Deck the Halls.....Fa LaLaLaLa

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful....

Dashing through the snow, in a 475 horse power KW T600.....

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

No wait....April Fools! Its not Christmas, I was just kidding. But it sure does look and feel like it! All I need is some holly and egg nog, and I'll be all set!

The first day of April is not shaping up to be a good one for us! It started out this morning around midnight or a little later when Malcolm was driving up US93 out of Nevada and into Idaho. I'd been laying awake in back, desperatly trying to go to sleep....for the past 4 hours, with little luck. I'd finally started to drift off a little when I heard very clearly, "Oh S***, Oh S***, Oh S***, HOLD ON" And then felt the truck fish tailing and the anti roll device hissing air.....needless to say the chance of sleep was long gone. He'd nearly rear ended another truck while driving on icy roads. But alls well that ends well, right?

We switched drivers at the fuel stop an hour later. I'd given up on sleep, and he was tired. So off I go into the wild's of Idaho, my favorite drive. US 20 to Id 87 to US287 up through the Madison Valley to Bozeman and the interstate. Given that US20 has a section of bad frost heeves, Malcolm was awake when I had to slow down after being blinded by a passing snow plow that through a ton of snow into the air and wind and created a white out. No biggy, a common occurance when dealing with snow plows. You just slow down, try to drive straight, and hope there's no one stopped in front of you. Then when it clears you re-accelerate...or try to. Only when your on a sheet of ice, it doesn't work. You spin out instead and start to fish tail, which you really don't want to do in a truck with a trailer. I don't normally have that problem on ice, but I was on the phone with Dad and I accelerated a little too quickly, which caused the problem. Anyway, after scarring Malcolm, Dad, myself, and the truck behind us, Malcolm decided to just go ahead and get up since sleep was evading him, and all thoughts of it were now gone with that little event. We switched drivers.
And then pulling out of the parking area, we spun out again and the traction control device kicked in, which apparently was all that was needed to blow an air valve thats been leaking for a few days now. We were limping our way home with it because we ordered the part last week, but apparently its the only one in the entire country and had to be shipped in from somewhere in Pennsylvania. Anyway, so the valve finally gives up and the trucks dumping all its air. We're loosing air pressure fast. No air pressure means the brakes lock up and your truck doesn't move....at all, until its fixed. So Malcolm's mashing on the accelerator because as long as we're moving fast, its keeping air pressure up. If we slow down, brake, coast down hill...stuff like that, we start dumping air and the alarm goes off....get the picture. So here we are 100 miles from Billings and home. Two tired, sleepless drivers in a frozen winter wonderland in a truck that wants a vacation in the shop driving over the speed limit in a truck that the DOT would not be happy to see on the road right now....yep...its been a great first day of April. Just for the record we don't normally have these problems, and our truck is in inpeccable order and shape. We always get compliments from DOT about what good condition our truck is in. So don't think we're bad, irresponsible drivers. We're just pressing our luck this one time cause we're so close to home and Malcolm's got to get to Baker tonight.
So as you can see, April's not getting off to a great start for us.

Hopefully things will look up for us in a couple of hours. As soon as we get to Billings, drop this trailer, take the truck to Kenworth to be worked on and get an overhead done, and get home to pack, Malcolm's got to leave for Baker. He's going over to the ranch for a few days to help his Dad dig out all the snow from the corrals and stuff. Its so deep that the snow in the yard is level with their deck and the tops of the fences. He'll be there a few days probably.

My friend Laura arrives from Nashville on Saturday night. We'll not get to go to Yellowstone as planned. The roads down there are closed after this last storm. But we might go part way there to Red Lodge which is supposed to be a neat town to visit. And I guess maybe we have some snow still. Maybe we'll build a snow man. Honestly I don't know what we'll end up doing, but I'll be sure to tell you all about it when I get back.
One thing I am going to do while I'm home is look into getting internet at the house. Its starting to bug me not being able to email, blog, or look things up. Especially since all my creative juices are flowing lately. I have like a million crafty ideas, but I need to do some research on materials, etc. and can't while I'm home which is the only time that I can craft....so its frustrating! Maybe I'll get hooked up at home and you'll hear from me sooner than we think.
But until then, I'll be gone a few days and I hope you won't forget me. Have a great first week of April.
April....it sounds so Springy! I'm sincerely hoping that it lives up to its reputation of being Spring-like! I know March lived up to its reputation. It came in like a lamb for us, but it definatly left like a roaring, enraged, starved, blood thirsty lion! I'm not sorry to say goodbye to March this year!
Happy Spring Everyone!