The long road.

We left Claresholm on August 6th after pre loading lumber in Wynndel and ran down to Knoxville Tennessee, then, after unloading we carried on down to Lexington South Carolina to re-load for Canada.

5595 miles. The Yellow squares are NOT stops, they are put in to force the map to follow the permit routes.

On the way back up we had to stay overnight after arriving in Paducha KY on Saturday afternoon, through to Monday morning due to permit curfews in Illinois, then we carried on and hammered back up to Claresholm, where we unloaded and went straight to Calgary after changing trailers to load reels for Texas,

4690 miles. The Yellow squares are NOT stops, they are put in to force the map to follow the permit routes.

We ran to Texas, and, after unloading there we went to Houston to get a part load, then across to Big Wells for the rest of the load. 

A nice run back brought us to Claresholm on the 26th after 10,285 miles and one and a half days off.

We will be out again after a 36hr break, and could be going anywhere.

Temporary foreign workers have rights too you know.

No, unfortunately they don't really.

Not wanting to put a damper on anyones dreams, but after seeing a response to a friends request for assistance in solving a problem as a Temporary Foreign Worker in Canada via the British Government I feel that I should just re-iterate that until you actually have Permanent Residency you are on very shaky ground. Here's what the Canadian minister says in reply to a British MP...

" I can only say that, in general, temporary foreign workers only have status in Canada so long as they have an authorized job and the work permit which results from that.  Unlike the United Kingdom, Canada admits thousands of people every year as permanent residents from the outset - that is, they apply for permanent residence in Canada while still in their home country and enter Canada for the first time with permanent residence status.  Families who move to Canada with the object of taking up permanent residence on a basis of a temporary job and temporary status put themselves in a very risky position as there is certainly no guarantee that permanent residence will be granted. "

Once again, this is just a warning (to families) to make sure that you have a plan B ready.

I would like to say that Canada offers a great life to families, it does, BUT as a Temporary Foreign Worker you are exactly that... TEMPORARY, until you have the PR card.

Steam and Oil at the waterfront in Paducha KY

Waking up at Walmart in Jamestown ND

Most Walmart stores allow loaded or empty trucks to park overnight in their car parks, but if drivers keep dumping their rubbish there before driving off the privilege of parking there will be taken away. My bet would be that it is the recent influx of Europeans who make the mess, particularly the litter bug British!

Wyoming with big reels on the way to Texas.

Cath looking a bit dinky next to the 15'6" reels

In print!

I wrote an article for a UK magazine recently, and it was accepted and published in the August issue. They made a couple of mistakes from the copy which I sent, having Cath down as an ex Wallace Arnold driver, where in fact she was a travel agent, and also spelling 'many fold' as manifold, (EDIT : They didn't make a mistake with 'many fold', they corrected my mistake as it should indeed have been manifold!) but I liked the end result, and I hope people enjoy it.

The magazine is available from all good newsagents, or on-line here... CLICK

New truck time

We've been in the 2006 Peterbilt since October and covered over 100,000 miles in that time, but one of the more modern Freightliners came vacant recently so I asked the boss if we could have it as it has more room than the Pete.
Returned from our last run down to South Carolina and went out to Wynndel again to pre-load lumber for after the weekend which is going to Knoxville TN.

All pictures on this post taken by Cath.

Edit: Another reason to change trucks is so that Chris Arbon can spot us easier!