Murphster Retuns Home

Murphster arrived back at Proctor School in the Big Rig!

What a fun day!

Mrs. Klipfel and Murphster in the Big Rig.

Let's have a Teddy Bear Picnic!

Jen with Murphster, Mrs. Murphy, and Doug

Jen and Doug have a new Team Murphy blanket for the truck.

Mrs. Dukehart loves sitting at the driver's wheel.

Touring inside the cab.

Teddy Bear Group Photo

Watch your step.

New clean hardwood floor.

Murphster Shares His Travels

Murphster has created 3 video slide shows of the highlights of his travels with Jen and Doug in the Big Rig across the US.  Click on the pictures below to view some fun stops Murpshster had along the way.

Murphster the Traveling Bear 1

Murphster the Traveling Bear 2

Murphster is Heading Home

We haven't had much time to stop this run but I've been enjoying the new sights by my seat on the dashboard and here I am checking out a southern magnolia tree, which are lined along the highway. The blossoming flowers are SO big, I love them! I hear lots of trees, flowers & the such are blooming back home! Hurray!

2 new states for Murph!

Hello Team Murphy!

What a whirlwind trip! Doug & Jen are a pretty good trucking team! We left northern CA Monday morning to San Diego (almost 500 miles) where we loaded the trailer and drove straight to Phoenix, AZ (300 miles) overnight for a 6:00 a.m. delivery, then to Tempe, AZ and straight off to Texas for several deliveries but we had to drive 1070 miles by the next morning! We hit the Dallas area of Plano & Frisco then south about 250 miles to the Houston area to Bryan. From there, we drove 425 MORE miles to New Orleans for another early a.m. delivery then drove straight north through Mississippi & Alabama (my 2 new states!) then on through TN & KY to Cincinnati, OH for 1st thing on Fri a.m. (which is about 800 more miles)! Whew! After 2 drops in OH, we will end our trip in Louisville, KY on Saturday a.m. for our last delivery and we have our fingers crossed that we will get a load to the northeast...home!!! This is my last trucking trip so I am happy to have checked off 2 new states! I looked at my map in our classroom book and it looks like I've been to 40 states since December!

Can't wait to truck it back to Topsfield!
-Murphster

Murphster crosses & walks The Golden Gate Bridge

What fun! The Golden Gate Bridge was built in 4 years time, it opened in 1937 and it cost $35 million to build! When it opened it was the world's longest & tallest structure but now it is the 3rd largest single span bridge in the world. It has 6 lanes for vehicles, a bicycle lane & even a pedestrian path to walk all 1.7 miles across! Every year, there are more than 40 million vehicles that cross it and that averages about over 110, 000 as a daily count! We crossed over the bridge, enjoyed the view of the bridge & also of the city of San Francisco from a vista point and decided to walk the bridge a bit! 

What an amazing experience that was, it was fun and scary all at the same time because it was VERY high up, the cars & trucks were zipping by us SO fast AND the bridge is verrry wobbly/shaky. The bridge is built to withstand 100 mph winds & also designed to handle earthquakes, as well, but with that said and knowing it was fine, it STILL felt unsafe to walk on! We didn't cross the whole bridge but did stop to enjoy the view of the twinkling lights of the city in the distance, as it was starting to get dark...we had a long day of walking the city & needed to get some rest because Doug & Jen were planning on visiting a place called Napa Valley the next day, which they decided to let me stay back at the truck for time catch up on my rest! :)

Murph visits San Fransisco!

Hi Gang!
    For my last trip to CA with Doug & Jen, they were hoping to get a new site in for me...and they did! We had a little time off from work, so we rented a car and drove to "The City By The Bay"...also known as San Francisco!

Murph helping Doug decide where to get started! Fisherman's Wharf & checking out their specialty there, Dungeness crab!

 Our first stop of the day was a very popular tourist area called Fisherman's Wharf, which has a very New Englandy feel. Set right on the waterfront, there are pier's all over & the most popular one is Pier 39, which is the hub of the wharf there and it has amazing restaurants, shops, entertainment, views of the Bay Bridge, the island of "Alcatraz", historical war ships & even a dock area where sea lions bask in the sun & provide some laughs for on-lookers with their playful ways. 

Pier 39, seals of Pier 39 & a funny mime we met!

As much as we didn't want to leave the fun there, we really wanted to see the popular sights of the incredibly hilly city, so we went looking for their historical cable cars to do just that. Jen, being the traditionalist that she is & Doug, being the really good sport that he is and me...just along for the ride...all waited for an hour in line for the cable car ride! But boy, was it worth it! We got to stand on the very front/side of the cable car (just like Jen always wanted to do!) & we held on to a railing the whole way! That was so much fun, it was kind of like a roller coaster going up & down those steep streets, we were surprised at how fast we went and how incredibly close to all the other cars we were! 

   We also visited some fun sights such as Ghirardelli Square where they make the famous chocolates of the same name (yummm!), also the most "crookedest" street in the world called Lombard St., (first we walked it THEN we drove it!), the home used in the movie "Mrs. Doubtfire", (one of Jen's family's favorite films) and also the home of the t.v. show, "Full House", as well as the picnic park in the opening scene of the show called Alamo Square where a row of pretty Victorian houses called, "The Painted Ladies" are shown. 

The Painted Ladies & Ghirardelli Square

   We could've used a good few days to see all of SF, but time was limited, so we wanted to make sure we got to see The Golden Gate Bridge before it got too dark, so off we went to see that on our way out of town. 

   What a wonderful city this is, I really didn't want to leave...there is a famous song called, "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and I loved the city so much that I do feel like I left a tiny bit of mine there.

Sad to be saying goodbye to California but glad to be coming home,
Murphster

Valentina in NY

Valentina in NY

Valentina at St. Peter Cathedral

Edzo Sends A Video

Meanwhile in CA...

Well, Murphster made it to northern CA this a.m., but what is wrong with these pictures? We hear it's like a summer day in Topsfield today but it's looking (and feeling!) like winter here!

Enjoy the sunshine & warmth back home!

Murph sees Salt Lake City, Lake & Desert!

Hi Everyone!
    What fun I had in Utah! Driving through the northwest part of the state, we passed through its capital, which is also its biggest city, Salt Lake City. A short drive after that, we passed by The Great Salt Lake, which is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere and it's far more saltier than sea water! Can you imagine that!? We then drove for about a 40 mile stretch of what's known as the Great Salt Lake Desert, which is an evaporated area of The Great Salt Lake, where salt crusts on the surface when water evaporates because the lake is very, very shallow and a lot of areas of it dry up during certain parts of the year. We stopped at a section called The Bonneville Salt Flats, where we could walk out and explore the salty ground. 

It is an amazing sight, there is salt as far as you can see and as deep as you can dig.

 The desert is about 4,000 square miles so we only saw a fraction of what there is to see. One popular thing tourists do, is spell their names out with stones & pebbles, much like writing names in the sand at a beach, but the salt is so compact, it is very difficult to write in it, hence the stone writing...so I did what a good touristy bear would do...I spelled out "TEAM MURPHY" in The Great Salt Lake Desert salt! :)

    I'm always thinking of you all back home,
-Murphster