Goodbye To A Good Man

Note: The regular chronicle of the Lonesome Dove Xpress will return shortly. I had planned a detour for this Sunday, Feburary 15th which you can read after that date. And today, an unexpected detour, prompted by the unfortunate death of one of my favorite relatives, my cousin Jimmy Wilson. As I thought about him yesterday and today, various memories and impressions came as I drove across the roads out west. And so I write. A good man leaves us. Jimmy Wilson was, by any measure, a man's man. He was married for over 40 years to a good woman, Linda. He was blessed with four kids (Marty, Mike, Kelly, and Jennifer) who do both their parents proud, and grandchildren as well. I was very fortunate to be able to grow up spending time around Jimmy and his family. Back in those days, our extended family was very close, and we used to have "git-togethers" and "shin-digs" on a whim that resembled reunions for most families. I have many memories of Jimmy, and have been told some great stories about him over the years.. I share a few with you. My favorite story. My favorite story about Jimmy as a young man also involves my Daddy, and our cousin Smoky (who has been gone now over 20 years – and that thought makes time seem like sand passing from my grasp faster and faster). These three men were all cousins who grew up with each other, and were more like brothers than cousins. They all grew up barefoot on cornbread and milk in a place and time where electricity and indoor plumbing were still just rumors heard about in town. They had to be tough just to get grown.. Those who earned their enmity had reason to fear. And those whom they loved knew they would move the earth for them if need be. One night when they were young, they had all gone out to play pool. Hours later, when they came back out to the car, they noticed that the stereo was missing. They went back into the pool hall, which was still crowded. They lined up across the door, and told the crowd that nobody was leaving until he got his stereo back. The stereo never appeared. But nobody left either. After a time, they decided to leave and forget the whole thing. Later, they discovered the stereo still in the trunk, where it had been all along. They had taken it out and put it in the trunk before going in so it wouldn't get stolen, and then forgotten about it when they came back out and it was gone. Even now, I laugh at those three guys walking back into that pool hall demanding that stereo be turned over. It's amazing no one got hurt – and I don't mean those three. "Who was that man?" My favorite personal memory about Jimmy is from a time we had one of our family "shin-digs" down at his house. I was 17 years old, and had just gotten my first car, a 1962 Volkswagon Beetle. It was a Saturday in April or May, 1982. I had invited two of my friends from church, Brenda and Tina, to come along, and we all drove over to Jimmy's house in Alabama. There were probably 50 people there, and there was lots of food, games, kids playing outside, adults inside and out laughing, telling stories, and that night, we all sat around in the house singing gospel songs and "clogging" to country and bluegrass music ("clogging" is also called "buck dancing", and reminds me a little of both square dancing and tap dancing). We had a great time, as usual, and Bren and Tina were amazed at what they saw. Their extended families weren't close and rarely got together for anything but funerals. When we left that night to go back to Rome, before we had pulled out of the driveway, they both asked me: "Who was that man?" I didn't know what they were talking about at first, but when they told me what they meant, I knew they were talking about my cousin Jimmy. They had never met anyone like him. He just had a way about him that seemed to charm everyone, and, as my Nanny told me today on the phone, "Everybody loved Jimmy. Everybody." Fishing, Bulldogs, and Clocks . Other things that come to my mind about Jimmy: he loved to fish as much as anyone I've ever met (except maybe my cousin Jesse). The Georgia Bulldogs never had a more devoted fan than Jimmy. And, even though he lived in Alabama for decades, the clock in his house was always on Georgia time. The last family reunion I was at, back in 2006, for a joke, I had gotten Jimmy a banner for the Auburn Tigers college football team, just to mess with him. I made a show of bringing it into the place we were having the reunion when Jimmy got there, and tried to give it to him. He looked at me like I had just escaped from some institution when I told him it was for him. "You're wrong, son. It's ain't for me. It ain't goin' in my car." I ended up giving it to his son Kelly. "Squeegee" and "Oot" and a man called "Horse". Another thing I remember and loved about Jimmy was that he had nicknames for many of the people in our family. The two I remember most are "Squeegee" (my cousin Jesse) and "Oot" (one of his boys – I think Kelly). He had names for some of the grandkids, too, but memory fails me now to think of them. Many people in our family call my Daddy "Hoss". Jimmy called him "Horse". I can hear him say it in my mind as I write these words. Until then. A good man has gone. But we shall see him again. Until then, we'll miss you, Jimmy.

Go See Gran Torino

Go see the movie Gran Torino. If you have not seen the Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino , I urge you to go see it. It is in theaters everywhere at the time of this writing. If you are reading this much later, I would urge you to buy the DVD when it comes out. But if you can go see it with others in a big screen setting, the audience reactions to the movie adds a dimension that you wouldn't get just watching it at home on DVD.

Terry and I went to see it last night here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where we have been sitting waiting on a load since yesterday morning when we delivered our last load (which we picked up in Brownsville, in The Great State of Texas).

Okay, let's get this part out of the way: there is a lot of profanity and a little violence in the movie. However, I would say, even if those things normally disturb you on some level for whatever reason, go see this movie.

On a scale of 10, 10 being the best, I give this movie a 10 very easily. Wonderful story, great character played by Eastwood. Most of the folks in the movie are not professional actors, and it's obvious, but for the kind of movie this is, it is not a bad thing, in my opinion.

I won't get into a detailed review of the movie – you can read plenty of reviews on the net that are better than what I would write, but no matter what reviews you read or don't read, just go see this movie.

I can't say it any plainer than that.

Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We picked up our load in Illinois last Thursday morning and delivered it to Laredo, Texas with no problems. The truck is running okay, and the weather was good all the way to Texas.

From Laredo, we drove down to Brownsville, to pick up our next load. It was the first time I'd ever been all the way down to Brownsville, the southern-most point in Texas. When you get to Brownsville, if you go one way, you're in the Gulf of Mexico. If you go the other way, you're in Mexico.

I loved going down there. It's the kind of place I'd think about living if I ever decide to actually get a place other than the truck to live most of the time.

The load we picked up in Brownsville was going over to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We delivered that load yesterday morning, and we have been just sitting here waiting for our next load. At least we are not stopped this time because of weather or truck problems. It's just a result of the slow economy.

I heard an update from Schneider on the current freight situation. Basically, and ironically, it said that everywhere the weather stinks, freight is good, and where the weather is better, freight is softest. So, we are in a very soft market for freight. We probably won't get a load until Monday – that's my thought. And I think we'll have to drive a long way to pick it up.

At this point, just get us moving.

Now – go see Gran Torino.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . making choices and taking responsibility . . .

"Go To California -- Just Kidding!" :--}

“ Just click your heels three times.” Well. We are not in Davenport any longer. We are in our own truck. And it appears to be running.

When I last wrote, we were waiting on the Freightliner shop in Davenport to fix what they didn't fix at the Schneider maintenance shop in Gary, Indiana, when the truck was there for a week.

Monday afternoon, we called and they told us it was ready. So we pack up all our stuff, and Terry takes the hotel shuttle to pick up the truck, only 5 miles away. A while later, he arrived, and told me that the truck was doing exactly the same thing it had been doing before, and he didn't think he was even going to make it to the hotel.

So, right back he goes. We unpack our stuff, and settle in to wait some more.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, we called, and they told us they had replaced a range modulator on the actual transmission (this was a mechanical problem and not just some kind of electronic computer problem like everyone thought but Terry and me). Sure enough, we picked up the truck last night, and it's been running well since then.

“ Here. Take this load to California.” “Ah, just kidding!” So, we pick up our truck in Davenport, Iowa, last night, check out of the hotel, and we are ready to go. We let Schneider know we are ready to actually do some driving.

It took a couple of hours, but finally the load came through. We were to go over to Normal, Illinois, and pick up a load going to California, but it wasn't going to be ready until this afternoon at 3:00 pm. So Terry drove until we stopped about 20 miles away from the place, where we parked for the night.

It was snowing and the temperatures were cold enough to make me glad we were on our way to Otay, California. Our strategy was to call this morning to see if the load might be ready earlier than 3:00 pm.

So, about 7:30 this morning, I called them.

Could we pick up the load early? Would it be ready before 3:00 pm?

“ Well, normally you could. But there isn't enough freight for a load on this order, so we are cancelling the load.”

“ Cancelling the load going to California. You're sure?”

“ Oh yes. Quite sure.”

“ Thank you.”

All dressed up with nowhere to go. So now our truck is running again, but we have no load.

So we wait. And wait.

Terry wakes up sometime around 11:00 and asks how it's going. I tell him what's happened to our load, and he can't believe it either. Nothing to do but go back to sleep.

Finally, close to noon, we get another load. Picking up in Effingham, Illinois, about 150 miles from where we were, and it's going to (yay!) Laredo, Texas. As good as California to us.

It won't be ready until 3:30 in the morning, so I drove to the Flying J truck stop here in Effingham, and we are about 2 miles from the place. If they don't cancel this load, we're on our way to Texas.

Now, if we can remember how to drive the truck, we will be in good shape.

Movies and videos. While we were in the hotel in Davenport, I watched some TV. More than I've watched in months. We saw some good movies and some so-so movies, and I got to watch some episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends I hadn't seen before. Quite relaxing.

The best movie we saw was one we ordered on pay-per-view: Body of Lies, starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Russell Crowe. It was great.

Another movie we ordered that we had high hopes for that was only mediocre was What Just Happened? with Robert Dinero.

A movie I watched on a movie channel I had never even heard of was called Vacancy and it was an entertaining horror flick. Not a lot of depth, but at the time I watched it, I wasn't looking for depth, so that was fine with me.

We also watched the two-night opening episodes of the new season of 24 , and already I can't wait to be able to get the DVD's when they are released later this year or next year.

Reading. I finished Shadow of the Sun by A. S. Byatt earlier today, and started A Confederacy of Dunces which I've been meaning to read for years. The Byatt novel was fascinating and enjoyable. And many thanks to Terry for Dunces.

I'm reading some other stuff also, as always, but that's the main focus right now.

The World Tour of Music continues. Today was John Denver day, and that continues tomorrow. Didn't know I had so much John Denver, but it's all enjoyable.

As I write this entry, I'm listening to Larry Norman . . . not part of the World Tour, just something I felt like listening to.

That's about it for now, I suppose.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . making choices and taking responsibility

Allan

Musical Trucks

UPDATE:If you read this entry in the past day or two, there's an update below. If you haven't read, it you won't believe it!

Are we on Candid Camera ? Okay. Any moment now, Allen Funt is going to come around a corner and tell us they've been messing with us for the past month, with Schneider's permission, and we'll smile like good sports into the camera, and it will all be over. Our lives will return to normal.

Or, it will be like the wonderfully funny (and thought-provoking) book by Robert Heinlein (if you like science fiction and you haven't read him, where have you been?), Job: A Comedy of Justice , where the gods are playing practical jokes on their followers and laughing at their demented cruelty. There is a similar scene in one of the Hitchhiker series books by absurdist genius Douglas Adams.

Musical trucks. Last time I wrote, we were in Gary, Indiana, where our truck was in the shop because of transmission problems. We have had this truck almost two years, and have had major transmission problems four times.

We have broken down in Eufaula, Oklahoma, and Los Angeles. And last year, when I was driving solo in that truck, I broke down in morning rush hour traffic in Cincinnati. And, this week, in Wisconsin.

Our truck was not finished on Monday, so we had to leave in the borrowed truck Monday morning to deliver our load to California on time. We made it with no problems, and the weather was great.

However, this truck (also an automatic transmission) has been acting really weird every time we backup.

From California, we got a load to Dallas. Our truck is ready up in Gary, so they will eventually route us up there if they can ever find a truck that will make it up there.

We arrived here in Dallas about midnight. Park the trailer, and when we stop, the dash starts flashing fault codes for the transmission – there's a problem. So, we let Schneider know that our borrowed truck is having transmission problems and we have a load to deliver over in Grand Prairie in the morning at 7:30.

They find yet another truck here in Dallas for us to use to deliver the load in the morning. Meanwhile, the borrowed truck we picked up in Gary will go into the shop here in Dallas in the morning.

The truck we will use in the morning belongs to a guy who is on vacation. So we will deliver the load in the morning, bring that truck back and sit here until they get the second truck fixed. I will absolutely refuse to get into a fourth truck if they press for that.

So, as I sit, sleepless because of all this excitement, in the Schneider Operating Center in Dallas, Texas, I have stuff scattered in three different trucks.

The bright side. If I sound negative the past few entries about all the things that have happened to us, I apologize. It's really hilarious at times, and Terry and I both joke about the past month every day, sort of looking back over our shoulders to make sure the boogeyman isn't right behind us.

That aside, it's been the most stressful month I can remember in several years (probably since my divorce and subsequent final breakup with my precious ex-wife, Charlotte).

But, since we left Gary, Indiana, we have had great weather, great driving conditions, and all the way to California, Terry and I relaxed back into a somewhat normal routine, even though we were in a borrowed truck, and had the minimal necessities for life on the road with us.

And, then, even though they didn't send us right away back to Gary from California, they sent us to Texas. There is no place either of us would rather go (excepting to visit our families) than Texas. And, all the way here from California, we had great weather, good roads, beautiful country.

So, the past few days have reminded me once again why I love this job and this life, even with all the hassles of the past month.

Beyond that, Terry and I both realize that in the big picture, this past month is nothing momentous: we are safe, making money, haven't been in any accidents, and we've both learned things that we will be able to use in the future, especially in severe winter conditions.

But we still want the joke to end. NOW.

World Tour of Music continues. I think I mentioned a few entries ago that I am going through my music collection, alphabetically, to hear everything I've got. I'm in the letter J now.

Today was typical: finished listening to stuff by Jerusalem (one of my favorite Christian rock bands); then Jesse Coulter; Jessica Simpson; Jewel; Jimi Hendrix; Jimmie C. Neuman; Jo Dee Messina; and I'm in the middle of the legendary Joan Baez.

I'm enjoying this little diversion immensely.

And so, this part of the story ends.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . making choices and taking responsibility . . .

Allan

UPDATE: It is two days later. Sunday. We finally picked our truck up last night in Gary, Indiana, moved all our stuff from the loaner truck we'd been in for a week, and headed for Iowa City, Iowa, to pick up our next load that was going to North Carolina.

Just over 100 miles into the trip, I woke up when Terry pulled into a rest area.

He told me the truck had started doing the same thing it was doing before, only it was worse this time. Whatever they had done in Gary had not solved anything.

We made it as far as Davenport, Iowa, before it got so bad Terry didn't feel like it was safe to continue. We called Schneider maintenance, and they had us take the truck to a Freightliner place here in Davenport, about 15 miles away. We got there, and they told it would be Monday morning before they could even look at it.

So, here we are in another motel in Davenport. It's actually a very nice place for the price. Terry is sleeping and I am sitting in the dark with the glow of this laptop screen for company.

We are both so frustrated and tired of these truck problems!

Our dispatcher told us last week that we are on the short list for a newer truck. In my mind, it just got shorter.

They took us off the load going North Carolina, of course.

So, here we are. I hope things are going better on your end.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' (if you can get wheels that will roll) . . . making choices and taking responsibility . . .

Photos From the Road on Flickr

Hello. The main object of this blog entry is to let you know that I've uploaded some photos from the road to Flickr.

Photos on Flickr! For several months, I've been wanting to go through the scores of pictures I've taken on the road, and put some up for the blog. The easiest way to do that is through a site called Flickr, so that's where they're at. They are in order according to the name, and I tried to name them so you'd know where they were taken and when.

You can go here to view them – just click on the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allanmills2009

Let me know what you think.

Currently. Well, we finally got a load to California, and better weather yesterday. But, on the way over to the place just south of Milwaukee to pick up the load, our truck started having transmission problems. Schneider sent us down here to Gary to have it worked on, and they said they won't even be able to touch it until tomorrow (Monday). So, once again, we are in a motel.

If they don't get our truck done in time for us to deliver the load to California on time, we have a loaner truck we can use, but I didn't feel like dragging all my stuff from one truck to another, especially when we don't know how long we'd be stuck in the other truck before they sent us back to Gary to pick ours up, so we are hoping they have our truck fixed in time for us to deliver on time to LA.

So, our last month of breakdowns and winter weather continues into the new year.

Otherwise, things are going well.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . making choices and taking responsibility . . .

Allan

Happy New Year!

Currently. Last time I wrote, I was sitting in the truck in Hermiston, Oregon, because of weather. This New Year's Day, I'm sitting in the truck again, but this time it's in Scranton, Pennsylvania. We are sitting this time because we are waiting on Schneider to send us our next load. We could be here 10 minutes or we could be here a day. No way to know what the freight situation is like, even though I sent a message to our dispatcher earlier asking what it was like.

At least here in Scranton the sun is shining, and the roads are in good shape. The time since I last wrote was pretty much a continuation of the previous couple of weeks. Non-stop delays because of weather or truck problems. Terry and I both are so fatigued on so many levels, it's almost hard to describe.

But, even with that said, things are not so bad. We are both safe and we have learned some things the past few weeks that will help us in similar experiences in the future when dealing with winter conditions or truck problems.

Happy New Year! My main motivation for writing today is to wish you a Happy 2009. At the end of the year, my thoughts always turn reflective to examine the year just past, and to sort of chart some goals and intentions for the coming year.

So – what was 2008 like for you? What kind of year was it? What would you like to repeat in 2009, and what would you hope to never go through again? Did the election or the economic problems impact you very much? Did you grow personally, accomplish some things you wanted to accomplish? Are there mistakes that you hope to avoid in 2009?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the last year and the one coming up. E-mail me or post a comment. I always enjoy hearing from you.

2008: A Good Year. Looking back over the past year, I'd have to say it was a very good year for me, personally. I spent the year doing what I love doing, living the kind of life that I've chosen to live. The first eight months of the year, I enjoyed driving solo, valued my solitude, and experienced a lot of growth during that time. And, since August, I've enjoyed very much teaming with my best friend of 25 years (wow! We are getting to be old men, like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau! And sometimes we remind me of the two old guys sitting up in the balcony of the Muppet Show.), Terry.

I read more this year (either physical books, electronic books on my Palm, or audio books on tape or XM radio) than I have in many years; you can read about some of what I read in blog entries from the past year. Perhaps my favorite of all was the Life of [Samuel L.] Johnson by John Boswell.

I was able to make substantial progress with my debt, so that now, I'm looking at being able to pay off my car early, and that will enable me to do some nice things I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

I've done more writing this past year than I've done in a few years, including working on a collection of short stories and writing my first song. Some of the best writing I did this year was in this blog (my opinion, of course), especially the entries for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day.

I think some things have become settled for me about who I am and how I view and live in the world this year that have been in some kind of process since I got sick in 2001. I have grown over the past year in ways that I've been hoping to do for several years now.

I am about as content and my life is about as simple as it's ever been.

Not bad for 2008. I'm hoping 2009 continues the same way.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . making choices and taking responsibility . . .

Allan

The Longest Week

Currently. This moment, I'm sitting in my truck in near darkness. The truck is idling because the temperature is about 5 degrees above zero. We are in Hermiston, Oregon, where we have been for the past 20 hours. We have spent the last week and a half mostly sitting for one reason or another. Terry and I are both tired of sitting. Tired of winter weather. And, at times over the past week, we have been tired of each other.

The longest week. Last time I wrote, I was in Dallas, and I wrote about my adventures wearing my Burger King crown. I still have the crown, but haven't felt like wearing it lately. I have not been King of the Road since we left Dallas.

After the last time I wrote, Terry got into Dallas on Sunday night, and we were ready to roll on Monday morning. We got everything into the truck. And waited.

Finally, we got a message across the satellite: we had a load, but it wouldn't be ready until Tuesday morning. So, we get our stuff again, and drive back down to the hotel for one more night. We didn't know that that beginning was to be the theme of the next week and a half (and still counting). We have spent more time waiting than we ever have before since we've been teaming. It's just been a weird two weeks (well, not in the same way as wearing a Burger King crown, but you know what I mean).

We went about 10 miles down to Hutchins, Texas, and picked up a load that was going up to Hagerstown, Maryland. We left Tuesday morning, and by the time we got into Arkansas on I-30, we were in rain. We stayed in rain all the way across the country to Hagerstown. By the time we got to Maryland, it was turning colder, and the rain was supposed to become freezing rain or snow.

Along with waiting, bad weather of some type was fated to punctuate our next two weeks.

We delivered the load to Hagerstown, then drove south to Williamsburg, Virginia, and picked up a Walmart load going up to Raymond, New Hampshire. Oh joy. That means going up I-95 through DC, New Jersey, NYC, Connecticut, Massachusetts, into New Hampshire. Still in bad weather, we made it up there with no problems.

From New Hampshire, we drove north into Maine, up to Lincoln, north of Bangor. We always love going to Maine, and this time was no exception, in spite of the bad weather we were in. We didn't know at the time that the weather wasn't that bad after all.

The load from Maine delivered to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I shut down in New York state for a little while one morning because snow freezing on the windshield and the windshield wiper not working caused me not to be able to see well enough to drive safely. When you are in a big truck in lots of traffic, it's snowing, the roads are icy in spots, and you can't see, that is a scary feeling.

Anyway, we finally got up to Wisconsin, and picked up our next load going to Portland, Oregon. Great! A load out west, and we get to go through some of our favorite parts of the west – Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

We picked up that load last Sunday. It is now early Friday morning, and we still have that load.

Everything was normal. We planned to deliver the load on Monday afternoon or early Tuesday morning.

Then we got to Minnesota and ran head-on into the winter storm we'd heard was coming our way across the plains from the west. We fueled in St. Cloud, west of Minneapolis. By the time we had gone about 50 miles, we were being warned about blizzard conditions, heavy snows, high winds, below zero temperatures.

We stopped in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, about midnight on Sunday night. Not long after that, things got so bad that they closed I-94 just west of where we were, and it was closed all the way past Fargo, North Dakota. We stayed there until Tuesday morning, when they opened up the roads again.

So, Tuesday morning, we are ready to go. But our trailer brakes are frozen and won't release. We tried everything we could, and finally had to get someone from the shop there at the truck stop to get them unfrozen. It cost us $28, but that was a bargain to be able to get back on the road.

Everything is fine. We fuel in Fargo. We are moving, and we are glad. The worst is behind us.

Not so fast – about 70 miles west of Fargo (or a little more), near Jamestown, North Dakota, this truck passes me. Well, most trucks pass Schneider trucks. Then the truck slows down, gets back over beside me and motions for me to pull over behind him. He was trying to tell me something was wrong. I figured he spotted a bad tire or something.

I got out of the truck, and there was oil all over the left side of the truck – not just a little bit; I mean the side of the truck was covered in oil and sludge. None of the gauges indicated anything amiss – we still had normal oil pressure and the temperature gauge was normal. But something was wrong. If that guy hadn't stopped us, we could have blown the engine because almost all of our oil had blown out for some reason.

There was a truck stop in Jamestown, so we took it over there to the shop. They determined that a blowback vent underneath the engine had gotten clogged with snow and ice and caused the oil to blow out of the engine because of the pressure. They fixed us in a couple of hours, and we are back on the road.

It's Tuesday night. Terry starts driving.

About 11:00 pm, we are in Beach, North Dakota, one mile from the Montana state line. Since Terry's been driving, we have been losing power in the engine and the fuel mileage was half what it should have been. We needed a new fuel filter (it seems like we need those a lot more than we used to) and we couldn't make it through the mountains of Montana and Idaho with the power we had lost.

Now, outside, it is 20 degrees below zero on the thermometer. The wind was blowing and the wind chill was at least 50 below. I am asleep, and Terry is outside trying to change the fuel filter. Finally, I wake up, and I go outside to mostly watch. Terry is the mechanic of this Lonesome Dove Xpress outfit.

Terry does everything he's supposed to do, puts the new filter on, and we are ready to go.

Tries to start the truck, and it doesn't start. We work on it for about 20 minutes. Still nothing. Call Schneider and they sent someone out to look at it. They can't do anything with it there, so they will have to take it into the shop the next morning.

It is now the middle of the night. The truck won't start, so there's no way to heat the truck. It is now about 30 below zero with 50 below wind chill. There is a motel about a quarter mile from the Flying J there in Beach.

One of the people working at the truck stop, Myra, offers to take us up to the motel in her personal vehicle since it's so cold.

There are still good Samaritans in this world. Never doubt that.

So, she carries us to the motel. The truck finally gets into the shop, and they call us about 3:30 Thursday morning to let us know it's ready.

By 4:30, we are rolling. We get through Montana with no problem, but there are new winter storms heading our way across the northwest out of Washington and Oregon. We make it over Lookout Pass and have to have chains going over 4 ^th of July Pass in Idaho.

This is an example of how sometimes Terry and I can have different ideas about things. In the situation where we needed chains to go across the pass, I would have just stayed put. But Terry decided that the weather was not going to get any better (the storm had just started and was supposed to last until Friday), and he wanted to get as far as we could. Sound reasoning. So that's what we did.

We kept having the same problem we've had before: the snow and ice freeze on the windshield wipers so they don't work, and then snow and ice freezes on the windshield making it nearly impossible to see. So every 30 minutes, Terry is having to stop and try to knock the ice off everything. And he's having to do so in below zero temps, heavy snowfall, icy roads, and no real good places to pull off the road.

We got to Hermiston, Oregon early Friday morning. I hadn't gotten much sleep because of the weather, doing the chains, and just being anxious about the fact that we were on the road in those conditions.

When we got here, I decided that it wasn't a situation I wanted to be in – driving in heavy snow on bad roads (yes, we could have made it taking it slowly) to Portland where the situation was already bad and probably going to get worse through the day. When we got here, they hadn't even started to work on clearing the roads in this area yet, so the snow was six inches or a foot deep in some places even on the interstate.

So, we have been sitting here almost 24 hours. The snow is stopped here, but is still falling heavy west of here. There are chain restrictions in place for part of the route over to Portland still (and I didn't mention that one of our chains fell off right when we got to the spot to remove them the other night, so now we don't even have a complete set of chains even if I did want to drive in that mess).

Things are supposed to clear up Saturday morning, so I'm planning on leaving in a few hours when it gets daylight (or a little before), and get as far as I can. Hopefully, we can make it all the way.

It hasn't been so bad on me waiting. I've been playing with my laptop because I installed a new operating system (if you don't know what that is, it's what runs your computer: Windows and Apple's OS X on Macintosh computers are operating systems. I installed Linux on my laptops and have been having fun playing with them and setting them up.) and that's kept me occupied, but Terry's about to go crazy.

If we don't get moving soon, he will either kill me, go apply for a job at Walmart, or put on my Burger King hat and start acting weird.

So, now you know what's been going on with us the past couple of weeks.

Reading, writing, music and video. As I've said before, I'm not reading as much as I was when I was running solo, just because of the nature of how things work when you team. However, I'm reading a wonderful book called The Shadow of the Sun, by A.S. Byatt. I'm enjoying it tremendously. I'm also reading a book about Linux I bought while I was in Dallas. And, even more slowly, I'm reading some things on my Palm when I lay down at night. Currently, I'm reading The Iliad by Homer.

Oh yes – I almost forgot – I'm also reading an excellent article on George W. Bush in the current issue of GQ magazine that I bought when we were in Missoula, Montana. I saw the cover, and thought how much I'd love that article, and so I bought it.

There is a joke here that you will get immediately if you just look at the cover of GQ next time you're in Walmart or a grocery store.

But there really is an article on George Bush.

Haven't been doing much writing lately, except journaling. I've put down the story I was working on for a while, evidently.

Music: I've started listening to all the music I have in my collection, in alphabetical order by artist, while I'm driving. I started about a month ago, and I'm in the letter D right now. I'm enjoying it because I am hearing stuff I haven't heard in years.

Video: Currently watching the first awesome season of Miami Vice. I loved that show when it was on in the 1980's, and I'm enjoying watching those first episodes again. Also, watching the first season of Twin Peaks very slowly.

Well, since the battery is running low on my laptop, I will stop this here, and just say I hope you have a very special Christmas and New Year.

Meanwhile . . .

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . making choices and taking responsibility . . .

Allan