Hurricane Issac

We woke up on Monday morning still sitting in Memphis and I couldn't believe we were here this long without a load. That never happens to us.
I figured I better get outside walking around looking for our penny on the ground. We seem to always get a good load right after I find a penny.
I took the dogs out for a walk but didn't go too far away from the truck. We had a lot of grass right beside us and it was pretty hot so the dogs didn't want to be on the pavement. That was ok with me. So I looked around a little bit but didn't find a penny around the truck.
We did get a load offer though just before lunch time. We would have to go back to Little Rock to pick it up and it was going to Charleston, South Carolina. So we got our selves ready and headed that direction. I drove the whole way there.
We got loaded and started our trip across the southern part of the US. We went south through back to Memphis and then south through Mississippi and then Alabama and then a little of Georgia and into South Carolina.
It began to rain, and then it continued to rain hard. We had been listening to the radio and the weather channel was talking a lot about Hurricane Issac and predicting that it would be hitting Louisiana sometime that day. I wondered if this rain had anything to do with that.
By the time we did get to Charleston many of the streets were flooding.
Pops got so soaking wet while getting the load off of our truck. I could not believe how wet he was. I was sure that he would catch a horrible cold. But he didn't.
After we got unloaded we were going to head back to Columbia, SC for layover. We saw many cars sitting in water up to their door handles.
We didn't make it to Columbia before we were offered another load. We were going north to a place called Cheraw, SC for a pickup that was going to Laredo.
While we were at the pickup getting our load on, we heard that the Hurricane was hitting hard and causing a lot of flooding and indeed the flooding we saw today was attributed to Issac. Our truck owners called us and told us to re-route and not go the southern route that would take us through Slidell, LA and Baton Rouge. They told us to go Route 20 across to Dallas and then go south to Laredo. We figured that would add about 100 more miles to the trip, but it did make me feel better. It took us all that night, all the next day and that night as well to get to Laredo. We did not encounter any bad weather and I was grateful. We were listening to the coverage on the radio and it sounded terrible for the people of Louisiana and Mississippi. Our trip across was pretty uneventful.
After we got unloaded in Laredo we were heading back to San Antonio. We were meeting up with Tate and Shirley. We needed some parts for our generator and our back door that we were having trouble locating or waiting for. Tate had found them and had them for us. They met us at the truckstop as we were coming back from getting a shower.
We went to lunch and enjoyed a quick visit. We got a good load offer so we couldn't stay any longer. They took us back to our truck and once again we were on our way.
We were picking up at a huge chemical plant just south of Houston. It was a hazmat load going to Knoxville, TN.
We knew that we would be traveling and skimming right around the Gulf states.
We made our pickup at the chemical plant but before we could, we had to have our truck inspected and searched. We had to watch a safety video and be certified. Then we were allowed to enter the plant and get our load. It was now late, around 11 pm.
We left Houston and was on our way to Knoxville. It wasn't long before I was asleep in the bunk. Pops drove us through Louisiana and part way through Mississippi. I began to drive when I woke up. He was telling me about the flooded areas and downed trees. I saw a lot of that type of thing too. We kept seeing signs warning of water across the highway, but we never actually saw any on the highway although we saw a lot of high rivers.
We were offered a predispatch load and accepted it. But that meant that we would have to hurry after our delivery to Richmond, KY for another pickup.
We got to our delivery site at Knoxville. It was a chemical plant also and they did not want to hurry. It seemed we were there quite a while but I know that is just because I knew we were limited on time.  We got unloaded and found our way back to the interstate and was hurrying to KY.
I drove us the whole way there. It wasn't too far though about 3 hours.
We found that delivery and got there about 9:15 pm. It was Friday evening and this is Labor Day weekend so I am sure that these men were very glad to see us.
They quickly loaded our truck and now we were on our way to Sturgeon Bay, WI. I didn't know where that was so I got the map and looked it up. It is north of Milwaukee, way north. Once you get to Green Bay, WI then we had to go east out onto a penninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. We drove for about 40 miles onto the Penninsula.
It was a beautiful sunny day and the ride was very nice. At one point, Pops and saw watched 5 skydivers fall from the sky with their parachutes and land in a field along the interstate just as we were passing by. That was pretty cool.
When we reached the outskirts of Sturgeon Bay, we found our delivery site and unloaded the truck. We asked about a Walmart so that we could get some groceries. We were told that we would need to go into town.
Well to get to town we had to go a little further out and then across a drawbridge that crossed Sturgeon Bay. We saw many boats. It was so pretty. It made me jealous of those people who were having such a great last summer fling.
We got our groceries and then headed back toward Milwaukee. The drive back was just as nice. Every once in a while I could catch of glimpse of Green Bay through the trees. It was so shimmery and sparkling.
Towards evening it began to get cloudy. And by the time we reached the truckstop at Racine, which is south of Milwaukee and near Kenosha, it was down to 70 degrees and was breezy. After spending so much time in the south these temperatures felt chilly to me.
So here we are for layover. We have a load but it is a military load that doesn't pick up until Tuesday after the holiday. It delivers in New Jersey on Wednesday so we'll be heading home for some time off right after that.
There is a church here that we did attend once before. The Jelly Belly jellybean factory is near here too. They give free tours. I might be able to talk Pops into that. Well, maybe not. We'll see, I guess. We do need to get some minor repairs done to our truck too. But we have all day tomorrow and all day on Monday.
We may get to meet up with our cousin Sandy and her husband, Ernie on Monday. Maybe. That would be nice. I hope it works out.
The SF Giants are playing at Wrigley Field tomorrow. I sure wish I could figure out where to park to go see that. I did research it some and it seems highly unlikely to find any parking. Oh well, we can hear the game on the radio. But how awesome would it be to actually get to go to Wrigley Field? Too bad I didn't have more time to plan it.
But I'm sure we won't be bored. We always find something to do.