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| Date |
Activities in June
2005 |
| Back to May
1
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Stayed the night in Mehoopany PA, the company lot on
the mountain. It is nine miles to the delivery point in
Tunkhannock PA. I dropped the load, and picked up
another. The day was better than yesterday, an easy drive out
of PA and into OH. I could only work nine hours today, so I
stopped at 1600. I took a shower here, and worked on the blog.
Tomorrow I have to get up at 430 CST, or 530 EST, to make a 800 ST
appointment 110 miles away. |
| 2 |
Got up and drove two hours to make the delivery.
Then I had to wait over two hours for an empty trailer. There
were other drivers ahead of me, but they didn't want to wait.
I was ordered to bobtail for my next load, but then a trailer became
available. It turns out that it had a blown tire, so I lost
another hour getting it changed.
Once I got going, I had a problem finding the location because I
read the instructions wrong. I drove past the place, because I
was looking for a plant, and it was a distribution center. I
got the load, and had to drive hard to get to Gary before my
available hours ran out. It was real tight. |
| 3 |
Delivered the load. I got done an hour earlier
than I said I would, so I found a place to park and waited for
instructions. After an hour and a half, I sent a note that I
was ready. After another hour I hadn't received
instructions. I dozed off, and when I woke, I had received
orders. The thing is that the Qualcomm used to beep, and now
it wasn't, so I didn't hear the message come it. Not a big
problem this time because I had a big window to pick up the load.
When I did get there, there were seven, eight trucks ahead of
me. It took over five hours before I was loaded. I drove
the load a short distance to a drop lot, and went to get my next
load. It was a trailer at a rail yard, close by. By the
time I got the trailer, and was ready to exit the yard, I only had
45 minute left for the day. It was too far to make it home that
night, made me wish I had heard the order message earlier, so I
drove back to the drop lot, and spent the night there. Because
of the more than two hour rest period in the morning, I could leave
for home eight hours later. |
| 4
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I woke up at 400, and left shortly
thereafter. I was at my home lot at 530. End
of tour 12 |
| 6
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Begin of tour 13. This is the beginning of a four
and a half week tour. I want to go camping in July, and this
is the only way I can get some time off, and It is only for four
days. I won't be getting back until July 6. I did get to
start this tour a little late. It is 1100. I took off to
deliver the load I picked up at the rail yard on Friday.
It was about a one hour trip. I bobtailed back to my home lot
to pick up an empty trailer, but It wasn't there. I sent a
note, and they sent an order to pick up another trailer that wasn't
there. I had checked the trailers, and there were no empties
on the lot. I called in, and was told that they would send me
a note for the trailer. Long story short, it was three hours
before I was given , and picked up a trailer. I drove the
empty two hours north to drop and get a load. I had to drive
toward my delivery as far as I could get, and still take a
break. I had done a two hours break while waiting for a
trailer. I could now do an eight hour break. I stopped
at 2215. I should have gone longer. It wouldn't have
effected the delivery time because I would have started
later, but it would have used more hours on the load today, rather
than tomorrow, and allowed more hours for the next load, which I
already knew about. |
| 7
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Up at 0545. Pre-tripped the truck at 0615.
Left at 0630. I made my delivery time with 15 minutes to
spare. It was 0945. I dropped the trailer, and looked
for the empty I was suppose to pick up. I found it, and it was
full of pallets. Called the TL about the pallets, and informed
him of other trailers with pallets in them. Finally found an
empty. Took it and left.
I drove the empty about an hour and a half, dropped it, and
picked up my load. Drove about a half hour, fueled up, and ate
lunch. I calculated that I had just enough time, if I made no
stops, to get to the Indie OC before my 14 was up. Now you can
see why I wish I had driven farther last night. It was a hard
drive, and I was tired. Arrived with 30 minutes to spare, but
I wouldn't have thought that while I was driving.
There was driver appreciation going on, so I was able to get a
meal on the company. Also, reps from the company were there to
listen to your concerns. I unloaded on a nice woman.
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| 8
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Had a ten hour break, but just an okay sleep.
There was truck next to me that kept revving up its rpms, and go
back down. I started anticipating when it would rev up and
down. After awhile, I started my truck, with the steady rpms,
to drown out the other noise. Plus, I then got A/C.
I took off, and made the delivery, only a couple of minutes away.
A little more than an hour, and I was back at the OC. I took a
two+ hour break in the sleeper, because I knew I would have to work
until 2200. By the time the break was over, the driver
appreciation had started up again. I had another meal, and
talked to other drivers and reps. One guy was in charge of
facilities. Everybody told him about the crummy lots, and bad
OCs.
I left after 1300 to make a pickup window of 1300 to 1600, one
hour away. I didn't want to get there too early because there
was a second pickup between 2000 and 2200. I made the first
pickup okay, but the second turned out to have problems. The
product wouldn't be ready until almost 2200. Luckily, I can
park at the location over night, so I stayed there. I had done
a two hour break earlier, so I did eight now. |
| 9
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I got up at 0630, and still wasn't loaded. When
I checked on the load, I was told that they had just finished it,
but it would be after 0700 before I could get loaded. That was
when the shift started. I backed into a dock, and got loaded
quickly at 0730. I left at 0815. I drove ten hours and
45 minutes. With a couple of breaks, and some on duty, not
driving time, I stopped at 1745.
The drive was 640 miles across six states, IN IL, MO, AR, TM and
MS. This was the second time I had driven through this area of
AR. What I noticed most was the rice fields |
| 10
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After an eight hour break, that included a shower, I
drove the last third of the trip. The route took me west from
Jackson MS, towards Vicksburg. I think I saw the entrance to
the Civil War battlefield as a drove by. I had been to the
grounds in the past, and it is probably the most beautiful of the
battlefields that I have been to. After that, I was traveling on
I20, new highway for me, crossing the Mississippi river in yet another
location. Thinking about it, I have crossed the river in
several places.
After a while, I left the Interstate, and traveled the back roads
of LA. I traveled through mostly farms and plantations.
The main crops being grown were, corn, rice, and, I think,
cotton. The corn was quite tall, and looked close to being
harvested.
At the delivery location, I dropped my trailer, and went to pick
up my outbound load. It was not ready. I was told that
they were behind at the plant, and that it would be awhile. By
the time they started to load the load, my 14 hours were up, and I
was spending the night. |
| 11
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About 0100, the guard woke me up. He said my
trailer was ready, and I had to pick it up and get off the
lot. Even though yesterdays 14 hour ended at 1900, I had spent
last 14 hours in the sleeper, so I think I was okay to go. The
problem is that I only had three hours sleep.
I picked up he trailer, scaled it, and took off. I drove a little
over two hours, which got me into TX, and took a two hour sleeper
berth break, sleeping. I stopped for fuel close to the
delivery point, and tried to take a shower. There was a line,
so I left. I dropped the trailer, and asked about an
empty. No trailers on site. I sent a note about no
trailers, waited over a half hour, and was told to bobtail to Reno
TX. This was close to the pick up of the next load.
In Reno, the trailer I was suppose to get was gone. Sent a
note, and waited an hour. Was told to go to Mt Vernon TX, 45
mile away. The back roads in TX have 70 mph speed limits
during the day. My day was up when I arrived, so I spent the
night.
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| 12
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Woke, checked the truck, and drove to pick up the
trailer. There were none there. I sent a note, and
called. I was told to bobtail in to get my load. The
load was in Paris TX, which right next to Reno. I had driven
over 90 miles, and used two hours driving, and wasted four hours.
Note that at times one has to wonder if you are the USA. I
picked up a load in Paris, and on the way to and from Mt Vernon, I
had driven through Bogata.
After a couple of stops to scale, and put some air in a tire, I
was on my way. Shortly after I got going, I was in OK.
The last time I drove through OK, I cut across the panhandle.
Now I was in the east, going through McAllister. There I got
on US69, that went northeast to the turnpike, to Joplin. On
US69, I went over a navigational canal. It was smaller than I
thought. This is the route of ocean ships going to
Tulsa. Yes, Tulsa is an international seaport.
In Joplin, I fueled and tried to take a shower, but there was a
line. I was going to leave, but felt tired, so a took a nap,
and a two hour sleeper berth break. When I left, I wanted to
try for another truck stop to shower, but a road construction, and
possible accident, killed an hour. I stopped sooner than I
wanted to.
I calculated my hours, and saw that I had enough time to make my
delivery, as well as, a shower, lunch, and a nap. With the two
hour break in, I could break for eight, and leave early enough to
miss St Louis traffic. |
| 13
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Woke up early. I was parked between two
refers. The refrigerators on the trailers kept starting and
stopping all night long. I drove just over three hours, and
took a shower. No line. I drove just over two hours, ate
and took a nap. I drove two and a half hours, and delivered
the load. Over the next two and half hours, I ran around
looking for an empty trailer. No trailer at the first place,
assigned trailer not at the second place, but there was another
trailer there, and I was assign one. Made it to Green Bay with
just enough time to fuel, and stop for the night.
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| 14
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Picked up my load in Green Bay, and took off for
PA. This is a run I have done several times. I only had
eight hours available to work, so when I passed Sturtevant, I
stopped, got in my car, and went home to get my mail, do a load of laundry,
do a some shopping, take a shower, and make some meals. three
hours later I was back on the road. Drove until 1500. |
| 15
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Drove from the OH border, across OH into PA by Erie,
where I fueled up, and had lunch. Continued on into NY, and
back into PA, where I delivered my load. My next load wasn't
ready, and I figured it wouldn't because the pick up window was
tomorrow. I drove to the company lot near by.
I parked next to another driver sitting in his truck. We
started to talk. I mentioned that I had just dropped a load
three miles away, and had driven over in less than five minutes, and
wondered if you log it as fifteen, or not at all. He said that
the two locations were in the same town, so why would I log anything
when I hadn't gone anywhere. I told how I have lost time log
such in same city moves of zero pay miles. The driver and I
discussed all logging I had done in the last week, and he pointed
out how he would have done it. The driver is a training
engineer, and has not been called on violations. He also
pointed out that I wasn't doing the split breaks right, and that
this may have been causing me some problems, as well as violations.
The other driver also talked about routes to take. It preferred
to take US30 across OH. I had taken US20. The company
had lately sent the route for US30, but in the past it provided the
router for US20. US30 across OH is okay, but US30 in IN has a
lot of stop lights. Most of OH is divided, and all of IN is
divided. US20 has fewer stop lights in IN and OH, but more two
lane. US20 is the route through the Amish community in IN. |
| 16
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I only had four hours available to drive, so I looked
at various options. I looked at the various routes, and how
far I would get with both. I took the US30 route, because I
would have to stop in Du Bois PA. My Street and Trips program
showed that there is a movie theater within walking distance of the
truck stop. I drove to Du Bois. I ate lunch, took a
shower, secured the truck and trailer, and walked to the
movie. Saw Batman Beginning. Ate a big bag of popcorn. |
| 17
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Got up at 500. I had trouble getting to
sleep. I was having some intestinal cramps. I think it
was the popcorn. It passed some time during the night, and I
was able to get some sleep. But, how much? I drove hard
all day. I only stopped once on my way to Gary, where I
fueled. I want to get into WI before my hours ran out, so I
wanted to get to Chicago before rush hour. When I got to Gary,
they said that my trailer needed a PM, preventative
maintenance. That ruined that idea. Because the PM took
awhile, I waited in Gary, to a two hour sleeper berth break to
extend my day, and took off at the end of rush hour. That
worked, and I was to get up into WI, within three hours of my
delivery point. |
| 18
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Got up at 400 to make my 730 delivery. I didn't
sleep well, again, and I was driving very tired. I dropped the
load, picked up another, and headed for my home lot. This
would normally be my weekend home, but I am out for four weeks, to
get four days off. This did not mean that I would be sitting
around until tomorrow. The load after this one has to be
delivered between 915 and 1400 on the 20th. Given the miles, and no more
time today, I have to leave shortly after midnight tonight and tomorrow.
I will being trying to sleep from 1600 on. This is not in my
nature. If I do not sleep well, I will be even more tired than
I am now. I write about these future events in case I have an
accident, and do not survive. I am sure this sounds
melodramatic, but I am just trying to point out that the company is
pushing me beyond my safety point. I do not intend to have an
accident, and will pull over before I get into trouble, but with a
reduced reaction time, I can not be sure something won't happen.
Just to show you how tired I was, I forgot to post this at this
time.
I went back to the truck, and tried to go to sleep. I tried
all sorts of things to relax, and go to sleep. At one point I
check the time. It was 2000, still light out, and I don't
think I slept any. I thought about how long I had to drive
tomorrow and the next day, and reset the clocks to 200. I did
get to sleep. |
| 19
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Woke at 200, and left at 230. I drive through
Chicago, out the skyway, through Hammond IN, and down I65 into
Indianapolis. With no traffic, I made good time. I was
suppose to fuel in Gary, but figured it was easier to do it in
Indianapolis. I fueled, and continued on to KY. I
arrived at 945, possibly a new record.
During the beginning of the drive, my head was achy. Water
made me feel better. I seemed wide awake, but noticed that I
was doing the long stare, where you only see the road straight
ahead. As the sun came up, I started to feel a little drowsy,
but ate some cereal bars and had a Coke. As I neared the end
of the drive, I started feeling better. After I delivered the
load, and was on my way to get the next one, I felt really
good. I have experienced this feeling before, and like to
equate it to how a light bulb gets bright just before it burns out.
I picked up the load, and drove another 45 minutes to a wayside
for the night. I used all the time available for the day, and
it was only 1500. I lost some time picking up the load, and
scaling, or I would have stopped at 1400. Now I can't leave
until 100, but a check of the remaining distance, showed that I
could leave at 200. I laid down to sleep at 1800, and planned
to get up at 130. |
| 20
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I woke up at 0030, 1230am. I had slept better,
but still only about five/six hours. I got up, but couldn't
start until 100. Pre-trip at 0100, left at 0115. Because
I was running ahead of time, I stopped in Indianapolis, fueled,
showered. Even though I had gotten more, and a better sleep, I
was more tired. I watched how I was driving, and I thought I
was driving okay, but I noticed that when some other trucks passed
me, they stayed way left. Even to running on the left shoulder.
This made me wonder it I was weaving in my lane.
I delivered the load, got the next one, drove an hour and a half,
and stopped for the day. My next load is two days off, in the
afternoon, or the next morning, so I get to rest, sleep a normal
night, and drive during the day for two days. And easy driving
too, about eight/nine hours I will pick up some time to use when that four hour day
come along in four days. |
| 21
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This is the route that I took May 29-31. So
there isn't much to say. I stopped in Indianapolis
again. That is three time in three days. I only got
about 50 gallons each time. However, by not stopping at a
Pilot station, I didn't have any shower credits when I stopped that
night.
One exciting event occurred in OH. Well it wasn't that
exciting for me. A trucker had turned over his truck on I70
west of Columbus. His load contained explosives. The
highway had been shut down for about six hours when I got
there. Luckily, US40 was right there, and the police were
diverting traffic on to it well before the accident sight.
From US40 you could see the vehicles that had gone by the exit
before the road was closed, and had been trapped there for six
hours. The word at the time was that the highway wouldn't open
until 1600, but someone said over the CB that a local radio station
was saying noon. It was noon when I was on US40.
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| 22
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Woke up in PA, and spent all day into PA, except for
delivery of the load in NJ. I stopped at an OC in Carlisle PA
to fuel and shower. I had to wait for the shower, so I ate an
early lunch. My route when I left Carlisle went through
Lancaster, and Lancaster county. This is the Amish country
from the movie Witness, with Harrison Ford. Have you ever
noticed that he has two presidential names.
After the delivery, I was directed to take an empty trailer back
to Carlisle, where I stayed for the night. I'll pick up a
relayed load in the morning. |
| 23
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Picked up the load at 600, 500 CST. Left shortly
after that. I gave myself enough time, in case I had problems
getting to the location, that was a little over an hour away.
I arrived about twenty minutes early. They started unloading
me at 800, my started arrival time. I figured that they would
unload me quickly, and that I would be available by 900/930. I
sent a note that I would be available at 930 EST. I said I
would have nine hours to drive and ten left on the fourteen.
Actually, I had nine and a half. This is want may have caused
my problem.
After I was unloaded, I parked off to the side, and waited for
instructions. Three hours later, I got my next load. I
had to drive up to Tunkhannock, pick up a load, and take it to Tipp
City OH. Calculating the miles showed that I had enough time
available to drive the load. However, I did not have enough
time on my fourteen to get far enough, to take a ten hour break, and
make my 1100 delivery time. I drove as far as I could, going
beyond the fourteen because I had take over two hours in the sleeper
berth. The only thing this got me was that I could sleep
later. Had I taken an eight hour break instead of a ten, I
would have had to take a two hour break after a couple of hours, and
I would not have gotten to the destination any earlier. |
| 24
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Got up at 700 EST, left at 800, arrived at 1300.
Dropped the load, and sat waiting for a load. Cooked and ate a
lunch. My instructions came in while I was eating. I was
a afraid I would get a load that I would have to drive at
night. Not too bad, take an empty to Columbus, 1.25
hours away, and pick up a load due at 1500 tomorrow. At most
it is a ten hour drive, so I'll leave at 400 CST. |
| 25
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When I calculating the time to cover a distance, 50 MPH
is the recommended rate. Unless there are problems with
traffic or other unforeseen difficulties, 55 or 60 MPH is a more
realistic rate. As a result a ten hour trip was done in
nine. The route went from Columbus, to Indianapolis, to
Effingham IL, and south, then cut across the state to Cape Girardeau
MO. Cape Girardeau is new place to cross the Mississippi
river. The bridge
there is really nice, and new.
Shortly after entering MO, I delivered the load, and picked up my
next load. I had enough time to drive back into IL, up I57
almost to I64, almost a third of the distance for the load. |
| 26
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Today was a short drive. A little more than four
hours. After delivering the load, I had an hour available to
drive. My next load was about a half hour away, and, within
three miles of the pick up, there was a movie theater. I drove to
the theater, and watched a couple of movies. After the movies,
I only had to go three miles to pick up the load, so I logged no
time. The load was a relay, in an open lot, so I just picked
it up, did a pre-trip, and left. All in less than fifteen
minutes. I had just enough time to drive 18 miles to a truck
stop, where I would be able to shower. |
| 27
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Drove the load to the destination. Picked up an
empty, and drove over to the shipper to get my next load. It
wasn't ready. Ten hours later, it still wasn't ready. I
hadn't slept during that time because I would call every two hours
to see if the load was ready. I couldn't stay on the shipper's
lot, so I was parked at a mall. Luckily, it had a theater,
with movies for a dollar. I would watch a movie, then make a
call. I saw three movies. I couldn't stay in the mall
lot without possibly getting a ticket, so I drove to a truck stop
ten miles away. Even though I had done a ten hour break during
the day, none of it was with any sleep. I am now doing a ten
hour break with sleep. What a wasted day. And, the
company told me I am not driving enough miles. And, I am out
for over four weeks so I can get a lousy four days off. I sure
would have liked this one. |
| 28
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My load was ready when I got up. After awhile, I
had it, and was on my way. It was due to be delivered
today. Not driving yesterday gave me a full eleven hours
available to drive. The problem is that at 511 miles, it would
take almost the entire eleven hours to deliver the load. Any
problems, and I could run out of time. The route used US30 to
get from Lima OH to I65 in IN. This road in IN has a lot of
stop lights that slow you down. Then, when you get to I80/I94
in IN and IL, there is construction that can really ruin your
day. By the time I cleared all the problem areas, that would
be I80 west of I294, I was about 250 miles to my destination with a
little over five hours available. I was told during training
that you can push the IL speed limit a little. I tucked myself
in amongst other truckers, and pushed it a bit more. Once in
IA, I could go 63 MPH for the last 140 miles. Delivered the
load, and made it to a truck stop. |
| 29
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Compared to yesterday, today was easy. First I
drove an empty trailer 100 miles to the point of my next pick
up. I had driven 10 of the miles getting to that truck stop
last night. I picked up the load, and drove an hour to truck
stop to scale the load. It was a little over 40,000 Lbs, so I
scaled it them to make sure I am legal on the axles. I was legal,
but close on the tractor tandems, so I moved a 1000 lbs to the
trailer to even the load between the two tandems. I drove a
little more than hour, and stopped in Des Moines IA for fuel.
I fueled, showered, and ate lunch in an hour, and was on my
way. I drove straight through to Emporia KS, where I stopped
for the night. I am close to half way on the delivery.
There is a Tyson chicken plant in Emporia, so the town smells like a
chicken dinner.
In Emporia, I was able to get on-line, and update this blog.
Because I been out for over three weeks, I ran into a problem
with paying my bills. So, because I can bank through the
Internet, I set up Internet bill paying though my bank. I also
have an audio book that is due back at the library before I will
probably get home, so I went on line to the library, and renewed
it. I also had gotten an E-mail from a Web client, so I
undated the client's Web page per his request, and posted the updated
pages to the Internet. Being on the road does not mean being
out of touch with the rest of the world. My previous/other
occupation had allowed me to do this. |
| 30
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Ahead to Jul
|
I35 from Emporia to Wichita is highway I had taken
back at the beginning of the year. But, from Wichita to Oklahoma
City was a section of I35 that I had never been on before. I
section of the country along the highway is mostly cattle grazing
land. I thought about all the cattle drives that passed
through this area on the way to the railhead in Topeka.
As I passed through OKC I saw a restaurant named, "Deep
Fork". Thought that was cool. OKC south into
TX is a section of highway that I had traveled on before, but not
since 1970. South of OKC is Norman, OK, the location of the
University of Oklahoma campus. I went to school there for one
year in 1966-67. It was a good year. Miss Oklahoma won
the Miss America crown. The school team went undefeated on the
TV
show, College Bowl. And, Oklahoma beat Texas, a game I attended
in Dallas, at the Cotton Bowl, on the grounds of the Texas state
fair, during the fair. Scenes of the fair can be seen in the
movie State Fair.
I went through downtown Dallas during rush hour. There was
some slow downs due to merging traffic, but on the whole, it moved
better than Chicago. At one interchange split, I looked over to
see about a half dozen longhorn cattle grazing in a pen. This
was about two miles from downtown Dallas.
I stopped about 30 miles south of Waco. Waco is the home of
the Texas Rangers'
Museum. Their motto is, "One Riot, One
Ranger".
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