Vol 14 No 8 October/November, 2010

We delivered at the Naval Base in Kittery, Maine on 29 September and didn’t have a load lined up.

Twenty-four hours later we were assigned one loading in Rome, New York, a 340 mile deadhead (550km) on toll roads. We were more than half way there when we found out it cancelled!

(Usually means another company would do it for a cheaper price!).

Frustrating and expensive for us because it was not a good area to get another load!

After a few phone calls Jim found one loading Saturday morning in Seneca Falls, New York another 80 miles past Rome. We ended up losing 2 ½ days between loads which is not good. In hindsight, we should have dead headed 300 miles to New Jersey after we delivered in Maine. Loads there, but we were optimistic (and didn’t want to dead head) and hoped for one closer to where we unloaded.

Hunting season must have started in Maine, we saw a dead moose in a trailer going down the interstate highway.

Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife: According to state wildlife biologists, Maine's moose population is estimated at 29,000. For the 2009 season, the success rate for hunters was 78 percent. Hunters killed 2,348 moose out of a possible 3,015 permits issued.

Every year, several moose exceed 1,000 lbs. dressed weight. Trophy racks are not uncommon.

Only holders of a valid moose hunting permit and their sub permittee may hunt moose.

Moose may be hunted with rifle, shotgun, handgun, muzzleloader, or bow and arrow. Shotguns using shot loads and .22 caliber rimfire firearms are prohibited.

Saturday, 2 October we loaded pumps at Gould Pump in Seneca Falls, NY and tarped them. Delivered these to a new project for P.F. Moon and Company’s water management project in Glen, Mississippi. The large circular concrete tanks and pumping station construction.

Website: P.F. Moon and Company's project management and construction teams have been improving water supply, wastewater treatment and industrial waste pretreatment facilities since 1978. Whether constructing a raw water intake facility, a regional wastewater treatment plant or an environmentally sensitive pretreatment system that successfully treats large scale industrial waste, P.F. Moon and Company has earned the confidence and trust of industrial clients and municipalities of all sizes by providing innovative and cost effective construction solutions.

That afternoon we loaded at a Thomas & Betts warehouse in Byhalia, Mississippi.

Website: Thomas & Betts is committed to being a leader in the industry that supplies components for managing electricity.

From transmission lines that crisscross North America to local networks, our products help control the constant flow of power.

There was a bit of a problem with our load - the company added two more small shipments and wanted us to stop in Georgia and Maryland as well as New Jersey. Pays very little more and takes up another day as well as messing with the tarps at each stop. Jim said, “no, that wasn‘t the load he accepted.” We started looking for another load. Half an hour later, Landstar called and said that the two extra stops had been removed and it was back to the original load. We loaded and tarped a very small shipment! About one metre wide, two and a half metres long and 10 cm high and weighed less than 680kg! We could not see it on the trailer in the mirrors!

Met truck driver friend, Art in Tennessee for breakfast on Tuesday morning. We delivered Wednesday 6 October at a Home Depot warehouse in Dayton, New Jersey. Then loaded in Kenilworth, New Jersey at CAT Entertainment Services. Entertainment Services is a worldwide provider of temporary power generation and temperature control equipment for all your entertainment needs - we can provide electric power to a single tent or an entire stadium.

We had a Ford F550 truck, a large generator and 16 transformers and heaps of cable. All went to another CAT Entertainment Services in Orlando, Florida.

We spent Thursday night at the house and Jim delivered on Friday. Our next two loads were set up and Jim went to Ocala (130 kms north of Orlando) to load. After waiting several hours it was realized that the machine was too tall to go on our trailer as a legal load, a much lower trailer should have been ordered. Wasted fuel and time, Jim got back to the house late afternoon.

Saturday was spent working around the truck and house. Saturday was an awesome air show along the beach. We had a free view from the front of the house. Our neighbours, Charles and Diane came over and their granddaughter and daughter in law - an enjoyable few hours. The show was sponsored by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical College of Daytona Beach.

First time we had seen skytypers. Six planes together each leaving a ‘dot‘ of vapour to form letters (like the old dot matrix printers) making giant billboards in the sky.

Website: The World Famous GEICO Skytypers Airshow Team is a flight squadron of six vintage WWII airplanes performing precision flight maneuvers. The diverse flying expertise of the team members aligns perfectly with the unique components of their overall performance.

F18 Hornet demonstrations, F16 Viper, Mustangs. Raptors, Heritage Aircraft, Parachuting, the US Coast Guard Demonstrations - SPECTACULAR! My favourite was the Canadian Snowbirds Jet demonstration.

From Daytona Beach News Journal: This weekend, the Wings and Waves Air Show will invade the shores of Daytona Beach, giving visitors a high-flying, action-packed look at some of the coolest steel birds in the sky.

The event will showcase aerial demonstrations using some of the world's top military aircraft from several teams featuring "world class civilian aerobatic pilots." Though the real stars of the show will be the planes themselves.

Aircraft like the US Air Force's newest fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor flown by the Air Combat Command F-22 Demonstration Team who will show off the plane's unique capabilities of stealth and precision.

The was awesome (and loud!) and was held both Saturday and Sunday.

Our next load was already set, and was to follow the load that we couldn’t pick up on Friday - so we deadheaded almost 400 miles (640 kms) to Florence, South Carolina on Sunday to load Monday morning. We picked up three metal walkways - a light load and delivered it the next day in Sarnia, Ontario.

The next morning, south of Detroit, Michigan we loaded bags of ’snow melt’ on pallets - a heavy load! It was for Buffalo, The first time we have done an ‘in transit’ through Canada with Landstar, but it worked out to be hassle free and we saved some miles. A shortcut though Canada instead of going around Lake Erie.

The snow melt pellets went to a hardware store in Cheektowaga. The company has contracts for snow removal in many schools, churches and shopping centre parking lots. The snow is pushed with a blade (ploughed) into piles and the pellets are spread to reduce further snow and ice. Also used to sprinkle on steps, footpaths driveways, etc.

Ice and snow melt pellets are non-corrosive, leave no residue and will not harm grass when used properly. They react with the moisture and generate large amounts of heat to quickly power through thick deposits.

It melts snow and ice up to about 3 inches (10 cm), more than that will require ploughing or shovelling.

We spent the rest of the day with the truck in the garage. We have had a lot of truck work done at Empire Truck and Trailer Services in Buffalo, and the owners are lovely people - hugs all round whenever we go there!

We needed brake shoes on both drive axles. The job took a several hours, so Jim and I hung out there and went to lunch down the street.

Got to Joe and Michele’s that afternoon. Joe was in Alabama so he wasn’t around all weekend. We had a fun time with Michele and the kids. Weather started out cold, windy and wet but the weekend was crisp and sunny. Most of the Autumn foliage had turned and fallen, but still some colour around. Photo is of Joe and Michele's house - lots of leaves on the ground!

Michele, Baillie and Tyler carted firewood and stacked it in the basement, and racked leaves for hours! There were still more leaves to fall, so it would require doing several more times before the snow starts.

Jim put a new tarp over the RV for the winter to protect it a little bit.

Jim and I spent a bit of time visiting Jim’s mother, sister and family, and his cousin. Also some friends - this will be the last time in the area before we go to Australia. Did our usual favourite Buffalo food.

Saturday was the start of bow hunting season in Western New York. Friends of Michele’s started early Sunday morning and hunted on Joe’s property for deer. They shot a doe and bought it back to the house to be cleaned. Baillie has a four wheeler that she carts wood with and has fun on. She wears a high visibility vest so she won’t be mistaken for a deer! She is very safety conscious and wears her helmet! (I asked her to pose for this photo, she isn’t riding.)

We loaded in Buffalo on Monday morning at an equipment rental company - one used aerial lift. We met Joe after lunch at a truckstop and had a quick catch up with him. He had delivered in Baltimore and we were going to Baltimore, so we were on the same highway.

We delivered on Tuesday morning and deadheaded to Shippensburg, Pennsylvania and loaded a new aerial lift from the manufacturersJLG - the same model as the one we just delivered.

We met Joe again on Wednesday morning near Buffalo, he was going into Ontario as well, so we ran together across the border. Our shipment went to an equipment rental company in Stoney Creek, Ontario.

Loaded in East Syracuse, New York on Thursday morning - used machines and miscellaneous workshop equipment. Ugly stuff to tarp - leaking hydraulic fluid, side panels hanging off, sharp edges that had to be covered to protect our tarps. Windy, raining and cold, too! Yuck.

Delivered that to a company in Anderson, Indiana on Friday morning.

Saturday morning we loaded and tarped steel poles in Fort Wayne, Indiana going to Houston, Texas and warmer weather!

Delivered the steel and reloaded in Houston on Monday morning - two Ford F350 pick up trucks. An in-company equipment transfer. Delivered them in Goodman, Mississippi on Tuesday morning, then reloaded at West Point, Mississippi

We loaded a new International Army truck and took it to Jacksonville Ports for shipping overseas. Then to Daytona Beach Wednesday evening.

It was the North Florida Moto Guzzi Rally the weekend 30-31 October at Scott‘s Ferry, in the ‘panhandle’ area of Florida. Jim and I last attended this rally in 2002.

Joe arrived in Daytona on Thursday evening. Tim and Helena loaned Joe one of their bikes for the weekend. Jim and I went on the bassa because it could hold more camping gear.

Joe, Jim and I left Friday morning and took a leisurely 300 mile (480km) ride to Scott’s Ferry in the 'panhandle' of Florida.

We stopped at Frog's BarBQ Pad for lunch, then for a drink at Outz's Too Bar for a refreshment. It is a biker bar and the outside area has a large fire pit and a 'toilet garden'. Lots of old toilets used as planters - funny!

There were about 30 people camping Friday night and it was quite cold! Jimmy left Orlando after work and arrived about 1am.

Scott’s Ferry is a campground on the Chipola River. The Chipola River is a tributary of the Apalachicola River. It is 89 miles long.

Internet: Scotts Ferry memorializes the name of Lieutenant G. W. Scott, whose party was massacred by Indians in 1816 during the unruly and violent period before Florida became a United States territory.

Early morning I wandered along the Chipola River, the water was much warmer than the air, so there was a lot of fog drifting. With the leaves changing colours - it was very photogenic! I took many photos.

The Campground is lovely, there are several cabins that are on stilts because the river floods regularly. A large pavillion, lots of campfire pits.

Saturday a group went on a ride. First stop after breakfast, was historic Gregory House in Torreya National Park.

Constructed during the antebellum years by Jason Gregory, the home was the centerpiece of one of Calhoun County's largest plantations. A prosperous community and important cotton shipping point.

Not long after the Civilian Conservation corps was established in 1933, they started work to

create the park. Part of the project in 1935 was disassembling the old Gregory House, moving it across the river and reconstructing in the park, where it stands today, located on the high bluff overlooking the Apalachicola River at Torreya State Park.

Torreya State Park was named for a rare species of Torreya tree which only grows on the river bluffs.

With river swamps and high pinelands, extensive ravines and high bluffs along the river, the park has one of the most variable terrains of any in Florida. The park protects several endangered plant species and provides the best view of fall colors in the state of Florida.

Then rode to Chattahoochie, Florida where the Chattahoochie and Flint Rivers meet and form Lake Seminole.

Lake Seminole is a large lake covering over 37 thousand acres. It borders both Georgia and Florida States. The landscape around it has rugged ravines, cypress ponds, lime sinks and varieties of trees such as hardwood and pine forests. The Lake Seminole project supplies hydroelectric power to the region by an arrangement of turbines. It was the first of three locks and dams constructed for navigation, hydro-power, recreation and other purposes on the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint River systems.

Photo of the bikes below the dam - lock and turbines and the Apalachicola River.

Jim found the town of Two Egg on the map, so he and I took a detour north to check it out!

Internet: The town was originally named Allison, and the name might have lasted had it not been for the economic disaster of the Great Depression.

By 1930, many local families were living on little more than pride. Unable to pay for items they needed in hard cash, they began to barter and trade with the storekeepers in Allison.

Two young boys came into the business so often on errands from their mother to trade two eggs for other staples that regulars jokingly began calling the establishment a "two egg store." The name caught on and was picked up by traveling salesmen and others who spread it to nearby towns.

Times eventually did begin to improve and people soon began to use money again instead of eggs, but the name "Two Egg" stuck. It appeared on the official highway map of the State of Florida in 1940 and has remained there ever since.

Back to the Campgrounds for awhile, then a group rode to Port St Joe for dinner, then the rest of the evening around the campfire. Still quite cold that night as well. I didn’t hear the total attendance, but around 50...

Sunday morning the Central and South Florida guzzi group rode back together with several stops for food and drinks.

Photo: L to R rear: Frank, Jim, Tim, Helena, Joe, Roy. L to r front: Lesley, Jimmy, Walt.

Joe, Jimmy, Jim and I got back to Daytona just on dark.

Jim and I spent the week cancelling our trucking contract, de-registering the truck and storing it at Hewitt’s business property in New Smyrna Beach. Unload the le mans off the truck, sorting out paperwork, etc. And pack for Australia!!