It's been too long

Welcome Back Good Buddies!

It has been way too long since I have posted. I'm not sure which I miss more, being out on the road or writing in this blog. Unfortunately the reasons that I have not started up a new blog are not good ones. My fears of this one becoming inactive will keep me posting sporadically until circumstances change. I can not get back out on the road, but maybe, just perhaps, I can still contribute to one dream, that of writing down my thoughts and experiences here.

We are deep in the fall season here in upstate NY, Halloween is only a week away. While we still had some beautiful fall foliage yesterday, I am sure after the drenching rains of last night, they will soon be another thing of the past. Time to hunker down until Spring. I guess if I made it through a blizzard in Fargo, ND (among others) I can make it through this winter here in NY. Hopefully, anyway.

I keep telling Joe that I am going to run away from home. The wide open spaces of the western states are always calling to me in my thoughts and in my dreams. One thing I have learned is that things in our lives are always changing; that thought seems to give me the courage to endure this time in my life.

Today we have planned to visit two of our favorite places: Tractor Supply and Cracker Barrel!
Its been some time since we have had a day to just enjoy spending some time together so I am looking forward to it. With the colder weather on tap, we need to get a heated water jug for the chickens, I'm hoping to start some holiday shopping.

We are finally settling in at the new place, the shed was finished last week, the tractor and the Harley now have a place to sit out the winter in anticipation of warmer weather. Our grass is finally coming in but the rest of the chores will have to wait until spring. Now to concentrate on the inside jobs....LOL.

Hoping to keep up with my blog .......... y'all come back again real soon!!!

Happy Trails

With very heavy hearts, we brought our truck to the terminal today to have them remove their computer equipment and the decals. They said we were the third truck today to come in for that.....small consolation. It sure doesn't make the transaction any easier.

I just want to thank you all for riding along with us, we were very glad to have you.

Have a good ride and be safe out there.

Stay tuned.............

Our Last "Official" Day

Sung to Alice Cooper’s, Schools Out for Summer:

No more bungees, …..No more tarping……….
No more dirty truck stop show-eeeeeeers!

That,‘s a good thing, right??? SIGH

But,. But I havent done truck stop reviews on ALL the places we stopped, and, and we never got to Quebec and, and …sniff…..we , we never got to …sniff, Macaroni Grill…….sniff, sniff. NOOO, wait, I’m not done yet!!!………… Bwaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe really is extremely good at what he does. It amazes me what he can do with this truck and trailer and the places he manages to get them into. Places and situations that I think are impossible, he makes look easy. It really hurts me to see how hard he works and how conscientious he is, and to have it all fall apart like it has, due to no fault of his own. No one ever said life was fair, or easy, and it sure isn’t, we all have experienced that at some point in time. Its so difficult to start over from scratch when you are in your 40’s, but so many have been forced to do just that during these tough economic times.

Its an appropriately rainy and dreary morning here on the Illinois/Indiana border. That pretty much matches my feelings.

Check back in later for an updated weather report!

Joe's Crab Shack

Sunday we finally had the opportunity to experience dining at Joe’s Crab Shack in Beaumont, TX. We drive by so many fun looking restaurant chains and I have to settle for looking up the menus online instead of eating there. We have been lucky this past year to discover Famous Dave’s.(whoooo hooooo),
Carino’s, Bubba Gumps, and now, Joe’s Crab Shack.

We were not disappointed in the least. I love fish and seafood and funky restaurants with a schtick. Joe’s is similar to Gumps but without the Forrest elements, and Joe’s had a much larger menu. (But Bubba Gump’s shrimp in dipping sauce is to die for, luckily I was able to find a copy cat recipe and can’t wait to try it out).

We parked at the Petro in Beaumont and walked across the street, managed to walk through the parking lot of Cracker Barrel without going in and over to Joe’s. It was almost a tough choice as Joe’s shared a parking lot with Cheddar’s (another favorite of ours) and, the all time great, Carino’s. What a great town! There is also a Pappadeaux’s across the street from Joe’s, which is another seafood restaurant chain that I would have loved to try. Texans really love their food and it shows.

The music was a little loud inside, so we sat out on the deck which worked out great. I had a tough time choosing from the huge menu, but settled on the Maui Mahi, grilled Mahi in a mango coconut sauce. Joe had the glazed salmon with pineapple pico de gallo. Both were moist, perfectly cooked and delicious but we agreed the Mahi was slightly better.

Unfortunately we were both too full to sample anything from the desert menu. Darn.

They have a nice little store with crab themed T-shirts, which I thought were great, as my zodiac sign is the crab. I ‘m sure Joe would agree that the crab would be a good mascot for me for other reasons. I just wish we had one within driving distance in NY so we could try their other menu selections. I was a little crabby because I did forget my camera, but I managed to snap a few with my phone though.

It’s a no-brainer, an easy, and delectable 5 stars!!!!!!!!!!!

90 degree weather.........

90 degree weather + 82,000 pound over sized load = a very loud bang and a HUGE repair bill!

So, now not only are we sitting along the side of the interstate in Arkansas with a blown tire, we are missing a Harley Davidson mudflap and bracket, which has to be replaced before we get a ticket for no mud flap.

We are SO glad that finally, finally after all this time, were given a hub for a wind turbine to deliver. Be careful what you wish for, as they say. Guess we are really going out with a "bang".

Skor bars just arent going to cut it today, folks. I need a whole Black Forest Cake AND an almond cherry cheesecake.

I'm at a loss for words today. Well, any that I can print, that is.

Let's get this show (back) on the road!

This warm sunny gorgeous day finds us heading back out from Moses Lake, Washington, on our way once again, to Nederland, Texas: a trip just short of 2400 miles.

So, here is the scoop on our Genie machine. If you noticed in yesterday's photo, this particular machine has tracks instead of wheels. Supposedly some of these machines were shipped out of the factory in Redmond with the tracks on “backwards”.

The factory rep came out and gave our machine about a 10 second look-see and declared ours A-OK. We were free to go and deliver this in Texas! Luckily for us, as there was a driver in front of us that had one of the defective machines and they had to unload his. He will be forced to sit there all day and, once the new tracks came in, wait until they change them. Whew.

See….piece of cake!! {rolling my eyes}

Speaking of cake, the stress yesterday was a good excuse to allow me to indulge in a couple chocolate bars, so all was not lost!

You want us to do WHAT?

We picked up these 2 Genie machines near Seattle, WA yesterday afternoon. We delivered the smaller one this morning in Meridian, ID, which is right outside of Boise .

We made it to Twin Falls, ID when our dispatcher, Chris calls us on the phone. It seems that there is an “issue” with this model machine that we were supposed to deliver in Texas, and they want us to bring it back to Moses Lake, Washington!! About a 500 mile trip! 500 very steep, very mountainous miles!! So, now we are headed back west, waiting to get a confirmation on exactly how much they are going to pay us to bring this all the way back to Washington! If its not much, I told Joe the only “issue” with this machine is that it will be sitting on the side of the road somewhere in Idaho.

Which means we probably won't get a load delivered in time for this weeks payroll cut-off. Gotta love trucking. This is definitely a statue day and not a pigeon day!

Mantra for today: Hang in there for 2 more weeks! Breathe! Breathe!