Whoops! I guess I've been a bit distracted the past couple of days relaxing and trying to get a bunch of things that need to be done, done, in the short time that we're at the house hehe.
For anyone who might've tried calling but didn't get an answer - i'm sorry! We're having phone issues at the moment. We think that something happened to the phone line in the lounge on the part of the line thats outside..because the jack in the kitchen works just fine, but it means that the phone isn't always able to be heard when it rings. Failing that - there's always our cell phone (which has a land line number so its charged at the same rate as landlines).
OH! I found this on youtube.com the other day.... Fred Dagg doing "We don't know how lucky we are"... enjoy! Classic Kiwi
Then of course how could I forget... "Gumboots" also by Fred Dagg (no video, just audio)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7X2b2x7Fw4o
Okay thats all I'm sharing with you guys for today hehe. I found them yesterday and just had to show them to my house mate Hobbit, she cracked up, thought they were fabulous YAY.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Home.... At Last!
Wednesday 13th February:
Well we're back at the house for a few days YAY.
The past few days have been...very, frustrating to say the least. Having to wait until nearly midnight at a place to deliver one day, getting it to another driver who had been waiting since 8am the previous morning for it (note: 9 hours before we got the load information to get it for him, he was waiting for it and being told it was already on its way). Then spending 7 hours waiting to be loaded at a place in downtown Chicago - we're talking deep in the heart of chicago here people, where semi trucks really shouldn't be but yet there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of them trying to cram into spaces and get into buildings made about 100 years ago when trucks were a lot smaller lol. So rather than dwell on that I'm going to focus on the positive - we're at home, and dammit we're relaxing.
We got into the yard really late last night, so Pat's brother picked us up this morning. Came back to the house and watched a little tv, played a little WoW, started responding to some of my backlog of emails and im's from the last couple of days. Now we're watching movies. Tonight we rented "Family Guy: Blue Harvest", "The Invasion" and "Lake Placid 2" (pat's choice). Family guy was the best of the lot, very very funny and geeky if you like star wars and movies making fun of other movies then this is definately one for you.
I think I'm going to have an early night, time to catch up on sleep.
Rachie-babe.. I'll complete the quiz thing tomorrow when my brain is actually functioning hehe!
Well we're back at the house for a few days YAY.
The past few days have been...very, frustrating to say the least. Having to wait until nearly midnight at a place to deliver one day, getting it to another driver who had been waiting since 8am the previous morning for it (note: 9 hours before we got the load information to get it for him, he was waiting for it and being told it was already on its way). Then spending 7 hours waiting to be loaded at a place in downtown Chicago - we're talking deep in the heart of chicago here people, where semi trucks really shouldn't be but yet there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of them trying to cram into spaces and get into buildings made about 100 years ago when trucks were a lot smaller lol. So rather than dwell on that I'm going to focus on the positive - we're at home, and dammit we're relaxing.
We got into the yard really late last night, so Pat's brother picked us up this morning. Came back to the house and watched a little tv, played a little WoW, started responding to some of my backlog of emails and im's from the last couple of days. Now we're watching movies. Tonight we rented "Family Guy: Blue Harvest", "The Invasion" and "Lake Placid 2" (pat's choice). Family guy was the best of the lot, very very funny and geeky if you like star wars and movies making fun of other movies then this is definately one for you.
I think I'm going to have an early night, time to catch up on sleep.
Rachie-babe.. I'll complete the quiz thing tomorrow when my brain is actually functioning hehe!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Heading Towards Wisconsin
Not a lot happened yesterday. We started our day about 1:30am, and made it to our customer on time. They held us up for 5 hours unloading, not to mention left a heck of a mess in our trailer. For what the company paid his company you'd think he'd at least pick up the smashed pallet that we found in there. So after that fun, we had to stop at a truck stop and clean out the pallet bits and make our way to the pick up. Thankfully they didn't take long to load us.
Spent the night at a pretty good truck stop that had a seafood/steakhouse woohoo! dinner was pretty darn good If I do say so myself. I ended up having a grilled chicken sandwich, which had a lemon pepper marinade and it came with steak fries (the big thick fries).
Today we delivered the first part of the load, turns out theres not meant to be any receiving on saturday at the plant, and the only reason there was someone there today was because the warehouse is really full and they need someone there to feed the machines and make room. He wasn't entirely pleased but there wasn't much we could do about it.
The next part is delivering to Wisconsin on Monday YAY which means they'll give us a small run to Illinois or around Wisconsin to keep us busy until our home time on Wednesday! I'm really looking forward to it thats for sure. Not just because we're filing taxes but because we definately deserve a relaxing break from the road after the past couple of weeks.
Tonight we're going to stop a bit early so we can have showers, relax and have an early night. I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyways I'll write again tomorrow or the next day :)
take care guys xoxox
Spent the night at a pretty good truck stop that had a seafood/steakhouse woohoo! dinner was pretty darn good If I do say so myself. I ended up having a grilled chicken sandwich, which had a lemon pepper marinade and it came with steak fries (the big thick fries).
Today we delivered the first part of the load, turns out theres not meant to be any receiving on saturday at the plant, and the only reason there was someone there today was because the warehouse is really full and they need someone there to feed the machines and make room. He wasn't entirely pleased but there wasn't much we could do about it.
The next part is delivering to Wisconsin on Monday YAY which means they'll give us a small run to Illinois or around Wisconsin to keep us busy until our home time on Wednesday! I'm really looking forward to it thats for sure. Not just because we're filing taxes but because we definately deserve a relaxing break from the road after the past couple of weeks.
Tonight we're going to stop a bit early so we can have showers, relax and have an early night. I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyways I'll write again tomorrow or the next day :)
take care guys xoxox
Friday, February 8, 2008
I didn't forget about you guys.....
Tuesday 5th February:
Its Super Tuesday in the US, its where certain states vote together on one day to decide who the people want each party to have for their official nominee for the 2008 presidental elections. So its a pretty huge day here for people, especially since there's so many candidates to choose from.
So we've made it through Oregon, Washington and Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho safe and sound. In fact, Montana is so stunningly beautiful, especially with 8-10 feet of snow on the ground. I wish we could've been here in a car so we could explore more. They have laws against strip mining here, so there's a lot of old, huge trees adding to the picturesque landscape.
We delivered yesterday in Idaho, and it turns out our reload was out of the same place we were dropping off at. Much to my amusement. They told us to just leave the trailer we were delivering and take the preloaded one we're to deliver in Alabama, which saved us a lot of time waiting around.
The roads are clearing up, which is very good news. Some roads still have icy slick spots but they're few and far between. We're staying in Nebraska tonight and we'll continue on our way to Alabama in the morning.
One of the coolest things happened today, we saw a herd of Antelope grazing on the side of the road in Wyoming! Thats pretty unusual sight to see especially if you're not from around that area. I felt kinda bad for the trucker in front of us who had one of the antelope running across the insterstate in front of him, it made it safely, and the trucker didn't have any accident so its all good. It definately made my day. I love seeing wildlife in their natural environments and alive.
Wednesday 6th February:
Its seeming to take forever to get where we're going today. The roads aren't too bad, and the weather is sunny for now (a cashier at a truck stop said it was snowing in Wichita (Kansas) so we'll have to see. We're on our way to Oklahoma, and hopefully going to meet Pat's sisters! This will be my first time ever seeing them in person, and pat hasn't seen them since before he left for new zealand all those years ago. Marj and Alan are in Oklahoma with the sisters too so it will be wonderful to see them again.
So i'm adding yet another state to the "new visited" states... Kansas. It means that my list of states I haven't been to is getting smaller and smaller. I know there are a few tat we definately wont be going to, like say Alaska, and Hawaii hehe but its definately making a dent in it.
We were actually meant to be at the house today, this was our scheduled home time but obviously that isn't going to happen so we've changed it to Wednesday 13th February. Most of the reason for this is because we're filing taxes when we get in next, so it can start getting processed and making its way to us. Fingers crossed it wont take too long, and we can buy our tickets to Aussie.
I'm guessing you guys have heard about the tornado's hitting across the US, and more specifically in the area we're heading to. All the weather reports we've heard so far say that today's the last day they're on alert, that things will be calmer there tomorrow so thats a relief. I feel absolutely horrible for the people who lost family members, friends, houses and everything else like that in the mess. I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been, especially happening at night time. One news report said that in Kentucky a tornado was reported on the ground for over an hour! thats really crazy. We've got a few friends in the area's hit by the tornado so I'm hoping they're alright and safe.
UPDATE:
Just got back to the truck from our visit with the family. It was really awesome to finally see Heather and Brandi (pat's sisters) in person, and I got to meet my neice (Brandi's daughter Kymmi). Unfortunately there were issues and we weren't able to see Heather's daughter Daylyn which was sad. All in all it was a truly wonderful evening, lots of laughter and good conversation.
Thursday 7th February:
Early morning start today, so i'm feeling a bit zombie-like due to lack of sleep, its okay though hopefully the dispatcher will let us have an easy run this weekend so we can rest after a hectic couple of weeks.
Today we're heading towards the area's where the Tornado's hit on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. They say the weather's cleared up and that there's no more threat so thats a relief. We'll be going through Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama (all of which were hit) So thats a little unnerving. I feel really badly for the people who've lost so much to these tornados, that the media is calling the worst group of twisters in 2 decades. hmm, we just got passed a pick up with decals saying its an insurance claim person, he'll have a pretty busy day today.
UPDATE:
Well we're parked for the night and i'm definately ready to call it a night even though its only 5pm, we're going to be up about 1:30am and leave out here about 2am to get to the customer and deliver. The funny thing is, they said this was a time sensitive load, the only times we could choose between was 6am friday or 6am monday.... ?!? I don't know about you but i'm worried about what might happen if you tried unloading this load at any other time than 6am hehe just kidding. The customer is just picky I guess.
Anyways i'm off to bed, goodnight guys! I'll try to write again soon. Missing you all xoxox
Its Super Tuesday in the US, its where certain states vote together on one day to decide who the people want each party to have for their official nominee for the 2008 presidental elections. So its a pretty huge day here for people, especially since there's so many candidates to choose from.
So we've made it through Oregon, Washington and Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho safe and sound. In fact, Montana is so stunningly beautiful, especially with 8-10 feet of snow on the ground. I wish we could've been here in a car so we could explore more. They have laws against strip mining here, so there's a lot of old, huge trees adding to the picturesque landscape.
We delivered yesterday in Idaho, and it turns out our reload was out of the same place we were dropping off at. Much to my amusement. They told us to just leave the trailer we were delivering and take the preloaded one we're to deliver in Alabama, which saved us a lot of time waiting around.
The roads are clearing up, which is very good news. Some roads still have icy slick spots but they're few and far between. We're staying in Nebraska tonight and we'll continue on our way to Alabama in the morning.
One of the coolest things happened today, we saw a herd of Antelope grazing on the side of the road in Wyoming! Thats pretty unusual sight to see especially if you're not from around that area. I felt kinda bad for the trucker in front of us who had one of the antelope running across the insterstate in front of him, it made it safely, and the trucker didn't have any accident so its all good. It definately made my day. I love seeing wildlife in their natural environments and alive.
Wednesday 6th February:
Its seeming to take forever to get where we're going today. The roads aren't too bad, and the weather is sunny for now (a cashier at a truck stop said it was snowing in Wichita (Kansas) so we'll have to see. We're on our way to Oklahoma, and hopefully going to meet Pat's sisters! This will be my first time ever seeing them in person, and pat hasn't seen them since before he left for new zealand all those years ago. Marj and Alan are in Oklahoma with the sisters too so it will be wonderful to see them again.
So i'm adding yet another state to the "new visited" states... Kansas. It means that my list of states I haven't been to is getting smaller and smaller. I know there are a few tat we definately wont be going to, like say Alaska, and Hawaii hehe but its definately making a dent in it.
We were actually meant to be at the house today, this was our scheduled home time but obviously that isn't going to happen so we've changed it to Wednesday 13th February. Most of the reason for this is because we're filing taxes when we get in next, so it can start getting processed and making its way to us. Fingers crossed it wont take too long, and we can buy our tickets to Aussie.
I'm guessing you guys have heard about the tornado's hitting across the US, and more specifically in the area we're heading to. All the weather reports we've heard so far say that today's the last day they're on alert, that things will be calmer there tomorrow so thats a relief. I feel absolutely horrible for the people who lost family members, friends, houses and everything else like that in the mess. I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been, especially happening at night time. One news report said that in Kentucky a tornado was reported on the ground for over an hour! thats really crazy. We've got a few friends in the area's hit by the tornado so I'm hoping they're alright and safe.
UPDATE:
Just got back to the truck from our visit with the family. It was really awesome to finally see Heather and Brandi (pat's sisters) in person, and I got to meet my neice (Brandi's daughter Kymmi). Unfortunately there were issues and we weren't able to see Heather's daughter Daylyn which was sad. All in all it was a truly wonderful evening, lots of laughter and good conversation.
Thursday 7th February:
Early morning start today, so i'm feeling a bit zombie-like due to lack of sleep, its okay though hopefully the dispatcher will let us have an easy run this weekend so we can rest after a hectic couple of weeks.
Today we're heading towards the area's where the Tornado's hit on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. They say the weather's cleared up and that there's no more threat so thats a relief. We'll be going through Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama (all of which were hit) So thats a little unnerving. I feel really badly for the people who've lost so much to these tornados, that the media is calling the worst group of twisters in 2 decades. hmm, we just got passed a pick up with decals saying its an insurance claim person, he'll have a pretty busy day today.
UPDATE:
Well we're parked for the night and i'm definately ready to call it a night even though its only 5pm, we're going to be up about 1:30am and leave out here about 2am to get to the customer and deliver. The funny thing is, they said this was a time sensitive load, the only times we could choose between was 6am friday or 6am monday.... ?!? I don't know about you but i'm worried about what might happen if you tried unloading this load at any other time than 6am hehe just kidding. The customer is just picky I guess.
Anyways i'm off to bed, goodnight guys! I'll try to write again soon. Missing you all xoxox
Monday, February 4, 2008
update from oregon
So I wanted to update for those who haven't heard from me, things are going well we got to our truck stop on Friday but they'd changed the delivery date until today (Sunday) so we had to wait. We'll be heading of in about 2 hours to deliver and hopefully make our way to Washington (state not Washington DC) to get our load.
Its snowing right now, not too badly though.
On our way here we saw some really cool places, like snake river, where Evel Knievel jumped in 1974 which is pretty darn cool. It was very pretty around the hills/mountains but I didn't get any photos because as soon as the windshield was washed, it was covered again in the gunk from the road that they use to get rid of the ice (some places use a liquid, others put salt rocks, and some places use sand). which made it hard to get a nice picture. Oh well you guys will just have to take my word for it.
Well I need to get going, sorry it isn't a more interesting update.
take care guys xoxox
Its snowing right now, not too badly though.
On our way here we saw some really cool places, like snake river, where Evel Knievel jumped in 1974 which is pretty darn cool. It was very pretty around the hills/mountains but I didn't get any photos because as soon as the windshield was washed, it was covered again in the gunk from the road that they use to get rid of the ice (some places use a liquid, others put salt rocks, and some places use sand). which made it hard to get a nice picture. Oh well you guys will just have to take my word for it.
Well I need to get going, sorry it isn't a more interesting update.
take care guys xoxox
Friday, February 1, 2008
Update from Idaho
Update:
We made it to the next truck stop, the winds had died down by the time we had something to eat at the truck stop. After thinking about it we decided to try for the next truck stop and made it here fine. The winds weren't too big of a problem and neither was the snow.
We got our new appointment time for our load, and the company seemed to have changed their tune from "get there as quick as you can" to... "drive safely, we don't want you to have an accident" leading us to believe they might have had something go wrong with a driver in this part of the country, thats being hit by the storms so they realised that we weren't slacking, and the roads have been that crazy, opening and closing numerous times a day.
So its all good, the snow storm hitting at the moment is the last one that they had forecast for the area for the time being, so we should make it to the customer just fine.
We met up with another driver this morning at the truck stop we stopped at for lunch. He'd left Portland Oregon 3 days previous and was due in Wisconsin tomorrow. He'd only been able to go 100-200 miles a day on his way over here because of the storms. When you consider that you can go about 600-700miles in a day thats a huge difference. But its better to be safe than sorry especially when it comes to stormy weather.
I'll try to update tomorrow, but I'm not sure what our connection will be like so we'll have to see.
We made it to the next truck stop, the winds had died down by the time we had something to eat at the truck stop. After thinking about it we decided to try for the next truck stop and made it here fine. The winds weren't too big of a problem and neither was the snow.
We got our new appointment time for our load, and the company seemed to have changed their tune from "get there as quick as you can" to... "drive safely, we don't want you to have an accident" leading us to believe they might have had something go wrong with a driver in this part of the country, thats being hit by the storms so they realised that we weren't slacking, and the roads have been that crazy, opening and closing numerous times a day.
So its all good, the snow storm hitting at the moment is the last one that they had forecast for the area for the time being, so we should make it to the customer just fine.
We met up with another driver this morning at the truck stop we stopped at for lunch. He'd left Portland Oregon 3 days previous and was due in Wisconsin tomorrow. He'd only been able to go 100-200 miles a day on his way over here because of the storms. When you consider that you can go about 600-700miles in a day thats a huge difference. But its better to be safe than sorry especially when it comes to stormy weather.
I'll try to update tomorrow, but I'm not sure what our connection will be like so we'll have to see.
back on the road..kinda
Thursday 31st January:
We're back on the road! lol and we just ran over a tumbleweed! randomness for ya at 8:30am. Considering we've been up since 3:30am i'm entitled to random amusements. Who would've guessed..tumbleweeds in Idaho. It just kinda rolled onto the interstate and stopped about where the truck was heading towards hehe oh well.
Yesterday we got to drive for a wee bit, the winds died down to about 25mph (not particularly great but not bad compared to 70mph the day before). So we made it about 100miles before we decided not to continue. There was only 1 more truck stop between us and the closed roads and it wasn't worth risking not getting a parking spot or food. Not to mention when we were parking, you could see another wave of storm coming over the mountains, which was a pretty cool scene to watch. No photos though, I wasn't silly enough to stand out there in negative 30 degrees f to get photos! However I did get some photos from the first day the blizzard hit, but I haven't uploaded them yet..as soon as I do i'll post a couple for you guys. I don't know how well they'll turn out. Its hard to capture what its like in 6ft high snow drifts.
A few hours down the road... well we had to stop because of strong winds trying to blow us off the road. Not sure how long it'll take to pass or whether we'll get much further up the road. I'll update when I can. I just wanted to update this as quick as I could so you guys wouldn't worry about us.
take care xoxox
We're back on the road! lol and we just ran over a tumbleweed! randomness for ya at 8:30am. Considering we've been up since 3:30am i'm entitled to random amusements. Who would've guessed..tumbleweeds in Idaho. It just kinda rolled onto the interstate and stopped about where the truck was heading towards hehe oh well.
Yesterday we got to drive for a wee bit, the winds died down to about 25mph (not particularly great but not bad compared to 70mph the day before). So we made it about 100miles before we decided not to continue. There was only 1 more truck stop between us and the closed roads and it wasn't worth risking not getting a parking spot or food. Not to mention when we were parking, you could see another wave of storm coming over the mountains, which was a pretty cool scene to watch. No photos though, I wasn't silly enough to stand out there in negative 30 degrees f to get photos! However I did get some photos from the first day the blizzard hit, but I haven't uploaded them yet..as soon as I do i'll post a couple for you guys. I don't know how well they'll turn out. Its hard to capture what its like in 6ft high snow drifts.
A few hours down the road... well we had to stop because of strong winds trying to blow us off the road. Not sure how long it'll take to pass or whether we'll get much further up the road. I'll update when I can. I just wanted to update this as quick as I could so you guys wouldn't worry about us.
take care xoxox
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