Visit with Scott

So, we have had another busy week. This one was better than the last emotionally and just more interesting places to see, I guess.

We had a load picking up Sunday morning at 10am at the FedEx airport in Memphis, TN. We drove all night to get there from Springfield, MO. Well, Pops did. We got there around 9:30 and it wasn’t long before another Fedex Custom Critical pulled in right behind us. At around 10:30 we were told that our plane hadn’t yet arrived so we needed to wait.

It was about 2:30 in the afternoon when they finally escorted us into the airport and back to where our freight was finally off loaded from the plane. I was impressed with the size and amount of workers and planes in that airport. There were hundreds of Fedex jets!

We parked our truck and the other truck parked alongside of us. We were told to go into the office building and wait. After about 20 minutes someone came and got Pops and the man of the other truck to go help load our trucks. We were hauling 14 pallets of something very heavy, going to Indiana and the other truck had 5 pallets going to Michigan. Of course to make matters worse, the airport had no loading docks so everything had to be moved and loaded with a forklift.

The other truck was loaded first and ready in about ½ hour. Our truck took a lot longer because of the 14 pallets and they had to be doubled stacked and placed just right to get them all in. We were finally loaded and ready to pull out by 4:30 in the afternoon. What a long, long day.

But we really enjoyed meeting up with Rholand and Trudi the owners of the other truck. Rholand stuck around clear until our truck was loaded too. He was a great help. They are very nice people and gave us good pointers if we ever decide to buy a truck of our own. I hope we get to meet up with them again somewhere down the line.

So I got us started and drove all I could before getting too sleepy to go any further. When I stopped to take the dogs out and go to the restroom myself, Pops informed me that we had a mess. It seems that one of the pepsi cans that we were storing on the top shelf in our kitchen somehow sprung a leak. There was pepsi syrup everywhere! And I do mean everywhere. Wow, what a mess. But I was patient and cleaned it all up even though I was very tired and could’ve gotten really grouchy.

Then Pops took over while I hit the bunk. When I woke up we were already unloaded but I heard someone pound on the door and tell Pops that 5 of those pallets didn’t belong to this address. Oh, No! Well, we figured the other truck must have the 5 that needed to come here. So Pops called Fedex and they stopped the other truck before it made its delivery and routed them to Indiana and off we went to Michigan to take our 5 where the other truck was heading. What a balled up mess! But 3 hours later we had everything where it needed to be and everyone was happy.

We actually got a load offer right away too. We were heading back to Springfield, Mo. But after driving 25 miles we realized that Fedex had thought that we were still leaving from Indiana and not Michigan to make this pick up and once we all realized it, we knew that we couldn’t be there to pick up on time, so the load was taken from us. Well, easy come, easy go.

We did get another load offer though picking up in Chicago and going to Duluth, MN. So we accepted and away we went.

It was a load that was being transferred to our truck by another truck and then in Duluth we were transferring to another truck that would take the load into Canada.

The first truck was not a Fedex truck which meant that it was up to me to get all the Canada clearances and paperwork started for the delivery truck to be able to cross the border without delay. So we made our calls and did what we had to do, except the fax number was wrong and that tied us up for a little longer. Nothing can ever go without some kind of a little glitch, it seems.

But finally we got going. Pops was driving and it was about 5:30am so I finally went to bed. I woke up around 12:30 and Pops was telling me how beautiful upstate Wisconsin was. He was so excited with the scenery and the wildlife. I started to drive not too long after that and realized that he was right. It was very nice scenery. I never saw so many pine trees in all my life, big ones, small ones, straight ones, bent ones, dead ones, (wonder what happened to them?) and really full ones. Honestly that must be all that grows up there.

We came into the city of Superior, WI. That is where the southwestern tip of Lake Superior is. It is a pretty little city and the Lake was gorgeous. You will just have to take my word for that though, because Pops “wasn’t in the mood to take pictures.”

Anyway we crossed the bridge that separates Superior, WI from Duluth, MN. And then we started up a long, steep incline. At the top was a rest area where you had a great view of the two cities and the Lake, but Pops still wasn’t in the mood, oh well.

We got to our drop off point and had to wait about 2 hours for the other truck to come. I cooked us some spaghetti (well, me some spaghetti) and chili for Pops. Man, was it good. That’s the first I had cooked in awhile and we were sick of sandwiches and fast food.

Finally the other truck came and we got off loaded and they got loaded. After giving them all the necessary paperwork, we each went our ways. We drove into town and did a little shopping and then got hit with another load offer right away. This one picked up way up north in Grand Rapids, MN and was going to London, KY.

We drove to our pickup and were less than 2 miles away. It was 10:00pm and we didn’t load until 9am the next morning, so we both got a good nights sleep in a still truck. Yeah!

The next morning we drove to our pickup and less than one block away we saw a small, white house that stated it was the birthplace of Judy Garland, aka Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. That is so cool, I wondered how much singing the walls of that little house must have heard.  Of course, I had to pull over to take pictures myself. We also saw in the same city a part of the Mississippi River. It was pretty narrow there but running very rapidly and still covered with a lot of ice. I didn’t know that it was that far north.

Anyways, once we got loaded and left there we had to drive right back down through Duluth and Superior, but wouldn’t you know it, now Pops is in the mood but the weather is crappy. It is snowing and foggy and so pictures did not come out. Trust me it was amazing though. Although someone told me that I needed to see it from the high rest area in the fall. I can imagine that is something.

So it was a long drive, over 1050 miles to London, Ky. Pops slept while I did the beginning part of the trip. I drove 600 miles. Then he woke up and started to drive. We had tried to make arrangements to meet up with our niece, Destiny, for breakfast. Pops’ brother and family live real close to London, KY. But we didn’t hear anything back from her. But Scott, our nephew, texted us and said that he would meet us, so we made plans to do that.

We got to London about 4:45 and had arranged to meet Scott at 5am. Our delivery was at 7am and was just a few minutes away.

We spent about an hour with Scott. We had a good breakfast and it was so good to see him and catch up on what has been going on with him. Time went too quickly though and we had to get moving.

We made our delivery and some of the product had leaked out. It is non hazardous, but it is some kind of foaming agent to put out forest fires. Pops was told to not step in it because it is extremely slippery and do not get it mixed with any water because it is concentrated and if it mixes with water it will make so much foam it will be nearly impossible to clean up. Haha guess we’ll be trying to wipe it up with paper towels or something. I almost want to see what would happen if water got it, but I better be good.

Anyway, we are now sitting in Lexington, Ky on layover. We are hoping for a load that comes near home. It is Easter weekend and we really want to come home. We have turned down 3 really good paying loads so far because they are the wrong direction. I really hope we don’t have to stay out all weekend with not even a load now. That would really stink.

But I have trust.