Location: Cheyenne, WY

Last week, after making it back from blustery Kansas, I dropped Russell off at our terminal in Springfield, OH around 1am Thursday morning. It occured to me that I never posted a photo of Russell. I took this the day we traded the old girl in for the new one.



After seeing Russell to his motel room and wishing him good luck, I went in search of the room of my next trainee, Jospeh. I had spoken with him on the phone several times that day to co-ordinate my arrival time with him. He had already completed 86 hours of training which was a good thing, since I would need him to finish my trip to New Jersey then hightail it back to Kansas City by Saturday night for lacyunderall's surprise birthday party hosted by justamy. After helping him move into the truck, I drove a bit more while we talked and got to know each other. He was wired and ready to do some driving, so rather than finish-out my shift I stopped just west of Columbus and let him take over. He had taken several weeks off since beginning his training due to a fractured hand, so he was a little rusty, but I was soon comfortable with his ability to control the vehicle and crawled into the bunk for a nap.

We reached our destination in Jersey around 3pm the following day, far too late for us to get unloaded that day so we were stuck there until morning. I suggested to my new truckmate that we spend the evening in the New York City. While we got our things together, I snapped the following shot. Meet Joseph.



I began making some phone calls to my NYC peeps. First I called mybluenotepad (aka hope_sets_sail, aka AJ) who I hadn't seen since the Slint show in March. I knew he was suffering from a broken foot and had been reduced to getting around on crutches, so I figured the prospect of him being game for any non-essential walking was slim. He said he would call me back when he got off from work to let me know for sure. I also called queenkatieett and left her a voicemail. She called me back while Joseph and I were on the NJ Transit bus into the city. Naturally, the staggering draw of teh soopa was too much for her to resist, so dinner was agreed upon and I was to call her back once my feet hit the street in midtown. Over the course of the past 14 hours I had already given a condensed version to Joseph of How I Met My Girlfriend in addition to Why We Were Going To Kansas City. Now came the story of When I Met The Queen and he was becoming intrigued by LiveJournal.

I love going to New York City. It's even more fun when you're with someone who is visiting for the first time. You get to re-live your own "first time" vicariously through them. Sure there's a subway entrance located inside, but stepping out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown is a jaw dropping experience. 8th Ave is usually packed with yellow taxi cabs vying for fares among the people exiting the terminal. A short walk to the corner and you're looking down 42nd Street, its gawdy marquees and electronic billboards summoning you into Times Square. While I called The Queen and we quickly decided on Little Italy for dinner, Joseph and I strolled along 42nd toward Broadway. The convergence of 42nd with Broadway and 7th Ave marks the southern boundary of Times Square. While I finished talking with Katie, Joseph gawked at all the people and flashing lights.

( Read more... )

Location: Knoxville, TN

Russell and I are headed for the company terminal in Atlanta tomorrow. The old beast, as stormodacentury once called her, is being put out to pasture.  That's right folks, I'm getting a new truck!  I was expecting this to happen sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as the odometer was quickly approaching the 400,000 mile mark.  It's happening a bit sooner than I anticipated.  I'm not looking forward to lugging things out of one truck and into another, but I am looking forward to a new truck.  Hopefully it's a new, new truck so I don't have to worry about moving again for a while.  This will make my 5th truck in 3 years.  I'm also hoping to get a Freightliner, as they have much more roomier interiors; a necessity these days with the constant riding companions since I began training.

Anyway, in honor of the the ol' girl, I thought it'd be fun to do a little photo tribute to my time spent with her over the past year.  She is rather photogenic, and I have more photos of her than any other truck I've driven so far.

These first two photos were taken the same day as the one I use in my icon, at a warehouse in Denver.  It was a bright, sunny day and I had just washed her the day before, so she was pretty, shiny and awesome looking.





When I think back over the course of a year, she's been there for a LOT.  She took me to San Diego to see the Beastie Boys and my friend Cara.  At the literal other end of the spectrum, she took me for the first time ever into Maine.  She knows about a secret mission I made in Nevada that I never wrote about on LiveJournal because the photos turned-out so awful.  She survived Jason!  She's been parked under two different shoe trees while I oooohed and ahhhed.

( I took the following photo of her while photographing the Indiana Shoe Tree... )

Location: Bloomsbury, NJ

Yesterday my delivery schedule was thwarted in part by a bomb threat at a Home Depot in Philadelphia.  Obviously, the terrorists hate our freedom to buy bathroom caulk.  Despite falling behind by three stops, I've managed to only be behind by one by the end of the day.  It'll be interesting to see if I can still finish this by tomorrow though.  This trip will take me way out on the tip of Long Island.  Hopefully this trip to LI will go better than the last one.

Tonight, I will be visiting with queenkatieett and "The Boyfriend" in Manhattan.  In the past few weeks she has transitioned from Buckeye, with a brief stint as a truckmate, to a New Yorker.  She better take my ass some place other than OLIVE GARDEN though.

Location: Ashland, VA

Here are the night-time photos I took from Washington, D.C. earlier in the week.  WARNING:  There are seven high-resolution photos behind the cut, each of which are about a half meg, so click at your own risk.  I'm posting them at 800x600, but if you want to to see the 1280x960 goodness, click on the picture.

( Peeektures )

Location: Ruther Glen, VA

For any of you that followed the link over to the Queen's entry about our time in Washington, D.C. earlier this week, you may have noticed that she insinuated that I was somehow wrong about which way the Washington Monument was leaning.  Her photo is obviously an optical illusion due to her unsteady hand on the camera, which makes it appear that it is leaning to the right.



I just wanted to show you, that with my considerable skill and experience photographing structures that it does indeed lean to the left.

It has taken some getting used-to, travelling with royalty. 

First of all, the heralds which have to blow their horns everytime she goes somewhere is giving me a headache.  Then there is the whole issue of sundry attendants and underlings which populate the truck, making conditions even more cramped than they already are.  The one really effeminate dude in the poofy clothes and stockings always shushing everyone and whispering "The queen speaks!" when Katie holds up her hand prior to talking is getting on my last nerve.

That aside, we've been having a lot of fun.  We spent the evening of the 4th parked in downtown Baltimore.  We didn't get to see any grand fireworks displays like we had hoped,  but we had a good meal and were able to get showers.  The next day, I began my work, delivering cabinets around the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area.  At the end of the day, we found ourselves in Alexandria, VA near a train station.  With time to kill and a convenient place to park, we decided to take a trip into the city.  It had been years since either of us had been to D.C. and the gathering storm in the skies above would not deter us.  Within an hour, we were standing in The Mall looking at all of the iconic architecture of our nation's history, a mere day after the big party held here to celebrate her birthday.  The place was a wreck from the bash, too.  All of the booths, stands, and stages still littered The Mall from the previous night's festivities.



We walked in the direction of the Capitol first, then doubled back toward the Washington Monument....



( ...and beyond toward the Lincoln Memorial.  We stopped at the World War II Memorial at the edge of the reflecting pool for a break. )

Katie has already posted a much more entertaining entry about our evening in D.C. than I put together, of course, I don't have the luxury of being driven all over the country-side every day.  I guess this is what seperates royalty from the paupers, though.

Location:  Asheville, NC

I haven't talked much about stormodacentury's progress in training because there hasn't been much to remark upon.  He has been awesome since day one.  Our time together, though is drawing near an end.  He should be done by the first part of next week and into his own truck.  As for me, I'm taking a brief break from training at the conclusion of Stormo's tutelage and will find myself in the court of royalty when queenkatieett comes aboard in the last week of June.  I am hoping to arrange a cross-country trip over the weekend of July 4th. 

This will be an interesting trip of firsts.  Foremost, this will be the first time Katie and I have met.  Not counting Stomo's training, it will also be the longest an acquaintance - Livejournal or otherwise - has come on the road with me.  This will likely be a 2.5-3 week road trip from the midwest to the west coast and back, another first for taking along a companion.  We've been talking about doing this for several months now and have been actively planning it for the past several weeks.  It occured to me this afternoon while working-out some of the logsitics that we will be doing this on a holiday weekend, which will likely afford us the luxury of an extra day or two for side-excursions.  I would hazard to guess that this will be one of the high points of what is already proving to be a very interesting summer.  Our respective journals will no doubt be filled with our adventures in early July.  With any luck, I'll have her completely corrupted and morally bankrupt by trip's end for your reading enjoyment - or vice-versa.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have an upper-bunk to sabotage and render un-usable.

Edit To Add: ( Proof of the trouble I'm in )