I have a lot of pictures from the Christmas activities to post. We made it up to Mt. Charleston for sledding on Steve's birthday and that was so much fun. There are also a bunch of pictures from Christmas, of course.
Happy 2013 to all!
Sailors on the Concrete Sea |
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It has been a whirlwind of activities since we arrived in Las Vegas. Just unpacking the truck for a two week vacation is like moving out of your home. It was wrapping and sending gifts, making and frosting cookies, and board games and relaxing in the hot tub nearly every night. Emma was so much fun to watch both in the Christmas program as well as just unwrapping her gifts this year. Her excitement oozed with every box she opened. She's asked several times if we can do it all over again. As quickly as the years flip by for the rest of us, it's an eternity in her world. Things are settling down just a bit now that Christmas has come and gone but the board games and hot tub, not to mention the computer and Words with Friends, are what is keeping us busy these days. Jorge and I did finally make it to see the Lincoln movie a couple nights ago. We highly recommend it if you like historical dramas. We will be hanging out and keeping the couch warm here in Las Vegas until around New Years. We don't have our next load scheduled yet but are working on it. Our new year resolution this year is to work a little harder than last year. After adding up the days we were off, it seems like we are vacationing as much as we are working. It's easy for me to say that now but we'll see what happens in the months ahead. I have a lot of pictures from the Christmas activities to post. We made it up to Mt. Charleston for sledding on Steve's birthday and that was so much fun. There are also a bunch of pictures from Christmas, of course. Happy 2013 to all!
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Here we are on our way back to Las Vegas to celebrate Chriistmas and New Years. We actually worked all week long for a change and with no repairs! Spent the past week picking up and delivering UPS packages all around the South and mid-Atlantic - back and forth from Louisville, Kentucky. We drove over 5500 miles in total. Now I just have to get home so I can wrap up and send all of my own packages. We have plans to go about thirty minutes north of the house up to Mt. Charleston. There they have snow and ski slopes. Most importantly, we’re going sledding. We stopped in Gallup, New Mexico on the way home to buy a couple snow boards so that should be a lot of fun. It’s been a few years since I’ve done that. We’re also going to do the usual traditions of baking cookies and the twisted Palenske tradition to see who can make not only the prettiest cookie, but also the ugliest. My little niece, Emma, is going to be fun this year. She’s over four years old now so opening gifts will be a thrill for her. Plus my other niece, Allison is home from college so there. I see lots of family fun ahead. We will be home until just after New Years. We say our New Years resolution this year is to go back to work. I’ve added up all the days off we’ve had in 2012 and including days off waiting for loads, and days off that we have taken on purpose, we’ve had about one hundred days off. You can see we are definitely not working as hard as we could, or so we think. We say that now but we’ll see how it plays out in the months ahead. Merry Christmas from these vacationing truckers! I think it was just my last post where I said we were going to work really hard before Christmas. Well, the calendar says it's the 8th day of December and it hasn't happened yet. We did pick up our one load in Pryor, Oklahoma. We had all weekend to deliver it to Valparaiso, Indiana - only about 700 miles away. We stopped along the way in Missouri when we learned our friends Don and Dale were headed west while we were going east. It was a nice unexpected breakfast with them near Springfield. We parted ways and down the road to Indiana we went with a trailer loaded with pipe for a natural gas line. Monday morning we made our delivery, headed south towards Indianapolis to get our next load that was supposed to go back to Oklahoma. And then the fun began.... About a hour north of Indy we began to hear the truck making a loud noise. We were a mile from the next rest area and we were grateful to make it that far. Then the phone calls started. We called the Volvo shop in Indianapolis but they couldn't even look at it until Friday (this was only Monday). They recommended we go to their shop that was 90 west. Yeah, right. We would be lucky if we made it out of the rest area. We decided to give it a shot and were surprised in spite of the noise the truck was making that seemed to be coming from the transmission, we were able to get thru all the gears and we continued south down the interstate. About five miles from Indianapolis, we realized now that the truck was in 18th gear, it was not going to downshift at all. Traffic was thickening and we needed to slow down but without the ability to downshift, we could go no further. Jorge pulled it to the side of the road and there we sat with few options. We called the Kenworth shop to see if they could look at our Volvo and much to our surprise they said to bring it right over. We were only a couple miles away but we had to call yet another tow truck to get us over there. So close, yet so far. I'll spare you ALL of our agonizing week details but suffice it to say, it was a rollercoaster ride. We learned that our transmission had burned up and was completely worthless... a $10,000 part. The clutch wasn't much better. After days of back and forth with the shop back in Fort Smith, Arkansas where we had had them replace a leaking seal on our transmission, it was determined that the mechanic was totally responsible for a faulty installation. That allowed our tranny fluid to slowly leak out from Arkansas to Oklahoma, up to Indiana, and finally it was completely out there on the side of the road. In the end after all the evidence pointed to the Arkansas shop, they agreed to buy us a new transmission and paid for it 100% - all parts and labor. As long as the transmission was being replaced, it was an easy fix to replace the clutch at the same time. What could have been a very costly repair, ended up being extremely inexpensive to us and we're checking those two parts off our list of things that need to be replaced. Back on the road.... finally! Another Christmas miracle under our belts... We are back in Louisville, Kentucky today where we parked our trailer at the company headquarters. Every year, Mercer drivers have the opportunity to run as much UPS freight as they can handle between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We tried it last year and didn't like the tight schedules they kept us on. This year we agreed to do it for only one week and that starts today. We will hook up to a set of double trailers here in Louisville at 2pm today. We'll deliver them in Columbia, South Carolina and be back in Louisville by 10am tomorrow. See what I mean about tight schedules? We have a couple others to do that will keep us busy thru next Sunday. Then on to Las Vegas.. for more time off! It's apparently what we do best. No time to take many pictures this week. We did get these little beauties in the mail recently though. Yesterday, Mercer gave us each a jacket to go with them. We safe, professional trucks drivers appreciate the recognition. |