Traveling New Roads

What started out as a very frustrating week, has turned into a wonderful time of travel, relaxation, visiting, and seeing new sights. Our travels this week took us down "new" roads, something I always enjoy!

Having not heard from me since last week, you might be thinking we're still sitting in Reno waiting with that load of corn!

Rest assured, we did get to deliver the corn, though not where we were originally told to take it. After California denied us access to the state due to the fact that the corn we were hauling hadn't been inspected for a certain kind of bug, we sat in Reno waiting for further instruction. If you missed that story and want to catch up, it's here in last weekends post.

We started our wait on Sunday afternoon. And we waited, and waited, and waited, until finally, on Tuesday late afternoon, the powers that be finally decided to sell the corn to a dairy in Idaho and we were finally back on the road! We discovered that unless you want to drink and gamble, there really isn't a whole lot to do in Reno. We became bored quickly and were relieved when the call to move finally came in!

We dumped the corn off in Idaho on Wednesday morning, reloaded some wheat nearby, and made a quick trip to Lehi, UT where we delivered to Lehi Roller Mills. The old mill was really neat, and afterwards I wished I'd taken a picture, especially after I read their history. They've been in operation since the early 1900's and supply flour to several famous name brands, including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mrs. Fields, and Archer Farms.

After the wheat was delivered, we began an empty bounce of several hundred miles down to Sanders, AZ. Our drive took us through the canyon lands of eastern Utah. It's an off the interstate drive with some amazing scenery. Unfortunately, we did it all after dark, (meaning no pictures), arriving in Sanders at 3:30am to load drilling sand.

Malcolm loaded and I woke up around 7:00am to take over driving at Gallup, NM.

New Mexico is a state I really enjoy driving through. I like I-40 better than I-10 in the south. It's just beautiful, open country! 

I spotted some hot air balloons in the sky over Albuquerque. One day I promise myself I'm going to be passing through when they have their hot air balloon festival. Wouldn't that be something to see?

 I love the diversity of the landscape, the friendliness of the people, and their great food in New Mexico! For this trip, instead of staying on I-40 clear across like we usually do, we actually turned north at Albuquerque onto I-25. Believe it or not, in 6 years of driving, we've only driven this stretch of I-25 a couple of times, and both times it was in the dark. I discovered that we've been missing out! Northern New Mexico is amazingly beautiful, and my new favorite part of the state to drive in!

Shortly after leaving Albuquerque, it became hilly and forested with cedar type shrubs and trees. Santa Fe was a short drive north, but past that city, there were very few towns, and even fewer places with truck facilities.

 And then, once the hills leveled out, the very north of New Mexico turned into wide open plains. The whole time we were driving through this area I kept thinking of northern Montana. There were a lot of similarities.

 Funny that it reminded me of that area, because that's exactly where we ended up. After leaving New Mexico, we continued north on I-25 straight up through Colorado (barely missing the nightmare called Denver rush hour traffic) and into Wyoming. Half way through we cut off the interstate, hit the back roads, and pulled into Sidney, MT at 5:30am to deliver our load of sand.

That was Friday morning. Our next load was 800+ miles from Malta, MT to Spokane, WA. A load of red millet to deliver on Monday. With all that time to get the job done. I started wheeling and dealing with Malcolm. For several years now, when we've been headed east or west across MT, I've tried to get him to take Hwy 2 across instead of the interstate. He's never wanted to do it. It's almost the exact same miles, but of course 2 lane roads and so you make better time on the interstate. But there were no excuses this time, with plenty of time to get to Spokane. I wanted to see parts of Montana and Idaho I'd never seen before and probably wouldn't get the chance to see again. And to my delight, he decided to amuse me.

 They call this the Hi-Line, to my understanding due to the railroad line and US 2 that run across the northernmost part of Montana. It's several hundred miles of open prairie and little towns. Right up my alley!

 I finally got to see towns whose names I've heard over and over, but never seen. We passed through Malta, where we loaded, and spent the night in Havre, which was much larger than I had expected. On Saturday we drove through Cut Bank, and from there, the mountains were close enough to see clearly, or would have been if not for the weather.

 I had checked the weather! I promise I did! And it had been a good report! Malcolm had made sure of my checking the weather before he agreed to take this jaunt! But as we know, weather is prone to change suddenly up here. And just because snow isn't falling heavily from the sky, doesn't mean that it's staying in place, thanks to Montana winds!

At this point I wasn't very popular with my driver because it wasn't looking too promising, and we weren't even in the mountains yet.

 The landscape changed so dramatically from being snow bare (we've had an amazingly open winter in Montana this year) to being rather deeply snow covered.

 Clearly, the fine weather reports were not accurate for the mountains! Thankfully it was just snowing lightly, but the wind was picking a lot of it up and blowing it around in lovely swirls and clouds.

 This is Glacier Country! This is up where we loaded at that train wreck last Spring. So we'd been on this stretch of the road before. However, I hadn't realized it actually went through the park! So this time, when I saw the sign, I made note of it. And now I can say I've been to Glacier National Park...I've driven through about 4 miles of it!

 Once we got into the mountains, the wind died down, and the snow was so light, it didn't really impact our travel. The roads just had patchy ice and snow pack. It was pretty easy going after all. I was back in good standing with my driver, and we journeyed on westward towards our destination.

 Out of the narrow mountain passes, we were back into open valleys between mountain chains. We passed through more towns I'd been curious about. Kalispell is well known, but I'd never seen it. It wasn't really what I had pictured. And we also drove through Libby, which I found quite charming. We crossed into Idaho just before dusk, and parked at a truck stop just north of Bonner's Ferry, where we had a dinner date planned.

We had dinner with some very special people who I was thrilled to finally meet! If you participate in Sunday Stills, you probably know Shirley of Ride a Good Horse. I've been reading Shirley's blog for some time and we've swapped emails and messages. She's become a good blogging friend as well as a horse training mentor. But we'd never met in person. That is until last night!

She and her husband Ted drove down from their home in Canada to have dinner with us and a lengthy visit over dessert. And as you can see, Merle got to come too and meet our girls. For the first time ever, my girls were the ones acting intimidated. I think they weren't sure about a dog smaller than them with so much fur! He's a doll though, and I didn't mind visiting with him at all! Shirley and Ted were delightful and we all had such a good time, finding so many common interests to chat about. I love meeting my blog friends! Malcolm thought he was driving the Hi Line one time so I could see it, but I think he realizes he'll be going up there again next time we have time to do so. And maybe by then I'll have our passports so we can go across to Shirley and Ted's side of the border and visit them on their home turf. I think that would be fun, and I'd like to meet all of Merle's buddies at home!

This morning we slept in, and then drove south the last 100 miles of our journey. Along the way we took in the scenery and counted Bald Eagles. I have the hardest time getting pictures of them though, and still don't have one I'm satisfied with. This was the best I could do, and it's cropped so the eagle is visible. I think we saw at least 10, maybe more, in the 60 or so miles that I was watching for them.

 Further down the road was a large lake with an odd concentration of ducks. I'm not sure what was going on. Maybe they were having Sunday services.

 And a little further south, the lake was frozen, and there was a different kind of gathering.

These were just a few of the people out on the lake this morning. They were spread out, and pretty much using the entire lake surface. Nothing like doing a little fishin' on a Sunday!

So remember I said that my drive across the Hi Line, the length of highway 2 all the way across and into Idaho was part of a compromise?

Today is the day I pay up. I got my drive, and today guess where I'm sitting?
I'll give you a hint. There's a little piece of "heaven" in Post Falls, ID. He's been in there for about an hour so far. I told him to take his time. There's nothing to do till tomorrow morning anyway. And me and the girls are happy to blog, snuggle into our blankets and read a good book while he's having his fun!

Tomorrow we reload west of here in Moses Lake, and then head for Missouri! Time to head south for that special family event I hinted at a few weeks ago! By this time next week, we'll be on a beach in Florida!

A Loss and a Gain

On Wednesday, January 11, I lost something precious, but gained something of even greater value.

We loaded pecans in Willcox, AZ and proceeded to make our way back to central Texas on Wednesday morning. We drove as far as Las Cruces, NM and stopped for some lunch. The welcoming committee was standing at his station waiting to greet visitors from the west.

This is a large metal sculpture of a road runner that stands out by the interstate as the road begins its descent into Las Cruces.

And this is Las Cruces.

It is nestled up against those snowy mountains, which are noticeable for miles and miles, especially since they are situated in a fairly flat environment.

After lunch we crossed the border into Texas and drove through El Paso. We don't get here very often, but I am always fascinated to look across the Rio Grand into Mexico. The difference is astounding, even though those buildings and the Texas ones are separated only by a narrow shallow river and a train track. It never fails to leave me overwhelmed with grattitude for the blessing of living in this country.

We stopped to fuel in El Paso, and then proceeded on east. We were about 10 miles out of the city when I felt a sharp barb on my wedding ring. (I sit and twist and fiddle with my ring all the time. Just one of my unconscious habits.) I thought how odd it was that there would be a rough spot. There was a reason for the roughness. Somewhere between Willcox, AZ and El Paso, TX one of my diamonds had fallen out. I am not a happy camper!

Logic says there is a high probability that it's in this truck somewhere. But we've both looked to no avail. Between the grit and lint and sand and pebbles that get tracked into this truck, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack even though I had just cleaned the floors. We only looked for a short time and then decided we might as well accept that it's gone. At least it was one of the smaller ones. And it can be replaced, but in the mean time, the hole is rather obvious and unattractive.

I may have lost a diamond, but on the same day I gained an even more valuable jewel in my life. My sister's baby was born on January 11 in the evening. She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long. I say was, because she's 2 days old now and I have no idea if she's already grown or what. It stinks being so far away from "home" at times like these more than others. Anyway, I'd love to introduce you to Miss Ava Grace Hooper. Now I have 4 beautiful nieces to love and spoil!

I can hardly wait till February to see her and my sister. It's hard not to turn this truck east and head in that direction right now.

However, my responsible side is keeping this rig heading in a north-westerly direction. We loaded in Oklahoma last night and pulled out at mid-night. Right now we're heading out across Kansas, where there's not much in the way to block the view...

...but then there's not a lot to view either...

...which for me is part of the attraction. I do love big open spaces with not a lot in them!

We're hauling drilling sand bound for Sidney, MT. We'll be delivering that tonight and then heading to the house for a little break till Monday morning. Malcolm's going to take the opportunity to put new tires on the trailer, and I'm going to get the laundry done and play house wife for a while. We're looking forward to a little tiny break. They always make it easier to stay out a long time.

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!

A Favorite on Route 66

If you drive on I-40 across the southwest, your pretty much driving the old Route 66. It criss-crosses the interstate over and over, even merges and shares the pavement with it for stretches.

In New Mexico, you can exit the interstate in Moriarty and drive through town on US66, just as you can in many small towns along the way. We have not seen much of Moriarty, just that little snippet that's right off the interstate and around the truck stop that's there.

A couple years ago we stopped there at the TA for fuel and a meal. As is usual for us, we weren't overly enthused about our options at the truck stop, so after fueling, Malcolm headed towards town. We'd only gone a few blocks when we spotted the El Comedor. Malcolm has a weakness for Mexican food, and I'm pretty fond of it myself. Malcolm is also an expert at getting the truck in and out of unusual parking situations, so we get to go places many other truckers probably avoid. In the case of the El Comedor, though, there was a grocery store next door and next to that, an area of gravel along the side road that was just big enough for a truck to turn around in and park. And thus, a tradition was started, and we now have our self-designated truck parking spot, and stop at the El Comedor whenever we're passing Moriarty, NM and have time to stop.

Its a cozy place, kind of a cowboy/southwest motif. We tend to be in there early between the breakfast and lunch crowds, and so we get to visit and joke with the staff, and enjoy the quiet.

Don't be fooled by the picture into thinking its not a popular place. We've been here when they were busy bees, and they are apparently rather popular with the stars. They have a whole wall of photos of local and national celebrities that have made it a point to stop in.

If you can catch it on a Sunday they have a great breakfast/brunch buffett for a reasonable price. On every other occasion that you might get to stop there, their menu features New Mexico favorites, and for the non-border food consumer, they also have some "normal" restaurant selections, such as hamburgers.

Malcolm and I used to eat at Mexican restaurants when we lived in Tennessee and Georgia and enjoyed the meals greatly. But when we started trucking through the southwest and California, we quickly realized we had not been eating real Mexican food. And in truth, we may still not be. I'm sure what is served this side of the border is probably changed up a little to appeal to the American taste buds. But what we get in the southwest is far different from what is served in other areas. Its the same menu items, but SO much better, and often totally different in appearance from what we had been served previously!

Malcolm has his favorites and so do I. At the El Comedor, he has discovered they have the best Chile Rellenos. These are peppers stuffed with cheese, battered, and deep fried. I'm not a huge fan, but these looked better than any I've seen before and I may have to order them next time we're through there for a try.

For me, it changes. I love the tacos at certain places in California, but I like to try different things in other places. On this occasion I opted for the burrito with Carne Adavado with the green chili sauce.

Both meals came with a Sopapilla, which is a piece of fried bread. This is served at many establishments, but it seems to always be different. Some places its flat, where as here it was very puffy. Some places drizzle them with chocolate syrup or honey, and top it with whipped cream. Here it comes to you un-garnished, but there is a bottle of honey syrup on every table. Yummy!

Its worth the stop. For contact info, directions, and more visit their web site here.