The Southern parts of the Southwest

During a winter as mild as this one is turning out to be, it's interesting that we finally end up running into snow and yucky roads in south Texas! But that's exactly what happened Monday night south of Abiline, TX. The roads had about 3 inches of thick wet slush all the way to south of Odessa and it was coming down hard in big, fat, wet flakes. I'd say the ground off the road had to have had at least 5-6 inches of snow and it was still piling up, even though it never went under 33 degrees.

I quit while it was still snowing and let Malcolm take over. It's kind of tiring driving through that mess, especially in a part of the country where people aren't as used to it, and therefor do foolish things. I was glad to let Malcolm take control of the wheel, and I went to bed and slept surprisingly well considering it was in a moving truck, something I still struggle with even after all these years.

Malcolm woke me up at 6:00am in New Mexico. He was tired and so I took back over. We were traveling on I-10 through the southern parts of the southwest.

We stopped in Tucson, AZ to shower and eat. There is a truck stop there called the Triple T. If you ever are through Tucson, it's a good place to stop and eat. It's been in operation, by the same family, for about 45 years. There aren't a whole lot of the old family run truck stops left. So many of them have closed up, many put out of business by the big chain truck stops. So we like to give our business to the ones that are left when we can.

After breakfast, it was two more hours or so of driving, passing into the area of the state where the famous saguaro cactus grow...

...and then into Phoenix where we delivered in the afternoon.

It took till late evening to get unloaded because technically we weren't scheduled to deliver till this morning at 10:30. But they worked us in, thankfully. So often our loads are scheduled to deliver according to the time it would take a solo driver to get the job done. But since both of us drive, we get there in half the time. Usually places are pretty good about working with us, but occasionally we have to sit and wait till they have room for the product. That doesn't happen that often though.

Since we were unloaded on Tuesday, we were able to drive back east towards our reload and get that done this morning. We parked for the night in Casa Grande, AZ, and finished the trip to Willcox this morning. Malcolm got up to drive and I stayed in bed a couple more hours. But I woke up just in time to enjoy a spectacular sunset over Arizona's rocky hillsides.

We just finished loading up unshelled pecans here in Willcox. This is the first load of pecans we've ever hauled. I asked Malcolm if he knew he was hauling gold, since pecans have gotten so expensive. We'll be pulling out here shortly and on our way to a central Texas delivery for morning.

On the home front in Tennessee, today is the big day! Ava Grace apparently gained another pound last week, so my sister's doctor decided they'd just go ahead and get the job done before she grows any more. They induced this morning at 5:30 central and I'm waiting to hear the announcement that she's here! Happy Birthday Ava Grace!