December 27 – January 3, 2021

Monday, December 27, 2021

As planned, we all met at our respective trucks at 8:00, with plans to pull out at 9:00 when the morning curfew in Phoenix lifts. It still appears that all four trucks are headed back to the company yard in MN. When we all pulled out, my truck was in the lead, and every truck had both a front car and a steerman.

It was a beautiful ride through Arizona, as usual,

but today, we began to run into some snow, which made it every better!

That was just on the high mountains as we passed through Flagstaff. As you know, I got my windshield replaced the day before Thanksgiving, and I always try to get 6 months out of them, so I only get two glass claims a year. Up until now, I only had 3 dings in it, but as we passed by Flagstaff, the road sand began to kick up onto my windshield, and WHACK! I instantly had a 12″ horizontal crack at the bottom of my windshield. The question is, can I drill it out before it expands across my line of vision, and forces an early replacement. (which I would have to pay $740 for) Just a short time later, the snow was gone, and so were the sandy roads. The crack seems to be stable right now.

There began to be a gap of more than a mile between the trucks, because each truck reacts differently to the hills. Yes, we are all empty, but still weigh about 15 tons more than a loaded semi. I always enjoy just driving by the signs for the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, because it brings back so many memories from when my family visited both on our 6 week trip west in the 18′ camper trailer in 1969.

It was a pretty routine trip, since we were empty. Mostly highway, no raising for RR tracks, and no steer turns. So all 4 trucks made it 406 miles to Thoreau NM before sunset, and parked in a small truck stop for the night. There was a reasonably priced hotel just down the street, and since temperatures were dropping, I decided to just stay there where all the other Pilot Cars we going.

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Once I have a crack in my windshield, I NEVER use the defrost again. So I need to allow extra time to scrape the windshield, and let the inside warm up longer, before I can drive. As we passed through the rest of NM, I thought several times about the fact that my NM certification expires at the end of the day today. In New Mexico, they require an inspection every year of your pilot car, as well as your certifications. No matter when you get that certification, it always expires when your auto insurance expires. That is today for me. Although I had the new policy in place several weeks ago, they would not give me a new certification until my old one expired. So I will be fine as long as nothing stops us from leaving the state today, and will get re-certified the next time I come through here with a load.

We passed by that precarious rock on the hillside, and I think it has moved a little. What do you think?

During some time on the highway, I called the owner of the company to see if I could leave my van at the body shop when I get there, and borrow/rent one of their Pilot Car vehicles to continue on to my next job. My guess is that the work will take at least 3 weeks, and I really don’t want to spend that time sitting in a hotel at $100/night in below zero weather! He said he thought all their cars were in use now until some time in February, but will check. Right now my van is an inconvenience without the use of my rear doors, but I can continue to work with it – especially since I’m spending so many nights in hotels because of the low temperatures. We did make it out of NM, and into Texas,

and lost an hour along the way. But we still made it to our goal, which was Canadian Texas, even though we spent a lot of time on small roads. We drove 472 miles today, and all of us pulled into a small truck stop there. . Well, three of us pulled in, but the fourth truck decided he could make it 60 miles to the next possible parking spot before sunset, so drove on by. Believe it or not, it will be below 15° here tonight, so I took a hotel again, just a few miles down the street.

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

We three trucks left at sunrise, and noticed that due to the hills and small roads, it took us about 90 minutes to cross into Oklahoma, and pass the truck stop where that fourth truck stopped last night. I have to wonder how he made it there before curfew, but I’m glad we all didn’t take that risk. Today was a very good day for traveling. We were back on bigger roads, and the weather was nice, along the route.

We crossed from there into Kansas in Liberal, which is very familiar to us all. Do you know where Liberal Kansas got it’s name? No, it has nothing at all to do with politics! Annalou and I discovered this when we spent the day there several years ago. It’s simple. Back then, liberal meant generous, and the people there were known for their hospitality, and the name was given to the town.

From there, we passed through Dodge City, and passed their sign as we left. I love this sign, with the guys riding in on their horses, but since we were “headin’ outa Dodge”, it was taken from the back.

I was a bit surprised to make it as far as we did, to Sabetha KS, It was another small truck stop, a total of 506 miles, and we drove on a lot of small roads to get there.

It’s unusually cold everywhere we go. Some of the people who live there tell us they have not seen these temperatures in a very long time. So once again, I checked into a hotel with the others. We also know that when we get up to the company yard, it will be well below zero. Well below!

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Our goal today was to make it to Albert Lea, which is right over the line into Minnesota. That will put us just 2 hours away from the company yard tomorrow. Things would have to move like clockwork for us to make it all the way today and still avoid evening curfew and sunset curfew. We dropped our front cars once we passed through the tip of Nebraska, and into Iowa, because they are no longer required in IA and MN.

But when we got close to Arbert Lea, we decided to go for it, because we were ahead of schedule. Temps were dropping like a rock, and there was a little snow on the sides of the road. As we approached Minneapolis, the temperature had dropped below zero, and it is expected to get down to 8 below tonight.

We arrived at the shop before sunset, and were able to avoid the curfews in the city as well.

My van is a mess, and looks a lot worse to me than these pictures show. In person, it almost looks like a brown van!

So I was very glad to find a little space in the wash bay, and got it clean again. I had to be very careful as I washed the front end, because if I get too much warm water on the windshield, the crack will expand. I went in to the office to check and see what my next adventure will be. Do I need to check into a hotel, or drive through the night to help someone get home! They said to get a hotel, because they won’t know where they need me next until Monday.

So my plan was to go check in, have supper while everyone finished their day, and come back to find an empty bay where I can let the van warm up for an hour or so, and drill a hole at the ends of the crack, which will stop it from spreading.

I went to my favorite place here, Pizza Ranch buffet, and had a huge salad, fried chicken and green beans, and did grab a slice of ultra thin crust meat lovers pizza. It was now 6 below, and as I drove away, talking to Annalou, I watched as the crack began to slowly grow from 12″ to about 36″ right before my eyes. Of course, I did not have any air blowing on the windshield, but I REALLY need to get back and drill it out now!

I found no bay open, because when it gets this cold, they park trucks, loaders, and fork lifts in every square inch, so they will start in the morning. But, there was still room in the wash bay, so I went inside there, waited a while, got out my drill, and drilled the holes. I’m still not comfortable doing this. It’s a little nerve wracking to drill holes in your windshield. First, you have to line the drill up to the end of the crack, just ahead of it, then drill the hole – just through the first layer of glass! Obviously, if you drill all the way through, you will have a leaky hole, and probably shatter it. I did both sides, and went to the hotel where I had reservations for the next few nights.

Now I had to be sure I carried everything in. Everything that will freeze. So I got the food from my coolers, canned goods from my “pantry”, liquids like extra shampoo, soap, laundry soap, glass cleaner, and caulking, paints, laptops, tablet, iPOD, and other electronics. It took me four trips to get it all inside, and was now a windy 7 below.

Friday, New Years Eve, 2021

I slept in til 7, went down for an egg and sausage breakfast, and went out to warm up my van. It was a chilly and very windy 16 below zero as I pulled out of my parking space, and headed to the body shop. I knew I would not be leaving it there, and knew they would not do any work on it today, but wanted them to have a look at it, so that once I can borrow/rent a pilot vehicle, I could schedule with them from out on the road somewhere. Everyone there knows me by first name, because they have done some repairs for me, and at least 3 windshields as well. The receptionist told me they were booked now into March. So, I asked if there foreman could take a quick look and see if I could bend down the bumper, and get the doors to open – and latch again.

So he took it into the shop, let it warm up for an hour, worked on it for 20 minutes, and brought it back. “There you go, Dave, bumper is straightened out, and doors are fully working.” I was shocked! “Are you kidding? That’s fabulous! What do I owe you?” He said that since I was a good customer, always on the go, out on a mission, and it just took a few minutes – it was no charge! I objected, but he would not take any money for it. I will still have it repaired right when I can, but now I can fully use the van until then!

So I drove down the street, and passed by the chiropractor that Eddie recommended. As I passed, I took my foor off the gas, thought about how I’d like to just get back to my warm room, but I knew the Lord was telling me to turn around – so I did. I walked in at 11:45 with no one at the reception desk, and the doctor walked out from a side room, obviously chewing on his lunch. “Are you bored enough to take on a walk-in, or are you heading home for the holiday?” I asked. “Well, that depends”, he responded, and smiled. I explained my accident, my schedule, and that I wanted to checked, but wouldn’t know my schedule until Monday morning.

He not only took me on, he spent over 2 hours doing a very thorough exam, and determined that nothing was broken or severely sprained. So he gave me an adjustment, and the headache I’ve had since the accident was gone by the time I left the office. There were other significant changes as well, like relaxed shoulders and neck. In addition, we found that we were both very passionate about our Christian faith. Naturally, since he has been a chiropractor for 40 years, he has also done a lot of research on the actual science of the planned-demic, so we were adding to each other’s discoveries and conclusions about the political inoculation. I guess you could say we are kindred spirits! It is so incredibly sad to see this play out with thousands and thousands of adults dying needlessly, and tens of thousands maimed from the shot, and the absolute murder of children and teens being forced to take the shot. All over the fabricated fear of getting a bad virus with less than a 1% chance of death in adults, and less than half a percent in children. All this for certain people to gain unbelievable wealth and power over the rest of us, turning the USA into a communist country known as the Great Reset. We are in the End Times, and this has all been clearly prophesied in the Bible.

I stayed in my warm hotel, and was up late as there was a big party down stairs, and in the pool area until midnight.

Saturday and Sunday, January 1-2, 2022

I slept in, made out invoices, recorded receipts and deposits, caught up some on this blog, made out invoices and sent them in, researched the problems with the new drone and did firmware updates on everything.

I also cooked up a dozen chicken legs in alfredo sauce in my Instant Pot, and also a 2 lb pork loin steak, and deep froze them by putting them in my van. Sunday I went to my Minnesota church, made some phone calls, and since temp went all the way up to 15 above zero, I took the drone up for a test. I discovered that though I solved a few of the issues, I still can not make it move side to side, and whenever I move it forward, it goes up as well. I need more research. So I set it up in my hotel room, and Seth and I went through every menu setting by phone, and are stumped.

Tomorrow I plan to go back to the Chiropractor at 8:15, and then check in with the office on my next assignment.

Monday, January 3, 2021

The appointment was fabulous! I feel so much better. He gave me a back brace that believe it or not, helps my neck as well. I checked in with the office, and my next job leaves tomorrow with an empty trailer, loads near Madison WI, and goes to delivery near Richmond, VA.

So I bought groceries, uploaded my recent drone pictures and video to the company server at their office, and went back to my hotel.

Later I took my drone out for another test flight. Still no changes.

Tomorrow I meet my driver at the yard at 8, and we leave for Wisconsin, and am always excited to head east. MY WIFE AND FAMILY ARE OVER THERE!