Hot potatoes

Lori's headed to Phoenix (forecast high temperature - 110 degrees) with a load of Idaho potatoes.

The route will take her through one of Mike and Lori's favorite landscapes - the canyons and deserts of southern Utah and Northern Arizona. The colors, rock formations, and starkness of the desert have a unique beauty that you can't find in many other places. She'll also be driving past the Glen Canyon Dam that forms Lake Powell in Page, AZ (on the bridge in the photo to the right.)

The load delivers Saturday morning but Lori plans should arrive Friday evening so she is hoping to spend some time with her son and daughter-in-law and her sister who live in the Phoenix area.

Uneventful

Ho, hum... Lori's trip from Arkansas to Utah has been pretty boring for the past two days, which is OK with her. Oh, she did see Toby Keith's concert tour convoy yesterday (complete with three semi-trucks and a tour bus) going towards its next stop in St. Louis.

She's arriving early enough today that she'll have an opportunity to swing by Prime's facility in Salt Lake City to do some laundry and hit the showers before she tackles the final 60 miles to the Wal-Mart distribution center in Corinne, Utah for her 7:00 p.m. delivery.

Fowl up

Well, Lori is FINALLY on her way to Corinne, UT after spending nearly 48 hours waiting on her load from Tyson in Rogers, Arkansas.

Tyson is now on Mike and Lori's list of "pain in the a**" shippers. After repeatedly being told that her trailer wasn't loaded yet ("the last shift didn't get to it, "the overnight crew didn't have time to load it", etc.) come to find out the trailer she was supposed to take "mysteriously" disappeared, even though Lori had seen it in a loading dock on Saturday night. Prime is blaming Tyson for moving the trailer somewhere while Tyson says another Prime driver came and picked it up, though why a Prime driver would drive off with an empty trailer doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Not sure who to blame for the mix up but that's not Lori's problem. Tyson quickly loaded another trailer and sent her on her way. When Lori's Fleet Manager, Cheryl, returns from a short vacation on Wednesday, Lori is going to talk to her about getting some sort of reimbursement for sitting around for two whole days. As a company driver, if you're not driving you're not making any money.

Even with all the delay, Lori should still be able to make the scheduled delivery appointment of 7:00 p.m. Wednesday.

Best laid plans

Well, so much for that pre-plan. Lori wasn't assigned a load directly out of Wal-mart but that's okay. It gave her a chance to head over to a local truck stop for a relaxing shower and then across the street to Cracker Barrel for a nice dinner.

She does have a load, however - from Tyson chicken in Rogers, Arkansas headed for Corinne, Utah. It just won't be ready to be picked up until sometime between noon and 6:00 p.m. But that's okay, too. There's a Calvary Chapel just down the street so Lori is going to go to their 10 o'clock service before heading over to Tyson.

The chicken is due in Utah Wednesday evening.

Satire that hits a little too close to home

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines “satire” as;
1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

This piece by Gerard Baker, US Editor and an Assistant Editor for “The Times” (the one in London, not New York) fits this definition “to a T.” Mike and Lori find this particular piece to be effective satire because it builds on a perception that some people have about Barack Obama and takes it to its logical conclusion. And that’s where the sarcasm comes in, because there is no way that Obama – or any human – can “save” the world.

The sad part is that many people do believe that the salvation of mankind will come through the work of human beings, that we can save the world if we all just work together. The reality is that nothing can save the world from its ultimate fate. But that’s not bad news (as we’ll explain later).

What we are seeing now (and have seen for the past several decades) is the continuing move toward a “one world” system prophesied in the Bible. Suffice it to say that the establishment of this final one world system – headed by a world leader that will speak of world peace and broker a 7-year treaty that will allow the re-construction of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – marks the beginning of the end (read about it here).

In his recent comments in Berlin, Obama said “Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity… This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace.”

Wow.

Now Mike and Lori aren't saying that Obama is the Antichrist, or that any of this is going to happen tomorrow or the next day. The "who and when" aren't for mankind to know. But it's crucial that we all be ready now.

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about it. If you’re a Christian you won’t be here to see the worst of it (read about it here.) Of course, that requires that you accept the gift of salvation that God makes available to each and every one of us. It’s easy (read about it here.)

Wal-Mart potpourri

Luckily the trailers are refrigerated or this load of Kraft cheddar cheese would have been more like nacho sauce! It is HOT in Houston, not to mention humid. When Lori mentioned to another driver that she was headed to Houston he said he had just left and couldn’t be happier because he was tired of “breathing hot water.” How right he was!

Lori’s current load is a mish-mash of stuff destined for the mother ships of all mother ships – Wal-mart’s main distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. The trailer is filled with items collected at two warehouses in the Houston area. The first was a load of camping items, all of which had to be taken off the pallets and placed directly on the trailer floor, followed by a visit to an importer to pick up a variety of “dry items” from Asia.

Fortunately, this load is a “drop and hook” so Lori won’t have to wait for the camping equipment to be loaded back onto pallets. She’ll simply leave this trailer and go pick up another one. She is supposedly “pre-planned” (i.e, there is another assignment waiting for her) but nothing is for sure until the load assignment comes across the Qualcomm (the computer message system).

To the Cheese Cave!

While it's not as cool as Batman's "Bat Cave," it was pretty interesting to make a pickup from the Kraft facility in Springfield, MO which is housed inside a former limestone mine.

Actually, there are a number of storage facilities, etc. located in old limestone mines throughout western Missouri, especially around the Kansas City area. In fact, there is one called Subtropolis" (pictured here) that houses a number of businesses and RV storage.

Anyway, Lori picked up a load of cheddar cheese from the "cave" and headed out for Humble, TX (located on the northern edge of Houston) early this morning. She should arrive in the afternoon Thursday with plenty of time to spare to make her Friday morning delivery appointment.

Unexpected blessings

We're sure many of you heard about the recent passing of Tony Snow, former press secretary for President George W. Bush. What you probably haven't heard about is Mr. Snow's strong Christian faith.

We received an e-mail today about an article he wrote for Christianity Today magazine in July 2007. Click here to read the article and find out about "Cancer's Unexpected Blessings."

Change in plans

Lori is at the “mother ship” (Prime’s headquarters in Springfield) after dropping off her trailer full of fresh pork. She was scheduled to take the load to its destinations in Houston and Hammond, Louisiana but a significant delay in getting the pork loaded in Ottumwa, Iowa put her behind schedule. The only way to get the load delivered on time Wednesday morning was to have a team take over and drive it “non-stop.”

As long as she’s at headquarters, Lori is going to take the opportunity to rest up, get some of Prime’s world-famous sweet tea, do some laundry, drink some sweet tea, visit the company store to redeem her “6-month anniversary” gift certificate, drink some more sweet tea, get a few maintenance items taken care of on the truck, have one more glass of sweet tea. and meet with the “log book” administrator to review some “discrepancies” on her logs.

Dispatch told her they’ll have a load for her at 3:00 Wednesday afternoon, but she doesn’t know where to yet.

It's all relative

You would think that a severe thunderstorm with 100-mile-per-hour winds would be considered a “bad storm” by just about everybody. Well, not in Des Moines.

Lori was awakened last night about 4 a.m. local time as a wind storm rocked her truck and trailer while she was parked at a truck stop near West Des Moines. She looked out the front window and figured she’d better turn on the TV and radio to find out what was going on. Not that she’s a “weather expert” but she was seeing two of three “indicators” she has figured out usually accompany a tornado; frequent, high energy lighting, and wind and rain going in different directions. The only thing she didn’t see was hail (at least not right where she was).

She knew it must be bad when she found out all of the local TV stations were off the air. The radio announcer was giving a constant rundown of active weather warnings and listing the towns where damaged had been reported. Reports at that time said that a number of buildings had been damaged, numerous trees were blown down, and about 45,000 people were without power. (Read today's coverage here.) That’s when she called Mike so he could go on-line and look at the weather radar to tell her if she was in the path of any big storms.

Fortunately, the worst of the storm was north and east of her location but she decided she was going to stay right there until daylight. Once the sun was up, she sent a message to Cheryl, her dispatcher, to tell her what was going on and to find out if the Coke facility was open and accepting deliveries. The word came back that they were open and to go on ahead.

Once she got there, Lori started talking to the guys on the dock (workers and other truck drivers) and mentioned something about the “rough night.” They looked at her and asked what she was talking about. When she said the thunderstorm, they said “Oh, that…” like it was no big deal. What they couldn’t understand was why anyone would want to live in California with all those earthquakes and wildfires.

Seems like it just depends on what you’re used to…

High energy

It’s back to Iowa for Lori – with a trailer full of NOS energy drink, a product of the Coca-Cola company.

But before she could pick up the NOS Lori had to drop off her pudding, which took a little longer than expected. On her way to her destination she came across a truck detour sign that directed her off her intended route – but didn’t offer any directional signs on where to go after that!

She called Mike at home so he could use the GPS/routing software on their computer to come up with a truck-friendly alternate route. He was able to find one but it added 50 miles to the trip. Lori will be glad when Mike – and the computer – are on the truck with her.

Lori’s spending the night at the Prime facility in Pittston, PA so she can have a scheduled maintenance done on her truck first thing tomorrow morning. After that, she’ll be on her way for the two-day trip to Waukee, IA (just west of Des Moines). Her route will take her by Grandpa’s Cheesebarn so she’s planning on a quick stop to stock up.

Everybody loves a wedding

Here are some photos from the July 3 marriage of Lori and Mike's daughter, Elizabeth, to Kim Hamilton. Enjoy!

P.S. - The countdown is underway for daughter Shannon's wedding next August. You can visit Shannon and Chris' wedding website by clicking here.

School's out

The conversations must go something like this:

Trucker Dad: "Do I have to?"
Mom: "Yes! I've had to deal with these kids all by myself for the past nine months. Now that school's out, they're getting on the truck with you for a couple of weeks so I can get some rest!"

That's the best explanation we can come up with for the surprising number of school-aged kids Lori is seeing at warehouses and truck stops across the country. And it's not always just one or two kids in the truck; Lori swears she saw EIGHT people climb out of one cab. Just this morning she saw three just-scrubbed boys waiting outside the shower room door at a Pilot truck stop in Toledo, Ohio while Dad finished up his bath.

Actually, Mike and Lori are kind of looking forward to the possibility of taking the grandkids for a road trip in the future - but probably not more than one at a time!

What, me worry?

Bank failures, $5 gasoline, mortgage crisis, layoffs at GM, pending recession – to hear the media tell it, it’s financial Armageddon!

Yes, the economy is going through a rough patch. But is it another Great Depression? Is it the end of the American Dream? Is it the worst we’ve ever seen? Hardly.

You don’t have to look back any further than 30 years ago to see a time when our nation’s economy was as bad – if not worse. In the late-70’s unemployment was over 7% and inflation was 12-13%. By the mid- 80’s, the interest rate on home mortgages was around 16% and foreclosures where at about the same rate they are now (2% of all loans). To quote the wisest man who ever lived (Solomon; look it up in 2 Chronicles 1:11-12), “there is nothing new under the sun.”

And really, what does worrying get you besides sleepless nights, ulcers, and strained relationships with family and friends? We’ve got Somebody in our corner who's willing and able to help us with our situation (see our previous post).

Does that mean we shouldn’t be concerned? No, of course not. As individuals, times like this mean we need to exercise even greater responsibility to be good stewards of the resources we have, including our money, skills, and time. Government, too, has a role ensuring the foundation of our economic system stays intact and that those TRULY in need are helped. But that doesn’t mean government (i.e., OUR tax money) should be used to bail out everybody that got too greedy and made bad decisions – be they corporations or individuals.

Consequences are a natural result of decisions and actions. When government (or parents or bosses) eliminate the sting of negative consequences resulting from bad decisions, the natural tendency is for people to continue making the same bad decisions. It's a lot like my favorite definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Experience (good and bad) is the best teacher.

One month to go

It’s July 15, and Mike’s last day at his current job is August 15 (which is really 4½ weeks away but saying "one month" makes it sound sooner).

Lori is scheduled to be home late on Wednesday, August 13 so she and Mike can start getting the truck ready for Mike to get “on board” with her and hit the road Friday night. The plan is to get to Prime’s headquarters in Springfield, MO on Monday the 18th so Mike can check in for his 3 days of orientation and commercial driver’s permit training. Lori will take her classes to be a driving instructor at the same time, and then on Friday it’s Mike’s turn to actually start driving the truck.

From produce to potatoes to ?

Keeping with the “p” theme (produce & potatoes), Lori is now hauling pudding – Jello pudding cups to be exact.

After a LONG wait in Elwood, Kansas to unload (the dock supervisor said the load was supposed to be there Sunday even though the bill of lading and dispatch message from Prime said Monday delivery, which meant Lori had to wait for an opening in the delivery schedule), Lori was sent 300 miles north to the Kraft Foods facility in Mason City, Iowa. Destination – Assonet, Massachusetts, which is south of Boston and east of Providence, Rhode Island at the base of the Massachusetts cape.

Delivery is set for Friday, giving Lori plenty of time to cover the 1,360 miles.

Packing potatoes again

Lori didn’t quite make it to Corinne, Utah with her load of produce. She didn’t have enough driving hours left to make it there by 3 a.m., so she handed off the trailer to another team in Salt Lake City – and then went to bed.

Now that she doesn’t need to be close to home for the next month or so, she’s heading back east (well, at least to the Midwest). Right now she’s in American Falls, Idaho picking up nearly 40,000 pounds of potatoes headed for Elwood, Kansas. Her route takes her through one of her favorite parts of the country – Highway 30 from Idaho to Wyoming right through a caribou migration area.

The ‘taters aren’t due until Monday morning so she can take her time getting to Kansas.

More produce for Wal-Mart

Lori’s at another cold storage facility picking up produce headed for Wal-Mart. This time she’s in Salinas, CA (the setting for several of John Steinbeck’s novels) picking up a load headed for the Wal-Mart distribution center in Corinne, UT.

It was a lenthy “deadhead” run from Sparks to Salinas (more than 300 miles) but sometimes you have to go where the freight is. Anyway, since Lori’s a company driver, she doesn’t really mind if she drives empty or full because she gets paid the same either way. Lease operators, on the other hand, may not accept a load with this much deadhead mileage unless the total revenue is high enough to cover their expenses for driving the extra miles.

This run is a two-day trip with delivery set for Friday morning.

If you can read this...

We take many things for granted in this country, one of them being the ability to read and write. We got a sad reminder this morning that even in this day and age that is an ability not every American has.

At the Wal-Mart distribution center in Sparks, NV, Lori met a fellow truck driver (from another large national carrier) that asked if she knew how to fill out a ComCheck. She said sure, you do it just like a regular bank check; write in the date, name of the person to be paid, the amount in numbers and words, etc. It was when he asked her if she would do it for him that she realized he didn’t know how to write.

She said sure and helped him out, not wanting to embarrass him any further than what he must have already been. As she and Mike thought more about it, they felt sad, confused, and angry wondering how and why this could be. Here was a middle-aged American man that wasn’t able to perform a simple task that we – mistakenly – assumed somebody in his position could do.

We felt bad for him having to swallow his pride and ask someone for this kind of help. We can’t even imagine how embarrassing that must be. Then there was a bit of confusion as to how he even got a commercial truck driving license. He has obviously figured out how to work successfully in a profession that requires a certain level of literacy; that’s a huge accomplishment in itself.

Not knowing his situation, we can’t say for sure why he was illiterate. (Lori found out he had trouble reading when he came back to ask for help matching up his order number with some other paperwork.) He didn’t have any obvious physical or mental disabilities and he appeared intelligent enough.

That’s when the anger and frustration began to set in. While his particular situation could have resulted from personal choices or issues, we couldn’t help but recognize that every year millions of children pass through America’s schools without receiving a quality education that prepares them to succeed in life. Policies such as “social promotion” and the ever-lowering of student expectations (often as a method to build self-esteem) are hurting rather than helping.

We don’t pretend to have the answers. But we do not believe that throwing money at the problem – especially federal dollars – will fix it. Today, the average student in American public schools can expect more than $9,200 to be spent on his or her behalf this year by taxpayers – a real increase of 69 percent over 1980.

Yet this additional spending hasn't meaningfully changed student outcomes. Many of the same problems highlighted by "A Nation at Risk", a report released 25 years ago by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, remain today. For example, one in three fourth-graders scores "below basic" in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Among low-income students, only half passed the reading test. A recent study found that more than 1 million children drop out of school each year. In some of our biggest cities, less than half of all students earn a high-school diploma. In Detroit, only one in four students graduate. This is simply unacceptable because of the financial and social impacts on individuals, communities, and our nation.

What’s really frustrating about this is that we know there are committed, well-intentioned people out there wanting to educate our children. Our uncle has been a teacher and school administrator for many years, and two of our daughters are beginning their careers as teachers. Unfortunately, they are restricted by a system that is failing us and needs to be renovated.

The basics of what we believe needs to be done are simple: increased responsibility and accountability expected of teachers and students; allowing parents more say in how their children will be educated, and; less federal (none?) and more local control of schools.

So near yet so far

Even though she was less than 10 miles from home, Lori had to spend Monday night in the truck after making her delivery. But that's okay, Mike came by after work (with dinner) and they spent the evening watching the final episode of "The Bachelorette" (one of Lori's guilty pleasures!).

Tuesday morning it was back over to the repair shop to have the APU looked at. And, of course, it worked fine! The techs let it run for an hour or so but it never stopped or overheated. Oh well, we'll see if it continues to work when she's out on the road.

Lori let Cheryl, her fleet manager, know she was ready for her next assignment, so she sent her back to the Wal-Mart cold storage facility in Riverside to pick up a load headed for Sparks, NV which is just east of Reno, the "Biggest Little City in the World."

Lori has mixed feelings about this run; while she loves driving along Highway 395 through Bishop and the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, most of the road is only two lanes with lots of hills and curves.

The load is due Wednesday morning and Lori is "pre-planned" to pick up a load in Salinas, CA after that. But, that could always change!

Rebound

It’s back to Southern California for Lori.

She made her produce delivery in New Mexico early this morning and then got some sleep. When she got up, she had been assigned a load headed for Bakersfield and Modesto, CA which would have taken her through Tehachapi, CA for a visit with Mike’s dad and stepmom. But, it wasn’t to be.

While Lori was in Wal-Mart doing her weekly shopping, she was given another load. Seems there was a truck that had broken down and was waiting at the Freightliner in Albuquerque for a repair. Unfortunately, they had a trailer full of frozen food that needs to be in Ontario, CA as soon as possible. So Lori headed north, swapped her empty trailer for the frozen load, and then hit the road.

She’ll probably make it to Kingman, AZ tonight (to let all the “river rats” drive home after the long holiday weekend) and then roll in the rest of the way Monday morning.

Back Out

Lori's back out on the road again following Lizzie's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception. Best of all, there were none of the all-too-typical wedding day snafus.

On Friday, Mike broke out his smoker and 'cued some ribs, chicken thighs and breasts, and hot links for a family Fourth of July get-together. Add cole slaw, beans, roasted corn, and leftover wedding cake and you've got yourself quite a feast. Good thing the air conditioner was working at the house since it was "hotter than a firecracker" here in Norco.

Lori's not so lucky on the air conditioning situation. After getting her APU fixed on Wednesday, she tried to start it up again today and got an "overheating" alarm. A quick check of the coolant reservoir showed it was empty, with a nice big puddle on the driveway. Guess it's back to the shop but who knows when!

Lori's on her way to Las Lunas, NM (just south of Albuquerque) with various types of produce destined for Wal-Mart. There's plums, lettuce, broccoli, and croutons on board. Mike went with her to pick up an empty trailer and then over to the cold storage facility in Riverside to help count the load. Wal-Mart loads are always "shipper load, driver count" which means the warehouse workers will put the stuff on the trailer but the driver is responsible for making sure everything that's listed on the bill of lading is on the trailer before they leave.

This cold storage place was pretty amazing. Not surprisingly, it's physically huge - 30 feet tall, over 70 loading docks. But the "coolest" thing is how cold it is inside. It's got to be somewhere in the mid-30's to 40's. All of the workers are dressed in snow clothes - big jackets, insulated overalls, and wool caps. And there's Lori and I in our shorts counting pallets! I can only imagine the electric bill for this place.

Lori is due in New Mexico by 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Not sure where she'll be going after that.

Hot, hot, hot!

Sorry we haven't posted for a few days; it was a hectic weekend!

Anyway, Lori got her load of fresh produce to Corinne, UT on Saturday evening. On the way up, she got a phone call from her brother and sister-in-law, (Curtis and Candy, the ones who introduced her to trucking.) They asked where she was and where she was headed. "North on I-15 towards Salt Lake," she said.

"Really, we're headed south on I-15 towards Salt Lake!" So they decided to meet at the Prime drop yard in Salt Lake after they finished their deliveries and have some dinner. After dinner, they checked in with their respective fleet managers and found out they both had pick-ups at the same location; Nestle's in Springville, UT to get frozen Stouffer's/Lean Cusine pizzas. And, they were both headed for Southern California; Curtis and Candy to the Vons distribution center in Mira Loma and Lori to Albertson's in Brea.

This is where the "hot, hot, hot" title will begin to make sense. Lori's auxiliary power unit (APU -which allows her to run the air conditioner and electrical items without idling the truck engine) was giving her trouble - in fact, it smelled like it was burning when she turned it on! She shut it off, took a look, and noticed the coolant level was low. She filled it up and then checked it again a little later before trying to start it. That's when she noticed the puddle of coolant. She told headquarters and they said she could get it fixed Monday morning before her afternoon delivery in Brea.

Her and her brother then started south toward California. That's when things really started to warm up. Summer in the desert can be blistering; the temperatures were 108º as they drove toward Las Vegas. The trailer needs to be kept at -10º with frozen loads, a real feat even in normal weather.

Well, the heat took its toll - on both trailers! Lori's refrigerator kept running but couldn't maintain -10º and her brother's refrigerator unit just quit completely. Calls to headquarters got them appointments at the repair shop in Fontana Monday morning. They took Lori's brother as soon as he got there (since his unit was completely shut off) and got to Lori about 8:30 a.m.

A few new parts later, Lori was on her way to Brea - where she spent six hours waiting to get unloaded. Unfortunately, that meant no repair work on the APU that day, so it was over to the truck stop in Fontana for the night. Mike was able to swing by with dinner and spend the night. Curtis and Candy also stopped by for a few minutes before driving up to North Las Vegas with a load of Arizona tea for Tuesday morning delivery.

Tuesday morning Mike headed off to work and Lori went to get the APU fixed.

That should be it for trucking until after Lizzie's wedding on Thursday and then the Fourth of July on Friday.