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.

Trying to Stay Busy

This time of year, freight slows down a bit. This effects things in a good and a bad way. First the bad: we do more sitting, less driving, and the paycheck starts to reflect that.

The good: we sometimes manage to get more home time because we have a wonderful broker that is really good at routing us past the house when things are slow.

Last week was the shortest so far. We were home the 3rd through the 5th. We left the house Tuesday morning (March 6), drove to Billings and to get Malcolm's CDL renewed and to reload. 

the Wasatch Mtns and part of the salt lake in Utah, Wed. March 7

We were delivering in Utah on Wednesday morning, reloaded, delivered in North Dakota Thursday morning, reloaded and were home by Thursday late afternoon.

a full moon rising over southern Idaho fiels

 We had a load going to California, but couldnt' deliver till Monday.

So we spent the weekend at home, and it couldn't have been a more beautiful weekend! The temperatures were in the 60's and though it was a little breezy on Friday, it was still a gorgeous day. We spent lots of time outside.

For Malcolm's part, he stayed busy with a project. His dad needed some land leveled for a new shop that they are going to build. So Malcolm got to spend practically the whole weekend playing with his bulldozer.

 

I made multiple trips to the corral to visit the horses, and then decided to take the plunge. Fancy, who joined us in November, was reportedly a former trail horse. However, she's just  been a broodmare for the past 4 years, and I hadn't put her memory to the test yet. But Friday I decided, with a little encouragement from Malcolm, to find out what she could do. It went really well, in that she didn't throw me off or anything of that sort. She was really frustrated over leaving her herd, and she seems to have forgotten how to steer. But I think  with some regular riding (hadn't figured out yet how that's going to happen) it will all come back to her. I can't speak for her, but I thoroughly enjoyed being in the saddle, even if the whole ride was a battle of wills in directional heading. I think I can speak for her when I say we were both rather sore the next day. We're both out of shape from a lazy winter and a lengthy break from riding.

someone ate her forlock. I havn't discovered the guilty part yet. But I'm disgusted with them.

We left home bright and early Sunday morning...

south of Three Forks, MT

... and were sitting at our destination south of Sacramento first thing Monday. Pea flour is a very powdery product. It makes a mess when you unload it. It also covers Malcolm from head to foot.

Our next load was a piddly little 150 mile trip from the Sacramento area to just over the mountains in Sparks, NV. That's just outside Reno. It had me worried for the week's profitability. I mean it paid decent for such a short load, but it was awful early in the week to already be trying to fill gaps. And that load was basically a gap filler.

Got that delivered and then reloaded Monday night in central Nevada. We drove all night long, or rather I drove all night long. We left the shipper just before midnight, and by sunrise I was on a little 2 lane road, north of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

as you can see, I still haven't gotten that little speck of whatever it is cleaned out of my lens. I think this camera is going to have to make a trip to the doctor soon. It ruins good pictures!

The entire process of the sun rising over the mountains was breathtaking. Because of our preferred driving shifts, I usually get sunsets, not sunrises. So this was a real treat.

We arrived at our destination around 9:00am. Lewiston, UT sits about 4 miles off the Idaho/Utah border. At first there was some confusion about delivering. They were not expecting our kind of trailer and had the pit we'd dump into under construction. They tried to say we were supposed to deliver somewhere else. Our wonderful broker convinced them otherwise, explaining that "somewhere else" would cost them. We had to sit for several hours and wait, but they eventually figured out that they could get the pit operational and unload the product.

This was a load of ground limestone. It's an interesting product because it is basically powder. But as we drive to our destination, it vibrates and settles and pretty much turns back into as close to solid rock as it can be again. Only at that point, it's in our trailer. And solid rock does not go through hopper doors very easily. Malcolm has to beat and chisel at it the entire time. With enough agitation, it turns back to powder, one handful at a time. It's a long and messy process....

...and it is not one of his favorite things to haul, for multiple reasons.

for the record, he's wearing a yellow shirt and a red hat (um...it's an earthy tone of yellow though)

He went through a lot of laundry this week, with all the powdery things we hauled.

After that we got a load of fertilizer to North Dakota, and we just finished unloading pea hulls in Minnesota.

Now we will try to get reloaded today with sunflower seed. If not today, then tomorrow, but hopefully today. This is our weekend load. We'll go home with it and then deliver on Monday morning north of Spokane, WA. .



Products we hauled this week:

1. pea flour from ND to CA - an ingredient for a horse feed mill

2. wheat from CA to NV - an ingredient for a pet food mill

3. ground limestone from NV to UT - an ingredient for cattle supplement

4. 1152 fertilizer from UT to ND for a farmer

5. pea hulls from ND to MN - a pet food ingredient

6. black oil sunflower seed from MN to WA - an ingredient for a bird food mill

From leaving home last Sunday to arriving in Spokane, WA on Monday morning, we will have driven about 4800 miles.

This will be our third weekend home in a row. And this weekend the temperatures are supposed to hit mid-70's with sunshine! You know where I'll be!

A Little Bit of Everything, and a Lot More Miles

It would appear we're setting a trend for this time out on the road. An increase in our mileage every week. Its a nice trend, but I don't think it can continue. I don't think we could survive it!

This week we drove through the prairie, the mountains, the desert, the lake (almost)....We did a little bit of everything this week!

And the grand total for the week is: 6,464 miles!

Last Monday morning we were pulling out of Williston, ND and heading to Minnesota for another load of drilling sand. We ran two of those loads last week. Along with the 2 loads from the previous week, that made 4 loads of drilling sand, every time bouncing back to Minneapolis to reload and then driving to Williston, ND to deliver.

There is road construction everywhere. Tis the season! In Tennessee, where I grew up, road construction was a year round thing. But I've learned out here, where there is actually a winter worth speaking of, road construction gets crammed into the summer months and the closer to fall you get, there seems to be a mad scramble to finish up projects or at least get to a good stopping point. Road construction signs are almost a constant part of the landscape lately. But this one, in Minnesota, caught us off guard a little.

Interesting! And it wasn't exaggerating, though I'm not really sure what work in the sky had to do with what was going on down on the road. I'm still not sure what prompted them to post the sign, but it did serve to get our attention, so we didn't miss this...

You couldn't pay me enough to do their job! That's just a little too high for me! Can you imagine how that must sway in the slightest breeze?

No thanks! I might could handle the other guys position better....

It looked like they were using the chopper to drag the lines between poles and attach them.

And that was the highlight of our drive through Minnesota!

Well, that and these flowers that were very cheery on a nice, almost autumn day!

After our last drilling sand load was delivered, we bounced 150 miles east to Velva, ND where we loaded canola meal. This is a byproduct of canola, after the oils are extracted. We hauled the canola meal to the northeast corner of Utah. It was just barely in Utah, only about 10 miles across the line. We arrived there on Friday morning just before the feed mill opened so we would be quick to get unloaded. And everything was going just as planned. We were wind rowing the product out onto the floor of a storage building. Dump it out in a long row, then close the hopper doors, and pull out of the way so the guy in the loader can scoop it out of the way. Then we back up and dump another row. Over and over again until we're empty. And all this was going smoothly, until at one point, when we were pulled forward waiting for the guy to clear the floor. Malcolm was out of the truck watching, and suddenly there was a bang and the truck lurched.

The loader had backed into the rear corner of our trailer, denting and scratching it. Some of you know my husband personally, and so you know how particular and meticulous he is in the care of his equipment. He was not happy!

But what can you do at that point, aside from filling out insurance claims and accepting apologies? Which is what we did, after finishing unloading. Shrug it off and wait till we have time to get it fixed. At least the trailer wasn't damaged in a way to make it unusable!

And since it was still usable, we headed south on I-15 a short way to Ogden, UT.
Interstate 15, in the northern region of Utah, ambles along bordered on one side by the Great Salt Lake...

...and on the other side by the Wasatch Mountains, which are so tall it takes a stretch of the neck to see the peaks. They are lovely, and I always enjoy driving along and looking at them.

In Ogden, we loaded pot ash, and after loading we dropped south to Salt Lake City, and then headed west on I-80. As we were leaving SLC in our wake, storm clouds were hovering and I was watching rain showers and lightening in the mirror.

It's roughly 120 miles from Salt Lake City to the Nevada state line. For the first stretch of that, I-80 skims along the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake.

And at times, it seems like I-80 runs through the lake itself.

There is little development when you get much past Salt Lake City. Some salt mills, a few truck stops, one or two small towns, and then miles and miles of nothing! You have passed civilization and entered the expanse of the Great Salt Lake Desert. It's about 100 miles to the next services! It takes about an hour and a half. Its lovely, amazing, white, empty...

It was dark by the time we had crossed into Nevada, and daylight found us in central California on Saturday morning. This is where the extra miles came in. The load of pot ash wasn't scheduled to deliver until Monday morning. The plan had been to deliver Monday, bounce north and reload, be in Fargo by Tuesday afternoon.

But our broker told us we should see if they could unload us Saturday, because they had told another truck they would be there Saturday. And sure enough, they were going to be there till noon and told us to come on it.

Since we were going to be empty on Saturday, the guy who was supposed to load us on Monday, agreed to go ahead and load us Saturday afternoon! So as soon as we were empty, we got washed out and headed north!

This is the Sacramento Airport. We did not load at the airport, but we did load in a field within sight of it. I watched a few planes land and take off while waiting for them to finish loading us.

We pulled into the field of sunflowers and were delighted to see that they had already harvested part of the field and had it sitting there in hoppers waiting for us! Last year at this load, we had to wait while they were combining the sunflowers. It took some time. This year, we were loaded and out of the field within an hour!

So Saturday night found us crossing Nevada in the dark again, and heading north into Idaho, and then east, and then north, and as the sun was rising, I was just a few miles shy of the Montana state line.

This has always been one of my favorite drives! US191 turns north out of the town of West Yellowstone, and slips up the side of Yellowstone National Park, just within park lines. Its the only road trucks are permitted to take within park boundaries.

 Its only about 20-30 miles actually in the park, but the rest of it is national forest land and its all beautiful! Plus its in Montana, and I never dislike driving in Montana!

We stopped at a pull off on the north boundary of the park to stretch our legs, and let the girls out to do the same.

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day! It was about 54 degrees when we stopped, but in the sun it felt warm enough that even Paris didn't complain. The wind was calm, the sun was shining, and it smelled like fall. Malcolm took the two "tomboys" to go play in the river...

...while me and the princess enjoyed the sun and took in the views. I could have stayed there all day. I think we all would have been willing to do so. But, we still had miles to go!

We drove all day, stopping in Miles City, MT to eat and get some groceries. And this morning we are in Fargo, ND, unloaded and waiting to find out what's next. There's a possibility we may be heading over to Minneapolis for more drilling sand. Or we might be doing something completely different. We should know in about an hour. You'll have to wait a little longer to find out.

Another Week, This One Better

Let me start by saying I do not like the new version of blogger! I rarely like the new version of anything! When will I learn not to click on the buttons that say "update available?"

This week I had wanted to post on several occasions, but my blogging moods always landed on days when our internet signal was too weak. The other days I was too tired. This is why...

Can you see the green lines? Those represent our routes for the week. We started in Valier, MT and will end tomorrow in Williston, ND, for a grand total of (drum roll) 5,042 miles! MUCH better than last week!

I'm also tired because we did several nights of all night driving and I just don't sleep well when the trucks moving. But I'm trying to catch up this weekend.

Photography has been a bit of a challenge this week as well.

As of a few days ago, Montana has the most fires burning in the country, and Oregon was a close second. The air quality out here leaves a lot to be desired. The mountains are hidden in smoky haze, and add the bug splatters on the windshield, and well...after a few attempts, I called it quits. No point, because the shots weren't very good.

passing through the western edge of Yellowstone National Park in Montana on Wednesday

There were a few things to share and I also got some practice taking night pictures. I was surprised at how well my little Cannon Elph did!

Monday, after loading near Chester, MT, we headed for Spokane, by way of Helena. On the short cut from Helena to the interstate, I drove through a whole valley filled with these awesome hay stacks.

Malcolm explained the process to me, but I'd love to see it in action one day! They were quite impressive!

We delivered in Spokane on Tuesday morning and headed south through eastern Washington. Its harvest time in this part of the country, and they are busy getting at it!

Some of Washington's hillsides are impressively steep. They have some brave farmers over in that country. I don't think you'd catch me up there on those slopes in a tractor!

Many of the fields have already been harvested and the grain is being loaded and transported to its various locations. Some of it is being stored in private bins,

while some of it is being transported to large grain elevators, where despite their huge facilities, there always seems to be a surplus this time of year.

compare the size of the pile to the truck in front for scale

And on the other side of the Snake River from the elevator above, they had another pile of grain behind the bins and were loading a barge down with more grain to move downriver.

We loaded organic spring wheat near Milton Freewater, OR, which is just across the state line from Walla Walla, WA. The wheat we hauled was taken across the Oregon mountains...

...to LaGrange, where we hopped on I-84 and trucked on into Idaho. It was late evening as we were finishing up our Idaho stretch and the lightning was flickering on the horizon. I like to watch the lightning as I drive, but this time of year, as dry as it is, lightning is not really what you want to see. And sure enough, a few miles down the road, we drove past some of its handy work just getting started.

These grass and brush fires take off so quickly. It had already spread to cover a few acres. Highway Patrol had just passed us and was parked on the shoulder of the interstate to monitor the fires progress. I never heard any more about it so I'm assuming (and hoping) that nothing more came of it. There are already enough burning without more being added!

The next morning we delivered the wheat in Collinston, UT and then headed north towards Pocatello, ID to pick up a load of fertilizer, stopping south of town to grab a bite to eat.

Idaho is also where we saw one of the more amusing sights of the week. Creative camping...

that is not 1, but 2 vans altered to ride atop the bus!

The fertilizer went to Miles City, MT where we delivered first thing Thursday morning. And then we went straight north, almost to the Canadian line, to Opheim, MT to load lentils.

I love driving through northeast Montana. Its one of my favorite areas of the state.

And I know its only the beginning of September, but its definitely starting to look a little and feel like fall out here! And I'm excited about that! I love fall and I'm even anticipating winter's arrival!

We drove all night with the lentils over to eastern North Dakota, south of Grand Forks. Malcolm pulled into the parking lot at 3:00am to discover another truck had arrived just before us, and had gotten himself into a sticky situation.

He had somehow made a huge mistake and in trying to back out onto the road, he instead backed into the ditch! Not a good situation for any truck, but especially a hopper, as our hopper doors hang down beneath the trailer and are vulnerable in this type of situation.

It just so happened that one of the company employees had come in early and so they hooked the truck to the mills front end loader, and pulled him out of the ditch. And sure enough, the back hopper got drug, forcing the hopper door open and spilling lentils.

all that light colored stuff on the ground is lentils, there was much more than what's in the picture!

They had to use a sledge hammer to pound the door back shut and then Malcolm used his tools to repair the door so it could be used again. And then he and the driver shoveled up all the spilled lentils. All this, even though he was tired and could have just layed down and gotten some rest while the driver figured out his own problems. Most guys these days would have done exactly that! But not my husband! He's always the first one to jump in and help, and always has the answers to save the day too!

After that, we drove over to the southeast side of Minneapolis and loaded sand. That was on Friday morning. We're on our second load of sand now. We're going to go get another one just as soon as we drop this one off in the morning in Williston, ND.

the sand pit and mill where we load near Minneapolis

 This is drilling sand that's being used in the oil field up there around Williston. I've heard that region of North Dakota referred to as a modern day gold rush. All I know is these loads pay well enough to drive back EMPTY to Minneapolis, 650 miles, and that Williston and the little towns up there have become crazy boom towns where there is no where to park, no where to live, and it takes 3 times as long to get places as it used to.

This morning we got in to load early, and now we're headed back west. We have plans to stop in Bismarck this afternoon and have dinner with Malcolm's other sister and her fiance. And then we'll finish off the trip to Williston, and then turn around in the morning and head back to MN! Tomorrow starts another week. It will be interesting to see where it takes us!