Fun stuff...

Monday 28th January:
Guess What!?! I'm back on the road hehe. Patrick came home the other night and I decided to go back out on the road with him. Our first load back out? Is to Oregon. So thats where we're heading. We're currently in Nebraska making our way there.

We had a bit of fun yesterday... but first I have to explain a bit about trucks, so hang in there with me. Trucks have 3 hoses going from the cab to the trailer. 1 is for the lights, and the other two are for breaks - a primary and an emergency. The emergency one (red) is the one we've had replaced twice now. The main (blue) keeps the breaks open so we can move, by forcing air through the line (on a truck, the breaks are always closed/engaged, the air keeps them open). So when you're travelling down the road, and you have issues with your main line, the emergency one will kick in and keep the air pressure up so the breaks don't kick in. While it will be okay, its something you should get checked out. So onto what happened yesterday, we were traveling through Iowa and i caught a glimpse of the truck shadow on the ground through my mirror and I noticed something moving around back there. I said something to pat and we pulled over at the next exit and he checked it out. We'd somehow managed to snap the blue (main) line, we're thinking that the cold temperatures had a lot to do with it becoming brittle and snapping. So we found the nearest truck stop and headed there. We made it without too much trouble. We caught a light, and in that time the pressure dropped a little too low and the truck wouldn't move. So we had to sit there and let it build up more pressure before we could go (much to the annoyance of the cars behind us). We got it replaced, and continued on our way, but it was a fun experience sitting in the middle of the road praying the truck could get more pressure and quickly.

Today we'll be crossing Nebraska and about half of Wyoming before we stop for the night, its about 600 miles give or take.

We're passing signs for the pony express outposts. Back in the wild west days when they used horse riders to deliver messages, aptly named the pony express. So every 15 miles they had little houses for the riders to relax, refresh their horses and get a good night sleep. Some of them are still around today though i'm not sure what kind of stat they're in. They're historical locations so i'd say they probably keep them in good condition as much as possible.

Oh we're about to pass "buffalo bill's ranch" how cool is that? unfortunately they don't have truck parking so we wont be able to stop. That would be one interesting place to visit with my camera some day.



Tuesday 29th January:
About 7am: Well the good news is we're parked, and made it here safely. The Bad news? we're stuck here in a jumble of trucks until the interstate reopens.

About 6 miles up the road from our exit an almighty storm hit, you couldn't see more than about 6 inches in front of you, which isn't too pretty when you've got about 50 or so trucks and a few cars thrown in for good measure. By the time we got up to the truck stop (took us 30 minutes to go 6 miles), it was chaos in the parking lot, they'd run out of parking spaces and the nearest truck stop was back a few miles but they were getting ready to close the other side of the interstate so that was a no go. They apparently opened the road up between here mile marker 209 and mile marker 155 where there's a small truck stop, which is already more than likely filled to the brim, just like this one, and just like the one thats back a few miles). So there's really no point going up to it, especially since its still dark outside.

wow, the kids have started on the CB, they're fighting and bickering. Everyone's patience is starting to wear thin. A lot of us have been stuck here since yesterday. The manager of the restaurant here said that the bad weather is moving away and that it should start clearing up today/tomorrow *sighs* At least the food is good, and there's clean bathrooms. I think the main thing people are waiting on is the wind to die down and the plows to come through.

10:30am: The wind is blowing really bad outside, which makes me glad that we don't have to leave the warm truck until lunchtime. Someone just broadcast the weather news, and its not looking good. Pat's decided we're not moving today. They closed the road, yet again. We've heard reports that the weather wont clear up until Saturday! I hope it clears up before then. Patrick called his dispatcher and told her what things are doing up here, and that its really really unlikely we'll make our delivery time in Oregon on Wednesday.

Bright side? we got ourselves a proper parking spot, rather than being stuck in the middle of the parking lot in a group of trucks. So yay, we don't have to worry too bad about blocking other people in.

I'll update again when I can, but don't worry about us. No load is worth our lives. So we'll stay right here until things clear up.