Thursday, July 31, 2008

Dandridge,TN

Drove 508 miles today. Driving at 55 mph and trying to make time to stop and eat and get my miles isn't easy! But I did it.

Boring drive today and really nothing to cover there so here is the diet breakdown for today. J drove a little over his time so when I got up and started driving it was 0500. At 0630 I had an apple granola bar. At 0800 I had a banana. At 1000 I had lunch which consisted of chicken noodle soup with veggies and a salad. At 1300 I had a yogurt. At 1600 I had a thin crust pizza with a salad and mixed veggies . Then at 1730 I had my desert of a peanut butter cookie. The soup was really good. The pizza was ok. Really good sauce and cheese but the crust was a little wierd, but overall it was good. The cookie was a little dry, but that is to be expected from anything low fat and low sugar. But it had good flavor. The apple granola bar was really good. So day two is down and I have to say I am not hungry and the food is actually better than I expected, so I am happy. Now I have to keep it up for at least two months for the cruise! Gotta be looking good for that!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Austin,TX

What a wonderful 4 days off we had! I feel completely refreshed. We got to see friends, go to the waterpark with Jessica, eat ice cream cake for my birthday. It was just a really nice time. But we missed being out on the open road and it is nice to be back in the truck.

First, before I forget, this is for Craig and Diane. You said you lost weight on Nutri System and that it worked for you. Did you do this while you were on the truck? Can you tell me what kind of excercise you did and were you able to fit in if you were driving? Did you mainly just walk or did you try to fit any weight or resistance training into it? We started today and I'm gonna get to that next!

Ok, so we got our Nutri System in the mail and got it while we were at home. We kept splurging while we were at home but today was our first day back on the road so we are starting this today. For breakfast I had the blueberry muffins. They had good flavor but were a bit on the dry side. But they were decent. I wanted to smother them in butter but figured that wasn't part of the diet plan. No snack for women before lunch but the men get one on their plan. Anyway, so for lunch I had the Black Bean Tortilla Soup. It was actually very tasty. Except that I have the farts now. LOL Not sure if that is from the soup or from all the hot sauce I had last night on my chicken wings. Had a salad along with that, basically just the bagged salad with some balsalmic vinegar dressing and a piece of cheese. Low fat of course. For a snack I had an apple and then for dinner I had the Potatoes with Beef Steak dinner which was delicious except for the nasty mushrooms that I had to pick out. Real potatoes with the skins on and real steak strips. Very yummy. A salad of course but left out the vegetable. I was full. For a snack I think I am going to have a cookie that they sent. So that is what I ate today. I feel pretty full so that is a good thing. I drank water all day except for a diet coke this afternoon and that is allowed. I will try to post what I eat each day and how I am doing. I would LOVE to lose about 30 lbs. That would get me to about 120. Us girls are going on a cruise in October so I HAVE to get in shape for that. It is my motivation.

We headed out today and picked up an empty trailer in Fort Worth. Then we headed to Austin to pick up our load. We are now headed out of Austin enrt to our drop which is in Cranberry,NJ. We have to be there by 1000 on Friday morning. We are driving 55 mph this month to see how we do on fuel so we will be driving straight through to get this there on time. We trip planned at 45 and we can make it but we only have about 1 hour to spare. We may kick the speed up on the last leg if we need to so we can make it on time, but if we keep rolling and keep stops to a minimum we should be fine.

That is what is up with us. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! It was a great one!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Jolly,TX

Well, we are on our final leg home. Stopped in Jolly to switch drivers and grab a quick bite of lunch. From Jolly it is only about 90 miles to destination where we are dropping this trailer WooHoo!

We are staying with a friend since our house is all packed up and we have been trying to find a place to park the truck. It is against her city ordinances to park a semi anywhere in the city limits. So today I called one of my old Sgt's at the police department I previously worked at and he gave me permission to park on their back parking lot. This works out really well since I know the majority of the officers having worked there for 7 years. And the friend we are staying with works there so I know it will be safe. Plus when we have my birthday party Sunday night, the majority of the people coming are all officers so I know they will keep an eye on the truck!

Today is officially my birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! I have the pleasure of turning 38 today. You can send me a message and I will send you my address so you will know where to send my presents! (just kidding!)

So the plan is to go by Michelle's house, unload the truck, take it to the station, then come back and chill. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Probably laundry and just being lazy. Sunday morning we are meeting Jessica at the waterpark and are going to spend 4-5 hours there then head back and get ready for my party. Monday will be spent recovering from my party, LOL, and getting things ready to head out Tuesday morning. As usual we will spend the night in the truck on Monday so we will be ready for our load the next morning. For some reasone we can never get it together to be ready on time if we are at the house. We have found that if we are in the truck the night before, it is much easier for us. That way all we have to do is wake up and go.

Oh! I am also looking forward to cooking this weekend! We have ordered the NutriSystem so this will be the last weekend that I can totally pig out and believe me I am taking advantage of it. I have gained about 20 lbs and so has J so we decided we had to do something serious to get this weight off. So we are going to give that a try and we are promising each other to stick with it a month and give it a try. And at a cost of about $600 I am not going to let it go to waste. We are spending more than that a month already so this is actually cheaper. Only $10 a day each so we will see what happens. When I ordered it I had it sent to Michelle's address so it would be there when we got there. I hope it shows up before we leave. If not, we may have to take an additional day or two off to wait for it to get there because I'm not leaving without it.

That is what's going on here. I will try to get pictures at my birthday party and post them on here for all to see what a crazy woman I am! LOL At least this year we aren't going to the strip club so I should be able to post uncensored friendly pictures! :)

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Lake Havasu City,NV

Well, not exactly in that city, but at the Pilot at exit 9 here in AZ that leads there. We stopped here to grab lunch and take a shower. Now J is driving and we are headed home. We are going to drop this at the drop yard and I hope be relaxing by early evening.

This morning I got up this morning and we were at the TA in Barstow,CA. J stopped there last night, like we had decided, but I never heard him stop, never heard him walk Smokey, nothing. I was out. You could say I was pretty tired. I got up and headed out at 0630 our time which was 0430 California time. Our appointment was at 0700 at Naked Juice. We have picked up there before and I like that because I don't have to worry about finding my way around and getting lost. Anyway, when I was pulling out of the TA we saw a Volvo that had an extended sleeper and a PULL OUT like you find in the motorhomes. It was NICE! I wonder how much that set him back? That is what I call working in style. :)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Henderson,NV

Yes Father Luke, they certainly do come along right when you need one. And we needed that day. It was really nice to chill and not do a darn thing. :)

Well, here we are in Henderson,NV. Since we decided to stay until Monday am and get a restart on our hours, there were a lot of teams looking for a load first thing Monday. Our FM found us a load that was dropped there in the yard coming to Henderson but it didn't have to be here until Wednesday at 1600 and it was an appointment which meant we really couldn't deliver it any earlier. So we stayed the night in the truck Monday and headed out about 0530 Tuesday morning. Going to that class we saw what a huge difference it makes going slower and getting better fuel mileage. We already knew this and usually only run 58-60 but we decided to see what going 55 mph would do and how big a difference it would make. Since we were coming to Henderson which is a suburb of Las Vegas, we headed up to Kansas City,MO from Springfield and hit I-70 across Colorado and the Rockies and over to I-15 in Utah and then south to Henderson. That route has quite a few pulls in it (mountains). Ok, so it has a LOT of them. But we stuck to 55 mph the whole way. Granted this made for a LONG day in the seat just to get our miles. We stopped only long enough to fuel twice and once over in Wakeeney,KS we stopped and got out of the truck about 45 minutes to get a sit down meal. Our appointment was at 1600 and we pulled in at 1555 local time. Granted we would have been probably 30 minutes early but they are doing construction on I-15 in Vegas and that held us up. We re-set our fuel so we could see how many gallons we used on this trip and what our mpg was. We ended up using 223.3 gallons of fuel and we got 6.9 mpg. I know what you are thinking, but 6.9 in a truck is awesome! They paid us $1220.62 in fuel surcharge and we only paid $1026 for that fuel which means we made money off the fuel surcharge. SWEET! Now we are going to drive 55 for a month and see what kind of savings we are seeing but so far I am liking it. It is going to take some getting used to though to sit in the seat longer than what we are used to in order to cover the same amount of ground..

We are heading home this weekend and our FM found us a load that is loading in Irwindale,CA in the morning at 0700 and we are dropping it off at our drop lot in Justin,TX so that will get us home. Our FM always comes through for us on these things and we really appreciate it. I know we were off a few days in Springfield, but we have stuff we need to get done at the house. And the last two weeks were good and we have made enough last week even taking that class to cover the truck payment and we will make enough with these two trips to cover this weeks payment so we shouldn't come out in the hole. Once we get back out we willl stay another 4 weeks until Justin's graduation from Navy Boot Camp which is I believe August 20th so that is the next time we will take a day off.

So now we are done and are going to head down to Barstow,CA to spend the night and I will drive us into Irwindale,CA in the morning to pick up this next load.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Springfield,MO

Ok, so I said I wouldn't leave yall hanging for another 5 days and that is just what I did. I am really sorry. Things just have a way of getting away from you and before you know it, a week has gone by and you don't remember how the hell it went by so fast!

Ok, so quick update. After J took his 10 hour break in Manassas,VA he got up and go us to right outside of Boston. He woke me up and I got to work. Made it to our drop right outside of Boston that morning, then drove up to Maine and made out last drop before 1300. Then got our next load and headed to pick it up down in Glouchester,MA. On the way I had to stop and get our trip sheets sent off so we could get paid. Luckily made that on time. Anyway, then I get into Gloucester to pick up our next load of frozen fish headed to Smyrna,TN. Dropped that and we headed to Knoxville to pick up a load going to Harrisonville,MO. This was the load that was getting us back close to Springfield for our class yesterday. It was really funny because when we picked up in Gloucester we had a problem with the trailer and the tandems wouldn't slide so we had to call road assist out. Then when we picked up in Knoxville J was cranking the landing gear, or trying to, and the handle broke completely off. So that was two trailers in a row that we had to call road assist out on. Anyway, then we got to our destination in Harrisonville and I had to blindside back into a teeny weeny spot. I absolutely love having a headset for the phone because J got out and got on his phone and directed me into the spot. Nailed it and I was happy. :)

So, we leave there and they don't have a load in that area so we deadhead back to Springfield. Not a big deal because it is only 120 miles and we got great fuel mileage. We stop at Headquarters here and drop the trailer off so it can be repaired, grab so lunch and head over to the hotel. A little later we ordered delivery from Ruby Tuesdays and called it a night and crashed so we could get to class the next morning.

Saturday we got up and headed over to our all day business class. It was a really good class because it broke down our settlements and operating statements and looked at the computer print out from our truck so we could see how we have been driving the truck. We have been doing pretty good, especially compared to some of the others in the class, but there are some things that we can tweek to get better mileage and get more money. So we enjoyed the class and it was an eye-opener. Good information. After that we headed back to the hotel and a friend of ours picked us up. We went back to her house and had dinner with her and her husband. It is REALLY nice to get a home cooked meal since we are out on the road all the time. We BBQ'd pork chops had some baked beans and potato salad with some strawberry margaritas. While we were at dinner we left Smokey at the hotel. He actualy did really well so we were proud of him.

We decided to stay another night and leave out Monday so we can get a reset on our hours. Finally a day to be lazy and not do a single thing. Tonight we are hoping to meet up with another husband/wife team that will be in to start with Prime on Monday. After that we will run a few days and then take home time next weekend.

For now I think I will go take a nap, well, because I can!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Manassas,VA

Wow! It has been 5 days since I have posted. I am sorry for neglecting yall, but we have been BUSY!! Last Friday morning we dropped our Top Secret load of pharmaceuticals in Sparks,NV. It's ok, I can tell you now and not have to kill you since we are finished with that load. :) From there we get a new assignment to drive 180 miles into Pittsburg,CA and pick up a load going back to the east cost with four drops. The drops are in PA, VA, MA and ME. I checked our hours and knew we could do it but it was going to be really tight. See, our first delivery was this morning in Youngwood,PA and then our second was before 1400 in Manassas,VA. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I am out of hours and could only work an hour and forty-five minutes today. EEK! So, we bust ass to get this load here. I picked up in Pittsburg,CA and drove us to Sacramento where we grabbed something to eat at the 49'er Truck Stop and J took over from there. To conserve on his hours also, because he was getting short on them, he just drove us to Fernley,NV where I took over at 0700 on Saturday morning. So, from the time I left on Saturday to when we made our second stop today, Monday, at 1345 hours, we had to cover 2550 miles. That is a LOT of miles to cover. And it is a Hazmat load so we have FOUR placards on each side of the trailer. Two of which say Dangerous and Toxic. LOL! But we decided to push it and get here because this is a REALLY good paying load. The total load is paying $7233.20 including the fuel surcharge. Linehaul alone, which is what we get minus the fuel over and above the FSC, is $4046.32. So we will probably see about $3500 of that. And this is the second load of the week. The other load that will go on this paycheck paid a total of $4048.19 including FSC. So even with our fuel and truck payment and other misc stuff coming out, we should have a paycheck close to$2500-$4000. And that is for a WEEK ladies and gentlemen. See why we needed to haul ass and get this load in for this week?? I know I don't normally talk about pay, but we are finally getting in a groove of being able to stay out 4-5 weeks at a time and that is when this business turns really profitable. If we take a week off, we still have to cover our truck payment and fixed expenses which are a little over $1000 so the longer we stay out working, the better our checks are because we aren't in the hole from owing a truck payment by taking a week off. We had a good paycheck last week, not as good as this one will be, but it was only a few hundred less. So you could say I am VERY happy we made the switch to Prime. AND I have even paid my taxes so I don't have to worry about that biting me in the ass at some point.

That is what we have been doing this past week. This week we will make these other two drops on our Hazmat load and then robably get a load into Springfield so we can take the ACEII business class. After that, we will run about a week and then go home for the 25th thru the 28th. My birthday is the 25th so we will be getting together with our friends back home. I sure do miss them! I love what we do and wouldn't trade it for anything, but I have found there are two things that I really miss about having a normal job. One is the friends and being able to hang out and the other is cooking. I really REALLY miss cooking! And damn it, I am a freaking good cook!!

In other Smokey related news, our little dog is getting so big. Yesterday, he actually lifted his leg to pee on a tree. I am such a proud Momma!! And when we stopped last night at a Service Plaza in Indiana, there was another guy walking his dog which was a Black Lab who happened to only be a year old. So they sniffed each other and I guess realized they were both basically still pups, so they sat there and ran around and wrestled for probably 30 minutes. That is really the first time he has gotten to "play" with another dog. Our other dog Bandit that my mom has right now, is seven years old and set in her ways and didn't want anything to do with Smokey because she is such a loner. He tried to play with her and she bit him. It was more of a dominance thing because she is older, and it wasn't an aggressive thing, but she just isn't into the whole "playing" thing. So it was really enjoyable watching him and the other dog, whose name was Jake, play together. He was worn out when they were done. Got into the truck, got a drink, and was OUT!

So there you have it, the T-Net update. I promise I won't neglect you guys for a week again. :)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Top Secret!

Got us a load out of Richmond,VA heading to somewhere in some other state. That is all I can tell you. LOL It is one of those high-value loads that we can't talk about, you know, the kind that if I told you, I would have to kill you. :)

So what can I tell you about today? Not much really. I drove 564 miles today through un-named states. While I was waiting to get loaded I figured out all of our stops where we will switch. So I made it to my destination today. We have a delivery window of 0800-1600 on an unspecified date and I am figuring we will get there the night before so we will get a decent nights sleep before I have to get up and deliver. Not sure what kind of freight we have coming out of this area so I am guessing we will have to dead head somewhere. We will have to wait and see. I can tell you that it rained most of the night on J as he was driving and that slowed him down quite a bit. Rained off and on for me this morning also up until about 1100 or so. Thank goodness it was more of a misty drizzle and light rain for me. I really dislike driving in a hard downpour.
Not much more to report today. It has been a long boring day and I am pooped. So I think I am going to chill till we hit the next rest area and then I am off to bed!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Gordonsville,VA

We made it! Ok, granted it is a day late, but we had to reschedule the appointment due to the problems with the reefer. We finally got it fixed around lunch on Sunday. Spent about 8-9 hours at the shop. Turns out the fan clutch went out and it wasn't a quick fix. I felt really bad for the guy that was fixing it. Him and his wife came up to the shop. She said they left the shop at around midnight Saturday night and on the way home got another call. Headed back up there and a guy just needed a belt. Said they were there about 5 minutes and headed home again. Got a shower and got to bed about 0230 and then get the call for us at almost 0400. So they basically got no sleep. On top of this, his wife just had a hysterectomy a week ago and the guy working on the trailer is scheduled for hernia surgery this Wednesday. He has a double hernia there in his stomach. And on top of that, he is skinny as a rail and she said he has some kind of pancreatic disease, but I don't think she said cancer. Anyway, super nice couple but he was moving REALLY slow. All things considered, who could blame him. Then they got another truck in about 0700 to work on. They thanked both of us trucks for being so patient. I am sure they get their share of drivers who are rude and in a hurry and they were just grateful we understood and were nice. What can I say, I am a nice person. LOL Do unto others, ya know?

So we got the appointment moved to 0630 this morning. We stopped in Knoxville at the Petro yesterday afternoon and grabbed lunch, a shower and did some laundry. J took over from there and got us to a rest area around midnight last night. That only left me with about 37 miles to go this morning. We can't park on Walmart property overnight and you can only show up 1 hour early for your appointment. I got some good rest last night except for Smokey being a bed hog. The bigger he gets, the more bed he hogs! But at least if it is cold, he will keep you warm. :)

Not sure where we are headed from here. There is a small truck stop on the other side of I-64 at the exit we took so I will head over there when we get done here to wait for our next load. We will need fuel but we can't get it there. I could head back to the Pilot over on I-81 but with my luck, if I do that, our next load would be the opposite direction. Guess we will just have to wait and see on that one.

Craig & Diane, I am glad to hear that it is so beautiful up there. We haven't actually been up there, but found some property on LandsofWashington.com (which has already sold) but that got us interested in that area. At some point we are hoping to take a few days off up in that area so we can rent a car and go look around. We grew up in a small town in southern Colorado, Pagosa Springs, so I completely understand what you mean about the locals. They don't like out-of-towners! But hopefully we can get up there at some point and scout the area. We are still in the looking stage and won't be looking to buy for another few years though. Gotta get that money saved up!

Heffard, funny you should mention that. About 2 weeks ago I was driving up I-24 I think it is through that area and was wondering about the LBL area. Not sure what kind of stuff there is around there for winter activities, but I would imagine Spring, Summer and Fall would keep us busy. Is there any kind of hunting season in that area? That is something else I need to check into. That would be good for the Winter season if they have something like that around there. Oh, I was looking at the map, and the actual LBL area between the two lakes, is that all like a State Park area or is there private property between the lakes? Seems like that would be a prime area for something like what we are wanting to do. I'm definitely going to check into that.

Oh! I almost forgot! This morning I pulled up to the guard shack to check in and guess what we saw. There is a chain link fence surrounding the property right next to the outbound gate. Right smack on the other side of the fence, probably 40 ft from me and about a foot on the other side of the fence, there were 5 does standing there grazing. I guess they are pretty used to the trucks coming and going because they didn't so much as look up when the truck behind me set his air brakes. It was a really nice way to start the day off. See, that is why I love this job. You get to see things like that where most people don't have that opportunity. I love my life!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Oklahoma City,OK

Here we sit in OKC at a Carrier Service shop. The reefer unit shut down about midnight with three alarm codes. One of them being a blown fuse. J was half way between OKC and Tulsa and they had him turn around and come back to OKC to get it fixed. Of course we didn't get here till almost 0400 because the next exit that J needed to turn around at had an accident. A fatality that has the freeway shut down and he couldn't get to the exit. He ended up sitting there somewhere in the vicinity of close to 3 hours. So now the reefer has been off a total of a little over 5 hours. Not good. And of course now we will have to reschedule our appointment once we get finished here and figure out what time we can get to the receiver. I am hoping that we don't lose this load because of the temperature. We haven't opened the door so it is holding what temperature it can. So now we have less than 24 hours to get to destination with 1237 miles to go and the on-call guy isn't even here yet. It is just a waiting game at this point. Hopefully it is a quick fix and we can get moving again. But you know how our luck is. LOL We will probably have to find another trailer and move all the product to the new trailer to keep moving. Just our luck I tell ya. But I will let you know what happens with this.



I need to get the camera battery charged so I can take more pictures and load them on here. Especially of Smokey. I need to get one of how big he is now compared to how big he was when we first got him. He was 15 lbs when we took him to the Vet for his first shots back in March. I would guess he is about 45 lbs now. I am hoping he doesn't get much bigger, but since he is a mutt we just don't know. He sure is a pretty boy though and we get a lot of compliments on him. He has beautiful coloring on his coat and is really good natured so that is a huge plus. Having him out here with us has been so enjoyable I can't imagine not having him out here. If you are a solo driver and don't have a pet with you, and you like dogs, I would recommend getting one. They are so lovable and just a ton of entertainment. Except for when you are trying to potty train them. :) Luckily, for the most part, Smokey has done real good with that. He has had a few accidents, but nothing a load of laundry wouldn't fix. And thank goodness I had the forsight to get a vinyl mattress cover when we brought him along! LOL



We are looking at property again for our Guest Ranch since that is what our ultimate goal is. Drive for several years and save enough money to buy some property and build some cabins on it with a camping/RV area and open up a small guest ranch. One of the nice things about driving is that we get to see the whole country and see what areas would be a good place to have that kind of business. You have to have major attractions that would draw the people to the area. And we also want a place that has four seasons and that has activities year round. Skiing in the winter, hunting in the fall, hiking in the spring and rafting or fishing in the summer. So that is what we are looking for. So far the area we like best is up in Chewelah,WA. Just north of Spokane about 45 minutes or so. There is the 49 North Ski area that is expanding up there and it appears they are going to turn it into another Vail which means growth. And there is national forest which is a big plus for trail rides. And although there is the skiing in the winter, it will be a COLD winter being that far north. So that is our favorite so far, but if we could find something affordable with the same offerings but a little further south, like in Colorado, then that would be better. Except property in Colorado is EXPENSIVE. Especially when you are looking at buying around 100 acres. We will settle for less acreage if we can find something that borders national forest though

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Salinas,CA

That is where we are headed to pick up our next load. Then we have until Monday at 0430 to make it 2700n miles. Piece of cake. The rest of today and then three full days of driving before it is due.



Joel I think it was asked about our 70 hour rule. Let me see if I can explain this. Per DOT a driver can not work more than 70 hours in an 8 day period. There are two ways to gain hours back. The first is to take a 34 hour restart when you are out of hours. This essentially wipes your 70 hour clock and you start with a clean slate. The other way is to gain hours back. At midnight on the 8th day, you gain back the hours that you worked on your first day. For instance here are the hours I worked this past week. Day 1-10.75 Day 2-12.75 Day 3-11 Day 4-13 Day 5-9.5 Day 6-9.25 Day 7-3.75. At the end of this 7 day period I have worked exactly 70 hours. On Day 8 I can't work because I have hit my 70 hours. Now, at midnight on the 8th day, Day 1 drops off and Day 2 becomes Day 1 and Day 3 becomes Day 2 and so on. So now, if you look back at the hours I had, now it looks like this: Day 1-12.75, Day 2-11, Day 3-13, Day 4-9.5, Day 5-9.25, Day 6-3.75 and Day 8-0(because I couldn't work). Add all these up and you get 59.25 so you subtract that from 70, so 70-59.25=10.75. 10.75 are the hours that I dropped from my first day and gained back to work. So now I can work 10.75 hours today. There you have it. The two ways that you can gain back hours. Do a 34-hour restart and completely wipe the 70 out and have a fresh start, or gain back hours on midnight of your 8th day from what drops off of that first day. Clear as mud? :) It is easier to do a restart if you have the time. A lot of the time, you are under a load and just have to work off of the hours gained back. After a while that gets real tiring because you don't really get any time off, even though you are working legally. We try to run about 2-3 weeks and then at least take a 34-hour restart. This time I just blew through my hours and was forced to stop. I did manage to get a 34-hour restart out of this but J didn't. But somehow he still has hours that he can work off of. I must be working harder then him I guess. As his boss, I am going to have to light a fire under his ass!

To those that answered where Justin is stationed at, THANK YOU!! Now if we can just get a mailing address for him we will be all set!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Ontario,CA

Well, we are here for another night. Sometimes I just want to kick myself in the ass. You know how I was telling you I could only drive 3.75 hours yesterday? Well, I had it in my head that today would be my 8th day and that I could gain some hours back. Nope, not the case. Today was only my 7th day. And as of yesterday I was at exactly 70 hours. Now the DOT rule is that we can not work more than 70 hours in an 8 day period. Today is my 8th day and I have already hit my 70. That means I am done until midnight when I will gain back 10.75 hours. Luckily we stopped early last night so when we got up this morning to make this last delivery, J had already had a 10 hour break so he was able to get us to the receiver. After we delivered there we came back to the TA here in Ontario and we are just staying till in the morning. I sent our FM a message with my hours and told him I couldn't drive so we wouldn't be available until tomorrow morning at 0300. He sent a message saying OK so we are good to go. I did tell him though that if he gets us a load lined up for tomorrow to let us know as soon as he gets it. If he finds something today that picks up at say 0800 in the morning, then there is no reason for me to get up at 0300 to check the Qualcomm. Our Qualcomm times out after the truck has been turned off a certain period of time. So unless I get up and turn the truck on I won't get any messages. So I am really hoping that he finds us a load before he goes home.

Right now I am sitting here watching TV in the truck and blogging. The cool thing about Idleaire is that you can just give them your drivers license to hold and you can get a TV to watch. Plus the Idleaire lets you hook up to the internet (which I don't need since I have an air card), has four 110 outlets, pay per view movies and A/C which is the most important when you are in California and they have these stupid no idling laws. And is it REALLY hot here already.

We still haven't heard from Justin yet. We know he is in Illinois for Basic Training but we don't know what town. He called his home twice. Once at 0230 in the morning, according to Jessica and the second time no one was home and he left a message. I am anxious to get his address because it is always great to get mail. Also I really want to know when he graduates Basic so we can be there. J said when he went through Basic he didn't have anyone there at Graduation and he knows how he felt. He said it would have been really nice if someone was there for him. So we are going to make it a point to be there for Justin's Graduation.

I guess that is about it. At least we are parked a little closer this time so I don't have to walk as far to the bathroom!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Ontario,CA

What a week this has been. I am worn out! I made the mistake of not adding up my hours and woke up this morning to realize that I could only drive 3.75 hours. Not near enough time to make it to our drops. Well hell. But first, let me back up.

After we dropped in Nutty New Jersey, we went up to Waterford,NY to pick up a Hazmat load of some chemicals with two stops in California. The first in Ontario and the next 25 miles away in LaHabra. Ok, pick up the load and head out. Our first stop in Ontario shows a delivery on 07/01 but no appointment time set yet. Our last drop in LaHabra shows a delivery dabe of 6/30 between 0700-1600. Ok, first off, how can our last drop be scheduled before our first stop? And they have to be in that order because that is how the trailer is loaded. Well, this morning I wake up and realize I am out of hours so I drive us as far as Havasu City,AZ. I stop for a few hours and realize if I get J up early, not early as in illegal, but he can get us in to our first stop. Now during the trip we got a message saying they had changed our last appointment to 07/01 0700-1600 and I confused that with the first stop that didn't have an appointment yet. So I was thinking that both were on the same day just before 1600. Well, as it turns out, they still did not have an appointment for our first drop and what they sent me was that they changed the DATE of the last stop from 06/30 to 07/01. Either way, I am still thinking I have an appointment at BOTH places.

Anyway, J gets up and takes off and we start having problems with the reefer shutting off. Our FM sends a message and by this time it has shut off twice. So we get on the phone with Road Assist and we have to take it to a truck stop because there is no Carrier/ThermoKing dealer close except for in Ontario, which is where we are headed. We make it to Barstow,CA and stop at the TA and have them look at it. It turns out that it was OUT of coolant. We get that fixed, after a few hours but we aren't going to make it to either place before 1600. So I call our FM and talk to him about it and that is when we realize that there is still NO appointment for our first drop. He said they had been e-mailing and calling them for the last two days and couldn't get ahold of anyone. We just decided we would head over and see if they could get us unloaded and if not then we would come back first thing in the morning. Before all this I had called our last stop and found out that even if we had made it by 1600, they don't take receiving past 1400. They changed that as of June 1st and apparently our Sales department didn't get the memo. So I am STILL waiting on an actual appointment time for them in the morning. He said that I would need an appointment to get unloaded, not just show up when you can and we will get to you. So I still don't have an appointment with them.

Now, on the bright side. We made it to our first drop about 1800 hrs and they were open and they unloaded us. So now all we have to do is head to the TA in Ontario for the night and find out in the morning when our next appointment is at our last drop. I am exhausted after this week. It isn't good to work as many hours as I worked in the last 5-6 days. It will wear you out!

Now if I can get a shower and a hot meal, I will be set. A good nights sleep on top of that and I will be one happy girl!