Heading WEST again

Wednesday August 23rd we started west for Los Angeles with another load of Yogurt. We took a slightly varied route from our last two trips. Here are a couple of roadside attractions.

Kurt to the rescue...again

For the third time this summer Kurt has been confronted with a public safety/emergency event right in front of his Big Red Truck.
In June he was the first vehicle to stop following a roll-over accident on the LA freeway. In that one he used his fire extinquisher to put out the flames on the car and then with 2 others he helped free the driver from the overtuned car.
This morning we encountered a wildly veering car infront of us on I-76, 60 miles from Denver. This is the second time we have come up behind an impaired driver. The last time, in July in PA, our truck formed a rolling blockade with 2 other trucks that kept everyone else on the freeway behind us for 15 miles until the state patrol arrived and pulled over the careening driver.
This morning we were the only truck around and we followed this sedan for 20 miles as it swerved from shoulder to shoulder narrowly missing obstacles and the few other vehicles that tried to pass it. We were of course on the phone with 911 but no officer was in the vicinity. I cannot tell you how intense it is to follow a car and watch it go out of control time and time again and not be able to do anthing but watch helplesssly, fearing at any moment you are going to see somebody get hurt or killed. As it finally turned out, the driver went off into a ditch, almost rolled but managed to pop back on the highway and rolled to a stop on the white line. Kurt took that opportunity to pull alongside the car and block him in with the trailer. That left us sitting in the driving lane- but it kept this driver from doing anymore harm to himself or others. The driver was out-of-it enough that Kurt walked back and was able to talk him into giving up his keys. We remained on the road until the state patrol finally arrived....and it was an hour later before our hearts finally calmed down.

How's this for sticker shock!

We are glad the fuel costs don't come out of our pocket! This was today's fill-up, we will do this 2 times more before we reach Los Angeles on Sunday.

Dinner with Valerie

We arrived in Massachusetts in time to make a social call to the Connecticut home of our friend Valerie Pedersen. Valerie picked us up at the truck stop and when we arrived at her house we were greeted by her two guard animals :) . Thanks for a great dinner Val!

The view along the way

It is interesting how the view changes as you travel across the country.
From East of the Cascades in WA to Chicago (except in the mountains) the view is wide open with trees in clusters off in the distance. See the picture of the giant cow.

East of Chicago the trees are more frequesnt and start to line the freeway. From Ohio to New Hampshire the freeway runs through a virtual tunnel of trees. And, amazingly to me, the freeway shoulders and medians are all mowed- for hundreds of miles!
They mow the shoulders in Nebraska too---then they bale it up-- and use it to feed deer in the winter.

Breakfast with Aunt Nancy

On Saturday morning we were in Minneapolis. Nancy, Tom and Dan Matter came to have breakfast with us.

Life in the truck

NEW TRIP Started Wed. 8/16 Going from Wash. to Mass.

After 6 hectic days of moving we are back in the truck taking a load of chocolate covered nuts to Massachusetts. (Yes, we got samples- but had to pay for them.)
Here are a couple of pictures from crossing the Rockies in Montana on our first day out.

Home Sweet Home

We have perpetual smiles on our faces. Everything is sweet. Here is our first sunset- (glowing red through haze from a distant forest fire)

We are all moved!

In three days we moved ”lock, stock and hot tub” back to Kettle Falls. Thank You to everyone who helped- ESPECIALLY Mike and Catharine- we could not have done it without you!

Here is a picture of our moving crew and one of our moving caravan.

Monday- NO Brakes!

Kurt had an adventure in driving today. A part fell off his air line- probably from the 206,000 miles Kurt has logged in the last 18 months == or those railroad tracks we bottomed out on when we were driving around Chicago last week. Anyway- today as Kurt was driving downhill on Donner Pass in CA the part disintegrated, the air pressure dropped and he had no brakes!!!



Next time you see him be sure to ask him for the whole story. The soft version that he gave to me over the phone was "it was bad- but it could have been worse--I was getting one pump on the brake sporadically- and luckily I wasn't in a real steep place--and I managed to get her stopped in a rest area and repair it myself enough to get into Sacramento."
I think there may be more to the story-- but I an not sure I want to know.

Saturday- On To Cheyenne- Drop off Joanie

We covered the remaining 432 miles of Nebraska and 45 miles of Wyoming by 12:30 pm local time. We arrived in Cheyenne just about the same time that Lisa and Ben arrived from Denver. Using their car we drove into town for lunch. Cheyenne was having a community celebration - there were 8' high decorated cowboy boots on every other corner. Here is a picture.
After a great lunch in a local hot spot we returned to the truck and sent Kurt on his way west. Here is picture of Lisa saying good bye to her dad. Joanie will be spending the next 5 days in Denver. Kurt will deliver the yogurt near Sacramento on Tuesday and reload with something to take back to the Seattle area by Thursday or Friday.
We will be packing up our household in Sequim next weekend and driving to Kettle Falls on Monday. Adios until then :)

Friday - Ohio to Nebraska

Here is a picture of Kurt driving and of the Illinois state line.
We are a little more refreshed this morning-thanks to a good night of sleep in an Ohio Rest Area and air conditioning. :)
Still got a early start knowing we had to go around Chicago-- and today we did just that- went around Chicago for 20 miles on surface streets. We were lucky though- there was a 5-mile and growing backup on I-80- and we heard about it on the CB about just in time to pull off the freeway. It took us about 45 minues to drive around but we know we would have been stopped for several hours otherwise. We practically had the freeway to ourselves when we got back on it.
Today was a long day of driving- 778 miles-- it helps when it is so flat and the states allow trucks to go 65 mph. We finished Ohio, crossed Indiana, Entered Illinois on the city streets, crossed Illlinois and Iowa and made it into Nebraska. Whew.

Thursday Aug 3- Headed WEST again

After that long night we were glad that all went well today. It is great to be back to just driving- with no schedules to meet. the truck stop was STILL without power when we woke up so we had to backtrack 10 miles to find some diesel and coffee. Once those fillups occurred we were all happy. Our only task today was to decide where to stop for showers. We had planned to shower at our overnight stop but with no power that didn't happen. Next we planned for two possible stops in PA. We decided to drive by the first one because we could see storm clouds ahead and wanted to out run them (we did). We drove by the next stop because as we neared the exit the charger dial in the truck took a sudden dip and Kurt didn't want to shut down until he figured out the problem (we turned off an auxillary power cord and all was well).
Our next possiblity was in Hubbard Ohio- and we were determined to stop ... after two days of traveling in east coast humidity. I took a picture of the welcome to Ohio sign and you can see another band of dark clouds to the west. We thought we were going to miss the thunderstorm- but instead it hit full force just as we left the freeway in Hubbard less than 10 miles later. For about 10 minutes we were in a total washout. Simultaneous flashes and cracks of lightening and sideways drenching rain. All the lights came on and a two inch deep river of water poured into the parking lot drains from all sides. We watched it all until it subsided and then went in for showers. When we came back out the storm had passed and the setting sun was trying to break through.

Wednesday - post script

[the sign in the picture says Welcome to Vermont-- a new state for us on this trip]
What a night! FINALLY left our last delivery at 8pm and then had 2 hour drive on basically a county road in New Hampshire. Would have been picturesque and quaint in the daylight- but was mostly tiring at night. Anyway we lucked into getting a door at Stonyfield as soon as we arrived and then we slept nearly 3 hours while they loaded the trailer with yogurt bound for the bay area. At 1:30 am EDT we were on our way and decided to go just into Connecticut-about 2 hours away.
After our nap we were both plenty alert for the drive but glad to finally arrive at the exit for the truck stop. It was quite dark and I remarked that it would be hard to find this place if you didn't know where you were going. It didn't click for either of us until we were all the way into the parking lot that the darkness was due to a power outtage- the truckstop was at at standstill. Good news- we could park for free- bad news- we couldn't fuel up and we didn't have enough fuel to run the engine (and the air conditioning) for the rest of the night. We parked, ran the AC on full blast for about 10 minutes and then shut down the engine and hoped we would fall asleep before the truck got too hot. (neither of us hardly remember our heads hitting the pillows..... and it was nearly 4 hours later before the heat in the truck woke us up)

Wednesday- A glitch on the way to New Hampshire

Three more deliveries today and then back to Stonyfield to await a load going to the west coast. Had to wake up by alarm clock this morning- glad we don’t have to do that often- it is too much like “work” (instead of a what I call this- a working vacation).
While we were backed up to the dock at our first warehouse this morning they had a chemical spill and suddenly the whole warehouse emptied out of a door near where we were. Later I also took a picture of trucks jockeying around the loading docks—I liken it to dinosaurs moving around.
Our second drop turned into a nightmare-- A very inefficient check in/check out process. We sat at the door for hours and only got our paperwork when Kurt threatened to leave without it. Made us too late for the third delivery- it had to be resheduled for the evening shift. It will be 10 or 11 pm before we get to Stoneyfield.
The good news is we are headed west by morning at least. We will see Lisa and Ben in Denver on our way across.

August 1, Tuesday -- the mail run

Monday- We unloaded our water and eventually went back to Amy’s. Try again tomorrow

August 1, Tuesday --
Our dispatcher calls- we have a load to pick up in Cranbury NJ. It will have 4 deliveries- a mail run. Turns out our load is assorted dry groceries- from handi-wipes to mandarin oranges. Spent a long time at the loading dock in NJ. Kurt had to count all the cases and sign for them.
But we are eventually on our way and make good time around NYC towards upper NY. Here are a couple pictures of our trip today- crossing the Hudson and driving along a typical freeway lined with trees-the green tunnel as I call them.
Our first delivery was in Newburgh NY. Since we were only dropping 4 pallets we decided to unload them ourselves- instead of hiring “lumpers” to unload. Another experience for this newbie trucker… This warehouse was massive! Easily 50’ high inside with racks like Costco—only they go 10 tiers high. A dozen employees riding around on motorized fork lifts moving pallets that have come off trucks. We drag off our 4 pallets using a manual pallet jack, restack the pallets per the receivers orders, rewrap each stack with saran wrap and await a “checker” to check-in our load. It was in the 90’s outside – and no air conditioning in this cavernous building- Kurt and I were both sweating bullets- but we know we saved time by doing it ourselves.
We didn’t make it very far down the road after that work. We parked for the night at the Connecticut Welcome Center and Rest Area- the first exit when you enter the state. Turned out to be a great overnight spot. Well off the freeway with truck parking relatively close to the facilities. We watched part of a movie and went to bed with the engine and the AC on.