Mulch, Manners and Mayhem

Wednesday afternoon we were dispatched to Waverly, VA to pick up a load of mulch destined to Pennsylvania. For the second time they over loaded us and needed to take a pallet off.  Even with that weight issue we still needed to slide tandems and the fifth wheel on the tractor.  The fifth wheel is the big round plate with a U shaped area cut out on the tractor.  On the trailer a king pin comes down and must be aligned to met up with the fifth wheel.  If done correctly (and yes I can do this very well now) the sound that you hear is a big thunk of sorts.  Once you hear that you put the truck  back in first gear and with the brakes off try and pull the trailer - this is also called a tug test.  You're checking to make sure the fifth wheel and the king pin are locked.  Rarely the fifth wheel needs to be moved.  On those occasions you pull a lever and pull forward or back as needed.  All this is done to help get your weight even throughout the truck.   We needed to do this Wednesday since no amount of moving the tandems would help.  After sliding the fifth wheel we scaled and Ed was very pleased with himself. 

We headed out to Pennsylvania from Waverly with the ever popular fuel stop at the terminal. It was a quiet ride back up to PA from this point. 

We arrived at a service plaza just outside of Allentown, PA around midnight had a short 7 hour rest and made our way to our appointment.  Home Depot, we'd never delivered here before our first retail store delivery! Well it didn't get off to a great start they had several trucks to unload and since they don't have signs up as to where trucks come in from you just take your  best guess. That being said the space you have to pass each other is extremely small.  With some fancy wiggling from Eddie we got through with mere breaths between trucks.  Meeting other drivers with the same confused look is as always a wonderful way to find comfort, I'm guessing the trucks following us met the same looks. 

What I can not seem to understand is the inability to reason with men when it comes to asking questions. Directional questions must be the worse questions in the world to men. Okay, so sometimes girl questions are dumb but occasionally we have a realistic question too!  Sometimes the question we ask, when answered correctly, can provide much needed information that could help.  Take for instance this morning while we waited for a trucker to get his load tied down Ed noticed he was having trouble getting one of his straps to stay hooked to his trailer bed.  I suggested Ed go help him, I got a glance of indignant disbelief. Eddie said "I didn't sign up for flat beds he did; and why should I go make him feel bad just because we're in a hurry?"  I have no idea how offering to help is going to make the guy feel bad but 'ok'.  

Once we got backed into our door at Home Depot they began unloading us as shocking as that is the normal wait can go from 10 minutes to 4 hours. We listen and can feel the fork lift on our trailer when they unload us, Ed noticed a lack of heavy movement on the trailer and walked into the building to get our paper work and found one of the pallets of mulch on our trailer had toppled over.  Ed helped the forklift driver stack the bags of mulch back on a pallet and away we went!

Next stop Nestle' for more water. The south must be parched again. When we got our paper work from the office they gave us a directions sheet to a new truck stop!  This means we don't need to go to New Jersey for scales!  Trexler Plaza in Allentown, PA newly opened and has scales, decent parking and within walking distance to a real drug store.  We got the weight for the truck and went inside.  A nice enough place clean food well they will improve with time I'm sure.  Ed went back to the truck for a nap before heading on our way back to Virginia. I decided to stroll over to the drug store and 'shop' a bit.  I found Mikey a baseball bat and wandered back to the truck. After Ed's nap we went back to the truck stop for food, like I said hopefully this aspect will get better with time or the next time we visit.  The young lady working the food area seemed really nice but when I inquired about a sandwich from one of her co-workers the manners stopped. Rude people should not work in or with the public, the results can be financially painful in the long run. After telling Ed that I no longer wanted anything, due to the rude young lady, he asked why I told him what she'd said and that I would wait for him in the truck.  Sadly the young girl waiting on Ed had only to say "Well she's got a lot on her mind right now."  She was calculating and  making sandwiches to refill the sandwich case... ok still no sale, I will be hoping they will have less on their minds the next time we visit.    

How is it that people seem to miss seeing a big truck baring down on them? (Blind spot?) Why is it that people in cars think they are getting so much further ahead by constantly switching lanes? (They can't see the lane they just had to get into stopped completely 10 cars ahead of them) Is it really that much closer to your destination by cutting in front of a big truck? (Not if said big truck plows into the side of your car, it could take a life time to get where your going.) Is there a school for merging? (Please make it mandatory  for EVERYONE! making special effort to teach; this scenario  the lane ends and a truck is in front of you, this does not mean its a great idea to wait for the truck to merge then rush in front of the truck after the lane ends to break into traffic.) Also when a big truck needs to merge its really not a question of "Can I please?" its more or less "Move I'm, coming over no more of your shenanigans." By the way merging means to allow people to enter or leave the roadway.  Its really not a request or 'at your leisure' situation people. I need to include this too just to set the record straight on the whole stopping ability of trucks; truck brakes work very well. We can stop these monsters yes indeed we can.  If you read your DMV handbook you'll see that it takes a considerable distance to stop your cars in say rain or snow.  Just because we have more wheels does not mean we can stop faster. At 65 mph the stopping distance for an automobile is 162 feet in dry conditions. At 65 mph the stopping distance for a semi tractor trailer is 420 feet in dry conditions. Think about that the next time you think you should pull out in front of or cut off a truck.  You may get lucky and that truck may be empty or just hauling a light load or you may die because that truck is heavy hauling its maximum weight of 80,000 lbs.  

I so wish I could have a way to let people know that the roads are not just for cars, trucks are people working hard to bring everything you use to you the consumer.  Consider your life without the things trucks bring literally 99.8% of everything you use has been on a truck at some point.  

We've had a beautiful day on our return to Virginia.  Traffic only clogged up in Pennsylvania in the work zones for 6 miles.  We've gotten wise enough to stay away from I95 and the beltway due to traffic we're traveling the more scenic routes and only adding 15-30 minutes to our trip (without consideration of the traffic delays in DC which have run up to 4 hours).  Just as I wrote that traffic came to a stop at the Potomac River Bridge, ugh, we're actually in the toll booth and traffic stopped. Of course Eddie takes these opportunities to have me fix him a cup of noodles from Maruchan.  

Have a Blessed Good Friday as we remember the sacrifice Christ made for us. 

Pam and Ed

April Showers bring May Flowers (chorus)

Well here we are back in Pennsylvania again. I'm trying to smile.. New state welcome sign for PA should read, Welcome to Pennsylvania We Are STILL Under Construction, Pardon Our Mess.  Yes that indeed should be the proposed slogan for this state.  In all the years I've traveled to and through this state I can honestly say not once have I visited that I didn't spend at least part of the trip in a construction zone.  For those of you who are not fully aware of the "Road Rules" in this state I'll help.  You may see the sign upon entering the great state of Independence that simply says "Fines Doubled in Work Zones" or "Targeted Enforcement Zone."  These  are just blanket notices that the state will be taking great joy in holding up traffic throughout your travels while in Pennsylvania. Furthermore if you don't adhere strictly to the speed limit while your traveling you'll have the distinct honor of paying for said road 'improvements'. I, at one point thought that they have lots of money to spend on road improvements here, but the roads are always in horrible shape. How could that be you ask? Well to put it simply they don't actually repair the roads they just put the signs up that say they are 'Gonna do it soon as we catch enough people speeding through the work zones to pay for the repairs.'  So far this trips chuckle for the knuckle heads  "End Fines Doubled Zone" just a few hundred yards from that sign... "Begin Road Work next 10 miles" yes that's right fines doubled in the work zone.  This idea may have spread over to New Jersey because they have loads of repair work with very little obvious progress to date.
I'm currently very interested in the detour signs all over the state that have a color coded route on them.  Oddly enough I have not seen the first explanation of what the color codes are. So if you follow a sign that says detour with a red arrow on it and then come upon a sign that has a green arrow on it what do you do? Or worse still what if your color blind?  Wikipedia has this to say about the detour signs:

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has a system of "color detour signs" in which any detour follows signs with a specific color.^[9][10][11] The detours are meant to be used if a limited-access highway has to be closed for an emergency situation such as a flood or car accident, directing motorists along local roads near the limited-access highway to the next exit. They are generally color-coded according to direction, with blue meaning north, red meaning south, green meaning east, and orange meaning west. However, other colors, such as black and brown, are sometimes used when detour routes overlap with one another.^[10][12]

SO.. that made everything clear to Pennsylvania I'm sure, the rest of us are going to need a bit more information.

Just a weather update in the off chance you thought the weather changed here.. ITS RAINING! As if that's a new status.  I'm supposed to be happy that the April showers will be bringing May flowers, I'm trying to keep that in mind along the way.  I am thankful that the rain is keeping the pollen washed out a bit more breathing is easier for some of us anyway.23223

With Easter approaching quickly I feel I should share this quick story.  Sunday night after watching Megamind with our grandson Mikey I had gone in to kiss him good night and remind him that Poppy and Grammy would be gone tomorrow when he got up possibly. He seemed fine after the same questions of why? how come? all had been answered.  I said to him that Poppy and I would be back before the Easter Bunny hopped by.  He said he didn't like the Easter Bunny, I asked why he said he didn't know but when I told Mikey that he brought candy he changed his mind.  He then asked me, WHY does the Easter Bunny bring candy? "Hmm.. Well", I said "because the Easter Bunny works for the American Dental Association.  He brings kids candy so they get cavities and then Mommies take kids to the Dentist and spend a ton of money to fix the cavities."   Our daughter Jenn has already warned me that I should expect calls from the Day Care Mikey attends because she is leaving our phone number with them.

So while we're getting our current load shifted by this company the rain continues, if and when they finish we'll be on our way again. The shippers, if they load your trailer, are responsible to make sure the load is positioned on the trailer so that weights are acceptable by the DOT.  If after being loaded the shipper has a scale and you find your weights not correct the shipper will reload for you, to get your weight correct. We are at the second door for this load now getting reloaded. We've been here since 10am its now 4pm.  That being said.. hopefully will  be back in Virginia this evening sometime.
People wonder why things cost so much on the store shelves this is one of those costs. A truck, trailer and driver sitting ALL day to get one load of product ready to move. Amazing!
Well its now 5pm and we're finally getting on the road.  Rain and rush hour!
God Bless!
Pam and Ed

Its Monday again!

After making our way through the storms and feeling like we had been spared on Saturday we arrived at home, rescued our fearful pets from the storms and watched in awe the damage unfold in my home town of Gloucester County.  So thankful that these storms arrived on a Saturday rather than a school day when the school would have had nearly 600 students inside.  Its an odd feeling seeing a school that I actually attended once upon a time destroyed in such a manor. (I went to Page Middle School when it was Gloucester Intermediate School.)  Our prayers are reaching out for those injured and lost as well as those whose homes have been lost as a result of these storms.  Hearing of the out pouring of support from the community in Gloucester is nothing new as they have always been a very supportive community living and working together.
Ed and I had the rest of the weekend off, all 38 hours of it.  Laundry being the urgent need of the moment.  We went to New Song on Sunday morning and had a lovely lunch with some wonderful friends. Thanks go out to Ed and Pat for being so patient with us girls for chatting so long.

We've already gotten to our first delivery and now we're again in wait mode for our next shipment orders. As I had promised I'm going to include some photo's of our living conditions since this blog is ultimately about how life is for a Trucker.  I'm having a terrible time today with the design elements on this page so I will be posting these pictures at the end of today's blog.

While trying to edit these photo's and prepare to upload we got our first load assignment of the week.  North Carolina then Pennsylvania will be our first run of the week.  Enjoy the photo's!
God Bless!
Pam and Ed

View behind the drivers seat, below is a fridge!

Our couch/bed yes it converts to a full size bed!

Microwave, TV and storage behind the passenger seat. 

Eddie waiting...

Co-pilot Pink!

Its Saturday!

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

Gorgeous morning in York, PA!

Wow! What a difference a few hours makes in miles and weather. I attempted to take a few photo's on the way to PA yesterday to show the difference just a few hundred miles can make on the scenery.  I also had the experience to see on one side of the George Washington Memorial Bridge that crosses over the Potomac. It was like a perfect spring day, beautiful sunshine, a few scattered white clouds.  In all appearance it was a beautiful day but just as perfect as it seemed on the right side of the bridge - on the left it seemed to be a cloudy turbulent day with the possible thunderstorm any second.  The following pictures taken on the bridge itself the first one taken looking to the right heading north into Maryland, SUNSHINE the next taken looking to the left of the bridge heading north into Maryland, STORMY... interesting how the camera captured two totally different things from the same position? How many times have we encountered that quandary in life two totally different views of the same thing!

I also found the foliage along the way to change rather dramatically in Virginia. The leaves are folding out from the winter already becoming a brilliant green. In Pennsylvania however they're only beginning to bud and push through. I'm still amazed at how the scenery develops a slow and gradual change as you travel north or south.Truly God's design is a brilliant display.

After spending the night at a rest area just south of York, PA we woke up to find a beautiful sunny morning.  As usual my curiosity always keeps me scanning the horizon from the view of this truck, I witness an accident between a big rig and a cowboy Cadillac (one of those truck Escalade's).  I'm just going to put my personal opinion out there for this incident.  Objectionably speaking the parking area for the trucks at this particular rest area is insane.  The white lines showing the spaces shows without question that the length given to a 53' Trailer and a 15-20' Tractor is not even close to enough length. The white line beginning at the bumper of a tractor and ending before the first set of tandems on the trailer is simply not long enough for these big guys. This leaves only these two options, tractor out in the way so no one can pass or trailer hanging back in the traveled lane by cars.  (fyi: Its so much easier for a car to weave in and out than one of these huge tractor trailers its nearly impossible.) A truck pulls in, gets his truck and trailer straight in his parking space being sure not to leave his rig out in the truck travel lane...the trailer with no place else to be hanging out in the car travel lane. The Cadillac backs out from his space without notice of a 65' - 70' truck having just parked behind him (I know he must have been in the blind spot right? We see that all too often on the roads...), he backs right into the trailer. Who gets the insurance hit for this incident you wonder?  I wonder too, but after watching so many suicidal people drive on the roads I'm going to go with the guy driving the tractor trailer. When in doubt blame the trucker, he/she is the professional driver after all.  Reality would say that the guy who backed into a parked truck/trailer would be at fault we will probably never know but the police didn't respond to a call and the DOT didn't show up so both parties may have come to a mutual agreement in the matter. Awesome!

As I write this entry we're backed to a door at a huge grocery facility nestled in another of those very unlikely places in PA. YES for all of you out there that never knew how that product always seems to get on the shelf in the store, it came via truck! The 'How' and 'why' are my constant questions regarding the placement of these facilities. Normally followed by 'Wonder what they could have been thinking with this idea?'  Again Ed, with the nerves of steel, steadies himself and this mammoth rig through sub divisions, horse trails, and blind curves that wind down hills with houses clinging to the roadside like defiant lines in the sand.  Suddenly out of the corner of the windshield we see in the distance a large facility sprouting out just beyond a pair of schools!  Entry is much like entering a military facility.  We're given a road  map of the facility and told which two buildings we need to park between until the 'Yard dogs' come and tell us what door to back into.   While we're sitting and waiting like soldiers against a wall the traveling vendor shows up. She visits all the areas that the truckers are being held waiting to be unloaded or loaded. She serves the newly arrived guys and hustles away to the next holding area. I think that is what entrepreneurship is all about! Flexibility!  

Watching the yard dogs is like cutting the top off of a honey comb to expose all the bees moving about in precise movements consistently making each movement deliver the maximum affect. They move with such ease between the road trucks backing trailers in and out. You may wonder what a yard dog is I suppose at this point.  A yard dog or yard jockey is a very small version of a tractor like the big rigs you see on the road. its size allows it to turn on a dime!  They can back under a trailer and without leaving the tractor hook air lines up and simply push a button to lift the trailers landing gear off the ground and take off like a shot.  The same process for a regular road tractor takes on average including inspection about 15-25 minutes.  

I've taken this picture to give you a small glimpse into what I'm trying to describe. 

If only the lumper's would work as speedily as these yard dogs we'd be off and on our way to our next load. We've been backed into this door now for nearly 1.5 hours still haven't felt the forklifts moving about the trailer!  

I'm going to take the time to see whats on TV in this neck of the woods!

Wishing you all a blessed day!!

Pam and Ed

It's Wednesday and it's a beautiful day

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

Day 1 of our new blog!

Since this is my first post I'd like to welcome you to our adventures!
After riding along for nearly a month and reporting back to friends and family what life on the road was like it was suggested that I blog about our adventures which has lead to the creation of this blog.  I do hope my sense of humor does not offend anyone out there! Please enjoy!


So here we are its Monday again, April 11, 2011. We've arrived at the terminal early to get a jump on the loads heading out.  


Our first load of the week has come in we're off to Disputanta, Va ok so its just down the road but we've got to get an empty to drag along with us to pick up a loaded trailer. Nice first trailer of the week hooked up just to find the last driver had dropped the trailer with a flat tire... back to the terminal for more rubber (they love to put more tires on for us...lol NOT) Then we'll be headed back up to Maruchan of Virginia (for those of you who don't know thats the Cup-O-Noodles plant) We will be taking a load of Maruchan to Breinigsville, PA.  Sounds simple enough right?  Nothing is ever as simple as it seems as I concluded last week:

In other news had a rough day this week.. oh wait not week just the last few 72 hours! lol We've run hard all week, got to VA last night from New Jersey dropped a load of drinks at Super Valu in Mechanicsville then into Richmond to pick up Cup of Noodles from Maruchan then returned to New Jersey last night. At some point through all the road construction and traffic we blew a tandem tire which seeing as we were not heavy it was tolerable but in the grand scheme of things a MUST replace NOW situation.  Its raining here again did I mention New Jersey is probably in my humble opinion the worst designed road system in the entire country with PA coming in a very close second and at times a tie breaker. That being said rain and all we stopped found a guy that was able and could change the tire immediately (of course an inside rear tandem that needs special equipment to change) as we needed to be at our next pickup like an hour ago... Did I mention its raining here AGAIN? Ya its raining.. and I'm in my silly sandals because I'm hoping for spring and will if I need to push the issue with my feet, I needed to go potty badly.. so OFF I trot across the parking lot where only trucks should trod... because its raining and the OIL in the parking lots gets a tad slippery when you prance across it in sandals.. On hands and knee I fell with all the grace and grandeur a moose sliding across an ice rink..and now nearly in tears and just so you know I NEVER cry in public rarely in private... I gathered all my stuff that flew out of my purse (yeah cause real truckers carry a purse with a pink tube of mace that is at the ready and a coffee cup...) I through all my junk back in my purse straighted my pink WV hoodie attempted a deep breath felt the stabbing pain up my hip that returned to settle as a stinging burning feeling in my knee cap and with all I could muster held my head up and continued on my way knowing that the truck that had stopped to let me pass by was still waiting and I had just made that guys day! 

I made it in to the bathroom, felt that twinge of "uh oh I'm not going to make it back to the truck what do I do..?" Decided to call Eddie.. he was still with the truck how was he going to help me? Eh, I decided I'd suck it up and hold my head up and make myself make it  back with my head held as high as I could!  I told Ed what had happened he had come to the building but didn't realize how badly I'd hurt me so he walked with that quick step he has cause you know he's handicapped right... argh! I got to the truck realized oh goodie I need to climb up there and I dunno if I can but I refuse to make a spectacle of myself!! Up I go.. hurting so badly I could hardly get to the bottle of Motrin and the first aid kit to see what kind of damage I'd done. First I need to change these clothes... really I'm that shallow?  So long story shortened I licked my wounds so to speak and lay down on the bed refusing to come out for the rest of the ride to the next shipper. 

Well because we got off 'course' with Ed's wench on the dashboard she needed to torture me (not Ed he's got nerves of steel!) she had us make our way through a 'village' or 'boro' or whatever they call a one horse town the size of a postage stamp.  I have decided that without a sedative I will NOT be driving any trucks into New Jersey unless expressly stating I will NOT get off the interstate PERIOD. And yes the wench on the dashboard made Ed do the trip in reverse to get  back to the interstate which we are now traveling along with the entire population of New Jersey.  We hope to make it to a truck stop in say 70 -100 miles of this lovely rain and traffic. 

How's this for God's sense of humor?  ..because now get this I have bathroom issues I have most of my life refused to use the restroom in public to do number 2 yeah that's gonna make for some serious pain and discomfort right? (Yes I have had the question put to me by my beloved "what are you afraid of someone may realize your 'poo' doesn't really smell like roses what do you expect bathrooms are actually used for?) Well I can honestly say I'm doing better with it all the time. And funnier still I have found my favorite places already that make me feel comfortable enough to proceed with the business I am trying to accomplish... anyhow back to God's sense of humor guess what we're hauling back to the great state of VA?  PRUNES all sorts of PRUNES!!! hahaaa pitted, whole, prune juice,chocolate prunes... ya this 'load' is SUNSWEET isn't that the funniest thing ever? 

Ok so enough of my potty humor how was your week?

Yes that was last week's summary I'm sure your all waiting to see what ill fate will befall us now! I will as time permits add a few photo's on this page of what life looks like out on the roads as what our living conditions are in the truck! 

Until next time God Bless!