Josh Made Operator!

After being at his new job for only a few weeks Josh got a promotion and is now an operator! The new responsibility comes with a pay raise and truck pay since he has to drive his truck onto the ROW everyday. It's a HUGE deal and I am so proud of him!

Getting truck pay was a fiasco though. 

First, we had to get Josh's insurance to put his company on their policy (thanks to Josh's mom, Suzi, for taking care of that!). 

Next, we had to get a truck. Luckily, there was one in Wisconsin that we could have so I drove the Suburban to Iowa (*Ugh!) where I met Josh's mom and grandpa. I traded the Suburban for a small Silverado, had lunch with Suzi and grandpa, and then headed to Ryan and Missy's place in Omaha. I spent the night in Omaha where I hung out with Missy and my adorable nephew! He is at such a fun age! The next morning I made the long drive back to Colorado with our "new" (it has almost 280,000 miles on it) truck. 

The final step was getting the truck ready for work. So, when I got back to town I met Josh at a local store where we had to spend a TON of money to buy a fuel tank and other supplies that Josh needs for the truck.

[Josh getting his supplies]

It cost a lot of money to get everything situated but it'll all be worth it!

 Here's some pictures of the UNEV pipeline in Utah/Nevada (where we met) and the pipeline that he is working on now:

[UNEV Valve Location]

[Josh had three different jobs on the UNEV line: swamper, operator, and X-Ray Tech. This is the X-Ray truck he worked in]

[UNEV Line]

[First day at work in Colorado]

[Army truck on the Colorado Line]

[Windmills!]

[Sidebooms on the Colorado Line]

[Pipe gang]

[Trencher]

[Trackhoes]

[Creature!]

[ROW]

[Sideboom - Josh's new machine]

*Nebraska is FLAT, long, boring, and smells like cows! AND the harvest was going on so by the time I reached Iowa my allergies were out of control!