Hey Big Rig!

 As the lyrics to the Luke Bryan song go; 

"Hey big rig, keep clockin' them miles

Pullin' that horn, makin' us smile

Rollin' that load down the road all night long

Country on"

Leaving home~

Butch has been driving the miles, keeping the wheels going round & round!  This last two-weeks he's driven over 6,000.

Weight!

When you see in print the actual weight of a tractor/trailer with a full load, it's easier to understand why they ask for space on the road...  Butch enjoys a light load going over the mountains & a heavy one when there's wind!

Last week, Butch was dispatched from Triumph Foods in St. Joseph, MO out to Kent, WA.  He'd told his boss he would "do" Washington, but no further north than Auburn...  Right!  Obviously his boss was not too familiar with where the cities are located :-)   He had hoped to have time to at least see a few of the grandkids, but the schedule was very tight & made tigher by a date change deleting a day from the arrival date.  

9-30-22  Taylor Farms~  A building Butch built!

He called as he turned south onto I-405 from I-90.  Traffic was at a standstill - welcome to Seattle!  Not...  Finding his way to the delivery - Isernio's Sausage Co. - he said something about the area being very familiar.  Just getting near the dock was difficult, with cars everywhere.  

When he finally bumped the dock - I heard him exclaim.  He was looking right across the street at a building he had built!  It was orginally built for Monterery Foods.  This was where he constructed a "cold room".  When I went to visit & walked through - through being the operative word - I discovered how cold, cold can be!  At -35 degrees below zero, I could feel my face freezing before I reached the exit door!

10-01-22  Sat. morning, south bound on I-405

The following morning, he drove due north to Ferndale, WA.  Just a few miles shy of the Canadian Border.  Hum...  you can't get much further north & still be in the good ole USA!  From there, a quick unload & turnaround.  Back south, then east all the way to eastern WA & Selah to pick up a load of apples going to Costco in Aurora, CO.

Nika in the drivers seat!  Guarding the truck!

From what Butch has been told, he won't have to switch to a Kenworth, which makes him happy.  For now anyway, the big blue Freightliner is his home away from home. 

Speaking of home!  One more dispatch & he'll be heading home!  In time for our Anniversary & it's a big one this year!  I told him getting home in time for us to leave is a priority!  A busman's holiday!

A truck stop at night.  Stock haulers light up their world!

He & his friend Ed (They were in training together for CFI.) passed each other on the interestate today, at mile marker #320 in Oregon.  Ed heading west to Kent, Butch moving east to CO.  They hit their air horns as they passed!  So far they've run into each other on the east coast, in the mid-west & now on the west coast.  Amazing how small the trucking world can be.