Even The Best Laid Plans...

I have been in a state of despondency ever since our run to Texas fell through! We had a lovely Sunday in Minnesota. Sassy drove down to spend part of the day with us

Sassy and me

The three of us had a lovely time together. We had lunch, made a WalMart run, finished watching True Grit (the John Wayne version) in the truckers lounge, before Sassy headed back to St. Paul. Then Mr. Trucker & I got to watch our Green Bay Packers beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs before we had to jump in the truck, go get loaded and drive to southwestern Minnesota in the snow.

The next morning is when everything started to go south (figuratively, not literally). The load we were supposed to go pick up to take to Texas basically dried up and disappeared...instead we were instructed to head back east to Rochester, MN, and on the way we ran into a mechanical issue and ended up sitting at a truck stop for most of Monday waiting for a someone to show up and fix us. Then because it was late and the roads were bad, we just stayed there for the night. Yesterday we made it to Rochester (home of the Mayo clinic, by the way) to pick up our load. And just guess where it's going...yup, you got it! Pennsylvania! 

I feel like I'm in that movie, "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray. We just can't seem to break out of this rut of driving I-80 either east towards Pennsylvania or New Jersey, or I-80 west back to Illinois. I almost cried when I saw this:

No please! Anything but that! Once we cross back over,
we'll never make it back again!

In case you've ever wondered, the mighty Mississipp
does ice over

There are, however, open areas as well

It's as if we're destined never to make it west. Our dispatcher has promised (as much as dispatchers' promises can ever be relied on) to get us out to Portland, Oregon like we requested. It just may take a little longer. In the meantime, I'll try to think up some new material to breathe new life into old territory. Sigh.

Today's Silly Sounding Place Name:  Guckeen, Minnesota.