Tuesday June 30th 2009
We woke up at 6am. I brushed my teeth & shaved. Al did not. We headed over to the North Platte public schools warehouse which was RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the first place we stopped Monday (the door company). And guess what? They said if we would have been there yesterday, they would have unloaded it. So, we spent a whole day at the truck stop for nothing! We arrived at the school warehouse. They were kind of excited to unload the truck! They only get to use their dock about once a year. Everyone in the whole building was either out helping or watching. It must have been a pretty big event. They even got to use the forklift! Anyway, they got their 13 pallets of the truck, and off we went to drop the rest in Scottsbluff NE.
It’s much prettier here in Western Nebraska (as opposed to Eastern Nebraska, & Iowa). On the way to Scottsbluff, traveling NW on 26, I see on the map that
Courthouse Rock, Jail Rock, and Chimney Rock are ahead, so I start getting excited.
Along the way we came across a fairly recent motorcycle accident. Rescue units were on the scene, but the helicopter hadn’t arrived yet. About 20 minutes down the road we saw the helicopter returning from the accident headed towards Scottsbluff. Also along that stretch of highway, I saw a billboard for Carhenge.
In Scottsbluff, the drop went like butter. Then we get our next load offer. Deadhead about 150 miles to Fort Collins CO to pick up a truckload of Budweiser and take it to Odessa TX in the lower left corner of the Texas panhandle. Yes! Finally, some place that’s not Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, or Wisconsin! Those places are all old hat to me! Ha! Al drove to the Crete terminal in Cheyenne WY. Right inside Wyoming’s border they have a huge statue of Jesus (or possibly Lady Of Guadalupe. I couldn’t get a good look, and the statue is so white it was hard to see it’s features). Right next to the Crete terminal is a Sapp Bros that made two huge tanks look like giant coffee pots.
At Crete I swept out the trailer (because Anheuser Busch is very strict) and then I drove to Fort Collins.
When we got to Anheuser Busch, first we had to slide our tandems (trailer axels) all the way to the farthest back position and hit the scales to weigh in empty. Then they had us drop the trailer in a parking lot and come back over to the scales to get a bobtail weight. Next, we were given a trailer number to go find and pick up, strap the beer in, and slide the tandems back to where we thought the weight would balance properly. Then we had to go back to the scale, weigh in, and get inspected to make sure it was strapped in properly. We weren’t happy with the tandem position, so we slid them back 4 or 5 more notches and off we went. Here's a good picture of Al strapping down the Bud!
OK, that was cruel.
We hit Denver during rush hour. Here's the Broncos stadium during rush hour.
Albert got approval to go by his house, so we went a bit out-of-route to Fountain CO near Colorado Springs. His wife came and picked him up for the night and I spent the night in the truck with dreams of icy cold Budweiser (actually I dreamt of PBR, but for this story we’ll say Bud).
It’s much prettier here in Western Nebraska (as opposed to Eastern Nebraska, & Iowa). On the way to Scottsbluff, traveling NW on 26, I see on the map that
Courthouse Rock, Jail Rock, and Chimney Rock are ahead, so I start getting excited.
Along the way we came across a fairly recent motorcycle accident. Rescue units were on the scene, but the helicopter hadn’t arrived yet. About 20 minutes down the road we saw the helicopter returning from the accident headed towards Scottsbluff. Also along that stretch of highway, I saw a billboard for Carhenge.
In Scottsbluff, the drop went like butter. Then we get our next load offer. Deadhead about 150 miles to Fort Collins CO to pick up a truckload of Budweiser and take it to Odessa TX in the lower left corner of the Texas panhandle. Yes! Finally, some place that’s not Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, or Wisconsin! Those places are all old hat to me! Ha! Al drove to the Crete terminal in Cheyenne WY. Right inside Wyoming’s border they have a huge statue of Jesus (or possibly Lady Of Guadalupe. I couldn’t get a good look, and the statue is so white it was hard to see it’s features). Right next to the Crete terminal is a Sapp Bros that made two huge tanks look like giant coffee pots.
At Crete I swept out the trailer (because Anheuser Busch is very strict) and then I drove to Fort Collins.
When we got to Anheuser Busch, first we had to slide our tandems (trailer axels) all the way to the farthest back position and hit the scales to weigh in empty. Then they had us drop the trailer in a parking lot and come back over to the scales to get a bobtail weight. Next, we were given a trailer number to go find and pick up, strap the beer in, and slide the tandems back to where we thought the weight would balance properly. Then we had to go back to the scale, weigh in, and get inspected to make sure it was strapped in properly. We weren’t happy with the tandem position, so we slid them back 4 or 5 more notches and off we went. Here's a good picture of Al strapping down the Bud!
OK, that was cruel.
We hit Denver during rush hour. Here's the Broncos stadium during rush hour.
Albert got approval to go by his house, so we went a bit out-of-route to Fountain CO near Colorado Springs. His wife came and picked him up for the night and I spent the night in the truck with dreams of icy cold Budweiser (actually I dreamt of PBR, but for this story we’ll say Bud).
Wednesday July 1st 2009
At about 7am, Al came pounding on the side of the truck, “Let’s Roll!” I drove 11 hours straight through to Odessa TX with only two brief 5-10 min stops. It was just like Smokey & The Bandit! South Bound & Down, Loaded Up & Truckin’! We even blew past an open scale! (because it was well hidden in a small town & apparently they didn’t care because they didn’t stop us). Yeah, we’re outlaw truckers! Driving through the Rocky Mountains was cool. I didn't get any good pictures of the Rockies, just this one at a gas station at the foot of the Rockies.
Once we got into New Mexico, I saw tons of antelope. You’d see several every mile or so. Standing or laying in fields (sometime amongst cattle), running through a dry river bed, and often very close to the road.
Then when we got into Texas, it was most farmland or oil wells. We couldn’t figure out what they were trying to grow. Weeds? Dirt? I was starting to think they were dirt farmers. “Farm Fresh Dirt!” Yum! Also, most of the houses in the rural areas of the Texas panhandle had tons of junk in their yards! Take some pride in your homes for Christ’s sake. By the way, I hate the Dallas Cowboys! Is this blog getting too negative? OK, I’ll chill. We pulled into Anheuser Busch in Odessa at 6:15 Central time, too late to unload so we drove up to the Loves truck stop for the night. No internet here. I’m tired anyway, so I’m about to pop in a movie, then go to bed. More sweet dreams of PBR…er…I mean Budweiser.
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