Man am I behind! The cord to the computer had a cut in it and we had to get it fixed. Nothing that a little electrical tape didn't fix though, so now I am back in action. I have a weeks worth of happenings to catch you up on so I better get to it.



My last post we had left Irwindale,CA and were in Carlsbad,CA picking up our next load. We had hoped to meet up with some other Prime drivers, but they got a load before we could get loaded and get up to meet with them so things didn't work out. But we will catch them at some other time. We sat in Carlsbad,CA for about 3 hours before we were finally loaded and out of there. Earlier in the day I had sent off for a Fuel Solution (telling us where to fuel) and we got the response back that fuel was too low for a recommendation. No shit it is low, that is why I need a place to fuel! I had about 3/8th of a tank and figured that would get us to Carlsbad and back which is only about 160 miles round trip. Then we could hit the TA in Ontario,CA on our way out. Get loaded and get about 5 miles on our trip headed to the Ontario TA to fuel and our fuel light comes on. It is up hill and mountains so there was no way we were going to make it. Call weekend FM and he says there is a Pilot in Otay,CA. I get the address and number from him and we head that direction. It is a new one in the Fuel Book so there is no adress of phone number listed. Well, our GPS won't take the address and no one answers the phone, after it ringing FOREVER. Ok, time to formulate Plan B. Google San Diego Truck Stops. Find SoCal Truck Stop off of Marina Way. They take Comdata, even though it isn't a fuel stop so we can just use a Comcheck. Get there, get fuel, get the authorization for a Comcheck, after paying $5.039 a gallon, and the lady can't get authorization. WTF? Finally figure out she has to call it in and enter my name to the system and then it gives her an approval code. That only took an hour. Now we are headed out and hit rush hour traffic in San Diego. What a pain. And to top it off, they give us an impossible appointment time. They set the time before we were even loaded, not taking into account that we weren't even loaded yet. See, this one, unlike most, didn't have an appointment already set when it was dispatched. So, you would think that they would wait to set the appointment until we were actually rolling to get an idea of when we would get there. Didn't happen so we just told them when we would be able to make it. Couldn't get in until 2000 hrs on Wednesday, being loaded on Monday evening and 2200 miles to go. Then we find out they aren't a 24 hour facility. So we finally get the appointment changed to 0900 on Thursday morning. Cool. Now we are in business.



Make it out of San Diego and J makes it to Phoenix. This load is going to Hebron,KY which is right outside of Cincinnati,OH on the KY side. I take over in Phoenix and get us to Santa Fe,NM. J takes over from there and gets to OKC,OK. Then I wake up Wednesday morning there in OKC and head into Springfield,MO. I get in around 1000 hrs and we make use of the down time since we only have about 550 miles to go and it isn't due until the next morning. I go put the truck in line for a PM in the shop, we go do laundry, grab some lunch and head back to check on the truck. Truck is in the shop but not done. Now, as I am putting laundry away I realize that Smokey has gotten a water bottle and managed to get it opened up on the bed. All of the bedding is wet. UGH! Ok, put laundry up and grab bedding and take it into the laundry and throw it in the dryers. Since we have about 30 minutes for them to dry, we decide Smokey needs a bath! Off we go to the detail shop to the Pet Wash and get him cleaned up.



Ok, got that done so back to the truck. It is ready and we are off! Head out to the main road and stop at Waffle House on the corner for some dinner before we take off. Guess what Smokey does while we are in there. He finds the other water bottle! I am just thankful that we have a plastic cover over the actual mattress. No dryers at Waffle House, duh, so I am left to just drape that bedding where I can to let it dry. Grab the bedding off the top bunk and I am off to bed.



That night J gets me to right ourside of Cincinnati and I only have 58 miles to go to destination when I wake up. Piece of cake. Get there early aud don't get unloaded until about 2 hours after my appointment time. Ok, that load is done, head out down the road to the TA and we get our next load. Pick up in Kentucky and deliver to Black Creek,GA (which by the way is NOT on the map or our GPS). Short 600 mile trip but no biggie. Pays decent. And it will set us up nice for a trip back across the US. Get that delivered on Friday morning and find out that J's son got his orders to ship out on the 26th, this Thursday.



So we get on the phone with our FM and see what we can work out. We actually don't need to get back to Dallas, we wanted to get to Las Vegas. Justin and his girlfriend and her family were going to Vegas to see her Aunt this Sun-Wed. So we figure if we can get to Vegas, we can see him before he goes. It takes about an hour or so, but our FM hooks us up. He sends us t0 pick up a load of Bud Light Lime from Anheuser-Busch in Cartersville,GA going to Sacramento. Drop the load off in Denver where another team will pick it up and then he got us a load that was dropped in Denver and we are taking it to Henderson,NV which is a Las Vegas Suburb. Absolutely perfect. It delivers Monday at 1230 so that gives us the rest of the day to spend with them, the evening, breakfast Tuesday morning and then we can head out after that.



The saga continues. We pick up in Cartersville,GA and haul ass to Denver. Drop at the Denver yard this morning and go inside to see if our load going to Henderson is there yet. It is, but it appears that it has been given to another team. HUH? Apparently our FM, or evening shift, didn't get us preplanned on it when all the plans were being made because we were still on another load. After a few phone calls, the other team that was supposed to pick it up is still 250 miles out and they still have to make their local delivery before they can come pick it up. We are there so we get the load assigned to us and they said they would find them another load. Cool. Hook up and we are off.



Now we have to stop and grab something to eat before we continue. We stop at the Denver West TA and are able to hook up with J's best friend Kevin from school. He was the best man at our wedding and we haven't been able to get together since we got married over 11 years ago. We had a great time visiting and sat there for a couple hours bullshitting. It was great! Now that we have our own truck and can take off when we want, we are going to try to take a few days off at some point in Colorado Springs and visit with him.



So we are back on the road and headed to Vegas and we get a phone call. Justin isn't going to make it because they are making him do the physical test again, even though he already passed it once. Something to do with the recruiter pushing him through so he could go through with his other two friends and they wanted to make sure the recruiters stats were good so as a checks and balances system, they are making him retest. There goes that. So we figure we will head to Vegas anyway and see his girlfriend and her family. Then we get a call that they can't get a flight. See, her dad works for the airlines so they were flying standby and they couldn't get enough seats for them to all make it going standby. Well hell! Our FM did all this work for us and it turns out it was for nothing. Now we aren't going to be able to see him before he leaves. And we have a non refundable room that is already paid for. So as it stands, we are off to Vegas by ourselves for a night. We will make the most of it though. I haven't been, except for driving through, so it will be fun to go gamble and walk the strip, Even if is is only for one night. I wanted to stay at one of the bigger hotels but they don't allow pets or want an astronomical non refundable pet deposit, so Super 8 it is. Only $49 a night and $15 pet deposit. That I can live with.



Right now we are headed across I-70 almost to Vail and on our way to Vegas. We will be there before the appointment time, so hopefully we can drop it early and then I can get lucky. On the machines that is. Or maybe that isn't what I mean. :) I'll let you know how things go!