My introduction

I hope you will decide to ride along with us on our journey across the United States,(and Canada too! )My fiancee, Joe and I own a tractor trailer, a red Peterbilt with a big sleeper on it. We lease our truck to a company out of St Cloud MN and deliver loads for them basically from sea to shining sea. Every day is an adventure and there is always a challenge of some sort to deal with. I’ve been out in the truck for about 10 months now, we have been to all 48 lower states, and several provinces in Canada.

On top of the challenges we face in sharing a small space pretty much 24/7 along with the nail biting stress of being a trucker (thankfully, no, I do not share in the driving duties) I have the additional joys of dealing with Fibromyalgia, IBS and a host of other physical ailments. Oh, and I’m hearing impaired, I have about ¼ of my hearing left and wear 2 hearing aids) Let the games begin…………

A couple weeks ago, we were in a very rural area of Kansas, surrounded by farms and ranches. Most of them are older, weathered buildings, the towns are small, one street towns with your standard Sonics and Dairy Queens. It’s a sunny day, already 52 at 8:30 in the morning, much warmer than most parts of the country in this first week of February. Everywhere you look is a shade of beige….from the fields to the newly, or not yet plowed farmland to the bare trees, interspersed with silver silos and black spots of cattle. I’m enjoying it while I can, I have no desire to be in the cities and feel much more at peace here away from the metro areas and their urban sprawl.

We are headed up towards Kansas City to pick up some sort of load of tractors to take to a port in Wilmington, CA, outside of Long Beach. We had not wanted to take this load and stay more east, as we both have doctor appointments in NY in a little over a week, I will have to reschedule them. Freight is extremely slow lately, more so than usual this time of the year, and we don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing our loads right now.

The slowdown in the economy and the dropping of freight rates is of great concern to us, its something we have no control over. It doesn’t matter how hard you work anymore, we just plug along and try to get by the best we can and hope the situation improves sooner rather than later.

We are coming to another town that seems more profitable, the homes are newer, larger, the farm equipment state of the art, the silos gleaming in the morning sun.

We have been through the town here in Kansas that was completely eradicated by a tornado a couple years ago. It is so devastating to see the destruction, yet uplifting to see the hope in all the rebuilding. The vagaries of mother nature are never more apparent than out here on the road. Not only do we see the evidence of her fury, but we are exposed to her whim every day.

You might be wondering what I actually DO all day……besides bang my head against the dash and chant my manta, “why me??” Seriously though…..

I’ve mastered the intricacies of Spider Solitaire, a game that I could never before get past the first deal, guess that qualifies me for rocket scientist status. I read and send email when I’m not writing my blog. Some days I am a picture taking fool, depending on where we are and how I feel. (Everything depends on how I feel) Before I came out in the truck, I was a voracious reader, usually reading a novel every 2 days, but now I get a creative outlet more in writing this blog. On my brain fog bad fibro days I will just be able to manage a few games of Solitaire and the rest will be spent just watching the miles roll by. Oh yes, I do navigate and look for truck stops and rest areas!!

I’m an obsessive compulsive when it comes to many things which gives Joe no end of material to tease me with. I pretty much NEED to research a lot of the things we see each day (Thank you Wikipedia) I learn
so much history and geography and other interesting facts every day, but my recall is about 15 minutes. Hey look on the bright side, I will be constantly amused learning new factoids…..again and again, I’m so easily amused!!

When we stop to load or unload, the bungees are my domain….lol. I never met a bungee I didn’t hate. I’ll get out the straps we need, spray the old WD-40 on our winches and drag chains around from one end to the other. If we have an oversized or OD, load, I will get the extra lights, flags and banners ready. In addition I basically try to make a general pain in the ass of myself to keep Joe amused. We have a DVD and a flat screen 20” TV so we watch movies, but its not cheap when you don’t have an address to use anymore so that we can take advantage of Netflix. (isn’t that just the best thing since sliced bread?) I definitely would be thoroughly miserable without my laptop.

Every day, while it may not be fascinating, is one of new memories, new experiences (many I never want to repeat) and new thoughts. I hope that you will join me in sharing those.