Gramma Goes To Work With Gramps

Occasionally on my blog I like to tell stories to my four grandsons about things that Mr. H and I have been doing. Today is one of those days, I want to share some pictures of our little trip. My husband has been retired for about a year. To keep from being totally bored he drives part-time for a local food bank, delivering and picking up food to be distributed to smaller food banks. I was able to go with him on one of those deliveries.

Gramma went to work with Gramps.  I got to ride in an 18-wheeler!! My first time even though Gramps has driven a truck since he was 21. Hmmmm!! That's about 38 years of driving!!  I was a little nervous at first. You know they are much bigger than they look traveling down the road.  The door handle was above my head even though it was at the bottom of the door. It wasn't easy for me to climb up in the cab!!!  But, wow, you can see a whole lot better when you're high above the road!!

We started in the dark. The picture above is the lights of the cars we were meeting. I took all these photos from inside the cab. The truck rides a little rough when the trailer is loaded and heavy. Gramps had an air-cushioned seat; I didn't. So the truck was bouncing, I was bouncing, and the camera was bouncing all in different directions. That's why the lights are all shaky!! I think it's kind of a cool picture!!

We had to stop several times for the morning school buses. It's hard to get moving again, especially if you're going up a hill in the mountains. Gramps had to shift through 10 gears!!

Here's Gramps driving down the road.  Gramps, shouldn't you be looking where you're going??   Not only does he have to drive and shift the gears but just look at all those switches and knobs. There's cruise control switches, Jake-brake switch, radio, parking brakes for the truck and trailer, fog light switch, wipers, mirror adjustments, mirror heaters, dash light dimmer, and the knob to turn on parking lights that blink. That's all I can remember!

When Gramps drives he uses 7 mirrors to make sure he can see on both sides of the truck and trailer. These are the two mirrors on the front fenders.  The one on the left is on Gramp's side, aren't those pretty trees.  The one on the right is on my side, I can see if Gramps says in the lane!!

These pictures were taken in the mirror on my door. The first one shows the smoke stack and  the second one shows a Fed Ex truck behind us.  We were going faster than he was; he was pulling doubles. The third one shows more fall leaves.

This is what I could see out the back window of the cab,

the trailer and all the hoses.

You know I like shadows! 

Here's a shadow of the truck in the early morning sunlight.

We were up in the mountains! The rock wall was going by awfully fast!  Sometimes when the hill was very steep,  the truck slowed down to 25 mph!! See the crack in the windshield; I think they need to fix that so I can take better pictures.

 The sun is finally coming up.There's a the mist over a creek and sunlight on the mountain. It was a beautiful drive.

Look out!!   Curve ahead!!

I got to hear the Jake-brake. That's an engine brake that helps to slow the truck down as you go down the mountain.

Hey, look at us, we're passing someone going up a hill!!

We saw this red caboose and

an old railroad station that is now a museum

a tractor being held up in the air by a forklift and a steam engine and tender

and barns and hay and cows. I see a piece of John Deer equipment in the top barn. I've always wanted to take a picture of the red barn. I was finally high enough to get one!! We did see three deer, but they were too fast for me to get a picture of.

I knew we were almost home when we crossed the Arkansas River.

It was a fun and different day!!