Back home....

Well, made it to Dallas around 1300 yesterday. Waited at the OC for Jessica to get there. j waited for her and I headed up to get Bandit. After I picked her up I headed home and met J and Jessica at the Wal Mart and we did a little grocery shopping. Finally made it home! Had a good evening and I went to bed around midnight. Justin and his girlfriend got here around 0130 I think.


So this morning we got up and exchanged presents. My belly is pierced and I got this really cool belly ring that is a semi! I will have to see if I can take a picture of it and post it on here. Also got a CD that I was wanting, some purfume/body shimmer stuff and a really soft robe from Victoria's Secret. Our big present to each other is going to be a really good camera. So we will get that later. Been a little busy out on the road to do much Christmas shopping. But since it is after Christmas, maybe we can get one on sale really really cheap!!

Update on Atlanta post - Good news

Well, I made the call. I got ahold of Julian. He isn't our normal contact, Tonya is, but she was out on vacation, and Julian and her are on the same team. Julian saved the day. I explained the deal to him and he realized that we were just sitting there in limbo. Well, he got on the ball and tried to figure something out. I was on the phone with him for about 10 minutes and then he said to let him work on it a little more and he would get back to me. We hung up, and I kid you not, it wasn't 3 minutes later when my Qualcomm beeped and it said we were being taken off that load and that they found a new load to keep us moving. It said that the new load info would follow shortly. Well, about 1 minute later, we got the load info on the Qualcomm and we were set. It was a load to Dallas which is PERFECT because that is where we needed to go. So.... way to go Julian!! YOU ROCK!!!!!

I am also excited because once we get back in town, we get to go pick Bandit up from our friends house! I have missed her so much! Only about 2 more months to go and then we will hopefully be in our own truck as Owner Operators so we can take her with us. Our friends Michelle and Stephanie have been alternating taking care of her. Stephanie for the most part, but Bandit goes over and visits Chewy at Michelle's once in a while. They have been AWESOME helping out with her since we decided to do this crazy thing called truck driving. :) But it won't be long and the 3 of us will be a family again. Now I just have to convince J that we need another small dog so that Bandit will have someone to keep her company while we are on the road. We will just have to wait and see how well that works out.......

Atlanta,GA

What a mess. Last night we got into Fairburn,GA and delivered our GP load. They had us bobtail back to the OC instead of taking an empty. I figure it is because Atlanta is such a small OC that there isn't a lot of room to park loaded trailers, let alone empty. So we head over here, and pull into the gate. While we were dropping our load, we got our next one. We were to pick up a relay here at the OC and take it to New Braunfels,TX. Keep in mind that we are supposed to be home tomorrow at 1800. I sent a message and asked them and they said we would be routed home after we delivered this load. It is only about 250 miles from Dallas, so I figured they would have us drop the load they just assigned us and then have us relay one to Dallas. Well, we get to the OC and find the trailer. We decide, since we are being lazy and it isn't due until the 29th at midnight, just like our previous load, that we will shut down till the morning and then head out. This morning rolls around and I am awakened by a LOUD thunder clap. Great... Get up, get dressed, run inside to the ladies room, and head over to hook up to the trailer. Get to it and remember it is high value so we drive over to the Estimator, which is where they keep the paperwork and king pin lock at this OC. J goes in to get the stuff and comes b ack empty handed. Hmmm this isn't looking good. He hops in and proceeds to tell me that the trailer we are supposed to pick up is showing TBO (bad trailer) and he was told all the product has to be unloaded from that trailer to another trailer. Unfortunately it isn't looking like that is going to happen today. From the looks of things, someone was trying to slide the tandems, and the passenger side of the trailer went into the 5th hole and the drivers side went into the 4th hole. Not sure how that happened, but it is all out of alignment. And it is obvious from just looking at it. The front tandem is crooked.

SO.....that was at 0930 this morning. I called our DBL who was going to notify our TP. I also notified our TP by Qualcomm and by voice mail and I still haven't heard anything back. It is now 1300 hours. Starting to get a little upset so I am going to call again. I don't mind sitting if I know it is because they are still trying to find us a load back to Dallas. But what I don't like is not hearing ANYTHING back from them. Not even a message that says "We are taking you off this load and trying to find you a load home. Will let you know as soon as we have something for you." At least then my message would have been acknowledged!

So that is what I am doing today. Hanging out in the truck waiting on a load. Fun fun fun.... :)

North Carolina and a small rant....

Last night we spent the night at the OC in Carlisle,PA. We got there around 1700, grabbed some dinner and did laundry. I hit the sack around 2030. I was so tired! So I was lazy today and got up at 0630. We grabbed a shower and breakfast and I headed out at 0830. We know that when we deliver this load, which isn't due until midnight tomorrow, that we will only have time for our load back to Dallas for our TAH, so there isn't any real reason to push it. I ran 471 miles today and that left J with just about 300 or a little less I think.

Right now we are coming into Charlotte,NC. Traffic has been horrible. It has been stop and go from Statesville,NC down to Charlotte. That is almost 40 miles. I really don't know why SB is so bad. Well, by now, rush hour is starting, but an hour and a half ago when we started it wasn't. He has driven 41 miles in that hour and a half. Dang..... Anyway, our plan is to fuel up here and grab dinner. We are hoping by the time we get done that rush hour traffic will have thinned out some and we can actually make some progress. Figure we will deliver between 2100-2200 tonight.

Also, I just wanted to say that a driver with Gainey Transport really pissed me off today. We both got stuck behind some slow traffic. As soon as possible, I put my blinker on to pass. He pulled out, and I had my blinker on, and he didn't let me over. He kept on going and passed us both. Now, this may not seem like a big deal to you if you don't drive a truck. But there is this thing called courtesy that most truck drivers have. We know what it is like to be stuck behind traffic, and to have our blinker on trying to pass, and 30 4 wheelers keep passing. KNOWING that we have our blinker on and want to get over. We get this crap all day long. As a truck driver, I let another truck driver in front of me, hell, I will let a 4 wheeler in front of me, because I am courteous. But this SHIT, either had his head up his ass, or was just a dick. So I got on the CB and told him, "Thanks Gainey, appreciate it" in the best smart ass voice I could muster. I don't think he had his CB on, but I felt better. Figured that was better than flipping him off......

Back on the road

Well, Christmas and our 34 hour restart are over and we are back on the road. We had a nice time staying at the hotel. Christmas Eve found us eating pizza and hot wings from Domino's and Christmas Eve found us eating burgers and chicken. All from places that deliver because we couldn't go anywhere since we were on a restart and couldn't use the truck. But it was a nice break and we made the most out of it.

Got up this morning and didh't have a load at 0600 when we said we would be available. Finally got one around 0900 I think. Picking up in Easton,PA and delivering to Fairburn,GA. YES!! Down south and out of the snow!! Also, puts us in a good place to get back home on the 29th for our TAH. So we are happy. Right now we are pulling into Carlisle to fuel and do some laundry. Probably pull out in the morning since we only have about 700 miles to go and we can get that done easily tomorrow. Load has until midnight day after tomorrow to be delivered so we are good.

Merry Christmas! And a little story....

Not much going on today. We are just sitting in the hotel chillin out. But I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

I did want to tell you about something that happened day before yesterday that was really cool. I had been driving across Iowa and pulled into the Pilot at Exit 284 to see what the weather was going to do. I pulled in and found a spot then spun around so I could straight line back into the spot. Backed in with no problem, set the brake and hit the high idle. I had been running with my CB on which is something I don't normally do. But the roads were so bad that I had it on in hopes of hearing whether or not the roads were gonna get any better or not. So as we were sitting there, a guy came on the CB and said he had a message for that lady Schneider driver that pulled in. He was talking about me. He continued on to tell a story about how, 25 years ago when he started driving, he came upon a female driving a semi. They were in California I think he said and it was bad weather. He said she was a petite woman, from what the could tell when he passed her. Maybe 5'2" and 130 lbs. She was going slow and had her hazards on. When he went around her, he got her on the CB and asked her what a little old gal like her was doing driving a big truck. She told him that her father or husband (I don't remember which) drove the truck for the coal mines and they were unable to drive the truck because of an accident, so she took up driving the truck to support the family. This driver said that when he saw her and she explained why she was driving, it changed his views of women in this industry. He said that right then and there he realized that anything a man could do, a woman could also do. He said that since then he has had the utmost respect for women that drive a truck in a male dominated industry. Then he proceeded to tell me good luck, God bless and to be careful out on those roads because they were bad. I told him thank you so much and that I wished more male drivers felt that way. He said he was heading out and that he was in a black Pete and when he pulled out, I told him to take care, then he was gone. It was one of those moments where I just felt really good. He made my day. I do wish that people were as tolerant as he is when it comes to women drivers, but overall, I have had good experiences.

So I just wanted to share that with anyone that reads this. It is feels good to be commended for doing your job by a complete stranger. Where ever he is, I hope he has a wonderful Christmas and many more safe travels.

Christmas in Newark,NJ

What a crazy few days! After we made it through Wyoming, J made it to just east of Omaha,NE and he had clear roads. Then I took over and drove from there to our first destination in Chicago. From Des Moines,IA to Walcott,IA which is roughly 175 miles, I counted 112 cars off of the road from the ice and snow. It was horrible, yet again, but I made it through. Then after we left Chicago, J was driving. There was a huge storm up on the great lakes causing gale force winds (according to the National Weather Service) and we were blown ALL over the road. We stopped for the night in Youngstown,OH. J was worn out. Then I got up and drove us the last 400 miles to finish delivering. I contacted support shift and they contacted the consignee and told them when we would be in. She said that they would wait until we got there. I was worried about it because it is Christmas Eve and was afraid that they would be closing early. We got there at 1530 which is when I said we would get there and there was NO ONE there. ARGH!! So I call in again, and they tell me someone should be there at 1600 to unload us and if they don't show up by 1630 that we should just drop the trailer. About 10 minutes later we get a message telling us to go ahead and drop the trailer and leave so that is what we do.

From there we head to the Kearny drop lot to try to figure out what we are going to do. We had thought about renting a car but it was too late to do that. All the cars were already rented when we called places. So we decided to get a hotel. I used our handy dandy GPS "Maggie" to locate a hotel, and here we sit, at the Courtyard by Marriott Newark Liberty International Airport location. Not the place we imagined spending Christmas, it is better. We knew we would be on the road and figured we would be driving. However the way things worked out, we ran out of hours and had to do a restart so it worked out perfectly! We have a nice hotel, had dinner delivered and have a king size bed to sleep in tonight. So I would say if we can't be home with family, then this is a pretty good alternative.

Laramie,Wyoming

I have never been so happy to stop in my life! I got up this morning at 0400 and by 0415 I was on the road. No side effects to the 5-hour energy I am happy to report. :) Anyway, I was about 40 miles west of the Utah border. So I took off. Small mountains on that side of Utah, then it goes flat as a pancake until you reach Salt Lake City. At that point it started to snow on me but it was only a few flurries and it stopped. Made it through SLC then up to Parley's Summit I go. That was a pretty steep drive. Going up and coming back down. Then comes the fun part. Enter Montana. 10 hours of driving, 1 hour on duty, and I only made 540 miles today. Coming across Wyoming SUCKED!!! More so than Sacramento traffic. High wind advisory. Gusts up to 65 mph, blowing snow creating white out conditions, 3 wrecks (one EB and two WB) for a total of 6 fatalities. I am WORN OUT!! Of course, now that I made it here, it is Joe's turn to drive, and no snow blowing and the roads are now clear. Just my luck.

So that was my day today. I am really happy it is over and done with. Reports are that the rest of Montana and Nebraska are all clear so J should have a good easy shift.

Sacramento

Now we are in Sacramento. But first, let me tell you about today.

J gets us to a truck stop last night 21 miles from destination. So we pull over and get about 4 hours good non moving sleep. I felt great when I woke up. So I run in and go to the restroom and come back and start getting my log book started for the day. I also take a 5 Hour Energy. I don't know how people feel about these, but they are all natural with vitamins and have the equivalent of 2 cups of coffee. Some of the others stuff out there has ephedrine or whatever it is called, but these don't. Anyway, every morning I drink one when I get up because I don't drink coffee on the road or I woud be stopping at every rest area to pee! Well, it says you can feel fushed and your skin may tingle because of the large amount of B-12, but the side effects have never effected me. Until this morning I guess. I seriously started feeling really bad. VERY flushed, dizzy, my arms felt numb, I was nauseous and my stomach was instantly upset. J was asking what he could do and honestly, I wasn't sure, because I had never had that kind of reaction to this stuff. And I drink one EVERY day. After I felt like I could walk, J got me back into the bathroom and after a few minutes I felt better. After about 20 minutes from the time I drank it, I was feeling normal again. So I take off for the consignee who is just down the road. I get about 11 miles down the road and I have to pull over again. I get out and I am throwing up on the side of the road. Stomach is cramping, but no where to go to the bathroom. About 10 minutes later, it passes and then I am fine again. I go ahead and make it to the consignee and I don't have any problems after that. So that was my morning. It was just really wierd. I don't know if it was a bad bottle of the stuff or what, but I am glad that is over with!

Now, on to the rest of the day. I made it to the consignee only 15 minutes late, due to the stop on the side of the road, so that wasn't bad. Got unloaded and headed up to French Camp,CA to drop the empty trailer off there. Then I headed down to South San Francisco,CA to to pick up the current load we have. It has two stops. One in Wood Dale,IL and the other in Elizabeth,NJ. The one in Illinois is a live unload on Sunday morning and the other is a live unload on Monday morning. We will see if we can make it in time. It is gonna be tight, but we will probably make it. We always do......

So it is 1730 and we are in Sacramento headed east. That was my fun day. I am tired and ready for bed now.

Sitting at a Pilot...

....in the fuel aisle here at Lake Havasu City x8 on I-40 and it is a complete goat rope. All these trucks aren't fueling, but they haven't pulled up either. I don't know if it is a problem with the pumps or if people are just being asses and not pulling up.

Anyway, appointment time at 0600 tomorrow and we have 521 miles to go and it is only 1700 hours. Piece of cake. And that delivery time is Pacific and we are on Central time.

Today I drove 590 miles. I'm pooped. We were trying to make it to where we could get there are the end of J's shift so that we could get some non moving sleep before the appointment time in the morning. Looks like we will make it.

So nothing really new. Hopefully we will go back to Texas with a load. It is a good road, either I-10 or I-40 and we can make good time.

More later....

Back to California....

I got up this morning at 0330, which is entirely too early and took over driving since we had a FedEx load and it was time critical. They figured we would arrive at 1530 hours and we made it there at 1330 hours. YES!! And that is on top of stopping in Fontana that I mentioned yesterday, so we had a good run. I did have a problem with the empty trailer I picked up though. The door was warped and I couldn't get it shut. I felt bad, but I had to wake up J and have him help me. Not to mention that the yard guy dropped the trailer litterally 6 inches from the other trailer so I couldn't even close the door. I had to back up for him to shut it because they were so close that I couldn't pull forward or the doors of the trailers would have gotten tangled up. Idiot people that park those trailers should know better. They do, but they figure they aren't their trailers so they don't care. They are just lazy.

At around 1230 today we got our next load assignment. We had to pick up an empty trailer at FedEx and take it to the Dallas OC then pick up a relay going to Tracy,CA which is on I-5 near Sacramento. That rocked because we were wanting to go to the OC for a shower so it worked out perfectly. Of course when we got to Dallas OC trucks were backed up onto the frontage road because so many trucks were there and they were getting gas. So we bypassed the fuel lanes and just came inside. And once we got inside we had to wait about an hour for a shower. They only have 4 showers there and they were full and then there were 6 people in front of us. We just decided to eat in the cafeteria since we were going to have to wait. So much for eating good, but I didn't totally blow it. I had the enchiladas and really only at them. Barely touched the rice and beans.

That is what we did today. We are currently in Dallas/Fort Worth traffic trying to get out of here but it is 1800 hrs and traffic is a mess. We have to be in Tracy,CA at 0600 day after tomorrow for a live unload so we gotta book to make it on time. But that will give us 3061 paid miles is just three days. Not bad.....

Headed to Fort Worth,Texas

Thankfully this morning we woke up and had another load. It was FedEx again but this one was delivering to Fort Worth,TX instead of Shawnee,KS. So went through the same routine as yesterday. Got up, got a shower, found our empty trailer at Fontana, headed over and picked up the load and thank goodness this one wasn't cancelled! So we headed out and stopped back by the OC real quick to grab some food and then we were off. We have to maintain an average of 47.5 mph per their contract or it is a service failure and the clock starts when we depart the shipper. So we are actually behind since we stopped at the OC for food. It doesn't matter that we weren't moving, the fact is that we left the shipper so all that time stopped, about 45 minutes, went against our average. Anywho, we will make it up. Right now it is 1745 hours, and we have right at 1100 miles to go. I told them we would be there by 150o tomorrow afternoon. I actually thing we will make it sooner than that. Of course that means that we aren't stopping for non moving sleep tonight like we normally do. And that sucks! It means I have to be up and in the drivers seat and driving by 0330, if I get up at 0300. But we said that we were going to run hard to make up for some lost money being broke down, I just didn't mean right off the bat! LOL!!

Oh, coming into Arizona from California I had to pull into the scales and they were checking everyones log books. I wasn't worried because I knew my logs are legal, but it still makes you nervous. And I had never been inspected before so it was all new. But they didn't have me pull in. I just pulled up and they asked for my log book and permit book. So I handed them both out the window. Then the Trooper took it to a little table and thumbed through the log book and another lady (not sure if she was a trooper or what) looked at my permit book and they were done. The Trooper handed them back to me and said "Good job! Have a safe trip." That was nice of him. I can only imagine the drivers that log loose leaf and the pain that is to check. Our log books are in book form and the pages are perforated so we tear out the original and send to Green Bay and we keep the copy for our records and per DOT. But it is over and I passed and didn't even pee my pants, so it was a good day. :)

That's all for now. I'm going to log out and hit the sack. Gotta be up early so I can deliver this on time by the end of my shift tomorrow!

Fontana,CA

Well, we are doing a 34 hour restart here in Fontana. Now, I know you are wondering why we are shut down doing a restart when we haven't really done shit in the last week. Well, here is my story.......

So J gets us into Fontana around midnight last night. Give or take... He unhooks the trailer and parks the truck. We unhook the trailer in case the person that is picking up the relay shows up. So we pull around and get some sleep. I had us showing available at 0400 California time. So at 0400 I get up and check the Qualcomm and we have a load. Cool. We are supposed to pick up in Anaheim and deliver in Shawnee,KS. It is a FedEx load that is expedited and we have until 1500 hours to pick it up. So we go ahead and get up and come inside for a shower. Then we head out to the truck and get in and pull around to the fuel aisle and fill up. Then we realize that it is 0600 (we had to wait a while to get a shower) so we decide to park and grab some breakfast real quick since the cafeteria opens at 0600 and they have GREAT food here. In we go. I had an awesome breakfast burrito. They really make the best ones here. And I swear the tortilla they use is the size of a large pizza and is simply huge when it is rolled up. Oh, and excellent salsa. Anyway, so we finish up and head outside and get in the truck. When I get in the truck and start it, I see that we have a new message. I read it and it says that our load has been cancelled because FedEx didn't have enough for the load. That seems kind of funny because isn't FedEx usually overnight or 2 day? And I would think if they had anything, that it would need to go. But, I suppose if they didn't have enough for a full load they probably gave it to an LTL (less than loaded) carrier and put it in a smaller trailer. Well, now what? So J goes back to sleep since he was woke up in the middle of his sleep to take a shower. Finally another 4 hours go by and we still don't have a load. At this point, technically, if I had been on duty, my shift would have been over in 3 hours. So I made a decision to send in another Mac 18 (our availability) and change it to tomorrow morning at 0400 local time. This way, we both have our 34 hour restart and we won't have to stop during the week to take it. Because we would have had to stop during the week. And it didn't make any sense to be down today and then a whole extra day during the week. We may as well take advantage of it now and then we can hit it hard in the morning and run all week. That way we can have a decent check next week. Because basically they have SUCKED this past few weeks since we have been broke down so much. Now I have to pray that we get a load tomorrow so we can get some miles!!!

Since you know I am trying to eat better, I only thought it was fair that I fess up to the patty melt and half an order of fries I had today at lunch. BUT, to redeem myself, I had a chef salad for supper. So see, I am trying....

Terrible sweet tooth

Usually I don't crave anything sweet, but right now I want something sweet so bad! I don't know what my deal is. Actually, I think I do know what the deal is. We have been eating in the truck the last 4 days, with the exception of McDonalds yesterday of which I ate healthy, and I think I am just craving something that I am trying to avoid. My ass is going to continue getting bigger if we keep eating all that fried, fattening truck stop food and fast food. I think to remedy the problem I am going to make a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich and have some milk. Not extremely healthy, but I could make a worse choice I guess. Plus it is something I have in the truck and we won't have to stop anywhere.

Right now we are about to pass through Tucson,AZ headed to Fontana,CA (basically Los Angeles, it's a suburb). J will get us in around 0100 but I put us available at 0400 their time which is 0600 our time. That will give me time to grab a shower at the OC before we get a load. I am hoping that we don't get a load until around 0600 or so their time so that the cafeteria there will be open and we can get some salads from them. They make the best and freshest salads of anywhere and I love them!

Unfortunately we are going to end this week with 3009 miles. It sucks, but we didn't get a load until Thursday afternoon since our truck was in the shop for maintenance and cutoff is tomorrow at 1700 hours. And last week we only had 2306 because we only had the one run from Oregon to Milwaukee,WI. But we have the truck back now and we are ready to roll. We better get some serious miles this week!!

I guess I am off to make me a pb&j sandwich now....

Back to Sunny California

FINALLY!! Well, we delivered last in Hatiesburg,MS then drove over to New Orleans,LA and picked up a load of coffee at Proctor & Gamble and are now headed to Los Angeles,CA with it. Did you know that in New Orleans there is a NASA Center? It is litterally at the end of the block from P&G. Very cool. I may have known that there was a NASA there and had just forgotten but it was cool to drive by.

Yesterday was a horrible day for sleep for both of us. After we picked up at P&G, we headed to the nearest Pilot which was about 30 miles away. We had to scale the load since it was 42,120 lbs. Didn't have to slide the tandems so that worked out great. Then we called it a night and parked there. I was up yesterday at 0500, drove all day till 1530, took a nap from about 2000-2200 and that was all the sleep I got. Between trying to find the delivery in Hattiesburg, and the CRAPPY state of I-10, sleep was just out of the question. And since I was awake still at 0145 when we got to the Pilot, there was no way I was going to get up and drive at 0300. So I got up at 0830, yes, I slept in. Hit the road about 0915 and made it 300 miles to the Pilot in Baytown where we showered, ate, fueled up and bought a new coax cable and antennae for the CB. Then J installed it and it seems to be working better now. It is turned all the way down at the moment, but we were actually able to hear, so that makes us think we were right when we were thinking it was a problem with the coax.

Oh, and I have been trying to eat better. We ate at McDonalds today because I was too hungry to wait until after we showered to cook something and we had to wait for the shower. So I got a grilled chicken sandwich and only ate half the bun, a side salad with low cal Italian and a small diet coke. So I thought that was pretty good for eating out. Of course, a little while ago we were hungry again, so I warmed up a bowl of chili and made us a frito pie. But I had about a 1/4 of the can of chili and I gave the rest to J so I didn't really eat that much.

We are about at a rest area so I'm gonna run in and go to the ladies room and then hit the sack while J continues to drive. I'll post more tomorrow.

Called consignee last night to ask about the 1530 delivery by time. They told us they are just short staffed on afternoon shift and like to have loads in by 1530 but if the arrive after it is no biggie. Since he said that, and it isn't a big deal if it is later, and since we weren't going to make it on time anyway, we went ahead and stopped for about 3 hours last night. After coming off a few days in the hotel, it is hard the first day back out to get your body adjusted. J didn't drive but to Normal,IL last night and I hit the road at 0600. We just switched down here in Mississippi and he has about 225 miles to go. We should get there around 2100.

While we switched drivers we also ate dinner. Bought us each a side salad at the W. Memphis OC and in the cooker we cooked some Steak strips (like fajita meat) and some black eyed peas. YUMMY!!

Not much really going on today so I'll leave it at that!

Back on the road!

Hopefully this will be the last time we are shut down for a while. We are ready to get some miles after doing practically nothing the last three weeks. Well, actually almost a month.

So got the truck back today from the shop and we are now on our way to Reedsburg,WI for a liveload that is going to Hattisburg,MS. Of course we have to pick up by 2100 hrs and deliver by 1530 tomorrow. That isn't going to happen. As soon as they get us loaded we will see what time it is and then send in a Mac 29 with new delivery time. I just don't see it happening.

Had a good time last night at Karaoke there at the hotel. I'm not a Vodka drinker, but the waitress made me a lime Vodka with lemonade and it was pretty darn good. So I enjoyed a couple of those. We got up this morning and checked out of the hotel and came to the OC and got laundry done also. Thought I would thrown that immensely interesting tidbit in there for ya. Also went to Walmart and restocked on things in the truck so we have groceries and are going to be eating in the truck as much as we can. Tonight I am cooking Sausage links flavored with apple and stuffed with cheese, along with green beans and steamed onions and bell peppers. We will see how that turns out in the cooker when we get stopped and are getting loaded. I think it should be done by then and that will be a good time to eat.

That's all for now.....

Still in Green Bay

Well, I hope that the maintenance they are doing on our truck is top notch considering the time they are keeping it from us. Tonight we are spending the 3rd night in the hotel, and hopefully the last. Not that I mind sleeping in a big comfortable king size bed, but this bed isn't making me any money. Wait, that didn't sound right. Well, you know what I mean.

Not much else to report. I did notice in the hotel bar that they have Karaoke tonight. At least we will have something to do tonight that will be fun!

Update time!

Craig and Diane, yeah, we must have been right behind you guys! I hope you made it to Florida ok. Boy, am I jealous!! :)

Well, let me tell you what happened with us. Sorry it is a little late, but better late than never! So I thought I had a good idea when I decided to stop for the night in Ontario,OR. Got up the next morning and it was dry outside. YES!! So I head out and get about 50 miles down the road, and BAM, there is the storm. It sure didn't move very fast during the night. I drove for about 50-60 miles in snow and ice. Top speed was about 40 low end about 30. It wasn't a lot of fun! We make it in to Jerome,ID and stop at a Flying J and I check the weather on the computer, mainly wanting to check out interstate conditions. weather.com works great for this. Well, I-70, I-80 and I-90 weren't looking very good. I-70 and I-80 were showing red, caution, I-90 was showing orange, possible problems, and I-94 was showing green, good. So we decided to head up I-15 and go back through Butte,MT and head east on I-94 from there and go through North Dakota, Minnesota and into Wisconsin that way. It was about 200 miles or so out of route, but it was so worth it. Road was dry all of the way, and if it wasn't dry, it was just wet from precipitation, but no snow packed or ice packed roads. It made the trip much more enjoyable.

We delivered to Miller Brewing yesterday and from there got a message for us to get an empty from Miller and then drive up to Green Bay for our PM's that we are overdue on. So we got in here about 1830 last night and got the truck in line for the shop. They are stacked up with trucks in the shop, and even though we are a team, there is just so much to do to our truck that they are saying it won't be ready until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest. That has been our luck lately! But we knew we were going to be down at least one night getting this done and we are just going with the flow. This HAS to be done. And once they get it done, there isn't any reason that we should be shut back down, so we will hit it hard once we get out there.

So last night and tonight we are in Green Bay hanging out at the Howard Johnson's. This is actually a pretty cool place. Indoor pool, indoor minature golf, restaurant and bar on premis. Nice....

Snow, snow, snow - I'm jinxed!!

FINALLY got a load around 1400 hours yesterday. Bobtailed 430 miles to Twin Falls,ID to pick up an empty and then 186 miles to Vale,OR to pick up our load of minerals. We are delivering to Milwaukee,WI. I guess they really are not understanding me when I say I want somewhere WARM!!! LOL!!

So we head out yesterday afternoon and get into Twin Falls,ID around midnight. Pick up the trailer and head back to the I-84 where there is an AMBEST Truck Stop. Since it was only 196 miles to pick up and we had until 1500 hrs today, we stopped there for the night. It was raining, about 30 degrees outside so it was getting slick, and just plain hard to see on the blacktop. So we got up around 0530 and headed in for a shower. The clerk was really nice and they actually had some of the best showers we have been to. HUGE shower. I'm talking 3 people could have taken a shower at once, there was a radio and hair dryer in there. And it was CLEAN!! I'm sure some of you have stopped there before, but we haven't been out this direction yet so it was really nice to find that little place. OH, and at midnight, there was still tons of parking. We practically parked right by the door. Also, this place has XS gloves in womens sizes! NO ONE that I have found carries those so I bought a couple pair. Who knew goat skin was so soft??

Headed out and got to the pick up location right at high noon. I ended up taking the scenic route and was wondering if I had missed something. But I got there all the same. We were live loaded and were in and out of there in an hour. Impressive. When we left we stopped at the DOT scale house, that was un-manned, but the digital scales were working, and weighed the load. Had to move the trailer from the 5th hole to the 7th hole and now we are all set to go and legal.
Did I mention that it started snowing on us while I was getting loaded? What is it with me and snow? Well, stop at the Pilot up on I-84 in Ontario and look at the weather on the laptop. There are some really pretty colors on that radar. I-80 appears to be a complete mess. So we decided to park here and start again in the morning. This load is not high value and not expedited and we have until Tuesday night at midnight to deliver so we are going to let that storm that is hitting the midwest get a little further ahead of us.

That is our story. If anyone is in Ontario,OR come by and say hi to us. We're parked on the north side of the building right across from Sizzler!

Luck is not with us!!

What did we wake up to this morning? SNOW!!! We just can't catch a break. LOL!! Go with the flow....go with the flow.... That is my mantra right now. :) It is coming down like crazy right now. The parking lot here is like an ice skating rink. Really really icy. The road in front of the Flying J is packed and icy also. Not sure what the interstate looks like. I am hoping they have it plowed and sand out. If it keeps this up, we will be stuck here even longer. There is just no way we will be getting any traction without a trailer. Bobtailing we will be all over the road. Right now it is just a waiting game. We were available at 0600 this morning and we still don't have a load and it is about 0945. When we went in to eat breakfast I called in to make sure we were showing available, and we are, so we will just wait and see what happens.

I guess for the time being I will kill some time playing on the computer and see what happens. I'll update later if we get out of here and let everyone know what is going on.

Pumpkin Sweet Pumpkin

Ahhh it is so nice to be back home again. Well, not really "home", but in our travelling home. I am already sleepy because the vibration of the truck just lulls me to sleep!

So here is what is going on. We got up this morning and headed out of Salt Lake City. Stopped at some little place called CJ's, which is next to a Pilot but I don't remember the exit but it was north of the city, and had a wonderful breakfast there. Then we headed north again. Stopped at a casino up in Idaho. Played for about an hour and came out about $8 ahead. Of course we stopped at the gas station next door on the way out and got some aspirin and a coke and blew our whole $8 in winnings. Finally decided we better hightail it on into Belgrade,MT. Rolled in here about 1720 and headed first to the small airport. We needed to see if we could bobtail to the airport to drop the car off or if we had to drop it off and get a taxi to the hotel. No low clearances or restrictions so we headed over to pick the truck up. It was so nice seeing her again. So we loaded up, went and dropped the car off and came back to the Flying J which is by the Freightliner dealership and will be spending the night here in the truck. We are available at 0600 in the am and will head out then. Already ran into the restaurant, Bair's, and had some supper and lost $30 in the little casino. Figured I could afford to lose a little since I had such an outstanding winning at the previous casino. :)

So this is where we sit at the moment. In the morning we will find out where they are sending us. From the looks of things, there isn't much freight at all here in Montana so I have a feeling we will be bobtailing several hundred miles to find a load. That is fine with me as long as the weather stays good tonight and the roads stay clear. I certainly don't want to bobtail in the snow.

Thanks to everyone who has been keeping up with us and our travels. We appreciate it and are back on the road now so hopefully we will have new tales to tell you in the near future! Stay safe out there!

Getting ready to head back out

Right now we are spending the night in Salt Lake City,UT. We have a rental car and are headed back to Belgrade to pick up our truck that is ready and waiting on us. We came up through utah instead of Colorado because of the storms heading towards Colorado from the north and all the high winds. Plus this also enabled us to stop in Pagosa Springs,CO and see J's family and then to stop in Moab,UT and see a girl I used to work with when I was with the police department. It was great seeing her and she looked great. It was also nice to see the family as we were passing through. Tomorrow we will get up pretty early and head back out again. We have about 500 miles to go but we aren't pushing it. They don't have us available until Thursday morning, and after driving a truck, it is just IMPOSSIBLE to sleep in a car. Especially since they gave us a Chrysler Sebring CONVERTIBLE to drive back to Montana. They didn't have any SUV's for one-way rental and this car was the only thing front wheel drive that they had. I figured I want front wheel drive if I can't get a 4 wheel drive SUV since they are supposed to be having more snow up in Montana right now. Also, after being off for about 2 weeks, we have so much crap, that the car is full, trunk and back seat, because we took a lot of stuff out of the truck and with us.

So that is what is going on with us. Ready to get back to work but we are really hoping they send us back south where the weather is better!!

In Albuquerque

So here I sit in Albuquerque. Fridaymorning after Thanksgiving, we called our DBL and she decided to just get us a rental car to come to Albuquerque since we had GTAH here. Then what they are going to do is get us another rental probably next Monday when our TAH is up and we will just drive back to Belgrade,MT because the truck should be done by then. We do need to call though and check on it. Probably wait a few days though because the transmission wasn't even due in until Wednesday.

We have been having a really nice time here. My mom lives with her brother and sister-in-law and we are staying with them. So far I think I have gained more weight because my Uncle loves to cook, and he is darn good! Today we went to a clinic where I had a doctors appointment, but I am ok, and then we ran to Jared's because the center stone on my wedding ring came loose. I also needed that ring and my other ring sized. So I should be able to pick them up tomorrow sometime after 1700. Right now I feel naked without my rings!

I may check back in here in a couple of days, but I doubt everyone wants to know what I am doing on vacation on a play by play. So I'll holla in a few days.

What a small small world.....

In my last post I let everyone know that some really nice people that work at the hotel invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them. So this morning, we got up and did our laundry and got ready for them to come pick us up. About 1330 Sierra called and said she was almost here so we went and met her down at the front desk. From there we went to her house to pick up some food and then headed over to Jenna and Mike's house which is where we were going to spend the day. Once we got there we unloaded the food and then Sierra took off back to go pick up her roommate. We hit is off right way with everyone. It was as if all the stars were aligned or something and we were just the same kind of people, ya know?

Well, turns out Mike and Jenna had just moved to Montana about 1.5 months ago from Florida. Jenna also works at the hotel we were staying at in housekeeping. So it was nice for them also to be spending Thanksgiving with some new friends they had just met by her working at the hotel since they don't have any family here either. We were all just standing around in the kitchen talking about ourselves and what we did and where we were from and J was telling them we were from southern Colorado. Then Mike asked where in southern Colorado because he used to ski at Wolf Creek. We started lauging and said that we were from Pagosa Springs which is at the bottom of Wolf Creek pass where the ski area is. And he couldn't believe it. So he said "Do you know a guy named Lawrence from there?" Well, when you think about that question, it is really funny because everyone says that when they run into someone that has been to a place that they have, and the answer is always no. It was so wierd because J and I looked at each other and thought "No way...." and J says "Animal? Lawrence *****?" Mike was astonished and says, "Yeah, you know him? No way!!" So do you want to know what the wierdest thing is??? Lawrence is J's brother-in-law!!! Lawrence is married to J's sister Tanya!!! The rest of the night we just couldn't believe it. It was one of those things that when you both know a mutual person it is like you have known each other forever and you are the best of friends.

We had the best possible Thanksgiving, next to actually being with family. We came back to the hotel loaded up with food. Thank goodness there is a mini fridge and a microwave here so we can warm it all up. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving today and I hope you all remember what you are thankful for. I for one and thankful for my husband, my family and the incredible kindness of strangers during this holiday season.

Incredibly nice people

So we are sitting here in the hotel and we get a call from the front desk. They say we have something at the front desk. So I walk down there and there really isn't anything for us. The girl at the desk was there with her roommate and she invited us to Thanksgiving dinner with them. She knew we were stranded and they said that it just wasn't right that we spend Thanksgiving in a hotel room and eating lunch at the Flying J. It was incredibly sweet of them. They know we don't have any transportation so they are going to pick us up at 1300 and then bring us back later since Sierra (the one working tonight at the desk) has to be at work at 1700. I just wanted to let everyone know that there are still really decent people out here. This is one of the things I miss about small towns. Everyone is genuinely nice. I am thankful on Thanksgiving that there are people out there who still care about strangers.

Wednesday in Montana

Slept in until around 1100 today. It was so nice!!! Then we got up , showered and headed back over to the Flying J for lunch. Awesome bacon cheeseburger. Oh, it isn't a normal Flying J restaurant. It is owned by someone else, but I can't remember who it is at the moment. I think the restaurant is Bair's. One of the ladies in the convenience store recognized us since we had been here a few days and gave us a coupon for Thanksgiving lunch there tomorrow. That was nice.

Talked to Freightliner today. They talked to Schneider today who gave the ok for them to order a new transmission. So they ordered it. Bad news is that it won't be here until next Wednesday. We have guaranteed time at home starting next Thursday. So first thing Friday morning we will be calling our DBL and finding out what they want us to do. In the mean time, we are just going to enjoy this down time here while we can. Since we are planning to get our own truck in March, the we probably won't really have a vacation any time soon so we have to make the most of out of this time off while we can.

Tuesday in Montana

Today was our second full day in Belgrade. So far we have had a good day. Of course, I woke up at the crack of dawn. Played around on the computer for a while then watched the Price is Right with Drew Carey. He does a decent job on there. But he talks too fast like he is rushing the show and he doesn't seem quite comfortable yet. But I guess he will get there in time.

So around 1045 I woke J up and told him he had to take Mama to get some breakfast, I was hungry. Then we checked out the casino next door. It sucked. Basically just video poker and video Keno. And only about 10 machines. Bleh... At least it will save me from spending a lot of money there.

So back to hang out in the room. Watched a couple of movies and then sent J to the store around 2100. He mentioned ice cream and that was it, I had to send him for some. :) It is like 10 degrees outside and we are sitting in bed eating ice cream. Funny how I crave ice cream when it is cold outside and not when it is hot outside.

Talked to Freightliner today and they said they are still waiting on Schneider to make a decision. The paperwork is supposed to be on someones desk in Green Bay waiting for them to sign off on the repairs and cut a check since Eaton Fuller said it wasn't warranty. Hopefully tomorrow sometime we will hear back from them with what Schneider decided to do. Then at that point maybe we will have a more definitive time frame on when we may get out of here.

So now we are chilling out watching XXX:State of the Union so I guess that is all for now.

Stranded in Montana

Stranded in Montana

Well, I will get to the stranded part here in a minute. I have a few days to make up for so you can catch up on what has been going on.

Last I posted we were leaving the Pilot in Knoxville,TN. J drove us from Knoxville up to Gary,IN and I took over there the next morning (Saturday) and drove up into Neenah,WI. I got in there around 0830, dropped the load and then went up to the Green Bay OC to pick up an empty trailer because Kimberly Clark didn't have any empties to give me when I dropped that load. Drove the 30 miles or so up there and ran into a few snow flurries, but nothing bad. Got fuel there and then headed up to Escanaba,MI to pick up our next load. Ran into more snow, but it was still flurries and nothing was sticking. Did you know that there is part of Michigan that is right above Wisconsin? I didn't realize that till I looked on the map when I was trying to figure out where Escanaba was at. Also, when you go north on US-41 out of Mariette,WI (I think that is the town) the road follows the shore line of Lake Michigan all the way up. It is a gorgeous drive up there. And that lake is HUGE! It is like looking at an ocean beach. You can't even tell it is a lake, it looks like an ocean because you can't see the other side. It is pretty impressive.

Anyway, I get up there, get the load picked up and figure out which way we are going to cross WI to get to I-94. Being that far north, there are no interstates so we had to take state routes and US Hwys to get down there. So J drove us out of there and got us just east of Fargo. (This was all on Saturday and Saturday night.) So Sunday morning, I wake up, drive us about 60 miles into Fargo. Stop at the Petro and get fuel, shower and head out again. It was darn cold!!! I drove all the way across North Dakota and got us into Miles City,MT around 1515 hours. J took over and started driving there. This is where the fun begins.....

So J is driving along and I am in the back sleeping. We are maybe 20 miles east of Butte,MT going over a pass and the transmission on the truck faults. It was trying to shift from 8th down to 7th because of the incline. It couldn't grab a gear and faulted out. J coasted to the side as quick as he could but it is hard to coast up a hill when you are at about 75,000 lbs and don't have a gear. You lose speed FAST! The tail end of the trailer was still out in the lane about a foot but there was nothing that we could do about that since the truck wouldn't move. Now the transmission has faulted before. Usually it happens when it is shifting from 5th to 6th, from low gears to high gears. When it has happened in the past, we could shut the truck down for about 5 minutes, let the computer re-set and then it would start back up and things would be fine. So this time, we let it sit, were able to get it restarted, but we couldn't put it in gear. When we would high idle it, you could hear metal on metal just grinding. J said it initially sounded like a bent flywheel. Well, we called Emergency Mainetenance. They said it may be the next morning before we were able to get anyone out there because of where we were. Luckily, about 20 minutes later we got a call from a tow company and about 45 minutes after that they were out there to tow us. They ended up towing us back east about 60 miles to Bozeman,MT because there is a Freightliner dealership here. Got to the hotel, which is a block from Freightliner, about 0230 this morning. 0700 comes and I call the dealership to tell them the truck is there and let them know what we think the problem is. Then I have to get up and walk down and take them the keys. It was a little chilly outside to say the least. So I come back, crawl back into bed and get some much needed rest. About noon, I call Freightliner to see what they had found out. Apparently the rear bearings on the transmission went out which caused the seals to fault, lost all transmission fluid, and that caused the transmission to lock down and 3rd gear on up have teeth broke off. Lots of metal in there. Not a good sign. We were told they had talked to Eaton Fuller and were going to e-mail them photos of the damage today and then wait to hear back from them whether it will be warranty or not. After they get that decision back from Eaton Fuller then they will decide whether to rebuild the tranny or put a whole new one in there.

SOOOOO..... It is now Monday night and we are at the Super 8 here in Bozeman,MT and it looks like we will be here until at least Friday if not until next Monday or Tuesday. We will have a better idea hopefully tomorrow. AND now, the interesting part. Last night, we were trying to hurry and get through Montana because snow was coming in. Well, the snow has arrived. It started snowing this afternoon and so far there is about 6 inches. They are forecasting that there is another 6-9 inches coming in. I know the passes are going to be horrible. I think it was a sign that we broke down when we did. I guess everything happens for a reason. They did say that they were going to get a team up here tomorrow morning to pick up the load we had. I hope the team they send up here drives really safe because it is treacherous out there. But, it does look like we will be spending Thanksgiving up here in Montana and it looks like it will be a VERY white thanksgiving if this snow keeps up. But things are good. We had good miles so far this month, so we are ok on money. There is a Flying J across the street and a CASINO!! Also, right across the freeway is a grocery store that is in walking distance so we are all set. I figure we may as well enjoy the down time while we have it. We even had a snowball fight this afternoon. It feels great to be a kid sometimes.....

Some days are just a Fuster Cluck

And this has been one of those days. At about 0430 this morning, J wakes me up as he is pulling into the consignee in Asheville,NC. So I get up and hop in the front seat. Make our way through this TINY town and find the place. I had called the evening before and they said opened at 0430. After banging on numerous doors, J gets someone to answer and they say we have to wait until our appt time at 0700. Oookay. We are dropping a trailer, not waiting to be unloaded. Anywho, he then asks about a bathroom. Guy tells him they don't have one that us drivers can use. WTF? Seriously? Ok, at this point, we are an hour and a half early for our appointment. (It was 0430 Central time but we were on Eastern time in NC). So we hope in the truck, drive back 15 miles to a TA where we can go to the bathroom. Take care of that business (I felt much better thank you very much!) and I hop in the drivers seat, get my logs done, and start my day by driving us back to the consignee. We get there right at 0700 their time. So I go to the door again. A lady answers the door and tells me to back to door 6 and someone would be right out to break the seal. 45 minutes later, I am at the door again, because no one has come out. Finally get someone out there and I am able to leave the place around 0800.

Ok, got that done and am now bobtailing over to pick up my empty trailer in Mountain Home,NC. Initially, there wasn't an empty in a 250 mile radius, and I called back this morning and they found this one for me. So I go pick it up and head to my next load which had a 1000 appt for a live load. As I am pulling into the shipper to get loaded my Qualcomm goes off and ther is a msg from my trip planner that says the following: "Hey team, since we can't find any empties in the area, we are going to send a solo over to pick this load up and relay it to you in Knoxville,TN so you can head that direction." Again, WTF I say? So I get on the phone and call my Trip Planner and explain to him there must be some kind of misunderstanding. I am AT the shippers as we speak I tell him. My log history that he should be able to see, should show that I am assigned an empty trailer and that the problems of the empty trailer was taken care of. He informs me that the box planners called him in a tizzy because there were no empties for us. Well, they said there was one but we couldn't have that one. If that was the case, then why did they assign it to me and let me leave with it? ARGH!! To make a long story short, I told him I was at the shipper, cancel the solo driver and find him another load, we have this one covered. Ok, great, get the load and head out.

Now I am sitting at a Pilot in Knoxville while J gets a couple hours of non-moving sleep. As I am sitting here, we get our next load which we will pick up tomorrow after we drop this one. Cool. Drive 144 miles from Neenah to pick up a load in MI then drive 1987 miles to deliver in Portland,OR for a 1100 appt on Monday. Huh? How do they think I am going to drive 2000 miles in a company truck in a day and a half? Not happening. So I let them know it will be more like 1800 when I deliver, maybe earlier, but I will keep them updated on that. :)

And another thing, RED RED RED!!! That is all I say today! RED leaves! Not orange or yellow or green, but RED. It was beautiful.

So that was my day. J is up now so I am gonna pull around and get fuel then he is going to take us out of here.

Holla later!

Almost to the east coast again

We are 3/4 the way to destination on this load which is Asheville,NC. We managed to stop in W. Memphis during their normal working hours. That was a good thing. Our DBL/DBR are here in W. Memphis and we needed one of the stickers that say "Team Operation Co Driver in Bunk" and we can only get them from them. We had asked before at a fuel desk and they said we had to get them from the DBL. Personally I think that is kinda stupid. I mean, the only reason any one would want one on their truck is if they are team and for safety reasons, right? It isn't so the truck will look cool. And it isn't as if Solo drivers are going to be asking for one. Just struck me as odd the way they treat these stickers as if they are top secret or something.

So we are still here in W. Memphis and J is taking a nap. I'm going to wake him up at 1800 hrs. He "tried" to sleep through Oklahoma but I-40 just sucks so bad through there that he only got about 5 hours sleep after driving almost 600 miles and getting to bed around 0400. There is no real rush though. He only has 513 miles to destination and that shouldn't be a problem. Even if he starts at 1830 he will just about make it by 0300-0330. I am about to look at google earth and check out the destination and see if it is a big facility or not. We have an 0700 appointment, so I have to see if there is room to park there or if he will need to park elsewhere and me drive us in at appointment time. It is times like this that a laptop comes in SO handy! Getting a visual of a place that you will be arriving at in the middle of the night really helps with your sense of direction.

Today I drove from Clinton,OK to W. Memphis,AR. Because it is just now really cooling off this far south, a lot of the trees are changing colors. I really enjoyed my drive through eastern Oklahoma and all of Arkansas. Absolutely gorgeous! I kinda wish I could drive this time of the year all the time. LOL!

Something wierd just happened. We got our next load on the Qualcomm for when we drop this one off tomorrow. FIRST, we aren't showing available until 0730 Eastern time. We get a message that is sending us 143 miles to pick up an empty then driving back 114 miles for a 1000 am appointment for a live load. NO WAY that is going to work. There is just no way that I can drive 254 miles in 2.4 hours AND include the time spent dropping and hooking up. So I called Operations and they said they would check with the trip planners and see what is up or at least find us a closer trailer for us. I know the computer does a lot of the work and just matches available teams to the loads in the area, but shouldn't a live person be overseeing things and catching stuff like this? Hmmmmm AND it is only a 815 mile run. Seems like a short run for a team. Oh well, I guess I just do what I am told..... haha

34 hr restart

Well, got up this morning and left out of Barstow,CA for Patterson,CA. I had about 320 miles to go. It had rained during the night and there was a ton of fog out. At one point I could only see about 3 car lengths in front of me and I had slowed WAY down. But it finally cleared up. Made it to consignee around 1100, dropped and bobtailed out of there.

Currently sitting in CA at a TA taking our restart. Got hooked up to IdleAire while we were here. Currently watching CSI which is cool.

Driving in today they tried to send us another load. I ended up sending a message in and then calling to figure out what was going on since I had us showing available tomorrow at 1300, not today. When I spoke to our trip planner, he was confused also as to why we were sent a load. Anyway, got that taken care of and here we sit.

Quick post

I have to post before I lose my connection. I always seem to lose it over here in Arkansas!

Not much new to report today. Stopped in Atlanta last night. Got up this morning and got a shower and headed out around 0730. Got to W. Memphis at 1500 and switched out. Got something to eat at DQ first. By the time we ate, and got fuel, we pulled out around 1430. We were taking our time.

We have right at 2000 miles left to go to destination. If we each drive 500 then we will be there by 1500 Monday which will be in plenty of time for payroll and we don't have to kill ourselves by rushing.

Gonna go for now! More later!

Sunny South

What a nice break after the snow flurries in New York state! So last night J got us to just outside of Columbus,GA and I got us in to Kohl's in Macon around 1100 am today. After we dropped we didn't have our next load yet so I got directions from the guard to Wal-Mart. We bobtailed over there and stocked up on supplies. While we were pulling in we noticed a BBQ place so we stopped there and had lunch. Pretty good meat, great spicy BBQ sauce, but the mac-n-cheese left a lot to be desired.

Anywho, we got our next load. We dead-headed (pulling an empty trailer) 170 miles to Savannah,GA where we picked up a load going to Patterson,CA. SWEET! We will deliver Monday morning, which is before payroll cutoff, and that will give us 6400 miles on this coming Friday's paycheck. Not bad at all for a weeks work. Last week we had 5100 miles and had the restart mixed in there. We are happy with the past two weeks. Looks like the next two weeks will be just as good. Which is a good thing since we will be seeing my Mom for her birthday at the first part of December and I want to spoil her since it is her 60th!

Oh, also last night, we were going to try to meet up swith Jack and Sharon, some friends of ours that work for the same company. We were south bound on I-95 and they were north bound on I-95 but we couldn't find a place. So we passed in the dark. Maybe next time we will get to visit with them.

J is going to get us to Atlanta I think tonight, maybe a little further, then we are going to call it a night. Gonna have to kick ass to get this load 2600 miles by Monday so we will get a few hours non-moving sleep tonight, then hit it hard till Monday. Probably have to do a re-start again because we will be almost out of hours. But we like the re-starts. They get us rested up so we CAN do the 6000 mile weeks without feeling like we are killing ourselves.

Darn Maggie!

Well, Maggie (our GPS) tried taking J onto a Parkway in NJ and not the Expressway. Bless his heart, I told him she would do that, and he remembered after he got lost in a residential area and it woke me up. :) So last night I got about 3.5 hours sleep before this happened. We had actually dropped our load in Wurtsboro,NY and were headed into NJ to pick up the next one when this happened. So I got up and together we figured out how to get back to the road we needed. Then I just stayed up until we found the drop lot to pick up the empty trailer and got to our shipper for pick-up. Then we headed down I-95 about 10 miles to the next Service Plaza and pulled in and parked for the night. I was so exhausted! So I didn't get up and get on the road until 1000 hrs this morning. I couls have got up earlier, but I figured traffic in Newark and down past DC would be horrible at 0800. It just made more sense to wait the 2 extra hours instead of spending them stuck in traffic.

Anyway, got up and was starving so we grabbed lunch at Nathan's Famous Hotdog's at the Service Plaza. SHIT! For each of us to have 2 chili cheese dogs, fries and a medium coke, it cost us $26!! WTF???? Ain't no damn hotdog worth that much! Guaranteed we won't be doing that again!

So we headed on out. Traffic was a nightmare from DC down south. I was at a crawl for about 40 miles. UGH!! Finally made it to a Pilot to get a shower and couldn't park there. That place was a mess! Only room for about 50 trucks, if that. So we went across to the Petro and there was PLENTY of parking. Probably room for 250 trucks there, minimum. Went in got something to eat and a shower and are now back on the road. We are just about to cross into North Carolina headed to Macon,Georgia. Have about 515 miles left to go.

That is about all for now. We are about to hit a Love's so I can go to the restroom. I knew better than to drink all that sweet tea at the Petro. But it was so dang good.......

Snowing in PA

Today was a great day for driving! Cool and brisk out but sunny. I started driving in Effingham,IL around 0300 this morning and entered PA around 1300 hours. I was driving along thinking what a beautiful view. Stunning is all I can say about the scenery. The leaves are changing and I was lost in a sea of color. Reds, yellows, purples, greens, and just about every color in between. I was actually thinking how it would be so cool to have a house up in the area so we could enjoy the fall. We could sit on our back porch wrapped up in a blanket, cup of hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course) and just breathe. You know, actually breathe in the scent of Fall. Then out of now where, SPLAT! Right on my windshield. Of course this brought me out of my reverie. Much to my dismay, it was raining! No, wait a minute, that isn't rain. It is sleet! That immediately turned into big wet snowflakes! What the hell? I am daydreaming about FALL, not winter!

Now that my beautiful visions are shattered, I decided to grip the steering wheel and hold of for dear life. I drove a few miles and it turned into a really heavy snowfall and it was starting to cover the ground. Finally I got out of the snow and into the sunshine and the snow stopped. Very wierd! I checked online and there are scattered snow showers all through PA but is doesn't look like any of them will amount to anything. Thank goodness!! Snow is not my favorite thing to drive in!

We are actually running a little ahead of schedule with us kicking ass on miles yesterday and today. We should make it in around 2100 or so. We are scheduled to be available around 0030 so that will give us time to go get a shower. I sent our DBR a message telling her to tell the Trip Planners to find us something to California where it is warm because it was snowing up here in PA! Haven't heard from her so we will see what happens!

New York bound.....

Well, out layover in Fontana is over and done with and we are headed to New York! We had a really nice time while we were there. Of course we were stuck at the OC the entire time, but as I mentioned before, we met Justin and Melissa. While J was sleeping I was talking to a driver that was an "Old Timer" and we exchanged stories. I learned some stuff from him which was nice. He also pointed out some alternate routes on the map that aren't bad and are very scenic so we may have to take those some time. Also ran into Brandon while we were there. Didn't see him until right before we left but we got to say hi. Also saw Randi, she works at the Cafe there and we got to meet her husband Robert when he came in to see her. He was hit by a semi while he was on his motorcycle. YIKES! He is spending time recovering and still has some recovery to go. But it was good to see him and great to know that he even made it out of that alive. And the truck was at fault so he should have all his medical covered which is awesome since he has already has several surgeries on his eye. He is wearing a patch at the moment, which I'm sure sucks for him, but the kids think it is super cool. :)

So now that we are all rested up, we are heading out. This load has to be in New York by midnight on the 7th or 2359 hrs on the 7th. Which ever way you want to look at it. We should make it on time, and if not, it will only be a few hours late. It really depends on how much ground we can cover each shift. If we can cover more than we are planning on, then we can make it on time.

We didn't make it to the Volvo dealership, but maybe we can make it when we take time off next time.

I guess that is all for today.

Sunny California

Well, we managed to drop that load in Laredo and pick up the other one they had waiting on us. I dropped that load in Ontario,CA at around 0630 local time this morning. So it was only about 6 hours later than what they had it down far. Not bad considering when we actually picked it up.

So now I am sitting in the yard at the Fontana OC. We already have our next load but when I checked a little while ago, it wasn't here yet. It is a relay that we are taking to NY. I will keep checking though. We actually aren't going to leave until around 1500 tomorrow. I can only work 12 more hours and Joe has 22 but that won't get us the 2700 miles to New York without running out of hours. So we decided to take our restart here since it is a high value load. If we stop on the road to take a restart, we will be stuck with the truck since we can't leave it unattended. If we take it here at the OC, then we can come and go and do what we want. Also I need to do laundry and this is the perfect time to do that. I just hope they actually drop off the load fairly soon so I can hook up to it so that I am parked closer to the OC than what I am now. I hate this long walk up there when I have to go to the bathroom!

When we got here this morning we ran inside to grab some breakfast. As I was sitting there chowing down with my mouth full, Justin and Melissa came around the corner. Justin's mouth was full too. It was pretty funny! They were on break from class so we got to visit with them some. I'm looking forward to visiting with them more during lunch and after class since we will be here until tomorrow. If you read this Justin and Melissa, it will all make sense! Don't worry too much about class. Just pay attention and listen to your truck instructors. It is going to be a long two weeks, but you will do just fine!

So that is what is going on with us. OH!!! Maybe since we are taking a restart, we can go check out a Volvo truck! Yeah!! That sounds like a plan!

Laundry in Laredo....Part Deux??

Well, headed to Laredo again. Looks like we won't have time to do laundry though because we already have our next load from there. We will be picking it up tonight and they want it in Ontario,CA by 2300 tomorrow night. Not going to happen. Just no way we can make it that far in that amount of time. So we will just send in what time we can make it and then be off. We will probably only be about 5-6 hours later than what they are wanting it. It is funny because we hadn't sent in a message telling them when we would be available, and they assigned us this load anyway. Weird. So it isn't our fault technically that it will be late because they assigned it to us without knowing when we could pick it up. Yeah, that sounds like good rationalization. :)

I am going to try to type better on here. J was reading these and he told me my spell check sucked. Well duh! Of course it sucks. I don't use it. LOL! I just get off on a typing tangent and just go and then hit enter. So I will try to make an effort to be grammatically correct and use the proper punctuation. (It probably won't last for long though..... just fair warning.)


So, today we were able to meet up with HD Guy from Pumpkindriver.com and we had a great time. We were only going to meet up for a coke and have a quick chat and answer some questions and it turned into a three hour conversation! But it was really worth it. He is a great guy with a good head on his shoulders and is going into the Trucking profession with his eyes wide open. We figure he will do really well. Hopefully we will be able to keep track of him and keep in touch. We also laughed for most of the three hours telling stories so a good time was had by all.

Now we are headed to Laredo,TX to drop this load off and then we are headed to Ontario,CA. That is cool because there is a couple starting school there in Fontana tomorrow that we may be able to meet who we have been talking to on Pumpkindriver.com also. We are hoping that after we drop that load off that we can get back to the OC there in Fontana and fuel up and see if we can track them down.

I was up at 0330 this morning and it is now 1900 so I think I am going to log off and see if I can get some sleep. Well, as soon as we get out of this stop and go Austin traffic that is.

Back on the Interstates

Hello everyone! So I am behind again, and I apologize! But I had a WONDERFUL work-free week. We had a great time with the kids and went to a haunted house. That was a lot of fun. Not as good as the one we went to last year, but it had some good scary moments. Also went and looked at some trucks. Did I mention that in my previous blog? I don't remember. Anyway, that was a lot of fun. Have to go check out Volvo and International still.

So now we are back out on the road. We headed out Monday and picket up a JC Penny load which seems to be the usual routine for us when we leave the house. This load went to Breinigsville,PA which is a place we hadn't been to before. Then when we left there they sent us over to NJ to pick up a load going to Ohio. It is a short run, under 600 miles, but they said there wasn't any team freight in that area at the moment. Doesn't really bother me since I get paid by the mile, so it is all good. We should drop this load off around 1900 hrs then we are going to go right up the road to a Pilot and get a shower. Not sure where we will go after that. We told tjem we would be available at 2100 so we won't know till closer to that time.

Ahhh Home Sweet Home

I think I posted before that I love my bed. I just wanted to say it again. My bed rocks.

Well, we are back home after four weeks out. We got back Tuesday afternoon. I headed up to McKinney to get Bandit and J headed to the house. When he got to the house he found that we didn't have any electricity. While we were out this time I set up the electric bill to be automatically drafted out of our account. Well, they got it set up, but not until after the bill was due so they shut it off. When I called them, I had a ZERO balance, because they paid the bill in full, just late, but no one checked to see if they had shut it off. Needless to say I had to totally empty out the fridge and freezer and everything was lost. So Tuesday we went back towards town and got a motel for the night.

Wednesday we got up and went by Peterbilt and Kenworth to look at some trucks. Now we need to go by the Volvo dealership and look at them. We can finance through our company, a brand new truck, but we are looking at all our options. Do we finance through them on a lease/purchase option or do we buy direct from a dealer? Direct from a dealer we would need a sizable down payment and pay on it for 60-72 months and end up paying about $170,00 when all is said and done. Going through our company, we are stuck with them for three years, but the truck is paid off in 36 months and final price at payoff would be around $143,000. So we have to decide if we want to be stuck at the same place and them basically owning us, or do we want to have more freedom, but be stuck paying more for the truck over 5-6 years instead of 3 years. Way too much to think about at the moment!

Today is Thursday. We had to get up this morning and take Bandit to the vet to get spayed and get her shots. We will pick her up in the morning. Then we went and had to get a new pump for the septic. Then we found out that wasn't the problem and we returned it. Then I went and got my hair done. Then we went to Wal-Mart. Spent $486.00 there! Damn! But the kids are coming out this weekend AND I had to replace everything in the fridge and freezer so that is one reason it was so expensive. OH! We also bought a 4 inch memory foam mattress for the truck. That was not cheap. But I am guessing it will be well worth it!

Tomorrow, we plan on cleaning the truck and the suburban, then we are going to Justin's football game, then to the haunted house, then back here for the weekend. So I probably won't blog again until we are out on Monday. So everyone stay safe out there and have a good weekend!

A little behind.

Sorry! So now I have to play catch up. Ok, lets see. Well, got the laundry done in Laredo and after talking to several people, figured we wouldn't get a load out of there that night. Seems some had been there since the day before and still didn't have a load. So we headed to the truck and made some tuna melts and soup. As we were eating, we got a load. Figures! It was 2130 and I would have went to sleep WAY before had I thought we would get something. Well, that load was headed to Beech Island,SC. No problem. Decided to head out at dawn the next morning. So got up early on Friday and headed out. It was Joe's birthday and I was happy that load wasn't high value so we were able to stop at some BBQ place and have lunch. Got that dropped off in Beech Island Saturday around noon. That drop was at Kimberly Clark and we were able to pick up a load out of there heading to Romeoville,IL. I swear that is one of the funniest named towns. It just cracks me up. Got that dropped around noon today (Sunday) and they are sending us to Meridian,MS with a GP load. I sent a message earlier today and they said they would start looking for us a load back to Dallas since we have TAH starting on Wednesday and this is what they came up with. So I called and asked about it and they said we should get a load out of Mississippi to Dallas. I said "Should? Look, I'm not going to be happy if I am home late again after being out for four weeks." He responded by telling me they were overbooked in Mississippi so we shouldn't have any problems. Damn straight we better not!

Anyway, so this load we are taking to Meridian,MS isn't loaded yet. So we are sitting in the truck waiting for our chili to heat up to make a frito pie and then J is going to get some more sleep. He woke up when I entered the Chicago area this morning. Imagine that. Chicago roads SUCK!!! And they said the load wouldn't be ready until 1830. I guess that is good. J can get more sleep and the traffic should be lighter, even though it is Sunday, maybe everyone will be in church and not out on the road.

So that is all for now.

Laundry in Laredo

That is what I am doing right now. Of course they only have one working washer which takes 60 minutes a load, and I have three loads. UGH!! Anywho....got in and delivered around 1230, went to Danny's to get something to eat, then headed back here to do laundry. We put ourselves available at 1800 so we would have time for laundry.

Yesterday was a good day. On our way through Santa Rosa County in Florida we were able to meet up with a friend who is a Deputy with their Sheriff's Department so that was really nice. Unfortunately we only got about 30 minutes before duty called and she had to go, but it was great that we were even able to hook up for a little bit.

Sunny Florida

They really should call it Love Bug Florida. All these freaking love bugs freak me out. You know, the ones that are stuck together, two of them, and they fly around that way? Wierd. It is like they are doing it in the air and flying around throwing it in your face. As if they are saying "Hey, look at me! I'm getting some and your not." Little fuckers. So I showed them. I got some of my own last night! Take that little Love Bug Fuckers!

Ok, enough of that. Stopped in Brooksville,Fl and took a restart on hours. I would write more but I just did and the computer freaking erased it and I don't want to type it all again. ARGH!! I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Anyway, headed to pick up a load in Palatka,Fl and we are taking it to Laredo,Tx. First we have to stop at a Pilot with a Wendy's so I can get salads to go with the soup I am warming up. Also plan on getting one of the sandwich makers so I can make grilled cheeses it it to eat with the soups! Yummy!

Called it a day early today.

J woke me up in Effingham,IL at 0300. I finally woke up around 0400 and got on the road around 0445 or so. I just couldn't ge my ass motivated. I get to the consignee in Plainfield,IN at about 0715. Drop the load, but I remain on property for another almost 2 hours going back and forth with second shift. They kept sending me messages on which trailer to pick up as an empty. I kept sending them back the ONE trailer that was available and empty at the location. Very frustrating. Finally I guess they realize that there may be a reason that I am only giving them one trailer number and they assign it to me. HALELUJAH! So, drive to my next pick up which is only something like 1.3 miles down the road. In the same commercial area. Get there and find out that what was supposed to be a live load with a wait time of 5 1/2 hours is actually a pre-loaded trailer! YES!!! So I drop the empty, hook up and book out of there. In and out in 30 minutes. I checked my paperwork and it said my weight was 40,040 so I figured I better scale it. I drove about 15 miles and hit a Pilot in Indy and hit the scale. Everything scaled good so I was off again. I make it abut 20 miles down the road and say the heck with it. I am tired, no rush on this load, and I'm hungry. So I pull into a Flying J, wake J up and make him go inside to the restaurant with me. He had been asleep about 6 hours so he wasn't too mad. Of course we ate, came back to the truck, and he went right back to sleep. A full belly does that to him. He says it hits his sleep button. Whatever. LOL. Also, I could only work 9.5 hours today and I only gain 6 back at midnight. So I decided to shut down until J starts driving. Shutting down early left me with 2.5 extra hours. Add that to the 6 I will get at midnight and that will be enough time for me to get us to Brooksville,FL after J drives and still have time to find a place to take our restart at. I think I am just worn out because this will be 10 days straight I think and it wears me out!

Long day....

J woke me up at 0215 in Texarkana,AR. I started driving at 0300. Drove to Roanoke,TX where we dropped this load. Picked up another one in Haslet,TX that is going to Plainfield,IN. Drove as far as Checotah,OK and called it a day at 1530. I am worn out. We should be in Plainfield in the morning by 0900 and then we already have another load ready that will take us to Brooksville,FL. That load isn't due until the 17th, but we will drop on the 15th and do a restart on our hours. This has been a long week. That will put us at 9 days straight so a 24 hour break will do us good.

We only have about 10 more days total to run before we take time at home. J's birthday will be this week but we are going to have the kids out and celebrate when we get home. Also going to the haunted house. So it should be lots of fun!

Well, we are about to pull into Big Cabin,OK for a restroom break so I'll close up for today!

Sleeping in is awesome!

After J picked up our load in Amherst,VA last night, he drove down a little ways and called it a night. So I wake up, realize the truck is stopped, and wonder what is going on. I must have been exhausted because I never heard him pull over or stop the truck or get in bed. Dang! And it is about 0615 and light outside. Turmns out he had set the alarm for me to get up at 0630. There is no rush on the load, and we have until Monday at 1600 to deliver. Granted we will deliver on Saturday morning, and still get another run before payroll cutoff on Monday, but he decided to let me get some sleep since it was 2200 when I got to bed last night. He knew me getting up and driving at 0300 wasn't near enough sleep for me. So I got up and started driving after a really good nights sleep. Drove as far as a rest area between Knoxville and Nashville and now J is driving. It is about 700 miles or so from here so I will get there mid-morning tomorrow.

My apologies.....

to anyone that may have been driving east bound down I-40 around mile marker 246 early this morning. If you drove through my path of destruction, I sincerely hope you weren't traumatized. I know it wasn't a pretty sight. Unfortunately, Bambi was in a feisty mood this morning and wanted to play chicken. Bambi lost. Amazingly enough, there was absolutely no damage to the truck. A little blood and hair on the bumper but other than that, no damage at all. Not even a dent in the grill or bumper. I have NEVER in my life ran over anything. Thank goodness I didn't swerve, I did let up on the gas and I just kept it straight. I do think I closed my eyes at the moment of impact though. LOL!! But we were on a straightaway and not a curve. No way would I close my eyes on a curve! But it was just aweful feeling the thump and then the bump bump of running over Bambi. I think I may be traumatized. Maybe I need therapy? hahaha nah......

So other than that mishap this morning, here is what went on today. Got up and hit Bambi after driving only 6 miles. Made it to Statesville, dropped that load, picked up an empty. Then picked up a cigarette load. Brought that back to the OC and they will have someone else deliver it. It isn't due until Monday and if we take it, we can't relay it. That means that we would be stuck in LA until Monday afternoon after arriving there Saturday afternoon. Just too much time on it so they have another load for us. We are picking up in Virginia and heading to Roanoke,Tx. Probably pick the load up around midnight tonight. Right now we are still at Charlotte while J takes a nap. But I am going to wake him up now.

A Little Past Little Rock

And that is where we are now. Dropped last night in Dallas, went to the OC and did laundry and showered. Got a load to Virginia and then they pulled us off of that one to give us another that needed to be in north Carolina by 0930 in the morning so that is where we are headed now. Going to Statesville and we have been there several times so this will be an easy trip. Hopefully we will get something back to Calfornia after we drop this one. Not much else going on....

Citymouse, I'd love a microwave...

However Schneider will not let company drivers have anything above a 180 watt inverter in the trucks. That is just about enough to charge the laptop and that is it. That is another one of the big reasons that we want to get our own truck. We can hardwire a larger inverter directly to the battery and then we CAN have a microwave or small fridge. It will be so much easier to eat healthier when we have a little more room (we hope to get a little bit larger sleeper) and when we have the capability of more power in the truck for the microwave. So for now I will just dream of a time in the future when that will be a reality!


Oh, also, about team freight. Not sure what the deal is. We have picked up in Illinois before. Some states are just bad for freight. I have heard Colorado isn't great for freight, and neither is Washington. But who knows. They pay me regardless of whether I am pulling an empty trailer or a loaded trailer so I don't mind too much. It is frustrating sometimes when you are hunting down empty trailers to take, but that doesn't happen too often. Also, I think some states send stuff to neighboring states (for example) and that would be more solo freight than it would be team freight because it is shorter mileage. And that is just a guess coming from someone still considered a rookie in this field. That was the first time in six months that we have been sent to another state to find freight.

Last night, J picked up the empty trailer and we finally got a load leaving out of New Berlin,WI with a pick up time of 0700 today. So I called in to find out if it would be ready or if they would be loading it overnight and that is why it said 0700. Well, turns out it wasn't going to be ready until 0700 today. So after J picked up the empty, we drove to a Pilot at the border of Illinois and Wisconsin at Exit 1 on I-43. Got there about 2030 hrs I guess and we just stayed the night there. I got up at 0500, fueled up and headed up to FedEx in New Berlin for our pick up. We had been there once before and that always is nice because you know where you are going and what their routine is. Anyway, got the load and headed out by 0800. I went ahead and drove until 1700 today instead of 1500 because J didn't get to sleep until late. I guess it was just one of those nights where he couldn't wind down. We just switched at a rest area on I-44 about half way through Missouri. I still got in 504 miles so he is half way to Dallas where we are dropping off. He should get there around 0300. Just in time for me to take back over. But we are going through Oklahoma and their roads suck so I hope that I can get some sleep through there.

Well, yesterday I got up and made it to PA and picked up the Kimberly Clark load. Freaking PA backroads again. ARGH!! Anyway, got it picked up and headed out. Stopped on I-76 at a service area and J took over driving around 1800 hrs. I didn't sleep for crap last night since we were in the PA mountains. Got up this morning when J hit the Indiana border. I drove us to Indy where we got fuel and a shower then got us in to Sterling,IL where we dropped that load. They didn't have any empty trailers for us so we ate medican food at a place called Willy's. It was really good. Finished up there and they are having us bobtail to Rockford,IL to get an empty trailer and then sending us to Milwaukee,WI. There is no team freight in IL so that is why they are sending us up there. Don't know what we will be picking up but they are telling us to go that direction, so away we go.

NB through Virginia on I-81

So yesterday I wasn't feeling real good. I finished up my shift, ate dinner and went to bed. I felt like a cold was coming on. Itchy swollen eyes, throat hurting, ugh! Took some Dayquil during the day and then went to bed. Woke up at 0430 in W. Memphis today and felt better. Had the same feeling one day last week when we were heading to Los Angeles. Anyway, at least it hasn't turned into anything yet. And hopefully I can keep fighting it off. With the exception of during training, neither one of us have been sick since we have been on the road and I don't want to start now!

I just finished driving my shift and now J is driving. We stopped on I-81 at Mile Marker 13 which is a truck only rest area. I had heate3d up some Chili in the Lunchbox stove. We had some Frito's and cheese so we made Frito pies. Man were they yummy! Except now I am burping chili :? (TMI right? sorry....) We only have about 275 miles to go to deliver this load. We already have our next load. When we drop this off, we will head to Chester,PA to pick up at Kimberly Clark and head to Sterling,IL. I wasn't happy when we got this run because it is under 900 miles. But because we were stuck in LA and had to do a restart, I think Tonya (our DBR or whatever she is called) set us up with this one so that we could deliver before payroll cutoff and this will put us over 6000 miles for the week. She actually thinks of us drivers. So when I look at it that way, I'm happy with the load. Plus, we will probably deliver Sunday which gives us Monday for the next payroll as an extra day on there. And the load is not high value or expedited so we aren't pressed to rush it there.

J and I are still talking a lot about getting our own truck when our year is up. We know we definitely want to do it, but we don't know what truck to get. We really like the old style but the gas mileage is no where near as good as it is on a newer more aerodynamic one. One mpg difference can mean up to $712 dollars difference a month based on 5000 miles a week, gas at $2.70 a gallon and either 5 mpg or 6 mpg. So you wouldn't think 1 mpg would make a difference, but it really makes a huge difference. So we are going to do some looking around and keep checking out all nof our options.

We had wanted to go to the Casino after we finished up with the consignee on Tuesday, but I didn't have enough time to drive us to the casino so we just went to the hotel there in Ontario. It wasn't bad though. Took a nap, got up and went and ate, and came back to the hotel and went back to bed. I was pooped! J finished up with his restart so we left the hotel to go eat some lunch (Hooters) and were involved in a little fender bender. We were in the left turn lane (bobtailing) and the arrow turned red. We were stopped out a little in the intersection. Joe backed up about 3 feet and there was a car right on our ass that neither of us saw. So the police came out and didn't even take a report because the damage to their vehicle was below the $750 limit that would be needed for the police to make a report. Kinda sucks because there goes his bonus, but the important thing is that it was minor and no one was hurt. We ate and then headed back to the OC and finally got a load. WE had to pick up in Torrance (LA Suburb) and deliver to Winchester,VA. It was around 1600 local time when we got the load and we had until 2330 to pick it up so we decided to take a nap and head out around 2100 so we could miss five o'clock traffic. Once J picked up the load, he just headed back to the OC because his 14 was almost up and I couldn't drive for another 6 hours. So we stayed at Fontana, got up around 0800, grabbed a shower and some breakfast and then took off. This load isn't due until Monday by midnight, but we will still deliver sometime Saturday afternoon so it wasn't a big deal to sleep in this morning. It actually felt really good! So right now we are headed east through Arizona.

Frustrating Consignee

So here I sit, since 0730, at Aaron Thomas in Garden Grove,CA and I am still waiting to be unloaded. Haven't even made it to a dock yet. There is a Swift here and two local drivers that have been here just as long. And of course now they are all at lunch. I called our DBL and she said that we would definitely be getting detention pay, and hell yeah we will be, but it is frustrating. We are supposed to take a restart after this and it is just pushing us out farther. ARGH!!!! Anyway, I may post more tonight when I find out how long we are going to have to be here.

EDITED:
Ok, so I finally got finished up at that consignee around 1500 local time. SHEESH!! We had planned on going to the casino to do our restart on hours but couldn't do it because I didn't have enough time to drive out there. Damn it! So we are at the hotel at Ontario Airport instead of the casino. Depressing but there is always next time I guess.

Los Angeles

We are back in LA. We are headed to Fontana to spend the night and then we will deliver this load at 0700 tomorrow. It is an appointment for a live unload so we can't drop it early. After that we are going to take a break. We can only legally work no more than 70 hours in an 8 day period and we are almost out of hours so we have to take a mandatory 34 hour break per DOT. So we have decided that we are going to take our break at one oy'sf the casinos in the LA area. Maybe I will get lucky on the slots or maybe I will try roulette again. Besides, all the casinos have truck parking so that won't be an issue. So we should have fun. Our miles are only at about 3000 for this week. Mainly because this 2500 mile run we are on didn't deliver by 1700 today (Monday) to make it on to Friday's paycheck. But they will carry over to next weeks paycheck so next weeks will be great considering when we are able to run again on Wednesday morning, we will have five and a half days to run AND we already have 2500 miles to start with. Cool.

After a week of little sleep.....

I finally got a GOOD nights sleep last night. Could be that we were in the south and it was a flat road. Could also be that the road was actually smooth. Either way, I got good sleep and it was awesome. We are in Dallas headed to LA and will take I-20 to I-10 and that is a good road also so I will get some sleep tonight also. YAY ME!!!

We stopped at our house so I could check the mail on our way in to the Dallas area and then we stopped at our Dallas OC to fuel, get a shower and eat lunch. Now we are back on the road.

Headed West

Well, we finally left Indy around 2200 last night and I got some sleep. When J woke me up at 0430 it was WAY too early. But I didn't have a choice since he drove past 0300 into my drive time. He didn't start driving until we left Indy so he was no where near running out of hours but we try to stay on our schedule as much as possible. Anywho, so I get up and we are almost in Chattanooga so I drive from there the last 150 miles or so to Mcdonough,GA where I drop off the load. I picked up an empty trailer there and drove another 150 miles to Beech Island,SC where I picked up this load we currently have. Then I drove back about 30 miles to a rest area on the west side of Augusta,GA where we switched and now J is driving again. I didn't get but about 370 miles today, but I had to spend some time and one consignee and then at the shipper for this load so that took up a good two hours. Plus I also had to stop and fuel. So we are headed to the Los Angeles area with this load. My GPS is routing us up to I-40 and over even though I-20 ( which we are on ) runs right into 10 in western Texas and that runs right into LA. There is only about a 10 mile difference and it is routing us through the mountains on I-40. Forget that, we are taking the southern route I-20 to I-10. We can make better time since it is a flatter road and less mountains.

Now I am getting ready to go to bed. I have averaged about 5-6 hours sleep the past 3-4 nights in a row and that is not near enough beauty rest for me. I need a good 7-8 hours. If not then J calls me Satan. :) Momma gets a little grouchy if she is tired.