Back to Jan

I drove to the delivery with only one stop at a rest area.  South of Louisville KY, I left the Interstate and took state roads and U.S. highways.  Less than two miles off the Interstate, I passed a Jim Beam distillery.  A while later, I saw a sign for another distillery.  After I was unloaded, I went back the same way I had come, and saw a sign indicating that the Markers Mark distillery was ten miles away.  The sign also said that Markers Mark is a national landmark.  As I passed the Jim Beam distillery, both ways, I could smell the sweet smell of bourbon in the air.

I drove to the Indianapolis OC, where I dropped the empty trailer.  There, I will pick up a relay load tomorrow before leaving.

I left early, and drove to the delivery in Flint MI.  I arrived at 1100.  At the delivery, I was told that I was in the wrong place.  I went to the place I was directed, and was told to back into a dock.  An hour later, I was told I was in the wrong place, and sent back to the place I went the first time.  Here I had to wait for a dock to open before I could get into a dock.  Once in a dock, it was 45 minutes before I was unloaded, which took ten minute.  All together, I was there for three hours.

My next load had to be picked up at 1600.  I barely had enough time to get there on time.  I got the load, and drove until the fourteen hours for the day were up.  I had to get as far as I could or I might not be able to reach the destination tomorrow, when it was due.

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It was two hours to pick up the next load.  After I got the load, I drove 45 minutes before stopping for the night.  I could have gone thirty minute longer, but didn't know where I would be able to stop.  I was going back the way I had come, and hadn't seen any place else to stop.

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From start to destination, I only stopped twice.  The first stop was only to scale the load, and take a short break.  If the load had been lighter, I might not have even made this stop.  The other stop was for lunch and a nap.  Two days in a row, I took a nap because I have been tired.  I haven't taken a nap in a long time.  I have been sleeping okay at night, but have been tired during the day.

I arrived at he delivery, and was told to drop the trailer in a dock.  I was suppose to pick up an empty, but the only empty on the lot was a leaker.  That is, it had a hole in it.  I was taking the empty to a company drop lot, so I called my TL to see if they wanted to have me move this trailer off the customer lot.  They said no, and sent me ten miles in the other direction, again.  To make things worse, it took a good fifteen minutes before I got directions to the location of the empty trailer.

Once again, I ran out of time on the fourteen hours, as opposed to running out of time on the eleven hours of driving.  The nap, and trailer problem made for a long day.

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After an hour and a half, I dropped the empty and picked up the load.  It was a relay load that I picked up in a drop lot.  The lot was in Clarksville TN.  The route out of town went north into KY.  The route went by Fort Campbell KY, the home of the 101 Airborne division.  North of Cincinnati, on I75, there is a church with a large statue facing the highway.

Although my sleep last night was not the best due to a noisy refer next to me, I wasn't as tired as I had been the previous two days.

I drove almost to Detroit.  I only had a half hour left on my eleven hours of driving.  I stopped at the Pilot station where I fueled up.  I also took a shower there.  More important, I had to fax the paperwork to the broker handling the border crossing.  After the faxing, I was to call the broker to confirm receipt.  The number I had been given was wrong.  I called support, and got transferred to the broker.  They had not received the fax.  That number was wrong too.  I faxed the paperwork again, called the broker, and they confirmed receipt.

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I drove to the border.  The paperwork that I had faxed yesterday was suppose to speed up my crossing.  It didn't.  I had to go to the Canadian customs office, and talk to the broker.  The fax was not good because it had been folded and was a little wet when I got it.  The faxed copies had black blotches on it.  The broker redid the paperwork, had me fill out a form, wait ten minutes for the information to get to customs, clear customs, and I was back on the road in an hour, in Canada.  I haven't been to Canada in over a year.

The route was going just northeast of Toronto.  I had to take Queens Highway 401 to exit 383.  Now, in the states, mile markers increase going east.  No different here.  But, that doesn't mean that it was 383 miles to the exit, it was 383 kilometers.  A quick calculate is for every 8, 80, or 800  kilometers you are going 5, 50, 500 miles.  Another trick is to look at the speedometer which last both MPH and KPH.  As the distance was just under 400 kilometer, the distance in miles was just under 250.

When I got off the 401, there was this very interesting Russian looking church.  I arrived at the destination about noon.  I dropped the trailer and ate lunch.  After lunch, I bobtailed to my next pick up point.  Got there easily, despite some bad directions at the end.  The route took me right through downtown Toronto.  One thing I noticed about the area is that there are a lot of high rise apartment building there.

I picked up the load and left.  I was suppose to take this freeway west, but the directions didn't explain very well how to get there.  I found an entrance going east, but could not find an entrance going west.  After a while I gave up because I knew how to get where I needed to go by going east.  I found out later that that added twenty miles to the route.  I drove an hour and a half, and stopped for the night in London, at a Flying J.  There, I checked my mail, and posted updates to the blog.

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I thought about doing a recap, but I would have only gained two hours of driving time. tomorrow.  I left about 1100, drove an hour and a half, ate lunch, and drove to the border.

Now, mixed in with the route directions was directions to the broker.  I didn't know I had to go to the broker, so I sent a note to my TL asking if I had to stop.  The answer was yes.  The crossing was over the Ambassador Bridge, over the Detroit River which connects the Lake Huron and Lake Eire.  As you are about to leave the bridge, there is a sign the says, "Have all your paperwork ready".  Off the bridge, the road widens into lanes for customs clearance.  At a customs booth, I gave my paperwork to a customs agent.  I was told that I was clear to go, so I went, following the truck in front of me.  I paid a bridge toll, and was on my way.  Now this worked well because the shipper had faxed paperwork to the brokers, and my paperwork had a barcode on the copies that corresponded to the faxed info.  One problem, I no longer had a bill of lading.  I figured that this was the reason to go to the broker, to get new paperwork.  Wrong.

I was now outside the customs area.  The directions ran me around in circles to the point that I had to get out my Streets and Trips to figure out where I was.  I found out that the broker is in the same building as the customs office, and now I was outside the area.  I called my TL, who connected me with the broker, who told me how to get back in.

Once I got to the broker, they sent me to customs.  After an hour, I asked what was going on, and they sent me back to the broker, who figured out where I went wrong.  I had given the bill of lading to the customs agent.  I called my TL, who called the shipper, who faxed another copy to the broker.  After four hours, I was back on the road.  The only break I got was the I didn't have to pay the bridge toll again.  The guy did give me a dirty look, and acted like I was a moron, which was somewhat true.

I drove another hour, and stopped for the night.  I was about four hours from my destination, and was told that getting the load there at noon was okay.  I decided to sleep until 0700 because I only intended to drive the four hours for the day.

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I showered, ate lunch, watched TiVo, and worked on this blog.  I saw the other driver.  He told me how customer service was trying to see if the seal could be broken, and some of the product shipped via another method.

Around 1700, I checked to see if I had been assigned a load for tomorrow.  I had, but it had an appointment time, so it didn't pay for me to leave now.  At 1900, there was a message looking for someone to take a load that was having a problem.   This load guaranteed a greater distance, so I called the person making the request.  The load had to be delivered at 1430 EST tomorrow, 500 miles away.  I was told that I could take the IN and OH toll roads, so I said okay.

I was going to have to leave by 0430 CST, so I went to find the trailer, it was suppose to be there in Gary, and hook up.  I couldn't find it.  I asked at the fuel desk, and was told that it was north of Chicago.  It arrived at 2100.  I hooked up, and noticed that it had a light out.  I went to the express bay and waited until 2200.  I went to the person who writes up the orders, and told him I had to go to sleep.  He was nice, and went out and fixed the wiring.  I went to bed.

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The next load was about 180 miles away.  I only had 2.75 hours available to drive.  The route started out on a divided highway with a 65 MPH speed limit, but was only for about 50 miles.  After that, it was hilly, curvy, narrow roads with tight turns, and small towns.  After about two hours, I came to I80, and a Flying J truck stop.  I couldn't make it to the shipper, where they allowed parking, and there didn't seem to be any other places to park in between, so I stopped at the Flying J.  There, I undated, and posted the blog.

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I picked up the load, and drove to Erie PA.  The route the company suggested went up into NY, to pick up I86, but the route I used saved about twenty miles.  Sometimes, the routing solutions given me are just down right goofy.

I fueled up in Erie, and headed west.  Again, the goofy suggested route went down to Mansfield OH from Cleveland, and then west on US30.  I continued west on I90, then Oh 2, and US20.  In Toledo, a road was closed, and I had to modify my route.  I was taking what had been a recommended route in the past.

I stopped at Gary for the night.

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End of tour 26.

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Now, because I helped with that load that had a problem last week, I was told that I would be given a load with good miles.  The company came through.  I picked up a relay load there at the home lot, and started on the 2150 mile trip.  The load was great, but there was a problem.  The delivery time, which was originally on the 18th, was changed to the 20th.  Probably because someone didn't think I could get it there in four days.  When the load was assigned, it was probably thought that I would leave on Monday the 13th.  But, because I hadn't gotten home until Saturday, the 11th, I didn't go back out until today, Tuesday.

After I was down the road a ways, a message came in saying the delivery was to be made on the 21st because the 20th was Presidents day, and the receiver would be closed.  Now, if I deliver on the 21st, I won't make it home on time to go to a party.  I pushed myself to get there by the 18th.  On this day, I drove about 645 miles.

The route when though NE, where there are a few interesting sights.  This is a western history museum, and this is the SAC museum sign.

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The rest of the day was good and bad.  The biggest problem was the snow kicked up by passing trucks.  For the most part, the snow just drifted across the highway.  The snow fall could be described as a "High Plains Drifter". The snow build-up on my wiper blades was my biggest problem.  Some times the road was really clear, and other times it was bad.  My average speed dropped to about 50.

In WY I saw many accidents, mostly involving jackknifed trucks.  There must have been about ten different accidents.  All but two of these were on the eastbound side.  One of the biggest involved three trucks.  I think what had happed was that one truck jackknifed, a second truck stopped okay, and a third truck jackknifed into the second truck.  The second truck was pulling a gooseneck trailer.  These are real low to the ground, so the third truck ran the jackknifed trailer over the gooseneck trailer.

Despite the snow, I still did 600 miles.  I stopped at a Flying J.  The Internet connection did not work well here, so I wasn't able to post the blog.  Before I went to sleep, I checked the weather to see if the snow would be gone in the morning.  It wouldn't.  Worse yet, the temperature was only seven degrees at that moment, and dropping.  It was a good thing I checked the weather, because now I had to idle the truck to keep the fuel from gelling.

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Things got better when I got into UT.  The road was wet, but clear of snow. Also, the sun started to break through the clouds.  The difference was that WY plows the snow and then throws down dirt and sand.  UT seemed to use salt, as my truck got white.  Hum, I wonder where UT got the salt.

West of Salt Lake City, the road got dry, and the sky turned to mostly sunny.  This is the way the rest of the day went as I entered NV. 

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I arrived in Sacramento CA around noon, my time.  There I ate lunch, and called my TL.  I was checking about the time to deliver the load.  I could do it this afternoon, or tomorrow morning.  The TL checked, and found out that they don't accept deliveries in the afternoon, and they aren't open on Saturdays, or Sundays, or Monday, which was Presidents Day.  I was told to take the load to an OC near Stockton, about an hour south.  That was why I stopped in Sacramento, anticipating this kind of problem, and where I would take the load.

I drove the load to the OC.  Before I got there, I received orders for my next load.  I dropped the trailer, and picked up an empty for my next load.  I stayed there for the night.

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The load, including the drive to pick it up, was about 1800 miles.  I had used 37.5 hours hauling the last load.  This left me with 32.5 hours for the next four days.  I had four days to deliver the load, so I would be doing about eight hours a day.  Today I did 8.75.  This is what I used to get to an OC outside LA.  There I fueled up, because I didn't think I could make it to the recommended fuel stop.  I stayed there for the night.

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Along the route, there was desert and mountains.  The mountains were around me, and I didn't have many times where I was climbing a mountain.  For the most part, it was an easy drive.

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As it got light out, the wild life gave way to domestic animals.  I saw cattle, sheep, goats, and horses.  I didn't see rabbits and deer anymore, but did see hawks and vultures.

At one point I went over a river in a deep canyon, and what I thought was a lake.  The lake was a reservoir.  The reservoir and the river both went to the Rio Grande River.  There were several miles of the drive where I was within a few miles of the Mexican border.  Because of the this I passed thought two border guard check points.  Another point of interest were signs referring to Judge Roy Bean.

After delivering the load, I went to the Laredo OC, where I worked on the blog, showered, and stayed the night.

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Not much to say about today.  I drove out of OK, across MO, and up to Springfield IL.  This is the second time in less than a month that I stopped for the night in Springfield.  The funny thing is that I will be driving back here on the 25th for a party.

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I went to the shipper, and was placed in a dock right away.  It still took almost four hours before I was loaded, and on my way.  By now, I was in rush hour traffic, and I was concerned that I might not make it home tonight.  I dropped the trailer in Gary, fueled up, and started home.  The traffic was better than what I had seen on the way to Gary, and I got to my home lot with 45 minutes to spare.

End of tour 27

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The tour started out by bobtailing to get an empty trailer.  I then drove 70 miles north to get a live load.  I had to wait until another drive got his load before I could back into the same dock.  After I got into the dock, I was told by the shipper that the floor of the trailer was wet, and that they wouldn't load it.  I called my TL, and was given instructions on where to take the bad trailer, and where to get a new trailer.  This didn't take long.  So short was each move, that I didn't log any of the time as working, or driving.

I got back to the shipper, and was loaded, just under four hours altogether.  I drove to Beloit WI to scale.  I knew I was okay on the gross, but wanted to make sure the axels were okay.  I could have scaled sooner, but would have had to pay cash, where as the Pilot station in Beloit takes my card.

I continued to drive as far as I could.  The load had to be delivered by 2200 tomorrow, in Paris TX, about a thousand miles.  I got about 45 miles south of Springfield IL fifteen minutes before my fourteen hours were up.  The live loading cut into my time, as I only drove 9.25 hours, including the 2.25 hours bobtailing and pulling the empty.

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