I'm looking back over the month and we've been busier than I thought we'd be. We did a couple short runs that kept us in the sunshine and warmth. But... as much as we would have loved to stay in Florida awhile longer (at least, thru... April) we finally took a load that was going to get us up north a bit. We went from Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City to Langley AFB in Hampton, Virginia. We had a day off while waiting for our next load to come out of the Norfolk, VA port. It seemed like we had brought the nice weather with us and we enjoyed a four mile walk that day and survived it without too much huffing and puffing. The next day we loaded up our shipping container, which we later learned had come all the way from Switzerland just to take a ride on our trailer out to a small town in northwest Iowa called Sutherland. We'd never been up in that part of the state. Once we delivered the goods, we drove another 150 miles south to drop off the empty container in Omaha. With the exception of a few snowflakes blowing around in the Appalachian Mts as we crossed, the weather had been excellent. Whew!
A few weeks before this I had received an email from my old high school friend, Diahann. She let me know in advance that she and a few other girls were planning a little get-together this past weekend in Watertown, Wisconsin and if we should happen to be in the area, we should stop by for a visit. When she first told me about it, we were still down in Florida and just couldn't see how it would work out for us to be in Wisconsin. After all, we were loving the warmth and sunshine, remember?? But when we got the load to Omaha I thought, well, that's only seven hours away and sort of in the neighborhood, let's do it! I am so happy we did. This past Saturday four of us went bowling. Later that night we were joined by another classmate who lives nearby and our 9th grade typing teacher who lives in Watertown - for pizza and a trip down memory lane. Oh my goodness... I think my memory is failing worse than I suspected. They reminded me of so many stories I had long forgotten about. But we laughed so hard and had such a nice time. All good things must come to an end and back to work we went today.
What that means is we picked up a load of steel parts this morning in Milwaukee. It was about 5 degrees while we tried to unroll our straps that were quite frozen and not very pliable. We finally got that stuff all secured and zoomed down to a place in Dixon, Illinois to make the delivery a couple hours later. From the same place we delivered, we picked up a different load of steel and were to take it back to the same place in Milwaukee. It's like they just exchanged metal parts. Go figure! Well, they wanted us to tarp the load on the way back up there. Was that ever an experience! A front was moving in and here we were trying to tarp this 8 foot high box in 30 mph winds. It became like a sail and all we could do to hold it down long enough to get a bungee cord on it. Somehow we managed though and got back up to Milwaukee just fifteen minutes before they closed. They were gracious enough to unload it while we hurried to put our equipment away. We saw the coming weather storm and it didn't look pretty on the map. No sooner did we get back in the truck and it started to pour down rain. We were just high-fiving each other for a job well done and saying how lucky we were that this rain wasn't snow. That thrill was short-lived as we rolled toward our next load, just north of Madison, Wisconsin. We realized we hadn't eaten breakfast, lunch, or dinner all day so Jorge pulled into a rest area and decided to whip up some tacos for a late dinner. Just then the rain stopped and it became quite a winter wonderland in no time at all. We figured we'd just stay put for the night and that load of insulation can wait til we get there in the morning. Afterall, it's only going a short ways over to near South Bend, Indiana. We got smart with this load at least and have brought a dozen straps into the truck with us tonight so at least they won't freeze we can unroll them! How much longer til spring?? We have seen many signs of it down south but nothing like that here.
As long as were going to be in northern Indiana, we're stopping by the shop that makes these big trucks to get a few things taken care of on the sleeper. I think it's a few minor things - at least I hope they're minor. We're looking for our next load for either Thursday or Friday preferably going south. Though we've seen some snow tonight while we've been parked, our luck could soon run out. It's time to head south again, we're thinking.
A few weeks before this I had received an email from my old high school friend, Diahann. She let me know in advance that she and a few other girls were planning a little get-together this past weekend in Watertown, Wisconsin and if we should happen to be in the area, we should stop by for a visit. When she first told me about it, we were still down in Florida and just couldn't see how it would work out for us to be in Wisconsin. After all, we were loving the warmth and sunshine, remember?? But when we got the load to Omaha I thought, well, that's only seven hours away and sort of in the neighborhood, let's do it! I am so happy we did. This past Saturday four of us went bowling. Later that night we were joined by another classmate who lives nearby and our 9th grade typing teacher who lives in Watertown - for pizza and a trip down memory lane. Oh my goodness... I think my memory is failing worse than I suspected. They reminded me of so many stories I had long forgotten about. But we laughed so hard and had such a nice time. All good things must come to an end and back to work we went today.
What that means is we picked up a load of steel parts this morning in Milwaukee. It was about 5 degrees while we tried to unroll our straps that were quite frozen and not very pliable. We finally got that stuff all secured and zoomed down to a place in Dixon, Illinois to make the delivery a couple hours later. From the same place we delivered, we picked up a different load of steel and were to take it back to the same place in Milwaukee. It's like they just exchanged metal parts. Go figure! Well, they wanted us to tarp the load on the way back up there. Was that ever an experience! A front was moving in and here we were trying to tarp this 8 foot high box in 30 mph winds. It became like a sail and all we could do to hold it down long enough to get a bungee cord on it. Somehow we managed though and got back up to Milwaukee just fifteen minutes before they closed. They were gracious enough to unload it while we hurried to put our equipment away. We saw the coming weather storm and it didn't look pretty on the map. No sooner did we get back in the truck and it started to pour down rain. We were just high-fiving each other for a job well done and saying how lucky we were that this rain wasn't snow. That thrill was short-lived as we rolled toward our next load, just north of Madison, Wisconsin. We realized we hadn't eaten breakfast, lunch, or dinner all day so Jorge pulled into a rest area and decided to whip up some tacos for a late dinner. Just then the rain stopped and it became quite a winter wonderland in no time at all. We figured we'd just stay put for the night and that load of insulation can wait til we get there in the morning. Afterall, it's only going a short ways over to near South Bend, Indiana. We got smart with this load at least and have brought a dozen straps into the truck with us tonight so at least they won't freeze we can unroll them! How much longer til spring?? We have seen many signs of it down south but nothing like that here.
As long as were going to be in northern Indiana, we're stopping by the shop that makes these big trucks to get a few things taken care of on the sleeper. I think it's a few minor things - at least I hope they're minor. We're looking for our next load for either Thursday or Friday preferably going south. Though we've seen some snow tonight while we've been parked, our luck could soon run out. It's time to head south again, we're thinking.