Casey Capers - USA: April 2016

The 45^th Annual Mid-America Trucking Show was held March 31 through April 2, at the Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

We have attended many times before – it is huge! This year we parked at Papa John Stadium along with 500+ other rigs. We were settled by early afternoon, and took the shuttle bus to the Expo Center for about 5 hours, and wandered around the exhibits.

The night before (Wednesday, 30 March), trucker friends from the Tradeshow days – Loyd and Mary Daily met us at a truckstop in Florence, Kentucky, for a catch up. We keep in touch with them, but our trucking paths had not crossed for a couple of years. They got to Papa Johns’ Stadium early evening on the Thursday.

Sunset at Papa Johns' Stadium parking lot in Louisville, KY - with all the trucks.

One of the bands set up in the parking lot at Papa Johns' Stadium.

Many beautiful trucks.

There were two stages set up and two food stalls in the parking lot, to cater and entertain the truckers parked there.

Friday morning, Loyd, Mary, Jim and I got to the Truck Show about 9am and had a full day of talking trucks, looking at everything new for trucks – there are 1000 plus exhibits in four halls, and outside.

A couple of trucking friends were exhibiting there, Bob Stanton is involved with Ice Road Trucker, Darrell Ward, had a quick chat with Bob and he introduced us to Darrell and Jennifer Brennan from Shipping Wars.

Also, Joe Hammerslough recruiting drivers for his company. Joe took us all to lunch, that was fun.

With Ice Road Trucker, Darrell Ward.

Mary and I wearing our Mobile Delvac cowboy hats!

The FREE concert, sponsored by Mobile Delvac was Friday night and the company we are leased to got us really great tickets! Loyd and Mary sat in front of us in the second row, and Jim and I in the third row, centre. Craig Morgan was excellent! We all had a fabulous time! JD Shellburne was the support act, he was good too.

JD Shellburne - first show.

Waiting for Craig Morgan.

Wikipedia: Craig Morgan has charted seventeen times on the Billboard country charts, seven of his singles have reached Top Ten.

His 9^th album is being released in June this year.

Craig Morgan - great entertainer.

Saturday morning back to the Truck Shop with Loyd and Mary – said our goodbyes to Bob and Joe, purchased a few things for the truck – lights, mud flaps, straps.

Jim and I were on the road about 1pm Saturday afternoon after a big three days at the Truck Show. Had a good time as well.

The Arch Gateway to the West at St.Louis is always awesome.

Monday morning, 4 April we delivered the reels to Okonite in Edwardsville, south-west of Kansas City, Kansas.

Headed south on some back roads to Quapaw, Oklahoma to load Tuesday. It is just a small town, and nowhere for us to park for the night. We ended up going through town and to Quapaw Casino, near Interstate Highway 44. It was an unusual place – didn’t look like a casino at all from the outside. We had lovely dinner there and great beer at a great price in The Paw bar. Then stayed the night in the truck, in their parking lot.

The only reason we knew it was a Casino was the sign at the driveway.

Quapaw Casino at Quapaw, Oklahoma.

Internet: Quapaw – In the 1920’s US Route 66 was developed through Quapaw and was paved by 1933. This event was celebrated with Quapaw Chief Victor Griffin laying a zinc tablet in the centre of Main Street.

Umicore Optical to load four crates – these were too tall to go into containers, they had to be tarped and we delivered them to the Port Terminal in Norfolk, Virginia on Thursday morning.

Website: Umicore Optical Materials in Oklahoma is the leading US manufacturer of germanium products.

Update that to ‘was’ the leading US manufacturer – the plant has closed and all the machinery is being returned to their head office in Belgium.

Quapaw, Oklahoma to Norfolk, Virginia.

Tarped, ready to go.

Stopped at the Virginia Welcome Centre on our way into Norfolk. The tourism slogan is "Virginia Is For Lovers", thought this display was nice.

One with our truck in it!

Poster in the Welcome Centre.

Delivered to the Norfolk Ports in the morning, and loaded in Chesapeake in the afternoon at PackRat, one storage container.

The next morning loaded three trailers in Wilmington, North Carolina made for PackRat.

Virginia and North Carolina pick ups for Florida deliveries for PackRat.

South to Florida, to deliver one trailer at PackRAt in Jacksonville on Saturday morning, then to the house in Daytona Beach.

On Monday, 11 April, Jim delivered one trailer to PackRat in Orlando and the container and last trailer to PackRat in Tampa. He also picked up a machine in Auburndale (south of Tampa) – an LTL to start our next load out of Florida.

Spent Tuesday at the house - it was a beautiful sunny Spring day for a walk along the Boardwalk and the Atlantic Ocean!

Daytona Beach Ocean Walk.

We loaded the Moto Guzzi LeMans on the truck in the afternoon and left early Wednesday morning to load a forklift near Savannah, Georgia, on behind the machine.

Florida to South Carolina, two LTL's

A quick trip to Monetta, South Carolina to deliver the machine that afternoon. Jerrold A Watson & Sons is a fruit packaging plant called Watsonia Farms.

The paperwork had it described as a “48 x 39 brush, stainless steel washer/water eliminator”. I had to ask what the machine would be used for… “Washing peaches”.

Watsonia Farms is a very interesting place.

Website: We appreciate the opportunity to share the rich tradition of our family business, which has been operated through four generations from 1918 to the present. … The first major crop grown on our farm was asparagus … Around 1925, five leading farmers of the area were asked to plant 60 acres of peaches each. This was the start of the commercial peach industry on the “Ridge” section of South Carolina. … Since its inception, our farm has become diversified, successfully growing 550 acres of apples, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, pears, plums, nectarines and strawberries. Peaches remain our main crop, with over 900 acres currently in production.

Organic produce grown also: We are currently growing organic yellow, white and donut peaches; yellow, zucchini and winter squash; pickling and slicer cucumbers; bell peppers; asparagus; eggplant; slicer and grape tomatoes; sweet potatoes; collards; strawberries; plums; persimmons; nectarines and muscadines.

Asparagus and kale were being packaged while we were there.

Next to the packaging plant was the Watsonia Farms restaurant, Peaches ‘n’ Such. We had not stopped all day in order to make the delivery before they closed, therefore had not eaten.

What an interesting place!! “Grown here, sold here’ as the sign. Jams, jellies, pickles, sauces, salsas, syrups – so much!

I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with peach bbq sauce – delicious, it included coleslaw the cook just made (when I ordered I was told they had just run out of coleslaw). He told me everything in it was grown at Watson Farms. Jim and I both had peach ice-cream! Bought a jar of pickled peaches and peach syrup.

After leaving Monetta we headed north via back roads. I was excited to travel through the town of Saluda, South Carolina. This town was originally named Germanville, it is where German immigrants settled and formed a community in the Americas. It is also where my 6x Great Grandparents were born (grandfather born 1690, grandmother 1699); my 5x great grandfather was born there in 1732. The 5x grandparents married in Germanville, SC, but returned to Germany where their four children were born, then they returned to Germanville. Their youngest son, Ludwig Samuel Gottleib Meibusch married in Germany and with his wife and five children emigrated to Queensland, Australia in 1865, and settled in the Toowoomba area. Their youngest daughter, Louise Freiderike Ernestine MEIBUSCH married Robert Handcock LLOYD, their son, Leslie was my mother’s grandfather.

Saluda County Court House, South Carolina.

Delivered the forklift to Sunbelt Rentals in Spartanburg on Thursday morning.

Friday morning we loaded at Forterra Brick in Columbia, SC.

Website: Forterra Brick is North America’s largest brick manufacturer with a total capacity of more than 1.7 million bricks. Forterra Brick provides superior selection and service, and more than 1,000 styles of brick in four regional brick collections.

The load was requesting weight more than we can haul legally, but the bricks were needed desperately, so they loaded two pallets less on us so the project could continue, and we wanted to go to Western New York.

Forterra Brick Yard in Columbia, South Carolina.

The bricks did not require tarping, but I could pull bricks out of the cubes easily. Drivers who haul bricks regularly have 'fence' edges to keep the bricks from coming out. We don't, so chose to tarp for safety.

Bricks from Columbia, South Carolina to Rochester, New York,

A quick trip north, to deliver them at another brick company in Rochester, New York on Saturday morning.

Then over to Attica, NY to Joe and Michele’s, for a quick visit. We wanted to get our camper out of winter storage, it had been in a nearby barn for almost 6 months and we didn’t want to pay for more time there. This summer we plan to build a shelter for it – to keep the snow off it.

Moving our camper out of storage and back to Joe and Michele's.

Did some visiting with Jim’s family; saw his mother, and niece’s family as well as with Joe, Michele and Baillie and the animals.

Monday afternoon we loaded at the Cheektowaga Recreation Center, their hockey rink was being renovated. All the boards from around the rink were loaded on our trailer and we took them to Albert Lea, Minnesota to be refurbished.

Loading at Cheektowaga, NY Recreation Center.

Hockey rink loaded.

Delivered them on Wednesday, 20 April, then over to Janesville, Wisconsin to load tanks for CAT - a light load.

Janesville, Wisconsin to Newberry, South Carolina.

A quick trip south to deliver them to CAT on Friday in Newberry, South Carolina. Then to Statesboro, Georgia for a load of insulation.

Insulation - Statesboro, Georgia to Seminole, Florida.

We were at the house in Daytona Beach, Florida late morning Saturday. Jimmy was in town, so the three of us walked to the beach to watch the P1 AquaX Grand Prix jetski races, we had not seen them before.

Website: AquaX is the fastest growing personal watercraft championship in the world. Its rapid growth is owed to a simple, yet challenging race format that appeals to today’s personal watercraft users. In 2013, P1 rolled out a series in the USA. By the end of 2015 over 400 riders from 11 countries had registered to compete on an AquaX event.

AquaX at Daytona Beach

It was spectacular and we watched for an hour or so, then caught up with Tim, Helena, Mary Lynn, Lemont, Cindy and Derek - had a drink on Main Street, then to the Oasis Tiki Bar to listen to music.

Tim, Mary Lynn, Helena, Cindy, Lemont, Derek, Jimmy and Jim at Oasis Tiki Bar.

Monday, we delivered the insulation to a mall expansion in Seminole, Florida (St. Petersburg), then back to the house that evening.

Caught up with mail, and business and Jim had a few things to so on the truck and trailer and work in the garage. Jim did a day fishing charter with Lemont on Wednesday on the Critter Fleet.

Dinner with Lis and Harvey Thursday evening in DeLand at the Fish House. That was fun, lots of laughs and good food.

Jim loaded a man lift in Daytona Beach on Friday - only going to Savannah, Georgia, so we didn't have to leave until after lunch on Sunday.

Friday evening met with Ron and Regina for dinner at Flagler Tavern in New Smyrna Beach, and lined up a motorcycle ride for Saturday morning with them.

Breakfast at Oak Hill, then a drive through Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, near Titusville on the Atlantic Coast.

Website: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1963. The Refuge provides a buffer zone for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Approximately one half of the Refuge’s 140,000 acres consists of brackish estuaries and marshes. The remaining lands consist of coastal dunes, scrub oaks, pine forests and flatwoods and palm and oak hammocks. A total of 1,045 plant species has been identified on the Refuge. More than 500 species of wildlife have been documented including 330 species of birds, 117 fishes, 65 amphibians and reptiles, and 31 mammals. Of these, 16 are currently federally listed as threatened or endangered.

We stopped at ‘Overhaul Canal’ and were excited to see lots of manatee. It was a hot day and we didn’t expect to see any.