TDA 11/7/21

I know it has been a long time since I posted anything, but I will try to get back in the habit. To start with after doing some great work on some projects around town I came to the conclusions, 1) I like working with some people on any project and like less working with other people.

2) I don’t think it is feasible to make a living as a carpenter anymore.

3) still too young to retire and play with boats full time.

With that information we (M and I) started looking for something for me to do other than drive her crazy. After much discussion we decided that I could stand to drive a truck for a living if I at least had control of my space a bit so we shopped for a truck. I was also invited by D&E to drive for them again if I wanted. We found a truck that fit 90% of the criteria and was a bit of a unicorn so it could be financed. It didn’t hurt that it was my favorite color.

Once we had gone through what at the time seemed like an inordinate amount of hoop jumping we are now a corporation and the corp owns its own truck. Presently I’m leasing a trailer from D&E but I hope in the future to buy a flatbed trailer.

My first couple of weeks have been really good. After a bit of annoying paperwork and onboarding I got issued a load and sent off to get it. It was a 2 part load the first pickup was in northern MN near Iron, it was really pretty there. Here is a couple of pictures from the rest area I camped at.

The second pickup was south of the big clump of humanity in the middle of MN in Gaylord. I managed to get both picked up in the same day and headed for Wy. Delivered the first dropoff the next day but the one in Sinclair wouldn’t take the second part until the following day. So I popped home for a few hours with my family. The next day I dropped off the 2^nd drop and they had a load from Alliance, NE I snapped a couple of pictures of all the locomotives. Their yard was huge.

I got to spend a couple of days home before delivering the motors to Henderson NV which is part of Las Vegas. Then they got me a load from a suburb of Phoenix that went to Bozeman, MT I snapped a picture of the sky being lit up by the lights of Las Vegas from Mesquite, Nv when I stopped for the night.

I took one of my favorite routes to get to Bozeman. I camped out in the Gallatin Canyon, it was quite a change in temperatures from 85 in AZ to 23 in MT. the night sky was so amazing I was hoping to see the northern lights but fell asleep fairly early, so no luck this time. I did snap a couple of pictures of Rana where we camped. I also took some pictures with the big camera but I haven’t had time to process them yet.

From Bozeman the got me a load from Lovell were I got a couple of pictures of back lighting on the Bighorns down to Corona Commiefornia.

Where I shot a couple of the scenery and the magnificent air quality. Kind of makes me question where they think they have a right to tell the rest of us how to live.

Along the way I’ve had a few issues with the truck but nothing too major. We discovered the emissions plug wasn’t twist locked properly and had vibrated loose causing all kinds of warnings and threats of d-rating the truck I managed to make it to the Peterbilt shop in St George before that happened. Also my bunk heater quit working on the coldest night I have experienced since getting the truck I did manage to get the parts to fix the heater now I just need a few hours to do so.