Our Grandkids

We had planned a trip to MI to see Mickey and the grandkids, Tyler, Celina and Shane. We were suppose to leave this Thursday and come back on Monday, but it just so happened that we got a load going to Lansing last Monday, which is only about 60 miles from where Mickey lives, so we cancelled our trip for this week and ended up getting paid to go up there and come back....so how cool is that. For the most part, this job is working out pretty dang good. The good news is that it is a regular run now, so we can go visit just about anytime we want. These are pictures of our grandkids at the hotel swimming pool. They love it when we come to town, they always plan one day to come to the hotel and go swimming. They have been in that pool with snow on the ground outside. For those of you that don't know, Mickey is my step daughter, but she has been my step daughter since she was 8 years old. Our relationship was a little strained at first, but what 8 year old wants her dad to be married to someone besides her mom. Over the years, it finally became clear to her that her mom and dads divorce had nothing to do with me. I didn't even know Adolph at the time. So we have be able to build a friendship of mutual love and respect. I told her when she was a teenager, that I didn't want to be her mom, she had a mom, but I did want to be her dads wife. I never pushed her, I let her define our relationship on her own terms and in her own time, but let me tell you the first time she called me mom, I cried like a baby. Now I have three little ones that call me Grandma and it is the sweetest sound I have ever heard.

Good Bye Chevy, Hello Kia

We were able to go home for the weekend. We got home very early Friday morning, Adolph already knew that he was going to have to work on his truck. He had to replace the the front calipers and brakes. He has a 2002 Dodge 1 ton Duelly, and it has 458,000 miles on it....I know, thats alot of miles, but he used it to deliver boats all over the country befor he started driving the big truck. Well any way, Mom called on Thursday afternoon and said her car was making a horrible squealing noise, so now he has 2 vehicles to work on. He checked moms car and it was the clutch fan, so we called Crystal Chevolet and they said bring it in. We went by Hertz and rented a car and dropped hers off. We rented a 2010 Buick Enclave.....Nice Car!!! She loved it. Crystal Chevolet called and said they had to keep it overnight and when they called the next morning they said it was going to be almost $800.00 to fix it. That is not to bad, but it seems like everytime we come home he has to do something to her car. So we decided to go car shopping. We checked on the Buick....very expensive, so we rode up to Kia in Crystal River and thats where we found her new car. It rides like a dream, I we don't have to worry about her having a reliable vehicle anymore. I will get a picture of her and car when I get back home, this one is from there website. This one does not do the color justice.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Boy this week has been a blurr....When we woke up Sunday morning we where in AL. We left there and went over to Mebane, NC. From there we went back to Cullman AL and then over to Ecru, MS, from Ecru we went down to Mulberry, FL, then back up to Cullman, AL, then to Calhoun City, MS and now we are headed back down to Mulberry, FL and it is only Thursday morning. I can remember when I was young, my Mom telling me "all you want to do is run the roads" well I guess some things never change, but now we get paid to do it. After we get unloaded today, I think we are going to the house for a day or two. It will be nice just to sit still for awhile.

Random Stuff

This is a picture of my great nieces and nephew, 3 of the sweetest kids you would ever what to meet. They couldn't wait to climb up in the truck and blow the horn, they loved it, the driver parked next to us trying to take a nap was not real impressed.

These are the blades from the windmills that you see alot of out west. They don't look that big sitting out in the fields, but when you get up close to them they are huge.

Bad, Bad Blogger

I was recently reminded that I do have a blog and when I checked, I had not posted to it since May 2009. What can I say? That was about the time that I joined Facebook, and it was just so much easier to post there. So, instead of trying to go back and catch up, I will just hit the high points. We are still trucking, and still loving it. We made the decision to buy our own truck back in August of this year, and so far so good. We have a 2007 Kenworth T2000. So far we have put just a little over 30,000 miles on it.

Ho Hum

Well we are leaving Wisconsin. What can I say...not that exciting. I don't know what I was expecting...maybe a big ole hunk of cheese? It is basically farm land...miles and miles of farm land. We did go through Chicago on the way up there, traffic was a nightmare. I will take the farm land over rush hour traffic anytime. Adolph says if I would get my nose out of a book occasionally, I might see something worthwhile.

Ahh...finally, something different

Don't get me wrong, I am still loving this adventure that we are on, but....we have been going to the same places...alot. Well surprise, when we got our new load assignment this morning it was to pick up in Lynchburg, TN and deliver in Brookfield, WI. Yea!!! I have never been to Wisconsin, so I'm a little excited. I don't know if any of you know it, but Lynchburg is famous for Jack Daniel Whiskey....you betcha...thats what we are hauling. 1142 cases to be exact. Now thats alot of whiskey. Hopefully I see something worth taking a picture of, if so you will see it also.

Things that make you go hmmm!

If you have every wondered what 43,780 lbs of potatoes look like...well wonder no more. The bags in the front are 5o lbs each to give you a little perspective. My concern was how are they going to unload them. I was thinking that they would do it by hand and figured that would take all day. I asked Adolph and he said that they would dump them...that's where the hmmm comes in. How in the heck are they going to dump them, you would have to pick up the trailer to dump something out of it...right? Well...that's what they did, and next week them potatoes will be on your grocery store shelf as Lay's Potato Chips. So enjoy...it keeps us working.

Grins and Grumbles

This is Robert & Susan's 3 1/2 year old son Luke. He is a huge fan of tractors...big or small, the real thing or the toys, old or new.. he loves them all.
When we were there last weekend it was very warm, so his Daddy sprayed him with the hose, he was loving that so his momma got his pool out so he could play in it, well he got mad when we would not empty it for the 3rd time and put clean water in it. There was a few pieces of grass in it and we told him it would be fine, but he wasn't having any part of it and started crying, I told him to hold on so I could take his picture and that really made him mad, so later that day when we were at is meemaw and peepaw's house where the tractors are and he was happy, I ask him if I could take his picture while he was smiling and as you can see, he was all for that. He really is a very sweet boy.

Did you remember to put the windows up?

Not that I think it would have mattered in this case. We left sunny Florida on sunday morning and this is what we went through in AL. This is construction along I-65 North in Birmingham. I am sure that when the road crew came back to work this morning they were a little surprised to say the least. A small tornado had come through just prior to us getting there, it had taken down a bill board on the southbound side and part of it was on the northbound side. The rain was unbelievable, you can see where it is starting to come out into the road. We heard on the news that there was damage just east of us. By the time we had gotten to our place up there it was pretty much all over with, just a light drizzle, but lots of puddles.

Hello Everyone

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. We spent the weekend in Alabama. It was a little cool, but nice. We had a wonderful Easter dinner with Susan's family and went to Robert and Susan's church for Easter Service. After dinner was the Easter egg hunt with real eggs, I think at last count there was only one missing, I'm sure it will be found over the next couple of weeks...eewww. We are coming to Florida for the weekend as far as I know. It will be nice to be home for a day or two and get to see everyone.

Tagged - 7 things

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Share 7 things that people may not know about you.
3. Tag 7 people to share 7 things and link to them.
4. Let them know they have been tagged.

Okay, Meredith tagged me... so here goes:

1. The most important relationship in my life in the one I have with God, that makes all my other relationships stronger, better and more fulfilling.
2. I have been married 3 times, but I never knew true love until I met and married Adolph. We have been married for almost 18 years.
3. I am a pack rat. We have a 4 stall garage that has no room for a car and a 20 X 40 shed that is full. I get it honest, my mom is a pack rat also.
4. Most music can move me to tears, but I can't sing to save my life.
5. I am very gullible. I trust to easily and it has got me into trouble and cost me a bunch of money, but I figure anyone who takes advantage of me will have to answer for it some day.
6. I only eat one color of jelly beans at a time, and I don't eat black ones, purple ones or green ones.
7. I do not like to fly and will only do so in emergencies.

Catch up again

Okay, I'm back...it has been another busy week. We brought mom up to AL for a visit and the pollen reaked havoc with her breathing, so she was only able to stay one full day and then back to FL to see the doctor. We made it home for Lisa's wedding (had a great time..thanks) on Saturday the 28th, and then on Sunday I ended up taking mom to the hospital. She had not gotten any better so they admitted her. She spent 4 days there. We left on sunday afternoon and delivered in Northern AL on Sunday night and was back in Crystal River at lunch time monday. Tuesday we went down to Tampa and picked up our 5th wheel. Mom came home from
the hospital on Wednesday and we left for AL on friday. We spent the weekend getting setup up there and went back to work on Monday. We love our little home away from home.

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

I know... it has been two weeks since my last post and I want to apologize to my loyal followers. It has been crazy. When I did have time to post I didn't have a signal, and when I had a signal I didn't have time to post. So here we go...We were thinking about buying a house in AL. We found a great deal. A triple wide, 3000 sq. ft. of living space and it was only $35,000.00, and it was in a great neighborhood. We had made up our minds to buy it, but I just had this nagging feeling that I should just hold off. So we talked about it some more and did some figuring, it was going to cost us about $800.00 a month for house payment, insurance, and utilities and we were only going to be there 5 or 6 nights a month on the average. So at the last moment we decided not to do it. We have decided to buy a camper instead. We can put it on Robert and Susan's land and that way they can keep an eye on it while we are elsewhere. I don't think we will have to worry about cabin fever, because the camper will be big compared to the inside of the truck. We have one picked out and have already put a deposit down on it, we will try and get it to AL in the next couple of weeks. We are either going to have to take a few days off to go down to Tampa and get it, or I will have to drag it to AL by myself while Adolph drives the big truck...yikes, I have towed a pop up before, but the camper we are getting is a 33 ft 5Th wheel. Big difference, either way I am going to make sure we have insurance before we pull it off the lot. I will post some pictures as soon as I can. In the middle of all of this going on, I got sick and had to spend two days in the hospital...not fun....but I am good now and back on the road. Again, I'm sorry for taking so long to post and I will try to do better in the future.

Friday the 13th

I am not a superstitious person by no means, but today was kinda crappy. We didn't have time to stop and get a shower and get breakfast before we had to be at our drop. We got there with 45 minute to spare. We had an appointment time of 12 noon and we got there at 11:15 so we are thinking all is good....well we sat outside the gate until almost 5 and then we sat at the dock until 9:45. Thank God we did have some stuff in the truck to nibble on. I said a little prayer in the afternoon for patience....don't ever do that...the way God teaches you patience is with experience. So pray for comfort or guidance or whatever your need may be, but take my advice and don't ask for patience. You know what they say...becareful what you ask for...you just might get it.

Largest Cross in the western hemisphere

On I-40 at Exit 112 in Groom TX you will find this cross. Sorry I don't have a better picture, my batteries died after I took the first picture. They do have a website that has some pretty amazing pictures, go to http://www.crossministries.net

After seeing the website, I wish we had taken the time to stop and see it.

What a view!!!

By the time we got loaded, it was getting late, we were both tired, we were almost out of hours that he can drive and we really didn't want to go back down that mountain in the dark...so we dicided to stay there for the night. This is the view from our motel room. This is the first time we have stayed in a motel since he started driving for Garrison. It was an amazing site as the sun was going down.This morning was a different story. It was freezing cold, the wind was blowing like crazy and when I opened the door I got hit in the face with snow. I was ready to head south again. I have to say though this is some pretty country up here.

Rio Grande River

On our way to the top we crossed over the "Rio Grande", at least thats what the sign said.

What a beautiful ride

We had to go to the top of a mountain to pick up our load. We went to a town called Monte Vista. It is 90 miles off of I-25 just south of Colorado Springs. When we got there is seen a sign that said the elevation was 7554.

CO Rockies