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| Date |
Activities in
August 2005 |
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Back to July
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I woke up early. I hadn't had that much sleep,
but I wanted to get to sleep early tonight because I would be
leaving tomorrow really early. I browsed the Internet, and
worked on the blog. It was 0900 when I did leave. I
drove for four hours. I arrived at the OC in Seville OH with
only fifteen minutes left on my 70.
I had a light on the trailer fixed, then parked for the
day. I then went to see about buying a satellite radio.
I had been pricing the two systems, XM and Sirius, for awhile.
I was thinking Sirius for the NFL, but I was more expensive, and
football is usually just Sunday. XM has baseball, which is
almost any day from April to October. The big deal here is
that the XM system had just gone down to $50, the company was
selling them, and I had a $50 store coupon from when I did spring
training. I purchased it and installed it.
I took a shower, ate a dinner, and sacked out about 2000, I was
sleeping by 2100.
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| 2 |
I had set the alarm for 0230, but woke at 0100.
I tried to go back to sleep, but after ten minutes, got up and
prepared to leave. I was on the road at 0145. At this
hour of the morning, the road is rather empty. This was a
benefit in OH because they are working of the road all over the
place, and there was no traffic backups. I even managed to get
through Indianapolis before rush hour. On the other side of
Indie, I started to get sleepy, and because I had left early, I
stopped to sleep for an hour. I slept good.
Back on the road, it was a constantly checking my progress.
When I had check out the trip yesterday, I determined that I might
not get to my destination in eleven hours of driving. If
maintained the legal speed limit exactly, I should get there with
just enough time left to drop the trailer and park. If
anything slowed me up, I could far fifteen minutes or more
short. Once I had driving eight hours, it look like I would
make it.
As it turned out, the distance was ten miles shorter than I
thought, and IN had risen their speed limit for trucks from 60 to 65
mph. Along with missing traffic in OH and rush hour in Indie,
I arrived with thirty minutes to spare.
Because to load was supposed have been delivered yesterday, they
wanted to unload it right away. As soon as a dock opened up I
backed in, and was unloaded in less than an hour. My next
order was to take an empty up to Granite City IL. I now had an
empty. I drove less than a mile over to a small truck stop,
and stopped for the day. |
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Simple day. I couldn't sleep, so I got up
early. I drove an empty trailer to Granite City IL.
There I traded it for a full load. Shortly after starting the
trip, I stopped for fuel and scaling the rig. The load was
over 45000 lbs. I tried to shower at the same location, but
there was a waiting line. I showered at Indianapolis on my way
to Columbus, where I stopped for the night. The delivery was
still two days out. |
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Another simple drive. Drove about nine hours
into NY on I84. Stopped at a Pilot station for the
night. Talked with other drives about the companies they
worked for. Everyone else seems to have a better
package. I don't know who to believe. |
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This was supposed to be another simple day. I
took a shower, and left at 800. The first part of the day was
on roads that I had driven before. Once I got into CT a ways,
I was on new roads until I got to I90 in MA. I drove through
the new states of MA, NH, and ME. The load was going to Maine.
Looking at a map one might think that this is pretty far
north, but Seattle is farther north. However, this is
the farthest I have ever gone east in the United States.
The drive should have been
about 4.5 hours, but traffic, steep hills, road construction, and
bad directions added about an hour to the trip. I delivered
the load within the delivery window, but later than the system
thought I would be available. Usually this is not a problem,
and the next load had an open pick up time.
Before I could go and get the load, I had to pickup an empty
trailer at my delivery point. The only trailer there was a
container. The warehouse wanted it off the lot. I called
my TL. I got instructions to take the container to a drop
lot. However, I was driving away from my next load. The
drop lot was a truck stop where I was able to fuel. Next I was
told to go get an empty trailer that was even farther from my
load. More bad directions ate up some time. I got the
trailer, and drove to my pick up point. I had lost about three
hours with this fooling around. After I got the load, I drove
about two more hours, and stopped at the truck stop where I dropped
the container. Used the whole 14 hours. It was 2145. |
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I woke up at 0630, but I couldn't go until 0745.
Ate breakfast, and checked my available hours, and the distance to
delivery the load. Streets & Trips showed that it would be a tight
trip. Company policy is to use 50 mph to figure a trip.
It would take 25 hours to do the trip. That is exactly what I
had available for the next three days, but I wouldn't get the load
delivered until 0500 on the 8th. It was due at 0300.
Also, given the recommend route, to stay away from toll roads, would
insure that the load could not be delivered until the 9th. I
would run out of time, and be an hour away.
A much faster route would use the MA Pike, and the NY toll
road. I didn't need permission to take these roads, so I would That
saved about 50 miles, and made for a fast, even drive.
I called my TL, and asked to use the OH and IN toll roads.
Experience showed that I would save an hour and a half over the
recommended route. Maybe more because IN raised the speed
limit for trucks from 60 to 65 mph. They said okay.
I took off at 0745, and drove with only three stops. I got
to the truck stop in Erie using only 9.5 hours. I used an hour
less than I thought. I now have 10 hours to use tomorrow.
I should be able to get within one or two hours of my delivery
point. More important, I should be able to get far enough to
take a ten hour break before I drive the one or two hours, and still
get there by 0300.
I have driven I90 in NY before. But, on each of the other
three times, I crossed over into Canada at Niagra Falls, and drove
through Ontario to Detroit. This was the first time I had
driven I90 down to the PA border.
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Got up at 0430, and left at 0500. At first I
thought I was going to have to deal with rush hour traffic in Cleveland,
but remembered that it was Sunday. Cleared Cleveland, and got
on the toll road. The trip went fast. Maybe it was
because I was more familiar with the roads, or I was more rested,
but it seemed like I got to I94 in no time at all. I arrived
at my stop for the night in 9.75 hours. I had stopped for
breaks three time for one hour. If I took a ten hour break, I
couldn't leave until 0200. I am about an hour away. I
may split break, and do a eight hour break, with a two hour break after I
get my next load, which I know about at this time. |
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I took a ten hour break, and left at 0200. I
arrived at the delivery point at 0259. Dropped the load,
picked up an empty, and headed for my next load. I picked up
the load, and drove back to the flying J. There, I went back
to sleep for four hours.
When I woke, I scaled the load and took off for Bloomington
IL. There I fueled up, and stopped for the night.
For the whole day, I only had six hour to work. I only used
five. I want to balance the time with tomorrow, and I would
now have 5.25 to work.
It was early afternoon. I found out I could take a bus to a
theater. I did. I watched two movies. The bus had
stopped running, so I walked a little over two miles back to the
truck. Hey, I needed the exercise.
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No rush today. I took a shower, and ate
breakfast. There was a truck wash across the street, and I had
coupon from the company. It was still good, so I had the truck
washed. Wow, the truck really shined. The wheel rims
gleamed.
I took off at 0900, and drove three hours. I took a long
lunch, and got on line at a Flying J. I drove the last 2.25
miles, and got to a small Pilot station in KY. The parking lot
was real small, and no matter where you parked, you were on a hill
such that the head of the bed was downhill. I had to turn
around, and sleep backward. If I sleep head down, I could have
a acid reflux problem. It has happen before, and I had a bad
stomach for a week. |
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Tomorrow is the day I am supposed to get home, and I
am driving away from WI. I am about 4.5 hours from my delivery
point. As I drove towards the delivery, I received orders for
my next load. I would take and empty to Knoxville, and pick up
a relay load there, and head north. This looked good. I
figured I could get back to where I started the day, near Louisville
KY. This should put me within eight hours of home.
I delivered the load, and looked for an empty trailer.
Another driver there said that he had looked in 25 trailers, and
they all had pallets in them. I check a dozen or so to make an
effort. I sent a note that no trailers were available.
While I waited to a response, I ate lunch. I got tried of
waiting for an order, so I called my TL. Even that can take a
while. Finally, I was told that I should just bobtail 60 miles
to Knoxville, and pick up my load.
I got the load, and headed north. I had about 4.5 hours of
driving time left. I stopped at a Flying J after 3.5
hours. I could have made it into IN, to a Pilot station, where
I could shower, but here I can get online. |
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Today should have been an easy day. With six and
a half hours of driving to deliver the load, then an hour
home. As I closed in on Gary IN, I received a whole bunch of
orders. Checking them showed that most were duplicates.
The main one said to pick up a load in Gary, and take it somewhere
47 miles away. Looked easy. Checking it closer showed
that it was a two hour live unload at 2000. That would have
gone beyond my 14 hours. I had started at 630, in order to get
home early. I sent a note to that effect. They said do
it anyway. I said that was not the arrangement, and they
better stick to it. I have been out for three weeks, so that I
could get back today. They took me off the load.
I still had to get an empty to take back home. I was
supposed to get one at the delivery point, but they didn't have
any. By the time I was given the location of an empty, it was
rush hour. Picked up the trailer, and went home. Arrived
at 1830, 9 hours work for the day.
End of tour 15 |
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Start of tour 16
Arrived at the lot a little late. I realized that I had
forgotten to turn of the air conditioning in the house, so I had to
go back. No real loss. I picked up an empty and went to
Lake Zurick IL. There I was live loaded. it was almost 1300
before I really got going. Drove an hour, scaled, and ate
lunch. There was no rush, and I could have stopped anytime
between 2000 and 2200, but I decided to go to the W. Memphis OC to
have the trailer looked at. I got there at 2300. The
trailer did have a brake problem, and they were able to fix it over
night.
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The long drive yesterday made for a short drive
today. I couldn't leave until 930. I was heading south,
and in less than an hour was in MS on I55 heading toward New
Orleans. I arrived at my destination NE of New Orleans at
1800. I dropped the load and picked up another. I drove
close to Baton Rouge, where I stopped for fuel and a shower. I
continued driving for an hour and three quarters, and stopped in a
rest area. I had tried to stop at a truck stop fifteen minutes
back but it was full. I could have gone forward another 45
minutes, but I didn't want to chance it. This was fine.
Also, the temperature had cooled down from close to 100 to the upper
70s. I was comfortable using just a fan blowing on me, rather
than idling the truck.
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I was still in the rest area when I wrote this.
My load is a live unload at 2100 tonight. The earliest I
should leave here is 1100. That will give them more than
enough time to unload, and me time to get to a place to stop.
The latest I should leave is 1400. I left at 1100. This
allowed me to stop at a Flying J, and post the blog to the Internet.
Once I posted the pages to the Internet, I continued west through
LA. This part of the states has fields of sugar cane. This
is sugar cane. I drove into TX, through Houston, and on to
San Antonio. I stopped east of the city to fuel and kill some
time. I was fifteens minutes away from my delivery point with
an hour and a half to wait. I left after an hour, and got
there with plenty of time to check in. I had a problem getting
a dock. They kept assigning one that already had a truck in
it. Once I got in a dock, I was unloaded in two hours.
While I was being unloaded, I talked to a driver from another
company. We compared pay and benefits. I have done this
before, and it does make one think.
After I was unloaded, I wasn't sure where I should go. I
didn't know where to pick up my next load. I had decided to go
back to where I had killed the time, knowing that it was a large
lot, and I would probably get a parking spot. But, the freeway
ramp to go east was closed, so I wound up going south. This
would have been my other choice because when I have been here
before, I was sent to Laredo. I knew of two places to park,
and easily got into the first one.
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At 0900, my orders came in. I was right, go to
Laredo. From San Antonio, it is less than three hours to
Laredo. On the way down, I saw the border patrol herding a
group of people the I assumed were illegal immigrants. When I
got there, I dropped the empty trailer, and hooked up to the loaded
one. There was problems with the bill of lading so I had to
wait a while. This was okay because I was going to take a
shower and eat lunch. The bills were still not ready. It
was two and half hours from the time I arrived before I left.
Given the number of miles, I figured I still had over seven hours to
drive. I got to Ft. Worth by 2100.
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A calculation of the remaining distance showed that I
really only had to do 400 miles a day for today and tomorrow.
That is about seven hours. I decided to go farther today, so I
could get online in Kansas City. I did just over 500 miles in
about nine hours. While driving, I got my next order, and
realized that I can drive short days for the next four days. I
got to the Flying J, updated this page, and posted it to the
Internet.
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It was less than six hours to the delivery
point. I dropped the load and picked up the next load at the
same location. Not quite two hours later I was at the OC in
Des Moines. I fueled up, and parked for the night. I
spent time in the drivers lounge rather than the warm truck.
As it started to cool, I went back to the truck to watch some TiVo
shows on the computer. I showered, and ate dinner, watched
another show, and went to bed.
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I have 16.5 hours to use over the next two days. I
went a little farther today, so I could stop at a Flying J. I
also would be in position to watch part two of a TV show I had
watched last Sunday. I did nine hours of driving from Des
Moines to the northern outskirts of Oklahoma City.
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Only had seven and a half hours to drive today.
This was enough to get to New Braunfels TX. You can probably
guess that I am heading to Laredo TX, again. I was less than
four hours to the destination. I expect to be north of here at
the end of the day tomorrow. Covering the same road limits the
amount of new information I can write about, but here are a couple
of things. Up north of Fort Worth is a company that makes the
blades for electric generating windmills. Well, what I saw was
the blades loaded on trailers. There are two blades on a
trailer, that is at least 80 ft long. The other thing is, just
before I got off the Interstate to park for the night, I went by a
company that sells repossessed
houses. The houses are actually
just sitting there, on a frame, ready for inspection, and movement
to a new location.
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I arrived in Laredo after a three hour drive.
The load is going to Mexico, so there are some special procedure
that have to be done. First, I went to the company lot to pick
up a trailer inspection form. Then I expect the trailer.
Mostly, you look at the tire, lights and brakes. Next, I
deliver the trailer to the broker. Checking a map, I saw that
I had driven within a half mile of the Mexican border. The broker takes ownership
of the load as it crosses the border, and is received by someone on
the other side. The broker inspects the trailer, fills out the rest
of the inspection form, and gives me my copies. I then bobtail
back to the company lot, and hand in the inspection form. I am
now ready to pick up another load.
When I left in the morning, 0900, I sent a note that I would be
available at 1500. Getting around Laredo can eat up some
time. It was 1300 when I bobtailed back to the lot. I
received the next load order while returning to the lot. When I
got to the lot, I found my trailer. Because these load come
over from Mexico, they are considered a relay load, and the order
has the trailer number. I hooked up, and inspected the
trailer. I then went and got the bill of lading for the
load. I ate lunch, filled up my ice chest, and took a
shower. Back in the truck, I scaled the load, and got on my
way. I drove almost six more hours, doing almost ten for the
day.
I drove through San Antonio at the end of rush hour. The
traffic still moved okay. When I got to Austin, I noticed a
large flock of birds coming out from under an overpass. On
second thought, because it has dusk, I think they may have been a
flock, or is it swarm, of bats. The size and steady stream,
plus they were under a bridge made me think this was so. It
was dark when I got to the other side of Waco. I was now
looking for a place to stop. I followed another truck into a
lot that had a few spots open. I stopped for the night.
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I am amazed by the distance I can cover in a
day. I started the day just north of Waco TX. In 10.25
hours, I drove to Kansas City MO, on the far side of the city.
I could have stopped earlier, but when I realized I could get to the
Flying J, I went the distance. Earlier in the day, I had
stopped at the Flying J north of Oklahoma City to eat lunch, get my
E-mail, and post the blog pages. I had forgotten to post the
pages when I was at this truck stop back on the 19th.
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Short day today. I drove up to the OC in Des
Moines, where I ate lunch and took a shower. On the way I got
my orders for my next load, pick up a load in Iowa City, and take it
to Laredo. Daja Vu. It took three hours to get to Des
Moines. It take two hours to get to Iowa City. A
pre-trip at the beginning of the day take fifteen minutes. A
pre-trip of the new trailer is another fifteen minutes. I had
seven hours available to work today. Question: can I make it
back to Des Moines? No. I need another fifteen
minutes. I know because that is exactly what it took back on
the 20th. I stopped at a rest area thirty minutes short of Des
Moines. As it turns out, most IA rest areas have free WiFi
Internet access. I updated this page, and posted it to the
Internet. I plan to drive the same stops as I did from 21-23.
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It was foggy when I got up. I don't know if I
slept well or not. The problem with being in a rest area is
that most are next to the highway, rather than in the back. It
was cool over night, so I put the screens in the windows, and opened
the vents. The traffic didn't bother me when I went to sleep,
but in the morning, it sounded like every truck was driving right
over me.
I had cereal for breakfast. When I pre-tripped the rig, I
notice a top clearance light was out. I might have blown this
off until I got to Laredo because I would be driving during the day,
but with the fog and dark rainy skies, I decided to have it fixed at
the OC in Des Moines, 45 minutes away. I could fuel up and get
ice for the cooler. When I got there, I was told that the
trailer needed a PM. Oh, great. This could ruin the day. It
was 830. Surprise, surprise, the trailer was finished by
1030. I had just ordered a burger for lunch, so it was 1100
before I got going.
I pretty much drove the day in three legs of three hours
each. The first rest stop was just north of Kansas City.
The next stop was at a rest stop north of Wichita. In KS, I noticed
that there was a lot of standing water. It had rained a lot
since I drove north through here, three days ago. The stop for the
day was the Flying J on the north side of Oklahoma City, the same
one I was at on the 19th. I entered the day on the page, and
posted it to the Internet.
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Today I had nine hours available to drive. I
could stop either north or south of San Antonio. North would
be a short day, but then tomorrow would be longer. I stopped
south of the city. While driving, I saw three or four trucks
carrying large blades for electricity generating wind
mills. I
saw them south of a plant up by Gainesville TX. So, there is
more than one company or plant making wind mill blades in TX.
Another thing I noticed was cotton fields. I had been by
these fields several times and never noticed them before. The
difference must have been that the plants had bloomed, or opened up,
revealing the white cotton.
On this day I started paying attention to a small hurricane that
had swiped southern FL, and was now out in the gulf.
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It was a short drive to Laredo TX. I expected to
drop the trailer, because the broker is closed today, and get
another heading north. I called the TL, and was told that that
is what would happen. I was supposed to watch the QualComm for
orders. Some time had passed with no orders. I sent a
note saying I was available. I was asked if I was ready to go
if I drop relay, and I said, "yes". After another
hour, or two, I called again, and was told that it would be taken
care of, and I could get going. Basically, this went on all
day, just one lie after another. I wound up staying the night
here.
There were ten/fifteen other drivers here with the same
problem. We sat and talked about the various problems we have
had. We are all drivers for the same company, so there were
discussion how the company treats their drivers. Basically, no
one was happy with the company.
One of the topics was the hurricane, Katrina. It had
strengthened, and was heading for New Orleans. We all were
keeping track of it, and the damage it could do.
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I took off at 0830 to delivery the load at the
broker. I took the trailer inspection form back to the company
lot, and picked up a trailer. I had a load going north, but it
was a live load with a 1600 appointment time. I called my TL
to see if I could get loaded sooner. I was told to going to
the shipper, and see what would happen. Since getting back
from the delivery, I had spent time in the sleeper berth while
waiting to see if it was okay to take a specific trailer. When
I hadn't heard from them after two hours, I called and was told that
it showed that I had been assigned the trailer. I was not
notified by QualComm. Anyway, I could have been to the shipper
two hours earlier. As it turned out, they gave me a dock in
about a half hour, and had me loaded by 1530. I was on my way
before 1600. With the sleeper berth break, I could drive until
0030 the next day. I got to Dallas by 2300, and stopped for
the night.
All day long I listened to the news about Katrina on MSNBC on my
XM radio. The hurricane had slid passed New Orleans to the
east, and it was thought that New Orleans might not be damaged as
much. But, the storm had hit areas near Slidell LA, Gulf Port
and Biloxi MS, and Mobile AL. I had stayed in Slidell when my
A/C had needed repair last spring. Slidell is right next to
Lacombe, where I had picked up a load at the beginning of this tour,
back on the 16th. During spring break two years ago, I
vacationed in Gulf Port, Biloxi, and Mobile.
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Long drive today. Left Dallas as soon as the ten
hour break was up. The drive went from Dallas to Texarkana, to
Little Rock, to Memphis, and beyond. While still in AR, and
before Memphis, is West Memphis. the company the an OC there,
and I stopped for fuel. I thought about taking a shower, but
the wait was too long.
I40 overlaps I55 near here. A little bit south, I40 turns
east and skirts Memphis. This was new highway for me, and
another crossing of the Mississippi. As many times as I had
been to TN over my life, I had never traveled I40 between Memphis
and Jackson TN. After I got passed the bypass on the east side
of the city, I started noticing little convoys of utility trucks
heading south. They were headed to the hurricane destruction
zone.
The hurricane moved north fast after it got inland. This
was a day and a half after landfall, and I could tell that it had
moved through this area between Memphis and Nashville. When I
stopped at the rest area, I noticed that tree debris on the ground,
and standing water. I stopped forty miles short of Nashville. |
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Forward to Sep
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Should be a short drive today. I started at 730,
and was through Nashville in less than an hour. During the
entire drive I noticed hundreds of utility trucks heading south to
the hurricane zone. They were traveling in convoys of six to
ten trucks, or more. I saw one that was over thirty trucks
long. Beside electric and phone trucks, there were tree
trimming trucks.
I arrived at my delivery point by 1500, a whole day early.
I checked to see if they would take me, but they didn't have room
for the shipment. The shipment was glass containers, and the
load was to be just-in-time. JIT would have them unload the
containers, fill them up, and maybe put them right on another truck
for shipment. The production was scheduled for tomorrow at
1600 local time.
I took the load to a drop lot fifteen miles away, and picked up
an empty trailer to take to the next shipper. I drove an hour
and a half closer to the shipper. The lot where I stopped had
plenty of room to park. I picked a spot that was two trucks
wide, and backed in. Because there was no truck in the space
on my blind side, I was able to back right in next to the truck on
my left in one maneuver. When I got out of the truck, another
driver said he was impressed for the backup. he said he has
been driving thirty years, and has trouble doing that. Made my
day. |
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