Monthly Chores and a "Tour"

 The end of July. Can you believe it? I know it's been asked a million times over the ages, but....

Where did this month go? For that matter, what happened to 2012? It flew by when I wasn't looking!

The end of the month brings with it a paperwork job for me.

Every month, at the end, I have to print off our trip sheets that I've created at each delivery.

We have to report to the government how many miles we drive in each state, keeping record of the odometer reading as we enter and leave the states to prove the mileage we report.

In addition we have to report the gallons of fuel purchased and the amount spent on fuel in each state during that month.

I have to match up each trip sheet with the fuel receipts that go with that trip.

And then we mail them, or drop them off if we're passing through, to our prorate service.

Our prorate service is wonderful. They take care of all our permits, vehicle registration renewals, and calculate our fuel taxes each quarter for us. Then they just tell us how much we owe. I'll gladly pay them to do all that, so I don't have to worry about getting it done correcly. I've heard it's easy, but they are good and they are afordable and I am happy to let them do it for me. One less thing!

Another age old argument.....
If we fought for freedom from England in part due to their taxing taxing taxing (without representation I know), then how on earth did we get to this point where we are taxed taxed taxed?

We pay an annual "Heavy Highway Use" tax of $550 because we drive on the roads and cause wear and tear. But then we also pay a quarterly tax based on how many miles we drove in each state and how much fuel we bought in that state, and so on and so on.....(rolling eyes and heaving sigh of irritation).

I'll stop the complaints because regardless of all those frustrations, we still have a TON of privileges compared to other countries and I wouldn't trade for a million trillion dollars. I just hope we can hold on to all those privileges. But I'm not going to get on a political soap box here, so don't worry. You can keep reading and not get preached at.

For the month of July, we drove roughly 19,000 miles and spent somewhere around $13,000 on fuel. Last year, third quarter IFTA was a light bill because we basically were home for most of July and August helping to hay. This year, there is no hay to cut, so we'll be on the road all of third quarter, racking up miles and fuel expenses. We'll see what kind of impact that has come tax time next Spring.

This morning, we're in Sunnyside, WA. Isn't that a delightful name for a town? We've not been here in over a year, which is a real tragedy on the culinary experience. We found a little hole in the all Mexican restaurant here a couple years ago, that we really love and we've missed it! So last night I had tacos and Malcolm had Carne Asada and then we enjoyed Fresas con Crema for desert, because we've not found a place that makes it to compare to this one.

As soon as we're unloaded here, we'll head to Boardman, OR to pick up potatoes. But on our way out of Sunnyside, we'll stop at the dingy little truck stop that happens to have the best ever taquitos. I'll have one with chicken and cheese, and one (I can't wait!) with cherries and rolled in cinnamon sugar! Yes, we do love this little town of Sunnyside. Wish we passed by more often! Breakfast is going to be good!

As I was in the back working on my paperwork, I realized I've never given you the official tour of the new truck, and someone even requested it! I'm sorry! Let me show you around.

This truck is a 1999 Kenworth (I think it's a 900L?...but that's more Malcolm's knowledge and he's not in here).

You've already seen the outside, but here's a reminder photo.

Some have asked, or wondered but didn't ask, why we've bought an older truck with less room and more miles. There are three good reasons:
1. it's Malcolm's dream truck
2. the payment is SOOOOOO much smaller than the newer trucks
3. more than likely (unless I change my mind so don't hold me to it) Paris, Ella, and I are abandoning ship come the end of the year (or next Spring) and Malcolm and Carlie Jean are going out solo. So we figured we could live with being a little cramped for a few months so that he can have his dream truck with the smaller payment.

As far as the cab goes, there's about the same amount of room.

Unlike the old truck, where the cab had a rubber mat covering the entire floor, this one is carpeted all the way through. In addition, the exhaust system crosses under the truck right beneath the seats. The girls quickly discovered that this set up means they have a heated AND carpeted space to lay on. And they all three take advantage of it frequently, especially Paris, the sun/fire worshiper.

The sleeper is where we got a little crunched. This truck is what is referred to as a "flat top sleeper." It looks cool! It looks classic. But it means we lost some space. Regardless, it was fairly easily managed. We left some things at home that we hardly ever use, like the TV and DVD player and I don't carry around so many books and magazines. I have my Kindle now and that solved that issue.

the home office and clothes closet

We have to store the dog food and water bottles in the side box and access them from the outside of the truck, but that's not a big deal. It's tight, but cozy, and we adjusted quickly and are pretty comfortable.

the rest of the home office, clothes closet, and food pantry. I found those woven buckets at Bed Bath and Beyond and they fit perfectly! Works good since there aren't any doors or curtains on these storage spaces like in the former truck.

The flat top sleeper also means we lost a bed! The other truck, which was the traditional modern style, had bunk beds in back. Top bunk for me and Paris, bottom for Malcolm and the other two girls. Now we're in the flat top, with one bed, a slightly larger than average twin size bed I might add, which makes for forced snuggling. The girls have been ousted and now sleep on a blanket pallet in the floor, something they were not to impressed with at first, but have adjusted to. And in the mornings, as soon as Malcolm starts to get out of bed, they all three waste no time in reclaiming their spots under the covers in the bed.

one perk is we lost a bed but we gained a window. This truck has a window on the back wall with a lovely boring view of the front of the trailer. But is sure does let in lots more sunshine and us girls like that. He'll just have to wait to live in a "man cave" till three of us have moved out.

Our girls are not early risers. It was 7:50 when I took these pictures and we'd been up since 6:15. Don't see the girls anywhere in these pictures do you? Look closer. See the lumps under the covers?
The running joke in here is that Ella is always saying that she doesn't sleep so good on the floor. So as soon as we've abandoned the bed, the girls move in, and catch a few more moments of sleep. Eventually they emerge, more rested I supposed.


Paris was first this morning. She must have been warm and happy because she immediately started bouncing and wallowing all over the bed, which disturbed the beauty rest....

another lump rises

....of Ella. Ella is funny. Of the three, she is the biggest (literally and figuratively) sleepy head. She doesn't "do" mornings. If we get her up before 7:30 to go potty, you can almost certainly count on her being half asleep for the job and immediately returning to bed when we get back in. She is never fully awake and energized till at least 8:00am.

And now it's an hour later, 8:50am, and I have yet to see Carlie Jean. She's still under the covers. She hasn't emerged yet. Ella and Paris have curled back up for another nap, but they are at least on top of the covers now where they can see what's going on. They like their pillow piles, especially Paris.

Sorry for the blurry images of the girls. Without the flash, any movement from them almost always makes the picture blurred. But, smart girls, they have figured out that when the flash is on, there is a sensor light on the camera and when they see that light up, they turn their faces away. It has ruined many a cute moment. So I try to leave the flash off and accept blurred ears and tails.

Yesterday we delivered sunflower seed chips to a bird seed company north of Spokane.

Then we drove south to Pasco and loaded meal which we brought over here to Sunnyside. Now we're just about finished here and heading just across the border, about 75 miles, to pick up some potatoes in Oregon. And tomorrow we'll be back in North Dakota, and then heading home for a few days, maybe a week. Maybe longer, we'll see. Might possibly have a local job to do, if the timing is right and if that's the case we'll stay a few extra days to get that done.

PS: If your curious and missed it three years ago (?????THREE YEARS AGO????? REALLY????) here's a link to when I gave the tour of our then new, but now "old" truck. You can compare and see the differences. I like the new truck better. It feels more western, more cozy, the colors are prettier, and so on.

For Those Inspired Moments While Driving

If your anything like me, you have inspired moments while you drive. I think of a million things I need to do, things I need to pick up at the store, phone calls I want to make, and on and on.....all while I'm driving.

If your anything like me, you have no skill at writing in a notepad and having it be legible while you drive, not to mention that while your at it, your having trouble staying in your lane. You cannot multi-task while driving. God did not give you that skill as he did others. You try to make notes about your brilliant ideas, add to your shopping list, jot down those important phone calls to make, and on and on.....and when your done driving and go back to your list, you can't decipher half of what you wrote down, and you don't remember what it was, and your not sure what happened to that car that was behind you earlier. (Ok I hope you know I'm exaggerating! I've never run anyone off the road....that I know of anyway.)

Trucking has served many purposes in my life, done me many favors, and one of them was to introduce me to a magic tool and teach me a little trick.

The magic tool is......the dry erase marker!

The little trick is......you can use it to write on your windows..

...and when your done driving and parked somewhere, you can transfer all your jotted down notes into a notebook, and then wipe the window clean with  your hand or a paper napkin. In the above picture I had reminded myself that I needed to schedule an allergist appointment, call the insurance company, I have no idea what that third note was about b/c this was a couple weeks ago, and then I wanted to email Karen at the Rough String to ask her about something I'd seen in her part of Oregon.

We actually have the dry erase marker with us to write down the odometer readings at the state lines because we have to report our mileage in each state for highway taxes. So every time we cross a state line, we jot down the last 4 numbers of the odometer reading on the window and then put them in notebook where we track it after we're done driving.

But I started using it to make my personal notes too. I found I could write down reminders and drive much more safely if I was writing on the window, PLUS....I can read it and know what I was thinking about....most of the time.  I'm right handed so I just reach across to the window and use my own little form of short hand, and steer with my left hand. Most of the time no one knows what I was writing down, but it's enough for me to remember the full import of the thought and get it in a notebook for later use.

So, just a thought, but if your anything like me, you might consider getting a dry erase marker to keep in the cup holder of your car. They sure are handy to have around.

The Rest of the Story

The rest of the story.

I told you in yesterday's post that there was more to tell about the weekend. It's just your typical trucking frustration. One of those things that you roll your eyes at, shake you head, and deal with because what else are you going to do.

We stopped at the house Saturday night with the intention of taking a short layover on our way to ND to deliver. We planned to be there Monday afternoon/evening. Well, we'd been driving for the past week with a tire that was out of round and getting gradually worse, on the trailer. As a result it was making the whole truck vibrate, an annoyance that was gradually intensifying, making it harder and harder to sleep. Going past the house presented the perfect opportunity to do something about it, especially since Malcolm already had spare tires there.

So Sunday he headed out to do the job and get it over with. And it all went smoothly and by mid afternoon he was nearly done. I was inside doing laundry and giving the girls their pedicures and hair cuts and baths. We had just finished the last bath and were celebrating by chillin' on the couch together when all of a sudden..."Ka-BOOM."

We all jumped up off the couch and I stood looking out the living room window. There was the truck backed into the shop, and all looked peaceful. But Malcolm wasn't anywhere to be seen. I stood there a few minutes waiting, thinking that it had sounded an awful lot like a tire blowing up or something and picturing Malcolm laying out there bleeding. I was just about to jog out there and make sure all was OK when he walked out of the shop and stood there looking at the trailer.

Over the years you learn your spouse's body language, and get to where you can read it from a great distance. He wasn't bleeding, but I could tell from his stance that he was very unhappy about something. So I went out to see.

Thankfully he'd actually gone to get a tool or something and had just returned when it happened. For no apparent reason, one of the air bags on the trailer had blown, just randomly exploded. I can't imagine how deaf he would be right now if he'd been under there with it when it went.

He spent the rest of the afternoon trying to track down a shop or parts store or anyone who was open (on a Sunday...on a holiday weekend) and who might have the part (which of course, just our luck, is an odd ball airbag that no one carries). He was calling people as far away as Billings and Rapid City (4 hours drive one way) and even calling the oil field service companies. That's how desperate we were. The few who were open didn't have the part. The one's who thought they could get it, couldn't get it till Wednesday because their suppliers were closed for the weekend. So much for a Monday afternoon delivery.

Long story long, because I've already passed the "keep it short" point, he finally got hold of a trailer sales and service company in Bismarck on Tuesday morning that had the part. He drove all the way to Bismarck (4 hours) and all the way back (4 more hours), fixed the trailer, and then we loaded up and headed back to Bismarck and beyond to Jamestown to make a 1:00am delivery. We pulled in and the guy at the scale house was flustered. Said he didn't know what to do with us because they hadn't been expecting a truck, there wasn't anywhere to put the potatoes and the plant was closing down for the day for cleaning.

This on a week when our broker was on vacation and had gone to great efforts to get our trips all planned out and lined up and it was all a great plan except that it was on time constraints and we were already a day behind. Thankfully they found room for the potatoes and let us dump them off. Then we drove 2 hours northwest, reloaded in the morning, drove to Twin Falls, ID and delivered Thursday morning, jumped to Collinston, UT and reloaded and drove all night to deliver north of Sacramento this morning. Whew! That was tight! But we got it all done, and are now reloaded with fertilizer with a long weekend stretching ahead of us. Stockton to southern Idaho is not a great weekend load, but it does get us lined up for another potato load on Monday.

"So", you might ask, "what did you do with the extra day at home?"

Memorial day was extremely windy, so we stayed inside and watched a movie, and lounged in our pajamas and were completely lazy. And then later in the afternoon, when I couldn't stand being inside any longer, we drove out to see the baby hawks that I posted about yesterday (see following post). While we were out there, we went to visit the horses too, because we had to travel through their pasture to get to the hawks. But because of the wind, they were acting crazy and pretending to be wild ponies. That didn't make visiting very easy, though I did get a little time with Sky because he always comes to love on me even if he is playing wild pony on the prairie. The rest of them kept their distance, but everyone cooperated with my camera! I was thrilled with the results! I'm curious....

...which of these three is your favorite? What titles can you come up with for them?

I have decided the time has come to perhaps start doing something with my photographs. Maybe enter some contests or something along those lines. Just for kicks.

This Week So Far

Wedding pictures are forth coming, but I thought I'd break up the "vacation" posts with a trucking update.


After delivering our load of wheat screenings in Shreveport, LA on Monday morning, we headed over to Rusk, TX to pick up a load of iron ore.

 As you can see it was a wet and dreary kind of day. Everything was soaked pretty good and the iron ore was full of water.

For the duration of the trip, whenever we stopped we'd return to the truck to find little rivers of water running out of the trailer and across the pavement.

For the duration of the trip....

It was a relatively short trip from the east side to the west side of Texas. It took almost 2 days. Here's why.

After loading, as we pulled forward, there was a loud bang, the kind you know isn't good to hear.

As Malcolm stopped and got out of the truck, I was sitting in the passenger seat hoping it was one of the other trucks or a piece of equipment there that had made the noise, all the time knowing that it was too close to be anyone but us. And of course my first assumption was that it was a tire.

It wasn't a tire, but we did have a problem.

Have you ever noticed when you drive past a truck, that some of the trailers will say "air ride" on them? Our truck and trailer ride on big black airbags. It's an air ride suspension system that acts as shock absorbers. There are 4 on the trailer and they look like this.

Normally, but one of them looked like this...

Problem!

Now, here's the thing. You think just one bag is blown, so you just drive to a shop and get one. But a leak or blown airbag means the air is dumped out of the whole system. Try riding in a vehicle, a large one, on a rough road with no shock absorbers and and make sure to hit every pot hole and bump in the road that you can find. Now multiply the beating you get by 10. That's probably about what it felt like in here for the next 130 miles! Pretty miserable.

We spent a lot of time on the phone, or rather Malcolm did. We must have called every truck repair service and shop between Rusk and Dallas and beyond and no one had the air bag we needed. Malcolm finally got in touch with a shop in Dallas that could get the air bag for us, but not till the next day. So we had to call the broker and post pone delivery. Driving very far in that condition is really hard on the trailer frame and other parts.

We spent the night in Van, TX and the next morning after giving Dallas traffic time to cool off, we drove into Irving on the west side and squeezed into the ridiculously small shop lot for the repair. Malcolm had told the guy it was for the trailer and he said no problem, but it was clearly a trucks only kind of place.  Regardless, my talented husband maneuvered his rig, backwards, into their parking lot and after an unnecessarily long period, they finally were able to remove the busted air bag...

 

...and replace it with a new one.

And then we were on our way. We arrived in Odessa, TX around 8:00 that night and delivered the iron ore to the cement plant there.

Before anyone from Texas fusses at me....there are two or three bloggers in Texas relatively near the Dallas area that have mentioned wanting to get together, and yes I know being stranded near Dallas for almost 24 hours would have provided the perfect opportunity. I did think of you. BUT it was raining and dreary, I had a bad head cold that (trust me) you didn't want me to share with you, and neither of us were in high spirits. So I figured we best remain hermits this time around. We'll try on a better day under better circumstances.

From Odessa, we made a 600 miles empty bounce to Sanders, AZ where we loaded another load of drilling sand. Last time we took the AZ sand to the Montana oil field. This time the sand went to Idaho to a trucking company that takes it across into Canada to their oil field, I assume.  We were about 160 miles away from our destination when Malcolm gave out and had to get some sleep. You see, while I had recovered from my cold, mostly, sometime between Monday afternoon and Tuesday night, Malcolm had caught it. It's hard to avoid sharing things when you live in a fiberglass box. Poor guy. The cold had come onto my gradually, but he acted like he ran into a brick wall at 75mph. Wednesday morning he told me his throat felt funny, and a couple hours later he was asking me to please run over him with the truck so he'd feel better.

Anyway, so he stopped and we slept on an interstate ramp's shoulder for a couple hours. When he woke up to finish the trip, the truck wouldn't start.

 The shoulder was sloped, but he hadn't thought the fuel would all drain over to the tank on the off side. But that's what it did. And then there was something plugged and something pressurized and so it wouldn't drain back. And so even when he managed to level us out some, the engine was still sucking air and unable to start. It was 26 degrees and we had no heat, we're both in some stage of illness, and hungry and it was just the perfect way to start the day!

Malcolm called a mobile truck repair service and they came out and pumped the fuel back into the empty tank. $230 and I don't think they even had to drive 20 miles round trip. We're in the wrong line of trucking!

Anyway, we arrived at our destination in Idaho, about 2 hours later than planned, but still arrived! We've delivered to this business a number of times, and the way it works is they run an auger under our truck and load whatever we're hauling onto one of their trucks. Doesn't take too much time as long as the auger works well.

During our brief absense, they've built a mountain. We were impressed!

I love this set up! We've only seen it a handeful of places, but it's wonderful! Basically we drive up on top, while an empty truck pulls in below....

then we open our hopper doors.....

 and....WHOOSH.....we're empty and the other truck is loaded! Five minutes tops! It's brilliant!

After that it was a sit and wait game, and kind of still is. Not a lot moving around up here at the moment load wise. There were a couple of options, but nothing definate. We're taking a load of wheat to Ogden, UT,  a little short 200 miles trip to fill time. From there we're looking at either a load going to North Dakota (and a weekend at home), or a bounce to Arizona for more sand. We hopefully will know within the next hour. Either way works for me. One means home time and the other means money. After this week, I'm kind of leaning towards the money.

I had a couple more questions shot my way about trucking.

Michaele wanted to know why Idaho needed Arizona sand. Guess I kind of answered that in this post.

The other question was from Nikki, who wanted to know how we have internet on the road. We have wireless internet through Verizon wireless. There is a small card that plugs into one of the USB ports on the laptop and pretty much as long as we have cell phone service, we can get internet signal too. It's been a life saver as far as our sanity. It's a major source of entertainment, but also we use it to check weather, road conditions, keep in touch with family and friends, and stay up to date with the news.

Since our current trip is so short, 200 miles and more than 12 hours to get it done, we're going to go shower and have a leisurly dinner in Idaho Falls. Here's to a better second half of the week!

Meeting Ava Grace

On Tuesday we had to leave sunny, warm Florida and head back to Tennessee to rescue our dogs and my parents. We were happy to discover that everyone had survived. All were intact and still sane. What a relief! Not to say that all weren't happy to see us! I'm know the girls were relieved that they hadn't been permanently abandoned and I'm sure my parents were glad we were back too to take command of the grand-dogs.

Wednesday morning, my sister drove down from Nashville with a little pink package for me to hold and cuddle. Ava Grace, at 4 weeks old, made her first of many future pilgrimages to Chattanooga to be with family.

She is a sweet little girl who is so good! She hardly ever cries. Even when she wakes up from a nap, she just sits there looking around, taking in her world, waiting for someone to come get her, which you know doesn't take long at all since we're all sitting around watching, just waiting for her eyes to crack open! In fact, for the day and a half that she was with us, she only had one crying episode, for about 10 minutes, because she was a little constipated and not feeling good.

Everyone took their turn holding Ava Grace and getting to know her. And while Uncle Malcolm had her, Ella just couldn't deny her curiosity any longer. She was pretty baffled by the little squirming thing in her man's lap. Up till this point, she'd been too chicken to investigate, though I'd caught her off and on throughout the visit watching Ava Grace from a distance.

Meagan and I took Ava Grace down to Grandma and Grandpa's house so she could meet her great grandparents for the first time. We had a nice long visit there. And then it was time for Mom to come home from work. We visited with her for a little while, and then we all packed up in the cars and headed to dinner, where Ava Grace had her first meal at Couch's BBQ.

She actually didn't have a meal, but she napped through her mom's meal. Actually she pretty much slept through the whole experience.

While Ava Grace slept, we all enjoyed the best BBQ in the world, and visited with my brother and his family. Bentlee got to share about her birthday trip to the American Girl Doll cafe and store in Atlanta, and Kensley stayed busy mooching potato chips from her Papaw, and entertaining us all. Both of my brother's girls are adorable and so much fun to be around.

And then Ava Grace woke up a little bit, and when her Grandmommy scooped her up, it became pretty obvious that her cousin, Kensley, had assumed Ava Grace was a baby doll. Kensley was pretty fascinated when the baby doll started moving around and making noises.

Pretty soon it was time to go back to Mom and Dad's and do some relaxing before bed time. But before we left, we had to get a picture to document Ava Grace's first trip to Couch's BBQ. It will be printed off and added to the "wall of fame" on the shelves behind Dad and Ken in the picture. That's where all the grandkid and family pictures are.

Thursday morning Meagan and Ava Grace headed back to Nashville, and that afternoon, Malcolm and the girls and I hit the road. Back to work! Oh joy!

We were kind of in the dumps about having to go. It was hard leaving Florida when everyone else was staying to play a few more days. And it was hard leaving Tennessee because we felt like we'd hardly gotten any time there. Plus we just didn't want to go back to work.  You know how it is.

But we'd had a load on our trailer all week long. We'd brought a load with us from Missouri to TN, and the plant in GA was waiting for us. We delivered our load Thursday night, and Friday we reloaded in Birmingham, AL. We stopped Saturday in Jackson, MS and spent the day with my aunt and uncle there, which was really nice! Seems like my aunt and I are always coming to Chattanooga for a visit at different times and for different holidays, so we always miss each other in passing. It was pretty special to get her for the whole day just to myself. And it was great to visit with my uncle too!

I had the sniffles all day long and assumed it was southern pollen. I've always had bad allergies down here. But then Sunday morning I woke up feeling pretty wiped out and icky. I had heard rumors (via Mom) that my sister and her family were sick, so I called Meagan. The minute I heard her voice, I knew I had whatever she had. Thankfully it seems to be a short lived crud bug and is kind of clearing up today. But yesterday was miserable. I was glad we only had 240 miles to travel. And I hope with all fingers crossed and wish upon a star that I didn't share it with my aunt and uncle....or Malcolm! Oh, if he gets it....honestly I'd rather by sick again than have Malcolm catch it!

We delivered our load in Shreveport, LA this morning and are now on our way to reload in east Texas. We'll have this load in west Texas by morning, and then we'll be reloading sand in Arizona and taking it to Idaho. And that will get us up to Wednesday and back out west!

I had a couple questions from bloggers after my last Trucking 101 post that I need to address.

Jake wanted to know what we do about eating. I know quite a few drivers eat meals out of their trucks, but with both of us in here, storage is limited. I haul too many books around and the girls have a big wardrobe! :) Poor Malcolm! 

But to be honest, most days our meals are the highlight of the day and kind of break of the monotony. As Malcolm likes to point out, we spend enough time in here without eating in here too. So we usually eat out. Most days, we just have 2 meals. If we're stuck with fast food, we try to eat Subway, assuming it's healthier or as healthy as we're going to get on the road. If we have time to go in and sit down for a real meal, we like to give our business to "mom and pop" places when we can. I think that comes from my family having that type restaurant, so I like to give my business to others like them to help support them. That, and it's just generally better food and more interesting. It's probably more costly to eat out instead of making sandwiches in the truck...well I know it's more expensive....but it's one of the things we splurge on because we enjoy it.

And Cedar View Paint Horses wanted to know what kind of engine was in our truck. This truck has a Cummins ISX 550 horsepower. The last truck had a CAT. Malcolm liked the CAT better...I think.

Trucking 101: Cleanliness and Necessities

A quick little Trucking 101 post to fill the gap while we're off the road.

Some things in life are necessities, and I am questioned about a couple of those things, in regards to my trucking life, probably more than any other aspect of trucking. Any guesses? I bet it's something you've wondered about, especially the ladies.

While Malcolm gets asked things like "what kind of fuel mileage do you get?" or "what kind of engine is in your truck?" the number one question that gets presented to me is....

"How do you....well you know.....what do you do about a bathroom?"

Well my answer is...I go when we stop, even if I don't need to. Take the opportunity when it's presented. And as to the when you need to, but there's no where to go....
All I have to say is necessity is the mother of invention, and sometimes I have to get creative.

Enough said on that.


The second question I get asked frequently is about showering. I can give you a few more details on that without you screaming TMI at me!

Almost every truck stop in the country has showers, unless they weren't originally truck stops and the diesel islands were added as an after thought when they realized there was a huge market they could cash in on and make a tidy profit. So that is, almost every truck stop has showers, but there are many fuel stops that don't, especially those in small rural towns.

The actual truck stops though have showers. Most of them have between 5-10, though we recently stopped at the Triple T truck stop in Tucson, AZ and discovered that they have more than 80! We were impressed, though let me say quality still gains more brownie points over quantity in my book. That's my rule in many, many aspects of life!

Most of the showers are uniform in size and quality. A sink, toilet, and stand up shower in a room about the size of a moderate walk-in closet is the norm. It's a tight fit sometimes, but usually I'm just glad to be getting a shower!
Hauling agricultural commodities like we do puts us in rural areas a lot of times, far off the beaten path and away from full facility truck stops. Quite often, much to my frustration, when we have time to shower, there are none available, and when we're going through an area where there's a truck stop every few miles, we're pushing to get somewhere. Very irritating! But we do the best we can.

Anyway, back to shower details. They are very small and uniform. But you hit the jack pot sometimes. For instance the Little America truck stops (we frequent the one in Little America, WY and Flagstaff, AZ) have two sinks, a nice size stand up shower, AND a jacuzzi tub in every shower room, of which there are about 20 perhaps! It's a favorite showering location for many!

But here's a glimpse into the typical truck stop shower. These pictures were taken at a Love's truck stop, a couple years ago. That's right, I've been planning this post that long, and am just not getting around to it.

Nothing fancy, but clean by all appearances. However, I always wear the shower shoes and try not to touch anything with bare skin other than my hands, going into a frenzied one legged hopping dance whenever I accidently drop a shoe or shed a sock too soon, leaving Malcolm rolling his eyes at me. He's not quite as germ-a-phobic as I am. And for the record, trucking has made me that way.

Maybe I go over board. Probaly so. But I've seen them "clean" the shower, which basically involved spraying the walls and floors (half heartedly I might add) with what I assume was a bleachy concoction. And I was unfortunate enough to over hear a conversation at a truck stop in Minot, ND between truck stop employees, this past fall. It went something like this:

Employee #1 (to co-worker): "We're out of clean showers. Will you go clean some?"

Employee #2 (who we will assume was new): "ok" (...leaves....and returns moments later and says ....(in a stage whisper to employee #1)) "how do I clean the showers?"

Employee #1 (with very little effort to keep their conversation quiet): "Just make sure there's no hair.

At which point I cringed and walked away, not looking forward to my shower that much anymore. I wish so badly that I could have forced those two to go, right at that moment, and shower in said "clean" showers! And I would have withheld the shower shoes, just to make a point!

Maybe the guys don't care as much. And granted, there are FAR more guys out here utilizing the truck stop showers than there are gals. But there are few home comforts out here on the road, and many's the day that a shower is the highlight and much looked forward to, and I'd wager even men like a clean shower.

I'd like to let myself pretend that more care goes into it than that. I know better though, and knew better before these two experiences. It's a truck stop, and people are lazy. Goes without saying they aren't going to meet the standards of my bathroom at home, which I'll admit is FAR from clean, but it's MY dirt! Makes a big difference! You know what I mean?

Anyway, almost all the truck stops "give" truckers a "free" shower with a fuel purchase of at least 50 gallons. Some want you to buy 75-100 gallons first, but most are 50. And usually we have a week to use the shower credit. So if we're in a hurry and don't have time right then, we can use it later on if we pass back by within the week.

And that, my friends, is my spill about a few necessities while living on the road. Now you know and don't have to wonder anymore.

Trucking 101: Cleaning Out

Good morning from California! Obviously we didn't go load another load of drilling sand! At least, not yet. We are in Petaluma, CA. Petaluma is on US 101 almost on the coast and just north of San Francisco. To get here, we took highway 37 around the north edge of San Pablo Bay.

I haven't done a Trucking 101 post in a while, and so today I thought I'd share with you about the challenges of getting the inside of our trailer cleaned! We haul all sorts of products in this trailer. Often people ask what sort of things we haul, and my answer has become, "anything that can be dumped in the top, and then sifted out the bottom."

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you've probably noticed we haul quite a variety of products. For this trip, we hauled wheat mids, or wheat screenings. Basically this is what is produced from cleaning the wheat. Its pretty much dirt, chaff, and bits of broken wheat berries. It looks and feels a lot like sawdust.

Wheat mids are used for feed. We deliver this stuff most often to dairys. This load came to a mill that I believe is making dairy feed. And in order to load this product, we were required to wash the trailer out.

We don't always have to wash the trailer. For instance, we hauled the load of sunflower seed to Fargo, ND, and then we loaded another load of sunflower seed south of Fargo and took that to Colorado. Since it was the same product, we didnt' need to wash. Malcolm just climbed into the trailer and swept out any stray sunflower seeds left in there from Fargo. If we hauled fertilizer, and then we go load pearlite, we can just sweep out really good.

But say we haul a load of crushed glass, like we did last December, and then need to go pick up a load of sunflower seed...

...or perhaps we have a load of poultry meal and then need to load organic apples...

...then for obvious reasons we need to get the trailer washed out.

Sounds simple enough, but it can actually be quite a challenge. There are a number of truck wash chains out there. Its not really that hard to find a truck wash.

not my picture

But a number of the truck washes out there won't wash out a hopper trailer! They site liability issues as the reason, because to wash out a hopper trailer, you have to climb up on top and into the trailer. Its understandable, but no less frustrating.

We have pinpointed as many truck washes that we can find that will still wash out hopper trailers and we try to frequent them for all our washing needs, to encourage them to continue servicing hoppers. They are becoming fewer and fewer.

We found one near Denver that will wash us, and so that's where we went to get washed out for this load.

Some truck washes use hoses with high water pressure to wash us out, kind of like power washing. In fact that's what most seem to use. But we've run across a few, one in particular in Sacramento, that charged us $80 to wash out the trailer, and then proceeded to get up their with their garden hose and take about 5 minutes to spray us out. I highly doubt that the trailer was actually clean after that.
Most washouts cost us anywhere from $25 and up. They tend to be on the lower end of the scale, but you do get those that take advantage of the situation. They know we can't argue The washout in Denver yesterday cost us $63.

We were told recently that the one and only truck wash in Spokane that will washout a hopper is going to close its doors next month. They said they just aren't doing enough business to warrant staying open. This creates a big problem for us. We frequently haul birdseed to Spokane and we almost always have to get washed out in order to reload our usual loads from that area! We're running into this situation more and more.

Another problem we encounter frequently involves our deliveries to rural areas. Say we take a load of fertilizer to the local co-op, and then we're going to load barley 30 miles east of there. There are two towns. One has a bar and a post office, the other has more to offer but its really only a one intersection type of town. Do you think they have a truck wash? Right!

And so the solution is...

A surprising number of self serve car washes have a spot for trucks. Well most of them are intended for campers or such, but we happen to fit into them. And a number of them do actually indicate that trucks can use them. You should see some of the looks we get though, when we have to get creative!

Malcolm does the washing, while I stand by and pop in the quarters every time the machine starts beeping for more money.

Its actually a lot cheaper doing it this way. We usually can get through it on about $15 or so. We keep an empty Gatorade bottle in the truck and dump all our quarters in it. And since we've run into car washes that didn't have change dispensers, we've learned to stock up on quarters when we do find a change machine.

It's a wet slippery job. He has fallen and hurt himself before, and he always comes out mostly drenched, but the trailer is always 10 times cleaner than it ever gets at the truck washes!

We've also found some livestock washouts that we can use, and on occasion the place where we deliver will have a spot where they wash out their equipment and they will sometimes allow us to use their facilities. But usually we just find a car wash somewhere.

We don't have to washout between every load, but when we do need to, it can be quite a challenge to get the job done.

Jake asked how often we have to change the oil in our truck. We try to change the oil every 20,000 miles. It generally costs about $230 each time. We also get the truck and trailer greased every 10,000 miles. In fact, we had that done on 9/3 and its time to do it again. We're stopping this afternoon to have that taken care of. It costs about $40 each time. Malcolm said he could do it himself, but he most times he just doesn't feel like crawling under the truck to do it. I feel like its worth $40 for him to be able to supervise someone else do it, while he takes a break.

We are unloaded now and heading to Stockton to reload. We're getting fertilizer and taking it to Idaho. Since its just fertilizer, a good sweet out is sufficient, so we won't have to go to the livestock sale barn down here and wash out. Sweeping out still involves climbing into and around inside the trailer. Its not an easy job. But at least Malcolm won't have to wear soggy clothes this morning.