Our trip to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was considered an experiment for us. We had been told that it is ok to go there because loads do come out of there. But it proved untrue. We got there early in the morning and 24 hours later we still had not had a single load offer.
We didn’t hate our trip there though. It was a new and interesting experience. The aspen leaves were a beautiful gold color and the prairies were golden too. Most of the other leaves had already fallen off the trees.
Although it was chilly and dismal we didn’t mind the weather. The city did smell of oil. Edmonton has a huge oil industry, like Houston.
While parked in the truckstop we enjoyed watching the birds seek food from the drivers. There were some crow-like birds that seemed to be “in charge” of the parking lot. They were the same size as crows although their tail feathers were very long, longer than their bodies. They had a lot of white across their backs and wings also. We didn’t know what kind of birds they were until we googled them and found out that they were magpies.
On the first morning I went inside for a breakfast sandwich. I bought one that had bacon, egg, and cheese between two pieces of bread that was then dipped in egg and fried like French toast. I dipped pieces of the sandwich into syrup while eating. Yum yum, it was so good, I got one on the second morning as well.
We decided that the smartest move for us was to deadhead back to the United States. So we set out to do just that, even though it was going to be a 1200 mile trip. On the way we looked for deer and other wildlife. We saw a lot of Buffalo herds in the wild. That was amazing to me. Pops also saw a wolf.
We reached the border around 1:30am and was very tired. We crossed easily and pulled in at a truck parking lot that was right there. We slept there for about 5 hours and when I woke up I walked my mail across the street to the post office and then we got moving. We still had over 300 miles to Minneapolis.
When we got to Jamestown, ND, I looked across toward the city and saw a giant buffalo. It was a statue. So I googled that and found out that it is made as a tourist attraction and is made out of 60 tons of concrete. It is really large.
We got to Minneapolis and planned to spend the night. We were tired, but had laundry and cleaning to do. I would’ve like to drive to the Mall of America which is about 24 miles from where we were but I didn’t know what kind of parking was available so we decided not to go until we found out about parking. I also found out that although this mall is the largest in the United States, The only other mall in the North American Continent that is bigger is in Edmonton, Alberta. Hah, how odd is that?
We did not find a church that was within our mileage range, so we listened to a sermon from West Unity, Ohio. It was a sermon by Thom Reamsnyder. It was a very good sermon and something he said about a root of bitterness caught my attention and I got to thinking about how that would make a really good lesson for our ladies back home. I really miss teaching and being with the other great women teachers from Wills Mt.
We got a load later that was picking up in Avon, MN and going to Decatur, IL. We knew this must be a Caterpillar load and going to a place that we have nicknamed, “Doozertown.” We got that name from an old animated show that our kids used to watch, Fraggle Rock. In that show the little, busy, hard-hat workers scurried around working all the time. And this plant in Decatur reminds us of the Doozers.
As we were driving to Decatur a truck in front of us kicked up a big piece of metal that came back and hit the grill of our truck. It didn’t cause any damage, but it made me wonder what might have happened had it hit our windshield. Hmmmm.
We got a predispatch load that picked up in Wisconsin and was going to San Antonio, TX. Wow, we have been going to Texas at least once a week lately.
It was a long drive but pretty much uneventful. There was plenty of time for day dreaming and thinking. And as always, a lot of time to just look around and enjoy the scenery. No matter how many times I drive by the arch in St. Louis I still smile each time.
And the Fall has brought with it a lot of beauty just about everywhere. I love this time of year. And while most areas of the country is beginning the season of everything turning brown, The Fall and Winter rains bring green and growth to the already browned Texas landscape. It was nice to now see green fields and wildflowers blooming there.
We got to meet up and spend the day with our truck owners again. I always enjoy getting to be with Tate and Shirley. We had a great time at the Chinese restaurant that we visited. I looked over to see a strange expression on Tate’s face and asked him if he was eating one of those little red dried peppers. Just as I asked he took it out of his mouth and was gasping for air and the tears were running from his eyes. The little Chinese waiter brought over another glass of tea for him and then stood by our table and laughed at him!!! It was funny once he caught his breath and the tears stopped. We kidded him about that the rest of the evening.
The next morning we were on a load that picked up at the airport in Arlington, Texas. We were waiting for a jet to come in and so were 3 other trucks like us. The jet landed and the pilot and co-pilot unloaded 75 cases of hats and t-shirts that was already proclaiming the Texas Rangers as champions. We were all delivering them to different sporting stores through the Dallas/Fort Worth area. When we got to our first stop we saw another truck there and found out that at least 4 other trucks had picked up another airport and were doing to same thing we were. So at least 8 trucks were running around the cities delivering (in my opinion, too soon) merchandise. Oh well, it might pay off, although later this evening we listened to the game and listened to the Texas Rangers lose to the Detroit Tigers. But I am quite sure that there must be trucks scampering around the city of Detroit delivering Tigers merchandise “just in case.” Hahaha
After all of that we got another predispatch. We had to drive to Waco, TX and pick up a hazmat load that is going to Little Rock, AR.
It seems we were quite busy this week. And most of our loads had been predispatch which I like. I like to know what we are doing next.
Right now we are in Little Rock. We made our delivery this morning. We have laundry to do again. I am catching up with this blog and Pops is sleeping.
There are 8 other trucks here in Memphis that work for our company, and we are the last truck, so we may be here awhile. I guess time will tell.
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