Vol. 19. No. 2 - 30 April, 2015

Sunset from the truckstop in Laredo, Texas.

Loaded in Laredo, Texas on 1 April – train parts 'Made in Mexico', going to Erie, Pennsylvania.  

Train parts loaded in Laredo, Texas.

Loaded and tarped in Laredo, Texas to Erie, Pennsylvania.

Spring means wildflowers in Texas.

Wildflowers in Texas.

Bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.

 Nice and warm in Texas - then go to the cold country in the north!  It was the Easter weekend, and we could not deliver in Erie until Monday.  On Saturday we dropped the trailer at our delivery and bobtailed 120 miles (193 kms) to Attica, New York to see Joe, Michele and Baillie, and so Jim could visit his family.

Frozen Lake Erie at Westfield, NY where the Moto Guzzi rally is held.

Frozen Lake Erie at Westfield, NY

It snowed the whole weekend!

Photo taken from Joe and Michele's front verandah.

Leaving Monday morning in the cold, photo taken through the windscreen where we were parked at Joe’s.  Sure was beautiful!

On Monday, 6 April, delivered at GE Transportation - they manufacture train engines.  We had to be back in Daytona Beach, Florida for an appointment on Friday. Ended up loading three partials - less than truckload.  That afternoon south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – a large CAT generator on a trailer.  The next morning loaded a small forklift at a rental centre near Charleston, West Virginia, then on Wednesday morning we loaded five pieces of limestone in Durham, North Carolina.

LTL - Five slabs of limestone from North Carolina to West Palm Beach, Florida.

Delivered all three shipments on Thursday – the limestone to a Marble & Granite supplier in West Palm Beach, and the machines to two places in Miami.  Then to the house that night.  To Orlando on Friday for Biometrics (fingerprinting and photos) for my immigration renewal.

Had business and work on the truck to do while in Daytona Beach – Jim got the tyres rotated and one replaced on the truck.  Monday evening we met Lis and Harvey at Brian’s Bar-B-Q in DeLand.  

On Tuesday afternoon 14 April, Jim and I walked to the Daytona Beach boardwalk to see the Falcon 9 Rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.  It was unmanned and taking cargo and supplies to the International Space Station.  Cape Canaveral is 60 miles (100kms) from Daytona Beach, but even so far away, the rocket is visible and leaves a contrail.

The rocket is in the middle of this photo.

Rocket contrail seen from Daytona Beach boardwalk, the rocket is out of the photo.

We left the house early on Thursday 16 April and loaded and tarped rectangle steel tubing in Jacksonville.  The bundles still had the wrapping on and it had been imported from Turkey!

Jacksonville, Florida to Greer, South Carolina.

Tarped!

Delivered it to Greer, South Carolina the next morning to a place that makes dumpsters.  Loaded and tarped in the afternoon in Charlotte, North Carolina – titanium rods.

Website:  ATI is a world leader in the production of nickel-based and cobalt-based super alloys, titanium-based alloys and specialty steels for the aerospace, oil and gas, and medical industries.

Headed to Houston, Texas.  I always enjoy crossing the Atchafalaya Swamp on Interstate Highway 10 in Louisiana.

Internet:  The Atchafalaya Basin is the traditional flood plain of the Mississippi River.  Now huge levies hold back the river and direct two-thirds of the flow through Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  In times of high water, gates are opened to allow excess flow into the Atchafalaya Basin.
The Atchafalaya Basin Bridge is 18.2 miles long (29 kms) and is a four lane highway (two eastbound, two westbound lanes) above the swamp, travelling in the tree tops.

Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, Louisiana.

Atchafalaya Swamp, Louisiana

Jim and I had been to a Mexican restaurant several years ago in Mont Belvieu, a town east of Houston, called Iguana Joe’s. Great food, and a couple block walk from the truckstop.  Still a great place to eat!

Storms building and there were ‘rotating’ clouds!. We receive alerts over the cellular phones when possible dangerous weather conditions exist in the vicinity of the cell towers our phones are bouncing off.  The message read “seek shelter immediately".  The television alert said “cloud  rotation, possible tornados and hail”.

We experienced a display of clouds of various colours, going different directions, some marble sized hail and a lot of wind - shook the truck cab quite a bit!  (No tornados near us though.)

Approaching storm at the truckstop near Houston, Texas.

Delivered the titanium bars Monday morning in Houston, then headed to a truckstop and met our truck driver / biker / friend from Daytona Beach, Chuck.  He is driving for Landstar now and he was near Houston, Texas.  We had planned to catch up with him at Iguana Joe’s the night before but he was having work done on his truck that ran him too late.

That afternoon we loaded at Ritchie Bros. Auction in Humble, just north of Houston.  Loaded a JLG lift and a small crate.  

At Ritchie Bros. Auction - view from the windscreen at a Houston area intersection.

Humble, Texas to Avon and Batavia, New York.

There was space on the trailer so we stayed near Houston, hoping for an LTL to fill out, then checked each city all the way north, but nothing suitable came up.

Memphis, Tennessee - a glass building reflecting the sunset.

Delivered the crate in Avon, New York and the JLG lift to Batavia, NY on Thursday afternoon.  Weather was very cold, very windy with quite a few snowflakes mixed in.

Experienced some snow in Ohio on the way.

That night we stayed at the truckstop in Buffalo, Art came and picked us up and we went out for something to eat. 

Spent Friday looking for another load, eventually found one for Monday.  Then went to Joe and Michele’s.  Joe and Baillie were going turkey hunting Saturday morning, so they spent the night with friends and were up early to go to Letchworth State Park to hunt.  It was Youth Day for turkey hunting, open for ages 12-15,  they need a hunting license and a turkey permit and have to be with an experienced adult hunter (though the adult cannot have a firearm).  It is for them to learn hunting techniques.  The bag limit for a youth is one bearded bird.

Baillie and Joe back from turkey hunting on Saturday.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website:  New York State has both spring and fall hunting seasons.  The most successful turkey hunters use a variety of calls (e.g. box calls, slate calls, mouth calls) to bring a bird within gun range (usually 30 yards or less).  Head-to-toe camouflage helps hunters to stay undetected prior to the shot.  Few hunting experiences can rival the excitement as a turkey approaches a hunter.  Some people are tempted to try to stalk a wild turkey.  Forget it!  First it is extremely difficult to approach a turkey undetected.  You will be much more successful to call the bird to you.  Second, stalking turkeys puts both you and other hunters at risk.  Let the bird do the walking.

Wikipedia:  More than 7 million wild turkey roam North America, with populations in every US state, but Alaska.  Wild turkeys are also hunted in parts of Mexico and Canada.  The shotgun is a popular weapon for hunting wild turkey.  Bow and arrow is starting to become popular.

Depending on local rules and regulations (states differ), the wild turkey is hunted either in the spring or fall or both seasons.  Spring hunts target gobblers (male turkeys) and fall hunts usually target either sex.

Turkey callers.

These are a couple of Baillie's turkey callers:  the top one is a box caller, it works by moving the 'lid' across the box and it sounds like a turkey. The bottom one is a slate and striker - rough up the slate and move the special stick (striker) across it and make a sound like a turkey; Rather interesting! 

There is also a mouth caller.  Also inflatable turkey decoys attract turkeys, Baillie has an inflatable one here, the body inflates and the rubber head is on a wire so it ‘nods’ and it does resemble a live turkey!

Turkey decoy and Baillie.

Saturday afternoon we visited Jim’s mother, sister and brother-in-law, then met friends, Art and Ann Marie at a restaurant bar in Alden and had some nice brews, dinner and laughs.

Joe and Baillie were awake and ready at dawn on Sunday morning to look for turkeys on their property.  They saw some, they got close, but didn't bag any.

Sunday morning - Joe and Baillie, the turkey hunters.

Jim and I left around noon on Sunday, 26 April and loaded in Akron, Ohio Monday morning, 27 April at a Water Treatment plant, three pieces of special pipe.

Akron, Ohio to Thomasville, Georgia.

A nice load and all was going well, heading south through Kentucky the truck made a different sound.  We listened for a while, but could not figure out what it could be.  Took the next exit off the Interstate highway and luckily there was Derby City Truckstop and a garage next to it.  The mechanics came and looked and listened, and had some possible theories.  Then the owner came out and listened for about 20 seconds and started calling out “shut it down, shut it down”.

He dropped the oil pan and found the bottom part of a piston – a half circle.  We were not going any further.  We knew the engine would need rebuilding at some time, so this was not a surprise.  We had wanted to do it when the head gasket was replaced last July, but the workshop would not warranty their work.  We decided that would not be in our favour, so took a gamble and hoped the engine would make it a bit longer and we could get Empire Truck in Buffalo to do the work.  Also, hoped there would be a (more) subtle and less serious warning sign.  Not the case.  At least it appeared that no other damage was done – the engine was stopped before the piston blew apart and destroyed other parts of the engine.  Thorough Truck Garage were OK with doing the rebuild and giving a one year, 100,000 mile warranty, but they had several other jobs ahead of us, and would not start on it until the following week which meant the end of the week at the earliest it would be completed.  We didn't have any other options.

Next thing – the load was time sensitive and required for a job, it could not be held up 10 days.  Admiral Merchants spent the rest of the day looking for an empty flatbed or stepdeck that could come and get it.

The people at Thorough Truck Garage were very nice, they loaned us a car to drive.  It had no exhaust, so we didn't take it very far!  

The area was Renfro Valley, Kentucky, proudly known as “Kentucky’s Country Music Capital”. 

Website:  Inside the lusciously green walls of this Valley you will find a tradition that started back in 1939 by our founder John Lair.  Great classic country, southern gospel and mountain bluegrass music rings from the rafters of our two unique show theatres March through December each year.

There are several Music Festivals during summer, and a schedule of concerts for most weekends.

We spent a couple of hours at Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum which was close by.  A lot of artists were born or lived in Kentucky.  The Museum showed all aspects of music from Bluegrass through present country music.

Website:  The Kentucky Music Hall of Fame honors Kentucky performers, songwriters, publishers, promoters, managers, broadcasters, comedians and other music professionals who have made significant contributions to the music industry in Kentucky and around the world.

Some Kentuckians I am familiar with were displayed and honored: Dwight Yoakam (2008), Loretta Lynn, Tom T Hall, The Everly Brothers, Crystal Gayle, Rosemary Clooney, The Judds, John Michael Montgomery, Steve Wariner, John Conlee, Skeeter Davis.  The 2015 Induction Ceremony was held on 10 April – Exile, the Kentucky Headhunters, Montgomery Gentry and others were inducted.

Dwight Yoakam's display.

That afternoon we took the car to Richmond and got a motel for the night.  Admiral Merchants had organised a driver to pick up our load Wednesday morning.  Jimmy was trucking through and met us there as well.

Transferring the load.

We had to hire a wrecker to transfer the three pieces of pipe to the other trailer, it would be a day late with delivery (not yet sure how much that cost!)
We packed an overnight bag and hopped in Jimmy's truck and he took us as far as Savannah, Georgia.  Jim and I then took the Greyhound Bus to Daytona Beach.

Jacksonville, Florida Greyhound bus station.

The Greyhound trip was great – we enjoyed our trip; and arrived in Daytona about 4pm on Thursday afternoon.  It was better than sitting 10+ days in a motel in Kentucky without the motorbike.  After delivering in Georgia, we had planned on heading to Daytona so we could load the motorbike on the truck.  Now we intend riding it back to Kentucky when the truck is fixed – 760 miles (1223 kms).  Hoping the weather will be warmer at the end of next week.