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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, September 26, 2009
subject: Blythe, CA

I awoke somewhere near the Louisiana/Mississippi border. She told me the usual shift change things about how we're lighter than usual and that we had a pre-plan. She said she shot a message to our fleet manager asking if the 4 days were going to be kept or if we were going to be sped up... and just as she sent the msg, she received one back from our FM. Our FM wanted to know our best ETA to Blythe, CA because there was more freight in California to pick up. Well, Mary said she did some quick calculations and gave a liberal time on a 45 to 47mph run but tasked our FM to challenge us, to which she ablidged. We were now to go from Bessemer, AL to Blythe, CA in just 30 hours or so. It's a haul but we had 7 hours of leeway time according to our GPS. Not too shabby. Shortly after, we received a pre-plan sending us to Calexico, CA to pick up a load going back up to one of my favorite places to visit... Calgary, AB, Canada! I suspect we'll be hauling more steel back down from the same shipper we were at last week, but i'm not holding my breath.


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I picked up my shift on the eastern side of Louisiana at a rest area and took us into Tyler, TX where we showered and refueled before heading on. Surprisingly it was quiet through Dallas and Abilene and I got us over to a Flying J 45 miles from I-10 before Mary took over.

We made so much time up by stopping little that we made it through home to pick up some frozen food staples from our near bare freezer, grabbed an xbox cable so that I can hook it up to our TV and actually have sound because i'm a nerd like that, and I took us out towards Blythe. I think we got there around 730pm, dropped the trailer in the door directed by the security officer, grabbed an empty, sent in the dropped trailer call, and took us down to the yard in Calexico, CA to pick up our loaded trailer bound for Calgary, Alberta, CA.

posted by Daryl at 22:03
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Friday, September 25, 2009
subject: Bessemer, AL

Well, we're back at it again. Our days off were spent doing just what we had hoped... nothing! I think the highlight of our week was having another couple who lives nearby and is interested in joining our company over for dinner. It was a nice retreat from the usual since we don't have many friends in the Phoenix area since we moved.

Anyways, we received another call from our FM on tuesday morning letting us know we were lined up for a load on Wednesday. We were directed to meet at the Little America truck stop in Flagstaff, AZ to pick up a relay load that originated from Kettleman City, CA and was bound for Bessemer, AL. We enjoyed the rest of the night packing up our belongings and preparing for 3 weeks out. Mary ended up going to bed early and I stayed up to prep the truck and grab an empty trailer from the local yard. We ended up heading out on Wednesday around 1100am or so towards Flagstaff.


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We got into Flagstaff around 250pm or so and ended up waiting at the truckstop for 2 hours before our relay arrived. We grabbed the loaded trailer, pretripped it, and I took us out down I40.

It really was an unadventerous run this time, which is what I like on the first trip back. I did find interesting that around the 202 in New Mexico a female voice come over the CB saying something that sounded like an advertisement. So, I cranked the volume up a little bit and heard something about a party with truck parking at the 203. Interesting. Well, it turned out as we passed the 203 it was a topless bar near the freeway with happy hour going on at 0100am and truck parking in an empty dirt lot nearby. Interesting. I've heard everything from chrome, rim, and fuel tank polishing, CB and radio repairs, and lot lizards advertising for "massages" to get them "home." I have to say this was a first.

Anyways, we rolled into Bessemer, AL about 4 hours early, dropped the trailer as instructed on the pad, and I parked us nearby bobtail so Mary could pick up the morning load bound for Blythe, CA.

posted by Daryl at 15:10
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Saturday, September 19, 2009
subject: Avondale, AZ

After having dropped our load in Stoughton, WI, Mary drove us the 72 miles to Franklin, WI where we hung out at the Pilot down the street from the yard we were to pick up at. We hung out the day, watched some TV, cleaned the truck up, and just generally rested. I think I took us down to get the load around 1030pm or so after refueling to find it was ready early. Gravy! So I hooked up, pretripped, grabbed the paperwork, and we were off. However, the dispatch was set at 51mph for a load that had 4 days to get there. Why the system works this way I have no clue but I shot a message back to dispatch asking it to be pushed out because 1) we didn't have the hours to push it out like the system wanted and 2) we didn't want to have to take a 34 hour restart after delivery just to go home. So, they reset it for 2200 that same night as I requested. Not too shabby.


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I managed to get us into the Iowa-80 Truckstop in Walcott, IA before calling it a night. Mary got up about 2 or 3 hours later and took us out. Sometime in the morning she called our FM for something (don't remember what it was) but she mentioned relaying the load for us so we could get home. A bit later there was a message shot back that we were to relay at the same time we were supposed to deliver in Kettleman City, CA at the Pilot in Avondale, AZ. Sweet... just 10 miles from home.

Well, Mary got us to some place in Kansas where we traded out and I got us to the border of New Mexico before I gave up. I can always tell when its time to go home because I have a hard time staying up past midnight. After talking we decided that since we would either be driving on a lack of sleep or sitting at the pilot waiting to relay it was best to sleep. So, Mary got up around 600am and drove us out. I think I woke up around 900am just past our fuel stop in Santa Rosa, NM and stayed up with her until our trade out just past Albuquerque, NM. It was much more economical to split the remaining miles between us, which was 650 miles, than one of us push them all out.

We managed to get the night/weekend crew dispatch to drop the trailer at the con-way yard in Phoenix, AZ since they diligently told us the relay would be there at 1100pm.. and we arrived at 700pm.. thank god. I'm not into sitting at a truck stop 3 miles from home while not getting paid just to wait for someone to come pick up our load so we can go home. Anyways, we arrived at the terminal at like 700pm or so, dropped the trailer, and wrangled our way home where we sipped on some of grandpa's 'ol cough medicine for the night before diligently passing out. Sometimes it's the simple things in life you look forward to.

posted by Daryl at 23:57
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Thursday, September 17, 2009
subject: Stoughton, WI

Well, at the end of the last post I mentioned the shipper appeared to be around the corner. So, after a short jaunt around Calgary we discovered a freeway blocked the rest of the street... and we had to fight traffic to make it around to the other side. Lovely. Despite traffic sucking, being delayed by a 7 car train that stopped in the middle of the RR crossing, and sweating as we passed a mobile Canadian truck inspection station we arrived. It turns out it was some sort of steel or manufacturing plant for cars by the looks of it as we rolled up to it. Our instructions on the qualcomm told us the driveway was on the right... so we turned in to find out that was the service department entrance. The only other way to get to the shipping/receiving area was through the parking lot. There was plenty of space to make it through except for this hoopty GMC truck that resembled a Jimmy with the brightest chrome rims i've ever seen on a piece of crap. After positioning herself almost on top of the truck she stormed inside the building and had an unknown conversation with someone and proceeded to come out with a scared looking gentleman. Overdramatized of course but he was nice and moved the truck so we could get where we needed to.

Once at the other end we had to exit and re-enter so we could go back to the manufacturing area. The instructions said it was tight but holy crap. It looked bad to me but Mary maneuvered through like a pro. We got around to the makeshift docks when I met a gentleman that told us he would load us across the street. I told Mary this and had her pull through he gate so as not to block traffic while I got the paperwork. I emerged shortly after and we went across the street to load.

Now, I don't know how she managed it but she got 2 blindside backs in one day. But, again emerged as a champ. She got it in there without any problems. We were in and out of the dock within a couple of minutes and headed towards the border.

We stopped at one of the Flying J's to get a scale ticket to ensure we were good on our weights, which we were for the U.S., and we were off. What I didn't think about was Canadian weights, and about 60 miles away had this epiphany. I checked the atlas and found that in a conversion, the steer axle could not weigh more than 12,125lbs... we were sitting at 12,375lbs. I knew we were going to hit a weigh station before the border and sweat it out but ultimately succumed to the point Mary made that there was nothing we could do about it.

We stopped again at the truck stop in Nanton, AB to receive our clearance fax BACK to the U.S., which we received 3 hours later, and we were off. We hit the border area around 800pm, made it through the weigh station without a ticket, and hit the border without a hitch. However, when coming into the U.S. there are 3 processes one must press through. The first is a customs agent that asks various questions about what we're carrying, and verifies we are clear to enter, then collects $10.75 to re-enter. We had $7.00 american and $10.00 canadian. We anticipated the fee but didn't anticipate a heavy load coming back so the scale ate much of our money. So, after asking how much we would owe in Canadian after paying $7.00 American the agent grinned.. pointed to his patch and stated jokingly 'while part of your trailer is in Canada you are physically in the U.S. so we only take American.' Agreeing we tried to scrounge $3.75 in change before he told us to have $10.75 next time and to take the $7.00 and buy the pretty lady a cup of coffee. Not too shabby and very nice. The second obstacle was to pass through a scanner, which would scan our load. We rolled up and apparently the agent asked if 'I' was alone... to which I replied 'yes.' Well, rolling into the shed he could clearly see two of us so he stepped up on the step of the truck and Mary proceeded to say 'HI!' He asked if we were married and Mary said yes... then the agent said 'shows how much he thinks of you!' Now, in reality I thought he said that in plural... meaning 'is it just you two?' but thats not what he said. The agent then asked me if the top bunk was comfortable at all because most likely that is where I was going to be sleeping. So after dealing with a major case of embarassment and a good laugh with the agent we were released back into the U.S. Very embarassing!

We went back to the Pilot in Shelby, MT where we refueled and headed across the lonely barrens of MT on the backroads. The road I took wasn't as bad as the last time as I was able to run through some small cute little towns... U.S. 200 had NOTHING for MILES! So, at least I had SOMETHING to look at. I made it about 60 miles from the North Dakota border before shutting down. And, since we had until 800am on Thursday to get there I reset the alarm and let Mary sleep until around 630am since she didn't get to bed until almost 900pm and crawled into bed.

I think I woke up around Bismark, ND where we grabbed some coffee, kicked the dogs out of the truck to potty, and sped off again. We stopped again in Fargo, ND to refuel and take a shower. I took us out and drove us across Minnesota and Wisconson to about 22 miles away from our delivery and called it a night. Mary took us out in the morning to make the delivery, then took us over to a yard about 70 miles away where we are now awaiting our load to be finished and will tow that out to Kettleman City, CA.

posted by Daryl at 13:16
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
subject: Calgary, AB, CA

Immediately after dropping our load in Blythe, CA we received our dispatch to head south towards Calexico, CA. They gave us almost 5 hours and 198 miles to do it in but being the "pimptastic" driver that I am I found backroads that took us straight there.. got there in just over 2 hours and 104 miles. W00T!

Once there, I found it wasn't the normal yard we pick up trailers out of so finding it was a bit of a pain. Once found, I was told to drop my trainer in a particular area of the yard. Now, for whatever reason it appears the other drivers who have dropped trailers before were complete smack tards and either couldn't drop their trailers within the white lines on the ground or had them sticking far out from each row. I attempted in 3 different spots to try and back it in but each time I almost brushed a trailer to the front of me due to sticking out further than any other trailer in the yard. After 30 minutes of playing with it I chose to just drop it in an isle next to another trailer. SCREW IT! I picked up our next trailer, pre-tripped it, and started reviewing our paperwork.

Now, to get into Canada you have to have not only the bill of lading (BOL) but a Customs Invoice which states the monetary value of the load. After looking several times through the 3 sheets of paper we had (2 BOL's and a trailer condition sheet) I came to the conclusion I was being screwed. I checked with the guard and he didn't have any other paper either... or at least thats what I think he was telling me.. the guy didn't speak english and I didn't speak spanish. Anyways, I called our Taylor terminal, who deals with the Canadian border crossing stuff and explained the situation. She told me that because it was Saturday night she could only send a message to customer service explaining the situation and to try and get the paperwork on Monday. Since there was no other option I told her we would head north and when we got close we would call on Monday to check the status. I sent in our loaded call and received our dispatch.. we were to be at the border on Monday at 1000am. Not too bad. A bit of a push but time to overlap sleep times.


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I took us out and got us back to Blythe before crapping out. I crawled into bed and Mary took us out shortly after. I woke up around Las Vegas, NV and stayed up with her until some place in Utah where we traded out. I managed to get us to Butte, MT around 0200am on Monday morning before making coffee for Mary and waking her up. She took us out and got us to Shelby, MT, about 30 miles from the border. During that time she called Taylor and confirmed they were aware of the situation and they were working on getting the Customs Invoice for us. Once received we were able to fax all of the info to the broker and await clearance to cross.

It took about 4 hours, so during that time we both showered, had a pretty good hamburger for a podunk town, and played with the dogs for a bit before we finally got the message that we were cleared to cross. We headed north and made it through no problem.

Once across the puzzle began.. where to stop. In all my wisdom I have managed to put together a good database from various sources of truck stops in the U.S. but somewhere along the line the epiphany never hit me that we might actually make it to Canada and building a database of truckstops for Canada might be a good idea. So, after a quick search on the internet we found a few truck stops just outside of calgary, AB and 1 40 miles south in Nanton, AB. We stopped at the place in Nanton, AB to check it out but decided quickly it was a hole in the wall. Then Mary mentioned she heard Calgary is a city of 1 million + and felt it was probably a better idea to stay closer to our delivery due to traffic. Okie! What mamma wants I guess mamma gets. So, I took us into Calgary where we found 2 Flying J truck stops. Unfortunatly, what we didn't find was a parking spot. People were so hard up for spots most were parking right behind parked trucks. Give me a break! How is this legal. Anyways, we opted to just head over to the receiver and check it out and see if there was any option of parking nearby. Luckly, we found there were 3 doors open with no trailers in them so we backed up into one and stayed there the night. The worst that could happen is that they were not ready for us in the morning and needed us to move, which in the long run wasn't too bad.

We woke up around 0700am on Tuesday, made coffee, had breakfast, walked the dogs, and just hung out watching True Life! on MtV. Around 0830 the office people started showing up. We were asked to move because they had another appointment before us so we headed out to the street to hang until near our appt time. We saw 2 trucks come and go, so we headed in to see about getting unloaded early since we had a preplan that had us picking up at 1000am too.. which was odd because that was our appointment time for unloading. I don't know how that works, but whatever. Anyways, we were cleared to get into the dock. However, on our way over a CF driver in a daycab truck managed to sneak into a door before checking in.. so he took all of the available space Mary had for the blindside back she was going to have to perform. Great!

Well, as it turns out Mary did a wonderful job getting in there. She centered it in the hole and I managed to keep her on the door by having her take several forward pull-ups about 3 feet each just so she wouldn't lose alignment of the door.. because if that happened it would take FOREVER to get realigned. They started unloading us about 45 minutes later and took about 2 hours. During that time we requested the next load info so we could plan and get there ASAP, which our FM ablidged for us. I love it when they work with us! After, we were off towards our next load, which appeared to be right around the corner.

posted by Daryl at 12:32
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
subject: Blythe, CA

Mary took us over to the Memphis yard around 800am friday morning. I woke up as she arrived and helped her hook to the trailer and head out.


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After picking up we realized we had about 3 or 4 days to get it to Blythe, CA so we took the time to get our fuel filters changed. I sent a msg to our fleet manager letting her know this and she shot back to let her know when we were finished because she could speed us up due to a large amount of freight in Calexico, CA. So, after having finished that we stopped at Walmart to stock up before not having time to do anything else.

Turns out 20 minutes after showing we were rolling we were sped up by 1.5 days and had to be there by 2200 on Saturday. Then, shortly after we received a pre-plan taking us from Calexico, CA to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Not too shabby.

Nothing much happened on this run really. There was enough time for us to stop through home to check our mail but that was about it. We wrangled rolling into Blythe, CA about 1.5 hours early, grabbed an empty trailer, and headed out immediately towards Calexico.

posted by Daryl at 03:10
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
subject: West Memphis, AR

Daryl kicked us into Henderson early and took us up to our usual hometime spot to start our days off. I was told all this information as I had stayed up way past my bedtime to keep him company and eventually gave up and went to sleep before our arrival in Denver. Daryl parked us at our spot and came to bed because it was too late for mom to come get us.


Mom arrived at about 7am the next morning to pick us up. The plan was for us to drop her at work and go pick up our rental car before dropping her car back to her and then we were going to drive to the springs to pick up our kids for a fun filled weekend.



Daryl took some coaxing to get out of bed and after several minutes at least appeared to be coherent. After dropping moms car back off to her we decided to hit the pita pit for some take out lunch and then drop me at mom and dads to start on our ever expanding pile of dirty laundry and so I could have dinner ready for everyone upon their arrival home.



Saturday was spent in different ways for each of us. If there is one thing we have learned in this profession together, its that sometimes you really just need time away! I decided a day with our daughter and my mom doing shopping, a trip to the salon, and some baking was in order. Daryl and our son braved Elitch Gardens for some extreme roller coaster riding and cardboard "pizza".
Sunday we recuperated from previously mentioned activites and took the kids home. Monday being the holiday we weren't planning on having a load out very early and we weren't dissapointed.


I got up about 6:45 and went down to the truck to put us on the board. As both our cell phones were dead, I grabbed the charger and after making sure the Qualcomm wasn't going to beep with a load they already had lined up for us, decided the load status could be monitored just fine from home with coffee in hand.



Mom and I got to the house and no sooner had I plugged in the phone and dialed the system, just to find out we already had a load. Back to the truck mom and I went! Come to find out we were picking up a load in North Dakota and taking it to Mineola, Texas.



The good news was that we didn't have to leave right away. We were able to stay for dinner and finish getting the truck in order before Daryl taking us out about 20:00.



I got up the next morning at what I thought was about 0500 and after feeling like I hadn't gotten enough sleep and taking an extra long time to get my self coherent got into the seat to finish the last 230 miles to Bowman North Dakota. When I went to start my log I noticed my watch said it was only 0500....wait, what?



Apparently I forgot to fix time on the alarm clock in the sleeper so I got up 1 1/2 hours early...well crap! I figured I might as well start my day off then since I was awake and ready to go. Good thing I did as we ran into 90 degree and hairpin turns, switch backs, 5 suicidal deer, and 4 rogue cows...it was quite the morning ride!



We made it to our pick-up about 3 hours early and after calling the shipper, received the go ahead to 'come on in!' Two hours later, 44,500 lbs of lentils heavier, we were dispatched to Mineola Texas for a drop and hook with more than enough time to get there. It was a good thing too as my birthday was Wednesday and I wasn't feeling like driving 11 hours a day for the next three days!



The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. Daryl dropped us late Wednesday night and picked up an empty. He parked us at the only place in the entire county, a small gas station that was closed for the night, and came to bed. We were woken up a few mintues later by the trush dumpster next to us being emptied and after a quick evaluation that we weren't indeed being invaded by space aliens we went back to sleep.



I was awoken by the Qualcomm about 0630 on Thursday morning with a new load. Apparently something was dropped in the Lancaster terminal the day before (9/9) and needed to be taken closer to its drop in Kentucky. Our company's solution to this dilemma was to send us to pick it up and deliver it to our terminal in West Memphis Arkansas until a delivery appointment could be set for it. It will most likely be given to a solo driver to deliver from there.



I had to immediately head out of the lot we were parked in and after negotiating the county roads of back Texas, got us onto I-20 and onto Lancaster. 2 hours, three catcalls, and one blown kiss (not even kidding!) later, I had dropped the empty, grabbed the loaded, fueled, and been dispatched to Arkansas.



We switched out in northern Little Rock for Daryl to finish kicking us the rest of the way into the terminal. I offered to keep driving so we wouldn't have to start his hours, providing him with a 34-hour restart but he adamantly refused....mostly I think he just didn't want to be the one to cook dinner.



We arrived in West Memphis about 45 minutes early and had received a preplan that is what we call a 'weekend pull' meaning that they give you a bit of extra time to get somewhere that normally wouldn't take so long. They do this for a few reasons...first off it gives the drivers a bit of time to decompress and get anything done they need to, such as laundry, oil changes, showers, etc. Second it means that the skeleton crew at headquarters doesn't have as much responsibility or as many things to worry about.




Map will go here later


Friday, September 4, 2009
subject: Henderson, CO

Our last load was received shortly after putting in for home time... Memphis, TN to Henderson, CO. So, right after we were empty we headed down to West Memphis, AR where we sat for a few hours before refueling and heading to Memphis. I arrived at the yard about 20 minutes early with plenty of time to drop the trailer and head in for the paperwork. A quick pretrip and we were off.



This load was again uneventful, and once we arrived we deadheaded to our normal northern Colorado parking spot for some much needed time off over the holiday weekend. Mary has found herself a few days shy of turning 26 (09/09) so this weekend was mostly time off to spend celebrating another year being closer to retirement. Happy Birthday baby!

Our anticipated return date is 9/8 and the cam will be full stream again. Speaking of which, I recently changed from Cam Streams to Justin.tv as the stream provider. Overall the stream quality and chat room are much better and we have made a ton of friends there as well. The only downfall is that you have to register to chat... so feel free to drop in, sign up, and chat with us! But, if you prefer not to you can still view the stream on our site by using the "Live Dashcam" link to the left. Enjoy and everyone have a great holiday weekend!

posted by Daryl at 21:21
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
subject: Memphis, TN

After arriving in Fontana, CA we received marching orders not to head to Butte, MT as we suspected but to Calexico, CA to pick up a load headed to Mt. Juliet, TN.


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We got to Calexico to find our load had not arrived yet so I took the opportunity to sleep an hour or so before it actually arrived. Mary helped me connect to the trailer, pretrip, and take care of the satellite work before heading to bed. I was able to get us to Flagstaff, AZ where we showered before heading east again. We traded out a few times and made it to Mt. Juliet about 4 hours early. Not too bad, and with no drama this time either!

About 21 miles out we sent our request to head to Denver, CO for hometime to celebrate Mary's 26th birthday (09/09) with her parents and to see the kids a few days. Since it is a holiday this weekend anyways we figured that most likely we would be sitting anyways so it was a prime time to take some off time.

We got to the dock and ended up sitting near an hour before they had a door for us. Once in we received a pre-plan of deadheading over to Memphis, TN to pick up a load headed to Denver, CO. Not bad at all. So, once we were loaded we headed to our yard in West Memphis, AR to sit most of the night and enjoyed pizza and a greek salad from our favorite pizza place before Mary crashed out for the night. I will end up taking us out here shortly over to the yard to pick up the load and head towards Denver.

In other news, we have changed cam stream providers from Camstreams to justin.tv. Camstreams was really processor intensive and limited in user connections while Justin.tv is not. I want to thank "TruckerJames" from Justin.tv for introducing me to the site. James is also a driver that streams a cam from his dash and has a great following.. and actually got some of them to check us out and become favorites! Thanks James!

posted by Daryl at 01:16
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