Texas to Georgia

We are now on our way through Atlanta taking a load from Riceboro, GA to the drop lot in Murray, KY. We have 9 rolls of paper in the back that weigh 5,000 lbs each. At the paper plant where we picked up the load, the air smelled horrible, and we think there must be some sort of chemical that settles out of the air because when the people that work there leave, they drive through a place that sprays their car off every day.

Now, backtracking a little… We went through our company headquarters, Colorado Springs, on our way to Texas. Our boss and his wife, Bill and Gayle, took us to dinner. We went to the Marigold on Cameron’s recommendation. It was pretty good, but I think it probably would have been better at lunch so Josh could have had soup in a bread bowl. Gayle gave Mitch a book and even read it to him at dinner.

That night we looked online to find where there was a church we could go to and found one in Walsenburg, CO that started at 1:00pm, so we drove that far, and parked for the night. The next day we took our time getting ready and then we drove to the church. We got there at about 12:45 and waited until 1:30, and no one showed up. I guess either the website had the wrong time, or they had stake conference or something. We were pretty disappointed though, especially after the fun we had in Pikeville.

New Mexico ranks among our favorite states to drive in. The roads are very smooth. Not like the motocross track roads in some of the other states that have jumps in the roads. We got lost on our way to the place to unload in El Paso. They gave us directions coming from the wrong way, and then used the wrong street name. After we crossed the border back into New Mexico, we called the company and got more correct directions, and turned around. Before we could get going again, we were stopped by a very long funeral procession. There were probably about 200 cars in it. We had to wait for 5-10 minutes for it to go by. Luckily, we were still able to get to the company on time.

People keep trying to run into us. In New Mexico, a pickup tried to merge onto the freeway, and never once looked to the left to see if it was clear. We had to hurry and move over so he didn’t hit us. He was probably only 6 inches away before he ever looked. Then just now, a lady in a car passed us in the left lane, and then tried to merge right into the front of the truck. Did she not see the big white semi as she drove past it?

In El Paso, we unload our load of sunflower seeds, took our empty trailer to a drop lot, and picked up a loaded trailer to take to Electrolux in Port Wentworth, GA (just north of Savannah). We had to drive our full 11 hours each day to get there in time, so we didn’t have time to stop and enjoy the scenery as much as we usually do.

The lady in the guardhouse in Port Wentworth hadn’t ever met anyone from Idaho before, and she asked Josh if everyone in Idaho dressed the same as him. She said he looked like a cowboy. He told her that he probably dressed that way more than most.

There are some funny signs in Georgia. Every few miles there is a sign that says, “Speed checked by detection devices”. What else would it be checked by? We decided that they must be really proud of their radar guns. The other funny sign we saw last night was when we were driving on the freeway in a place where the two sides of the freeway are divided by a large median with trees in the middle. There were two lanes going each direction. There was sign that said, “Trucks over 6 wheels must use 2 right lanes”. There were only two lanes to begin with! They have those signs every few miles throughout Georgia, but usually when there are three or more lanes. We thought it was pretty funny.

Lizzy is getting so big. She can drink water or milkshakes through a straw. She loves to eat big people food. Every time we eat, she will look up at the person holding her, and whine. If that doesn’t work, she starts arching her back and throwing a fit. She’s not even six months old yet! I think we’re going to have our hands full. Her hair is long enough to put up in a little ponytail on the top of her head. She’s pretty cute!

Mitchell always wants to play the arcade games at the truck stop. He is still to smart for his own good. He can count to 100, do simple addition, and this morning he started figuring out multiplication. He told me to ask him what 2+2+2 was, and when I did, he told me 6. I told him that was the same as 2x3, and he started doing other ones. Now he knows 2 x 1, 2, 3 and 4. He knows how to figure out other ones as well. He is doing really well learning to read too. I think he probably needs glasses, and when he gets them, I think his reading will really take off.

We are all still loving being on the truck, and we are planning on moving all our stuff from our house into a storage unit since we don’t plan on being home much. We can use our rent money a lot more wisely. We put in a home request yesterday, but we don’t know how long it will take them to find a load to there. They don’t normally haul to Idaho, so they will probably have to find us a load through a broker. I guess we’ll have to see what happens.