Headed Home

We didn't get loaded up till Monday morning but that was ok. The scenery more than made up for the delay, as we usually make a lot of that trip after dark. The colors were outstanding coming across Lookout Pass on the ID/MT border. So incredibly vivid! The gold was so bright it almost hurt your eyes.

And then Montana was not about to let Idaho's leaves get the better of it. So, though the leaves were a bit duller over in Montana, the sunset over Butte was superb.

In about 4 hours we will have been out on the road for 9 weeks and 2 day.

Granted, we had a little 3 day layover at home the first weekend of October, but I never really count those layovers as "home time."

And sure there have been a few breaks. We lounged around a weekend in Sacramento waiting for sunflower seeds, and again this past weekend in Moses Lake, WA waiting on the same product. But if your not lounging at home, its not really lounging.

Nine weeks and a day. The longest we've ever stayed out since we started hauling around this hopper trailer 3 years ago. And it turned out to be the busyest round on the road we've had in a long time! In fact they are so busy, the broker was somewhat reluctant to lose us for 2 weeks.

By the time we get home, we will have driven 45,935 in nine weeks! That's an average of about 5,100 miles a week, about 1,000 miles/week over what we aim to average!

Home time does not mean we step out of the truck and forget it exists for 2 weeks. We're shipping calves on the 31st and that involved us haulin' a load or two to the scale in town, in addition to haulin' the cows home from summer pasture. So we'll be doing a little bit of driving. And when we're not behind the wheel, there are other things to attend to. The wheel seals are starting to leak on the trailer really badly, and we need some tire work. There is some welding needed on the trailer frame as well, and some other jobs that need done that Malcolm will see to. For me, there is truck related laundry that needs attention. Lots of bedding to wash, and I'll probably lug my vacuum out to the truck, b/c me little car vacuum just doesn't dig out the deep dirt. And there is, as always, lots of paperwork.

We'll be having a meeting with our accountant while we're home and I've been crunching some numbers to take with us. It's always fascinating...and a little bit startling...when I do that. We were both surprised to learn that we've already spent over $100,000 on fuel this year. Over last years total and we still have two months to go. I haven't felt like the price/gallon was that much higher than last year, so perhaps we've just used that much more. I have yet to add up our total miles for the year thus far. That should tell me. Might be interesting, especially considering we took nearly 2 months off this summer!

I am going back and forth about blogging while home. I enjoy sharing our home time activities almost more than our road time activities, sometimes. But yesterday I started feeling exceptionally reclusive and private. Perhaps I need a few days to be a hermit. So I can't promise blog posts from home, maybe one or two, but not a lot. Time will tell. I might get home and have a sudden burst of blog inspiration.

We are in Billings, MT right now, unloading in the dark. The sun is not yet up. It is cold, about 31 degrees. Time to get the girls fleece PJ's back out. And there were a few flurries in our forecast here and there over the next few days.

Cold or not, I'll be out in it. I have outside things to do. I'll brave the chill because I know after this break, it will not be pleasant to be outside for a few months. So I have to get in my horse time, my Montana prairie time, and get all the outside soaked up that I can.

We'll finish up here in Billings, make a quick stop in Miles City to look at a hay trailer and get some groceries, and then around mid-afternoon, we'll be pulling into this drive way.

 I can't wait!