I am back and talking about C.B. radios

After a very long hiatus I am finally  back also I just got married and my husband is working for a new company. So after about of month of my husband being unemployed he got a new job and 2 weeks later I am back in the truck with him. All this aside so the first week I am out here on the road I get to see the most impatient, behind the times driver I have ever met. And when I mean behind the times he is so far behind the times that it goes back before he was even born. So the story goes likes this my husband starts pulling up the fuel island. This fuel island like many was packed and we where in a bit of a line. I can't remember exactly where we were at this particular moment, mostly because It is Saturday and this happened about a week ago I would say last Sunday. This moment boggles me so much because of what he said even now I have a need to write about it. So we where about 2nd in line to pull up the fuel island and someone who seemed to be parked in a very awkward spot started flashing his lights and honking at us. Now at this point we could only pull forward and there was no backing up but this trucker well we didn't know what he wanted. So my husband tried to reach him on the C.B. and there was no response. So next thing you know the driver is getting out of this truck to come and talk to my husband asking him if he could back up so he could get out. My husband responded to him as politely as could.( For the record my husband is actually very polite, and as nice as I am I can be polite but when I see morons it sometimes goes out the window so I just kept my mouth shut. ) My husband explained to him that he will be able to move forward in a minute and that he tried to reach via C.B. radio. Now I should mention that was in the middle of night about 10 pm and he is honking his horn. Now after my husband mentions the C.B. radio this is what of course baffles me into insanity. He responds "I am 64 years old and I wouldn't put one of those radios in my truck if you gave it to me for free." He then walks back to his truck my mind is doing loops because I know that the C.B radio has been around for a long time so him being 64 has nothing to do with why doesn't have a radio unless he has been living under a rock his whole life and just peaked his head out in the last year. So lets start with the fact that this man is 64 so he was born around 1950-1951 depending on the circumstances of this birth. So a brief history about the C.B. a.k.a Citizens Band radio. It started in 1945 (so 5-6 years before this buffoon was even born). now I really can't tell you all the technical stuff to the radio that would go on forever, but I can say this it reached it popularity in the 70's when the equipment cost about $147 and the license back then cost $20 in the early 70's and $4 by 1979 and by the way now there is no license. The C.B. has been used by truckers for who know long but it became popular mostly in the 70's, and the man getting out of this truck to ask us to back up would have been in his 20's at the prime of his life discovering what the world has to offer(but of course this man probably lived underneath a rock and never saw a thing.) So that being said this 64 year old man walking to other trucks because he doesn't want to put a device that is 70 years in the making helping truckers communicate with each other for the past 65 years at least has nothing to with his age, it is just pure ignorance, The technology is nothing new but it is useful the radio could have saved him a trip. See I believe every driver should have the radio in there truck to communicate with other drivers it just isn't for spotting the bear traps. Even with today advancements in technology the C.B. is still the best way to communicate, mostly because you can communicate a lot quicker with the people that are actually around you then the phone, where you would needs someones phone number to contact them. The. C.B. is quicker because you don't have to plug in any information it is just another voice on the other side of the radio. Now if the C.B. hasn't become so unpopular it can save a lot of grief when on the road. It would have also saved us some grief, because my husband does have a radio but it is usually off because no one is on the radio ever. It seems people only turn on their radios when there starts to be a traffic jam, and then it could be to late. The other day while going through the Ohio turnpike we started to encounter a traffic jam and at the time we where in the right lane in between two jersey walls. So by the time we turned on the radio to find out that there where two broken down truck in the right lane but the left lane was moving we where stuck. If we had the radio on before hand we would have heard about the accident and not been stuck between the jersey walls for an hour and been at least 65 miles away from the situation. Alas the C.B. wasn't on because mostly all you do hear is static until something bad happens and missed the opportunity. It would also might prevent things like the Wyoming pile up from  happening, So I am encouraging every truck driver to get a C.B. get on channel 19 and have MORE VOICES LESS STATIC.

Growing Up Italian(Sicilian)

Sicily is the Island in Red

Today we stopped at a little mom and pop truck stop near Houston, Texas. We walked into the restaurant and on the special menu was Chicken Spaghetti. Now I am guessing anyone who isn't Italian knows what this is because my fiance growing up in Mississippi knew exactly what this was. My first thought when I saw this was this is not Spaghetti and in almost knee jerk reaction I almost flipped my plate over in protest and in insult to calling this Spaghetti.  Chicken Spaghetti I am used to being served which generally just a piece of chicken boiled in the Spaghetti sauce for about 2 hours to make it nice and tender and tasty. Which is then served on a bed of Spaghetti noodles. When I was growing up Spaghetti was served every Thursday and Sunday it has been tradition since...well I have no idea how long but I believe since my mom was a child and longer then that. I am third generation American from my mother's side. My great-grandfather came from the small city in the town of Palermo of the Island of Sicily(most people refer to us as Italian). Also the same for my grandmother's family but I seem to know more about my grandfather's family then I do my grandfather but I know on my mother's side both my grandparents where Sicilian. In my family Pasta is tradition and it is always served with broccoli and nothing else, and of course Parmesan Cheese is always on the table.  Now when I walked into this restaurant and saw the sides it should have been my first clue to this is not the traditional pasta I am used too. They had an option of 4 sides mashed potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, red skin potatoes. Now as I ordered I knew I had to have my vegetable,  which the only one that wasn't a starch was the green beans. So I ordered the green beans and the red skin potatoes and my brain at the moment of ordering was doing flips because there was no broccoli and it just felt wrong and the potatoes just seemed like an extra unneeded starch, but I was hungry so might as well. Now when the waitress came to the table with our dinner and me and my fiance both ordered the same thing I looked at this white mass of noodles and instantly looked at my fiance,(he had a very excited look on his face). Fighting my urge to not flip my only meal of the day over because of a seemingly insult to my culture, I said "This is not what I expected" What I was looking at was Spaghetti noodles covered in a type of cheese sauce with chicken and Rotel tomatoes and peppers. Spaghetti noodles yes Spaghetti...........NOOOOOO!!!!! Which is what my brain was shouting at me at the time and still fighting off the urge to throw my plate at the wall, I tasted said "Chicken Spaghetti" it was actually pretty good but still not Spaghetti. Now discussing the dish with my fiance it turns out that this is something his mother makes during the holidays and he calls it "poor folk" holiday food. It reminds me that I grew up in a totally different environment then him. When I think about it even though I grew up in the North and him in the South the actual only reason I have a problem with this is because I grew up in a Sicilian family where pasta is Tradition and  everyone spends 4-8 hours making Spaghetti sauce. Which by the way Ragu and Prego are both nasty but if I was going to use one It would be Prego. So sometimes out here on the road we can experience some cultural shocks and today was defiantly one them.

Navigating the Internet issue 1

Out here on the Road my phone and my laptop are really best way to gather information and catch up on current events. Though as my fiance likes to say I only have one true addiction and that is INFORMATION. Anyone who knows me will tell you if you have a question or start talking about something I don't know I am the first person to Google. Though there internet is not that easy to navigate there is so many different opinions, propaganda and just straight up lies. It is sometimes hard to navigate what is what. So when I read an article now even with major news organizations I have to question the article mostly because certain news organizations are just propaganda machines. Now usually I get on Facebook and there are a ton of articles that friends share so I am going to show how I navigate these articles and what I am looking for in an article. And yes some of these will be blogs and blogs are filled with opinion but they are shared and taken as fact at most times. Today I am going to  focus  on a blog by Bristol Palin that I spotted a friend shared it on their Facebook page. Those who don't know Bristol Palin she is the daughter of Sarah Palin who was the Republican Party nominee for the Vice President of the 2008 Presidential election. I am not going to comment on her much more then that everyone can make their own conclusions on Sarah Palin, but what I can say is since Bristol is the daughter of Sarah Palin and well known public figure she hold weight on some of the views society. To begin Bristol's blog is talking about peoples reaction to a tweet by Anna Duggar who is also a public figure she is on the show "19 Kids and Counting". Now I don't have much of a problem with one's opinion I believe everyone has a right to their own opinion, Though I am going to go over the blog bit by bit to tell you what I question and what I take into consideration. Let's start with the title.

"Liberals Slam Anna Duggar for Retweeting that Unborn #BlacklivesMatter"

Now by this title she is clearly upset that about what happened because according Bristol, Anna received death threats and who wants to receive death threats and I actually went on twitter to confirm this now I didn't see any death threats but I did see someone who wanted to beat her up and from my point of view no one wants to be beat-up. If anyone knows anything conservative and Liberals go back and fourth all time so them being offended not a problem. What I do find troubling is how far I had to to find the source of the information that was in this tweet which is actually information gathered by Guttmacher Institute(AGI) I will send you the link but this information went through various media sites with nothing to back it up nothing to source this information but here it is Induced Abortion In the United States. The CDC also has a study which is a little less complete.CDC Abortion Survelince. Now aside  all this and the information is a little accurate I have to ask my self what does abortion have to do with #BlackLivesMatter. If we read in the or watched the news anything about Michael Brown, Tamir Price, Eric Garner, and everywhere you turn you are hearing about someone being shot by the Police. Now this is where I have to start to think for my self, and use my best judgment on things and I encourage everyone to do the same. In Part you have to start asking yourself the question necessary for the argument of opinion. Bristol seems to think the comments on Duggar's tweet where uncalled for and they shouldn't be offended. Though when commentator asked for a source and the Radiance Foundation couldn't give them one, it is a little understandable for them to be irritated. I for one love digging for information but not so many other people do they would like credible sources at there fingertips with studies and face and even graphs. Still I come to the understanding that you can not tell a person when to be offended and not to be offended. I feel Palin has every right to be upset about an attack on Duggar's life but just because some one offends you doesn't mean you resort to violence. The offence that I find in this is you are adding your agenda to a movement that in my view has to do with excessive force by police. Also I feel the commentator's have a feeling that this is diminishing the fact that racism exists in today's society and needs to be addressed and not blown over with facts that have almost nothing to do with the issue. I am going to end it on this because the last thing I want to do is to tell you how to feel no one has that right. These arguments between "Liberals and Conservatives" are a little more then unnerving to me. This issue was well started out with a conservative but Liberal's do the same thing it is a back of fourth of name calling and treating each other like their opinions don't matter and they have no right to be offended. But no one has the right to tell anyone how to feel, or how they feel is wrong. I will give  facts and my opinion but I will never tell anyone how they feel or that they are wrong for feeling that way, so when I am going across the internet and someone is telling me someone is wrong for being offended I try not to put to many thoughts into these blogs or articles.


Synopsis For Bristol Palin Blog
Facts-semi-accurate
Source Sited-None
Comments-The issues have very little relevance and had a demeaning manner
Grade C+

P.S. To my readers that I do have please comment on this and if you see an article you would like me to read or just need someone to dig up some facts I would be glad to do that. I would love for you opinions on this if we can do it in a constructive manner using facts and relevancy.

IOWA-80 WORLDS LARGEST TRUCK STOP

Iowa-80 Truck Stop

Today was the first time I visited the Iowa-80 Truck Stop. My fiance really wanted to show me this truck stop. Now I wanted to write this article because when I looked up the Iowa-80 on Google I saw nothing but bad reviews one after the other mostly about the food. I looked at my fiance and told him about the horrible reviews this place had. He then explained that the Iowa-80 is really hyped up. Now being out here for the past 3 months I understand the complaints some these Google users had about the food. Most of the food is the same and it really does not change much.

Reviews From Google

A big complaint  I saw was the buffet. I will say my fiance was hyping it up about the truck stop saying things like "This is the Mecca of truck stops." The thing that remained in my mind was that it was still a truck stop. In my mind I know this is not going to have a 5 or even a 4 star restaurant. Now what I saw is what I expected an over sized truck stop. Now what did amaze me the number of laundry machines it had and the fact they are the laundry machines you see  at a laundry mat, which  you don't generally see at a normal truck stop plus more than 4 machines AMAZING!! Not to mention a truck stop with 300 parking spots That is right 300 PARKING SPOTS and that is truck parking. As for the food goes well it  had more options than the general truck stop Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, Dairy Queen, Caribou Coffee, and Iowa-80 Kitchen. So if you are looking at Google and see the reviews with the one person complaining about just having burgers well he is wrong and a little exaggerated. My Fiance and I decided to eat at the Iowa-80 Kitchen and we did do the buffet even though there were many complaints on the buffet on Google, but we always take a glimpse at what is at the buffet before we  do anything. It only takes a minute you look see if has good stuff and if you don't like it you can't always order off the menu. Now there was something deliciously unexpected on the buffet and I am glad I chose the buffet but it was cream of cauliflower soup honestly the best thing of the buffet, my fiance had two bowls. Now as I understand the food complaints and Truck Drivers don't have many options but I want to hear ideas about what you as Truck Drivers want in a truck stop it seems Truck Drivers are in need of different options and different restaurants. I would like to hear what would you like to eat?

improvement

So as I stated before I have a blog on Facebook called Where is my Stuff I took all the articles from there and moved them On to this Blog. So from now on I will be posting my blog on this site and then sharing the blog of my Facebook in hopes to obtain more readers. Anyone and everyone if you read I urge you to please comment of my blogs tell me what you thing what you like me to talk about I am waiting to hear from the few readers I do have. Also I will being added pictures to all of my new posts as well. So a little about me My name is Ann and I used to work in retail and now I travel over the road with my fiance Dex. I am 29 years old and I am hoping to educate some of the people who don't know anything about the Trucking world. Before I met my fiance I was honestly terrified of Trucks, and not just the Truck drivers but the Trucks themselves, but getting to know my fiance and his friends and some others from the trucking world has greatly changed my thinking of Trucks.. I have only been out her for about 3 months but I want my readers to experience as I experience it and have the wonderment that I do because sometimes it all seems so fascinating. The trucking world is very different from the world most people live in it has a whole different pace to it that is why it is it's own world. I am so new to the world there is so much to write sometimes I don't know what to write about. So here is another idea if you happen to read this blog and you are trucker and you see me at one of the truck stops say hey Ann and we can stop and chit chat I would love to hear some of your stories and write about them if you would let me. There a good many things I would love to discuss in this blog some things to improve the Industry of Trucking and things that just need to be improved in general and there is a definite Stigma about trucking that needs addressed. I looking forward to hearing from everyone.

Forward Motion

So instead of my regular blog I am going to do a little poetry and this is what I call Forward Motion.

Newton's First law-Every object in a sate of uniform motion tends to remain in a state of motion unless an external force is applied to it
. Down the road 65 mph, weight 77,570 lbs carrying one suicide coil. weight of truck 30,520, weight of load 47,030 lbs clear sky minimal amount of traffic 5 cars down this road 2 behind 1 to the side 2 in front. Inching towards the exit 1 car is about to miss the exit cuts through 4 lanes of traffic inches from truck. Must stop apply breaks.......

Newton's Second law- The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors; in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

Applied breaks to not the hit car tractor and trailer come to complete stop barley missing car as it exits ramp load 47030 still moving forward 4 chains trying to hold also moving forward at 65 mph tarp covering all moving forward

Newton's third law- For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

Moving forward in a forward motion the coil the chains moving forward snap at the motion of the coil stopped only by entering the cab crushing the back of the cab into the windshield now blood splattered nothing to apply break truck swings out and turns cars don't have enough time to stop as truck rolls over and trailer slides out to the road side swiping the car in the next lane over.

2 cars ahead still moving forward not evening knowing of the chaos behind, 3 cars behind 1 stopped in time but has no clue what happened he was just moving forward 5 lives lost 1 car was a mother and 2 children an infant even only 3 months old. lives lost for a missed exit the moving car onto the exit ramp does not even realize the murders committed. Moving in a forward motion with no one to tell the tale all are dead so not to waste time. To keep moving in a forward motion not looking at anything else but what is forward.Never looking back or to your side to see anything else. Unaware and dangerous is your forward motion.

What is Home?

Stopping For the night at a Love's Travel Center

I have often heard my Fiance called the interstate his office. So if the interstate is his office where is home? What is Home to a trucker? Well that depends how you define home. To my fiance he was born and raised Kemper County Mississippi. His whole family is there he has a house there where he can come on the weekends and sleep rest bathe all the luxury of a home. Though in reality he does not spend most of his night there a good majority of his stuff is there but it is more like storage. For a trucker life is on the road. You spend of your night there, you shower at Truck stops do laundry at Truck stops. You sleep in your truck. Your home is your truck. Everything happens there the Truck is your work and your home. So either depending on the person you can say You are always at home or always at work., Me and my fiance always feel at home on road because we never really leave our home and where ever we end up and night even it is sometimes an exit ramp which is another story to tell. This truck which I call Maybaline is our home and our office.