Delano,CA

It has been a couple of days but boy have we been busy! Around 0900 on Friday they FINALLY had our paperwork ready at EXCEL in Plainview so I was told to get the trailer and pull to the front where they would check the seal and give me my paperwork. That load didn't start off on a good note and I should have known that it wouldn't stop there. First, I pull up to the trailer and get ready to back underneath it. It was sitting way to high so I got out to lower the landing gear only to find that it was near impossible to crank. Great. I gave it a good effort and got it turned almost one complete turn but realized that I was going to need more muscle if it was going to be lowered. As much as I hated to, since I like doing things myself, I had to wake J up to come do it for me. There are a lot of things, well, most things, involving driving this truck that I can do by myself. But this is just one of those things that I couldn't do. I'm just not strong enough.

As I got in the truck, I just stood on the step and woke J up asking him to help me. I stood there playing with Smokey while he was getting up figuring no need to get back in and settled when I was just going to get back out. Once J was up and stepping to the front of the truck to put his shoes on, another driver came walking up. Bless his heart, he was coming to see if I needed help after watching me struggling with the landing gear. There are some really nice people out there and except for a few buttheads who give this industry a bad image, the majority are extremely nice and helpful. We talked to the gentleman for a few minutes and then after thanking him he walked back to his truck knowing that I was in good hands with my husband and that he would get the landing gear for me.

J, out of breath himself, finally got the landing gear down and we were able to hook up and pull to the gate to get our paperwork. I went inside to sign for everything and guess what, another problem. Seems the seal on the paperwork was a digit off from what the seal actually was. So, I go out the the truck to wait another hour for the corrected paperwork. I finally get the paperwork and I am off.

At this point I had two options. I could drive north, out of my way, 2o miles to the closest scale. If the load was ok, I could just drive the 20 miles back to my starting point and only be a total of 40 miles out of my way. Same goes if the load is heavy. Only 20 miles back to get it fixed. Or my second option was to go ahead and head south and scale in Lubbock, which was on the way. That was about 47 miles south. If it was fine, then I just continue, if not, I backtrack another 47 miles. I decided for the 20 mile option up to Tulia. Luckily the load was fine, after sliding the tandems. So I decide to call my dad an make plans to meet him for lunch as we drove through Lubbock.

At noon, I was finally on my way after arriving 20 hours earlier. We met my dad at Rip Griffin's there in Lubbock and had a nice lunch and got to visit for a little. But all too soon it was time to hit the road and get this load down to Laredo.

In Lubbock J took over driving and he got us in to Laredo around 0200 on Saturday morning. They already had a load there waiting on us, at the same spot we dropped, so we dropped our load, picked up the new one and headed out. We made a quick stop at the TA for a shower and breakfast and then I headed out.

I opted to take US 83 over to US 277 then to US 90 and then up US285 where I would connect in to I-10. It is a small 2 lane load, one lane each direction, and you have a few Border Patrol checkpoints, but it is a good road. There also isn't a lot of traffic which makes it nice. I headed out at around 0500 and by 1500 I had made it to Van Horn,TX at x140 on I-10. We switched again there with J taking over and I headed off to bed a few hours later.

J made excellent time and was able to get me 644 miles closer while I was sleeping. I woke up with only 416 miles to go. We were at the Tomahawk Travel Plaza which is at x40 on I-10 in Arizona. (I think that is where it is.) Feeling good after a good nights sleep, I head out.

Originally this load was supposed to deliver at 0800 but we had already told them that we couldn't make that time after the hold up at the Plainview shipper on the previous load. I talked to our FM around 0700 and told him I should make it in to the receiver in about 6 hours as long as traffic wasn't too bad in LA. I should never have opened my mouth about traffic. LOL I jinxed myself. It was horrible. I also had to go up the Grapevine on I-5 and that took quite a while since I was in 6th gear the whole way. The truck also started missing when I was climbing and it has never done that before, so that had me concerned. I sent in a message and told our FM that I couldn't make it on time but I would be there as fast as I could. He said he would notify the receiver and for us just to take our time and drive safe. I am really glad he isn't pushy and just lets us drive the truck the way we see fit.

Finally at around 1145 local, only 45 minutes after I said I could be there, I was pulling us in. By this time, J was up so he hopped out and got us checked in and found out where we needed to go. He showed me the way to the receiving dock, opened my doors, and I backed us in. About 45 minutes after that we were done.

While we were getting unloaded, I had turned the truck off and noticed I had 1 Active Fault according to my dashboard. Hmmm. This can't be good. I turned the key to the on position and held down the Shutdown Override button to see what codes I was getting. After writing them down, I sent a message in to Road Assist to find out. The code I was worried about was showing a problem with the Turbo and that would be why the truck was missing pulling up the Grapevine. Road Assist said that as long as I didn't have anymore problems, that it would be fine and that I didn't need to take it in to be looded at right now. Ok, if you say so, since you are the people that should know about this stuff. But I guarantee that if I blow my Turbo and have to get towed, Prime is paying for the tow since they told me it didn't need to be looked at right away. I drive the truck, I'm not a mechanic, that is why I called them.

After we get that settled, we pull out and head towards Buttonwillow where there is a TA since it was time for a PM on the truck. Got that done and then walked across the street to a little mexican food place that was AWESOME. Walked back to the truck and drove across the street to get the truck, trailer and inside of the trailer washed and then we called it a day. They didn't have a load for us and told us it would probably be this morning sometime. That meant I got to sleep in a non-moving truck and, since I drove to Buttonwillow, J was able to get a restart on his hours.

That is where we sit at the moment. I am going to go grab a shower here in a minute but I am contemplating breakfast first. Yummy!