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March 7, 2009 - The live dash cam will be returning, but not in the previous capacity. More information to follow.
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March 7 , 2009 - Blogger will be shutting down their ability to update our site using their blog software and sending it via their FTP tools. This basically means we can use blogger but we have to use their hosting... which defeats the purpose of having our own domain.. So, over the next few weeks I will be working on migrating the site back to Greymatter, which will be used as our primary blogging software again. I have considered wordpress but after looking at the files I don't have time to learn PHP, so this is the easiest. Blogger will continue to be used until May 1, 2010, when blogger intends to shut down FTP access. Further info to follow.


Saturday, June 27, 2009
subject: Memphis, TN

Well, after 4 days of blissful time off, we are back at it. I got up at about 0630 Saturday morning to put us on the board. After waiting in the truck for the Qualcomm to give some sign of life or comprehension that we were coming back to work, I decided to call dispatch and make sure everything was okay. Come to find out, we were required to go pick up a trailer at the Con-way freight yard and then be in Calexico NO LATER than 1200....huh, news to us considering our fleet manager was awesome enough to call us on Friday and give us a heads up that we would be picking up a relay in Calexico and heading to Memphis with it. Followed with a "I don't really care when you leave, as long as you get this load to Memphis by 0830 on Monday morning"....Okay, easy enough, we love our FM, she rocks.

So that morning when miss priss gave me attitude, I politely told her that we would be leaving at approximately 0900 our time and arriving at ABOUT 1200-1230 local time, and that our FM had said we didn't need to be there until 1330 at the least. She stated again we HAD to be there at 1200...okay then. I pondered this while I poured my first cup of coffee and decided to call back just to make sure we were all set....This time I spoke to a gentleman that was much nicer, but again, gave conflicting inforation. Now we don't need a trailer and we are bob-tailing all the way to Calexico...okay. So when I asked about the ETA, I was told, yet again, that we were required to pick it up no later than 1200, as it was already there.

We finished packing up the truck which didn't require much effort since Daryl was sweet enough to stay up most of the night to get the majority of the packing and organizing done.


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We headed out and made one final attempt to push back the ETA after reviewing messages from our FM confirming we didn't have to be there until 1330. Of course after stating the messages said something different from what they were telling us, we received the silent treatment...but the qualcomm didn't go off at quarter til 1200 to let us know we were running late, so I'm assuming they did in fact change our ETA.

It was a good thing too, as about 3 miles from the stop we saw a CFI trailer with a over-the-border daycab attached....and guess whose trailer he was carrying...

All that rush rush rush talk about us having to get there to pick up the trailer thats waiting for us....and the trailer didn't even arrive until about .005 seconds before we did...sheesh!

The cabbie un-hooked and we backed right up to it. Daryl ran in to get the paper work and we set out to scale the load as, according to the numbers on the bills it was somewhere between heavy and really freakin' heavy.

Then back accross Cali and Arizona the same way we had just come. Of course New Mexico and Texas went by without much incident...being vast expanses of nothingness and all.

Daryl squeaked us into the West Memphis terminal about 0315 on Monday morning...just as I was waking up. He was sweet enough to stop off at the Pilot so I could run in and grab a cup of coffee (everyone knows what happens if I don't get a cup of coffee in the morning), before parking at the terminal long enough for him to hit the sack while I ran in and took a quick shower. Being on the border of Tennessee, the shower didn't really matter, as I sweat at least a gallon just on the walk back to the truck, but what can you do?

I drove the 16 remaining miles to our destination and walked into the 'driver check-in' door at 0645 local...nice!

They had me go back out to the truck, do a u-turn, park next to a Schneider truck, break the seal and remove the lock, then report back inside with my paperwork to quietly wait further instruction....with my truck sitting in the middle of the parking lot....with my hazards on....blocking the flow of traffic....with my doors wide open on a 'high value' load....what ever you say! So, after sitting patiently for about 15 minutes and getting to watch another driver...we won't name names, but his company rhymes with Schneider...wait...literally cuss and yell at the security guard about how they were 'dicking him around', I was assigned a door...before him...guess it helps to be nice and patient even if you are an hour before your appointment time huh? Have I mentioned that some people really amaze me? Anywho...

I bumped the dock, did the 'disconnect your trailer' dance, and bob-tailed back over to the check in parking area and went back inside to, again, sit quietly until further instructions. At about 0815 I was handed back my bills and on my way, and our appointment wasn't even set until 0830... I love it when a plan comes together! I reconnected, woke Daryl up by man-handling the tandem pins into submission, and put in our empty call.

Being number 9 on the board, I made a command decision to head back to the terminal to see what happens next....maybe we can take consecutive showers every 15 mintues for the next 24 hours until we get a load out...okay probably not but hopefully our next load sends us back to someplace dry....we'll see!


Monday, June 22, 2009
subject: Phoenix, AZ

YAY! A load that finally went right! We rolled into the Bessemer, AL, area on Friday night so we decided to head down to the Flying J about 3 miles away from the Con-way terminal to stay the night.

We arrived at the terminal about 2 hours early to find the load was ready. GRAVY. So we hooked up, placarded the load since it was hazmat, got the paperwork, and headed out. Being this load only weighed like 10,000lbs and we were given 72 hours to get it to Phoenix, AZ it was a cake load. We opted not to run our hours out since Mary was still low on hers.

She drove us about 300 or so miles west and we switched a few miles from the rest area/visitor center the border of Mississippi and Louisana, where we stopped shortly after. This is actually a nifty rest area here. We couldn't get pictures since we keep forgetting to get batteries but it sits up on a cliff overlooking the bridge that crosses over the Mississippi river. Then, it is surrounded by the flags fought during the civil war and the State of Louisana displayed 6 cannons on the hillside and several more on a nearby hilltop that overlooked Mississippi. The next time we make it through that area I will get some pictures.

I managed to head us out and get us into our Lancaster, TX terminal where we opted to stay for the night and refuel in the morning. You can't beat a free shower either. We headed out Sunday morning about 0700am or so across the Texas tundra. There really isn't crap out there to be honest so not much happened.

We swapped out at the I-10/I-20 junction and I took us into Benson, AZ where we stayed at a small truck stop we've done a relay at before. This place is really podunk but I like it because there is plenty of pull-through parking. If we don't have to back we don't... and since Mary was asleep and she backs better than I do I felt this was a great stop.

On a side note, we rehash this occasionally but we find it funny that while in school in Neosho, MO, Mary smashed the obstacle course by getting one of the highest scores while I mastered backing into various situations. However, out here on the road somewhere along the line she can back into any hole while I remain skeptical that I won't hit something while backing.. but you put me in a packed mall parking lot at christmas time or a Wal-Mart parking lot at dinner time and I can maneuver the truck like no tomorrow. Mary feels confident in maeuvering but has mentioned that I have the eye to analyze and make quick decisions on whether we can get through a tight spot or if we will be able to successfully park in a small area. We just find that interesting we switched rolls.

Anyways, Mary woke up around 0700am, grabbed some coffee, and headed us out towards Phoenix. Somehow we just barely missed the Tuscon traffic because we didn't have to slow down all that much except for the moron driving a truck that decided to hang out in the slow lane slowely gaining speed in her blind spot after we passed him. Some of these drivers just amaze me.

We rolled into Phoenix at around 1000am, about 24 hours early, dropped the trailer, got our dispatch to head home, and rolled that way. YAY!

Now, its off for 4 days of relaxation, adult beverages, and lounging around the complex pool doing NOTHING!

posted by Daryl at 15:21
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Saturday, June 20, 2009
subject: Albany, GA

We have come to the conclusion that if there is a chance for something bad to happen or a way for something to go wrong.. it's going to happen to us.


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We arrived in Yuma, AZ, about 1.5 hours or so early so we took the opportunity to stop at Wal-mart and store up on groceries and the usual staples. After, we headed up to the shipper. It wasn't a bad place at all and the guys were nice. We were, however, directed to stand away from the truck under this dirty shaded area with nasty restrooms... in 105 degree heat. That made us happy. We took this time to smash down our lunch before heading out. We were loaded in about 20 minutes or so and we were off. We headed towards the gate, grabbed our load seal, secured the doors, and off we headed. Our dispatch not only gave us about 12 hours leeway to get there but the notes said that we could not delivery early. So, that gave us plenty of time to screw off while on our way down and not run our hours out.. especially since Mary was starting to run low.

Well, about 52 miles or so down I-8 we received a message that stated, "Need to go back to shipper - you are overloaded." DOH. So, we called our fleet manager, who didn't know a thing about it, and finally verified that the dock guys gave us a few too many pallets of our product. So, we were dispatched back to Yuma, AZ to have the pallets removed. That wasn't a problem since our fleet manager basically paid us for the 130 additional miles from Yuma to Dateland, AZ, and back.

We arrived at the shipper about an hour later and, come to find out, the receiver called to have the amount of product sent changed to a smaller amount. The problem was that the load was already on the way. The dock guys were laughing their butts off at the situation and thought it was rediculous to have us sent back. They actually told me they didn't think we would come back but hey.. for 130 miles worth of pay we'd do whatever the company wanted.

About 40 minutes later we were finally off. The new dispatch was still to arrive at the same time even though we had to go back. That sucked because with that short of time we now had to work hard at getting it there and draw out our hours.

I don't think much really happened through the rest of Arizona and Texas. I did discover that in my old ripe age of 32 I cannot stay awake until 0400am like I once could in my party days of 21 and 22 years old so I had some problems as we neared the receiver and had to stop for some catnaps.

I stopped to refuel in Marion, MS, and woke Mary up so she could do the girl thing and grab some coffee as if she does not have a cup she becomes volitile, and since the US Highway we were to go on had no stops at all it was best to feed the caffeine monster before she started the shift.

She told me once we got to the receiver that she ended up taking a US Highway that ended up hitting a rediculous amount of lights in these small towns that were not timed properly, and when she wasn't in a small town she was in construction going 25mph. Ahh, its the little things we can laugh at once the angry moment passes.

Anyways, she got us into the receiver like 2 minutes before the load was due. She has cut it more close than I ever have.. thats for sure! But, the important thing is that we got it in there. We got unloaded, then headed over to the local Pilot to take a shower before heading to our next load assignment location of balmy Bessemer, AL.

posted by Daryl at 13:48
1 Comments | leave a comment


Wednesday, June 17, 2009
subject: Calexico, CA

Well, over the course of 12 hours on Sunday and into Monday we discovered 2 things... 1) A load out on a weekend will never happen until about an hour before our fleet manager walks in the door, 2) every Indian Reservation we have driven through has some kind of casino in operation that competes with some of the medicum sized Vegas casinos.. but out in the middle of NOWHERE, and 3) the load we were under from Fontana, CA to Denver, CO ended up being a service failure due to locking the keys in the truck... our own fault. We called the other morning to follow up since we did not hear anything and she told us such. It was a little depressing to hear but our spirits were lifted quite high because she followed it up with "you guys are doing awsome otherwise." Those little kudos always go a long ways with us because so many other times we feel like we're screwing up... and if you've stayed with our blogs you might feel the same.

Anyways, my last blog was posted right before we got to the receiver so I didn't get to post the joys of THAT load.

We got there about 45 minutes early. Being I knew where the main plant was in the area we went there to discover that was not the road we should have taken, but instead the one previous to the one we were on. So, we turned around and headed the other direction to our stop. As we pulled up we noticed the building was familiarly dark with no movement in the parking lot and nothing but dropped trailers in the doors with no empty company trailer nearby. We did as all the signs said by parking in the provided spot and Mary going to the office to check in. 2 long rings later and no answer she returned to the truck pissed. So, we called dispatch to discover the two wake-up Qualcomm messages in the middle of the night and the "need it there ASAP" messages were all bullcrap since the company was closed until 0800am Monday morning. We were fuming to say the least.

Anyways, the dispatcher we talked to was awsome and had us not only drop our trailer in the door and set us up to go back to the main plant to pick up an empty but she explained the definition of Layover, when it was due to us, and told us what recent loads were due Layover and which we could apply for. I thought that was awsome. So, I opened the doors and Mary backed into the dock before taking us over to the plant to get an empty.

At this point the 2 days of submitting our hours STILL did not prove anything, hence our theory of weekend loads, so we went up to the I-80 turnpike to stay at the beautiful service plaza up there. I took the opportunity to shower before we settle in for bed since I was "politely" told I was ripe. I hate summer... I sweat easily so showers are more frequently needed.

I think we woke up around 0800am to a load.. which came in about 12 minutes before. Call it intuition if you will... or maybe because I had to pee so bad it woke me up aching in pain.. but Mary headed in to grab Einstein Brothers for breakfast while I walked Max and planned our trip. We were directed to head over to Lakewood, NY to grab our load headed to a relay in Calexico, CA for what we suspect is bound for Mexico even though the paperwork does not say it. We were off around 0900am or so.


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I think we arrived in the vicinity of Lakewood around 1230pm or so. We've never been to New York as of yet and, although we were only in a small portion of it, it resembled one of those sleepy older towns you see on TV overlooking a GORGOUS lake that fed into Lake Erie. It was amazing. Again, we would have taken pictures but the picture gallery is broke and we're out of batteries unfortunatly. We grabbed our load and headed out.

Nothing real interesting happened through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois but I do believe a pack of buffalo could migrate faster than the truck speed limit through 2 of the states. The real fun began just west of St. Louis, MO on I-44. It started by hitting some light rain, followed by heavier and a freak lightning storm that light up the sky like it was daylight.. then the extreme heavy rain hit causing me to have to slow to about 30mph. The neatest part was the frog migration that was occuring across the freeway. I can honestly say I've never seen that before. I drove out of the storm about an hour later and just before Mary woke up to take on her shift. She said she hit some storms while heading into Joplin, MO to hit the inspection bay,as required by the company, and ended up sitting about an hour to an hour and a half waiting for it to pass before moving on.

I woke up somewhere around Tulsa, OK about 4 hours later... 4 hours sooner than I had anticipated based on how tired I was when I went to bed. Nothing exciting happened through Oklahoma all the way through to California to be quite frank. We did get into Calexico, CA on Wednesday an hour short from our drop time, and with a pre-plan heading from Yuma, AZ to Albany, GA at that. So Mary grabbed us an empty trailer and we were off towards Yuma for our pick-up!

posted by Daryl at 14:48
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
subject: Comments link fixed

Apparently somewhere along the line the comments link became corrupt when I updated the templates. When clicked, the comments link and came up with a "not found" page. I discovered the link was broken thanks to my mother-in-laws perserverance to leave a comment on every post after checking the page every day. Thanks Mom! The comments link at the bottom of each post is now fixed and those that wish to leave comments may now do so.

Please, if any other links are found broken report them to me so I can remedy the problem ASAP. Greatly appreciated...

posted by Daryl at 13:32
1 Comments | leave a comment



subject: Clyde, OH

Well, if this dispatch were any slower we could probably ditch the truck and just haul it ourselves with straps over our shoulders!

Just shy of our nightmarish unload in McAllen, TX, we were sent a pre-plan that had us heading southeast to Brownsville, TX to grab a load headed to Clyde, OH. Once unloaded, 4 hours later, we started heading towards Brownsville. It was only about an hour, or 60 miles, and did not pick up until 0800pm on Thursday but we headed that way anyways.


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Enroute we stopped at Target and picked up a small refrigerator since the Cascadia does not come with one. We were spoiled by the compact refrigerator that came with the Volvo. We tried to make it without one for a while but you can only make do so long with Hormel and Healthy Choice dry meals before you long something different. So, after checking out our choices we went with the Haier Nu-Cool refrigerator. It supposedly only uses about 100 watts of power and based on the power consumption meter on our 1500 watt inverter it isn't drawing enough power to even make it hum. In retrospect, the coffee pot draws more power during the brew cycle than this fridge uses all day. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Anyways, we got down to the shipper and found it wasn't going to be ready early, so Mary backed into the #2 dock while I was in bed. She waited up for the load to finish and woke me up around 0845pm or so. We pre-tripped the trailer again (which was easy since we've had it for 5 days at this point) and we were off. While I drove Mary sent in our loaded call and found we had about 3 days to travel 1600 miles. We honestly were a little pissed because we can do 1600 miles in about 24 hours.. so we were not worrying about running out of hours on this trip to say the least.

I managed to get us up to Houston, TX around 0230am at our refuel point where I topped us off, then backed us into a parking spot where I waited another 1.5 hours before waking Mary for her shift. I think the bed was still steaming with body heat because as soon as she rolled out I wasted no time getting in I was so tired! She did her normal girl thing then headed us out (she hates that phrase because it makes her sound like a priss.. what do you think?)

I think I managed to sleep about 3 hours before I was woken up by what sounded like a small dog being run over. I waited 2 or 3 minutes but Mary did not stop so I went back to sleep. About 20 minutes later I heard what sounded like the screech of some sort of bird.. loud as HELL. Well, it turned out the rubber footing of the refrigerator was vibrating on the finished wood of the upper bunk. Damn it. So I fought with it for 20 minutes putting a towel under before I laid back down. 20 minutes later I was up... screw it. I think we were near Texarkana, TX/AR, at that point.. so I stayed up to keep Mary company for a few hours before I crapped out again.

I think I woke up again 4 or 5 hours later to an extremly rough road.. a sign we were on Southland Rd. in West Memphis, AR... a road that has patches upon patches of asphalt and concrete. Apparently it is just easier to keep filling in a hole than just rip it up and fix it. Welcome to Arkansas as I think 80% of their roads are this crappy. I rank them up there with Oklahoma and New Jersy, but thats besides the point.

Anyways, we took the time to shower and order some Pizza and a Greek Salad for dinner that night, which I think was Friday. Good stuff! Mary never had a greek salad so she tried to pick out the stuff she didn't like and found it tasted like a bag of mulch. But, mixed together she found it tasted good upon my advice. Mary 23, Daryl 4. I'm starting to catch up!

I think in total we hung out in West Memphis for 22 hours before drama started with weekend dispatch. I don't know why but I swear nobody talks to each other up there. Mary called Friday night to try and get us a pre-plan but was told that "freight is slow in that area" and they changed our delivery time to 0500pm on Sunday. Grand.. even more time to diddle around.. which is why we decided to take forever in West Memphis... you can't beat toilets nearby and a free shower in a secure yard (short of being home).

I think we went to bed around 1100pm Friday night just tired as hell. We got our first dispatch message asking why "WE were not moving." uh... because were not going to rush there to sit where there are no places to go.. and since we were told dispatch does not dispatch to truck stops... we'll take our time thank you.

Well, 20 or 30 minutes later were woken up again asking if we could get it there by Sunday at 1700. HELLO?!? Do people not read? Our new drop time is Sunday by 500pm anyways! So, we restrained ourselves from really being smart asses and just went back to bed.

I think we got up again around 0830am or so.. which was nice to sleep in.. walked Max, took a shower, and cleaned up the truck before taking the time to practice backing and our setups. We've been confused on how some of these drivers get into some of these spots so we really practiced our setup more than anything.

After we refueled, headed over to the shop to get some maintenance done on the truck and we were off. I think we got about 250 miles or so before stopping again. We stayed at a rest area in Kentucky just north of Nashville, TN for the night and I think Mary took us out around 0300am after waking to and cleaning up another mess, compliments of Max. Damn dog.

We're anticipated to roll into Clyde, OH around 0400pm to drop our load before trying to find someplace to hang for the night since the 2 days straight, every hour, of submitting our hours in anticipation of a load has proved futile. Gotta love it... 2,990 miles this week under 2 loads for a priority team. It's almost like we're being punished for something.. because from what the word is, other teams are near 5,000 miles at this point for the week. Who knows...

posted by Daryl at 12:43
0 Comments | leave a comment


Thursday, June 11, 2009
subject: McAllen, TX

Why is it after several days off when you have a laundry list of chores it feels like you need days off from your days off? This time was no exception. We took the time to move into our new home and it seemed to have taken FOREVER. BUT, the next time we take home time we can at least sit and do NOTHING and actually enjoy the summer!

Anyways, we got a call from our fleet manager Monday stating she had us lined up for a load out of Imperial, NE at 0100pm Tuesday. That was nice because it allowed us to sleep in, although we were still up early to say good-bye to Mary's mom before she went to work. We showered, grabbed some breakfast, finished our laundry, and headed over to the truck around 0900am and headed out.


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If you've never been to Imperial, NE its in one of those "DON'T BLINK" kind of towns. We ended up hitting a mill there for our load. They had kind of an interesting setup... scale, load, then scale again to get the paperwork. They actually stamped the empty and loaded weight on the paper for the receiver. Interesting. But, none the less the dock worker was nice and had us out of there in about 20 minutes. We put in our loaded call and found out the load was a slow one... about 72 hours or so to get to McAllen, TX. Blah. The slow dispatches are always through nothing country while the fast are near the historical stuff, which I love by the way. Give me a museum or art gallery anytime and i'll make a day of it.

Anyways, we headed across I-70 and down some highways I don't really remember as Mary took us down that way. I kno we managed to get on US 83 somewhere around when I went to bed. She got us as far as halfway across the panhandle of Oklahoma before finding an empty lot, parking us, and heading to bed around 1100pm.

I think I got up around 0300am, about a half hour before my alarm, because I heard Max stirring. Come to find out he was stirring to make a mess in the drivers floorboard.. which I promptly stepped in both barefoot AND with my shoes on. So, after battling a mess, a disobedient dog, a foul odor, and severe fatigue we were finally off around 0430am.

I took us down into Texas along US 83 until about 2 hours from San Antonio, TX.. then Mary took over. I'd like to say quite a bit happened but there wasn't. I did have a deer jump out in front of me and give me a heart attack. It was so close that I had enough time to pucker and brace before we hit.. but thankfully the thing was zippy enough we didn't strike, thank god. Mary kicked into our fuel point on the eastern side of San Antonio where we decided to shower, grab a bite to eat, and hang out. Mary had a hell of a back into the place since it was small and there were obstacles everywhere but she finally got it in. And, after some discussion, it was decided that since we didn't know if there were any other places to stop before hitting McAllen it would be best to stay in San Antonio and leave in the morning.

I woke up around 0300am, refueled, did the morning chore thing, and headed out. Mary found she couldn't sleep so stayed up with me the rest of the way in. We've discussed switching schedules because while she likes driving during the day her forte is not when it gets dark, and while I like driving at night I like sunlight too. So, we decided to try a 3a-3p/swap and see how it goes.. and since she couldn't sleep what perfect time to try.

Anyways, we stopped at a Flying J outside of McAllen, TX to grab a bite to grub and walk the dog, then Mary took us in. This is where it got interesting. We found the address but couldn't find the buildings, which was unfortunate because where we were had nice backs and wasn't very busy. Looking around we spotted buildings that looked similar to those we were at and decided to check those out. Low and behold those were it.

As we pulled up we met the security officer who checked us in, then told us where the buildings we were looking for.. then proceeded to tell us to "back into any door that's open." Sweet, possibly a quick unload. So, we head over there to find this place is a cluster. Imagine the most packed flea market you've ever seen with people everywhere and kids running ragged. Now, imagine that with 18-wheelers, small box trucks, and 4-wheelers all over as being the kids. It was rediculous. People in cars were weaving in between trucks with due regard to the stopping distance of trucks.. and others were just flying past behind trucks that were trying to back. If I can help it I never want to go to this place again!

Anyways... we pull up and I got out to find Mary a hole to back into. Well, I was in luck.. so she set up good and had a good run at it but the place was just too small. Apparently the 48' trailers didn't have any problems getting into the spots but those with 53' trailers just had a hard time getting ANYWHERE here. So, we went around to find another hole since I was told another daycabber was leaving next to the one we were shooting for. Well, we get there and a driver that was behind us got into our hole.. damn it. So, i took the paperwork in and was told via another translating driver they had chicken loads to get off other trucks first and it would be a while. hmmm..ok.

Well, as Mary went to move to let a driver out of his hole I was directed to have Mary back into a hole. Done. So, while she got set up and I positioned to spot her I nearly got run over by a daycabber who was apparently supposed to get into that hole. I got the feeling by that point nobody knew what the hell was going on.. and I relayed this to Mary. Well, not knowing what is going on she got out and confronted the driver stating it was supposedly a "first come" deal. He didn't know what was going on apparently either so she went to the dock to throw 'tude with them to find out. They became really nice and non-confrontational and asked if we could wait on the side of the building with other drivers waiting to unload... apparently appointment time means nothing there.

So, we went around the building and wasted time for about 2.5 hours before getting the sign we would be unloaded. At that point we could have waited all day... we were eligible for detention pay. But, they knocked right at the required 3 hours to unload us. Perfect! 30 minutes later we were off to Brownsville, TX for our next load.

If we can avoid hauling food I would love to... this run just sucked. I can't imagine the reefer haulers do this every day. We'll stick to dry van running thank you.

posted by Daryl at 12:35
0 Comments | leave a comment


Friday, June 5, 2009
subject: Henderson, CO... again...

Well, we suspected we were going to be heading home after we dropped our trailer and connected to another but did not receive a dispatch. After a quick discussion we decided that due to sheer exhaustion we would stay at the freight yard for a few hours of sleep before heading towards our home location for 6 days off this round. However, that was short lived.

About 2.5 hours later the security lady woke us up and told us we could not park in the back portion of the lot. Hmmm.. last time nothing was said, but whatever. So, I started the truck and began to build the air pressure. At the same time the Qualcomm squealed that there was a message.. which came across twice as "CALL DISPATCH ASAP."

The call was not bad.. but not good considering our state of exhaustion. They were asking us to haul a dedicated load from Henderson, CO to Abilene, TX... then deadhead over to Dallas, TX to haul a load back to Henderson, CO before heading north towards "home." Apparently the team that normally hauls the route had something occur with their windshield and we were the only team within a reasonable distance to take it. After accepting it and hearing a rash of crap from Mary I moved the truck up to the bobtail section and laid down for another 2 hours of sleep.


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I grabbed the load around 0930am and headed across I-70 to US 287 south about the whole way. We switched out at some podunk town on the border of Colorado and Oklahoma where Mary kicked us on into Abilene, TX. There, Mary had one hell of a tight back and got it in there impressively. She went to get another trailer but the yard driver and the psychotic daycab drivers that didn't care about direction made sure it was almost impossible to get out of the yard. After about 20 minutes of that she gained a window and took charge to get out. I took over from that point and took us into Dallas, TX.

The Dallas yard was also a cluster. For whatever reason the security officers at the gate love to preach about how we will get in trouble for not following the counter-clockwise direction of travel within the yard. However, what they fail to mention is that nobody will say anything to the yard driver who nearly hit me 3 times alone and the daycab drivers who almost hit me double that... but whatever. I'm just there to follow the rules, get the load, and get the hell out so we can go home.

After we left, around 0530am, we headed down to the Lancaster terminal to refuel. At that point I realized I was having a hard time stopping for whatever reason, and whenever I applied brake pressure the tanks would drain rather rapidly. When I got out I immediately realized the problem.. the service line had become disconnected and only the emergency line was stopping us! Thank god for that! I reconnected and made sure it was secure.. then did a quick second brake test to ensure the system was staying charged. No problems from that point on thank god... although Mary said she's had that happen to her a few times.. something we obviously need to get looked at rather soon. We were on our way after about 25 minutes and headed back up US 287.

I think we rolled into Henderson around 0800pm or so after getting caught up in traffic on I-270 in Denver. We were stuck for near 45 minutes to go 1 mile. Go figure its always on the final 20 minutes of the trip. But, we got to the terminal, dropped, and were out of there in record time headed for home!

Thank god.. after running nearly 5 weeks straight we're ready to indulge in some fine adult beverages, brought to you by the makers of Fat Tire!

posted by Daryl at 11:01
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Tuesday, June 2, 2009
subject: Henderson, CO

I swear to god if we didn't have bad luck we wouldn't have any luck at all.


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After dropping the trailer at the yard in Santa Fe Springs, CA we picked up an empty and headed towards the gate for our journey to Fontana, CA. Apparently we needed a gate pass to take the trailer. So, Mary headed in just to find out they were short empty trailers and we had to drop the one we just picked up. So, I called dispatch and they sent us to Fontana bobtail, or without a trailer. We dropped our trailer and headed out. We got there about an hour later, bypassing a Wal-mart where we are thinking of getting our refrigerator and to make spare keys of the only key we were issued to our truck. Mary checked us in, parked us, and we went to bed after eating a gross meal of Chef Boyardee smelling meals (although they were tasty and rather healthy for us too).

I woke up around 0330am, grabbed the paperwork, and hooked to the trailer while Mary stayed in bed. However, that was short lived. I had problems pulling the tandem pins to reset the tandems to California requirements so I had to wake her up and have her rock the trailer for me while I put every bit of man force I could muster into it. After, she went back to bed and I headed us out. We were given until 0100am to get this load to Henderson.. about 57mph average.. and I speculated with the help of GPS that we would just barely squeak in there since we had several mountain passes to go through.. but it would be on time. But, again karma decided to rear her ugly head and kick me in the balls. I was having a good day too.

I stopped at the Pilot in Barstow, CA to refuel and grab us some coffee. I don't know why but we really won't drink coffee from anywhere BUT Pilot anymore. Flying J's burns a hole in our stomach lining and Petro's is just nasty. If we're jonesing enough we'll drink T/A's.. but it has to be a cold morning. Anyways, I digress. I pulled us out after just under 20 minutes and headed down I-15.

Now, to tell this next part of the story I have to give a bit of a history. In the Volvo we made 1 extra key to always keep in the truck and we always had 2 keys with us.. 1 each. So, we made it a habit of either keeping our individual sets in our pocket or at least 1 of us had a key. Now, with the Volvo you could not lock the door from inside and close the door.. it was mandatory to lock it outside, so we HAD to have the key on us...


Anyways, Mary woke up and came up front about 45 minutes later.. or about 20 miles away from the California/Nevada border. This was great timing because a rest area was ahead in 2 miles. So, I pulled us in, removed the ignition key and put it in the cup holder as I always have. Now, I can't explain my logic here but I put the key in the cup holder and then locked the door from inside as you obviously can do with the Freightliners.

Mary went to the restroom while I walked Max. she came out, took Max, and asked for the keys to get us ready to go while I went. At this point we were running about 1.75 hours ahead of schedule. Gravy! I went into the rest room and came out to find Mary was still not in the truck and even went as far as to put her arms up as if she was asking "where is the key?" At that point I immediately began kicking myself in the butt because I knew.. I combined the habits of leaving the key in the truck from the Volvo with locking the door from the inside with the Cascadia which, obviously, is a bad combination. So, after looking for an easy way to open the side door panals and failing miserably we called Road Service and our fleet manager.. something we hated to do because we've been trying so hard to be one of her top teams. After the call we found we had about 1.5 hours or so to wait for the towing guy to show.

So, what did we do during this time? Well, everyone that likes dogs petted Max, I think we each used the bathroom 4 or 5 times, um... we hoped every truck with a flatbed was the towing service, and Mary made fun of me repeatedly for having jacked up her day (it was all in good fun because she couldn't be any harder on me than I was).

Anyways, Nick from the towing service came and was awsome. $250.00 for him to pop the lock, which took all of 3 seconds, and we were on our way. The GPS was saying we would be there at 0237am.. which we were not happy about. We messaged our fleet manager and told her our ETA, then found out she would have to give us a verbal reprimand the following day regarding this issue. Honestly, during our wait time we discussed it all and we figured we would be either getting a reprimand or a service failure so it wasn't a surprise. Our hope at that point was that we would get the load to Henderson, CO on time and the verbal reprimand could go away since we gained a minute every 8 minutes if we maintained 56mph, Not to mention the unlock service was coming out of our next paycheck. So one could only hope.

We were actually doing well and got our ETA to about 0115am...and then we hit the severe weather pattern from Grand Junction, CO to about Vail Pass, just west of the Eisenhower Tunnel. Overall, we rolled into the terminal at about 0215am. Not what we were hoping for but better than our estimate darrival time of 0300am. Now off for some much needed home time!

posted by Daryl at 01:57
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Monday, June 1, 2009
subject: Santa Fe Springs, CA

Well, the learning curve is always steep whenever getting anything new or trying something for the first time. Our new Cascadia is no exception.


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After we dropped our load in IA we headed down the road a bit to a McDonalds parking lot off of I-80 near an outlet center. We walked a bit and window shopped, then watched Ghostbusters before heading to bed. Since it was nice out we opted to keep the windows open, turn the fan on to circulate air, and just not idle the truck for once. Well, around 0230am we received a call from a night dispatcher that asked if we received our dispatch... after a quick glance at the Qualcomm we realized we did not. Apparently when the truck is not idling.. with this new Qualcomm unit it will not receive messages until the key is turned over to provide power. DOH. So, after 3 hours of sleep I drug out of bed and keyed up the truck. Our next assignment had us headed west to the T/A truck stop in Council Bluffs, IA to meet another team on their way home. It was a long run with little sleep but I made it around 0730am... about 30 minutes early.

As we rolled in we found the trailer dropped near the building. Wierd. I parked the truck and wandered to find the relay's truck but to no avail. We called dispatch to let them know we were looking for the driver but were going to grab some breakfast first. After, we ended up finding the truck in the repair bay.. the last place I would have ever thought to look. No wonder the trailer was dropped.. we thought the driver just left it and went home!?!

Anyways, we dropped the trailer, hooked up, and headed out. We got an early start so we coordinated with mom to meet us 1) for dinner and 2) to take some stuff off the truck we did not need. During the move we found about.. oh.. 4 bins worth of crap we thought we would need before we got on any truck and realized we never needed in the first place.

We made our usual stop at the Bosselmans in Grand Island, NE for a shower and lunch before Mary took over driving. Good thing because for the past 4 nights i've only averaged 3 to 5 hours of sleep. I fell asleep as soon as I laid down.

She took us out and got to Hudson, CO around 0600pm to some breakfast burritos. I love them things! It was nice to actually sit down for a sit down meal that was homemade.. it has been about a month since we took hometime so civility was nice. We ended up leaving and ran smack dab into a snow and ice storm just past the Eisenhower Tunnel outside of Denver, CO. Mary said she averaged about 20mph for 4 hours before she gave up and came to bed. I don't blame her honestly.

I woke up around 0100am and found we were parked on an on-ramp near a grassy field. That worked nicely because I had to walk our little truck runt before we could go. He was about ready to go out.. and I know this because he is never that excited to see us when we wake up. And outside we went.. just in time. Shortly after we got our pre-planned dispatch... we would be going to Fontana, CA to take a load to Denver, CO.. our load for a day or two off. However, it never does feel like a day off when you have a weeks work of crap to do in a matter of a few days. Days off are just never off anymore. Thank god we don't own a home!

Anyways, I managed to get us to the western edge of Utah where Mary took over.. which I think was St. George, UT. Mary had the privlidge of driving through Vegas in rush hour. She handled it well.. other than tossing me around like a pinball in a pinball machine because of the tools on the road. But, we made it safely none the less. The rest of the trip was uneventful.. and I think we rolled in around 0600pm or so. Not too bad... 2 hours after our original drop time but 6 hours earlier than our adjusted delivery time.

posted by Daryl at 19:59
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