HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!!! Any good New Year Resolutions, anyone? I dont like to let myself down, so I never make any.

Texas-size Tumbleweed

We are in Amarillo, TX, again. Drove past the Cadillac Ranch. The temperature is 28 degrees with heavy snow, and we were past the ranch about 7:00 am, so we didnt bother stopping. We are getting loaded with animal parts "not for human consumption". This tumbleweed was in the parking lot. It has since blown away.

I drove in my first snow storm last night. Leaving Albuquerque, NM, I40 goes up a mountain and, of course, that's where the snow was. Luckily we were empty so I didnt have trouble getting up the mountain. The storm lasted about an hour. It is snowing like mad here now, but it is John's turn to drive. We will be spending our New Year's Eve driving. Sounds like a party.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!!!

FBI Sightings

This story begins before I started driving with John. In the US, the FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigations. So, if you see the FBI something bad probably just happened. John called me on day and said he was at a truck stop and the FBI was there. I said "Really!?!?" He said, "a F...ing Big Indian." So, now we like to point out our FBI sightings. We have seen, really big, guitars, Abe Lincoln, a teapot, a bowling pin, lots of animals, crosses, angels and many more. So, here are two of our FBI sightings. The fork is in Springfield, MO and the Indian is at a truck stop in Big Cabin, Oklahoma.

Cuidad Juarez de Mexico

Last week, we were in El Paso, TX. It borders the city of Juarez, Mexico. We were right at the border. Interstate 10 runs (in part) along the Rio Grande River which is the border of the US and Mexico. It was quite astonishing to see the difference between the two cities. Juarez is a huge city, but the little part we could see was dirt roads in the housing areas. The houses looked as if there are no zoning, or safety laws. They looked like they were built out of plywood. There was a HUGE Mexican flag flying high in the sky. It was really strange for me to see a flag that was not the American flag. It really hit home that just one/two blocks from where we were was a totally different country.

A little side note of no importance, my favorite food is "TexMex" and I ate a hamburger and fries at Wendy's in El Paso, TX!!!!!!!! Didn't get a single bite of anything Mexican.

Small Towns

We have a new Wal-Mart in Bowling Green. The little one in Louisiana is now closed. The first picture is of the parking shed for - believe it or not - horse and buggies!!!!!! We have a lot of Amish in the area, so Wal-Mart is very accommodating. They want

equal opportunity spending. The second pic is of a boat that is from St. Paul MN. All the way in that little thing to Missouri. John didn't see the owner, so we don't know if he is coming or going.

You Might Be A Redneck...

We went to Washington State last week. My first time. I can mark two more states off my list of places I have never been. (We drove through Oregon).

You might be a redneck if you spend the weekend at
The Yakima County Jail or
The Yakima Speedway (which is across the street from the jail) or
Gear Jammer Truck Stop, Yakima, WA (which is a couple blocks from the other two)

No offense to rednecks. I have my own redneck ways.

Our first delivery was to the jail. They had no dock or forklift. John had to hand-carry each box to the tail of the trailer, where there were about 10 inmates stacking the boxes onto pallets. The inmates were not allowed on the trailer. The boss of the kitchen did climb up and help, so there wasn't room for me (darn the bad luck). One of the inmates said "I used to do this for a living." I thought to myself, we still are doing this for a living.

Anyway, Seattle was interesting. Raining the whole time we were there. It started about 50 miles out of town, and didn't stop until we were about 50 miles out the next day. Major coffee lovers. There were little coffee drive-up shacks everywhere. One was called "Brew-lesque" where the coffee was served by pretty young girls in sexy underwear. Lots of "gentlemen" in line at that one.

I was really scared my first driving experience of snow driving was going to be through the mountains of Oregon, but we were VERY lucky and didn't see any snow. I would be quite happy to not go anywhere Idaho, Oregon, or Washington until at least May of next year!