NRH for the Weekend!!

Well, I've been at Tiffany and Cary's for the past 2 days and will have to get back on the road tomorrow. It has been a really nice, relaxing time off. When I get to take a couple of days off, I just seem to go into mobile vegetative state!  LOL  And it is really a nice feeling to just relax! But I will have to get ready to put my brain back in gear! 

Tif and the herd spent part of last night making a "family turkey" for the season....and it didn't even get messy!!

First you paint daddy's hand......

It's amazing what all you can use a hairdryer for!!!!....

 

Then mommy's hand gets done.....that takes care of the body and a bunch of the tail feathers......

 

  ....then Julia's hand gets painted to do the fill in for the body and the rest of  the tail feathers......

Then Josceline's foot makes the body/head of the turkey....

 

 

 

And....we now have a thanksgiving turkey to hang on the wall!!

 

 

But during this visit there was also plenty of time to rest and relax to get all refreshed.....

 

 

Some of us relax better than others!!!

 

 



Hay to Longmont, CO

Made it to Longmont, CO in one piece...nothing exciting....except for the fog last night....got pretty thick late.  but all 465 bales got to their new home.

 He had a neat little attachment to the tractor that allowed him to pick up about 16 or 20 bales at a time.

 

He had his son, 2 grandsons, friend of grandson, neighbor friend and friend of son there to do the loading....I could watch good men work all day!!

Ended up with a full load, nose to tail, side rail to side rail...and he wanted to add another row, but that would have put my height at about 14' 2"...to tall to be legal.

The drive over was just another drive...but the stable where I delivered to...oh what a view!!

It sets at the top of what they call Lookout Ridge...thus the farm name..Lookout Ridge Farm.  :)  There were 3 young Mexican guys there to do the unloading...so that took about 2 hours...

but gave me time to look around and take a few pics...and visit with some really good looking horses!

I'm now parked about a mile from the farm, in the valley, on the side of the road, right past a main road, for the night!  Fairly quiet, level, just finished listening to the football game for the night, catching up on this blog and my paperwork for last few loads, having my evening coffee (lost count of cups...heheheh), and looking forward to rolling again tomorrow. Hopefully! There just aren't many decent loads coming out of the Denver area, especially non-tarp (I make Erin's life difficult!).

So sleep well everyone, enjoy each day that you have, and I'll be navigating on towards retirement a little more tomorrow!!  :)

1,010 days to go!!

Found CBS...FOOTBALL Tonight!!

I moved from Wally to Home Depot....AND....now I have a very good connection for the CBS station....So I won't be moving for several hours now....I'm watching A&M right now, and I will be watching Bama this evening!  It is amazing how a little move will make a massive difference with this digital over the air tv signals. 

And I just opened up this Toughbook a few minutes ago and I'll add pics later. Somehow I knocked it over or the vibrations from the APU made it fall over and it landed infront of the heater vent for the sleeper area....which is a Wambosco (or something like that) heater. It runs off diesel fumes basically is gets pretty warm....well....let's say it gets real damn hot!!!! 

13 of the buttons are melted, shriveled, re-molded....use whatever description you would like, and are laying on my table now!  The little button points still work, and all the keys still work....the keyboard is functioning just like new...with the exception of the missing keys!  LOL   :)   I am glad that I have a replacement laptop with me if needed and have another Toughbook coming....I will have to get thru the house after CO to get it.  HEHEHEHEHEH!!!!!  Just another day in the learning curve in the life of a truck driver....during the winter make sure that there is NOTHING that can come into contact with the heater vent in the sleeper!!!  

Makes me feel like a rookie!!!!  LOL   :P

Anyway, now to finish drying out my straps, running into HD to see if they have a fan. Think I'll also work on my outside lights for loading at night.

I'll make another post this evening after Bama beats up on LSU!!  ;)

Nice Drive!

I've gone from Houston, TX  to Theodore, AL to Chattanooga, TN  to Hays, KS.  And the drive yesterday and today was just about perfect....if you leave out the 25-30mph wind with gusts up to 51mph!  LOL  When you have to keep the wheel turned like this, you know it's blowing!

Welcome to the midwest of the US!  It really was a gorgeous day looking at it...clear skies, 55-60 degrees, everything green, still!  And then the wind started....and boy did it start!  Was coming out of the SE and headed for the NE....another words....from left to right across the highway!  It made the day quite interesting.

I made it to my drop right when I said I'd be there....3pm. Another garden spot in the oilfields, LOL!

 Got unloaded and figured I would be sitting all weekend....but Erin worked her usual magic and I have a load out of the Kansas City area to Colorado, loading Sunday and delivering.....when I can get someone to meet me there!  LOL  A load of hay!!  But....no tarp!!!!!   YES!!!

Decided to spend the night next to the Wally here in Hays.  They are like a lot of the Wallys now...don't really want trucks in the parking lots.  But there is a deadend street next to the store where I am backed up into a field for the night.  Peaceful spot....no traffic at all!  

Tomorrow I'll head for my pick in the morning, stop and get fuel on the way...or maybe on the way out.  But there is a PetCo on the way, so Abbie gets a spa day....she is overdue for one!  And, today she decided that running thru a muddy spot looked like fun....so she will be sleeping on the floor tonight and will have a shampoo tomorrow!  (Update.....the PetCo in Topeka doesn't have grooming?!?!?!?!  That is wierd!!!  So she will get a dry bath tomorrow with the waterless shampoo that I got for her )
But you still get to see some nice vehicles while out here.

And while she is getting all spiffied up, I'll go do my grocery shopping for the next two weeks and maybe get my hair removed!  heheh  Need some supplies, little food, check the DVDs for anything new that I might like, need a couple of pair of pants.

Tomorrow or Sunday or Monday I'll add some pics of the past week and this weekend (DONE ) ....and the changes that I am going to be doing to the truck this weekend so you will have an idea of just what my nomadic life is like.  I like it....will like it even better when I finally get my act together and get things all set up the way I want them and everything is in its place and it really feels like a "house". It's getting closer each week, but trying to get it done while making runs is quite a challenge, because I still have to sleep sometime.....and having clean clothes is always a challenge....but we're getting there, slowly but surely!!

I took this pic yesterday of the cost of regular out here....it is 2 cents lower this morning!!!

All I can end this installment with is......1,013 days to go!! And Abbie and I will be in the our little motorhome traveling at our own pace!!!  CAN'T WAIT!!!  :)

1,020 Days! heheheh

Still on the road....and still love what I do!  But it is still a challenge at times.

Take the run that I just finished. I loaded out from Houston yesterday morning and it was raining like a monsoon!  Apparently from midnight to 7am Houston received over 3 inches on rain!  It was unreal...and the sad part is that I was in it from Houston to Theodore, AL!

It made for a very long day of driving. Each time that I stopped for a break, it would "run" on ahead of me...and then I would get rolling again and catch back up to it!  LOL   I got tired of liquid sunshine!

But, at least the load was an easy load....I had onboard 10 buoys for oil recovery work in the Gulf. I like easy loads like this....

BUT.....it did let me see another example of bureaucratic redundancy that permeates every level, it seems, in both gov't and corporate structure!  The warehouse should probably have been manned by 2 guys to do the job.  But.....I had one guide me in and "guide" the big forklift....

Then,once the major job of lifting off one of the buoys from the trailer, the large lift "maneuvered" around the rear of my rig, and set the buoy down....so that a smaller "reach" type lift could pick it up and move it to the storage area.....

and as you can basically tell from the pictures...we're talking about a movement of about 55 feet....sooooo...you had 2 lift drivers, 2 "guides", an overseer, a foreman and a supervisor in the warehouse to make sure that the unloading was expeditious and VERY safe!  They had their morning safety meeting an hour late and I got to listen in.....if I had to be told what they were told I think I would have to run over my own foot!  Good Golly Miss Molly...where has personal responsibility  and  common sense run off to!?!?!?!

The load that I'm under right now is the blue and gray containers that are in the middle of the pic.  I love loads like this...6 chains and I'm rolling down the road....of course, where I loaded was a huge project that was doing pipe for the underwater pipeline...men, equipment, vehicles, material piles all over the place. Needless to say, it took me about 20 minutes to get turned around and out of there...took 2 minutes to get into the area!  LOL

And for the first time in quite a few years I am actually decorating for Christmas!  I will be adding a few lights to the grill next week and to the inside of the truck. 

So, I am just chilling out this evening and will be resting this weekend, to be able to have a full log.  I'll be in Conroe, TX Monday, from there...who knows...just another day!!  Heheheheh