2 Weeks Down, 5 to Go

This past week we did the route we will be doing now for the next five weeks, it is about 4,000 miles total. We take a load from Lewiston, ID to Chicago, IL (well, actually Elwood, but it is close to Chicago). Then we pick up an empty trailer and take it to two different places in Indiana, passing through Indianapolis. We then return to Lewiston, ID (well, actually, he drops me off in Spokane, then he goes to Lewiston). So this past week I added four more states to my list of states I've now been too. Wisconsin, Indiana, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

The weather this week was about the same as last week, some good spots, some bad spots. I half jokingly asked my mentor if there was any extreme weather I haven't experienced yet, other than tornadoes and hurricanes of course. He thought about it for a moment then said, “No, you've pretty much have had it all”. I then added that about the only weather I haven't had yet is a nice sunny warm day, and it's the truth. The one day that it was kind of warm (high 30's mainly) there was quite a bit of wind, so I was having to fight to keep it in my lane the entire time, and at parts there was also heavy rain. Hopefully spring will come one day, although I won't know what to do on a warm sunny day and am liable to drive the truck into a ditch or something.

I know in my last post I mentioned that North Dakota was basically empty outside of the two cities they have. Well I obviously didn't know what I was talking about because South Dakota is even more deserted, and they don't even have any cities of any notable size. It was an incredibly boring drive. The only thing that entertained me through it was reading all the advertisements for attractions there. Some of the more notable ones are the World's only Corn Palace, the World's largest bull's head, Cosmos the mystery spot, where drivers were encouraged to “See it. Feel it. Survive it.” There was also something called Wall Drug. Despite the 150 miles of ads I saw for it, I never could figure out exactly what it is. Judging from the signs they have a dinosaur, cowboys, cowboys on rocket ships, coffee for 5 cents, and “Something for everyone”. Oh, and they also have Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota too.

Well, I'm off to my third week out. Here's hoping it's warmer than last week (the coldest was 0 degrees with a wind chill of about -20, the average high was in the 20's).