July 25. Burned

Underweigh at 09:30. Re-checked routing, discovered that I am NOT going through Yakima. Damn. No Miner's for lunch. But I WILL get to Spokane at about the time I estimated originally: 13:00

Missed a turn.. not my fault, though. Construction has all the signs taken down. Took a while to get turned around and back to the intersection... make the turn, and find out that where I need to turn AGAIN to get to the consignee's, the entire road is closed. So I have to turn around AGAIN... and go back up the way I was the first time...

Get to the place (pretty easy,once I made the correct turns), and I find that the load has been re-scheduled for Tuesday morning. Dispatch had sent me a note to this effect a couple hours ago- about the time I was 20 miles from Spokane. I'm a bit peeved- if they'd sent the note yesterday, I could have dawdled in OR, and slept a couple nights in cool weather, instead of this hell-hole (it's 102 right now, according to the truck)

So, here I sit at a Flyiing J, maybe 5 miles from the consignee, waiting for FOUR DAYS to pass, so I can deliver my load. Worse, this screws up my getting home on Tuesday. I mentioned this to
dispatch...supposedly they're working on loads to get me home – sometime this year.

Talking to the kids online. Kodi has officially asked to go out with me on my next run. So long as I get home before Aug 14, all should be good.

Temp is finally down to acceptable levels (it's 71, down from almost 100 at 14:00) Still got a long way to go catching up on Trucker's Report, but I've got days to take care of that. I think I'm gonna bag it for tonight.

July 24 .. bad planning on my part

Kinda wish I'd made it another two hours last night. Could have spent tonight in Yakima and seen mom. Oh well. Made it to the rest area outside Boardman OR before I ran out of time. 10.75 hours driving today. 576 miles,for an average speed of 52 and change. Not what I was hoping for at all.

From here, it looks like about 6 hours- and I can't get started in the morning until 09:30 mountain time, so ETA looks to be about 16:00.

Going through Grass Valley Or today I noticed a rather elderly gentleman sitting on his riding lawnmower, waiving at every truck that went by. I made sure I waved back and that he could see me.

That reminds me of something I forgot from the other night when I was in Medford. While I was doing my laundry, I met a driver who had just been screwed by his company. With no warning, the company folded. The first this driver knew of it was when the police and the repo guys met him at the Pilot and reclaimed the truck. He got all his possessions out, but he'd been stranded there at the Medford Pilot for 3 days- and he wasn't likely to see his final paycheck, either.

The good news is,just as I was folding the last of my chothes, he came back by and let me know that he'd finally found another company that would hire him, and they were popping for a room that night, and a truck would be there in the morning he could get a ride on to their HQ.

Let's see..back to today. Central Oregon has NO T-mobile coverage. From Klamath Falls to Bend is a big void, and from Bend to Biggs is another one. Most annoying.

About the time I hit Biggs, I discovered that I'd brought along a stack of stowaways from CA- a good dozen or so mosquitoes decided to show themselves when the sun went down.

I think I got them all...

MPG so far this week is at 4.9. I don't think I'm going to complain too loudly. Underpowered truck and some significant hills don't make for astronomical fuel economy.

Good showers at Biggs Pilot. Plenty of water pressure,and for a change,the shower head was above my own head! Bloody damn miracle!

Finally stopped at the rest area outside Boardman, OR. Another reason to hate swift drivers. Followed one into the rest area, he took the last slot. I rolled through, and as soon as I passed the point of no return, he pulled out. No head break, no sleepy-by. Just burned me out of the parking spot. I have no idea if it was deliberate, but my gut says yes. Either way, I was peeved.

July 23 - I hate hills

Ok, we fared badly. 20Mph and lower on some of the hills. This truly sucks. Spent a bit too much time in Brooks getting my payroll sorted out. Didn't get to park at the Medford Pilot until 22:30 – 45 minutes later than I wanted to. Still, there was “plenty” of parking. At least a half dozen slots open. And it took me a damn half hour to put my truck into one of them. One slot that was two slots wide (two slots open, right next to each other).

Already running late cuz I arrived late last night, I headed for exit 35 to get to the consignee. Damn, construction has removed all the road signs. Which way do I go? West. Go west. If you go east, you end up in the back of beyond and it will take you 45 minutes to an hour just to get back to the interstate.

Once back on the interstate, hit exit 35 again and this time I DO go west. It's four or five miles down the road, but the place is easy to find. The guys at Coastwide laboratories were cool to begin with,and WAY cool when I told them what had happened.

Got my new load at about 11:00. Pick up from Campbell's in Sacramento and take to Spokane- drop and hook, even, at the shipper. Of course,they want me to be there at 12;30 today. Not happening. Told dispatch that 20:00 was a more reasonable time.

Also, don't think I can get the load to Spokane by 05:00 Friday. 13:00 is my target.

Going to be going through Yakima. Gonna see if I have time to eat dinner or something with Peggy – and Alaura, if she shows up.

Folks at Campbells loaded the trailer ass-heavy. It's all under limit, but to balance the load, I'd need to move the tandems back at least 6 holes... and I don't have anything remotely like that kind of room.

Oh well.

Made it as far as the rest area outside Maxwell, CA before I decided to call it quits for the day. - 23:30 ish.

July 22 - just bein' a day

It's a bitch staying in bed... been awake since about 09:00 and it's 11:30 now. I want to be up and driving,but I lack the hours on my log to just randomly drive. I figure I'll leave the drop yard at about 13:00 – it's only 5 miles to the shipper. I'll stop at Jubitz for something to eat, and see if they have a connector for the CB. The one in the truck is missing the center conductor. If they have one, it will give me something to do when I stop at Brooks and get my laundry done. Odds are, though, I'll need to dig up a radio shack.

Gonna be a light load (well, kinda light) Dispatch has it as about 34,000 pounds – a lot less than the 45000 I was pulling yesterday! We'll see how we do in the mountains between Portland and Medford

July 21... here we sit

Finally got to sleep at about midnight... too hot, even in Seattle. Alarm went off at 06:00, but I said hell with it and slept for another hour. Shortly after I got started, I was wondering about the wisdom of that decision, but it turns out to have been the correct one. I arrived at the consignee's at 08:05 – 07:05 local time – 25 minutes early for my appointment. The downside is, have to back 100 meters through a parking lot and hit my door. No problem? Right – I thought Americold in Atlanta was a bitch – there's 13 feet from the nose of my truck to the fence opposite the dock. THIRTEEN. I measured. Twice.

At least it wasn't blind side.

Getting here was fun, too. Directions were dead-on accurate.. but this is the first time I can recall ever making 3 right turns and still not ending up even going back the way I came. Lovely place... to get here, you basically have to drive down TWO alleys with train tracks down the middle. Tracks are used, too, not abandoned or even little used.

Place is packed with trucks hauling flattened cars or containers.

To make life even MORE interesting, not only do you have to back 100 meters down that narrow parking lot, you have to back around a corner to get INTO the parking lot.

Got in, got my door assignment – spent 20 minutes getting lined up right... damn, trailer bed is way low -gotta slide the tandems. Did that and spent ANOTHER 10 minutes getting back to the door. And realized I'd forgotten to open the damn trailer doors.

Some days it just doesn't pay to get up from breakfast.

On the good side, everybody here is pleasant, cheerful, and as helpful as they can be.

Got my first look at 22 tons of sugar. 22 pallets, each with one bag – yes, ONE bag, of sugar. Gonna be a hell of a cake, is all I can say.

Once I hit the door for the last time, it took the sole loader about 15 minutes to start unloading. It's gotta be interesting, cuz even though I shoved the tandems all the way back, the trailer deck is still a good 6 inches lower than the warehouse floor. Man, I can feel it when that forklift hits the trailer, too – whole truck shakes like Godzilla just grabbed it.

I just wonder why the doorbell by dock 12 is marked “Start”

Waited 5 hours for my next load. Load in Portland tomorrow, haul to Medford for delivery Wednesday morning. Bah. Only 450 miles in two days. I hope this isn't a trend.

Headed down to Portland. Nice drive, of course. Refueled in Troutdale, but no place to park – either at the TA or the Flying J. Even tried the Jubitz lot. Nada. Ended up in the Jubitz drop yard. Not bad, really. About a mile walk to the Jubitz store and showers. Weather very cooperative.

July 20. Hate and discontent

Well, that's just peachy. I told dispatch last night that my eta for this place was 11:30 local – TODAY. They came back with “ok”... instead of what a sensible person would have done – let me know that the appointment for Monday was firm. In other words, the consignee isn't open for business on Sunday. Wouldn't have given me enough time to make a 34, though it would have been close. It WOULD have saved me from driving around in circles today, looking for a truckstop that no longer exists. That was all kinds of frustrating.

Best place I can find to spend the rest of the day and tonight is a closed weigh station/rest area about 20 miles away from the consignee. Place has a wifi hotspot- but, surprise, surprise, it's not free. And I lack a CC with which to pay – not that I would, anyway. $7 for a day, and $30 for a month. Waaaaay to high.

I'm gonna go play games or something for the next 7 or 8 hours, then bed and up early to get to the consignee's by 07:30. Guh.

July 19, I'm going nuts

Needed alarm clock... still tired for some reason. Only four hours from Hermiston Walmart DC. When I stopped last night. Arrived at 13:00. Drop / Hook, but it took a while to find a trailer that wasn't completely screwed up. Found three with completely jacked doors – couldn't get them closed.

Next load- run empty to portland, then take a pre-loaded trailer up to Seattle. All of maybe 7 hours of drive time. Delivery due Monday. I might be able to get it done tonight....gonna see if it works.

Sigh. Nope. Directions to Jubitz (sp?) drop yard are completely messed up.. From I-5, exit 307. Go east on Marine Dr... so far, so good. But then they say “Follow signs to Jubitz... etc” There is ONE sign, and it seems to be directing you to the building on which the sign is mounted.. spent an hour and a half running up and down Marine drive. Since it wasn't there, turned onto Vancouver Blvd. BINGO! Not a half mile down and there's Juvick. But even THEY don't know where the damn drop yards is. Is it one, or two.. or maybe three streets down. It's 6.

Another heavy load.. could have made it to Seattle if not for those damn directions. Gonna run out of time before I can get there, so I'm gonna stop in Chehalis. Gonna weigh the load, though.

Aw hell! There are no scales between Portland and the first Washington weigh station.

I passed.. maybe the scale ticket from the shipper is actually correct.

Bedding down at MM 71- actually short of Chehalis, but I'm pooped, and only 2 hours away from the consignee, so it will do. I'd have preferred being closer, but I don't like looking for a spot to park when I have less than an hour left on my 11. Gonna have fewer than 14 left on my 70, then, too.

July 18 - oops!

Today was much better than yesterday. I got 500 miles done fairly easily – I-5 to US 97 and north... stubborn hills on I-5 and US 97 around Weed, CA, and some good hills north of Madra, Or – the rest was pretty easy going.

Got a Level 3 inspection at the Cottonwood CADOT station on the way north this morning. Weight was ok, but dummy me forgot to slide the trailer tandems – so was over-length. Quickly taken care of, but annoying. CADOT staff were friendly and polite- we traded some salsa stories.

Lots of smoke in northen CA – much more than there was a couple weeks ago when Darryl and I drove through. Almost like fog, in some places. Radio said that lightning had caused over 2000 fires in the past week. Most are out,but something like 30 are still going.

Only event of interest in the trip so far occurred in Bend, OR. Approaching a stoplight... it went yellow, and blue Subaru in the left lane swerved into my lane and jammed on the brakes. I didn't smoke the tires, but I definitely smelled hot brakes when I got stopped. Missed her by about a car-length. Biker behind me had to swerve onto the shoulder to miss me – obviously, a good time was had by all.

Parked for the night about 25 miles north of Madra. Nice little rest area in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Even though we're on top of a ridge, cell coverage is for shit.

I've set my alarm clock for 08:30, though I think I'll be awake before then. Wanna be on the road by 09:00 – hopefully will get to consignee by 14:00. If I'm off-loaded in 3 hours or less, I'll have 6 more hours in which to drive, if needed.

July 17 - catching up

I am way behind in this.

To catch up; I passed my solo test on the 11^th. No problem. Except my truck is back in Denver. Figures. I catch a ride with another May driver (Rick) back to Denver. Got home Saturday at about 16:00. Cool beans, too – Rick let me drive for a few hours.

Sunday – off

Monday, head in to the terminal to claim my truck. Gods, it's disgusting. Prior driver apparently never heard of a vacuum. Danny called contractor to clean it out. Won't be ready for hours, so I head home.

Before I go, I have a load dispatched – pick up a load from Coors at 23:20 tonight, deliver to Stockton CA sometime before Christmas. I foolishly estimate I can get there Thursday at around 02:00 – so they set appointment for 08:30. Sensible. Except that I've misjudged the truck. Average speed was not 55 – it was closer to 50.. so I was an hour late. Fortunately, the consignee was cool about it. Unloaded me in about 30 minutes and turned me loose.

Drive over was pretty much uneventful.. except coming down the west side of Donner Pass. Down shifted to 6^th cuz the load is heavy (44130 pounds).. but I kept having to stab the brakes. Never got hairy, but I was kinda annoyed that the jake wasn't sufficient even with the load on.

'Course, when the streetlights in Sacramento hit my dash, I figured out my problem. I'd shut the jakes off in Reno when I fueled, and forgot to turn them back on. Definitely a DUH moment, there!

Waited 3 or so hours after empty call for my new preplan. Take a trailer from Yolo yard to Hermiston OR. 700 miles. No problem. Except I have no idea where in Yolo the yard is. I query for destructions, and as I'm taking THE exit for Yolo, they come back. Not needed, as the yard is right next to the interstate and impossible to miss.

Pulled in, dropped trailer... and discovered that my repower isn't here. Query dispatch...it's still 300 miles away. GAH!

Sitting in this dusty yard in 100 degree heat, waiting for a trailer that I'd thought was here already. Sigh

This delay means I'm not going to be delivering it tomorrow evening as planned. Gonna have to be the original appointment: Monday at 08:30. Three days to go 700 miles. Bah!

So long as the trailer shows up before midnight, I'm gonna grab it and go 15 miles up the road to Dunnigan and take a damn shower! Laundry in Hermiston.

Glad the laptop is working again. Was bugging me no end when it wasn't. No idea why, either.

Got the trailer at about 21:45 and bugged out. Headed about 15 miles up the road to Dunnigan, and got my shower. Wheeee! Crappy water pressure, but it was hot. I could feel the scum and sludge leaving my body.

Glad the laptop is working. Now I've got real music to listen to. The few CDs I brought are already old, and we won't discuss local radio. Lets just say that there IS something worse than rap. Rap in Spanish. Oh, god that was awful.

July 10, first day in Payette

Guy who left Denver before I did is Dave. He tested out this morning – heading back to Denver to pick up his truck.

This afternoon I went through the advanced course... such as it is. It's mostly straight line back... though getting set up is different for each position. The last position is an alley back, though.. while I could do it, at first, it took up to 10 pull-ups to get it right. By the end of the day, I was doing it with only one pull up. Vast improvement.

I'm back in the motel again. Back to the office in the morning for the solo test. Watching TV AGAIN! Woot!

July 9.. Payette, ID

Left Denver at about 13:30. July 8 In Layton, UT at 23:00 July 9

Hot last night – no idling, and it was high 70s and low 80s late night in Layton. Driver I got a ride with, Shawn, loaned me the use of his fan – it was apparently just fine in the lower bunk. With the fan on, the upper bunk was ok – I managed about 4 hours of sleep.

Shawn neglected his pre-trip yesterday. I can kinda understand. He had to change trucks at the drop of a hat in the morning and get on the road. Still, yeah, he should have done it.

Found out this morning he was at least a gallon shy on coolant and FOUR gallons low on oil! WTF was that other driver doing?:

After Shawn took care of the oil/water, he took the truck over to the shop for a tire check... it'd been a while. They discovered that the right steer was pretty badly mangled.. had to be replaced. Took 'em about 5 minutes.. yank the one rim, put a new one on.

July 7, 2008. Good news?

Ah, it's great to be home.. stay up late, sleep late, read, sleep, eat...

**blink** wake up !

Damn, that honeydo list is longer than I am tall! Good thing I gotta buzz down to the terminal today!

Thought I was supposed to test for solo... turns out, they want to get me out to Brooks OR, or Peyete, ID for some advanced training. Took about 4 hours to find a truck going my way that ALSO had room for a supercargo. I need to be ready to go tomorrow at 14:00 (which probably means I'll be leaving at 16:00 - oh well)

Gonna have to get a WiFi card for the laptop. I've pretty much decided to go with T-mobile for the broadband, but that's $150 up front, and I can't swing that quite yet. It's also only $50/month for unlimited traffic - unlike Verizon and Sprint. I'll deal with wifi for a while, until I have the $150. It SHOULD let me keep moderately up to date with this here blog and with my friends on thetruckersreport.com. Should also be able to keep up with the kids, now and again, back at home.

I think I've mentioned one or two of these few cartoons before.. but they are absolutely worth a read:

kevinandkell.com
www.docrat.com.au
sluggyfreelance.com

July 3, 2008. Boring!

Day starting to warm up early - let's get started and get the A/C turned on.

Easy drive down to Utah and the salt flats.

Never seen 'em before - and the interest waned in about 30 seconds. What can you say about miles and miles of .... miles and miles?

Curious about one thing, though. Sage brush along the road back in NV and here on the flats... bright green instead of the normal silvery dark green. No idea why that is. Where do they get the water?

Corporate says skip SLC and drop me off in Denver. I'll test on Monday.

Trainer and I swap off driving across WY, pretty much for the the heck of it. When passenger gets bored enough, he demands the wheel seat.

Just east of Rawlins and on the west side of Sinclaire, passed wreck of big rig. From skid marks and other indicators, it appears he was eastbound and Something Happened (tm). Hill not really enough to justify brake fade... not in the right place to have been a 4-wheeler entering the highway from an on-ramp (though the shoulder is a possibility)..

My guess is an attack by the Sandman.

Both tractor and trailer are totaled... Fire, Police, and wrecker on scene. Ambulance gone.
Diesel everywhere, box on trailer looks like Paul Bunyan stepped on it in the middle...

Got a couple pics, too - though, as you can see, the quality is low.

Turned south off I-80 and headed to Ft Collins via 287. Mostly downhill and a lot shorter than following I-80 over to Cheyenne and then I-25 south to Denver. AND, you avoid that mondo hill between Laramie and Cheyenne.

Dammit- ran out of hours about 15 minutes away from the yards. Trainer took us in and parked.

He's guessing that local terminal management is gonna have a cow when they see his truck in the lot. If Corporate didnt' tell them his rout was changed to drop me off... he's looking forward to it.

Wifeoid here already, so I'm heading home.

Y'all have a grand 4th!

July 2, 2008. Cooookie!

Nice night. Woke up at about 09:00 mountain time, waited a couple hours and hit the dock. Within about 45 minutes, we were loaded with 42,000 pounds of cookies (or cookie dough - we're not sure - but why would you need to freeze cookies?) and headed back to the interstate.

Before going too far, we scaled the load at a Cat scale in Oakland. Little place in the armpit of Oakland. Badly laid out, too. No staging for the scale except on the street. Only one way out, too - unless you want to drive down a street flagrantly marked "no trucks". Very tight.

Least appealing neighborhood I've visited in the past month.

Headed north on I-80 (yeah, East, but the Compass said north, so north it is). Past Sacramento the road starts to get hilly. Spent a lot of time in 5th, slowly climbing long grades up through Taho and Donner. As if that's not bad enough, CADOT blocked off one land for a bunch of miles while they worked on a few hundred feet of roadway. Took about 2 hours to deal with the traffic backup there. Took 6 hours to go 230 miles.

On the way down, east side, I noticed a number of really appealing places to park and play in the water. Was hard to stay in truck and go on.

Stopped in Reno for fuel and food. Fuel was.. well.. fuel. Food was Prime Rib and Baked potato at one of the local casinos. $11 for dinner, and I needed a hand-truck to get me back to the truck.

Lots of smoke in the sky since we left Oakland. Half of California is burning, to hear the radios talk about it. Either way, it ruined the views normally available to you as you cross Donner and pass Reno. In fact, all the way up to Winnagana (SP) NV, the sky was heavy with smoke.

Not like it was in Denver for the Hayman fire, of course, but enough to ruin the view.

Trainer is driving now.. I ran out of hours. Probably going to stop at the first place we find where the temp is less than 75degrees.

Some discussion if we'll stop in SLC tomorrow for my solo test. Not sure what's happening on that score yet.

Trainer found a nice big lot at a truck stop in Wells, NV for the night

July 1, 2008. going beerless

Turns out, last night wasn't too bad. Was a little warm, but that wasn't a big issue. Big issue was derived from my BP meds. Had to visit the little blue house three times (like any of you readers care, or WANT to know about this)

Got to Medford an hour or so early, so stopped at a Pilot and took a shower.After spending more than 30 seconds in the parking lot, I felt I needed ANOTHER shower. man, that place did STINK. Obviously people have been too lazy to go into the building to use the bathroom - or have been emptying their piss bottles in the parking lot. Bleagh!

Got to consignee about 30 minutes early. They put us in dock 4 (the only open one) right away and said they'd "get to you as soon as we can". Actually, if the weather were a little cooler, I'd have nothing to bitch about. We were out of there in about 2 hours.

Back to the Pilot with the stinky lot while we waited for a load. Left truck and walked to Sonic for lunch. Cute waitress, but she should have been blond.

Yay! got a load. Dead heading to Alameda (Oakland) 400+ miles to pick up a frozen load heading to Pennsyvania. Pick up at midnight tonight, deliver midnight Monday night. 6 days to get a load 2500 miles.

Stopped for a bit in Dunnagin, CA. No places to park in Alameda, so kill time here until about 22:30 and head for shipper. Gonna try to take a nap.

Well, I tried. Ended up swapping text messages with Matt (friend from previous life) until time to leave.

Directions from Dispatch were... not wrong, but far from complete. Last line was "Brown building on the left". Problem is, ALL buildings in the area are brown. Also, found two streets with the same name. Double checked on the way out - and they do indeed share the name - even though they are not connected.
This is one of those damn business parks where buildings stretch back from the main road - and every building has an address on that road. Without good signage, you are sooooo screwed.

Found the place we want, way at the back of the complex. Of course, the shipping dock is on the OTHER side of the building.

Re-reading the dispatch, we realize that our appointment is at 10:00, not 00:00. Oh well. Nice and cool. Quiet, even. Plenty of sleep to be had.

June 30, 2008 Beerly alive

Still in St Helens. No preload or anything. Buzzed up road a bit for breakfast. Trainer hit McDonalds - I went to Safeway. Out of grapes.

Went back to empties lot to wait. After hour or two, got a load from Portland to Medford, OR. Beer, again. Pickup at 13:00, deliver at 11:00 tomorrow. Short run, but a lot of up and down.

Arrived at shipper a half hour early. Nobody ahead of us, so they put us in the dock and started loading. We were out of there in about an hour and a half. Fun watching the guys show up on time (or a little late) for their appointments - they got to wait until we were done.

South on I-5.

Stopped in Eugene, (well, Coburg) OR for a Trainer shower. I opted to wait until tonight. If the stop in Medford lacks water, I'll just have to deal with it.

Traffic out of Portland was a mess - partly because of people leaving early for the 4th of July weekend, and partly because some lady's car burned to the waterline on the highway. She looked to be ok, though.

One thing I've noticed among the female drivers (4-wheelers) today... a lot of them are driving with their left foot tucked under - basically sitting on it. I KNOW they didn't learn that in driver's ed. Stupid move, ladies.

As for truckers. so far, only 20% return my wave or give me a 'thank you' flash of the lights when I flash them back into the right lane. I dont' recall it being much different in the east, but in betwen Indiana and Portsmouth, percentages were much higher. Closer to 60%

Load is kinda heavy... 43.6K pounds of beer. I-5 south of Roseburg OR is all up and down. On the inclines, I was screaming along at 25mph. On the decones, I had to be careful or I'd be doing 125. Fun. Helped with my shifting, though.

Stopped for night just north of Grant's Pass. Stupid bathrooms are locked, but they at least provided porta-johns.

First truck in line (closest to exit) has a flat left steer. We were wondering if the driver knew, and if he'd do a pre-trip and catch it. Then a service truck showed up - that answered that.

Cops are spending a lot of time talking to the guy parked near the entrance. No idea what it's about, of course. If I were a guessing type, I'd guess it was something to do with speeding. Saw a trooper in the median a few miles back. Driver may have picked up too much speed in anticipation of climbing the next hill. Just a guess.

21:00 local. still 80 degrees outside and muggy. Night's gonna suck.

June 29, 2008. more fun

Stop was only closed for the night- Open in the morning. Not doing thriving business, though.

Truck covered with little black bugs. At first, I thought they were ants, but no.. some other kind of bug. Was kinda fun watching them melt away as we picked up speed.

Trainer driving, so I went back to bed for a few hours. Woke up as he pulled into Ontario, OR. 95 degrees! Grabbed a shower, though, anyway.

Various construction zones in OR.. I kept seeing this ONE blue porta potty. I swear it was the same one, over and over again. The green ones and the yellow ones, you can tell are different. Not so this blue one. It finally hit me - it's a Dr Who porta-potty - a T.U.R.D.I.S.!

I didn't catch the name of the townlet we were passing through, but I saw somebody who has great friends with a lot of ingenuity. Took an electric wheelchair and removed the wheels - replaced them with caterpillar treads. Totally awsome for tooling down a gravel road to the store!

Temp was 103 in Pendelton OR, when we passed through. I swear, I saw Satan by the side of the road, dealing with a flat tire.

During long descent along the Columbia river - from The Dalles to Troutedale, I had three trucks drafting me. I didn't have the heart to tell them that, while they were drafting, I was breaking wind ahead of them.

Lightning-caused grass fire on the other side of the river. Got a picture or two.

Fueled in Troutdale, then found my way to St Helens, where we're dropping this load.

Dropped trailer - even though we're a day early,no problem. Amazed at the local deer. Doe standing by the guard shack just looked at us as we came through. Another doe in field by docks. She, too, just looked at us. Not worried about us at all. I think I got a pic of this one scratching her ear.

No pending load. Parked for night in empties lot just outside the guard shack. 3 other bobbers there already. Two more May trucks pull up to the gate with loads. Muahahah! I got a good spot for the night.. shaded from street lights, nice breeze, and 30 feet from the porta-john. Got them priorities straight!

June 28, 2008. Back to SLC

Seeing as he still had 4+ hours available to drive, Trainer started out driving. Not a bad thing, for me - lets me look at Wyoming, instead of the Interstate. Pronghors, Mountains, and Sage. I think I'm due to drive when we get to Utah.

Took over early. Trainer made it to Sinclaire.

Did the big hills heading into Utah again. No problems downshifting (Yay me!). Drove through The Devil's Slide for the first time in my life - during daylight hours. I"ve always hit it at night,before. Fun! Beautiful drive.

Hit the Layton yard at exactly 15:00. Trainer asked the mechanics to take a look at the tires and the hood-hinge on the truck. Tires seem ok ("They all do that") and "we can't do anything about that hinge - it doesn't have any fittings for us to lube it". Oh well. Doing laundry (free!), then will hunt up a Wallgreens and reload my meds.

Did the meds thing - no problems. Ate dinner at La Choi on Main st. Not bad for a low-end Chinese restaurant. Went back to the yard and re-hooked to our trailer. Headed out of town, looking for someplace less hot where we can bed down.

Found a place in Malta, ID. Another abandoned - or at least, closed for the night - truckstop.

Was gonna take a shower at the Layton terminal.. one look at the bathroom and I opted to put it off for a day or so. I'm not Mr Finicky, but that place was not pleasant. I think it was last cleaned during the Truman administration. Not to mention, the shower was so small I'm not sure I could have turned around in it.

June 27, 2008. Healthy eating

Up at the crack of dawn. well... ok... 08:30. I finished off the donuts we'd bought yesterday, AND ate the subway sandwich I'd bought yesterday. Whooop.

Trainer has a few more hours to go before he has to take his 10, so he wants to drive this morning. I'll take over in Iowa. Looks like more rain on the way. Muahahahaha!

Mostly pleasant drive across Iowa. Just outside Walnut, traffic on I-80 came to a dead stop - we took to the surface roads. Took US 6 to Council Bluffs. BAD weather there. NWS talking about golf ball sized hail and winds to 60mph. We got the winds (and the rain, of course) but no hail.

Back on I-80 through Omaha. Woah - they got hit. Trees and branches everywhere, and at least one car floating away in margaritaville. Occasional drifts next to the highway.. piles of hailstones.

Drove to just outside Ogallala, NE. Ran out of hours, so Trainer is taking over again. He made it to just past Laramie and stopped in the parking lot of an abandoned truck stop. Nature at its finest.

June 26. 2008. Some drivers are morons

When we parked last night, we parked well away from the 5-6 other trucks already there - didn't want to annoy them with the reefer.

05:00, woke up to a couple FedEx drivers banging their trailers together and swapping.. whatever it is they swap. Whole damn lot in which to park, and they pull their shenanigans right next to us. Trainer rather pointedly fired up the truck and moved us to the other side of the lot- still well away from any other trucks. Those FedEx guys were just being moronically rude.

Arrived Exactly on time for our delivery appointment. Assigned to door right away. Dealt with lumpers, yadda yadda yadda. They went right to work unloading. Sorting and restacking takes place on the warehouse floor - and is not done on a 'one pallet at a time' system. That is, yes, they sort as they unload, but they don't stop unloading just because there's a box left on the previous pallet. One guy unloads, 3-4 other guys restack at the same time. Sweet.

Done unloading in half an hour.

Damn - something wrong with the load. They just asked if we have another stop on our run. Just silence when we answred 'no'. Instead of getting out of here in record time, it looks like it's gonna be a while. Good thing our next load is only 200 miles away.

Everything sorted out. Shipper totally hosed the order. Right number of cases, but the wrong product... OS&D to the max. Consignee agent nearly had to use an extra sheet of paper to list off the problems with the load. So messed up that she actually considered refusing it, but she eventually decided to accept it. Nice lady, she was.

Ooooh - I musta done something bad in a previous life. Rochester/Beaver Falls PA. Beautiful towns right next to each other... mountains, river, gorgeious Victorian homes.. Stunning Colonial homes.. 12 miles of steep narrow highway to get here. Route not truck friendly. More than once had to back 4-wheelers at stoplights

Dropped trailer and picked up new one. 36,000 pounds of ceiling tiles, headed for the Portland area. Stopped for dinner at a hot-dog restaurant .. but I had burgers anyway. Hot dogs are evil. Excellent shakes. Violent thunderstorm hit while we were eating. Overflowed the gutters..gone by the time we headed back to the truck.

Headed north on I-76 toward I-80. Running out of h ours. Just east of Cleveland, fireflies went nuts. Thousands and Thousands of 'em in the grass next to the highway. Looked like a carpet of burning rubies. Wow

Amhurst. Trainer takes over the wheel. I'm gonna nap.

Napped for an hour or so, woke back up and then dozed off and on as far as Lake Station. Fueled and replaced headlight bulb. Sat up and watched the darkness until we hit Ottawa, IL for the night.

Getting out of town was a lot easier than getting in. I wonder if they are trying to tell me something...

June 25, 2008 - why does the garden state smell like compost?

Spent night in Cranbury, NJ. Not awful, if you don't mind the smell, and the other drivers actually working on their trucks, banging away at all hours.

Drove to the shipper - about 30 minutes. No trouble finding it as Trainer has been there before. One of those damn "Drop the trailer and go park over there" places. No telling how long this is going to take - took a half hour just to get a door assignment. Yeah, yeah - could have been much worse.

Done loading, we think at about 11:30 - a two hour job.

Yup! on the way to Lancaster, NY (Just outside Beefaloe) with 42,000 pounds of toothpaste. Gonna be a pleasant drive through the Pennsylvania "mountains"

Gonna scale the load, though.. heading down 206 to Bordentown.. about 45mph. No warning at all - BIG ass bump. Gave me seat-belt bruises. I swear, truck and trailer actually separated in mid-air. I'm just lucky that when we came back down, we came down hooked up. "Bump" signs all over the east coast, and NOTHING where it's really needed.

Oh hell! At Cat scale, discovered that right rear outside driver is flat. Fortunately, we're right here at a Petro shop. Company approved repair (yeah, like they really have a choice)

Spent about 2 hours.. can't find anything wrong with the tire/rim/stem. Inflated to 110, no leaks. Put it back on the truck. Sweet! No charge! - ZOOOOM, back on the road.

Ran out of hours at Syracuse. Trianer took us the rest of the way to Lancaster. Stopped in an empty lot for the night.

June 24, 2008. No left turn

Woke up at about 07:00 local and drove to reciever. No problems, since we were here yesterday and knew the way. Docks mostly empty - took a couple back/fills to hit the door right (cramped area) but nothing awful. Couple trucks arrived after me. Ha! I got the easiest door!

Quick dropo - out of there in 30 minutes. Almost turned left onto the main drag, but Trainer caught on in time. Would not have looked good on my resume to have parked a rig under a low bridge.. or even had to back up a block to get turned around.

Heading off to Devin, MA with the rest of the load. Eastbound on I-90, be VERY careful in Erie. There's a point where the road makes a 90 degree TURN (not your typical interstate bend.. a turn. Like at a street corner), and the road leading up to that is VERY rough.

After that, entire drive across NY and MA is quite pleasant - if you discount the $5,000 in tolls you have to pay.

Arrived at consignee's at about 21:00 local. Day early, too. They were happy to see us - unloaded the rest of the beer in about 20 minutes. Even took off those stupid plastic pallets the beer guys seem to love so much. Only complaint they had was that the'd wanted us to be a full load for them. I told them that Trainer and I had drunk it all on the way over from Colorado. Got a laugh...

Headed down to Hamilton, NJ for next load. Had to turn driving over to Trainer after an hour or so - out of hours.

We were prepared for delays going through NYC. Oddly, never even slowed down.

June 23, 2008. Eeeeeeerie

Short drive from Toledo to Erie - about200 miles. Showed up at delivery site. They shut down S&R about a half hour before we got there. Damn, so much for a day-early delivery.

Tootled down the road about 15 miles and holed up in a truck stop. Got a LOT of time to kill - and gonna try to be at the receiver by 06:30 tomorrow - they open at 07:00

One thing of interest (if you can call it that) today. Was passed by a lady in a convertible. I'd guess her age at about 55 - maybe a bit older. Wearing jeans and a bra. No blouse/shirt. I'd not have minded at all, except the was.. um.. corpulent. Large. Needing to lose a lot of weight. Some things are absolutely best left to the imagination. Life-sized depictions of the great California earthquake should not be demonstrated on the interstate.

18:00 Driver next to us just dropped a good-sized bag of garbage out his passenger side window. $10 says he leaves it there, rather than walk 75 feet to the trash can.

Crap, I owe you $10. Good on you, driver!

Parking area at this Pilot relatively small - maybe 30 spaces. By the time I went to bed at 23:30, I'd been watching the time honored dance of drivers trying to park while others drive behind them. At one point, too, the place looked like a pumpking patch. about 30% of the trucks were SNI. Struck me as wierd - but most of them left.

June 22, 2008. Ah, how I miss my sanity

Spent the night in a truck stop in Avoca, IA. Woke up to a brigade of US Army types storming the place. Turns out, they just wanted breakfast. Bugged out with Trainer driving. If those army types had learned we had a trailer full of cold beer...

About 50 miles down the road, passed a CRE truck in the median. Looked to me as though he'd spent the night there. Just a guess. Dirt in the tire ruts had had time to dry around the edges. Wonder if it was the same truck as last night. No injuries.

I took over driving at about 09:00. Long slow drive to Chicago. Well, Lake Station on the tri-state. Stopped for fuel just after driving through thunderstorm. While fuelling, the storm pulled in behind us - torrential rain, pea sized hail.. lightning all over. One strike was to a flagpole just in front of the store - maybe 150 feet from us at the truck.

Scared the yahoos out of most of the people and the vicinity (Trainer jumped up on top of the trailer from standing flat footed on the ground). I just started laughing like a madman.

Took off and drove for about another hour and a half in the rain and lightning, eastbound through Indiana. Eventually rain stopped, darnit. Drove another 100 mile or so, stopped for night just outside Toledo. Easy parking, for a change.

June 21, 2008. Gimme BEEEEEER!

Picked up load of beef from AB in Ft Collins. Got a bit of a late start getting there. Get there, find out that we are required to have at least 2 loadlocks - we have one. Spent a good hour and a half getting another.

Back to AB where we'd dropped our MT - now gotta find our load. Took about 15 minutes, but we found it. Hooked up and applied LoadLocks. Checked out with Security. Had to slide tandems and rescale on the way out. 79480 Gross. Previous driver left us with less than a quarter tank of fuel for the reefer. Moron.

Finally hit the road at about 12:30. Up I-25 to I-80 and across. Other than the occasional train (yay) and tailgater, not much of interest. It IS Wyoming and Nebraska, after all.

Passed one CR England truck near Omaha. Trainer and I both think he's tired as hell. Going really slowly, weaving.. I think we should have called the cops.

June 13, 2008. Some snails are slower than others. Lots slower.

Up at the crack of Oh-dark-mygod. 04:00. I agreed to this? I need to call my shrink.

Trainer drove this morning - he's getting bored sitting in the B seat. Besides, my 10 hour ain't up yet, so I've not recovered the hours for today. On the way down into SLC, passed the remains of an Old Dominion rig. Had been hauling doubles (of course), but about 5 miles west of Wanship, tractor caught fire and burned completely. Nothing left but metal bits. Looks to have gutted the front trailer, too.

Cold outside (well, cold for most folk). Ice all over the road from where the local fire department had tried to extinguish the blaze. Since there was nothing left to burn, it seems they were less than successful. Police and wrecker on scene. No ambulance, so I hope the driver is ok.

Arrived at consignee at about 05:40 for our 06:00 appointment. About 10 trucks lined up at the gate - most of the drivers asleep. Truck sized hole in the middle of the line - so we took it. Plugged in at the dock by 06:00.

Place uses lumpers (go figure) who apparently offload a pallet, and then sort the contents. They're not done at 09:00. Not likely we're gonna be late for our next appointment (all day window), but gonna be pretty late when we get back to Denver.

Gate opened at 05:45 - and I like the system. Call in from the gate with your company name and load number. They assign you a dock and oopen the gate for you. Went to hell from there. Was checking in at S&R office. Guy comes up to me and asks "you guys hiring?". Hell, I don't know.. I say so, and suggest he call the main office. He goes "no, are you hiring?" WTF? "He means, 'do you need lumpers?'" - a voice from beyond the office security glass. Well, duh! OK - got that squared away. They had us unloaded about three hours from that point (call it 10:00) Then we sat there for another 4 hours while the office dicked around with our paperwork. Trainer made sure they were dinged for demurrage on that one.

Buzzed over to get new load - 42000 pounds of drywall mud.. or something like it, in 5 gallon pails. Took HWY 6 across Utah to I-70. Beautiful drive, but slow. If it wasn't the grades, it was the assholes in 4-wheelers and RVs. One 4-wheeler would periodically stop and see if the picnic area next to the highway had room for him. No problem, except the asshole kept stopping in the middle of the road.

Made it back to Denver at about 01:00. Rough road up near the Eisenhower tunnel - spilled my water all over my bunk, so I had no place in the truck to sleep. Watched TV in the driver's lounge for a few hours. Managed a nap before wifeoid picked me up on the way home from her shift.

Week off while Trainer takes his days off and deals with some odds and ends.

June 12, 2008. Go west, idiot

Finished drive across Nebraska. Plenty of moving trains (ok, so I'm also a railfan). Then came Wyoming. Windy as hell (not at all unexpected, of course). 55mph +, west of Cheyenne. Lunch in a nice Mexican place in Laramie. Further west, started seeing pronghorns. Lots of 'em, and not at all highway shy. One doe was nursing her twins not 15 feet from the shoulder.

Rest of the day uneventful. Stopped for the night in Wanship, UT. Truck stop amenities rather limited,but we were tired after 450 miles. Weather nice and cool.

June 11, 2008. where we meet the first snails

Long day. Had option of dropping trailer and sitting in the driver's lounge (Yawn) or dropping trailer and bob-tailing out to breakfast. That was a difficult decision. In retrospect, though, possibly not the better one. Still, made it easier to resupply my grape stash and wash the truck.

Took Target about 3 hours to unload, but they let the trailer sit and didn't call us. God only knows how long we'd have waited if we'd not bugged them (politely) about it. "Oh, we were just about to call you!". Yeah, and I'll respect you in the morning, too.

Delay at Target DC made us 5 hours late for our pick up in Kansas City. They were very understanding - had our stuff staged, still, even. But the only dock available was a 90-degree dock off the street. Glad Trainer took one look and said he'd do it. Loaded and out of there in about 45 minutes, enroute Salt Lake City with a load of pizza boxes. No pizza, just boxes.

Drove north to Iowa, took Hwy 2 across to Nebraska. First part of Nebraska was very rough roads. Not broken concrete - during construction, the concrete seems to have set higher at the edges of the expansion blocks than in the middle, so it was like driving across a never ending series of shallow Us. To compensate, though, great lightning storm all the way out to Grand Island. I saw at least one truck in the median. At least he was still upright.

June 10, 2008 Head games

Didn't sleep well last night for some reason... drove for about 350 miles and started to nod off. Asked trainer to take over - he took us the rest of the way to Topeka (well, service plaza just outside Topeka on I-70, actually). Large portion of the drive was through the Ozarks. Very pretty, and gland I did it. Once. Not willing to do it again - not really all that truck friendly, what with all the little towns and "slow down for morons" zones. Not saying it was truck UN-friendly.. more like that neighbor you have across the street that acknowledges your existence, but doesn't offer to mow your lawn.

Delivery is due tomorrow at 06:30. Resetting the alarm - just realized that I'd set it in accordance with Mountain Time, failing to make the adjustment for time zone differential. Duh

During the day, I started playing a little travelogue game in my head (lots of room up there - why not play games? I can't paint, and I hate playing the piano). Just trying to remember something significant or indicative from each state I've driven through on this trip:

Colorado: Home
Kansas: we went through Kansas? When? oh.
Missouri: First time I actually saw an Idle-aire setup. First truck-stop shower. Wild turkeys
Illinois: Flooded highway
Kentucky: First scale. Rough roads
Tennessee: Pretty flowers in the median. Moderately fun hills for a bout 10 miles
Wisconsin: Wild Turkeys. Miles and miles of road construction
Minnesota: Unbelievably slow drivers on the interstate
Georgia: Everybody around Atlanta must be gay - else they'd not be so eager to climb up your ass on the highway. Hot, muggy.
Alabama: Fun fun weather. Can't find the Georgia Pacific plant (something the size of a small town, missing in the trees). Turkey Buzzards. Flies the size of chihuahuas
Mississippi: Dark. Slept all the way across.
North Dakota: More stupid building design. Babysat Consignee's kids while he unloaded the trailer. I got the better end of that deal.
Iowa: How long can you tread water? (apologies to Mr Bill Cosby)
Nebraska: outstanding lightning show. Trucks swamped in the median.

(Note - I kept adding to this as I drove in "new" states - but decided to keep the list here)

June 9, 2008. Melting away in west hell

Finished the delivery at 09:00. Next load is 300+ miles away in Pennington, AL. All of it empty, and most of it on 2-lane roads.

With only 50 miles or so to go, we ran into a HELL of a storm. Winds at about 50Kts, empty trailer, rain so hard I couldn't see 100 meters in front of me. No hail, though. Tree branches were tolerable substitute - flying around and bouncing off the truck.

Finding the drop yard for the trailer swap was .. difficult, but find it we did. Took about half an hour all told, to swap the trailers and get the hell out of dodge. Rude, rude people.

Ruder (is that a word) deer flies. Damn things are the size of mice, and they kept invading the cab of the truck. It's not something I'm proud to admit, but in retrospect, the sight of two big, burly, tough truck driver-types frantically waiving dirty underwear and log books in the cab of a truck would probably have left any witnesses helpless on the ground.

No sooner did we get one monster bug out of the cab than another flew in and we had to repeat the process all over again. For the record, the windows on a Pete 378 do NOT close quickly enough.

After we ... ahem... bugged out, I had about an hour of drive time left available. Just enough to get back to the interstate where Trainer could take over and get us to Memphis (more accurately, west Memphis). I got a bit of a nap on the way, but still, I have about 5 hours to wait before I can drive again.

June 8, 2008. Georgia. What, AGAIN?

Stopped in Jackson, GA for the night last night. Sixteen BILLION degrees outside. Can only breathe if you have gills. Frelling truck stop does not have a driver's lounge. I think Trainer walked over to the Love's next door. If he's not back soon, I'll assume that's where he's gone and also presume they have a lounge.

Nope, he went elsewhere. I checked out the Love's myself. Day-um! not only no driver's lounge, no damn A/C either. WTF? beat feet back to the truck.

Another day of driving for me. 350 miles or so. Did pretty well until the exit for this stop. Could NOT get the damn truck in gear at the intersection. Not sure why (again).

Trip largely uneventful, of course. Did have one driver talk to me in Dalton as we were fueling. He was asking if we'd come down from the north (we had). He was washing something... gross, off the front of this truck and windshield. Seems he'd come through Tennessee shortly after we had... and hit a huge cloud of locusts. Poor slob didn't think to deep fry 'em.

Anticipate delivery of this load by 10:00. Don't have a new load lined up yet.

June 7, 2008. Illinois. still

Started out at 08:00 today. Mostly uneventful drive to mid-Illinois. A little heavy weather around Bloomington-Normal and Champaign-Urbana. At MM 198 on I-39, bridge was under water - and water was flowing over the highway. ISP was letting traffic through - one lane at a time. Water on our side of the highway was about a foot deep in the left lane, but only an inch or two near the right-side shoulder. Traffic backed up for about a mile and a half. Took about 30 minutes to get through. Managed to get a few pics of the mess. Will try to upload them to the blog.

Lunch in Effingham (I thought we weren't gonna stop here?). steak and Shake again. Not bad, but not every day, either

18:45. Stopped for fuel and the night in Oak Grove, KY. Again. Drove for 10.5 hours today. 471 miles

Shortly after the water episode, I saw something I'd always taken for a myth. Young man was driving a pickup, young lady sitting next to him on the bench seat. Her blouse was open. No Bra. She had his pants open and was.. well, they were both having a good time.

Not more than a half hour later, a Saturn went by with a young lady driving. Her boyfriend was sitting sideways in the passenger seat with his right hand up under her skirt. She seemed to be having a bit of difficulty concentrating on the road for some reason.

June 6, 2008. Illinois

Effingham ain't in the cards, it seems. Spent the night in Rochelle, IL. Not bad, but I didn't get to go see the trains. Instead, I got to do laundry. I think the plan is now to get to Oak Grove tomorrow, hang out most of the day (Sunday) and aim to get to Atlanta early Monday morning. Drop the load and hopefully get another load that brings us back north.

It was WONDERFUL in MN last night. High of about 60-F, rain all night, thunderstorms - whooooopie! Here in Rochelle, it's about 72 and clear at 21:30. Bleagh. Of course, it'll get worse as we go south.

Picked up load today in Cold Spring, WI. Brewery. BLerch, or Bluerh or some such. Instructions for getting there were - as usual - wrong. Said "9 miles" from the interstate. Was less than 7. We almost missed it. Shipping is in the SECOND building back. Nicely laid out for trucks, though. Straight line back into the dock with lots of wiggle room. Had us loaded and on our way in about half an hour. Just shy of 44,000 pounds of energy drinks.

Of course, we had to move the tandems to be legal, but that was easily and quickly done. Trainer had to fight the wind most of the day. 35-45KT crosswind was playing hell with the trailer - even with the load on. Would have been completely miserable if we'd been empty.

I'll be driving again in the morning! Oh, Frabjous joy!

Oh, almost forgot. Seems a driver from one of those stage management companies saw me park the other night. Based on that much knowledge, he offered me a job. Pay was acceptable, but really, would YOU trust a company that offered to hire you solely on your performance in a single backing maneuver?

June 5.2, 2008. Somewhere in Wisconsin

Ok - didn't make it to St Cloud last night. Stopped for the night in Alexandria, MN. Raining like a big dog, with lighting and the like. Truck stop was ok, but seems to lack laundry facilities.
Spoke to one driver who was complaining that he's been driving in the rain for a week. Some guys have all the luck!

Big shower stalls here. Need a bit of tilex, but the water is hot and holds pressure

I need to find some form of packaged food I can eat on the truck. Packaging that will last a few days, but cost on the order of $10. AND, it has to be both filling and at least moderately good for me. A bag of snickers, while appealing, won't fill the bill. Not sure about Ramen.. gonna see about PBJ in Effingham tomorrow.

June 5, 2008. Minneapolis

Was late to the delivery this morning. Got a little late start, then ran into stupid rush-hour traffic. Made us a half hour late. Then, misleading directions from dispatch made us a further 15 minutes late. Top it all off with a blind-side back. Took me a few tries, but I got it. Fortunately, the customer was not upset. Got us unloaded (their half of the load) in about half an hour and we were on the way to Fargo.

While at the doc, I re-checked my log. Damn. Only 3.5 hours left on my 70. Tomorrow, Trainer gets to do all the driving. Meanwhile, I'm gonna run out my hours. Should be able to get to Fargo.

---

Yup, barely. Had about 20 minutes left when we found the consignee. Ran over the hours while waiting for him to A) show up and B) get us unloaded. Still, not a big issue. He emptied the truck within a half hour of his arrival. I'd hate to deliver there again, though. Routing instructions are a LITTLE wrong (wrong address, wrong building - but it's all in the same little light industrial complex, so easily corrected). The problem is - it's another blind side back. Took Trainer 4-5 tries to put the trailer in the right dock (two docking bays, one has a raised platform for the truck to accommodate trucks with lower cargo floors). Right along side the building, too. It's easy to see where other drivers... um... modified the decor. The 50-foot wide parking lot didn't help, either.

Still, it's done. Trainer is now driving us to St Cloud for the next load. 171 empty miles. Paid! Woooot!

June 4, 2008. Minneapolis

Stopped at about 17:00 last night at a truck stop just outside Minneapolis. MM28 on the Wisconsin side of the state line. Apparently unlikely to find anything closer to town. Pretty nice place, all things considered. Took a nice long walk - about 3 miles. Gotta be up at 06:30 for a 08:00 delivery appointment - then bust chops to get to Fargo.

After that, we're due back near St Cloud, WI for a load of "alcoholic beverages". That's on Friday. Delivers Monday. In Friggin' Macon, GA. Dammit! Right back in to the bowels of hell.

I did well yesterday on the shifting thing. Today was payback. I didn't do badly, but I definitely had a number of moments of WTF?!?!?

Grabbed lunch in Mauston, WI. Nice place called the Roman Castle. I ordered a large pizza, being accustomed to what big city types consider large. I've enough pizza in the truck to last a couple more days. I KNEW I should have ordered the lasagna!

According to the logs, so far I've driven about 2000 miles in one week. Actually, we've been taking it easy, since the pickup and delivery times are so far apart. Probably could have made the trip from Denver to Atlanta in 2 days, and the same for the trip from Macon to Minneapolis. But why push?

June 3, 2008. Tuesday. 18:00

Drove for 6 hours today. Trainer drove about 2. No hurry at all. We're about 300 miles from Minneapolis and we deliver Thursday.

Stopped for an hour or so outside Ottawa, IL - truckstop at MM 93 on I-80. Trainer says the restaurant is good. I wasn't up to trying it - not hungry at all for some reason. Lunch at Steak & Shake is still with me, and that was hours ago in Effingham, IL. Not bad food, if a bit overpriced.

Drove up I-39 through the middle of Illinois. Probably the closest I'm going to get to my parents in a while. Most definitely if I keep this job.

Shifting is still improving. Grinds are fewer and farther between - and less severe. Except one time today it would NOT go into gear. It SHOULD have dropped into 6th low. Trainer didn't understand why it did that, either. Ground that sucker like a pepper-holic with a freshly filled mill. Got it in by brute force eventually and away we went. Fortunately, I didn't back up traffic all that much - we were in a construction zone and traffic was already for shit.

Tried a nap while Trainer drove this afternoon. Buzzz! Road like a gravel pit. And I was in the B seat, not in the bunks. Don't know trainer well enough to slobber on his pillows in my sleep, and sleeping in the upper bunk while the truck is in motion is - for some reason - considered "bad".

One thing. No, make that two things that are VERY different about the Atlanta area, and haven't seen it anywhere else yet:

1: Tailgating is a way of life on the highways there. Not just for 4-wheelers, either. Truck after truck is humming down the highway at 75+ mph with less than a car-length between the tail of one truck and the nose of the next. Flippin' insane. Bad enough when 4-wheelers do it - but at least they can pretend to drive through the windshield of the car in front. Can't be done in a truck. I'd love to see the accident statistics for the area, as compared against the rest of the country.

2: Speaking of accidents. I swear, they must have some law against cleaning up accident sites when the police are done. In one day, I think I saw enough car parts left over from accidents to build at least one, possibly two, cars. Bumpers, fenders, seats, steering wheels - you name it, we saw it on the side of the road. I dunno. Maybe the tow truck drivers or whoever does the cleanup after those accidents are so far behind that they don't have TIME to pick up all the spare parts.

Some things seem pretty universal, too. At one point, heading past Atlanta and down to Macon, a UPS truck in the far left lane (of 4) realized he was about to miss his exit - so he swept all the lanes without ever looking. Made his exit, though. Idiot.

Anyway - almost ran out of fuel last night, but Trainer's careful driving got us to the truck stop we were heading for. Picked up 125 Gal fuel. Problem is, next fuel stop - according to Corp - is outside Minneapolis, and Trainer is pretty sure we lack sufficient fuel to get that far. I rather tend to agree with him. He's already asked for a closer stop.

So far, I tend to agree with him on the new fueling policy. Fueling only when and where and as much as the company says is a tremendous hassle, and frequently can't be done anyway. Might work in the Western 11, but out east it's a stone bitch.

One thing I've not commented on: Trainer keeps his truck VERY clean. Yes, more attention to the driving area than the bunk area, but that makes sense, really. The outside is kept clean, too. I don't know if there's truth to the rumor, but I can see it happening. Rumor has it that DOT is more likely to pull you around behind the barn for an inspection if your truck looks like hell.

Never forget the weight restrictions, either. So far, both loads have been easily legal, though the first load (potatoes) we had to be careful to not fill the fuel tanks all the way - it was that close.

300 miles to Minneapolis, then 250 or so to Fargo. Both deliveries for the the same day. No problems, unless we have specific appointment times - and we don't. La La la!

Freaked Trainer out a bit today. When we stopped for lunch, rather than pull around and line up for a pull-though, I whipped around and slapped that truck into a back-in spot between two other rigs. I mean, how hard can it be? Thousand and thousands of other drivers do it every day, after all. Of course, once I set up, it was a straight-line back anyway - duh!. Was a little nerve-wracking, though I didn't show it - I think. First time I've ever backed between rigs and not cones. It's a bit different. Still, it was a good one.

Gonna take a shower in a bit. Kinda strange here. Shower stalls are part of the main bathroom, instead of separate shower rooms as I've seen in the other truck stops. Still, it's only $5, and you can actually lock the entire bathroom while you shower. Freaky, but I don't care. Just waiting for the temp to go down a bit more so I don't wast the shower by sweating like... oh, like I did in Atlanta. After I showered.

How can people do this?

2 June, 2008. Monday

Did I miss a day?

23:00. I feel like hell. Note to self, do NOT drink soda on this job.

Drove through Kentucky and an Tennessee. Some really pretty highway. There's also a stretch of about 10 miles or so with 6% grades - up and down. Not nasty the way the ride down from the Eisenhower tunnel is, but still fun.

Got into Atlanta at about 23:30 last night, and to the consignee at about midnight. Badly designed yard - if the word 'designed' is applicable. Tight squeeze. Trainer took 4-5 shots before he got backed into the dock. It's just about 60 feet from the front of the trailer to the curb in front of the tractor.

We loafed for a few hours - and they were done with us. That was quick. Apparently this place has a history of .. well, let's just say speed is not an option.

Trainer had to drive around for a bit. Got turned around and lost, for a bit - but got him straightened out. Looking for parking place for the rest of the night. Local QT jammed. Down the road a bit is a Citgo stop.. plenty of parking, but the odor of skank permeated everything and marched aggressively out onto the highway. About 10 trucks parked there, and 30 or so open spots - but this job is dangerous enough. Don't need THOSE problems!

Trainer finally found a spot about 30 miles away - at about 03:00. Crash and burn time. Had to idle the truck, though. Even at 03:00, it was in the upper 80s outside, and muggy as hell.

Today, dropped trailer in Macon, GA, and picked up one loaded with 39,000 pounds of ceiling tiles. Not one of those things you think of when you contemplate the trucks running on the interstate.

Headed north at about 16:30. Missed most of the Atlanta rush hour, but caught the tail of it on the north side. Trainer had us weigh the truck - legal, but balanced all whacked. Slid the tandems and all is good with the world. With the tandems slid, it's my turn do drive.

Just north of Chatanooga, started getting really tired and feeling effects of soda I had with lunch. What's the point of making notes to myself if I never read them? Asked Trainer to drive. Good thing. Corp never came through with out of bounds fueling we'd asked for (getting low). He drove **very** carefully all the way up to Oak Grove, KY (where we'd fueled Saturday). Made it - but he was a wreck when we got here. Little red needle was below the 'empty' bar.

My shifting is improving. It's not good yet, not by any means, but it's far better than it was even just Friday. The future is not completely void, it appears.

Whose bright idea was this?

May 31, 2008. Saturday.

Work on Saturday? What the heck? Ok, no. Not surprised at all. Knew it was the way things are - but what kind of Red Blooded American boy would I be if I didn't whine about something? Especially coming from M-F whitecollarland?

Left the rest stop at 07:30. The crack of ohmygod in the morning. This is - again - not unexpected or known about, but it's fun to whine.

Amazingly, the reefer didn't bother me at all last night. From the stories I've been reading online, I rather expected it to be some form of hammering monster, battering my poor ears with volume sufficient to make a locomotive weep. 'Taint the case. I was aware of it cranking up a couple times, but I went right back to sleep. Found that, rather than annoying, it's a GOOD thing - provides 'white noise' - so the sound of truck tires whining by on the highway 150 feet away didn't disturb me all night.

Total sleep, about 7 hours. Ambient temp when we stopped was in the mid-80s - and so was the humidity. bleagh! Mugged without a person being around!

Still, opened the upper vents and got a cross-breeze going. Wasn't much, but eventually dropped off. To sleep, not the bunk.

by 13:15, we were in a Pilot in East St Louis. I've done all the driving so far today - which is cool. I need far more practice than my trainer, after all. Rolling scale in Missouri.. I like that. No stopping, and minimal down-shifting. Ok, yeah. Lazy bastard - and I NEED to work on my down-shifting.

Fueled an hour into the drive, took a break three hours later. No biggie, but there's this down-shifting again.

Anyway - parked in East St Louis, trainer went off to spend time with a friend. Expects to be back on the road at 19:00 so I'll time my shower for that.

Driving through St Louis was interesting for a newbie. Heaviest traffic I've encountered so far, and hills big enough and steep enough to make down-shifting a requirement. At least from 8th to 7th a couple times. Oooooh! big shift!

I finally got a few done without leaving tranny parts on the highway.

Dammit - frelling modem on the laptop is complete toast. Can't use it to keep everybody up to date on my exploits. Called home. Talked to everybody - mostly Megalon and Mom. Mom says Godzilla and Damon were.. less than happy with my departure Friday. "Depression" was used. Rather surprised me, to be honest. Godzilla is the most independent minded 16 year old I've ever known, and Damon is.. well, almost 40.

I did expect a problem with Megalon, though. Quite type, but he feels things rather deeply. Turns out he was ok - until The Incident. Mom bought some pizzas from Papa Murhpy's. The fridge being full, Damon put the pies in the oven to keep them away from the dogs (who definitely know better than to snag stuff off the counter. While people are awake). Everybody forgot they were in there, so when the oven was pre-heated, they got slagged. Megalon was most distressed.

Kept call short - phone won't charge from the USB port on the laptop. It SAYS it is, but even after hours plugged in, the charge indicator has not increased. I am annoyed.

Trainer returned from dinner at 20:00-ish. Plugged his phone in to charge. Holy Shit! I can use his charger on my phone. Plan is now to call home every other day. Don't want to bore the rats TOO much.

20:15 - eastbound on I-64. Trainer driving. He drove for an hour or so, then stopped in Nashville, TN. The word 'Podunk' was invented for this place. We're taking our time. Load's not scheduled for delivery until midnight tomorrow night and it's only about 500 miles.

Gonna play solitaire since I can't get online, and I left my Railroad Tycoon II disk at home. Dammit

The first step on that greasy road to hell

May 30, 2008. Friday.

We left Denver this morning at about 10:00. My trainer was driving - a sensible precaution. He has no idea of my driving skills, and, really, has no desire to see his truck get broken this early in our relationship.

We're heading east to Americold in Atlanta with 44+ thousand pounds of potatoes. Ore-Ida taters. Tater tots, french fries, curly fries, and probably hash browns.

After a few hours on I-70, Trainer decided it was moderately safe to let me steer his baby. Almost no traffic out here, so it's a bit more difficult for me to mush a 4-wheeler or something.

Discovered my shifting skills aren't rusty. They're rusted solid. Transmission shards all over eastern Colorado.

I got to cross the scales, too. Good thing we're legal - I'd probably freak and park in the lobby if they wanted me to come in.

Stopped in Lawrence, KS for the night. On the tollway, so we're in one of those inane median rest stops. Pretty empty, and pretty warm - but not awfully so. I put in 7 hours of driving today. Driving is easy. Shifting - especially DOWN shifting still sucks like a 50 cent whore.

Let's backtrack a little... or... how it all started out

My last post was - again - a few weeks ago. Since then, I've been out on the road again, done a few things.. and decided I'm going to keep my truck diary here. No particular reason, other than I've already picked the colors I like.

So, I'm going to go back to the beginning. Not Old Testament beginning, just New Testament.

Gonna post a day-by-day accounting, more or less. I'm obviously going to skip days here and there, and so on, but the general scope of things is to do a post per day. Your accuracy may vary.

Oh - and before I forget, I'd like to welcome specific people, who, if they actually waste their energy to come over here and look at my babbling, will make me feel inordinately good:

In no particular order:

Muleskinner
AfterShock
GasHauler
TheStoryteller

Hello, folks! You've fed my ego, and now I'm not just difficult to live with.

On to day one!