Mandan,ND

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early to drive the last 65 miles to our first pick up in Cashmere,WA. We took Hwy 97 north out of Ellensburg,WA to get there. This was our first time up in this area and we hadn't been on Hwy 97 before. It was a beautiful drive. A bit windy with curves and there was some ice on the road from the rain the night before. We mae it to our first stop about 10 minutes late but it wasn't a big deal. It was one of those first come first loaded places. There were two trucks in the only two docks and only one in line ahead of us. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before the first two were done and the truck in front of us and ourselves were backing up to the dock. It is a very small town and you have to drive the wrong way up a street to back into the dock crossing the street right in front of the warehouse. Seems the locals are used to it during their mornig commute to the coffee shop or work and they didn't seem to mind. Didn't even get a honk or a finger. :) After getting docked I headed inside since it was a driver count load. It wasn't too hard to count the one pallet we were picking up at this stop and within an hour of pulling up to the place, I was on the road again.

Our next stop was up in Orondo,WA which was only about 20 miles away. We called to see if they could load us early since we were ahead of schedule and they said they weren't sure but to come on up because they had plenty of parking where we could wait. It was a beautiful drive up there also along the bank of the Columbia River. Checked in about 2 hours early and within an hour they were calling me to dock. Sweet! This is a funny place to load at because if you get dock 2 it is in between two building and there is a roof between the two buildings so it is like driving through a building to get to the dock. You can bet I was careful not to hit anything when I pulled in! I got out and opened the doors and backed up then grabbed my gloves to remove the load locks from the first pallet. They had my load sitting outside ready to go so within a matter of about 10 minutes I had my 13 pallets from this place and was ready to go again. Lock up, grab the paperwork and I am off to my final stop before heading to Chelsea,MA.

Our third stop was in Wenatchee,WA and it was about 17 miles back down Hwy 97. I got the directions and it said to turn at the truckstop once I got on Alt Hwy 97 North. So I pulled in to the truckstop and called the shipper to see if they could load me early because now I am 3 hours early for them. I love being early! The nice lady said to come on over and check in and if our product was there, they would go ahead and get us in line to get loaded. I head over and check in and this is where the problems start. She tells me that the order number I have is not good. It is for a load going to NY. Hmmm Ok, head out to the truck to check the number on the Qualcomm thinking maybe we inverted some numbers when we wrote down the info for the load. Nope, this is the correct number they sent me. Head back in and let her know that the number I gave her is the one they sent me. While I am talking to her I am talking to Nick (Our FM John was out for the day and Nick was covering) and he said he would get with sales on it. I tell him to call me back because I am in the office. About 20 minutes go by and I call back and he tells me that sales should be calling them because that is right. He said we are supposed to take that order to MA and from the produce market there which is a distribution center it will then be taken to NY. OK. So I go back to the window and tell the lady this info. She in turn talks to another lady who checks on it. The other lady comes and tells me that it is wrong. The product for the order I am giving her is going to NY but it is loading at a different facility IN NY. She says they don't even have that order there. Yes, this is turning into a cluster! Call Nick back and relay that info to him. Tell him that product is in NY not here and that the number is wrong. Should I head out, since they insist I don't have a load there, or wait? He says to wait. Ok, about an hour later he sends a message that says it is a good number and they have talked to a Melissa at the location I am at and to talk to her because it is good and we should get loaded. Back I go to the office to tell them this info and ask for a Melissa. She isn't in that office but she is local in another building so they give me her phone number. I call Melissa and try to figure out what is going on. She informs me that order 398118 is indeed a good load and she doesn't know why I am having a problem or why the girls at the office I am at are telling me it is a bad load. Ding! Ding! Ding! It finally clicks. Someone made a typo entering the information into the work assignment. I show order 398113 not 398118. And when I talked to Nick he was also showing the same one I had. But sales, who get the loads, probably have the hardcopy with the correct number so they knew it was the right load, but they didn't know I had the wrong order number. WHEW!! Get that straightened out and I am FINALLY on the list to be loaded. Originally I was 3 hours early for my 1500 appt. Now I am 10 minutes early for it after wasting almost 3 hours getting this straightened out. They say they will call us when we are up. In the mean time, J has gotten up and I stay up another hour and a half and then I head to bed. It was around 1830 our time and 1630 local time. They finally call J to come inside at 2100 our time and he still doesn't get loaded and out of there until 2315. Turns out that our product was on the way but hadn't arrived. Why on earth they had him back in and then left him standing inside the cooler for 45 minutes is beyond me. He would have still been standing there if he hadn't got cold enough to go into the office and hot enough to raise some hell. The least they could have done was tell him before he went in the cooler that they were waiting on it to arrive and still had to load a few trucks first. He could have waited in the truck.

ANYWAY, 2315 he hits the road and makes it a whopping 45 miles before he is stopped by the fog. Fog was super thick and he couldn't see anything. He headed to bed and I got up Thursday morning around 0500 and headed out. It was still really heavy fog and it took me 4 hours to get the 136 miles into Spokane,WA. Of course when I woke up the fog was heavy, but the roads were icy and come daylight it started to snow. I stopped at the Petro in Spokane,WA for about 2 hours until things warmed up some and headed on out. I made it across Idaho and stopped at x33 in Montana at the St Regis Travel Plaza. I decided to call it a day there. I have only made it about 270 miles but it had taken me close to 9 hours to make it that far. There is a casino next door to the travel plaza that has a restaurant called Jasper's. They had a complete Thanksgiving dinner for 9.99 and it was pretty darn good. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, sweet potatoes, rolls, salad AND pumpkin pie. What more could you ask for at that price? It was yummy and we were on the road again.

I had hoped to make it into Bozeman,MT on Thursday so we could have dinner there. That is the same town that we were in last year for Thanksgiving when we were with Schneider and broken down. I will never forget the nice people who invited us into their home that day. That is another story, but you can look back at my blog for last Thanksgiving and the whole story is there. It was really cool.

So J takes over driving and I head off to bed. He makes about 450 miles and stops for the night, well, about 2 hours anyway, in Billings,MT before he wakes me up at 0400. Once again I am up and off. I made it 400 miles today to Mandan,SD where I stopped about an hour and a half early at 1330 so we could grab a shower and grab Subway. We only have about 1800 miles to go and today is just Friday afternoon. This load delivers anytime on Sunday before midnight, or so the work assignment says, so we aren't in a super huge rush. And Montana takes FOREVER to drive across and there are a ton of mountain passes to get over. And when you are in 6th gear going abou 15 mph going up one, you don't make good time! So we are just enjoying this nice Holiday Weekend load and taking our time. We do plan on taking time off for Christmas, but with us recently taking time off for J to go hunting and then seeing Kevin up in Colorado Springs, we need to keep moving for a while. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends, and if you were on the road, I hope you were able to talk to your family on the phone and at least stop long enough for a decent meal.

Be safe out there!