The Out House!

For many of us out here that do not have a full facility bathroom we must trudge inside to take care of business! You learn when out here to not drink anything late at night as you do not want the call of nature to wake you up at 2:00 in the morning.

I was thinking of the settlers on my way to find the building this morning and how I should really feel as if I am suffering here but for some reason I do not. I have become accustomed to the morning walk to the building and do not mind it. I am usually up before daylight, we always park near the back (good grass for Molly her needs come first) and sometimes if I am asleep when we park I have to do a little searching to find the building. I like to stay in the lanes of travel first thing in the morning as I am not comfortable walking between trailers at night as you just never know.

I, unlike the settlers at least have a nice warm or cool bathroom, running water, soap, light, and usually paper towels to dry my hands on. Sometimes the facilities are less then desirable but such is life. Sometimes the walk into the building is very interesting as it is pouring down rain or snowing or the lot is covered in ice. Ice is the worst as far as I am concerned. I have always loved the rain and the snow so for me the walk inside in this weather is OK as everyone knows you have to go inside the building. I love it when I can put my rubber boots on and walk through the puddles of rain, or to walk when there are HUGE flakes of snow falling it is just beautiful and peaceful.

Someday we might have a "super" sleeper and have our own facilities but for now I will continue to enjoy my walk. Someday I will blog on the how others handle or do not handle this situation.

Rolling Pantry!

I use a combination of baskets and bungee cords to keep my groceries where I want them and to keep them from falling on my heard when I open the doors. I have found the baskets work great to hold canned goods, baggies, spices, and small tuna bags. I love the new easy open cans. The bungee cords keep all of my boxed items where they need to be. With the way Bob set the shelves up it is amazing what all I can carry in this cupboard.

This is a picture of cooking in bed! This truck does not have a table so you do what you have to do. I am able to cook going down the road as I use a recessed sink to contain my rice cooker and my crock pot. The Rocket Grill has cool sides so I do not worry about getting burned. I use a rice cooker for many things. Boil water, stir fry, "bake" ham and potatoes casserole, and to make sauces the limit a rice cooker can be used for is your imagination. I have to admit I have only made rice in the rice cooker a few times. I also use the awesome crock pot liners when I use the crock pot for ease of cleanup.

When I am at home and cook I make enough for left overs and freeze them for the truck. I have found this works well for pasta also. I put the left overs in baggies and then shape them to the size of a book so that my freezer looks a lot like a book case. I have found that the cheap tension rods you can get at Wal-Mart help hold my food in the freezer where I want it. We have also fallen in love with the new Steam Fresh vegetables as they beat canned stuff all to heck. With the size of our refrigerator and freezer we are able to have some awesome meals in the truck.

This is a picture of the Rocket Grill http://www.buyrocketgrill.com/. I compare it to a George Foreman Grill but this stands up and uses parchment paper to catch the fat and grease. Works great for hamburgers, steaks, chicken breasts and grilled cheese sandwiches. I found our grill at Wal-Mart and believe they were made for trucks! The ease of cleanup and the cool sides just make it perfect. With that said of course Wal-Mart quit carrying it and you have to now order the parchment paper on line.

We do not always eat in the truck as sometimes the walls start to close in on us and it is time to get out. Other times I am to tired to cook or I tell Bob it is his turn to cook and out we go! I am still learning new ways to cook in the truck and am always looking for new recipes.

Where are you?

We are always asked this question and after you reply you know if you are talking to a fellow driver or not.

The fellow driver will usually say oh are you at? and name off ALL of the trucks stops in the local area and sometimes a Wal-Mart or local place you can park and while they are at it name off the mile markers.

The non - driver will often say oh I love that city, and name of local points of interest that you will probably never see or you are no where close to. We sometimes get to SEE some of these places as we have carried high value loads that go to museums, traveling exhibits, or to upscale businesses. But do we stay? No as there is usually no room for us to park or huge signs saying NO TRUCKS. Love those signs. See is the key word here as we SEE those places as we drive by.

We have rented a car a couple of times and went and actually visited local points of interest and we probably should do it more often. We often find we do not have the time or we have housekeeping duties we need to get caught up on.

Our mind set is also funny as when the wheels are turning we are making money and when sitting nope no money! Try to explain that to all of the various panhandlers that knock on the door. So for us to go sight seeing means we might have to turn down a load making money. When the situation is right we do get out and see but in reality that does not happen often.

We have found the longer we do this the smaller the United States and Canada have become. It is great fun to talk with other drivers and discuss places to sit that are 4000 miles apart but you have been there, done that and have the t-shirt! What an awesome way of life we have.

So for us we will continue to "SEE" things as we go on by and keep the wheels turning!

LDWS Drives you nuts!

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/research-technology/report/lane-departure-warning-systems.htm

This technology is interesting and a hard sell. We have had one on our truck for a couple of years and it is still a pain at times.... The problem is when it is a pain is when you are not staying in your lane of traffic. We have been lucky enough with FedEx Custom Critical to be able to beta test different items and this one really changed our driving habits.

We had the LDWS installed in California and it was not a quick process as we were the first straight truck they had installed the unit on. The LDWS is a small camera and is mounted on the windshield with our other passes. The LDWS is a awesome little unit as it is constantly watching the lines and as you get any one of your tires on the white line you get an electronic rumble strip noise. We have a small speaker mounted on both side of the truck about shoulder high and as you start towards the white line on the passenger side that speaker goes off and the same happens on the drivers side. It is a very obnoxious sound! If you are a tractor trailer the camera is set up for that combination.

We immediately found that when we reach for anything we had a tendency to steer in that direction. Before we realize we are getting tired we have found we wobble around in our lane setting off the LDWS and we know it is time to take a break and walk around. Since we have had the system neither one of us have run over anymore "real" rumble strips as you just do not get that far out of your lane. Another benefit we quickly found was the system is great while driving in road construction as it will let you know if you get close to the lines. You can shut the system off with a toggle switch for 15 minutes at a time which is helpful when you are on really twisty turny lanes. The system also does not work below 37 mph.

We really enjoy getting to test new ideas and products and giving our feedback. We can see the benefits of this unit but it is hard to convince other drivers but sure not the safety department at a carrier.

Hot Topic SHOWERS

We are asked this question a lot by women looking at getting into trucking men not so much. I wonder why that is... Anyway I finally remembered to take my camera into the shower. Now I did hide my camera as I could just imagine the guys watching TV and standing around playing games seeing that camera and we all know exactly what they would be thinking. This is a typical shower room at a TA truck stop. Those that drive I am sure recognized it. You have a shower, toilet, sink and not much room. We do shower in the same room and it gets crowded. I one time was mad at Bob and said we need separate showers. Wow was that a mistake I will never repeat. I felt very vulnerable in the shower as men and women talking kept going by the door. Having Bob between me and the door just feels safe. We always ask for at least one extra towel and if I can get away with it I ask for two. One for the floor and one to dry with. I know we have been asked why do we not just use our own towels and we do not as there is just no place to dry the towels after we use them.

Overall most showers are just not that bad. We use shower shoes just in case, we do not set anything on the floor we either use a towel or a mat to set our shampoos on and after use dry the bottles off and put back in our carry ins. We buy bulk products and refill smaller bottles as you sure get tired of carrying a heavy bag in and out as it is often a pretty good walk back to the truck. No we do not get to shower everyday or twice a day. On the days we cannot get a shower you can wipe yourself down or Wal-Mart has a little product that you warm in the microwave with several moist towelettes that is just awesome.

MATS

Wow what a year for a truck show! I am not sure how the show sponsors are going to feel but I hope the vendors are thrilled. I know we as attendees could not have asked for anything else. The weather was great, the crowds were thin and the vendors actually had time to talk to you. We had a fantastic time and met two amazing individuals that will have such a impact on our business and I am sure they have no clue. The first individual was Miguel Soetaert (Sweetheart in english) and the other was Henry Albert of the Slice of Life and 1 Extraordinary Truck. Miguel's title is Group Leader Component Optimization which means he knows how to put a truck together to fit what you want it to do. We want comfort and fuel mileage while our friend is more concerned with cost and fuel mileage. He talked two different trucks. Miguel is from Belgium and the first thing you figure out about Miguel is he likes to talk, he is very interesting, and he loves life and trucks. Talk about a great combination! We were lucky enough to be able to spend enough time with him to consider him a start to a great friendship! He introduced us to Henry Albert who was the 2007 Overdrive trucker of the year. Henry was also one of the drivers chosen to drive the new Cascadia for a year to blog and attend events talking about his experience. One of the first things you notice about Henry is you have to look up and so does Bob! That does not happen often to Bob. Henry has tons of ideas on running a truck smarter and also being a smarter O/O and driver. Henry was silly enough to give us his number so... Talk about a person to bounce ideas off of. Here is Henry's Blog http://sliceoftruckerlife.com/blogs/henry-albert/ and here is the home site http://sliceoftruckerlife.com/#/home/

We also had a great time with other Expediters and had a few BBQ's in the parking lot. Weather would get a little chilly in the evening when the sun when down but we added our coats and enjoyed each others company. A couple who has been reading on ExpeditersOnline came up from Georgia and we were able to spend some time with them at the show and they were able to come over one evening and meet the crowd. They were also able to view what all a truck will carry after they have been on the road and also ask questions of several drivers from different companies. We were all happy to meet them and to sit down and chat! Hope they make a decision that is right for them and that we get to meet with them on down the road.

Silent Night

The joys of sleeping without truck engines running, reefers running, and people pulling in and leaving beside you setting their breaks is just a treat. We took a chance yesterday after stopping in Louisville and had some awesome BBQ that has long been recommended by a trucker friend. While at the BBQ place we had Buttermilk Pie and if you had a diabetic problem I think that pie would put you over the edge. I read a little about the pie after getting back in the truck. Five hours to prepare and 1 1/2 hours to bake at 400 calories a slice. Only the south could discover something so sweet to go along with your sweet tea! After our meal we decided to get closer to our delivery which was a chemical plant out in the middle of no where. We could not find a place to stay on the way to the plant so we decided to ask the guard shack if they knew of anything. Well lo and behold they have reserved three spots for trucks over to the side under a tree and next to some very nice grass! Talk about luck we were thrilled. Bob got out his polishing stuff and cleaned on the truck and I got out my lawn chair and worked on the computer. I had done my cleaning earlier in the day. We had a great evening and really appreciated this customer for providing such a nice area to wait. We are always very careful that no signs of our cleaning will be left behind. We do not want to ever be one of those truck drivers who gets anyone banned from parking at any location. This morning I woke up to birds chirping and the weather was just perfect to leave the windows open a tad. Great way to start a new week!

Escort / Hotel

We had to have an police escort to cross a bridge yesterday. What made this one interesting is they shut down the bridge to on coming traffic as we were going to cross with an oversize truck! It is really the pits when you have to have an escort on a bridge. You must call one hour ahead of time and if you mess that up and get to the bridge without calling you can receive a fine. We called in plenty of time made it to the bridge and had a car follow us in. Now that can get touchy real fast on these loads. Lucky he identified himself quickly and said he wanted to have us come inside and buy us coffee as he had been following our posts on Expediters Online. He recognized the truck and our Flying Pig! We told him sorry we are waiting on the police but we can chat for a bit here at the truck. He was a very nice guy and just wanted to know more information about the Expediting business. Our escort arrived and told us he would block traffic and we would lead the parade with him behind us and the oversize truck behind him. It is kind of fun to go across the bridge with a police car following you with lights on and then to see all the cars and trucks waiting on the other side now looking at you what a funny feeling!

We finally made it to our destination to find out we could not stay with our truck. Now this is really the pits as we have a very comfortable bed and everything we need. No hotel (ok not many) are as comfortable as our truck is. But that was neither here nor there as the MP's took us off to the rooms where the enlisted stay when visiting a base. We were told nope you cannot stay here you have to stay in the officers quarters. Well the MP's thought that was pretty cool as it is a lot nicer then the enlisted area. I know there are proper terms for these places but for the heck of me I cannot remember them. Yep we get to the officers rooms and we have a pretty nice room with coffee pot.! Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Molly was not impressed as she had to stay and guard the truck all night! She does not appreciate sleeping by herself but sometimes it really is a dogs life. All turned out well we got a good nights sleep and a ride back to our truck to be unloaded! Molly took one look at us and fell exhausted into bed.

Now we just wait for our next load.

Bob Published Writer!

Bob has started writing a weekly article for the Expedite Now magazine and also for the Expediters Online home page. One of his articles is located under EO Truck Topics on the home page. You just need to scroll down a little to see the Truck Topics. His first published article should come out this month in the Magazine that is sent all over the country. If you are interested in seeing the magazine article you can sign up and receive the magazine for free.

http://www.expeditersonline.com/

Since Bob does not type or I should say he does not really want to type so he types poorly this is a joint venture. He writes out his article then I decipher what he has wrote and between the two of us we try to get the article into a final format. Neither one of us were English majors so there are a lot of flaws but Bob does have some very good info for new people or even people in a money crunch wanting to do more themselves.

So far Bob is enjoying his new project and he has been getting some very positive feedback!

Quebec

We had to take a load to just above Montreal QC and after we crossed into Quebec I remembered why I dislike that area SO much! What frustrates me and I am sure many other Canadians is French! My gosh that is the language, the signs, the road signs everywhere is French and NO English. Before you jump on me I know that this is the language spoke in Quebec but what bothers me is the REST of Canada and even parts of the USA have signs in English and in French for these people. Now why in gods name does the USA have to have signs in French and English? French is not our language. I feel as if the least they could do in Quebec is have their signs in French and English to help out the rest of the area and us non French speakers. We do not take or haul loads out of this area unless they pay very well and we do stay in that area we head back to the English speaking side of Canada or back to the good ole United States. Now crossing that border back into the United States can be another challenge! This past time we came out empty at the prettiest border crossing in the United States. We crossed at Landsdown, ON or Thousand Island. What a site to behold on the river. There are so many little islands with houses on them and their garage which looks like a normal garage is for a boat. What a great area and one we hope to go back and visit. This time coming out it was pouring down rain and there were no trucks at the border. We were empty but the USA Customs Agent still decided we needed to be x-rayed. So we go into the little building they run the x-ray over us and then have us pull outside so they can look inside the truck. Now I do not mind getting out in the rain but there is no excuse to make Molly get out in the rain. So as they stood in the rain waiting I looked for Molly's raincoat so she would not get wet! I know I was playing with fire but still. All they did was poke their head in from the door and look into the sleeper. Well I can say this at least they were a lot wetter then Molly was! We then were told to proceed with no more problems!

Nike + iPod

We all face a challenge of getting out and exercising and when driving a truck you can really think of several good reasons not to exercise. One is you are in unfamiliar territory most of the time, truck stops are not often built with sidewalks and even walking beside the road is dangerous, walking in the truck parking lot can really be a challenge, you are tired from driving all night and the list goes on and on....

This year I had set a goal of eating less and exercising more by getting out and walking. So far so good with a little incentive! Several things all happened at once I started reading a very good book called People are Idiots and I can Prove it by Larry Winget that pretty much said any excuse is an excuse and what YOU put in YOUR mouth ends up on YOUR behind! Got my attention. Then our youngest daughter sent me a Nano and the Nike Plus which is just awesome! Talk about incentive! The Nano is calibrated to my walking stride and keeps track of how far I walk, how fast I walk, and also how many calories I am am burning. Then to top it off you can challenge people so that when you hook your Nano up to the computer it records how far you have walked or ran. So you can challenge each other to go so far in a certain amount of time. The people in your challenge can also see when you are slacking as you cannot record miles if you do not walk them! While you are walking you can listen to music you have downloaded to your Nano so the time just flies by.

So far I have lost some weight and my knees feel so much better since I have been exercising them. I have been spending more time learning about nutrition and cooking more meals in the truck so that I can control our portions and how the meal is made. That benefits us in two ways, we eat less and it costs less then eating out. I like both of those reasons.

Bob does get out and walk some with me but he gets a lot more exercise then I do on a day to day bases. He deals with our customers and he also spends a lot of time polishing our truck. The inside in much easier to clean and I sure do not get much exercise while I am working on the computer. Molly does not go for our walks as she just cannot keep up anymore. She gets to go for short strolls, then she gets a treat and takes an hour or so nap!

Back to Work!

We are waiting to unload! What a deal though supposed to be an escort on a load and get to our pickup and we were given the wrong info. We were the lucky ones to haul the freight. We are supposed to load at 15:00 and get to our pickup and there are trucks everywhere no way are we getting loaded at that time. We go through our inspection, our escort goes through their inspection and we are good to go now just wait till freight is ready. We wait till 19:30 to get loaded and find out we are not getting 850lbs but 12,500lbs. No change in pay just more weight. We know we are going to a place that does not have a safe haven where we can stay with the truck so we ask if we can stay where we are. Nope what we are picking up there they want rid of we cannot stay. The problem with where we are delivering to is you have to leave your truck and get a taxi to a hotel. Well the hotel is about twenty miles away and smells. FedEx Custom Critical does pick up the tab but who wants to leave their comfy truck in the middle of the night to go to stinking hotel? So after we are loaded we drive slow and stop often. We were lucky our escorts understood and did not complain and just went along. We have made it to our delivery now have to wait for a different escort to take us back to unload! What a start to coming back to work. The load did pay well and even knowing all of this we would have accepted it so that helps a lot.

Computer withdrawals

I am finally getting caught up on all of my emails and also the forums I am involved with. You think only being gone from your computer for three full days would not be that big of deal. WRONG! This last trip will be the last time I travel without my computer. Each morning I would get up and my day would just start odd. I was not able to catch up on the headlines, check on the weather, check on my email, check out the forums and felt totally out of it. Once the day would start and we were off doing activities we normally would not do I did not even think of or miss the computer till in the evening when we would get back to the hotel.

It was very overwhelming when I was finally able to turn my computer on and just sit down and get caught up. After a few hours working on the computer things started to get back to normal. Most of our transactions while we traveled were in cash as if I had receipts to enter I am sure I would have been even more nervous. Very hard for me to go to bed with paperwork still to be done!

So before you take off on vacation think very hard about how often you use your computer for just daily communications and also keeping up with what the world is doing. I know I have learned me lesson and it will not happen again.

Disneyland

We just arrived home after three and a half days in Disneyland! Disneyland has always been a very special place to me and a place to forget all troubles and just enjoy life. Once you walk in past the turn styles and under the bridge you are in another world. As a child once we reached that area we were given our ticket books and told what time to meet back with the adults. My sister and I spent many hours just wandering the park and being very picky about what rides we rode as when we ran out of our tickets we were done for the day. My sister and I loved every moment we spent in Disneyland and then adult life caught up with us. We moved and were only about to go back once when the kids were to small to enjoy the park. Through the years though I have always continued to collect and read about Disneyland and dream of the day being able to go back. Well lucky for me I finally got back in contact with my best friend from High school and she and her family are just as crazy if not crazier then I am about Disneyland. Her still living in Arizona take a trip just about every year to the park. Nicki and I were lucky enough to meet her and her family out there in 2007 and had a great time. There were a few new rides and a few rides were gone but the park was still just as perfect as I remembered it. What fun to show Nicki the park and find that she loved it just as much as I did! This year Nicki was not able to go and so Bob went. Bob enjoys Disneyland but not to the same degree as I do. Some of the rides do not sit well with him. Debbie, her son Mikey and I were able to make him pretty sick the first full morning there. The rest of the day we spent on flat non spinning rides. The next morning first thing we did was Space Mountain and that was the end of Bob! Anything that moved fast he became our official photographer! Poor Guy! There are many rides though that even a person with motion sickness can ride so he still had a very good time. We were lucky that it was the off season so we were able to ride a lot of the rides in a very short time. We walked at least a million miles but boy did we have a great time! I am not sure if we will be able to go back before 2012 but if not that is the year to go! There are plans for 3 new awesome rides on the California side of Disneyland and they look amazing.

How we do Disneyland:

When you walk in the park the first thing you want to see in Steve Martin and the first 50 years of Disneyland. Great show and lots of pictures and memorabilia of Disneyland. Next you head out quickly for the Tiki Room which is a must as it was my moms favorite and brings back many fond memories of her. After the Tiki ride is the new ride Indian Jones Jeep adventure all I can say is it is amazing and a lot of fun. Bob even liked this one. Next you have to ride Pirates of the Caribbean which you should ride many time while visiting the park. After Pirates you hustle on over to the Haunted House then it is on to Splash Mountain where you need to add your rain poncho. Next you go back around the lagoon and if you have time board the Mark Twain River boat, after that ride you go through Cinderellas Castle and ride Mr Toads Wild Adventure, Pinocchio, Peter Pan and the Snow White rides, then you are off to ride the Canal Boats of Storybookland. Then a must see is It's a Small World then you should ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds. We rode the Nemo Submarine ride but once was one time to many as none of us enjoyed the wait nor the ride. You can then get on the Monorail and take a tour of the parks for a nice break. Next is Space Mountain! That ride is just awesome a totally dark room with stars and a roller coaster! We usually hit Star Tours which is a virtual ride but a riot! Once you have finished that tour of Disneyland it is about time for lunch and then go back and fill in some of the rides you missed and of course hit the favorites once again.

My favorite ride is Pirates of the Caribbean!