Cross Country Trucking

It begins! @ Garden Grove, United States, California

2011-07-23T18:00:35.000Z

Picked up the truck in Garden Grove, CA. I'm excited!! We're scheduled to pick up a load at Nestle tomorrow morning at 8am and take it to Sumner, Washington. 1150 miles to go.

We'll be driving through Portland on the way and I hope to be able to stop and see my friend Shanice!

Shut down - Ontario, CA @ Ontario, United States, California

2011-07-23T23:31:27.000Z

Had some trouble finding an empty trailer to hook up to. We drove around a couple of lots, but had no luck. It makes me wonder why they don't have tracking devices on these trailers.

We gave up and stopped at the TA truck stop in Ontario, CA. Rise and shine at 5am. Hope to have better luck finding a trailer tomorrow!

Pick up - Mira Loma, CA @ Mira Loma, United States, California

2011-07-24T07:20:17.000Z

Up at dawn (yawn) and drove back to the yard. Still no trailer! Dispatch let us know there was a trailer at another yard 8 miles away. Success!

At Mira Loma, CA right now at NESTLE!! I keep hoping we get a big load of chocolate bars so I can smell chocolate for the next 2 days. ^_^

Trucking lesson of the day: It's not an earthquake, the truck is just being loaded.

Shut down - North of Sacramento on I-5 @ Sacramento, United States, California

2011-07-24T14:47:53.000Z

Drove from Ontario, CA to just north of Sacramento, CA today, some 500 miles. Not bad! Of course it was all countryside that I’ve seen before. I’ve been up here dozens of times before, but it was a nice drive.

Nothing too exciting to note. There was a small fire we passed, a paintball field, and numerous cows. There was also a truck full of tomatoes that passed us and afterwards I had fun counting all of the tomatoes on the side of the road (particularly near bumpy areas). Tomorrow we drive up through Oregon and into Washington. I can’t wait to see how beautiful it is up there. I just hope it isn’t raining. ;)

Trucking lesson of the day: Truck stop showers are actually very clean!

Shut down - North of Vancouver, WA @ Vancouver, United States, Washington

2011-07-25T11:54:53.000Z

Today we drove about 520 miles from just north of Sacramento, CA through Oregon, and into Washington. We shut down at a rest stop just past Vancouver, WA. Three whole states! It was a beautiful drive. Who knew that beautiful landscapes existed north of Sacramento? Not me!

In Northern California, once you get past the smell of cows and the endless brown fields, topography sprouts out of nowhere and soon we were surrounded by mountains. We drove past Lake Shasta and through Mt. Shasta National Park, which was dominated by the beautiful snow-capped Mt. Shasta itself. I jumped with excitement when I saw it!

Fun wiki fact: Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at 14,179 feet (4,322 m) is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California. Mount Shasta has an estimated volume of 85 cubic miles (350 km3) which makes it the most voluminous stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc.

Yay for volcanoes!!

I saw many other interesting rocks including various layered limestones and other deformed sedimentary rocks. One ridge seemed to jet out from the surrounding landscape in utter defiance. How I wished we had the time to stop and investigate, but such is the life of the trucker. All work and no play!

Interesting sightings of the day:
- Public art – a cow and a … dragon?? Cool!
- A guy sitting in the back of a pickup truck flying down the freeway – that can’t be safe.
- A kick ass Toyota Rav4! I wants.
- Numerous hitchhikers – Do people really still pick these people up?
- Too much roadkill to name but I will name 1 deer and 1 raccoon.

Finally made it to Portland, OR but was unable to stop and see my friend Shanice due to our running behind schedule. Driving through Portland during rush hour certainly didn’t help! Fun Portland fact: it rains… always. As we drove into Portland, the clouds began to grow ominously darker. When we hit downtown, it began to sprinkle. Curses! When we finally got out of Portland and crossed the bridge into Vancouver, WA, the clouds parted and the sun came out again. Sorry Shanice, I love Portland, but I need sun to live. ;P

Tomorrow we’re up at 3:30am and out of here before 4am to drop off this load of Nestle products (yes, including chocolate!) in Sumner, WA by 6am. Our next load will pick up in Kent, WA and drop of in… KENTUCKY!! Which means we get to drive through the deserts of the NW! Utah here I come. :D

Trucking lesson of the day: It’s amazing how much more you see from sitting so far up high. What do I see most? Bits and pieces of tires. Truckers call them “gators”.

Drop Off - Sumner, WA @ Sumner, United States, Washington

2011-07-26T07:19:03.000Z

Dropped off our Nestle goodies to Costco in Sumner, WA. Just barely made it for the 6am drop-off. Quite a few miles to drive in less than 48 hours!

Headed up to Kent, WA now to pick up a pre-loaded trailer, meaning we'll be switching it out with our current empty.

*yawn*

Pick up - Kent, WA @ Kent, United States, Washington

2011-07-26T16:37:11.000Z

Spent the day in Kent, WA today after dropping of the Nestle load. Due to federally regulated hours for all truckers, Taz needs to be off duty for a certain number of hours before getting back on the road, which means we had some hours to kill.

Being without a car (can't really drive the truck around town) limits our exploration radius to walking distance. Luckily for us, there was a Bar & Grill just down the street where we got some lunch and played a few games of pool.

Nothing of interest to take photos of today. No interesting stories or fun facts today. The highlight of my day was a chocolate swirl Drumstick that I picked up from the gas station store. Mmmmm.

Tomorrow promises to be much more exciting. We will pick up a load from a bakery nearby and make our 5 day trip to Louisville, Kentucky.

Trucking lesson of the day: A truck without a trailer is called a "Bob-tail".

Shut down - Missoula, MT @ Missoula, United States, Montana

2011-07-27T07:44:06.000Z

Very beautiful drive today through the mountains and fields of Washington, through northern Idaho, and into the Rocky Mountains of Montana. This is the countryside I love the most. Spectacular mountains, lakes, rivers and fields all around.

The towns out in the area are very quaint and the people out here are just as down-to-earth. We ate dinner at a quiet little diner near the truck stop where we shut down.

Interesting sights:
- Driving up into the clouds.
- Quite a few windmills up here (but not as many as in SoCal).
- Circle crops! Very cool.
- Drove through Spokane, WA which looked a lot like Portland, OR for some reason.
- More deer sightings and a porcupine sighting (I'll leave out if they were dead or alive).
- Hippie sightings galore.
- An incredible amount of road and bridge construction.

Trucking lesson of the day: Highway police are referred to as "Smokies" in trucker lingo and are frequently announced via CB radio.

Shut down - Gillette, WY @ Gillette, United States, Wyoming

2011-07-28T05:54:59.000Z

Another gorgeous drive today through Montana and into Wyoming. The landscapes changed frequently and quite drastically. We drove out of the Rocky Mountains, into foothills, through brown treeless fields, back into wooded hills, and finally arrived into an area of flat plains with curious mounds everywhere. I was puzzled by these mounds and did a little research, only to be disappointed by the lack of scientific agreement on their origin. I did however find a great article regarding a hypothesis relating to groundwater that I plan to read tomorrow. Go science!

Today’s trip was actually very historical. We drove along the I-90, a part of which followed a section of the original trail of Luis and Clark’s first exploration into the West. Perhaps that is why the Wyoming welcome sign states “Forever West”. In addition, we also drove through the Little Bighorn Battlefield which is in Montana near the Wyoming border within Indian reservation grounds. We didn’t have to stop, but we saw some very impressive teepee’s up on a nearby hill.

Interesting sights:
- So much interesting geology today! There was a huge variety of rock types and topography throughout Montana and Wyoming.
- Totally saw Darth Vader on top of a ridge (yep, that’s what I’m going with).
- We didn’t see any grizzly bears, but we did see elk! At least I think they were elk. They looked very elk-like, but I suppose they could have just been deer. >_>
- We passed Yellowstone National Park (one of my top places to visit) but sadly did not take the road into the park. I don’t think large freightliners would fare well on those roads. :3
- Finally, we saw a deer fall off a hunter’s truck. That was… interesting.

Trucking lesson of the day: Trucks kill a *lot* of bugs. Tip: Keep your windows rolled up or a big bug might ricochet off the mirror and fall on your lap!

Shut down - Sioux Falls, SD @ Sioux Falls, United States, South Dakota

2011-07-29T05:46:28.000Z

Today we drove through eastern Wyoming and all of South Dakota on the I-90. The landscape was almost entirely flat composed of farmer fields and small sparsely populated towns. I took quite a few naps today and got a lot of reading done. Middle America is quite consistent!

Interesting sights:
- A coal train.
- Very old run down abandoned farm houses and barns.
- The biggest cinder block I’ve ever seen.
- Beautiful red rocks.
- A pretty bad car crash.
- An 80 ft. dinosaur.
- Corn, corn, and more corn.
- 10 cent pop!

Trucking lesson of the day: Even truck air horns are not loud enough to spook a cow on the side of the highway.

Shut down - Davenport, IA @ Davenport, United States, Iowa

2011-07-30T05:33:53.000Z

Today was full of interesting sights! We are on day 4 of our trip to Kentucky and today we drove through the rest of South Dakota and most of the way through Iowa. I noticed a huge difference in landscapes once we passed the Missouri River into Iowa. I can honestly say that I never want to live in South Dakota. It is completely flat and devoid of anything more interesting than a few hippies (see previous post). Iowa is much more exciting! First, it borders the Missouri River which divides it from Nebraska and apparently floods from time to time as it did today. Malls, farms, streets, and playgrounds were all underwater today. They even had to shut down a part of the main highway due to the flooding. Lucky for us, we weren’t planning on taking that part of the highway anyways.

Well let’s get to the interesting sights because they were a-plenty!
- So I know I said South Dakota had a lot of corn… but I obviously didn’t know what I was talking about until I got to Iowa. I don’t think they know how to grow anything else! Sometime on this trip I’m going to go run through a corn field just because it seems like something I should do. I just hope the farmers don’t catch me. >_>
- Yay for wind mills in Iowa! We even saw a few wide load trucks at a truck stop that were hauling windmill blades. I didn’t know what they were at first because of their size. o.o
- We ran into a little bit of fog in the morning but the sun came out pretty quick. It made me realize that we’ve had *really* good weather so far on this trip. Besides a little sprinkling in Portland (figures), we’ve had nothing but sunshine with intermittent cloud cover. Let’s hope it stays that way because my pictures are coming out great!
- Along with the flooding, we saw more sand bags than I’ve ever seen before. They also appeared to be building levees to better control the floods. Yup, I’m sure that’ll work.
- Dexter. Just because I love the show.
- We drove through De Soto, Iowa, which apparently is the birthplace of John Wayne. Who knew! I thought he was born in an airport in Orange County. ;D
- A humvee.
- A sweet sports car.
- A car with a wide load and 6 flags (not the fun kind).
- A crop duster in action!
- Some… interesting (we’ll go with interesting) … um… signage in the corn fields (see photos).
- The WORLDS LARGEST TRUCK STOP!! This place was unbelievable. It was like a mall designed just for truckers and trucker enthusiasts alike complete with a number of actual trucks inside. One of them had an amazing mural painted on the trailer. Across from the truck stop was the Iowa 80 (because it’s on the I-80) Trucking Museum, although sadly we did not get a chance to check it out. If you’re ever in the middle of Iowa on the I-80 (because that sounds likely), definitely check this place out!
- And finally: my brother shaved off his hair today. I thought that was pretty interesting. ;)

Trucking lesson of the day: Learning to sleep on a moving truck is like learning to sleep on a roller coaster.

Shut down - Seymour, IN @ Seymour, United States, Indiana

2011-07-31T06:25:44.000Z

Today we drove through Illinois and Indiana. Both states continued with the “hey, I’m gonna be really flat and have lots of corn” theme, although Indiana had more variety in crops including soy beans (I only know because there was a sign). The day was relatively quiet. We stopped off for an hour or so at a town in Illinois to visit Best Buy and Verizon Wireless to upgrade our tablets and WiFi hotspot. We also ate at this place called Penn Station East Coast Subs which of course had delicious subs.

Once back on the road, we headed into Indianapolis where we encountered heavy traffic (thankfully in the opposite direction) attributed to the fact that some big Nascar race (the internets tell me it was the Brickyard 400) had just ended. Oh Nascar fans, you are plentiful out here! Once we passed through Indianapolis, we found ourselves amongst a plethora of cars returning to Kentucky from the race. Little did we know that a 4-car pileup had just clogged up the highway up ahead. Those crazy kids must have been racing again! Lucky for us, truckers look after one another and we were given the heads up via CB radio and suggested an alternate route, which we thankfully accepted.

We’re now less than an hour away from our final destination (called the “99”) in Louisville, Kentucky. We’re quite a bit early, so hopefully we can get another load quickly or we’ll be spending the day there tomorrow. I’m hoping for the next load to take us further east, or perhaps somewhere south west. Anywhere but back to Washington!

Interesting sights:
- Mississippi River! It was quite a bit bigger than I expected and very dirty brown colored. It didn’t seem to be flooded as the Missouri river was.
- A Radio Flyer car!!! It drove past us in the opposite direction, so I unfortunately didn’t have time to take a picture, but it was AWESOME! Here’s a video of it I found on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTnHIUNBjJc
- Illinois had some of the prettiest clouds I’ve seen so far on the trip.
- Kickapoo… *snicker*
- An overturned trailer. Large vehicles + sharp curves + going too fast = disaster.
- Nascar fans galore!
- Waffle House, White Castle, Cracker Barrel – you can tell we’re getting closer to the South.
- Along our detour, we encountered a number of small towns and low overhanging bridges. Our trailer is 13ft 6in and we went under a bridge with an overhead of 13ft 7in. Scary stuff!

Trucking lesson of the day: If you see a slew of big rigs suddenly leaving a highway via a fairly small exit, perhaps it might be a good idea to follow them. ;)

Shut down & Drop off - Louisville, KY @ Louisville, United States, Kentucky

2011-08-01T09:52:50.000Z

Very short driving day today: only about an hour. We hung out at the TA in Seymour, IN until about 5pm when we finally got word about our next load going to... Manassas, VA!

So what did we do all day before heading to Louisville, KY? Why we spent $39.75 in quarters on pull tab lottery tickets of course (which I've only seen in Indiana). How much did we win? $41.25. Success! What did we do with our earnings? Why we bought more lottery tickets like good little gamblers of course. The second time we only won back $31.50. We probably would have kept buying more tickets, but we had a schedule to keep. :P

Tonight we drop off this load at 11:59pm and pick up the next load a few miles from here at 6am. Then we're headed East!

Only a few interesting sights today:
- Our pile of lottery ticket duds. The picture shows less than half of them. The tickets ranged in cost from 25 cents to a dollar each, so you can imagine how many $40 can buy. Interesting side note: About 95% of all of our winnings were from pull tab tickets I opened. Taz was like "WTH??".
- We crossed the Ohio River today. That's three giant rivers in 2 days!
- A fantastic sunset, Kentucky-style.

Trucking lesson of the day: Even when you're sleeping, you're working.

Shut down - Greenville, VA @ Greenville, United States, Virginia

2011-08-02T04:18:14.000Z

Last night was not such a great night. Taz was kept up nearly all night because the shipper we were delivering to at midnight took a few hours to actually do the unloading. I slept, but not well with all the truck moving and unloading going on. When we finally left at 7am, we were surrounded by fog and we were both dead tired. Not a good start.

Thankfully, the day turned out to be fantastic, possibly the most exciting for me thus far. We picked up our new load in Louisville, KY and headed east. Eastern Kentucky is actually very pleasant, but when we got into West Virginia, that’s where the landscape really blossomed. As we climbed the Appalachian Mountains along the Purple Heart Trail, not only were we suddenly surrounded by sloping forested hills and mountains, but there were so many outcrops to see! Layer after layer of sedimentary rocks became more and more foliated the deeper into the mountains we went. At the peak, there were fantastic folds displayed right there on the side of the highway (at exit 183 for future reference). What an amazing place!

Soon after, we crossed into Virginia (also beautiful) and stopped for the night at Greenville, VA (rightfully named). Tomorrow morning we have another 2.5 hours to drive to our 99, which is right next to D.C. Then we drive up to Pennsylvania for our next pick up headed to … Michigan! Time to see the great lakes!

Interesting sights:
- Canadian Geese!
- Some sort of a mass child hot air balloon great escape in progress.
- A bridge being built.
- West Virginia – everything about it.
- Rivers, rivers and more rivers!
- Gold Capitol Building of Charlestown, WV.
- Giant beam being transported.
- ROOOOOCKS!!!

Trucking lesson of the day: All semi trucks have engine brakes called “Jake Brakes” and work by releasing compressed air trapped in the cylinders, which slow the truck down. They use these frequently in high grade areas to prevent the primary brakes from overheating. It’s science!!

Drop off - Manassas, VA @ Manassas, United States, Virginia

2011-08-03T04:51:41.000Z

Drove a few hours to our final destination in Manassas, VA which as it turns out is a McDonalds supplier. We just delivered their hot cakes!

Next pick up is in Pennsylvania which shouldn't take us to long to get to. Then we head Northwest up to the Great Lakes. :)

Shut down - Linglestown, PA @ Linglestown, United States, Pennsylvania

2011-08-03T09:34:55.000Z

Drove to our pick up destination in HERSHEY, Pennsylvania. Ohhhh yeah. More chocolate. ;D

Unfortunately, the truck wasn't ready, so we drove 10 miles to a truck stop to wait until the morning.

Soooo... normally I'd have a lot of interesting sights to report, but uhhhh... I kind of fell asleep for a few hours. >_>

So HEY! Trucking lesson of the day: If you're going to nap because it's raining, don't nap for more than an hour or you'll be out for hours.

Pick up - Hershey, PA @ Hershey, United States, Pennsylvania

2011-08-04T05:21:35.000Z

This morning we’re picking up our new load from Hershey, Pennsylvania. As we’re sitting here at the distribution center, I am a little bit disappointed that my nasal receptors are not being overwhelmed by the smell of chocolate. In fact, there should be Hershey kisses littered all over the place here and I see nothing!

Looking at the very long item list, it looks like we’re carrying every kind of candy Hershey makes including Milkdud, Whopper, Good & Plenty, Payday, Mounds, Almond Joy, Carmelo, Reeses Pieces, and of course Hershey bars. Total weight of deliciousness: over 34,000 lbs. Holy moly!

Final destination (99) is a business on 8-mile road near Detroit, Michigan. Isn’t that where Eminem grew up?

It’s still cloudy today although at least it’s not raining like yesterday. I believe we’ll be going through Ohio to get to Michigan. And we’re off!

Shut down - Toledo, OH @ Toledo, United States, Ohio

2011-08-04T07:03:51.000Z

We had a very nice drive today through Pennsylvania and into Ohio. Somehow it feels good to know that we’re helping thousands of people in the Detroit area get the chocolate they most desperately need.  Driving back over the Appalachian Mountains was a treat, especially through Pennsylvania because they don’t conform with the rest of the mountainous states. They don’t build roads around the mountains. They build roads through them! It was really something to see a towering mountain in front of you and to just disappear under it and come out on the other side. We drove through four such mountains: Blue Mountain, Kittatiny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, and Allegheny Mountain. What an adventure!

We continued on and drove along the outskirts of Pittsburgh, PA and Cleveland, OH before heading east paralleling Lake Erie. Unfortunately we were too far from Lake Erie to see the great lake, but we should get a glimpse of it tomorrow when we head into Michigan. Also, we are so close to Canada! I definitely have to come back and explore this area more thoroughly.

Interesting sights:
- An assortment of beautiful arched bridges that reminded me of some ancient lost civilization.
- Tunnels!
- Some very interesting deformed outcrops.
- A perhaps equally interesting fake outcrop complete with folds and faults!
- More old barns.
- A Pepto Bismol pink Mercedes.
- A tanker carrying flammable liquid with an ad for Pilot coffee: “best coffee on the Interstate!”
- General Motors manufacturing plant. This place was MASSIVE!

Trucking lesson of the day: Never pass a truck on the right side. A truck will be looking to get back over to the right lane and if you zoom in there as he’s doing so, look out! I saw a neat sticker on the back of a truck that illustrated this point nicely. It had a sticker on the left side that said “ ← Pass This Side” and a sticker on the right side that said “Suicide →”. Indeed!

Drop off - Redford, MI @ Redford, United States, Michigan

2011-08-05T03:47:47.000Z

Unloading our Hershey booty at a distributer on 8-mile Road near Detroit, MI. The area is a little run down with a number of abandoned buildings. We had a little trouble finding this place as well.

Our next load picks up in Kentwood, MI (a 3 hour drive) and delivers back in Pennsylvania at a different Hershey’s. So back through the mountains we will go! This will be my first load where I won’t get to visit any new states, but that’s okay. You can’t be picky. ;)

Pick up & shut down - Grand Rapids, MI @ Grand Rapids, United States, Michigan

2011-08-05T08:14:15.000Z

Today was filled with a lot of running around. After dropping off the last load, we drove to western Michigan to pick up the new load. Guess what? It's candy again! We're like Santa Claus, only for candy instead of presents... and we don't have flying reindeer. :(

We shut down not too far from our pick up location, so we have a full days drive to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Yay! We'll be coming around the mountains... I mean... we'll be going a-through the mountains when we goooo.

I'm hoping the next load will take us down south to Georgia or Florida or else maybe up to New York or Vermont. I need to check off some more states!

Interesting sights:
- We went under our lowest bridge today: 13' 6". Our truck is 13' 6" tall. :3
- Saw some army men and women driving some neat trucks (probably not as comfortable as our though). ;)
- Got a shot of some kids trying to get Taz to honk his air horn.

Trucking lesson of the day: Driving a semi truck on city streets is stressful! Try making a U-turn on narrow streets with impatient cars trying to cut you off to get in front of you. I have a new respect for truck drivers after today.

Pick up - Plainwell, MI @ Plainwell, United States, Michigan

2011-08-06T08:31:38.000Z

Well, I took a few days off trip tracking due to the fact that we got stuck with a few runs back and forth between Michigan and Pennsylvania. There was very little to take pictures of that I hadn’t already seen before and on top of that, it rained nearly the entire time! However, driving underneath massive mountains never gets old. ;D

We just picked up our next load in Plainville, MI and are on our way to upstate NY to a town near Albany, NY. Yay! Finally, new turf! This trip will take us through Cleveland and Buffalo and I should get a chance to see Lake Erie (crosses fingers). This will also be my final trip on this adventure. It turns out, I need to be back in Massachusetts for orientation training at my college this weekend and our next stop is only a short train ride away, so I’ll be taking the train back tomorrow afternoon. I’ve been out on the road for over 2 weeks now. It’s been an amazing experience and one I’d recommend to everyone, if you ever get the chance. 

Interesting sights:
- An antique fire truck. :o
- A kid that was swerving in traffic at 10 mph finally was pulled over by the troopers. He looked exactly like a grown Harry Potter. >.>
- Driving through mountains again!
- An entire field of sunflowers.
- A building with substantial fire damage and a sign that said, “We sell fireworks”. Yeaaaaaaah…
- Plainwell, MI is another one of those quaint towns surrounded by trees, lakes, sweet corn fields, and small country roads. This place goes on my list of “awesome places to live”.

Trucking lessons of the day:
- Truck drivers are the world’s best parkers!
- Truck drivers have been forced to stay parked in a shipper yard for up to 8 hours. This was us yesterday. This, along with some more bad luck at our pick up spot made it impossible for us to do any driving yesterday.
- When dropping off an empty trailer at a ship yard, the refer tank (that runs the AC unit on the trailer) must be ¾ full… even if the tank is more than twice the size of a normal trailers tank!
- 4am is early. -_-;

Shut down - Syracuse, NY @ Syracuse, United States, New York

2011-08-10T08:16:34.000Z

Up at 4am today to take our final load from Plainwell, MI to Schenectady , NY near Albany. We are now in Syracuse, NY, about 2 hours away from our final destination. There my trucking adventures will come to an end as I board a train back to Massachusetts. Taz will keep on truck’n without me with his next load bound for Texas (looks like I dodged a bullet on that one). ;D

Interesting sights:
- Finally got a glimpse of Lake Erie! It was as vast as any ocean I’ve seen. Even though it was a clear day, we could not see Canada on the other side (such a shame).
- No corn in upstate New York. Instead all we saw were vines. Grapes? Perhaps. New Yorkers do enjoy their wine.
- Drove through Buffalo, NY. Niagara Falls was so close! We did see some iron buffalo statues, but no real ones. 
- A giant soccer ball embedded in the earth (that’s what I’m going with).

Trucking lesson of the day: Don’t always trust the GPS. EEEEET LIEEEES! We knocked off 30 min of driving by taking a more sensible route. :P

Drop off - Schenectady, NY @ Schenectady, United States, New York

2011-08-11T02:28:09.000Z

Well we're dropping off our last load right now and then it's back to the truck stop to get a taxi to the train station. After over 7000 miles, I must say, I've had even more fun on this trip than I initially thought I would. Even though there is so much more of this country that I want to see, I've explored more of it than I ever have before. I've learned to appreciate the life of the truck driver. They are the blood of this country, delivering vital goods (including chocolate) to where they're needed.

Perhaps in the future, I'll rent a van or RV and take a few months to really explore the country. There is so much to see. This is a beautiful country and I am so very lucky to be able to see it.

A big thank you to my brother, Taz, for allowing me to travel with him. <3