Back in Canada

Well it was great seeing the family back in the UK, but it was a massive rush all the time to get and see everybody. We stayed at my brothers so a big thank you once again for having us. Now stop been such a tight ass and get your backside’s over here next year. No is not an option. That goes for the rest of you too. You will all be pleased you did. There was a lot we wanted to do while over there and just could not fit it in. we needed a month to do that. There was only one day where we kind of had time to ourselves, where we took the kids to Drayton Manor Park. They had a great time.

We set off back to the airport early Sunday morning. Landed in Toronto, then drove the 13 hours back home. We was travelling for 28hrs solid. The kids did really well. We was still in the airport and not off the plane five mins when I rang work to see where my truck was. Emma was not pleased. She thought I couldn’t wait to get back to work. Well two weeks solid with her is enough to drive anybody back to work lol. Only kidding baby xxx. I had to check if my truck was on schedule to be back in Woodstock the following day ready for me. Its not like other companies where you get to take your truck home and park it up while you are off. While they are stood, the trucks are not earning. That’s why Joe puts spare drivers in while you are off, to make sure the truck is earning him money 364 days a year. (they get Christmas day off lol). So they asked me to call the minute I was off the plane, both for them to see I was back and to give me an approx time I will be getting the truck back. It turned out it was 7 hours ahead of us. So by the time we got back home, I had time to chuck all the cases out of the car and put all my gear back in and straight to the truck. When I booked the time off, they moaned because I had not given them enough notice and made me feel that I needed to be back in the truck the second I stepped off the plane, so I did not think it through and said I would go out the day we was back, which was my birthday too. What I should have said was I would take my birthday off so we could recoup and go out the following day, but I did not realise it was my birthday at the time. Seeing as we have had to celebrate everyone else’s birthday on a different day when I have been off. Its not going to hurt to do mine when I get home next. Thank you for all the cards everyone gave me. I will be opening them when I get back. On the way back to work my truck was parked at the truck wash down the road, so I picked it up and took it back to the shop. It was a mess inside. Joe collard me thinking it was partly my mess as he was the one that personally took it to the truck wash. I pointed out that the truck is immaculate at all times when I have it. I cant stand messy trucks. So the team that was in it while I was away, where going to get an ear bashing. After cleaning it out again. I had to sit about waiting for my load to arrive in the yard. Over six hours later it turned up. Emma was not happy I had rushed around to get there early in the morning then sat around all day waiting when I could have been at home waiting. This had never happened before. Longest I have ever had to wait in the yard was about an hour. It turned out I was so glad I had waited all that time, otherwise I would have made it to my delivery in Anderson, South Carolina, the night they had a massive scary storm. Hailstone’s where as big as a quarter, (10 pence piece) massive trees where just ripped out of the ground and landing on several houses.

I was that shocked the following morning when I got there in clear blue sky’s with temperatures in the nineties, I missed a load of pictures I should have took. The clean up was already well on the way. So at first I though it was just a tree chopping crew going round with loads of debris on the roads, then I started to notice trees on top of houses ripped clean out of the ground etc. it was bizarre. The lady at my drop said the wind was that strong it nearly took roofs off the houses. Lot of people lost power and allsorts. They was warned it could happen again that night. My reload was in Florence, South Carolina so was hoping to get loaded and get the hell out but when I arrived, there was ten trucks plus four on bays in front of me waiting to be loaded. Been in a queue meant I could not go to sleep either while I waited, as we kept on having to move forward each time a truck went to load, just to allow others turning up behind us to get in the queue. Seven and a half hours later at 3am I was loaded. That broke my record for loading time. Ayr is going to charge them extra so hopefully I will get a bit extra too. Luckily no second storm. I was well tired by then so just parked up outside and got a few hours sleep before setting off to Toronto. Once dropped I picked up another load and took that back to the yard. Then bobtailed down towards my reload which was a 1am pickup. I did a bit of shopping in Walmart and Ikea. By time I had done shopping at midnight. (Ikea had a massive sale on so they was open late.) I had an hour sleep then went for my paperwork to be told come back at 5am so back to bed I went. 5am hooked up and set off to Winnipeg. At Winnipeg I expected to go to the US, but nope, my reload was back to Toronto. So that’s where I’m off to now. It is a very picturest route, so it’s nice to do from time to time, but I still prefer driving in the US.

Anyways bed time for me till next time, have a nice day.

look at these next two pics and tell me which is the UK and which is Toronto

Both are very highly populated thats why I guess alot of UK people go to live in or around Toronto.

The top one of the two is Toronto, the road gives it away.

Inmates cleaning North Carolina's Highways

My new hobby....Butterfly collection

When I first fitted the flag

6 Days later. I guess they are as good as the team, won't last till the end lol