Well, yesterday was absolutely.....

......fantastic and brilliant !!!!

I honestly believe that there was very little that could of spoilt my day.

Waited around all day friday for nothing and ended up buying a meal which cost more than I had earned for 12hrs work. Then...
Was told to pick up a trailer and run empty south, destination California. With the sun beating down, my new camera (yes I know, the old one is up for sale soon)and no specified time limits to adhere to I set off. I will let the pictures tell of the trip down and you should be able to see why I was feeling on top of the world !!

Getting ready to leave the yard at Kelowna at about 7.30am The sun was already beating down and promising a hot day ahead.

A short while later I was running alongside the lake at Penticton which looked more like a scene from the Algarve in Portugal. This lake goes on for miles and even though there is construction going on where they close the road for 30mins at a time you have great views

Just 30mins later the rocks close in on the road and a series of twisty bends try to catch you out and drop you off into the water.

Heading down now to Osoyoos British Columbia and the border with the USA is only minutes away. The whole area is covered with orchards and vineyards and is a very beautiful sight

Now in Washington after getting through customs with just a quick cab search. Its 2.30pm and the sun is still belting down. The plan is to follow the 97 south all the way to the I-5 at Weed California.

I left the 97 at Omak Washington and the couple of minutes extra detour took me down by the Coulee Dam and the Dry Falls which were mentioned on a previous post. I had to take some more pics as the coulour of the water was amazing.Once again the road follows the lake and at times only a flimsey barrier stops you from dropping off into the water.


So by 3.45pm I was at the Dry Falls, last time I came here I was the only visitor but the warm weather as well as shrinking the ladies clothes brought out some sightseers. If you supersize the image you can see that in the left hand side of the water are 3 boats which give you some idea as to the size of the falls.

In the picture below I noticed some large birds of prey circling over head just cruising on the warm thermals. At one time there was 4 of them but it wasnt possible to get them all in the same shot. If you supersize the pic (click on it) you can see that they have bald red heads with grey on the underside of the wing which after a bit of googling leads me to believe they are Turkey Vultures; which can have a wingspan of up to 5-6 feet.


Taken from a view point of the Columbia River at just after 5pm. Just a few quick facts for those that havn't read all of my posts...The river is over 1200m miles long and drains over 250,000 acres of land.It originates in British Columbia and flows through 7 American states. The river is the most heavily dammed river in the world with over 450 dams along its length which are mainly used for hydro-electricity.

My last picture of the day taken at 8.30pm. On the far side of the river is Wasington State; not DC and I am pottering along in Oregon. It wasnt long after this was taken that I called it a day, but guess what ? Today, Sunday was every bit, if not better than yesterday. So....tune in soon and tell all your friends !!!

Hurry up and wait.

The first trip I did since I got back went really well, I visited states I hadn't been to for a while but as soon as I got back into Canada things have gone a little bit wrong.
The wait for over 36hrs in Montreal, the numerous trailer changes along the route as well as over a days wait in Delta and now at almost 3pm I am still hanging about to find out whats next on the adgenda. By the way I am at Kelowna British Columbia, waiting after being unloaded this morning.
Kelowna is not the best place to be when waiting for work; a lot of decisions have to made by the planners as to what to do with you when you get stuck here, at least there is plenty of places to eat and loads of shopping to be had.
No idea where I am going to next but will let you know when I do.


The view from the Chevron parking in Delta. The Alex Fraser Bridge and some wonderful smelling Canadian Red Cedar.

Forgot to post again.

Once again please accept my apologies for taking so long to post anything new.
Well to bring things up to date as its been a bit of a mess.

Collected my trailer from Montreal and set off west to deliver in British Columbia. I received a message saying that I had to swap trailers at Hearst as the truck pulling it had broken down and then do another switch at Headingley Manitoba so that a team could get it into Calgary for its delivery on time. So with this job done I had to load out of Portage La Prarie the following morning which I duly did and when it came to scale the load I was 5000lbs too heavy on the trailer axles; looks like despatch sent me in with a 2 axle trailer instead of a 3. After an hour or so some of the load had been taken off and I was on my way with a load once again for British Columbia which I was to drop at Calgary. Arrived at 12.30 on the 25th and switched with the driver who was going to take the load on the rest of its trip.
My next load came through which was for...wait for it...British Columbia. So far on the return leg from Montreal I was about to pick up my 4th trailer which would eventually get me to BC. Anyway,set off on the morning of the 26th and am at present waiting at the end of a long line of trucks to be offloaded which is grim as the customer seems to be in no rush.

And thats you all up to date.
For some unknown reason I havn't had any free time really and the photos have taken a bit of a back seat although this will change very soon, I have plenty but need to go through them and sort them out.
Piglet is going well and I am quite impressed with her. I have a 1001 jobs I need to do so that she is how I want her such as sorting out some extra shelves and hiding the wires from TomTom and the Sirius radio but like I have mentioned I just don't seem to have the time.

Fingers crossed I should be out of here soon and on my merry way.

A long overdue post.

Hi guys, sorry for the length of time since my last post; I have nobody to blame but myself.
I think I left you last on my way to to Montreal after reloading out of Texas.
The weather has been great on the return leg of the trip. As well as taking in Colorado,Wyoming and Texas a few other lesser visited States were visited such as Missouri and Oklahoma which made for a very welcomed change of scenery.
Piglet is doing well, she is exceptionally quiet compared to her predecessor and my only complaint is that she is giving a very good return on her fuel consumption which in turn means I get less free showers and points on my loyalty cards. Most of the gripes I have with the truck are purely cosmetic such as why design overhead lockers then proceed to manufacture them and fit them to trucks when they cannot hold anything bigger than a few pens ? Same goes for the wardrobe, Freightliner must employ midgets as after buying a load of hangers I found that all of my clothes when hanging crumpled up on the bottom shelf...the designers must have inside leg measurements of around 24 inches. How about this for a waste of money...fit 2 switches on the steering wheel to change the info on the dashboard display when a button is fitted less than a foot away from it that has the same purpose, surely the steering controls would of been better utilized for adjusting the radio volume !! I still havn't worked out how to switch the interior lights off when you are in bed as the switches dont seem to be 2-way which means that if you turn the lights on via the dashboard you need to get out of bed to switch them off when there is a switch in the sleeper compartment. Like I say its all cosmetic but a bit of thought would of made the Cascadia a better truck.

To bring you all up to date, I unloaded in Anjou (montreal) Quebec in the early hours of this morning which was Tuesday and ran to the Yard in St Laurent where the trailer was dropped off. Pretty quickly I was preplanned for Winnipeg Manitoba and informed that the city guys would be picking up the 4 collections (heaven) but the last delivery didnt load until 12.30 wednesday. I didnt really mind but was then given the option to pick up the last collection myself as it was just down the road; I agreed and waited for confirmation. Its at this point I have to praise the City drivers and Deb (my despatcher) for passing on the message, apparently the collection is in a very "ugly" part of the city and a highway truck (piglet) would have major problems getting in and out and the city driver recommended I didnt do it; so thanks to him especially as he saved me a going through a big ordeal.

So thats all for now folks, hopefully I will be heading west tomorrow.

Monte's got a nearly new Piglet.

Hi all, got in touch with work and was given a nearly new piglet, she has 30,000km on the clock which is new enough for me. Its the new Cascadia model and although there is a lot of vast improvements over the Columbia model there still is a few niggles that could of been sorted out; but more about that at a later date.

Picked Piglet up (my pet name for my truck) on Monday lunchtime and headed off to Coca cola to pick up the night load for Lethbridge which was delivered at 11pm then went to bed.
Tuesday morning was a mad rush to put all of my belongings into 2371 and then head off with a load for Denver Colorado to deliver Thursday morning.
I left a lot of my belongings out of the truck as there was going to be enough upheaval as it was trying to find new places to put my stuff and the rumour was that the Cascadia had less storage but I managed just fine.

Tipped in Denver and ran empty to Friona Texas (500 miles) where I dropped the trailer and bobtailed to Plainview Texas about an hour and a half away. Its been almost a year since I was last down this neck of the woods so the change of scenery was welcomed. A loaded trailer was picked up and I am on my merry way to Montreal Quebec with a smile on my face and the sun on my back.

Back in Canada

Hi folks,
left home on Saturday teatime and caught the direct train from Darlington to Manchester airport and stayed at the Premier Inn for the night which is a mile or so from the airport. Its a very nice and new hotel with both a bar, restaurant and cost 45GBP for the room for the night which I think is very reasonable.
Sunday morning I had the breakfast buffet which was probably the last time for a while where I will have eaten real bacon and then jumped onto the shuttle bus to take me to the airport.
Checked in with no problems, bought duty free then boarded the plane which was held up for 15 mins as two passengers had been refused boarding as they didnt have the necessary visa's which is a bit of a concern as they had managed to get through numerous security checks.
The flight was good, food was ok and in just over 8hrs I touched down in Calgary.
A quick call to work revealed the fact that nobody knew anything about which truck I was getting so I booked a room at the Roadking truckstop and need to sort that problem out in an hour or so when everone is in the office. I just hope that it doesnt turn into a drama as I need to get to Lethbridge as thats where all my stuff is stored...I am sure it wont be a big deal !!
Managed to get plenty of pics while I was at home but I will probably hold them back and use them when things are a bit quiet over here or the work I get is repetitive and gives me nothing new to write about.
Thats about all for now..fingers crossed I get back into the driving seat without any hiccups.

Home sweet home

My mam and Dad moved into this house which is situated about 8 miles out of Darlington in 1986.
The house was built in 1944 for the purpose of housing the local priest and any travelling bishops who passed through the parish.



In the view of the rear of the house (below) the building to the right was originally an orphanage which was ran by the Catholic church. Since then it has had a number of uses including being used as a refuge during the war and more recentley a nursing home.



I have got just under a week at home now and have made a few plans which should fill up my time. The sun is shining and a big Sunday roast dinner is in the oven, happy days !!

Darlington Civic Theatre

The New Hippodrome & Palace of Varieties was formally opened on Monday September 2 1907. Its first Managing Director was Signor Rino Pepi, an Italian ex patriot who was originally a quick-change artist (or protean) and impersonator, whose love of theatre took him into a management career. George F Ward of Owen and Ward of Birmingham, a firm specialising in theatre building, designed the theatre and Owen and Ward were responsible for the building of the theatre. It is constructed from local Middlesbrough red brick with terracotta dressings. Above the Parkgate entrance is a 64foot high pyramid-roofed tower (housing a water tank) that gives the theatre's distinctive appearance and was used to provide high-pressure water for aquatic scenes that were popular at the time. The ornamental canopy is a replica of the original iron and glass structure, which was destroyed by a traffic accident in the 1960s.

The Brick Train

Visitors can park at the Morrisons Morton Park shopping area and walk along special footpaths to reach the sculpture. Once there, the adventurous can climb to the platform overlooking the train from above. The sculpture is signposted from surrounding roads.

The Darlington "Brick Train" was opened on Monday, 23rd June 1997 by Lord Palumbo of Walbrook is situated next to Morrisons on Morton Park Industrial Estate.

Modelled on the 1938 record setting, 126mph steam locomotive "Mallard". Funded by the National Lottery, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, Northern Arts, Department of National Heritage, Darlington Borough Council and headed by sculptor David Mach the project reputedly cost c £760k.

A total of 185,000 bricks were used in its construction along with 170 cubic meters of concrete. The train weighs 15,000 tonnes and covers an area of 600sq meters. It is of hollow construction and measures 23ft high by 130ft long. It took a team of 34 brick layers, labourers and apprentices 21 weeks to build.

In addition, there are even 20 special 'bat' bricks built in at various places to encourage the nocturnal creatures to use it as their home. Local schools also donated 'time capsules' which were put inside the train