As I mentioned, this past week has been our busiest yet, so I haven’t had much time to type. We’ve been in and out of Canada four times, with two of the runs being just across the border, and the others being over 200 miles north of Windsor. We had an interesting run from Shadyside, Ohio to Windsor, Ontario that took us through a part of West Virginia on the way. When Jon Dutchendorf (aka John Denver) said that “Life is old there” he knew what he was talking about. It’s beautiful country, but the coal mining towns feel like they haven’t changed in decades. They seem stagnate and worn down. We were about 60 or 70 miles north of Sago, where the 12 miners were killed in the mine collapse early last year. The place where we loaded was perched on the banks of the Ohio River. We got there early, but they said they couldn’t load us out until around 11pm, so we left and came back after dark. When we finally left, headed for Windsor, it was pitch black outside. Once we accept a load offer, Panther sends us driving directions over the QC (QualComm) in the truck. We usually compare their directions to those from our own mapping software before deciding how to proceed. Their route is usually a good bet because they are careful to avoid restricted routes and those with low clearance bridges. They also usually favor major interstates, which makes the trip faster and smoother, with fewer unplanned stops. This time, however, they routed us down a long stretch of state highway that shaved about 40 miles off the trip. We decided that would be best, and headed out. After about 10 miles of winding roads with sharp turns every ½ mile or so, we began wondering if the Panther dispatchers knew what they were doing. But we kept on, with Jim having to slow down to 20mph every few minutes for another corkscrew bend in the road. About 30 minutes worth of this, and we finally decided that we must be coming out of a mountain range. We could see lights far below us and in the distance. I’m sure that during the daytime, it must be a beautiful drive, maybe a nice slow Sunday afternoon cruise in a convertible, but not an appealing route for a truck in a hurry - in the middle of the night. We crossed several large lakes and rivers before finally coming to a crossroads with an interstate highway about an hour and a half later. We decided to take our chances on the time and plan our own route from there. We made it in plenty of time, but marked that road on our map as one to take if we are ever there on our own time and in our own car! As my mom would say, “The Good Lord takes care of idiots” and He certainly took care of these two idiots that night. :O) Thanks for all of the prayers, Mom - really!
A later run from Elizabethtown, Kentucky to Oshawa, Ontario seemed particularly long because it took all day and part of the night to get there. We were scheduled to deliver at the GM plant in Oshawa, which is about 30 miles north of Toronto, around midnight. These large automotive assembly plants operate 24 hours a day, so there’s always someone there to unload you. When you’re hauling freight to one of these plants, they sometimes tell you that you are delivering “shut down freight” meaning that if you don’t get it there on time, you’ll cause the plant to shut down the assembly line until you get there. According to Panther, this can cost over $60,000 a minute – sounds a little far fetched to me - but it does put a little pressure on you to get there at all costs. The strange thing about Ontario is that you feel like you’re out in the middle of nowhere for miles and miles. The only lights you see are the scattered rest areas along the major highways that have restrooms, coffee shops, and usually Tim Horton’s (we’ve decided these must be Canadian McDonald’s, because they are on every street corner.) Then, out in the middle of nowhere you’ll pass a city limit sign that says pop. 110,000 and you’re thinking, “Yea, right! I don’t see any 110,000 people out here! In fact, I don’t see ANYONE!” It’s really odd, but also nice because we’ve been to the big industrial areas out there where they are producing all of these automotive parts, but there doesn’t seem to be any pollution or wretched living conditions like there is in Detroit or Chicago. Maybe they just haven’t had time to develop that way, but I think it has something to do with the mentality of the people, too. We’ve been to both the East and West coasts of Canada, and it just seems like an extraordinarily clean country. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a patriot if ever there was one, but I do wish that the US cities were better cared for and less depressing sometimes.
I don’t particularly care for nighttime driving, though it just sometimes falls my lot, so Jim was driving the last leg of the trip toward Toronto. Actually, he does most of the driving, and I do most of the navigating, when we can make it work out that way, though he says I just like telling him where to go! :0)
Anyway, I could tell he was fading fast, so I kept asking him to let me drive. He knows I don’t like to drive at night, so he kept saying he was fine, but he finally gave in when he just couldn’t go any further. I drove the last 70 miles or so of the trip and lived to regret it when we got to Toronto. You’d think at that time of night there wouldn’t be much traffic, but it was crazy! There were five lanes of traffic in each direction, bright lights everywhere, and everyone was running about 70 mph! And the city is such a sprawling Metroplex that is takes forever to get through it, even at that pace. Uncle Jimmy, I know that you read this blog sometimes, so believe me when I say I can now empathize with your daily travels to downtown Houston for so many years. Toronto sort of reminds me of Houston because it’s a prime example of urban sprawl. When you travel through the Dallas, Fort Worth area or even Austin or San Antonio, you have the congestion for awhile with all of the skyscrapers, then it starts to thin out, and things get better. But in Toronto, it just keeps on going and going like the Energizer Bunny! Needless to say, we finally got through it, delivered our freight, and found a nice hotel for the night. I don’t think either of us even remembers our head hitting the pillow.
The next day, we had a nice breakfast and lunch before being offered a load from Toronto to Saint Paul, Minnesota. These longer runs are really good for us, and we’d had a good night’s rest, so we were glad to head out that way. Our route took us through Chicago and on to northern Wisconsin. This was country we’d never seen before. I never knew that Wisconsin was such a beautiful state. There are the Wisconsin Dells, beautiful rivers, and both hardwood and pine trees. You can tell by the pictures I take that I’m a West Texan because I can’t resist taking a picture anytime we pass a body of water or big green trees. Jim had driven another long leg and was sleeping while I drove, so he missed some of the sights. One crop that I hadn’t seen before was cranberries. Wisconsin has bogs where they are grown, but I didn’t get a picture because I was driving. They also have a lot of indoor water parks up that way. I think we passed 6 or 7 before we got to Minnesota. We were delivering office furniture to a place on the south side of Minneapolis via I35 West. When we were nearly there, I asked Jim, “Wasn’t I35 West where the bridge collapsed last month in Minneapolis?” Sure enough, it was, but was a little bit north of where we delivered. When we were leaving, our route took us that way, so we had to take the detour around the area. We go over lots of bridges, so it really makes you stop and think.
After unloading, we were looking at the map to decide where to go to wait for our next offer. We were just a couple of miles from the Mall of America in Minneapolis, so we headed over there. What a shopper’s paradise! You could probably spend a week in there looking around. There is an amusement park in the center of this 4-story mall, but I couldn’t convince Jim to get on the roller coaster with me, so we passed. There is also a full size Ferris wheel in there, and every kind of shop you can imagine. But, as I told Jim, you can walk through 5000 stores, but if you only have $5 in your pocket, that’s all you’re gonna spend :O)
It was fun, though. We ate at TGI Friday’s, had my eyes examined, and strolled around for awhile. Sometimes it’s just good to get out of the truck and breathe for a few hours.We would have liked to have been offered a run into New Mexico so we could attend Jeri’s 50th birthday party, but there doesn’t seem to be much freight out that way. Anyway, we hope you have a wonderful birthday and hope to see you soon. Oh, and congratulations on your approaching grandmother-hood!
Jim says he’ll have to miss the Lorraine reunion, too, but hopes you all have a good time. Shirley, I envy the trip that you and the girls are taking to the spa – I think I could use a girl’s day out with all of you or with my mom, sister, and good friends Kathy, Michelle, and Laura. Or maybe a long lunch at the Spanish Inn with my friend, Janet. I love and miss you all!We wish Jonathan, Ronnie, Trina, and Adam a happy birthday this month, too, and can’t wait to see pictures of little Ella (sp?) as soon as she arrives.
Right now, we’re headed toward Muscatine, Iowa, near Cedar Rapids. We’ve requested home time, so they are trying to work us south until we get close. We’ll see how it goes.That’s about it for now. Please take care, and stay in touch.BTW – The Historic Northern Iowa sign about the glacial ice sheets is included for the benefit of our good friend and geologist, Troy Lilly. We’d love to have you around, Troy, to educate us on the formations of all of the interesting landscapes that we’ve been passing through.
Here are a few pictures from our travels this week through parts of Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Toronto. We're in St Paul, Minnesota right now (Monday morning). We're requesting home time today, so we'll see where they send us over the next few days. Meanwhile, here are some pics of the coal mining towns in WV, downtown Toronto, the bogs in southern Minesota, and the Mall of America in Minneapolis. We've seen some beautiful country this week. I'll add more later.
Love you all,
Jim and Sandy