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.
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