Maryland Wins the Foliage Contest for Fall 2015

The winner this year for best foliage is Maryland.  As you can see the colors were vibrant and beautiful.  While we saw many beautiful scenes across the Midwest and East Coast this year, Maryland definitely was our favorite.

After a weekend of trucking from Annapolis Junction, MD to Sewell, NJ then Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh, we have arrived home.  The weekend, while yes not a lot of miles still ended up being very long due to the timing and time of the load ins and load out on Sunday and Monday.

 

Love DC at 2:00 am for its beauty and the roads are clear of traffic

This trip out was a very nice one.  We had wonderful weather throughout the month. We also met some very nice people along the way and got to see beautiful scenery.  Not much more you can ask for and while many may not believe this, I am looking forward to returning to the truck in January, despite what weather may await me.

    

4:00 am on a Dirt Road

Minneapolis on Sunday Night

The Mobil Truck Stop - Home away from home for a few days

After Appleton we stopped for a few days at a small Mobil truck stop in Waupaca, WI.  We had only planned on staying there for the night then moving on to someplace closer to Minneapolis.  But the Three Squares Restaurant, the nice staff at the restaurant, the extremely nice/clean bathrooms and sidewalk for walking won us over.  On Saturday, our breakfast waitress from Thursday not only remembered us but Vince’s order too.  It gave us a hometown feeling that you don’t find very often on the road.

Sunday night load out of the closing of the Little Mermaid was long. We didn’t leave the theatre until 3:45 am ET. Last show load outs take longer because items need to be divided for returns to the different shops, lights, audio and sound each go back to their respective shops.  We were loaded with scenery and audio, which meant two stops for us.

Our first delivery was to Springdale PA at 7:00 am Tuesday which was 800+ miles away.  These are the types of runs where day becomes night and night becomes day.  It is a tough thing to accomplish and I find that sadly the older I get the harder it is to do. But this time I took the avenue of only drinking my usual 16 oz of coffee and hydrating with only water (no additional caffeine).  Surprisingly, it actually worked and I was less tired throughout the trip.

At 4:00 am on Tuesday morning we arrived at the warehouse in Springdale.  To get to the dock Vince has to back down a dark, somewhat curvy dirt road, so I offered to help. I am sure I was a sight, standing on that dirt road in my black dress spring/fall coat (it has a nice hood on it and it was windy) with a reflective vest over it and a two way radio in my hand.  I asked Vince if he could see me at the back of the trailer and he answered very surprisingly that in fact he could.  

As I moved back and forth through the curves, I had to walk sometimes backwards to keep an eye on the trailer position as it moved and other times front ways as to not walk into a hole (trust me it was pitch black other than the trailer lights several feet away).  I found myself reflecting on how happy I was at that moment.  It was 4:00 am, I was coming off 48 hours of a topsy turvy sleep pattern, it was cold and windy and yet I was truly happy. I felt peaceful in the darkness because it was completely quiet other than the sound of the truck whirling as Vince would gently press the accelerator. I thought about how I was making things easier for Vince and was proud of how much I have learned over the last 7 years about how a trailer moves, which meant that I was actually helping.    It is amazing sometimes the things that bring us pure joy and I knew in that moment it was exactly what I was feeling.   I am just very thankful I took notice of the moment and appreciated it before it past me by.

Yonkers this morning, yes, it was tight and yes, that is a car parked in front of us

After Springdale it was off to New York for a 7:00 am delivery in Yonkers this morning for the unloading of the audio equipment.  Getting over the George Washington Bridge went amazingly smoothly last night which trust me is not always the case.  Our delivery also went smoothly and shockingly we got out of the city with ease, something neither of us once again expected.

 

Next up - Annapolis Junction, Maryland on Friday.

A Busy Fall 2015 Already

fall in PA

As we headed out at the end of September I was once again excited for the opportunity to see the fall colors around the country.  Little did I know how many different places we would travel in the first two and a half weeks of the trip that would give me that opportunity.  At one point the first week I told Vince I might need a map, some pushpins and colored string to keep it all straight.

Eclipse - East Lansing

 In the first two and a half weeks we have done the following moves:

East Lansing to Boston (saw the eclipse)

Boston to New Windsor, NY

Rock Tavern, NY to Durham (thankful for only rain & high winds due to hurricane)

Durham to Washington, DC (watched planes take off from Reagan while sitting on my perch at the Kennedy Ctr)

Rock Tavern, NY to Boston

Boston to Harrisburg to DeKalb, IL

DeKalb, IL to Columbus, OH (got to due laundry with my own washer and dryer and check in with family and a friend while Vince relaxed)

Columbus, OH to Appleton, WI 

The Potomac on a beautiful fall day

Homeland Security circling DC

Load out at the Ohio Theatre

Yesterday after leaving Appleton, WI, we visited the EAA Museum in Oshgosh, an aviation museum that has 90 planes, including a replica of the Spirit of St. Louis and a very impressive WWII room.  We once again experienced how small a world we live in.  When we approached the greeter at the museum he asked where we were from. We stated Columbus, Ohio, and he shared he had gone to medical school at OSU.  We then talked a little about the football team before he shared with us the layout of the museum.  This isn’t the first time we have run into someone with a connection to us or the towns we have lived in and I am sure it won’t be the last.

5th Air Force was Vince's Dad's unit in WWII , the exhibit includes a wall that shows where all units served during the war along with details about the units role in the war and items from that unit.

Today, we are in Waupaca, WI before heading to Minneapolis, MN where it will all start up again.