swimming was out of the question-the water was freezing! Of the thousands of people on the beach- only the surfers-in wetsuits- were actually out in the water past their knees.) After naps we drove to several of the suggested dinner spots and found the wait for dinner to be over an hour. Instead, we came back to our motel and walked back to the Lobster Pot and had ourselves a lobster each. Yum. The evening was punctuated by numerous firework displays from the homes behind the motel.

Day 5- SUNDAY--PA-NJ-NY-CT-RI-MA-NH

Wow- six states in five and half hours!
We were up REALLY early today—this time we had another big city to get through- New York City. But it was remarkable close- and since it was a Sunday and time was of the essence- We decided to take the more direct route- over the George Washington Bridge. This is NOT the route that a trucker would EVER choose- the road is narrow, full of curves and in terrible shape- not to mention within sight of NYC. But………..it was Sunday and it was early…………

Unfortunately my pictures don’t do the bridge or the sunrise much justice and it was foggy- but you get the idea. From there we whizzed through Connecticut, Rhode Island and into Massachusetts. We were actually early for our delivery. From there we drove up to New Hampshire and ---got a hotel room! Just our luck—the hot tub was on the fritz. Ah well. We didn’t have much more interest or energy than to take showers and go to bed anyway.

Day 4- Saturday - Beloit Wisconsin to the Pennsylvania Pocono’s

OK we got ANOTHER call from the shipper- they DO want the cherries in Massachusetts by Sunday. Luckily we had gotten an early start anyway –knowing that we were only an hour or so from Chicago and we wanted to get around the city as early as possible. Since we were early and because it was Saturday we decided to take I-90 straight through the city—and I do mean through the city. Here is a picture to show how close we were to downtown. And the highway goes right by the Chi-sox stadium so I got a shot of that too.
Even for a Saturday it was a little hairy getting through Chicago but once we hit Indiana we were off and running. We followed I-90 through Indiana and into Ohio and then veered more south on to I-80 near Cleveland. Lots of beautiful countryside in all those states—farms, trees, lakes, gentile rolling hills. We drove into the evening and stopped at the next to last rest area in Pennsylvania before you enter NJ. (And we were glad we had stopped there because the last rest area was closed due to the flooding of the Delaware River- as we discovered in the morning.)
A highlight was two kinds of fireworks- the first were the wonderful little fireflies that came out at dusk. They were very visible as little flashes of light along the shoulder. Several hit the windshield and they remained lit for about 5 seconds and appeared as tiny neon green specks. And... Since we were traveling through a resort area- the Pocono’s- in the evening we were treated to several fireworks displays over the trees from numerous unseen cabins.
788 miles total today.

Day 3- We are at the middle

Well, we covered a lot of ground today too. The rest of North Dakota, diagonally across Minnesota and Wisconsin and we stopped just over the Illinois border. It was interesting to see how the vegetation has changed. MT and ND were so open with few trees - mostly rolling grass covered hills. Minnesota was almost immediately more treed-- and the farms are clearly identifiable with their house, barns, silos, windbreaks all defining the homesteads. WE stopped early and west of Chicago because the shipper called today and said we weren't scheduled to deliver until Monday.
I didn't take any pictures today-- so here is a picture of our truck

Day 2- A long one!

We got a call from our shipper mid morning-- "Is there any way you can get those cherries to Massachusetts by Sunday?" We said "Sure!"-- and off we went through all of Montana and a chunk of North Dakota. Turned out to be 920 miles when Kurt turned off the truck! We will sleep well, no doubt. Nothing particularly remarkable about the scenery we saw today-- but there is a good reason why Montana is "Big Sky Country". You can see forever. I did see an unusual billboard near the MT/ND border. All it said was SMILE.

Day 1-June 26, 2006 We are finally on the road

Here we are-- or at least a reflection of us going down the road-- (notice the big red truck reflecting in the back of this truck.)

First day out we drove to Yakima and picked up 40,000 lbs of just picked Washington Cherries to take back to New England.

A highlight today was having Jim and Susan meet us at the Idaho border. Jim rode with Kurt and I rode with Susan for the next couple hours. Nice way to catch up with them. We parked for the night in the Ten thousand Silver Dollar parking lot.