Woo! Home for the night! I missed Zack and the girls SO much! Here's a brief recap of my last week:

Rode along to Albuquerque with my parents in their truck. It's not so bad because their sleeper is frigging huge. It's got a tv/vcr, bathroom, microwave, fridge, and a place to plug in my laptop. Plus it's got windows on every side, so if I get bored I can peek into people's cars as we fly past them. People carry a lot of CRAP in their cars.

I know that travelling with one's parents can seem like a real drag, but if you can do it in a separate vehicle and get paid for it, it's really not so bad. Besides, the older I get the more I can appreciate the fact that my parents are really cool people. And my dad pays for everything out on the road. I always feel like I'm twelve years old when I run up to the register with a pack of gum and say "Dad, I want this!" Thassssss right I'm still spoiled.

Got to Albuquerque. Had to climb over a 10 foot concrete wall to get to my truck. Almost fell and broke my rotten neck. Seriously scared the hell out of me. I was hell-free for two whole days. I scratched the face of my beloved Swiss Army watch. Not to mention my arms. Blah.

Got loaded the next morning. Haha, not drunk. I WISH! Kidding. My trailer had the flip axle on it, so it was extra long. I had to watch my corners extra close. I only hit a curb once, and that's when Dad (or Bossman as I call him on the road) made me do a u-turn in a teeny parking lot. I scraped a rim on the very back of my trailer. Oh well.

Spend two days driving to Yuma, even though it's a 10 hour trip. The main thing I like about New Mexico and Arizona is the 75 mph speed limit. We stop at a tourist attraction on I-10 called "The Thing." They advertise it for 100 miles before you get to it. Big ass billboards saying "What is The Thing?!?" I was dying to know what it was. My dad agreed to stop because we were way ahead of schedule. Woo! My parents had been there before and the whole place had creeped them out. Dad paid a dollar for each of us to see The Thing. They had a bunch of torture displays, most of them badly carved out of wood, and some old cars. I noticed that a few of the cars weren't even real. The antique looking ones where just a bunch of metal welded together. I would have taken pictures, but I was in a hurry to see The Thing. I barely gave a third glance at a car that supposedly belonged to Hitler. There was a really terrible Hitler blow-up doll in the back seat. Anyhoo, we finally got to see The Thing. I don't want to ruin it for fellow tourist trap aficionados, so I'm not going to tell everyone what The Thing was. If you want to know, email me. I think it was fake, anyway. I was kind of disappointed. Oh well, at least it was only a dollar. Their gift shop was filled with bizarre overpriced knick-knacks that were alternately religious themed or some kind of small animal (cats, dogs, owls) covered with rabbit fur. Ewwww. I visted their bathroom before we hit the road again (never turn down a chance to pee, right?). They had white paper stapled to the walls of the stalls for people to write on. This is very smart of the owners, because I wasn't even a little tempted to write on the painted walls. I penned this on the paper:

My air conditioner broke in the middle of the night in Yuma. I had to drive it through the desert for two days before we got it fixed. That was awful.

When we got back to Albuquerque it was raining like crazy. I went out at played in it for awhile and then called Zack. Fun!

The next morning we were loaded with ISO containers. They were green and had US ARMY GSTAMIDS stamped on them. Every time we stopped people would ask us what was inside. I started telling people, in a very quiet and confiding voice, that we were transporting cryogenically frozen alien embryos from an army base in New Mexico to a laboratory in Washington DC. Truckers eat that shit up. Every one of them has some kind of conspiracy theory brewing in their heads, and most of them involve the government and UFOs.

After we got off the main highway in Virginia we drove through some back highways to get to General Dynamics/Robotics. I tried to call Jim a couple of times, but he's never home. Damn it, Jim! I'm a truck driver, not a psychic! Haha, that really doesn't read as funny as it sounded in my head. Nothing ever does.

I almost wet my pants when I saw Burkittsville, MD. I soooooo wanted to stop, because I'm a Blair Witch Whore, but there's no way I could have gotten my truck and trailer into town, especially with the flip axle down. Bummer.

My mom was excited to show me all the small Virginia/West Virginia/Maryland towns. "Aren't they quaint?" mom cooed every five minutes. They sure were. The houses were beautiful and the trees were gorgeous. It's just too bad that every town smelled like cow shit. Oh well, you can't have everything.

We dropped the ISO containers and headed for Texas. We have to be in Yuma tomorrow night, so I'll be driving all afternoon. In Yuma we'll pick up the Meerkat and support vehicle and head back for Maryland. Then we'll spend a week shuffling them back and forth between army bases and proving grounds and geek labs. Then I get to come home for a couple of months. Yay! I love to go out on the road, but I love coming home even more.

I'll probably get a chance to check in on Wednesday night again. Double yay!

Love y'all. Talk to you soon.

PS - They sell huge bottles of hard liquor (like Tanqueray & Maker's Mark) in Sam's Wholesale in New Mexico. And it's CHEAP. If you ever get out there, stock up! I sure as hell am. :)

Posted by Zoe @ 08/11/2002 02:46 PM CST

she was missed indeed, getting to see her for a night and part of a day makes all the difference when she's out for 3 or 4 weeks.

oh and i found out what that acronym (GSTAMIDS) stands for ... Ground Standoff Minefield Detection System. there you go!

Posted by -Z @ 08/11/2002 06:58 PM CST

you think the thing is a fake? i couldn't decide. did you look at the toenails?

that's a great picture of you, by the way. very artistic. you should get someone to use it for an album cover...

Posted by redsugar @ 08/12/2002 11:29 AM CST

Hey, if you want I can post a copy of "The Church Of Logic Sin And Love" by a defunct band called The Men. Why, you ask? Because every time they go into the chorus, they use the line "... then we came upon The Thing!"

It's a road-trip song, you see. Or hear. Or whatever. =)

Posted by GreyDuck @ 08/12/2002 02:54 PM CST

Sounds like you had a blast Suz!! Be safe again until you get back...smile

Posted by Maggie @ 08/12/2002 06:09 PM CST

you were trying to get ahold of me? what # do you have?

i need to talk to you, shroomie

Posted by That Damn Jim Guy @ 08/13/2002 01:32 AM CST

oo, welcome back! burkettsville...weird. so when's the next job?

Posted by tiff @ 08/13/2002 11:12 AM CST

Hot damn, I've missed you! Those military transport thingees are just way to flippin' cool.

Posted by Kristin @ 08/13/2002 09:56 PM CST

hey suzi...jf made a music video! lol. saw it last night and had to share the news - screen captures at my site :)

Posted by tiff @ 08/14/2002 12:45 PM CST

The Thing? *blinks* Aren't there laws against exposing your thing in public? :)

Posted by ::m:: @ 08/14/2002 03:44 PM CST

Don't know how I happened on your page here, but I live in Yuma so next time I see the big green truck, I'll wave at ya!!! BTW, went by "The Thing" last week on the way to Abilene. It's been around for a long, long time. Happy Driving !!!!!

Posted by Marilyn @ 12/28/2003 10:53 PM CST