Clearwater Paper and Idaho

So coming from the printing industry and then picking up actual paper pulp in Lewiston, ID....pretty cool. I had no idea that when making paper it smells so bad. I have been told that it is the smell of money, but I think it still stinks! This run goes through Idaho and Nevada, highway 89, all the way through the desert. Two lane road and a beautiful drive, but in the winter it can be quite a challenge. This paper pulp is a great load because it is really light weight. It is used to make toilet paper and kleenex...interesting.

This is a photo that we actually captured

some awesome rainbows in Idaho. I didn't think that these would turn out, but Jeff took these with his phone. All day long we would be in rain a nd then come over a hill and it would be sunny and several rainbows would appear. Very cool.

Shades of Fall

I would love to be able to show you pics from PA or even I-70 in Colorado, however, both of these places were driven in the dark. I imagined how pretty the colors would have been. Maybe before the snow flies we will be able to make it back to both places in the daylight....I will share.

These pics are all in Montana. From Helena to Great Falls.

Our Lady of The Rockies - Butte, MT

This statue which is 90 feet tall sits on the mountain overlooking the Butte Valley. It was erected by a man, Bob O'Bill whose wife was dying of cancer. He had prayed to the Virgin Mary to let his wife be cured from the cancer. He promised Mary that if his wife was cured

he would build a statue in her honor on his property. Well...his wife made it through the cancerand he started erecting the statue. Many people in Butte became involved in the proj

ect and decided to make the statue on a bigger scale. It is made out of concrete and as I said sits 90 feet, almost as big as the Statue of Liberty.

When passing through Butte, MT you cannot help but notice this bright white statue up on the mountaintop. It is truly majestic and makes Butte, MT a stand out city.

All for now, but should have more fall photos coming soon.

Sad Day....

This is truly a sad day, my Baby Girl Isabella has passed away. She was eleven and was truly the best dog I ever had. She will truly be missed. It doesn't seem a reality, but I know when we return home again it will be. We just saw her last weekend and she was happy. She died in her sleep on her favorite rug in front of the swamp cooler....just as we all wanted it to happen. We are now down to only one puppy dog, Sampson. He is a golden and fourteen years old. It is hard when your dogs get old. You know the inevitable is going to happen. My best advice for anyone with a pooch is to enjoy every moment you have with them and give them all your love and the best care you can. When their time comes, you know that they had the best life you could give them and they were spoiled rotten. That is all that you can ask of being a good doggie mom and dad.

Here is a pic of our old man dog Sampson. Happy and spoiled as well. One of our boys takes care of our dogs at home and has been such a life-saver. He has been fantastic at taking care of the house and our puppies. We appreciate everything he does for us.

Introducing Cybil

We made it out of Jersey with the new Big Red Volvo and here she is in all her glory. I don't think I haveto go into too much detail on the name, which is by the way very appropriate. She looks the same, but will never be the same as Dorothy. Same engine, 10 speeds instead of 13, 2 years newer (2007) with half the miles 368,000. The inside is in much better shape and the more modern cupboards instead of shelves and all of the netting to hold things in is all intact on her. Which is very nice for going down the road and not having anything fly off of the shelves. We are getting used to her. Has to be driven much different than the 13 speed. It has been a couple of weeks now and I think we are starting to bond. She needed a bunch of TLC when we got her, but she is coming around. She still does some weird, quirky things, some electrical, not on a consistent basis...hence the name Cybil. We have already put 12,000 miles on her since we picked her up. Don'tthink Jersey has a lot of elevation so she is in for a whole new ride. No Grapevine yet, but Vail pass at 40 mph...not bad! You just have to stay on the shifting more adamantly than Dorothy, but with more practice on a daily basis, she's gonna work out just fine.

We were recently driving through Idaho and noticed a lot of corn still growing and pretty short. Stopped to refill on coffee and the woman at the truck stop informed us that they have had so much rain that they lost all of their first planting so they had to scrap it and this is the 2nd planting, hoping to get something out of their crops this year. Maybe this could mean more good corn later in the year for everyone. What a sucky situation for the farmers there this year.

Waiting for Fall to arrive, which is coming BTW, to take more pics of the color. Leaving for NJ (Good miles, but we must be being punished for something) tomorrow from LA, just waiting to get 2 tires changed on a trailer. We will be taking I-70 so maybe we will get some good Aspen shots.

To the left: 58 in CA heading north from Bakersfield. It is mesmerizing to see all of them spinning on the mountain while

you are moving toward it...kinda hypnotic. You can all rest easy...I wasn't driving :o )

Death of Dorothy

In New Jersey now....yup our favorite place! We got a call the other day that they want to take Dorothy away from us and giveus a new truck with less miles. I guess most people would be excited about this, but this is our first truck...it's like your first love. No other truck will ever be any better or faster than our first truck, but what are you gonna do?? So we are sitting in a hotel, which has been fantastic by the way, while they get our new truck ready to roll.

The new truck number is 1938...haven't named her yet, that will take some bonding time. As soon as we get going again and have some bonding time I will post new pics of the new girl. It's still a Volvo and it's still red, so most of you probably won't even know the difference. This becomes your home and when things are different it makes it difficult when you have everything in it's place and get used to what a truck does and doesn't do. But we are up for the challenge and welcome the new truck into our world. We have put 140,000 miles on Dorothy since we started driving her in January of this year. She is up to 735,00 miles now, so she will be going to a solo driver that will not put as many miles on her. She will truly be missed :o (

Finally got to Memphis, TN while it was light out! What a cool looking city. Between here and Nashville I think Jeff and I will be taking some time to check out Tennessee sometime soon. Every time we have stopped anywhere in this state everybody has been so nice and friendly not to mention how we could just listen to them talk all day with those southern accents.

Time for me to relax in a bathtub and then lay down on a nice king-size bed for the night. It's been a good break and it is always nice to get a good night's sleep while the truck isn't moving.

Are You Serious?

Okay, I have to tell you about the weirdest load we have had so far. We were in Phoenix and were told to drive down to Yuma. Take the 10 and head east on the 8, take an exit and head north for 2 miles and take our first left. Okay.......

We ended up on a farm right in the middle of their fields and got loaded with 30 bales of hay...in a box, not a flatbed. Drove to Long Beach and they were unloaded directly into containers and shipped to China. I don't know if they used it for feed for their animals or for packing. Just kinda different.

Another Random Thing

We pull into a truck stop in Foristell, MO and we are sitting at the fuel island when all of a sudden 2 girls go by on horses riding bareback. It was about 11:00 at night and a truck stop is completely asphalt and loud trucks, someplace you would not expect to see anybody riding a horse. Evidently they had been traveling for sometime and needed to get the horses out of the trailer and exercise them...very strange site.

Montana in the Summertime

We finally made it up to Montana in the summertime. Still a beautiful place with a lot less snow. It is called Big Sky country for a reason. It really is true. The sky seems so much bigger and the clouds are always really cool. The first morning that we woke up close to Rocker it was 43 degrees and raining. I had to put on pants and socks for the first time in months...it was painful! Montana weather is a lot like Colorado. It changes on a dime and in the morning it can be chilly, but by the afternoon it has warmed up and turned into being a fantastic day.

Setting the Story Straight

Our load went from Salt Lake City up to Helena, MT and then from Helena over to Great Falls and then back to LA. While in Great Falls picking up a load at General Mills we ran into a driver for Watkins Shepard that seemed to know us. He recognized our truck number and asked us if we were the ones that had the blog. I was shocked. I had no idea people were reading our blog.

He mentioned that our blog has been openly discussed on many different truck driving forums and the word out there is that we are really a PR firm that has been hired by Watkins Shepard to up their image. Well I'm here to tell you that we are real truck drivers that were hired by Watkins Shepard, but to drive a truck, not to "up their image". We started with Watkins Shepard after attending their 10-day orientation program in January of 2010. My husband and I drive as a team and we love our job. The blog was originally created for our old clients in Denver to follow our transition into the trucking industry. My husband and I were in the printing industry and I being a graphic designer needed to keep in touch with my geeky computer side and feel like I could still turn on my Mac for a purpose. Yes, it's true. Everything on this blog we have done all while traveling around the country and making money doing so. If you have any questions about us or Watkins Shepard we would be more than happy to answer them. Please direct them to: melincreative@comcast.net

I forgot to add these two pics of our Maryland trip. They are both from the Harbor in Maryland. One of a battleship and the other of the Veteran's Bridge. We haven't been back here since our first trip, but hopefully will return in the future to see more.