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| Date |
Activities in
March 2005 |
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Feb
1
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Still beating myself up over the
accident. I am wondering if I deserve to continue driving.
It was snowing, but the roads are wet, and good for
driving. The temp is above 32. The load went to Findlay
OH. The last time I was here it was snowing too. Dropped
the load, and picked up an empty. The load was suppose to have
been here yesterday. Drove to my next load pickup. I was
on the same road I took during my first tour, back in Dec.
Arrived, dropped the empty, pickup the load, drove back to Findlay,
fueled, ate lunch, and was ready to haul.
The load was suppose to be there today. The
accident and the snow changed all that. The road was wet to
start, drier later, then back into heavy snow, and really bad
roads. It was getting icy, and everybody was slowing down to
forty and lower. At times I felt the engine rev up under
wheels spinning on ice. Recovered and slowed down. Started seeing
vehicles off the road. The most bizarre was a tractor with two
trailers turned completely around, and in the median still
upright. Feeling better about my driving ability. I was
about forty-five minutes from where I would have liked to be, but it
was too far, and it started snowing hard. I stopped. |
| 2 |
Got up and got going as early as I
could. The sun came out, and it was a clear day to
start. Some clouds popped up, but over all, it was a nice
day. It got warmer as I continued south. Got the load to
its destination at the time I said it would be there. I
believe it was late.
I bobtailed over to the Atlanta OC. I was
scheduled for some remedial training. This is a normal
procedure for new drivers in their first ninety days. I was
overdue, and the accident forced it to the front.
At the OC, I worked on getting my TiVo Togo
working. Four weeks earlier I had purchased and set up TiVo in
my house. Two weeks earlier I found out that my system was not
set up for TiVo Togo. Sometime during the past two weeks, the system
was updated automatically because I had asked for it. While
home this past weekend, I transferred shows from off the TiVo and
onto an external hard drive. It took about 36 hours, an hour
and a half per show. Now I was setting it up to work on my
laptop. Had a few problems, but got it working. Watched
a few shows, got to sleep early, slept late. |
| 3 |
Got up late, and took a shower.
Watched some TiVo recorded shows while working on this blog.
Went through the remedial training. Instructor found few
problems with my abilities. He gave me some pointers, and said
I was okay to go. I sent a message that I was available, and
got a load. I went and picked it up and drove for a little
more than two hours. I felt good and rested as I drove.
After leaving the Atlanta area, I traveled I20. I don't
remember ever traveling any of this road before. It's dark, so
I can't see a thing |
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Still on I20 in GA. Shortly I
crossed into SC. The area is quite pretty. There are
lots of trees. Sometimes there are swampy area. It
reminded me that this is the area where revolutionary war action
took place as seen in the movie the Patriot. The movie was
based on actions that took place in SC. The rest of the drive
went through NC and VA.
After I delivered the load, I had to bobtail to
get an empty trailer. I drove by Petersburg VA.
Petersburg was the sight of the last, and longest battle of the
Civil War. It was a siege. One of the events that took
place was the blowing up of the Confederate line. This action
was shown at the beginning of the movie, Cold Mountain. Here
are some pictures. At the time, it was 500 hundred
yards long.
I picked up the trailer and took it to a shipper that
turned out to be very close to the Chesapeake Bay By the time I
hooked up the loaded trailer and was ready to go, I was out of hours.
Luckily, the shipper had parking for trucks. They even had a
driver room with rest rooms, a shower, and laundry. This is the
first time I was at the shipper with these facilities. |
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Left the shipper about 9:00 EST.
The company is so out in the country, that it was hard to figure out
how to get to I95. I went the wrong way, but took a lesser
road that ran parallel to a better road. That was okay,
because I went close to the birth places of both George Washington
and Robert E Lee. Later on I went by Fredericksburg VA.
This was the site of Civil War battle. The battle was one of
the battle in the movie Gods and Generals. I had been there
before, and the town has overrun the battlefield.
Driving up I95, I passed the exit to Manassas,
another Civil War battlefield. In MD, I stopped for fuel in Hagerstown.
South of here is Antitam, another battlefield. I had visited
this one last April. The battle was only one day long, but had
an enormous number of casualties.
I continued on through PA, on into OH where I
stopped for the night. |
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No rush today. I had all day to go about 350
miles. I took the route recommended by the company to see what
the roads were like. Mostly divided, with Interstate around
and to the west of Cleveland. Not bad. In Toledo, I
stopped for lunch and took a shower. Continued on into
MI. Arrived at my destination in late afternoon.
My next order was to take an empty to Coldwater MI at 9:00
tomorrow. I headed back in that direction and stopped for fuel
and the night in Battlecreek MI.
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Got up and drove to my 9:00 appointment. After a
couple of hours, I was on my way. Along the way I drove by the
little town of Fairmount. Road signs said that if was the
birth place of James Dean.
I only had 5.5 hours available to drive. This was enough to
get me to the OC in Indianapolis, where I spent the day relaxing,
and watching shows with my TiVo ToGo. |
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Got up early and took a shower.
It started out sunny, then got cloudy, then snowed hard, then got
sunny again. I drove I70 from Indie to Effingham, then south
on I57. This was the first time I had been on this stretch of I70 in
IL. The last 80 miles of I57 in southern IL is the best terrain in
the state. Hills and trees as you descend into the Mississippi
river valley. Way in the south, by Cairo, is the confluence of
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Here is a picture from a
previous visit.
The route went into MO, and south into AR.
In this area of MO, is a town called New Madrid. This area has one
of the largest earthquake faults in the country. In modern
history, earthquakes in this area have been small, but have been
felt as far
away as Chicago and southern WI. It is felt that a really big
one, like the one that occurred in the early 1800s, is way
overdue. That last big one was so strong, that it was reported
that the Mississippi river flowed backward. Had
trouble finding the delivery location. Asking for directions
via the satellite comm produced confusing results. I had to
start up my computer and use Streets and Trips to find the
location. Got there, dropped the trailer, and picked up an
empty. A truck stop was right at the end of the road. I
stayed there because I couldn't pick up my load until the morning. |
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Its raining. Drove to the pickup
point, but had a problem. The address was an odd number, and
because I saw an address on the right, I kept looking for the stop
on the right. Wrong, the stop was on the left, and I went
right by it. Stupid addressing system, but I am in AR.
Picked up the load and left. It had to be 600 miles away the
next morning.
I headed out of Jonesboro AR on US 49. I
went by a very small town called Goobertown. I thought this
had to be a fake, but I checked my map, and its there. The
rest of the day was uneventful. Most of it went through
KY. Most of the time I was on one of the states
parkways. Purchase Pkwy is very nice and smooth. The
Ford Western KY Pkwy had patches that were rough enough to jar a
tooth loose. The best part of the parkways is that they have
no billboards on them, just trees and farmland.
Stopped at a Flying J 50 miles south of Columbus
OH.
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Got the load to the stop early. I
had to wait for orders for my next load. Must have taken over
an hour. Got my orders, which told me to pick up an empty
trailer at my current location. I was informed that there were
none available. I sent a request for a different
trailer. Had to wait for it. Was told to get a specific
trailer, but when I got there, the trailer was no good, so I had to
request another trailer from a list of empties. After awhile,
I got a trailer. But now I did not have enough time to get to
the shipper.
I got to the shipper 45 minutes late.
Luckily, they weren't busy and they were able to load me
quickly. As I left, it started to snow. What else could
I expect, I was in OH. A check of my available driving time
show that I had five hours to drive, and four hours left on my
14. I was able to get to Beaver Dam, OH, my favorite place to
stop.
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I only had 6.75 hours available to
drive. A check of the distance showed that I could make it to
a Flying J by South Beloit IL. I drove and did not fool
around. For awhile, I thought that US 30 in IN and I80 as you
enter IL would cost me time, but it was short term. I arrived
with 15 minutes to spare. As I updated this blog, I noticed
through the curtain that it was snowing. A closer look proved
that it was more like little bits of ice. This could cause me
problems tomorrow. This was a Friday, and I have a ten to
twelve hour day under normal circumstances before I get home. |
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I was up and going by 7:00. I
drove a little over and hour, and stopped for fuel. Continuing
on, I arrived at the delivery point at 11:30. Between dropping
the trailer, waiting for assignment to an empty trailer, hooking up
and pre-tripping the trailer, and eating lunch while waiting for the
assignment, it took an hour and a half before I got going. It
took a little over two hours to get to my next load. Some confusion
of the new system led me to think that I was picking up a loaded
trailer. After running around, and then calling a TL, I found
out that it was a live load. All the fooling around, and the
loading, took two hours. It could have been done in an
hour. I now had three and a half hours to go over two hundred
miles. Luckily, WI has a 65 MPH speed limit, and I used it
all. Made the home lot just as my 14 hours ran out. It
was a quarter to nine. It was to late to go to a party I was
hoping to get to, so I went home. I drove 592 miles.
End of tour 6
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Start of tour 7
Its Tuesday. I went in late, 10:00, because
I got home late on Saturday. I should have gone in earlier,
but I wanted a good night sleep. I picked up an empty trailer
and went to Waukesha WI. This was stop one. I wasn't
given all the information I needed for the load, and two hours were wasted
by the time I got the information. The people with the answers
were on lunch. Drove to a location near O'Hare airport for the
rest of the load. This was quick. Only four
pallets. Over six hours to get the full load. I drove to
Gary OC, and fueled up. I then drove to the Indianapolis OC to stop
for the night. The load is going about 950 mile to GA, and I
had done about a third of the distance.
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Finished my ten hour break, and took
off. I wanted to get to within fifty miles of my
destination. The load is suppose to be delivered at 8:05
tomorrow. I planned to drive about 600 miles, and stop at a
Pilot station near by. There I would shower, and then delivery
the load. However, I got a note to drop the trailer at the
Atlanta OC. The appointment was put out another day.
Someone else will deliver the load, and I would get a new one
tomorrow. This way I didn't have to wait around a day. I
drove 550 to Atlanta. |
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When I got up, I gathered my shower stuff, turned on
the truck momentarily, and went to take a shower. Turning on
the truck activates the Qualcomm, which stays on for awhile.
While I was showering, messages came into the Qualcomm. A
trailer I would take was there at the OC. I fueled up, and
vacuumed out the truck. I hooked up the trailer and took
off. The load was going to St. Louis. A nine hour drive
would put me close enough to do a half hour haul in the morning to
make an 8:00 appointment.
The route would include I24 from Chattanooga TN to I57 in
Illinois. I have take this route, or parts of it, several
times now. By Chattanooga is Lookout MT. This was the
site of a Civil War battle. Here is a picture from the top
that I took on a vacation.
About 50 miles east of Chattanooga is a long uphill
climb My map says that the top is the Cumberland
Plateau. Usually when I have to climb this hill, I have to
downshift to seventh or eighth gear depending on the weight of the
load. This time I had a light load, about 4,000 lbs. I
flew up the hill in tenth gear. Hear is a picture I took on a
vacation |
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Got up and drove to my appointment
destination I got there early, but they took me and
unloaded me quickly because there were only about seven pallets in
the trailer. Yesterday I was told to take the empty trailer to
a drop lot in East St. Louis. Today I was told to pick up a
dropped load at the drop lot. The load was only going 219
miles, and
it didn't have to be there for nine hours.
As I was heading
away from St Louis, I saw a flock of wild turkeys along I55/I70 just
before the 6 mile marker. That is less than six miles from the
Mississippi River, and St. Louis. This is the third time I
have seen wild turkeys. I never saw wild turkeys before.
All I can think of is that high up in the truck gives me a better
view than on the ground in a car..
I took a long lunch
break, made a fuel stop, and stopped at a Flying J about six mile
away from my destination, and waited for my 6:00 appointment. I made the
appointment, backed the trailer into a dock, unhooked, parked the
bobtail, and waited. After an hour and a half, it occurred to
me that I was approaching my 14 hours. My orders said the
unloading would take 30 minutes. When I had opened the trailer
doors, I thought it would take longer. Anyway, it did, and I
could not park on the lot of the consignee. I left, and went
back to the Flying J.
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Got up after about a ten and half hour
break, went and got the trailer, and headed for my next load in Ft
Madison IA. The only thing of interest was at Burlington
IA. The bridge over the Mississippi looked like one I had seen
in an episode of Modern Marvels. It
was a modern suspension bridge. Ft Madison had a historical
fort on the river, or at least a replication.
I picked up the load, and headed south on
US61. As I approached Keokuk, I missed the turn that would
have kept me on US61, and took the business route through
town. I thought I would find a cross road that would take me
back to US61. No luck. Then I got off the business route, and
wound up in IL heading south on a state road that would take me to
Hannibal. As I crossed the Mississippi again, I missed getting
a picture of a huge mural of Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain.
I reached I70, went around St. Louis, headed east
on I64 to
I57, and stopped at a rest stop for the night. It was early,
and I got some good recreation time. |
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It's the first day of spring. The
sun is out, and it is reasonably warm. The rest stop is on
Rend Lake. It has a pretty
view. After getting up, I had a leisurely
breakfast. My delivery date was two days and a little
over 900 mile
away. This would make for an easy drive. I could stop
several times if I wanted to. I stopped after a couple of
hours, fueled, and showered. It was a good thing I was not
rushed. The Pilot station at Oak Grove, the one at exit 86,
not 89, was really poor about getting the showers ready. It
took me 45 minutes to get in a shower.
Once again, I am traveling the length of
I24. Shortly after entering KY heading south, the road goes over
the Tennessee River. It crosses it again in TN. Because
I cross it at least twice I wondered where it flows to. In KY
it looks like it flows North. I looked up to see where it
goes. Look it up yourself. Or, check back for the
answer.
The uphill to the Cumberland Plateau was slower
this time. I was ten time heavier, about 42,000 lbs. I
had to drop to eighth gear and 35 MPH. I drove 470 miles, and
stopped at the Atlanta OC |
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Nothing much to say. Drove about
400 miles to San Antonio FL. I am only fifty miles from my
destination. I stopped at a Flying J so I could check my
E-mail, and post the blog. It was sunny, then rainy, its warm
and humid. Won't need any heat tonight. |
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Still humid. The sun is
out. It was a short one hour trip to my delivery
destination. It took about two hours to unload, and I was off
to get my next load. The directions to the shipper weren't
working right. I stopped and used my Streets and Trips to find
the location. The problem was that the directions said to go
south on US41. It failed to tell me to turn right on business
41.
The shipper was inside an area called the port of
Tampa. There are a lot of companies, and warehouses for
picking up cargo from overseas. I had to show a photo ID, and
get a pass to get past a check point. I found the shipper,
where I dropped my empty from the last load, and hooked up the
loaded trailer.
The temperature is hot, upper eighties, and the
humidity is high. My A/C is not working, and I am sweating. I got going with the idea of driving all the way to
the Atlanta OC. Once I crossed the GA line, I realized that my
14 hours would be up before I got there. Once I stopped, and
did my log, I found out that I only had an hour of driving time
left.
While still in FL, I came upon a cold front. I
saw the dark sky and lighting miles ahead of me. The
temp had been going down slowly for over an hour. From 90
down to 83. When I reached the front, the temp dropped from
around 83 to 67 as it started to rain big time. At its worst,
I could only see about one hundred yards in front of me, as I
lowered my speed to 30-35 MPH.
With only one hour of driving time, a hour and
half on my 14, and over two hours to the Atlanta OC, I stopped in
Cordele. The Pilot station was of medium size, but had easy to park
wide slots.
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Got going by 6:30 and drove two hours
and fifteen minutes to the Atlanta OC. I dropped my trailer
and went to the shop to see about getting the A/C fixed. They
were backed up, and would not get to it until late at night. I
would probably be there over night. Forget it. I sent a
message that I was available, took a break, and ate an early
lunch. Got a load, but had to get an empty trailer. The
system caused me some problems and it took over an hour to be
assigned a trailer, as I kept being given trailers that weren't
there, or were out of commission.
Finally got a trailer and drove to the
shipper. I was picking up paper, but the company also produces
boards, and makes the paper from the remnants of the logs after
being cut into boards.
Hooked up my load and got going. I was in
Rome GA. Because I was heading northwest, and in was 50 mile
east to I75, I went west into AL, and then north. The
Interstate is the way to travel long distances, but the state back
roads are where the scenery is. One AL road climbed a steep
hill. I was in sixth gear doing 15 MPH. Somewhere
between the hills was a little river. Actually it was the
Little River. I went over a bridge just above a
waterfall. Down the other side of the mountain I rolled into
the city of Fort Payne, where I hooked up with I59 going north to
I24. I stopped at another Pilot station in the northwest
corner of GA. I took some pictures of the AL drive, but can't
find the disk. Check back.
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Today was a solid drive. I drove
nine and half hours to the Gary OC. This was the reverse of the
trip at the beginning of the tour. If you have been paying
attention, this is the fourth time I traveled I24 from GA to
Nashville TN. I went under this bridge
four times, and up to,
and down from the Cumberland Plateau four times. Going west,
the climb is six miles.
Traveling through TN on I24 is a good drive.
The road is in good shape. The roads in KY are another
matter. Most are very rough. I was thinking, as I drove
up I65 in KY, that I could probably take up rodeo bull riding.
I had wanted to fuel and shower in Gary, then get
on the other side of Chicago, but ten hours is all I had to drive
with, so I had to stay in Gary.
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I woke up early, a half hour, so I left
early. I only had 7.25 hours available to drive, so I figured
an easy day. I94 into Chicago didn't look busy, so I took
it. I was cruising along amazingly well for the Friday
morning. Then I thought, its Good Friday. All that ended
when I got to the I57 merge. But, after that it went
well. As I was driving along, the Qualcom started beeping with
my next load. When I got to my destination in Elgin, there was
only a couple of people there, and I was told that they were closed
because of Good Friday. I checked the messages that I had
received, and there, in the middle, was a note the consignee was
closed. Like they couldn't have told me that YESTERDAY!!!!.
My orders were to take the load to a drop lot,
half way back to way I had come. At the drop lot, I picked up
an empty, and headed to Des Plaines to pick up a load. Des
Plaines IL is where Ray Kroc opened the first McDonalds, after
buying the rights to franchise from the original McDonalds in
CA. Anyway, got the load, and took it to Gary, -- Wasn't I
here before --, where I dropped it for forwarding to Ohio.
Next, I was suppose to go back to that drop lot I
was at earlier, pick up another empty, go to a shipper 24 miles
away, and get live loaded. However, at this point, I only had
a half an hour left. Traffic on I294 cost me 30 to 45
minutes. Plus it was almost 4:00pm, and I was suppose to be at
the shipper at 3:00. I had sent an update that I wasn't going
to make it on time, and would go tomorrow. The shipper is
closed Saturday. I was pulled off the load, and told I could
bobtail home, once I did a ten hour break.
To really finish the day, after I dropped the
trailer, the tractor would not start. I am stuck here tonight
anyway, I put in for a look over, and have the A/C looked at. |
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Woke up early. Check to see if
there was a load that needed to be moved. Bobtailed
home. Did some shopping, but still got home before
11:00. End of tour 7 |
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Start tour 8.
Bobtailed to a shipper to pick up a loaded trailer. Was
heading south by noon. I had to go through Chicago, so I
didn't take time for lunch. It was 2:30 by the time I got to
downtown Chicago. The outbound traffic was terrible. It
took over an hour more to travel the distance than if I were not in
Chicago. I do not get paid for this, so going through, or by
Chicago costs me money.
I stopped at a rest area in IN for lunch, or early
dinner. Continued on to the Indie OC, where I fueled up and
stayed the night.
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Up early because I stopped early the
night before. Got to my destination early. My orders
said that it would take an hour to unload me, been here three hours
so far. I have old beer kegs that I hauled from Miller in
Milwaukee to this scrap metal yard. While here, I saw at least
four or five trucks unload. However, they do
it a little faster. Finally unloaded after another 45
minutes.
It was only a couple of miles to my next load, so
I expected to be in and out of there in a hurry. Not so.
The shipper was have trouble with the paper work. It seems my
load had been shipped in, and had not received, so their system
would not make a bill of lading to ship. Sat for another four
hours. The load was hazardous materials, so extra precautions
are required. When I left, I only drove back to the Inie OC.
Given all the lost time, my 14 hours ran out a half hour
short. Not to worry, because I spent over two hours in the
sleeper berth during the day, I had that much time to drive before
taking a ten hour break. I could have driven to Gary, but that
just moves the time before I can leave tomorrow that later.
Also, Indie has a special area for hazmat loads.
I made a sandwich for my lunch tomorrow. I
have nine hours to go 500 miles, and make the delivery window.
I should make it, but I can't stop for hardly anything.
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Solid drive to the MI UP. Stopped
only twice in nine hours. Didn't drive much, and stayed away
from coke, it makes me go. Made my destination with only
minutes to spare. However, I was told that they would have
taken me later. It worked out because I got there before three
other trucks. They only had two docks, and I would have been
there for a while.
After unloading, I went about seven miles, and got
my next load. It was going to IA, but I was to take it to the
Green Bay OC by 6:00. I drove to the end of my fourteen, and
stopped in Crivitz WI.
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Just south of Crivitz WI is a
geological marker. I could read it as a went by, but A check
of the map indicated that it was probably a marker for the 45th parallel,
half way between the equator and the north pole.
It was 7:00 when I got the load to GB. I
just didn't have the time to get there any earlier. I was also
a half hour late for a safety lesson that I was there for. The
lesson involve a refresher of driving methods, and a ride-along
while I drove around the city. The lesson also involved
teaching split logging. Split logging allows you to break up
the ten hour break into two parts. The recommended two periods
are two hours and eight hours, or eight hours and two hours.
The two hours must me in the sleeper berth. If you read back
though my blog, you will see times when I could have used this, and
times when I did, even though I wasn't suppose to. Example, I
am being loaded or unloaded, it takes two hours or more.
If I spend this time in the sleeper berth, I can drive that much
farther past my fourteen, and then take the rest of the ten hour
break.
After the safety lesson, I ate lunch, then took a
shower. I was ready to go at 1:00pm. The load was in
Green Bay, but first I had to bobtail 200 miles to Chicago to get an
empty trailer. Given traffic, and problems at the pickup
location, which was the Sante Fe intermodal rail yard, it took
longer than it should have. The intermodal yard is where
trailers are put on and taken off railroad flat cars. I only
got as far as the WI boarder
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