Back to work, Well, 4 Days Ago I Mean.

Well, it's a new year, a new beginning, for many things in many of our lives, and Prayerfully, a whole lot of newly awakened Americans, and some who may even remove the liberal chains and blinders placed by the Democrats and many of the left leaning Republicans over the last century or more.

Tina and I had a great vacation. We had planned on taking off on the 19th of December but when we got close to home on the 16th, it was going to be near impossible for dispatch to get us to leave Florida again. We ended up at home on the morning of the 17th and came back to work on the 9th of January.

We left Florida, in the car this time, on the morning of the 19th and headed for Southern Illinois, where most of both our families live. We spent about a week and a half there visiting with, and actually getting some quality time with friends and family. I was able to visit, at length, with a pair of twins, with whom I attended high school. You know you have a true friendship when you can walk into someones house and pick up right where you left off 20 years ago. Though I have talked to these two a couple times since I left Illinois, it can't have been more than 3-4 times in 22 years and nothing has changed...except my hair line and waist size, but I digress.

I was also able to spend some time with another very close friend of mine with whom I used to work and who married, what I would guess, is probably my only other true friend in this world. They are no longer together, but we remain best friends all the same. I would just like to say thanks to all of them for taking time from their busy holiday and work schedules and spending, with me, what time was available.

I was also able to spend some fantastic time with my mother, who is undoubtedly the greatest mother of all time. Though we don't see eye to eye, politically that is, we both understand that we do still live in America and she has the right to be wrong. I spent a few hours with a younger brother at his house and then 1 1/2 days with my fantastic, older, much older, sister. My sister is running for a Precinct Committeeman seat in Illinois, Madison County, Jarvis Precinct #1. To say we had a good visit would be to short change the quality of the time we had together.

Tina was with her family most of the time. Since we are away from our families all year,or most of the year, and we are together all the time we are away from them, suffice to say that separate vacations can be a good thing at times, and yesm that feeling is mutual. HaHa

From there, we arrived back at our water damaged, torn apart for repairs, humble abode, early on the morning of the 31st. We bought a couple of movies and stayed in for to ring in the New Year.

On Saturday it was back to work, well at home anyway. I had a lot of work to do to the truck. I had to replace all 6 shocks, change the oil and filters, do a grease job of the chassis, check and adjust air pressure in the tires, replace a broken link rod for the over-inflate valve on the rear suspension. I had to remove the waste tank and box and install a vent and a flush valve so that the tank would drain and clean out properly, I had to repair a water leak near the water pump for the sink and shower, I repaired several small air leaks, of which 1 still alludes my endeavor. there was a lot of work to do and relatively little time to get it finished. The challenge was there and the mission was accomplished...just in time to go for a great steak before we left the house to head to Orlando and load for Dallas.

We were supposed to load for Las Vegas out of Orlando but the load for Vegas was freight light so we were redirected to the DFW terminal. We left Orlando at about 0400 EDT on the 9th and arrived in Irving at about 2300 the same day. Before we arrived at the DFW terminal, we were asked leave for Chicago at about midnight. We accepted the load and it was ready shortly after we arrived in Irving. After fueling and checking the truck over, we hooked the loaded trailer and performed the required pre-trip inspection and were off for the frozen tundra of Northern Illinois.

We traveled up U.S. 75 to U.s 69 then accessed I-44 east to St Louis where we got onto I-55 north. We had planned to stop in Springfield Illinois for a quick visit with the 912 group there but were asked to hustle to Chicago and take a load to Paw Paw, MI to relay with another truck from Detroit and return to Chicago with his empty trailer. No time to stop. We arrived in Chicago about 1615 EDT on Sunday afternoon and 10 minutes later the load for Paw Paw canceled. Good thing actually though. The water was frozen to the shower and I had a broken water line connector that had to be fixed. The temperature was down to -5 degrees at one point and was only 2 degrees in Chicago when we got there so I understand the freeze.

I used a blow dryer, shshshshshshshsh, don't tell Tina, to thaw the line and had a connector to patch the broken water line. We decided to leave the water dripping overnight so that I could stay warm the next day and not have to be in the cold weather working on frozen water lines.

since the water lines were okay, I decided to be in the cold anyway and took about a 2.25 mile walk, 5 times around the terminal, in the 18 degree weather. I figured we were in a warming faze, I mean really, from -5 to +18, so what the heck, get some exercise. Global warming my butt. I busted my rump, twice, on Al Gore's Glacial thaw.

We were dispatched to Los Angeles from Chicago but the LAX load wasn't to be ready until 0200 on the 12th(today). Our load was actually ready about 0130 and we left about 0200. We were routed down to I-40 west out of Chicago to LAX to keep us out of any real chance of terrible, load delaying weather. We again traveled down I-55 south to St Louis and now we are on I-44 in Missouri. We are currently near Springfield, Mo. We will run I-44 west to Oklahoma City, OK then I-40 to Barstow, CA and I-15 south to the L.A. area. We should be at the LAX terminal by about 1500 EDT on Wednesday. At this point we have no dispatch out of LAX.

Hey, don't forget Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls. Just in time for a new political year and changing of the guard. They are available now at Conservabid.com at the bargain price of $6.95 as an introductory offer and that even includes shipping to the continental United States of America. Check out the video.

For those of you that would rather have something other than a doll, check out our T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. at the links below.We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.


In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW