Truckin'

Friday 2 Apr 2010 18:06

Taking hometime.

Posted: 3 months, 4 weeks ago

Monday 29 Mar 2010 8:08

After urgent messages over the Qualcomm saying I absolutely had to be here by 7:00 AM, I wait until almost 8:00 for the shipping guy to show up so he could tell me to hang tight until sometime after 11:00. This is a very common scenario.

Posted: 4 months ago

Saturday 27 Mar 2010 14:20

Back in Edison again, delivering the same load I did a week or two ago.

Posted: 4 months ago

Friday 26 Mar 2010 14:39

Back in Eden, swapping a partially loaded trailer from our Conover terminal for a fully loaded one bound for New Jersey. I suppose they'll add a few more things on to the trailer I'm dropping and another driver will pick it up next week.

Posted: 4 months ago

Thursday 25 Mar 2010 20:24

Stopped for an accident on US 19/74 in Nantahala Gorge. I can't see what's up there and apparently none of the other truckers here can see anything, either. If they could I'd be hearing all about it on the CB.

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Thursday 25 Mar 2010 18:21

I forgot about the rockslide on US 64 in Tennessee when I followed the routing off my Qualcomm and so I had to take the detour on TN 68. Yeah, I won't do that again. I didn't see any signs that said "No Trucks" and it started off nice enough as a 4-lane highway, but soon I was on a road not meant for trucks. It was very narrow with ditches and trees for a shoulder and a long series of tight turns and switchbacks that seemed to have no end. Many of these curves were blind ones around rock faces and required me to steer into the oncoming lane to keep the trailer on the road. Of course I couldn't see the oncoming lane or any vehicles that might be on it until I was already through most of these curves. I just kept it slow, kept my fingers crossed, and I finally made it safely through. Whew! That was some serious trucking.

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Tuesday 23 Mar 2010 9:55

I hit the road as soon as I was empty and I had managed to extricate all 70 feet of my vehicle from the hotel's cramped lot. I was hoping to get to the Love's truck stop in Richmond Hill before my 14-hour clock expired, and I pulled in just 3 minutes over my limit. Good enough for me.

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Monday 22 Mar 2010 18:41

Delivering these marble countertops and soapdishes to a Hampton Inn on St. Simons Island. It was easy enough getting in here to get unloaded but it won't be easy getting back out.

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Monday 22 Mar 2010 8:20

Well, when I picked up this load I wasn't too worried about the discrepancies between the bills and my load info, and being Sunday evening there wasn't much I could do about it, anyway. So this morning I got up and drove toward Griffin. When I got close I stopped and called the broker to get a delivery address and verify that I my delivery was, in fact, in Griffin, and not all the way down to St. Simons Island. I was assured Griffin was the correct destination and given an address directly downtown on the square in Griffin. Since my consignee was a Hampton Inn, I wasn't too concerned about the unusual delivery location. Of course, Google didn't find a Hampton Inn at the address I was given or anywhere nearby, but I still didn't worry because a hotel under construction probably wouldn't show up in a Google search.

But then I got to the address and found no hotel but a hotel design and supply firm, and they weren't expecting my freight, at least not in their office in Griffin. Uh-oh. A few phone calls and yep, there was a crew on St. Simons ready to unload. But they were gonna have to wait because my trip assignment ended in Griffin, which meant I wasn't authorized nor would I get paid for continuing any further, at least not until dispatch worked out a solution with the broker so that Watkins Shepard would get paid for the extra 500 miles. So I sat on my thumbs for a few hours waiting for the go-ahead to proceed, and it finally came 5 hours after I arrived in Griffin for my 8:00 appointment.

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Sunday 21 Mar 2010 19:35

Here at the Dalton terminal right at the tail end of a thunderstorm swapping my empty trailer for a loaded one I'm re-powering down to Griffin, GA in the morning. This load came out of Indiana but the original driver left it here for another driver to finish because he went home or his truck broke down or something. For all I know he (or she) could have quit or been fired, who knows. I do know that, as a driver, nobody ever tells me anything. In fact, I don't even know where specifically I'm delivering this load to. My info just says Griffin, and does have phone numbers for offices in New Jersey and Indiana, but both are closed on weekends. Yeah.

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Sunday 21 Mar 2010 10:51

Now I'm making this delivery in Doraville, just half a block from the warehouse out of which I used to haul those ugly antiques. I had a 6:00 AM appointment on a Sunday morning, and it's raining on and off in varying intensities. The unloading is going to be just as time-consuming as the loading was in Jersey, so I'll hit the sleeper and wait it out. Right after I eat breakfast, because these guys fed me, too!

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Saturday 20 Mar 2010 16:07

I woke up this morning having slept my hair into a cowlick on the backside of my head and couldn't get it to go down all day. But that was accidental. I don't have anything on this guy.

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Friday 19 Mar 2010 20:29

I don't know how you spend your Friday nights but every now and then truckers like me end up waiting around for our trailers to get loaded. By hand, with the loaders stacking boxes floor to ceiling for the entire length of the trailer. I pulled in here at the shipper right at 5:00 PM when most everybody else was heading home for the weekend, and settled in for a long process. And once the trailer is full I'll be headed to Doraville, Georgia.

It was a beautiful afternoon so I went strolling around the neighborhood and happened upon a colony of tropical birds living under a highway overpass. They had escaped, I assume, from captivity and managed to not only survive here but flourish. There were no pigeons roosting under this bridge, and these pretty green birds seemed intent on keeping it that way.

I spent the rest of the evening in the sleeper watching the Office and then, right before the guys finished the loading, somebody knocked on my door and handed me a big 'ol bag of food. How about that?

Posted: 4 months, 1 week ago

Friday 19 Mar 2010 12:30

It must be spring, because it's 73 degrees in Jersey!

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Thursday 18 Mar 2010 16:58

And then I drove over to Christiansburg and had lunch with my sister and her three kids. They brought a friend with them, too. Kids love the inside of a truck, especially the CB radio.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Thursday 18 Mar 2010 15:15

Stopped by my hometown and visited Grandma and Grandpa this afternoon. I hadn't seen them in a few years, so today was good. Grandpa came out to look at the truck for about half an hour.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Wednesday 17 Mar 2010 11:40

Dropped my load in Black Mountain last night and deadheaded over to the Conover terminal to find a few less trucks waiting than I saw last time I was here, but apparently still too many as I had no load when I woke up. It's a beautiful day, though, so I'm not complaining, and I could use a little time to go grab some groceries.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Tuesday 16 Mar 2010 21:54

Back in Black Mountain bringing Ingles a whole lotta Welch's juice and jelly. I could have used some of that jelly this morning...

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Tuesday 16 Mar 2010 3:46

Last night I made it as far as the Beckley service plaza on the West Virginia Turnpike before I had to shut down. When I woke up this morning I wasn't exactly enthused about the fast food options in the plaza food court so I walked up the hill to the Tamarack cultural center as a distraction, really. Tamarack is supposed to be a showcase for the best in West Virginia culture and craft, complete with glass-walled artists' studios in which artists produce some of the things for sale in the place. It also has its own food court, with the foodservice provided by the Greenbrier, not exactly a low-rent resort. The menu is centered around local comfort food, with upscale takes on bologna sandwiches and fried catfish, as well as a good 'ol chili dog. If the Greenbrier is going to to put their spin on a chili dog, by god I'll try it. And I'm not gonna skip the pie today, either.

While I was there I picked up a couple of postcards and a bluegrass CD as well.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Monday 15 Mar 2010 17:01

Picking up a load in the Erie, Pennsylvania suburbs, and it's taking me back to Ingles in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I caught a few views of a still frozen-over Lake Erie from I-90 on the way over to this shipper, and the views to the south weren't bad, either. The rivers and streams feeding into the lake cut some nice canyons in the hills up here.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Monday 15 Mar 2010 14:27

After resetting my 70 hours yesterday in Austintown, Ohio, I scooted over to Youngstown to deliver this light load of polyester fiber. The 8-foot rolls looked kind of like supersized fruit roll-ups, or giant Tootsie Rolls (the fruit-flavored ones.) Despite being light--each roll weighed about 20 pounds--unloading the whole trailer proved to be a fairly good workout. I didn't have to help unload, and I'm sure most drivers don't, but I like to get in there and pitch in whenever I can. I helped load this trailer in Charlotte on Friday, too, and the unloading today was much easier. These big rolls had to be stuffed and jammed into place the other day, and let me tell you, some of them put up a pretty good fight.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Monday 15 Mar 2010 9:21

I had dinner the other night outside D.C. with some old roommates along with someone who may be a part of my next tour after hometime. One of those roommates very excitedly told us in great detail all about this iPhone game wherein angry birds try to kill egg-stealing pigs. They do this by catapulting themselves at the pigs or by knocking rocks or buildings down on top of the pigs, or by dropping exploding egg bombs. Now, I'm not into video games at all and I never play them, but I am a man who appreciates silliness. So after Jack's highly enthusiastic rundown of the game the other night, I had to at least check it out. And that explains where all of yesterday went.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Saturday 13 Mar 2010 18:09

One thing I have in common with the stereotypical trucker is that I love a good chili dog. The last time I came down the West Virginia Turnpike I saw a sign advertising the state's best hot dogs, and needless to say, that aroused my curiousity. So today I stopped to investigate this hot dog stand in tiny Marmet, one of the many small communities that line the Kanawha River south of Charleston. The chili dogs passed my taste test, and now I have to get going so that I'll be passing Charleston right at sunset. You know, for consistency's sake.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Saturday 13 Mar 2010 17:05

Heavy rain on top of ground that's already saturated from snowmelt can lead to flooding. Powellton, West Virginia.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Saturday 13 Mar 2010 15:00

I'm back at the TA in Wytheville, where I shut down last night. All the truck stops I passed on the way here had tons of open parking spaces but for some reason this one was almost full. The only space I could get required me to back in blind-side, which means backing up a few feet, setting the brake, hopping out of the seat to stick my head out the passenger window for a view, and repeating 10 or 15 times until I've wiggled into the space without having hit anything. Fun, fun, especially in the rain. And, of course, the spot was on a slant with the head side of my bed lower than the foot side. But this was the only truckstop where I had a free shower credit, so my choices were limited.

On the way out to the truck after my shower, I saw one of the cutest truck drivers I've ever run across.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Friday 12 Mar 2010 17:17

Back in Charlotte, picking up my lightest load yet. Even with the whole trailer filled, front to back and floor to ceiling, the payload weighs just over 2000 pounds. This will make the drive up the West Virginia Turnpike a nice one.

Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Friday 12 Mar 2010 8:35

Delivered my load of canned beans and pineapples to a foodservice distributor in Linwood, North Carolina. While I waited to get unloaded I sat and listened to the frog symphony happening just over the hill. It was nice.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Thursday 11 Mar 2010 8:19

Delivering my load of furniture to the beautiful Garden State, and it sure lives up to its name at this place.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Wednesday 10 Mar 2010 17:40

Making a shower stop at the Pilot in Greenville, Virginia. I didn't think about it being 5:30 PM, prime shower time, until after I'd already cashed in my shower credit. Dang it.

But this truckstop has a cool little nature walk between the diesel islands and the building, so at least I'll have something to do while I wait for the grubby truckers ahead of me to wash themselves and free up a shower. Yeah.

Update: I got a pink towel again! What's up with these Pilots?

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Wednesday 10 Mar 2010 15:52

When I was a kid growing up in rural southwest Virginia, Roanoke seemed like a HUGE city. But I guess it's big enough that its gravity can stretch and distort a pickup truck.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Wednesday 10 Mar 2010 13:15

It's a beautiful day in Eden.

Eden, North Carolina that is.

And that is where I'm picking up a load to New Jersey, a load I wouldn't have gotten if a few other drivers in line ahead of me hadn't declined. Lots of drivers don't like New Jersey, or really anything north of Virginia for that matter. I, however, actually like going up to the mid-Atlantic and the northeast, for several reasons. So here I am, dropping and hooking while those other drivers continue to wait. Suckers.

Apparently this place must have really been busy at some time in the past, but now there are only a couple of small operations shipping out of this property.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Wednesday 10 Mar 2010 9:35

After the drop and hook in Black Mountain, I headed over to our terminal in Conover, hoping to maybe get assigned a load the same night. I mean, why not? I was repositioned from Dalton's dispatch area in Georgia because there was a shortage of trucks in North Carolina, right? That's what I assumed, so I was surprised to see over 30 trucks lined up waiting for loads when I pulled into the yard. And most of them were still there when I woke up in the morning, not a good sign. I wonder how long I would have waited for a load out of Dalton...

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Monday 8 Mar 2010 22:57

Made my delivery of kitchen cleaner and sandwich bags at the Ingles supermarkets DC in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I've been here once before, and like most grocery warehouses, it was a live unload last time, but this load was a drop and hook. Didn't really expect a drop/hook even though my load assignment indicated it would be. They're awful rare at these grocery warehouses, which can really be a frustrating pain in the neck to deal with.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Monday 8 Mar 2010 14:49

Today's even nicer than yesterday--73 degrees here in Fairburn, Georgia, where I'm picking up a load going to a DC I've delivered to before near Asheville, North Carolina. Just like last week, I'm being repositioned to NC so I can pull a load out of our Conover terminal instead of hauling carpet out of Dalton. Whatever.

This is one of those warehouses where they make you back to a dock, unhook from your trailer and pull away from it before they'll load it.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Monday 8 Mar 2010 10:17

There aren't any loads out of Dalton tonight because it's a weekend so I have until Monday afternoon to get up there. Which means I might as well go home and sleep in a full-size bed for a change.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Sunday 7 Mar 2010 18:11

I made my delivery in Braselton, Georgia, up near Chateau Elan, at a Home Depot distribution center. This was a drop and hook, meaning I come in with a loaded trailer and drop it in an assigned area for the DC staff to move to a dock and unload later. I then find one of my company's empty trailers, hook up to it and off I go. Most drivers prefer to drop and hook because they don't have to wait around for warehouse personnel to start the unloading whenever they feel like it. Of course, the drawback in this situation is that you don't know what condition the trailer you're picking up is in. Today is a good example: the first empty I found had two flat tires, one completely loose from the rim, as well as four inoperable lights. The driver who dropped this trailer either didn't notice the problems (?!) or didn't care, leaving it for me to deal with. I'm 45 minutes from my house but now I have to call road service out and wait to get this thing fixed. Or, I guess I could try to find another empty and stick it to the next driver, just like was done to me, but I don't have another load to pick up anytime soon so I'll just deal with this now.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Sunday 7 Mar 2010 0:34

Stopped last night at the Pilot in Gaffney and woke to the warmest day I've seen since the last time I was in L.A. And I finally got my jelly biscuit for breakfast this morning at the Waffle House across the street.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Saturday 6 Mar 2010 21:17

Stopping again at the TA in Wytheville, this time for fuel. And by the way, if you're ever in Wytheville and you want to sound like a local, it's pronounced "Wiffle." Just like a wiffle ball.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Saturday 6 Mar 2010 20:14

This is the East River Mountain Tunnel separating Virginia from West Virginia on I-77. It is one of only two mountain road tunnels in the U.S. to cross a state line.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Saturday 6 Mar 2010 18:05

For some reason, I every time I drive through Charleston, West Virginia it's right at sunset. Every time. I'm not complaining, it's just a little odd. Of course, the last two times I was southbound on I-77 it was snowing, just what you hope for on twisty mountain roads. Today, however, the weather has been beautiful.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 22:27

By the time I was loaded, my 14-hour clock had only fifteen minutes of driving left on it, and that was just enough to get me to the Pilot in Richfield, Ohio. Truck drivers have limits set by the federal government on the hours we can drive and work each day: basically we can drive for 11 hours each day but we have to fit those 11 hours into a 14-hour window. Once I begin my pre-trip inspection in the morning, the 14-hour clock starts ticking and there is no stopping or pausing it. Fourteen hours from the moment I start my day is when I have to stop driving. If I need to drive my full 11 hours in a day I only have 3 hours of extra time in which to fit my other duties like fueling, unloading, or inspecting as well as lunch, bathroom breaks, etc. That doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room, but most days don't require 11 hours of driving. In order to reset the 14-hour clock and drive again, we have to take a 10-hour break. There is also a weekly limit of 70 hours in 8 days, and that 70 hours includes all the time that isn't driving but is still considered on-duty time. Things like pre-trips, fueling, loading or unloading. It might seem a little strange, but the number of hours I worked 8 days ago directly affects how many hours I can work today. The 70-hour clock can also be reset by taking an uninterrupted 34 hours off-duty.

So, today I got started at 6:45 AM, which means that I couldn't drive past 8:45 PM, which is exactly when I pulled in to this Pilot. I had only driven a total of 6 hours for the day, but I couldn't go any further because my 14 hours were up. But, being Friday night there were several parking spaces still open so I found an easy one and backed in. If this had been a weeknight this lot would have been full hours ago but it worked out fine for me this time.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 17:12

I can't stand dirty glass, especially when driving at night, so while I wait to get loaded here on the edge of Cleveland I'll take care of a little housekeeping.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 14:17

For the last few months, every time I've been to the company terminal in Austintown the parking lot has been a slippery sheet of ice. It might not be apparent in the photo but that mud is ankle deep. Spring may be on its way but I think I might actually prefer the ice--at least I didn't have to change shoes for ice.

This is where my load finals out so I'll drop this trailer and hook up to an empty one, but I only see one empty here and it's a really old one. Lucky me.

Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 12:13

Delivering my second stop in Strongsville, Ohio. This one gets three small pallets.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 11:05

The state police had pulled over this rental truck and were searching its contents when I passed by. The whole thing was big news on the CB and drivers were talking about it for hours.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 10:10

This is my designated fuel stop on this trip, and although the fuel routing software wants me to fill up I'm only gonna pump 100 gallons into the tanks. You see, this trip is almost over and in a few hours I'll be picking up another load. But I don't know anything about that load or how heavy it will be, and if I were to fill up now I could end up with an overweight load. A gallon of diesel fuel weighs almost 8 pounds so even without filling the tanks I'm adding almost 800 pounds to my tractor. If I figured right my tanks should be about half full when I pick up that next load, and that will leave me with some wiggle room on my axle weights.

This is also where I finally got some breakfast. It wasn't bacon and eggs, and there were no biscuits and jelly, but it sure did the trick.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 8:37

I have two intermediate stops on this load and the first one is in Pittsburgh. I have five small, stackable pallets for this customer and they would have fit in a cargo van, which would have been a more appropriate vehicle to navigate this business park. There are loading docks attached to the small warehouses that are tucked alongside this little street, but those docks are almost impossible to back a 53' trailer into with a sleeper cab truck. So a forklift came out with a chain and we dragged the pallets to the back of the trailer and the forklift took them off from there. A little something different to start out the day, I suppose.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Friday 5 Mar 2010 1:47

I stopped here at the Petro truckstop for the night, and drove about 20 miles out of route to do so, because my directory listed it as having a 24-hour full-service restaurant. I was kind of diggin' the idea of bacon and eggs for breakfast in the morning, with a jelly biscuit to finish up. But I was fooled, because the restaurant has closed, and unless I want Pop Tarts i will get no breakfast here.

I did see a meteor streak over the lot right as I set my brakes for the night, almost as if on cue. Like to say to me that all was right with the world. I had just reached the end of a particularly painful radio story as I drove into the truckstop, a story of a man with a two-year-old daughter dying of cancer at the same time as his career as a comedian was taking off. That story was heavy on my mind when the shooting star appeared, and just as quickly disappeared. As if on cue.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Thursday 4 Mar 2010 18:31

It's a pretty drive through the mountain state, and it strikes me that the Appalachians aren't as different from the Rockies as I once thought. For the most part, West Virginia looks a lot like western Montana. The trees on the mountains in Montana are almost all pine; here they're overwhelmingly deciduous, and there are a lot more of them. But there really seems to be more similarity than difference.

Is this one of those things where everybody goes "Duh, mountains are mountains" and I'm the only one that ever questioned that?

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Thursday 4 Mar 2010 16:59

The last northbound tollbooth on the West Virginia Turnpike, and the total paid for this trip was $20.25. (The attendant was much friendlier than this picture might suggest.)

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Thursday 4 Mar 2010 14:03

Stopping for Subway at the TA in Wytheville. I grew up in southwest Virginia, about 25 miles up the road, where all my family still lives. I have a mailing address in Atlanta but really this truck is my home. Of course, it's good to be back in Appalachia.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Thursday 4 Mar 2010 12:28

Going up and across Fancy Gap on I-77, just out of North Carolina into Virginia.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Wednesday 3 Mar 2010 17:34

I deadheaded from Charlotte up to our terminal in Conover, North Carolina which serves the furniture industry in the Hickory area. Loads are usually dispatched out of here around midnight but i was just told I'd probably have to wait until Thursday morning. Okay then.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Wednesday 3 Mar 2010 14:33

Facebook made it possible for me to meet up with high school friend Melba for lunch today. And it just so happens that right beside the truck stop is a dingy little barbecue shack. When I'm looking for southern barbecue, dingy is what I want to see and lunch was good. Couldn't have worked out better.

Posted: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

Wednesday 3 Mar 2010 10:58

I didn't get my shower this morning because the Pilot in Gaffney had a water problem, so I went to the consignee unwashed. Once I was empty I headed over to the dumpy little Pilot on Statesville Avenue to get my shower and some breakfast. They gave me a pink towel, which seemed a little odd for a truck stop, but hey, maybe they're gearing up for Easter.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 3 Mar 2010 10:52

Quickly and easily unloaded at the consignee in Charlotte. Took a picture of snow-covered kudzu next to the warehouse.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 3 Mar 2010 1:33

I stopped for my federally mandated ten hour break in Gaffney, South Carolina, home of the giant peach water tower. I still have about an hour of driving to my consignee in the morning but I chose to sleep here because I can get a free shower at this truckstop in the morning. I have several shower credits saved up with various truckstop chains but none of those chains have locations near Charlotte. Well, there's a Pilot in Charlotte but it doesn't have many parking spaces and there certainly wouldn't be any open ones this late in the evening. Besides, that Pilot is a few miles past my delivery point, so I'll stay in South Carolina, get my shower, and keep my out-of-route miles down.

Posted: 5 months ago

Tuesday 2 Mar 2010 19:54

I'm making my way through the north Atlanta suburbs, only about 20 miles from my house but there's no time to stop. This load has to be delivered tomorrow morning in Charlotte and I have to take a 10 hour break sometime before I make this delivery. So close yet so far.

Posted: 5 months ago

Tuesday 2 Mar 2010 15:36

Picking up my load in LaFayette, Georgia. I'm taking this one to Charlotte, North Carolina. Yeah, really racking up the miles this week.

Posted: 5 months ago

Tuesday 2 Mar 2010 14:42

This is Georgia. In March.

Posted: 5 months ago

Tuesday 2 Mar 2010 11:01

Woke up to snow this morning in Dalton and it's still coming down. There must be too many trucks here for the available freight because I didn't get a load out last night and obviously neither did all the trucks parked next to me at the Pilot. So that explains the short brokered load to Charlotte I've been given. I guess they need trucks at our terminal in Conover, North Carolina. We'll see.

Posted: 5 months ago

Monday 1 Mar 2010 17:20

Made it to the terminal here in Dalton and dropped the trailer I picked up in Calhoun, which, interestingly enough, had no brakes. So I had to go over to the shop and grab an out-of-service tag for the trailer so that nobody would take it later. (They might not notice it had no brakes until it was too late. Not many drivers do pre-trips as thoroughly as I do.)

It was warm and sunny in
Calhoun half an hour ago; now in Dalton it's overcast and getting cold very quickly.

Posted: 5 months ago

Monday 1 Mar 2010 16:16

Got a short backhaul to the terminal today: picking up some carpet from the Mohawk mill in Calhoun, GA. Yesterday I put air in all 8 tires on my trailer, which I just dropped empty here in exchange for a loaded trailer. No waiting for a live load today. But the loaded trailer I'm picking up had all 8 tires on the trailer overinflated by 10-20 pounds. Not any more, they're all right where they're supposed to be. And that was my good deed for the day, because I'm only taking this trailer about 16 miles up the road to our terminal in Dalton, where I'll drop it for somebody else to deal with.

Posted: 5 months ago

Monday 1 Mar 2010 6:42

Delivered my load of pizza sauce to the consignee in Forest Park. Surprisingly quick and easy.

Posted: 5 months ago

Monday 1 Mar 2010 4:08

At home for the night, but I have to deliver this load in Forest Park at 5:30 AM. After that, I'll be headed up to Dalton to wait for a load out tomorrow night. Went to Pozole for dinner and got a present from Susannah.

Posted: 5 months ago

Sunday 28 Feb 2010 0:04

I scored an invite to Steve Kaufman's annual pickin' party but I never expected to actually be in Tennessee on the scheduled date. But, it just so happened that I was in Tennessee and even better, I could take the night off and go party. I was able to surprise a few people there that I know from Kamp and even pick a few. It was great to socialize a bit with friends and I even got some of Donna's award-winning chili. And now I get to go home for a night. Pretty good weekend, I'd say.

Posted: 5 months ago

Saturday 27 Feb 2010 15:16

Parked in Dalton, Georgia last night and I'm gonna take a 34 hour reset here before I go home tomorrow in advance of my delivery in Forest Park on Monday morning.

Posted: 5 months ago

Saturday 27 Feb 2010 0:52

Comin' down Monteagle mountain with a heavy load. Go listen to the Johnny Cash song. Yesterday was his birthday, anyway.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 20:46

Fuel stop in Horse Cave, Kentucky. Cashed in $30 of frequent fueler rewards points for an CB power meter. I'm not sure if I've cashed in any points with this truckstop chain before today but I just used up 300 gallons worth of credit.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 19:50

Gettin' the truck washed. Hopefully it'll stay clean for more than a day or two. Now I'll have a nice sparkly truck to pull around my filthy trailer. I also spent $70 on new CB antennas. Goodness gracious.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 15:54

This load is another heavy one, right around 43,000 pounds, so I need to scale out and make sure my axle weights are legal. It was close--I only had about 80 pounds to spare on my trailer axles.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 14:23

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 14:20

Sitting at the shipper's dock waiting to get loaded. I think the product is being loaded directly off the production line because I only feel the forklift drive into the trailer every ten minutes or so.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 13:34

Following bad directions to my shipper I run across an accident investigation that's blocking the road. Being in a residential area with small streets, a detour is simply not an option. So I get to wait.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 11:07

Delivery in Louisville. The guys doing the unloading are not, shall we say, in the greatest of moods.
I had to jackknife the trailer into this basement dock with very little room to maneuver and I was advised three separate times not to cut my wheels hard because there's fresh gravel. Well, when you have to back around the outside of 75 degree interior angle there's no way to do it without cutting your wheels really hard. Whatever, I'm in there, I didn't get stuck and I can get rid of this 44,000 pounds of talc.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 2:47

Stopping for the night in Memphis. Memphis, Indiana.

Posted: 5 months ago

Friday 26 Feb 2010 0:41

Since it was late at night I took the freeway straight through Indianapolis instead of going around 465 like usual. It was intensely exciting.

Posted: 5 months ago

Thursday 25 Feb 2010 20:59

Stopped for break at the Flying J in Lowell, Indiana. Or is it Hebron, Indiana? Listened to the truckers argue over it and the merits of GPS on the CB for twenty minutes or so.

Posted: 5 months ago

Thursday 25 Feb 2010 19:05

I could just make out a dim, distant Chicago skyline from the highway.

Posted: 5 months ago

Thursday 25 Feb 2010 3:28

Calling it a night in Madison, Wisconsin. The temperature here, at 3:00 AM central time, is 14 degrees, the highest I've seen since I left Billings, Montana. Last night it got down to 19 below zero with wind chills around 30 below. Today I went in to the truckstop for lunch, at noon, and the outside temperature had only climbed to -2. That was after almost six hours of direct sunlight.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 24 Feb 2010 22:20

My designated fuel stop at the TA in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 24 Feb 2010 21:47

St. Paul skyline at night.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 24 Feb 2010 21:35

Minneapolis skyline at night.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 24 Feb 2010 20:25

Fuel stop at the Pilot in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The fuel optimizing software plotted my next fuel stop in Wisconsin but it doesn't know that I'm hauling a heavy load and will run out before I get there.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 24 Feb 2010 15:21

Stopped to refill my drink at the Petro in Fargo. As I was leaving Fargo I spotted two camels in a pasture by the freeway. It was four degrees outside with subzero wind chills. Was not expecting that.

Posted: 5 months ago

Wednesday 24 Feb 2010 2:29

Shutting down tonight in Jamestown, North Dakota. I had planned on driving all the way to Fargo tonight and Gary, Indiana tomorrow night which would leave me about five hours to Louisville on Thursday. But I decided to even the next few days out a little more so I'm stopping short tonight.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Wednesday 24 Feb 2010 0:06

Sunset on the northern Plains.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Tuesday 23 Feb 2010 20:34

Passing by the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. One day I'm gonna get all up in that piece.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Tuesday 23 Feb 2010 19:25

Stopped for food in Beach, North Dakota where the temperature outside is 8 degrees. Beach, my ass.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Tuesday 23 Feb 2010 17:22

Saw a cow with a fistula grazing by the side of I-94.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Tuesday 23 Feb 2010 17:00

Rest area near Rosebud, Montana. Run along little dogie.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Tuesday 23 Feb 2010 16:46

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Tuesday 23 Feb 2010 1:51

Shutting her down tonight at the big truck stop in Billings. I've got 42,000 in the box and it's destined for Louisville, Kentucky, minus the one pallet that I had to give back. I left the shipper in Sappington and scaled out at the closest truck stop only to find out that I was overweight and would have to return to the plant to have part if the load taken off.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Monday 22 Feb 2010 18:45

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Monday 22 Feb 2010 18:41

Deadheaded here to Sappington, Montana from Butte to get loaded. I'm picking up at a mineral mill that's basically out in a ranch pasture in the middle of nowhere, not far from the headwaters of the Missouri River. Assuming loading goes quickly I'll probably try to make Billings tonight and shut down there.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Monday 22 Feb 2010 16:25

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago

Monday 22 Feb 2010 15:17

Just delivered 44,000 pounds of beer to a distributor in Butte. Now it's east toward Three Forks, Montana to pick up my next load.

Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago