Back to July

As I got closer to Dallas, the GPS was shower that I could make it within the eleven hours allowed to drive per day.  I even got there with fifteen minutes left.

I fueled up, and parked for the night.

When I got back, there had been no response to my request.  I didn't expect any this early.  It was about 0730, and I figured that the place might not be open yet.  I called my TL about 0815, and was told that customer service was working on it.  At 1036, I sent a note stating, "if early delivery is not possible, tell me so I can go someplace".  I also stated in the note that "the delivery is five hours away".  When I drove to the delivery, it actually took four and a half hours.  I then received a call at 1049 from customer service.  I was told that they could get a hold of any through the company voice mail.  As it was almost 1100, and that it could take five hours to get there, it was decided that the consignee might close at 1700, and there would be enough time to unload the trailer.  So, customer service was going to try set up an appointment in the morning.  That freed me up for some sightseeing.

I got a ride to downtown Dallas.  I had read somewhere that there was a museum on the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository.  In case you don't know, this is where Lee Harvey Oswald shot at President Kennedy.

I went to the museum.  It was put together well, and covered all aspects of the assassination.  Some of the aspects included, the mode of the nation and Texas, Kennedy, arrival in Dallas, the assassination, world response, news response, Oswald, Oswald killing, investigations, conspiracies, and legacy.

Out on the street by Dealey Plaza, I walked around.  There are Xs on the street showing where Kennedy was when he was hit.  The two Xs are only about thirty feet apart.  I compared the position of the second X with the fence where a second gunman was said to have been.  That distance was about thirty yards.  Across the street from the snipers nest, it is easy to made out faces of people in the windows of the museum.  My over all impression of the area is that it seemed small.  The wide angle lens of the cameras made the distances look greater than they are.

When I got back to the truck, there was a message from my TL stating that I should go to the delivery.  There was to time as to when I was to get to the delivery.  The note was sent at 1236.  Surely she didn't mean today, as I would get there until after 1700, so I assumed tomorrow sometime.  I left the Dallas OC, and drove four hours.

I drove to the delivery.  There I was told that they were not expecting a load.  The person who handles appointments said that an appointment for this load had never been set up.  Also, that he told the woman who call yesterday to not do anything until she heard from him.  They were not going to except the load at this time.  I don't know whom he talked to.  Was it customer service or the TL.  If it were customer service, then I would not have received a note until customer service was told to have me make the delivery.  If the TL had talked to the guy, why was I sent a note to make the delivery?

I told to drop the load at a lot near by.  Someone else would make the delivery.  I was told to pick up an empty at the same lot, but there were none there.  I was directed to another location for an empty.  It was along the way to the shipper on the next load.  I got a trailer, and drove to the shipper.  I was forty-five minutes late.  While being loaded, I discovered that Elvis is alive and well, driving truck.

I was load and on my way after an hour and a half.  I drove four hours before stopping for the night,

After lunch, I drove three more hours to the delivery.  There I dropped the load, and picked up an empty.  I drove to the shipper of my next load.  The pick up time was tomorrow, but I couldn't find a place to park.  So, I drove to the shipper.  There I found out that they were open, and that the shipping department was working.  I got into a dock.

The entire load wasn't ready to load, so they waited to load.  I went to sleep at my regular time.  I got in about four hours of sleep before they started to load the trailer.  It took less than an hour.  I got the bills, moved out of the dock, and went back to sleep.

The GPS failed to take me to the right location.  I had to use the company directions to get to the delivery, about two miles away.  There, I was placed in a dock right away, and unloaded in just over an hour.

I drove the empty to the shipper of the next load.  I was told to drop the empty and pick up the load at the same location.  Then I was told to pick up the load at another location.  As I suspected, the other location was nine miles closer than the original location.  I called to see if I could drop the empty where the load was.  I did.

I left with the load, and drove six hours to W. Memphis, where I got fuel.  I still had some time left, so I drove another hour, which got me east of Memphis.

Having dropped the load for relay, I was told to pick up an empty there.  No empties were available.  So I was told to get one near the load pick up.  There, the trailer was still full.  Plus, the customer wouldn't give it up.  Then I was sent another sixty miles farther west.  Once there, I was farther west than when I started in the morning.  The empty was there.  I picked it up, and drove to the shipper.

At the shipper, I dropped the trailer, and picked up the load.  When I got my paperwork, I was concerned that something was missing.  The load was going to Canada, and there were usually more papers than what I was given.  I wasn't even told where I would be crossing over the border.  I was told that the papers had been faxed to the broker, and that I could anywhere.

I left, and drove until my fourteen hours were almost up.  I just got out of TN, where I had spent the day running back and forth.

Having cleared customs, I sent in my mac18, indicating when I expected to arrive at the delivery, and when I would be available.  I got there on time, dropped the load, and picked up an empty.

I drove to the shipper of my next load.  There I had to wait to get into a dock, but once in a dock, was loaded quickly.  I filled out my form, and along with the paperwork from the shipper, the shipper faxed the papers to the company that now deals with the brokers for entering the U.S.  The last time I used this method, it took over five hours, but this time I was cleared to cross the border in less than an hour.

At the border, the line was backed up about two kilometers.  The problem is that the Canadians don't want too much traffic on the bridge.  I took this picture while I was stopped on the bridge.  The line moved well, and I was through customs in an hour.

It was raining, and I was following the directions of the GPS.  I wasn't watching closely, and the GPS said nothing, but after awhile, I realized that I was heading toward Detroit instead of Flint.  I had always thought  the shorter route from Port Huron to IN was via Flint.  Apparently, the way I was going was a miles or two shorter, but you have to go by Detroit, and it was approaching rush hour.

I took bypasses to get around Detroit.  There were a few slow spots, but I made good time.  I stopped near Benton Harbor MI.  This is an interesting place to stop.  I checked, and found that I was about eighty miles from my home, in a straight line.  The thing is, lake Michigan is in between.

I drove to Gary, fueled up, and took a shower.  I took the shower in case I wanted to do something during the four hours I would have before the appointment.  I talked to my TL about getting an early delivery time.  I left, and got to my home lot about 1200.  I called my dentist about making an appointment, but he wasn't in that afternoon.  I thought about going to a movie.  But, just then, I got a note saying I could go in early.

I drove to the delivery, got into a dock, and was unloaded in an hour.  I drove back to the lot, and was on my way home by about 1400.

End of tour 57

The tour started with a 20 mile drive south to pick up a trailer.  This didn't make sense to me at the time because I was in a lot with empty trailer, and the shipper was north east of where I started.  I got the trailer, and drove to the shipper.  It took an hour and a half to get loaded.

I drove to Gary, where I was instructed to get fuel.  There, I was told that the trailer needed a PM.  Now it made sense.  It took two hours for the PM.

I left Gary, and drove to within thirty miles from the Canadian crossing point.  I stopped for the night, having driven seven and three quarters hours for the day. It was after 2000.  I still had two hours on my fourteen, but didn't want to cross the border, and find out there was a problem.  If there had been a trailer PM, I would have driven to within thirty miles of the delivery point.

It was about an hour to the pick up point in Canada.  It was at the OC the company had in Canada.  There I fueled up, dropped the empty, and looked for the relay load.  I couldn't find it.  I went to ask about it, and found out that it had just come in.

I hooked up the load, and then faxed the paperwork to the company that works with the brokers.  I ate lunch, did some other paperwork, and took a nap.  It was a little less than two hours to the border.  The last time I cross the border at Buffalo, it took over five hours for the customs paperwork to be processed.  I left the OC after two hours, and arrived at the border just under two hours later.  I still had received an okay on the customs paperwork.

I called the number to verify that the customs paperwork had been received.  They checked, and said that it had been okayed, and that I could go to the border.  I drove to the border, two minutes away, and had to wait in the staging area for thirty minutes.  This is an area to line up trucks to cross so that they are off the roadway.

Now, because of all this waiting, and not knowing when I would get across the border, I had no idea when I would get to the delivery, and when I would be ready.  When I left with the load, I could have been there tonight.  Now I wasn't sure if I could get there by tonight.  The point is, I had not sent a note on availability.  But, I had received a work assignment.

The work assignment requited me to bobtail to the shipper, and pick up the load tonight.  It then expected me to delivery the load by 1300 tomorrow.  Well, the estimated time of arrival at the shipper was an hour past my fourteen, so the load was not possible for me to delivery.

I called my TL, and explained that I could delivery the next load on time.  They took awhile, but must have figured I was right, because I was taken off the load.

At the border crossing, I went through customs in less than a minute.  Now, if they can only speed up the pre-crossing processing.

The drive to the delivery, south of Buffalo, was through hilly back roads in NY and PA.  The last twenty miles was Interstate.  I arrived at the delivery with only fifteen minutes left on my fourteen hours.  The load assignment said that I could park at the delivery, but was told no.  I dropped the trailer, and drove one mile to an empty lot, where another truck was parked.  It was 2015.

I drove to the OC in Seville, where I scaled the load, took a shower, and ate lunch.  I didn't fuel because I had enough to get to Gary, where I was told the fuel up.

I left Seville, and drove to a point just west of Fort Wayne IN.  I stopped early, having worked only seven hours.  The delivery was for tomorrow afternoon, and I was now about five hours away.  I also drove a short day, hopping that I would used up my seventy hours by next week, and only have these seven hours to work on the 23rd.

There, I undated this page to the last day of the previous tour.

I stopped in Gary to see what the deal was.  I was told that the pumps were not expected to be up that day.  I was told that I could get fuel at another Pilot.  I was could have stayed an hour, but the TL was afraid that I would be late for the appointment, so I left.

At the other Pilot, the credit card system wasn't working.  All these problems were the result of a storm that had gone through the area.

I drove to the delivery, where I arrived forty-five minutes early.  I was hopping that I would get unload quickly, but it was not to be.  It took over there hours before I was even started.  I was there four hours.

While closing the doors on the trailer, I saw that there was a hole in the roof.  I needed a different trailer.  I called my TL.  I told them they should send me to Gary.  I was hopping that the pumps might be working.  I was told they were.  This was good, as I had less than twenty gallons of usable fuel.  They sent me to Gary to drop the trailer, but I had to go somewhere else to get an empty.  I drove to Gary, dropped the trailer, fueled up, took care of some business, and bobtailed to get an empty.

Just a note, apparently there was going to be an air show on the weekend, so there were jets practicing in the area.  They went right over the OC.  I saw what looked like an F14 Tomcat, and for sure, several A10 Warthogs.  The F14s were making tight turns over the OC, with the power on, making a lot of noise.  Something was also breaking the sound barrier, making sonic booms.

I drove to the location of the empty.  It was just up the street from shipper.  I went to the shipper, backed into a dock, and was loaded quickly.  Picking up the empty, and getting loaded, took an hour.  I took off, driving just under two hours.  I had fifteen minutes left on my fourteen, but was at a Flying J.  I checked my mail, and posted what I had work on yesterday.

I left, and drove to the next shipper, thirty miles away.  There, I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.  The route to the delivery was going to be back roads in IA and MO, to I70 west of St Louis.  The GPS mapped what it thought was the fastest route.  But, there was a shorter route.

The GPS suggested going to Iowa City, and turn south.  But, I went to Pella, home of windows and tulips.  Then I went through Ottumwa, the home of the character, Radar O'Reilly, of M.A.S.H.  The road from Pella to Ottumwa was divided highway with a 65mph speed limit.  Past Ottumwa was a variety of roads with 55 and 60mph limits.  Once I got to U.S. 61, the speed limit was mostly 65, except for a few towns, and one city, Hannibal.  Hannibal was the home of Mark Twain.

The speed limits on U.S. 61 are new.  The highway has been expanded.  The GPS was probably not aware of this, and calculated the travel time as being seven and a half hours.  It took six.  The load assignment didn't expect me to be at the delivery until tomorrow.  Or, didn't want me there until tomorrow.

I was told that this way the best there was.  I now had so much time.  I asked if the load could be picked up tomorrow.  If so, I could do a restart, and get ninety dollars.  I was told that the load had to be picked up by midnight.

I worked on this page, updated it to this point, and posted it.

Sometime later, I received a note to go pick up an empty at a location about ninety miles north.  I left around 1400 to go get it.  I drove the back roads using the GPS for navigation.  The Interstates that went to the location would have added over thirty miles, and would have taken about the same time.

I picked up the trailer, and noticed that some of the tires didn't look good.  I sent a note saying that I was going back to the OC, instead of the shipper, to replace the tires.  I got a response that I should call road repair to see what they would suggest.  Well, one, I was in the corn fields of IL, and two, the tires were replaced by the time I got the message.

With new tires, I drove to the shipper to get the load.  There I asked if it were so that I had to pick up the load today, or if I could have picked it up tomorrow morning.  They said I could have picked it up tomorrow.  Miss information cost me ninety dollars.  Or was that done on purpose?  I picked up the load, and drove back to the OC.

I drove to the shipper.  There, it was like they were waiting for me.  As I drove up, a guy waved me into a dock.  Before I finished sending arrival notes, and updating the log, two or three loads had been placed in the truck.  It took longer to finish the paperwork than it did to load the truck.  I left thirty minutes after I arrived.

The rest of the day was a driving day. I had a lot of time to used over the next few days, so I drove as long as possible, despite the fact that I could delivery anytime tomorrow.

It was possible to deliver today, and that was what I was going to do.  I killed some time in Seville, but I probably shouldn't have.  After I left Seville, it started to rain, and it slowed me down a little.  Of course, leaving earlier would not have prevent the rain,

I was going to place in PA that I used to go to a lot.  The shorter route I used to take uses back roads to get there.  It the dark, and with the rain, it was a slower drive.  I was going along okay when I came to a detour.  The route went on some hilly, twisty roads, that looked like a residential area.  I kept following the signs until I came to one that said "End of Detour", at a T in the road.  But, it didn't tell me which way to turn.  I used the GPS to get where I was going, but I was probably on roads I wasn't supposed to be.

By the time I got close to the destination, I was out of time.  This is the place in PA where the company has a little OC, or more closely, an Operating Point, OP.  I parked for the night, I could delivery tomorrow.

When the two hours were up, I delivered the load, then bobtailed up the hill to the shipper.  There, there was a line, and it took awhile to get in, pick up the load, and leave.  Once on the way, I only had nine hours and forty minutes to drive the nine hours the GPS said it would take to get to the delivery of stop one.

I drove there hours, and stopped fifteen minutes for fuel.  I then drove five and a half hours with only one short rest area stop, which I did not log.  I was fifteen minutes from the delivery, expecting to arrive twenty minutes early, when the traffic came to a dead stop.  There was a vehicle fire, and I was held up for half and hours.  I got to the delivery fifteen minutes late.  It was okay.

I was unloaded in thirty minutes.  I then drove and hour and a half to the next stop.  I arrived forty five minutes early.  I was unloaded, and allowed to park there for the night.

I was going to stop in Indianapolis after about seven hours of driving.  But, the second stop tomorrow said that the average unload time was seven hours.  Because of this, I had to drive on to Gary.  That would minimize the driving time before the first stop, leaving more time for later in the day.

The next load was less than an hour away, and I got there in forty-five minutes.  I was over an hour early.  I talked to the dock person, and because I only had two pallets, he put me in a dock, they only one, and was unloaded in fifteen minutes.

I pulled out of the dock, parked on the street, and sent notes that I was available. I only had four or five hours available, and told the company I had four.  I took fifteen minutes to be release to go home.  I was given an order to take the empty trailer to the home lot.

The drive home was exciting.  I was in the northwest area of Chicago, and a big storm blew through while I was driving seven miles to the Interstate to go north.  The wind was coming at me from behind, which was good.  Given the wind speed, if it had hit me in the side, it may have blown over the empty trailer.  The rain was hard, and bits of trees were flying through the air.  Some branches were quite large.

Once on the Interstate, the wind and rain had let up.  By the time I was at the home lot, the rain had stopped.  Actually, I drove out of the rain.

Despite the lack of mile on the 18th-19th, I only had about three hours unused.

End of tour 58.

I was going to start later than usually, so I could take care of a DOT physical.  I place for the physicals didn't open until 0830.  As it turned out, I was having problems with my camper trailer, and needed to take tires in for repair at a place that didn't open until 0830.  I dropped off the tires, and drove to the place for the physical.  I still got to the truck by 1000, when I said I would.

I was transferring my stuff, when I realized that I had forgotten my clothes back.  I might get by without it, but may have to buy some clothes.  When the load assignment came in, the pick up time was far enough out that I could go home and get the bag.  I did that, plus stopped to buy a computer program I need, and planned to get while on the road.

I picked the and empty and drove two hours to the shipper.  I was loaded in and hour, and on my way.  I drove four hours to Gary, to scale the load.  I was suppose to fuel there, but was going to Indianapolis to stop for the night, so I fuel there.  I drove past 2200, working nine hours.  I thought I was going to be driving a late day schedule like last week.

My big concern was where I was going to park.  There are no truck stops with an hour of the delivery.  When I was with fifteen minutes of the delivery, I pulled off the Interstate, and onto a road with some shopping malls.  As soon as I made the turn, there was am out of business gas station with a large lot.  I pulled right in, and park far away from the road.  An hour later, another trucker dropped a trailer there, so I felt safe from being chased away.

My next load was a little more than an hour away.  It was a drop and hook, but I had to blind side the trailer into a very tight spot.  The load I picked up was heavy.  There was a scale just outside the shipper.  The load wasn't loaded all the way to the back, so I set the tandems almost all the way forward.  The first weight showed that I would have to run the tandems all the was forward, and that I would still be heavy in the front, so I slid the fifth wheel forward a notch.  That did it.  I had move the three hundred pounds or so from off the drive wheels and onto the steering wheels.

I drove almost another seven hours, stopping before 2000.  I stopped at where I was suppose to fuel up, and I did.  But,  calculations along the way showed that I was going to use more fuel than I am supposed to.  The thing is that I carry two hundred gallons, but am suppose to use only one hundred fifty.  So, I had stopped earlier at get sixty gallons.  As a result of that, I had two shower coupons.  Once I parked, I used one.

My next load was the same as the one I had just delivered.  I had to go sixteen miles to a warehouse to get a load that was coming back to the same delivery location.  I had the GPS, and the company directions, and still could find the warehouse.  I called them, and found out that they had moved about three years ago.  With the correct address, I got there quickly.  It was about a mile and a half away.

Getting into the place was interesting because the driveway was also being used by people parking for a baseball game.  About three blocks away is the ball park for the Philadelphia Phillys. Early arrivals were tailgating.

I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.  What had happened to the load was that another driver had had to stop fast, and the load shifted forward off the pallets.  An inspection of the trailer showed that the front was pushed out.  The consignee would not except it in that condition, so the load was taken to this warehouse, and reloaded on pallets.

I drove back to the delivery in fifteen minutes less than it took me to get to the warehouse.  At the delivery, I had to wait an hour to get into a dock, but it took longer to get unloaded because they were checking the condition of the product.

My next load was for tomorrow, but the load assignment said I could park there, so I drove there.  The GPS got me there, but because it wanted to take the shortest route, I had to bypass the recommended roads that were not right for the truck.  But, I got there okay.  This is one of the bridges from Philadelphia to NJ.

At the shipper, they were open, and loading trucks.  But, my load wasn't ready.  I parked for the night, and worked on this page, getting caught up to here.