Ice Storm Aftermath

On Tuesday we came upon the aftermath of the Ice Storm that went through Oklahoma. As we entered the state all seemed well- it was cold but there was no sign of snow or ice


Quite suddenly- as if there was a line where the ice started/stopped- we were surrounded by ice draped trees. It was really quite pretty- even glistening in the sun. Luckily again for us, the roads were perfectly dry and not icy.

As we drove on---for the next 100 miles!! -- the ice coat thickened. The trees were sagging, even the blades of grass were coated

Eventually the trees were broken from the weight. We saw where power poles had snapped too.

As we approached Oklahoma City there was more evidence of why the interstate had been closed during the height of the storm. Many vehicles were in the ditch.



AS for us...........we sailed on through. The roads were dry the whole way. We are in Amarillo Texas tonight.

Winter Storm!

Almost everyone in the country has experienced a winter storm in the last 5 days. Washington state was pounded (again) with snow and then freezing temps. Denver had the same- only colder. The middle of the country either got snow or an ice storm and the East coast has gotten lots of rain. Luckily for us we dawdled on the east coast over the weekend and we decided on a southerly route to cross the country.
On Monday morning we checked the Weather Channel and saw that we would be meeting the storm in Tennessee. Again- luckily for us—the storm was all rain by the time we crossed under it. Here are three pictures of us approaching and going though the storm
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Two more states for us

We loaded chocolate in New Hampshire on Friday, spent Saturday with Tim and Amy, visited my uncle in Washington DC on Sunday afternoon and drove into southwest Virgina by Sunday night.

On Monday we finished the rest of Virginia and then crossed all of Tennesee and half of Arkansas- both new states since Joanie started traveling in June.

JANUARY - On the road again

After a wonderful break at home for the holidays we began a new journey in the Big Red Truck on January 4th. First we had to drive the 300 miles from home back to where the truck is parked - our "commute". Here is a picture of the snow laden trees near Kettle Falls as we left.

We have hit more snowy weather on this trip. We were forced to stop in the middle of Wyoming on Saturday 1/6 because the next 200 miles of Interstate 80 was closed-the driving conditions were too treacherous. We think they would have been wise to also close the 100 miles we drove before we were stopped. We saw 10 jacknifed trucks and nearly as many overturned cars.

We were lucky- when they opened the road on Sunday morning - the sun was out and the snow was cleared well off the road- we sailed through (Literally- most of the time we were being pushed by a very strong tail wind. Made us glad we had a full, heavy load). Here is a picture of the hiway on Sunday as the sun came up and the wind was blowing the snow across the road infront of us.

We delivered our apples in Rochester NY on Tuesday night. We hadn't seen snow on the ground for a 1000 miles but it started snowing as we sat in the truck backed up to the dock. It was very pretty. (And thankfully it only lasted long enough to drop 1/2 inch.

We will be in New Hampshire on Friday to pick up a load of Chocolate :) then we will be heading to Los Angeles

More Christmas shots

The snow falling on Christmas Eve

We all got AVENGERS t-shirts. Here are Amy, Kurt's sister Kathy and Lisa modeling theirs.

Wonderful Christmas

Christmas in Kettle Falls

We woke up to 6 inches of new snow on Christmas morning. What a nostalgic way to ring in our first Chistmas back in our old home. Amy, Tim, Lisa and Ben were all there and we were joined by 8 additional friends and relatives for dinner. It was VERY special.

December--ANOTHER 12,000 miles!

Here is the map of our December travels. We left Tacoma on December 1st and returned to Kettle Falls late on December 23rd, logging ANOTHER 12,000 miles. Considering that it was December we had pretty good traveling weather. The blue line from upstate NY to New Jersey was the only time we were in serious snow conditions. When we headed west to LA we took the yellow-southerly-route to avoid storms in the upper midwest.

R-n-R time for us

Here is Kurt in Huntington Beach California on our day off. We rented a car and drove to the coast. The weather was a very lovely 75 degrees- no complaints :)

Of course we couldn't resist the urge to call someone and find out what the weather was like up north-- 25 degrees and snow falling in Kettle Falls. again- no complaints from us :)

Then we got sent back to Phoenix and ended up with a day off visiting with the Hellmans and Matters in Quartzsite. We had a blast riding their quads out in the desert.

Four new states for me

We have covered a lot of new-to-me territory in the last few days.

Now there are only 8 states in the lower 48 that we haven't traveled in since June (KS, TN, WV, ME, MI, FL, AR, and KY)

We started out in New Hampshire on Saturday Dec. 9th. We drove west on I-90 until we turned south at Cleveland Ohio. After cutting across the middle of Indiana and Illinois. and staying overnight at Effingham IL overnight and entered Missouri at St Louis in the morning rush hour. Despite the time of day, we took the mid town route rather than the beltway so that I could see the Gateway Arch.

Since then we have traveled Oklahoma, the panhandle of Texas and New Mexico.
We entered OK just at dusk- and drove most of the way after dark. Interstate 40 follows the route of Historic Route 66 (all the way to California) and true to that old road there are tourist traps or casinos about every 20 miles. Here is one at Big Cabin- i t features a giant Indian statue in its parking lot.

We entered Texas in the morning- it is also pretty flat- but is was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so we were happy

New Mexico was also full of tourist traps-- and they caught us. We decided we needed a plant for our truck. Here it is

We arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and delivered our yogurt on Thursday morning. Hope to be back in the Puget Sound by Tuesday and shortly thereafter in Kettle Falls

Headed west again

After fooling around in the snow and cold on the East coast we are headed west again. Last Thursday we hit our first snow storm- a full white-out-in NE Pennslyvania. Just when we were starting to look for someplace to exit a plow truck with salt (the truckers call them "salt shakers") pulled on just ahead of us clearing our way. That was quite a relief after an hour of white knuckle driving. We spent that night in New Jersey and the next day drove to New Hampshire. On Saturday afternoon we loaded a fresh batch of yogurt and now we are headed to Los Angeles. Looks like we will have good weather all the way across. YAY

December Travels

Updated Wed. Dec 6th: Well we are East again. We left Tacoma on Dec 1st- and today we are in Rochester NY after delivering our load of Washington apples. Here is a map of our route- each black arrow on the red line was an overnight stop for us. On Thursday we will be picing up a load near Lake Seneca in Geneva NY and take it to NJ. Still no snow to hamper our travels-- yay

So far the only snowy roads we have encountered have been on the mountain passes. Here is a picture of a snowy road in Oregon--and that is a Christmas tree that adorns our windshield

Otherwise it has been beautifully clear- but very cold. [down to zero at night and teens and twenties during the day. .
Here is a picture of the approaching sunset in S Idaho Saturday afternoon

It is hard to show "cold" in photos-- but here are two attempts. Snow from the fields drifting across the highway in Nebraska...

And ice floating on the Missouri river between Nebraska and Iowa

Our November travels- All 12,412 miles!

Here are the routes we traveled in the month of November

Nov 5- depart Seattle to Bay Area with machine parts
Nov 7- depart Antioch CA to New Hampshire with yogurt arrive Nov 11
NH to North Carolina with yogurt
NC to Mississippi and Louisiana carrying frozen veggies
Nov 17 depart Louisiana to New Jersey with frozen shrimp
NJ to NH with dried milk powder
Nov 22 depart NH to Los Angeles carrying yogurt
Nov 26 arrive in LA
Nov 30th arrive in Tacoma carrying liquid rubber

A visit with Amy and Tim

Our load of shrimp was going to New Jersey so we hightailed it north and then we were able to spend two days visiting with Amy and Tim. They had to drive us back to the truck stop where the truck was parked. So we invited them in for a visit- it was bit crowded to say the least.

More Bayou scenes

Driving through the south- Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas was very interesting-and very different from our Pacific Northwest. The land is very flat from the eons of river activity and there is standing water and fingers of waterways- bayous - everywhere. We picked up a truck load of frozen shrimp at one of the inland bayous. It wasn't called Bubba Gumps- but it could have been. Right behind the building we loaded from was this waterway with the shrimp boats tied up and two guys fishing from a little skiff. It was very sweet.


We also saw a new crop for us- Sugar Cane - growing in the Louisiana low land. Here is a field that was being harvested. We saw other fields in earlier stages of development.

South Carolina's GIANT Peach

Here's another interesting road side attraction-along I-85 in South Carolina.

Cleveland's 90 degree turn in I-90

We have traveled Interstate 90 from coast to coast numerous times this summer so I am sure when I say that Cleveland has the sharpest turn on the whole route. I-90 swings by downtown and makes a full 90 degree turn at Lake Erie. Their warning signs tell the story.



Here is a picture of downtown- Especially for George at OlyCAP, since this is his hometown.

The Atchafalaya Swamp

We parked for the night at the interpretive center for Louisiana's Atchafalaya Swamp. Interstate 10 crosses the swamp on 18 miles of causeway briges. The interpretive center is on an island of land near the edge of the swamp. We took a short hike and watched a movie about all the flora and fauna.

Five new states for us

Five new states for me! We are in the south- and we have visited S Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana in the last 24 hours.

We spent a day and half in N Carolina(a state I have visited before). We unloaded yogurt from New Hampshire and reloaded frozen vegetables to take further south. Thanks to my work on the computer Streets program- we had the thrill of taking our 65 foot truck through Historic downtown Salisbury AND historic downtown Thomasville NC. Unfortunately we were too preoccupied with finding our way through without taking out any telephone poles to truly enjoy the scenery.

We actually traveled through SC and Georgia after dark and in driving rain - so no good pictures but here are a few observations. Fireworks are big down here- there are huge superstores for them near each border. Waffle House restaurants are big too- there is one at nearly every interchange. Hotel rates are very economical- $39 for Holiday Express and Comfort Inns $29 for Motel 6.

Sunrises

With the advent of shorter days we are driving before sunrise (and after sunset) every day.
One morning we watched a very beautiful sunrise over Nebraska. At this time of day it is especially evident how FLAT it is out here on the plains!


Heading west we saw this sunrise on The Crazy Mountains in Montana

We get a bit off the beaten track!

Insterstate 80 was closed for four hours while we were driving through Wyoming on Wednesday. We decided to take a detour that took us on some back roads for 120 miles. We were held up along the way by a herd of sheep headed for new pasture.

We stop as the sheep approach- lead by one of several dogs


Here are the sheep as they pass along in front of us.


Here is the tail end of the herd and the two herders on horses-- notice that one is talking on a cell phone!