It's Tuesday- we must be in California

Well, here we are on the west coast again. We loaded yogurt on Friday night and we are in Barstow CA on Tuesday night. We had a pretty uneventful trip across- except for Sunday afternoon in Oklahoma where we encountered several bands of storm clouds that were potentially tornado-spawning. Here are two examples

Later we parked in E. Tulsa for the night and tuned into the local TV channel. Every commercial break was interrupted by thunderstorm and tornado warnings. Communities just to the west of Tulsa were warned to head to tornado shelters. Soon after, our location was hit by a very fierce T-storm with stunning lightning and torrential rains. We were fine in the truck.

These next pictures fall under the catagory of 'things you don't see every day'

Today we stopped at a rest area in the Arizona desert. It looks like your average rest area with restrooms and shaded picnic tables. But we loved the signs they had posted all around the edge of the pavement.

Here is a distant shot of Kurt standing by the sign

And here is a close up of the sign

It says "Poisonous snakes and insects inhabit the area"

The Poconos and beyond

We have been back on the east coast for two weeks. Our eastbound load was 7 shipments to go to 7 friendly hometown hardware stores. Five of our delivery addresses - in three states-were on Main street! We started in the Poconos, circled the Catskills and finished in the Berkshires. It was a very scenic trip. A highlight was getting to see spring arrive--When we started two weeks ago there were barely buds on the trees and now the hillsides are greening up. Here are some scenes from our travels

Here in the Pocono’s most of the trees were still just bare trunks except every now and then there was a blossoming tree in the under story. It was very pretty to see the lacy blossoms against the dark of the trunks


We traveled through the Delaware Water Gap- a national park along the Delaware river where it punches through the Pocono Mountains. I took this picture partly for the yellow forsythias- that I love and they were in bloom everywhere. Also for the huge clump of rhododendron beside it. Rhody's are the state flower of Washington - but clearly they thrive in other areas of the country as well.


OK, here we are getting up close and personal with some pretty old homes on some pretty narrow byways on the way to one of our deliveries.


Scharf Swamp. This a plot of land in the Poconos that happens to have recently been WON as a door prize at a land auction by our good friends in Washington, Bob and Laura Scharf. Since we were passing so close to it we got out of the truck and walked to the site. The 90x100 lot has a meandering drainage ditch running through it. Sorry Bob- looks like you won't be making much of a killing selling this beauty. :)


After making our 7 hardware deliveries we were sent to Atlanta. The route takes you by New York City. Since it was a Sunday we decided to take the close-to-the -city route through the Bronx and over the famous George Washington Bridge.


As you cross the bridge you can look down the Hudson River and see the skyline of NYC

New England back roads

After our trip to Georgia we were sent to Vermont and from there over to our yogurt factory in New Hampshire. There just aren't any freeways that go from VT to NH so we traveled a lovely country road- and as usual saw some interesting sights.

Here we are going through a quaint New England town- another main street excursion for us. I think this was Bennington NH. We could see that it is probably "ground zero" for the fall folliage season. Happily today was not too crowded for our big truck to come though.



Another town had this great monument to pioneer mothers- a baby in one arm and a rifle in the other.


It is never a good thing when you are driving a 13' 9" high vehicle and the sign says 9 foot high bridge ahead. Fortunately this covered bridge was on a side road.



Leave it to those crazy Vermonters to put cows on top of their farm stand.


As we came around a corner we saw a sign for 100 Mile View- so here it is.

Fire on the freeway

We happened upon this huge accident on Georgia this week. It probably occurred about 3 minutes before we passed it. Luckily for our travels, it was on the other side of the freeway and amazingly everyone got out safely. This is the worst accident we have passed this year.

Here is the first sight we had of the accident- the fire is just starting to get going.



As we got closer we could see that a tractor-trailer rig was on fire

Then we saw that a motor home and another semi were knocked into the median
Finally, as we passed alongside we noticed there was also a car involved- under the burning trailer. That really was upsetting so see- but later we found out that the car was being towed by the motor home so no one was in it at the time of the accident.

A rosy peach.......or?

We posted this picture of a giant peach last fall when we drove through South Carolina. This is the view you get when you are traveling northbound

On this trip we got the southbound view of the giant peach.
It gives you a wholly different look, doesn't it? We have heard it referred to as a "giant butt"- and you can see why!!

South Carolina flowers

Driving through South Carolina is a treat in the spring. They have planted huge expanses of wildflowers in the median of the interstate. Several were in bloom this past week. The bottom corner is just a picture of the soil color- it is so red- very different from what we are used to in the Pacific northwest

A visit with Amy

We are on the East coast and have two days off to spend with Amy (while Tim is out in Denver). Here is Amy- all 6 months pregnant of her! Isn't she beautiful!? OH, and aren't the flamigos beautiful too!!

New Driver

We went back on the road on Wed April 18th—and now we have two drivers- sort of. Joanie has passed her written test, her CDL physical and received the go-ahead from our company to drive the truck as an Over-the-Road Trainee. That is as long as Kurt occupies the passenger seat when I am driving. I logged over 300 miles on my first official day and actually backed into a parking space (with my coach directing my every move)

Here is my coach - hard at work

Home Time

We got back to Kettle Falls for a week of RnR (remodeling and rest) from April 9th to 16th. We blew off 6 months of pent-up remodeling energy in our first full day home! We demolished walls, ripped up rugs, cut through walls, covered up one former door opening and framed in a new wall. As it turned out that one day pretty much did us both in so we settled for making more plans, going window-shopping, socializing and generally relaxing for the remainder of our time at home.

Our fist remodel step is to make a bathroom at one end of the extra bedroom. We are adding a bathroom door and moving the bedroom door plus building a new wall to enclose the basement stairs.

Here is the former bedroom entrance before our work started

Here is the wall with the door eliminated.

Here is the wall that will become the new entrance to the bathroom and bedroom before work began. The onpening in the floor to the left is the basement stairs.

This is a picture of what we had accomplished by the end our first day. There is a new hole in the wall, a new beam supporting the roof and a framed wall to enclose the stairs. Whew! Next time home new pocket doors will go up on the other side of this new opening.

More signs of spring-

Ten months of the year the desert areas of Utah, Arizona and California are brown and dry. But in April and May they do have a green season including a purple wildflower bloom. Here is the proof

We also saw lovely purple bushes blooming in northern California- near Mt Shasta. Don't know the name of these but they sure were stunning along the roadside

A day off on the California coast

After driving cross country and stopping in Denver we made it to LA on Wed. Apr 4th. We unloaded two shipments in the morning and then had to take our mandatory 34 hours off. On Thursday morning we rented a car [with Enterprise- since they come right to the truck stop to pick us up] and we headed up the coast. It was a lovely day as we drove along the Santa Monica shoreline. We made several stops to walk barefoot in the sand and to watch the waves and the surfers. In Ventura county we passed acres and acres of strawberry fields- full of ripe berries and hundreds of pickers. We spent the afternoon in beautiful downtown Santa Barbara with its gorgeous gardens, interesting shops and the main street that ends at a pier that juts into the ocean. We had to have an ice cream cone and sit for some great people watching.

The only down side of the whole day was that we forgot our camera!! So here is a picture of the sky- you have to use your imagination to see us walking on the pier etc.....

The Denver window reveal

On Monday of this week we had the afternoon and evening off to spend with Lisa and Ben in Denver-- and as usual we tackled a home improvement project. Last spring when Lisa and Ben reomoved the old wall paneling in their new livingroom they discovered a window underneath- it was also sided-over on the outside. On this trip Kurt sawed through the exterior siding to let the light come in.
In the first picture Lisa and Kurt are looking in as the first siding board comes off.

In this picture Joanie and Lisa are posing infront of the new, bright window. Lisa said it is like having an entirely new room.

We capped off the visit by going out to dinner. Then it was back to the truck to sleep so we could get up early as we had only about 30 hours to drive the 1000 miles left to get into LA and make our delivery on Wed morning. (we made it with time to spare)

Separate Trips for Kurt and Joanie

While Joanie stayed in Washington, Kurt made a trip to Los Angeles, then back to the Bay Area and then all the way to our favorite yogurt factory in New Hampshire.

He stopped for a night underneath Mt Shasta- and had this great room with a view

He had to cross a dust storm in the Nevada desert and

he got a great shot of his reflection while driving in Wyoming

Meanwhile Joanie was able to make a quick trip to Kettle Falls on a picturesque spring day.

Here is a dramatic picture of the coulees of eastern WA- these are canyons carved by ice age floods.

Up on the wheat prairie I skirted a large rain cloud

And here is one of my favorite views of Lake Roosevelt (the 150 mile long lake behind Grand Coulee Dam). Our home is about 50 miles from this spot-around the bend inthe river.

On Friday 3/30 Joanie flew from Seattle to Manchester NH. Kurt drove the truck right into the airport and picked me up and we immediately headed west towards Los Angeles-- with-- you guessed it-- another load of yogurt.

New digs for Jay

Joanie jumped out of the truck two weeks ago to help transition our brother Jay into a new

nursing home. First he had to say good bye to his care givers at Sherwood Village. Clearly they were going to miss Jay. They left his this note at his breakfast table on the last morning.

Jay seemed to make the transition well and had oriented himself to his new surroundings the first day. Messenger House has a large common area where Jay takes part in small activities throughout the day. Here he is looking at a book

Something different- the Nevada desert!

We got sent to Phoenix last week and our route took us down the entire length of Nevada. We have come to really appreciate the stark beauty of the desert-- but the long straight stretches can also be boring....

We are glad there were mountain vistas to break up the flat expanses.

Yes, there REALLY IS a Cottontail Ranch in Nevada-- but it doesn't look like it is much of a going concern any more.

The striations on these rocks are beautiful and interesting to see.

OK, I admit- 350 miles of desert wasn't all that exciting- Kurt caught this picture of me napping in the middle of the day!

Spring Flowers

It is still wet and grey in the Pacific northwest-- but the daffodils are blooming- a sure sign that spring is on the way!!