Trip Log - Days 3 & 4

7/3/07
6:00 AM – Woke up in time to walk over to MacDonald’s to get Egg MacMuffins for breakfast. I knew it might be a while before we stopped for food again, so I ordered two. We brought them back to the truck to eat with our own drinks. It is so nice to have a refrigerator in the truck. Cold Diet Pepsi anytime I want it. The Egg MacMuffins had absolutely no flavor. I guess with all the changes trying to make fast food healthier they forgot it still needs to taste good. Of course we ate them anyway and left about 7 AM to deliver our load at the Little Rock National Airport.

9:00 AM – We are just now leaving Little Rock. Per usual the guy unloading said he didn’t know we were coming and needed to go get a boom truck to take the poles off our truck. Said it would take him about 30 – 45 minutes to go get it. Of course, as I figured it would, it was over an hour before he got back. We delivered 11 poles here…the load is shrinking. We are on our way to Windsor, MO.

Later – We drove through the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Gave Carl a chance to break in the new break pads he had put on his truck. We only smelled them once, so he did a good job keeping the truck under control while going down several really steep grades.

1:00 PM – Drove through Branson, MO today. It didn’t look like I’ve been missing anything by not ever going there. I can’t imagine having a lot of fun watching variety shows…but, to each his own. A few minutes later we drove by the exit to Forsythe, MO and waved to the Blackstock’s. Would have loved to see Aunt Connie’s new home, but we didn’t have time, two more deliveries to make today before 6PM. After we drop off one pole and a box in Windsor, we will be beating it up to Olathe, KS. After we get the last stop off, I am really hoping to find a Wal-Mart. I just figured out we probably won’t get a shower until morning, but at least I can count on one tomorrow.

2:25 PM – I have just determined we have officially driven through the “middle of no where.” After leaving Springfield, MO we got on MO-13 and have seen virtually nothing all the way through here except a dead cow in the median all swelled up. I am having a really, really hard time even staying awake!

3:30 PM – We have found the next stop. The guy wanted us to take it out to his house in the country. He said the job site was too small to get a truck into. He assured Carl there was a crossroads about a mile past his house out on a very narrow dirt road. We left the light pole by his mailbox and continued up the road looking for the crossroads to turn around at. Over 3 miles later we gave up and Carl maneuvered his truck back into another very narrow dirt road to our left, just missing a fence in the front yard of someone’s house. I bet, if they were home, they were wondering what a semi-truck was doing way out their road. I know the two guys working on the road scrapper were confused when we drove past them.

6:30 PM – We made it to Olathe, KS and located the place to deliver our next pole. It was out in a new industrial park so Phoenix and I got out and walked around while Carl unloaded and resecured the load. I ask him to see if the guy we delivered to could tell us were the nearest Wal-Mart was. Thankfully he knew of one on our route to Denver that was just 30 minutes up the road. We found it and spent about an hour picking up the few things on our list…and a few extra things as usual.

8:00 PM – Just after we got onto the Turnpike in Kansas (I-70) we saw some really dark smoke ahead. We were glad to find it was on the other side of the road, so we weren’t delayed. As we got nearer we started seeing huge flames. As we passed we realized it was a mini-van engulfed in flames. It had just happened. The only cop on the scene didn’t even have any lights on his car. I was impressed to see that he had still stopped the traffic that was going over 70 mph and had them lined up in the right hand lane so that emergency vehicles could get up to the burning vehicle.

As we came into Topeka, KS we started seeing lots of big fireworks. They looked beautiful out over the city. I told Carl that was my favorite way to view fireworks…sitting in an air-conditioned vehicle. As we were leaving Topeka I spotted a giant gorilla. (No I wasn’t hallucinating) It was all lit up, holding its arms up as if it was going to grab a car and eat it. Down below it was a tent selling fireworks. I bet they get a lot of attention.

10:00 PM – We finally found a truck stop with one lonely park in Willard, KS. We are just an hour and a half from where we had planned on driving, but are all tired and ready for bed. Carl and I ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches with milk for dinner and are more than ready for bed. We don’t get to lie up in the sleeper all day, like Phoenix.




7/4/07 – Independence Day
8:00 AM – We all slept in this morning. It sure felt good! We all dressed for the 4th including Phoenix, with her flag bandana.



9:45 AM – Had a beautiful drive to Salina, KS this morning. Stopped for fuel and showers…only cost us $398.91 today. Do you think they will give us two showers for that?

10:45 AM – A shower never felt so good! They even had a blow drier, so I was able to make my hair look a little more normal than it has in the last couple of days. We lucked up and stopped at a truck stop where they had just remodeled. The showers looked like something from a resort and were VERY clean. I complimented the lady who cleans them and she gave me a tour of their shower room for Platinum Club members. It had a TV that was projected on the mirror and the shower had a special ceiling that made it feel like it was raining or you could use just the regular shower head. I ask Carl why he wasn’t a Platinum Club member. He said he didn’t buy enough fuel from the Petro stations to become a member – 15, 000 gallons a year minimum. Carl picked up a truck stop guide so we could see what was on our route. He had wanted to buy one for a while so this gave him an excuse. It will come in handy when deciding where to stop for lunch. I like it because it told if there was a Wal-Mart near each of the truck stops. He also found some short sleeved work shirts he liked for $7.00 a piece. I encouraged him to get a few, so he ended up with two navy and a dusty green one.

12:15 PM – After reviewing the truck stop guide we decided to stop at Hayes, KS exit because it had several restaurants within walking distance. BIG mistake, so much construction we could hardly get off and back on. Also, from the one fuel stop it was quite a ways to walk to Applebee’s or Golden Corral and getting ready to rain. We decided to go on about 50 miles to WaKeeney exit.

1:00 PM – Good decision…the exit at WaKenney had a little fuel stop. It was a BP station with a 24/7 restaurant. We went in and looked at the buffet and decided we would get it. They had things you would get at a 4th of July picnic…Fried chicken, hamburgers, hotdogs, pork & beans, deviled eggs, corn on the cob, watermelon, etc. After lunch I looked around the store for a minute and Carl went on out to the truck to walk Phoenix. She has figured out how to get back up in the truck without his help and only needs a little help to jump out. When I got back they were just getting back to the truck and had picked me a piece of Kansas wheat from the field next to the parking lot. It was so pretty, I love the look of wheat up close.



2:00 PM – We are on our way again, more open fields for as far as the eye can see. Yesterday, when we were in Wal-Mart, we picked out a small toy for Phoenix. It is just a little yellow plastic monster, but if she steps on it or sits on it, it will squeak as she lets up. The first time it happened, it scared her and she looked back at it, like it was alive. She is starting to get use to it, but when she got up this morning it surprised her again.

6:45 PM – We have arrived in Denver, CO. Made excellent time today because it was all Interstate and we could run 70 mph. When we were coming into town we could see the airplanes arriving and departing from the Denver Airport. In just a couple of minutes we spotted over 20. They were coming in two at a time with two more right behind them. Crissy sent us a list of all the 4th of July festivities that are being held in this area. We are actually parked at a truck stop in Aurora, CO and one of the fireworks displays on her list is right next to this truck stop. We hope we will be able to see it all from the truck because we are facing that way. My favorite way to view fireworks…sitting in an air conditioned vehicle. The trick will be staying up long enough to see them. They start at 9:30 PM which is 10:30 central time. Not sure we will make it!