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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, February 27, 2010
subject: Shelby, IA

I woke up in the Santa Fe Springs, CA yard somewhere around 0430am to pick up our load. Shock me shock me they actually had it ready! And, thank god no hazmat on board this run. After grabbing the trailer, doing a quick pretrip, and checking the weather I took us out. When I started there were no weather warnings but a winter storm watch hovered over the Colorado mountains. Mary talked to her mother previously who gave us a warning about snow falling over a few days so we were trying to keep our eyes out. Our ETA was set for 200pm central time but with a watch over the rockies we were skeptical but optimistic. That gave us about a 6 hour window to get there provided we pulled the mountains well with 34k pounds onboard, the trailer was a decent one, and traffic was minimal.



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The traffic coming out of LA up the I-605 and across I-210 was rather light for a Thursday morning, albeit i've pulled the mountain grades faster than this time around. I bypassed the fuel points in Barstow and Hesperia in a feeble attempt to make it to Las Vegas for fuel. Mary requested I get hot water for her morning coffee and I didn't see stopping two separate times for fuel and water... but the water was indeed a priority as Crabby Patty peeks her head when coffee is not administered within the first 20 minutes of waking up!

I made it to the Pilot in Las Vegas right around 1000am. I thought ahead this time and started the coffee and got a thermos full of water for more coffee or hot tea later in the day. I think we were finally out of there somewhere around 1030am, when she started to wake up. I managed to get us as far as Parowan, UT where we topped off the tanks once more before hitting the mountains in Utah. The trailer was not in prime condition so it was slowing us down quite a bit. We've hauled 34k over the California and Nevada mountains before and didn't slow NEAR as much as we were with that trailer so it was probably a wise decision to top off.  Mary took us out from there.

I managed to stay up with her while I waited for the Tylenol PM to kick in, which was somewhere about 50 miles east on I-70. Mary continued to check the weather and Colorado road status on her stops along the way and climbed into bed somewhere around 1130pm after discovering Vail Pass, the climb to Eisenhower Tunnel, and the decline into Denver all required chains to pass. She didn't feel comfortable with the road conditions as she said it was a struggle to keep it on the road to even make it to the rest area she did. She also did she want to chain 1) thanks to an injury I inflicted to her foot earlier in the week and 2) SHE feels shes not strong enough to hurl iron onto the tires by herself as the state requires, and considering the company feels that conditions are probably not favorable if chains are required, it was a good decision.

I think I woke up around 200am in a panic. From what I remember, I couldn't even remember where the hell I was. Mary mentioned that I was out when she crawled into bed. Normally I apparently wake up when she crawls into bed but she even snuggled with me and I was out to the world. At least I got sleep is how I felt about it! I quickly checked the road conditions and found 2 of the 3 areas still required chains.... and back to bed I went.

I think I woke up again around 530am and stayed up until around 930am when Mary woke up and we decided to make a go at it. The chain restriction was still in effect up to the Eisenhower tunnel from mm205 but our hope was the restriction would be removed due to warmer weather and the sun shining brightly. However, our luck didn't change. By 1130am we reached exit 204 and found the restriction was still in place. So, being the good little truckers we are we unloaded the chains and dressed all 4 drive tires to see trucks pull in behind us and immediately pull out. We managed to see2 or 3 give us the thumbs up, which we took to mean the restriction was lifted. Of course it was.. AFTER we got our nice clean clothes dirty, broke our backs getting the chains on the tires, and nearly getting hit a few times by careless 4-wheelers who couldn't move over a lane. Anyways, I took us over the hill and found it was slushy and slick in spots but passable.

Mary called the Con-way yard in Shelby after we were out of the pass to verify they would be open when we got there, somewhere around midnight and found we could drop our trailer if we were there by 1000pm, otherwise someone would be in the yard at 700am. Gravy. It sucked we had to sit the night out but we could get our shopping done and shower before the night was out. So, I continued up I-76 out of Colorado and onto I-80 where I got us to the Wal-mart in Lexington, NE. After about 2 hours Mary took us out and got us to Grand Island, NE where we showered at the Bosselman's/Pilot, and finally got to the rest area about 2 miles out where she stopped for the night.

I woke somewhere around 530am MST and waited for 600am to roll around so I could make the final 3.4 mile journey to the yard but, after I saw a freight driver pulling a CFI trailer I decided the yard was probably open. So, with that handy piece of info I got us over to the yard, checked in, dropped the trailer, and hooked to the only empty one in the yard. I did the usual pre-trip thing and found two things, 1) the trailer has an air leak somewhere in one of the hoses in an area I can't get to and 2) the last driver must have been hauling loose wood and sawdust or dirt because the new trailer was FILTHY! I took the time to sweep the trailer, returned some of the scrap wood and plywood I found in the nose, and finally took us out some 30 minutes later. I managed to grab a good spot at the podunk truck stop down the street and waited for Mary to wake up so we could hit the small diner for breakfast.

We managed to sit for 6 or 7 hours before finally getting a deadhead assignment to Joplin, MO. We can't begin to speculate why we're deadheading the 359 miles there but hopefully we're given something good that involves palm trees, shorts, flip flops, and a drink that requires an umbrella because I feel a 34 hour restart coming on!

posted by Daryl at 15:33
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Thursday, February 25, 2010
subject: Los Angeles, CA

After arriving in Joplin I took the paperwork into the local dispatch guy as we're supposed to do. I requested to keep the load since we couldn't leave until Monday afternoon anyways and it delivered on Tuesday. I explained this but he had other plans.... he wanted us to take a load Monday morning on our Tractor Supply account to Farmington, AR for a live unload at 700am, then deadhead back to Joplin, MO so Mary could finish her hire on paperwork with Safety and Payroll. Why we couldn't just stay on the load we carried that far I have no idea. There was a guy asking for a load out just before my turn at the window and he was told there was no freight, so why we got this rediculous load is beyond me.

Anyways, we stayed the night in Joplin and intended to get the truck into the shop on Sunday. I think we went to bed early on Saturday after having showered and eaten a decent dinner. Sunday we decided not to get the truck in the shop and to just have it done Monday while Mary was finishing up her paperwork. Instead, we hit the Wal-mart in Neosho, MO (where we did our CDL training) to shop. This was the best choice as we know they have ample truck parking there. Amongst our weekly rations we decided to buy a toaster oven, which, in the long run was a wise decision. We're still trying to figure out placement in the truck but so far its done quite well for us! I think we finally got to the TSC store around 700pm and stayed the night in the dock. We finally got to bed somewhere around 900pm or so.

The next morning I had the alarm set for what I thought was 530am MST, which is the timezone we run off of. It went off and I swear it took us an hour to wake up, but we couldn't figure out why. After about another hour I discovered we woke up at 430am MST..... I had set the alarm for 530am CST. DAMN IT JIM! We could have slept an hour longer! Bah. I do believe the phrase of the day adopted by Mary was, "You son of a bitch!" I think there were other choice words thrown in there for spite, but that was the jidst of it. It was all in fun so it was good times.

That extra hour proved to be worth it though. Mary made some killer turkey sausage and egg burritos while I dealt with the guys on the dock with the load. We were finally out of there by 900am CST and back in Joplin by 1215pm CST. We put the truck in the shop, went over to get the paperwork done, met our future fleet manager (whoms we've dealt with on the qualcomm before), met with our former fleet manager, then retreived the truck and washed her. However, Mary called our former driver and mentor Jana and they discussed dinner plans. Anything not made in a microwave was a sure bet! She took us to this hole in the wall BBQ place near their new home and it was really good. We all ordered this mushroom and onion covered steak with veggies and baked potato. Being that Mary wanted hers to have stopped mooing by the time it hit the table, Jana's and mine were well beyond what we wanted. A quick complaint and we received new steaks prepared just the way we wanted. In any case the server was nice and apologetic and i'd go there again. Not too shabby a place.

Tuesday morning after breakfast in the Con-way cafe we went back on the board. We received a preplan of taking a Con-way load inbound at 500pm CST from Joplin to Los Angeles, CA. Mary squeezed out a nap since she would be driving late and, when the trailer arrived she retreived the paperwork and did a plethra of girl crap while I hooked the trailer and got us ready to go. We were finally out of there around 515pm or so.



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Our route took us down the I-44 tollway through Tusla and Oklahoma City, OK to I-40. Mary got us as far as the picnic area/truck parking area outside of Amarillo, TX, where she fueled us before calling it a night. Given we had 7 extra hours on this load it wasn't an issue and night dispatch didn't have a problem with it. I think I took us out around 400am or so the rest of the way across I-40 to the Pilot in Flagstaff, AZ where I refueled us and we grabbed a shower before switching drivers again. Mary finished out the rest of the trip and got us into this podunk little Con-way yard we didn't even know existed right around midnight or so. I ended up waking up somewhere around 20 miles out 1) thanks to the shitty LA roads and 2) having pinched something in my neck thanks to the roads and suffering from pain from my teeth to eardrum and eyesocket. HORRID pain! It was good I was up though because I was able to help Mary in a limited capacity while garbbed in my sleeping attire. After, she took us over to the Santa Fe Springs, CA yard where our preplan received earlier in the day on my shift directed us to stage for a load headed to Shelby, IA.

posted by Daryl at 14:54
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Sunday, February 21, 2010
subject: Joplin, MO

It's amazing how quickly one can get tired of hearing, "I told you so." Turns out my threshold sits at about 3 days. I honestly never dreamed of coming back to the job. After a year out on the road, countless screwed up dispatches, rediculous circusmtances, and being treated like a moron, I was ready to re-join the real world. Turns out, the real world actually sucks just as much. So now that I'm officially healthy (debatable by my husband based solely on my mental capacity), we are both glad to be teaming again.

We both got up and moving Friday morning around 6am and finished getting the last of our necessities organized in preparation for me 'moving back in' to the truck. Daryl had a small nervous break down at the amount of stuff I was bringing with me...but a small fainting spell, some cold water, and a slap across the face put him back in line.

I finished organizing our cold food while he went out to the truck to start it up and put us on the board. A few minutes later, when he hadn't made an appearance back into the house, I called him to make sure everything was okay. Turns out we got a load assignment so encrypted and confusing, he was just sitting out in the truck trying to figure out what the hell they were talking about. The message read: "R TRL to 3000series to cover load"....WHAT?!

Now let me just say two things here. One, we are both educated people with college education. Two, our Qualcomm is NOT your stupid Blackberry and I am not your buddy, don't TXT me crap, write me a damn message that I can understand! Daryl felt the same, so he sent a message asking for clarification. Apparently "3000 series" means they wanted us to go BACK to the freight yard where we had just picked up an empty the day before to swap our current empty trailer for a new empty trailer that had a unit number of at least 30000....see the confusion? Our trailer numbers have 5 numbers, not 4.

The clarification on the dispatch included a relay of this particular load in our headquarters in Joplin Missouri. We knew we had to go to Joplin anyways, so that I can sign some paperwork and set-up my direct deposit again, but none of that particular stuff can be handled until Monday...this load gets us in on Saturday evening...how inconvenient. I called my new fleet manager to both introduce myself and ask him, if they didn't have active plans for the load, if we could deliver it first, and then be routed back to Joplin, instead of sitting around all weekend our first trip out of the starting gate. He was unavailable so I left him a brief message, with the reader's digest version of what I was asking, and asked him to call me back.

We finished getting the truck loaded and headed over to the yard...of course, just as I had anticipated, they didn't have any empty trailers with unit numbers higher than 28000. We went up onto the dock to sweet talk one of the managers, and he allowed us to pull the only newer trailer in the entire yard straight from the dock. A quick refresher course for me on removing placards and hooking to a trailer, and we were off.


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In true dispatcher fashion, my new fleet manager didn't let me down! Over an hour and a half after leaving him a message, I still hadn't heard anything back. More than thirty minutes after picking up our new trailer, we had yet to recieve our dispatch, so I sent a message on the Qualcomm, explaining that we had successfully swapped our original trailer for a new empty trailer, and we needed our dispatch to the customer so we knew when we needed to be there. I got this back (from our fleet manager, so I KNOW he was there): "Did you p/u trailer in Phoenix at freight yard"....um...do you read messages? I sent back that yes, we had to swap our original trailer for a newer one, via the customer information, and now we needed our dispatch to pick up our load in Miami, AZ...finally we got our dispatch, again from our fleet manager, with no mention of my message, no 'nice to meet you', and no information as to whether or not we would be taking this the rest of the way or just sitting in Missouri for the weekend. Thanks alot, I'm already thinking about looking into switching us to a team fleet, with a fleet manager that understands what teams do and how we run...we'll see, maybe I'll give him another few weeks to really irritate me before we request a transfer.

We arrived at the customer about 1230, went through the regular jumping through hoops, etc etc etc, then went to the building we were picking up from. Turns out they were only operating one dock that day, and we were third in line...oh goody!

We waited just over 1 and 1/2 hours before getting into the dock, and by 1530, we were loaded. Because it had taken so long, Daryl was out of hours, so I was up at bat. Nothing like getting back into the swing of things with a trailer loaded with just over 45,000 lbs of copper coils, going through 100 miles of steep mountain grades and extremely sharp curves on a tiny little no-shoulder two lane highway...welcome back!

I made it through and finally gave up about midnight just outside of Albequerque. Daryl took over the wheel about 0530, and I was able to experience sleeping on the truck....again....while it was moving. That's an ability you lose very quickly, being able to function and not feel nearly stupid with sleep exhaustion. Due to the various bumps, bangs, vibrations, and noises, you never fully hit REM sleep, you are in a constant state of 'light nap' and waking constantly at 5-30 minute intervals.

I gave up my battle for sleep about 0730 and took over driving about 1530 after refueling in Oklahoma City. We made it into headquarters in Joplin, got our trailer inspected, made dinner, and were both dozing in front of the TV by 2130...gotta love re-runs of 'House'. Guess we'll see what adventures tomorrow has in store for us.


Wednesday, February 17, 2010
subject: Phoenix, AZ

I can't say after being home the last few days I remember much of what happened having been sleep deprived on the Santa Fe Springs, CA run to Phoenix, AZ run so this post is a bit vague. This was my load going home and it was a leisurly run down I-10 at midnight to 0600am....


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Upon my arrival I dropped the trailer and immediately went over to the Freightliner to get the engine faults and A/C fixed. The guy checking me in said there is a sensor near the bumper that is prone to going bad and it affects the thermometer and A/C... why he had no clue. I guess its due for a front end alignment as well as I was told when I called roadservice so that will be done too. The plan is to have the truck finished by noon on Wednesday, grab a trailer, and head home where we can load everything up and be ready to go on Thursday morning.

Mary will once again be a co-driver upon our departure. We've discussed how we plan to operate this time and it won't be in a manner where we hate each other after 2 weeks out. That was mostly done thanks to being a priority team and them assigning loads that had to be there.... yesterday just to do it all over again on the next load assignment. We only need 3500 miles a week to make ends meet and have some left over for savings so our intent is to run hard during the week but slow down on weekend pulls. By that I mean we're going to take our time, shop, sleep without the truck moving, do laundry, and truly enjoy being out on the road. What we were doing before was seeing the scenery wizz by without actually getting to enjoy it, and starting to hate each other in the process because im an anal retentive freak that tries to adhere to what we're told. I'm sure Joplin will have other plans as the night and weekend dispatchers love to argue the arrival times. We're normally told we "have to get it there.. its needed ASAP" despite having 36 hours more than they dispatch us at on the paperwork to get to the consignee or, better yet, sent with our hair on fire screaming into the parking lot to find out there wasn't even an appointment time set. I never could understand why a load had to get someplace in a hurry to deliver on a Saturday night at 0207am... seriously?

Anyways, enough of my rant. We're kicking ass in the Olympics... as of the last report I saw Tuesday we're 8 total medals and in the lead. Go USA! I love the Olympics, although the summer games are more my speed with Gymnastics, Swimming, and Springboard & Platform diving. I still enjoy the Luge, Bobsled, and Curling during the winter but I don't tend to root as much or as hard as I do during the summer.

This post was done by Daryl but for some reason blogger is jacking up and showing Mary did it. I'm at a loss...


Friday, February 12, 2010
subject: Vista, CA

I managed to catch some of the final American Chopper show on TLC tonigght and I can only wonder what the hell happened to the show! I stopped watching sometime after they finished the Gilette bike when tensions were not so bad but to see Mike and Paul Jr were kicked out of the shop was surprising to say the least. Then, to see the final show played on Thursday was even more of a shock. But, I guess TLC needs another reality drama to move on to. I hear a 4th season of Ice Road Truckers is coming on History so that will be my next show. Supposedly it's been shot in Alaska already but we'll see.
 
For some reason on Wednesday night after meeting my relay I couldn't sleep for the life of me after having gone to bed at 900pm. I believe that Pilot in Dunnigan, CA is one of the most active and I kept hearing the air brakes releasing on several trucks so that was probably part of the issue. Then, to compound the issue i received a qualcomm message asking when I would have full hours. I didn't sleep well the night before so I opted to get the most optimal sleep and told them I could drive at 400am. That seemed fair enough to me. I didn't get anything back immediately so I went back to bed.
 
Well, around 1200am I received a phone call. I must have sounded drunk when I answered because the dispatcher couldn't make out what I was saying. Cotton mouth will do that.. thanks to the A/C only blowing warm air and the sleeper being extremly hot and stuffy. I was basically asked if I minded picking up a load that was left by a sick driver in Sacramento, CA and bound to Vista, CA.. just north of San Diego, CA. Other than being bound by a forced dispatch system i'm not one to turn down a load... especially when it's getting me closer to home. I informed her I would move at 400am but to send me the info. I promptly fell back to sleep.
 
I woke up at 400am to find I was picking up at the Campbell's plant in Sac... yes the soup company. I've seen the plant coming into the Con-way yard there but never had the option to get a load there, and i'm always down for something new. I think I was in the seat and moving at 403am.
 
I got there somewhere around 500am and was told to drive to the back of the plant, drop my trailer, bobtail back to the scale at the guard house, head in and get my load from shipping, head BACK to the scale, and was cleared to leave. Alright. That burned about 45 minutes and I was off. I had about an hour and a half leeway for my 300pm unload so I had plenty of time to refuel and grab some breakfast along the way... and still have plenty of time to make it through the LA traffic.
 

I took off straight down I-5 and was lucky enough to avoid the traffic in Sacramento and it was clear sailing. I made it to about 20 miles outside of Santa Nella, CA, where I planned to refuel when I received a message from my normal daytime dispatcher that the appointment time was set for 800am on Friday. That was perfect because I really was in the mood for a shower. So, armed with that nifty piece of info I headed into the Pilot at Santa Nella to refuel, grabbed my shower, headed across the highway and grabbed breakfast at the Denny's there before finally heading out. Eating out is a treat for me because, well frankly, i'm stingy with money. I'd rather spend it on bills than on myself so these little indulgences is a wonderful thing.

After an hour or so I headed out. Looking ahead I didn't see any place to park in Vista on my streets and trips so I decided to make way for the rest area about 20 miles north on I-5 to stop at for the night. The ride down the 5 was smooth sailing until I got into the LA area around 200pm. Right around Magic Mountain it picked up instantly and, I don't do well in traffic. Having done traffic enforcement as a cop it irritates me when people fail to use their turn signal, change lanes from the hammer lane to the granny lane (4 lanes away) at a high rate of speed to get around someone doing the speed limit, and feel they HAVE to get in front of the truck... and use the shoulder to get in front of me while merging from an acceleration lane so it was a stressful time indeed. But traffic never really stopped.. just got slow right around downtown, as expected.

I finally got to the rest area around 400pm and shut down. I had the pleasure of listening to the Chinook and Sea Hawk helicoptors flying in from the ship based at sea in the distance to the Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton to the east side of the rest area. It wasn't all bad though and it finally stopped somewhere around 600pm. I enjoyed the final American Chopper episode before finally passing out somewhere around 800pm.

I started off early, around 0715am and got up to the consignee about 15 minutes early. I was directed to a door, had to hire a lumper (someone contracted to unload the trailer), and was off in about 2 hours or so. I then started towards my next load consignor... the Con-way yard in Santa Fe Springs for my load headed to Phoenix, AZ for my hometime.

posted by Daryl at 12:58
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
subject: Dunnigan, CA

I woke up this morning and stumbled into the dispatch office right at the top of the hour. The going trend is that if I go in there early they tell me the load won't be ready until the top of the hour, so I thought i'd beat that trend up today. Well, today he tells me it's not ready and should be 20 minutes. Friggin' seriously? Can't this terminal get something right ONCE? Well, he tells me he was going to go to the dock stand and check on it for me. Good enough. He comes back 5 minutes later and tells me they were going to scale it to ensure it was legal, then bring the paperwork back. Well, 25 minutes later he looks at me and goes to check on it again. It was overweight, at something like 36,000lbs (34,000lbs is the limit), and they were going to restack the trailer. 30 minutes later it was finally ready to go. I ran the trailer over the scale myself and came up with 32,500 on the tractor and 33,200 on the trailer, or something similar. Good enough. I rolled through the guard shack and headed off.




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The trip itself was rather uneventful. However, I managed to get pulled into 2 separate scales on this trip. That normally means they want to check credentials, i'm close to max weight, or they intended to do an inspection. My luck has been recently that the California DOT has wanted to do some sort of inspection on me, so I expected it on the first scalehouse, just outside of LA, but instead was given the green light to proceed. Already then.

The second one I rolled through at the recommended 3mph and was told over the loud speaker to circle around for a reweigh. I did such and found I was legal on the tractor but the trailer, according to their scale, was at 34,100lbs. That meant to me that either their scale was off or the terminals scale was off. But, I was told to go ahead. That one mystified me.

Shortly after I called Mary to tell her about it and was told, "Your such a shit!" For the past 2 days i've been searching sites to find the perfectly priced and set of 12 roses to send her for Valentines Day, and made arrangements last night to have them sent overnight to the house this morning. Normally I would have had them sent on Sunday but since shes coming back out on the road with me next week I wanted her to enjoy them. She was thoroughly surprised when they were delivered. That there was indeed the goal. My mother in law called me and told me I did good. My good deed is done for the week... heh.


Well, I arrived in Dunnigan and swap the trailer out with the relay tractor/driver. I explained the debaucle with the scales and he opted to scale at the Pilot. I told him I wasn't sure who was actually off based on the 2 sets of numbers I saw. Well, the CAT scale came up with 34,436lbs... 436lbs overweight! That then really mystified me as to why the California DOT let me pass overweight not once but twice! I got lucky this time around and believe me, i'm not complaining in the least. Anyways, all I could do was apologize to the driver. I swear that yard scale was underweight but I've now learned not to trust the yard scales. I haven't had problems with any other terminal outside of La Salle, IL but i've agreed with Mary that anything over 40,000lbs gross load weight we will be scaling for accuracy. I'm not risking anything with this new CSA2010 (new rulings that stack up against the driver with a point system that could in the end cost us our jobs) in effect. No career is worth that!

I'm now sitting #1 on the board with 2.5 hours to drive and 5 hours to do it in and a highlight to go home. However, since my fleet manager has gone home for the night I don't suspect i'll be moving tonight.

posted by Daryl at 16:46
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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
subject: Las Vegas, NV

This post is a bit late so bare with me. I had a wonderful night at the Cluckers, or Wingers, or whatever the local joint I went to was on Sunday night. I got there just as half time ended and had the best cheeseburger and fries i've ever had. I ordered a local brew as well, which rivaled Sam Adams and kicked its ass by far. Not too shabby for less than $20.00. I rolled out after the game to attempt to play some more Star Trek Online, but to no avail. Instead, I just went to bed. I didn't have to be up early but I wasn't in the mood to stay up too late either.. until I caught a movie i've never seen before starting on HBO. At this point I can't remember what it was but I know my plan didn't carry out like I intended and I was in bed shy of midnight. I thought i'd sleep in, make breakfast, and finally head over the consignor around 1030am to pick up my load. Good plan for sure.

I was woken up around 700am on Monday by the qualcomm asking if I could make it to the consignor. That was perfect! I was worried I wouldn't be able to find a place to park at 900pm so hell ya i'd pick it up. I got dressed, ate, and was off. 1.5 miles later I rolled in, received my paperwork, backed into a dock, and was out right at my appointment time. Gravy. 4 pallets weighing 1300lbs. Really? It didn't even take up the apron area inside the trailer. But, I've taken a hit on the MPG recently due to heavy loads and mountains so I wasn't complaining. A light load once in a while is wonderful.



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The trip was rather uneventful to say the least. It was a straight shot down I-15 straight into Vegas. I finally arrived at the Petro on the north end and met my relay somewhere around 500pm. Great time and managed to get 7.5 MPG on that tank. I love being light. Finally on the board I was #3 and had no intentions of believing I would be out monday night.

I was woken up on Tuesday morning with my next load info. I was deadheading to Santa Fe Springs, CA to take a load that relays in Dunnigan, CA. A good 260 miles on Tuesday and 440 on Wednesday. That puts the week at just over 1,200 miles with 2 more days to go and an weekend pull left.

Well, Mary felt the driver job she was trying out wasn't for her after half a day and decided not to go back. She actually said those trucks felt nothing like being in our truck and, after some discussion, she decided to come back to the company... especially since the no longer has medical follow up appointments to attend. That was the primary reason for leaving... it was relayed to her the treatments would take a while to finish to ensure the issue was indeed gone. So, i'll be on my way home hopefully this weekend to retreive my co-driver after 3 days off!

posted by Daryl at 17:10
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Sunday, February 7, 2010
subject: Salt Lake City, UT

After sending the message in Grandview, MO that I was unloaded I sent a free text message telling them that there was nothing nearby and I was heading to the KCMO yard to wait on a load. Being #3 on the board I didn't expect it would take long, and I most likely would have received a load on my way up there.. .which was only 21 miles away. They didn't disappoint. I received a load immediately from the Kansas City, KS yard that should have been picked up at 1100am. That one puzzled me. There were others that were probably there earlier than me that could have picked up the load but I was going to get it nearly 2 hours late. In any case, I changed course and headed to KS instead of MO.

I got to the yard a little past 100pm, dropped my trailer, did a quick scan of the trailers in the docks, and headed to the office. I had a feeling after scanning the docks that I knew why I was chosen to pick up this particular load. there was only 1 trailer in the whole place that was placarded hazardous materials.. and I was probably the only one in the area holding hazmat... which made sense.

Well, I checked into the office and guess what? That load was mine. Not sure really what I was hauling but it was a ton of things with about 9 syllibals that I coulnd't pronounce. A quick pretrip and I was off.



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The trip was rather easy albeit long. I started up I-29 to IA 2/NE 2, which took me through Lincoln, NE. I met up with I-80 and followed that the entire way. I ended up stopping on Friday night at the Wal-mart in Lexington, NE. It wasn't my preferred stop as I would rather have had a shower but they have ample truck parking there and I was out of food. And, seeming that I was stopping a little later than I normally prefer I figured much of the parking available anywhere else would probably be in use by that time. I think I was finally shut down by 700pm or so when i finally went in to do my shopping. I know most drivers go out and eat but i'm too stingy to spend that much money. One could easily spend $200.00 a week on food out here. I spent $200.00 on my refrigerator, crock pot, electric skillet, and microwave when we first started teaming and I spend on myself around $50.00 to $75.00 a week on food, snacks, paper plates and silverware, and the like. I'm not one that has to snack all day long so my total cost is pretty cheap. The rest goes to Mary, who has greater cooking utensils at her hands while enjoying the comforts of our home.

Anyways, I think I was finally up and rolling around 500am. My intent was to wake up at 500am, which I did, but once the alarm went off I realized that was 500am CST. I forgot to take into account the time zone factor when setting my alarm. DAMN IT JIM! That extra hour allowed me to eat breakfast and make coffee though so I couldn't really complain. I was originally just going to wake up and go but this was a better unplanned route. I ended stopping at the Bosselman's Pilot in Big Springs, NE, off of I-80 and I-76 where I refueled and grabbed a shower before finishing the rest of the day. The rest of Wyoming was, well, what is there to say about a barren wasteland? I did get to see the sun for the first time in 8 days though.. and thats no exaggeration. I haven't seen it since I left Tucumcari, NM last week! I finally shut down in Evanston, WY at the Flying J. I could have made it further but I coulnd't guarantee I could make it to the truck stop I shut down at 40 miles outside of of SLC on my last beer run trip.

I ended up waking up and rolling at 300am and got into SLC, UT around 0500am. The yard is closed on Sundays so it was an easy drop of the trailer with the security guy taking care of the paperwork. He was, however, unsure if there were any empty trailers on the west side of the yard. I did a quick drive around and found he was indeed correct.. there were no empties. Not wanting to have the same ordeal that happened last weekend when I delivered at that Con-way yard I parked and walked around the docks looking in every one of them to find one that was empty. I struck gold on the 5th trailer. Thank god. I don't think I could have sat another whole weekend without a trailer waiting for a load.

I boarded right after and went back to bed... this 300am crap is for the birds. I don't seem to get the opportunity to sleep in anymore but, with this newest load I received this morning at 0830am, pickup in Bingham City, UT at 1100am on Monday and relay the load in Las Vegas, NV on Monday night i'll have a good morning of sleeping in. And, being I did my research, the truck stop i'm at tonight, about a mile away from the consignor and across the street from what appears to be a phenomenal Salt Lake City based Wings place, I know where i'll be hanging out tonight. Party on Wayne...

posted by Daryl at 15:21
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Friday, February 5, 2010
subject: Grandview, MO

I ended up sitting in Laredo, TX until somewhere around 700pm or so when I was summoned to the dispatch office for my load. I was given 3 choices... Waco for a Thursday morning delivery (300 some miles), somewhere in Mississippi for a Friday morning delivery (700 some miles), or Grandview, MO for a Friday morning delivery (992 miles). I ended up taking the Missouri load with a delivery time of 1100am on Friday morning. In hindsight I should have taken the Mississippi load.

The plan was to drive as far as I could Friday night, then hit our Lancaster, TX terminal to refuel sometime thursday afternoon and continue on to our headquarters in Joplin, MO. There I planned to refuel once again before shutting down for the night. Then I intended to get up as early as I could stand and roll into the consignee somewhere around 900am for, what I hoped would be, an early unload so I could go back on the board ASAP for a decent weekend pull.



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I hooked to my trailer and decided to leave immediately to get as much driving out of the way as I could by way of I-35 north. My 10 just finished previous to the message but I only managed to get about 4.5 hours down the road, stopping some 80 miles outside of Waco at a small podunk truck stop at about 1230am.

I took off after my 10 hour was up, or around 1030am or so. I had some 200 miles to our Lancaster terminal and I finally made it around noon. Since I had to stop anyways I thought that would be a good opportunity for lunch. I'm normally not one to stop if I don't have to but, if I must, I take advantage to eat and do anything else I need to as well. I was finally out by 1245pm enroute to our Joplin, MO headquarters terminal. The drive was rather uneventful up US 75 and US 69 shy of the 7 mile long traffic jam for a stalled vehicle just north of Dallas. This burned up most of my 11 hours and I barely skimmed into Joplin with a few minutes on it, somewhere around 600pm or so. Being that I had 170 miles left to go and I had to be there by 1100am Friday I went right to bed with the intent to shower and grab breakfast before heading out.

Come 400am I opted to skip the shower in lieu of an extra hour of sleep. I instead woke up at 500am, grabbed breakfast, and headed out. I left right when my 10 hours was up, thankfully, but as it turns out I would rather have stayed in bed. I took off and headed up US 71 out of Joplin. I started to hit a bit of small hail before running head on into blizzard like conditions just outside of Carthage, MO. It was bad enough that I had to maintain between 35mph and 45mph for about 100 miles. That made for a SLOW move. Thank god nobody passed me in an attempt to get further.. that surely would have lead right into an accident waiting to happen. From the rocking chair it appeared as though 3 or 4 inches accumulated rather quickly, making for slippery conditions real quick. I think I finally rolled out of it 60 miles from the consignee and was able to maintain highway speeds the rest of the way, getting there aobut 25 minutes early.

This place was a bit hard to find as the address on all of the buildings were not clearly labled and I ended up missing it. A 2nd pass around the block, and reading the full directions this time around, really helped too. I rolled in and had about an hour wait due to a backup of freight on their docks. I wasn't worried though, and I think my patience and courtesy to the receiving lady went a long way because she originally told me there would be a longer wait. I think I was finally out of there at 1230pm or so and heading towards our yard in Kansas City, MO to wait for the next load as there was nowhere to head after I was unloaded.

In other news, Mary found a job driving with a local tow company. It's part time, which allows her to go to school and volunteer at the hospital, and still make a decent living. She'll be driving a regular flatbed until she learns the job well enough, then hopefully she will graduate to the Class A truck, which would allow her to tow Class 8 vehicles, or tractor-trailer combinations, to get repaired. In any case, its a good fitting job despite how reserved she may be about the job!

posted by Daryl at 12:55
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
subject: Laredo, TX

I ended up sitting in Oklahoma City all freakin' weekend. So much for keeping me in mind, huh? Anyways, I woke up early on Monday morning and headed back over to the Con-way yard to check on empties. I ended up finding one in the door that was verified empty. After grabbing it I went back to the Petro to await a load, which I suspected would take a matter of an hour or so. I finally got about 40 minutes later. I was directed to head to Wichita, KS to grab a load out of the Coleman plant there. Yes, the camping supplier place. I opted to go back in and fight with the ATM over my pin again as I suspected I would need money for the I-35 toll between the border and southern Wichita. 10 minutes later I admitted defeat and decided to leave.

I checked my maps and set my GPS unit to avoid tolls and found I could easily take I-35 north to the first exit inside of the border of Kansas. I would then jump US 169 west and take US 81 north some 40 miles, head back east and catch I-135. It only added about 13 miles and 10 minutes driving time.. so it ultimately worked out.

I managed to get to the plant about an hour early. They were nice about it and let me back into the dock to await my 1230pm appointment. They started loading me with styrofoam coolers around 100pm and had me loaded at 200pm. Not too bad. I then had to head over to the other side of the plant with the paperwork given to me by the dock guy to be dispatched. Never done that before but the process was painful. The guy apparently gave me what appeared to be a packing slip with important info and dispatch placed/translated it into a bill of lading. I think I was finally out of there around 230pm.




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I ended up making it down to the Lancaster, TX to stop for the night. I was tired well before then thanks to the early start to get my trailer but I didn't want to leave myself with over 500 miles left on Tuesday. The 400am start was not on my preferred agenda either. However, between Mary and my mom calling me they kept me going. I think I finally got to the Lancaster terminal around 1030pm or so and immediately went to bed after a quick dinner.

Tuesday started out at 730am... not the optimal start time but not 400am either. After a quick fuel up and breakfast I was off. The drive was rather bleak and dreary. I don't think i've ever gone without seeing sun for more than 2 or 3 days.. but I don't think i've seen the sun since I left Phoenix to be honest. I had some 400 miles to get there and expected to get there somewhere around 200pm. It was due a 300pm so I was well ahead of schedule.

The drive was boring as usual after San Antonio. I expected to hit SOME traffic through there but it was flowing as well as could be and despite a few people that don't know how to merge and others who felt that slamming their brakes on in front of me was a good idea it was a pretty decent drive. Being that I was out of food I made a quick pitstop at Walmart in San Antonio before heading off. The final stop was right inside the city limits of Laredo to grab some subway as I really wasn't in the mood to cook. And, being that I had well over 1500 Pilot point, a free sandwich was a good idea in my eyes. I have to say though, that Pilot in Laredo is one of the rattiest Pilots i've seen short of Las Vegas, NV and Charlotte, NC. I don't suspect i'll be stopping there again.

After arriving around 230pm or so I went through or normal truck inspection, which took about a half hour or more thanks to only 1 inspector manning the station. I started to park my trailer in the southbound area of the lot and was sent a message containing directions to the 3rd party logistics company who is responsible for getting the trailer into Mexico for the final destination. As it turned out, since I was #42 on the board I was going to be making the delivery to the logistics co. Wonderful. These places are always so cramped with little room to maneuver. I really hate Laredo. By the time I found this out it was 315pm MST. The dispatcher at the window suggested taking it over on Wednesday morning by 700am MST as by the time I got there on Tuesday, near closing time, I would most likely be turned away. That worked for me, despite not being able to sleep in as I wanted. I was told the opened at 800am CST so I planned to get up at 700am CST, take a quick shower, and head over to the company. Apparently fate had other plans.

I slept wonderfully but found myself waking up at 830am CST. I had apparently shut my alarm off and gone back to bed... if it even went off. I'm not sure which happened. Anyways, I rolled out of the yard having been awake about 4 minutes. And, with no coffee in my system it was going to be a rough morning. As it turns out, I rolled in right at 900am CST to find the main guy was just opening the place. 800am huh? Yeah, so, that late wake up wasn't too bad I guess.

I rolled in and was the first to check in while I ended up being the last to get into the yard. There were 4 trucks total waiting to get in. The first ended up needing to be unloaded to their docks. He tried to maneuver around a huge sink hole to get back against the dock but no matter how he maneuvered he was worried he would hit that sink hole and roll, and came close a few times. The 2nd was one of my companies daycab drivers. He rolled in and was able to turn around for a straight line back so he could unload the trailer and began spotting the 1st driver. The 3rd was a UPS driver and was in and out in a flash, only needing 3 pallets to be taken off the truck. The final was me. I rolled in and had pictures of the load taken, then was directed to back into a spot parallel to the fence. It appeared easy but, after some thought and aid from the other 2 who needed a break, suggested I take it from the street. So, after 20 minutes of blocking the crossing of the street I was able to successfully get into the yard without hitting the fence or anything else in the way, including trees, telephone poles, and yellow concrete poles. It was a genuine pain in the ass.

After, I returned back to the terminal to bide my time. I was #17 on the board so I figured I had a while to go. That was at 900am. At 1230pm i'm still 14. I'm not very optimistic i'm going to get out of here today. I'm hoping I get something going west, however, as I'd like to get through home if even for a 10 hour break.

posted by Daryl at 12:30
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