Tombstone 🤠🐎

Today we travelled across the dessert Southwest. Wow, I did not know just how beautiful that part of the United States was. God just keeps showing His omnipotence to me.

Crossing Arizona and New Mexico had so many beautiful sites, there are too many to post pictures of.  I really liked seeing all the vast amounts of veggitation that I don't see in Kansas or Missouri. Desert sand spread out for miles, sprinkled with several types of cacti, such as Saguaro, teddy bear, and hedgehog. The scene brought me back to those old western movies, where the guy is crawling in the desert, looking for water and of course there is a sidewinder slithering up to bite him. 

OOOPS, I got a little side tracked there. My favorite cactus were the flat pancake-shaped cactus, called Opuntia. This cactus is also known as The Prickly Pear cactus. I didn't get a good picture of those. 

Sanguaro

Half way across Arizona,  Mark told me to pick a.point of interest I wanted to see.  Noting that Tombstone, Az. was only 24 miles from our landing spot of Benson, Az., I decided that we should go have dinner at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. We pulled into the truck stop, unhooked the trailer, and headed south. Talk about fun. 

The town was just what I was expecting, old, dusty street with the wooden boardwalk along each side of the street. Since the towns people do reenactments of the Shootout at the OK Corral, there were several actors dressed up as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Cowboy outlaws. You could hear the spurs of their boots hitting the wooden walkways, literally. 

Most of the shops were closed, but we were able to check out The Bird Cage Theater, opened in 1881, and was known as the most famous honky tonks in America between 1881 and 1889. The New York Times referred to it in 1882 as the wildeat, wickedest night spot between Basin St and the Barbary Coast. It was the scene of 16 gun fights, and its walls, riddled with 140 bullet holes show evidence of these happenings. 

 Dinner at Big Nosed Kate's (Holliday's girlfriend) was nothing short of entertaining. What once was The Grand  Hotel, built in 1881, is now a Live music joint with great food, and exciting atmosphere, and  was just the ticket for an evening out of the big red box, aka the  truck. 

Big Nosed Kate is said to have been the first prostitute in Tombstone. 

Here are a few more photos, because I haven't put enough in this blog entry. 😀😀😁

Next stop...El Paso, Tx where we have family to visit. 😎😎

Been there, Done that, No T Shirt Wanted.

Yesterday was a 14 hour day.... well technically a 13 hour and 58 minute day according to the "time clock" on the dash of the truck.

Before I go on, I have to comment on just how big Las Vegas looks when you are coming down off the mountains in the dark. It goes on forever. Now I have been to Vegas 3 times before, but I have always flown in. I was thoroughly impressed at how far it spread across the vast dark sky.

We got to Las Angelas around noon. I learned something. I learned that it takes a special person to live in Las Angelas. I am not one of those people. There are far too many people, cars, and traffic lanes for this country girl.  Kansas looks pretty good from where I'm sitting.

The mountains were pretty, but there was rain and fog over them so I am sure they were much prettier then what I saw. I did get some pictures this morning as we were heading out of the area.

LIL BIT got into the action, as well, but she was not able to stay there for long.

CHAINS!

This morning, 10/12/18, started early again. We were greeted with 30 degree temperature as we headed into the truck stop for coffee and a bathroom. Glad I packed for two seasons. 🧤🧥🧣

We are on our way to Irwindale, California. From where we were located, that could only mean one thing..... Vail Pass, and over the Rockies.  We were off and running, with the occasional snowflake falling. The higher we went, the more it snowed. It wasn't long before we saw that sign every trucker hates to see...."All CMV must chain up ...." so that meant pulling over and Mark starting the process of putting chains on tires.  I learned not only was this NOT a fast process, bit it was also a  dangerous one with cars and trucks speeding by on a wet, icy surface. I did not take my eyes off Mark, as I watched thru the side mirrors.  An hour and a half went by, during  that time Mark got the chains on his truck and helped the lady behind us with her chains.  We were finally ready to get back on the road....ONLY to find out the chain law had been lifted. Thirty minutes later, and a rather irritated and very cold husband behind the wheel, we set off for our destination. 

As dawn was well upon us, and we were coming down out of the mountains, we both mentioned that the landscape we were seeing at that time was ugly and we didn't understand why people would live out there.  Boy, did we have to eat our words later, for what God had in store for us was nothing short of spectacular.  Entering canyon country, climbing higher and twisting around every bend, there was beautify color, that can only be described as God's artwork with His paint brush. Beautiful reds, yellows, and oranges spilled before us and all we could do is sit in awe. It was as if God answered our question, saying, "THIS is why people live here." 

I am so blessed to be able to see this beautiful country we live in, with my soul mate. 

Chiggars! I hate chiggars!

The day started like any other day. We were up and on the road by 3am to get a load to St Louis by 8am, only to find ourselves sitting for 4 hours while they unloaded 298 pieces of freight. In defense of the dock worker, he WAS the only one working to unload us. We read in the book we started, Mark took a nap, I played games on my phone.  We, finally, got our paperwork and headed to the nearest fuel stop to sweep out the trailer. I jumped out to go help, or watch, or whatever and that's when life changed for me. Right there at the Flying J truckstop in Pontoon Brach, Il.

Rewind your mind back to those good, old, hot summer days when everyone went down to their favorite swimming hole. You spend the afternoon jumping into the water, climbing up the bank, and jumping in again.  You're having fun with friends and family. You know there are bugs, chiggars, and ticks in the grass and that you will have bites on your body when the day is over. That's ok, you say to yourself, because at least you are having fun in the great outdoors.

Me? I seemed to have found a huge nest of chiggers , because I have bites on my arms, legs, hands, fingers, FACE!..... and I didnt even get to play outside to EARN them. I WAS ROBBED!!  Now I sit here crossing Kansas ITCHING....ALOT!
Insert the music Ride of the Valkry's here. That should put the situation into perspective. Did I mention  that everytime I go into a place (because a girls gotta pee and we are not in Buffalo), I get stares from all directions as if I had Ebola.

FEEL SORRY FOR ME. PEOPLE. 😬🕷😢

Off into the wild blue yonder

It's Monday morning and the truck is packed for a two week adventure.  I'm off again, with my trucker  to see where the road takes us.

After dropping Drexal off at the vet's office (they love when he comes to visit. He is king when he is there.), coffee in hand, and the cat taken care of, it was time to go.

Pretrip done and seat belts on, Mark sends his Ready to Go message, mentioning he wanted to head toward Washington state.

On your mark! Get set!........and we wait. And we wait, did I mention that we waited? No load assignment given.  It felt funny sitting in the truck....right next to our house. We were about to go inside and wait, when we got a load assignment. YAY! WASHINGTON HERE WE COME. ....WRONGO. Pick up a load in Tulsa and take it to St Louis. St Louis?  That was going the wrong way. Oh well at least we didn't have to sit in front of our house, looking stupid anymore.

We made it to Tulsa. Picked up the load. And spent the night in.......JOPLIN. Yep. 2 miles from my workplace.

I couldn't help thinking... this is going to be quite a trip.

On a different note, I'm sharing my side of the truck with a new passenger. Meet Lil Bit.  She is the luckiest cat in the state. My trucker found her in the middle of Hwy 69 and Hwy 171 intersection. If you were wondering, YES he stopped traffic , got out of his truck and picked up this small, helpless creature. Who said truckers were always grouchy, stuffy guys? She has been with him now for about 2 months. Not sure what she thinks of me, especially since I'm sitting in HER chair.

Bad Day in Texas

Day 2 started out great....for about 5 mins. Just long enough for Mark to do his pretrip, only to find we had picked up a hitchhiker, probably at the paper mill. Enter the accused...   This guy made for a bad day.  After pulling into the nearest truckstop with tire repair, we were reassured that we would be back on the road in an hour and a half. That's not too bad, right? SIX HOURS later, we were out of the shop.                                                   

By then is was rush hour in Dallas. There is one speed during rush hour in Dallas...standstill mph. We weren't going anywhere. SO..we parked for the night at the same truckstop and took a walk. After stumbling into The Olive Garden, Mark bought me dinner. GOD IS GOOD. 

Our bellies full, it was back to the truck and in for the night. Hopefully we will get out of Dallas tomorrow. 

On the road again...

It's that time again, where I set off in the big red buggy on an adventure to where ever the road takes me.

After the bags were packed, groceries bought, and my 18 year old was taken care of, Mark rolled thru town and I jumped on the truck. After getting settled in my seat and after slowing down for the first time in a week, I noticed my throat was sore and I really wasn't feeling good. Great!! Day one of vacation and I'm sick. Oh well, at least I can rest.

First destination was Valient, Ok., hauling cardboard to International Paper Company.
I never knew paper could stink so bad. Seriously,  it was just paper, yet my nosehairs were burning.  After doning said personal protective equipment, we were allowed into the plant.  We made quite the fashion statement.

Unloaded, it was off to the nearest truckstop for a much needed shower, dinner, and downtime.