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!