Sunday 26th August:
well its been a normal week on the road, we got loaded from Wisconsin to Georgia, Georgia to Wisconsin, Wisconsin to Tennessee, Tennessee to north Carolina, and we're currently going from north Carolina to Wisconsin! sound like fun? we'll it kinda is, at least we're getting to know the local truck stops well hehe.
The reason for the small area of travelling, is that we can't go west to California - its on fire, we can't go to some places on the east coast - they're flooding, Texas is in a bad drought but had a hurricane heading towards it. Ohio/Colorado/parts of Wisconsin, are flooding as well. Thankfully Wisconsin isn't too bad, though when we got through the Indiana/Illinois state line we have to take a detour because part of the main interstate is closed due to flooding.
We had a little bit of fun of on this trip, when we were heading to Tennessee we were loaded out of Wisconsin, only problem we couldn't find any empty trailers! we had to travel all over the place to find one. one! empty that we snapped up and took for our trip. Then we got to North Carolina and a storm hit - lightning, heavy rain the works. Not normally a problem except we were in the mountains, loading, with our trailer backed down a damn steep ramp. I felt bad for the guys loading us - the rain was running off the top of the trailer and right in the dock, then extheir power transformer got hit by lightning which took out their power. We were watching the fast rushing water coming down our ramp and thinking that we might not be able to get up the slippery incline - but we did it! yay pat and his good driving. So we travel down the road (there's only one road in and out of that small town) and we came across a police block in the road, there were power lines down across the road so we had to sit. That wasn't so bad, they got it cleared up quick and we made it to our stop for the night. All in all, pretty entertaining week.
Oh I forgot to mention, we went through the smokey mountains! that's gorgeous, utterly gorgeous. Its so peaceful and serene, even with all the traffic going up and down.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
On The Road to Georgia
Friday 17th August:
Well we're back on the road.. this time our destination is Georgia!
Our AC is definately fixed which is wonderful news (at least until winter). When we got in the truck there was a note stuck to the window that our heater doesn't work because of how they fixed it, BUT they had ordered the part to fix the whole thing so we'll be back in for that about the 18th august.
well this evening has been interesting. we stopped at Beloit (the area on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin). When we went in for dinner we sat down and waited for the waitress, she wandered over but happened to have too many things in her I hand because when she sat our cutlery down one set slipped and hit me (at this point i say to her through giggles "at least it wasn't a steak knife") the poor lady felt so bad about it she didn't charge us for our drinks (despite telling her numerous times that it was okay, accidents happen). She looked absolutely horrified at her slip, i felt bad for her. So we start eating our meal and we just happened to look up, and standing by the salad bar was our landlord! (who happens to be a truck driver too, as well as having a son who is a truck driver). We chatted with him for awhile, then when we were leaving we stopped by his table to say bye, he asked to see our ticket for dinner took it up to the counter and paid for it with his! he had gotten a bunch of vouchers for free food, and seeing as he doesn't use them up fast enough before they expire he wanted to shout us. He's such a nice guy - even before buying us dinner i knew that about him. When he's at home he runs a farm, mows our lawn, does repairs at his own house, his daughters and ours if needed. He's the complete opposite of our last landlord.
Saturday 18th August:
wow, I've just seen the most amazing thing I've seen to date in America.... thousands of motorbikes going down I65 in Indiana - the occasion? Toys for tots!!! they had to shut the interstate (4 lanes wide) down so it was just the bikes who also had a police escort. We had the CB on and heard talk of a "big" group of bikes heading our way, so i thought maybe 30-40 bikes tops..... 11 miles later, the stream of bikes was still coming (we had to take an exit ramp at that point). It was so amazing, to see people coming together like that, in such huge numbers was.... ii can't really describe it in words. I was a tad annoyed that people on the CB were getting angry and bitching about the delay, and yeah i do understand how much it sucks to be delayed when you've got a delivery deadline hanging over your head, but this only happens 1 day a year, thousands of people come from all different parts of the country to donate toys and time to underprivileged children.
Monday 20th August:
Made it to Georgia, and survived morning rush hour on the interstate (yay us). The last part of our load isn't being delivered until tonight so we're going to have a nice relaxing drive over there and see if they'll take it a bit early. Our Internet connection has been acting up since Saturday which sucks but Pat is on the phone to them now and hopefully it'll get sorted soon.
I'm sure you guys have heard that there's a hurricane category 4 heading towards the US, normally they hit Florida which is kinda near where we are at the moment, but thankfully for us its heading towards Texas/gulf of Mexico so we wont be in its way. It sucks for the people over that way who are in the path of it though.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but when we went home, I had "Heavenly Creatures" delivered on DVD (yep the kiwi movie about the girls who murdered one of their mothers in Victoria park, Christchurch). I haven't seen it in years but it was just as good as I remembered it. The housemates didn't get to see it because we were all pretty busy so hopefully next time we're in for home time we'll be able to sit down and watch it (I think Hobbit, Shana and Marj would all like it).
yay Internet is back on, so I'm going to post this up for you guys to read.
Well we're back on the road.. this time our destination is Georgia!
Our AC is definately fixed which is wonderful news (at least until winter). When we got in the truck there was a note stuck to the window that our heater doesn't work because of how they fixed it, BUT they had ordered the part to fix the whole thing so we'll be back in for that about the 18th august.
well this evening has been interesting. we stopped at Beloit (the area on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin). When we went in for dinner we sat down and waited for the waitress, she wandered over but happened to have too many things in her I hand because when she sat our cutlery down one set slipped and hit me (at this point i say to her through giggles "at least it wasn't a steak knife") the poor lady felt so bad about it she didn't charge us for our drinks (despite telling her numerous times that it was okay, accidents happen). She looked absolutely horrified at her slip, i felt bad for her. So we start eating our meal and we just happened to look up, and standing by the salad bar was our landlord! (who happens to be a truck driver too, as well as having a son who is a truck driver). We chatted with him for awhile, then when we were leaving we stopped by his table to say bye, he asked to see our ticket for dinner took it up to the counter and paid for it with his! he had gotten a bunch of vouchers for free food, and seeing as he doesn't use them up fast enough before they expire he wanted to shout us. He's such a nice guy - even before buying us dinner i knew that about him. When he's at home he runs a farm, mows our lawn, does repairs at his own house, his daughters and ours if needed. He's the complete opposite of our last landlord.
Saturday 18th August:
wow, I've just seen the most amazing thing I've seen to date in America.... thousands of motorbikes going down I65 in Indiana - the occasion? Toys for tots!!! they had to shut the interstate (4 lanes wide) down so it was just the bikes who also had a police escort. We had the CB on and heard talk of a "big" group of bikes heading our way, so i thought maybe 30-40 bikes tops..... 11 miles later, the stream of bikes was still coming (we had to take an exit ramp at that point). It was so amazing, to see people coming together like that, in such huge numbers was.... ii can't really describe it in words. I was a tad annoyed that people on the CB were getting angry and bitching about the delay, and yeah i do understand how much it sucks to be delayed when you've got a delivery deadline hanging over your head, but this only happens 1 day a year, thousands of people come from all different parts of the country to donate toys and time to underprivileged children.
Monday 20th August:
Made it to Georgia, and survived morning rush hour on the interstate (yay us). The last part of our load isn't being delivered until tonight so we're going to have a nice relaxing drive over there and see if they'll take it a bit early. Our Internet connection has been acting up since Saturday which sucks but Pat is on the phone to them now and hopefully it'll get sorted soon.
I'm sure you guys have heard that there's a hurricane category 4 heading towards the US, normally they hit Florida which is kinda near where we are at the moment, but thankfully for us its heading towards Texas/gulf of Mexico so we wont be in its way. It sucks for the people over that way who are in the path of it though.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but when we went home, I had "Heavenly Creatures" delivered on DVD (yep the kiwi movie about the girls who murdered one of their mothers in Victoria park, Christchurch). I haven't seen it in years but it was just as good as I remembered it. The housemates didn't get to see it because we were all pretty busy so hopefully next time we're in for home time we'll be able to sit down and watch it (I think Hobbit, Shana and Marj would all like it).
yay Internet is back on, so I'm going to post this up for you guys to read.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Photos... round 2
Hope you guys enjoy these.. more to come (when i figure out where they were taken)
Sleepy Country Morning (not too sure what state this was in)
Kiwi Campers!
Testing...Testing...Testing... North Carolina isn't sure its really there!
Welcome to Texas: The Lone Star State!
Paris... Paris, Texas that is
Sleepy Country Morning (not too sure what state this was in)
Kiwi Campers!
Testing...Testing...Testing... North Carolina isn't sure its really there!
Welcome to Texas: The Lone Star State!
Paris... Paris, Texas that is
home time!
Yep we've got a few days off so i'm using this time to catch up on my neglect inbox and catch up on posting on here. When I'm done uploading the photos to the computer and resizing them i'll be able to post them on here.
Its really nice to be back at the house for a few days in fact we'll be here until friday (probably early morning we'll head back to the terminal). I really enjoy being on the road but coming back is a nice break - especially since it means that i get to see the housemates, the felines and relax at the house.
Oh an amusing thing happened when we were going through Ohio on the way to South Carolina, we were listening to the radio and guess what band comes on? yep, new zealand's very own Zed! they played "hard to find her". It made me smile thats for sure
How are we spending our off-time I might hear you asking? well today we did some clothes shopping (not an overly fun activity in my mind), got some new sneakers because mine worn down, rented some movies, spent time out with the housemates not to mention catch up on sleep.
alrighty i'm gonna finish this post up so i can get started uploading those photos! enjoy guy don't forget to comment to say hi if you stopped by to read this :)
Its really nice to be back at the house for a few days in fact we'll be here until friday (probably early morning we'll head back to the terminal). I really enjoy being on the road but coming back is a nice break - especially since it means that i get to see the housemates, the felines and relax at the house.
Oh an amusing thing happened when we were going through Ohio on the way to South Carolina, we were listening to the radio and guess what band comes on? yep, new zealand's very own Zed! they played "hard to find her". It made me smile thats for sure
How are we spending our off-time I might hear you asking? well today we did some clothes shopping (not an overly fun activity in my mind), got some new sneakers because mine worn down, rented some movies, spent time out with the housemates not to mention catch up on sleep.
alrighty i'm gonna finish this post up so i can get started uploading those photos! enjoy guy don't forget to comment to say hi if you stopped by to read this :)
long awaited update...
Friday 27th july:
This week has been so busy its not funny. Darting around from place to place so quickly and often that most days i'm not sure what day it is and where we woke up that morning hehe.
We've been sitting at on of the yards in texas for the past day and a half, chatting with a bunch of new drivers and some veteran drivers, even a couple of trainers turned up for a chat. They were really awesome people, one of them actually looked like Willie Nelson! He asked me last night If i knew how to french braid because he wanted his hair put that way (his hair was freaken long too). Unfortunately I didnt know how to and neither did the other lady staying there. Hopefully he'll find someone to help him out with that. We had some pretty interesting conversations with the people there - everything from experiences driving truck (most of the new to the company drivers had been driving truck for awhile), to them asking about new zealand and aussie.
Right now (litterally) we're sitting at a customers yard picking up a load that's going to wisconsin! so thats cool. We wont be getting any home time this time, but we've asked for home time about the 13th wooohooo so that'll give me a couple of days to catch up on things.
Friday 9th august:
oops its been a couple of weeks since i remembered to write and upload this oops! sorry bout that guys. There wasn't really much to tell about the past week or so - it was very hectic and because of our early morning start times to get the deliveries done on time i wasn't all that functional. We ended up going through 12 states in 7 days (might not sound like much but keep in mind thats driving for 11hours a day roughly and you'll get an idea of how big this country is). There were a couple of interesting thing that happend like blowing a tire at 7am on the interstate which scared all the cars around us (all you heard was this sound like a gunshot and people started swerving).
We caught up with a couple friends from the texas yard when we were there last whic was nice, and met a few new people. The we went to another yard they have in texas (its a damn big state i'll tell ya that much) where we met some interesting people with very funny stories to tell. We spent a good 4 hours chatting with them about their truck driving experiences - both of them had been driving all their lives so have experienced things like ABS introduced to trucks, and no power stearing those kinds of things. It was fun. One of the guys has been to new zealand actually, him and his wife looked at moving there a long time ago but they decided to move back to america. SO he was talking to me about how beautiful it was and how I was enjoying traveling in the US.
I've taken some more photos and I will upload them ASAP, you'll have to excuse the bugs on the window though - its hard to stop a semi in rush hour traffic to get a gorgeous picture.
I'm sure you all heard about the bridge disaster in minnesota. We had a few calls and emails from concerned pepople checking that we weren't in the area when it happened, which was sweet. We were thankfully over in Tennessee when it happened (or around there anyway), so we were well away from the action but the whole situation hit truck drivers hard especially those who used to drive that bridge regularly. Every time we crossed a bridge in the following few days people on the CB were talking about how horrible it was that the bridge collapsed and that the people who maintain/repair the bridges should've done something before now to fix it (though i don't personally think they knew quite how bad the problem with the bridge was - hindsight is always 20/20). They were saying on the news that inspectors knew in 1990 or 1996 that the bridge was in need of repair which I hope that if they did know way back then, had they known how bad it was or that it might one day come crashing into the Mississippi River with people on it I would hope that they had gotten a crew working on it or at least done something to limit the weight/volume of traffic until such time as it could b fixed and deemed safe again. That bridge had an estimated 141,000 cars/trucks and busses going accross it on a daily basis. Major structures like that need to be looked after and maintained especially with so many people putting their life in the hands of the the people who build/maintain the bridges.
Anyway onto something a little more happier we are on our way to chicago, where we hope that we'll get sent to the yard (the AC still isn't fixed) and hopefully head back for some home time.
This week has been so busy its not funny. Darting around from place to place so quickly and often that most days i'm not sure what day it is and where we woke up that morning hehe.
We've been sitting at on of the yards in texas for the past day and a half, chatting with a bunch of new drivers and some veteran drivers, even a couple of trainers turned up for a chat. They were really awesome people, one of them actually looked like Willie Nelson! He asked me last night If i knew how to french braid because he wanted his hair put that way (his hair was freaken long too). Unfortunately I didnt know how to and neither did the other lady staying there. Hopefully he'll find someone to help him out with that. We had some pretty interesting conversations with the people there - everything from experiences driving truck (most of the new to the company drivers had been driving truck for awhile), to them asking about new zealand and aussie.
Right now (litterally) we're sitting at a customers yard picking up a load that's going to wisconsin! so thats cool. We wont be getting any home time this time, but we've asked for home time about the 13th wooohooo so that'll give me a couple of days to catch up on things.
Friday 9th august:
oops its been a couple of weeks since i remembered to write and upload this oops! sorry bout that guys. There wasn't really much to tell about the past week or so - it was very hectic and because of our early morning start times to get the deliveries done on time i wasn't all that functional. We ended up going through 12 states in 7 days (might not sound like much but keep in mind thats driving for 11hours a day roughly and you'll get an idea of how big this country is). There were a couple of interesting thing that happend like blowing a tire at 7am on the interstate which scared all the cars around us (all you heard was this sound like a gunshot and people started swerving).
We caught up with a couple friends from the texas yard when we were there last whic was nice, and met a few new people. The we went to another yard they have in texas (its a damn big state i'll tell ya that much) where we met some interesting people with very funny stories to tell. We spent a good 4 hours chatting with them about their truck driving experiences - both of them had been driving all their lives so have experienced things like ABS introduced to trucks, and no power stearing those kinds of things. It was fun. One of the guys has been to new zealand actually, him and his wife looked at moving there a long time ago but they decided to move back to america. SO he was talking to me about how beautiful it was and how I was enjoying traveling in the US.
I've taken some more photos and I will upload them ASAP, you'll have to excuse the bugs on the window though - its hard to stop a semi in rush hour traffic to get a gorgeous picture.
I'm sure you all heard about the bridge disaster in minnesota. We had a few calls and emails from concerned pepople checking that we weren't in the area when it happened, which was sweet. We were thankfully over in Tennessee when it happened (or around there anyway), so we were well away from the action but the whole situation hit truck drivers hard especially those who used to drive that bridge regularly. Every time we crossed a bridge in the following few days people on the CB were talking about how horrible it was that the bridge collapsed and that the people who maintain/repair the bridges should've done something before now to fix it (though i don't personally think they knew quite how bad the problem with the bridge was - hindsight is always 20/20). They were saying on the news that inspectors knew in 1990 or 1996 that the bridge was in need of repair which I hope that if they did know way back then, had they known how bad it was or that it might one day come crashing into the Mississippi River with people on it I would hope that they had gotten a crew working on it or at least done something to limit the weight/volume of traffic until such time as it could b fixed and deemed safe again. That bridge had an estimated 141,000 cars/trucks and busses going accross it on a daily basis. Major structures like that need to be looked after and maintained especially with so many people putting their life in the hands of the the people who build/maintain the bridges.
Anyway onto something a little more happier we are on our way to chicago, where we hope that we'll get sent to the yard (the AC still isn't fixed) and hopefully head back for some home time.
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