Saturday, June 30, 2012

Got on the road at sun up this morning.  Great day to be on the road!!  Started off climing again.  The arrow points to the truck stop I stayed at last night.  I'm about 3000 feet up.

Georgous sunrise in Oregon.

Here are some photos of the scenery along I-80 east of Salt Lake City, Utah.  Sorry about the bugs on the windshield.

Stopped for the rest of the weekend at the TA truck stop in Fort Bridger, Wyoming - in the middle of nowhere and at elevation of 7300 feet.  Get started again first thing Monday morning.  Should be an interesting day.  Going to go through a lot of the fire areas in Colorado.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Went over and loaded a John Deere 470G Excavator just down the road in Kent, WA.  It is going to Pueblo, CO.

Then drove out east of Seattle to the TA truck stop and scaled up.  I was too heavy on my drive axles for Oregon - fine for any of the other states I'm going through, just not Oregon.  Untied it and repositioned it.  Scaled again.  Still not right.  Moved it again.  Scaled again.  This time it was ok.  Gross weight is 110,900 pounds.  Tired it back down again.  Then went inside for a well deserved (and needed) shower!!  Finally got on the road. 

Since I was going so slow up the mountains I was able to get a few photos of the scenery for you.  These are I-90 east of Seattle in the Snoqualmie Pass area. Misty rain in that area.

The roadway in the photo below is I-90 west bound lanes.

Waterfalls.

The avalanche tunnel in the photo below. I wonder why only the west bound side?

Continued on into Oregon.  Stopped for the night at the Arrowhead Truck Stop on I-84 in Mission, OR.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Got on the road early again.  Drove through some beautiful scenery today along I-90.  Weather, again, was perfect!  Sunny and in the 60's.  Drove in to the Port of Everett, Washington and delivered the dozer.  After that drove over to the Boeing plant where they build the 747s, 777s, 787s, etc.  and went on the tour again.  They improved it since I did it last time.  Tried to take some photos but the stupid auto focus on the camera didn't focus so they all came out blurry.  Here is the link to the Boeing Tour web site.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/tours/index.html

Next load is in Kent, WA.  That is just outside Tacoma.  Drove down there to a small truck stop for the night.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Got on the road early this morning.  Started off in heavy smoke.  Cleared up after a while.  Passed one fire that was up in the mountains in Montana.  Other than that, very uneventful day with perfect weather.  Only in the low 60's and sunny.  My truck enjoyed the cooler temperatures going up and down the mountains today.  Was as high as 6,400 feet.  Stopped for the night in Superior, MT at a very small Pilot station.  Only at 2,700 feet here.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Left Albert Lea, MN first thing this morning.  Drove straight through to Wall, South Dakota and had lunch at the "world famous" Wall Drug.

Just east of Rapid City, SD, as I drove past Ellsworth Air Force Base, I saw the B-1 Bomber doing touch & go's.  My timing was perfect as one of the bombers went right in front of me then made a left turn tight enough that I was looking at the top of the aircraft as it turned past me.  VERY COOL!!!  I tried to catch a photo of it but it went past too fast.  I took a few photos of the B-1 Bomber from Ellsworth AFB web site so you could see what aircraft I'm talking about.  The first photo is exactly like what I saw except it was the top of it, not the bottom.

It was 105 degrees going through the Badlands, Rapid City, and Sturges, South Dakota.  I stopped for the night in Gillette, Wyoming at the Flying J truck stop.  It is so dry out here that when cleaning the bugs off the windshield the cleanning fluid would dry before I could wipe it off.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Went into Coal Valley, IL first thing this morning and delivered the dozer.  Then over to Peterbilt in Davenport, IA to get the truck fixed. Was first in line!!  Lucky me!  They still had work left over from the weekend so I didn't get in right away.  Replaced the speedometer sensor and an air valve and I was out the door.  Glad that all it was!!!

Drove up to Dubuque, IA and loaded a John Deere 850 Dozer.  Same as the last one except smaller.

Legal width, legal height, but a few thousand pounds overweight.  This one is going to the port in Everett, Washington and then on a boat to Russia.  Got on the road and drove up to the TA truck stop in Albert Lea, Minnesota for the night.