Back to th grindstone

Last week went to new jersy tipped and loaded bananas out of Eddystone docks for toronto.Because im not american i had to cough up 75 bucks to get escourted 500 yds across the dock, bearing in mind i had to walk unescourted to the same place to pay the fee, like i said, its all about the money. I crossed the border at Niagara, you can hear the falls and if you cross during the day you can go via the scenic route, i was'nt sure of this crossing, i could'nt remember if you crossed the toll bridge first or the border, i pulled up to the booth where a nice young lady opened the window, i looked at her and asked" how much love", she looked most indignant and said im the border crossing officer passport please ,oops, no sense of humour me thinks. Driving on the 401 into toronto i followed 6 snow ploughs abreast on 6 lane motorway clearing snow, really imprssive . A quick reset then back to calgary. the tripac broke down on the way back and spent 3 nights sleeping in -25f temps, it was lovely and warm in the duvet but getting up was a challenge, reminded me of years ago when we had no heating in trucks,the trick is to sleep on or in your clothes so they are nice and warm when you get up. First night i forgot and gingerly got dressed hopping round the cab.When i pulled the curtains back the driver parked next to me was looking and was proberbly wondering what the hell was going on.Got the truck in the shop and spent the night in a hotel, oh buy the way in cold temps the company puts you up if your truck breaks down.

Clearing the snow yankie style.

No i did'nt crash the truck at the end i was waiting for the white out, the snow is like powder and totally blinds you for a few seconds,try closing your eyes driving at 60 mph for a few second, on second thought s don.t.

xmas part 4

Arrived in toronto and dropped the tr in the yard and headed for the truckstop for a 36 hr rest.Went and had awell earned shower the we went to the local restaurant for a meal but decided that we didnt fancy what was on offer so went back to truck and cooked up a chunky of sophies choice.

Following day picked up a tr for calgary only to be told to change over tr in longlac and return to toronto a 1600 mile round trip.picked up a tr for winnipeg and set off the next day.the tri pac on the truck started to play up and lost the heating overnight and woke up cold about 2am,it was -25f, could'nt find sophie buried in the duvet so i drove to customers to warm truck up then had to wait a couple of hours for the customer to open so i could get unloaded and go to the garage to repair tripac. Being it was 27 dec everything was closed so we went and stayed in the hotel overnite as it was -25f. Attached to the hotel was a retaurant so we had meal, thanks mum. In the morning went to the yard and met a canadian driver who had the sister truck to mine and told me how to fix the tripac, brilliant all systems go. bobtailed (just the truck no tr) up to saskatoon and picked up a tr for calgary.

Dropped the tr in calgary and picked onother up for vancouver, this was a lovely light load of paper cups and lids so we were able to have an easy drive over the rockies. sadly i have no pictures as sophie seems to have them all on her camera. The roads were good and the scenery outstanding and we had a lovely drive to vancouver. dropped tr in yard and went round to truck stop and spent the new year asleep, how boring are we.

New years day bobtail to kelowna yard nd picked an mt tr and took to calgary for repair.

In the morning loaded a tr for 2 drops in kamloops which is half way to vancouver,to supermarkets set in the mountains, so it was another trip into the rockies.

Having unloaded these we reloaded flour back to calgary.Sophie spotted the first of 4 bold eagles

flying across the mountains, brill.

Sadly the day came to take sophie to the airport for her flight home, this was a sad day and took a few days to get over but we had a wonderful xmas and new year even though we slept thru it

xmas part 3

Drove across the black hills of dakota while sophie played her fav tune from calamity jane film on her ipod. we had agood ole sing song, cheesy i know but hey all good clean fun.Finally made Chicargo driving throught the city in the morning with the sun rising behind the sky scrapers on a quiet saturday morning, got unloaded and set off north thru the ciy again to little chute to pick up pizzas for toronto.Loaded the following day and set off back thru chicargo, detroit and back into canada crossing at winsor.

xmas part 2

Drove down to the us border, a debarkel that put north america 15 years behind europe, at the border we had to pay 6 dollars each plus 12 dollar for the truck( its all about money) and hand over all documents and passports. The truck was scanned by xray then off to meat inspection, and for an undisclosed amount of money the the beef was checked by a usa inspector and and the paper work was given the all important stamp. We were finally on our way after 2 hrs.Next stop fuel. Stopped in shelby to take on 150 gallons of go go juice, at a cost of 3.15 bucks, about 2 quid a gallon.

I wanted to go to a town called havre were we went shopping in a large walmart with plenty of truck parking.We brought food and some xmas decorations for the truck.because of the breakdown we were behind schedule so i punched on to a truck stop in wolfpoint, and finally went to bed, sophie bless her tried to stay awake but being it was dark driving along she fell asleep in the seat and was glad when we stopped and she too could go to bed.

Next morning i was up and away at 5 to get a good start, it was still dark and sophie had a lay in. We fueled at beach and fargo and parked up for the night and put up the xmas decorations.

I had a shot gun passenger over chrismas and even though it started out a disaster we ended up having a wonderful time.

I had an older truck due for replacement, the problem was it had an exhaust leak and made the cab smell,i told my boss and he said i had a new one in lethbridge. So i picked sophie up a the air port and we went staight to the yard and picked an mt trailer to go and load,we go to the customers gate and the clutch broke on the entrance, this is a good start me thinks, so undetered i called the breakdown company.3 hrs later he arrived in a van, this is not looking to good.After a lot of deliberation he pronounce the the truck we and truly dead. A wrecker arrived 2 hours later with a spare truck, we transfered all my and sophies belonging over, while the old truck was taken awy. we were all ready to go when we hit a small problem, we could'nt turn the interior light off, 20 mins later we still could'nt find the switch, in the end we took out the bulbs, job done. Apparently this is a common fault on these truchs you can turn the lights on but not off and the bulbs are missing from most trucks, american trucks eh.

Finally made it to lethbridge and jumped in a brand new shiney red truck. Dumped all our gear in picked up trailer then off to Chicargo.