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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.


Wednesday, July 29, 2009
subject: Atlanta, GA

Our company has about a 85% drop and hook rate for their team drivers....we LOVE this about them...and this is why: We headed down to Miami, AZ to pick up a live load we were relaying at our Nogalas, AZ drop yard. The plan from there was to pick up a load in from Mexico and take it to Atlanta GA, but we'll get to that!



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After arriving at home, I took about an hour to run to Wal-mart and get some much needed food stuffs while Daryl stayed behind to finish up the load and button down the truck for the night. Of course, the yard didn't have any empty trailers so we were told to come back and check first thing in the morning.

I finally got off to bed about 2330 and set my alarm for 0530 local. I immediately called the yard and sat on hold long enough for the system to actually disconnect me....After two more call backs I was told they did infact have two empty trailers. I grabbed a cup of coffee and bobtailed over to get one. We were told that unless something drastic happened to someone else, we should expect to not be out of Phoenix until the next day. I took this to mean the next day....how else could that be interpreted?

I took the opportunity to go get a much needed hair cut and thought I would pick up the makings for oatmeal cookies. One of the things I miss most about a 'normal life' on the truck is cooking. I love to bake and take the opportunity to do so as frequently as possible. About half way through my haircut my cell phone rang. I was surprised to see it was Daryl, having thought he would be comotose until that afternoon at the very least. His immediate statement was: "What's going on?"...I had left him a very sweet note on the coffee pot, the first likely place anyone waking up will go, telling him my plan and that I would be back later...apparently he hadn't received said note.

After further discussion it appeared a load planner had called, saying we had a load. Daryl called them back to get the scoop and then called me again saying we didn't have the load after all, it had been assigned to someone else because we hadn't acknowledged them fast enough...5 minutes isn't fast enough? Whatever, I was looking forward to a home cooked meal and oatmeal cookies anyways! Half way through the grocery store and half a cart full of groceries, I received another call from Daryl. Turns out the load hadn't actually been assigned to someone else and we were back on it, needing to leave to go pick it up in about 2 hours....crap. I don't think I will ever be allowed in that grocery store again. I went to the check out and politely explained the situation, saying that I would only be buying 5 things out of the cart and that it turned out I didn't need the rest of the groceries. The woman looked at me like I had four eyes and called someone to put the remaining items away. I tried to look cool as I walked out of the store amid looks ranging from curiosity to flat out disgust...what do they know anyways?

We rolled up at the customer in Miami and I was immediately disappointed by their attitude and demeanor towards us. The instructions clearly stated we were to scale before entering, then check in with the guard....Upon arrival at the customer's, there are two lanes, one to the guard shack and one to the scale house. I stop with my hazards on to take a second to assess the situation. We turn our CB to channel 15 as the posted signs requested and I looked up to see one of the guards standing outside pointing in front of her (as one would to a five year old who was in serious trouble and was about to get a tongue lashing) to come to the guard house. I very slowly pulled up, all the while she was fanning herself and looking at me with a "Hurry up already!" look on her face. In my defense the posted speed limit signs did read "2 mph" no kidding! I pulled up and she rattled off instructions which included "park over there by JB Hunt and WALK up to the scale house to give them your information, they will direct you from there." Of course the whole time she's giving me instructions she's fanning herself and flapping her shirt to make sure that I know how trying it is for her to be stuck out in the sun and heat explaining to the new person where to go...But wait, didn't she tell me to park a block away and WALK? She promptly proceeded to go into the guard shack and slam the door before I even had the truck restarted. I quickly tried to think of flowers and butterflies to dispell the not-so-nice words that came to mind and went to park.

The scale house required us to take a mini 'lesson' on safety and company rules before proceeding, then we were instructed to attire ourselves in long pants, hard shoes, safety glasses and a hard hat (which they provided), and drive accross the street to dock. As it was only 112 degrees, I was excited to get geared out in my long pants, hard shoes, and borrowed safety goggles and hard hat (which smelled like a stale ashtray) and get to work. On a side note, we have decided we are definitely going to pick up a hard hat and safety glasses of our very own...seeing as how I'm not a big fan of lice.

About two hours later we had returned the borrowed equipment and scaled our load which, turned out to be just over 45,000 lbs.

Daryl drove us to the Nogales drop yard and traded out that load for the one we were taking to Atlanta. We traded out at 0400 near Deming, NM and I took us through the majority of Texas. About 30 mintues before my shift ended, I noticed our passenger side fin was flapping in the wind slightly. I immediately pulled into a rest area and we got out to take a peek. Some time during my shift the fin had actually ripped away from the cab, as it appears the mounting for it just snapped. We spent a few minutes zip-tying it to secure it better and skeptisizing as to the cause of the breakage. As we haven't been doing any crazy maneuvers and there is no other damage to the fin, we can only conclude that some fluke problem caused it to just snap at the mounting but for an unknown reason.

Daryl drove us through the rest of Texas and all the way to the border of Alabama, conquering rainy weather, bad roads, and a bitchy security guard at Wal-mart when he stopped to grab a few things.

I started us out at 0430 on Wednesday the 29th and pulled into the customers at about 1145...almost two hours early! The majority of our paperwork was in spanish and, thanks to a Border Patrol agent Daryl had a chat with at an inspection station translating it for us, we found out we were carrying about 40,000 lbs of Vanilla and Coriander spices....who'da thought?

I received a phone call from our wonderful road service supervisor, John, at about 0700, reminding me our PM (preventative maintenance) was way past due and very politely asking me to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get it done already! I laughed and told him it would be done today, no matter what! Some of the people at our company really amaze me, they are just so great!

We had to do a live un-load with this one, then will be on our way to have our PM done at a Speedco (cuz they're the best and quickest)...then word has it we will be traveling cross country towards California....We'll see!


Monday, July 27, 2009
subject: Phoenix, AZ

We got into Bessemer, AL and had like 4 hours before our load would be ready so I hopped into bed to get some sleep. Mary awoke a few hours later, grabbed the new trailer, and headed out for our destination of Phoenix, AZ. As usual we discussed running this load out for the most part and get there as early as possible. Our original delivery time was set for Monday, 0800am, but we wanted to get there as quickly as possible so we could head home for a few hours, grab a hot meal, take a shower, and get some decent sleep.



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This trip was actually pretty decent. Little traffic, no weather patterns, and fairly smooth roads. Mary stopped shortly after leaving Bessemer, AL to take a shower, then drove us to Tyler, TX where I showered when she went to bed, refueled us, and headed out. I managed to get us to a T/A Travel Center outside of Abeline, TX before I crapped out.. about 1.5 hours before the end of my shift. We took this time to actually sleep without the truck moving as once in a while that is a nice luxury.. but I didn't get much sleep until she woke up 2 hours later due to her need to sleep fetal position, near pushing me off the edge of our "super twin" mattress. She took us to Lordsburg, NM where we traded out, pottied the dog, and departed.

The ride into AZ was actually really nice.. if you have never seen a desert sunset its worth checking out. Pictures just do not do it justice. We got into Tucson, AZ where construction diverted us from I-10 onto the service drive due to construction. Other than being slow there really wasn't any problem. I think I got us at the yard at around 1100pm, dropped the trailer, and checked in. I found there were no empty trailers and would not be until about 0500am this morning at minimum.. so I bobtailed us home where we got some grocery shopping done. Mary went to bed so she could stay on her schedule and I stayed up until around 0400 before heading to bed. We ended up getting a load this morning headed to Nogales, AZ and to Atlanta, GA after that but the drama on that is a WHOLE other story that will be told at the end of that run.

posted by Daryl at 14:48
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Friday, July 24, 2009
subject: Atlanta, GA

Our last post left us off on going "home" for 3.5 days off. We actually went to my in-laws house for a couple of days for some much needed R&R.. but really need days off from our days off. We rolled into their city around noon on Sunday. We took that day to sit and do nothing.

Monday we went to Colorado Springs, CO to visit the kids. Our intent was to take them swimming at the hotel we were staying at but with rain and the temperature dropping 10 to 15 degrees in an hours time that plan was cancelled.. so instead we hung out jumping on the beds and watching tv. Tuesday we checked out, hit a few stores, took them putt-putt golfing, and then hit up the mall for a few hours. The highlight was putt-putt though... Toryn and I tied with 63.. 23 over par with Mary and Aleshawnee right behind, scoring a 64. We took them back later that night and met a good friend of mine I used to work with who, coincidentally, drives a truck now as well, for dinner. We took Wednesday to start organizing the truck and installing our satellite dish. That was a nightmare in its own and a story all to its own. Our fleet manager again called us then to let us know we had a load heading out Thursday night bound for Atlanta, GA. I love when she does that because it lets us know if we can sleep in or not.. although it was more of the or not because the air mattess we were sleeping on deflated partially and Mary and I ended up sleeping on each other half the night.

We headed out towards the Henderson, CO, yard to pick up our load. It was ready to go when we got there so Mary and I hooked up and inspected everything before heading out. I think we hit a new record on this load on the in and out methodology... I think we got it down to just under 20 minutes from the time of check in to rolling up to the guard shack.





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Not much really happened this load either but we were tight on this one. 1700 miles and 28 hours to do it.. by the time we rolled out we basically had 4 hours of leeway between our ETA and our actual appointment time. Throw in a few potty breaks and traffic on the outskirts of St. Louis, MO and that cut down 2 hours. But, needless to say we made it without incident despite the few setbacks and retarded drivers out today. 12 hours into the run we got a preplan that will take us from Atlanta, GA to Bessemer, AL to pick up a new load bound for Phoenix, AZ. 3 days to get that one there so the plan is to rush it out, as we have been on every load, so we can hopefully spend a day down at home before getting our next load.

posted by Daryl at 02:34
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Sunday, July 19, 2009
subject: Henderson, CO

About 2/3 of the way to Phoenix, AZ we finally got our dispatch for our hometime. We were to take an empty trailer from the yard to Fontana, CA where we were to get a loaded trailer at 1000am and head off to Denver, CO. Thank god.. we needed some downtime. However, because we had about 28 hours before we had to be in Fontana and we were near home at about midnight we opted to stop by the house and get some decent sleep in our own bed, take care of laundry, grab a hot meal, take a shower, and catch up on the 3 weeks of Ice Road Truckers, Season 3 we recorded but haven't been able to watch. While at home we observed the coolest thing... it went from bright and sunny to a bright orange hue that was peeking through our living room blinds. Come to find out a HUGE dust storm rolled right through so thick you couldn't see the street 100 feet from our balcony. It's the litte things that amuse us anymore. We rolled out around midnight headed for Fontana.




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I think I got us about 200 miles into the trip before I was nailed with a wave of sleep, so around 0300am I found a great spot to park in a podunk Chevron station and crawled in bed. Mary didn't really have to start her shift at 0400am since we were 112 miles from Fontana and had 7 hours to get there. So, I made sure to set the alarm for 2 hours later so she got some sleep. She woke up at 0600am and did the girl chores thing before taking us out at around 0700am. We arrived in Fontana, CA at 0900am to find the load was ready to go... rightfully so since they are apparently closed on the weekend (something I learned last saturday but forgot). We rolled out immediately and made it to Hesperia, CA where Mary decided to weigh us since the yard scale was showing we were close on our trailer axle weight, and the yards have a trend of being off. She wanted to ensure on an accure scale we were legal since we couldn't move them to distribute the weight due to CA law. I woke up about this time and saw that since we were due in to Denver at like 0200am according to our GPS... and 24 hours earlier than we were supposed to be there.. we were going to follow our original plan to stop in Las Vegas, NV for some dinner.

We arrived in Vegas around 330pm and in time to get the left over, been sitting out for several hours, brunch buffet... but MAN did it taste good! I think we were there for about an hour before rolling out and heading towards the local Pilot to refuel. However, what is Vegas without a little traffic drama? Along the way I got to almost bumper kiss this smack tard driving a low riding Mazda piece of crap that was so low he escaped my mirrors. He decided it was best to remain in my blind spot while he entered the freeway on the acceleration ramp. And when did I see him? well past the final merge zone as his bumper extended beyond my view area past the hood as he thought it was best to cut me off while travelling about 10mph, leaving at most about 12" of space. I could do nothing but blow the airhorn, slam on the brakes to avoid a collision that his lawyer most likely would pin on me as my fault, and bitch to Mary about the traffic and stupid people. It didn't fix the issue but it made me feel better. After refueling we were off.

I'd like to say it was an interesting drive but it really wasn't. We were a grand total weight of about 75k lbs so it made some of these passes interesting. I know at one point I missed a gear on a downshift and managed to chug along at about 10mph for about 2 miles to the summit in Utah.. that sucked. I think I got about 50 to 75 miles from the Utah/Colorado border before calling it a night and crawling in bed to snuggle with the honey. She got up about 1.5 hours later and drove us the rest of the way in.

Now, I can't speak about what happened on her shift but when I woke up around 10am she was complaining... well lets keep it real.. she was bitching about Loveland pass being scary as HELL because of our weight and the speed we had to crawl down it.. not to mention it was a 2 lane road with bicyclists on it and a guardrail-less drop-off. Thank god she drove it.. i'm afraid of heights. We would normally have taken the Eisenhower tunnel through the mountains but with a reportable amount of hazardous materials we were restricted and instead had to take the route where, if we exploded, we would not be a danger to society. Gotta love it.

We rolled into Denver to refuel at the Pilot around 1100am to a packed fuel island and hitch hikers begging for a ride everywhere. 15 minutes later we rolled out and into the terminal, about 16 hours early. I personally thought it was a terminal that operated 24/7 but apparently not.. the security officer took our paperwork and directed us to park in the back and to grab an empty. 20 minutes later we on our way to our parking spot in northern Colorado for some much needed hometime. However, I doubt it will feel as such as we have some work to do on the truck to make more space and mount the satellite dish, take care of some personal stuff in downtown Denver, which is always a treat, and visit the kids. But, that is never a chore as we enjoy taking them and wish we could see them more... Toryn loves the daddy time and Ally just adores Mary.. .its cute to watch her interact with Mary... "Mary, what are you doing?" "Mary, I love you" "Mary, can I have some make-up too?" "Mary, I love you" "Mary, I'm hungry" "Mary, where's daddy?" "Mary, what are you doing?" "Mary, I'm still hungry" "Mary, can I have a snack" It's Mary, Mary, Mary, every 3 to 4 minutes. Its funny as HELL to watch! Should be a good set of days off though... and we anticipate returning on Thursday.

posted by Daryl at 12:13
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Saturday, July 18, 2009
subject: Phoenix, AZ

There really isn't much to post on this load. As Mary posted in her last.. after sitting in Dallas, TX for 1.5 days our load was changed from Denver, to Casper, WY, to Phoenix, AZ. We were both a little peeved about the changes but realized that in Phoenix we could at least go home and take care of some necessary things, check the mail, and take a shower that didn't require flip flops. It's the simple pleasures in life that we enjoy.



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We delivered our live unload in Arlington, TX before arriving at the next load assignment in Dallas, TX.. by the skin of our teeth. I hate when we're dispatched 25 miles and given less than 15 minutes to get there, but none the less we made it. Upon our arrival we found the trailer was not yet ready but we could hook. So, we headed down the row of trailers and hooked. Now, my idea of not yet done means they were close to being finished but had not put the remaining pallet or 2 on the truck. But no, their idea of not yet done meant they had not even STARTED. I think we sat there hooked to a trailer for about 45 minutes (or as long as it took to make 2 breakfast panini's and a cup of coffee) before we felt the forklift jump onto the trailer and start loading. 3 hours after our arrival we were ready to go.. however the dispatch from 0100am never changed. How we lose 3 hours but the destination time does not change is beyond me... sometimes I think midnights is in their own dream world.

Our fleet manager came in after 0800am and added 2 hours for us, thank god but as it turns out we ended up not needing it as we rolled into Phoenix around midnight despite 3 comfort and 1 fuel stop. We've received word from other drivers and a dispatcher that we should be rushing out our runs with few stops no matter how long we have to sit at the destination to deliver so we get a great profile and are given faster dispatches, which in turn allows us to squeeze more miles per week, so we have been trying to do such. Right now we're still  trying to figure out how much time at the end of a run we really need per 1000 miles to get somewhere barring delays, so right now it's a trial and error kind of thing. But, overall I think we're starting to really figure it out.. especially after this run... 2 to 3 extra hours per 1000 miles seems to be the average.

posted by Daryl at 13:37
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Monday, July 13, 2009
subject: Arlington, TX

Saturday morning a call to the Freightliner Dealership at about 0800 had us believing we would be able to pick our truck up within 2 hours. We took the extra time to eat breakfast, shower, watch TV, and generally do what people normally stuck inside a sweat box and suddenly sprung into new found freedom do (insert your own imaginative suggestions here). We caught the hotel provided shuttle back to the dealership and prepared to go back on the board.

After finding out our truck would not actually be out of service all weekend, I made a call to see if we could still keep the Kansas load we had originally relayed for fear of it 'service failing' from our truck needing to be in the shop "One to four days, ma'am". We were told that yes, we could continue with the load if we got there before the other team that had been sent to pick it up.

I walked into the front desk area and was immediately discouraged...it looked like an open warehouse on market day...I swear people actually had brought their animals IN to the building. Upon further inquiry, our truck wouldn't supposedly be ready for another couple of hours....so wait, it was 2 hours 4 hours ago, and now its another couple of hours? Great!

I called operations again to let them know we were delayed but indeed going to be out of the shop that day and recieved a confused sort of silence on the other end. She proceeded to tell me that whether we got out of the shop today or not didn't make a lick of difference, our load had already been assigned to someone else. If we were lucky we could get a load out before Monday, and after our truck was finished we could go sit at the TA.

Now, for all you non-driver people that read our blog...you can NOT idle in California, no ifs ands or buts about it! People actually get tickets for this stuff. Which wasn't a big deal since it was only 104!!! Right, so we lost our load, our truck still isn't done, all the food from our fridge was going bad sitting outside because the truck wasn't ready, and we are going to spend the entire weekend stuck inside our truck (now turned sauna). I can already tell this is going to be a bad marital week...the curses are gonna be flying!

Shortly after getting off the phone with operations, we saw a fellow Con-way driver pull-up, as he was carrying our empty relay trailer and was driving a Kenworth into the Freightliner dealership, my keen detective skills told me he was here for our load. I ran out to meet with him and give him the skinny on where to drop the empty, where to pick-up the loaded, and that I would meet him back at that spot with the paperwork as soon as I could convince the front desk gentleman to let me into the truck for two seconds. The other driver informed me the trailer was badly in need of an inspection and he was told to relay to us that we were required to take it over to the TA for such services. All well and good since we were planning on camping out there with our feet sitting in coolers of ice water and little umbrella hats on our heads for the next two days anyways!

I had already requested being let in so we could power up our fridge and put our cold food away, and grab the paperwork. This too was met with the casual hand waves and rolling eyes that suggests I was a woman making him crazy and wasting his time....again. Finally, paperwork safely given away and cold food once again stored in it's icy wonderland, we sat back down at the out door bench to wait.

Approximately 4 hours later, I went back to the front desk of the Freightliner to ask if our magically disappearing truck was done with its 24-hour tire rotation and radiator flush yet. "Oh yes in just a bit!"

Another hour later, we were on our way to the TA. We checked in with the trailer inspection bay and was told it would be "a few hours, but we'll call ya when we're ready". Dinner at the TA it is! At this point it was only about 106 degrees...so we decided to risk the idling...call me crazy but I wilt in that sorta heat!

I promptly laid down and fell blissfully asleep, allowing me to be ignorant of the trials and efforts of the having the trailer taken care of.

I woke to our Qualcomm chirping at 0430 the next morning....really? As it gave the tell-tale double chirp, I knew it was a pre-plan. I crawled over Daryl and peeked out the curtain. He had taken us to the Con-way Freight yard to sit in a nice, secure, clean, non-lotlizzie or vagabond yard...Bless his heart!

I checked the messages and found that we had about 24 hours before our load picked-up 451 miles away and then three whole days (72 hours) to get the second leg of the load delivered 1700 miles away....wait, what? 72 hours to get a 36 hour load delivered? We were also under some pretty strict rules regarding security and other things....but we're gonna have to stop every night at either a rest area or a truck stop...whatever ya'll say...I'm just a driver! We were told freight was light that weekend, so we weren't complaining, but definitely are going to be feeling the pinch on the next couple paychecks. With a 2300 miles week and what looks to be shaping up to be a 2800 miles week...ouch!

We decided instead to push out the length of the miles and just stay at our secure Lancaster yard in Texas. Thought that would be a better choice than sitting at all these skanky truck stops. So we rolled into Lancaster about 1700 on Tuesday the 14th and made the executive decision to go out and eat at a phenomenal Mongolian BBQ Buffet restaurant that Daryl's original trainer had shown him. It was absolutely wonderful!

We also took the opportunity to find a local dealer that carried the onboard in-motion tracking satellite system we've been drooling over the past 6 months. This thing is wicked! Now that money every month we spend on satellite TV isn't wasted the other 29 days we are out on the road. Woohoo! Satellite TV on the truck while moving....so pumped (can you tell). Not near as excited as my husband of course, but what can you do? Now we have only to figure out how to mount the damn thing...our company doesn't allow us to remove parts or drill holes in the trucks which is totally understandable considering its their truck...we have a few ideas and will be sure to post pictures of it all once we figure it out! We did figure out how to use it while we were waiting in Lancaster those 36 hours for our load to deliver. We parked in the back of the lot and set the VuQube outside near the truck with the cords rolled up in the window. I had to get to sleep early for a early shift but Daryl told me his evening with satellite TV was fantastic, despite having to go outside and bring it in before going to sleep.

So on our way to Lancaster the Qualcomm chirps to tell us we have a pre-plan taking us to Colorado to finally see our kids. As is our luck approximately 12 hours later the location was changed to Wyoming...well...crap. Needless to say we were pretty upset, as were our kids, since we had already made the plans to see them and arrangements for a rental car, etc.

I woke the morning of the 16th to Daryl finishing delivering our load with the news that we were indeed not going to Wyoming any longer, nor were we going back to Colorado...we were headed to Arizona....Phoenix Arizona to be precise...well crap, its hard to get any bigger teaser!

We are now on our way to Phoenix and just recieved another pre-plan (thank God for our wonderful fleet manager!) that shows we will now be heading to Denver! Yay! Not before getting a whole day down in Phoenix at our home to shower and do laundry before dead-heading to Fontana California to pick-up our Colorado bound load.

Here we were thinking we were looking at another 2300 mile week and as it turns out we are going to be sitting at just over 4500 miles. Our luck is turning around!


Friday, July 10, 2009
subject: Fontana, CA

We came on the board after 36 hours off in Taylor, MI. It was necessary since we anticipated a few quick dispatches and had little hours to work with we were retreiving. Shortly after, we received our dispatch... we were to grab a trailer and head down to Fremont, IN and get a load that picked up at 0430am and headed to Santa Fe Springs, CA. Fair enough.... it was a 1600 mile run so we were happy.  We went back to bed for a few hours before grabbing a shower and doing some laundry. Just as we finished my mother called and asked if we were game for dinner if we were still in the area so we took her out to the Texas Roadhouse.. and I successfully embarassed her by getting them to do the traditional Texas Roadhouse birthday "YEEHAW." She hated me for it but couldn't deny that she wouldn't have done the same thing to me.




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I think I took us out of the yard around 1000pm and took us along I-94 and some backroads before heading down I-69 across the border to the yard. I picked up the load at 0430 and Mary drove us out. We travelled along I-80 and down I-76 to I-70 before meeting up with I-15 into California. During my time driving through Las Vegas, NV all the way to 100 miles left in the trip I had the thought that this was going to be another boring post as NOTHING interesting occured. I think that was the first mistake.

About 86 miles from our delivery stop the dash board lit up like a Christmas tree. I received a stop immediately icon that was flashing at me like a blinking christmas light followed by the check engine lamp and a "Regeneration Required" lamp. This was a bad time because we were in the middle of a descent from 5000 feet above sea level on a 7% downgrade. Then, out of nowhere the engine shut off. I needed a clean pair of shorts about then but 1) Mary wasn't awake to get them for me and 2) we were still driving downhill. So, I depressed the clutch and rode the hill down maintaining the required 55mph for trucks until we hit the bottom of the mountain.. about 1.5 miles away.. then pulled off to the side of the road.

At that point Mary woke up to see what was going on. I had a hard time starting the truck so I let the truck sit for about 5 minutes while Mary called road service and checked the manual for what the indicators meant. Apparrently there was something wrong with the fuel filters and we could drive it to our stop without problems. The call to road service revealed it had to go to Freightliner and the previous regeneration to the fuel filters may have not completed, causing the current problems.

I was able to get the truck started and we continued on to Santa Fe Springs, CA without a problem and delivered 20 minutes early... despite the 2 hours in traffic. I've seen images of traffic in LA but good god... I swear nobody knows how to merge. Anyways, we were supposed to get a dispatch to Fontana, CA where the Freightliner dealership was but dispatch had other plans for us. Instead we were to pick up our load headed to Kansas City, KS and stop by the dealership to get worked on despite the warning that we could be stranded until Monday depending on what the problem is with the truck.

Well, we grabbed the load and headed north towards Fontana, CA without any problems. By this time the lamps had gone off indicating there was no problem. We arrived at the dealership to find they would not get to the truck until sometime tonight.. if not tomorrow or sunday. Thankfully the company has a policy that if the truck is in the shop we are authorized a hotel. SWEET.. a mini-vacation. So,we found a hotel in the area offered not only a shuttle from the dealership but gave a "Freightliner Discount." Even better! So, we headed over... 3 bags, the dog, and all of our food from the refrigerator... in tow.

We grabbed a shower, cleaned up, and headed to the Denny's to grab some dinner where we met.. I think some great people that will most likely be some great friends in the long run. It's funny how life works sometimes.. you go out for dinner, complain about the bullcrap in the news that starts a little conversation which eventually turns into a huge conversation, that turns into a "how did you meet YOUR spouse" conversation, and then end up trading contact information. In the long run I think we met a great couple to see when we come through and have some time to kill!

And now? We sit in our hotel room enjoying sitting around doing nothing...something we rarely get to indulge in. The last word from Freightliner is that the truck could be ready as soon as tomorrow (Saturday)... or could take as long as 7 to 10 days if parts are needed. Hopefully it does not take that long as for every day down we lose a ton of our own money... not to mention the thousands of dollars our company loses with a productive team sitting!

posted by Daryl at 22:46
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009
subject: Taylor, MI

Just outside of Wilsonville, OR the qualcomm beeped. I was praying to god we would have a load out of the Con-way terminal we were delivering to as most of the places in the area we pick up from are a PAIN to get to due to weight restrictions everywhere and weigh stations every 20 miles.. or so it feels anyways. But, we scored lucky this run. Our marching orders were to deadhead down to Ontario, CA and call out at the T/A truck stop down there. Now, I know we don't pick up loads from truck stops so I assumed it could possibly be a relay. So, I delivered our load to Wilsonville and re-boarded so we could get the full orders. Come to find out we were deadheading 972 miles to Ontario, CA but for an unknown reason as we did not receive relay information. I just follow directions so we headed that way.



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About 2 or 3 hours into the trip I got really curious and sent a message stating what we received was vague and asked if this was a relay. 20 minutes later we received information that we were to go from Ontario, CA to Calexico, CA to grab a load from Mexico and take it to Taylor, MI where it will continue on to a city in Ontario, Canada. However, the way the messages came in it looked like we were to go to the T/A, call out there, then receive a dispatch to head down to Calexico. So, after 2 clarification messages we were directed to head directly to Calexico to pick up the relay load. Simple as that as we both knew where the yard is and it was a simple drop and hook. We added miles together from pieces of each message and found we were deadheading about 1150 miles. That was actually shocking to us as most deadheads are less than 300 miles to grab a load! After some thought we figured they must really be short in California over the holiday weekend! Our fleet manager told us they were short but WOW!

Anyways, Mary took over at the last Pilot truck stop in Oregon before hitting California while I hit the sack. I slept pretty good for the most part but I did remember feeling some stop and go for a while before hearing the air brake set and seeing Mary climb up into our makeshift kitchen up on the top bunk (pictures to follow) to grab some grub. Come to find out there was a mass traffic jam from just outside Sacramento to the north extending several miles south. She heard on the CB reports of an aircraft that landed on the freeway and took out some cars but found it to be conflicting with others... so she took advantage of the rest area to take a break and let some of it pass. I decided to get up, we walked the dog, made some lunch, then headed out. then come to find out about 10 miles later there was no reason for the slow down other than holiday rush. Mental note.. stay off I-5 during the holidays! We should have put in to go home! Oh well.. we got great miles this week.

Anyways, Mary drove us until like 2 or 3pm before I took over. I got us all the way down to Calexico sometime around 1000pm, backed our trailer (which was a circus all in its own), picked up the new one, did our pre-trip, repaired the broken turn signal and belly marker lamp on the trailer, and we were off. We got our dispatch to Taylor, MI and found we had 12 hours extra to get there.. NICE! So we took the opportunity to stop through home and grab some of the frozen food we had left, take a shower, and head to Wal-mart to grab a few staples in our car before Mary took us out. This was all Friday night.

Mary drove us through to New Mexico on the 4th and stopped about 2 hours shy of her 12 hour shift about 200 miles in or so. We saw a sign for a Dairy Queen with truck parking so we figured 1) that would be a great place to stop and 2) that would be a great place to get ice cream since we have been craving ice cream for weeks now! Now, somewhere over the years inflation has gotten ahold of the soft serve ice cream industry because when I was younger I don't ever recall paying $9.00 for a banana split and peanut butter cup Blizzard! But, on the flipside Mary got her moneys worth... she told them she did not want pineapple but instead wanted chocolate on that mound of ice cream. However, she said to hold the pineapple and give her extra chocolate... which is exactly what they did. I swear they poured the entire 5 gallons of chocolate into her bowl and invaded the elephants bin of peanuts because she got a crapload of the extra she ordered.. so much that they had to put it into a cardboard hot dog holder! Good god!

Anyways, I drove us out from there and right into a severe thunderstorm that brewed just outside of Amarillo, TX. It ended up only being for a short time we drove through it but the lightning show was spectacular. I can't say we got to see fireworks for the 4th but the lightning show did provide a good filler.

My goal was to get us to Joplin, MO where we would switch out after going through the inspection bay but I crapped out about 50 miles southwest of there at a travel center on I-44. But, it was close to my quitting time so it worked out good. I made sure to get us to a place where Mary could get coffee and use the restroom before she took off towards Joplin and she got lucky because there was a McDonalds at this place. Not Starbucks for sure but better than some of the crap coffee we tend to drink. Mary got us to Joplin and through to inspection bay to find out we had a tread groove on a steer tire that was shredded from something on the roadway. Now, I know for sure it was not like that when I stopped for a short break in Oklahoma City, OK as I did a quick check of everything so somewhere betwen then and Joplin the tire got all jacked up... but I figure it was something on the roadway from all the construction going on through there! Lucky we were required to stop through Joplin as they said we would not have made it to Taylor with the tires the way they were. So, Mary dropped our trailer and took us to the tire shop where they changed both steer tires and gave us an alignment, then took the truck to the general shop where they changed fluids. I think I woke up there to them finding out we had a damper or valve or something stuck open. Mary called the Taylor terminal and let them know the situation and that we were stuck in the shop for 7 hours for the repairs and that we would be late but speculated we would be there around 900am eastern time. They had no problem with that as apparently the load did not have a delivery time in Canada yet. Meanwhile, after the tires were repaired we were topped off in fluids, the 5th wheel was re-greased and we were off again. We got to Springfield, MO where we had to pick up a few things and traded out there.

I drove 2 hours later and took us through the rest of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and 12 miles into Ohio before I stopped for the night at some podunk rest area on a back road in Ohio. I drove it out hard so Mary could sleep an extra hour.. and since we were running 3 hours ahead of schedule it worked out great. Mary woke up and kicked us on into the Taylor terminal where we dropped. Since we were short on hours we opted to get a 34 hour restart with the terminals approval.. so we took advantage of the time to meet and stay with my parents for the night since we haven't seen them in over a year and my mom's birthday is today! Great birthday present if you ask me.. and she thought so too! After returning to the truck this morning we got a pre-planned load that will be taking us from Taylor later tonight to Indiana where we will pick up a load and head towards California.

posted by Daryl at 12:49
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Thursday, July 2, 2009
subject: Wilsonville, OR

I think this is the first or second load that actually went right from the beginning.. and other than the people driving cars cutting me off and driving towards me with their brights on it was a pretty good drive.

We received our pre-plan just outside of Kettleman City, CA that had us heading down to Fontana, CA to pick up a load headed to Wilsonville, OR.  We rolled into Kettleman, dropped our trailer, grabbed a new one, and were out of there in what I do believe is our own personal record.



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We headed down the I-5 through northern Los Angeles and I think I got us into the yard about 3 hours early.. not too shabby considering traffic due to a small brush fire and the lookey-loos on the north bound side.

I put our trailer against the fence with all the other empties, then checked in on the dock. Come to find out our load was indeed ready but they had to finish their end of the paperwork.. but they gave me the trailer number and allowed me to connect to it and I was to return in 30 minutes. So, I hooked up, did my pre-trip, caught up on trip details and paperwork, then grabbed our papers for the load and we were off.

Honestly I can say a whole lot did not happen on this load and we kicked it on into the yard about 1.5 hours early... so there are no stories for this one... but our pre-plan for the next load had us deadheading over 1000 miles back to Ontario, CA.. which baffeled us. But... more on that after THAT load is delivered.

We will be adding updates on twitter as we go.. so be sure to check out the link on the left or by going to http://www.twitter.com/selbychronicles to follow us!

posted by Daryl at 20:45
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subject: Updates

I have implemented a few changes to the website...

First... as you probably hear if you have the sound on i've been bored.. I was listening to roaddog on XM Satellite Radio the other night and they ended up playing "East Bound & Down" by Jerry Reed and that got me thinking..could I actually add sound to our website? So, out of boredom I figured it out. In a few days i'll probably change the song to another trucking song.. but i'm looking for feedback. Should I keep it or get rid of it? Email me to let me know your opinion.

Second... we are now on Twitter under the name "SelbyChronicles." I have also added the application to the website.. which can be accessed by clicking on the "twitter" link to the left. This is updated a bit more frequently than the homepage as we keep this for our stories AFTER we complete the trip. Twitter pretty much is updated as we have updates.

And finally I have compiled our stats for the first half of the year (January - June). The full page can be viewed by clicking the "Stats & Miles" link on the left as well for all months but here is a brief summary...

Dispatched Miles: 81,045
Actual Miles: 81,975
Miles out of route: 1,017 (1% Total)

posted by Daryl at 17:08
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009
subject: Kettleman City, CA

You ever think it would be really cool to watch someone make a really big object disappear? Well, look no further folks! Apparently we picked up from the Houdini of the trucking world on Tuesday morning. Daryl rolled into the freight yard and waited for our trailer to be ready. I woke up at my usual 0315 and got ready for 'work' while he ran in to see if our paperwork was ready. A few minutes later he emerged with bills in tow...sweet! Thinking we would get a quick hook-up done and I would drive out while he slept, we went in search of our trailer.

Six passes later, and still no trailer. The hopper had no idea what we were talking about so I went back into the office and asked if they could tell me where it was dropped. Ten minutes later she emerged with the papers and said, "Well, we aren't entirely sure where the trailer is. Give us a mintue to look for it and I'll get right back to you." 30 minutes later, I ran out to the truck to give Daryl an update...or a lack thereof as the case was, and we both went back in to wait for our trailer to be located.

Approximately an hour later, they discovered that our freight was in a different trailer entirely, with a different seal as well. Wow, so we completely lost a trailer....nice!



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About 4 hours into my shift I received a Qualcomm message from our FM asking when I thought we could be in Kettleman. I gave her our ETA and she asked us to push out the rest of the trip to get there asap as they were short people in Cali on Wednesday. Oh how I love a challenge! We managed the entire trip at a 56.7 mile per hour average, including fuel stops. Squeaked into the yard at 1500, dropped the loaded, grabbed an empty, and off we went.



On a side note, while I was driving through Arizona, I came accross one of those large road signs saying, "Caution, accident ahead 53 miles, left lane closed". I thought to myself, "wow, must be some accident to be giving me this much warning!"

Doing this job, we see some pretty scary things sometimes. I even had some crazy drunk driving on the wrong side of the interstate headed right towards me, both of us going 65 miles per hour at 2 o'clock in the morning once.

I can't say why, but what I saw this morning literally brought me to tears. The left lane was closed and a truck driver who had either fallen asleep at the wheel or lost control had gone off the left side of the west bound lanes, comopletely oblitereated the guard rail and careened off a nearly vertical drop. My heart goes out to that drivers family and I hope to God that they are hugging and kissing that person and thanking who ever that he made it through such an ordeal...and not planning a funeral today.

Please be careful out there!!! Safety first...always, no matter what! As our company always says, "No load is worth a drivers life". I agree completely! Slow down, pay attention, and for crying out loud, if you are tired, STOP!

As for the four-wheelers....wake up and smell the smoking brakes! Not more than three days ago I came upon an accident that was pretty fresh. It appeared a car had tried to cut in front of a truck and, not paying attention, had caught the truck right at the belly of the trailer. The truck actually RAN OVER the car, the trailers back tandems completely came off the trailer! The truck driver dragged the trailer a houndred feet or so to get it safely off the road...I'm nearly 100% sure the people in that car didn't make it, the car was completley pancaked.

When fully loaded we weigh 80,000lbs. It takes and enormous amount of time, space, and effort for both the driver and the tractor to stop at highway speeds when being propelled by a full trailer. Give us some space and pay attention to what you are doing as well!

After all, this morning when you got up, that breakfast you ate, the shoes you put on, the car you drove, the chair you sat in at work, and the computer you used were ALL delivered by a truck driver....THINK ABOUT IT and show some respect for the men and women who eat, sleep, and live on a 5X10 moving box, leaving behind their family, friends, their homes...so that America can keep running.


 

 

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