The Border

Laredo, Texas. A town situated on the border between Mexico and the U.S. I have heard many things about Mexico but I believe the reports have been a bit dramatized. As far as the news is concerned, the border is heavily guarded with patrol agents laden with weapons and edged with razor wire fencing to keep the heathens at bay. This was far from the truth.

Laredo has two parts of the city from my eyes: the residential/shopping area and the commercial district. My first introduction came as James and I headed to the company’s local yard, a place James described as “the real Mos Eisley.” For those of you unfamiliar, Mos Eisley was the trader town in Star Wars: A New Hope, where Luke and Obi-Wan visit the cantina. Turns out, James was not far off the mark. Set in the desert, a community of truckers making a pit stop between runs with a couple of Mexican ladies fixing authentic fare the likes of which you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere. The food was great, the company pleasant and the chairs comfy. Remember earlier in the trip when we had to give this guy named Kevin a ride to Salt Lake? He was there! We got to catch up a bit; he was in the process of completing his phase 2 training and doing what the rest of the guys there were up to: waiting on a load. Apparently getting shipments across the border never really goes according to schedule.

What were we there for? A load to Georgia, of course, as well as some much needed maintenance on the rig. Let me tell you it is NOT fun driving in south Texas with your air conditioning broken. Also just as important, James was in need of a rollover of his work clock, meaning we got to stay for at least 34 hours before we could roll anyway. Within an hour and a hearty meal later the AC was fixed and we headed to the local truck stop hub which, considering it was on the edge of the commercial end of town was crazy. A couple of these stops received so much trucker traffic they actually charged drivers to park overnight! We stayed across the street at the Pilot, one of our favorite stops. The biggest highlight of this place: the IdleAir service provided in the parking lot. More on that in the lifestyle post (with pictures!)

So what did we do during our downtime? Went to the local mall, of course! Located one mile from the border was the Mall Del Norte, a place with an array of stores, decent food court and a large movie theater. We made a date of it browsing shops, having lunch and watching a movie. It was a wonderful afternoon. What surprised me was the enormous amount of foot traffic for the middle of the day on a Tuesday. We found out that holy week was going on in Mexico and everything was closed in observance, so we were surrounded by people taking advantage of their vacation. See culture down this close to the border is very unique because it gets very hard to tell where one side ends and the other begins. Everyone speaks Spanish down here, the local fare is a mix of everything and half the vehicles have Mexico car tags on them. Traffic crossing at the border is frequent here and good for the economy and everyone I met was very nice.

Speaking of border traffic, it is a daily occurrence here for 4,000-6,000 commercial vehicles to make the trip and there are companies whose sole purpose is to get trucks through border patrol. As for James’ company they have a separate fleet working on the other side and their guy will drive the load to the yard for James to pick it up. It is definitely impressive to see how smoothly everything happens. I got a taste of border patrol when we started our last leg of the trip leaving Laredo. When you are driving towards the checkpoint, there are infrared scanners over the highway that have already checked you and know if you are carrying anyone with you. When you get to the officer (after you’ve already passed the one with the drug sniffing dog) he asks you three questions: 1. Are you an American citizen? 2. Do you have anyone else in the vehicle with you? 3. Are they an American citizen?

If you comply politely and shortly, they wave you on and wish you a good day. According to James a student driver replied to the first question by saying “sí,” which resulted in a two hour inspection and one hell of a headache for his trainer. Needless to say, be nice to the border patrol people. The thing I found funny was the border patrol agents came to the truck stop we were staying at for their lunch breaks. It was definitely interesting to see these guys in their off time.

The last thing we experienced in Laredo was this one rest area James had seen before but never got a chance to stop at, so we did. It turned out to be the best rest area I have ever seen! Take a look! 

Yes, this oasis in the desert had a pond full of Koi!

The welcome center

This looks like a Spanish villa, don't you think?(minus the caution sign)

I have to give it to Texas because they really went all out on their rest areas. Every one was unique and inviting.
So there's plenty more on the way! The trip back, the lifestyle post, and what I'm currently up to! Stay tuned!

Show and Tell!

Hello everyone! My apologies for taking so long to update but I'm back and ready to catch you up on everything! So much has been going on, but first I thought it was time for some show and tell. Enjoy!




Idaho –

wrought iron sculpture of wine with glass, signifying a vineyard nearby. 

a church in the distance

ripples in the sky

a break in the clouds for the sun to peek in

frozen lake. So pretty!

BUFFALO!

this we thought so cool! What happens when the mountains meet the clouds. 

one of the tallest peaks in south Idaho. 10,810 feet!

Kentucky

The Most Amazing Flea Market in the WORLD

 this one is for my cousin Christian cause I know he would love to have a few of these! 

Missouri

Trucker’s Christian chapel. I thought the hands overlapping the truck was unique. 

Monster Rooster!

Montana

one of many beautiful mountain and lake scenes

Apparently there is a habit in Montana where each of the towns put their first letter on a mountainside. After a while, James and I thought about playing mountain scrabble.

I love how the rock juts out. Truly unique. 

 I thought this was really cool. In parts of the mountains the downhill can be intense and older vehicles, especially big rigs needed these runaway ramps in the event of catching your brakes on fire! 

Seen at a "parking area" passing through the Rockies. Awesome. 

Actual outhouse in previously mentioned "parking area," and no, I didn't use it. 

I just loved the colors of this sunset. God's painting. 

These are in every other small town while riding through the state.  Some of these were also accompanied by fossil museums. 

Montana, day one

Montana, Day two. WHAT?!

ok, a little hard to see but if you look around this map there are little crooked house symbols. Those are official GHOST TOWNS! On the state map!

Next time, the tallest pass in the United States! 

Idaho, Montana and Me

In life things don’t always go as planned. This is also true of the trucking business. Sometimes, when you pick up a load, for whatever reason you may not deliver it. In these cases, your boss will arrange for you to make a swap with another driver or team so things can be delivered on time. This very situation has happened at least six times in the past week. Long story short, no trip to Massachusetts for us. That being said, let me bring you up to date on things.

The second trip through Idaho proved much more interesting. The first time around, the state hid its treasures, but I found if you head farther north into the state you get more of the Rockies as well as the cities where the majority of the population has collected. We lucked up and found a nearby McDonald’s to do some much needed internet updating (I personally stayed there for more hours than are decent to mention).  I bring up all of this because of one employee who was feverishly working during my stay. Her name is Meggee (pronounced May-Gee) and she was one of the most positive people I’ve come across. Even though she was relegated to mopping the floors, scrubbing the toilets and basically cleaning every square inch of the restaurant, she did it all with a smile on her face and a glow about her. Noticing that I was hanging around for a while, she struck up a conversation with me and come to find out, not only does she work at McDonald’s but she also volunteers at the homeless and womens shelters in town. She says her parents love for her to stay busy, figures it will keep her out of trouble. So all that was to say a great big thank you to her for just being her and making my day there quite enjoyable. Keep up all your good work girl!

Not too long later we entered Montana, and boy was that an amazing state! We traveled across the state in a day and a half (the distance was 700 miles) and only once we were across the state line into North Dakota did we get a swap call from James’ Driver Manager. The load took us back through Montana, this time on a different route, giving us the perfect opportunity to partake of the various lands the state has to offer. For instance, did you know ¼ of the Lewis and Clark Expedition took place in Montana? I didn’t. It is also the 4^th largest state in the US, behind Texas, Alaska and California. It has more square mileage than residents, so if you like huge, wide open spaces, this place is for you!

Spending hours watching the scenery makes it apparent to me the appeal of the west. Think about it, at the time of the great migration west, industry was beginning to take over in the larger cities, places were getting cramped on the east coast and people who were looking for a new start on life saw this place as the land of opportunity for any man, woman or child worth their salt. Even today this is true because the very landscape will challenge you with constant wind (some states have signs warning of areas of wind gusts), ice and snow (last year Colorado got snow flurries in June!).  This may leave you asking, “why would anyone want to move there?” Well, some states have oil mining (80% of oil being consumed in the U.S. is produced domestically), farms as far as the eye can see (all ranging from apples to corn, wheat, and grapes), livestock (cows, horses, sheep, buffalo and the occasional llamas or alpacas) and any outdoor activity you can think of. Not to mention that if you want to observe wildlife, it is here (many states have signs warning of deer, antelope or wildlife crossings). So far I’ve managed to see wild turkeys, antelope, deer and coyote (it’s just an extra added bonus to my day, like an Easter Egg in a video game).

Anyways, our trip through Montana led us to another load and swap but this time the load took us to HERSHEY’S! As we discovered, the really cool thing about delivering to Hershey is you get to have not one but TWO choices of any of their candy product! Mmm… Reese’s. 

All of this swapping has had a purpose: we learned about a week ago my oldest friend in the world Jenny just found out her husband has cancer so we have put in a request to get back to Georgia as soon as possible. News such as this has managed to make this trip even more important to me, as I feel the need to live with even more gusto than before. Also, just to let you know, her husband is my age and no one should have to hear that they have cancer at 30. Personally, I find it interesting how things you didn’t expect to come along can give you motivation you didn’t know you needed or were without. So with all of that said, we have a load taking us to Mississippi which will hopefully hop us over to Georgia soon.

Before you may be thinking the trip is over, it isn’t, not by a long shot. The truth is, the trip doesn’t end because you make a pit stop on the road, instead the trip is about life and how you choose to live it. This journey has shown me the more I see and discover about this country, the more I want to know about it all. I have been making notes as we go state by state for places and things I want to see and read about. Our culture and history is built into the land and for me it’s been so exciting that I wonder how we could bring this excitement to the classroom and the next generation. As a country, knowing your roots, your past, is just as vital as knowing where you are going. Learning not only from your triumphs and mistakes but those of others keeps you from hitting major pitfalls that can keep you from the great things in life. Equally as important, the more I see of the country the more I discover about myself and what I want out of life. It would seem just as much as you shape and make things, those very things in turn also shape you.

For now, I’m still taking pictures, oohing over cute animals and singing badly to songs I enjoy. The upside, this trip will take us through Colorado, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and be assured I will keep you posted every step of the way! 

Soaking Wet in Washington

Washington turned out to be quite a strange place. From the Columbia there were mountains and cliffs leading to the water just like the in Oregon, but as soon as we made it up the steep incline through the mountains, I did not expect what I saw. It was a complete plateau of flat land, almost as flat as any land in Nebraska. It was also kept impeccably clean as noted by the “If you litter, it will hurt” sign. We wondered what that meant. The rest of the day was spent driving through endless vineyards and orchards, with no signs of large civilization anywhere. What did surprise me was the prevalent Latin America presence. I shouldn’t be surprised, what with all the orchards around.

The real fun came the next day, when we got a load taking us to a city south of Seattle. That morning I awoke to find that we were stuck on a mountain. Snoqualmie pass, to be exact.

It seems that they were doing something called avalanche prevention, where they blow excess snow off the mountain. Now you have to understand, being from Georgia this has been quite an education in snow for me and boy this pass has been the largest lesson of all. Stuck in back to back trucker traffic, everyone was out in the snow putting on chains. It’s a nasty business, crawling around under your truck in this brownish icy sludge to lock freezing cold chains on wet tires. I watched bleary eyed as men hunched down in everything from boots to slippers attempting to get the job done as soon as possible. Its truly in these moments where you see good things in people, as truckers helped others with their chains. We had a very nice FedEx man behind us who apparently does this route often and even gave James a few tips to help him along.

After almost two hours things eased up and we tip toed our way through the pass onto Seattle. The rest of the day went downhill from there as the infamous Seattle drizzle came down.

Our stop ended up being a load of beer to a distribution center for Anheuser Busch that looked like beer mecca. It was one of the cleanest places I’ve seen with scrubbed shiny floors and neatly wall to wall wrapped boxes awaiting delivery. Think of walking into a Home Depot but instead of tools its beer. They even had a complete room just for kegs. James found out the place had quite a variety of drink, most of it on its way to Alaska.

From our little trek in the snow to our emergency stop that afternoon, most of our clothes got soaked leaving us the only option of putting up make shift clotheslines in the truck to attempt and dry out things. Our emergency stop basically meant that once the delivery was made we had run out of time to make it to a truck stop and had to make due with the back of a Kmart parking lot surrounded by shops. The upside to all this was we got to walk to this little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant, cold, wet and hungry enough to eat a horse. It was some of the best chicken fried rice I’ve ever had, second only to Cathy Ho’s in Carrollton. After a good long nap I woke up feeling a litter warmer and a little more alive and made my way to a McDonald’s nearby which has turned out to be a haven to me on these trips. Open at all hours, sweet tea reminiscent of the south and free Wifi make it the best thing on the road. I asked the workers how they dealt with the rain and their response was simply, “it’s Washington,” as if that explained it all. I ended up staying up all night at that McDonald’s nursing a good hot chocolate and catching up with messages online.

It took us the better part of two days and a laundry visit to get all our clothes dried and back to normal.

You better believe I was excited to hear the next load was to take us to Massachusetts. But more on that next time. 

Oregon!

Oregon by far has been one of the most beautiful states I have ever seen. From the state line the highway is weaving and winding through mountains, parallel to streams and revealing many mysteries around the next bend. Home of the Oregon Trail, many of the highways follow the original route taken by settlers all of those years ago and its apparent by abandoned homesteads where many tried and failed to make a life out here.

The signs of attempted industry are out here as well, as we turned a bend and found this factory. Everytime I see these structures I think, “There’s a story there.”

Being on the road, you get to see many strange and interesting things. One day I saw a lone calf in a field and feeling for his situation, began telling the tale of how this poor calf came to be so alone and lonesome. By the time I finished, James looked at me and said, “You just told that calf’s story.” As a result, we’ve developed a little game we call Story Time. At any time one of us will point at something we see and spontaneously tell a story about whatever we see. We’ve had a few interesting results out of this game so far.

But back to the industry. Along the road there are a number of gas stations, odd ball road side stops that have all together been left to the weather, a result of developing traveling technology and the busy traveler not needing to stop as much as they used to. It’s quite sad, actually because I’m endlessly fascinated in the mom and pop roadside stand. What they don’t have in variety, they make up for in character. (a perfect example of this was in my Idaho post)

Having made our way to the north end of the state, the view breaks out into tree-filled mountains with the breathtaking Columbia River. There’s more life this way, with a resort, camp ground or cabin every few miles and I don’t blame them with such an incredible view. While you drive by, if you look, you’ll notice a tiny waterfall every few miles coming off the mountain; Just one of many small and beautiful things to add to the grandeur of the place.

This part of the country seems to get so much rain that there is green everywhere. This electric green moss grows on all the trees and old walls they can find, and open land becomes home to the largest ferns I’ve ever seen, next to the ones my Grandmommy keeps on her back porch on the farm.

Part of the way through the trip, we came down a steep mountain and I got a glimpse of what God must see as He looks down on us.

Then we make it to Portland, mecca of civilization in all this wilderness. Stopping for a bite to eat, we decide to test the local fare by visiting a pie place called Shari’s. Best. Food. Ever. (James’ words). The waitress was incredible, the food delectable, and the pie was heavenly (I had the smore galore. SO decadent!) They had strawberry lemonade with chunks of strawberry floating in it that was so delicious AND they offered free refills. The soup and sandwich were hearty and melted away any chill the weather provided. Don’t take our word for it, just check out their website.

www.sharis.com

Our views of Oregon were far from over as we got a new load taking us to Washington. We got to back track a little bit the way we came, getting a real second chance at more beautiful shots of the Columbia.

Next time, Soaking Wet in Washington!