Trip In Review (I'm Finally Home!!!)

Wow. I'm finally here! I intended to tell you all the places I went and all that - But I think I'll just sum up: I went East as far as Boston, South as far as Miami, North as far as Seattle, and West as far as, well, Seattle. And I did it a lot of times.

So, here are some pictures and stuff. It's been a while, so there are a lot.


This is kind of an addition to the private showers post. Here is one of those showers I mentioned. It's a small one, most are bigger now. This one is a Flying J shower.







Well, it made me laugh. It's on the floor of a stall in a rest area... and it's an Immodium wrapper.

Yep, that says "God Hates Graffiti"


The sign says "This register is only for Drive-Thru orders." I guess not at this one, but at most McDonald's, the drive thru is actually outside.















Yeah, but how much for just, like, a regular one?


My favorite picture of the entire trip.



Mostly they did, but there was still writing on the walls.


This sign, in case you can't make it out, says, "Restroom Temporarily Closed. Lobby Open." I probably shouldn't tell this story, but I will. Thank you to the state of Pennsylvania for causing me unbelievable distress. There were no signs coming up to this rest area, or in it, to indicate that my time would be better spent finding another restroom. I had to park almost a half-mile away from this building, and hobble all the way to it. And then, I had to hobble back and look elsewhere. Thanks for the 45 minute hellish interlude into the middle of my night you low-life jerks. Since then, I've realized that maybe the "Lobby Open" part of the sign meant that I should have left my deposit there... I mean, that would make as much sense as the rest of the situation.


Me too.



I like inventions. Especially seatbelts.




I swung through the house one day, left the next and delivered my load about 150 miles away, then returned and left again the next day. Austin (and JJ) came with me on the delivery trip. I guess JJ wasn't being cute, 'cause I don't have any pictures of her. :-)

Most of you reading this blog know that I think government is worthless and that we would all be better off if it went away. I think that applies as much, if not more, to highway safety as to economics and other areas. But here, they're doing something right, and I think if I'm going to rail against all the stupid things they do I should give kudos where appropriate. So, thanks, Ohio D.O.T., I appreciate the new signs. Oh, I should mention that I first saw signs like this in Washington. And for those of you who think I'm going soft, I am aware that if highways were completely privatized, the signs would not only probably not be needed, but if needed they would cost a small fraction of what they cost now and would be paid for by people who want them, not by people who would rather spend their money on other things - like popsicles, for instance.


Sometimes this is the view from a truck driver's windshield. Still think it's a good idea to dart in front to try to save fifteen seconds?!? :-).




I'm thinking this must be the Santa Claus lane from the song... dontcha think?

This is Kesia, and that is the Pacific Ocean.

That's Kesia on a rock.








That smashed up black truck over there is the subject. He flew by me and right up to the back of the person in front of him, darted into the right lane, sped up to get right on the tail of the person in the right lane, stayed there until the guy on the left was past him, then darted back behind him, stayed there until there was room (almost) to squeeze around that guy on the right and continue speeding off. About twenty minutes later I took this picture. You never know what "woulda" happened, but I'm guessing he "woulda" got there faster (like, ever) if he'd relaxed a little bit. It's not driving fast that (usually) causes things like this. It's driving like an idiot. Here's exhibit A to support my position.

Did you see any green, bug-eyed monsters on your trip? Ummm... no, not any green ones.
Kesia on Cabbage (Cabbage is the name of the mountain, at least, that's what the drivers call it), with a load of onions (not pictured), and Pendleton, Oregon way off in the background. Wildhorse casino is over there too. Too bad we didn't have time to stop, they have a cool child play area. Danielle and JJ each got to go there, but Kesia didn't get an opportunity yet (we had to average 850 miles a day for 3 days to make delivery of this load on time. That doesn't leave a lot of time for dilly-dally).






These two trucks parked about four spaces over from each other right in front of me one day. I think I need a Tonka truck on my trailer.

In'n't she cute?

Do you ever get held up in a big traffic jam and think you are the one having a bad day?

I don't know what happened, but this guy in my mirror was right across the road from that other truck. I think even he could say, "Well, yeah, this is bad, but I really just feel bad for that guy over there."



Ok, a new feature: "Quiz Show". This is how it works: you guess what that is in the picture.

I'll wait.

Ok. You guessed? If you said, "Well, Trevor, I believe that's a Ziploc bag full of urine in a rest area parking lot." Then you win.




This guuy crashed, and went so far off the road that it's easier to drag him into the adjacent parking lot than back onto the highway. Cool, huh?

I hollered for Kesia to come up and look at this power plant. She said, "Cool! it makes clouds!"




I went to sleep one night, and when I woke up, there were these two trucks in front of me. The one on the left is Austin's Trucking, and the one on the right just says "Austin" in big letters on the trailer. Weird, huh?




Did I just drove by the Cozy Cone????!!!??? This place is in Holbrook, Arizona, on old Route 66. And I thought those Pixar folks were just clever. :-)

Ummm...


The End.

- Trevor.
Branch, MI
2007-10-27