last post.......

as i said, it was very cold.....even down to -4 degrees!

this may very well be our last post....marc and i are pretty much done with trucking for now. the whole experience has been quite hard on our relationship, as well as dangerous! just this last week, we had a run from chicago to boise....right through a very cold arctic storm that swept through illinois, iowa, nebraska and wyoming. it took us 5 hours just to get out of illinois, after which we sat at a truck stop in iowa for 24 hours, waiting for road crews to sand the icy roads. once we started rolling, we saw 151 vehicles wrecked off the interstate, including 18 semi trucks! it was unbelievable...and a wake up call that it could have happened to us! here are a few of the many accidents we saw....

                                            not us, but it could have been.....

christmas in nashville...

we were able to spend one week in nashville with marc's daughters and son in law....sarah, stephanie and ben. we had a great time, though it was VERY cold for nashville! our truck didn't want to run when it was time to leave.  while there, we surprised little stuart with a spiderman bike for christmas. here are some pics of marc helping stu ride his new bike!

karl's "snow wear"

Yes, annie, karl does have a "coat" for the really cold weather....only it's a little tight. (we can't do up the velcro underneath.)...but still, it keeps him warm. he is so funny when we go out in the snow...barely walks anywhere. he pretty much just stands in one spot, pees, and waits for me to pick him up!

it's COLD here!!

marc on the computer, dreaming of mexico!!

sitting at the dock, getting loaded with Sun laundry detergent.....(i know, exciting.)

everything was covered with frost.....brrrrr.

we were dispatched to salt lake city, and ended up staying one extra day....which was nice because we got to see jace and jackson. we couldn't get up to see breck, being confined to "truck routing"...and figured that she wouldn't enjoy "hauling the kids" down to the west side of town where we were staying . it was soooo cold while we were here, with temps down into the teens. even chubby karl didn't want to spend much time sniffing the frozen tundra.

double duty...

the great mississippi river!

new orleans....another big city, only this one is on the water.

i made marc drive the other truck, and i followed him in our truck....(because you never know where someone else's hands have been.....marc sanitized thoroughly after the drive!)

so marc and i had to go do a "recovery"....which means that you pick up and drive another person's truck that has been abandoned for whatever reason. this particular truck and trailer were confiscated by the police after they were called to a truck stop for a "fight between truckers". we found out that the owner of this truck had been having a bad day, and for whatever reason, attacked the guy next to him with the window squeegee that is provided for us to clean our windshields. they are on a 6' handle, but other than that, just a squeegee. so the driver ended up in jail with assault charges, and we had to go get his truck out of hock at the yard, and drive it to a storage yard. (this happened in louisiana, so the tow charge was ONLY $335....which is cheap compared to most states.)

chili anyone??

chopping "les onions"!

marc holding the pot so it doesn't spill as i drive.

lots of yummy "secret stuff" goes in his chili!

marc decided to make some "homemade chili".....well, as much as it can be done in a truck! he bought the ingredients, chopped up some onion, and added lots of spice into our mini crockpot. it actually turned out quite tasty, and was such a nice change from all the truck stop and restaurant food that we usually eat. i miss the freedom of being able to go for a run.....and he misses having a real kitchen to create tasty meals in.

the lost photos!

endless fields of corn in iowa...

low flying planes as we deliver to fedex in atlanta.

st. louis arch (people actually go up  in the thing via little trams)....."no thanks!"

hershey, pennsylvania.....where even the light posts are chocolate kisses.

rural west virginia

not sure what happened to the other five photos i thought i uploaded to my blog, but i will once again try to put them on!  right now we're down in rainy florida, waiting for a load to leave this muggy place!

everywhere, everywhere!

we have literally been EVERYWHERE in the US this past month....from the far northeast corner of maine to the lovely border below san diego! i don't have pics of "us" because we're chubby at the moment.....but here are some of the sights we've seen.....

trick or treat......bzzzz

well, the "cat idea" fell through because i waited until the last minute to buy some ears....and they were all gone! so karl (feeling bad for me) said he'd share his costume. so we both went as bees, me being "the queen" and karl as my drone. we ran into Spiderman while stopping for dinner in Nashville. (his real name is stuart beylik!)

boo! or is it buzzzzzz?

notice the "life-like" wings!!

you can tell he LOVES it....

marc is going as a trucker....how boring!

ok, so karl and i did our annual halloween costume shopping at target (i LOVE target) and narrowed it down to either a ghost or a bumble bee. well, i liked the bee outfit because it matches his jet black hair. and karl opted for it over the ghost one because he thought that white made him "look fat". (for those of you who saw him two years ago, he was a rather round orange pumpkin. he didn't care for that outfit either, but it did earn him some pretty good doggie treats!) i'll get more pics on the actual 31st, when i'll be driving as a black cat, along with my sidekick bumble bee!!

haircuts for barb and karl!

here is "tinkerbella", a rescue dog that the Belli's own. (note
the Italian link!) she literally ran out in front of shannon's car
just a few days after their 18 year old pom mix had died.....
she was in need of a good home.....full of heartworms, long untrimmed
nails, and terrible dental problems. after $2000 and lots of
love, she feels wonderful!! thank goodness for animal lovers
like her.



as you can see, i cut my hair.....but it's still
basically "long and straight."


karl the "pirate"....the shaved leg is from his IV in surgery.

the shaved belly look....!

he's really not so big under all that fur!

marc and i finally made it home to redding after a 4 month absence...we had some much needed dental and doctor appts....and it was time for karl's annual physical and shots. well, i had a "feeling" that all was not well with him, so i asked the very young UC Davis vet named Johnny D (yes girls, he's a catch!) to look at karl's bladder via ultrasound. bad news.....his bladder was full of stones AGAIN, and we chose to have him undergo surgery rather than wait until it became an emergency out on the road. so poor karlos (as we call him when we eat mexican food) had his 3rd cystotomy and is now recovering from that. a cystotomy is where they open up the bladder, remove the stones, flush it out, and put him back together. it would be major surgery for humans. anyway, the poor little guy now looks like a fricken' pirate... complete with "wooden leg" and a poochy belly! he had just been groomed the day before...so much for that! good news is that he has lost weight since he was staying with marc's dad. the vet thought that his "bacon grease diet" from back then could certainly have caused these new stones. so i had shannon do my hair, and cut about 6 inches off, and karl has his new "post surgery do" which is lovely. (he can tell that he looks funny, by the way he acts. pauvre karl!

copy cat!!

driver fell asleep watching the zipper....oops.

a tow truck lining up to pull a big rig from one of those "truck

runaway ramps"....he couldn't stop his heavy truck and lost his

air brakes on a downhill run.

i like these old fashioned wind mills.

ok, so i know i should be more original than to mimick breck's idea of "rant and rave"....but i'm just not feeling that creative these days...(too many hours staring at the "zipper" as we truckers call the dotted white line.) anyway, my RANT is concerning all the "four-wheelers", or drivers in regular cars and trucks. for some reason, many don't seem to grasp the concept of BIG in the term "big rig". when drivers pull out in front of us, or change lanes and cut us off, we have a REALLY HARD TIME stopping the 80,000 lbs. that comprise us. in addition, when we make a right turn around a corner, we REALLY do need a lot of room to make the turn without wiping out the fire hydrant, street light, etc. sitting on that corner....so please don't try to "sneak up along our right side" and slip around that same corner ahead of us!! it can result in a crushed "four-wheeler". and last but not least, sometimes we are SLOW when we're looking for a shipper or delivery address ....so if you see us going very slow with flashers on, we're SORRY to cause delay in your race to starbucks....we're not trying to piss you off--really--....we just need to get your toilet paper or whatever it may be to Walmart so you don't run out! Voila, i feel better :)

and my RAVE today is all the amazing sunrises and sunsets that we are privileged to witness as we travel across this beautiful country!

FINALLY! We're back on the road...

Nothing quite like truck stops!...the "clientele"
the restrooms, etc.

Marc is once again teaching Karl to drive, as he

does NOT want to solo again!

Karl, (like me) sometimes gets distracted while driving :)

We saw New York City from the rail yard.....(quite romantic!)

Always trying to read the "tagging" that is found

all over the rail yards!
.....hey, i think this one's French!

After three months and a run of bad luck...we're back doing what we love.....wait, ok, i'll be honest....we're doing what we have to do for the moment! As some of you know, following a much needed rest in SLC (spending time chez the Kings and Jayson's, ) I slipped and broke my wrist. Then, I tried to get rehired 3 weeks later, only to fail one of the strength tests.....hmmm, guess the arm wasn't healed. So, after lots of push ups and weight-lifting (mostly Karl!) I tried again and passed with flying colors.

We've been team driving about 10 days, and so far, so good. We bought a new memory foam mattress cover, and that seems to be helping the "sleep issues". We'll see how that goes. I have to laugh (so i don't cry) when I look at this chapter of my life.....who would have ever thought that I'd be on the road in a semi instead of the "normal" RV!

Spring babies!

yeah, i know.....this isn't a baby animal. but a nice welcome to
the "peach state" of Georgia! (from the other direction, it looks
like a giant derriere.)

this canadian geese family has "teenagers"....!

cute mama mallard with her 14 ducklings!! (wow, annie

and breck....makes 2 sound easy.) ha....kidding.

another geese family....they don't seem to have as

many as the ducks. both species mate for life, which

is sad when one gets shot by a hunter or hit by a car.

we were sitting outside the fed ex gates on mother's day, waiting for them to be unlocked. there were two large ponds on their property, so karl and i took a walk over to check them out. much to our delight (mine more than karl's) there were several "families" of ducks and geese. i think that God knew exactly what he was doing when he made baby animals so damned cute! just ask jace or annie how many times we welcomed baby animals onto our ranchette....ducklings, bunnies, a colt, and several puppies. we just had a soft spot in our hearts for springtime babies!