This week has been a wild ride! We started the week off heading to Pennsylvania with Maruchan noodles and have ended the week with a run back to PA with those noodles again. I'm sure the shortage of Ramen noodles will keep our paycheck rolling in for sometime at this rate. Could it be the Amish have found a use for them? These extremely resourceful people have the ability to find a use for just about everything they come across. Although they don't conform to many of the technological ways of the world they seem so happy living without all these 'new fangled' things that complicate our lives. I wonder how long the rest of the world could stand being without the laptops, cell phones cars and electricity.
We're ending our week with a truck load of Air Filters. No water apparently the recent rains in the south have quenched the thirst for now so we're bringing the air filters to clear out some of that pollen?! Yesterday we woke up early in Virginia at the truck yard, jetted off to pick up our first load at Maruchan to deliver to Disputanta, VA (coincidently I love that name!). After delivery we were back off to Maruchan to pick up our next load of noodles headed to Denver, PA. We are on a roll we thought, and we thought we'd make another appointment just up to when we found traffic backed up in Maryland around Baltimore and Frederick. Pushing on we made it to our appointment in Denver just an hour and forty five minutes later than we'd hoped. Ed talked really nice to the check in people and got us a door almost immediately. That didn't translate over to the lumper's as well.. they had a massive back up at the docks and wouldn't be able to unload us for nearly 2.5 hours. Then the check-in process another 45 minutes. It seemed we'd be out of luck to pick up our load coming back to Virginia! Ed kept the shipper up to date on the progress but the voice on the phone seemed to indicate the longer it took us to depart from Denver the less likely it would be we'd be loaded tonight.
Hoping against the odds we'd get a break we made our way over to Elizabethtown, PA found our shipper we are amazed at the sight of this kind gentleman standing at the dock door with our paperwork ready to load us! Praise the Lord! Of course it was 10:30pm when we left Elizabethtown and headed back up to the Wilco/Hess Truck plaza.
Truck stops are generally filling by around 8pm and by 11pm its nearly impossible to get a parking spot. Even with Ed's handicapped placard hanging in the window we have a difficult time finding parking. Finally we found a spot just about the same place we'd stayed just the day before next to a Perkins Restaurant (I strongly recommend the Ruben sandwich btw!). Exhausted but needing to use the facilities we wandered into the building. We hadn't eaten a real meal all day so we decided to grab a light meal. Ya, well at least I did! I had a half ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of fruit and Eddiekins decided that he NEEDED the country fried steak and mashed potatoes. Its 11:30pm and he's eating like that? We finished our meal and just before heading back over to go to sleep I decided I should use the facilities. I know a shocker here.. but who smokes pot in the bathrooms anymore? At a truck stop even? In the bathroom? Just so everyone knows this truck stop with its Perkins is used by the rest of the world too... I can't without a doubt say it was not a trucker but as I walked in and saw 2 young girls giggling the pungent smell hit me in the face. I tried to consider it was something else but as I walked by it got stronger. I closed the stall door and over heard one of the giggling ladies say "Think she knows what that is?" Yes I'm old by a teen standards but I'm not that old.. I do indeed know what that smell is. I heard another woman come into the restroom just then and as she closed her stall door she began coughing and the young girls left quickly. As I washed my hands it occured to me that the other woman may actually have thought I was the one smoking pot so I hurriedly left the room. Ed was paying our bill when I got back to him so I decided I'd tell the cashier the restroom needed attention. I glanced over my shoulder and still giggling the two young ladies stood right behind me. The cashier said she'd tell Wilco and they'd take care of it.
Ed and I walked into Wilco, he likes to look at the gadgets and such each truck stop has. As we were leaving the cashier was returning from the offending restroom with a red face. I couldn't help but laugh and ask if it was a new ploy by them to give drivers "the munchies" so they could make more money? Her simple response was 'Hmm no but...'
The adventures at the truck stops can be so entertaining sometimes!
A few weeks ago we'd stopped at the TA (Travel centers of America) across the street from the Wilco/Hess and had our first knock at the door from a 'Lot Lizard'. While I am sure most people would be furious at the very idea... This experience was absolutely hysterical! Ed and I had gotten up and were drinking our coffee and doing our morning devotionals quietly and we still had the black out curtain up that completely encloses the cab of our truck. Then the knock on the door, Ed glanced over at me with a questioning look I shrugged my shoulders and he opened the door. A middle aged appearing woman looked up at him and said "Would you like some company?" Ed's swift reply of "Uh I'll ask my wife..." was probably just as shocking to her as it was to me! She apologized and disappeared. Leave it to Ed to send a chuckle out for the day!
We're finally on our way back to Virginia! We got up to rain and wind this morning, had our coffee and ventured out of our cozy little nest. A quick bite at the McDonalds and we would be on our way. As usual nothing is quite what it seems. A group or gaggle, I'm not sure which I should call them, of young cheer leaders descended just as we walked in. All of them needing to attend to make up and hair at the same time. I couldn't help but notice one young girl dressed in just the quarter of a shirt, and a tenth of the skirt, I'm sure it shrunk in the wash bless her heart. Here she stood attempting to tuck a cell phone in to her micro sized skirt apparently oblivious to the 41 degree temperatures gusting winds and heavy rain she'd just walked in from, all of her little friends had jackets and sweat pants on all matching her shrunken clothes. I noticed the three cheer mom's escorting these ladies and well I wondered why they had not offered the poor thing a jacket.
Then the memories of motherhood to a teenager came flooding back. We as mothers notice these things with concern, but while I'm sure that the escorting mothers had asked her to put on clothes you can't make someone else's child do what they don't want to do. I can remember discussions with the Princess in our house and the frustration in these situations, a wave of sympathy went over me for those poor cheer mothers! Just a bit of insider information for any young girls or young mothers out there when you dress this way then appear in public specifically in truck stops don't be alarmed or surprised at the comments made by the public. Be thankful you can't hear the CB's!
We hope to be back in Virginia later this afternoon and will be home for a few hours! In the mean time stay healthy and safe!
God Bless
Pam and Ed
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