Friday 17th January
As dawn broke in front of us the blue sky was streaked with purples, oranges and reds. Yesterday morning we'd picked up a load of beef from High River (oh the smell, i had to bury my nose in my t-shirt, we won't be eating beef for a few days) This morning we travelled down through customs and meat inspection at Sweetgrass. Across Montana on H2, stopping at Havre for our shopping, the landscape was flat, not much snow about but plenty of ice. We stayed the night at Wolf Point.
Saturday 18th
We were surrounded by snowy hills, the sun a ball of fire, you could feel the heat through the windscreen. Jets left their telltale mark of white feather like trails in the pale blue sky. Into North Dakota on I94. We stopped at the Flying J at Beach to fuel up and have a shower. We passed "Home on The Range" it seemed ages ago that i had first entered that in the blog. The sun stayed with us low and bright, it was -4, we drank hot chocolate and stared at the views around us, North Dakota was one of our favourites. By the time we arrived in Fargo winter was upon us once more, the sky was white, the landscape white and the roads were completely covered, it was only 4pm but that was it for today, it was early for us, after tea we would watch "The Walking Dead"
Sunday 19th
Into Minnesota, the sky was a mass of orange dimpled cloud stretched across as far as the eye could see. A blanket of white surrounded us. At first light we'd seen deer in the woods, it was lovely seeing them like this, christmas card stuff, we usually saw them at this time of the morning. Thin cloud unfurled towards us and it looked like the sky was on fire. The sun appeared bright orange and glowing, all the colours disappeared. We were stopping soon for breakfast, a rest area near Alexandria, the snow was so deep here i had to walk maddy around the outside. We had 500 miles to do today, no problem there, the forecast was light snow, no problem there either after what we had drive through last week. The roads were quiet, soon, as we passed through small towns we would see the churches filling up with people, car parks crammed with 4x4's
pickups and the odd cadillac, even a group of small homesteads would have their own house of religion, their were some pretty strange ones. We'd often seen Hutterites in walmart, the women with their long shapeless dresses and headscarfs, the men in their homemade suits and black hats. In the restroom the women would just stand and stare at you, very unnerving (and they speak to each other in a different language) and the men would be waiting right outside the door for them. By 10am we were in Minneopolis. We had a bit of time today so dave was driving through the centre so we could see the city. The skyscrapers against the blue sunny sky was like a postcard. What a shame we did'nt get to stop and explore these places, Las Vegas was the only city we knew that had a truck stop in its centre. The Mississipi was frozen and covered in snow. Into Wisconsin, still on I94. I can't believe how quickly we move from state to state. All the weigh stations had been closed since we set off from Sweetgrass, this was very strange usually some diehard was out to catch an overweight truck! We came across a roundabout! our second, the only other one we knew of was in Billings. We stopped for lunch at Osseo, across from the truck park was an old grain store/barn, it had been converted to a shop selling antiques, wine and cheese. While dave took maddy for a walk down the lane i went inside, old crates storing wine and a long counter with a selection of cheeses. I picked a blueberry cheddar and an apple and cinnamon of which was recommended by the owner. No antiques as such as it means secondhand over here, old bottles and jars, windowframes and old petrol cans, not upholstered chairs and delicate china. We passed a few lakes with big groups of people icefishing, they even had their pickups on the ice! unbelievable! The sun was going down behind us all we could see were light purples. We would be at our destination about 5pm to unload early tomorrow. It had been a strange day, we'd driven through two states.
Monday 20th
It was Martin Luther King day, a holiday. We unloaded in a small place called Butler. With the light snow falling this morning it reminded us of Bedford Falls from "Its A Wonderfull Life". After having the trailer washed out we headed for Little Chute near Greenbay on H41. A Nestle plant to pick up frozen pizzas, apparently they had meat on them so we might have to go to meat inspection after the border crossing. We'd noticed alot of places ie. shopping malls, housing estates, companies even some truckstops, had the american flag flying, it looked great, some were huge, what a shame we did'nt do this with the union jack. Arriving at Little Chute the temperature dropped to -9. After dave had braved the cold and changed our empty trailer with the loaded one we were away, down to Appleton taking H10 to Stevens Point, then I39 to Wausau,
picking up H29 to Eau Claire to join the I94.
Tuesday 21st
-30 when we got up. Dave took truck over near Flying J for me to dash in and use the restroom. We'd had a shower last night thankgoodness! We knew it was cold as all the trucks engine steam was white. Hopefully the sun would come out and warm things up. Into Minnosta making our way back to Fargo on I94. We were headed for Winnipeg, hopefully the meat inspection would be a skip or we would have to drive to Saskatoon like last time, madness! The night heater in the truck was really good but we had to turn this off to start the engine, it took ages for the heat to start coming through. Stopping for breakfast near Monticello a few hours later the temperature had dropped to -32, luckily there was no wind. At Alexandria we did the last of our shopping for the holiday, soft drinks, cheeses, crisps and of course "twinkies" We more or less ran across walmarts carpark with our trolleys to the truck, daves hands had started to hurt, i had my gloves on! It was 11am and the temp was -25. We'd heard on the radio about a snow storm over New York and Philadelphia, it was called "Janice". The Superbowl was on in New York this weekend between the Broncho's and the Pittsberg Steelers. It was going to be so cold for everyone, the cheapest tickets were $3,000 up in the nosebleeds! and the most expensive were a million dollars! After fueling up at Fargo we were back in North Dakota on I29, making our way to the border at Emerson. The wind had picked up and was pushing the snow across the road. Luckily the meat inspection was a skip, so we could go straight to Winnipeg and drop the trailer in the yard. Dave only had 12 hours left so we would probably have a reset tomorrow in Winnipeg.
Wednesday 22 January 2014
Wednesday 15 January 2014
CEDAR CITY
Wednesday 8th January
We'd again been to Washington and then had our reset in Calgary. We spent the afternoon sorting out the last details for our outfits for the murder mystery we were having with the kids. We are all superheros. I am Blue Blaze and dave is The Jester, we had to find some red tights for dave (womens department i think, and yes he does have nice legs!) Our load was pork for Salt Lake City, we waited 2 days for this load in Red Deer, north of Calgary. They had had alot of snow here and it was still falling. The roads in the town were thick with it. We did'nt move far from the truck. Dave had asked to go south, hopefully it would be warmer. On the outskirts of Red Deer there was a massive snow pile, tippers were dropping their loads of snow which had been collected from the streets, carparks etc, at the base and bulldozers were pushing it up to about 50ft high. After Sweetgrass we made our way down through Montana on I15, stopping at Helena for supplies, everything was so much cheaper in America so we did our shopping here whenever we could. The scenery was beautiful in Montana this season. The weather was clear. We stopped in Lima overnight, a small place with surrounding mountains, it took your breath away, how lucky these people were having these views all the time.
Thursday 9th
Into Idaho, we were back to blizzard conditions, this lasted most of the day, roads were atrocious, so many cars in ditches along the highway, one lorry came off the road on a slipway exit. Late afternoon we entered Utah, last time Salt Lake City was covered in smog. We had a good view of the city today with the surrounding mountains so close you felt you could reach out and touch them. We delivered and picked up a brand new trailer and headed for Cedar City. The trailer would have to have its own PARS to get through customs.
Friday 10th
Still on I15, the morning was clear, patches of blue sky, not much snow around. It was good to see the sun. Cattle and horses wandered the plains in the early morning sunshine. The sky never ceased to amaze us, i suppose it was because we could see so much of it. We'd seen a few wolves on our way down. The road ahead was long and straight, heading towards mountains shrouded in mist. It was just after 9am when we came down into Cedar City, spread across the valley, swamped in sunshine. It was strangely quiet everywhere. We now had to wait to be loaded. We were picking up coffee creamer. I spied a path, i would take maddy for a walk. It was late afternoon as we approached Salt Lake City again, it was all about the mountains, they looked blue grey under the troubled sky, snow looked like fading whitewash. We strayed outside Salt Lake City for the night. We were due back in Calgary on sunday am, then we were having a long weekend off, staying in a hotel. We would be booking up the kids activities, skiing, dog sledding with chloe and snowmobiling. We wer'nt skiing ourselves, babysitting instead much more fun! Dave was snowmobiling though, and dave was also taking them to an Ice Hockey match, the Calgary Flames. I was looking forward to doing some proper cooking, roast dinners! The lodge had a huge kitchen with a range, the owners were italian and loved cooking. We'd bought a waffle maker in America yesterday (we'd used one at Rocky Mountain Inn at Canmore) Dave could'nt wait to make fresh waffles for breakfast. Oh no we were going to put on so much weight! nevermind we needed the extra insulation at the moment!
We'd again been to Washington and then had our reset in Calgary. We spent the afternoon sorting out the last details for our outfits for the murder mystery we were having with the kids. We are all superheros. I am Blue Blaze and dave is The Jester, we had to find some red tights for dave (womens department i think, and yes he does have nice legs!) Our load was pork for Salt Lake City, we waited 2 days for this load in Red Deer, north of Calgary. They had had alot of snow here and it was still falling. The roads in the town were thick with it. We did'nt move far from the truck. Dave had asked to go south, hopefully it would be warmer. On the outskirts of Red Deer there was a massive snow pile, tippers were dropping their loads of snow which had been collected from the streets, carparks etc, at the base and bulldozers were pushing it up to about 50ft high. After Sweetgrass we made our way down through Montana on I15, stopping at Helena for supplies, everything was so much cheaper in America so we did our shopping here whenever we could. The scenery was beautiful in Montana this season. The weather was clear. We stopped in Lima overnight, a small place with surrounding mountains, it took your breath away, how lucky these people were having these views all the time.
Thursday 9th
Into Idaho, we were back to blizzard conditions, this lasted most of the day, roads were atrocious, so many cars in ditches along the highway, one lorry came off the road on a slipway exit. Late afternoon we entered Utah, last time Salt Lake City was covered in smog. We had a good view of the city today with the surrounding mountains so close you felt you could reach out and touch them. We delivered and picked up a brand new trailer and headed for Cedar City. The trailer would have to have its own PARS to get through customs.
Friday 10th
Still on I15, the morning was clear, patches of blue sky, not much snow around. It was good to see the sun. Cattle and horses wandered the plains in the early morning sunshine. The sky never ceased to amaze us, i suppose it was because we could see so much of it. We'd seen a few wolves on our way down. The road ahead was long and straight, heading towards mountains shrouded in mist. It was just after 9am when we came down into Cedar City, spread across the valley, swamped in sunshine. It was strangely quiet everywhere. We now had to wait to be loaded. We were picking up coffee creamer. I spied a path, i would take maddy for a walk. It was late afternoon as we approached Salt Lake City again, it was all about the mountains, they looked blue grey under the troubled sky, snow looked like fading whitewash. We strayed outside Salt Lake City for the night. We were due back in Calgary on sunday am, then we were having a long weekend off, staying in a hotel. We would be booking up the kids activities, skiing, dog sledding with chloe and snowmobiling. We wer'nt skiing ourselves, babysitting instead much more fun! Dave was snowmobiling though, and dave was also taking them to an Ice Hockey match, the Calgary Flames. I was looking forward to doing some proper cooking, roast dinners! The lodge had a huge kitchen with a range, the owners were italian and loved cooking. We'd bought a waffle maker in America yesterday (we'd used one at Rocky Mountain Inn at Canmore) Dave could'nt wait to make fresh waffles for breakfast. Oh no we were going to put on so much weight! nevermind we needed the extra insulation at the moment!
Sunday 5 January 2014
WHISKY DICK
Sunday 29th December
We had a day off in Calgary yesterday which went way too fast. We had things we wanted to get before all the xmas stock disappeared from the shelves. We were lucky that everything we bought was 50% off. But back to the grindstone this morning picking up a trailer at Lethbridge for Washington, well it was'nt too early for a change, 8.30am. We got to the border at Kingston about 5pm after travelling through CrowsNest Pass.
Monday 30th
Weather gloomy but not too cold, -4, there was no snow here just frost. Picking up the I90 at Spokane, through the Saddle Mountains, with Whisky Dick Mountain on our right. The Columbia River was'nt frozen
and had huge groups of ducks on. Kiittattas was set in a valley between the mountain ranges, with flat yellow fields, horses grazing, the Wenatchee Mountains in front of us. Onto Snoqualine Pass, it had now started to rain, the the snow capped mountains were shrouded in low cloud, swirls of mist moved between the fir trees. It rained harder, dave was pleased as the truck would get a good wash! I did'nt like the rain, i liked the snow but then i did'nt have to drive in it! Making our way to the summit we were engulfed in the low cloud, it was eerie! At the end of the pass we just had Tiger summit to climb, elevation 1377. We were delivering in Sumner as before, it was 4pm and we would park up soon ready to unload at 6am tomorrow, New Years Eve. We had started watching "The Walking Dead" over christmas, it was gooooood!!!!!! but unfortunately had'nt been able to find Series 2 over the weekend, so we'd picked up "Red 2" and would watch that tonight.
New Years Eve
We arrived to unload earlier as we already had our reload from Pascoe back to Calgary and the company closed at 12 noon. If we missed this we would have to wait until 2nd January. Luckily we were unloaded straightaway, so we were on our way back the way we'd come turning on the I82 at Ellensberg. Upon reaching the Saddle Mountains we were confronted with an awesome hill, dave was glad we had an empty trailer. It was misty up here, great expanses of land covered in small heather like bushes. We were emersed in the hillsides, the mist cleared and the view was great, all the diffferent coloured greens, mountains as far as the eye could see under a moody sky. Mount Rainer and Mount Adams were infront of us as we came into the valley incasing the town off Yakima. At Prosser we drove by "Wine Country Road" that seemed a good place to live. Apparently this area was Washingtons wine country, field after field of grape vines as well as fruit trees. We arrived at Pascoe in good time, 10.30am, to be loaded with onions. We would get back on the I90 at Ritzville to arrive back at Calgary for New Years day afternnoon.
We had a day off in Calgary yesterday which went way too fast. We had things we wanted to get before all the xmas stock disappeared from the shelves. We were lucky that everything we bought was 50% off. But back to the grindstone this morning picking up a trailer at Lethbridge for Washington, well it was'nt too early for a change, 8.30am. We got to the border at Kingston about 5pm after travelling through CrowsNest Pass.
Monday 30th
Weather gloomy but not too cold, -4, there was no snow here just frost. Picking up the I90 at Spokane, through the Saddle Mountains, with Whisky Dick Mountain on our right. The Columbia River was'nt frozen
and had huge groups of ducks on. Kiittattas was set in a valley between the mountain ranges, with flat yellow fields, horses grazing, the Wenatchee Mountains in front of us. Onto Snoqualine Pass, it had now started to rain, the the snow capped mountains were shrouded in low cloud, swirls of mist moved between the fir trees. It rained harder, dave was pleased as the truck would get a good wash! I did'nt like the rain, i liked the snow but then i did'nt have to drive in it! Making our way to the summit we were engulfed in the low cloud, it was eerie! At the end of the pass we just had Tiger summit to climb, elevation 1377. We were delivering in Sumner as before, it was 4pm and we would park up soon ready to unload at 6am tomorrow, New Years Eve. We had started watching "The Walking Dead" over christmas, it was gooooood!!!!!! but unfortunately had'nt been able to find Series 2 over the weekend, so we'd picked up "Red 2" and would watch that tonight.
New Years Eve
We arrived to unload earlier as we already had our reload from Pascoe back to Calgary and the company closed at 12 noon. If we missed this we would have to wait until 2nd January. Luckily we were unloaded straightaway, so we were on our way back the way we'd come turning on the I82 at Ellensberg. Upon reaching the Saddle Mountains we were confronted with an awesome hill, dave was glad we had an empty trailer. It was misty up here, great expanses of land covered in small heather like bushes. We were emersed in the hillsides, the mist cleared and the view was great, all the diffferent coloured greens, mountains as far as the eye could see under a moody sky. Mount Rainer and Mount Adams were infront of us as we came into the valley incasing the town off Yakima. At Prosser we drove by "Wine Country Road" that seemed a good place to live. Apparently this area was Washingtons wine country, field after field of grape vines as well as fruit trees. We arrived at Pascoe in good time, 10.30am, to be loaded with onions. We would get back on the I90 at Ritzville to arrive back at Calgary for New Years day afternnoon.
Monday 30 December 2013
CHRISTMAS IN CALIFORNIA
Saturday 21st December
We'd again delivered in Columbus, Nebraska last week, quick turnaround this time, only an hour before we had a load back upto Winnipeg. Came up on I29 entering Manitoba at Emerson. As we came through into Canada it was an ice land, we'd had cold but this was now -30! The snow in Nebraska had been like walking in castor sugar, every snowflake seperate, here everthing was frozen solid, it did'nt look real. The temperature fluctuated between -25 and -30, you could'nt even take your gloves off, maddy did'nt stay outside for very long before she started lifting her paws up, time to go in! Coming through customs despatch informed us their was to be a meat inspection, but in Saskatoon! a thousand mile round trip! madness! to then deliver back in Winnipeg. Oh well extra mileage for us, but dave did'nt have enough hours to get back so the trailer was dropped in Brandon were we had a reset. We already had our california job come through to start early saturday morning.delivering pork to Manteca, near San Francisco for christmas eve. We had made the decision a while ago to work Christmas day and New Years day as our christmas would be with the children at the end of january. It was too cold to do much in Brandon, so we spent a couple of hours at the mall and had lunch in Montana's, at outback steak bar, yum. After picking up trailer in Brandon
we arrived at border in Portal at 8am for meat inspection, 30 minutes later we were on our way through North Dakota on H85, we were looking forward to some warmer weather. Through Montana joining the I94 at Glendive we had heavy snow and bad road conditions, no snow ploughs in sight, was it because it was saturday? Cattle, horses and deer all had their white fur coats on. We were heading for Billings for the night, by the afternoon the temperature was now -14, what a difference, no icy wind whipping across your face, no finger tips freezing in your gloves, it could only get better. We were entering Billings from the east so that would be different, but by then it would be dark. We came into the valley, so there was not the usual
vast spendor of lights from the cliff top.
Sunday 22nd
We awoke at 5am to a blizzard. The highway covered in a blanket of white. We set of on I90, no snowploughs about. It would be another couple of hours before the sun came up, it was no good we had to get moving, with at least 500 miles to go today we had to make a start. It was getting warmer though it was now -12. We just got up the road and found a weigh station open! how sad is that! 6am and a sunday, the bloke obviously had no life! The blower was on so high to stop the windscreen from icing over i was finding it difficult to breath. A truck thundered past incasing us in a billowing white cloud, for a few seconds dave was driving blind, slowing down, a block of ice dropped from the cab roof onto the windscreen making us both jump! It was another 30 minutes until light, the weather seemed to be worsening, great gusts of snow were thrown at us and the windscreen was gradually icing over. We drove on into what seemed oblivion. It became light, i looked out at the landcape, frozn and still. New Livingston, the snow eased up and the road became clear, we now needed to find somewhere to stop for breakfast, or to be more precise a restroom. The last two rest areas were closed so hopefully there would be a truck stop soon. There was one at Livingston with a field behind which was a bonus. I set off wiith maddy, it was now -1 with light snow, it seemed almonst mild. The proposed route was to turn off on the H191 down towards Idaho Falls but because of the weather (our blizzard was back with a vengence) we did'nt fancy chaining up so we carried on the I90 until the H41 at Whitehall joining I15 at Dillon. Travelling down towards Dillon was very pleasant, we were leaving the bad weather behind us. The mountain range surrounded us, homesteads looked so much nicer covered in snow even with their scrap cars outside. Both the Jefferson and Beaverhead rivers were only partially frozen, small villages not on the map looked festive, cattle, horses, sheep and goats grazed some having fresh hay put out for them. Three men, hunters, rifles aloft, stood by a large group of wild geese, the geese did'nt seem a bit worried, just carried on preening. We passed by Black Canyon Resevoir, it was frozen over, there were quite a few fishing huts set out, men sat in fold up chairs ice fishiing, some even had their quad bikes, dave said he quite fancied it. The cloud parted above the mountains and the sun shone. We were stoppng at Idaho Falls to refuel, this was a really good truck stop called "dads" i would go in and have a browse.. At Pocatello we took I86 to Twin Falls. Down through Idaho the road was quiet we played christmas songs and dave sang along. Of course we'd been along this route before but it has been a while and everything looked different due the the winter season. At 5.30 pm it was still light.
Monday 23rd
We passed over the canyon into Twin Falls in darkness. Entering Nevada light was seeping through. Jackpot was just neon signs for casinos and motels, such a contrast against the back drop. We stopped at Wells for breakfast and a quick shower. The mountains snow capped in the distance. Travelling across on I80 heading towards Reno we had brilliant sunshine, blue skies, landscape covered in light snow. At 4pm passing through Reno it was 10 degrees, we had stopped to take maddy for a walk, we were now only wearing our t-shirts, amazing, after having -30 a few days ago! Entering California we were in the mountains, lovely green fir trees on ground covered snow, Truckee river flowing fast by our side. We were still on I80 making our way down to Sacremento. The drop was for Menteca at 5am on christmas eve. We would stop at the truck stop at Lodi tonight. At 5pm we still had blue skies and hot sun. We passed Lake Tahoe and climbed our way to the summit. We stopped on Donner summit surrounded by woodland and had our tea, beef tortellini and bruschetta, yummy. Maddy had a quick walk in the pines and then we were off to our final destination. The sun disappeared behind the mountains in a mass of colour against the still blue sky, dusk steadily creeping up behind.
Christmas Eve
After the delivery we already had a reload. We travelled down I5 towards Oxnard. We were picking up a load of bananas for Calgary. The trailer was loaded for us and waitng outside the yard, everyone had gone home.
Christmas Day
5.30am we were driving though LA, all palm trees and wide lane highway. Picking up I15 for Las Vegas. We came up through the desert, joshua trees dotted the landscape, not a cloud in the sky, huge orange rock formations surrounded us, it was 20 degrees today what a shame we were heading back to the cold. In Arizona we passed through Virgin River Gorge, the entrance is concealed by a bend in the road, it looks like the traffic is disappearing into the side of a mountain. The cliffs were magnificant, real indian country. This took us into Utah, coming into St George was like another planet, with the red cliffs and russet earth, mountains looming. There were alot of palm trees here admittedly dried out. The shopping malls were deserted today, just the truck stops and garages open. Even backyards were quiet, just the occassional dog walker. We'd been in four states since this morning, what a long day!
Boxing Day
Heading towards Salt Lake City the snow and cold were back with us. Oranges and pinks streaked across the sky above the mountains. We stopped at a flying j called Eagles Landing for breakfast, they had a petting zoo with emus, sheep, ponies and a zebra! The I15 actually took us through Salt Lake City which was cloaked with smog, we could see a few skyscrapers and a large domed building The other side was heavy industrial with giant flumes of pollution everywhere, not nice to see. Into idaho. On Devils Creek Resevoir , near Downey, more people were icefishing with their bright multi coloured tents. We stopped at Butte in Montana to refuel and spend the night, tomorrow we would deliver in Calgary.
Santa had obviously no idea where we were! hopefully he would catch up with us at the Lodge in Bragg Creek.
We would like to wish all our friends and family who follow our travels on the blog a very happy new year.
Lots of love dave, jackie and maddy.xxxxxx
We'd again delivered in Columbus, Nebraska last week, quick turnaround this time, only an hour before we had a load back upto Winnipeg. Came up on I29 entering Manitoba at Emerson. As we came through into Canada it was an ice land, we'd had cold but this was now -30! The snow in Nebraska had been like walking in castor sugar, every snowflake seperate, here everthing was frozen solid, it did'nt look real. The temperature fluctuated between -25 and -30, you could'nt even take your gloves off, maddy did'nt stay outside for very long before she started lifting her paws up, time to go in! Coming through customs despatch informed us their was to be a meat inspection, but in Saskatoon! a thousand mile round trip! madness! to then deliver back in Winnipeg. Oh well extra mileage for us, but dave did'nt have enough hours to get back so the trailer was dropped in Brandon were we had a reset. We already had our california job come through to start early saturday morning.delivering pork to Manteca, near San Francisco for christmas eve. We had made the decision a while ago to work Christmas day and New Years day as our christmas would be with the children at the end of january. It was too cold to do much in Brandon, so we spent a couple of hours at the mall and had lunch in Montana's, at outback steak bar, yum. After picking up trailer in Brandon
we arrived at border in Portal at 8am for meat inspection, 30 minutes later we were on our way through North Dakota on H85, we were looking forward to some warmer weather. Through Montana joining the I94 at Glendive we had heavy snow and bad road conditions, no snow ploughs in sight, was it because it was saturday? Cattle, horses and deer all had their white fur coats on. We were heading for Billings for the night, by the afternoon the temperature was now -14, what a difference, no icy wind whipping across your face, no finger tips freezing in your gloves, it could only get better. We were entering Billings from the east so that would be different, but by then it would be dark. We came into the valley, so there was not the usual
vast spendor of lights from the cliff top.
Sunday 22nd
We awoke at 5am to a blizzard. The highway covered in a blanket of white. We set of on I90, no snowploughs about. It would be another couple of hours before the sun came up, it was no good we had to get moving, with at least 500 miles to go today we had to make a start. It was getting warmer though it was now -12. We just got up the road and found a weigh station open! how sad is that! 6am and a sunday, the bloke obviously had no life! The blower was on so high to stop the windscreen from icing over i was finding it difficult to breath. A truck thundered past incasing us in a billowing white cloud, for a few seconds dave was driving blind, slowing down, a block of ice dropped from the cab roof onto the windscreen making us both jump! It was another 30 minutes until light, the weather seemed to be worsening, great gusts of snow were thrown at us and the windscreen was gradually icing over. We drove on into what seemed oblivion. It became light, i looked out at the landcape, frozn and still. New Livingston, the snow eased up and the road became clear, we now needed to find somewhere to stop for breakfast, or to be more precise a restroom. The last two rest areas were closed so hopefully there would be a truck stop soon. There was one at Livingston with a field behind which was a bonus. I set off wiith maddy, it was now -1 with light snow, it seemed almonst mild. The proposed route was to turn off on the H191 down towards Idaho Falls but because of the weather (our blizzard was back with a vengence) we did'nt fancy chaining up so we carried on the I90 until the H41 at Whitehall joining I15 at Dillon. Travelling down towards Dillon was very pleasant, we were leaving the bad weather behind us. The mountain range surrounded us, homesteads looked so much nicer covered in snow even with their scrap cars outside. Both the Jefferson and Beaverhead rivers were only partially frozen, small villages not on the map looked festive, cattle, horses, sheep and goats grazed some having fresh hay put out for them. Three men, hunters, rifles aloft, stood by a large group of wild geese, the geese did'nt seem a bit worried, just carried on preening. We passed by Black Canyon Resevoir, it was frozen over, there were quite a few fishing huts set out, men sat in fold up chairs ice fishiing, some even had their quad bikes, dave said he quite fancied it. The cloud parted above the mountains and the sun shone. We were stoppng at Idaho Falls to refuel, this was a really good truck stop called "dads" i would go in and have a browse.. At Pocatello we took I86 to Twin Falls. Down through Idaho the road was quiet we played christmas songs and dave sang along. Of course we'd been along this route before but it has been a while and everything looked different due the the winter season. At 5.30 pm it was still light.
Monday 23rd
We passed over the canyon into Twin Falls in darkness. Entering Nevada light was seeping through. Jackpot was just neon signs for casinos and motels, such a contrast against the back drop. We stopped at Wells for breakfast and a quick shower. The mountains snow capped in the distance. Travelling across on I80 heading towards Reno we had brilliant sunshine, blue skies, landscape covered in light snow. At 4pm passing through Reno it was 10 degrees, we had stopped to take maddy for a walk, we were now only wearing our t-shirts, amazing, after having -30 a few days ago! Entering California we were in the mountains, lovely green fir trees on ground covered snow, Truckee river flowing fast by our side. We were still on I80 making our way down to Sacremento. The drop was for Menteca at 5am on christmas eve. We would stop at the truck stop at Lodi tonight. At 5pm we still had blue skies and hot sun. We passed Lake Tahoe and climbed our way to the summit. We stopped on Donner summit surrounded by woodland and had our tea, beef tortellini and bruschetta, yummy. Maddy had a quick walk in the pines and then we were off to our final destination. The sun disappeared behind the mountains in a mass of colour against the still blue sky, dusk steadily creeping up behind.
Christmas Eve
After the delivery we already had a reload. We travelled down I5 towards Oxnard. We were picking up a load of bananas for Calgary. The trailer was loaded for us and waitng outside the yard, everyone had gone home.
Christmas Day
5.30am we were driving though LA, all palm trees and wide lane highway. Picking up I15 for Las Vegas. We came up through the desert, joshua trees dotted the landscape, not a cloud in the sky, huge orange rock formations surrounded us, it was 20 degrees today what a shame we were heading back to the cold. In Arizona we passed through Virgin River Gorge, the entrance is concealed by a bend in the road, it looks like the traffic is disappearing into the side of a mountain. The cliffs were magnificant, real indian country. This took us into Utah, coming into St George was like another planet, with the red cliffs and russet earth, mountains looming. There were alot of palm trees here admittedly dried out. The shopping malls were deserted today, just the truck stops and garages open. Even backyards were quiet, just the occassional dog walker. We'd been in four states since this morning, what a long day!
Boxing Day
Heading towards Salt Lake City the snow and cold were back with us. Oranges and pinks streaked across the sky above the mountains. We stopped at a flying j called Eagles Landing for breakfast, they had a petting zoo with emus, sheep, ponies and a zebra! The I15 actually took us through Salt Lake City which was cloaked with smog, we could see a few skyscrapers and a large domed building The other side was heavy industrial with giant flumes of pollution everywhere, not nice to see. Into idaho. On Devils Creek Resevoir , near Downey, more people were icefishing with their bright multi coloured tents. We stopped at Butte in Montana to refuel and spend the night, tomorrow we would deliver in Calgary.
Santa had obviously no idea where we were! hopefully he would catch up with us at the Lodge in Bragg Creek.
We would like to wish all our friends and family who follow our travels on the blog a very happy new year.
Lots of love dave, jackie and maddy.xxxxxx
Friday 20 December 2013
WINTER WONDERLAND
Saturday 7th December
We were sat in Babcock,Winsconsin, our second day of waiting for a load of fresh cranberries, it was only a small company and they obviously could'nt keep up with the demand. It was nice here though, a winter wonderland. Across the road were woods so maddy enjoyed it. It was -13 today, salepetts an ski gloves. We'd been in America all week, after Washington we'd been sent upto Delta, Vancouver, for our return load to Calgary as it was Thanksgiving there were no loads from America. From Calgary we'd gone to Columbus, Nebraska, using the usual route. There was plenty of snow storms about but we had managed to keep just in front of them. We'd had some time off in Columbus, we know where everything was and enjoyed the time doing some christmas shopping. From Columbus we travelled with an empy trailer to Wisconsin. While waiting for our load at Delta dave managed to lock us out of the truck! I'd only just taken maddy out, she was waiting for her tea but i was'nt too worried about that. We were going into the supermarket for our tea, i got the blame for dave not taking the keys out of the ignition, apparently i was rushing him! There was no way to get in, maddy was clever but not clever enough to open the door with her paw! Breakdown had to be called. I wandered aimlessly towards the supermarket wondering how long this episode was going to take! Breakdown arrived eventually, it was rush hour so he had done pretty well, between them with a bit of wire they managed to open the lock (luckily my door dos'nt completely shut) before i had fnished the shopping!
Sunday 8th
We eventually got our cranberries yesterday late afternoon, we did'nt travel far though until we stopped for the night, it had been a long day. Everything this morning was covered with a fresh layer of snow. As we travelled upto Minnesota on I94 the weather got steadily worse, a icy snow mist wafted across the highway, low cloud, a bleak winters day. We stayed on the I94 upto Fargo, the weather staying with us all morning. For about 30 minutes near Fargo the sun came out and the countryside was all aglow, the fields covered in a smooth silky snow, bare trees streaked with frost glittered in the sunlight. After fueling up at Fargo we entered North Dakota, the bleakness had returned, ground and sky matched as one. We stayed on the I94 until Jamestown heading for Minot, we would cross the border in the morning at Portal into Saskatchewan. A couple of days ago we'd decorated the truck with a garland and lights in the dashboard and red tinsel with snowflakes around inside, so this afternoon we played christmas songs to cheer ourselves up.
We were sat in Babcock,Winsconsin, our second day of waiting for a load of fresh cranberries, it was only a small company and they obviously could'nt keep up with the demand. It was nice here though, a winter wonderland. Across the road were woods so maddy enjoyed it. It was -13 today, salepetts an ski gloves. We'd been in America all week, after Washington we'd been sent upto Delta, Vancouver, for our return load to Calgary as it was Thanksgiving there were no loads from America. From Calgary we'd gone to Columbus, Nebraska, using the usual route. There was plenty of snow storms about but we had managed to keep just in front of them. We'd had some time off in Columbus, we know where everything was and enjoyed the time doing some christmas shopping. From Columbus we travelled with an empy trailer to Wisconsin. While waiting for our load at Delta dave managed to lock us out of the truck! I'd only just taken maddy out, she was waiting for her tea but i was'nt too worried about that. We were going into the supermarket for our tea, i got the blame for dave not taking the keys out of the ignition, apparently i was rushing him! There was no way to get in, maddy was clever but not clever enough to open the door with her paw! Breakdown had to be called. I wandered aimlessly towards the supermarket wondering how long this episode was going to take! Breakdown arrived eventually, it was rush hour so he had done pretty well, between them with a bit of wire they managed to open the lock (luckily my door dos'nt completely shut) before i had fnished the shopping!
Sunday 8th
We eventually got our cranberries yesterday late afternoon, we did'nt travel far though until we stopped for the night, it had been a long day. Everything this morning was covered with a fresh layer of snow. As we travelled upto Minnesota on I94 the weather got steadily worse, a icy snow mist wafted across the highway, low cloud, a bleak winters day. We stayed on the I94 upto Fargo, the weather staying with us all morning. For about 30 minutes near Fargo the sun came out and the countryside was all aglow, the fields covered in a smooth silky snow, bare trees streaked with frost glittered in the sunlight. After fueling up at Fargo we entered North Dakota, the bleakness had returned, ground and sky matched as one. We stayed on the I94 until Jamestown heading for Minot, we would cross the border in the morning at Portal into Saskatchewan. A couple of days ago we'd decorated the truck with a garland and lights in the dashboard and red tinsel with snowflakes around inside, so this afternoon we played christmas songs to cheer ourselves up.
Saturday 7 December 2013
THANKSGIVING
Monday 25th November
We arrived back in Calgary after having another weekend in Canmore. We'd been able to have a good look round this time as the snow held off, but there was still plenty on the ground. Surprise, surprise the truck wasn't ready (it had been in the garage having a couple of things done but should of been ready for pick up this afternoon) so H&R put us in the travelodge. We hung around next morning waiting. Booked out at 11am and did a bit of shopping but there was only so much shopping you could do! Wait for it! the truck was still in the garage at 6pm! we had had enough, we were so fed up. After the garage boss had left dave decided to unpack the car and move us back into the truck (apparently drivers were not allowed in workshop) it was after 8pm when we were able to drive out. Because of all this we were given a california job! yippee! we were leaving early in the morning, the trailer had a weight issue which was getting sorted during the night.
Wednesday 27th
The weight had'nt been sorted! we had to go back to the company for them to rejig it. After waiting another couple of hours with new paperwork issued, we were ready for the off, only to find the truck now had a puncture! apparently we were in a queue of 8 due to the bad weather. It was 3pm before we moved, another day wasted. We might make the border but meat inspection was another story. Hurray! due to it being Thanksgiving tomorow everyone obviously wanted to get home. We were at border at 7pm and got to meat inspection with 5 minutes to spare. By 8pm we were parked up the night, we just could'nt believe it!
Thursday 28th
Set of early this morning, message from despatch to change trailers with a team at Great Falls, customer was insisting on his delivery to still be friday, we would never make it, so our job was now changed to Washington. We drove across Montana and joined the I90 at Missoula We drove down the mountain into Idaho, a 6% gradient. The valley below was still covered in snow and frost where the sun was so low it had'nt reached the top of the mountain. There were a couple of villages in the valley, you could smell the woodsmoke, but so depressing steeped in darkness and damp. It was Thanksgiving today here in America and the roads were quiet, most places were closed, even the weigh stations! Thanksgiving was bigger here than christmas, they had talked about nothing else all week on the radio, turkey and pumpkin pie. Families travelling miles to be together. They had had really bad weather in New York at the weekend. We had watched the news on TV, flights were being cancelled, it reminded us of a film with John Candy and Steve Martin "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" Late afternoon we had glimpses of the huge body of water that was Coeur d'Alene Lake. At 4.30pm the sun was low, just above the trees, sky turning crimson, the lake a mixture of mist and ice. Last week at Lethbridge while waiting for a trailer we had walked around Henderson Lake with maddy. The lake had frozen over completely and kids were playing ice hockey on it.
Friday 29th
Into Washington. It was all mountains this morning. Over the Snoqualmie Pass. Numerous waterfalls frozen against the rock looking like candle wax. We made it to Sumner for the 9am delivery, dave had received a message from the boss "awesome job" if the boss was on our case then hopefully we would get a reload straight back and get our "promised good run" i wasn't going to hold my breath though!
We arrived back in Calgary after having another weekend in Canmore. We'd been able to have a good look round this time as the snow held off, but there was still plenty on the ground. Surprise, surprise the truck wasn't ready (it had been in the garage having a couple of things done but should of been ready for pick up this afternoon) so H&R put us in the travelodge. We hung around next morning waiting. Booked out at 11am and did a bit of shopping but there was only so much shopping you could do! Wait for it! the truck was still in the garage at 6pm! we had had enough, we were so fed up. After the garage boss had left dave decided to unpack the car and move us back into the truck (apparently drivers were not allowed in workshop) it was after 8pm when we were able to drive out. Because of all this we were given a california job! yippee! we were leaving early in the morning, the trailer had a weight issue which was getting sorted during the night.
Wednesday 27th
The weight had'nt been sorted! we had to go back to the company for them to rejig it. After waiting another couple of hours with new paperwork issued, we were ready for the off, only to find the truck now had a puncture! apparently we were in a queue of 8 due to the bad weather. It was 3pm before we moved, another day wasted. We might make the border but meat inspection was another story. Hurray! due to it being Thanksgiving tomorow everyone obviously wanted to get home. We were at border at 7pm and got to meat inspection with 5 minutes to spare. By 8pm we were parked up the night, we just could'nt believe it!
Thursday 28th
Set of early this morning, message from despatch to change trailers with a team at Great Falls, customer was insisting on his delivery to still be friday, we would never make it, so our job was now changed to Washington. We drove across Montana and joined the I90 at Missoula We drove down the mountain into Idaho, a 6% gradient. The valley below was still covered in snow and frost where the sun was so low it had'nt reached the top of the mountain. There were a couple of villages in the valley, you could smell the woodsmoke, but so depressing steeped in darkness and damp. It was Thanksgiving today here in America and the roads were quiet, most places were closed, even the weigh stations! Thanksgiving was bigger here than christmas, they had talked about nothing else all week on the radio, turkey and pumpkin pie. Families travelling miles to be together. They had had really bad weather in New York at the weekend. We had watched the news on TV, flights were being cancelled, it reminded us of a film with John Candy and Steve Martin "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" Late afternoon we had glimpses of the huge body of water that was Coeur d'Alene Lake. At 4.30pm the sun was low, just above the trees, sky turning crimson, the lake a mixture of mist and ice. Last week at Lethbridge while waiting for a trailer we had walked around Henderson Lake with maddy. The lake had frozen over completely and kids were playing ice hockey on it.
Friday 29th
Into Washington. It was all mountains this morning. Over the Snoqualmie Pass. Numerous waterfalls frozen against the rock looking like candle wax. We made it to Sumner for the 9am delivery, dave had received a message from the boss "awesome job" if the boss was on our case then hopefully we would get a reload straight back and get our "promised good run" i wasn't going to hold my breath though!
Sunday 24 November 2013
CHAINING UP !
24th November
These past couple of weeks we had been back and forth through the Rockies delivering and reloading in Vancouver. Everytime we came through the Rockies they looked different either due to the weather or time of day. We had forgotten how beautiful Lake Shuswap was, driving alongside and down through Salmon Arm had the best views ever from dawn to dusk. I knew this route so well i did'nt even pick up the map, every village, town, rest area and truck stop, dave still followed his sat nav though! The Coquihalla mountain was set in a range, i'd mentioned it before, it was pretty special. The Coquihalla highway ran from Kamloops to Hope. We'd watched a canadian tv program about a Mr Davis who patrolled the Coquihalla highway with his team of men with breakdown trucks. He was so specialized he could lift a full size rig out of a ditch upright and intact. The programme was along the same lines as Ice Road Truckers, it was fascinating to watch but unfortunately we hav'nt been able to get the dvd. Last saturday we set of back across for delivery in Calgary. We left Hope at 5.30am. We had had heavy snow in the night and upon reaching the Coquihalla highway we were waved into the chain up area with other trucks. It was dark and cold. Dave had never chained up before even when he was here in winter last time. It was warm clothes on and torch in hand we joined the others trying to make sense of these massive heavy chains. It was'nt as bad as we'd thought, we managed to get the chains on and locked into position. The chains went on 2 wheels, the drive axels and were locked with a key. We drove on at 30ml/hr. Over the summit the road cleared so we were able to stop and take them off, of course this was so much easier. There was snow, ice and fog and it was quite scary going through the avalanche areas, we had all that to come! One trip took us back towards Jasper, to Edmonton, the roads through the Rockies here were like an ice rink, not much had been gritted and dave concentrated on keeping the truck on the road. Of course the scenery was amazing, snow laden fir trees, frozen lakes and waterfalls, with mountains tops shimmering in the sunshine, it more than made up for the slow journey. Nearly at Jasper i took some photos off Mount Fitzwilliam looming up infront of us. Upon reaching Edmonton the snow and fog was even thicker. We waited until the next day to get a load back to Calgary and the snow never let up. We were going away again this weekend to Canmore, staying in the Rocky Mountain Inn, dave now had a pair of snow boots too!
These past couple of weeks we had been back and forth through the Rockies delivering and reloading in Vancouver. Everytime we came through the Rockies they looked different either due to the weather or time of day. We had forgotten how beautiful Lake Shuswap was, driving alongside and down through Salmon Arm had the best views ever from dawn to dusk. I knew this route so well i did'nt even pick up the map, every village, town, rest area and truck stop, dave still followed his sat nav though! The Coquihalla mountain was set in a range, i'd mentioned it before, it was pretty special. The Coquihalla highway ran from Kamloops to Hope. We'd watched a canadian tv program about a Mr Davis who patrolled the Coquihalla highway with his team of men with breakdown trucks. He was so specialized he could lift a full size rig out of a ditch upright and intact. The programme was along the same lines as Ice Road Truckers, it was fascinating to watch but unfortunately we hav'nt been able to get the dvd. Last saturday we set of back across for delivery in Calgary. We left Hope at 5.30am. We had had heavy snow in the night and upon reaching the Coquihalla highway we were waved into the chain up area with other trucks. It was dark and cold. Dave had never chained up before even when he was here in winter last time. It was warm clothes on and torch in hand we joined the others trying to make sense of these massive heavy chains. It was'nt as bad as we'd thought, we managed to get the chains on and locked into position. The chains went on 2 wheels, the drive axels and were locked with a key. We drove on at 30ml/hr. Over the summit the road cleared so we were able to stop and take them off, of course this was so much easier. There was snow, ice and fog and it was quite scary going through the avalanche areas, we had all that to come! One trip took us back towards Jasper, to Edmonton, the roads through the Rockies here were like an ice rink, not much had been gritted and dave concentrated on keeping the truck on the road. Of course the scenery was amazing, snow laden fir trees, frozen lakes and waterfalls, with mountains tops shimmering in the sunshine, it more than made up for the slow journey. Nearly at Jasper i took some photos off Mount Fitzwilliam looming up infront of us. Upon reaching Edmonton the snow and fog was even thicker. We waited until the next day to get a load back to Calgary and the snow never let up. We were going away again this weekend to Canmore, staying in the Rocky Mountain Inn, dave now had a pair of snow boots too!
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