Where's Daddy?

So, my wife has started sending me pictures of my son in different places with the title "Where's Johnny?"  I think she's only stumped me one time- the Macy's dressing room.  It's fun to see where they are and to get pictures of him. 

Well, I sent my wife this picture yesterday with the question "Where's Daddy?"

Can you believe she couldn't figure it out? 

PS- It's somewhere in Oregon along the Snake River.

Flat tire on a big scale

Bang!

Me: "What was that sound?"

Mentor: "We blew out a tire.  No biggie."

I guess when you have eighteen, losing one isn't too big of a deal.

Updating

Since I last posted, I've been all over the country.

Loads to IL, TX, OH, MI, OH again, WA, other side of WA, CA and now maybe FL.

Have some more states to add to the list, but I need to check my sources first.

Total days away from home: 38
Total states: 36
Total miles: somewhere around 20,000

Chicken, anyone?

Now I'm in Kentucky delivering merchandise. It took us about a day and a half to get here, team driving. I've now been through OK, MO & KY.

Total days away from home: 24
Total states: 30

Home for a few days

I spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at home. It was nice to be at home again, even if it was only for a few days.

Heading home

After waiting over 24 hours for a load out of Houston, my mentor decided for us to "dead head" it to Phoenix. No complaints from me. If everything goes well, I should be at home, taking a shower, washing clothes and Febrezing the death out of everything that was in the truck by lunchtime tomorrow.

This will add NM to the list.

Total days away from home: 22
Total states: 26

How much fuel?

Katie was complaining to me about having to put $50 of fuel in her car today. She didn't feel so bad after I told her these facts.

• It cost almost $900 to fill up the truck yesterday.
• That was about 220 gallons (the truck has two 120 gallon tanks).
• It took 20 minutes.
• We will need more fuel in about two days.

More merchandise

We're now on a way to Houston to deliver some merchandise. It's not due until Friday, so we're taking our sweet time getting there. These will be numbers once we get there, add MS, AL, LA and TX.

Total days away from home: 21
Total states: 25
Total miles: 4000

Truck Stop Stories

We saw a lot of cops at our truck stop earlier this week. The best one was when a guy called the cops because he'd given a guy $100 for some marijuana and the dealer gave him herbs. For some reason this guy thought the cops would care that he got cheated out of some drugs.

Small run today

We're heading to Georgia to drop off some merchandise. Should be there in a few hours. Boy, do I have some truck stop stories to share in my next post!!!

Total days away from home: 17
Total states: 14

Application

I'm working on a TSA application for clearance to carry loads from the San Pedro port.

It asks my hair color- there are 14 options. Blue, pink, purple, orange and unknown are some of them.

Eye color options- 10. Obvious ones plus maroon, pink, multicolor and unknown.

Who exactly do they think is applying for this?

Beautiful Sight

I got this picture message Friday afternoon. So maybe sitting in 3-day weekend DC traffic for 3 hours, wasn't a complete waste of time.

Props and stuff

I got to Orlando, FL this morning with a trailer full of props for a show.  It took us less than two days to get here from PA.  We went through VA, MD, NC, SC, GA and FL.

Total days away from home: 14
Total states: 21
Total miles: 2951

Amish Wal-Mart

We had to kill a day about an hour outside of Philadelphia last week. So, what does a truck driver do to kill time? Go to the nearby Wal-Mart about 15 times. This Wal-Mart wasn't your typical Wally World though- they had parking designated for horse and buggies. I actually saw an Amish man, come up in a horse and buggy, "park," pull out his cell phone, send a text and then walk into Wal-Mart.

No spooning around here

For the first six weeks or so, I'm driving with a mentor. (Lucky for me my mentor drives his own truck. So his truck is a lot nicer than one I'll get from the company.) It's a good thing we get along because we are spending a lot of time together.

Well, my wife's aunt asked her, "I'm dying to know how do they sleep in the truck? Do they take turns? or are they spooning?" And my wife promptly informed her, we aren't team driving yet, so we sleep at the same time, but on separate bunks. Me, being the greenie, I get the smaller upper bump with about 8 inches of room. Here's a picture I texted to my wife- nice and cozy.

Load for the Hurricane

When we got to Washington last weekend, we had to wait to hear about our next load. When I heard the company name, I thought it was a company from my water restoration days. When we went to pick up the load I realized I was right. The company makes fans that dry out homes after a flood. The order was scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia right after Irene stopped by.

It took us 4 days to get there and we traveled through ID, MT, WY, ND, MN, WI, IL, IN, OH, and PA.

Total days away from home: 12
Total states: 15
Total miles: ???

A whole bunch of Gatorade

My second load was 42,000 pounds of Gatorade to Tacoma, Washington.  It took us three days to get there.  We went through AZ, NV, OR and WA.

Total days away from home: 6
Total states: 5
Total miles: ???

My first load

My first load went to San Pablo Port in LA.  We were carrying electronics and had just about every difficulty possible (none of them our fault).  It took us three days to get to LA and back to Phoenix.

Total days away from home: 3
Total states: 2
Total miles: ???

On the road

After struggling to find a job in the construction field, my wife and I decided that I would get my CDL license. Part of the agreement with my trucking company is that I have to long haul drive for them for the next year. So far I've only be gone for almost two weeks and I've been from Phoenix to Washington to Philadelphia to Florida. My wife told me I should be telling everyone about the cool stuff I see. We figured an "anonymous blog" would be the safest way to keep track. So keep watching for crazy things from around the country.

PS- My wife is the good speller in the relationship. You'll know when I'm the one posting.