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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, October 28, 2009
subject: Pella, IA P1

This trip started out really great. I had the pre-plan before we delivered our last load and had ample time to plan out the dead head and subsequant trip to follow while being unloaded.

I started heading us down to Madras, Oregon where we would be picking up molding for the Pella window company. The plan was to take highway US 26 into Madras and then the rest of the way out of Oregon, catch I-84 in Idaho, then I-15 to I-80 and so on and so forth. We occasionally have to take back highways to get to and from a customer's, but don't usually have to take them out and all the way across the state as well. In this case we didn't really have a choice, US 26 was our only way in and out. We knew there was going to be snow storms in Colorado and Wyoming so figured we would cross that bridge when we got there...literally.

Turns out we didn't have long to wait for the crappy snow and road conditions to catch up to us! When I went to bed the roads were still dry and looked promising. I woke up about an hour and a half later to the jerk of the truck and the sound of spinning tires. What the hell? I got up and opened the curtain to a devastating sight.

All I could see out the windshield was snow falling in sheets and the road at an odd angle in front of us. Daryl had been climbing a moderate grade when the snow hit intensely, and with no shoulders or pull offs, had decided to slow down and try to get through it. Unfortunately he had slowed down to much and lost traction on the tires, coming to a dead stop in several inches of snow and more coming down on an uphill grade.

We tried rocking some more, rolling to a slightly different spot but to no avail. No matter what we did, we couldn't get enough traction to get going. We were stuck in the middle of an icy two lane highway with no where to go and nothing to do accept chain to get out of it.

We pulled out our winter gear and hauled out the chains. The chains were in terrible condition! They were all knotted up and twisted. After about an hour of cursing, slinging chains, freezing our hands and toes off, and fighting with the literally tangled chains, we saw the now welcome glow of flashing blue lights come up behind our truck. Oh hooray! I had never been so glad to see a state trooper!

He aided by holding a flashlight and offering some general hints as this was our first time actually chaining our 18-wheel beast. Within a half an hour more we were off and running. He had said he didn't think we could make it down the other side of the mountain without chaining the trailer as well and we told him our plan was to just get far enough to stop for the night and call it quits until the plows came through the back highway.

Apparently only a mile up the road there was the summit and a chain-up area large enough for us to pull off for the night. He was kind enough to follow us up the mountain and after stopping to check the chains and see we were about to throw one because it wasn't tight enough, we limped the last qauarter of a mile with hazards flashing, chains clanging, and the speedometer reading 5 mph. I was bookin' it!

We all sighed in relief when we made it safely to the parking area and, as we had expected, the trooper asked for our licenses, medical cards, bills, and all other paperwork. We figured we were in for an inspection and weren't surprised. Other people dread this sort of thing, but we weren't too worried. We run legal and keep our truck in good order. We handed him all the paper work and he said we could stay warm in the truck until he came back then we would do the exterior truck inspection. Daryl and I gratefully cranked up the heat and mopped up the water on the floor from our snow-logged clothing. We laid our hats and gloves on the dash near the defroster to thaw and dry out.

The trooper returned and said our paperwork was all in good order. We took a look around the truck and, mostly I think because we had made him stand out in the snow with us for so long, he gave us a warning on our lack of tire traction knowledge and bid us goodnight and sleep tight.

Not too shabby for a level 2 inspection by a half frozen state trooper! We set the alarm for right before dawn and crawled under the blankets for a few hours of rest and dethawment.

The next morning we awoke to the eerie purple light that becomes a recently snowed on area. I made coffee and Daryl went out to check the truck. We began to wrestle the chains off and once again received assistance buy the state of Oregon in the form of a snow plow driver. One of our chains had managed to slip just enough that the clasp for it had been clamped under the tire, making it impossible to open. He told us the DOT shop was right down the road and he would follow us down to make sure nothing happened to us. They had all the tools and cutters necessary to handle the problem, where as we only carry the absolutely necessary tools, bolt cutters not making the top of that list.

We slowly started rolling, again about 10 mph and noticed a problem in short order. All our trailer brakes were frozen solid. Again we made for the shoulder and the plow driver and Daryl went to work on hammering them while I helped rock them lose from the driver's seat.

Finally we got all the brakes unstuck and chains removed, only to realize the roads were still very icy and we had about 68 miles to go. Being as we were pretty light, we didn't have the traction to go very fast through the winding two lane icy roads with no shoulder. I averaged about 25-35 mph the majority of the morning and finally we came out into flat ground, 45 degrees, and best of all, dry roads...

Tonight we will reach Wyoming and the mother of all first snow storms for the area, expecting inches and even feet in some areas. I-80 has even been closed for part of the day already and will only get worse tonight.

Bum Bum Bum...Stay Tuned!


Tuesday, October 27, 2009
subject: Kent, WA

We were hoping for an evening of rest and relaxation after dropping our last load in Sante Fe Springs so, Daryl was surprised when the Qualcomm beeped with a load at 0130. Apparently someone was dropping a relay for us at the freight yard in Las Vegas and we were to grab an empty and be on our way to pick it up pronto.




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I woke up about 0645 and after we fueled I was A.I.S. (ass in seat) and moving us out at 0730. We were lucky enough to be able to take some back roads in Nevada since we were taking this load up to Washington. Not only did we get to turn off of I-15 onto highway 93, but a few miles later I was able to turn us onto the Extra-Terresterial Highway. I'm not kidding. The turn off to the E.T. highway included a shack with a huge sign reading "REAL Alien Jerky" complete with a picture of an alien head next to it. Yummy!

It was nice though to see the back desert and hills of Nevada. The rocky mountains were just jutting violently out of the earth and the rising sun turning the dirt and rocks a brilliant orange. The shrubbery and bushes taking on a coppery gleam in the morning light, all very beautiful!

I drove us to just outside of Twin Falls, Idaho before Daryl took over. We hopped onto I-84 and stopped to fuel at the Pilot and do dishes. I had made a fresh vegetable and shrimp stir-fry so there was attention to be paid to the dishes! 30 minutes later we were back on the interstate and proceeded to hit 40 mph winds with 70 mph gusts and rain outside of Boise, well great! We sent in a detained and slowed way down with our hazards on. We were pretty light, carrying 32 refrigerators for a Best Buy distribution center, so we had to be very careful about high winds and rain. The temperature was still above freezing (45) so we proceeded with caution and drove out of the weather about an hour later.

Daryl parked us at the T/A in North Bend, WA around 0430am and crawled into bed with me... just in time for me to crawl out of bed at 0530am and take a shower. I made use of my hour downtime to plan our next trip as we received our next pre-plan (Oregon to Iowa) and potty the dogs.

I took us out towards the Best Buy distribution center around 0730am amidst drizzling rain and freezing temperatures. Due to the weather and Washington drivers being incapable of understanding the concept of a dotted white line, it was slow going. We made it to the street the DC was supposed to be off of and despite angering the 100's of other motorists crammed bumper to bumper on the narrow 2 lane street with construction, I drove extremly slow assuming there would be a sign directing me to the entrance. Unfortunatly, there was no such sign and half a block what must have been past the entrance and through the trees you could see the bright yellow trademarked Best Buy sign on the building. Well, SHIT!! Now I had to figure out how in the hell I was going to make a U-turn and figured going around the block would be the best bet.

Going "around the block" consisted of going about 5 miles out of route and took 25 minutes due to construction, road closures, and traffic. Finally, when I got on the property I sent our arrived msg and went to get our assigned door for our offload. In short order, I was headed back out into the cold drizzle as our paperwork and our load info was lacking our door assignment number, and this was required. One phone call to our FM and 5 minutes later I was marched back inside. We were quickly assigned a door and after impressing some of the other onlookers with my mad backing skills we waited to be unloaded. These guys were pretty quick and about 1.5 hours later our dock light changed, releasing us and I pulled forward. After closing the doors I grabbed our paperwork and took us out towards Oregon for our next assignment.


Sunday, October 25, 2009
subject: SantaFe Springs, CA

After dropping our trailer in St. Louis our marching orders were to head down to the Anheuser-Busch plant and take a load 300 miles to Arlington Heights, IL where a beverage distributor waited for us. Looking at the instructions provided by the trusty qualcomm I was thoroughly confused. It appeared everyone who ever picked up there had to add their input for other drivers but all it did was successfully confuse me. A quick call to the security office cleared it right up though. Off the exit, a left, a left, a right, and a right to the scales. Easy enough.

I headed over to the plant in the hopes I would find someplace to park and wait the 6 hours for our pick up time but luck just wasn't on my side on the way there. But, as I approaced the scales near the plant I found an empty street. So, I opened the trailer doors for inspection, slid the tandems to the rear, and proceeded to take a quick hour nap before I had to pick it up.

At 330am, I rolled onto the scale and received our next trailer, which was near where I was to drop the empty. Easy enough. Armed with my new exiting instructions I went in search of the new trailer, drop the empty, hook up to the new, strap up the load, slide the tandems to where I have based on previous beer load configurations, and head towards the exiting scales.

I roll up and find i'm 600lbs overweight on the trailer axles. Crap. So I roll back into the yard, slide the tandems 3 holes rearward and rescale. This time I was 200lbs overweight on the tractor axles. Damn it! So third times a charm I guess.. I opted to slide them 1 hole forward and end up with 33,900lbs on the trailer and 32,400 on the tractor. That was perfect because we only rolled in with a half a tank of diesel and would have to refuel on the way. I grabbed my paperwork and headed out.




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About 10 minutes later Mary woke up and informed me she had been up about an hour and a half thanks to the debaucle I was in and she was tired as hell, which I don't blame her. About that time we got our next preplanned load... a Con-way Freight load going from La Salle, IL to Santa Fe Springs, CA. Gravy! Mary got ready and we traded out at a weigh station on I-55 just outside of St. Louis. I headed to bed and hoped to wake up well after our pick up in La Salle, IL but before we hit Walcott, IA, where we planned to shower and eat one of their delicious hamburgers!

Well, the plan to sleep heavily was short lived. I think I woke up to 2 distinct "bumps" that seemed to pick up the rear tractor axles and heavy trailer and slam them back down on the ground. I found out later it was concrete not yet level at a bridge. Yay for me. After hitting those, I was able to go back to sleep for about 3 hours before I woke up to the distinct slamming of the trailer hitting the dock, twice, then felt the tailtale sign of the hilo driver driving onto and off of the truck. I managed to fall back asleep each time the driver came on and off before I felt the truck moving. Then came the wonderful west Chicago roads.. bump after bump after bump. I gave up at that point and got up.

As it turns out, we were so heavy and the docks were the downward sloping type that every time Mary went to adjust the weight pulled her back into the dock before the gears grabbed. Lucky for me!

Anyways, we managed to roll into La Salle, IL about 10 minutes early, grabbed the load, and got the hell out of dodge. We were thankful to have the traditional weekend run schedule with a delivery Sunday night at midnight because that meant we could slow down and sleep a bit more, something we both needed.

Mary drove us to the Iowa 80 where we grabbed dinner and a hot shower. I took us out 2.5 hours later and managed to get us about 340 miles, or the west side of Omaha, NE around 1230am before I had to stop. Normally I do alright with one night of sleep but with it being broken as badly as it was there was no way in hell I could make it. So, I crawled into bed and we both got some great sleep before Mary took us out at 0730am or so. I was so tired I didn't even hear the alarm going off!

Anyways, I think I woke up around 1100am and got all of our paperwork together and logs printed from the last couple of days while Mary took us into the Denver area. We stopped at the Loves in Hudson, CO where we normally do to meet the in-laws. Since we had so much time this time around we took the opportunity to actually go to dinner with them, then headed to Target to get one of our bi-weekly shopping trips before crawling back into the truck before I took us out.

We took US285 south to the Pilot in Denver to refuel before making the trek across the fuel sucking mountains since thats the only fuel stop in about 400 miles, then jumped on I70 west. The drive was good until we got to Idaho Springs, where the temperature dropped well below 30 and snow started blowing hard. It didn't get REAL bad until after the Eisenhower Tunnel, just outside of Frisco, CO. The trek down consisted of the 5th high gear and the engine brake all the way down. I didn't feel too bad of company because talking to the drivers behind me on the CB, they were in no rush either.. so I was in good company. Before heading up, Mary informed me that there was a chain law in effect. Grand.. I don't know how to chain (not that I would if I knew how) nor do I feel comfortable driving with chains on. If the weather is that bad i'd rather stop and wait for it to blow over.

Well, as it turns out coming down the west side of the mountain it was confirmed by east bound drivers that the chain law was indeed in effect. So, I yanked us off I70 and we hung out on the on ramp before we were able to get moving. I would rather have gone to the rest area but that was well past the 198 mile marker and into the chain zone... and I didn't feel like a $500.00 fine plus service charge by the troopers patrolling the area.

I kept checking the state website for a change in conditions, which came around 0100am. I rolled us out and took about an hour to travel 20 miles. It wasn't bad but i'm just not fond of driving a 30 ton vehicle down ice... so it was a personal choice. I think it cleared up around Vail and it was smooth sailing to the first rest area across the border in Utah where Mary took over. She got us through the rest of Utah with a refuel in Parowan, UT, our usual fuel stop, before I woke up on the outskirts of Las Vegas, NV.

We ended up trading out on the east side of California at a rest area and I took us into the Pilot in Barstow for a quick shower. This is obviously a bad place because at no time did we even get close to hot water. So, we left out of there clean but disappointed. I took us out again and we rolled in around 1000pm to deliver our load, about 2 hours early.

At this point we're #1 on the board with no expectation of having a load anytime before 0500am. A little too early if you ask me since Mary could use some good sleep but I suspect we won't have anything out before 1000am, to be honest.

posted by Daryl at 22:12
3 Comments | leave a comment


Wednesday, October 21, 2009
subject: St. Louis, MO

Well, I have deduced that no matter how many days one has off... it's never enough. Last week we took 7 days off for some R&R. We didn't do much other than hang with my brother, get some medical appointments out of the way, and just be lazy. Our plan was to return to work on 10/20, so I got most of the truck put together the night before. Usually we have a call from our fleet manager with a load we were to take but we didn't this time around. With that in mind, we assumed we had time in the morning to finish loading... so I went to bed at a reasonable hour. Well, I was woken up by Mary in a frantic state telling me we had to go because we had to go back to the yard to pick up a different trailer.

Well, as it turns out she called after having just rolled out of bed to have us put on the board since we didn't have a trailer (this usually generates an error if you board without one). The immediately dispatched her to go grab a trailer and, in a half stupor state she did. Well, on her way back home she was told she had to go back to the yard to get a loaded trailer. So, after getting home and roosting me out of bed we threw everything in the truck and left... forgetting many things that were important.. which is usually the standard operating procedure.

Well, we get back over to the yard and grab this trailer that we were to drop in Santa Fe Springs, CA as a relay and hang out the night (13 hours) before picking up a load at 0500am headed to St. Louis, MO. Why the rush I have no idea.. we could have finished getting crap together before leaving. But, we made a pact that for now on the day before leaving we are to have EVERYTHING in the truck ready to go... including me. A bit depressing for the last night of sleep but, after this week, we're not going to play that game again.




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Mary got us out to Phoenix and we rolled down to Quartzsite, AZ where Mary wanted to scale the load as the axles were not set for California and we could have been overweight based on the load weight. Since I was dragged kicking and screaming out of bed with little time to do anything I hadn't had a chance to take a shower so I got my stuff together to shower up. Well, turns out they only had like 2 people in the place working, a line of 20 at the register, and no clean showers as 2 of my company compatriots discovered so I grabbed the scale ticket and we went down the road to a Flying J for my shower. I took over from there and got us into Santa Fe Springs, CA with plenty of time and where we hung until the morning.

On a side note, i'm not quite sure who made the rules for pets in the yards but they must hate dogs. We leashed up the 2 boys and walked them towards the front gate so we could go for our health awareness walk when we were stopped by the officer there who diligently informed us we had to bobtail to the fence and let them out there. Considering our side of the company wants no bobtailing.. PERIOD.. that won't be happening. It's not worth losing our jobs because our dogs have to drop a deuce... and I let him know that we would not be bobtailing. He was nice and mentioned how he disagreed of the ruling and had to enforce it so I don't blame him. Anyways, we got our 1 mile walk in, got some dinner, and crawled into bed. Mary got up at o'dark:30 to get the load.

I think I woke up at the California/Arizona border on I-40 and took over in Flagstaff, AZ. This was a pleasant drive east from there because normally I get this joy in the dark. I had no idea the mesa lands out to the south of I40 were as gorgeous as they are! I managed to get us to Amarillo, TX where the plan was for us to shower. After finding a front row parking spot I opted to shower at the Joplin, MO terminal because I was so exhausted. So, Mary drug herself out of bed, grabbed a shower, and took us out.

I think I was asleep 2 hours before I felt the tell tale signs of entering Oklahoma... incessant bouncing due to the crappy roads. They are slowly getting them fixed but for a team driver it's not quick enough. I got some off and on sleep before giving up just outside of Oklahoma City, OK. We rolled into Joplin where we are required to stop to get an inspection around 100pm and found the trailer needed some work. That was good since the plan was for me to shower, so I got that out of the way before we went to get some dishes clean. But, while doing so we not only got to see our friend Tony, who is on offtime at the moment, but Mary's trainer Gary too. That was a treat because we don't ever get to see Gary! I think the trailer was finished around 400pm and I took us out.

I think it rained the entire way into St. Louis, MO and it wasn't too bad until the last 60 miles, where I had to kick it down to 40 just to see due to the super-truckers wizzing past me at 80mph. We rolled into the yard about 2 hours early where I had the joy of hooking and unhooking in a torrential downpour. Of course it ended after I dropped the trailer and got the new one... gotta love karma. I received our next load info, which took us to Anheuser-Busch, and headed towards that direction for our 400am pickup.

posted by Daryl at 23:36
0 Comments | leave a comment


Saturday, October 10, 2009
subject: Phoenix, AZ

Once picking up our last load out of Santa Fe Springs, CA we headed out to St. Louis, MO without incident and arrived with about 40 minutes to spare. They immediately had a load out going to Phoenix, AZ where we will deliver, then take 7 days off starting on Monday, 10/12/09.

I realize this post is short but unfortunately our broadband card broke, yet again, at the external antenna port, affecting our long range reception. So, i'm using what crappy reception I can get and making this post before it dies out on me. Upon our return the following Tuesday we will be making regular posts again and the dash cam will be back up 24/7. Until then...

posted by Daryl at 16:52
0 Comments | leave a comment


Wednesday, October 7, 2009
subject: Kettleman City, CA

We got to Franklin, Wisconsin with 50 lbs. of dirty laundry in tow. We decided for our sanity and sanitation we should probably head to the truck stop to get some laundry done. We have been running so hard since we got back from home time, we haven't been able to do laundry in the last two weeks. Of course, this is one of the most mundane, yet necessary expenses on the road. Armed with $20.00 in quarters and a bottle of detergent we marched in to handle business. Two hours later we were back on the truck, showered and half wet clothes in tow.


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Daryl was sweet enough to stop by the nail salon so I could have a bit of girl time, then we went to the yard for the night and I made beef stir-fry for dinner. Shortly thereafter it was off to bed for me while Daryl stayed up to grab the load and get a few hours of driving in on his shift. My 'bedtime' was short lived as within 10 minutes of him picking up the trailer he had the truck shaking and rocking like a disco on Saturday night. Apparently he was having some trouble getting the handle for the tandem slide loose long enough to get our tandems in place. I slid into the drivers seat and helped him get the tandems set.



After he took back over at the helm we were off to fuel and it was back to bed for me. At this point I was in line for about 5 hours of sleep which turned into about 4 hours of broken sleep....but who's counting? Daryl was having problems with the trailer so he had to take it into the Petro shop to get repairs. Then managed to get a couple hours of driving in.



I dragged my half dead zombie carcass out of bed at 3:45 and started my coffee and feeble attempts at making myself feel human again. I managed to pound out the miles and got in 635 miles for the day before we traded out again. We are on the ball and were lucky enough to get another preplan...Sante Fe Springs Cali to St. Luis, Missouri.



I decided dinner wasn't as important as sleep so we had leftovers. As we were driving through Colorado, we arranged to meet with my parents for a quick hug and exchange of much needed items (like Daryl's new wrist brace).



Again, Daryl took us out and I was off to bed. I got up again around 3:45 somewhere in 'bum-f*$@ nowhere' Utah and put my game face on. We survived Las Vegas which is always a treat in a 70' vehicle and managed to drop our load without ceremony or incident...just as we like it!



Things keep going so smoothly we won't have much to blog about....nah, things never go that smoothly for that long for us....I'm sure there will be something interesting to happen soon!


Monday, October 5, 2009
subject: De Pere, WI

At the end of the last post I did not put us on the board so we could catch up on some sleep... and we were pretty much out of hours. Mary put us back on the board around 1100am and we received load information immediately. We were apparently to head out to North Bend, WA but that was all... no address was given. Confused, Mary sent a message back asking if there was an address, to which she received a reply telling her to just go there and get on the board. Interesting. So, thats what we did. After refueling, Mary took us out back across I-90 towards Washington.


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We got about 2 hours outside of Billings, MT when we received our load info. After going on the board in N. Bend, WA we were going to be going back down near Tacoma, WA to pick up our load headed to De Pere, WI... another trip BACK across I-90. If it were I-10 or I-20 it wouldn't have been a huge deal.. but i'm not a big fan of the cold. Even though it was only in the upper 40's and low 50's I still couldn't help but complain. There's a reason why I wanted to live in Arizona!

Anyways, Mary was able to get us to the western side of Montana before I took over and got us the rest of the way. We got close to North Bend and stopped at the T/A there where I refueled us, then woke Mary up so we could shower since I got us there 2 hours early. After, we went on the board and were sent to Pullyup, WA to get our load.. about 49 miles southwest.

When we got there we thought we passed the driveway. So, we made a U-turn and headed back to where we saw a huge warehouse distribution place. Turns out that wasn't it but instead a Fred Meyers food distribution center and we were originally headed in the right direction. So, they security folks there let us in to turn around and we headed back down the street.

As we approached where we originally turned around we happened to notice 2 CFI trailers with the doors facing towards us... a geographical feature we failed to notice the first time. We slowly rolled towards the end of the fence to a dark driveway we also didn't see the first time around.... and at the end of that a storage cube looking thing with a blinding light. We opted to take antoher chance and turn into the drive way.. and low and behold this was the place. Not easy to find, I'll tell ya that... or we were just so tired we didn't really care. Who knows.

Mary got us checked in and we were told to park the trailer straight ahead of us, then find our loaded trailer, which was "somewhere in the yard." We pulled forward and noticed immediately the back was going to be near impossible considering the yard jockey was having problems pulling them OUT! I suggested to Mary a good way to take this but she chose to let me back it.. why I have no clue since she's the backing god of this team. Anyways, I set myself up, backed, jigsaw'ed myself around 3 parked cars in front of me, dodged the hopper, and avoided striking a trailer next to our hole by mear inches before I finally weezled it in there.

We took the road we were on to the back of teh building and immediately found the trailer at the dock. We were in and out in a land speed record of 30 minutes because Mary had to make her breakfast first.. and being I was shot at 0630am from having driven all night, she was on her own.

I felt us stop at the gate, heard a little chatter, and what I assume was us pulling out towards I-90... again. I woke up just across the Idaho border.. and just in time to go on our bi-weekly shopping journey. Lucky me! In reality, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I was sarcastic as usual about everything so I think thats what made this trip go by a little bit quicker. Mary drove a little ways into Montana, again, before I took over.

I managed to get us to a Town Pump/Pilot truck stop as Mary requested so she could grab coffee before she started her shift. I managed to break our French Press a few weeks ago so neither of us have been on our game first thing after waking up... so to speak.. so this coffee stop was a nice luxury for her. I parked us and crawled into bed. Mary crawled out 2 hours later or so, did whatever she does when i'm asleep, and took us out across I-90... again.

I don't remember where I woke up this time but I know it was close to Minnesota. I took over there and got us the rest of the way to our drop in De Pere, WI about an hour and a half early. At this point, being it was Sunday night, we didn't have a pre-plan so I had no clue where to go. I saw a Wal-mart right nearby with a few trucks parked there so I considered stopping there, but checked our Streets & Trips for parking spots thanks to a few add-ons i've downloaded and created and found there was 1 spot about 8 miles away. So, I pretripped our trailer and took us out. I started down U.S. 43 but again eyed the Wal-mart and opted to just go there. So, I exited at the next ramp and made 2 rights to head back south. At the turn, however, I saw there was a Starbucks... where we could replace our French Press in the morning! YAY! We can have happy mornings again! Anyways, I got to the Wal-mart, kicked the dogs out to potty, and crawled into bed.

About 0745am we were woken up by the qualcomm... a load that had us going from our yard in Franklin, WI to Kettleman City, CA. Not too shabby.. with the deadhead it is a 2300 mile run. Great start to the week! So, we got ready, went into Walmart to get a few things, headed off to Starbucks to get our French Press, made a great pot of coffee, and headed off to Franklin to stage and get our next load.

posted by Daryl at 18:52
0 Comments | leave a comment


Friday, October 2, 2009
subject: Billings, MT

So after our arrival to Fife, WA I took us over to the Flying J to await another load. On the way over we got the telltale chirp of the qualcomm telling us we had an assigned load. Looking at it we quickly realized there was no way in hell. They wanted us to pick up a load at 1400pst and drag it to Louisville, KY when we had minimal hours to work with. So, after several phone calls and complaints that there was no way we could get it there in the 2.5 days they wanted (we requested to push the delivery date out a half a day and we could do it but that was quickly ixnay'd) we agreed to relay it in Billings, MT. They wanted us to take it to Nebraska, but with the little hours left they would literally run us out... and we would have been close to being late. And, i've said it before and i'll say it again... I refuse to get a service failure because someone else can't do their job.

So, Mary was able to grab a quick shower, grab some breakfast, and take us out towards Tukwila, WA to pick up the load. At the point we were leaving for whatever reason I popped awake and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I helped her navigate over to the shipper.

We got there with about 15 minutes to spare and they immediately gave us a dock. Now, this place looked like it would be barely able to fit a box truck let alone a 53' van trailer but, again, Mary was a champ and set herself up for a wonderful straight line back. We hung out almost an hour before they were finished loading us and we were off.


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The drive was actually quite pretty to say the least... for the first 50 miles. Once we got over the pass leaving Seattle it looked like most of Montana, really brown and dried up. When you think of the pacific northwest you think its all green but this view really destroyed my preconcieved idea. Apparently it's only green the closer to the coast you get.

Anyways, Mary drove until around 0030am where we traded after I squeezed in a 4 hour nap. I took us the rest of the way to Billings, MT where I met our relay and took us off the board since both of us were out of hours. I sent a message stating that Mary would be able to drive around noon and would put us back on the board then. Not a peep came from the qualcomm during that time.. which was nice because we really need to catch up on some much needed sleep!

posted by Daryl at 15:32
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Thursday, October 1, 2009
subject: Various stops

This post will encompass a few runs since we were in Canada and did not have internet access...
Calexico, CA - Calgary, AB, CANADA
Calgary, AB - Delta, BC, CANADA
Delta, BC, CANADA - Dunnigan, CA (Relay load)
Dunniga, CA - Fife, WA (Relay Load)



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After a little over 8 months on the truck together, we each have slept through or been woken up during just about every circumstance and road condition imaginable. Take my word for it when I say that a drop and hook, rollercoaster style back roads, a rutty dirt lot with pot holes the size of Cadillacs, and another drop and hook all while I'm trying to sleep doesn't make for a restful night.


Calexico, CA, USA - Calgary, AB, CANADA


Daryl dropped our loaded at the Blythe yard and after slamming (literally) into an empty, set us off towards Calexico for our new load. Our GPS is a nice helpful tool but sometimes can be a nuisance and I was later told that this instrument provided the wrong directions and Daryl ended up staring the Mexico border fence right in the face and having to make a U-turn back to the correct address.

After negotiating the rediculous dirt lot (waking me up for the third time that night) and trading trailers yet again (pretty much laid awake the whole time), we were off for Canada.

I woke up again around 3:45 and couldn't figure out why my alarm hadn't gone off yet. I opened the curtain and Daryl asked "Did your alarm go off?" "No" I replied. "Then why are you up?" After a quick runover of the load and times Daryl had been sweet enough to reset my alarm for 5:00 so that I could get some more sleep, and here I was wide awake! Damn it!

Daryl stopped about 5:00 and I took us out about 5:30 and drove until about 1430 when Daryl woke up. We hit a Wal-mart really quick to stock up on staples and then Daryl took over in Salt Lake City.

The plan was for Daryl to drive us to Shelby, Montana, where I would shower and take us the remaining miles to the border and then on into Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our unload.

Things went pretty much according to plan...pretty much. I got up about 4:30 and went to take a shower and get coffee. 45 minutes later, feeling clean and shiny I got back on the truck, made some breakfast and put my make-up on. Feeling pretty proud of myself, I set uf off about 6:45 for the border at Sweetgrass Montana. Now, here's where things got interesting. We have done a few Canada runs but never did a great deal of research on the crossings. Nor were we ever really given very excplicit instructions for how 'things are done'. We usually just played it by ear, answered honestly, was respectful, kept our fingers crossed, and had a pretty easy time of it.

I'm not a woman for blaming attitude problems on menstral cycles, or finding excuses for bitchiness, cuz sometimes ya just are, but this woman was on a serious power trip AND someone peed in her cheerios...evidently a bad combination for her! I pulled up to the border crossing just like every other time and with my pass card papers in hand prepared to hand them to the window. The gentleman on the other side was having a conversation with a coleague and motioned for me to pull forward. I looked around and not seeing anything else assumed it would become clear further up. I very slowly started to pull forward and was suddenly halted by a woman yelling "Hey! Whow!" I immediately hit the breaks, turned on my hazards and started to carefully and very slowly back up. At that time of the morning there is only one window so some of the other drivers in line got to see the girl get in trouble. As soon as I was level with the window again I apologized and told her that I thought the gentleman had intended for me to pull up, this was met with a bland stare and a "Are you alone?" I told her that I was not and that Daryl was asleep in the back after driving until 4:30 that morning. She looked at me incredulous and told me that we under no circustances could cross without beinga awake and in the seat. Well good, we had never been told this but had always just coincidentally timed the border crossing when both of us were awake. I jumped out of the seat and went to wake Daryl up, apologizing to her profusely. Daryl was so tired and out of sorts that he didn't even bother to put on the clothing I pushed at him and stuck the top half of his body out of the sleeper, wearing nothing but boxers. I giggled nervously at this but hoped the woman would just go about her business and get us out of there so I could make our load and he could go back to bed.

She looked over our paper work, asked us the general questions...U.S. Citizens, firearms, drugs, etc. She then proceeded to tell us our load hadn't been cleared yet and we needed to come in, clear with immigration, and then clear the load. This was interesting news considering I had just called our Taylor terminal the night before and they said we had cleared customs and were ready to cross the border. We called the terminal for the clearance number, just in case and headed inside armed with our passcards and paperwork. We stopped by the immigration desk first and was told by the gentleman there very politely that we were to be in the seat no matter what or we could risk being arrested on the way back into the country...good to know! He then proceeded to ask us a bunch more questions and told us to take a seat...then, what I assume, proceeded to conduct a background check on us. This wasn't a huge deal considering we have nothing to hide and aside from being sarcastic and neurotic on occasion are pretty upstanding citizens. As we are not illegal aliens, don't have any criminal records, and keep our asses from hanging out in the breeze, the check didn't take very long and we were on our way over to the commercial clearance desk, technically only two feet down the counter but with a different person so La Dee Daw!

I handed her the paper work and explained that we were pretty sure we had been cleared because we had the clearance number. She punched in our PARS number and it came up as immediately cleared....telling me that the woman at the window was looking for any reason to detain us and send us inside for clearing.

We went back to the truck and I set off again while Daryl went back to the sleeper to lick his wounds and try to catch some Z's. About three hours later I recieved the double chirp of a pre-plan coming in on the Qualcomm and was excited to see our next run will be taking us accross Canada from Calgary to Vancouver, British Columbia, then back down to Calexico. I could do without the Calexico part, but what are you gonna do? After looking at the times I sent a message back to dispatch asking them if the eta for Calexico was flexible as we were running low on hours (which they had to know as they get our hours EVERYDAY) and a nearly 2000 mile run in two days including a border crossing, 3 55 mph states, and lots of mountains and steep grades just wasn't going to cut it.

I received a message back a short time later saying that it wasn't flexible and they needed to know asap if we could handle the load, basically meaning if we can't handle it, they will give it to someone else. I sent another message back saying it would be close and as I was still driving and worrying about getting our current load there on time they would have to be patient, that I would give it my full attention as soon as we were docked. There was a brief silence from the Qualcomm that was interupted by yet another message saying something to the effect of....you are the only team up there, after you pick up, let us know when you can make it...uh huh...so basically they didn't have anyone else and even though I can't pull magically appearing hours out of thin air, they were going to tough talk me into accepting a load we couldn't make the eta on and then stick it to us later as a service failure....jerks! A bit later we assume our FM was back at her desk because we received some load instructions that included us picking the load up 6 hours later than the original plan sent to us...We LOVE her!

I pulled us into the customer 45 mintues early, went in to haggle with the guys for a bit, then went back out to go back the truck into a dock. The guys inside has said, "pick one!" So, I did. I proceeded to back into an open dock and after lining up just right went back inside to borrow their bolt cutters to remove the seal and open the doors. At this time they asked me, "Where are you parked?" I look at them all quizzically thinking this must be another joke but then realized the inside of their warehouse only had 4 dock doors...I was parked in the 6 over, belonging to the business next door. Well shit! I felt like a complete blonde right then but they all laughed it off and I went and put the truck in one of their docks.

These guys were awesome and had us unloaded super quick and on our way. We stopped by the Flying J so Daryl could take a quick shower and then we were off.


Calgary, AB - Delta, BC, CANADA - Dunnigan, CA, USA


It was a wonderful change to have the opportunity to see more of the country, mountains, and towns of Alberta and British Columbia. We took tons of pictures and probably looked more like tourists than professional drivers, but enjoyed the scenery on the way up immensely.

I drove until about 2030, we switched out so Daryl could finish the drive in. I tried to be a trooper and stay up with him but crashed out about 2330. Daryl got us within 90 miles of our pickup so I got up the next morning (Tuesday) took us about 7 miles to our fuel stop and filled us up. The weigh stations are set-up a bit differently in Canada and we were pulled into one outside of Chilliwack. The posted speed limit was 30 km/hour...this is about 17 mph and I thought it seemed a bit fast for a rolling scale....we were told to stop and park to come in. Well crap...as soon as I got in I asked her if we had been going too fast and she was really nice about it. Apparently there is a stop sign just before the scale starts and you have to stop and then proceed onto it. Well if I didn't look like a silly American right then! We headed into Delta, which is a supberb of Vancouver. More pictures of the scenery, bridge, and city, and we docked at our stop a bit early. We met another Con-way team who was also picking up the same thing and taking it to the exact same place. As there were no truck stops with any parking in a 15 mile radius, we were both clue-less as where to go when done being loaded. After loading we had to fax paperwork into our Taylor and Joplin terminals, then sit by a fax machine and wait for our customs clearence paperwork to be faxed back to us. Thankfully the company we picked up from was nice enough to allow us to wait for a return fax. We got it about 2 hours later and we were off.

Thinking that I would get more driving under my belt (at this point both our hours were dwindling and Daryl was hurting badly). The plan was for me to drive to the US/Canada border and a couple more hours past. Boy, were we in for a surprise. About 5 miles from the border we hit what looked like the worst LA downtown traffic. 3 hours of driving one truck length before setting the air brakes to sit for another 5 minutes we made it to what resembled a border crossing. The first of 2 checkpoints was the standard checking papers and passcards, and asking probing questions. After clearing this section, we went ahead to the x-ray section, which was quite a treat, unlike the crossing at Sweetgrass, MT. This port of entry is old school. The x-ray machine was housed in a metal canopy looking thing and consisted of 2 parts.. one on either side sitting on what looked like mini railroad tracks. The driver (and in our case team mate and dogs) had to vacate the truck and go stand several feet away to avoid radiation. Once our truck was done being probed we climbed back in and were actually cleared to go across the border.

As the border crossing took 4 hours of my time, I was unable to drive much further past the border and we switch soon there after. I was, however, awake long enough for Daryl and I to see the city of Seattle, WA and all of its night time glory together. It was absolutly beautiful. Daryl drove us until 3am and being the pimptastic husband and truck driver he is managed to park us at a pilot in Oregon. Because I had driven until 800pm the night before I was not able to start driving at my normal 0400 but had to wait to start my hours until 0600, giving me time for a shower and some quick take out breakfast from the Denny's. Around 1100am and close to California, I received a qualcomm message saying our stop location was changed to a Pilot in Dunnigan, CA. As there was no other messages this was confusing. I called dispatch to verify everything was OK and was told yes and we were to relay this load because we were needed back in Washington state. Already then.

This all sounds well and good... after all.. who doesn't like to be needed. The problem here is that they set the relay.. which was 200 miles away... exactly 4 hours from that point. California is a 55mph state and still had 150 miles of steep grades and curves to go, not to mention I had 2 cups of coffee and 3 bottles of water and still had to squeeze bathroom breaks in there. I managed to make my stop and still make our relay on time. While I was dealing with the relay, Daryl snuck into the pilot for a quick shower. We waited 45 min to refuel (dipshits), then we were back off onto I-5 north, where we had just come. I drove another hour before we switched at 1700.


Dunnigan, CA - Fife, WA


I made us dinner and got ready for bed. Just before crawling into the sack, Daryl started coasting to the side of the road. I asked what the trouble was and come to find out a trailer tire had blown. While he parked on the side of the road and went to check out the damage, I got on the phone (one phone in each hand) to road service and dispatch. Talking alternatly between the two of them I managed to relay the information and got local services on the way to help us out. While this was unfortunate luck, it did allow for Daryl and I to snuggle up and enjoy our satellite for about an hour. He then left me to sleep while he dealt with the blown tire and road service.

I woke up a little after 0600 with a strange feeling that something wasn't right. The "not right" feeling was that it was after 0600, I was alone in bed, and the truck was still moving. Despite the events of the night before, Daryl managed to squeak us into the yard on time, and with 35 minutes to spare despite relaying to dispatch we would probably be another hour and a half. Daryl insisted I stay in bed while he dropped our load and picked up an empty. He sent in our hours explaining how many we had left and when, if we hadn't received a load, we would have a fresh set 70 hours. Thinking that with our hours available we would have to wait a while to have a load assigned, He took us over to the local Flying J where we could get some much needed rest while we waited for our next load assignment. 　


 

 

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