Evers Road Christian Church

Today is the Lord's Day so we found a church to attend in the San Antonio area. We looked through the directory and found several and did get 2 of them on the phone. I also found one on the internet through a website and I for some reason favored that one. But that one did not answer when I called. I did leave a message on their answering machine so they called this morning.
We got ready and drove the 20 miles to get there. We found a good place out of the way to park and went inside.
We found out right away that the minister was away for the week and that a young military chaplain that attends the church would be filling in for him.
Sunday school class started almost right away. It was taught by Pat Pennington. He brought a lesson on examining ourselves. It was very good. He made us realize that too often we try to portray ourselves as something we are not.
Other people usually can see right that and God always sees us for who we are. Why then do we try to be something we are not?
After Sunday school the worship service started. They had a praise team up front who led the songs and they used a drop screen with powerpoint and it was really nice.
After the songs they served communion and then a lady named, Peggy sang a beautiful special song about a river.
After she sang the fill in minister got up to speak. His sermon was entitled, "Obey your Thirst." And it seemed like the previous song and the sermon were coordinated although they said that they weren't.
His sermon was very good. His main scripture text was Psalm 63:1-5. He talked about how in this passage David yearned for God. And how we as Christians need to seek God in the same way.
He told a story of Socrates and how a young man came to him and said that he wanted to have knowledge. Socrates led the man outside the city to a pond of water and took the man into the water up to their chests. He again asked the man what he wanted and the man said that he wanted knowledge. Socrates pushed him under the water and held him there for 30 seconds and then left him come up. He asked the man what he wanted and gasping for breath the man said that he wanted knowledge. Once again Socrates pushed him under and held him down for 45 seconds and then left him up. He asked again, "What do you want?" The man said through ragged breaths that he wanted wisdom. Socrates pushed him down again and held him under this time for a full minute and then left him up. "What is it that you want?" he asked the man. The man breathed in and out rapidly gasping and said, "Air, I want air." And Socrates said to the man, when you want knowledge as much as you want air, you will have it."
I thought that was a great story. How much do we want knowledge? How much to we want God's love? How much do we want to serve God and be used by Him? How much do we want air? We need to yearn for God. We need to earnestly seek Him out. We need to "Obey our Thirst" for Him.
Everyone was very friendly and we enjoyed our time very much.
After church we drove across the street and on for about 4 blocks to Walmart. I got some items that we needed and then we were going to go eat but it was too crowded so we waited. Later we walked down the street again to go eat but it was still crowded and now it was past 4pm so they were charging $3.00 more for the same buffet. So we left.
I went to Subway and we ate that instead. It was good.
While we were parked at Walmart a bus pulled in. It was a big tour-type bus but it belonged to a band. The men all got out and went into Walmart. The bus said that they were, "Los Traileros del Norte." I don't know what that means so when I googled it I found out that they have over 30 CDs and do concerts everywhere. There were several of their songs on Youtube so I listened to 2 of them. Pops hated it, haha. Of course it was mexican so we couldn't understand the language. I really didn't like the first one either but the second one was too bad, I guess.
Then when they came out of Walmart they went in different directions. Some of them walked to Burger King, some went to a clothing store and two of them went to a ......Chinese restuarant? haha too funny.
At 6pm we went back to Church. Once again the lesson was taught by Pat Pennington. He is such a good teacher. Our lesson tonight was about Christian Basics. He gave 4 pages of scriptures and notes. It was a discussion type lesson and it seemed everyone liked it.
After church we stood outside and talked with several of the members. They invited us back anytime and told us we were welcome to stay parked in the church's lot until we get a load.
A couple of little boys, Mathias and Andrew aka Batman climbed up into our truck to take a peek at where we lived and they played with the dogs for awhile.
It is so nice to meet new people and make new friends. I hope that we can come back here again sometime.
So now I hope that we will get a load out of here tomorrow. This heat (100+) is wearing me and the dogs down.

A lot of Texas

It has been a busy week finally after several slow weeks. It felt good to be running again. That is why we left home. We are out here to work and run.

We left Iowa Sunday afternoon for a pickup that was delivering Monday in Michigan. So I started the drive while Pops slept. It was a fairly boring drive really but that gives me a lot of time to think. I also called my dad. I miss him a lot.

He said that he is doing well and always enjoys hearing about our travels. I didn’t have many travels to tell him about this time, but we talked about other stuff. He loves getting the postcards we send him and complained a little bit because he hadn’t gotten any for a couple of days. I have tried to send him one from each state that we’ve been to so now I guess I will get more specific and send some from the cities that we visit.

We delivered our spark plugs to the Chrysler plant the next morning and went to a truckstop to wait for another load. We didn’t have to wait too long we got a load picking up in Toledo, Ohio and going to Olive Branch, Mississippi which is just outside Memphis, TN. 

Once again I started the drive and Pops drove through the night. After that delivery we missed out on a good load going into Ontario, Canada. But ended up getting a transfer load picking up in Louisville, KY and going to Eagle Pass, TX.

A transfer load is one that we get from another truck and take to the final destination because they for some reason cannot complete the load.          We got to the Louisville Fedex terminal around 4pm and the other truck wasn’t scheduled in until about 10:30pm. So I husked some corn and cooked it up with some other stuff and we had supper and then I done the dishes. I took the dogs outside and we stayed out of the truck for a few hours while Pops tried to catch up on some sleep. I talked to my dad again on the phone and then called and talked to Starla also.

When the other truck got there we pulled around to the docks and prepared to transfer the load. That is when the other drivers, Fred and Mary, noticed that one of the crates had fallen apart and the contents were spilled. Well the guys decided that they would try to re-nail the crate and stack the freight back inside. It was heavy cast iron pieces, and the crates were made out of ¼ inch fir strips. What junk! So I took several pictures. The dock workers at the freight company brought some rachet straps over and put around the damaged crate and bound everything together. Then made the transfer from Fred’s truck to ours.

I stayed outside the dock with Fred’s wife, Mary. She is funny and I was glad to get to know another Fedex couple.

Once the transfer was complete and the pictures were emailed to Fedex we got on our way. It was going to be a 30 hour trip.

Eagle Pass is on the south western side of Texas right at the Mexican border. Our load was going into Mexico, so we were carrying it to another transfer place. We did negotiate the load pay up enough that we could deadhead back to San Antonio. Our truck owners live there and we needed new tires so we were meeting them and they were going to get new tires on the truck.

I was hoping that we would go through Houston and across Texas because then we would get to go through Louisiana but that is not the way we were routed. We were routed back through Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Texarkana, Dallas, Waco, Austin, San Antonio and into Eagle Pass.

I don’t really care for the trip through Arkansas, honestly I think it is boring but I like Texas so I enjoyed that part although once through Dallas it got dark and so I didn’t get to look around much. Pops started the drive after passing through San Antonio. We had less than 3 hours drive left and about 7 hours to get there so we did get about 3 hours sleep in a non-moving truck. That is always good.

When I woke up we were at the delivery and Pops was out of the truck. So I got dressed and made some coffee and then we were finished and pulling away. We could see the Mexican border and their big flags flying in the breeze. On the way back up route 35 we got to the border inspection site and they checked us and our truck with drug sniffing dogs.

We made it back to San Antonio by lunch time and met up with our truck owners. While the tires were being put on we went to lunch. I ordered a patty melt and French fries. When the waitress brought our food I asked her for some vinegar for my fries and she gave me the strangest look. When she brought it back she asked if I was going to dip my fries and I told her, “no, I’m going to pour it on them.” Well, you should have seen the look on her face, it was priceless. Our truck owners had not heard of this either so Shirley asked if she could dip hers in the vinegar and try it. She must not have liked it though because she only dipped one.

After we got our tires and told Tate and Shirley goodby we headed to Houston to wait out our layover.  We got there around supper time. I made us some vegetable soup. What a dumb thing to make when the temps are hovering around 100 degrees at 10pm. Oh well, it was good.

There were a few load offers that we would have liked to have the next day but we didn’t get them and there were a few that we didn’t want at all. Finally around 3pm a load came that we wanted. It was a load picking up in Dallas and going to Kansas. It paid pretty well. So we accepted and got the load but less than 2 minutes later it cancelled. We were paid $47 for the dry run and placed at the back of the pack that was here in Houston waiting for a dispatch. Pops called our company and complained because we had lost our load status and hadn’t even moved our truck. So we were given our load status back, which put us as the number 2 truck when loads were offered.

There was a man in a pickup truck parked next to us at the Flying J truckstop. He was on his computer for 2 days. He had a cat in there too. The back end of his truck was full of all kinds of belongings. We think that he lived in his truck at the Flying J. He was there the whole time we were playing on his computer the whole time. He would turn his truck around in the morning so that the sun was shining on the back of his truck and then around 1pm would turn it around again so that the sun would not shine into his truck, strange. The cat jumped in and out of the truck window whenever it wanted to. We never saw him get out of his truck except to get a can of sardines out of the back or get something to drink from a cooler in the back.

It was Friday and I figured that we were probably here for the weekend so I made supper of steak, baked potatoes and salad, along with apple pie for dessert. Banquet makes good little pies that can be “baked” in the microwave and they aren’t bad really, although apple is my least favorite. I like the berry ones.

At 6pm est,  a load offer came picking up in Seguin which is near San Antonio and going to Laredo, TX. We really would’ve liked to gotten out of Texas but at this point thought that we were done for the week so we accepted the load as kind of a bonus run for the week. So we packed up our belongings and got moving. Of course it was rush hour through Houston and Katy. But once I made it through all that traffic it was a pretty good trip.

At one point I saw a bird in the air. It seemed to be having trouble flying and as we got closer I could see that it was carrying a snake, a pretty long snake and the snake was trying hard to escape. Once the bird got the snake under control, it flew better. That was really cool to see.

And then I saw in a field 6 elk. They were right along the road. They were behind a fence so I assume someone was raising them but who knows. That was cool to see too.

We did get to our pickup and they were laughing because we were going to Laredo. Apparently no one wants to go there. Oh boy, well, we’ll see.

We did get to sleep again for a few hours in an unmoving truck and then Pops drove us there this morning while I finished sleeping.

It wasn’t a bad place really. Except hardly any English was spoken.

On the way out of there we stopped at a really nice rest area. It was decorated with colored Spanish tiles and it had many fish ponds. It was beautiful. We got a nice packet of brochures for just about anything there is to do in Texas.

We made it back to San Antonio which is our place of layover. We went in to get something to eat and while eating a gang of motorcycle riders came in. There was a man with them that had on a big tall witches hat. I kid you not! And no one batted an eyelash. And then there was a woman with them wearing a bandana around her head and when she walked past I noticed that she had a tail! A tail!!! She had a raccoon tail coming out of her behind. I almost spit coffee all over the place. Well I tried desperately to get a picture of that but I couldn’t.  Oh my oh my. Well I’m going back to my truck now, this place is strange.

When I passed on to my daughter and son-in-law what we had seen they wanted to know what drugs I was on, but come on you couldn’t make this stuff up.

When we got back to our truck a man came around like a traveling bake sale. He was selling banana bread to help his church which helps get drug addicts off the street, cleans them up and gives them somewhere to live while getting them clean. So we bought 2 loaves. What would Jesus do?

We plan on going to church tomorrow and then the Alamo and the Riverwalk and then I seriously want to find a real Texas barbeque to eat. But who knows? We are so unpredictable.

Some pix

Sitting next to an airport

Peacock at the Jackson, MS truckstop

For my friend, Jeff. He was at the Laredo rest area. I couldn't resist.

Laredo Rest Area

Fishponds at the Laredo rest area

Laredo rest area also



Texas always has the best clouds, really. Feel free to "borrow" this picture if you want.



I love Texas road systems!

Church Service

While Pops slept on Saturday Evening trying to catch up on some much needed sleep I looked in the directory for a church. There was only one listed for Cedar Rapids and no one answered the phone there. They did give a web address for their website so I looked it up and found out service times and directions.
Pops roused a little while later long enough for me to tell him that I had found a church.
So I set my phone alarm for 6:45am and we both fell asleep.
I woke up in the morning and looked at my watch and it was 7:41. Oh no, we slept in. Well there is no point in rushing around, we just weren't going to make Sunday School.
And then I wondered why my alarm hadn't gone off so I checked my phone. And then it dawned on me that we were on Central Time Zone. I still had 2 minutes until 6:45. Okay, good.
So I got up and took the dogs out for a walk while the coffee was dripping.
Pops and I got ready for church and then sat and relaxed with our coffee until time to pull out.
We found the church easily. It was only 2.2 miles from where we were.
We again took the dogs out for a minute and then went inside.
There were coffee, donuts, cookies and bagels right inside the door. We were offered whatever we would like. Well, I would like some more coffee and they had that delicious hazelnut creamer that I like but don't ever buy.
We were told which direction to go to find our Sunday School class.
When we got to class there were several people there already and the teacher said that they always start by going around the table and finding out how each person's week went. So we listened and when it was our turn we informed them of our long frustrating week. And then the teacher prayed for each person there. It was nice.
Then we got started on the lesson. We were discussing 2 Peter chapter 2. It is Peter's warning about false teachers. It was a good study and Pops and I both particapated in the discussion. We were given travel mugs as a souvenier of our visit there. Nice.
After Sunday School we went to the auditorium for worship.
Once again there services very much resembled ours back at Wills Mt. except for they took their communion as it was passed which a lot of churches do.
I enjoyed the praise team leading the music and they had a nice mix of contemporary and old hymns.
The youth minister which they called, "Next Generations Minister," got up and gave a little talk on a recent mission trip to Colorado that the youth had taken. It sounded very interesting.
Then the preacher got up to speak. His name is Bill Holley. We met him in Sunday School. He got right to the sermon which was Genesis chapter 26 about Jacob and Esau.
He preaches on book of the Bible at a time and in order. I like that. That way the audience can always have a heads up and study ahead if they want and also you can't ever feel like the preacher is preaching "at you." If you are convicted by a sermon then for sure it is the Holy Spirit convicting you.
Anyway he spoke of how each of these family member of Abraham were deceiving and dysfunctional. And yet how most were considered to be Godly, even patriarchs.
We all have the option of being good or not, we all influence others each and every day. When you look in the mirror do you see the good person or a bad person? Which person does the world see? Hmmm, there is a lot there for me to think about.
I want the world to see the good in me, I want to always be a positive role model and good influence, but I am human and I fail. And usually those close to me, such as my husband and family see the "real" me more often than anyone else does.
The preacher also said something that I grabbed on to. He said, he wanted his children to love God and have a good relationship with God inspite in him. I want to say the same thing, I want Starla, Tom and Drew to love God and have a good relationship with God inspite of me.
After church we said goodbyes and went to the truck.
We were changing our clothes and trying to locate a laundramat when the preacher and his wife came over and invited us to their home for dinner. Oh how I wish we could go but laundry HAD to be done and what if we get a load offer and can't stay anyway. We explained our situation and they directed us to a laundrmat.
We just got all the clothes washed, dried, folded and almost put away when we did if fact get a load.
See, story of our lives. We sit and sit with nothing to do and as soon as we meet someone nice and want to be able to do something we get a load. Oh well, I'm thankful for our job. It is good.

Eastview Christian Church

Eastview Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Fighting Deer

These are the fighting deer I talk about below. I wish we would have been better at blocking the glare. We tried, lol.

This has been the worst week of our job

Oh it seems like we sat in New Hampshire forever, although it is a very pretty place to wait. I did get tired of being there. We just wanted to work. What is going on? I cannot believe we are so close to Boston and not getting anything.
Then Monday late afternoon we did get a load picking up in Norwich, CT and going to Dallas, TX. We didn't really think going to Texas was a good idea for loads but at the same time we couldn't pass up this load and risk not getting one at all.
So I started the drive and of course, it was rush hour all through the state of Connecticut. And we all know that rush hour means you don't move very fast at all. So down through Bridgeport and again at New Haven we stopped and started and stopped again until we inched our way across CT. I did manage to get a peek at the ocean every once in a while as we passed through there.
Finally we got through the state of NY and into PA and there Pops and I switched driving. I stayed awake the rest of the way through PA and for the 12 miles of MD and the 26 miles of WV that we traveled through on I 81. Then I went to the bunk, exhausted.
When I woke up we had already gone down and then across the state of VA and we were near Crossville, TN. Pops got us to a Walmart and then after picking up a few items, I began my day driving again.
I drove through Nashville, I just love that AT&T building there, and then through Jackson, and then on into Memphis, across the Mississippi River and into Little Rock, AR. Somewhere around that time we switched driving again.
VA and TN take a long time to travel through, it seems.
When I woke up the next morning we were already unloaded at the place of delivery and Pops was looking for a truckstop for us to head to. We took our time and drank some coffee and read our Bible and prayed before we got moving.
I love it that we can read and study together and pray together finally after all these years. It is the most enjoyable part of my day.
So we found a truckstop at Rockwall, TX to wait out our layover. It was Wednesday morning. We were 12 miles from Dallas. Surely we will be out of here by noon. Hah, we waited and we waited and we waited and did not get any load offers until 4:30 in the afternoon and it was snatched up by another truck before we even got it read the whole way through.
We did not see another load offer that day or by noon of the next day. So Pops sent a message to our company asking if something was wrong that we weren't seeing loads. They replied that they were working on something for us. But by now we were one of 21 vehicles in Dallas, just our company, not to mention the competitors, waiting for a load.
We tried to be patient and keep busy. It wasn't easy to keep from irritating each other especially since the outside temps were 106- 107 and we had to stay in the truck.
By the next day at noon we had received another 3-4 offers but we watched each one be snagged by someone else even though we were supposed to be the top truck.
Then around 2:00 we did get a load, a pretty good one too. It picked up in Lewisville, TX (just north of Dallas) and was going to LaCrosse, WI. We were so happy to get moving.
We made our pickup in Lewisville and routed ourselves toward WI. Our Qualcomm computer in the truck wasn't working. The whole system was down we were told and no idea when it would be fixed. Great! So we had no idea about any of the details of our load or our trip. But it was a long way to Wisconsin so we could use a map and follow the interstates and then worry about when we got closer. It did help that we would be traveling Route 35N for almost the entire way.
I watched the dried up cornfields of Texas pass by and then watched the dried up cornfields of Oklahoma pass by and then we entered Kansas and again mile after mile of dried up cornfields. Wow, what is this going to do to our already messed up economy? How sad to see the farmers baling up the dried corn. At one point along the way we saw a wildfire burning up everything along the highway. You could see the smoke from miles away. Boy, do they need rain here. Pray for rain for Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
Once we reached Iowa though the corn looked amazing. It was fresh and green and oh so tall. It was also good in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We saw so much good corn there. Of course we had to stop so I could buy some. Umm Umm, I love fresh corn. There's nothing better. Oh yeah, I bought some tomatoes and zucchini too.
The Mississippi River Valley around LaCrosse, WI was the most beautiful place we have been to in a long time. It was so green and fertile looking and the people enjoying the water and the parks made us want to linger there. But wouldn't you know it, when we wanted to spend some time we got sent away from there for our layover. We were going to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for layover. Oh well, LaCrosse I hope we get to come back here before winter.
But while we were there we needed a slight repair and went to the repair shop. While we were there Pops found out about their farm and the large deer that were there.
We had seen on the internet a picture of two very large bucks that had been fighting and got their antlers tangled together and couldn't get apart so that neither could eat or drink and they both ended up dying. Well, these deer were here. They were found on their farm and were here at the shop. So Pops and I tried to take a picture but the glare is pretty bad. You can see it a little bit. But what a small world that they were here.
Anyway we made our way back to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Along the way Pops and I saw several cropdusting airplanes and one helicopter. They are so much fun to watch. They swoop and dive and then climb into the air only to do it again, with long trails of smoky dust following behind.
And then finally to Walmart at Cedar Rapids. Pops was so tired that he fell asleep while eating supper. It reminded me of when my kids were small and fell asleep in their highchairs.
So I sit and wait.