Prattle

This is my home away from home.  Those are crude oil tanks behind the truck.  I travel to these well locations, load up 180 - 200 barrels of crude oil and take it to the tank farm where it is put in a big pipeline to ship it to the refineries in Louisiana.  Most of the wells were drilled for natural gas and the crude oil is a byproduct.  The problem is that the market for natural gas has been suffering.  We can't use it as fast as we drill it.

Teresa and myself are idling along now.  Clearing closets and each of us making three packing lists 1) 4,000 mile road trip, 2) Cancun and 3) Australia. For me - easy, my wardrobe doesn't change much until I actually wear something out.  Then it's an easy replacement.  On the other hand, if you're a peacock, and Teresa is, it's a little tougher. Imagine it.  First we'll spend nearly three weeks traveling in our VW bug visiting family.  Then we'll spend a week at a resort in Cancun.  And finally we will be headed to a huge cattle ranch/show horse operation in Australia.  How does a woman pack for all that, when all you get is a backpack ?  We'll see.

Once again we've got to unload 90% of our possessions.  We're either going to have the Salvation Army come pick up everything or we talked to the apartment manager and she may want it for some of the other residents.  Either way, I'm not moving it all.

Ready for breakfast. Today is Memorial Day, remember a fallen soldier.

We're Approved

The BIG news...  We got notification this afternoon that our Australian visas have been approved.

YAHOO   

Now we have to make flight arrangements and secure travel medical insurance.

Did you wonder why, after explaining why I can only blog on the weekend, I am blogging on Tuesday ?
This morning I left home at 0445 and headed to Kansas and picked up a load headed to Tulsa.  I delivered it at noon and got another assignment to do it again.  Fortunately the route CAN take me right back past the terminal.  It's only 5 miles from the house and Teresa said she could handle a visitor for another night.  So here I am.

Today was Teresa's last day of work as a teacher's aide.  She is so upset... NOT!!!  She enjoyed it a lot, it's just time for summer vacation.  A lady of leisure for now.

Anxious and Waiting

We've applied for our visa required to visit Australia, and are waiting. The approval group has asked for credit card statements and bank cards statements. They want to make sure we have the resources to get there and back (money) without being a burden on them. But, there was never any indication of what that amount should be.
So we wait...

Sunday we bought an Apple IPAD2 and a Samsung digital camera to capture and communicate our adventures. This post is written on the new IPAD. Bit different, not in love with it yet. First Apple product. Nope, not happy yet, I'm sure it will improve.

Not much to add, just waiting and testing.

How We Got Here

So why am I only blogging on the weekend ? 

Let me go back to the beginning.  A little more than 4 years ago Teresa and I left our liked, comfortable, well paying and slowly outsourcing IT jobs in Chicago, IL for me to be a truck driver.  Say what ?  Yep, truck driver.  I worked for Schneider National and Teresa rode along.  We took up residence in Teresa's home town, Ponca City, OK.  In those 4 years we covered all 48 states and Canada several times.  It was great, I mean it, great.  Schneider was good to me/us. 

We were on the road 26 days and home for 5, but man we saw it all.  Then, Teresa started getting a bit antsy.  First she stayed home one month, then she stayed home every other month.  And I'm still coming home for 5 days monthly.  Soon, very soon (she loves me you know), she said "enough."  Time for another change.

Hold on, I'm getting there. 

On one of my 5 days home I hit 5 trucking companies in the area, 4 were local driving jobs, meaning home every night and 1 was not.  Eventually, and that is another story, all of the companies offered positions.  The one company not local offered a position immediately.  That's the good news, the bad news is that I leave Monday morning at 6:00 am, work 5 days, as close to 14 hours each day as possible, without going over (that's the legal limit.) and get home Friday afternoon.  Then I'm off on the weekend.

By the time I work 14 hours, get a shower and eat dinner I'm too whipped to think about much else.  For the record; I am making slightly less than I was in IT, but I'm working a whole lot harder.  I like it though and using Mitt Romney's description, I am "resolute" about it.  We have a long range plan and this is what takes to get there.

So that's the long answer as to why I'm blogging only on the weekend, just thought you might want to know.

Next Step - Visa

Yesterday we applied for our Australian Visas.  We're applying for 12 month tourist visas.  It appears to be very difficult to get a worker Visa.  Unless you have a skill that has a deficit of workers or are a doctor, etc.  Anyway we applied for our one year visa and should hear back in 2 - 10 business days.
You have to be out of the country to apply for the visa.  Some hosts will sign for a second year visa and for that you have to be in country. 

Once we have our visas we can make travel arrangements. 

Teresa is in a bit of a dither...  School is out May 22, and that means no job for her.  Boo hoo !

She wants to work, sort of.  But who wants to find a job or employ someone for three months ?
Thus the dither.  More on that later.

It's Really Happening

We got a positive response via Helpx from Julie in Queensland and we are ready to start making travel arrangements now.  Julie and Rob, our hosts, run a 6000 hectare (that's about 15,000 US acres) horse and cattle operation.  It looks like it's about 180 miles north of Brisbane.

It's really going to happen !!!  Julie sounds as eager to have us as we are to be there.  Can you believe it they're going "let" us exercise their horses in return for room and board.  Course there will be other chores like gardening, mucking out the stables and general maintenance.  What a deal, it's a win-win for all parties.

We don't have an end date at this time, I think that will evolve kind of naturally.  But it's our workabout start.

So now what happens ? 

As wives like to do, Teresa has thrown a few more ideas at me.  Here's what we're planning now;

Our last work day will by Friday 8/31.  We'll spend the weekend finishing moving stuff to storage. Then about Sept 3 or 4 we will start on a 4,000 mile road trip.  We'll head first to Salt Lake City, then on to Nampa, Id where we'll spend my birthday with my Mom.  Then we'll head to Monterey, CA for a few days and then Ridgecrest, CA and finally back home.  4,000 miles... whew...

Finally, we'll either go up to Chicago to see Tracie, or she'll come down here.  By the way, a quick shout out to Tracie, she finished the last of her finals for her nursing program.  Upon certification, she will be a registered nurse.  GOOD JOB TRACIE !!!

On 9/30 we will have Andrea take us to the airport in OKC and we will head "down-under," arriving in Brisbane 2 days later.  WOW...

Teresa is up now and is ready to talk details.