Come along for the Ride!

I am so glad you are here. Stay with us as we travel everywhere. I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Back at it

We woke up in our own bed on Monday morning. We were in service since Sunday afternoon but hadn't even gotten one load offer.
However, before noon we got a load and was backing out of the driveway. We were picking up a load about 4 hours away in Allentown. It was going to Louisville, KY. 
I started the drive and it felt good to be behind the wheel again. Our vacation this time was anything but relaxing and hadn't gone the way I would've liked. It was nice enough though and it is always good to see and spend time with those I love.
We got our load on quickly and I continued the drive until it got dark. Then Pops took the wheel and before long I was in bed. 
I woke up as he was backing into a parking spot at the truckstop near our destination. We still had a while until delivery. So Pops laid down to nap and I fell back to sleep.
At 7am we got up and drove less than 2 miles to our delivery. It was unloaded and that was that. Our first load was done.
We had been predispatched yesterday, so we knew we were headed toward Indianapolis, IN for a pickup. I was driving and Pops went to sleep. 



There was a lot of construction around Louisville so traffic was at a crawl. This city is so pretty with all the bridges and rivers and pretty buildings. I always enjoy driving through here. I crossed the bridge and was now driving in the state of Indiana. 



I would be driving on some rural roadways now and through some pretty little towns and pretty country roads. It was an enjoyable drive.
Pops woke up when we reached the pickup and we were there a little more than an hour waiting to be loaded. 
After we were loaded Pops went back to sleep and I drove a few more hours right back on the same roads I had just traveled to get there and by evening rush hour I was driving back through Louisville again. 
We were headed to North Carolina, the Raleigh area. It was to deliver Wednesday morning.
Before long I was done and in bed as Pops drove through the night to our destination.
We delivered Wednesday morning and then drove to a truckstop to wait. We hoped that we would get a load picking up yet that day and delivering Friday, but it never happened. Because of the holiday we began to worry that we were done now until Monday.
We were offered several Monday loads and even some Tuesday loads. We declined those because we hoped to move sooner. We had one or two that went right away but the pay rate was very low. Finally we agreed to a load picking up Saturday and delivering early Monday morning.
So now we could relax. We went inside the restaurant for supper.
Our son, Drew, was in his first professional boxing match in Baltimore, MD this night. I was so nervous and anxiously waiting to hear from his friends that went to watch and ultimately from him. He has been training so hard for this. He has fought in The Toughman competitions for the past two years, but this seemed different somehow. Bigger.

His friends texted me updates throughout the evening and then the final text, he lost.
About an hour I heard from him. He sounded groggy. He told me that he had gotten knocked out. I thought he meant unconscious, but he meant literally knocked out of the ring.
It wasn't long until the pictures and videos were posted to the Internet. I watched the videos and to be honest, he looked real good right up to that final "lucky" punch.
We are so proud of him. It takes a lot of hard training and dedication to even enter this type of thing.


Thanksgiving day I gave away 2 $20 bills. I am telling you this to make a point. 
The first one was afternoon Thanksgiving, when Bill and I went out to eat. 
We are on the road, far away from home, away from our loved ones, and it was Thanksgiving. We had been given a gift card for Cracker Barrel and they were open and serving turkey dinner. So that is where we went.
We waited until 2pm thinking it would be less busy. But when we got there, we noticed the line was out the door. 
We went inside to give our name and prepared to wait. However, we were seated right away. The tables for two were readily available.
Our waitress came. Her name was Linda. She took our order for the turkey dinner and brought our coffee. She was rushing around from table to table. I told her not to rush for us that we weren't in any hurry. I asked her what time she had come to work and she told me 1 o'clock. Then we talked about her getting off work at 5pm to go shopping with her daughter. 
Many of the stores were opening for huge sales that evening.
I then asked if she was shopping for anything in particular and she named a few things. Then she told me that she really wanted to get to Sears. They had women's boots on sale for $20 and she really wanted a pair.
We enjoyed our meal that included, turkey and ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, stuffing, 2 corn muffins, pie and coffee, all on special for $11.99. 

Our bill was brought to us when we were nearly finished. As I said we had a gift card. It was for $25, our Bill total was $25.60. 
It was a very nice meal.
Our waitress passed as we were leaving and I handed her a $20 bill. I told her to buy herself a pair of boots on us. She hugged me and thanked us.
It felt great. God has truly blessed us and we wanted to bless someone else.
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7 NASB)
Later, we did some shopping of our own, walked 3 miles for exercise then relaxed the evening away. 
During the night I awoke. I was restless and couldn't fall back to sleep for some reason. So I got up and quietly made myself a cup of tea. I sat in the driver's seat and sipped my tea as I read a book on my Kindle. It was 4:30am.
I saw a police officer drive a circle around the rest area and then leave.
Someone knocked on my door. There was a man standing outside. I lowered the window. He told me a story of locking his keys in his car. He called the police who came to help but wanted his car towed, a locksmith called, or a breakage of a window to get into the car. He went on to tell me that he only had $22 on him which he showed me. He told me the tow truck driver wanted $140, the locksmith wanted $40 and he didn't want to break his own window. He asked if I could spare him the $18 he still needed to pay the locksmith. 
So, I gave him a $20 bill. He promised that once inside his car, he would drive up to the next exit to an atm, get some cash and come back to pay me back.
Now I know that he was probably feeding me a line of untruth, but I also reasoned that maybe God had woken me up to help this man regardless.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2 NASB)
Of course that man never returned. 
The wicked borrows and does not pay back, But the righteous is gracious and gives. (Psalms 37:21 NASB)
No ones likes to be taken advantage of. Way too often human beings will prey on the generosity of others. 
I knew when I handed that man that $20 that I would never see him again. And I believe that he knew in his heart that he was never going to return. God will deal with him. And God also will bless me. 
On Friday we enjoyed a relaxing day at a nearby rest area. The weather was warm and sunny. We walked for exercise, 4 miles. 
I had bought a new computer on Thursday evening so I got it set up and played around with it for awhile. We watched holiday movies on the Hallmark channel and didn't do much of anything else.
On Saturday we drove to our pickup. We were picking up in Burlington, NC and going to Elkhart, IN. We would drive a route that would allow us to stop and attend church in Ripley, WV with our good friend, Keenan Goosman. 
I was so excited. We agreed not to call him, it was going to be a surprise.
But the surprise was on us.
After putting one pallet onto our truck, it was clear that the load was not going to fit onto our truck. We waited for over an hour for the company to decide what to do. And then we were given the message that our load was going to cancel.
Oh, I was so disappointed. I really wanted that load and I really wanted to visit with Keenan.
Why wasn't anything seeming to go as planned anymore?
Our company gave us another load.
It is a military load that picks up Monday and delivers Tuesday. 
We drove to a nearby rest area to get our daily walk. There was a memorial garden there to the NC Vietnam War Veterans. It was a very peaceful, somber place to walk.

We have a big deadhead to pick it up and then will return to North Carolina.
So our change of loads changed our church plans too.
I was disappointed yet again. It seems that disappointment is the theme for my month.
We would now get to go to church in Mount Airy.
We have been there before and are still Facebook friends with some from there. I know that God was in this.
(Mount Airy, NC is the real town that the fictional town of Mayberry from the old Andy Griffith Show is patterned from) and guess what the preacher, David Kern, preached about? 
Yep, worldly disappointments and how We have a hope in Christ that will never disappoint us.
Thank You, Lord, for Amazing me once again.



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