Carlisle,PA

Today we stopped in Carlisle,PA when I finished my shift. After we made the run up to Lathrop,CA and delivered our next load picked up in Salinas,CA and we are bringing it to Florence,NJ. They gave us two and a half days to go 3000 miles. Yep, as you can guess, it wasn't happening!

We have ran so many loads lately back to back that were rush rush rush to get there. I put my foot down on this one and decided I wasn't going to waste fuel to make the appointment when that just means more money out of my pocket and less profit. So we told our FM that we would need another appointment. It looks like this receiver is open 24 hours because they told us basically to get there when we could based on the eta that I gave them. So that worked out.

Of course we ran into the usual problems getting out of California. Rush hour traffic meant that J made a whopping 180 miles in about 6 hours. That included getting pulled into a scale house for a Level 1 Inspection. Passed with flying colors. Unfortunately, J wasn't as lucky earlier in the day when a box truck decided to go 50 mph in front of us. J jumped out in the left center lane to go around him and got pulled over for it. :( In California trucks have to remain in the right two lanes. This was a 4 lane road and he got in the wrong lane and got a ticket for it. Not sure how much it is going to cost yet as the court makes that decision and mails us the info. And knowing how strapped California is for money, it probably isn't going to be cheap. But I didn't give him a hard time about it. He was mad enough at himself. Lesson learned.

After all of that, he only made it to Sacramento since we got loaded around 2000 hours. I took over and it took me another 4 hours to go the next 120 miles. You gotta love climbing Donner Pass when you are extremely heavy. I had also heard on the news that the Rockies were expecting a foot of snow. I figured I better check the weather and see what it was doing. If you have kept up with me for any length of time, you know that Wyoming is my nemesis and always gives me problems. Sure enough, it was snowing across the WHOLE state, I-80 was a mess all the way across and was closed between Laramie and Cheyenne again. Thankfully by the time J made it there they had cleared up. When I took over in Rawlins, I only had a little ice on the top of the mountail between Laramie and Cheyenne so I was pleased.

The rest of this trip has been uneventful. Hit a little rain just as J was leaving Carlisle,PA. Pretty nasty looking clouds according to the National Weather Service radar. I think we are about to come out of it though.

We have our next load already. After we deliver this we are heading over to Phillipsburg,NJ which is about 100 miles away and we are picking up a hazmat load going to Chandler,AZ. This works out really well for us since J is almost out of hours. He can pick it up tonight and get it scaled and then he can park. Then I will get up and cover around 550 miles tomorrow and J will get the afternoon off. That will give him a reset on his hours. Then Sunday we can both cover around 550 miles each and that will leave me around 250 miles or so to do Monday morning. piece of cake since our appointment is at 1000 Mountain time.

Now for the SUPER FUN information! We have some friends that are going on vacation in October for her 40th birthday. J's birthday is just 6 days before hers. They invited us to go along and after pricing flights (which are running about $300 less per person than what they usually pay) we decided what the heck and bought the tickets!

Well now you want to know where we are going, right? Roatan,Honduras!! The couple we are going with is Misty and Riaan. Riaan worked on Roatan for about 3.5 years as a dive instructor and they were married there. This is their old stomping grounds. So it is going to be a LOT of fun! We are going to stay for 7 nights. Did you know that rentals are REALLY REALLY cheap there? We can get a 1 bedroom cabin, complete with kitchen and all the dishes and everything for $175 for the WHOLE WEEK!! Check out www.hiddengardencabins.com to see some pics.

We will finish getting our dive certification and then spend most of the time diving while we are there. We have been before when we went on cruises but you don't have to be "certified" for that. Riaan is going to finish getting us our open water certification and we are going to have a blast blowing bubbles!

So there is the fun exciting part! Now I just have to seriously get in shape so I can put my bikini back on!!! At least I know have good motivation. :)