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!
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