Racing the Storm in Arizona

We had a load to Indiana which we delivered last Tuesday. It's been a while since we had a load on that side of the country, unless we were trying to get home to Tennessee.

After delivering we had a wait till the next load came in, but it didn't take too long. Just long enough to give us time to eat and take a nap, which was appreciated after driving all night.

Wednesday morning found us even closer to home, as we delivered in Guntersville, AL, about 90 miles from the house. It was hard to turn west instead of east, but it was too early to go home for Christmas break. So we headed to Flagstaff, AZ with a load of chicken meal for a pet food place.

Three things of concern with that load. The delivery appointment wasn't till Friday evening, which would leave us sitting in Flagstaff for the weekend with no load. Also, we'd be arriving on Thursday afternoon, and sitting for a day with nothing to do till we could deliver.
And finally, Flagstaff was supposed to be getting a snowstorm Thursday night.

Normally that particular place is difficult to get an appointment changed, but luckily this time they worked with our broker and allowed us to deliver on Thursday at noon, which meant some hard driving to get there. We didn't exactly get good fuel mileage, but we did make it on time. And we dumped that stuff out and high tailed it north to get ahead of the storm.

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous going north towards Utah. Highway 89 scoots just east of the Grand Canyon, and you get to enjoy a taste of what it might be like if you were to go on over to the park, which I will do one day! It was late afternoon, with an amazingly blue sky, the perfect light for photography, and the way it was hitting the red rock cliffs....well, it was just perfect!

We've been on this road before, almost always going south, and almost always in the dark. So it was a real pleasure to drive through here in the daylight and see what all we've been missing.
We'd been missing out on a lot!

I've known for some time that I want to come back to this area as a tourist one day. I think that's going to have to happen pretty soon.

It was almost all straight roads, until we came to a sharp turn and then started climbing into the sky.

And we didn't feel like we'd climbed that far, but a look back at the valley floor make it clear we'd come up quite a ways.

Once we crossed the hill the land leveled out and we were on a plain of sorts. There was hardly any indication that there had ever been any canyon walls or stone spires.

We drove till dark and a little after, crossing over into Utah. We were tired. It'd been a long hard drive to get to Flagstaff in time, and since it was 53 degrees and we felt like we'd gotten far enough north that we shouldn't have problems with the snow coming in, we parked and went to bed.

When woke up at 6:00 the next morning, we discovered that we'd made a mistake. We hadn't gone quite far enough north. There was about 2 inches of snow on the road, which normally wouldn't be that big a deal, but we had some hilly country to go through, and, an even bigger issue, our trailer was empty. That's about like pulling around a big sled that has a mind of it's own. The load is what helps give us traction on slick roads and without it, things can get interesting. We were spinning tires and sliding around a bit, but we made it over the mountain and onto I-15 where we found nearly dry roads for the remainder of the trip.
We weren't completely problem free at that point. We'd picked up about 1000 pounds of snow and ice that was stuck all to the trailer and the frame of the truck. Malcolm and I got out and beat on it with a hammer and scraped with a hoe, trying to dump the weight off. We were on our way to load and carrying around 1000 pounds of snow meant we'd get loaded shy a 1000 pounds of product and get paid less. Fortunately it was just hovering at freezing and so a lot of our snow fell off be the time we got to the shipper.

We're leaving the shipper in Utah now and will be delivering in North Carolina in a few days and then going home for the holidays. By the time you read this, I'll be a home visiting family and playing with the horses and sitting in my favorite chair in front of our fire. I decided to do a few posts in advance and schedule them to post next week, since I don't have internet at home.

So this will probably be the last you hear from me till we go back to work after the turn of the New Year. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas surrounded by your closest loved ones and dear friends.

In case I don't manage to get back on here:
Merry Christmas! And may God bless you all in the year to come!

A Few Favorites



sunset in Malta, MT on June 29



We've covered too much ground to catch you up on where we've been and what we've been doing for the past few weeks, at least in any great detail. So I thought I'd just share some of my favorite pictures from that time period and then we'll all be up to speed.

descending out of the Bull Mountains south of Roundup, MT. Billings is down there on the horizon somewhere.

We've driven through a number of the states out here, our first two trips going through Montana. From there we headed to California and then Utah. We've also been to Arkansas and Missouri,  passing through Nebraska on July 4th. They were combining grain there, about two weeks earlier than usual according to a friend who lives there, because it's so dry.

Storm clouds were gathering over Sidney, NE as we entered the western side of the state on I-80.

Those clouds didn't really produce anything, but later in the evening, over east of North Platte I drove through a really nasty storm with strobe light effect lightning and literally horizontal rain. It was really intense there for a few moments.

After delivering in Arkansas and reloading in Missouri, we headed to Washington. Wyoming was the picturesque state on that tour. It was a good day to be in Wyoming with a camera!

the hills between Cheyenne and Laramie

Elk Mountain hiding it's tip in the clouds

a storm moving in near Rock Springs

in northwestern Wyoming near the ID state line on US30

From Washington we went to Oregon and loaded corn which went to California. I always enjoy the drive down US97 through Oregon, passing along the eastern edge of the Cascade Mountains.

north of Madras, OR

 And then back up to Utah, crossing the Salt Flats at sunrise. After two weeks of cloudy air, the haze was starting to clear, which was a big help for pictures.

After delivering in Utah, we loaded wheat in Idaho and went to Montana where we loaded barley. And that brings you up to date. The barley load scenery was shared in my last post, Crossing the Midwest.

Today we're in Nevada about to load gypsum. Then we'll head to Idaho. Don't know where we're headed after that, but glad we're moving along at a nice pace, and hope the loads keep rolling in like this.

Up In Smoke

The last fond farewell. I was so happy to see it go! This was Tuesday, June 26, early in the morning. The tail end of our home time. We left for Billings at the crack of dawn...

and made fast tracks for town. It's probably in poor taste to say this, considering all the fires of late, but once I'd gotten all our stuff out of the truck, I kept hoping for a random electrical fire or maybe a well aimed bolt of lightening. I'd love for that truck to go up in smoke and be done with it!

Alas, no such luck. So it's sitting on the lot in Billings where Kenworth is trying to sell it for us on consignment. Fingers crossed that someone falls in love with it.

After dropping off the truck at the dealer, we ran around town finishing up some errands, and then hit the road home. We weren't even out of Billings before I noticed some ominous looking storm clouds to the north.

 Within minutes my heart dropped into my feet as I realized these were not storm clouds! It was smoke! What we were viewing from the interstate was the smoke from what would become known as the Dahl fire. Started by lightening on Monday night, the fire had quickly taken off in Montana's dryness, and was burning strong through the Bull Mountains south of Roundup. I would follow the progress of this fire for the next few days because we had acquaintances in that area, and I was worried for them.

Further down the highway, nearing Rosebud, another eerie column appeared to the south.

The smoke in this one is harder to see, and that actually is a storm cloud behind it. It wasn't as dramatic as the smoke clouds at Roundup, but it was still depressing to see. I decided later on that we must have been looking at smoke from a fire down near Lame Deer. In the days to come, this one would turn into one of the state's most devastating wild fires in history. Started the night of Monday, June 25, by lightening, the Ash Creek fire was just recently, finally contained. It burned a devastating 249,000 acres of southeastern Montana land. About 109,000 acres of that were privately owned ranch lands. Needless to say, there are a lot of people hurting from that fire. If you are familiar with "Feral Woman" and her blog, then you have seen her pictures and heard her story. If not, you can visit it with this link. She and her husband saved their home by the skin of their teeth, and from the sounds of it, were in great danger themselves.

Our friends in Roundup were not so lucky. After returning to work a few days later, our second load took us south out of Roundup down towards Billings. The road had just reopened, having been closed when the fire started crossing it a few days prior.

The fire was still burning, but had moved on east of the highway. The only evidence at first was the smoke hanging in the air, and then we began to see scorched places and burned grass. Some structures had clearly had a close call.

And others were not so lucky. Initially, when we had heard the fire was crossing US87, I'd had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, worried for a trucker that we used to haul cattle with. As we neared his place, our fears were confirmed.

Those whitish spots on the ground, seen through the haze of smoke, used to be a home and barns. Pretty much everything was burned to the ground. My heart is broken for him and his wife. I was so worried that he had been out on the road and that she had had to deal with the emergency on her own, but through a conversation with another acquaintance, we learned that in fact he had been home before the fire came and they were even able to remove their animals from the property. The cattle, horses, goats and llamas were all safe and accounted for. All that had been lost were a few geese and chickens. Such a relief to hear, though a small blessing in such a horrible experience.

During the last weeks of June and beginning of July it seemed like the west was going up in smoke! Only on the road for a week, it seemed like each new day exposed another fire to our view through the windshield.
We watched this smoke rising into the sky as we loaded in Nephi, UT on July 3.

And later that afternoon as we approached the outskirts of the Salt Lake City region, we couldn't help but notice these clouds. We'd just driven south through this area a few hours earlier and hadn't seen a thing. It was hard to believe that a fire had started and grown so much space in that short of a time, but it seems to have been the case.

The way smoke drifts on wind currents, you want to let yourself believe the fires aren't as big as they at first appear. But the closer you get, the harder it is to convince yourself.

And if you get close enough, you just can't stay in your imaginary safe world any more.

We left the house on a Thursday and spent 7 days running through at least 7 states, all of which had scenery hidden behind a cloud of smoky haze. Even on that last day at home, the smoke was so thick in the air we couldn't see many of the hills that surround us. And home was at least 100 miles as the crow flies from the closest fire, at least as far as I'm aware of.

The second week out things have remained extremely hot and dry, but the air had been a lot clearer. I'm hoping that means a lot of the fires have been subdued.

In my brief time living and driving in the west, I've learned that summer time and fires go hand in hand. But this year seems so extreme. I read in a news report last week that in an average year, 80% of fires in Montana are started by lightening. But this year, of the 300 fires so far, 85% of them have been human-caused. How can people be so careless when it is so obviously and horribly dry? Most of southeast Montana is just a tinder box waiting for the right spark. In fact, having finally gotten back to work and driven around these western states, I can tell you nearly every acre out in these western states is just waiting for the right conditions to go up in smoke! Let's pray that doesn't happen!

northwest of Forsyth, MT on July 12

Other than the fires, and a broken air conditioner (that's thankfully fixed now) and a few bumps and bruises as I adjust to maneuvering around the new truck, things are going great! We have been back to work for two weeks now. I have lots of pictures to share, but made the mistake of getting involved in a couple of really good books. As a result, everything else has been neglected, including my sleep. But I do want to catch you up to date. We have a couple days lay over at home this weekend because Minnesota doesn't want their barley till Monday, so maybe I can get some posts written during that time. For now, Paris is in the living room crying because she wants me to come sit on the couch with her. I think I might just take her up on her request. She thinks we ought to cuddle on the couch and start the next book in that series we're reading. She loves our reading time. I think she has a good idea!

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!

Between a Rock and About a Million Other Rocks

Remember a few posts back I told you we were driving through some beautiful scenery in Utah, but at night so that I couldn't share it with you. In fact I couldn't see it myself because it was pitch black. I only knew what was out there because we'd been down that road before.

We drove it twice actually in the past month, both times in the middle of the night. But your in luck! Because we drove it again on Saturday morning, and it was a glorious day!

 We have not driven the entirety of US 191, only bits and pieces of it here and there. I know it starts in Arizona and ends when you hit the top of Montana, or vice versa, which ever direction you want to go. I know it goes through Yellowstone National Park and some scenic areas in Arizona. And I have a feeling that it's probably one of the most scenic drives in the country, passing within a few miles of a number of national parks and within the boundaries of numerous national forests. Maybe one day we'll drive the entire length of it just for fun. But not yet. For now we'll keep doing bits and pieces. This past weekend we drove the bit that travels southeastern Utah. Dropping off I-70 just east of Green River, the first 70 miles of US191 squeeze between the red rock walls, and the boundary lines, of Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park.

You know how hard a time I have limiting picture posting. Well, the pictures are half the purpose of the blog so I guess I'm excused. I got it cut down to a dozen this time. It was hard.

 There are plenty of natural wonders to gape at, along with your standard tourist traps.

And that's just what you see from the highway. We weren't even inside the park boundaries! Even Malcolm, the non-scenery admirer (he says but I know different), couldn't refrain from pointing things out and agreeing that we should come back one day. He wants to drive down and bring the jeep with us. I'm all for it, except I think we need to make a train and go ahead and haul a horse trailer behind the jeep, and maybe a little camper too. Why not? We're used to having a lot of length behind us.

We turned east at Monticello, UT and crossed into Colorado. Later in the afternoon we passed the exit for Mesa Verde, another place I'm determined to see. We talked about making a big loop, coming down through Yellowstone, then traveling south down US191 through Wyoming and into Utah and seeing the Canyonlands and Arches. Then looping over to see Mesa Vere and then up through the Royal Gorge in the Rockies of Colorado, and then north to home from there. We'll see. I hope it happens, but only time will tell. For now I have to settle for seeing all these things out my window as we pass by. I'm busy being grateful for that. I may not get to stop and explore, but I'm still seeing so much more them many people will ever get the chance to see.

We reached Texas yesterday afternoon. It was 82 degrees and sunny. Amazing! This morning it's 64 and raining. Still pretty amazing! (the rain, not the temp.) It's been such a dry winter! This time of year it feels so weird to come down here and see green grass and flowers and need the air conditioning, and then look at the weather forecast and see white blobs all over our home area. It's hard to explain how the lack of consistency feels sometimes. We're constantly changing climates.

We just delivered our load of safflower seed from Utah and now we're on our way to take a little load of some kind of mineral to north Texas. Don't know what happens from there, but we're supposed to be home this weekend for a few days to feed cattle for Malcolm's parents. It's a great week and I'm in a great mood. Knowing we have home time and horse time to look forward to has a tendency to make me a little giddy.