Salt Lake City

Well we arrived here in Salt Lake City on Wednesday morning and we weren't getting many load offers. We called to see if we could maybe be relocated to somewhere where maybe we could get moving faster. But we were told that February is a very slow month and that we probably should stay where we were.
We got a load offer that we were interested in and accepted it, but we ended up losing that load to another truck. It turned out that our load went to another truck owned by our owners. And the thing about it is, we were sitting in Salt Lake City and the other truck was almost in Las Vegas, NV. Why would a truck in Las Vegas get a load from Salt Lake when we were sitting right there? Needless to say, Pops and I were very upset. We were told that we needed to update some of our DOD information. Well, that took a whole 5 minutes to do so I don't understand our company's logic, but whatever.
The next day we were offered a short load, a less than 75 mile load. The rules are if you take a <75 mile load it makes you the number 1 truck for load offers so we thought it was good strategy for us.
It was a nice easy load and we were back to Salt Lake City a little after noon.
Later that day we got a really good load offer picking up at a nearby military base. We accepted the load, but didn't get it. Even though we were the "#1 truck" another truck got the load. So we called Fedex to find out now why we lost a load that should have been ours.
We were told this time that because our truck has a refrigerator unit on it (it doesn't work and Fedex knows that) the military would not load us. Many times explosives cannot go onto a reefer truck, but this was not an explovise load.
I'm sure you've heard the statement, You can't argue with City Hall, well you can't argue with Fedex either because you can't win. This profess sympathy but where does that get you?
Well, I was fuming by now and patience was almost gone. I told Pops that I wanted to move to another truckstop. I wanted to go to the TA truckstop 20 miles away. That is because we had enough driver points earned to give us a free steak dinner and it was weekend.
So we drove up to the other truckstop and the location was fabulous. We had the mountains right in front of our truck and the Great Salt Lake right behind us. Wow, it was great and that improved my mood a little.
We got settled in and tried to get our tv going. We have a satellite dish that we have to adjust and point each time we locate and it can be very tedious. Well, we tried and tried and could not get anything! Argh.
We called our owners and they told us to go the next morning to an RV place and get it fixed.
So the next morning we drove 11 miles to get our tv fixed. He cleaned up some corroded connectors and replaced one connector and still nothing, although he was right at the base of the mountains and he thought that perhaps they were blocking our signal. So we paid him and drove back to our truckstop.
We again tried the tv and voila, this time it worked. So now we could at least distract ourselves with mindless junk. hahaha and that is exactly what we did.
The next morning was Sunday and since there are only 3 Christian churches in the state of Utah and we opted not to attend the local morman congregation we listened to one of the CDs from our friend, Keenan's, home church. It was a sermon by PJ Sonnenberg and it was about being accountable to yourself, to others and most of all to God. It was a very good sermon.
After church we went to the restuarant for our free meal. I ordered the sirloin steak, baked potato, and vegetables. It also came with soup and salad bar. Pops ordered the country fried steak, baked potato, vegetables and soup and salad. It was so good. It usually takes us about a month to earn this kind of a meal. We earn points by getting fuel at the TA truckstop. We earn 1 point for each gallon of fuel that we buy. One point equals $1 and it can be used for anything in the restuarant or store. The Pilot truckstops do the same thing but most of them have Denny's restuarants that don't take our points, but the McDonald's, Subway, or Arbys or the Pizza place inside Pilot all do the same so we often get Subway or Pizza with our points from there.
After our meal we were stuffed and looking forward to relaxing and watching a good movie. We were all settled in when we received a load offer. It was picking up tonight and going to Berkeley, CA. So we accepted the load even though neither of us were rested or ready to go. We got the load.
It was picking up in Carlin, NV. It was a transfer load. The truck carrying this load broke down and couldn't meet the delivery deadline. So we met up with them and transferred the load. They were very nice and I felt sorry for them to lose this load, but they had already brought it clear from New Jersey, so it paid them well already.
Pops had slept for 3 hours while I drove to the transfer spot, so once we transferred he began to drive. I went to sleep. After about 3 hours I heard a voice I didn't recognize tell Pops that he needed to "chain up" for Donner Pass. Oh no, I knew what that meant. We were in for bad weather.
I got up immediately and Pops found a place in the chain up area for us to park. Neither he nor I have ever put chains on a vehicle although I had watched it done before. But like a good trooper he got out and dug the chains out of the side compartment. It began to snow.
He walked up to another truck and watched them put their chains on and they gave him some advice. He came back and worked on ours. After what seemed like a long time we had the chains on the truck and by then we had about 6 inches of snow.
Every vehicle driving over that pass was required to have tire chains including cars.
We proceeded up the mountain, and it was snowing so hard. I loved hearing the tinkling of the chains on the highway. The speed limit was now posted for 30mph. It took us almost 30 minutes to reach the peak. The elevation was over 7200 feet. Now we saw a sign telling us that the downgrade was for the next 40 miles!!!
40 miles of downgrade!?? Seriously, in this snow?
Well, Pops and our chains got the job done. I was so proud of him. I wasn't even nervous.
So after we got to the bottom he unchained us and we were on our way. Within 5 minutes after reaching the bottom, the roads were just wet and we didn't see anymore snow. So I felt confident enough to go back to sleep now.
In a little while I heard Pops call my name. We were within 10 miles of delivery and he wanted me to help guide him in. It went well and we got to see the San Fransisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.
We made our delivery and decided to get away from the city for our layover.
So now we are sitting at a Flying J truckstop near Sacramento, CA. The tv is working, Pops is sleeping and al is well. I wonder how long til we get another load. I hope we soon get back across all the mountains seperating us from the east.

Love this picture. It was shared by a good friend, Phil Hanze

This is so true!

Several more pics (Salt Lake City Area)

I saw this tree at our pickup location this morning. Do you see a face?

Mountains

We got a load that was picking up at Sea-Tac. That is the Seattle, Tacoma airport at the Fedex Hub. It was going to Los Angeles for the next day.
It was a pretty day and I was liking being in the pacific northwest. I love the forests. But we got moving and soon was driving through Seattle.
Mt. Ranier is probably the most famous mountain in the state of Washington and it is clearly visible from just about anywhere near Seattle. Although I tried very hard to get a good picture it wasn't easy. Remember we are always moving.
After we picked up our load and was traveling down the interstate it seemed like we no sooner lost sight of Mt. Ranier when we started to see Mt. St. Helens. The Cascade range was on our left side for most of our drive through Washington and then also through Oregon. It is a very snowy mountain range. I couldn't get any pictures of Mt. St. Helens.
But then Mt. Hood came into view. It was my favorite. It came up to a point and seemed to stand alone although I know better than that.
We continued to watch the beautiful forests of pines go by. The day was fantastic. It was sunny and the temperature was in the high 50's. We even saw people mowing their grass.
I saw field after field of sheep, thousands of sheep. Many of them with little ones running along side of them. Some the ewes had two or three little ones. What is it about little lambs that make you just want to pick them up and squeeze?
We were entering into northern California when I went to sleep.
When I woke up Pops told me that I missed some wonderful scenery especially in the Mt. Shasta area. He said that it was snowing and the mountain is very steep, but the moon was so bright and it illuminated the peaks of the mountains and was something to see even in the dark.
We reached Los Angeles the next afternoon. It was sunny and 76 degrees. We made our delivery and before we got moving we turned on our air conditioner.
Flowers and shrubs were blooming all over LA. Wow, it was gorgeous.
We were now on layover and were told to stay in LA. We are allowed to be within 50 miles when on layover so we decided to drive back the interstate in the direction that we had just come from because we saw a truckstop a ways back and it was mostly out of the city area.
But it was Superbowl Sunday and when we got back to that truckstop there was no where to park because everyone was in there watching the game. So we had to drive further. We ended up about 80 out of the city but our company allowed it once we explained what happened.
So we were on interstate 5 up in the mountains just outside LA. We spent all day Monday there and then got a load on Tuesday. It was picking up in LA and going to Salt Lake City, UT.
We picked up that load and got moving. Traffic was a little heavy but we still got out pretty easily.
We drove and drove and soon were traveling through Las Vegas, NV. It was dark and the city was all lit up.
It sure was something. It seemed that each casino was vying for your attention. Something somewhere was always flashing or shining. As we drove past the casino parking lots we saw thousands and thousands of cars. I could not believe my eyes. Why on earth so many people. I just hate the thoughts of what all goes on in this city.
I just wonder if God's angels could find just 10 righteous men....
We delivered in Salt Lake City and now are on layover. It isn't warm and I don't see any flowers but I do still see mountains, wonderful mountains rising up to the sky right in front of us.
It seems we've been west of the Rockies for a long time now. Wonder what is next?

Answer to a question

Just to answer a good recently asked question,
The colors in our map are significant. They represent different trips out. For instance all of the states colored green were the ones we visited on our very first trip out with Fedex. And then orange was our second trip out, we didn't get any new states our 3rd trip out. Pink is our 4th trip and yellow our 5th, purple our 6th, brown our seventh, and then this trip we got the turquoise.
As of now Fedex Custom Critical does not go into Mexico but we have been so close as to be within 100 yards at least twice.
There is usually only 1-2 Alaskan trips each year and I'm not sure that I would want to drive there.
So in 16 and 1/2 months we have been to all of the continuous states except Montana. And we have been to 5 Canadian provinces.
We have been to church in many of the states and now have friends all over the United States that continue to stay in contact with us.
Chucky and Lucy, our dogs, have been everywhere we have been. I believe they like a small area in the San Antonio area the best. Lucy, does not like sand. It is funny to watch their reaction when we leave a warm, dry area and end up the same day in a snowy area.
Bill and I have enjoyed each state. Every state has something unique and fascinating. We have our favorite places, but we like it all.
I have said it before and I'll say it again. This country is amazingly blessed by God. We need to preserve it and protect it and never take it for granted.

The rest of the trip

Right after that Pops began to drive and immediately it began to snow,....hard. We were almost to the summit of a mountain and we saw a jack knifed truck, but we were moving okay so we went right around it. But now we were going downhill. Pops downshifted and we went slowly down the mountain. By the time we reached the bottom we had seen six more trucks that was hung up and couldn't get up the mountain.
We were in Utah now and we stopped at a rest area. They had solar powered pole lights. I have not ever seen those before. I thought that was genius.
Then I went to sleep as Pops drove us through Utah.
When I woke up we had just entered into Idaho. He got a red light at one of the weigh stations and then they pulled us to the back. Oh no, what could the problem be?
Well, it turns out that we needed a special hazmat permit to travel through Idaho and our company had overlooked that detail. So we forked out the cost and were on our way. I emailed our company and informed them of what had happened and asked if we needed any other permits. It turns out that we did need one for British Columbia.
Then I began driving again. I drove us through Oregon across the Oregon trail on route 84. It was a great ride. Of course there was one huge mountain with a pass called, 'Deadman Pass.' At the top there were 3 different warning signs to descend in low gear. It was funny because the signs said, "this is your first warning, descend in low gear." "this is your second warning..." "This is your third and final warning, ..." Well, it was pretty evident why as soon as I reached the first turn. It is called Cabbage Hill and it is very high and very steep and the whole way down you can see out over for what seems like infinity. It really was more beautiful than scary this time and besides I was only going 37 mph.
So I continued through Oregon and on into Washington.
Pops finally started to drive after I crossed the very high Mt. Baker. It has a ski resort called, "Snowqualmie." I believe it boasted an elevation of 11,900ft. So I was glad to turn over the wheel.
We drove through Washington past Seattle and into British Columbia with no more issues. We spent the night at our delivery site and then made our delivery early the next morning and was back to Seattle by lunch time.
We found a truckstop at the base of Mt. Baker and parked for layover. It was awesome to look out the windshield and windows and see such big mountains rising all around us. What a great job.

Some more pictures

I recently got an email from a dear friend who happens to be an evangelist (he is also a very faithful reader of our blog). He informed me that he had lifted some pictures from our blog to use for his power point presentations. I think that it is funny that he confessed this to me and he did offer to not use them if I minded.
I am flattered that he wants to do this. If my pictures can be used in service for the Lord, well that is great!