3395 miles, 6 days

First fall of snow 9th November 2011

A quick round trip this week leaving on Friday to deliver Ephrata, Pennsylvania Monday morning. Once empty it was a short hop north to switch trailers and take loaded one to Brampton, Ontario.
On arrival at Brampton there was a load ready to deliver in Winnipeg Wednesday afternoon.
Job completed by 4pm Wednesday just in time for the snow to start.

Craig sighting in his rifle.

Gary, Craig and I went and sighted in our rifles today ready for deer hunting season which opens in just over 2 weeks.

3137 Miles, 5 days

It's a dogs life.

A Spyder

Winter on its way.

143 Scania

V8 500

A proper truck

Home sweet home once again. I got to see this beautiful 143 in Ontario on the way home Tuesday morning.
The 143 I drove across Europe was by far the best truck I have ever driven, was really sorry to see that go.
Was talking to the driver of the truck and he runs 4 of them.
I had asked to get home before Tuesday as I had bought tickets to see Roger Daltrey in Winnipeg but didn't need to bother, he has cancelled the shows in Saskatoon and Winnipeg, nice one Roger!!!
No need to stay at home then so back to work tomorrow. All the wood has been cut now, got some help today from Neal to finish it off.

6531 miles, 11 days

The snow capped Rockies.

Bad time for my air con to give up.

My tour of  the western States and Provinces started out with a delivery south of Portland Oregon on the Tuesday morning so leaving on Saturday gave me plenty of time. An uneventful trip across the mountains seen me at my delivery Monday early evening and by late afternoon I was reloaded in Kent, Washington and on my way to Calgary.
A different route across The Rockies this time seen me dropping my trailer in Calgary Wednesday evening and with no reload yet it was time to have a break and reset my hours.
Leaving early Friday morning I was on my way to Medicine hat with an empty to switch trailers and deliver in Lawton, Oklahoma Monday morning.
I arrived in Lawton Sunday evening and as I already had my reload details thought I would try my hand and get unloaded early......it worked, so on my way to Houston, Texas to load Monday morning.
Just before noon I was at the plant in Houston loading and left at 3pm with a load going back to Medicine Hat.
After a chat with dispatch about my available hours it was decided I should just bring it back to Steinbach so back home again by Wednesday evening for a couple of days off.

3433 miles, 6 days

The bush fire near Pansy.

Sorry I didn't get this blog up to date last time I was home but we were put on stand by for evacuation due to a bush fire that was out of control.
If you look at the map of the fire we live close to where the bend is on Hwy 12 and Craig lives near where Hwy 12 meets the road marked in red running North-South.
Craig and Jacey decided to leave home and stay with family as everyone else in their street had already evacuated. We stayed put, keeping an eye on the wind direction.
We watched as the flames passed us by and left us unscathed but it was a scary time. We had our bags packed ready to leave.
The fires, 3 nearby, passed by about 3 miles to the west and 4 or 5 miles to the east of our house.
Everything was brought under control during the night, people were allowed to return to their homes, if they were still there and I left home next morning on my next trip which so far has taken me to Oregon, reloaded in Washington and now empty in Calgary.

"Does anyone know if this thing bites?"

"mmm it tastes ok"

"I can't eat it all, I will hide some for later."

1564 miles, 3 days.

Sunset on I94, Minnesota.

Still struggling to keep it in a straight line on clear, dry, empty roads.

Hope they haven't lost Grandma!!!

Having a few days at home now after a very quick trip. Won't be leaving again till Friday.

3361 miles, 9 days.

This was a very slow trip taking almost 3 days longer complete than a trip like this normally would. As mentioned in the previous post Pa has suffered some terrible flooding recently and as a result of this a lot of the railroads are closed and under repair. This in turn means an unusually high number of deliveries by road.
Penners had 8 or 9 trucks (?) making deliveries to the same place which meant us all looking for reloads from the same area. What made it worse was we were all delivering Friday afternoon/evening.
A couple of trucks were sent back to Toronto empty and a few of us had to wait till Monday to pick up in Hazleton, Pa and take that load to Brampton, On.
I arrived in Brampton Monday afternoon, reloaded Monday evening and was home empty Thursday morning after making my delivery in Winnipeg.

Due to the recent flooding in Pennsylvania the federal government has declared it a national disaster area. The previously empty warehouse next to my pick up in Hazleton is currently one of the places being used by The Red Cross to co-ordinate the relief. The top picture shows some Red Cross vans going in to load and the bottom shows some of the huge numbers of volunteers camping on site.

A common sight any where in the world.

But only in good old USA lol

No I haven't used it but there is truck parking there too.

Is that what I think it is?

but it's only 13th September.

If you look closely at his rear axles you will spot the smoke from his brakes.

All modern facilities here.

I remembered my camera this time so have added a few pics from this trip. I am currently sitting in Hazleton, Pa and can't pick up my trailer till tomorrow morning so just borrowing some wifi from someone!!!

2915 miles, 6 days.

This trip was back to normal with nothing unusual happening. I even forgot my camera so no pictures to put up here this time.

A good day on the boat today. Not too many fish caught but still was worth the journey. 5 fish, lots of weed and a large stick was the total for the day.