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I dropped the load at the delivery, picked up an empty trailer, and drove thirty minutes for my next load. The directions were bad, and I missed a turn.  I had to drive a few miles to find a place to turn around.  At the shipper, I was told that it wasn't loaded, and that by the time it was loaded, it would be past my fourteen. I dropped the empty, and drove to a place where I could park.

Once on the road, I drove nine hours, with three breaks.  I was pushing the trip, trying to get to a Pilot station east of Louisville.  I had to watch the seventy hour rule.  I got there with only a half hour left.  The reason for getting to this station was so I could shower.

I called my TL, and told him that I need a load that would take me by an OC.  I needed to get the truck repaired.  I got a load southeast of Columbus.  The load was going to WI.  I drove to the Indianapolis OC.  There, I put the truck in for repair, and I checked into a motel.  The motel was a Holiday Inn, and it was a lot better than the motel in Memphis.

End of tour 41

When the tour started, I drove to a location to get an empty, and then to the shipper to get loaded.  I left the home lot at 0830, and was on the way with the load at 1045.

My directions for this load said to get fuel in Beloit WI.  This made no sense to me, as I would only need about twenty gallons.  The load was going to AR, like the load on the 1st, so, like that load, I fueled in East St Louis, IL.  That is where I stopped for the night.  A short day.

I dropped the load, bobtailed to the empty, and took it to the shipper.  Luckily, I  could park for the night on the shipper's lot.

When I got to the Sears center, they were moving trucks in and out through the same gate.  This slowed up the delivery and exit.  It took me forty-five minutes to get in and out.  About thirty minutes too long.  Then, the directions to another location to get an empty, were confusing, and I lost another forty-five minutes.

I got the empty, and was heading into Chicago, in a rain storm.  A few hours earlier, the temperature was about 70, now it was 40.

The directions to the shipper seemed straight forward, but the street ended before it was suppose to, so I assumed that I was in the wrong place.  Rather than fumble around on city street, where on wrong turn could get me into real trouble, I found a place to park, started my laptop, and used Streets and Trips to find out where I was, and how to get to the shipper.  After another wrong turn, I managed to get to the shipper.  Another hour lost due to bad directions.

By the time I had the load, I only had a half hour left on my fourteen.  I figured that this would be enough to get to the Gary OC.  It took 40 minutes.  Close enough.  Oh, and I had an hour of unused driving time left, if I hadn't lost all that time driving around in circles.

Now, I don't know if it was the change in temperature, or the heavy rain, but I had a bad head cold this morning.  Personally, I think it was the temperature, and the CPAP machine.  When that thing blows cold air into your nose, it can really irritate your nose.  Anyway, all day long, my nose itched, ran, and I sneezed a lot.

I delivered the load 1.75 hours late.  They weren't too upset.  The orders said that the average unload time was four hours, but I was done in an hour.  I then had to wait an hour and a half to get order for my next load.

I drove the empty I had to the Indianapolis OC,

I then bobtailed to a shipper in the area, and picked up a container.  I drove the container to a rail yard, where I spent the night.  Before I got there, I had sent a note saying that I had a head cold, and didn't want to drive anymore today.  Basically, I had been pushed beyond what I wanted to do the previous two days, and I didn't want to forced to drive anymore.

I did receive a fuel level request which indicates that I was being given an order.  But, it was almost two hours before I actually got the order.  Had I gotten the whole order with the fuel request, I would have picked up an empty, and driven an hour and a half to the Seville OC, where I would have stayed for the night.

I drove hard, thinking that I had to get to the delivery by a certain time to guarantee getting on the grounds before they closed the gates.  It turns out that the gate I was enter through is open all the time.  The delivery was in the old Brooklyn Navy yard.  You may remember that I was here once before.

When it came, I wasn't happy about it.  It was only about eight miles away, but in Queens.  To get there, I drove six mile on freeway, and then two miles on city streets.  The right turn I had to take was really tight, made so by an illegally park car.  I have heard of the police okaying trucks damaging illegally parked cars.

I got in, and got the load.  Getting out was just as difficult.  The route required me to make a right turn onto a street that was blocked.  The next street was too narrow.  The next didn't allow a right turn.  I was able to turn at the next opportunity.  I got back on route, and got out of the city.  I drove the load to a drop.

Anyway, after all that, I only drove it about eighty miles, where I dropped it for relay.  I did the hard part, and someone else got the long easy drive to MS.

For me, I picked up an empty, drove fifty miles, and picked up a load going 555 miles.  Not too bad.

When I got there, they was allowed to drop the trailer in a dock.  I picked up an empty, and drove two miles to a truck stop for the night.

I drove into PA and stopped for the not at a Flying J.  I worked on this page, but didn't post it.  I did take care of financials.

I had to wait awhile for my next load.  First I had to bobtail 106 miles to get an empty.  Bobtailing gave me an opportunity to stop at a grocery and stock up on a some food.  As I continued, it was starting to rain hard.  When I got there, it was raining real hard..  The procedure for getting an empty trailer meant I had to park and go to the guard shack.  I got wet.

As it turned out, the trailer I was sent for was still in a dock.  There were no other trailers there.  I check with the company, and they said they would unload the trailer.  It was either that or go, god knows where, to get another trailer.  I was there for an hour and a half.

I had enough time to drive to the shipper, but when I got there, I only had enough time to drop the trailer.  I was able to park on the street for the night.

The delivery was a drop and hook, so I was out of there in 45 minutes.  The route out also went through town, except I was on an illegal rout.  I was on a legal road, and was directed to take a right turn.  One block in I came to a sign that said, no through trucks, straight ahead.  The same sign was on the street to the right.  The left was a one way street coming at me.  I couldn't back up.  The sign should have been a block back.  I went straight, following the route I was given.  I was actually hopping that I would get a ticket, so I could stick it to the company, and their bad directions.  Farther down, there was a no trucks sign.  I was lucky to have gotten out of there.

I drove to the shipper of my next load.  It was another short load.  I was able to get to within fifteen minutes of the delivery before stopping for the night.

I drove to the location, but had a problem.  The directions told me to turn at a certain road, but the directions used a road name, and the road was identified by highway number.  I went about five miles out of route to get turned around.

I found the location, and picked up the trailer.  It was still in a dock, but was showing a green light.  I couldn't find anyone around, and couldn't get an answer on the CB radio, so I just hooked up the trailer, made sure it was empty, and took it.

At the shipper I was loaded quickly, and I took off.  It was another short haul load, and I figured that I might be able to delivery yet that day.  But not if I followed the company route.  It was considerably longer than another route.  But, my route would use some of the PA turnpike, and company directions usually stay away from toll road, even if they add sixty miles.  It should be noted that the pay miles are figured on the shorter route.

I took the short route.  Part of it was on a narrow U.S. highway with tight turns, and steep hills.  I only had to do about thirty miles of that.  The rest was okay.

I made it to the delivery, where I was unloaded in less than an hour.  The load was seven large rolls of paper used to made corrugated cardboard boxes.

I hadn't received my next orders, so I didn't know which way to go to stop for the night.  I had an hour to get somewhere.  I called my TL, and was told that the next load was at an OC thirty miles away.  I drove there,  dropped the empty, and stopped for the night.  I showered there.

I was able to park within ten miles of the delivery.

I got to the delivery, and was unloaded quickly.  I was on my way in less than an hour.  I drove the empty trailer to a shipper, and dropped it.  I then bobtailed to the shipper of my next load.  There it took longer to get in and out than it took to get the earlier load unloaded.

The rest of the day was a good drive of about six hours.  I stopped half way for fuel, and took a shower.

When I left, I bobtailed 70 miles to get an empty trailer, and then 170 miles to get the load.  At the shipper, I was load quickly, and was on my way home.  I drove three hours, and stopped for the night near Toledo.  It was probably the earliest I had stopped on the tour.

I stopped in Gary and fueled up.  While there, I ran the rig through the truck wash.

I drove two hours to the delivery.  It took and hour and a quarter to get unloaded.  Then I drove to get the next load.  The load was in Milwaukee, and to get there, I had to detour on some city streets to get around the road construction in downtown Milwaukee.  At the shipper, I was loaded in less than an hour, it was back around the construction, and to the home lot.  There I dropped the load for relay, parked the tractor, and went home.

End of tour 42

When I woke up at home, I called the weekend support shift to find out what my next load was.  I found out that it was only going 130 miles, and didn't have to be delivered until tomorrow.  What a waste of a day.  Anyway, I didn't have to get to the truck lot by 0900.  I took care of a couple of things, and went to the lot in the afternoon.

I picked up the load at the home lot, and drove it to Green Bay.  There I went to the OC, where I put my tractor in for repair, again.  I got a room for the night.  There I worked on this page, up to this point.

After awhile, someone took it out for a test run, and determined that it needed a lot of work.  I got a loaner tractor, and delivered the load.  By the end of the day, my tractor still wasn't done.  I got another room for the night.

When I got there I needed a restroom.  After that I asked about get unloaded.  I talked to someone in receiving, and was told that I was about a half hour too late.  I had been told by the company that the delivery time was in the morning.  Had I known that the I could deliver up to 1600, I would have been unloaded that afternoon.  I had arrived at the delivery at 1550.

The shipper was in the upper peninsula of MI, and the delivery was on the east shore of Lake Michigan.  This meant that went over the Mackinac Bridge.

Usually, you get fuel stops included with directions, but there wasn't a fuel stop within the directions.  I should have known that there were no fuel stops in upper MI, and fueled at the OC when I left, yesterday.

I got the load.  The load was paper from a mill.  Paper is made of wood chips and sawdust, which is sometimes received by truck.  This is how they unload the truck.

The directions were not what I thought.  I was thinking that I would go south into WI, but the load was going east, and the shortest route is over the top of Lake Michigan, then down through MI toward Toledo.  I wasn't going toward an authorized fuel stop in Green Bay.  I was going to have buy some more fuel.  Here is some info on Lake Michigan.

I took off with the load, and drove over the top of the lake, again.  I got some pictures along the way.  I went over the Mackinac Bridge, again.  The third time within a twenty-four hour period.  Until this time, I had not driven over the bridge with a truck.

Along the way, I stopped for fuel a second time, which I paid for, and a third time, where I filled up using my company card.

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