I think yesterday has to have been one of the longest days I have had in a really long time. As you know, I blogged yesterday morning while I was waiting for my appointment at 0700. When the time came, I headed over there and was unloaded pretty quick. From there I headed back to the TA to scan our bills to get paid and to wait for our next load.
When I got back to the truck stop, J woke up and was hungry, so we decided breakfast was in order and I could get all the paperwork ready to scan while we ate. Having a full belly we walked back to the truck stop next door only to find out that their scanner is broken. Not a good thing since the truck stops in that area are pretty scarce. Now we do have a scanner in the truck, but the particular bills that we had are the kind that my scanner won't pick up. My luck, right? I called in to talk to my FM and he was at lunch so I got the guy that was covering. He told me that his payroll person won't accept faxes. I ask to speak to my payroll person and she tells me the same thing. They have to be scanned. Ok, tell me something. They don't get the originals anyway, we keep those. They also have the scanning machine there. So why can't they walk their lazy butts over to the fax machine, pick up the fax, and scan it in? I know it wouldn't happen very often because it cost us money to pay for the fax. $3 for the first page and $1 each additional page. And I had close to 30 pages to scan. So you can see it would have been expensive, and drivers wouldn't do that very often, except in a situation where there was no scanner. But I wanted to get paid. It was very frustrating.
While we were in there, we ran into another Prime driver that was needing to scan also. He was on the phone with his FM who told him of another place about 30 miles down the road. As we were heading out to the truck we just decided that if we didn't have our next load, that we would head down that direction to get them scanned. As it turns out, when we got to the truck, there was a message to head towards Prosser,WA for our next load. That worked good for us. It was only about 1230 and there was a Pilot right on the way about 100 miles down the road. So I knew that I could stop there and scan.
I made my way back to that Pilot in Biggs,WA and before I went in to scan I sent a message asking if we were going to pick up that night (Tuesday), or if it would be the next morning. Prosser isn't a big town, so if it was going to be the next morning, I was going to stay parked at the Pilot. When I got back to the truck, I had a message that we would be picking up that night. The problem is that the load had way too much time on it for a team so he was trying to work something out so we could pick up the load and then meet a solo and give that load to him. The solo was picking up a load that was a team load and he couldn't get it there on time as a solo. So that all worked out. Kinda.
Ok, get to Prosser and get loaded. I pull up and go to their scale and find out that I am at 81,900 lbs. Now I can't be over 80,000 lbs legally. So I go back and back up to the dock to have them remove about 3,000 lbs. I had told them from the beginning to allow an extra 1000 lbs because I only had 3/8 of a tank of fuel. They removed 3,000 lbs and we headed into the actual town of Prosser about 25 miles away to get scaled.
As we pulled into the truck stop in Prosser, the first thing we did was scale, and then we went in and parked. Time for dinner and a shower. We walked in and got the scale ticket and it was showing us over by close to 500 lbs on our drive axles. We wren't too concerned with it at the moment because we knew that we could slide the tandems all the way forwars and that we should be fine. So we took our time with the shower and had a nice meal at KFC and then we went out to slide the tandems and rescale. Uh Oh! We get the rescale ticket and we are still over by 60 lbs and we STILL need to get fuel. Definitely not a good sign. By this point it was 2130 hrs and I had been up since 0230 that morning. I was exhausted. We tried everything we could think of. The tandems were slid as far as they could go and we even slid the fifth wheel and that didn't help at all. It just made it worse. And we slid it forward and backwards just to make sure. We ended up scaling something like 5 or 6 times. We had even called our FM and told him what was going on, and we had about decided that we could have to go back the next morning to get it re-loaded and shift some weight around.
Then, in my delirious stupor, I had a brainstorm. We keep our chains in a milk crate sitting on the catwalk of the truck. I ask J how much they weighed and he said at least 60-80 lbs. So I figured why not take the chains and put them in the back of the trailer and move that weight back there. Good thing we didn't have a seal on the trailer! So J goes back there and moves them and we reweigh yet again, and guess what. That does the trick. We ended up moving 120 lbs to the back of the trailer. We were finally legal. Of course we had to stop for fuel about every 100 miles and only put a little in to keep us legal. But whatever works, right?
So this morning J gets me up to drive and the plan was to drive into Salt Lake City and meet the other driver there to switch loads. I get a message telling me to meet him at the Love's at x211 in Idaho because he still has one stop to make and we can just make that pickup for him. Ok, cool.
I pull in and the first thing we do is fill up with fuel. I wanted to make sure that when we scaled with the load he was giving us that we had a full tank. After we got everything straightened out, and remembered to get our chains back out of the trailer we gave him, I went and scaled and we were still overweight on the drives. However he had it in the 10th or 11th hole so I knew I could shift some weight and wasn't really worried about it.
Once everything was switched over and taken care of, I headed up the road about 6 miles to the last place I needed to pick up at. I got there and about an hour and a half later I am loaded and headed back to the Love's to get a final scale. I had already moved the tandems so when I got the scale ticket, I was pleased to see that we were completely legal. YAY!!
Now, I have to figure out how they expect us to get to Harahan,LA by 0500 on Friday morning. Yeah, I know, that isn't going to happen. Best I can figure the absolute earliest we can get there will be around 1500 on Saturday. This load was supposed to head out yesterday but the pick up that we made today, was supposed to have happened yesterday, but they didn't have the product in from the fields, so it had to wait an extra day. I am hoping that the place we are delivering is open and receiving on the weekend. If they aren't, then we just traded one load with too much time on it for another load just the same. I am hoping we can find something out here in a little while when I send it our projected arrival time. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it is good news!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Troutdale,OR
As I figured, I couldn't get a signal last night in Montana. So here I sit at the TA in Troutdale,OR killing a little time until my appointment at 0730. I called to see if I could get in early but the recording says they don't even open until 0700 so I have to sit here till about 0715 and then I will head over.
Yesterday J got me up in Mandan,ND and I made it as far as Belgrade,MT. Only about 560 miles, but there are some pretty good hills in there to cross over. From there J took over and made it to Pasco,WA where I took over this morning. J had the really big mountains last night and he hit every kind of weather possible. Rain, fog, snow. I sure am glad I was asleep through all of that!
When I started driving this morning the weather was fine. Unfortunately that didn't last for long. About the time I crossed over into Oregon the rain started and continued the rest of the way in. I-84 down by the Columbia River is a beautiful drive. Probably one of my favorites. Too bad I drove it at night and couldn't see the beautiful scenery. And if anyone with the Oregon DOT reads this, (Yeah, right) could you please re-stripe that road!?! You can barely see the lines to know where your lane is let alone where the shoulder is. It is bad enough when the weather is good, but when it is raining, they all but disappear!
So that is what is going on at the moment. Later today I have to call our VP at Carnival and take two of the girls off of the list and add two other names. Then I have to book another cruise for October 31st. Last year we did a girls cruise and this year we are going to do a couples cruise. And it is CHEAP in October! So that is what is on my agenda for the day.
Yesterday J got me up in Mandan,ND and I made it as far as Belgrade,MT. Only about 560 miles, but there are some pretty good hills in there to cross over. From there J took over and made it to Pasco,WA where I took over this morning. J had the really big mountains last night and he hit every kind of weather possible. Rain, fog, snow. I sure am glad I was asleep through all of that!
When I started driving this morning the weather was fine. Unfortunately that didn't last for long. About the time I crossed over into Oregon the rain started and continued the rest of the way in. I-84 down by the Columbia River is a beautiful drive. Probably one of my favorites. Too bad I drove it at night and couldn't see the beautiful scenery. And if anyone with the Oregon DOT reads this, (Yeah, right) could you please re-stripe that road!?! You can barely see the lines to know where your lane is let alone where the shoulder is. It is bad enough when the weather is good, but when it is raining, they all but disappear!
So that is what is going on at the moment. Later today I have to call our VP at Carnival and take two of the girls off of the list and add two other names. Then I have to book another cruise for October 31st. Last year we did a girls cruise and this year we are going to do a couples cruise. And it is CHEAP in October! So that is what is on my agenda for the day.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Osseo,WI
You know that nap I was thinking of taking on Saturday morning, I never got to take it. Just as I laid down, my phone rings and it is our weekend FM calling with a load. It is 0830 and they need us to pick up the load at 0900. Unfortunately since the shipper is 190 miles away, it isn't going to happen. Not to mention that it is still snowing and the roads are horrible. I tell him I will make it there as soon as I can and I take off.
Boy, I am not kidding when I say the roads were horrible. Most of the time I was managing to go between 35-40 and a few times made it up to 50. I finally pulled into the shipper at about 1345 hours. They were glad to see me because she said they were going home as soon as they were done loading us. About 1515 I am done and pull out. I head over to the Petro, scale and go park then go inside to get my scale ticket. Uh-oh. I am 240 lbs over the 80,000 lb maximum. I call my FM and tell him and he tells me to head back to the shipper. I have to remind him that they left as soon as they were done with me since they were staying late just to get me loaded. Crap, he says. Ok, he tells me to stay put and he will get with sales. A little later he tells me that we will have to figure something out Sunday morning when they are hopefully back in the office.
That sounded good to me since we had planned on parking for a while anyway to let some of the storm pass over. Now, when I weighed I only had 3/8 a tank of fuel and the scale was covered with ice. It got me to wondering how much the ice on the scale weighed. But there was nothing I could do about that.
We got a good nights sleep and woke up this morning with a plan. First, go eat breakfast. Priorities, folks! Ok, next, fill up with fuel because when we scaled again, I wanted the weight with full tanks. Then, while we were in the fuel aisle, we knocked as much ice off the trailer as we could. And believe me, there was a LOT on there. Ok, go scale again and we are still over by 300 lbs. Oh, and we scaled at another place that we found that didn't have as much snow and ice on the scale. Ok, 300 lbs. Now we decide to go and get the trailer de-iced figuring that the ice on there had to weigh at least 300 lbs. The load we picked up was only a little over 43,000 lbs so there was no way we should be overweight. Unless they loaded an extra pallet on there by mistake.
We head down to the Blue Beacon, after making sure there were no DOT scales on the way, and get the trailer de-iced. We then head back to the scale to scale again. Ta-dah! We are now legal. Would you believe that the trailer wash alone washed off 900 lbs of ice!!! It was crazy how much ice we had under there. All of that thanks to the snow J drove in on Friday night and what I drove through Saturday morning! Finally we were able to hit the road!
Funny thing is that this load is a "HOT" load and they wanted it there by Monday at 1100 hours. Now we are about 24 hours behind so it isn't going to get there until sometime on Tuesday morning. But we will do what we can to get it there as soon and as safely as possible. Who would have thought that there was that much ice under the trailer and that it would have weighed that much. I mean, I know ice is heavy, but 900 lbs, not counting what we knocked off with a sledge hammer and chisel, is a crapload of ice!
Now that you know we are under way and where we are headed, I have a random thought for you. Up here in Wisconsin some of the roads are letters. Like County Road F and such. Missouri has the same thing and they even have the letters doubled. Like, you have County Road D and then County Road DD. Now, I know I am not the only one to have ever thought this, but evertime I pass by a road like that I just laugh. Especially if it is a road with the double letters like DD. Does that sound like a bra size to anyone? I mean, are there standards that you have to meet if you live on that road? Pre-requisites that you have to have a certain "build" to have an address there? Maybe it is just me, but I can't help but laught when I see those roads.
There is your update and random thought of the day. If I can get a signal tomorrow in Montana after I am done driving, because that is where we should be, I will get on and give another update. If not, it will be Tuesday afternoon when we get to Portland. Surely I can get a signal there.
Oh, also, wish us good weather crossing through Montana and down across Washington into Oregon. You know how my luck with the weather is. I need all the help I can get!
Boy, I am not kidding when I say the roads were horrible. Most of the time I was managing to go between 35-40 and a few times made it up to 50. I finally pulled into the shipper at about 1345 hours. They were glad to see me because she said they were going home as soon as they were done loading us. About 1515 I am done and pull out. I head over to the Petro, scale and go park then go inside to get my scale ticket. Uh-oh. I am 240 lbs over the 80,000 lb maximum. I call my FM and tell him and he tells me to head back to the shipper. I have to remind him that they left as soon as they were done with me since they were staying late just to get me loaded. Crap, he says. Ok, he tells me to stay put and he will get with sales. A little later he tells me that we will have to figure something out Sunday morning when they are hopefully back in the office.
That sounded good to me since we had planned on parking for a while anyway to let some of the storm pass over. Now, when I weighed I only had 3/8 a tank of fuel and the scale was covered with ice. It got me to wondering how much the ice on the scale weighed. But there was nothing I could do about that.
We got a good nights sleep and woke up this morning with a plan. First, go eat breakfast. Priorities, folks! Ok, next, fill up with fuel because when we scaled again, I wanted the weight with full tanks. Then, while we were in the fuel aisle, we knocked as much ice off the trailer as we could. And believe me, there was a LOT on there. Ok, go scale again and we are still over by 300 lbs. Oh, and we scaled at another place that we found that didn't have as much snow and ice on the scale. Ok, 300 lbs. Now we decide to go and get the trailer de-iced figuring that the ice on there had to weigh at least 300 lbs. The load we picked up was only a little over 43,000 lbs so there was no way we should be overweight. Unless they loaded an extra pallet on there by mistake.
We head down to the Blue Beacon, after making sure there were no DOT scales on the way, and get the trailer de-iced. We then head back to the scale to scale again. Ta-dah! We are now legal. Would you believe that the trailer wash alone washed off 900 lbs of ice!!! It was crazy how much ice we had under there. All of that thanks to the snow J drove in on Friday night and what I drove through Saturday morning! Finally we were able to hit the road!
Funny thing is that this load is a "HOT" load and they wanted it there by Monday at 1100 hours. Now we are about 24 hours behind so it isn't going to get there until sometime on Tuesday morning. But we will do what we can to get it there as soon and as safely as possible. Who would have thought that there was that much ice under the trailer and that it would have weighed that much. I mean, I know ice is heavy, but 900 lbs, not counting what we knocked off with a sledge hammer and chisel, is a crapload of ice!
Now that you know we are under way and where we are headed, I have a random thought for you. Up here in Wisconsin some of the roads are letters. Like County Road F and such. Missouri has the same thing and they even have the letters doubled. Like, you have County Road D and then County Road DD. Now, I know I am not the only one to have ever thought this, but evertime I pass by a road like that I just laugh. Especially if it is a road with the double letters like DD. Does that sound like a bra size to anyone? I mean, are there standards that you have to meet if you live on that road? Pre-requisites that you have to have a certain "build" to have an address there? Maybe it is just me, but I can't help but laught when I see those roads.
There is your update and random thought of the day. If I can get a signal tomorrow in Montana after I am done driving, because that is where we should be, I will get on and give another update. If not, it will be Tuesday afternoon when we get to Portland. Surely I can get a signal there.
Oh, also, wish us good weather crossing through Montana and down across Washington into Oregon. You know how my luck with the weather is. I need all the help I can get!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Tomah,WI
After spending a nice relaxing night in the hotel in Victorville, it was time to hit the road and start working again.
While at the hotel we got our next load to pick up Wednesday evening and deliver in Tomah,WI at 0300 on Saturday. We checked out of the hotel at noon and headed up to the Pilot to kill a few hours. After a nap and a late dinner, we headed back to pick up an empty and then headed down to Colton to pick up our load.
We got in to get loaded and were loaded really fast. J said there were three guys loading the trailer and it was loaded in less than 10 minutes. I would say we were in and out of there within an hour, which is pretty darn fast for a live load. From there J headed out and got us just across the Nevada state line where I took over on Thursday morning. It really was an uneventful trip this time, for the most part. I made it to Green River,UT and J took over and made it to the Nebraska state line. From there I drove into Des Moines,IA where we stopped for dinner and a shower. AT that point, J only had 320 miles to go to the receiver.
We pulled out of des Moines around 1900 giving us 8.5 hours to get the 320 miles. It was plenty of time, and J still managed to get us here early, but we hit snow. Lots of snow coming down up here in WI and the northern part of IA on I-35. Roads are completely snow packed and of course in the middle of the night, there weren't very many plows out.
As J was finishing the delivery, I woke up and when he was done we headed down to a truck stop 2 exits down. It is a KwikTrip but there is lots of parking. They also have a restaurant called the Hearty Platter. Darn good food and lots of it. And probably the cheaest place we have eaten in a long time. Too bad we don't get up this way very often, but I am going to have to remember this little place.
Now I am sitting here chillin in the truck thinking about taking a nap. It is still snowing outside and we don't have a load. And it is Saturday. Not looking good. But we told dispatch to call us if we get a load because we are going back to bed. Since we are tucked up in here nice and cozy, the only thing missing is a fireplace!
While at the hotel we got our next load to pick up Wednesday evening and deliver in Tomah,WI at 0300 on Saturday. We checked out of the hotel at noon and headed up to the Pilot to kill a few hours. After a nap and a late dinner, we headed back to pick up an empty and then headed down to Colton to pick up our load.
We got in to get loaded and were loaded really fast. J said there were three guys loading the trailer and it was loaded in less than 10 minutes. I would say we were in and out of there within an hour, which is pretty darn fast for a live load. From there J headed out and got us just across the Nevada state line where I took over on Thursday morning. It really was an uneventful trip this time, for the most part. I made it to Green River,UT and J took over and made it to the Nebraska state line. From there I drove into Des Moines,IA where we stopped for dinner and a shower. AT that point, J only had 320 miles to go to the receiver.
We pulled out of des Moines around 1900 giving us 8.5 hours to get the 320 miles. It was plenty of time, and J still managed to get us here early, but we hit snow. Lots of snow coming down up here in WI and the northern part of IA on I-35. Roads are completely snow packed and of course in the middle of the night, there weren't very many plows out.
As J was finishing the delivery, I woke up and when he was done we headed down to a truck stop 2 exits down. It is a KwikTrip but there is lots of parking. They also have a restaurant called the Hearty Platter. Darn good food and lots of it. And probably the cheaest place we have eaten in a long time. Too bad we don't get up this way very often, but I am going to have to remember this little place.
Now I am sitting here chillin in the truck thinking about taking a nap. It is still snowing outside and we don't have a load. And it is Saturday. Not looking good. But we told dispatch to call us if we get a load because we are going back to bed. Since we are tucked up in here nice and cozy, the only thing missing is a fireplace!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Victorville,CA
I couldn't get online again yesterday but I am in Victorville,CA where I am able to get a signal now.
After we left West Memphis,AR, J drove us across to Oklahoma and almost to the Texas state line. I got up yesterday morning and drove from there to Acoma,NM. The last couple of days we have found a lot of old friends on Facebook and found out that one of our High School friends is living in Flagstaff. So when Joe took over in Acoma, our plan was to get to Flagstaff where we could meet up with Keele, our friend, and visit and have some dinner. I knew that I would need a nap before we got there so I headed to bed for a while.
Around 2015 hours we made it into Flagstaff where J woke me up and we headed in for a shower and then called Keele to meet up with us. We stopped at Little America and had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. It was so nice catching up with her! She is a crazy girl! And still as pretty as ever if I do say so! Unfortunately we had to hit the road. As we were walking out and saying our goodbyes, we realized it had started snowing. Now, wasn't is just snowing the last time we were through Flagstaff about a week ago? Yes it was! Well, we take off and J drove through some really nasty conditions, everything from a white out to snow and ice covered roads and the plows hadn't made it out yet. Seeing as how I was a nervous wreck (I am a horrible passenger in bad weather) and I was exhausted, I headed back to bed to hide in the covers so I wouldn't see what was going on outside.
This morning, J woke me up in Kingman,AZ. He made it that far and finally made it out of the snow but was exhausted from dealing with it. Since we could deliver this load anytime today before our payroll cutoff, I got to sleep in until 0600. That was nice, but I still wanted more sleep!
I made it to our delivery around 1130 this morning and from there we headed to the Pilot down the road to scan in our trips so we could get paid this week. That is VERY important! While I was heading over to the Pilot though, I ended up taking a side road to get to there and I found a Motel 6 you couldn't see from the highway tucked behind a Holiday Inn. And two important things about Motel 6. First, I think they all accept pets. Second, this one was newer, had inside rooms and had a big sign advertising the "Bar & Grill" inside. Now have you EVER seen a Motel 6 with a restaurant inside, let along a bar? Now, we had talked to our FM and he said it would probably be tomorrow before we could get a load. This worked for us because J needs a restart on his hours. So, as soon as I finished up at the Pilot, I headed back over to the Motel 6 and checked in.
Right now we are checked into a really nice Motel 6, kicking back chillin, and watching TV. Smokey is sound asleep at the foot of the bed and we are contemplating when we are going to head down to the bar and grill and grab a beer and something to eat. Life is good at the moment!
After we left West Memphis,AR, J drove us across to Oklahoma and almost to the Texas state line. I got up yesterday morning and drove from there to Acoma,NM. The last couple of days we have found a lot of old friends on Facebook and found out that one of our High School friends is living in Flagstaff. So when Joe took over in Acoma, our plan was to get to Flagstaff where we could meet up with Keele, our friend, and visit and have some dinner. I knew that I would need a nap before we got there so I headed to bed for a while.
Around 2015 hours we made it into Flagstaff where J woke me up and we headed in for a shower and then called Keele to meet up with us. We stopped at Little America and had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. It was so nice catching up with her! She is a crazy girl! And still as pretty as ever if I do say so! Unfortunately we had to hit the road. As we were walking out and saying our goodbyes, we realized it had started snowing. Now, wasn't is just snowing the last time we were through Flagstaff about a week ago? Yes it was! Well, we take off and J drove through some really nasty conditions, everything from a white out to snow and ice covered roads and the plows hadn't made it out yet. Seeing as how I was a nervous wreck (I am a horrible passenger in bad weather) and I was exhausted, I headed back to bed to hide in the covers so I wouldn't see what was going on outside.
This morning, J woke me up in Kingman,AZ. He made it that far and finally made it out of the snow but was exhausted from dealing with it. Since we could deliver this load anytime today before our payroll cutoff, I got to sleep in until 0600. That was nice, but I still wanted more sleep!
I made it to our delivery around 1130 this morning and from there we headed to the Pilot down the road to scan in our trips so we could get paid this week. That is VERY important! While I was heading over to the Pilot though, I ended up taking a side road to get to there and I found a Motel 6 you couldn't see from the highway tucked behind a Holiday Inn. And two important things about Motel 6. First, I think they all accept pets. Second, this one was newer, had inside rooms and had a big sign advertising the "Bar & Grill" inside. Now have you EVER seen a Motel 6 with a restaurant inside, let along a bar? Now, we had talked to our FM and he said it would probably be tomorrow before we could get a load. This worked for us because J needs a restart on his hours. So, as soon as I finished up at the Pilot, I headed back over to the Motel 6 and checked in.
Right now we are checked into a really nice Motel 6, kicking back chillin, and watching TV. Smokey is sound asleep at the foot of the bed and we are contemplating when we are going to head down to the bar and grill and grab a beer and something to eat. Life is good at the moment!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
West Memphis,AR
I have had another few days where I couldn't get online on the laptop. I really don't know now if it is my aircard or if I have just been in areas that don't get a good signal. But I have a signal now so I am going to make the most of it while I can.
Now, where did I leave off? Last I left you I was sitting at a service plaza in Kennebunk,ME waiting to go pick up our next load. I got a call from John our FM who said that the load was ready and for us to head out to pick it up. Also said that there was too much time on the load so they rescheduled the appt for 1800 on Friday. Well, thanks for moving it up after I already made plans to meet up with friends from Schneider and for it to be a nice leisurely trip! LOL After a call to our friends that we couldn't meet up, we headed out to pick up the load and we were off.
I'm not sure what the hurry was since it was a drop and they weren't waiting for us to get there to unload it. But we got there on time and dropped and headed over to the TA about 20 miles up to get a PM. We bobtailed up to get that done since they said we could come back anytime for an empty. And we also figured we wouldn't get another load until the next morning sometime so there was no use in dragging around a trailer if we didn't need to. We made it to the TA and grabbed a bite to eat, J got the PM done while I headed to bed. Before I went to bed I sent in a message for them to call us if we got a load since we were both going to be going to bed before too long.
I got a good nights sleep, but of course I woke up at 0600 thinking I had overslept. Stupid internal clock! LOL So I got up and went inside and grabbed a cup of cappucino then headed out to the truck to wait for a load. I didn't even drink the cappucino because I was still so lazy and decided around 0700 that I was going back to bed. The heck with it! I figured they would call if we got a load.
Around 0930 or so the phone rings, and it is John with a load for us. He is so funny sometimes. I answered and he said "Hey this is John. I have a load for you. It pays good, is a drop and hook on both ends and you can deliver before payroll cutoff. So do ya love me?" I just busted out laughing and said "Of course I love ya!" Well, the load could be picked up anytime on Saturday before 2200 hours so we had time to fart around. We got up and grabbed a shower, ate breakfast, did laundry and J replaced a mud flap on the truck that mysteriously disappeared. I mean, you would think you would know if you hit something and ripped one off. But it was gone. Very wierd.
Around 1500 or so we headed back to where we dropped the night before and grabbed an empty trailer and headed to Cleveland,TN to the Mars Factory where we picked up our load. OMG that place smells so good. It is like chocolate flavored air. :) From there we headed up the road to a Love's to scale and grab some dinner. While we were there, we decided to spend the night and just head out this morning. J was getting short on hours and we have until the 19th to deliver this load. But of course we are going to drop it off Tuesday morning for payroll a whole two days early, but we had plenty of time to stop for the night.
This morning I set my alarm for 0600 and got up and got ready. Around 0715 we were rolling out of the parking lot and hitting the road. I managed to make it to West Memphis,AR by 1500 which is where J took over. Didn't make my usual 500+ miles, but then again I started late.
I also found a houseboat online today that I want to buy. We have been talking about getting one for a while and I found one that is on a lake there in Ft Worth. It needs a little work, but the owner is in bad health and selling it for dirt cheap. I mean cheap enough that I could pay cash for it. So I sent an e-mail about the listing and we will see what happens. It was last updated in January, so I don't know if it has already sold or not. With my luck, it probably has, but I still have to check!
I will let you know more when I find something out. :)
Now, where did I leave off? Last I left you I was sitting at a service plaza in Kennebunk,ME waiting to go pick up our next load. I got a call from John our FM who said that the load was ready and for us to head out to pick it up. Also said that there was too much time on the load so they rescheduled the appt for 1800 on Friday. Well, thanks for moving it up after I already made plans to meet up with friends from Schneider and for it to be a nice leisurely trip! LOL After a call to our friends that we couldn't meet up, we headed out to pick up the load and we were off.
I'm not sure what the hurry was since it was a drop and they weren't waiting for us to get there to unload it. But we got there on time and dropped and headed over to the TA about 20 miles up to get a PM. We bobtailed up to get that done since they said we could come back anytime for an empty. And we also figured we wouldn't get another load until the next morning sometime so there was no use in dragging around a trailer if we didn't need to. We made it to the TA and grabbed a bite to eat, J got the PM done while I headed to bed. Before I went to bed I sent in a message for them to call us if we got a load since we were both going to be going to bed before too long.
I got a good nights sleep, but of course I woke up at 0600 thinking I had overslept. Stupid internal clock! LOL So I got up and went inside and grabbed a cup of cappucino then headed out to the truck to wait for a load. I didn't even drink the cappucino because I was still so lazy and decided around 0700 that I was going back to bed. The heck with it! I figured they would call if we got a load.
Around 0930 or so the phone rings, and it is John with a load for us. He is so funny sometimes. I answered and he said "Hey this is John. I have a load for you. It pays good, is a drop and hook on both ends and you can deliver before payroll cutoff. So do ya love me?" I just busted out laughing and said "Of course I love ya!" Well, the load could be picked up anytime on Saturday before 2200 hours so we had time to fart around. We got up and grabbed a shower, ate breakfast, did laundry and J replaced a mud flap on the truck that mysteriously disappeared. I mean, you would think you would know if you hit something and ripped one off. But it was gone. Very wierd.
Around 1500 or so we headed back to where we dropped the night before and grabbed an empty trailer and headed to Cleveland,TN to the Mars Factory where we picked up our load. OMG that place smells so good. It is like chocolate flavored air. :) From there we headed up the road to a Love's to scale and grab some dinner. While we were there, we decided to spend the night and just head out this morning. J was getting short on hours and we have until the 19th to deliver this load. But of course we are going to drop it off Tuesday morning for payroll a whole two days early, but we had plenty of time to stop for the night.
This morning I set my alarm for 0600 and got up and got ready. Around 0715 we were rolling out of the parking lot and hitting the road. I managed to make it to West Memphis,AR by 1500 which is where J took over. Didn't make my usual 500+ miles, but then again I started late.
I also found a houseboat online today that I want to buy. We have been talking about getting one for a while and I found one that is on a lake there in Ft Worth. It needs a little work, but the owner is in bad health and selling it for dirt cheap. I mean cheap enough that I could pay cash for it. So I sent an e-mail about the listing and we will see what happens. It was last updated in January, so I don't know if it has already sold or not. With my luck, it probably has, but I still have to check!
I will let you know more when I find something out. :)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Kennebunk,ME
Guess what I woke up to this morning? You guessed it! More rain with a little fog mixed in just to make it messier. This is how my day started.
J woke me up at the Service Plaza between Kennebunk and Lewiston,ME. He did so good last night and got me just short of 23 miles from our destination. Seeing as we were delivering to a Walmart, I knew we could be an hour early, but no more, so I went ahead and got ready and headed on in. Thankfully this was an easy place to find. When I took the ramp off of the tollway, there was a sign that pointed right indicating the Walmart DC. I love places that do this. It makes it so much easier to find.
Once I got there and made the turn into the actual Walmart DC, I realized it was a good thing I left when I did. There were about 5 trucks in front of me waiting to get in. Unfortunately, Walmart is not the quickest places to get in and out of. We were probably in line for about 15 minutes before I finally made it to the front of the line where I could get out and check in. By that time I had counted 9 trucks that were back behind me. Yep, good thing I got there a little earlier. See, Walmart is funny about their deliveries. They consider you arriving once you have got in the gate, parked your trailer and checked in at the office. When you actually arrive at the gate with the guard doesn't count. I personally think that is stupid. Since that is actually the time you arrive there. And there have been times where we have waited in line close to 45 minutes to even get to the guard shack. I can remember one time, although I don't remember which Walmart it was, but by the time we got through the gate, backed into the dock that they assigned us at the gate, unhooked and parked, and walked the paperwork in, we were 3 freaking minutes late. And you HAVE to dock the trailer, unhook and park BEFORE you check in or they won't take you. That one time they considered us late and put us to the back of the line. Said they would get us unloaded whenever they could fit us in. Now tell me, is 3 freaking minutes really worth all of that when we sat at the gate trying to get in for almost an hour? You can best believe I gave that lady a piece of my mind. LOL I only wish J had told me he had done the same thing while I was in the restroom and I wouldn't have said anything. But since he went to the restroom after I came out and didn't tell me, I had to let her know what a crock of shit that was. I told her that if they could get competent people working the gate to get trucks in and out faster, this wouldn't be a problem. Not my proudest moment, but I was pissed. At least I didn't cause a huge scene or cuss at her like I have seen other drivers do. But I definitely let her know how I felt about that.
Anywho..... I got checked in and then went back out to the truck to wait. J finally headed to bed after we had a bowl of soup and I chilled and read a book. I know, soup for breakfast? Well, it was his dinner and I was just hungry. Besides, all the rain outside just made it a soup kind of morning. I would have rather have had some hot oatmeal, but I didn't have any of that with me, so I settled for some pretty darn good vegetable beef soup!
I kept hearing them call people on the CB but I never heard them call me. Finally, I went in and checked and sure enough, I was ready. They said that they had tried to call me but I didn't answer. My CB is a piece of crap and it only gets reception when it wants to so it didn't surprise me when I didn't hear them call. I headed out to the truck, sent my depart, hooked back up to the trailer and headed to the gate.
After I stopped at the gate to let them see that the trailer was empty, I shut the doors and got back in. That short 2 minutes that I was out of the truck is when we got our next load assignment. No one was behind me, so I stayed there for a sec checking out our next load.
I know being up in Maine means no freight and I knew we would have to go south to get something. Turns out that I don't have to go far though. I am heading 116 miles south down I-95 to Methuen,MA to pick up a load going to Murfreesboro,TN. The load doesn't pick up until 2000 hrs tonight though. I decided to go ahead and drive a ways down and park at the service plaza in Kennebunk,ME and just chill out here. From here, itis only 64 miles to the shipper. This way J can get some really good non-moving sleep today and he can even sleep in. I figure we don't have to leave here till around 1800 to give us plenty of time to get down to make the pick-up. And this is a nice little service plaza. They have a Starbucks, Burger King, Sbarro's and a little convenience store. So I am set. Now if they only had laundry facilities, I would be estatic! But, given that this load is only going 1081 miles and doesn't deliver until Saturday afternoon, we will have time to stop tomorrow or Saturday and do laundry.
I talked to our friends that drive for Schneider today. They are picking up in Kearney,NJ tonight and headed down I-81 to South Carolina I think. Or was it North Carolina? One of the Carolina's. Since we will be heading down I-81 also to get to Tennessee we are going to probably meet up with them somewhere along the way tomorrow and have lunch. I am guessing somewhere in Virginia. They are in no rush on their load so they said they can take all the time they need. They are just dropping it at a drop lot since it doesn't deliver until the 18th.
They also told me they found another carrier to go and work for. They got the call last night saying they were hired. They just aren't getting the miles they need. She said there have been times they go two weeks without a paycheck or more. They just can't find freight for them. That was one of the reasons that we left Schneider. We weren't getting loads. But the outfit is based close to where they live and mainl y runs freight lanes from the Dallas/Ft Worth area out to California and back. And the best part for them is the trucks they have are Pete's that have automatic transmissions. She can drive a 10-speed, that is what she was taught on in the school. But she is much more comfortable in an automatic. And they are currently in an automatic with Schneider so I know she doesn't want to go back to the 10-speed. I can't blame her! When we left Schneider we had an automatic and LOVED it. I definitely took us some getting used to when we had to go back to the 10-speed. Oh, and the company is a reefer outfit. I know he really wasn't wanting to go reefer, but dry van obviously can't keep them busy right now. As I have said before, people aren't buying the stereos and clothes right now with this economy, but they still have to eat. So the reefer side of the industry is staying steady.
I guess here in a little while I am going to have to call Carnival and give them some more money for the cruise we are taking Jessica on for graduation. Then I need to book an RV for April when we are taking my mom on vacation. There are some places she wants to see in California, like the Hearst Mansion, the Winchester Mansion, Gilroy Gardens and the Redwood Forest, so we are going to rent an RV for a week and take her. I will say that one of the nice things about driving a truck and not having a house is that you can really save money. No way we could take her and Jessica on vacations like this if we were still working for the police department and sheriff's department. Not only would money be an issue, but getting the time off would be an issue also. Now we don't have to worry about that. It is really nice running your own business and being your own boss!
J woke me up at the Service Plaza between Kennebunk and Lewiston,ME. He did so good last night and got me just short of 23 miles from our destination. Seeing as we were delivering to a Walmart, I knew we could be an hour early, but no more, so I went ahead and got ready and headed on in. Thankfully this was an easy place to find. When I took the ramp off of the tollway, there was a sign that pointed right indicating the Walmart DC. I love places that do this. It makes it so much easier to find.
Once I got there and made the turn into the actual Walmart DC, I realized it was a good thing I left when I did. There were about 5 trucks in front of me waiting to get in. Unfortunately, Walmart is not the quickest places to get in and out of. We were probably in line for about 15 minutes before I finally made it to the front of the line where I could get out and check in. By that time I had counted 9 trucks that were back behind me. Yep, good thing I got there a little earlier. See, Walmart is funny about their deliveries. They consider you arriving once you have got in the gate, parked your trailer and checked in at the office. When you actually arrive at the gate with the guard doesn't count. I personally think that is stupid. Since that is actually the time you arrive there. And there have been times where we have waited in line close to 45 minutes to even get to the guard shack. I can remember one time, although I don't remember which Walmart it was, but by the time we got through the gate, backed into the dock that they assigned us at the gate, unhooked and parked, and walked the paperwork in, we were 3 freaking minutes late. And you HAVE to dock the trailer, unhook and park BEFORE you check in or they won't take you. That one time they considered us late and put us to the back of the line. Said they would get us unloaded whenever they could fit us in. Now tell me, is 3 freaking minutes really worth all of that when we sat at the gate trying to get in for almost an hour? You can best believe I gave that lady a piece of my mind. LOL I only wish J had told me he had done the same thing while I was in the restroom and I wouldn't have said anything. But since he went to the restroom after I came out and didn't tell me, I had to let her know what a crock of shit that was. I told her that if they could get competent people working the gate to get trucks in and out faster, this wouldn't be a problem. Not my proudest moment, but I was pissed. At least I didn't cause a huge scene or cuss at her like I have seen other drivers do. But I definitely let her know how I felt about that.
Anywho..... I got checked in and then went back out to the truck to wait. J finally headed to bed after we had a bowl of soup and I chilled and read a book. I know, soup for breakfast? Well, it was his dinner and I was just hungry. Besides, all the rain outside just made it a soup kind of morning. I would have rather have had some hot oatmeal, but I didn't have any of that with me, so I settled for some pretty darn good vegetable beef soup!
I kept hearing them call people on the CB but I never heard them call me. Finally, I went in and checked and sure enough, I was ready. They said that they had tried to call me but I didn't answer. My CB is a piece of crap and it only gets reception when it wants to so it didn't surprise me when I didn't hear them call. I headed out to the truck, sent my depart, hooked back up to the trailer and headed to the gate.
After I stopped at the gate to let them see that the trailer was empty, I shut the doors and got back in. That short 2 minutes that I was out of the truck is when we got our next load assignment. No one was behind me, so I stayed there for a sec checking out our next load.
I know being up in Maine means no freight and I knew we would have to go south to get something. Turns out that I don't have to go far though. I am heading 116 miles south down I-95 to Methuen,MA to pick up a load going to Murfreesboro,TN. The load doesn't pick up until 2000 hrs tonight though. I decided to go ahead and drive a ways down and park at the service plaza in Kennebunk,ME and just chill out here. From here, itis only 64 miles to the shipper. This way J can get some really good non-moving sleep today and he can even sleep in. I figure we don't have to leave here till around 1800 to give us plenty of time to get down to make the pick-up. And this is a nice little service plaza. They have a Starbucks, Burger King, Sbarro's and a little convenience store. So I am set. Now if they only had laundry facilities, I would be estatic! But, given that this load is only going 1081 miles and doesn't deliver until Saturday afternoon, we will have time to stop tomorrow or Saturday and do laundry.
I talked to our friends that drive for Schneider today. They are picking up in Kearney,NJ tonight and headed down I-81 to South Carolina I think. Or was it North Carolina? One of the Carolina's. Since we will be heading down I-81 also to get to Tennessee we are going to probably meet up with them somewhere along the way tomorrow and have lunch. I am guessing somewhere in Virginia. They are in no rush on their load so they said they can take all the time they need. They are just dropping it at a drop lot since it doesn't deliver until the 18th.
They also told me they found another carrier to go and work for. They got the call last night saying they were hired. They just aren't getting the miles they need. She said there have been times they go two weeks without a paycheck or more. They just can't find freight for them. That was one of the reasons that we left Schneider. We weren't getting loads. But the outfit is based close to where they live and mainl y runs freight lanes from the Dallas/Ft Worth area out to California and back. And the best part for them is the trucks they have are Pete's that have automatic transmissions. She can drive a 10-speed, that is what she was taught on in the school. But she is much more comfortable in an automatic. And they are currently in an automatic with Schneider so I know she doesn't want to go back to the 10-speed. I can't blame her! When we left Schneider we had an automatic and LOVED it. I definitely took us some getting used to when we had to go back to the 10-speed. Oh, and the company is a reefer outfit. I know he really wasn't wanting to go reefer, but dry van obviously can't keep them busy right now. As I have said before, people aren't buying the stereos and clothes right now with this economy, but they still have to eat. So the reefer side of the industry is staying steady.
I guess here in a little while I am going to have to call Carnival and give them some more money for the cruise we are taking Jessica on for graduation. Then I need to book an RV for April when we are taking my mom on vacation. There are some places she wants to see in California, like the Hearst Mansion, the Winchester Mansion, Gilroy Gardens and the Redwood Forest, so we are going to rent an RV for a week and take her. I will say that one of the nice things about driving a truck and not having a house is that you can really save money. No way we could take her and Jessica on vacations like this if we were still working for the police department and sheriff's department. Not only would money be an issue, but getting the time off would be an issue also. Now we don't have to worry about that. It is really nice running your own business and being your own boss!
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