Happenings

Well....I didn't disappear on purpose. Here's the short version of why you havn't heard from me in a while. If you'll remember, we were going home for a short break. But then our broker forgot we had asked to go home, and he sent us to Washington instead. I think I had shared that much with you.
Well, it was unplanned on our part, but we accepted it because it was only going to delay our going home a few days, and it was that much more money for that trip out. So off we went to Washington to load peas. It turned out to be a round trip wrought with disaster.
While loading the peas Thursday morning, Malcolm slipped and fell off the trailer. He did something to his ankle, and couldn't hardly walk, or even drive. We had to take the load to South Carolina, and thankfully had lots of time to get there, since it was a weekend trip. One day into it, we finally decided we'd better stop of X-rays, and did so at a little clinic in Wall, SD. Thankfully it wasn't broken, as we'd begun to fear, but it was badly sprained or bruised. They patched him up with an ace bandage and loaned us a set of crutches, and off we went.
We got to the other side of South Dakota that evening, where our computer got invaded by Spy Ware. We had to cancel the credit card we use to fuel on, and were advised by the Geek Squad to not log on to the internet until we could get the computer in for work. (which was goign to take 3-4 days and several hundred dollars) That is why I have not been online. Its SO frustrating and we felt very violated that someone had done that to us.
So on we went...and a good thing happened. We got to stop south of Ashville, NC and spent Sunday with Malcolm's grandparents and uncle and aunt. We hadn't seen them since before we moved, almost two years ago. That was a special treat for all of us.
We delivered the load on Monday morning, and were supposed to reload in Valdosta heading to California, and home from there. But when I called for directions, I was informed that the plant was down and wouldn't be producing our product that WEEK! Our broker began to search for a new plan for us.
A short wait later, we had a load to pick up in northeast Georgia going to Iowa. We drive the 200 miles there, then had to wait till midnight to get loaded.
Another good thing happened. We were able to stop and visit my Dad for a couple of hours before we had to move on. It was frustrating to not have time to see everyone, but we had to keep moving. My applogies to everyone that we missed. It was a bitter sweet special time, because we so enjoyed visiting with Dad, but Mom was at work, and there just wasn't enough time to see her and everyone we wanted to see. We'll have to wait till next time.
We arrived in Iowa early the next morning and grabbed a few hours sleep before unloading. Our next load was in the same town. "What luck", we thought, "no empty miles to drive." So we bopped on over to the plant, pulled into the drive, and were met with a view of what seemed like endless trucks waiting to load. It seems the plant had a fire the previous night and they were only able to load 1 truck at a time, taking 45 min. to an hour for each one. (sigh of frustration...will we EVER get home?) So we took our place in line. Come to find out we were #6 which was a BLESSING! We were not loaded until about 11:00 that night. Yes...we were there for 13 hours, waiting to load. There were, when we left, THIRTY trucks waiting still. And they were so over crowded that they had taken the first half, including us, up on a dirt hill where they stored things, for parking. They had put us in line according to order, which was a great plan, except that we were stuck there for 13 hours, unable to leave, and no food, bathrooms, etc.
Fortunatly, Malcolm had the brillaint idea of getting the number for a pizza delivery. So, we had a really yummy cheese pizza delivered right to our door by Domino's. They got a lot more business too we noticed. We wern't alone in that train of thought.
After finally loading, we headed home and spent a lovely, if somewhat hectic, week there getting things done on the truck, at home, and making life changing decisions. (more to come on that)
So that's where I've been, why I've been silent, and why your just now hearing about things that happened two weeks ago or longer.
Sorry for the delay.

PS: The Spy Ware is called AntivirusXP2008, and we were the 4th customer to call in with that problem that day!!! If it pops up on your screen, you've got it already. DON'T log on to the internet. Just go get help!