Home Time!!!

It has been an absolutely wonderful week!  Letting us have time off after 4 months out was a good thing.  It was very much needed, and so wonderful to see our family. 
We started off taking some time in Amarillo to get some running around done that we needed to do and then on to Dalhart.  We spent time with my parents and FINALLY got some of mom's fantastic home cooking.  She really likes to spoil us with her cooking and totally blew my diet, oh well, it was worth it!  I didn't get to spend as much time with my daughter as I would have like to.  Between her busy schedule and my need to catch up on some major sleep there wasn't enough time.  I also wish I would have found time to see my brother and sister-in-law. 
We went to Sunray on friday night to watch Marshall, my nephew, beat the drum at the ball game.  It was nice getting to see him again and spend some time with my sister and brother-in-law.

Saturday we traveled on to Ulysses, KS to visit Chris' son Eric and his family.  Chris got to jam with his son on their guitars while Chelsea and I got to do some catching up.  I am so proud of them and the great job they are doing raising their boys.  I can't wait until the new arrival at the end of november.

Evan concentrating on his video game.

Draven loving his pb&j

 

Monday morning our journey continued on to Hays, Ks to see Chris' other children.  His granddaughter, Ava, was in Ulysses so we took her with us.  She was a chatterbox for most of the trip which kept us entertained.  We took everyone out to eat monday evening and then went to Aaron and Gails place to visit and chill out.  (Chris' eldest son and his girlfriend)                                                   

 

Amanda and Ava

 

Ava taking a picture of me taking a picture of her

 

Aaron and Gail

 

Amanda, Me and Ava

 

   This morning (tuesday, I think) we went to IHOP for breakfast and Amanda was able to meet us during her break from work.  Then we headed to Wichita, Ks to visit Chis' grandmother, his Aunt Beth and her grandson Noah.                                                                                                             

We will be back in Gainesville, Tx tomorrow and back to work Thursday.  At least Chris will be back to work, I will be riding with him on the truck while he hauls general freight until the next wind blade project begins.  Still not for sure where we are going yet.  Have heard of a couple of different projects going to start the end of September so I guess we will just have to wait and find out.                            

Even when we aren't traveling for work, we are always on the road.  Amanda put it best when she said we are on a permanent honeymoon.                                                                                                  

 

 

Summer Project Done!

After starting the project going from Grand Forks, ND to Bryson, Tx on April 27th we finally completed it last saturday.  Yep, 3 1/2 months driving back and forth.  It got really boring some days.  I did get a week off and rode with Chris while we were getting a new transmission in the pick-up.  The pick-up rolled over 100,000 while on this project.  It only had about 32,000 when I started being Chris' front escort.  I guess we are pretty lucky that is all that has gone wrong with it.  But I put so many miles on it that I have to change the oil every other week and rotate the tires once a month. 
Stephen, Chris' steerman, brought his wife out for 3 weeks and it was really nice to have a female to hang around with.  She is supposed to be coming out again in October. 
We did get to bring my nephew, Marshall, out for a week.  I wish that we would have done it earlier in the summer so that he could have stayed longer.  Loved having him around.  Although, he embarrased me pretty much everytime we went out in public.  It was all in good fun though.  I wish we would have had more down time while he was with us so we could have done more things.  We did get to go swimming, went to a movie and got to go bowling, where we discovered that Chris had forgotten to tell us that he used to bowl in a league.  So I got beat pretty bad, although Marshall held his own against Chris and Stephen. 

                                           Marshall skipping rocks on a river in Minnasota

                                                    Stephen chilling in his hammock

                                     Chris taking it easy.  (Notice appropiate use of hard hat)

One of the other good things about this project is that Chris FINALLY got to get his new dentures.  It took us 4 trips stopping in Council Bluffs, Iowa but he has them and they look really good. 

We are now in Brownsville, Tx  waiting to get a blade loaded and taking it to Windor, Co.  It was nice on the way down here we got to spend a day in Corpus Christi where we got to tour the Aircraft Carrier, the Lexington, go to the aquarium and play in the gulf. 

Me and Chris in front of the Lexington.

Me playing hide and seek.

Watch your head!!

Stephen in front of an aquarium

We still don't know where our next project will take us, but should find out this week.  As long as Chris and I get to continue to work together I don't really care where we go.  I love getting to discover new places with my husband. 

Round 1 - Grand Forks, NB to Wichita Falls, TX

We made it to Grand Forks a week ago to cold temps, yes even a few snow flurries.  Major shock to the system and had to break out the winter clothes again.  We met up with the rest of the crew.  Made some new friends and ran into some old ones.  There are 15 trucks in all.  Which means 15 drivers, 15 steermen and 15 front escorts.  I guess you can say we pretty much took over the truck stop!  We travel in groups of three.  (Three blades per wind tower, go figure!)  So from here on out we will pretty much only be seeing the ones we run with except on the occasion when we run into the group in front of or behind us. 
We were supposed to load monday.  Actually did get loaded and then they found a defect in Chris' blade.  Tuesday they took the blade off his truck and repaired it but when they put it back on they damaged it again.  They managed to repair that while it was loaded but it was actually wednesday before we got to leave. 
Our maiden voyage was pretty interesting just trying to figure out the places where we can park the big rigs.  Most normal truck stops won't work because there isn't enough room in them.  I think that we got it figured out and a few backup places just in case something happens and we can't get into one of the planned ones.  My favorite backup place is by a Casino in northern Kansas.  Chris and I stopped in there to check it out on our way back to North Dakota today.  Yes, I know, I have a really ruff job.  I really hope that we do go back there because I left them too much money today and need to go get it back! 
They have us taking a lot of detours because of the long loads and with it being "construction season" there are several places that the blades can't fit through.  I did pretty good preparing ahead of time and got us all the way to Wichita Falls before I made a wrong turn.  Luckily Chris caught it and didn't follow me.  I got right back to the right place, but still felt dumb for missing my turn until I found out that one other driver went about 20 miles out of route and that almost everyone had a hard time finding the place.  In fact after I got Chris to the lay down yard I went back and led 4 other trucks to it.  So I made my brownie points after all. 
When we were in Wichita Falls my thermometer in the pickup was reading 106 degrees.  Was actually wondering if I could find some place in the middle of North Dakota and Texas to stay.  I was freezing in ND and burning up in TX.  During the week we were gone summer did finally hit.  We are sitting in Iowa tonight and we were in the 90's today.  Was hoping to make it to a lake in Minnesota tonight but I spent too much time at the casino and we didn't make it that far. 
OK, if you are paying attention to my geography you are probably wondering why we are going into Minnesota.  It isn't exactly on the way from Texas to North Dakota.  Well South Dakota has some weird rules.  They won't allow the trailers in without a permit, because they are too long, but they won't issue us a permit because they are empty.  So we have to go around.  It is a beautiful part of the country with lot of farm land with some really beautiful houses.  They just planted their crops so we are thinking that during the 15 weeks we will be traveling these roads we will be able to watch the crops grow.   
We should make it back to Grand Forks sometime early afternoon tomorrow which will give me time to do laundry and clean the pickup and truck.  We don't load again until tuesday. Which
means monday will be a lazy day.  I do need to go get a chip fixed in my windshield.  Not bad for it being the first one after I have traveled about 50,000 miles in the pickup.  And we are going to go look for a new grill so we can get back to grilling out. 
Loving married life with Chris and seeing this beautiful country.  May get kind of interesting since we are running up and down "tornado alley".  Will have my camera ready just in case! 

The Wedding

OK, I am really, really bad at doing blogs!  It has been almost 2 months since my last one and a lot of things have changed in my life.  Mainly my name.  I married Chris Gray.  It was an absolutely beautiful wedding if I do say so myself.  There were a few people that didn't make it that I wish could have but understand why they couldn't.
Chris sang to me at the wedding, which we hadn't told many people that he was going to just in case he chickened out.  So it was a nice surprise to most of the people there.  He did an excellent job.  I can't wait to get the video.  He was just going to sing "Follow Me" by John Denver because it is kind of our song, due to the fact that it is about a man who travels alot and wants to take his girlfriend to see all the places that he has seen.  Very appropriate for us.  Then at rehearsal Chris decided to surprise me by also singing "Rest of Mine" by Trace Atkins.  Right before the ceremony he sent word to me that he was only going to sing one song after all, which I was ok with.  Well after he sang Follow Me, Rusty, our preacher wasn't getting up so I was trying to ask Chris if he had informed Rusty that he decided to sing only one song.  He didn't understand what I was asking.  He thought I was asking him to sing the other song so he turned to Rusty and said, "I am going to sing another song because it is my wedding and I will do what I want."  Everyone burst out laughing.  After he finished singing both songs several people asked him to sing some more.  I was beginning to wonder if it was a wedding or a concert.  LOL.  Although, I love listening to Chris sing and would have been more than happy to let him do it some more.  The rest of the wedding went very smoothly and everyone seemed to love our choice of the departing song, "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson. 
Two very good friends of mine went over to get things set up at the reception while we took pictures at the church.  When we got over there we discovered that after they had things set up they had gone outside and got locked out.  Apparently, while they were setting things up someone else had gone into the center and when they left they undid the latches that unlocked to doors so when my friends went out for a break they didn't realize the doors would lock behind them.  Fortunately they knew someone with another key to the place and we did get back in. 
     Now comes the fun part of changing my name on everything.  FYI, my new email address is sandragray2012@yahoo.com.  I did already get my drivers license taken care of and hopefully will get my social security changed tomorrow.  We have had a few delays, small things like Chris having to work. 
     Speaking of work..... we got our assignment.  We will be hauling blades from Grand Forks, ND to Wichita Falls, TX.  Not exactly an exciting route but at least we will be together.  We may be able to arrange some visits with his kids in Wichita depending on the timing of going through there.  So maybe his kids can come from Hays to meet us.  The project is supposed to last throughout the summer, so I guess no whale watching on this job.  I will have to figure where we will be stopping at and what there will be to do during our down time.  At the very least I need to find out where the Anytime Fitness' are located on our route.  Chris told me that he will start going to work out with me.  (I am not holding my breath on that one!)  It would be nice though.  I don't really care to work out by myself, but even more I don't like not working out.  I love the feeling I get after I workout.
      I want to say a great big thank you to my daughter, Joanna, for being such a great help with my wedding, and to my cousin Christine for doing an absolutely awesome job on my flowers and photos.  To my Mom for putting up with mine and my daughters insanity.  To Virginia for the wonderful dessert at the rehearsal dinner, and to Brenda and Debbie for helping with the reception.  We couldn't have pulled this off without all of your help. 

The Grandkids.  Evan and Draven were the ring bearers (yes we had two of them) and Ava was the flower girl.

The Bridal Party:  Chelsea (Chris' daughter-in-law), Amanda (Chris' daughter) Joanna (my daughter) Aaron and Eric (Chris' sons) and Jarret (my son-in-law) with the grandkids.  Two families uniting.

                               Me with the two most wonderful, loving, caring parents ever!

                                                           Chris singing to me :)

Colorado to Iowa

We started on a new project a couple of weeks ago.  Hauling wind generator blades from Windsor, Colorado to Manly, Iowa.  Around 820 miles, one way.  So far the job has been pretty much hurry up and wait.  We have managed to miss the snow.  Not sure how much longer our luck is going to hold out.  It seems to snow right after we leave.  It has happened at both ends of the journey.  We have, however, had to drive in horrible winds and rain.  When we were stopped in Nebraska the other night there was a tornado around 100 miles away, which was the first time Nebraska has had a tornado in the month of February.  Luckily, I am not one who is afraid of storms (they actually kind of excite me).  The truck rocked in the wind all night long.

I did get a membership to Anytime Fitness which has gyms in both of our stopping places so I have gotten to start working out again.  Working out is probably one of the things that I have missed most since being on the truck. I tried to get Chris to work out with me, but he insists that he is already too thin and refuses to work out.  I keep telling him that his heart still needs the exercise.  Maybe one of these days I can convince him how good it feels to work out.  .

Because I have actually been driving (Chris' front escort)  I haven't taken pictures on this project yet.  And lets face it, there really isn't a whole lot to see going across Nebraska.  Although Chris says I need to have it handy to take pictures of tornadoes.  He did get me a VERY nice camera for Christmas that I need to have ready. 

I have now been on the road with Chris for over a year and seen 42 states.  Actually started a blog when I first started and didn't follow through with it.  I will try to do better now. 
Chris once asked me which was my favorite state.  I honestly don't know.  Texas is home but every state has something about it that I like.  Having lived in Southwest Kansas and the Texas Panhandle pretty much anything with rivers, lakes and any kind of terrain fascinates me.  I got to spend two months in New Hampshire during the summer and that was wonderful.  It is so beautiful there and so much history.  Made me wish that I would have paid more attention in history class in school. 

In Idaho there is Lake Coeur d' Alene which has to be the most beautiful lake that I have ever seen.  It totally takes your breath away.  Chris told me that Bruce Willis and Demi Moore had a place up there and when they got divorced Demi loved the place so much that she bought her another place up there.  The houses are so secluded I am not sure where they would be though. 
 

I am not sure about Tennessee though. I can't believe I am about to say this, knowing where I grew up, but there are too many trees. You really can't see the forest for the trees.
We just came back from Utah. Actually my third time there. And seeing all the canyons and rock formations was really something else. I took almost 200 pictures, but they just can't do it justice. You can definitely see Gods work there.

But the one thing that none of the other states can beat is the sunrises and sunsets on the plains.  They beat the other states hands down.