This posting is a bit late... and I apologize. I had a few stops thrown in there, including home, before this most recent.
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After sitting in the Costco DC lot last Thursday for about 1.5 hours I was finally released. Being that I was about 1/4 full on fuel I decided to head up to the T/A in Ontario, CA to refuel. There I got my marching orders... I was heading down to the Con-way yard in Santa Fe Springs, CA to take a load to Phoenix, AZ. It was followed by a Phoenix, AZ to Phoenix, AZ pre-plan. I figured i'd be picking up something from one of our few shippers there but it was still an unknown.
I got to Santa Fe Springs, CA about an hour after refueling. I didn't pick the load up until 930pm so I managed to squeeze in a 6 hour nap. It was fairly warm there so I opted to sleep with the truck off to save on my MPG. I figured out that having my fan plugged into the front cigarette lighters was perfect for notifying me when the battery was about dead because the trucks computer shuts them off at the point just before the truck won't start. However, Thursday proved not to be my day. I woke up and fired up the truck, assuming it would do such since the fan was still running. Turns out, that was flawed logic. I gave it a shot 3 times and got nothing. Why is it whenever i'm in California nothing goes my way? Thank god for the shop guys there... I managed to convince one to give me a jump with their company pickup. Why Sacramento didn't have one the last time I died in Cali I don't know, but this worked perfectly and I picked up my load... nearly on time.
Now, I say nearly because Santa Fe Springs is NEVER on time. At best we got our load about 25 minutes late... but were usually 1 to 2 hours behind schedule. This time I got it about 20 minutes late, setting a new record. However, they wanted me to have the load in Phoenix by 530am. Being that it is a 7 hour drive and I got the load ready and out of the yard by 915pm that just wasn't going to happen. The load was 44k lbs and the hills coming across I-10 were steep enough to slow me down several times. Then, to top it off I got yanked into the scale on the east side of Cali.. and lucky for me it was a slow moving line.
All in all I managed to make up 21 minutes and arrived at the guard shack at 539am. Not bad for having an ETA most of the time of 600am.
the load after was actually a deadhead home. Phoenix to Phoenix wasn't entirely accurate since we live in a suburb, and since i'm permitted to bobtail home the deadhead was out of the question. Anyways, seeing that I had 4 days off already this time off wasn't necessary but... who am I to argue. I took 3 full days off anyways and came back on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning came and I went on the board. I was told in a freeform message to head over to the Con-way yard and grab an empty and my FM would see what the load planner had for me. Well, 1/2 miles away from home I got my plan.... I was picking up at 400am on Wednesday morning and relaying the load, after a mad rush, with a team in Albuquerque, NM. I turned around towards home instead, and sent a message stating that I wasn't going to pick up a trailer to drop it off later and was instead going to wait at home and not the Con-way yard. Good plan overall and I managed to get a free day of doing practically nothing at home. That allowed me to catch up on the 4 pre-recorded episodes on our DVR of "Border Wars" on National Geographic. I don't know why but the mission of Border Patrol and Customs fascinates me. I suspect that if I ever decide to go back to Law Enforcement.. this will probably be my primary goal since the city beat doesn't quite light my fire anymore.
Anyways, I managed to get to bed Tuesday night at something like 830pm and tossed and turned all night.. finally dragging myself out of bed at 230am. A quick shower and a gathering of my cold food items and I was out. I found I had a message waiting for me when I finally got in the truck... which turned out to be a preplan for my next load. I was to pick up a load in Albuquerque, NM and take it to Waverly, NE. Gravy.
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I got to the Con-way yard in Phoenix about 20 minutes early. The guys were on time with this one and I rolled out just as my departure time came up. I was given a 45 minute window to go 417 miles.... I know I told them when I changed fleets I enjoy a challenge but damn! I travelled up I-17 to I-40 straight east, relaying at the Flying J. I got there with an hour to spare after having made up 24 minutes!
I made my relay and, as it turns out, I got this teams load of Tractor Supply parts bound for the Tractor Supply Center... or.. TSC... distribution center just outside of Lincoln, NE. I figured I would be waiting in a dock forever to pick up a load so this was a pure bonus. I decided instead of waiting around for a 10 hour restart that I would instead get as far as I could... especially since it was a quick run with only a 3 hour window total to get there. Turns out that with the 3 hours I had left I had plenty of time to make it the 180 miles across I-40 to Tucumcari, NM after a quick fuel stop in Santa Rosa, NM. 656 miles later, and around 3pm I finally arrived, stopping for the night at the Flying J on the outskirts of town.
I decided that a 10 hour break would be sufficient, so after screwing off for a few hours and a 7 hour slumber I was on my way, around 130am. From Tucumcari, NM I went straight north on U.S. 54 to U.S. 83 to U.S. 56 to U.S. 81. I pressed it out yet again but since most of this trip was on U.S. highways and through small towns the speed was much slower. I originally thought I could make it to the DC but I wound up being 45 minutes short. I instead go to the Petro in York, NE where I opted to stay so I could get a shower before heading out at around 1100pm after my 10 hour break. This gave me about 60 miles left to travel, or about an hour.. which really isn't bad but it sucked to have to start my 14 hour clock. Hopefully i'm preplanned with something rather quickly so i'm not wasting time!
I finally woke up at 1100pm with the intent to get my shower but fate had other plans. Apparently most truck stops are going to this automated machine that handles showers and either takes the rewards cards or $10.00 in cash. Since this Petro wasn't a fuel stop, and I fueled at the Pilot in Salina, KS earlier anyways, I had to pay the $10.00 cash. After a quaint argument with the ATM, it winning, I angerly wandered back to the truck. Apparently I forgot my ATM number for my personal account. Grand. Instead, I ate breakfast and headed out, somewhere around midnight or so across I-80 to Lincoln, NE.
I finally arrived at the TSC in Waverly, NE at about 100am, dropped my trailer, grabbed an empty trailer, and am now sitting here #5 on the board in the TSC yard waiting for a load. Based on a thread here by my fellow co-worker, Vito Corleone.. or The Fenian Godfather as he calls himself, who delivered here the other day and was given a load out of here, I suspect I will be doing the same.. but that call probably won't come until sometime later this morning. So, for now i'm watching "The Soloist," with Jamie Foxx, for the first time. Never even heard of it but its a pretty good movie to say the least. A few more hours of sleep here soon to get me back onto sleeping at night and driving during the day and I should be good to go.
View Larger Map
After sitting in the Costco DC lot last Thursday for about 1.5 hours I was finally released. Being that I was about 1/4 full on fuel I decided to head up to the T/A in Ontario, CA to refuel. There I got my marching orders... I was heading down to the Con-way yard in Santa Fe Springs, CA to take a load to Phoenix, AZ. It was followed by a Phoenix, AZ to Phoenix, AZ pre-plan. I figured i'd be picking up something from one of our few shippers there but it was still an unknown.
I got to Santa Fe Springs, CA about an hour after refueling. I didn't pick the load up until 930pm so I managed to squeeze in a 6 hour nap. It was fairly warm there so I opted to sleep with the truck off to save on my MPG. I figured out that having my fan plugged into the front cigarette lighters was perfect for notifying me when the battery was about dead because the trucks computer shuts them off at the point just before the truck won't start. However, Thursday proved not to be my day. I woke up and fired up the truck, assuming it would do such since the fan was still running. Turns out, that was flawed logic. I gave it a shot 3 times and got nothing. Why is it whenever i'm in California nothing goes my way? Thank god for the shop guys there... I managed to convince one to give me a jump with their company pickup. Why Sacramento didn't have one the last time I died in Cali I don't know, but this worked perfectly and I picked up my load... nearly on time.
Now, I say nearly because Santa Fe Springs is NEVER on time. At best we got our load about 25 minutes late... but were usually 1 to 2 hours behind schedule. This time I got it about 20 minutes late, setting a new record. However, they wanted me to have the load in Phoenix by 530am. Being that it is a 7 hour drive and I got the load ready and out of the yard by 915pm that just wasn't going to happen. The load was 44k lbs and the hills coming across I-10 were steep enough to slow me down several times. Then, to top it off I got yanked into the scale on the east side of Cali.. and lucky for me it was a slow moving line.
All in all I managed to make up 21 minutes and arrived at the guard shack at 539am. Not bad for having an ETA most of the time of 600am.
the load after was actually a deadhead home. Phoenix to Phoenix wasn't entirely accurate since we live in a suburb, and since i'm permitted to bobtail home the deadhead was out of the question. Anyways, seeing that I had 4 days off already this time off wasn't necessary but... who am I to argue. I took 3 full days off anyways and came back on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning came and I went on the board. I was told in a freeform message to head over to the Con-way yard and grab an empty and my FM would see what the load planner had for me. Well, 1/2 miles away from home I got my plan.... I was picking up at 400am on Wednesday morning and relaying the load, after a mad rush, with a team in Albuquerque, NM. I turned around towards home instead, and sent a message stating that I wasn't going to pick up a trailer to drop it off later and was instead going to wait at home and not the Con-way yard. Good plan overall and I managed to get a free day of doing practically nothing at home. That allowed me to catch up on the 4 pre-recorded episodes on our DVR of "Border Wars" on National Geographic. I don't know why but the mission of Border Patrol and Customs fascinates me. I suspect that if I ever decide to go back to Law Enforcement.. this will probably be my primary goal since the city beat doesn't quite light my fire anymore.
Anyways, I managed to get to bed Tuesday night at something like 830pm and tossed and turned all night.. finally dragging myself out of bed at 230am. A quick shower and a gathering of my cold food items and I was out. I found I had a message waiting for me when I finally got in the truck... which turned out to be a preplan for my next load. I was to pick up a load in Albuquerque, NM and take it to Waverly, NE. Gravy.
View Larger Map
I got to the Con-way yard in Phoenix about 20 minutes early. The guys were on time with this one and I rolled out just as my departure time came up. I was given a 45 minute window to go 417 miles.... I know I told them when I changed fleets I enjoy a challenge but damn! I travelled up I-17 to I-40 straight east, relaying at the Flying J. I got there with an hour to spare after having made up 24 minutes!
I made my relay and, as it turns out, I got this teams load of Tractor Supply parts bound for the Tractor Supply Center... or.. TSC... distribution center just outside of Lincoln, NE. I figured I would be waiting in a dock forever to pick up a load so this was a pure bonus. I decided instead of waiting around for a 10 hour restart that I would instead get as far as I could... especially since it was a quick run with only a 3 hour window total to get there. Turns out that with the 3 hours I had left I had plenty of time to make it the 180 miles across I-40 to Tucumcari, NM after a quick fuel stop in Santa Rosa, NM. 656 miles later, and around 3pm I finally arrived, stopping for the night at the Flying J on the outskirts of town.
I decided that a 10 hour break would be sufficient, so after screwing off for a few hours and a 7 hour slumber I was on my way, around 130am. From Tucumcari, NM I went straight north on U.S. 54 to U.S. 83 to U.S. 56 to U.S. 81. I pressed it out yet again but since most of this trip was on U.S. highways and through small towns the speed was much slower. I originally thought I could make it to the DC but I wound up being 45 minutes short. I instead go to the Petro in York, NE where I opted to stay so I could get a shower before heading out at around 1100pm after my 10 hour break. This gave me about 60 miles left to travel, or about an hour.. which really isn't bad but it sucked to have to start my 14 hour clock. Hopefully i'm preplanned with something rather quickly so i'm not wasting time!
I finally woke up at 1100pm with the intent to get my shower but fate had other plans. Apparently most truck stops are going to this automated machine that handles showers and either takes the rewards cards or $10.00 in cash. Since this Petro wasn't a fuel stop, and I fueled at the Pilot in Salina, KS earlier anyways, I had to pay the $10.00 cash. After a quaint argument with the ATM, it winning, I angerly wandered back to the truck. Apparently I forgot my ATM number for my personal account. Grand. Instead, I ate breakfast and headed out, somewhere around midnight or so across I-80 to Lincoln, NE.
I finally arrived at the TSC in Waverly, NE at about 100am, dropped my trailer, grabbed an empty trailer, and am now sitting here #5 on the board in the TSC yard waiting for a load. Based on a thread here by my fellow co-worker, Vito Corleone.. or The Fenian Godfather as he calls himself, who delivered here the other day and was given a load out of here, I suspect I will be doing the same.. but that call probably won't come until sometime later this morning. So, for now i'm watching "The Soloist," with Jamie Foxx, for the first time. Never even heard of it but its a pretty good movie to say the least. A few more hours of sleep here soon to get me back onto sleeping at night and driving during the day and I should be good to go.