Thursday 17th January:
Early morning this morning, went from Tye, Texas to Ardmore Oklahoma. Delivered the load then went to pick up our next delivery in Tulsa. We got to go through Indian reservation area's today which was pretty cool.
They had some pretty crazy weather down here lately, there was a lot of damage to trees as we were going down the road. Pine trees, snapped in half!
Friday 18th January:
Unfortunately we wont be home on the 19th as we'd liked. The only load they had that they could give us which heads north, is in Louisiana. So we got a load going from Oklahoma to Louisiana (which we're currently on). That delivers today, then we're told the load going north wont be delivered until "early next week" which we take to mean monday or tuesday. Sorry to anyone who might've wanted to call this weekend.
They've decided to swap us out with a different load because the area that this load is meant to be going to only has loads heading towards california, which isn't the direction we want to go. Unfortunately the place we delivered to messed us around for awhile so we wont be able to get as far as we'd like tonight.
Stopped at a local small town truck stop tonight which was really good. They had a restaurant next door and since we were both hungry we stopped in for a bite before bed. There was a bunch of older people in there sitting around chatting. Was really nice to listen to. They were awesome. Really nice folks.
sleeeeeep...i need sleeeeeeep.
Saturday 19th January:
Started our day about 5am and headed to LIttle Rock, Arkansas to swap out loads. Got there and thankfully he was awake so we could swap loads and head out. We decided not to push too hard yesterday, our goal was Alorton, Illinois (near St Louis, Missouri). Pretty boring day for the most part. I read for awhile on our way to the truck stop, and for awhile once we got there. Even managed to get a little World of Warcraft playing done (you really need high speed connections to play it, so its not often on the road we get high speed, and time to play - had to make the most of it). I played for about an hour before we headed to bed.
Sunday 20th January:
Heading up to Richfield, Wisconsin tonight because its pretty close to where we're delivering tomorrow morning. I'm hoping that we'll get told to just head back to the yard without a load so we can go home for our home time.
I'm a bit sad because Shana is leaving to head back to college today. We've been working really damn hard to get back in time because she thought she could leave as late as Wednesday. Unfortunately the weather isn't looking good which means she's going to leave today so she doesn't have to rush through bad weather.
I'm really looking forward to having some time at the house to relax and get a few things done. We're only going to be in for 2 days this time, then back out for 2 weeks.
Random fact: Monday is Martin Luther King Jr's birthday here. Its celebrated on the 3rd monday in January.
Showing posts with label texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label texas. Show all posts
Monday, January 21, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
3 rolled into 1 update
Monday 14th January:
Yesterday was pretty cruisy, spend the day in Shreveport, Louisiana reading and waiting for this morning when we could deliver our load.
Got up early this morning, delivered our load. Played musical loads for a couple of hours until we finally got settled on one we could deliver yay. Went and picked it up and started heading towards where its delivering - El Paso, Texas. Got until Wednesday to get that delivered and then we'll be heading back towards the house (hopefully) for our home time on the 19th.
Not feeling particularly good tonight, the food was good.. i think. I got to try a dish called "pulled bbq pork" which was bits of pork strips fried, the best thing - the batter tasted just like batter they use on hot dogs and fish in new zealand. It was fabulous.
Tuesday 15th January:
Driving through the "countryside" in texas, the small towns and open fields are all around at the moment.
I didn't get a chance to tell you guys about what we saw in Louisiana the other day. Driving down the interstate in rural area's its not unusual to see crop spraying going on. There's signs all over warning about low flying planes and to be careful, keep an eye out for them. Well we were watching a little yellow plane flying around, circling getting ready to line up to spray a field, when he gets really really low to the ground and had the nerve to fly right between two trucks! It shocked the heck out of me, but I was glad we weren't one of the trucks he did that to. He could've been a little higher up and still got the field he was aiming for but he just wanted to show off I guess. I think I got a photo of the plane, and if it turned out okay i'll post it when I do my next photo post.
Here's an interesting fact about rural Texas: they like driving pickup trucks. Seriously! they're all over out here. I think in a period of about 20 minutes we saw only 2 or 3 vehicles that weren't pickup's. Its pretty awesome. The terrain around here, and the amount of farms, oil fields and such.
Wednesday 16th January:
Bit of an early morning this morning. We decided to head over to the customer, waited 2 hours before they got us in a door to unload, and we've just arrived at the second place to unload.
We've seen so much on our travels the past couple of days. We drove through this cute little town called "Stanton" which has a big sign up saying "Welcome to stanton, home to 3000 good folks and a few old sore heads". Makes me giggle every time.
The other 2 really odd things happening involve the border patrol by El Paso (since its right near the border with mexico they are kinda like an extra police force. Anyways on our way to El Paso there was obviously something going because they had about 10 patrol cars driving along the side of the interstate (in the shrub area off to the side, searching for something, as well as a helicopter! I've no idea what was going on though.
Lastly, today as we were approaching the check point (where they do searches and make sure you're not smuggling illegals into the country, they had cops about 10 miles down the road telling people to get into the right lane and slow down. Everyone was a little confused until we got up a little closer and realised there had been a bad crash involving a semi (which was laying on its side in the middle and across one lane either direction, as well as 3 cars that had damage. We saw ambulances and such go past, and a hazmat crew heading that way so my guess is that diesel fuel had leaked, but that no one was killed. There was so many cars from the local police, border patrol, state troopers, fire, ambulance workers... just to name a few. I'm glad everyone was okay.
As for us, we have an early delivery tomorrow so its an early night for us and a 3am start.
Yesterday was pretty cruisy, spend the day in Shreveport, Louisiana reading and waiting for this morning when we could deliver our load.
Got up early this morning, delivered our load. Played musical loads for a couple of hours until we finally got settled on one we could deliver yay. Went and picked it up and started heading towards where its delivering - El Paso, Texas. Got until Wednesday to get that delivered and then we'll be heading back towards the house (hopefully) for our home time on the 19th.
Not feeling particularly good tonight, the food was good.. i think. I got to try a dish called "pulled bbq pork" which was bits of pork strips fried, the best thing - the batter tasted just like batter they use on hot dogs and fish in new zealand. It was fabulous.
Tuesday 15th January:
Driving through the "countryside" in texas, the small towns and open fields are all around at the moment.
I didn't get a chance to tell you guys about what we saw in Louisiana the other day. Driving down the interstate in rural area's its not unusual to see crop spraying going on. There's signs all over warning about low flying planes and to be careful, keep an eye out for them. Well we were watching a little yellow plane flying around, circling getting ready to line up to spray a field, when he gets really really low to the ground and had the nerve to fly right between two trucks! It shocked the heck out of me, but I was glad we weren't one of the trucks he did that to. He could've been a little higher up and still got the field he was aiming for but he just wanted to show off I guess. I think I got a photo of the plane, and if it turned out okay i'll post it when I do my next photo post.
Here's an interesting fact about rural Texas: they like driving pickup trucks. Seriously! they're all over out here. I think in a period of about 20 minutes we saw only 2 or 3 vehicles that weren't pickup's. Its pretty awesome. The terrain around here, and the amount of farms, oil fields and such.
Wednesday 16th January:
Bit of an early morning this morning. We decided to head over to the customer, waited 2 hours before they got us in a door to unload, and we've just arrived at the second place to unload.
We've seen so much on our travels the past couple of days. We drove through this cute little town called "Stanton" which has a big sign up saying "Welcome to stanton, home to 3000 good folks and a few old sore heads". Makes me giggle every time.
The other 2 really odd things happening involve the border patrol by El Paso (since its right near the border with mexico they are kinda like an extra police force. Anyways on our way to El Paso there was obviously something going because they had about 10 patrol cars driving along the side of the interstate (in the shrub area off to the side, searching for something, as well as a helicopter! I've no idea what was going on though.
Lastly, today as we were approaching the check point (where they do searches and make sure you're not smuggling illegals into the country, they had cops about 10 miles down the road telling people to get into the right lane and slow down. Everyone was a little confused until we got up a little closer and realised there had been a bad crash involving a semi (which was laying on its side in the middle and across one lane either direction, as well as 3 cars that had damage. We saw ambulances and such go past, and a hazmat crew heading that way so my guess is that diesel fuel had leaked, but that no one was killed. There was so many cars from the local police, border patrol, state troopers, fire, ambulance workers... just to name a few. I'm glad everyone was okay.
As for us, we have an early delivery tomorrow so its an early night for us and a 3am start.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Its raining....its pouring
Friday 11th January:
Had a wonderful dinner last night and got a good night's sleep so everything is going wonderful today. Got to our delivery place with no hassle and it seems that what damage was caused by the storm last night isn't hindering traffic. Its beautiful and sunny out today, hard to believe how rough things were last night.
Got our weekend load just a few minutes ago, we're heading to Texas which is very cool, I like Texas (though i'm not too fond of traffic in the dallas/ft worth area its two huge cities right next to each other and it makes for really long back ups if there's an accident). Its about a 600 mile run so we'll have a nice leisurely trip over there from Alabama where we're currently at.
Saturday 12th January:
We made it to Louisiana tonight before we decided to stop. We're only about 3 hours from where we need to be on monday so its all good, we can have a relaxing day tomorrow.
It stormed a little today but it was after we'd parked up, so we ran inside and had an early dinner just incase it decided to get worse but it didn't. It rained for awhile, and I think it might actually be down to a light drizzle by now.
I've got a few photos I took the other day to post but I'll try uploading them tomorrow. As for now I'm playing around with a few settings on th blog because it seems people have been having issues trying to comment. I hope I can get it sorted :P because I love hearing from you guys. For some reason it doesn't email you to tell you i've responded, but keep checking back here, I might've!
If you notice a bunch of older posts turning it its because for some reason it saved them as drafts instead of posting them. Bah, silly blog.
Had a wonderful dinner last night and got a good night's sleep so everything is going wonderful today. Got to our delivery place with no hassle and it seems that what damage was caused by the storm last night isn't hindering traffic. Its beautiful and sunny out today, hard to believe how rough things were last night.
Got our weekend load just a few minutes ago, we're heading to Texas which is very cool, I like Texas (though i'm not too fond of traffic in the dallas/ft worth area its two huge cities right next to each other and it makes for really long back ups if there's an accident). Its about a 600 mile run so we'll have a nice leisurely trip over there from Alabama where we're currently at.
Saturday 12th January:
We made it to Louisiana tonight before we decided to stop. We're only about 3 hours from where we need to be on monday so its all good, we can have a relaxing day tomorrow.
It stormed a little today but it was after we'd parked up, so we ran inside and had an early dinner just incase it decided to get worse but it didn't. It rained for awhile, and I think it might actually be down to a light drizzle by now.
I've got a few photos I took the other day to post but I'll try uploading them tomorrow. As for now I'm playing around with a few settings on th blog because it seems people have been having issues trying to comment. I hope I can get it sorted :P because I love hearing from you guys. For some reason it doesn't email you to tell you i've responded, but keep checking back here, I might've!
If you notice a bunch of older posts turning it its because for some reason it saved them as drafts instead of posting them. Bah, silly blog.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Nighttime Photography - Lights
The follow are some photos I took while in Texas, I was messing around with settings and I'm pretty excited about the final results....
I was trying to capture the beauty of the sunset in texas, without blinding oncoming cars with a flash. I was looking through settings and I came across one that has a long aperture exposure (meaning the lens stays open longer, you get more light in - good for low light situations like sunrises and sunsets). I really like how this turned out.
This was taken earlier in the evening while I was messing around with settings on my camera. I believe the best way to learn what your camera is capable of, is to play with it and try new things, you never know what you'll produce! This was taken with a car coming towards us, but because it had the long exposure setting - the flash didn't go off, so the driver wasn't blinded. I also love how it captured the sunset colours.
Going through a small town a prominent building was covered in Christmas lights, The lights were amazing, so I grabbed my camera for a shot, unfortunately I forgot I had the long exposure setting on and this is what I got - but I really like it despite the mistake. Has a very surreal and pretty feel to it.
I love this shot, I focused on a lighted sign, I think it was in the shape of a cowboy boot, and this is what I got.
I was trying to capture the beauty of the sunset in texas, without blinding oncoming cars with a flash. I was looking through settings and I came across one that has a long aperture exposure (meaning the lens stays open longer, you get more light in - good for low light situations like sunrises and sunsets). I really like how this turned out.
This was taken earlier in the evening while I was messing around with settings on my camera. I believe the best way to learn what your camera is capable of, is to play with it and try new things, you never know what you'll produce! This was taken with a car coming towards us, but because it had the long exposure setting - the flash didn't go off, so the driver wasn't blinded. I also love how it captured the sunset colours.
Going through a small town a prominent building was covered in Christmas lights, The lights were amazing, so I grabbed my camera for a shot, unfortunately I forgot I had the long exposure setting on and this is what I got - but I really like it despite the mistake. Has a very surreal and pretty feel to it.
I love this shot, I focused on a lighted sign, I think it was in the shape of a cowboy boot, and this is what I got.
Texas photos...
Wednesday 26th December:
Everything went fine with the delivery this morning, yay. Though the truck's drivers side door has decided to stop working... no idea what happened or how but it wont open/unlock or anything, so we're heading towards a yard to get it fixed.
Got our reload while we were being unloaded this morning, we've got 2 days to drive 300 miles! hehe this also includes stopping at the yard to get the door fixed, but we're hoping that wont take too long. Just as a point of reference, we can travel about 700 miles in a day, so you can imagine that this trip is only a fraction of what we can do in a day.
Thursday 27th December:
I finally got some time online with a decent connection so I can post some photos i've been promising. I'll do them over a series of posts so if I only get a couple up here, know that i'll be adding more shortly.
Had a good night last night, curled up on a big comfy couch in the drivers lounge and read for a couple of hours while pat tried to sort out some computer issues. He helps run a gaming forum and their site has been broken for about a week, he's been working on it as hard as he can but it requires a decent speed connection to upload thousands of files and trying to deal with the tech support for his hosting company. I feel bad for him because the company broke it and they're telling him he has to fix it but it requires going through a lot of code, which can be tedious at best. Hopefully he figured it out this time and he'll have another attempt at it again tonight.
anyway, onto the photos.....
I think this is one of my favourites of the shots I took. My favourite part of the photo would have to be the clouds and the detail of them. Took this one on the way to San Angelo, Texas
Just to give you an idea of how deserted some parts of Texas are. This was taken on the way to San Angelo, Texas
I was playing around with settings on the camera, and found one that zoomed in on the mirrors and eliminated the shake so it looks like i took this from outside the truck looking back at where we've come from.
Everything went fine with the delivery this morning, yay. Though the truck's drivers side door has decided to stop working... no idea what happened or how but it wont open/unlock or anything, so we're heading towards a yard to get it fixed.
Got our reload while we were being unloaded this morning, we've got 2 days to drive 300 miles! hehe this also includes stopping at the yard to get the door fixed, but we're hoping that wont take too long. Just as a point of reference, we can travel about 700 miles in a day, so you can imagine that this trip is only a fraction of what we can do in a day.
Thursday 27th December:
I finally got some time online with a decent connection so I can post some photos i've been promising. I'll do them over a series of posts so if I only get a couple up here, know that i'll be adding more shortly.
Had a good night last night, curled up on a big comfy couch in the drivers lounge and read for a couple of hours while pat tried to sort out some computer issues. He helps run a gaming forum and their site has been broken for about a week, he's been working on it as hard as he can but it requires a decent speed connection to upload thousands of files and trying to deal with the tech support for his hosting company. I feel bad for him because the company broke it and they're telling him he has to fix it but it requires going through a lot of code, which can be tedious at best. Hopefully he figured it out this time and he'll have another attempt at it again tonight.
anyway, onto the photos.....
I think this is one of my favourites of the shots I took. My favourite part of the photo would have to be the clouds and the detail of them. Took this one on the way to San Angelo, Texas
Just to give you an idea of how deserted some parts of Texas are. This was taken on the way to San Angelo, Texas
I was playing around with settings on the camera, and found one that zoomed in on the mirrors and eliminated the shake so it looks like i took this from outside the truck looking back at where we've come from.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Sunny Texas
Tuesday 18th December:
WOW time flies, I cannot believe its almost christmas/Yule! Before you know it 2007 will be making a fast retreat out the back door and 2008 will be breaking the front door in. I hope everyon has had a great year this year, and that next year is even better and brighter.
We've had a fun couple of days since I last wrote...
Firstly, I did try to upload those photos but blogspot decided to spazz, so I couldn't do anything. I intended on doing it later that night but after dinner whatever cold/bug I have hit me and I was pretty tired. So I curled up in bed and read - Pat was even so kind as to run inside and get me a chocolate bar (isn't he sweet?). I'll upload them soon, the connection where we're at tonight is horrible.
We delivered Monday morning, and ended up having to drive to the yard in Texas and wait. Got a small run over about 30 miles to deliver a load, then our reload was coming out of Oklahoma, and going to two stops in Texas which we'll be delivering tomorrow.
Had my first ever experience at "IHOP" (International House of Pancakes) and wouldn't ya know it? I didn't have pancakes hehe. I was very tempted to try the chocolate-chip pancakes, but the cheeseburger on a cheese roll was a little too tempting (I was really hungry). Had a good amount of lettuce on the side too, and they put a good seasoning on the fries - so all in all, very good. I'd rank it up there with Cracker Barrel, Though I definately want to go back to IHOP and try the pancakes.
I'm sitting here re-watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before dinner, in about an hour. Not sure what we'll have but we'll find something good i'm sure, the place we're at has a Subway and a McDonalds (i'm leaning towards subway).
In the past few days I've done quite a bit of reading as we waited for loading/unloading/while driving. I've finished 5 books since we left the house, unfortunately I've only got 4 more left. There's always e-books downloaded onto the game-boy though.. but thats mostly obscure texts and classic fiction that were written ages ago - like Jane Eyre, Emma, Dracula. I even managed to find a website that has the diaries of Lady Mary Anne Barker who wrote "Station Life in New Zealand"! I'm about 1/3 of the way through it. If anyone else is interested in reading it or finding interesting books online, and free to download then check out Here
Well thats all for now, time to head in for dinner :)
WOW time flies, I cannot believe its almost christmas/Yule! Before you know it 2007 will be making a fast retreat out the back door and 2008 will be breaking the front door in. I hope everyon has had a great year this year, and that next year is even better and brighter.
We've had a fun couple of days since I last wrote...
Firstly, I did try to upload those photos but blogspot decided to spazz, so I couldn't do anything. I intended on doing it later that night but after dinner whatever cold/bug I have hit me and I was pretty tired. So I curled up in bed and read - Pat was even so kind as to run inside and get me a chocolate bar (isn't he sweet?). I'll upload them soon, the connection where we're at tonight is horrible.
We delivered Monday morning, and ended up having to drive to the yard in Texas and wait. Got a small run over about 30 miles to deliver a load, then our reload was coming out of Oklahoma, and going to two stops in Texas which we'll be delivering tomorrow.
Had my first ever experience at "IHOP" (International House of Pancakes) and wouldn't ya know it? I didn't have pancakes hehe. I was very tempted to try the chocolate-chip pancakes, but the cheeseburger on a cheese roll was a little too tempting (I was really hungry). Had a good amount of lettuce on the side too, and they put a good seasoning on the fries - so all in all, very good. I'd rank it up there with Cracker Barrel, Though I definately want to go back to IHOP and try the pancakes.
I'm sitting here re-watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before dinner, in about an hour. Not sure what we'll have but we'll find something good i'm sure, the place we're at has a Subway and a McDonalds (i'm leaning towards subway).
In the past few days I've done quite a bit of reading as we waited for loading/unloading/while driving. I've finished 5 books since we left the house, unfortunately I've only got 4 more left. There's always e-books downloaded onto the game-boy though.. but thats mostly obscure texts and classic fiction that were written ages ago - like Jane Eyre, Emma, Dracula. I even managed to find a website that has the diaries of Lady Mary Anne Barker who wrote "Station Life in New Zealand"! I'm about 1/3 of the way through it. If anyone else is interested in reading it or finding interesting books online, and free to download then check out Here
Well thats all for now, time to head in for dinner :)
Monday, December 17, 2007
A rare moment of relaxation...
Sunday 16th December:
The load we're currently on has brought us to Texas, its meant to be delivered tomorrow morning.
Yesterday was pretty boring, got up early - picked up our load. Headed west across, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and most of Mississippi :) Which just left the rest of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas today. Had some minor truck issues yesterday, but it wasn't anything too serious just the heating/ac unit had a little fit, but it thawed and everything is fine now. We'll talk to the dispatcher on Monday about it, but since it fixed itself we shouldn't need to head to a yard to get it looked at.
Later that day....
Arrived at our destination, yay. Caught up with some emailing and photo stuff i've been meaning to. I've uploaded some shots i took in Wisconsin to the computer (snowy type ones), so i'll upload them when I upload this. Its really nice to have days like this, we start early and get to our destination with time to relax and not stress about traffic, time, miles, or idiots. I know it'll be back to normal, rushing around and being busy tomorrow (especially if the company decides we should have the heating/ac unit looked at before we head up north towards the snow and cold weather) but thats okay. I'm enjoying this afternoon/this evening while it lasts.
The load we're currently on has brought us to Texas, its meant to be delivered tomorrow morning.
Yesterday was pretty boring, got up early - picked up our load. Headed west across, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and most of Mississippi :) Which just left the rest of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas today. Had some minor truck issues yesterday, but it wasn't anything too serious just the heating/ac unit had a little fit, but it thawed and everything is fine now. We'll talk to the dispatcher on Monday about it, but since it fixed itself we shouldn't need to head to a yard to get it looked at.
Later that day....
Arrived at our destination, yay. Caught up with some emailing and photo stuff i've been meaning to. I've uploaded some shots i took in Wisconsin to the computer (snowy type ones), so i'll upload them when I upload this. Its really nice to have days like this, we start early and get to our destination with time to relax and not stress about traffic, time, miles, or idiots. I know it'll be back to normal, rushing around and being busy tomorrow (especially if the company decides we should have the heating/ac unit looked at before we head up north towards the snow and cold weather) but thats okay. I'm enjoying this afternoon/this evening while it lasts.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Photos from Texas....
Kennith made his return to the truck this trip, after having surgery, his battery ran out and had to be replace (you can kinda see the scar). Welcome back Kennith!
A Texas Oil refinery (yes and a 17ft 4in bridge sign in front of it)
Kennith the kiwi experiencing Texas
A lot of parts of Texas look like this hehe
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Texas.... the stars at night, a big and bright.....
Thursday 1st November:
We've been back on the road for a couple of days now, and are currently sitting in Arkansas - on our way to Texas.
Didn't have an overly great day yesterday, had some problem at a shipper that put us 2 hours behind schedule. Oh well we got out of there and to our destination for sleep last night so thats the main thing.
So things are plodding along like usual. We're going to deliver later today in Texas, and we're not sure where to after that but i'm sure we'll find out within the next few hours.
Oh random thought - we found a store that sells strawberry fanta bottles this morning! its not common, usually you see the normal fanta and from time to time the grape fanta. I wish they'd pick up on the tropical or pineapple fanta craze that was in nz. Someone in nz could answer this for me - do they still sell the whole fanta range they used to have?
We've been traveling through areas with a lot of old historic houses recently. There was a little town in Alabama where we went down a main road, and every house on the street was historic, and had a plaque outside detailing its history and what made it famous. Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere for us to park, let alone enough time in our schedule to stop and sight see. I'm starting a list of places like that town where I wanna visit in a car, so I can stop and take photos/explore with plenty of time.
Thats part of what I'm enjoying about America, there's all these cute, little places, off the beaten path that are really worth checking out. Its just a matter of finding time!
We're planning on being back at the house about the 12th November for an early thanksgiving! (YAY). I'm looking forward to it. Last year we combined Halloween AND Thanksgiving, that was awesome fun. Why did we do that you might be asking? well Marj and Alan were heading south for the winter, and hobbit was heading to her folks place for the actual thanksgiving day so it was the last chance to do something together for the holidays.
Jami! thank you for your reply the other day. I really liked the food photo ideas, so i'll get started on that this week.
Friday 2nd November:
We got our next load, it was heading to El Paso, Texas! yup folks right near the border to Mexico!!! its odd being in America (we're still in Texas), yet being the only English speaking people in the restaurant hehe oh well, at least our waitress spoke English. The food was good (just your regular American food - burgers, fries, pasta...that kinda thing).
We delivered our load here this afternoon, and got our reload heading back into the heart of the US, I'll tell you guys more about it later. Yes I know its horribly cryptic, but you'll understand afterwards why I have to be.
Onto other things... Texas is a very very huge state. This morning we started about Dallas/ft worth area which wasn't too bad - it was chilly enough for me to wear a sweater. The further west we got...the warmer it got! Thankfully the sun is going down now, so I can venture outside and not be too bothered by it.
There were parts of the trip today where I honestly felt out of place without a cowboy hat and boots. In fact we were so far out there in the middle of cowboy/ranch-land that there was one stretch of road where we could only get 1 radio station... it lasted for about an hour or so before we got nearer to a bigger (heh i use that term loosely) town which had a different station (yay for golden oldies!). I think the oddest moment was when we were so far out in the middle of nowhere all we got was a Spanish rap station, that was really weird. All in all today has been really awesome, very funny some moments, boring and silly others.
I took some photos today, I'll upload them tomorrow night If we get parked at a decent hour.
Well its getting late (okay so its only 7:30pm but when you've been up since 3am thats a long damn day), So I'm gonna go head to bed and get some sleep. Ahh glorious sleep, how I missed thee!
Take care guys!
Luv Corina xoxox
We've been back on the road for a couple of days now, and are currently sitting in Arkansas - on our way to Texas.
Didn't have an overly great day yesterday, had some problem at a shipper that put us 2 hours behind schedule. Oh well we got out of there and to our destination for sleep last night so thats the main thing.
So things are plodding along like usual. We're going to deliver later today in Texas, and we're not sure where to after that but i'm sure we'll find out within the next few hours.
Oh random thought - we found a store that sells strawberry fanta bottles this morning! its not common, usually you see the normal fanta and from time to time the grape fanta. I wish they'd pick up on the tropical or pineapple fanta craze that was in nz. Someone in nz could answer this for me - do they still sell the whole fanta range they used to have?
We've been traveling through areas with a lot of old historic houses recently. There was a little town in Alabama where we went down a main road, and every house on the street was historic, and had a plaque outside detailing its history and what made it famous. Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere for us to park, let alone enough time in our schedule to stop and sight see. I'm starting a list of places like that town where I wanna visit in a car, so I can stop and take photos/explore with plenty of time.
Thats part of what I'm enjoying about America, there's all these cute, little places, off the beaten path that are really worth checking out. Its just a matter of finding time!
We're planning on being back at the house about the 12th November for an early thanksgiving! (YAY). I'm looking forward to it. Last year we combined Halloween AND Thanksgiving, that was awesome fun. Why did we do that you might be asking? well Marj and Alan were heading south for the winter, and hobbit was heading to her folks place for the actual thanksgiving day so it was the last chance to do something together for the holidays.
Jami! thank you for your reply the other day. I really liked the food photo ideas, so i'll get started on that this week.
Friday 2nd November:
We got our next load, it was heading to El Paso, Texas! yup folks right near the border to Mexico!!! its odd being in America (we're still in Texas), yet being the only English speaking people in the restaurant hehe oh well, at least our waitress spoke English. The food was good (just your regular American food - burgers, fries, pasta...that kinda thing).
We delivered our load here this afternoon, and got our reload heading back into the heart of the US, I'll tell you guys more about it later. Yes I know its horribly cryptic, but you'll understand afterwards why I have to be.
Onto other things... Texas is a very very huge state. This morning we started about Dallas/ft worth area which wasn't too bad - it was chilly enough for me to wear a sweater. The further west we got...the warmer it got! Thankfully the sun is going down now, so I can venture outside and not be too bothered by it.
There were parts of the trip today where I honestly felt out of place without a cowboy hat and boots. In fact we were so far out there in the middle of cowboy/ranch-land that there was one stretch of road where we could only get 1 radio station... it lasted for about an hour or so before we got nearer to a bigger (heh i use that term loosely) town which had a different station (yay for golden oldies!). I think the oddest moment was when we were so far out in the middle of nowhere all we got was a Spanish rap station, that was really weird. All in all today has been really awesome, very funny some moments, boring and silly others.
I took some photos today, I'll upload them tomorrow night If we get parked at a decent hour.
Well its getting late (okay so its only 7:30pm but when you've been up since 3am thats a long damn day), So I'm gonna go head to bed and get some sleep. Ahh glorious sleep, how I missed thee!
Take care guys!
Luv Corina xoxox
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
end of september/ start of october
Sunday 30th September:
goood morning people read this. What a busy few days we've had. Friday we got our weekend load, going to Oklahoma (where pat's sisters are), and we were so excited. I was finally getting to meet them! and meet our nieces. They actually planned us a BBQ for when we arrived. All was going well, we went inside the truck stop for dinner and by the time we'd gotten back out - we'd been given new loads. The amusing part of this was that we were assigned under 3 loads at the one time - our load we had on, the load we had to pick up at the yard and deliver to 2 places and then the one we're meant to pick up and take back to Wisconsin! all due on the same day/within short time of each other. It was awesome. So why did this happen? it seems a driver went into the terminal on Friday (about home time for the planners etc) and quit... the sucky thing, he was had a load on at the time not only that but they were a very important customer and HAD to have their load on time.
So no meeting up with pat's sisters, yet. We're determined to go seem them one day, maybe when he gets his vacation we can plan a trip.
Even though I was pretty sad about not being able to meet the sisters, there is one good thing about our new loads - they take me to the very town a good friend from online lives in. I've talked to her online for the past 7 or more years. She lives about 6hrs drive from us but with gas prices being expensive, and having to organise a time when someone could drive me, meant this task was pretty hard. I'm excited, she's a good friend and i'm even getting to meet her son which i feel honored about - since she once told me that she'd never let her son meet anyone with her from online unless she absolutely trusted them.
Thats whats happening at the moment, we're on our way to her town to get the load that heads back to Wisconsin and hopefully meet up and have lunch with them. Fingers crossed everything works out.
Monday 1st October:
Everything went great at the meet, I was just a little sad we couldn't stay longer with them, but everyone seemed to have fun all the same. I'm hoping that we'll be able to meet up again soon and for longer. She's as awesome in person as she is online. Her son was really cool too, very smart and cheeky ... he takes after her thats for sure.
We dropped our load last night and parked up until we got our next load assignment. So we're going from Wisconsin to Texas woohoo. At the moment we're in Illinois where we'll be parking for the night. Its going to be an early day tomorrow though, probably start about 3:30am yay.
Took some pics of the truck today (without a trailer attached) so i'll probably drag them off the camera tomorrow night and get them up either tomorrow night or the next day - depends on how much spare time / non-moving time we get over the next day or so.
We should be home this coming Monday (8th October), yay! so happy and excited about that. I get the feeling we'll need to gather up our winter stuff (gloves/hats/thick jackets) when we go back out, its starting to cool down these days.
I think I'm gonna post this online then read for a wee bit before we arrive at the truck stop.
Hope everyone is well xoxox
goood morning people read this. What a busy few days we've had. Friday we got our weekend load, going to Oklahoma (where pat's sisters are), and we were so excited. I was finally getting to meet them! and meet our nieces. They actually planned us a BBQ for when we arrived. All was going well, we went inside the truck stop for dinner and by the time we'd gotten back out - we'd been given new loads. The amusing part of this was that we were assigned under 3 loads at the one time - our load we had on, the load we had to pick up at the yard and deliver to 2 places and then the one we're meant to pick up and take back to Wisconsin! all due on the same day/within short time of each other. It was awesome. So why did this happen? it seems a driver went into the terminal on Friday (about home time for the planners etc) and quit... the sucky thing, he was had a load on at the time not only that but they were a very important customer and HAD to have their load on time.
So no meeting up with pat's sisters, yet. We're determined to go seem them one day, maybe when he gets his vacation we can plan a trip.
Even though I was pretty sad about not being able to meet the sisters, there is one good thing about our new loads - they take me to the very town a good friend from online lives in. I've talked to her online for the past 7 or more years. She lives about 6hrs drive from us but with gas prices being expensive, and having to organise a time when someone could drive me, meant this task was pretty hard. I'm excited, she's a good friend and i'm even getting to meet her son which i feel honored about - since she once told me that she'd never let her son meet anyone with her from online unless she absolutely trusted them.
Thats whats happening at the moment, we're on our way to her town to get the load that heads back to Wisconsin and hopefully meet up and have lunch with them. Fingers crossed everything works out.
Monday 1st October:
Everything went great at the meet, I was just a little sad we couldn't stay longer with them, but everyone seemed to have fun all the same. I'm hoping that we'll be able to meet up again soon and for longer. She's as awesome in person as she is online. Her son was really cool too, very smart and cheeky ... he takes after her thats for sure.
We dropped our load last night and parked up until we got our next load assignment. So we're going from Wisconsin to Texas woohoo. At the moment we're in Illinois where we'll be parking for the night. Its going to be an early day tomorrow though, probably start about 3:30am yay.
Took some pics of the truck today (without a trailer attached) so i'll probably drag them off the camera tomorrow night and get them up either tomorrow night or the next day - depends on how much spare time / non-moving time we get over the next day or so.
We should be home this coming Monday (8th October), yay! so happy and excited about that. I get the feeling we'll need to gather up our winter stuff (gloves/hats/thick jackets) when we go back out, its starting to cool down these days.
I think I'm gonna post this online then read for a wee bit before we arrive at the truck stop.
Hope everyone is well xoxox
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
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