north carolina today. got some bad news (don't laugh!)...matt tripped in the truck (when it was parked apparently) and his binder went flying into the windshield and produced a large crack in the windshield. oy vay. so tomorrow morning we're heading to a shop to get it fixed. hopefully it won't cost too much. but anyways...today we just wait...because apparently all semi trick repair shops are closed on the weekends...odd. oh, and get this. our dispatcher is mad because we're idling the truck too much. um.. ok... put it into perspective..... this truck is where we live, eat, sleep, watch movies, surf the internet, annnnnnd keep my cat sheltered. in 100 degree weather we are expected to keep the AC off?? psh. right. SO. we are tryiiiiiiiiiing to get our idling percentage down...but it is quite a feat..considering the 98 percent humidity of most of these southern states. in the meantime, matt and i decided that the perfect ending to this little truck adventure of mine would be a trip to DISNEYLAND. :) he hasn't been there since he was like...four or something. waaaayyyy too long ago. and i am just an avid disneyland lover! haha. in the meantime, my dear kitten has been truckin along and catchin some rays too. her favorite place to sleep is on the dashboard. lol. she used to be scared of it but now we can hardly keep her off it. i must confess, it's quite entertaining. ;)

p.s. caught my kitten eating my bowl of grits when i wasn't looking. lol. well....that's my cat for ya. :D

sleepin in virginia tonight. it's the coolest place we've been yet.. about 75 degrees at night. not bad. :) today was more of a small adventures day. we drove, i read (currently reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis), annnnd matt and i explored a wonderful gift shop/ art gallery here at our truck stop. what can i say? it was full of herbal soaps, sculptures and even a food court. lol. very nice. anyways, it's very beautiful here and green. and right now i'm so tired. i sat through a ton of traffic today...which somehow leaves you feeling exhausted. haha. nonetheless, i'm still mourning the departure of florida and the fact that i didn't get to dip my toes into the oh-so-close-but-just-out-of-reach ocean. but florida ended with a bang. when we went to pizza hut the other night we met a very interesting man who just makes animal balloons for people on certain nights of the week. and i guess it was our lucky night because he was there. lol. he was a really neat guy...and i left with a couple balloons on my hands and big cheesy i-feel-five-years-old-again smile . haha. i'm not sure why it was so special to be honest....maybe it's because i just wasn't expecting it... pleasant surprises are always nice. and it just reminded me that you never know who or what or what adventure waits out there until you go see. and i think i'm living that very motto out in my life...right now. :) hmm

hello all :)

today i am in the sunshine state..yup..florida! it is incredibly hot and i am about 2 hours away from the ocean by foot....and only about 10 minutes away by car. the only problem is...it is 103 degrees--so walking is out of the picture. AND we could drive except...it's not so easy to go into town with a semi. there may not be a place to park annnnnnd some streets have truck restrictions...so there's really no way of knowing. WHAT TORTURE! (so close and yet so far...) i think i can practically smell the saltiness of the ocean.... mmmm. palm trees everywhere, ya know, exactly how you'd picture it. anyways, when a trucker is appointed to take a load to florida...it usually takes a while for us to get a load going OUT of florida. supposedly they import a lot of goods but only export...like orange juice. lol. so once we got here we kinda had to sit around all day. but we did all of our laundry and cleaned out the truck. this morning we went to the waffle house-- which is kind of like the southern version of...denny's? not quite though, waffle house has DELICIOUS breakfast! complete with grits, eggs and bacon! :) mmmmmm! i still don't understand why we don't serve grits on the west coast. what a shame. anyways, tonight we're heading to pizza hut...and tomorrow to OHIO. :D

more rain pics for your entertainment :)

Fun in the rain

BY ASHLEY

the enthusiastic jump:

the...oh look at my hair...:

the "i'm very soaked":

the attempted cartwheel:

curently in albama. and loving the weather. 90 degrees...and pouring rain. it feels tropical almost. i absolutely love it. so much so, infact, that during one particularly stormy part of the day while we were at our truck stop...i decided to dance in the rain and just soak it up ( literally lol). people were watching (as they often do when a crazy girl goes out in the pouring rain and starts dancing and twirling) ...but i was just having too much darn fun to really care. white shirt...i know it's a faux pas.. but i got back in the truck before i got to wet...no worries. lol. but sometimes a few good minutes of crazy boogie-ing is really all a girl needs to get by. this whole experience was kind of a cool analogy for ...life :) i'm always so worried about what people will think about me that i talk myself out of dancing in the rain. today i realized that when you do get the guts to get out there and be who you are...you'll never end up regretting it. and that's a fact :D

i knew the day would come...and it came. today i had my very first prostitute sighting. i honestly hadn't seen a single one until tonight when matt suddenly said, "ashley quick! a prostitute!!" i know what you're all thinking. what's so amazing about a prostitute? and to answer your question...i'm not quite sure. i'm fascinated for some reason. it's kind of like when there's a car accident on the freeway and you just..have to look. that's the best analogy i could come up with. haha. what's worse...i saw this woman walking from car to car until a man in his truck waved at her and she obviously took him up on the offer. ewww. i swore i'd get a picture of her as soon as she got back out. and it wasn't easy either. i was trying to be very stealth about it but she kept loooking at me. nonetheless, i got my photo.

oh...and not even FIVE minutes later a policeman patrolled the truck stop. but he had just missed her...she was already gone. :/

B-E-A uuuuuuuutiful arkansas:

out my window:

roo on the atlas:

...blue skies...green everywhere.... :) mmmm

oops! turns out we're headed to arkansas, not arizona. which means we will still be lingering in the south...with its humid weather and funny accents. right now we are driving through tennessee. i just saw nashville and memphis! memphis being the home to elvis' infamous Graceland. i didn't get to see these cities in depth, but just passing through they were gorgeous. i'm a big city lover. anyways, it's still early and not much has happened yet. i just wanted to fill you in that we aren't heading west anymore. i'll let you know how arkansas is when we get there!

[currently in kentucky]

hello folks! i'm here in kentucky :) today and yesterday mostly consisted of driving...go figure. and now i'm currently resting at a truck stop. truck stops are pretty legit. complete with showers, a convenience store, a laundromat, a lounge room and oftentimes a restaurant.

there was just a huge summer rainstorm. wow. for a southern californian, summer rainstorms are more of a fairytale than an actually reality. and now i know...i'm a BIG fan. the air is warm, the rain is cool...ahhhh... just what i needed. and when i stepped out of the convenience store and walked back to my truck i witnessed the most beautiful double rainbow. how could you not love knetucky??? :)

anyways, not much else for now. just tons of reading, keeping my cat entertained, loving the view from my passenger side window and just...enjoying life.

only one day left to survive the monotony of just...sitting. tomorrow at 2 AM (no that wasn't a typo) we will be getting up to drive to the pick up location, then ON TO KENTUCKY! i didn't know much about kentucky so i decided to research it. homeland to good ol' honest abe, fried chicken, the longest cave on earth, annnnnd johnny depp. :) cool. i am ready as can be to hit the road. as for my kitten---she's been gettin pretty anxious too. i caught her trying to drive the semi today.......silly girl ;)

[still in pennsylvania]

went for a walk since we're stuck at this god-forsaken rest stop for 2 days. the weather here is muggy and warm. it's that kind of weather that makes you want to take another shower as soon as you step outside. on the bright side, the country was BEAUTIFUL. :) i saw the infamous 'amber waves of grain' that we all sing about. someone driving by pulled over and asked us for directions, only to find that we too were just as clueless as they were. but hey, that means we must've looked native! apparently i look pennsylvanian. :) it was a fun day...i even cleaned out the truck and organized everything. *ahhhhhh* good feeling. nonetheless, my absolute favorite part of my day was the sign i saw while i went on my walk through the country. haha. gotta love pennsylvania!!

[currently in Pennsylvania]

....there we were,cruising down the highway when i saw a very explicit sign that read "new york city 115 miles". i think i almost jumped out of my skin. new freakin york. i've only wanted to go there ever since i knew it existed. i could see it now...bright lights..colossal skyscapers..the disarray...the bustling of the people. i turned to Matt and asked him if we were headed to new york. "if my dispatcher tells me to go to new york i'm going to turn down the load..", he said stubbornly. WHAT...!?! ..well folks, it turns out that the streets in new york are built a little too narrow. at one truck stop we stayed at we met a guy named Papi. Papi said he drove thru NY once and it was..well it was gruesome to say the least. but between you and me, i will singlehandedly force matt to accept any load whatsoever to NY. haha...i haven't given up the fight---don't worry. my persistence is untouchable :) .

anyways, we actually have to take our next load to kentucky and then to arizona. which is heading back west. :( i got more antsy the closer we got to the east coast, just to discover that we'll be turning back around. however, i have to admit that the intriguing part of this adventure is not knowing where it's going to take me next! As for now, we are in pennsylvania. is it weird that i've been dying to see scranton, pennsylvania because it's where the hit tv show "the office" takes place? lol. maybe.

so this is how it works: matt has a dispatcher. this dispatcher tells him where to pick up his next load. we go pick up that load and deliver it to the given destination. simple as that. kind of. haha. there's actually a lot of stuff that happens in between. like hanging out at truck stops.. meeting other truckers...daring to try the food at truck stop restaurants (which is a pretty risky adveture in itself). for all you who are wondering, i haven't seen a prostitute yet--but i'm keeping my eyes peeled!! lol.

in the meantime we are here in pennsylvania. we are supposed to pick up our load in 2 days...which means we're just chillin at the rest stop for a while. i think we are out by the country so we might go out for a nice walk. your muscles do get a bit cramped after a while. it's good to have you along--especially on long days where all a trucker can do is...wait.

OH! and if you're ever on the road, keep your eyes out for us! big red semi, utah license plate, girl with brown hair and a kitten. just do the good ol' air pumping truck horn motion and we'll be sure to give you a honk ;)

Here we go...

welcome aboard :) today begins the first day of my blog and i'm glad you're here to experience it with me. question. have you ever seen those huge big rigs on the freeway? sure you have. everyone has. but where ARE they going? where have they BEEN? what do they do all day anyway? well...about a week ago i decided i wanted to take a glimpse into the life of a trucker. my good friend matt was more than willing to take me (and my kitten) along for a ride in his semi...for who knows how long. for me, i knew it was time for an adventure. to try something new. besides, i haven't even seen much of the U.S.! all i've seen so far is good ol' california, which is where i was born and raised. but california has been feeling a bit cramped lately. it's time to get out and discover the world, meet new people, experience new things... and maybe discover a little something about myself along the way. so if you're interested, come along. but consider yourself warned--it's gonna be a bumpy ride. :)