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.