As I went through the construction zone, I saw an odd sight.  They are knocking down old ramps, and on this one was a medium sized steam shovel with a jack hammer on it.  It was sitting on the old ramp above a column, and the ramp was being chipped away around it.  I was I could have gotten a picture.  I hope it is still there this weekend when I will be home, and driving through the area to go see my mother.

I arrived at the delivery, and was unloaded quickly.  I sent a note that I was available now, but the load order I received was as if it had taken the three and half hours the previous order said it would take to get unloaded.  I sat there for two hours.

When I left, I drove a half hour to shipper, and arrived a half hour early.  I was placed in a dock, but the loading didn't start until the appointment time.

When I left, I drove non-stop to Indianapolis, snack some of the way.  There I had a light on the trailer fixed, bad wire, took a shower, and left an hour later.  I drove another hour, and stopped fifteen minutes before my fourteen was up.  For the day, I only drove seven and a quarter hours.

I got to the delivery a half hour early, and was placed in a dock right away.  However, it was over a half hour more before they started to unload me.  I worked on this page, and updated to right here while being unloaded.

The snow was coming down harder, and I thought that the rest of the day was going to be terrible.  But, it let up, and by the afternoon, I was driving in sunshine.

Once I was unloaded, I drove a few miles to pick up my next load.  It was a heavy load of jellies and jams.  I drove the load to a drop lot in Louisville KY, where someone else would pick it up and take it down south.  While I was hauling the load, I received orders for a couple of loads.  Given that I was going to go where there were no approved fuel stops, I stopped and put in some fuel on my way to Louisville.  I didn't fill up because I knew I would be picking up a load at the Indie OC.

After I dropped the loaded trailer, I picked up an empty, and drove to the next load.  The directions told me to follow U.S. 41 in Henderson KY, and turn left on a state road.  There is also an Alt U.S. 41, and the state road crosses both.  I followed the directions, made the left, and one mile later, I knew I was not in the right place, and, I couldn't get turned around.  Anyway, by the time I got turned around, I was in a bad place where I could have gotten stuck, and on roads I shouldn't been on.  I figure I went thirty miles out of route.

I found my way to the shipper after an hour.  I was loaded, and luckily could spend the night there, as I was out of time.

An hour later, the load arrived, but the driver took it to the shop.  Apparently it had some problems.  As it turned out, they could wait.  Plus, the shop bays were full of trailers with freezable loads.  It was getting real cold out.

I hooked up the trailer, and left.  Drove straight to the home lot in five and half hours.  I dropped the trailer and drove over near where I park my vehicle.  I do this in case it doesn't start, I can use the tractor to get it started.  Despite the subzero temperature, it started.  I drove my vehicle to the tractor, transferred my stuff,  drove the tractor to a parking spot, and plugged in the engine heater.  Now, I was told to idle the engine because of the cold, but I was going on vacation and would be gone ten days, not three, so I left it as is, and went home.

End of tour 47

I spent some of my vacation in Buffalo NY, and drove there and back without any snow problems.  Not today.  The wind was coming out of the east, and that can result in lake effect snow.  Plus there was storm coming through too.

I drove to get an empty, and then took it an hour to the  shipper.  There I was load in a little more than an hour.  I drove the load to a scale, and had to adjust it as it was heavy in the back.  Another hour, and I stopped for lunch, and took a nap.  Then it was a about a five hour, non-stop drive to Des Moines, where I stopped for the night.  I could have gone farther, but was tired from the drive in the snow.

This was the first real bad snow driving day this winter, and it wasn't all that bad.  I could see the pavement, but it looked slippery.  The temp was in the teens, and there was snow and blowing snow almost the whole day.  At the stop, the nighttime temp was expected to be below ten degrees, so I idled the truck while I slept.

As I drove, I noted that my on board thermometers said that the temp was below zero.  The lowest temp was minus seven degrees.  Once the sun came, it started to warm up, and afternoon, the temp was in the teens.

This was a drive day.  I drove nine and a half hours with two stops, one for lunch and a nap, and one for fuel.  I could have gotten to my delivery with what I had left, but would be close to empty when I got there, so I decided to play it safe.  There have been other times where fueling was difficult because I hadn't taken advantage of approved fuel stops along the way.

I stopped about two hours from the delivery point.  I could have gotten closer, but the appointment is at 1100, mountain time, that's noon central.

After I was unloaded, I drove to a TA truck stop.  There I fueled up.  I had to squeeze in the fifty gallons I needed to get a shower coupon.  I thought I would have used up fifty gallons since that stop yesterday.  I actually had enough to make the delivery, and get to this fuel stop.  While here, I ate, and took a shower.

Next I drove to Fort Collins for my next load.  Before going to the shipper, I had to stop at a truck wash to have the trailer washed out.  The shipper wants the trailers clean in side.  I then went to the shipper.  This shipper has a lengthy procedure for dropping empty trailers and picking up loads.  First the whole rig is weighted.  Then the trailer is dropped, and the tractor is weighted by itself.  This is to figure the weight of the trailer.  This is done because the loads are heavy, and the shipper doesn't want to ship a real heavy load in a heavier trailer.  Then the load is picked up, straps are used to secure the load, the rig is weighted, and the trailer is sealed.

There were a lot of trucks there picking up loads.  I was there for an hour and a quarter.

The trip was heading south, to TX.  About an hour and a half later, I was stuck in rush hour traffic in Denver, CO.  The slow moving traffic did allow me to get a picture of MileHigh stadium.  It is called something else now.  Between Denver and Colorado Springs it was basically rush hour traffic for over an hour.

The route was I25 south.  From I70 south, I was on Interstate I had not driven on before.  I had traveled it, down to Pueblo, but I had driven that time.  I stopped for the night, just short before Pueblo.  It was dark when I stopped, and when I got out of the truck, I was treated to a wonderful view of stars.

After while in NM, I left the I25, and drove back roads and US highway to my destination.  Although two lane, it was easy going, and there wasn't much traffic.  Alone this route, I enter Lincoln county.  This is the place of the Lincoln county war between two merchants.  This was basically a dispute between a monopolistic merchant shooting it out with the WalMart of its day when it opened in the area.  This is also the shootout that involved Bill the Kid.  This sign was Carrizozo MN.

This was a hard drive day.  I didn't have to deliver until tomorrow, but if I got there today, I would get an early start with my next load.  When I got to the delivery, in El Paso, it was half past the deadline for making deliveries.  They were still working on some trucks, so I checked in, and they took me.  I was unloaded an hour later.

I drove the empty trailer to a company drop lot.  There, I was to pick up my next load.  However, the trailer I was told to pick  up was not there, and I had been told that it was ready to go.  I called my TL, he checked, and the load was in a different trailer, which was there.  I picked it up, and drove to a Petro truck stop, where I fueled up, and stayed for the night.

About five hours into the day, I stopped for lunch.  From here on I was on different roads from yesterday.  The road I have been on since El Paso, and was on the whole day, was U.S. 54.  From Santa Rosa on, I was driving the reverse of a route I had taken two years ago in my second month as a truck driver.  The route goes from NM, into the TX panhandle, then the OK panhandle, and into KS.

In TX, I passed some huge cattle, feed lots.  The dark band at the top of the picture is cattle.  Minimum, there was a half a square mile of cattle.  There were three lots in the area.  And, the smell made my eyes water.  Something about this lot attracted a lot of birds.

I was going to stop in Liberty KS, but it was still early, and light out, so I drove to Meade.  Liberty is considered the center of the country, and boasts having Dorothy's house from the Wizard of Oz.  Meade was the hideout of the Dalton gang.

Not much to write about.  I continued on U.S. 54 until Wichita.  There, I turn north on I35 to Emporia KS.  I stopped at the Flying J there to get online, where I posted this page, updated to the 16th.

When I left the Flying J, I drove another half hour to a TA, where I got some fuel.  Since I had left El Paso, I knew that the next fuel stop in the directions was over 1150 miles, and beyond the 150 gallons of fuel drivers are supposed to stay under.  I figured the distance required 165 gallons.  I got 51 gallons, so I could get a shower coupon.  I also ate lunch here.

I finished the day by driving four and a half hours to Des Moines.  There I fueled up.  I took another 105 gallons.  I could have made it using 156 gallons, but I didn't know.  If I had followed the route the directions said to go, it would have been farther.  I stayed here for the night.

At noon, I made the delivery.  After dropping the trailer, I drove to where the empty trailers were, so I could see what was available in case I got orders to pick one up.  Short there after, I got orders to pick up a trailer, and head to a drop lot 120 miles away.

There I dropped the empty and picked up a relayed load.  It seemed funny as the shipper was there in the same town.  Having been to this area before, I knew there was a scale near by that I could use.  I scaled the load, it was okay, and left.

I was only going to go another hour and a half, but when I got to the truck stop I was going to stop at, I took the wrong exit, and was heading south, as I would have done anyway, tomorrow.  I thought about stopping at a TA near Madison WI, but remembered that there is a Flying J another hour or so down the road.  I drove nine and half hours today, leaving only seven for tomorrow.

After close to an hour with no response, I call my TL.  He checked, and after a while I got orders to take the load to Gary for relay.  I was good.  The consignee wouldn't take it early, and now I wouldn't have to sit for a day and a half at some truck stop.  If I didn't get another load to keep me moving, at least I would be in an OC.

I sent a note saying when I would be available, and drove the load to Gary.  Along the way, I received orders to pick up a relay load in Gary, and take it into MI.  The miles of the load would use up most of the remaining hours.

In Gary, I dropped the load and picked up the next.  I ate lunch, and showered, seeing as I had the time and chance.

The drive from Gary took four hours, and there was a small truck stop about two miles from the delivery, which was set for tomorrow.

I got up, left, and arrived at the delivery about an hour later than the earliest I could have arrived.  Good thing.  My company failed to tell me that there was an appointment time, and I was an hour early.  I was unloaded two and a half hours later, one of that was actual unloading.

I drove an hour to my next load, where I dropped the empty trailer.  I had to wait a while, as I had to call to find out what load I was getting.  Once I got the load, I drove forty-five minutes to a truck stop to weigh the load.  It was heavy in the back.  I could move the tandems back only to hole 14, IL law, and I needed to go back to hole 19.  In hole 14, I was still 1200 lbs to heavy in the back.  I had to go back to the shipper.

At the shipper, they moved the load around in the trailer, while I looked for a close scale.  When I left, I drove a half hour to a closer scale.  The weight was the same.  I drove back to the shipper.  There, they moved the load around a little more, but it didn't seem like it was enough.  The drove to the scale, and was 200 lbs over weight.  Back I went.  There, they took some off some to the load.  When I scaled again, they had taken off about 10,000 lbs, when they only needed to load it correctly, or take of about 1000-1500 lbs.

After all this fooling around, my time was just about up.  Luckily, the company has a minor OC next to where I was scaling.  I stay there for the night.

I drove a normal day.  I wasn't going to drive straight though to get a load there that was going to be late anyway.  If the company wanted to get the load there on time, they could have passed the load on to a team or a drive that drove at time.  Someone could have picked it up from me last night.  There was a four hour window.

I arrive at 1615.  After dropping the load, I bobtailed to the companies new OC east of St Louis, in IL.  There, I picked up, and drove another forty-five minutes.  When I stopped, I had almost used up my fourteen hours.

I was supposed to go into IA, pick up a back trailer, and take it to Gary for repair.  That would have taken over four hours.  That would have left me with, at most, an hour to drive 90 miles, straight line.  I called my TL, and explained the situation.  I was taken off the trailer move, and given a load.  It wasn't much better.  I was to pick up a load, and take it to Gary.  The time to get home was going to be close, and I didn't think I would make it.  I called my TL, and was told that that was the best there was.

Well, I was mad.  I had plans for tomorrow, and if I didn't get home tonight, then I was going to quite this lying company.  I drove fast and hard, using the quickest routes to maximize my time.  I managed to drive sixty miles, or more, for every hour I drove.

I got to the shipper, was loaded quickly, and drove to Gary.  There I dropped the trailer, and fueled up.  A check of my available time showed that I had an hour and a half to drive 90 miles, straight line.  I was bobtailing, so I could make good time.  I have often wondered if bobtailing is working.  I am suppose to put in on the driving line of my log book.  But, the company doesn't pay me for bobtailing home, so I don't think I am working.  Which meant I had plenty of time to get home.

I was driving well until I got north of the Edens expressway out of Chicago.  I stopped at an oasis to wait out the slow traffic.  I couldn't wait to long, or I would have run out of time on my fourteen..  I sat there an hour, drove the last thirty miles, and arrived at the home lot as my driving time ran out, and fifteen minutes before the fourteen ran out.

Despite this last day, this tour was good because it used all my available time.

End of tour 48

Well, the tour was starting out as usual, pick up an empty, get a load, and get going.  But, it had snowed over the weekend.  When I picked up the trailer, I got stuck on the snow.  Tried oil-dry under the tires, but that didn't work.  Called for help, but no one would pick up.  I got help from another driver with a chain.  Then, I had to take the trailer to get a tire replaced, as it was a little low on air.

After all that, I drove to the shipper.  I arrived about hour later than I could have.  At the shipper, I had to wait for another driver to go get his load.  Even though I had started at 0930, and had driven forty-five minutes, I didn't get going until 1345.

I drove six and a half more hours, and stopped outside St Louis.  I also fueled up there.

Ahead to Mar

I drove two and a half hours, took a lunch break, and then two hours more to make the delivery.  This was going to be another drop and hook, but the next load wasn't ready yet.  I had to wait about an hour and a half.  It was 1700 when I pulled out with the load.  I got a message that said the load would be ready until 2000.  Good thing the company doesn't know what's going on.  That would have been after my fourteen.

I drove an hour an a quarter, and stopped at Gary for fuel.  I had hopped to go get farther, as there was a storm coming, but I stayed in Gary.  I only had thirty minutes left on my fourteen.