Continuing...

Then on the way back to our hotel, again wandering.  We ran into stopped traffic and discovered the end of this event.  Pretty cool.

A Regular Life

We had a pretty normal and fun day.  Teresa set off to get a hair color and I headed out for car wash and oil change.  Success for all.  Then we drove the HCI van over to our 5:00 am Monday testing site in Haverhill, MA.   Without a plan we just were enjoying the day.  First Washington Square, then we spotted a sign.  Teresa likes signs, like maybe it's a "sign";  Greek Festival.  So we headed over and had an excellent Greek meal.

Leaf Peepers

The locals in the northeast have a name for the tourists that come to see the fall colors; you guessed it "Leaf Peepers" and we have officially peeped.   The colors have just been changing for about a week now, but amazingly fast.  The colors are quite brilliant.  During one of our excursions we ran into an old Robert Frost homestead.  Interesting but not quite as colorful.

Saturday in Maine

We are really bad photo bloggers... Either we forget our camera or forget to take pictures.  We got a couple for the evening but they don't tell the whole story.

We spent Sat afternoon checking out Portland, ME, seems like we always run into a wedding no matter where we are.

 

We had dinner at one of Teresa's favorites.  If you haven't been to a Whole Foods store, you must.  Note that I did not say it was cheap !  But with a little gratis grazing (that's what we call it) you can justify it.

With a some time left before our ball room dancing we stopped off at a Salvation Army store and got three sweaters and a coat for 20 bucks, not bad.  

We topped of Saturday at the Maplewood Dance Center.  Got a beginners lesson, got to dance and we're treated to five performances by local dancers.  Our own Dancing With The Stars.  The studio was great. Actually built by the DJ.  Cap'n John and his wife were great hosts.the good news is we did not embarrass ourselves too badly.  Was a great time.  Thank goodness for Google, that's how we found out about Maplewood. 

Biddeford and Kennebunkport Maine

Now that we're caught up I can start posting our new travels.  Yesterday we drove the Maine coastline north and ate at the Clam Bake, great food.  But it seems the season has died.  Most of the shops were closed but the Clam Bake was open.  This morning we went south along the coast and passed former Pres. Bush's enclave.

Biddeford Pool is the oldest settlement in Maine, est 1617.  That's history.

Tonight is ballroom dancing in Portland...

Old Dogs Learning New Tricks

We're baaack.  Actually we got back from Australia in January, what a wonderful trip.  Amazing sights and wonderful people.  We decided that we really didn't like semi-retirement.  You can only lounge so long.  If you missed our trip check out our Funksworkabout.blogspot.com.

But now we're back.  I started right off working for John Christner Trucking out of Sapulpa, OK.  Hated it from day 3.  First problem was pulling a refer.  Dumb me.  I had always hated parking next to a refer and now I'm hauling one.  Second issue was they pushed you to drive a full 11 hours as fast as you could, then take your 10 hour break and start again, no matter what time it was.  That just did not fit for Teresa and myself.  We like a little more consistency.  Lastly, they did not pay for detention (waiting to load or unload).  After sitting for 14 hours waiting to get loaded, I decided that was it.  To be fair, the pay was pretty good.

After a bit, while at JCT, Teresa went to CDL school at Central Tech.  Did great.  Took a couple of extra days to get her backing down, but she did.

So we decided that since we had previously enjoyed driving for Schneider we would give team driving a try.  The folks at Schneider were great, the pay was good.  Actually they did everything they  could to make it work for us but we just didn't like driving 12 - 14 hours every day.  We did it for 5 months but it was just to much time for our butts in the seat.

We're now onto our next JOBS.  Doing some investigating online we found a website called WorkingCouples.  They have all kinds of positions for couples who want to work together.  I found a few that sounded interesting and sent out a few letters.

We're now working for HCI (Health Conservation Inc.) based out of Rockford, IL. We are now certified Occupational Hearing Conservationists.  We drive the HCI van from plant to factory to recycling center and any place that has high decibel working environments ( over 85 dB ) and test the employees' hearing.  We will also do pulmonary fitness testing and vision screening.

We  have evenings, weekends and holidays off and sleep in motels instead of sleeping in a truck.  We have finished two weeks and so far it is going great.