Noni & Pops travels: Boom Boom loads

Pops and I had 4 trips this week, so we did run. However, they were kind of short mileage wise and the rates have really dropped. But what can we do? We are out here to work. So let's make lemonade.

We started in Illinois near St. Louis. We picked up an explosive load. It was going into the deep dark woods in Arkansas. But on the way we got to drive on some interstates that we haven't traveled for a long time, yet are very familiar. It was so nice and I kept hoping that maybe we could follow these roads right on in to Texas.

The travel was nice and we got there very, very late. Pops sat up to babysit the load while I slept. During the night he accepted a predispatch picking up right near here and going to Huntsville, AL.

I woke up and we got unloaded. Drove the few miles to our next load and got loaded. It was delivering this same evening, so we couldn't dawdle.

We drove out of Arkansas, past Memphis, through Mississippi and into Alabama. I remembered the Shoe Tree.

I had spotted it years ago while passing by. It is an old tree in Cherokee, Alabama, just inside the state line from Mississippi. I looked it up on the Internet and found out that there are several in the US. Who and why it was started, no one really knows although a few legends have formed.

But I wanted to stop. I have a pair of walking shoes that I have worn out. The insides are really worn and because of my bad ankle, I had walked the heel of the right foot completely crooked.

So we stopped and my shoes are now a part of the legendary shoe tree in Cherokee, AL.

It took me two tries to get them to stay up there. But they should hang awhile because I had just recently replaced the laces with new ones.

We drove the rest of the way to our destination.

The old State Bank building in Decatur, Alabama

We were trying to decide which direction to head to await our next load when we were offered a load. It was picking up in Kentucky and going into Ohio. It, too, was an explosive load. We haven't done one in awhile and now here were two in one week.

This load picked up the next afternoon so we didn't have to be in a hurry. Pops drove us out of Alabama, past the welcome center with the rocket, through Tennessee and into Kentucky. We found a Walmart near our location, so we stayed there the remainder of the night and all morning. Then we headed to our pick up.

Again it was in the isolated, rural place. We saw deer and big turkeys insides the fences. Some come close because they have no reason to fear humans.

We got our load on, placarded the truck, put all paperwork in order, and called it in to dispatch, then we got moving.

Our destination for this load is seriously deep, deep into the dark woods. It is literally 12 miles into the woods. It is a one lane, dirt road. You drive to the gate and park and then at 5am someone comes and unloads you.

Oh yeah, and while you are parked in the deep, dark woods, with that special load. There is no phone service or Internet while there and never satellite tv and sometimes not even the radio. It's always a little creepy.

So....we have plenty of time to look at each other and talk to each other, you know, in case we don't ever get to.

Somehow we got to talking about Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. It was a tv show that I watched every Sunday night right before the Wonderful World of Disney. While watching those shows my mom would brush out my wet hair and wrap it around strips of rags and tie the rags into knots. (Rag curls) when I woke up on Monday mornings she would untie the rags and I would go to school with beautiful long spiral curls.

I wonder if Pops will ever know EVERYTHING about me?

Well, we survived the night, didn't even hear any banjos or nothin'.

Rag curls make pretty spirals.

This is the long, dirt road that we drive on for this delivery.

This is the gate where we park and wait.

We wound our way back to civilization and waited for another load. When none came right away we decided to go to the shop and get some preventative maintenance work done to our reefer. That took up most of the afternoon.

Then we went to the truck stops. In the evening we got a short load picking up near us and going to Flint, MI for early morning.

It was a quick and easy load.

After our delivery the next morning, we hit up a local bakery that was very highly rated on the billboards and Internet. Turns out the praise was right on.

We waited all day Friday for a load that never came.