Pops did drive out his time and he did fine. It seems like we are going to be ok now. We made our delivery and it went well and then we drove a few miles to a rest area to wait for our next load.
Pops tried to lay down and get some sleep. I worked on addressing and writing some post cards that I needed to get caught up on.
We waited for a load opportunity and one or two came but they weren't what we were looking for. Finally an offer came that was going to Texas. I accepted the load and we got it. It wasn't picking up until tomorrow in Carlisle, PA so we drove closer to pickup and stayed at a truckstop.
While we were there I got all of our laundry caught up. We relaxed the evening in the truck and it was calm and peaceful. I have our Christmas lights up so it had a nice, warm glow. I was loving the peacefulness.
The next morning we drove over to our pickup and we were a few minutes early and another truck was in the dock where we were supossed to be. Eventually the guard came out and asked that truck to move so we could get in and then we were loaded.
It was a very high security load so after we were loaded we pulled up to the guard and he put a seal on our truck. Now we were ready to go except that the truck didn't want to go into gear. We tried and tried and it would not go into gear.
We called our owner and he suggested unhooking all the batteries and letting the computer reset. We did that and started the truck and then it went right into gear.
Now since this load was such high security we weren't allowed to stop until we had driven over 200 miles away from the shipper. So after about 4 hours of driving I was ready to stop for a restroom.
I pulled into a rest area near Roanoke, VA and went in the bathroom and took the dogs out and we got a bite to eat. But when I tried to go again it would not go into gear again.
I woke Pops up and told him that it was doing it again. So he got up and dressed and went outside to unhook the batteries again. This time it didn't work. We tried it several times.
Our owner called the repair service and when they came and looked it over they informed us that our truck would have to be towed in for repair.
Well the tow truck couldn't come until the next morning. Our company was very anxious about this load and they kept calling us . We really did not and could not afford to lose this load but it looked like we were going to.
Then Fedex decided that we were going to transfer the load to another truck. The tow truck came and hooked us up and then towed us to a Fedex Freight facility. We were unloaded and then watched as the other truck drove away with our good Texas load. Then we were towed to a repair place in Roanoke.
We waited around there all day waiting for someone to come look at our truck. We were told to take the dogs and go to the drivers lounge to wait. When we went in there it was packed with other drivers also waiting.
The dogs were nervous and too excited and would not settle down so I took them outside and saw that no one had done anything yet with our trick so I went and got in it. I figured I would stay there until they pulled it intoo the garage. I called Pops and told him what I was doing.
After an hour or so he came out too. We were there clear until late evening and no one had come to get our truck.
Our owner told us to go to a hotel because we weren't allowed to stay on that property all night. So a hotel shuttle came and picked us up and took us to Days Inn.
As soon as we got to the front desk and was checking in Chucky peed on the floor. I guess he had enough excitement for a while. He just could not make sense of everything that was going on. Well, neither could I. So I cleaned up his mess and we were given a pet friendly room.
The pet friendly room smelled like dog.
Oh well, it was warm and had a big, big bed and a tv and a shower.
So we got showered ordered a pizza and settled in. Well, we did, but the dogs didn't settle. They paced and paced and just would not calm down. Life had been upsetting for them too for the past several weeks.
Around 10:30 I took them outside one more time and then when we came back in and Pops and I got into bed the dogs seemed to sense that it was ok and they settled. Everyone slept pretty well that night.
The next morning was Friday and when we turned the tv on we heard the awful news about the children of Sandy Hook Elementary being shot. Although at first they weren't reporting just how awful it really was. But as the day went on and on we saw just how bad it was.
There are just no words for something like this.
We found out that our truck still hadn't been looked at. But the manager promised that he would "try to have it in this afternoon." What? Are we supposed to go over there and sit in the crowded drivers lounge and hope that they get to our truck?
Pops talked to our owner and we decided to stay in the hotel for another night. We would just wait in the hotel room until our truck was finished.
We got a call around 3 o'clock that it was done. It turned out to be a fairly quick, not too expensive fix. So Pops had the hotel shuttle take him over to get the truck. He brought the truck over to the hotel and parked it near our room.
Around 10 o'clock I went out and started the truck and made some good coffee. The dogs wondered around te grass while I left the truck run for awhile.
Then we went back to the room.
The next morning we had hotel breakfast, showered and checked out. When we got into the truck, it wouldn't start. It seemed the batteries were run down. We have never had this kind of problem before so something must have run down the batteries.
We were having some issues with our refrigerator not working right so maybe it was that. And sure enough the refrigerator wasn't working at all. All of our food was warm. So I threw it away. This was the second time I threw away all our food.
Once we had the truck going again (a repair service had to be called), we then drove over a truckstop to stay. We spent the night there and the next morning we went shopping for a refrigerator.
We shopped and shopped and could not find one that was the right size for the hole that it needed to fit into. I never dreamed that it would take all day to find one. We finally settled on a smaller one just to get by with.
I'll tell you it was getting easy to give in to frustration and defeat. Pops and I and the dogs too were ready to go home. We just need some things to go right for a change.
A good friend of ours sent me a real encouraging email and a sermon outline. It was just the right medicine. Pops and I used that outline as our Sunday lesson and it helped inflate our spirits.
I sure wish that we could have heard him preach this sermon, but it helped us anyway. Thanks, you know who you are.
On Monday we got a load that was picking up in Richmond, VA and going to Minneapolis. We accepted and got the load. Once we accepted that load we were bombarded with load offers that were either going to California or Las Vegas. Our company really needed these loads to go badly. But Christmas Eve is only 1 week away and that is when my family is getting together. I would have liked to take some of those loads but we know better than anyone that there are no guarantees that everything is going to work out right. And if one thing fell out of place we wouldn't get home on time. So we kept declining those loads.
We made our delivery in Minneapolis. We were right at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. We didn't go in though because it looked really crowded and really to me a mall is a mall. They all have the same stores and we didn't really feel like all that walking.
So we drove over to a favorite truckstop and now we are waiting on a load.
I sure hope that we get lined up to get home on time. I really am discouraged. I know Pops just wants to try and feel "normal" again.
I want to get home, spend some time with my family, get him to the doctor, then get back on the road and back to whatever kind of "normal" we will have.
I need normal!
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