Winston rides along as we pull the UHaul through the Northwest!

Well it is that time already- I have been in North Dakota for 11 months, 18 days, and 9 and a half hours: Juy 1, 2008 – June 19, 2009. Today is the day that the dog and I hook up the trailer and pull all of our stuff out to Arlington, WA to be reunited with Jaci in a very nice house that is about 20 minutes north of Everett! It has been an eventful year, and full of lots of weather, but it was a very good experience living somewhere that was so far out of my comfort zone. Now that I’m gone, I’m positive I’ll miss it!

Mom made the trip out from Columbia to be a road assistant and dog handler on the trip, so we are looking forward to spending some time together. Thanks to her amazing packing effort, the trailer was loaded (well- Mike would be proud because of his UPS background) in record time, and we managed to leave around 930. The truck is all loaded up, and seems to be pulling ok- but so far it has been struggling up the mountains, and we haven’t even hit the Rockies or Cascades yet! We are in Billings now, and plan to make it to Coeur D’Alene or Spokane tonight, and then make the final push tomorrow. Unfortunately, the weather is looking extremely bad.

Follow @lbengfort and @bbengfort on Twitter to find out more about trip updates!

Winston is initially curious about truck driving.

Some of you may know that Tim is driving a fuel tanker now from ethanol plants in the south to gas pipelines here up north. Fuel prices have recently shot up thanks to the current events in this region, and the trucking company has been desperate for drivers- so as a result he is on the road today, even though the roads aren’t so good. Yesterday we decided that we should probably go to where the semi was parked and brush it off, warm it up, and generally prepare it for work; and since Winston has been getting cabin fever along with the rest of us, we decided to take him for a little puppy ride.

At first he was very interested in the Semi, and he really enjoys riding in the back seat of the pick up truck. I suspect watching out the window of a moving vehicle is akin to doggy TV. However, as the day drew on, Winston realized that being a trucker dog meant a lot of hard work and getting tossed about.

Pain number 1: Winston tries to get into the semi. As you can see from the above picture, the cab of the semi is probably about twice Winston’s height. That didn’t stop him. He jumped, he missed, he fell in the mud- and he was very displeased. Unfortunately we weren’t paying much notice to Winston because we had just discovered that the semi was stuck- really stuck, and we couldn’t get it out.

Pain number 2: In the last of our several attempts to free the semi from the mud, we tried to tow it out with the pickup. Unfortunately, Winston had to sit in the back seat for the duration of this indignity. And as we drove forward trying to jerk the semi out, he was tossed around the back because he couldn’t figure out the seatbelt. Needless to say, he isn’t so fond of the idea of a trucker dog anymore.

Gives driver dirty look after being tossed about in the back.

Looking back, I realized that I haven’t blogged a lot about surviving the weather here- and I do get a lot of comments on Facebook and Twitter, especially from friends on the West Coast about how to survive these extreme colds and weather conditions, so I thought I would at least get one post going on the topic. They say here that there is no such thing as bad weather- just bad gear. Welll, at least they say that to me. However, my number one survival tip is this: don’t go out! That hasn’t been necessarily easy with my commute, because often roads and interstates are closed by drifts and blowing snow, but the University still doesn’t close. On Wednesday, I couldn’t make it into school because the interstates were closed, and I was forced to stay at home. By the way, if you drive on a closed interstate and get caught- that is a $1000 fine and jail time!

On more than a few occassions I have been forced to get a room in Fargo to ensure that I make it to school, or because I simply cannot reach home because of the weather. However, for driving, my truck is packed with the following items to get me unstuck or to survive:

• Snow Shovel (for digging yourself out)
• Sand (weight for grip in the bed, but also for traction when you are stuck)
• Blanket, -30 degree sleeping bag, warm hat, boots, gloves (all extra).
• Chocolate (for energy in case I can’t get out).
• Survivor candle – a candle that burns for hours and creates both warmth and light.

Of significant importance I’m told, is that if I get stuck- don’t get out of the car, don’t try to walk anywhere. Pretty much that is a death sentance- wait to be found. In addition, I never go anywhere or begin one of the legs of my trip with less than a half a tank of gas- that gas will keep heat running and you don’t want to be limited by the amount, not to mention, gas is weight that gives you traction!

In the end, it’s cold, but I’ll survive. My wife did it for what I can only imagine were the longest 18 years of her life! Needless to say, we will certainly be planning on living somewhere warmer after I have recieved my degree!

Now basically all digital content has been made available on demand via the Internet. You can get streaming radio- or podcasts downloaded to your iPod (or other mobile audio player) and listen to them when you want to. For instance, I listen to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me- an NPR news quiz that is hilarious and informative during the week. Unfortunately it comes on during the weekend when I’m not available to listen live, so I download it as a podcast. My Chumby streams live internet radio and podcasts from my iTunes, so I can listen while I work. If you are not doing this already, I highly encourage it- there is a lot of great content out there that can really add a lot to your daily routine.

To carry this forward, I want to talk about two services that allow me to get varied intellectual content that I couldn’t get elsewhere- Audible.com and iTunes university. Audilble.com is a repository of all sorts of audio files from audio books to speeches, to the daily newspaper read out loud to you. But more on this in a second. iTunes university is a download service from Apple that allows you to download lectures and other academic audio recordings from professors from schools all over the United States. Talk about ways to keep your mind engaged while you’re driving!

While iTunes University is mostly free lectures- Audible.com is a paid for service. You can either purchase audio content individually for a premium price, or pay a subscription fee (of varying levels) that give you monthly credits to purchase audio works. Personally, I am on the subscription plan, and I have already “read’ (heard) many great audio books as a result. Each reading is a performance, and they have some really excellent authors and narrators. I highly recommend it. Don’t have an iPod? Don’t worry- Audible has 5 different formats that you can download to- so you won’t be stranded just because you went with the Zune.

My father-in-law has just got a new job driving a tanker out here- and we are already getting him set up with these services. They keep you sharp and engage you, all while allowing you to do other things. People have been predicting the demise of radio- but audio content is still very accessible and very important- certainly it is much better than TV and much more engaging! Stay tuned for some podcast and Audible recommendations!