The Yard - Amherst, WI

Chicago rush hour

...so was everybody going through downtown Chicago

7 miles of traffic

Some days you're the hammer and some days you're the nail. Everybody coming out of Illinois on I-80/94E happened to be the latter.

Russell, IL

When I last left you, road service was on the way - within an hour, I was told. Since I had some time to kill, I bundled up and tried to sleep a little. About three hours later, 2am if you lost track, the guy showed up. A quick fix of the battery cables and the truck was up and running. Only, by that time, I was on my 10-hr break and couldn't go anywhere. Nothing like spending the night on the shoulder of a busy interstate.

After fighting traffic all day, including a jaunt through Chicago rush hour, I've called it a night here in Russell.

Brokedown, Somewhere

It all started off so wonderful. I got to sleep late, no alarm, took a shower and ate breakfast. I picked up my load to Wisconsin this afternoon in Augusta, GA and was planning on stopping in Franklin, KY, which is less than an hour away. My truck had other plans, see, as it decided to shut down while I was driving through downtown Nashville. So I'm parked on the shoulder waiting for road service to show up. And my 14-hr clock expires in an hour. Good. Times.

Cayce, SC

Rewind to Friday. I'm not sure what they're putting in the water over in Alabama, but it appears to be causing old men in little cars to play chicken with young men in big trucks. The shipper in Cherokee is in an isolated industrial area with very little traffic, so when I leave I usually pull over in the center turn lane to do my paperwork and slide my tandems. Like I said, very little traffic. As per usual, I put my four-way flashers on and began slowing to a stop in the turn lane, only this time I see an oncoming car approaching in the same lane. Mind you, there is nothing back here except the paper plant which the road dead ends into, so there is no place to turn. The car is simply driving in the turn lane. Well, I'm big so surely he'll see me and get back in his lane. He's probably just playing with the radio. Any second he's going to get back in his lane. Any second now. Holy crap, he's going to run straight into me! As I was reaching for the air horn, he slows abruptly and cautiously moves back into his lane, then proceeds to drive by my truck at 5 mph like it was a police car with it's lights on or something. It was then that I noticed he probably grew up with Herbert Hoover. I'm thinking his field of vision only included whatever was 30ft in front of him, because that's about when he apparently saw my truck and decided he didn't want to play chicken anymore. The rest of the trip was much less exciting, fortunately.

Until today. I'm almost ashamed to tell this on myself, but hey, I'm here for your entertainment, so enjoy. I got to the truck today and was going to start it up before I put all my stuff in it. Hmm, that's interesting. The key is in the on position. Hmm, that's interesting. Nothing happens when I turn the key. That's because the batteries are dead, dead, dead, and dead (there are four, ha). An attempt to jump-start them from another truck was fruitless, so a wrecker was called in to perform a pull-start. For those unfamiliar with vehicles with manual transmissions, it is possible to start their engines by getting the vehicle rolling and releasing the clutch while the transmission is in gear. It's a great idea, but if your vehicle has air brakes and no air pressure in the tanks to release the parking brakes because it's been sitting all weekend, the process is a bit more challenging. Fortunately, that's why the tow-truck driver gets the big bucks. He was able to hook a hose from his truck to my tanks to get them pressurized. Next, he hooked a chain to the front of the truck to pull it with. My job, as he explained, was to release the brakes, put the truck in gear, and release the clutch after the truck started rolling. Oh yeah, and not to run into the back of his truck after the engine started. The trick worked like a charm and I managed to avoid trading paint, for which the tow-truck driver shook my hand. Apparently, he hasn't been so lucky in the past.

I was able to drop my load Sunday night and made it to a truck stop a few miles down the interstate, which is where I now sit. I don't have another load yet, which is fine by me - I don't have to set an alarm for the morning.

Capleville, TN

I had a very short, but wonderful Christmas, and am now back at work. Well, the Christmas part was good. The whole leaving the family in the middle of opening presents on Christmas morning and barely being home long enough to pack my bags was not so good. But I was pleasantly surprised upon arriving at the truck and finding I had a load picking up in Cherokee, AL going to Columbia, SC that will get me back home today, hopefully. So, I've got that going for me, which is nice.

What I don't have going for me is a trailer with a securely attached service brake line. It's real fun to be driving seventy-four thousand pounds down the road at sixty-five miles per hour and watch as nothing happens when you press the brake pedal. I still had tractor brakes, but those aren't enough. I actually discovered this little issue Tuesday after I picked this trailer up. The air line from the tractor to the trailer disconnects from the trailer while I'm driving down the road, thus leaving me without trailer brakes. So, I have to pull over and reattach the air line every couple hours or so. Therein lies another problem. With the hose disconnected, if the brakes are applied, air will just leak out the hose and drain the air tanks. When the pressure in the tanks gets too low, the emergency spring brakes activate, locking the wheels. Anyway, with the help of the engine brake, I am able to gear down to about 10 mph, which is slow enough to use the brakes to stop. Good thing I'm dumping this piece of junk after I deliver.

I wanted to make sure I had as much time as possible to get home today, so I managed to find a truck stop that's five minutes from my delivery. I'll even get to sleep late. Beautiful.

Trucker's Christmas

Last night when I got to the receiver, I opened the trailer doors and bumped the dock so the warehouse guys could get started first thing this morning and I could sleep in. I felt the forklift in the trailer around 6am. Normally, getting unloaded an hour ahead of my appointment time might bode well for the rest of the day, however today, I was going to Catawba, SC. As another driver I met today said, "Man, you know they hold hostages at that place!" And they did. For almost 5 hours. On a load that was supposed to be ready 2 hours before I arrived. So, after starting my day at 6am, I made it home around 8pm.

Tomorrow and the next day will be consumed by travel and Christmas gatherings, then it's back on the road. I will most likely be driving on Christmas day. And to rub salt on the wound, I received a satellite message today reminding all the drivers that beginning at noon on the 24th, there will only be one person on duty in the office until Monday at 7am. So, the employees that get to go home from work every day get two and a half days off plus the weekend? And the employees that live in a truck get a day and a half off and have to work on Christmas day? Sounds like somebody didn't get the memo about my hobby-trucker agenda.

Denmark, SC

After following someone's pathetic excuse for an attempt at directions, I managed to find the receiver three minutes before my 7am appointment time. Not like it mattered - I ended up getting detention pay because they took so long to unload their junk. Just as they finished, I got a beep. Great, another load into the Carolinas. It turned out to not be so bad. I got loaded in Kennessaw with seven pallets totaling less than five-thousand pounds. Love those light loads. I made it to the receiver in Denmark, SC this evening, but have to wait until tomorrow morning to get unloaded. Then it's up to Catawba to get loaded and head to the house.

Almost done?

I have a 7am appointment to get unloaded and I'm not sure what's after that, but I'm hoping to be home for Christmas very soon. Especially since I'm less than an hour away from home.

Remember the other day when I was forced to revert to relying solely on my XM radio for entertainment? I must have somehow offended the satellites because all the radio does now is display an error message regarding the antenna, despite that the antenna is plugged in and has an unobstructed view to the clear skies. In my desperation to fix the problem I made a poorly timed call to customer support, whose first line of troubleshooting involved unplugging wires and replugging wires, blah, blah, blah, stuff that you can't do at 65mph. Guess I'll call back tomorrow.

Cherokee, AL

I should have known better than to come down I-65 through Kentucky. My routing actually had me taking I-57 down Illinois, but at the time, the fastest way out of Chicago was I-94 and that was my priority. Anyway, get your act together Kentucky. Your roads suck. Still.

Seeing as how the consignee is a 24-hr facility, I slept in this morning and took my time getting started. That was a nice change of pace. I'm afraid I may be seeing a lot more "change of pace". That's what has most impressed me about this company-I've stayed very busy in what is typically seen as the slow period for trucking. So far, I've always had a new load assignment before I finished the load I was on, except maybe once. So when I got a beep, I wasn't too surprised to find a preplan. I was surprised to see that the load wasn't scheduled to be ready until two days after I delivered my load at the same facility. I dropped my loaded trailer tonight and checked in with shipping to see if the new load was ready. Now, I know it's asking a lot. I'm lucky if most loads are ready when they're scheduled to be, much less earlier than scheduled. Of course it wasn't ready. I was told it may be loaded by tomorrow, though. Works for me.

Remington, IN

Well, at least I'm not in Wisconsin. Try as I might to get away from the bad weather, I'm still in the bullseye of the coming ice storm. Perhaps I'll get to sleep in tomorrow.

I left Catawba yesterday morning and stopped in Whitestown, IN. It was a pretty smooth trip. As I was pulling in to Pilot to stop for the night, I wasn't paying much attention to the CB until I heard crude anatomical references and threats of bodily harm. Well alright, looks like the day wasn't a waste after all. Apparently, some radio-Rambos had pissed-off some passing driver enough that he decided to turn around and come back to the truckstop. Not wanting to miss the show, I grabbed one of the last spots and looked for some popcorn. The Rambos must have run out of ammunition, because they were a no-show at that point. Guess it's back to XM for my entertainment.

I made my delivery in Chicago this morning, dropped the rented trailer (remember the crappy trailers in Charlotte?), picked up an empty company trailer, and got loaded. Four different stops all in Chicago and the Chicago 'burbs. I didn't technically get lost, but I did miss an exit. I unexpectedly found myself on I-290E not knowing exactly how I was going to get back on track, with images of low bridges and laughing devils flashing in my mind. Thankfully, I encountered neither. I was still able to exit to the street I needed, albeit a little farther north.

Hopefully the parking lot won't be a big ice cube in the morning, but with all the snow and rain on the radar, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Catawba, SC

Uh, yeah. I'm just glad today is over with. Mud holes in Rock Hill, crappy trailers in Charlotte, and a load that's not ready in Catawba. I'm going back to sleep now.

Calhoun, TN

I should be home right now. That's my opinion, anyway. I was to deliver in Ringgold, GA this morning, which I did, then pick-up in Calhoun, TN a load going to Manteo, NC. Not bad. I'd get a nice trip to the Outer Banks at least. As I was being unloaded, which started about an hour and a half after I arrived, I decided to take a walk around the truck and check the tire pressure. That's when I noticed one of my trailer tires was missing a chunk of tread. So, I called the shop and was told to go a few miles back down I-75 to get the spare tire put on. At this point, it was 11am and I realized there was no way I could make Manteo by 8am tomorrow. After informing my dispatcher, she asked the obligatory "why not?". Uh, let's see...8am is 21 hours away. It would take over 11 hours to drag the heavy trailer over there, plus a 10 hour break, tire replacement, fuel stops, food stops, and rest breaks. So she canceled that load and gave me one to South Carolina. Crap. I just got out of that black hole. At the same time, she also assigned me a load out of Columbia going to Ringgold again. Whew.

So I check-in with shipping in Calhoun and am told the load that was supposed to be ready yesterday isn't going to be ready until tomorrow. No biggie. I ran hard last week, so I don't mind a little downtime for some r&r. I headed down the road to park at the truckstop for the night and sent a message to my dispatcher to let her know what was going on. I may have also mentioned I need to get to the yard to get an updated fuel tax sticker. Poof! My loads to and from South Carolina were promptly canceled. Now in their place is a load from Calhoun to Charlotte and one from Catawba, SC to Carol Stream, IL. Oh, but it can't be so simple. I have to drop the Charlotte load, not in Charlotte, but in Rock Hill, SC, go up to Charlotte to grab an empty trailer and then go down to Catawba to get loaded.

Apparently three is the magic number. There is some cosmic law that says all trips to the Carolinas must involve at least three stops, take an entire day, and leave you an hour farther than you can legally drive from any decent truckstop. And so it is.

Home again

After a rather productive week, I'm back at home. I should have learned by now, but I still set my alarm for 3am this morning. I hit snooze several times and reset the alarm 3 times before I actually got up at 6am. I just couldn't talk myself into getting up, especially knowing that I didn't have a deadline today and had plenty of time to get home. Oh well, I was home in time for dinner.

I made it to the shipper in Columbia around 11:30am and since it was a huge facility, the guard had to give me directions to the docks. Well, I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and found myself in a rather tight spot. Though, it wouldn't have been so tight if there weren't guard rails everywhere. Seriously, who needs 43598739457 miles of guard rail when the speed limit is 20mph?

The red arrow is where I took a wrong turn. The green arrow is where
I was supposed to go. The yellow lines are some of the guard rails.

Anyway, I found a worker outside that was nice enough to help me get turned around. I checked in with the shipping office and the guy said, "Oh, I've got bad news. It's going to be a live load." Now, the majority of our loads are live loads, meaning we have to sit and wait while they load our trailer, so no big deal. But since he made a point to mention it, I'm thinking it's going to be a while. So I ask. How long do you think it'll take? "Oh gosh, probably an hour." I was proud of myself for not laughing in his face. I didn't want to corrupt his over-achiever spirit with tales of my waiting all day for a load that should have been ready the day before. I went back out to the truck and half an hour later he came and told me I was loaded and ready to go. Awesome.

I had an easy drive back to Georgia that was uneventful, save for the brief slow down encountered in the picture below.

Oops in South Carolina

Came across this on my way back home this afternoon.

St Pauls, NC

Perhaps I shouldn't have been so gleeful when I last returned from Indiana, narrowly avoiding a trip through the snow and bitter cold of the North. Yesterday morning I left Greenwood, LA dark and early. Louisiana was mostly rain, but it snowed all the way across Mississippi. I almost checked my GPS to make sure I wasn't in Michigan. Poor visibility, snow-covered roads, and vehicles in ditches....in Mississippi. What the heck? I passed by a tractor-trailer on it's side in the median and watched as a car did a 180 and slid off the interstate and down an embankment. Fortunately, I didn't have any such experience personally. It cleared up in Alabama and I had a pretty smooth drive all the way to Atlanta. I parked at home just as my 11 drive-hours were up.

This morning, I delivered in Durham, NC and drove down to Fayetteville, NC to pick-up another load. I'll drop this off in the morning in Rock Hill, SC and head down to Columbia, SC to pick up a load that should get me through home.

Greenwood, LA

Bill Engvall, you can have this one: I left Arlington this morning and was trying to get to Carrollton. As I was driving up one street, I came to a newly built 4-lane divided highway (that was not on my map) and was forced to turn right. Now I'm lost. I quickly pulled out my phone and pulled up the GPS. A few turns later and I was almost back on route when the local "Constable" made a u-turn behind me and turned his lights on. Great.

"I stopped you because this isn't a truck route". Oh really, is that what all these houses mean? "License, insurance, and registration please....this registration expired in October". Sir, I believe it expires in October 2009. I explained where I came from, where I was going, and that I got lost at the new construction. Still, he just had to ask, "do you travel this route often?". Every day, sir, but this time I was driving with my eyes closed just for kicks. Here's your sign.

I made my delivery this morning and headed up to Carrollton to get loaded. After waiting until 2pm for my 1pm appointment, I went back inside to the shipping office and was promptly assigned a door. Thanks for coming and telling me I could back in like you said you would, Mr. Dock Manager. I was rolling by 4pm and made it back into Louisiana, just a few miles from where I stayed last night, at 7pm. Nothing like a full 14-hour day.

Shreveport, LA

After a relaxing weekend, I had some miles to knock out today. I figured if I wanted some decent hours remaining to give me any chance of picking up another load after tomorrow morning's delivery, I had better use all my hours today. I left around 6am and made it here at 6pm with just under 11 hours of drive time, so I should be set for a 3 hour drive to my drop in the morning and plenty of hours left for a pick-up (hint hint, dispatcher).

I stopped in Mississippi for a quick break this morning and almost broke a sweat. It's easy to forget it's December when the temperature is in the 70's.

The trip was pretty smooth, save for some torrential rain in Louisiana and the suicidal drivers that came with it. I came across one genius doing 45mph in a 70mph zone with no flashers on. I almost granted his wish. Yeah, better luck next time buddy.

Well, my belly is full and the bed is calling.

Home

It's quite amazing how much better I sleep when I'm at home. I've enjoyed a couple days of downtime here and will be heading back out early tomorrow morning. Should be in Texas Wednesday morning.

Catawba, SC

Okay, you can't let me do this. The whole not blogging for two days means I now have to work harder to remember what I've done the past 48 hours.

So, Thursday morning I left Remington, IN and was going to stop in Tennessee for the night, just north of Alabama, but decided to go on in to Cherokee since I had the hours. I think I got "Shaken Truck-Driver Syndrome" on I-65 through Kentucky. There's about a 20-mile stretch of "road" that the DOT should be sued for failing to maintain. I think I drove over a couple cars that had fallen into the holes. Anyway, I got to Cherokee around 9:30pm, though my appointment wasn't until 3pm Friday. About an hour after I went to sleep, I was awakened by the yard dog (trailer jockey) pounding on my door to let me know I could back into a dock. A few hours later, he pounded on my door again to let me know they were done. Good times. I was on my ten hour break, so I pulled out of the gate and parked on the side of the driveway with a couple of other trucks and went back to sleep. I was scheduled to pick up in Birmingham Friday, though I apparently failed to notice the whole 4pm appointment time thing. Not wanting to waste the day, I got an early start out of Cherokee, arriving in B-Ham, oh, about five hours early. Nice, Bret. Since I'd already started my 14-hour clock, I decided to go ahead and get fuel and grab a shower and some lunch at the Pilot up the road. Once I got back, they had me loaded on schedule and I was rolling by 5:30pm. Since I got started too early, my hours were almost up about the time I got to Atlanta, so I stopped at home for the night.

I drove to Catawba this morning and made my noon delivery on-time and am now waiting for my trailer to get loaded. Next stop....Texas. I'll be able to grab a day or two at home before delivering next week.

Top notch funny

If this doesn't make you laugh, check your pulse.

Remington, IN

The alarm went off at 5am and I hit snooze twice before I just reset it for 6am. Perhaps I should have gone to bed sooner. Nah.

I pulled out around 7am and shortly thereafter my dispatcher messaged me to find out when I'd be able to deliver. Apparently the load just had to be in Wisconsin today, so she arranged to have another driver meet me here to swap loads. Now he gets to go north through the snow and I get to go back south. Sucka!

I had a pretty easy drive today since I managed to miss all the rush hour traffic, though I hit a snag coming into Cincinatti. A pick-up truck was broken down in the left lane on the I-75 bridge across the Ohio river and traffic was crawling for a few miles. After that, it was smooth sailing all the way here. The load I've got now doesn't have to deliver in Alabama until Friday, so I might just have time to get the truck looked at tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just sleep in again. Yeah, that sounds good.

Candler, NC

You'd think with a full 14-hour work day available that I'd be able to make a little progress. Obviously I didn't, as I'm still in the Carolinas. It went something like this: I hit the road at six and made it to the shipper in Taylorsville, NC a couple hours later. Oh what's that, Mr. Guard? This facility closed down a month ago? Don't you worry, I'll be sure to inform my dispatcher. With two hours down the drain, I head over to Lenoir for my first pick-up. What's that? I need a pick-up number? Don't you worry, I'll call my dispatcher. After loading three items, I was off to my second pick-up on the other side of Lenoir. It wasn't too long before they had all twenty-nine pieces loaded and ready to go. However, when I went to the office, I was told that the pieces I was supposed to get in Taylorsville were going to be loaded at this plant and if I waited in the truck they'd let me know when they were done. So a couple hours later I go inside to inquire about the lack of progress.

Have you ever ordered steak in a restaurant and it took so long you jokingly asked the waiter, "did you have to kill the cow? Haha". Well that's basically what happened today. The three pieces of furniture I was waiting on to be loaded turned into almost thirty and they hadn't even been made. So after waiting all day, I finally go back to the office to get my paperwork, and in the middle of getting my bills together, the lady says, "oh, I've got an e-mail" and begins typing a reply. Huh? Lady, I don't care if you just won the lottery. Not once, but twice this happened. "Oh, I've got another e-mail". It'll be there when you get back, wrap it up! After all that, she reminds me that the load has to be in Wisconsin tomorrow. I bit my lip so hard it's still sore. I took my paperwork and left. In fairness, she seemed like a really nice, kind-hearted woman, she just wasn't very expeditious.

I made it to Candler, got fuel, and grabbed a parking spot. I'll try to get an early start in the morning and drive until I'm out of hours.

Rock Hill, SC

After a nice, long holiday weekend, I am back on the road. Thanksgiving with the family was good, as was some downtime at home. I finally got a mini-fridge in the truck and stocked up on drinks and snacks! Yeah, that's pretty exciting.

I started off in Georgia, delivered in NC, picked up and delivered in SC, and will be heading back to NC tomorrow morning to pick up a load going to Wisconsin. Wisconsin. What part of "I'm not a penguin" do these people not understand? Sure it's a nice long run, but you know, it's cold up there. Not to mention, the last time I entered Wisconsin I got a DOT inspection. I could do without all that mess.