I'll Take the Peas, Please.

Of all the products we haul, peas are probably one of my favorites. I have a brief list of reasons, but I won't go into all of them. It would probably bore you. I will, however, share a few.

For starters, peas unload easily and leave the trailer clean, where as many loads Malcolm has to beat on the trailer to get the stuff to come out and then climb in and sweep it when its empty.

Another reason, probably the most important on my list, is that 90% or our pea loads come out of Clarkston, WA, and from that location they either go to Illinois or South Carolina. On either route, we drive through Montana, often with time to stop at home, and on the South Carolina run we often stop at my parents in Tennessee for a brief visit. That's my number one reason for liking the peas.

Another reason, less important but just as enjoyable, is that it doesn't matter what route you take to get to Clarkston, WA, its going to be a beautiful drive.

We most frequently take US195 south out of the Spokane area. Its about 100 mile drive to Clarkston from Spokane.

Eastern Washington is not as most would picture. I think the average person imagines what they've heard of the Seattle area as being the norm for the state. In contrary, the vast majority of the state is rolling grasslands mostly void of trees. It gets more dramatic over on the eastern side of the state as you near the mountains. I think its lovely.

This is grain country. Every square inch of every acre is planted in wheat, barley, or some other grain. All but the steepest hill sides are cultivated, and I admire the gutsy farmers who climb into their giant machines to plow, plant and harvest these hills!

The farms are picturesque, nestled into the hollows between hills...

...and the small scattering of towns are dominated by generations of grain elevators and bins.

I could find hours of entertainment studying the designs and patterns of wheel marks in the grain fields.

The end of the road brings us into Lewiston, ID and Clarkston, WA, two towns that sit so close to one another, they practically merge.

I've never stopped at the scenic overlook before, but since I was driving this time, I took the liberty. It pays to stop at these places. In addition to getting breath taking views, you learn new and interesting things. Such as....Lewiston was the territorial capital of Idaho Territory which included Montana and Wyoming, back before Montana became its own territory and Wyoming was added to the Dakota Territory. I found that interesting.

Once we were loaded with peas, we headed east across these hills, along the Clearwater River, and through the mountains of Idaho and Montana. Another gorgeous drive that I posted about last summer. (see the above link) 

This was all last Monday! I've been holding onto these pictures and had meant to post earlier, but things just kept getting in the way, mainly driving round the clock, and a good book. That load of peas went to Illinois, where we reloaded with hominy going to Texas, and then grabbed a load of feather meal, taking it to California over a very long and boring weekend. But I won't get into those dull details after looking at beautiful scenery in the above pictures. Dull details and beautiful scenery don't compliment each other.

We delivered this morning, and are now on our way to load sunflower seed near Sacramento. We will be taking it to Fargo, ND. What? Not enough sunflowers in North Dakota you say? Yeah, that's what I thought too. There are many things about this world that I don't understand.

There were a number of comments posted about the last picture of my Sunday Stills post yesterday. Many were concerned and wanted to know what happened, if the pick up finally fell off the truck. After Malcolm couldn't get the driver to answer on the CB, he drove up next to him and shook the CB mic at him so he would turn his on and we could warn him. The driver ignored us. This rubbed Malcolm the wrong way, and since the guy was about to endanger lives, AND was making truckers look bad, Malcolm called the California Highway Patrol and alerted them. They pulled the driver over about 30 miles later. I imagine he got a hefty fine for not securing his load, and maybe more.

I found it particularly ironic that Sunday was the first day of the CVSA's Operation Safe Driver, even though the focus of that campaign has nothing to do with the above described offense. All the same, it amused me. For more information on Operation Safe Driver, you can visit this link.  It might be of interest to you, as they are not just watching trucks, but also how YOU drive around trucks.

Sunday Stills: Cars

This weeks challenge was Cars. Simple enough...

This morning on CA-99 near Bakersfield. You'll never see fewer cars than this on this stretch of road. Normally, its very busy, but I guess everyone was sleeping in.

Cars can be rolling down the road without physically touching the pavement. This is one type of trucking I wouldn't want to be involved in. I'd be too afraid of ruining a whole load of brand new vehicles. Guess you'd have to have some amazing liability insurance!

A different kind of car, rolling across the grasslands near Belle Fourche, SD.

That's it for me this week.

or not....I'm adding one! Another Car picture, only somethings not quite right here. Can you see it?

Just passed this guy on CA-99. The cars were trying to get his attention and Malcolm even gave him a holler on the CB. No luck. The driver of this truck is currently in front of us about to loose one of his cars. The chains are dragging the pavement and with each bounce in the road the pickup shifts more the left. And the driver is ignoring everyone. Hope no one is behind him when it goes.  We're exiting in 2 miles so it won't be us!

Sunday Stills: Billboards

I'm getting my Sunday Still's post up late today. We've been home since Friday night and are just now leaving the house.

I pass many many many billboards during a day at work, and believe me...they, along with power lines, are my arch enemy. They seem to work against me in my every attempt to grab a photograph of something I want to share with others.

I was trying to think of a billboard that would be interesting to share along the routes we were traveling last week. And then on our way back to Montana from Fargo, I remembered a certain location near Dickinson that has some interesting signs.

Maybe you won't consider it a billboard, but I think it could be a member of the category, by a stretch. It is advertising something after all.

And since I showed you the billboard, I'll go ahead and show you what its advertising, on down the road. You might say this is one of western North Dakota's tourist attractions. Its marks the exit for the highway that is known as the "Enchanted Highway."

I've never actually been down the road, but from what I can gather, there are a lot of metal sculptures along the road...I'm guessing.

So...that's that! We're just pulling out of Billings and have to be in Spokane by 8:00 tomorrow morning. (its currently 8:00pm) Plenty of time really, but we've been up since 7:00 this morning and so I can already feel my energy fizzling. But the extra hours at home were worth it, I think.

Quilting

Along with reading, I have other hobbies, one of which is quilting. I'm not too good at it, but I'm learning. My biggest frustration is that I'm not home to do it much. So projects are slow in getting completed.

This is my latest, one I started last Christmas.
I finished it, finally, the last time we were home for a couple days.

The problem with a project lasting that long is that I was sick of it and had to force myself to sit down and finish it.

But now that it's done I'm happy I finally got it stitched up. Now to get it off to the quilters. I think part of the problem with my motivation to finish it was that my original intent for it was changed, and I didn't have a clue what I was going to do with it. But now I have a little idea niggling at the back of my mind.

Anyway, there you go...another tidbit about me. Another project complete.

And now....I'll be hitting the quilting stores and websites. I've refrained from buying any more projects till I finished the heart quilt. It was hard, but the shopping frenzy is going to be sweet!

There's Nothing Better...

...than a good book on a lousy day.

Well that's an exaggeration of course, but I do love to read and I love it when I discover really good books by accident, the ones that become members of my "treasures" bookshelf.

As many of you know by now, I spend a significant amount of my time reading. I do, and always have, loved to read. And as much as I get disgruntled over being a truck driver sometimes, I have to readily admit that there are few professions that would allow me to get paid for lounging in bed reading for hours on end. Trucking, at least, has that going for it!

I love to read, and after Malcolm bought me an iPod and membership to audible.com for my birthday a couple years ago, I have learned to love to listen to audible books as well. I'm able to listen to books while I drive, and its amazing what a difference it can make sometimes on a long dull night of driving. These days I've usually go 2-3 books going at the same time. I love to read...did I mention that?

Spirits are higher in the truck this week, thank goodness! Lots of contributing factors, but one of them has to have been that I re-read a book that I love. I'd like to share it with you!

I picked this up off the bookshelf at the store over a year ago. I liked the cover and that's why I bought it. I love it when I take a chance on a random, unknown book and it turns out to be a wonderful experience.

I really enjoyed this story so much! I have a few ways of judging a book and deciding if its goes on my "favorites" list. One of those methods is to read it twice. If I like it just as much the second time around, if it keeps my attention and gives me just as much enjoyment, it hits the favorites list for sure. This one was already on the list. And then last week I saw it on the library's audio book list, downloaded it, and Oh....it was such a pleasure to listen to! Its now in the top membership of my "favorites" list.

Even if your not a "horsey" person, I still say this is a read worth picking up. I loved the author's writing style. I got attached to the characters, and I enjoyed the multiple stories within the main story. The horses are not the main characters, but its more about their owners and a young woman who breaks horses. Its about relationships and growth. Its a story, but there are deep thoughts about life between the lines. And I love that you can read it for just a story and ignore the deeper thoughts, or you can really think about it if you want. Its just a great read and I also saw the potential for some wonderful book group discussions...if I had a book group to discus it with!

 

I'd not heard of Molly Gloss before, but after my initial introduction to her writing I dug around a little and found another of her books, The Jump Off Creek. Loved it as well. Wildlife, another of her titles, I had a little more trouble getting into and in fact didn't finish, but that could have easily been due to the onset of my sour mood, as I was trying to read it just a couple weeks ago. I'll try again later.

Regardless....The Hearts of Horses is a great book. I highly recommend it. And go ahead and get The Jump Off Creek too. Both books are set in the early 1900's in rural Oregon. Wonderful stories, wonderful writing style. I like this author and her work!

PS: Thank you all again for the encouragment and support. And for those who mentioned that home time by might be the cure for our blues...bless you!!! I don't know what magic you worked, but we're less than 100 miles from home. We have to wait to deliver in Fargo till Friday, so we're stopping at the house till tomorrow sometime. From Fargo, we're heading to Spokane, but can't deliver till Monday so we're stopping at the house for a day and a half on Saturday. And from Spokane we're headed to Illinois but can't deliver till Thursday so we'll be home again on Tuesday for a day and night. The moody blues are gone. My spirits are soaring!

Sunday Stills: Green and Red

Wasn't feeling motivated lately and so Sunday Stills fell to the wayside. However, last night driving across the Oregon mountains on our way to Woodland, WA I had a bit of inspiration. So here is my contribution to this weeks Sunday Stills challenge which was to photograph the colors red and green within the same picture.

The dash lights in our truck. Notice the speedometer and take heart. I wasn't driving when I took the photo. Even though I was pretty excited about the challenge and eager to try it out. I have had little luck getting night shots with lights in them so I knew I had to wait till the truck was stopped before trying for it. It was hard to be patient, but its best that way. Might have given some of you a heart attack if the speedometer said something like 65mph!  (and since I was in Oregon that would have also indicated that I was speeding...which I never do!  ;)  

Feeling better today, a little more upbeat. Thank you all for the encouragement yesterday. I think that helped me quite a bit! Part of my problem was feeling a bit lonely and your words of friendship and encouragement boosted my spirits. I love my blogging friends! Wish we could all get together and meet in person. But I'm working on that, one blogger at a time!

To see more Sunday Stills contributions for this weeks challenge visit this link.

Looking for my Smile

The mood in the truck is still low. I've spent the last three weeks looking for my smile but still can't seem to quite find it. I'm hoping it will show up soon.

We've been across the country and back, stopping at the house for two days in between. There was a glimmer of my smile that showed its face while we were at home, but then it hid itself again after we left.

We took a load of peas to South Carlina and then turned around and high tailed it back west. We're in California now getting ready to load poultry meal and head to Washington.

Can't really explain why I'm feeling so low. Just one of those things. But I haven't got any desire to blog, or do much of anything but read my book when I'm not driving. So, sorry to say, you might not be hearing much from me for a bit longer. I just can't force myself to blog when I don't have anything interesting to share.

Today I'm feeling a tad bit higher than my usual low, and I did have a couple of pictures of some things that made me smile a little bit so I decided to share them before my blogging friends decide I've dropped off the face of the blogging world.

It was, oddly enough, storming yesterday as we crossed the desert in California between Barstow and Mojave. We don't usually see rain in that part of California, especially this time of year! It was a splotchy storm, with hard rain and wind between patches of clear sky and bright evening sunshine. Which is the perfect combination for this...

And then as we entered the mountains that cross over into Bakersfield, it cleared just enough to provide an impressive desert sunset.



This morning its warmer than its been in this part of California for a while, at least when we were here. It was 73 when we got up at 6:00am! Ick! We slept with the truck turned off last night. We had the fans going, but it was still stuffy. I was tired enough to sleep anyway though.

Where would I be without my girls? What is it about our dogs? How do they know when we need a hug the most? Two of my girls joined me this morning to wait for their man to return to the truck. And instead of jostling for space and who could sit closest to the lady like normal, they peacefully shared the space and Ella leaned into me like she does. Its just like a hug.

Princess Paris was in the back. She slept in this morning. She had a big day yesterday with it being her 4th birthday, and so she needed the extra rest today.