Westward Ho!

We got a load for Sunday after church. It picks up about 40 miles from where we are and goes to Seguin, Texas. YeeHaw! Grab your cowboy hats. Can you say, Alamo?
So we got caught up with laundry today and took some walks and shopped the giftshop. The tattoo/piercing shop was open but Pops didn't want to go in there. hahaha
After supper we got our oil changed and a lube job. Now we are good to go. We have tomorrow off so I'm not sure what we will do just yet although as mentioned there is a movie theater here, free of charge and they are showing some pretty new movies. But who knows?
Our son, Drew, offered up a challenge to fast and pray tomorrow to show our thank for God's rich blessing of Thursday. So we took him up on the challenge. I was happy to see that my sister, Amy took him up on the challenge too.
I checked our church directory and found a church for Sunday morning. Our pickup is at noon so we will have to go to the early service at 8:30, but that don't bother us at all. I called to make sure there was ample parking for our truck, but had to leave a message. We will find a way to get there.
I am excited to go west again. We will be traveling through SC, GA, AL, MS, LA, and TX. We have been through all of those before and we will be traveling the same interstates so I feel like I know where I am going. If you look it up on the map we will be skirting the gulf coast again. And that means, ...bridges! But also the bayou. I am hoping that this time we can try those crawlfish baskets and maybe some boudin.
We are about 15 miles from our boss when we get there so they are planning on meeting up with us. I am looking forward to that.
Also a very good friend of mine has a daughter that lives really close by and she would like to meet up with us if only for a few moments. I sure hope we get to. I watch her on Facebook and I love the pictures of her kids. I would love to see them in person and give her a great big hug.
And what I like best of all about this upcoming trip.... it keeps us out of the snow, for another few days at least.

Diabetic Challenge

Don't forget about my Thanksgiving Diabetic Challenge. For each new follower that Pops and I get in the week of Thanksgiving we will donate $5.00 to the National Diabetic Foundation.
Some of you have mentioned that you are having some trouble becoming a follower. You will need a google account. If you don't have one already you will need to create one. It is pretty easy, just follow the directions for creating the account. It is free and easy and you may or may not ever use it again, but you do need one to be a lister follower of our blog.
Rise to the challenge, only 2 days left.

Our Christmas tree

Our dinner plates

Blog overload

I know you are reading the third one today. It is feast or famine with the blogs, I guess. It is Thanksgiving so feast today.
Oh boy, did we ever feast. I have to admit that our meal was really good for what I have to prepare with. I am learning to do wonderful things with a crockpot and microwave, seriously. I did take a picture of our dinner plates but for some reason I can't get it to blog. They are telling me that this is a copyrighted, licensed picture and won't allow me to use it. haha. Oh well, I'll keep trying.
We got company tonight. We met some new people that also drive for FXCC. They pulled up in front of us and came over and talked for awhile. Their names are Ralph and Lisa. They were really nice. It is always good to meet new friends. I hope to see them around somewhere in our travels. I did get to add them to Facebook so I will at least be able to keep up with them occasionally.
Some guys came around selling leather work gloves for $5.00 a pair. They were pretty nice gloves too, but Pops and I just bought ourselves gloves and didn't get any. Ralph bought several pairs. I was hoping the movie man would come around. I sure like bargain movies, right Kristie? lol But he never showed up.
After we ate and I did the dishes (don't you hate that part on Thanksgiving?) Pops played around on the internet a bit while I decorated our Christmas tree. It turned out really nice. I am proud of it. And it lifted my spirits to sit and stare at the colored lights. (No comments Jeffy and Bill.) I did take a picture of it too but haven't tried to upload it to the blog yet.
Then I took the dogs outside to run a little bit in the grass. And Pops took a nap. I really enjoyed texting with everyone and hearing about everyone's day on the computer. Thanks for sharing part of yourselves with us.
I think I am going to read for a bit and then hit the sack.
Good luck to all of you Black Friday shoppers. Here are a few hints of what I would like for Christmas: a pair of Reebok zig tech sneakers(black with purple bottoms,) Halle perfume the brown one, a cute little pair of opal hoop earrings from piercing pagoda, or whatever else you think I would like. Pretty good hints, huh? Anyway, be safe and when you're done spending your money, go home and sleep.

Thanksgiving

It is very hard to be away from those you care for on a holiday and especially Thanksgiving. I miss my family and friends even I have heard from many of them.
Starla cooked her first Turkey Dinner completely on her own this morning. She sent me a picture of it on my phone. It looks really good. Way to go, Starla. Her and Bill are taking that meal into my dad's house for him and then they are going to my sister's for a meal. Amy is a good cook too so I am envious.
But I put a small turkey breast and stuffing in the crockpot early this morning and I brought some homemade turkey broth from home so I can have noodles. My good friend, Jenny H. almost brought me some homemade noodles. I told her I'll take some at Christmas time. I miss you, Jenny. I hope your day is good.
Please, someone tell her I mentioned her in the blog.
We are also having some real mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, cranberry sauce and a yummy pumpkin roll, thanks to Kelly G.
It all smells so good right now.
We are still on layover and parked at a Petro travelcenter. They are having a huge all you can eat buffet with turkey, pork chops, ribs, ham and all the fixins for only $11.99, but we could never eat enough for us to be worth it. They are showing some good movies in their theater today too, but I have movies for us to watch.
It isn't busy here at all today so the dogs are getting to go out without their leashes all day. They are liking that. It was up to 67 degrees and sunny for a while but then it started to rain and that cooled things off a little.
We are going to put our Christmas tree up later. That should kill about 5 minutes. hahaha I am just glad to have one. I do really like our little home away from home.
Having the internet on our phones is great. I get facebook and myspace updates as they happen. That helps make me feel like I am still part of things. I can even check my blog with my phone and probably even update with it, but it is so much easier for me to type on a computer than to text my blog. I would have to really keep it short and I don't want to. I am going to get an air card for my computer for sure I just haven't yet. But, Keenan, I promise if not before Christmas I will get one then. haha
If you are a prayer warrior, I have a few requests for you to add to your list. First, my daughter, Starla who has a pacemaker and is having some issues. Pray that God will give her answers for that. Next, my good friend, Lettie, is experiencing some problems but she is being treated and I hope that she will start feeling good real soon. Next, our evangelist and his wife will be moving to North Carolina in about a week. They will be missed so much, but I know that God has a plan for them. They don't know anyone so pray that they make friends quickly.
Okay, time to eat finally. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

On the road again

It feels good but yet sad to be back on the road again. I am glad to be back doing what I like to do, Drive. But it was sad to leave my family again especially when Starla is not feeling good and so far the Dr. hasn’t come up with what is going on and she cannot go back to see him until she pays a lot of money.  That doesn’t seem right to me, but what can you do? She has a pacemaker and needs care, so she will have to go.

We left the house Monday morning and drove to Cumberland, MD to get some new tires on the truck. It took about 5 hours to do that. While we were there we were offered a load picking up about 60 miles from home  and delivering in Savannah, GA on Tuesday evening. That would give us an opportunity to go back home for the evening. So that’s what we did.

I cleaned my bedroom and washed the sheets when I got home and fixed supper for Bill, Starla and us. We had pork chops and applesauce, no we didn’t. We had pork chops, parsley potatoes, and cauliflower. It was nice spending the evening with them one more time. We got ready and left home about 10pm.

We drove to our destination and slept until our load came. It was a truck to truck transfer that was coming in from Canada. He was almost 2 hours late, which started us off late. We were hauling airplane landing gear, cool. Once loaded we set off for Savannah.

It wasn’t long before Pops needed to sleep, so he went to the bunk. In a little while I saw a really pretty river flowing through a gorge. It was amazing. I’ll have to remember this, I thought. Where are we? Route 19 in West Virginia. It is called the New River. Wait a minute! Wait a cotton picking minute. I know this route, I know that name. Oh no!

I was with Pops once when he hauled potato chips and we crossed this BIG, AND I MEAN REALLY BIG!!! Bridge. The water below looked like a thread that’s how high up we were. He explained to me that people parachute off this bridge. It is the highest, arched suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere.

And I was going to have to drive across it, or was I? I could wake him up and make him do it, right? Why didn’t he warn me? He knew how I felt about this bridge. Oh boy. I still had 12 miles to go until I got there. Trust me, I was in a sweat. What was I going to do? I kept on going until 1 mile to go. There is a pull off, a place for people to take pictures of the bridge. He is sleeping so good. Well, I could close my eyes and hope for the best. No, I didn’t do that. I sucked it up and drove. I did not look away from right in front of me. I just drove. Whew, I was finally across. I did it. Whew, I did it. I hate bridges. Did you know that I hate bridges?

Anyway, I kept on passing pickup trucks with trophy bucks on the back. It must be good hunting here in West Virginia. I saw one with brown antlers. I never saw brown antlers before. Once Pops woke up he told me they are called “chocolate” and they get that way from the deer rubbing their antlers on nut trees, like walnut or chestnut trees. Hmm, I learned something.

Traffic was starting to really pick up around 3:00 in the afternoon. I guess everyone is going over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving. When we pulled into rest areas they were filled with people and pets. Twice at two different rest areas we saw cats in the grass. I wonder if they got away from their owners and had to be left there. What a shame. How heart breaking would that be to love your animal so much to bring it along only to lose it at a rest area? Oh my. I couldn’t stand it.

As we got further down south it stopped raining and got warmer. By the time we got to Savannah it was 8:30pm and still 70 degrees. I could live here, at least this time of year.

We had to be escorted through the airport to the garage type building that we needed. They had us unloaded and on our way in under 15 minutes. We put our unloaded call into FedEx and were told to go to Fayetteville, NC for layover. So here we are, waiting for a load. I think with this being a holiday week, we may have some trouble getting a load, who knows?

Oh well, I have some stuff to do. I just made us breakfast of blueberry pancakes with real PA maple syrup, Yummy. I got the truck clean, and the dishes washed. So if I am going to be stuck somewhere I am glad to be here where there are palm trees and the warm weather.