Crossing the Rockies in Colorado

It felt good to be back behind the wheel this week. Not to say that I don't wish I was home, because there's always something I'm wishing I were home to do. But it felt good to be back at work too, being productive in other ways. And quite honestly, after the last few months of our lives being suddenly turned upside down, it was really nice to just do something "normal" and know that when we take off for our next break, we'll just be going home for a break, and not heading home to a giant chore. The clouds have cleared from over our heads and I'm glad life can just get back to normal now. No more stress, no more tension, no more chaos. Just living!

We left Chattanooga on Tuesday and took a short load down to north central Alabama. By short, I mean we drove 90 miles to deliver. That's really short for us. It was a "get me there" load, a time filler to get us down to the "real" load, which was chicken meal from Hanceville, AL to Flagstaff, AZ.

It's always a bit of a trial to start back to work with an all night run. We drove straight through to Arizona, arriving about 6 hours before our appointment. We used that time to take a much needed nap and get a decent meal because we knew as soon as we were loaded that evening, we had a long night drive to get to our next load.

I slept while Malcolm unloaded the trailer, drove north about 70 miles, and washed the trailer out. We parked for a couple hours there, and then I got up at 3:00am to finish the drive to our destination.

There are a number of routes across the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. All of them are scenic. You won't be disappointed no matter which way you go. If your in a hurry to get from point A to point B, then probably I-70 is your route to go, though even it has its slow going moments. Your going to have to count on twists and turns, ups and downs. Your crossing a huge mountain range after all!

We actually don't cross the Rocky Mountains that often. Our loads don't seem to take us that way much. We generally stay out of western Colorado. But on occasion we do have a trip that takes us there and it's usually kind of fun to get somewhere off our beaten path. Of the handful of times we've crossed, we seem to use US160 the most. And that was the case on Friday morning. It's on my list of "must drive" road trips for anyone who wants to know.

When I started early Friday morning, we were still in northern Arizona on US160. I followed it almost to the border where it cut north into Utah, but I kept heading east on a short cut, jumping across the northwest corner of New Mexico. At Farmington, NM we headed north, into Colorado, and caught back up with 160 just outside of Durango, CO at dawn.

Perfect timing! I had hoped to have sunlight to enjoy the scenery. God went ahead and gifted me with a dramatic sunrise to get me started.

We would spend our morning traveling US160 from Durango to Monte Vista, where we would be loading for our weekend trip. If you ever get the chance to drive this route, please take it! Trust me! It's worth it!

There was quite a bit of cloud cover on Friday morning, which worked with the mountains to keep the sun blocked, making photography a little difficult. You'll miss out on some fantastic scenery in this post because of that. Guess you'll just have to go see it for yourself!

From Durango, we headed east, passing through the San Juan National Forest.

Near Pagossa Springs, the road encountered the San Juan River and followed it into town. The temperature was down in the 20's and in town the hot springs were steaming. Unfortunately my camera couldn't get focused on them, so I had to stick with mountain vistas instead of hot spring steam.

East of Pagossa Springs we entered the San Juan Mountains. It seemed with each turn in the road, the snowy peaks just got more impressive.

At the base of Wolf Creek Pass it was neat to look up the mountain and see the road passing back and forth across the facade of the mountain as it climbed to the summit.

Half way up the western side of the pass, there is an impressive view of the valley below. I've seen it once in fall and it was amazing with all the Aspens all golden and the afternoon light making the valley floor glow. I've seen it once in summer when everything was green and fresh. And now I've seen it in early winter with it's first blanketing of snow.

Wolf Creek Pass, at it's summit, is 10,850 feet. I suspect it's quite an adventure to go over during the dead of winter, though I imagine it's well maintained since it's one of the main routes across the mountains.
I spent some time craning my neck trying to get a second glimpse of that spectacular view, but we were headed the wrong direction, and even though the road was twisting, it wouldn't quite twist enough. So I had to get creative to get a second look.

Over the pass and headed down the other side. On the eastern side, it's not quite as open as it was on the west. The mountains are more pressed in on each other and the road and river just slip between them.

It was also considerably more snowy on this side of the pass and onward. Each turn in the road revealed another great rock wall and snow covered shoulder. I think the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains must be the cause of the name.

It was during this part of the drive that we followed the course of the Rio Grande for a bit before it left the highway to head south through New Mexico and then on to the Mexican border. It was kind of strange to see that river up here in the mountains when I've always thought of it as the desert river that I see in El Paso.

Eventually the mountain passes opened up into a huge valley. It's so large at first I thought we were finished with the mountains, but then off on the horizon, I spotted the blue outline of a distant range. And then, looking around, I realized we were surrounded by ranges.

I didn't get a picture to truly depict the effect. There are moments when you have to look closely to see that it truly is a valley and not the beginning of the plains.

We had reached our destination of Monte Vista, an appropriate name for this town, as the Spanish translation for Monte Vista is "mountain view," which is has, in every direction.

We loaded canola seed. I think it's the first time we've hauled this. And then we had lunch in town and went to bed for some more sleep, just a couple hours. In the late afternoon we got back up to drive a few hours, crossing that distant range I'd seen earlier in the day across the valley from us, and headed at last out onto the great plains of eastern Colorado.

That was our little jaunt across the Colorado Rockies this week. I enjoyed it very much, as I'm sure you can tell. But it was also really nice to be back out on the plains. As you well know by now, I have a slight obsessive love for the grasslands. Yesterday we finished crossing eastern Colorado, cut across northwestern Kansas, and went up into Nebraska. Today we headed north out of Grand Island, NE and will cross the Dakotas, ending our day in the very northeastern corner of North Dakota where we deliver in the morning. 

Our first week out after our lengthy break is behind us now. It will be interesting to see what the next week brings us. We seem to have started a tradition of working through Thanksgiving, and since everything closes for the weekend, that usually means we get LOTS of time to kill on our weekend load. It gives us the chance to get some rest, and have some play time too. And it's fun to celebrate the holiday in differnt places. Last year we had Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel in Kingman, AZ. Wonder where we'll be this year?
 

Pleasant Days

This has been a good week with a good start and a good end, so far. We've been in some of my favorite states. I love travling in the mid-west and always feel happier when we're doing that. And we've also had some pleasant experiences and surprises. I'll tell you all about it.

Last weekend was one of the best we've had on the road in a long time. We had another load of barley to haul from western Montana to eastern Minnesota. We loaded on Friday morning and could have gone home for the day on Saturday, but instead we decided to take an easy weekend and just putter our way across.

It was a great decision. Malcolm has been so tired and stressed out, and I knew if we went home, he'd spend the whole day working on the truck or other things, where as if we just took our time getting to Minnesota, he'd get to sleep in several mornings and get some rest.

In addition to his rest, we had some fun experiences. It started Thursday evening when we had dinner with his sister and her husband in Great Falls. Then Friday morning, after delivering in Fort Benton, Malcolm drove us down onto the main street along the river and we found this neat little coffee shop where we sat out on the deck and enjoyed lattes and waffles with blueberries. We also walked a short bit of the river walk they have there and read the historic markers the town has put up.

Finally we decided we'd been dragging around long enough. Time to get loaded. So we drove the whopping 14 miles to Carter and loaded up our barley. We puttered our way across 200 miles of scenic Montana two lanes, and stopped at a rest area for the night, waking up late in the evening to a magnificent lightning storm and down pour, which made the air smell so good and cooled things off quite a bit too.

Saturday we drove all of 350 miles to Bismarck, where we spent the evening telling stories and laughing the night away with Malcolm's other sister and her husband. They took us to a neat ice cream place for dessert and we stayed till almost closing. Then they took us back to our truck and we drove 30 miles to a quite rest area and turned in for the evening.

That had left 600 miles or so for Sunday. I expected it to have less of a weekend feel to it having so far to go. After a leisurely breakfast, we buckled down to business and headed east. I was glad we were getting past Minneapolis on a Sunday. I've never been through there when traffic wasn't thick and sluggish. But it flows kind of smooth on a weekend, and we got through with only one hang up.

still west of Minneapolis. Minnesota's rolling hills are pretty.

Our destination of Winona wasn't too far south of the big city. The previous weekend when we'd hauled this load, we'd gone across South Dakota on I-90. This time we came across North Dakota on I-94, thus having to deal with the big city, but also adding a new point of interest to our trip, though at the time, I didn't know we were going to see it.

We were south of Minneapolis, driving along the Mississippi River when I glanced up from my book just in time to see a billboard and all I caught, before it disappeared behind us, was the word Pepin.

Little alarms were going off in my brain. Pepin! Really???? So I snapped the book shut and zipped into planning on the GPS and typed in Pepin, WI.

Sure enough! We were almost into the city limits of Lake City, MN and Pepin, WI was just the other side of the river. I was thrilled!

Now, does anyone have any idea why I was so excited to be there?

hint: it has to do with a rather famous "little house."

Pepin, WI is the home town of my very very dear and beloved friend, Laura Ingalls Wilder! She was born in the "big woods" near the town of Pepin!

Lake Pepin was the lake that Pa drove across the frozen ice in the wagon to go to town, the lake where Laura picked up so many pretty pebbles that the pocket ripped off her dress and Ma had to scold her for being a greedy little girl. And Pepin is the town where the store was and the nice store owner who gave Laura and Mary each a stick of candy and Mary licked hers slowly to make it last, but Laura just ate hers because it was so good. At least I think that's the way she told me it happened.

Anyway, I think I've completed nearly all the main home sights......at 65 miles an hour. We've driven within 6 miles of De Smet, SD, passed the exit for Mansfield, MO, and now I've seen Pepin, WI....from across the lake. Maybe one day I'll get to actually go to these places!

At Lake City, the town on the Minnesota side of the lake, we were hungry, and I think Malcolm had noticed that I'd gone from bored to alert and glued to the window, so he found a parking place along the street, across from the marina...



apparently they like to sail on Lake Pepin



...where we were the only truckers in a crowd of summer tourists, our vehicle standing out like a sore thumb. But who cares!

We walked across the road to a little pizza joint that was run by a husband and wife. They were doing a booming business in delivery, but we had the dining room to ourselve,

and so we relaxed and enjoyed a really yummy cheese pizza and visited with the husband between his delivery trips. He was a very friendly fellow.

Look how patient he's being with me and my camera! He was really trying to indulge me. He even offered to take the pizza across the road to a picnic table, even though it was 95 degrees outside and we'd found the humid side of the country. That was really generous of him, but I was happy in the AC and quiet, so we stayed there.

After dinner, we packed up our left overs for a later snack (large cheese pizzas are perfect for meals and later snacks or second meals!) and headed on south. A few miles later, we were passing the south end of the "lake," which is just a widened section of the Mississippi River (Laura never mentioned that to me). And across the lake, through the summer haze, was the town of Pepin, WI. I waved as we went past.

By the way, did you know that aside being famous because Pa Ingalls drove across it with his wagon in Laura's book, it has two other claims to fame? Apparently, Lake City, on the shores of Lake Pepin, is where water skiing was invented. And also, Lake Pepin has it's own lake monster. Seriously! His name is Pepie. Laura never told me these things either. I think maybe she's been holding out on me, but I'll forgive her because I love her that much.

It was only maybe another 45 miles or so to Winona, where we delivered our barley right along the river, that evening. As we were leaving to head back north and to our morning pickup, we got to enjoy seeing a barge up close. As I said in last weeks post, this place was so close to the river that if we rolled too far, we'd fall in and drift over to Wisconsin.

We stopped once we got to the other side of Minneapolis. We were tired, but had wanted to get back to the west side of the city so we could skip Monday morning traffic. Our reload was on the eastern side of Minnesota in Benson. We loaded wheat there in the morning and headed out towards Colorado.

I can't for the life of me remember where I took the above picture. Somewhere between Minnesota and Colorado, and since it pretty much sums up the scenery for most of the trip, I posted it. South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and eastern Colorado = fairly flat and grainy (like corn, wheat, etc).

Sheridan Lake, CO is right on the Kansas/Colorado border, more or less. That's where the wheat went. And then we hopped 30 miles east to Marienthal, KS to load more wheat, organic this time, and took it to a mill north of Denver. That was an easy 250 mile trip and we were loaded and empty the same day. We got there 30 minutes before they closed.

Emptied out, we headed north towards Mitchell, NE, as scattered storms moved into northern Colorado.

The storms were just the ticket to get things cooled off, and we were able to sleep with the truck turned off and the windows open. We've been managing to do that a lot lately, which is nice because it's quiet and saves fuel.

We loaded great northern white beans in Nebraska and headed off for our drive to eastern North Dakota. The skies have been really pretty the last couple of days.

Scottsbluff National Monument in Scottsbluff, NE

pretty blue skies over the South Dakota prairie. That black area is what's left after a grass fire. There was a black scar for miles to the horizon where the smoke was still billowing up into the sky. Guess it was still burning it's way across the grasslands.

this morning in southeast North Dakota.

All those little puffy clouds have spent the day gathering together and now I'm sitting in a parking lot in Wahpeton, ND admiring tall billowing clouds with dark gray bottoms. It's also dropped in temperature to 75. A few more degrees and we'll shut the truck off for the day.

We delivered this morning west of here, and tomorrow morning we'll load sunflower chips across the state line in Minnesota. They wouldn't load us till morning though, so for now Malcolm sleeps and I'm catching up on a few things and trying to entertain myself.

Lucky you. It means I didn't have an excuse to put off blogging, which I've kind of done this week. I've been enjoying being in some of my favorite states and also had my nose buried in another good book. So you got neglected. Hope you don't mind.

We'll probably stop at the house on Saturday and then drive to Spokane, WA on Sunday where we'll deliver. So from last Monday to this coming one, our week will have looked like this.

I'm still trying to perfect my technique when taking pictures of the computer screen, got to get around that reflection somehow, but for now...the green lines are roughly the routes we took and the flags our destinations.

Sprinkles on the windshield! I would really enjoy a good storm right now! But a rain shower will work too.

The Last Week of Summer

This past week was the last full week of summer. Evidence of the season is seen in all my pictures this week. Mostly in the form of bug splatter on the windshield. It is an ongoing irritation for me, and one of the many reasons I look forward to cooler weather! There are few things more frustrating to me than thinking I've captured a great picture, only to discover upon loading it on the computer than there was a bunch of bug splatter captured in the shot. And this week seems to have won the prize for the most.

Tuesday morning near Denver, CO: I rarely have seen the day when the Rocky Mountains are clear and pristine behind the city of Denver. Whether from summer haze, smoke, or smog, the mountains seem to be always and forever more shrouded and dim. But even under cover, they are still impressive in size.

We had thought we'd get another load of drilling sand after delivering in Fargo last Monday morning, but it turned out different. Instead, we took a load of sunflower seed to Colorado, and then reloaded with the wheat screenings I told you about in the previous post. That load was picked up northeast of Denver, and then we hit the road for a hard drive to get to California in a hurry. I like the drive on US287 from Fort Collins, CO to Laramie, WY. Its short, but scenic, before picking up I-80 and heading west.

From California, we reloaded and headed to Sugar City, ID with a load of fertilizer. Then we reloaded in Idaho Falls, a load of malt barley being moved from this plant, to their other facility in Colorado.

We took a different route to leave Idaho than we have in the past. US26 cuts over to the Idaho/Wyoming state line where we had the pleasure of driving through the Bridger Teton National Forest, just south of Teton National Park and Yellowstone. More beautiful scenery, disturbed by an abundance of bug splatter.

Friday morning we delivered in Fort Collins, CO and then headed up to a little place west of Cheyenne, where we loaded at a quarry. We loaded 3/4" rock that was headed to a road project in Nebraska.

That was just a short load that went to a town south of North Platte, NE. We took our time getting there, because we didn't have anything to do until Saturday evening. So we stopped in Cheyenne for several hours to have some things tweaked on the truck, and then parked at a stop in Nebraska and slept for a number of hours in a PARKED TRUCK! The best sleep I've had in weeks! And then delivered the rock on a very foggy Saturday morning.

In fact, about the whole day in Nebraska looked like this. So I didn't try to take pictures. Yesterday was a very misty, damp day. We dumped out the rock, drove to a town north of Lincoln, and last night reloaded there. We are now loaded with......drilling sand! Loaded up in a different spot than the loads before, and its going to a different spot, almost. We'll deliver this afternoon at a town just east of Williston, ND.

Today the fog lifted once the sun came up. Malcolm started driving around 5:00 and I got up at 7:00. Its a gorgeous fall day! We're in South Dakota now, and will be at our destination sometime this afternoon. Malcolm took some pictures this morning while I was sleeping. He wanted to show me the spillway, still flowing, at the Missouri River crossing on the NE/SD state line. The Missouri River sure has acted up this year. Normally the water would be much lower by now.

That about sums up our week. By this afternoon, we'll have hit about 5,018 miles.

Another slammer week, but at least we got a little sleep this weekend. We'll need it because from the sounds of it, this coming week is going to be another doozy! At least its starting out strong, and that usually sets the trend for the rest of the week.

NOW:

Do you mind if I vent a little bit? I've been very frustrated lately with being gone from home and not helping my frustration at all, were some reminders in my trucking news e-letter just how much we, the truckers, are unappreciated and disrespected, and quite frankly discriminated against! There was an article one day telling about how some organization is recommending to the powers that be that cell phone use, whether hand held or hands free, be outlawed for truckers while driving. Really?

Now I know my vehicle will cause a lot of damage if I hit someone. But does that justify this type of action? And just because my vehicle is big, doesn't mean I'm an unsafe driver, or any more unsafe that any other driver on the road with a phone. That would be like telling SUV drivers that they have to use hands free devices but those that drive those little eco cars can hold their phones, hell they can even text while driving! Do you think SUV drivers would take that sitting down? I think not! Why should truck drivers? And its little crap like that all the time. I'm sick and tired of it!

We are constantly subjected to ridiculous stuff like this from the government and general disrespect from the public. How many times have I gotten dirty looks, and dirty gestures, sent my way when my only guilty act was to be the one sitting in a truck instead of a "normal" vehicle. Cut off, cussed at, flipped off, and don't forget the Oklahoma Unwelcoming Committee that blocked our way, threatened us with a 2x4, and spit in Malcolm's face! I try hard to forget him, but I can't.

So last night when we were driving through a small Nebraska town and some kids THREW ROCKS AT OUR TRUCK, we had reacked the end of our rope. We couldn't let that one slide.

Malcolm hit the brakes and threw the truck in reverse. The kids ran of course, into their home, and we parked on the shoulder and Malcolm went to the door and asked for the parents. The kid that had the guts to come to the door said he didn't live there and no parents were home. Malcolm came back to the truck and called the local police, who showed up in less than 5 minutes, about the same time "mom" pulled into her driveway. The kids of course tried to lie, and then one of them broke down in tears when Malcolm told them they were lying and suggested he go get me from the truck to come over and tell my version of what I saw. She fessed up to lying to the police officer, something he wasn't too happy with them about, and to throwing rocks at our truck. The parent was upset of course, and the kids were terrified, and our feathers were smoothed a bit after being so rumpled. Not that we wanted to cause problems, but a point needed to be made there, and I think it was done. Probably those kids will hate truckers the rest of their lives, but quite frankly I don't care. I just hope they use some common sense, and maybe, just maybe, have a little respect for the next trucker that drives past their yard. If not respect, then at least the decency to behave appropriately. Cause let me tell you, there were a couple cars that went past the same time we did, and I didn't see any rocks aimed at their vehicles! They just picked the wrong trucker to aim at.

The Mission and The Reward

The Mission:

Deliver and reload in eastern Colorado, then drive 1400 miles to Stockton, CA. Deliver and drive 140 miles north to reload. Mission begins at 8:30am on Thursday. You must be at the reload in CA before 2:30pm on Friday.

Not a mission impossible, but definitely a challenge. Very little room for error or delay. We got a great start from Colorado, before we ever got to the place where we were to load!

Thankfully it was short lived and by the time we got to the load, we just had a bit of sleet pinging off the truck roof.


But the wind! Lets just say our fuel mileage hovers around 6 miles per gallon, but with the wind, by the time we got to Cheyenne, WY we were averaging 3.6 mpg. Gusts were 45+ mph and as a result of blowing snow and multiple accidents, Wyoming closed I-80 from Cheyenne to Laramie. We backed into a parking spot at a truck stop, somewhat shell shocked. If we'd been balloons there would have been some audible hissing as we deflated.


It wasn't that the load waiting for us in California was the only load available! Our broker already had some other ideas lined up "just in case." BUT the load we were aiming for was a really good paying load and the backup plan wasn't so great. We really wanted the load that the broker had lined up. So after a few moments of contemplation, a phone call to the broker, and a study of the map, we set off north, quite a ways north, and then turned west, heading off on a self-invented detour over to Laramie.

  It added 82 miles to our trip and took 2 1/2 hours because it was a narrow 2 lane that wound and climbed and dropped, not to mention the construction that required us to wait for and follow a pilot car for a few miles, but when we got over to Laramie, the roads were dry and open.

We were rather put out to discover that during our little excursion, I-80 had been re-opened. But that's the way it goes when traveling in Wyoming. If we had waited, we would have been on interstate the whole way. But they could have just as easily left the road closed till the next day. Its a gamble and you just have to live with whatever you decide to do. Wyoming is very unpredictable at any time of year.


We drove all night, pushing the truck right up to the limit of the speed limit, which makes for bad fuel mileage and hard sleeping conditions. But by the time it was my turn to turn in, apparently I was tired enough. I didn't wake up till Malcolm pulled into the agricultural inspection station at Truckee, CA. And of course they said we didn't have all our paperwork. Another short delay. But it got worked out and after a few minutes of waiting, we were on our way again.


We arrived at our delivery point at the Port of Stockton around 9:00am. Its a neat place, on an old military base. Because of security, I'm wary of taking pictures, so just take my word for it, but maybe I'll get brave one day and be seen with a camera. We like this place because they load and unload quickly...usually. And today they didn't let us down. We had to wait for them to finish loading another truck, and then we pulled into the warehouse and wind rowed our load of millet out onto the floor.

the other piles of grain in the warehouse. The millet was behind me.

Malcolm walking next to a pile gives you a hint at scale.

We were close to being done, but still had to get to our reload. We had 4 hours to go 140 miles, so the stress was off a little. We grabbed a burrito for breakfast from the little place on the corner, and made our way through Sacramento, arriving at the tiny, lost, and mostly abandoned town of Artois, CA. The people at the seed mill were on lunch break so we got to chill out for a few minutes before loading.

An hour later, we were loaded up with sunflower seeds and ready to head back east.
Mission Accomplished!


The Reward:
Should you accomplish the mission, your reward will be a high paying load that is light weight. You'll get good fuel mileage. You'll have 2 1/2 days to go 1800 miles. You'll get to go past the house for an over night stay and laundry time (not fun but needed). In addition there will be another good paying load waiting for you at the other end.

After loading our sunflower seeds, we pulled out onto the mostly abandoned road in the mostly abandoned town and set the brakes. Time for a short breather before heading back out of California.

Malcolm brought my attention to the trees lining the roadway by appearing in my window screaming, with dark red oozing from his hand. I wasn't fooled. First of all, it was too dark red, almost purple, and second he's not the type to over react at an injury. He'd plucked a mysterious berry from a tree, and squeezed it, only to be attacked by it. It squirted all over him, staining his hand purple.

There was a whole line of them along the roadway and if I'm not mistaken, these are olive trees. Can anyone verify or correct me?

I know they do grow olives in this particular part of California, so I'm assuming that's what they are.

Up the road we stopped again, parking in the road, to get a better look at a place we'd noticed on our way in.

Fenced and gate locked, the grove was overgrown and looked to be abandoned, just like the town. I got out to take a closer look and get a few pictures close up.

I've heard that orange blossoms smell good, but my goodness! As I stood beneath the branches of the trees trying to get a good close up picture, the perfume of the oranges was just devine! It wasn't as citrus-y as you might think. It was more super sweet floral with a hint of citrus! It was wonderful! I hid out under the branches a little longer than needed, taking time to get several pictures just so I could enjoy the smell.


And behind all those orange trees, nearly completely obscured from vision, that orange laden sidewalk led to this treasure.

I could see more of it than I was able to catch with the camera lens. It looks fairly well cared for, absolutely adorable, and completely uninhabited. I sincerely hope it has someone who loves it dearly and treats it well.


Malcolm went to bed after we got some dinner, and I got the pleasure of driving through Sacramento traffic on a Friday evening. The "Reno Rush" as I like to call it.  In southern CA they all run to Vegas for the weekend. And in central California if seems they all go to Reno, though it wasn't as bad this trip as I have encountered before. I made it through the typical traffic jam, across the ridiculously pot holed Sierra Nevada mountain highway, and dropped down into Reno just before dusk.

We stopped at midnight and slept for a while. Malcolm commenced driving this morning around 5:00 and at present I am sitting in the truck waiting for him to come back out from the Cabelas store in Billings. He wanted to pick up something the store was holding for him before we go home. Twenty-Eight miles to go!

We'll spend the night at home and finish the trip tomorrow afternoon. The sunflower seeds go to a town southeast of Fargo and we're reloading potatoes clear up on the North Dakota/Canada line. Then its off to Spokane.

The mission was tiring, but the reward pays off. Good rates are always enjoyed, and trips with time to rest and catch up are appreciated by all.

my co-pilots were too worn out to work much today