Those Crazy Ag Pilots!!

And we thought truck drivers had to be crazy to do what they do! Ag pilots (formerly known as crop dusters) are the craziest of them all!! We have literally had them flying within feet of us.
All I can think of is that these pilots probably love their jobs more than anyone else I know! We love watching these pilots, they are the best!

Moses Lake, Washington

We were able to get all unloaded yesterday with no problem. Looks like we are spending the weekend here in Moses Lake, Washington. It was very surprising to me that the eastern part of Washington State is very arid and hot, much like a desert. Its very sandy and there aren’t many trees here at all. It was sunny and in the 90’s when we unloaded yesterday, and it took us about 2 hours to get all our tarps and straps off that load.

We are both hoping that is the last time we have to unroll those dreaded tarps. I think I will keep one to use for a koi pond liner J (Eat your heart out Queen Martha!)

We found a great little truck stop here in Moses Lake. Well, it’s the only one actually, Ernie‘s Fuel Stop. There is a Shari’s restaurant in the parking lot, which is a chain here on the west coast very similar to Perkins, so we had a nice dinner there. I think we are both just trying to regroup and get our bearings back after this past week.

We found a nice public access boat ramp on the lake and relaxed for a bit, enjoying the water and watching all the boats.

I've been taking tons of photos lately. Now everything I see is so precious, I know its probably the last time I will have the opportunity to see these sights. I just wish I had better service so that I could share more of them with you. I've been working on Picasa, trying to get that to work, but service isn't cooperating with that either yet.

Road Check and passport reminders!!

Drivers, its that time of the year again! Road Check will be conducted from June 2, 2009 through June 4th 2009. This is from Transport Topics Online:

Annual Roadcheck Event Set for June 2-4

Some 10,000 inspectors will be deployed across Canada, Mexico and the United States June 2-4 as part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Roadcheck event.

As in past years, safety inspections on trucks will be conducted by roving patrol units and at checkpoints located on major highways.

By Transport Topics

Also a reminder to all drivers effective tomorrow, Monday, June 1st a passport will be REQUIRED to cross the border between the United States and Canada.

We're going to do WHAT???!

I have to make an announcement with VERY mixed emotions: Joe and I are officially getting out of over the road trucking! Yesterday (Thursday) Joe received a phone call with a job offer from a company back home in NY.. (An offer he couldn’t refuse!) He will still be driving truck, but just local deliveries, and home every night and weekends. He is so relieved to be getting away from the worries of being an owner operator in these very trying economic times, and knowing there will be a steady weekly paycheck as well as benefits. We have to be back in NY in 2 weeks for Joe to finalize all the paperwork.

Not everyone can say that they have lived one of their dreams, and, although it did not last as long as we would have liked, or ended the way that we anticipated, at least we can say that we DID live our dreams for a short while. The memories, both the good and the bad, will always be a part of us.

So we have on one hand, a steady paycheck, benefits, health insurance, home every night, off most weekends, no truck stop showers or food, no trying to find someplace to park, reading permits, no dealing with DOT at weigh stations, no worries about breakdowns, curfews, blizzards, floods, tornados, or waiting on shippers and receivers, (hmmmmmmmmmmmm, what’s NOT to like?) And, on the other hand…. well, you get the picture. Am I disappointed? Heck yes! Trucking DOES get into your blood, but I also know it’s the best move we can make at this point in time.

But, but, there are still so many places I didn’t get to see yet!! And I never got to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack!!!

Last Thursday, we received a phone call from someone that says he is definitely going to buy our truck, so we will see how that plays out.
Not everyone can say that they have lived one of their dreams, and, although it did not last as long as we would have liked, or ended the way that we anticipated, at least we can say that we DID live our dreams for a short while. The memories, both the good and the bad, will always be a part of us.

That’s not to say we wont miss having our truck, or being out on the road together 24/7, we will both miss that part of it very much. Don’t get me wrong, trucking has its good points, but these days, its also a difficult and ulcer inducing career choice, especially if you have your own truck. I just hope and pray the economy can make a turnaround soon, and we can all start breathing a little easier.

There are a lot of things I will miss and a lot of things I will be glad to miss, but mostly, its going to be difficult to adjust to having a “normal” lifestyle. (not that my life has, in any way shape or form ever been normal). Right now we have to scramble to find a place to live, a houseful of furniture, a job and a vehicle for me…..hey, why should this be easy? LOL

I’m planning on keeping the blog up for at least another 2 weeks, perhaps a little bit longer after that.
Then I am hoping that time and health will cooperate and allow me to start my very own healthy cooking blog!

Oh by the way, we just passed our first 2010 Chevy Camaro, and I must say we were both very impressed. I didn’t think I was going to like it after seeing the promotional photos, but this was one sharp car. It was deep yellow with black racing stripes and shortly after that we passed a solid black version. I’m still partial to the new Challenger though!

Kudos to Joey Logano for his great finishes in the last few NA$CAR races. I know it won’t be long before he visits victory lane for the first time!

Progress Report

I’m happy to report that we are almost to the Montana-Idaho line, and thankfully, no sign of a relapse in the pneumonia. We left the hospital in Missouri early Wednesday morning, and we have been making our way mile by mile. We are hoping to be at our destination in a few hours, Joe is feeling a bit better, aside from some side effects of the medication, and the fever hasn’t come back, which is a great thing.

Wyoming and Montana have been beautiful, especially this time of the year, and I’m looking forward to going through Idaho again. Especially Coeur D’Alene, We’ve been running along side the Clark River and it reminds me so much of the rivers where they were fly fishing in Montana in the movie, A River Runs Through with Anthony Hopkins. (Yeah, I know Brad Pitt is in it too, but Anthony Hopkins is a MUCH better actor in my opinion). Joe saw a bull moose last night, so that was pretty exciting.

We are both pretty quiet, I think we are just intent on getting back on track and getting this load safely delivered so that we can get a paycheck next week. Once we get this delivered we can both breathe a little easier. Although we would like to be able to get a new load this afternoon, the odds of that happening are slim, and I would certainly not be unhappy if we had the opportunity to rest up and get all this laundry done!

Thanks again for all your prayers and well wishes for Joe’s recovery!

Comments

I apologize for not responding to anyone's comments. I had all the settings in my "dashboard" set to allow comments, which is all I thought was needed. However, after a very lengthy search on the help forums (Blogger has a very "un" user friendly help feature) I have found yet another antidote. It seems each and every time you type a new posting, you have to click on a link that opens up another window to change the radio button to allow comments. THUNK.......silly me, here I thought just changing the global settings to allow comments would, well............allow comments. Go figure.

Now if I can only figure out how to caption my photos...............

Virginia modifies rest area closures

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We are still in the hospital here in Missouri, but Joe is feeling much better and we should be back on our way to Washington in the morning. We really needed to keep this load, especially since every one of our tarps and straps were used to secure this load. I'm just hoping its still there after being left in the truck stop for the last 3 days! :-) Thanks so much for all your prayers and well-wishes. We've had the chance to experience this weekend first hand several days of hospital food. Don't get me wrong, the hospital and the nurses here have been great, they have always brought me a meal whenever they brought one for Joe, and being that there are no restaurants within walking distance, its been a big help. I just can't help but wonder.......WHY is hospital food so unhealthy?? Everything that we have had has been high in fat, low in nutrients and high on the processed food chain. It just makes more sense to me that if you are trying to support your body in time of sickness or injury, you would want to eat as healthy as possible. That's just my thinking, anyway. The staff here has been wonderful, though, and to that, I am very thankful. (It is however a scary thought that we are actually looking forward to eating truck stop food again! LOL) Some of you might remember my previous rant concerning Virginia's callousness regarding truck parking. Here is a copy of an article I read today on etrucker.com: (It's nice to see they are making some sort of an effort to correct the situation, it's a small start)... Virginia modifies rest area closures By eTrucker Staff The Virginia Department of Transportation May 20 recommended keeping open six rest areas it had planned to close and making other adjustments to accommodate truck parking. VDOT still plans to close 19 of 42 rest areas but will keep open four along the I-81 corridor. It will also retain two truck-only facilities on I-95 near Daly City to address truck parking concerns. In response to trucking industry requests, VDOT will propose replacing the “two-hour” commercial parking rule in rest areas with “no overnight parking.” The department also will replace 225 truck parking spaces lost to rest area closures by reconfiguring parking lots at some remaining facilities. VDOT is making its final recommendations to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which will adopt VDOT’s fiscal year 2010 budget at its June meeting. If approved by the CTB, these changes represent $9 million in annual savings and will begin in July. In February, VDOT said it would close 25 rest areas to save $12 million annually. VDOT hosted 11 public meetings across the commonwealth before finalizing its recommendations. The commonwealth also plans to seek federal law changes to allow future rest area commercialization. I hope the states start realizing just how difficult it is out here on the road, and how difficult it can be to stay within the federal hours of service guidelines, and try to cooperate more with drivers.