getting used to it.

I finally got my blog up and running people! I had to switch blog hosts to get any pictures to upload, which meant I had to change the name and web address, which required a little thinking since I really liked what I had picked before. I settled on Living The Long Haul, which is a little long for my taste, but it was the only one available that I liked. Sorry it took me so long to get it all figured out! I have discovered that sitting in the back in my cozy comfy bed makes me a little carsick-feeling, and I haven't figured out a good way to juggle my laptop on my lap in my seat up front, so I have had to limit my time back here to a few minutes at a time, or while we are sitting still. When it's daylight, I really like to sit up front and watch the scenery fly by, so even if I didn't start to feel sick, I'm not sure I'd spend so much time back here.

So. Now it is Saturday, our 7th day on the road. A lot has happened in the past week!

Sunday we took off from Procon with a load of concrete forms headed to Darlington, Maryland. 

Hookin' it up.

Pulling out.

My mom and dad, Bailey and Sallie, Jesse's parents, and Joel and Marsha were there to see us off.

I didn't get a picture of everyone that was there. It was really nice to have that last few minutes to say goodbye to everyone that was there!

So we got on our way about 4:30. 

I fell asleep halfway there :) Jesse parked in a restaurant parking lot that night, and the next morning we woke up shivering. The truck has something on it called an APU that is runs a heater, AC, and power inverter while the truck is off, so when we park overnight we can turn the truck off and save a little fuel, but still stay warm/cool and have cold food in our fridge. The heater component of this was not working, so it had blown cold air all night. Brr! That will have to get fixed if we come back up north!

Since the restaurant we parked at wasn't open when we woke up (7am-things to get used to, #1),  I had to wash my face and brush my teeth in a gas station bathroom for the first time in my life. (things to get used to, #2) It got me clean, so I didn't really complain!

We had to wait for an hour or 2 before we could unload, so here we sat in the middle of the road, because there was nowhere else to go!

We finally got the forms off, and we went on our way to Baltimore. On the way, we crossed over the Port of Baltimore on this pretty awesome bridge.

You can't really tell from the picture, but it was probably 2 football fields to the water. Pretty trippy feeling being so high off the road, and so high off the water at the same time!

Couldn't talk Jesse into stopping on the bridge to let me get a good picture of this HUGE ship..so I had to settle for a blurry picture :) We picked up a partial load in Baltimore and headed out.

Monday night we found our way to a truck stop on the way to Knoxville, TN, and stopped for the night. Still no heat, so braving the cold, which as you all know...I am NOT a fan of! It actually wasn't too bad, except for anything sticking out from under the covers-like my nose.

I woke up about 3am Tuesday morning with the contents of my stomach begging to make an appearance. They showed up about every 15-20 minutes for the next few hours, wouldn't even let me take a shower in peace! First truck stop shower, sick as a dog. I guess there's no time to sit around waiting on a sick wife, so sick or not, I was through the shower and back curled up in my miserable little ball by 6:30am. I promptly fell asleep, and didn't wake up for 5 hours. When I woke up I felt fine! I definitely felt the prayers of everyone back home who had been praying for me. 

By this time, we were picking up another partial load to supplement the already partial load we had on the trailer, and were soon going to be parking for the night, as we couldn't pick up the rest until Wednesday morning. We stopped at a truck stop, and hung out, ate some macaronis, and then.. Laura called. She had just stopped by to check on my sweet kitty babies, and discovered our water heater pouring water out all over the floor. So thankful she had went by and caught it before it got too bad! We called Jesse's dad to check it out, and went to bed.

We woke up to snow, but there is no taking a snow day, so we headed on to pick up the rest of our load.

The company we were delivering the semi to had a lift in Columbus, Ohio they wanted us to bring also. Yep, they wanted it on this already full trailer! They looked at the specs, and they came up with the idea that the lift would sit right on the back tires of the semi. Well, it was worth a shot, even though it was a little out of the norm for hauling things. So we got on our way to Columbus. Snow everywhere, all the way there.

Cincinnati skyline, Kentucky side

Coming over a bridge, about 30 minutes past Cincinnati.

 Random field on the interstate.

Soon after I took the last picture, we went through a weigh station and Jesse had to pull off behind the building. Weigh stations have the right to pull off any trucker for no reason just to inspect them and make sure they are in compliance with all laws, but most weigh stations don't pull you off unless you are overweight, or they can see something wrong. So now we are both a little worried, because we are sure they are going to be giving us a ticket for something. The little officer comes trotting out of his office with his little measuring tools and his notepad and goes around the trailer measuring and scratching stuff down on his pad. Turns out, the mirrors on the semi that was on the trailer reached wider than the side of the trailer. Apparently, even though the semi we drive has mirrors that reach out farther than those, this is not allowed, and the inspector dude escorts Jesse into his office. 30 minutes later Jesse comes back with a warning, and folds the truck mirrors in and off we go.

That night we spent the night in Jeffersonville. The outlets were within walking distance and yet no shopping was allowed. We were within an hour of lots and lots of people that I wanted to visit, but that was not allowed either. I tried not to pout too long. :)

Well, we're back on the road after some mechanical issues this morning, so I'm going to head back up to my air-ride seat and see some more of Iowa! I'll finish catching you up on the rest of the week later!