Movie night was almost ruined by Pepe Le Pew

As you know, at times it is never a dull moment when Vince and Joan are on their excellent adventure.  Thursday evening proved to be one of those moments. Thankfully it turned out to be one we will be laughing about for a long time but could have gone oh so differently.

We are currently at a Walmart in Fishkill, NY which is right off I-84 in upstate NY.  We go through Fishkill to get to Wappinger Falls, NY where Clark has a drop yard for the trailers.  If you are a Clark driver and you are on the east coast or Midwest moving shows, there is always a good chance you will end up in Wappinger Falls to either pick up or drop a trailer.  I have been here many times over the last six years.

I know many people have feelings about Walmart that run one way or the other, they hate’em or love’em.  I appreciate that most Walmarts allow trucks to park on their parking lots so that the drivers can get groceries and stay for the night if they need to.  It is hard to get groceries and personal needs items while you are driving a truck, because you just can’t park those things anywhere. So the welcome mat by Walmart is much appreciated.

But I digress; on Thursday afternoon Vince suggested we go to the movies.  Across from the Walmart are many restaurants and what I would describe as an outdoor mini-mall which has a theater. We decided to walk over to see the 8:00 pm showing of Lucy. 

On our way back, we didn’t talk about the movie, because the lady who sat behind us said it best when the movie ended “that was different”.  But I always like to talk about the thumbs up or down of the previews we see.  As we held hands walking along the sidewalk across the street from the Walmart, I was yammering about the previews, when I heard Vince say “skunk".  Now ladies and gentlemen let me assure you that it was how he said that made the hairs on the back of my neck go up.  He didn’t raise his voice but his inflection sent the message.  I immediately reacted by pushing my body toward him thus putting us into the street, while at the same time he was pulling me toward the street.  When we were almost to the middle of the road I realized I hadn’t even looked to see if there was on-coming traffic from the far lane.  As I finally looked that way, I saw a car about 20 feet away that fortunately was turning into the Walmart.

We made it to the Walmart parking lot before saying a word to each other.  Vince then shared that the skunk was by a tree right ahead of me and that he saw the skunk raise his head and tail at the same time and knew we were in trouble. He also said he was glad that our instincts were the same about getting away, rather than us standing there pushing and pulling each other in opposite directions, because no doubt we would have ended up sprayed if that had happened.  Needless to say we dodged a big bullet there, because neither one of us wants to think about how we would have gotten de-skunked.

Believe it or not last night we tempted fate and went back over to the mall for a date night.  We had a lovely dinner at the steakhouse in the mall.  But you can bet we headed back before dark and the whole time were very much on the look out for Pepe Le Pew.

Travelling Back and Forth on I-80 PA and an Interesting Time in Boston

The Tappan Zee Bridge, NY on our way to Milford, CT

Our travels over the last week have taken us back and forth across I-80 in Pennsylvania.  It is funny how some trips we are all over the place and others we continue back and forth over the same stretches of road. Of course, we first travelled over it this trip to pick up Family Feud in Maybrook, NY and then return it to the warehouse in West Haven, CT Saturday morning. 

After we were unloaded in West Haven, we headed to Wappinger Falls, NY to drop the trailer. After getting laundry caught up and a crazy time in the Walmart in Fishkill to restock our fridge (you would have thought they were giving stuff away).  It was off to Boston for a Sunday morning box call for Phantom of the Opera (a box call is where the shows crew takes boxes, containers, etc of the trailers so they can begin positioning for the evening load out).  We then returned to the drop yard where the trailers are stored while the show is in town. We tried to sleep during the afternoon/evening since we knew we would be up all night, but I think most people would agree it is really hard to change your sleep pattern.  At 12:30 am it was time to head back to the theatre for our 1:30 am call time.  

We have been to Boston several times, but Sunday night/Monday morning without a doubt was one of the strangest.  While sitting at the intersection of Washington Street and Boylston Street, we saw what we believe was a pimp travel the wrong way on a one-way street with his lights off, pull up to his ladies, proceed to have some altercation with them then drive off.  Next there was the drunken college student who decided to jump up on the back of our truck. He got the surprise of his life when Vince jumped out and told him, in a not so nice manner, to get off the truck. The idiot was initially panicked because he knew he couldn’t go sidewalk side because that was where Vince was and there was traffic whizzing by him on the other side so he couldn’t just jump back off.  One of his buddies near Vince quickly disavowed any knowledge of their friendship, while his other buddy on the opposite side of the street just kept laughing and filming him with his phone.  The traffic finally cleared and he was able to jump off and run away.  We then saw some shady dealings going on at the corner, and yes I mean drug deals.  While Boston has always had a hustle and bustle about it no matter the time of day, Monday morning was by far the worst Vince and I have ever seen it.  We moved up to the staging area about 4:00 am and got loaded between 6:30-7:00 am on Monday morning and were happy to be on our way.

Monday, we traveled across MA, CT, NY and yes I-80 in PA to meet Clark driver, Jim Gallagher in the Truck World in Hubbard, OH to switch trailers on Monday evening.  Jim took the Phantom trailer onto Milwaukee, because this run was consider a team run. Vince took it the first 500 miles then Jim finished the last 500 miles.  It was nice to catch up with Jim since we hadn’t crossed paths in two years. 

Yesterday, we again travelled across I-80 in PA (5^th time in 16 days- trust me it hasn’t changed from the 1^st to the 5^th time, but I’ve gotten a lot of my reading done on that stretch) and arrived in Milford, CT last night. This morning Vince has put the trailer for The Last Ship, a story Sting wrote and is producing into the dock. He will call when the office opens to find out where we are headed next.  The last we heard, it appears we will be going to Cleveland this weekend to load out Million Dollar Quartet and then return it to one of the shops, which will mean at least two more trips over I-80 in PA before I go home.  All joking aside, it really doesn’t matter where we go. As long as Vince and I are together, I will travel over any road.     

Inn of the Mountain Gods

Entrance to the Hotel, Casino and Conference Center

 We spent this weekend at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino, Mescalero NM.  As the pictures show it is quite a beautiful location.  We were pleasantly surprised to learn Saturday morning that the casino was putting us up in a room for Saturday and Sunday night and providing us with meal vouchers.  The tour manager on Family Feud, Melonie believes all members involved in the production are part of the team and therefore had included us on the list.  We were very appreciative to both Melonie and Guy, the production manager at the Inn for the room and meal vouchers.

I have included the legend of the Mountain Gods at the bottom of the post hopfully it is legible

Lobby area of the hotel

Over the course of the weekend we used the whirlpool, pedal boated on the creek, hiked around the creek and of course got a little gambling in. It was nice to get out of the truck for a few days, and to get different kinds of exercising in as well.  Tonight we load out and head back east to return the show to its warehouse in West Haven, CT.   

Our attempt at a selfie, there was lots of laughing involved

Creek where we pedal boated

Our hiking trip - the resort is the light colored buildings in the middle of the picture

The legend of the Mountain Gods

My husband is a really good sport!

Sunset in PA on Tuesday - it looked like the sky was on fire

Sunday I returned to the truck, but prior to returning shared with Vince that this time we were going to work out three times a week doing weight training. He gave me the look I always get when he is not into whatever I have in mind, but doesn’t say it. I purchased the FitDeck Dumbbell which is a deck of cards with varying exercises using dumbbells.  It’s like having a personal trainer picking out the exercises you hate, without them standing there with you. We worked out Sunday with a lot of trepidation on Vince’s part and I feared I would get a lot of push back when we got out on the road.

We both have gained the middle age spread weight that everyone thinks they aren’t going to gain. I have tried in vain to lose it over the last three years, with diet and exercise to no avail.  In February I started a core class once a week with a personal trainer. While I have not lost any significant weight, I am stronger and feel way better.  I know Vince’s sitting all the time is his biggest nemesis and something I can’t change, but believe the weight and conditioning training will help him possibly lose some weight and definitely help his back and core.

On Monday we were in Cleveland for a load in of Million Dollar Quartet.  It was a cluster in the morning, because there were straight trucks trying to make deliveries and three Clark trucks trying to load into the Ohio Theatre.  The theatre is in a theatre district with other theatres and lets through it the area is under construction. At one point everything came to a stand still for about 15 minutes when two of our trucks and two straight trucks blocked the street.  Jerry, one of our drivers couldn’t get out and both straight truck drivers blocking the way were no where to be found.  Such good times, everyone standing around waiting, they figured out another way to get Jerry out and one of the straight truck drivers arrived to move his truck and thankfully the rest of the day went smoothly.

On Tuesday we headed to Maybrook, NY to swap a trailer with Joe Larkin. I believe Joe may have given up a day at home to load our New Mexico bound trailer due to our being in Cleveland to long to make our loading of the trailer. My thanks to him for doing that and meeting us in Maybrook, he made our trip a little easier.  That day I announced we would be working out Wednesday and Friday morning.  We had a long haul from NY to NM so Vince said “well you will have to get up early”.  I had no problem with that and knew the type of miles we would have to travel. For this to all work early rising would definitely have to be a part of it to get the workouts in and the miles covered.  But since I don’t always pop up in the mornings while on the road, I think Vince was hoping that would get him out of the workout.

On Wednesday I popped up with no trouble.  Vince was less than enthusiastic initially but surprised me by suggesting we could work out next to the truck or better yet in the grass behind it.  So I shuffled the cards and of course got one of the exercises I hate right off the bat.  But that is why I got the cards because I knew if it was up to me I would only do the things that are easy.

So out we went to the grass.  I announced the warm up of two sets of 10 of push-ups, sit-ups, squats and lunges.  After we got through the first set Vince shared that he believed the warm up was the work out.  After laughing I assured him that it was only the warm up and after much huffing and puffing we got through our sets.

On Friday, I got no complaining and I once again got another of my most dreaded exercises.  I believe it may payback for torturing Vince. We got through the exercises despite it being well over 80 degrees already that morning in OK.   I know working out is the last thing Vince wants to do but he is being a really good sport about it.  Way more so than I ever thought he would and hopefully he will see the benefit in it.  

Last night we arrived at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino in Mescalero, NM.  We load in Family Feud this morning and are here for the weekend.  It is a beautiful resort so in my next post I will share how the weekend went and some beautiful pics.  

Out in the middle of no where NM Friday night