Happy Birthday to J!!!

Y, today is his birthday! I won't say how old he is, because he is insisting that he is only turning 30 this year. But I will tell you that he turned 40 two years ago. So you can do the math but he can't be mad at me because I didn't tell you. :) Unfortunately being on the road, we didn't get to do anything to celebrate. But I did treat him to Waffle House last night, so that should count for something. haha

When we left Laredo,TX headed to Toughkenamon,PA we knew that we would have to kick it up to make it on time. Only stopping for fuel and the necessary bathroom breaks, I made it there about 10 minutes late. I notified dispatch so it wasn't a problem. If I hadn't stopped about 2 hours before to go to the bathroom, I would have made it on time. But a girl can only hold it for so long if you know what I mean. I was able to get there and get right to a dock but when they unloaded me, they took forever to count. It was an 0900 appt and I got out of there around 1030 so it really wasn't bad.

While I was there I sent a message in asking how freight was looking because I was going to need a washout on the trailer before I picked up anything else and I was kinda wondering which direction to head to get that done. The message back said that it was pretty slow on freight so I decided to head back south to Elkton,MD to the Petro where there was a Blue Beacon. After I got the trailer washed out I headed to the parking lot to kill some time. That was when J woke up so we decided to head in for a shower and hit the soup and salad bar for a light lunch. I sent a message in telling them that if we got a load to call me on my cell so that I would know we needed to hurry. We headed in and went straight for the shower first. She asked if we wanted a double shower and I said yes. Usually, they just give you a bigger shower for a couple, if they have one instead of one of those tiny ones where you can touch both sides of the room if you stretch your arms out. When we got to the shower room, it was indeed a bigger room, but the shower itself had two shower heads! I hadn't seen that before in a truck stop shower. I thought it was pretty cool. Anyway, get the shower and before we go in to grab lunch, we threw our dirty clothes and the backpack into the washer. Apparently either my shampoo or conditioner cap was loose and spilled. Ick! But at least we didn't have to put soap in the washer!

Finally had lunch and I headed back out to the truck to take Smokey out while J waited for the clothes to finish drying. When I get out there, I find that we have a load waiting. Hmmm Why didn't I get a call? So I start going through the messages and realize why. It is currently Saturday afternoon when we received the load assignment but it doesn't pick up until Sunday afternoon. Now some people would be mad and want a load that leaves out that day. Not me. I figure we basically live in this truck, so I will take a little down time whenever it comes my way. Besides, today is J's birthday (Sunday) so if we can get out of the truck for a few hours or overnight, then I am all for it. While I am writing the stuff down for the load and waiting on J, I look up and realize the Petro is right next to a Motel 6. Well, isn't that convenient! I make a call and they have plenty of room so I start packing up. When J gets back to the truck, I tell him the plan and we are off! We even ended up getting a room on the back side of the hotel and we could see our truck from our window. That was nice. We got situated and were going to order pizza, but we didn't have cash on us so we decided screw it, we will walk across the street to the Waffle House which is one of J's favorite places to eat. I couldn't give him a nice steak dinner for his birthday, but he loves to eat breakfast any time of the day, so he was happy.

With our bellies way to full, we headed back to the room and I forced myself to stay up long enough to catch Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. I found it extremely hysterical. Finally I fell asleep only to hear my alarm clock go off way to soon for my liking. But we didn't have much choice if we wanted to get to our pickup on time. We still had to walk back over to the truck and drive about 150 miles. Of course I make it here to Martinsburg,WV about 45 minutes early only to be told they were running a couple hours behind. This is when I wish I knew these things in advance because I would have stayed in bed longer! But that is just how it goes.

So that is where we are now. I am killing time waiting to be loaded. Once we are ready to go, we will be headed to Tracy,CA and then to our final stop in Richmond,CA which are both due there on Wednesday morning. Keep your fingers crossed that the rain they are prediciting in Wyoming stays just that, rain. It is too early for me to deal with snow!