Out West Pt.3

We both enjoyed that Route 17 journey very much. The change in the scenery during that stretch of highway is just amazing.

Once we entered and exited Flagstaff, AZ our direction changed and now we were heading East. And it wasn't long before we started the decline of the mountains and ended up through desert areas again.

I found a truckstop in Winslow, Az and decided to stop to see if I could get the keychain and postcards before we left the state. Sure enough they had what I was looking for. We also fueled the truck and grabbed some fast food and walked the dogs before hitting the road again. Of course the company was calling and wanting to know why we were still so long.

When I was typing Winslow, AZ into our computer I thought to myself, where had I heard that before? And asked Pops if it was part of a song. And we both got it at the same time, Eagles-Take it Easy. So we had quite a bit of fun with that on Facebook for the rest of the evening and we both hummed or sang the song off and on for two whole days; funny how that happens. "Well, I'm standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ......"and "Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy."

Nothing much looked any different in New Mexico, Texas, or Oklahoma on the return trip. Although I did pay a little more attention to some of the houses that some of the Indian people live in. It bothered me to see the poverty level of many of them.

Before long we were driving back through the state of MO. Now this seems to be real familiar territory to me now. We have been through these areas many times now and I was recognizing where we were and knowing what was ahead before we even got there. But one thing really got my attention this time, the armadillos. There were so many this time. I don't remember seeing that many ever before when we were here. Maybe it had to do with so much flooded areas and the water was forcing them to move to other areas, I don't know, but it was remarkable how many there were. And they are strange. They look strange, and they run weird. I don't know much about that animal, but they are odd and they get run over more than any animal, I think.

Then we were going back through Illinois because we were rerouted because of major flooding in the Memphis area. We heard that parts of that area was so bad that many roads were closed and bridges were out and peoples homes were flooding.

I know we have seen a lot of flooding in many states this spring already. Some states were even taking drastic measures to relive pressure on their dams. Some cities were being flooded on purpose to protect other cities from worse flooding. Wow.

We drove through the same places that we had passed on our way out. When we were driving along the flooded fields in southern Illinois it was nighttime. There were so many insects that within a very short time our windshield almost completely closed up because of dead bugs. It was disgusting.

We finally reached our destination in Nashville late Saturday night. Our delivery appointment wasn't until Monday morning and because our load was so high security we had to go to a FedEx Freight terminal and wait out our time, behind the locked and guarded fence.

The guard left us in and told us where to park and we didn't take long until we were both sleeping. When we woke up the next morning, Sunday, we walked the dogs and had a good look around. This place was big. There were about 75 or more trucks all parked in a line right in front of us and all the docks around the terminal were parked full. There were lines of trailers too.

Pops and I had our own church service because of not being allowed to leave this area. We had communion, we had a study discussion and then read some scriptures and prayed together out loud, mentioning our requests and many of our church members up to God in prayer.

After church I got my lawn chair out and took my book and the dogs and sat outside. There wasn't a soul around except the guard in the guardshack and Pops and myself.

But then we noticed two smaller trucks drive in. They had a pressure washer logo on the side of their truck. They had come to wash all of those trucks that were parked in the line. It took them many hours to do it. Just before they left the lot I asked them if they would wash our truck. I wanted all of those nasty bugs off. They agreed and I paid them cash and they did the best wash job our truck has seen in a long time. I was proud of the bargain that I had struck with them. We usually pay $50 or more. Our boss would refund us the money the next day. And not only that, our boss decided to have pizza sent to our truck since we couldn't get out to get food. Wasn't that nice? So soon the PizzaHut guy pulled up bringing our order. Ha, life is good.

We got a great nights sleep, but woke early to make our delivery. We had to drive about 2  hours to get to Knoxville.

It was easy to locate our address and it didn't take long to get the load off although Pops and I had to unload it and haul it all into the building. And then we were sent to South Carolina for another pickup.

We like going to South Carolina, we have friends there, although we never to get to stay for very long. It is a real good area for good loads. At least for our size truck. We talked to 3 van drivers while there and they were complaining about slow freight. But within 2 hours we were on another load and getting ready to head to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Oh wow. No rest for the weary.