Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Some Other Day!!!! That has been my mantra the last few days. When we arrived in California last Saturday evening, it was raining. It was raining when we picked up our load on Sunday evening after dropping the one we had on Saturday evening. Then we had snow on Monday through Arizona. I saw the sun for a few hours Sunday afternoon, once I made it east of Flagstaff, but by the time I hit the New Mexico border and J started driving, it was cloudy and there were snow flurries again. When J took over last night in Rolla,MO it started raining on him after I went to bed. That would be somewhere around St Louis or maybe right after he crossed into Illinois. When he woke me up in Columbus,OH this morning, it was yet again raining. And now here I am in Syracuse,NY at the end of my shift, and it is STILL raining. I love the rain. When I am at home, cuddled up with a blanket and a good book and sitting in front of a fire. But not when I drive completely across the USA and it hovers above me!
These storms are pretty bad that are moving across the US. I talke to some friends of ours who drive for Schneider this afternoon. They were in Tennessee and getting pounded by rain and wind. They said they had been dealing with it since they left the Dallas/Ft Worth area last night. Another friend of ours, who works for Richardson PD, has his fence blown down from the storms. He lives over in Garland,TX and if you have been watching the news, Garland was making national news from the storm damage along with the tornado or two that touched down in Oklahoma City and the surrounding area. Actually I think it was just one tornado. Regardless, it has been some nasty weather.
Right now we are about 434 miles from our delivery up in Lewiston,ME. I am thinking that J will get us to the service plaza in Kennebunk,ME tonight. From there, it should be a short drive for me to the receivers in the morning. First though, after J takes off driving here in a few, we are making a stop at x28 on I-90 here in NY at the TA. Time for a shower and a meal that comes on a plate and not out of a wrapper.
I also think that once we get finished with this load, that we are going to have to give this truck a good cleaning. Smokey likes the mud and water puddles a little too much. And there is only so much that I can do to get him cleaned off before he jumps up in the truck after I walk him. A cleaning is definitely in order.
As usual, I am not sure where we will be headed tomorrow. Both times we have delivered in Maine, they have sent us back south to pick up our next load. I am just hoping that this storm passes or something before I have to drive back south in it tomorrow. Anyway, time for me to chill out for a while before we stop up at the TA. I am off to be lazy!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Rolla,MO
Here we are in Rolla,MO. I have been having problems getting online and I am beginning to suspect that it is my air card. It doesn't seem to be getting a good connection to my laptop. Could be partly because when we set the laptop on the steering wheel it pushes it up some. Well, not could be, that is probably the problem. LOL Now I just have to figure out if it has damaged the air card or the connection in the computer.
We made it in to Carson,CA and killed a few hours at the truck stop before our delivery at 1900 local time. From there J headed back to the TA where we spent the night. I was so tired when we left the shipper headed back to the truck stop that I didn't even notice the crappy California roads. Also didn't notice when he pulled in and parked, got in the back and gathered up the laundry, left or came back to the truck. Good thing no one tried to steal the truck because they would have stolen me right along with it! I was beat!
I woke up the next morning, Sunday, to the Qualcomm beeping asking when we would be ready for a load. Umm, as soon as you send me one? The weekend guy said that he would try to get us something asap. I decided I would head in and grab some coffee then come back to the truck to sit and wait. Turns out I didn't have to wait for long. As I was walking back out to the truck my phone rang and it was him calling to tell me he had just sent me a load and to go over the live-load call stuff we have to do. The load didn't pick up until 1900 Sunday night so we still had all day Sunday to kill.
When I got back into the truck J had woke up so I told him about the load and then we went in to grab some breakfast. With nothing else to do after that, we came back to the truck and decided a nap was in order. It was raining there so that was the perfect weather to be lazy in.
We had talked to another husband/wife team that is with Prime and they were going to be to that same truck stop around 1300 so we figured we would take a nap and get up at 1200 so we could grab a shower. Of course when we got up and were getting ready to head in for the shower, they pulled in. Figures! But we still grabbed a shower before we had lunch, and I am sure they apreciated our efforts. It was nice to get to visit with Chuck and Lori. We ended up getting to visit until around 1700 local when we both needed to hit the road. Us to make our pick-up and them to make their delivery. So after saying goodbye, we both hit the road.
This pick-up they had us on was to a place we had been before and it was only about 18 miles from the truck stop. The appointment was for 1900 and by the time we got loaded and back to the truck-stop to scale it was around 2300. J made it to the last rest area in CA on I-40 where he called it a night.
We had heard Flagstaff was supposed to get snow on Monday, so I get up and head out right at 0300. The roads between Kingman,AZ and Flagstaff,AZ were a compelte disaster. I passed two Fed-Ex truck, daycabs pulling doubles, that had both lost traction and were stopped side by side blocking both lanes. Two state patrols were on scene and after downshifting to 3rd gear I was able to crawl by them on the left shoulder without having to stop. A little farther up the mountain on the westbound side, there was a semi completely off the road and on it's side. I FINALLY made it to the east side of Flagstaff where the sun was shining and not a flake of snow on the ground. I was really really really happy to see clear roads. I stopped at the AZ/NM border where J took over and drove all night to get me to the TX/OK border.
This morning I woke up in Erick,OK at the Love's at exit 7 or 8, I don't remember. Anyway, took off from there and made it into Springfield,MO right at lunch. Another driver that we know was at the yard there with his dad who was taking his CDL test, so we were able to meet him for lunch. This has been a week of meeting up with friends. I love weeks like this! We were at the yard for about 2 hours and I headed out at 1400. I went ahead and drove until 1600 today so J could get a nap since I woke him up for lunch. When I stopped, I stopped at the Love's in Rolla where we switched out.
While we were in the Love's, I was watching the Weather Channel to see what kind of weather we would run into on the rest of the trip up to Maine. It looks like from here on out we will skirt around the top of the store that is headed towards New England. What surprised me is what was BEHIND us. I drove through Oklahoma City around 0630 this morning. While I was watching the Weather Channel they were saying that Oklahoma City had a major tornado touch down. Lots of buildings were damaged with roofs collapsing or completely being pulled off of the houses. I am so glad that I made it through there when I did. It is a nasty looking storm cell that is running from OK down through North Texas and the Dallas/Ft Worth area. We have definitely encountered some wierd weather this trip. I am hoping the rest of the trip is smooth for us as far as the weather is concerned.
Not a lot else going on. I figure J will make it up to the Chicago area or somewhere up in IN tonight before he calls it a night and then I will take over from there. I will let you know tomorrow!
We made it in to Carson,CA and killed a few hours at the truck stop before our delivery at 1900 local time. From there J headed back to the TA where we spent the night. I was so tired when we left the shipper headed back to the truck stop that I didn't even notice the crappy California roads. Also didn't notice when he pulled in and parked, got in the back and gathered up the laundry, left or came back to the truck. Good thing no one tried to steal the truck because they would have stolen me right along with it! I was beat!
I woke up the next morning, Sunday, to the Qualcomm beeping asking when we would be ready for a load. Umm, as soon as you send me one? The weekend guy said that he would try to get us something asap. I decided I would head in and grab some coffee then come back to the truck to sit and wait. Turns out I didn't have to wait for long. As I was walking back out to the truck my phone rang and it was him calling to tell me he had just sent me a load and to go over the live-load call stuff we have to do. The load didn't pick up until 1900 Sunday night so we still had all day Sunday to kill.
When I got back into the truck J had woke up so I told him about the load and then we went in to grab some breakfast. With nothing else to do after that, we came back to the truck and decided a nap was in order. It was raining there so that was the perfect weather to be lazy in.
We had talked to another husband/wife team that is with Prime and they were going to be to that same truck stop around 1300 so we figured we would take a nap and get up at 1200 so we could grab a shower. Of course when we got up and were getting ready to head in for the shower, they pulled in. Figures! But we still grabbed a shower before we had lunch, and I am sure they apreciated our efforts. It was nice to get to visit with Chuck and Lori. We ended up getting to visit until around 1700 local when we both needed to hit the road. Us to make our pick-up and them to make their delivery. So after saying goodbye, we both hit the road.
This pick-up they had us on was to a place we had been before and it was only about 18 miles from the truck stop. The appointment was for 1900 and by the time we got loaded and back to the truck-stop to scale it was around 2300. J made it to the last rest area in CA on I-40 where he called it a night.
We had heard Flagstaff was supposed to get snow on Monday, so I get up and head out right at 0300. The roads between Kingman,AZ and Flagstaff,AZ were a compelte disaster. I passed two Fed-Ex truck, daycabs pulling doubles, that had both lost traction and were stopped side by side blocking both lanes. Two state patrols were on scene and after downshifting to 3rd gear I was able to crawl by them on the left shoulder without having to stop. A little farther up the mountain on the westbound side, there was a semi completely off the road and on it's side. I FINALLY made it to the east side of Flagstaff where the sun was shining and not a flake of snow on the ground. I was really really really happy to see clear roads. I stopped at the AZ/NM border where J took over and drove all night to get me to the TX/OK border.
This morning I woke up in Erick,OK at the Love's at exit 7 or 8, I don't remember. Anyway, took off from there and made it into Springfield,MO right at lunch. Another driver that we know was at the yard there with his dad who was taking his CDL test, so we were able to meet him for lunch. This has been a week of meeting up with friends. I love weeks like this! We were at the yard for about 2 hours and I headed out at 1400. I went ahead and drove until 1600 today so J could get a nap since I woke him up for lunch. When I stopped, I stopped at the Love's in Rolla where we switched out.
While we were in the Love's, I was watching the Weather Channel to see what kind of weather we would run into on the rest of the trip up to Maine. It looks like from here on out we will skirt around the top of the store that is headed towards New England. What surprised me is what was BEHIND us. I drove through Oklahoma City around 0630 this morning. While I was watching the Weather Channel they were saying that Oklahoma City had a major tornado touch down. Lots of buildings were damaged with roofs collapsing or completely being pulled off of the houses. I am so glad that I made it through there when I did. It is a nasty looking storm cell that is running from OK down through North Texas and the Dallas/Ft Worth area. We have definitely encountered some wierd weather this trip. I am hoping the rest of the trip is smooth for us as far as the weather is concerned.
Not a lot else going on. I figure J will make it up to the Chicago area or somewhere up in IN tonight before he calls it a night and then I will take over from there. I will let you know tomorrow!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Ontario,CA
I tried to post yesterday but was in an area that I could not get a signal at all. So I will make up for it today.
Yesterday, Sam was nice enough to leave me a comment telling me that my blog was in the February issue of the Pilot Challenge. Of course the next Pilot I saw I had to pull in. I made a beeline for the rack and pulled one off. Sure enough, there it was! There was a great article in there about trucking blogs. At the end of the article there were several blogs listed. Sure enough, mine was on there. Isn't life strange sometimes? I started this blog initially just to chronical our life out on the road. Along the way it happened that I was actually helping some people make the decision on whether to become an OTR driver. I guess that is because I just tell it like it is out here. It isn't all roses but it certainly isn't all bad. The good FAR outweighs the bad. It certainly isn't for everyone, but it is the right career for a number of people. Although I am wondering how people actually find blogs on the web. I guess they fall into certain categories based on content or something. I guess I will leave that up to the blogspot people since it its out of my range of expertise!
When we picked this load up in Kalamazoo,MI we need we would need to hustle to get here on time. J had a couple of long days, as did I. But today I managed to pull into Barstow at the end of my shift with only 124 miles to go for an appointment time of 1900. That means after grabbing a sandwich from Subway and heading out, J is going to get us to the receiver about 3 hours early. Scratch that. I just remembered where we are going and we can't park there. crap! That means that we will have to stay at the TA until a little over an hour before we are due and then we can take off.
That is one of the really bad things about delivering out here in CA. There is NOWHERE to park. The truck stops are very limited in comparison to the number of drivers out here on the road. And then you have warehouses like the one we are delivering to that have absolutely no extra parking. You have to pull up on the street and check in. And if there are too many trucks inside, you have to back into the parking lot off of the street. That is always fun. That is the way it goes out here though.
I am not sure where we will be heading next. I checked with our weekend FM and he said it would probably be tomorrow morning before we get a load. That means that after we drop this load tonight, we will head back to the TA in Ontario,CA to spend the night and see what tomorrow brings. You never know though, he may surprise us with something later tonight. Now we will just play the waiting game!
Yesterday, Sam was nice enough to leave me a comment telling me that my blog was in the February issue of the Pilot Challenge. Of course the next Pilot I saw I had to pull in. I made a beeline for the rack and pulled one off. Sure enough, there it was! There was a great article in there about trucking blogs. At the end of the article there were several blogs listed. Sure enough, mine was on there. Isn't life strange sometimes? I started this blog initially just to chronical our life out on the road. Along the way it happened that I was actually helping some people make the decision on whether to become an OTR driver. I guess that is because I just tell it like it is out here. It isn't all roses but it certainly isn't all bad. The good FAR outweighs the bad. It certainly isn't for everyone, but it is the right career for a number of people. Although I am wondering how people actually find blogs on the web. I guess they fall into certain categories based on content or something. I guess I will leave that up to the blogspot people since it its out of my range of expertise!
When we picked this load up in Kalamazoo,MI we need we would need to hustle to get here on time. J had a couple of long days, as did I. But today I managed to pull into Barstow at the end of my shift with only 124 miles to go for an appointment time of 1900. That means after grabbing a sandwich from Subway and heading out, J is going to get us to the receiver about 3 hours early. Scratch that. I just remembered where we are going and we can't park there. crap! That means that we will have to stay at the TA until a little over an hour before we are due and then we can take off.
That is one of the really bad things about delivering out here in CA. There is NOWHERE to park. The truck stops are very limited in comparison to the number of drivers out here on the road. And then you have warehouses like the one we are delivering to that have absolutely no extra parking. You have to pull up on the street and check in. And if there are too many trucks inside, you have to back into the parking lot off of the street. That is always fun. That is the way it goes out here though.
I am not sure where we will be heading next. I checked with our weekend FM and he said it would probably be tomorrow morning before we get a load. That means that after we drop this load tonight, we will head back to the TA in Ontario,CA to spend the night and see what tomorrow brings. You never know though, he may surprise us with something later tonight. Now we will just play the waiting game!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Battle Creek,MI
Oh my goodness it is COLD! Truck is reading 21 degrees outside but the wind is blowing. It just cuts you to the bone. It was cold in Springfield while we were there and I don't feel like I have been warm in over a week. A nice hot shower helped earlier but as soon as I stepped back outside, there comes the cold again.
When J woke me up this morning, we were at a rest area 14 miles from our delivery. I got rounded up and headed in and got there about 45 minutes early. There were 2 trucks in front of us that also had 0600 appointments but there were only 2 docks. I finally make it in to a door around 0730 or so and by around 0900 I am done. I messaged our FM and he didn't have a load yet so I headed up the road to a small truck stop to wait.
Turns out I didn't have to wait for long. Once I got there I went inside and grabbed some breakfast from the McDonald's and when I got back to the truck we had our next load. We are picking up in Kalamazoo,MI and delivering to Carson,CA. Finally we are back to the coast where we can get in a good freight lane. When they first sent the load assigment we had a delivery time of Monday at 0600. That was a lot of time on that load and I knew we would make it in sometime Saturday evening so we would have a whole day to kill. I decided to go ahead and take off and head towards Kalamazoo and as I was driving I got another message with a new appointment time of Saturday at 1900 hrs. Well, so much for taking our time on the load. With the new appointment time, we will have to book it to make it there. They have us routed across I-80, to I-76 to I-70 and then down I-15 into the Los Angeles area. We have decided we are going to take the southern route and cut down to I-40 over to I-15. It is right at 100 miles further but we will make about the same time by not having to cross all the mountains in Colorado and Utah. Not to mention that there is always the possibility of snow when you cross I-70 in Colorado because the altitide is so high.
I made it to Battle Creek,MI which is a short 34 miles to the shipper and that is where I called it a day. J got up around 1400 and we headed in for a shower and lunch. After that J walked Smokey while I figured out the route and how far each of us will need to go each shift in order to make it there on time. Now that we have that all figured out we are a short 15 miles from the shipper and we are ready to roll!
When J woke me up this morning, we were at a rest area 14 miles from our delivery. I got rounded up and headed in and got there about 45 minutes early. There were 2 trucks in front of us that also had 0600 appointments but there were only 2 docks. I finally make it in to a door around 0730 or so and by around 0900 I am done. I messaged our FM and he didn't have a load yet so I headed up the road to a small truck stop to wait.
Turns out I didn't have to wait for long. Once I got there I went inside and grabbed some breakfast from the McDonald's and when I got back to the truck we had our next load. We are picking up in Kalamazoo,MI and delivering to Carson,CA. Finally we are back to the coast where we can get in a good freight lane. When they first sent the load assigment we had a delivery time of Monday at 0600. That was a lot of time on that load and I knew we would make it in sometime Saturday evening so we would have a whole day to kill. I decided to go ahead and take off and head towards Kalamazoo and as I was driving I got another message with a new appointment time of Saturday at 1900 hrs. Well, so much for taking our time on the load. With the new appointment time, we will have to book it to make it there. They have us routed across I-80, to I-76 to I-70 and then down I-15 into the Los Angeles area. We have decided we are going to take the southern route and cut down to I-40 over to I-15. It is right at 100 miles further but we will make about the same time by not having to cross all the mountains in Colorado and Utah. Not to mention that there is always the possibility of snow when you cross I-70 in Colorado because the altitide is so high.
I made it to Battle Creek,MI which is a short 34 miles to the shipper and that is where I called it a day. J got up around 1400 and we headed in for a shower and lunch. After that J walked Smokey while I figured out the route and how far each of us will need to go each shift in order to make it there on time. Now that we have that all figured out we are a short 15 miles from the shipper and we are ready to roll!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Springfield,IL
Did you notice where I am? Springfield, ILLINOIS! Not Springfield,MO! Yay, we made it out of the Freight Black Hole!!
Yesterday afternoon around 1430 we finally got a load. We almost had a load to Canada, and we were actually going to take it since we hadn't been before, but it was still in Laredo,TX and wouldn't be there for another two days. So instead we ended up getting assigned a load that was dropped there at the yard and is delivering to Imlay City,MI. So it is back up to the frozen north for us. It was only 777 miles to deliver so we had plenty of time. We knew that we would get there extremely early if we left yesterday, so we went ahead and stayed at the yard and headed out this morning. We got up and got breakfast, picked up the trailer, went and washed the truck and left a little before 0900. This is going to be nice and easy trip so we are taking our time.
We are currently travelling NB up I-55 in Illinois and I just looked up and realized where we are. About 5 miles back is where my windshield got busted on Saturday. You can bet we are being super careful when trucks come by that have any ice or snow on them!
Anyway, not much else going on today. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a load heading to the east or west coast again so we can get back in a good freight lane.
Yesterday afternoon around 1430 we finally got a load. We almost had a load to Canada, and we were actually going to take it since we hadn't been before, but it was still in Laredo,TX and wouldn't be there for another two days. So instead we ended up getting assigned a load that was dropped there at the yard and is delivering to Imlay City,MI. So it is back up to the frozen north for us. It was only 777 miles to deliver so we had plenty of time. We knew that we would get there extremely early if we left yesterday, so we went ahead and stayed at the yard and headed out this morning. We got up and got breakfast, picked up the trailer, went and washed the truck and left a little before 0900. This is going to be nice and easy trip so we are taking our time.
We are currently travelling NB up I-55 in Illinois and I just looked up and realized where we are. About 5 miles back is where my windshield got busted on Saturday. You can bet we are being super careful when trucks come by that have any ice or snow on them!
Anyway, not much else going on today. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a load heading to the east or west coast again so we can get back in a good freight lane.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Springfield,MO
Yep, we are still here. On the bright side, we got the window fixed and the lights fixed. Now we are just waiting on a load. We got back to the yard from the hotel around 0830 this morning and we were #3 on the list of teams waiting for a load. Now it is 1315 and we are still waiting.
Another friend of ours made it to the yard this morning and we got to visit and have breakfast with him. J headed to bed after that and I was able to get him to help me figure out this i-Pod stuff so I could download songs for J onto his i-Pod Nano that we got last night. I have an mp3 but am having issues with it so I was going to return it and get me an i-Pod Touch but of course they were out of them. Pooh! I will have to try another place. At least the i-Tunes store is much more user friendly than the other places that I was using for my mp3, which was NOT an i-Pod.
Oh, and the friend that we met has a puppy with him. It is an English Bulldog that is only maybe 9 weeks old and it is the cutest puppy ever!! He named him Diesel (how cute is that?) and the poor puppy is already driving him nuts. He is trying to get rid of him already and if I had the money to buy him, and if I could take J into it, I would scoop him up in a heartbeat! He said he would even take payments. Unfortunately, an English Bulldog is going to get fairly big and there is not going to be enough room for both him and Smokey in the truck. So I will have to pass on him and keep my Smokey.
Speaking of dogs though, last night when we got back to the hotel from Walmart, there was a guy out walking his Rottweiller. OMG that dog reminded me of our Rottweiller, Harley, that we had to put down quite a few years ago. He had cancer. Man I miss that dog. That was truly the best dog we have ever had. All 165 lbs of him.
Not much else going on here. Just sitting and waiting on a load. I'll update more later when we actually do something!
Another friend of ours made it to the yard this morning and we got to visit and have breakfast with him. J headed to bed after that and I was able to get him to help me figure out this i-Pod stuff so I could download songs for J onto his i-Pod Nano that we got last night. I have an mp3 but am having issues with it so I was going to return it and get me an i-Pod Touch but of course they were out of them. Pooh! I will have to try another place. At least the i-Tunes store is much more user friendly than the other places that I was using for my mp3, which was NOT an i-Pod.
Oh, and the friend that we met has a puppy with him. It is an English Bulldog that is only maybe 9 weeks old and it is the cutest puppy ever!! He named him Diesel (how cute is that?) and the poor puppy is already driving him nuts. He is trying to get rid of him already and if I had the money to buy him, and if I could take J into it, I would scoop him up in a heartbeat! He said he would even take payments. Unfortunately, an English Bulldog is going to get fairly big and there is not going to be enough room for both him and Smokey in the truck. So I will have to pass on him and keep my Smokey.
Speaking of dogs though, last night when we got back to the hotel from Walmart, there was a guy out walking his Rottweiller. OMG that dog reminded me of our Rottweiller, Harley, that we had to put down quite a few years ago. He had cancer. Man I miss that dog. That was truly the best dog we have ever had. All 165 lbs of him.
Not much else going on here. Just sitting and waiting on a load. I'll update more later when we actually do something!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Springfield,MO
It appears that we are stuck in Springfield once more. Yesterday when J took off driving, his plan was to get to Springfield to have them look at the trailer and the windshield and for us to then head on out to Laredo. As we all know, things don't always go according to plan.
J made it to Springfield and found the guy in the yard that he needed to take a looka t the trailer. He was working on another trailer and had J unhook the trailer we had so he could get to it next. I guess as he was unhooking the trailer, he realized that our front passenger road lamp, headlight and marker lights weren't working. Thinking it was just the bulbs, he went and got bulbs from the shop. Not wanting to replace them at that moment, he went to park to wait for the trailer to be finished. About two hours later, he went to check on the fixed trailer and to hook up. When he was doing so he replaced the bulbs only to find out that when he took them out, they weren't broken and weren't out. Hmm Seems that we have some kind of electrical problem. He talked to the guys in the shop about it but they are backed up and besides they said that they don't do electrical work. Therefore we are stuck here in Springfield to get this stuff fixed and are now in the freight black hole.
On the bright side we will get to watch the Superbowl AND see all of the commercials. This is the first Superbowl I have seen in several years so I am excited!
J made it to Springfield and found the guy in the yard that he needed to take a looka t the trailer. He was working on another trailer and had J unhook the trailer we had so he could get to it next. I guess as he was unhooking the trailer, he realized that our front passenger road lamp, headlight and marker lights weren't working. Thinking it was just the bulbs, he went and got bulbs from the shop. Not wanting to replace them at that moment, he went to park to wait for the trailer to be finished. About two hours later, he went to check on the fixed trailer and to hook up. When he was doing so he replaced the bulbs only to find out that when he took them out, they weren't broken and weren't out. Hmm Seems that we have some kind of electrical problem. He talked to the guys in the shop about it but they are backed up and besides they said that they don't do electrical work. Therefore we are stuck here in Springfield to get this stuff fixed and are now in the freight black hole.
On the bright side we will get to watch the Superbowl AND see all of the commercials. This is the first Superbowl I have seen in several years so I am excited!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
