New photos!

ok ok, it's been a long time since I've updated with new stories and photos but it's been a busy two weeks. I went up to oregon then down to the bay area and tracy, california. I picked up a load of General Mills Cereals like Lucky Charms and I delivered it to Durant, Oklamhoma. It was a great trip out there through, Arizona, New Mexico and texas. Lots of new sites to see and a lot and a lot of desert. Anyways enjoy the photos!!!


New Mexico's State Capital.





My first night into the trip back east. Seligman, Arizona Exit 123 on I-40





Jumping back to a couple days earlier, a nasty foggy day on top of Ashland Grade in Oregon.





Somewhere in Colorado...




To go along with those Giant Coyotes in Wyoming and Cow's in Texas, heres a giant Dino from Arizona... or could it be new mexico...? Oh well =)






Ever wonder what the bottom of a Mobile home looked like? Here ya go...





My favorite part of going to Bend, Oregon. From a week or so earlier... Grass Lake.






After driving through Oklahoma for awhile and seeing the normal farms and grasslands this was quite a shock. I rounded a turn and came upon this... A HUGE lake. Lake Texoma. If I had a boat I'd love to take it here...





A Storm rolls in to Muskogee, Oklahoma at the Pilot.



Earlier today in Wyoming. 43 degrees the day before Memorial day? hmm...





Wow, TONS of Memorial Weekend traffic. I 70 outside of Denver were PACKED with travelers.... NOT!





Check out this thing. It was HUGE. Counldn't really figure out what it was or where all the drivers went ( no one was around) but I bet this thing would be really cool to drive...



Anyways, until next time be safe!

Chris

I've had a great couple of days...

I was so excited to come home last week and I decided to lounge around and relax. I sure did! Olivia and I went swimming and for dinner we went downtown to the Pyramid Brewery. We attempted to wash the truck but we decided that paying 20 something bucks to get it washed professionally is the way to go... Olivia got her new car when I was gone. A 2006 Scion TC which is so nice and is a nice change from her gas guzzling lifted chevy tahoe. If I had one of those cars I'd get in so much trouble... That thing handles curves like it's on rails! Anyways, I'm not exactly sure where I'm going tomorrow but the next time I get some internet access I'll be back with some photos and some new stories!

Over n out...

Chris

Big hills and lots of them...

Back in Salt Lake City.....agian. From Denver I headed over to Oregon with a heavy load of Purina Dog food. Dropped that at the Walmart in Herminston, Oregon. I made a newbie mistake. I dumped my airbags to get out from underneath a heavy trailer like I always do only this time I got stuck in one of the many ditches that fill the drop yard. I was able to dig myself out of the hole quickly but I forgot to flip the switch to supply the bags with air. I Bobtailed around the rough yard with my bags drained and in the proccess popped all four bags off their seals...oooops. Had to get a repair guy out to re-seat them all. I learned my lesson. I grabbed an empty and drove to Lewiston, Idaho to pick up some paper products to take to Salt Lake. I ended up parked on the side of the road last night but it was really nice night. Warm and really pretty... (see below). After I drop this load tomorrow morning I'm picking up a load of Athletic Equiptment and taking it to Fontana near LA and then a load back home! I can't wait. It's been 3 weeks since I've been home and I'm ready to relax for a couple days until I'm ready to come back out here!





It took me almost 30 minutes to go down this hill. It's a lot steeper than it looks. Going down in 6th or 7th gear with the jakes on high took awhile. I totally was not expecting it along with the real tight and twisty turns. Although the drive was beautiful, crusing along the river rapids and small towns off US95.





Cabbage Hill. I've heard stories about this and it wasn't as bad as I expected although I know it must be one heck of a different story during the winter...




I thought Colorado was full of forests and mountain streams? Not South Eastern Colorado...




Rolling hills of Idaho.





I think those lights in the mudflap are pretty damn cool...

It's break time...

I'm in Denver, Colorado right now. I delivered in Loveland at the Walmart Distribution Center and headed to downtown Denver to the Purina Dog Food factory. I was supposed to pick up a load going to Hermiston, Oregon but something went wrong in the factory yesterday and everything has been pushed back 24hrs. For some reason I was really tired this morning and I ended up sleeping through two alarms for almost an hour... whoops. Not bad though, I arrived in town 3 days before my delivery date so all is well. Anyways, heres some photos that have been sitting on my camera for awhile. From about two weeks ago.



In the forest heading toward Eugene, OR along highway 126.




Sparkly Clean wheels after a quick polish and wash in Portland, Oregon.




The cockpit taken with my fisheye just for you tracy... =)





Welcome to my room...

North to Colorado!

You know that Johnny Cash song named "I've been everywhere"? I'm getting there. I've been all around texas the last couple days. Last night I dodged some tornados and the biggest lightning storm I've seen for a long time. It was real cool watching the light show for a couple hours last night because we sure don't have lightning like that back home. Three tornados touched down 40 miles west of me last night and then headed southeast around me. I was spared but I was nervous. I had the XM radio weather channel on, the weatherband station and the tv going with the news. All is well now and I made my deliveries and pick up's this morning with only the normal problems. Seems like I have some bad luck with finding highway on ramps going the direction I want. For example today I wanted to go north on 35. THe only on ramp was going south. Now do I go south and take a chance getting off the road and turning around at some exit further down, or continue down the road that the customer was off of. I picked the last one and After awhile the road started going downtown... Which is defiently somewhere I didn't want to go. So I pulled one of my famous U-turns. So far in the last couple months since I started driving I've pulled quite a few even in my hometown of sacramento....doh! Lesson learned, don't talk on the phone while trying to find a customer... haha.

Anyways the internet connection here is e..t...r....e...m...e...l...y slow and that doesn't really work well with uploading some photos, well to be exact about 30 of them. So I'll post a couple favorites now and the rest the next time I'm in a truckstop.

Theres nothing like driving down the road looking straight down a barrel of a tank.... Somewhere in New Mexico




Going through El Paso, Texas. One side is the USA the other side of the river is mexico...




Remember that huge coyote I posted earlier from my trip through Wyoming, well heres the Texas equivlent. One of those huge rare Long horns. I guess it's true how everything is bigger is Texas. Also, notice those clouds. Shortly after that I hit a real nice thunderstorm. While not as exciting as the one I was in last night in Dallas, it did clean my truck off pretty good.




Finally those blue skies that I've been hoping for. Taken earlier today heading north on US287 towards Amarillo,TX





One of the many dust tornado's twirling around in New Mexico.

Quickly checking in...

It's been awhile since I've updated but it's been a hard couple of days. I left Sacramento and drove to the Grapevine where I slept for a couple hours so that I could get up at 11pm and deliver at 2am near Santa Ana, just south of Los Angeles. From there I went to the gordon yard and waited around for two days to get some work done. Quite funny how they brought me into the shop at 10am on monday and I sat there right until 5pm when they said that I had to move out since the shop was closing... no work was done. hmmm........................ So I drove back into the shop the next morning and they worked on my truck for an hour and said I was could leave. Now I was excited that I could get back out there on the road, but my load didn't arrive in the yard until 11pm... Another day of sitting around twiddling my fingers. When I my load arrived I got the heck out of town and drove for 7 hours to Tuscon Arizona. That was my first all night driving experience and I can't really say that it was my favorite but that's truckin' for you. In LA I had some idiot get upset with me so he decided to pull in front of me and brake check me (always a smart thing to do to a big truck... yeah right) on purpose and then agian a bit later someone threw some rocks at me through their sunroof and then flip me the bird... how nice! I made it here safely and things have gotten better. I finished my last drop at a costco here and I went to eat at a Cracker Barrel restraunt. I haven't been to one of those since my mom and I used to take out cross country RV trips every summer.... Still the same and I really enjoyed it. I just woke up from a 16hr little nap and I'm picking up load which is going to a little teeny town south of Dallas, Texas. I'm happy and ready to get back out there on the road.


Not enough time to upload any photos right now but I will have some time either tonight or tomorrow so check back!