Back to Oct

Now, this was the eighth day of the tour.  I had tried to keep my hours per day averaged at 8.75, 70 divided by 8.  I had had some ten hour or more days, including yesterday.  As a result, I only 3.5 hours available after the delivery.  I could have sent a note that I was available to work with 3.5 hours, but was afraid that I would be given a load with an appointment time tomorrow morning, and I would have to drive between midnight and the delivery time.  I sent a note that I would be available tomorrow at 0500.

The consignee allowed parking, so I drove into their lot, and parked.  I watched TiVo for eight hours.  I was about to move to a better place for the night.  I was wondering if the next load would be in Lima OH, or Indianapolis.  The most likely would be Lima.  I moved a few miles, and found a vacant lot next to a McDonalds.  This was better than going the wrong way.  Shortly after that the orders for the next load came in, Lima.  There was enough time to get the load, and get to Beaver Dam.  This is the location where I could scale the load at the Pilot station, park there, and access the Web through the Flying J across the road.  I had one hour of my seventy left.

About six hours out, I got the orders for the next load.  I now knew where I was going, and how long it would take.  I had enough time to make the delivery, get an empty trailer, and get to Tunkhannock PA, where I stopped for the night.  I arrived at the lot in Tunkhannock just as my ten hours were up.  I now had nine and a half hours to work tomorrow.  This should be enough to make it back to Beaver Dam OH

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The load I was hauling was light.  This made the trip much easier, and quicker, through the hills of PA.  Just under nine hours of driving, and I was in Beaver Dam OH for the night.

One thing about PA is the carnage I see on the highway.  This is the season for dear, so there are lots of dear on the highway.  I don't want to be to graphic, but some of the scenes were gruesome. Beside dear, which I see in my home state of WI, there are other animals that I have never seen in WI.  I have noticed a lot of porcupines in PA.  Yesterday I saw a beaver. 

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I stopped in Gary to fuel, and have the truck PMed.  It was a quick PM, and I had more time on the 14 than on the 11.  After leaving Gary, I go stuck in traffic due to an accident.  I was about 45 minutes from my home lot, on the way to Green Bay, when I got orders to drop the trailer for relay at my home lot, and then go home.

End of tour 20

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The start of this tour involved taking a back trailer to Green Bay.  While there I had a talk with my TL about MY? bad attitude.  I said that I didn't like it when I get loads that infringe on my weekend home.  How was I going to make plans, if the company doesn't ask about my plans, and just gives out loads without regard to my personal life.

It was mid-afternoon before I got going with my first load.  When I got to Chicago, it was past rush hour, and I went around with ease.  U.S. 30 in IN was its usual stop and go.  I drove until about 2200, and stopped for the night.

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I got up just as it was getting light, and left shortly after.  I still had to drive across about a third of IN before entering OH.  As I crossed the Sandusky river, I saw a deer wading across the river.  It was up to its underside in the water.  I wouldn't have thought the river was that deep.

I stopped in Seville for fuel.  I then drove another four hours to a Flying J in PA.  I had planned to update the Blog, but was starting to feel poorly.  Now, I had been with my woman friend, and one of here granddaughters over the weekend.  The granddaughter had been sick, and my friend got sick that night.  I had been exposed.  I knew the stages my friend had gone through, and now I was getting it too.  I had anticipated this, and had brought a bucket with me.  I didn't need the bucket, but the stomach cramps I experienced gave my and idea of what childbirth must be like.

I did have to go to the men's room, and after the second time, I stayed in the driver lounge for a few hours to save on the trips.  It was after three before I really got to sleep.

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I was going to go back to sleep for four hours, and then drive the two and half hours to the delivery.  I cut the nap to three hours.

I was tired and was not at all hungry.  I delivered the load, and picked up the next load.  I drove back to where I started, and fueled up at the Pilot station on the other side of the Interstate from the Flying J.  I was still early, but dark.  I continued on knowing that the farther I drove tonight, the later I could sleep in the morning.  Three hours away is another Flying J.  It had been raining lightly most of the day.  As I continued, it got worse.  Not only was it raining harder, but there must have been hail.  Now, I don't mean little pea gravel hail, as it was not constant, I mean it must have been cluster hail.  Something some hitting the truck with big bangs.  I thought, for sure, that the plastic cab would have cracks or dents in it.  My biggest concern was that one of these things would hit my XM satellite radio antenna.

I knew I was going to be tired when I got to the Flying J, and not interested in getting on-line, so I stopped in a rest area thirty miles short.  Now, some rest areas are good, and some are bad.  Good ones are level, and away from the highway.  This was bad.  I was parked on an incline so that I was sleeping head down, and I heard every truck that went by.  But, despite this, I sleep good.

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In the mean time I talked with some other company driver.  It turned out that one of the drivers had the same TL as me, and that he has had problems with the TL too.  I am not the only driver with negative feelings about the TL.  The other driver said that he heard of many drivers quitting because of the TL.

I got orders for my next load.  The pickup time was still three hours off.  I drove in the direction of the load, and stopped at a rest area for lunch, and some reading time.  I when and got the load, then drove to Seville OC for a shower.  I really needed a shower.  I left the OCm and drove a little over two hours more.  This put me at a Flying J, and an hour and a half from a morning delivery.  There I updated the blog through yesterday, and posted it.

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The load was a live unload on the 14th.  The delivery was than 500 miles away.  I could get it there tomorrow.  Once I had an idea when I could be there, I sent a request for a change of the delivery time.  They wouldn't or couldn't change the time, so I got instructions to drop the trailer for a relay.  Someone else will delivery it on the 14.

I stopped just before 1800.  I was more than half way to the delivery.  I only did seven hours of driving, but 7.75 hours of work with the trailer/truck inspections.  For the whole week, soon far, I have only logged 38 hours, or 7.6 a day.  This is way under the 8.75 average hours of 70 divided by 8.  I can do over ten hours a day for the next three days, if only I would get a load with some distance.

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The second third involved picking up an empty from the drop lot, and taking it to the shipper.  There I picked up my next load.  I drove to Charlotte, where I fueled, and had repairs made to the trailer.  It had a wiring problem on a light, and needed some tires.  I had lunch, and took a shower.

The last third involved driving another three hours to a Flaying J. It was 1830.   I might have made it to Atlanta, but it would have been close.  The only reason for trying to get to Atlanta was to have my truck fixed.  And then there was no guarantee that they would have been able to work on it over night.  Charlotte could make the guarantee.  The problem is the heater.  I had turned it on in the morning, and now I can't turn it off.  The thermostat has no affect.  Even with the blower off, hot air still blows out which ever of the vent I choose.  To get the truck from overheating, I have to close the outside air intake.

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After Atlanta I drove I85 to Montgomery.  This was a new Interstate for me.  This part of I85 is like I75, lots of trees.  I did notice something along this stretch of road that I don't remember seeing anywhere else.  Patches of bamboo.  Threes time I saw patches of bamboo not much bigger than 100 square feet.  The stalks were about one inch in diameter and ten to fifteen feet tall.  Bamboo is a grass.

South of Montgomery, as I got closer to Mobile, I started to notice what could have been hurricane damage.  There were bare forests, with trees bare of leaves and needles, and flattened.  As this devastation was patchy, I think that was caused by tornados.  Other areas were okay.  Mobile didn't look too bad.  Some building did show damage.  If you hadn't known there had been a storm, you might have thought that there was remodeling going on.

The farther west I went from Mobile, the worst things got.  More tree damage, buildings with obvious damage, billboard sign all twisted up, light poles knocked down, houses with blue tarps on their roofs, and debris  alone the road.  Lots of debris.  One of the oddest things was the highway signs.  The large signs , eight to ten feet square, had ripples in them.  The force of the wind flexed them back and forth.  After entering LA, the amount of highway debris started to diminish.

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Drove the empty to my next load, and picked up the load.  I had been to this location before, and it has one of the worst lots.  The main complaint is that it is dusty.  My A/C isn't working, so every time another truck goes blasting by, I had to power up my windows.  It was a choice between sweating and getting dirty.

The road I took to get out of town, and to the I20 was being expanded to a four lane.  There were a couple of small towns, so the speeds were all over the dial.  I got out to I20, and headed east.  The route passes through Vicksburg, sight of a Civil War battle.  I had visited the battlefield in 2003.  It is really beautiful, with lots of monuments.

Forty-five miles later I was in Jackson MS.  I fueled up at a Pilot station, took a shower, then drove to a Flying J.  The last Flying J I was at had a problem with their Internet connect.  I was able to get online, and post the updated blog.

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I took a lunch break, and then drove to with fifteen minutes of the delivery.  I was able to stop at a Flying J.  There I had my hair trimmed, and got online for awhile.

I drove to the delivery, but had to wait to get unloaded.  Part of leaving later was to allow me time to get unloaded, and have time to drive to a place to park.  I had gotten order for my next load, and knew that I was going to Chattanooga TN.  How long it took to unload me, would determine how much time I had to drive.  I could drive until 2300 CST.  I was suppose to be unloaded by 1900 CST,  it was 2000.  I drove some back roads to get to I75 north of Atlanta.  I stopped at 2200.

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When I got the scale slip, another trucker was talking about a big accident tie up in Knoxville.  I was going that way and wanted to know more about it.  He said it was worst west bound than east bound.  I was going east.  When I got there, it was way backed up, and not moving.  There was an exit, so I got off.  I turn east on the first road I came to.  I didn't see any signs saying "no trucks", but I wasn't driving on what looked like a trucking road.  There house around, and I think I drove through someone's backyard.  The next busy street I came to, I turn south.  I went until the Interstate.  The traffic wasn't moving much.  I couple of block down, I came to a U.S. highway the ran east, parallel to the Interstate.  Every once in awhile, I could see the Interstate, and see that I was doing better than those on the Interstate.  At one intersection, I could see the accident.  A tanker was straddling the center barrier.  One more block, and I was able to get back on the Interstate.

I stopped for fuel and lunch.  Finally, I was really on my way.  I drove seven hours with only one, short, non-logable stop.  It was 2100 when I stopped, another Flying J.  I hadn't thought that I would make it to this truck stop, and was surprised when I did.  I updated the blog, and posted the pages.

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I stopped in Carlisle where I fueled up, had problem on the trailer fixed, ate lunch, took a shower, and enjoyed some R&R.  I left Carlisle three hours later.  Three hours after that, I delivered the load.  I picked up an empty trailer, and drove a few miles to a company lot.  My next load wasn't going to be ready until the morning.  I had driven less than five hours.

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Drive through PA, I saw a few snow flurries.  There had been some big snow about a hundred mile north.  I saw some cars with inches of snow on their roofs.

I stopped in Seville to fuel up.  I got in line at the express bay to have a headlight with no low beam replaced.  While I waited, I ate lunch, and download some MP3 file into the player I use to listen to them through my radio using a cassette adapter.  After an hour, I got tired waiting, and started to replace the headlight myself.  I was just finishing as my turn for the bay opened up.  I drove in and got a replacement headlight.  A whole hour, and I did it myself.

Another hour and a half, and I was at the Flying J.  I updated the blog and posted the page to the Internet.

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To start, I had to deliver the load.  The delivery was less than eight mile away, and I was there in less the fifteen minutes.  I drop the trailer in a dock, and picked up an empty.  Drove the empty 70 miles to pick up my next load.  I was there an hour early, but the load was ready.  I picked it up, and was on my way.  I drove fifteen minutes to a truck stop, where I weighed the rig.  I was heavy on the trailer tandems.  I had run them up pretty far as a starting point.  This is a guess based on experience, and some idea of how far back the trailer is loaded.  The weight of the trailer tandems, and the weight of the drive tandems showed that this was going to be close.  I tried several times to get it legal, but couldn't do it.  I slid the tandems to different holes.  I even move the fifth wheel on the tractor a notch.  The first time I had ever done that.  The table below shows what I did, and the results.

All this fooling around used up about two hours.  I had it planned to drive to a Flying J west of Nashville.  I was going to shower at the same time I fueled up, and continue on to the Flying J.  But, by the time I got to the fuel stop, my fourteen hours were up.

The lot was small, and it didn't look like I was going to find a place to park.  But, I couldn't go anywhere else.  I followed another truck down a row with a dead end.  He turned around.  Apparently there was nothing there.  I made the turn, and there was a spot.  It looked tight.  The tow trucks flanking the spot were not parallel to each other.  It was narrower at the back.  I started to back in.  I saw someone back there directing me.  I got to a certain spot, and got out to look.  I could see the guy very well.  My trailer was getting close on the right.  The tractor was cocked to the left, so I could see.  I pulled up to the right.  I could now see both sides.  I backed in.  The back of the trailer only had about a foot of clearance on each side.  The driver that had been directing me said that I really knew my stuff.

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I plan today was to drive as close to ten hours as possible, and still get close to my destination.  Because the speed limits were mostly 65 and 70, I was doing better than 60 MPH.  The truck is governed to 63, but it is really hard to do much better than 60.  Once I got to the last leg of the day, I was on a U.S. highway with varying speed limits, towns and stop light.  The cut into the average.  When I hit the ten hour mark, I found an abandoned truck stop where I parked for the night.

I was about an hour from my destination.  When I left in the morning, I sent a note that I would be available at 1000.  Now I could be there at 0700, so I sent a note to that effect.  Shortly after that I got messages for my next load.  the system must have still been using the old information because the pickup window opened at 1300.  I turned off the wakeup alarm.

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It was 1145 when I left.  Almost half my daylight was gone.  I had wanted to drive almost ten hours again.  But, because I only had eight hours for each of the next two days, somewhere around eight or nine would be okay.

The route took me over the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge.  The last times I went over the river here it was either night or foggy.  I finally got a look at the city.  There was a navy destroyer on the bank next to the river.

Went by the hurricane damage again.  The debris by the highway that I mentioned before was mostly in MS.  The worst of the damage was just before Gulf Port.  I saw a sign for the town of Pass Christian MS, the spot where hurricane Katrina came ashore.

Farther down I10, east of Mobile AL and Mobile Bay, I drove on new highway.  Twenty-five miles later, I was in FL.  This is the first time I have been in the FL panhandle.  The route goes through Pensacola, and shortly after that there is a bridge that crosses over Escambia Bay.  The bridges here were damaged last year by a hurricane.  The span I was on had had several sections knocked off the trestles by the storm surge.  The missing spans had been replaced with steel grates.  It was a little scary in the dark.  Next to the bridge, I could see cranes and pylons in the water.  It looks as if they are building new bridges.

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I delivery the load, picked up an empty trailer, and drove to Albany GA for my next load.  I was hoping for a load that would go to WI, but I got one with a late day appointment in Memphis.  Before picking up the load, I ate lunch.  Once I was ready to leave with the load, I only had four hours of driving time left for the day.  The route out of Albany went cross country on a U.S. highway, and a state road in AL.

In GA, I went through the small town of Cuthbert.  The town had it's water tower in the middle of the highway.  In town there was also a traffic circle.  Farther down the highway I crossed the Chattanooga River, entered AL, and the city of Eufaula.  The town is an old southern town.  The highway goes right through a neighborhood with huge old houses.

I had only a half hour of drive left when I stopped at a small truck stop thirty mile north of Montgomery AL.

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The route went north to Binghamton, where I fueled up.  I then took U.S.78, going to Memphis.  At first it was a divided highway with some stop lights.  After about twenty miles, the highway basically became an Interstate.  Actually, it will become I22.  A great road.  As I got close to Memphis, I pass by Tupelo MS.

At the delivery point, I was told that I did not have an appointment for that day.  That the appointment was for Friday.  I check with the team leaders, and they found a mistake.  I was told to take the load to the West Memphis OC, get an empty trailer, and go onto my next load.

I had been hoping that the load was is in Neely Landing MO.  If it were, I would have a good chance to getting home tomorrow.  The delivery point was my home lot, but the load pick up was in Jackson TN.  I headed to Jackson, and stopped ten miles short.  I could have gotten in for the load, but I wasn't sure if I would have enough time to get off the lot to a place to park.  It is early, so I can get up and going early tomorrow.

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I drove with the desire to maintain 60 MPH.  This way I would build a buffer to use if I got held up somewhere.  I fueled up in Paducah KY, and picked up a lunch to go in Effingham IL.  I was making good time.  When I got to southern Chicago, I noticed heavy traffic going south on the Dan Ryanexpressway.  I was going good.  When I got to the loop, there was a traffic backup going onto the Eisenhower expressway. I stay left and got by okay.  I was beginning to think I would make it through Chicago okay.  I was one mile from the Edens expressway cutoff when I hit the traffic.  What was going on here.  I was Thanksgiving afternoon.  These people were suppose to be home eating dinner and watching football.  I thought that maybe to Chicago Bears had played a game, the fans were going home.  I checked my XM radio traffic report for Chicago, and found out that there had been a parade.  I half hour earlier, and I might have missed it.

I got to the home lot at 1645.  By the time parked the trailer and tractor, I was out of hours.  As I expected, I was to beat up to go anywhere but home.  As things had worked out, I only had four hours available tomorrow, so I got a free day off.  I would have a long weekend, four full days.

End of tour 21

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I had doctor appointment early in the morning, so I didn't get going until 1030.  I bobtailed to a rail yard in Chicago, and picked up an empty trailer.  I took the empty to the shipper, where it was live loaded.  I have been to this shipper before, and they take their time loading the trailers.  Luckily, they loaded me in a little over two hours.  I drove out of Chicago, and over to the Gary OC for fuel.  The pumps were all in use, so I quickly ate the meal I had started cooking while I was being loaded.  Fueled and left.

The load had to be delivery at 0900 tomorrow.  I didn't think I could make it.  If I stopped for my ten hour break, I would be late.  I was running late, and I was going to loose an hour going into the eastern time zone.  I did, however, have enough time to get there tonight.  I arrive a half hour before my 14 hours ran out.  I knew I would be able to park there when I arrived.  I would not be able to move tomorrow until an hour and a half after the due time.  Hopefully, they wouldn't need it right away.

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Forward to Dec

My next load was in Lima Oh.  You might remember that I had problems with scaling a load out of there on the 19th.  This load scaled better, and I was on my way in no time.  The route was the same as back on the 19th into the 21st, except I was running about an hour later.