Here we go AGAIN!

Once again, we embark on our Journey traveling the United States and Canada driving a truck for CFI/Con-Way Truckload. Jane's shoulder surgery went well, and after being off of work since February of this year, we are both happy to be back on the road. We missed the traveling and visiting our friends and family during our travels.

After being released to go back to work by the doctor, we finally were assigned a truck which we were required to pick up in Joplin, MO. We drove our pickup truck from Waxahachie, TX to Joplin, and immediately began "moving into" the truck. It is amazing the amount of equipment and personal gear a couple can carry inside the sleeper of a commercial truck. After being on the road for almost a week, we still have not been successful at organizing everything to suit us.

We were assigned our first load picking up in Kansas and delivering in New Jersey. The delivery was set for the several days later, so we had plenty of time to "mosie along" and enjoy the sites. We crossed back through Missouri, and then began the long trek across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and finally New Jersey.

The drive across the country was nice, the weather good. Jane's shoulder bothered her a little, but nothing unbearable. We would stop along the way at truck stops to walk the dogs, eat supper, work on our sculpts, and then go to bed.

The new truck that they issued to us is a nice truck, except the previous driver took out all of the storage units, for some weird reason. We have been challenged to find room to store things, but we are slowly getting it in order.

Joe enjoyed using his new camera on the road. He is now using a SLR digital camera he got as a gift from Jane at Valentine's Day. Since we lost our archives of photos from years of driving, he has been taking lots of pictures. The external hard drive we use for backing up our data and photos, etc., lost it's formatting somehow, and we were not able to recover it.

We got to see much of our favorite sections of the U.S. when we drove through West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It is a country filled with many hills and beautiful trees. Stopping along the way at one of our favorite stores, Cabela's Sporting Store, we enjoyed a few minutes of browsing and "hope" shopping.

We made our deliver in New Jersey and were dispatched to pick up another load not far away. The next load was a short one that would take us to the southern part of Virginia. After making our delivery in Virginia the next day, we were dispatched to pick up a load out of Winston-Salem, NC, going to a suburb outside of San Francisco, California. We are excited to get the miles taking us from one coast to the next. However, it is a time sensitive load, and we don't have a lot of time to dally and do much shopping or looking around.

We left North Carolina on Saturday, and we are due in California on Tuesday. This wil make for several long days, shutting down late, and starting out early.

Jane has already contacted some of the members of her Ploymer Clay group with which she is involved, and is preparing to stop and have coffee with them if it can be worked out. In any case, we will be traveling across the country on a southernly route, keeping us in the heat we had desperately hoped to avoid. Oh well, winter will be on us before we know it, and we will be wishing for heat again.

We drove across the gorge in North Carolina, just before entering Tennessee and shutting down for the night. We found a truck parking area with room to park for the night, and settled in to prepare for the bed. We will be taking lots more photograps along the way.

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