Stonehenge replica Maryhill Washington

This replica of Stonehenge was built in 1929 and can be found in Maryhill WA overlooking the Columbia river and into Oregon. Built in honour of Military personnel who gave there lives in World War One.
If you plan on visiting it the access is easy via a twisty narrow road and when there providing it isn't too busy there is ample turning.

Since Washington I have been ..........

Its been 6 weeks since I got back and my first impressions of how much more “planned and organised” things seemed have been beaten back by the proverbial shitty stick. Although I am getting decent miles, decent runs and a decent amount of time off its things like being given impossible pre-plans, good pre-plans which work out for you being taken away and doing trailer switches where the other driver is only 100 miles away but takes 6hrs to get to you. I can moan and grumble but that's the way it is and maybe I was being over optimistic thinking it would be any different.
I have been running across Canada lately.
Kennewick (Washington) to Delta (BC)
Delta (BC) to Saskatoon (Saskatchewan)
Saskatoon (SK) to Brampton (Ontario)

and at the moment I am waiting for a trailer to be loaded :

Brampton (ON) to Annacis Island (BC)

All very good miles but the roads are disgraceful. I am sick of seeing the signs for bumpy road and cracked pavement. Why don't they just put a sign that says “Third world country roads for the next 1000 miles”. Once again I understand why they are like that...massive country and no people to pay for it but then again that means less traffic so something is going wrong somewhere, maybe in the construction of them because the severe winters that destroy them are not a new thing.

As I write this I have just found out that the Annacis Island load is getting dropped at Calgary which is a good thing. Speaking of “as I write this” I am parked at the miserable Husky at Mississauga which once again has no internet. My mini campaign to boycott them (after the Beef dip sandwich sham) and not spend any money unless I have to is going well and although I don't count the pennies I must of spent around $30 in them which is mainly buying milk and the odd coffee.
BBQ season is almost upon us and the George Foreman grill is getting a hammering by everything I can throw at it, marinaded meats, sliced potatoes, onions and peppers are the food of choice at the minute. I reckon I can make a restaurant standard meal for less than $4. The other day I even made scrambled eggs with cheese and onions in the slow cooker, granted it took some time (about an hour) and when I forgot to stir it for a while it rose like a massive soufflé but it tasted great and I would make it again. Top tip : Scrambled egg makes a bit of a chore of cleaning the cooker so throw a bit of water in, put the lid on and let it steam itself for a while which makes cleaning it easier.

Time to go for now, this will be posted when I can next get an internet connection.
Coming up soon...Telus Mobility, are they conning b*st*rds ?

Washington, The Rockies and Buffalo

Portland Pictures

Saturday Market, Downtown Portland

After the experience of seeing the spuds being unloaded I was asked to run 4hrs west empty to just the other side of Portland Oregon. Went to the shipper, saw it was unsuitable to park there as my load wasn't until Monday morning so parked North of Portland at a truckstop called Jubitz. Its a good stop and has a hotel next door with loads of amenities.
Woke Sunday morning to find my simple one collection load had turned into a multi pick and still didn't start until Monday so I had a day off (again....now up to 3 resets in the last week)
After asking in the hotel lobby I find out how to get into Downtown Portland and was even offered a lift from the hotel using its cab service. I jumped on the Maxx which is a train shuttle service, changed trains at the Portland basketball Stadium and within 10 minutes was in Portland at the Saturday Market. This is an area of town not far from Chinatown and has a market and entertainment from what I can gather is held when the weather is good. The place was very busy, lots of food stands, music and street acts.
Wandered around all day and had a good time.
Now the fun and games started once I was on the way back to Jubitz. I jumped on the right train..red line first, change onto the yellow at the stadium and get off at the Expo Centre. I arrived and there was nothing..no cabs or people and a hell of a walk ahead of me. I spoke to the driver of the train who helped me out. I needed to take the train back for 3 stops, get the number 6 bus which would take me to Martin Luther King St where I needed to get the 8 bus which would drop me at the Truckstop, easy !!
The return journey went without a hitch. I forget to mention that at the Maxx station I bought an all day pass for $4.75 which gave me access to unlimited Maxx trains, buses and street cars
and lasted until midnight that day.
So, I enjoyed my day out , its Monday morning and I am still waiting for confirmation of my next load.......when ever that may be !! Pics to follow when I get a faster internet connection.

Spuds all over the floor.

Arrived at Pasco in Washington at the customer and opened the back doors....oh my god !!
51,000lbs or roughly 25ton of potatoes dumped on the trailer floor, no bags,sacks or crates, just dumped. How the hell are they going to unload this.
Well the solution was not only brilliant but fast.
A conveyor was fed into the trailer with what resembled a bobcat (mini digger) bolted to the front. A bucket on the front of the bobcat had mini conveyors which scooped up the spuds, fed them out of the back and onto a big conveyor which took them away. Total unloading time was about 40 mins.

Diversions, floods and undelivered loads.

Volvo trying to disguise itself as a tree, taken in Calgary after the dump of snow which fell through the night.


Just when things seemed to be going so well it all came crumbling down, in fact it still is.
Dropped in Saskatoon and had to reset as the load I had been planned on wasn't ready, this was Saturday night. Noticed an oil leak from one of the drive axles so reported it was told to ring in Sunday to get details of a repair. Details came and the load I was planned on went to somebody else as the load had to be covered. This I fully accepted and appreciated. So I sat and waited for another load which was ready later that afternoon for and would take me back to Toronto area.
Early this morning “beep” goes the satellite and the lady who reads out the messages said “switch trailers at Headingley, what time can you be there?” I was 4 hrs away so clipped on expecting the other truck to be here but ….suprise suprise, he was 200 miles away when I arrived. At the time of writing this that was 5.5 hrs ago now even with my basic maths skills if he arrives now he has averaged about 35mph, or he wasn't 200 miles away at all.
All this throws up another dilemma and that is how to get the load I am taking to Vancouver on time which in itself will be a miracle or possibly another switch ?
Its anyone's guess what will happen, only time will tell.
Anyway, fate took hold of the situation and closed the Highway due to flooding. Took the diversion which was huge although I didnt know it at the time. When I thought I had cracked it a bridge was closed in front of me which sent me off on a diversion again. I ran out of hours so parked and roughly calculated that I had pretty much blew 120 miles in the last 2.5hrs. I thought that I had messed up, maybe missed a detour sign but I had gone the right way....unbelievable.
Dropped the trailer in Calgary as I could no longer make the delivery time and reset my hours while waiting for a trailer to Washington which is where I am now

Photo's as promised.

Above and below are pictures of a Rest Area in the States. they are spotless and have fully stocked vending machines.



Try hitting this escape lane at runaway speeds and make the bend. Scary stuff.



An old shack in Manitoba I think. Going to get some more of these as they are full of character.



Roy and Haley must be a big deal in Mississauga.

Virginia and back.

Hi, really enjoyed the Virginia trip as I had only been down there once before. The weather was great and hit 28c the day I unloaded. Was in and out of the factory and on my way for a reload which was from a place called Smithfield...not far from Virginia Beach. That too was a breeze and was in and out in no time and heading back North.
Ran around Washington DC at about 9pm and the place was heaving with traffic, there is some major roadworks going on but things were moving well.
Arrived back in Brampton Ontario the following evening and dropped the trailer in the yard then went to bed.
Next load was across to Saskatoon Sasketchewan so I had 3 days of hard driving on what for a good portion is third world countries roads. 1850 miles later I am here with the trailer dropped and catching up on a few hours before I turn back around and head back down the same road.

There have been some changes while I have been back home. Two of the truckstop giants have merged which for a lot of reasons is a good thing however there is bad as well. You have heard me harp on about the Flying J buffet.....well that is no more. The food side has been taken over by a nationwide diner called Dennys which has a restaurant under the Sandman Hotel in Lethbridge. Long gone are the fresh vegetables with which you could fill up on and they are replaced by mass produced food items such as burgers, grilled sandwiches and of course...fries.
When I was taken ill I was warned about the amount of salt I should be eating and the effect it can have on your heart. The following are extracts from the LA Times and backs up the reasons I enjoyed eating at a buffet so much. the second quote is in regard to a "meat lovers Scramble":


July 24, 2009|Jerry Hirsch

Doctors recommend against eating more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. Order a Denny's double cheeseburger and you'll consume 3,880 milligrams in one sitting, almost double the suggested daily allowance of salt.

But maybe the people ordering it -- including older people, African Americans, people with high blood pressure and those at higher risk of it -- should know that the Denny's breakfast confection has almost four times the recommended limit of sodium -- 5,690 milligrams of the stuff, and that several other entrees served at Denny's have sodium content almost as high. Eating meals like that is not going to be good for your blood pressure, and high blood pressure will put you at greater risk of heart attacks and stroke.


My answer to the above is to pretty much boycott both Flying J and Pilot in favour of Petro and Travel centres America, who both still serve a good reasonably priced buffet. While I am on the subject of food have the prices in truckstops in Canada risen considerably while I was back in the UK? I ate in one the other day in N.Ontario and was shocked, remember I was in a truckstop; I ordered a Beef Dip Sandwich and fries. I was served (by a woman who to be honest needed a good wash and change of clothes) with a dry 6" bread roll which contained I shit you not, 2 slices of beef about the same size and thickness of a dollar bill, a piece of that pretend cheese and a bit of onion which resembled an old mans toe nail. The fries were the offcuts of the potatoes and the 'dip' was a cup of probably something like Bovril. I had a coffee with this fine meal (no refill offered) and was given a bill for just short of $15 (a tenner in English). Needless to say that Husky truckstops are going to be avoided as much as possible as well.
So, the slow cooker has been getting a good workout and I have been eating rather well, all at a very reasonable cost.

Well I am going to watch some TV, the BBC no less. Thanks to being given a website I can now watch the BBC iplayer so I can catch up on stuff I am missing.

Photos to come soon....probably tomorrow.