Four Fabulous Days

My four fabulous days are over. I'm sitting at a "killl plant" in southern California smelling the pungent aroma of meat and bone meal permeating the truck. Its 118 degrees and though we've lounged around for four days, I'm exhuasted. So I'm going to take myself back to the previous four days and I'll take you with me.

The past four days have been absolutly wonderul. Let me tell you all about it.

One would have thought that it was going to be a really bad weekend. The reason being that we delivered our load on Thursday morning and then learned that there wasn't anything to be had load wise until Saturday morning. That meant two days of sitting, thus making no money. Mark, our broker, did find a pidly little job that involved running a 16 mile loaded trip between grain elevators 70 miles north of us, and told us we could do 4-5 runs a day until Saturday morning. It didn't pay anything to speak of, but it was something to do, and it was better than making nothing, so we accepted it. Mark called to set it up, and they had canceled the order.

SO....we sat in the parking lot of Walmart in Logan, UT all day Thursday. This would normally sound incredibly boring, but for starters we were tired and down troden about not going home, so it was kind of restful for us. Also, we had purchased a couple of movies at Walmart, along with a few other things we needed, and so after a wonderful (and really cheap) meal at a little Mexican resteraunt there in the strip mall next door to Walmart, we lounged in the truck and watched the second National Treasure movie which we had not yet seen.

Friday....we slept in...actually didn't set the alarm clock with is unheard of for us. It was a treat. Even Carlie, our 6:30 alarm clock, didn't go off.

We had a bagel and latte at Starbucks for breakfast....I've had a lot of Starbucks lately, but who can complain about that? Then we came back to the truck and watched our other movie, Tears of the Sun. This was truely a great movie. For starters I'm a Bruce Wilis fan anyway, so it already had that in its favor. It was a great story, moving for me, and had action too for the guys. I highly recomend it. Gist of the story....he is the leader of a special ops. unit that is sent into a waring African country to remove an American doctor from a mission. She refuses to go without the other workers, all Africans, and he is torn between following duty and orders, or following his heart and what he know's is right. I was moved by the movie. It wasn't too graphic, but you saw enough to know what the people of this country were going through. It was ethnic cleansing without a doubt. You really ought to watch it. I'll loan you my copy if you want.

After the movie we went to eat at the little Mexican resteraunt again, because the other option was pizza and taco bell, and we like the little place a lot anyway. So we ate there twice within 24 hours. Who can say they've never done that before anyway?

And then we went back to the truck and I got online to look at Morgan horses for sale, because even though they cost an arm and a leg I imagine I'll get one one day.

It was at this point that Malcolm asked me if I wanted my birthday present. And even though my birthday was still 5 days away, I knew there was no point in resisiting because Malcolm can't hold my gifts for more than a few hours. It drives him crazy cause he wants to give it right now. So, I said sure and he gave me a little box that had these in it:

The beauty is not just the only gift. He'd put thought into it too. They have the little screw on backs, which I had never seen. He knows I have a hard time with always losing the backs of my earings.

And then he asked me if I wanted my aniversary gift, and even though its almost a month away, I laughed and said sure and look what I got!!! He said I could return it if I didn't like it, but who in their right mind would do that???

Its supposed to be representative of past, present, and future.

I love my husband.

Friday afternoon we decided to go ahead and drive up to Idaho where we were loading in the morning. We had dinner at the local bar (because typical of so many western towns large and small...thats all there was), dining on a Swan's boxed pizza (that was the entirity of their menu) and bottled Pepsi. Mmmmm.....Then we watched an episode of CSI...love that show...and went to bed.

They woke us up at 3:00am (that part wasnt' cool) to load and Malcolm drove to Ogden, UT where we fueled and I took over. We stopped in Beaver, UT and ate at a Mexican (get the point that we like Mexican?) resteraunt we frequent there. (is it odd that we have resteraunts all over the country that we "frequent?") Yummy food and the best chips and salsa of anyone...

Then I drove, cause Malcolm was still tired, across southern Utah and northern Arizona on back roads, across a gorge of the Colorado river which was breathtaking, and within 30 miles of the Grand Canyon so you bet I got to see some great scenery.

We were going to stop and rent a car and go see the Grand Canyon because we couldn't deliver this load until Monday morning, but I decided that it really wasn't enough time because it wouldn't have really even been a full day to see it, plus Malcolm was exhausted, and we wanted to stop and shower in Flagstaf and spend the night there because it would be cooler than Phoenix. Plus we still had to drive to Phoenix which was another two and a half hours from Flagstaf...longer for us because we go so slow up and down the mountains.

We arrived in Flagstaf around 6:00 Saturday evening and went to the Little America truck stop there. We like to stop there. Its kind of nicer than your average truck stop. We walked across the road to Black Barts..which as it turned out was a camp ground/antique store/ resteraunt where the wait staff pause in their work occasionally to sing to you. Now you laugh....and I did too at the outbreak of the first song. Actually I think I turned red in embarrasment for them...but as the evening progressed it was actually really nice. We wern't really super hungry (and it was pricy) so we split the rack of lamb. I'd never had lamb before and it was really good! And the "staff" were actually all students of the Northern Arizona University. They took turns singing various types of song while a young gentleman played the piano. I scoffed at first because the setting was like that of an old dance hall salloon...we were in the old west you know...but the first song they sang was "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid, so you can see where I was a bit taken back. None of the music really fit, but after a while it kind of was just fun and enjoyable. The best part was when the waitress checked my ID, and after a pause, with genuine surprise in her voice, said, " WOW You look amazing!" Not feeling so bad about 31 anymore.

Sunday, today.....we slept in again, and then we showered at Little America. And this was a treat because Little America doesn't just provide you with a sink, toilet, and standing shower....they put a tub in there too...a really big tub. Don't laugh~! Seriously, you have no idea....a soak in the tub is unheard of on the road, and I'm not usually a tub soaker, but I enjoyed it this time.

Then we drove to Phoenix and I got to go to Barnes and Noble which you heard all about in the last posting. I had a caramel machioto on ice...not as good as the hot version, but at 123 degrees, I just couldn't stomach the idea of drinking a hot coffee. And then as I mentioned in the previous post, Malcolm sent me back into Barnes and Noble, and even though I had already been in there almost two hours, I spent another hour and a half in there, bought another book even thoguh I'd already bought 4, and had a rasberry italian soda....and I'm just loving my weekend.