Well its now Wednesday and now we are waiting for our next load. I'm sure everyone is eager to hear if I have sustained any permanent injury from my grand fall...damage was only superficial only my dignity was bruised.
We enjoyed a wonderful weekend at home with our daughter and grandson along with our small pack of animals. I'll post a picture of them all corralled in a kennel we'd constructed for just the youngest member of the family. Her name is Diesel - her best friend is Turbo (a cat). Before you even begin to wonder, I'll let you know that Ed named both of these poor animals. He has a need to name our animals after his favorite engines, I don't understand, but the names suit them so well I can can't complain. On another note, we totally enjoyed watching “Tangled” with our daughter and grandson - it was tons of fun!
Monday came early and we got on the road as I said earlier. Nothing is ever as simple as it would seem. We arrived at our destination got a 'number' to wait in line for a door. We decided to take a nap while we waited to hear our number called on the CB.
Since I am not driving nor required to be awake I don't mind taking my sleep aids (just Tylenol pm). I prepare our daily medications for up to 2 weeks in advance to expedite this and because we, at our age, take lots of vitamins and the ever essential estrogen replacement for me so as to prevent any untimely homicidal issues! Yes Pam without hormone replacement is NOT a friendly thing...who knew... I also have a bit of a lower back issue that occasionally requires muscle relaxers (Flexeril); because I have a low tolerance for most medications ie Tylenol Pm is a guarantee of at least 8-10 hours of sleep within 10 minutes I will rarely take the Flexeril because it has a long term 'sluggishness' effect on me even though I only take half a pill. That being said the combination of a 1/2 of Flexeril and Tylenol Pm should be avoided.
Ok so getting to the point with all this right..due to space restrictions I thought I'd bring only a few of the muscle relaxers with us on the truck as emergency use. I placed several (I do not recall how many) halved pills in my pill case with a reminder in my head..Mondays we refill and check for pills..that should remind me to check my Monday evening pills before I throw them back for the evening right? Uh not always... Tired and ready to go to bed I opened my pill case paid no attention whatsoever to what pills or day it was emptied the contents into my hand (2 Tylenol pm, 2 Fish Oil, Ginkgo Biloba St. Johns Wort and the muscle relaxers) and swallowed them ALL down. As I gulped the water after the pills it hit me.."Oh no I've just taken maybe 4 of my Flexeril"! Ed exploded in laughter and said he would see me in a few days..nice huh? I attempted to give them back up to no avail, and then fear struck what if I had taken 'too many' and well something bad happened. Then I suddenly remember hearing of people taking 8-10 of these pills and not even noticing a difference. That made me feel somewhat better. Ed continued his occasional giggle for some time after this since he couldn't really go completely to sleep I'm so happy I could provide him with the entertainment of the evening.
Well I didn't become completely comatose just very relaxed and well rested!
Our next load WATER! Apparently the south is very thirsty and the north is noodle deprived? It seems that for every load of Maruchan we take up north we bring back a load of water. We need to weigh our rig when we haul something as heavy as water and each set of axles has to weigh below a certain amount. Steer Axle 12,000 Drive Axel 34,000 and Tandems 34,000. Sometimes it can be a challenge depending on how they load the trailer to get that distribution right. We slide the tandems at the rear of the trailer either forward or back to get the weight distributed correctly. DOT will give tickets for each axle that is overweight and a combined ticket for total over weight limit. It can be very pricey, from a couple of hundred dollars up into the thousands…
Truck stops with scales are essential to keeping your rig legal! You just need to find one close to you and without crossing a weigh station in the process. This journey is indeed at times an adventure in and of itself. Leaving the water distribution plant we needed to be weighed… look out world we’re heading back to Jersey..yippie! I don’t know how that foolish wench (ok it’s a Garmin) on the dashboard of this truck can repeatedly put us into the oddest situations. Of all the truck stops we’ve been in I think this one was the absolute smallest of them all! Because we arrived at the prime parking time of 7amish we got one of the 6 parking spaces. We backed in and realized we had a front row seat for ‘A Ballet of Trucks’. (see photo) The 6 or so fuel stalls constantly filled and emptied most of the time without a hitch. Then on those occasions that one truck would fuel and pull forward allowing the next truck to get access to the pumps a may lay of foolishness in sued. If one truck was pulled forward it allowed NO room for anyone else to leave the fuel area. I could do nothing but laugh at the anguish some of these guys put forth in attempting to get a 60 something foot rig through a space designed for a rig probably no more than 50 foot long. With the first guy blocking up the fuel island NO ONE moves. A lingering stay in the bathroom or ordering a sandwich from the subway inside maybe chatting with another driver caused the biggest cluster of trucks angling to move I’d ever seen. Ed suggested I not take pictures but when we didn’t have 6 rigs looking dead at us I couldn’t pass it up. It seemed at least once an hour they had this grid lock and ballet maneuver’s. All seemed to ‘NEED to GO’ none of them seemed to care much about the mess they had made when they came back and climbed in the cab of the offending rig! Wow to have a carefree attitude like that must be an awesome thing I can only imagine.
Ed and I went to sleep after watching the show.. well I returned to sleep again because I was still riding on my Flexeril over dose. So guess what?! IT’S RAINING IN NEW JERSEY! LOL I bet I know why they call it the garden state in the spring! Its nearly tropical rain.. I wonder what that state is like when it’s not raining and the population is not all on the highways. I’ll probably never know…
I’ll catch everyone up on how things are going again soon!
God Bless!
Pam and Ed
Our message of the day: (I will never leave you nor forsake you) Heb 13:5
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