Still in Indiana

Yesterday morning we woke early and headed out in this glorious sunrise

Auburn, IN

to deliver a truckload of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat bars which we had brought from Ohio. 37,000 pounds of candy, can you imagine? And we couldn't eat any of it! We delivered to a WalMart distribution center in Auburn, IN. The driver's restroom there was clean, for a change. I know I was in for a positive restroom experience when I saw these two indications:

A Restroom Cleaning Chart that was actually updated

Wow!

The only drawback of this lovely facility is that it was up two flights of outdoor stairs, the kind made out of open metal fencing where you can see all the way down as you're ascending and descending. Not good for a person such as myself who is terrified of open heights like bridges and balconies. But I braved it, not once, but twice. That's how nice this restroom was.

After being dispatched on our wild goose chase to Indianapolis (see earlier post), we were driving south on I-69 and I was crocheting when I heard Mr. Trucker ask: "who's Vera Bradley"? My head snapped up so fast I almost gave myself whiplash and I grabbed my camera and JUST managed to get this shot off

Vera Bradley Headquarters, I'm guessing...

I texted my dear friend, Polly, who loves all things Vera, and told her that we had just passed Vera Bradley HQ, and she shot back with "You must be in Indiana!". Does she know her Vera, or what?

After arriving at the terminal in Indianapolis last night and being laughed out of the mechanic's garage, we decided to go in search of dinner. We uncoupled from the trailer and drove the tractor a little over a mile to where all the restaurants were. We thought Chinese sounded good and stopped at a place called Ya Ching. Our plan was to walk up to the door and look at the menu to see if if sounded good and not too pricey. We met a woman coming out who saw our hesitation and stopped to tell us how good the food was. We got talking to her and found out that she was originally from LaCrosse, WI, so she was excited to talk to fellow Wisconsinites. She was extremely interesting. She had lived a lot of different places, had been married to a Chinese man and her daughter (who was with her) is half Chinese, so we trusted her food reference. She ended up following her daughter to Indianapolis and lives here now, and  she enthused about the city and said we really needed to see the downtown, but "not this weekend, The FFA convention is going on", the implication being, I gather that the downtown area will be mobbed with surly teenagers wholesome farm kids from all over the country.

Inside Ya Ching, our hunger got the better of us (we hadn't eaten anything since a bowl of oatmeal in the morning) and we ordered way too much food. The WonTon soup and the Potstickers were absolutely fabulous. The House Lo Mein was also excellent, and we should have stopped there, but we had also ordered a Duck entree, which of course came with rice. Mr. Trucker discovered a section of the menu which was entirely in Chinese, and he asked our waitress about it. She said to him "That is for Chinese people". When he asked her if he could get something off it, she told him no, and said he wouldn't like it. Well, that just egged him on and he wouldn't rest till she agreed to bring him something off that section of the menu that he couldn't get off the regular section. He's like a little kid, really. She rattled off a couple of selections, one of which was pork stomach, which I was willing to try, but he wasn't. She also teasingly told him there were some things which still had heads and eyes attached. She ended up bringing us a Garlic Pepper shrimp dish, which Mr. Trucker loved! We took tons of leftovers back to the truck. Thank goodness for that little 110v cooler. We'll be eating Chinese for days!

Lovely Lo Mein

Huge Garlic Pepper Shrimp
off the "Chinese only" menu

And now for a late-breaking update to the Chad/Indy/maintenance situation: Mr. Trucker had emailed Chad a little bit ago telling him to get us a load out of here or rent us a hotel and a car so that we can live like humans. We just now got a response from Chad saying "I'll see what we can come up with for ya. I may send you on a load and then get to another terminal as it doesn't look like they will work us in early." No kidding, Chad! Did you finally wake up and get with the program? What have we been trying to get you to do for weeks?!!! Sometimes I just wanna shake this kid till his teeth rattle!

I'll wind up today's post with a picture I snuck of Mr. Trucker taking a lil snooze outside the WalMart distribution center yesterday. Isn't he sweet? Shhhhh, don't wake him!

My Beloved

Today's silly sounding place name: Mogadore, OH.

Too much of a good thing?

You'll never guess where we spent the night last night? The Iowa-80 truck stop. It's about the same at night as during the day, only much busier. There were many high school sports teams stopping in there for a quick dinner on the way to/from some game or other.

This place would look right at home on the Vegas Strip

Can't hardly miss that sign

Today was mostly uneventful. By that, I mean that I was pretty unmotivated to rouse myself to take pictures or think of witty commentary. Partly because we are crossing back over territory we've driven several times in the last couple weeks. Also partly, I believe, because it's Sunday, and I just felt sleepy and lethargic. It's supposed to be a day of rest, right? We listened to a couple church sermons on the radio this morning, one was direct from Moody Bible Institute. We're on the I-80 route from Iowa to Ephrata, PA (our stopping place for tonight).

Mr. Trucker rudely awakened me from a nap when he stopped for lunch in Gary, Indiana, and we walked a couple blocks to THIS place

Corner of Burr St & 25th Ave
Gary, Indiana 

Cooking away

It was awesome. For $6.49 we split a combo, which consisted of a drink, fries, and the original Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, which was way bigger than one person could eat, and it was extremely messy! Best Philly Cheesesteak I've ever had, not that I'm any expert, having never actually been to Philly...Anyway, it made a nice change from truckstop diner cuisine.

We did some shopping at WalMart yesterday. WalMart is the truck driver's shopping center of choice, because it's the only place I know of which consistently has plenty of truck parking, and will allow trucks in its parking lot.  We picked up some microwaveable bowls and a microwave pot. We're going to TRY to make more meals in the truck, although the packaged microwave meals aren't necessarily any healthier than what you can eat at Denny's or the Country Pride truckstop diner. They are, however, less expensive. Whenever we do eat out, Mr. Trucker likes to play this little game called: "Let's See If We Can Keep It Under Ten Dollars". He's such a tightwad. It's a good thing that he is, cuz I lean more towards the spending side of life, and we are trying to really sock away a pile. I also bought some Quaker Oats original oatmeal to cook in our new pot. I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning, just so I can try it out.

As we drove east through Indiana this afternoon, I was on the lookout for a billboard we had seen there two weeks ago, so that I could get a picture for the blog. While I was waiting, I spotted this one, always a good reminder

Says it all...

By the time we finally got to the billboard I was waiting for, I had gotten antsy and responded to a text from Sassy, so I pretty nearly missed it. As it is, you may have to zoom in to see what it says

Indiana Coffee and Chocolate to help Numb the pain of Ohio

I spent part of today working on these little items, halloween costumes for two of Sassy's cats (I'm sparing the nursing mama the humiliation of being squeezed into one of these)

Little Candy Corn Halloween costumes for the cats!

I should be able to get these mailed to Sassy tomorrow. I can't wait till I can post pictures of Jasper and Donovan looking thrilled in their costumes. I have enough yarn left to make about 50 more of these, so I'm taking orders...I just don't know how I'll get them to you in time for Halloween.....

Here's my brilliant revelation for the day.  I had this sudden thought and I said to Mr. Trucker: "We have to be saving a fortune on toilet paper!". When there were five of us living at home (three of them women), we went through a TON of toilet paper. A ton, I tell you! Now we're not buying any. One of these days we'll sit down and figure out just how much this is saving us, but not today. Five states in one day has got me all worn out.

Today's silly sounding place name: Cuyahoga, OH.