The New Truck

Today we went to the new truck my husband received unexpectedly while at the Yard before coming home.  It is brand new 2010 T700.

 We now have a black truck instead of blue.

He didn’t have time to do any organizing when he got the truck (and poor guy had to transfer everything from one truck to the other without my help), so today we brought the fresh linens, a few extra’s and worked on getting it set up to save time when we hit the road again on Monday.  Glad we did, it took us a long time to get things switched around and beds made.

The first crazy thing was that there was no cut out to have access to the APU on our truck.  My husband cannot add oil to it.  Here is another brand new truck parked next to ours, and he has one:

They missed this step on our truck!

Oh well, the company will do it the next time we are at the Yard.

The next crazy thing was that the bunks are completely different.  The top bunk now has a lot of head space, and two huge cubby bins.  The bottom bunk now has less head space.  So I am switching to the top bunk.  Today I practiced getting up there and put my clothes away in one of the cubbies The white fabric is a sheet I will put on my bed when I return, we didn’t find it until we were done) I will bring another piece of fabric to tuck over my clothes to keep the dust out and the clothes from bouncing:

This means I will no longer have any suitcases at the end of my bed!  I have two of these cubbies, this one will be for my knitting and dolls:

They are larger than they appear on the photo’s, I would say they are the size of a recliner seat, and the go back quite a ways.  I didn’t want to get back up on my bunk, so I held the camera up to shoot a photo…when I get back on the truck I will take better photo’s.

I can sit up, kneel, and have plenty of space to keep from feeling claustrophobic.  I also have two windows, I am covering up one with the pillows in this photo and there is one at my feet.

  I will be arranging these cubbies along my bed with books and DVD’s on Monday.

  Here you can see the there is less head room on the bottom bunk.  The moment I sat here for the first time, I immediately felt panic.  I knew it would be hard for me to be here a lot, I would feel like I was in a box.  Husband would only sleep in his bunk, so there are a couple of advantages for him to be on this bottom, he can answer the QUALCOMM, any knocking at the door and he has full view of the TV,  The is no longer needed as a pantry, so he has all his clothes in there now, which means no more storing his suitcase on his bed either.

This is my “kitchen”.  Before, I had a double cubby for spices and everyday things I used in cooking.  Now they placed a TV holder.  The TV can be pulled out and put at angles to face different directions.  This is great for anyone on the bottom bunk, but the top bunk is now TV-less.  This is a weird design.  The table is now white and does pull out to make a longer table.  While I lost the little cubbies, I did gain more space with a couple of added shelves.  There was plenty of room for our usual dry goods.  Our only upset was that the space we stored our fridge (under this table), is now divided by a shelf that my husband worked very hard at trying to get out, but could not.  This means we either have it back on the floor between out seats and have to stumble around it, or keep it up on his bed when we are driving.  Don’t know yet how that will pan out.

This is our fridge on the end of husband’s bed.  That is a microwave on the top shelf and canned goods on the second, paper towel roll in front and cooking spices on the third shelf.  Everything has to be bungee corded to keep from flying.  More shelves and storage areas under the table and under the closet, I just didn’t take photo’s of those.

  A bit more modern in the driver’s area that our first truck.

My seating area stayed the same:

I am actually looking forward to hitting the road again!  I am sure it will take some getting use to the top bunk, but perhaps it will be better as I tend to spend more time in the evenings in the bunk so that husband can use the table in front of my seat for viewing his laptop.

Date Day

Wednesday, I had the most wonderful “date” day with my husband! We went up to Denver, stopped at my favourite shop, Denver Doll and talked to a dear friend and got a chance to see many of the dolls I have admired up close and handle them.  It was just one of those delightful rare experiences. 

Me on the left.

We then headed to the Danish bakery, which has authentic bakery goods, we avoided all of the pastries, my husband just wanted the heavy rye bread.  Then we headed to the Natural History Museum, as our original idea of the Zoo was thwarted by dark clouds.  We had a lot of fun, even enjoying the health hands on section. 

Here my husband is watching his pupil contract from different light levels.

They gave us a card to insert in the various exhibits, which then allowed us to print out a card of data at the end.  That was fun, we saw our heart rate, veins in our hands, our walking pace and so on.  we saw everything from carvings in real gem stones to insects, mummies, animals and live rays.

We finished off our date day by going to a middle eastern restaurant.  We chose the sample plate, it had baba ganouche, hummus, tabouli, falafel, 1 cube of each: chicken, beef, lamb and two something’s wrapped in grape leaves.  It came with basmati rice.  It was quite good.

All in all, it was a fabulous day and I was so happy to have my husband home again.

After three months….

Husband finally arrived home yesterday.  After all the usual delays that the trucking company can possible come up with, from suddenly giving him a brand new, off the assembly line truck, to all the paperwork and license plates runaround to a repowered load to a delay due to a damaged box of lunchables, my guy finally made his way home.

I think I was going to swoon from happiness.  I have missed that man so much.  There he was…..as handsome as ever! 

The new truck was a sight to behold.  This one is black, not blue and although the same basic layout inside, it is very different in the size.  The ceiling is much taller, whereas husband used to sleep on the top bunk and it was like a shelf with no room for sitting up, it is now has a cathedral like ceiling with two cubbies for storage that weren’t there before.  The top bunk use to be narrower than the bottom bunk. allowing for more head room when sitting at the table, but it is now as wide as the bottom bunk. 

The TV holder is now installed over the pull out table, we lost the spice rack over that table.  This will make having my cooking stuff less accessible.   The cubbies are a bit larger, but the closet now shorter.  The floor space has been shortened, but there is more leg room in front.

I immediately felt confined when sitting on the bottom bunk.   They have for some odd reason lowered the top bunk!  Most truckers use the bottom bunk, if solo they can of course store the top bunk in an up position, but I think many like to use it for storage.  Sitting there kicked in my claustrophobia and I thought perhaps I may have to take the upper bunk this time around.  It may work out better for husband too, because he  can watch the TV while laying on his bunk and he can easily access quick naps while at receivers.  A nice feature is more cubby space which means that we both can have our suitcase off the end of the bed and in the cubbies. 

Of course, the newness is fabulous, new mattresses, new everything.  We are very pleased with this unexpected turn of events.  We will be going back to the truck to get it all organized before we leave, so I will take pictures then.

Right now…..I am enjoying just having my guy home safe and sound!

The Apartment

We are finally moved in, and very tired.  There were a few challenges, a very more things to buy, and plenty of fun trying to get around in an unfamiliar area, working coded gates, locked doors and everything.  It been a bit emotional too, with seeing our things after all this time in storage.  And you need not ask, OF COURSE I have been swimming!

We haven’t finished with unpacking, and pictures need to be hung, but for now, this is all was can manage.  The rest will have to wait for future home-times.

 

  

  

  

 

Beginning a New Year on the Road

While it’s really nice to have all of one’s history in one place, I have decided to continue the journey on this blog because of the ease of use compared to the first two blogs.  I have added those original blogs to the Blog List in case anyone wants to see past postings.

We are currently still on Home-Time in Colorado.  We have the laundry done, the grocery shopping completed and we will pack up tomorrow morning and head to the truck by 8 am.   We have had a wonderful Christmas, with an abundance of Mom’s fabulous cooking!  After a much needed rest we will start the next 5 weeks with a repair to the trailer brake hose and a trip to the yard.

It sure has been an adventure so far, 2008 marked our loss of jobs and trucking school for Husband, 2009 the sale of our home and the move to the truck full time.  2010 ought to be all about routine trucking.  But I have a feeling those are famous last words!  lol.

Mother’s Fabulous Meals for the Holidays!