It's a gold mine!

After an uneventful run down to Texas with a hay load, we were routed to Topeka Kansas to pick up some 13' 4" tyres to take to a gold mine in Cochrane Ontario.

Stopped for an inter-trip near St Pauls (couldn't spell Minneapolis)

We had to run short miles until we were given an exact plan, and only got final instructions when we were near the Canadian border.

The permit restrictions in Ontario mean we can't run on a weekend, and as we couldn't even get a pilot car to run us up to Thunder Bay on Friday, we had to find somewhere to park from Friday until  Monday, so as we weren't near any facilities it meant running back down the northern shore line of Lake Superior to Grand Marais, Minnesota.


Originally we were told we would be delivering right to the mine which is 198k's from the town on a winter road, but now we shall only be going to a yard in Cochrane, which is way better for us.
The company will pay us layover pay for the weekend as we were willing and available to work, but the circumstances were beyond our control.


We left the trailer in a secure place close to the border crossing, and will pick it up on Sunday and run to the rest area at the border ready to cross first thing Monday morning.

Tommorow we will try and get some nice pictures from around town, if it's not snowing too much, but here are a few which we both took on the way here today.

Me snapping some icy rocks on the foreshore.

Pebbles frozen in spray.

Amazed at the strange sight.

Frozen waterfalls down on the right at the edge of the lake.

Life goes on...

We returned from our last trip on Monday night, unloaded the tyres near the yard, slept in the truck and went to load hay on Tuesday.

One off, four to go.

The hay load took a while as there was some confusion about how to load the bales, with our boss on the phone to the farmer, who then relayed instructions to his loader about which way to place the bales.
After 2 hours outside in the bitter -26 temperatures I was all strapped, and ran back up to Claresholm to begin tarping, but, unfortunately, when I got back and we measured the height, it was too high to be permited for some of the US states as it had been loaded wrong, so we had to return to the farmer to have it re-worked!
When we finally got back to Claresholm for the second time it was getting dark, and the weather had deteriorated, so we went up to the Lazy J Motel to take a couple of days off and re-set our hours without attempting to tarp.

We will be setting off on Friday morning, for a similar trip to this last one, and looking forward to a bit of warm weather.

It's a very sad time for us just now, as my mother passed away on Tuesday, but she hadn't suffered too much, and still had all her mental faculties, and at 91 years of age she had done pretty good.

She had wished for her body to be donated to medical science, and my brother and sister back in the UK made all the arrangements to fulfill her instructions, but that means there won't be a funeral for about 12 to 18 months until her remains are released back to the family, so life goes on as usual for us here in Canada.

A long way from home.

Died peacefully today, after a short spell in hospital.

My Mum will be sadly missed.

A much better person than I will ever be.

I hope she meets my Dad again somewhere.

Dad and Mum, always lots of affection and love around them.

Curfew woes for Mick McGarry.

We left the Pilot at Dalton this morning and picked our pilot car up at the scale before the Tennessee border, along with Paul and Mick, which would escort us all across Tennessee and Kentucky, leaving us to continue unaided as we passed over the river into Illinois. (Thanks Jimmy).

Cath, with Kay from Apache Escort Services on a previous run at the scale near Ringgold Georgia.

Unfortunately for Mick, he didn't get across the river to Illinois, and had to shutdown early as he didn't have enough driving hours left to get much further, and won't have enough left tomorrow to get him out of Illinois before the Martin Luther King holiday curfew comes into effect for oversize loads, so he is stuck in Paducha Kentucky for a few days, poor lad.
Paul pulled in at jct 52 on the i55, but we carried on to 100a to use up all the daylight time that we could, pulling into the Pilot truck stop at Springfield IL bang on half hour after sunrise. I'm sure we'll run together tomorrow sometime, as we both push for Sioux City Iowa.

There's a cafe/diner at the truck stop, called the Star 66 cafe, and whilst we got seated and served pretty quickly, there was a queue of 15 along the corridor by the time we were done (it's that popular)! The place is the busiest diner we have ever seen in the USA, and the generous portions, large choice and great prices, as well as the friendly staff mean we will call in here again.
I took some good video shots of the trucks on the road today, well I thought I had, but it was set to photo, so I'll try again tomorrow.

Mick avoiding a low bridge in Casper Wyoming on the way south earlier this week.

It looks like winter may have arrived here now, with sub zero temps and snow.

For my fellow Brits who don't have a choice as to where they work, but (quite rightly) complain about the crap in the UK, ie no parking, or expensive, unsafe, unhygienic places... sign the petition here.., it has to start somewhere.

Southern Bar B Q

On the way across to South Carolina we called in at the Cherokee Trading Post for breakfast, but spent so much time looking around the shop that we didn't have time to eat and had to crack on.

Cherokee Trading post and restaurant Oklahoma. 

Piggy back tractors in the parking lot.

Piggy back tractors in the parking lot.

We picked up the tyres on Wednesday lunchtime and only got as far as Madison near Atlanta before we had to shut down for the curfew, which is half an hour BEFORE sunset in Georgia.
Another short day on Thursday as my driving hours were short and I wouldn't have enough time to get a pilot car and make it up to Illinois before my time ran out.

We got parked up at the Pilot at Dalton, exit 326 off the 75 nice and early and Mick McGary arrived shortly afterwards, although Paul shot through to Ringgold a little further up the road, so he missed out on a great meal at Miller Brothers Rib Shack, just across from the truckstop.

Mick had a big plate of nachos, meat, cheese, sour cream, barbecue sauce and jalapenos as a starter, and it would have filled me up without a main meal!

Me and Cath had a plate of BBQ wings to start, which, like Micks starter, were delicious.

Main for Mick was a pile of buffalo wings with coleslaw, onion petals and potato wedges. Cath had a half rack of ribs, not the little baby back ones, with potato wedges, onion petals.

Cath looks drunk!

I had a pork plate, with beans, corn on the cob, an extra side of whole deep fried (perfectly cooked) catfish and all these came with Texas toast.

A nice friendly place which was very quiet as there was an impending storm and it was very cold out.
The server and cook (owner?) both asked if  we had enjoyed the food, and of course we said yes, and we'll be back again.

We will be all meeting our pilot cars up near the border in the morning, but can't go around Chatanooga until 9am, so a little lie in tomorrow, then flat out, to beat the Martin Luthor King holiday curfew in Ilinois, which means we have to cross into Iowa before Saturday noon, or else we will have to park until Tuesday morning!

I was hoping to meet up with fellow driver and blogger, Dave Caldwell, but once again we will probably cross on the highway running in opposite directions near Nashville, so catcha later Dave.

Dutch Lady Trucker

Met up with a colleague yesterday who is from Holland, and has worked here for a while since driving all over Europe for years.

Corina by Mick.

Carina is pictured here with me, Mick Mc Garry and  Paul Mannion having a quick break.

Photo by Cath.

We followed Mick, Paul and Carina for some of the way, but me and Cath were going to Texas with a hay load, and the other three were going a bit further south with large reels of tubing.

Big reels by Mick.

Running south through Wyoming.

I'm typing this at the Flying J in Amarillo, and tomorrow we will be heading out towards South Carolina where we will be loading some 13' 3" off road tyres to take back up to Canada.

Truck fun

We had to call in to the Pete dealership yesterday before going to pick up a hay load in Brooks, but a half hour job turned into a much longer one, so, seeing as I was suffering from a bit of a cold and sore throat, we took ourselves off to a hotel in Lethbridge for the night instead of sleeping in the truck. The truck won't be ready until this afternoon, so we won't get the load sorted until tonight or tommorow.
I don't mind the delay as I feel like death warmed up, and don't fancy clambering about a load of hay in these high winds, trying to set up the tarps anyway.

Happy New Year.

A Happy New Year to our friends and family, near and far, and the new addition from Gareth and Lyndsey, Seth Emmett.

We had a good run up from Houston with our reload of tyres, but were constantly chasing the time, due to the holiday curfew in Montana. The curfew in Montana started half an hour after sunset on Friday, which meant we had to cross the border by 5.08pm otherwise we would be shut down until Tuesday morning.

We arrived at the Canadian border window at exactly 5.08pm and sailed through without any problems.
There is a Government scale just north of the border, which is always open and we went through there with no problem also.

Then... a short way up the road we were pulled over by the cop from the scale, who had followed us. I had forgotten to slide my extending lights out from the side of the trailer as it had got fully dark, and it cost me a $230 fine after a level 2 inspection at the side of the highway.

Although I was completely at fault, it would have been much fairer to give me the light at the scale to come inside, where they could have simply reminded me to pull out the lights before I left the scale.

A great New Years at the Leasks in Medicine Hat with their friends, starting at the Captains Cabin in town, where I was the only civilian in a pub full of squadies, and ex squadies. Great fun, seeing in the New Year there at 5pm, then back to the house to see in the Canadian New Year, with a few drinks and some fireworks for the (big) kids.