8/29/12 Update

This trip went off pretty well, being the second round for this week. Oak Hill, WV being the 1st stop came off with no issues, then we hurried down to Nash-Finch in Bluefield,VA before they closed at 2100. I arrived around 2030, Grants in Tazewell we made it before 2200 closing of course, so no problems there. Sunday nights they close at 2100 so I of course missed that run and had to come back Monday morning. In November they'll go back to winter hours, closing at 2100 every night, so it'll be tough to make it, except for Thursday nights because I don't have Bluefield. Finally I finished the night in Richlands at the Grants there.
In preparation for there monthly three day sale at the first of each month, they received eight pallets! Mostly of potatoes. That's the most I've seen anyone ever receive in one load. After I pulled all that off and stored it in the cooler, I was off to bed.

     Woke up this morning and headed for Christiansburg. I stopped at the Loves north of Wytheville and fueled up, including the DEF tank, which for some reason was put on the passenger side. So I have to fill a five gallon jug and manually pour it in the tank through a funnel. So I try to fill it up at half tank, which is 10 gallons, so I only need to make two trips. I only have to do this once every two weeks because we have a DEF tank at the shop, and I only have to fill it up once during my three round weeks, which is every other week. So I went on to Christiansburg and of course the Pepsi delivery truck was in the dock, so I had to wait for awhile. Interesting four cop cars showed up and went to a house across the street from the Dollar General Market, and one young boy was arrested for something. Anyhow I got that stop off and went on to Troutville, then Collinsville.

  I'd backed into the dock and rang the bell as usual, but this time nobody answered as they normally do very quickly. I was dealing with a mother nature situation which required immediate attention, so I sat my bills down and ran around through the front of the store to the facilities. Upon completion of the more imminent problem at hand, I returned to the dock where they had started unloading, however the normal produce man was on lunch, so another guy was filling in. So after leaving there I headed to my final stop in Clarksville and found that the dock has once again flooded for the second time this month due to a pump failure in the system that's supposed to clear all the water away from the dock.

So this is is what you end up with! After opening the door and climbing over the railing I was however able to stay dry myself. Then I got the news that Collinsville had called and we missed unloading a pallet there. The ONE time I didn't double check the labels, and it came back to bite me. So after loading up the dog food in Halifax going to Ohio, I returned here to Collinsville and gave them there pallet. So all is well that ends well! This load of dog food does not deliver in the morning as they have been up until now, so we will probably just drop it and hook up to a trailer back in Newcomerstown for our final trip this week. Also I have an appointment at 1130 on Saturday for a new tattoo of a Peterbilt logo,so look for that next week.


(c) 2012 Viper Pete 386 Productions and Truckin Rooster

Been awhile

Its been quite a long time since I've been on here I see. The last year was pretty crazy, been a lot going on. Back in April last year I got out of the silver Peterbilt and into a silver Volvo. At that time the company was still under the rule that all new trucks needed to run out west, so they wanted me to take it and run it out west. Which I did, though  wish I never would've given up the old Pete. I did one run out west, then our company began growing so much that it didn't even matter anymore, so I started running mostly east and midwest anyway.

 Then in July my marriage of eight years, which was never too stable anyway, finally fell apart and I was divorced in September. Which time I was sitting at the TA near Springfield,MO one night and I finally signed up for a dating service offered by facebook, and a couple days later my beautiful girlfriend Jennifer messgaged me and we started talking on the phone, and when I got home I went to meet her and the rest is history. She has three wonderful boys ages 8, 4, and 2.

Back in March of this year my Volvo got backed into in the Loves travel center parking lot in Denton,TX and the hood was destroyed, just in time for the our new pretty red Peterbilts to be delivered, so here I am back in a Pete again! A 2013 model 386. Shortly after I got my new truck I got started on a new route with our main customer, a produce distributor in Ohio. I run produce to grocery stores in Oak Hill, WV, Bluefield,VA, N. Tazewell,VA, Richlands,VA,Christiansburg,Troutville,Collinsville and Clarksville. Then I take a backhaul from one of a few different customers we've picked up and go back to Ohio. I alternate 3 rounds a week and 2 rounds. So one week I'm home Saturday and leave out Sunday, then the next week I'm home Saturday and leave out Tuesday. It's an awesome schedule that gives me lots of family time and also make great money! Just got loaded at the Kyanite mine in Dillwyn,VA which I deliver in Columbus then back to Newcomerstown for my second round this week, So that's a brief overview of what's been going on with me for the last year. I'll be back on soon.  TTYL

~Rooster

14 Drops

I just returned from my longest trip here yet, as far the most drops ever anyway. I had 14 drops starting in Salt Lake City, UT then to Sacramento,CA and finalizing in San Diego, CA. All the while pulling an Amish furniture billboard.



















Everything went pretty good until I got into Wyoming. Things started getting pretty cold, they were forecasting wind chills up to 50 below across the state that night. Elk Mountain was in good shape luckily, as I had no weight on. The winds were pretty calm thank goodness. Once I got over by the 123 marker my buddy Bruno that I used to work with at Navajo was passing the other way and he warned me to slow way down because the road was solid ice. The eastbound side already had a big crash with cars and trucks sliding into each other. I had slowed to 10 mph and I hit the black ice and my truck started sliding off the right shoulder, I tired to counter steer but I had no steering control at all, even with the wheel turned left my truck kept going right. To avoid sliding in the ditch I tapped the brake pedal lightly and the drive tires slid and pushed the nose of the truck back towards the middle of the road. It was only a short span of road so I was able to get by without going off the road.

As we proceeded up the hill I had to take it very slow, the slightest touch of the pedal and I started sliding again. All the cars seemed to be following behind me and everyone was doing fine, one person in a pickup decided to jump out in the left lane and as soon as they hit the gas pedal they did a 360 and baked 'er in the median! LOL That's how it goes when you get stupid. Just at that time I heard a lo boy flatbed truck holler out on the CB that he was slid across the entire westbound side, so I got by just in time.

Once I made it over that hill everything was fine again and I delivered my load in Salt Lake the next day and proceeded on to Sacramento for the next morning. I made 3 stops in the area and proceeded to the Oakland area for 2 stops. The first stop was fun, I pulled up in front and checked in then had to drive around the block of tight streets and pull down the street behind their building, a dead end street. So the only way out was to wait for the light to turn green and back out into the intersection.

The second stop there wasn't much better, I had one door to deliver. When I got there I pulled up in front along the curb and found there wasn't anybody there. So I called the number on the door and the guy came down in a pickup. He was just getting ready to head to L.A. and had no idea I was coming, turns out that I wasn't supposed to deliver to his store, it was supposed to go to the factory down by L.A. but since he was headed there anyway he just took it for me.

So I headed south towards my next drop Thursday morning in Visalia. It sucked having to fight my way out of the bay on US101 at 5pm when I didn't really ever need to be there to begin with, but that's the way it goes. I found a little place my buddy Nick told me about along the way called 'La Casa Fruta' they have a nice restaurant, fruit market & gas station there. Had a nice meal and went to bed. Got up in the morning and headed to my first drop for the day in Visalia, then finished up all my stops down in the L.A. area on Thursday and three stops in San Diego on Friday, then headed back to Oxnard to start loading produce coming back home, which took me 6 hours to get there,190 miles, a very bad way to start, but that's how it goes in southern California.

EOBR

Well the day has finally come, as we all knew it would. The FMCSA has announced plans to release a final rule for requiring the electronic logbooks (EOBR) around June of 2012, and requiring industry wide use by 2015. I used an EOBR while I was employed with Navajo and it didn't really effect my miles or pay much, but it did cause a lot of headaches in conjunction with the 14 hour rule. What that means is once the truck starts if you have not reached your 11 hours driving by the 14th hour you must shut down for a 10 hour break.

This causes problems when you're going to a customer that does not have overnight parking. So if you must park at the nearest truck stop and wait, by the time you're appointment time comes around you're already past your 14 hour limit it's virtually impossible to legally deliver your load on time then. One time I was delivering in Oklahoma City and I ran out of hours on the north side of town by the the Flying J truck stop, I drove an extra 20 minutes to deliver my load, and they still wrote me up. So I'm supposed to shut down and miss my appointment 20 minutes away?

Another problem I had was triggering a violation when I was at a customer in the middle of my break and I would pull up to open the doors and back into the dock. There was supposed to be a 2 mile buffer before the driving time activated, but it wasn't always working the way it was supposed to. The only way to bypass that was to use the off duty driving option so you could back into the dock without breaking up your 10 hour break or getting a driving violation. This presented another problem because some drivers were abusing the off duty driving privilege by using it to drive an extra 200 miles a day illegally. This prompted the company to abolish the off duty driving all together, then they really had problems because nobody could deliver there loads on time, even if they were at the customer they couldn't even back into the dock.

Customers are not very happy when you're there but you can't deliver the load because you cant back into the dock "legally". So this prompted the company to reinstate the off duty driving option at 30 minutes a day limit. The whole 14 hour rule is just a major tangle in the system, it's a just plain stupid idea. With everyone running EOBR then it will be assured the truck will be shut down for the proper rest time, and only the truck. There is no way to force a driver to get rest of course. Regardless of whether the truck is stopped or not, it doesn't address the issue of driver fatigue if the drivers not utilizing the time properly to get their rest. So in my opinion if they would just abolish the 14 hour rule the EOBR would work much more efficiently.

EOBR will not increase safety at all in conjunction with the 14 hour rule, drivers are then forced to drive faster because every minute counts, and if you get tired you cant pull over and take a short nap because you'll lose driving time when you're running against the clock. The truth is everyone needs a nap once in awhile, regardless of if they've taken their proper rest period the night before or not. The truth of the matter is it increases fatigued drivers rather than preventing them. The rules as they are now simply can't be followed to the letter of the law with an EOBR, it just doesn't work.

The good thing is, once everybody is forced to run 100% legal than shippers and receivers will be forced to change their ways because if they go holding drivers up for 4 or 5 hours then they'll find out quickly their freight is not going to get delivered on time. We shall see what the new proposal will hold this time from the FMCSA, I just wish someone would wise up and realize the 14 hour rule plays no role in making anything safer and only hinders our ability to do our jobs.

Ct

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A Day At The Ranch

I had a load of Amish furniture bound for northern SD. I met with the store owner at a truck stop near Sturgis and we headed north about 65 miles on the pavement and 10 miles off the dirt road to a cattle ranch, about 40 miles from any town. The owners of the ranch also ran a business in which they build power lines for the oil fields. It was me and two guys from the store plus the two contractors who were going to build the new office.

They had been running their business from their home but they needed to expand so they were adding onto their big garage with an office. It was a bone chilling cold day and we spent several hours unloading chairs & desks & counter tops and all sorts of different office furnishings. By the time we were done I couldn't even feel my feet anymore. Once it warmed up to 15 degrees the locals were shedding there coats, I guess they thought it was a heat wave....crazy.

When we were done the lady invited us inside where she had prepared us a feast that would put Thanksgiving dinner to shame! It was all homemade, down to the whipped cream for the pie. It was amazing, they were very hospitable. So I hung out awhile and got my belly full and checked out the ranch then hit the road for my last stop in Salt Lake City.

Holidays

Well I didn't quite make it home for Christmas this year, I got stuck running a load of cheese,furniture,doors, and veal to KS and CA. I got pulled over in TX on US54 on the way, got a warning for doing 75 in 70. The Trooper said he was just looking for something to do to show his Sgt. that he was working, so it didn't mean anything. He didn't even do an inspection, so it won't even show up on CSA.

I got all my stops off in two days except for the San Diego, which was just a few doors which are strapped to the walls, so I picked up a partial load of oranges in Riverside then went down to San Diego the next morning and delivered there and headed to Yuma to finish loading. I crossed the scale in CA on 15 and they didn't say anything, but when I got to Yuma they said I was 35,300 on my drives. He told me to pull over and adjust it and go ahead, so I did. When I CAT scaled it at the Love's before loading I was still over on my drives, ended up having to slide the fifth wheel all the way forward. Good thing I did scale though because I was 70k lbs gross and they wanted to load another seven pallets! So they ended up cutting one pallet of broccoli and I scaled out 79,940. 80k is the limit for a standard tractor trailer configuration like mine.

I ended up making it home the day after Christmas. I delivered my load Monday and was supposed to be off the rest of the week, but the next day they called me and sent me out to NC.

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Off to San Diego

After I left Vern's house I headed out to the Pilot and filled up my thermos with the go-go juice and hit the road. Jumped on I-10 west to the highway 85 south to I-8 west. I ran out across AZ and stopped at the CA line and got the go-go juice for the truck at Loves. I like to fuel at Loves as much as possible because if you buy 1000 gallons a month,the next month you get unlimited showers and free drink refills. So I pretty much never have to pay for coffee or worry if I have any shower credits.

Anyway after navigating through the sea of trucks in and out of there I pulled back on I-8 and headed into CA. I crossed through the check point & weigh station no problems and proceeded across the desert until I came to the first border patrol check point.

I pulled up and rolled down my window and the officer asked me to open my door,so I did. He asked all the usual questions like " are you a US citizen?", "anyone else in the truck"...then he asked if the truck was mine, I said no I'm a company driver. He then asked "what company is that?" I'm thinking the one on the door dumbass, but I said B&L Transport. Then he looks at the door. Then he asked "what are you hauling?" So I said "doors" he was like HUH?!? ...I said DOORS, like the thing you put on your house. He's like oh ok....go ahead. Sleep better tonight America knowing your national security is in good hands!

So I proceeded down the road through the second border patrol station to the Acorn casino & travel plaza and went to bed about an hour east of San Diego. I got up in the morning and called the customers cell phone per instructions since it was black Friday they were on a skeleton crew. The guy tells me he is at the office and he will meet me out front if I call him when I get close.

So I did and no answer. So when I got there the young lady tells me he just left to go to a job site and only her and another young lady are there. They called him and he said for me to just unload them and they could sign for it. So I backed down there drive,blind sided around the building to there back door and brought out the big guns and unloaded the two doors myself. I was pretty proud of myself for that! On my way to San Diego I got a call from the produce broker saying he had a load ready for me to pick up over in Yuma AZ backhaul to Ohio.

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Thanksgiving at Vern's

After delivering my four stops in the Phoenix area on Wed. I returned to the Flying J truck stop where I spent the night relaxing in my truck. On Thursday morning I called my buddy Vern and got directions to where I could park my truck near his house. When I got there I was met by his girlfriend Constance who gave me a ride back to the house while Vern finished his shower.

It was Vern,Constance,his mother and there four kids, 3 girls and one boy ages 2-7. While we were waiting on the food to finish we took the kids to a local park to play and then Vern and I went back to see my new truck and we sat and had trucker talk for awhile. After his mother called and said the turkey was done we went back to the park,picked everyone up and headed back to the house.

It was then I somehow became the "horse" of the house giving all the kids piggy back rides and being attacked by all. We had a great time, I love playing with kids. We then ate dinner and I went back to playing games and reading books to the kids until it was desert time,ice cream and pie! After that they all got ready to go to the zoo and I left out for San Diego. I was very happy to be able to spend the day with my good friends.

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Adventures of Jake Brake & Sleepy - Part 1

This is the first in a series of stories that I will be writing to describe the friendship between “Jake Brake” and “Sleepy”. It’s a story of how fate and trucking brought two young kids just out of truck driving school together and created an inseparable bond and lifelong friendship. Jake Brake and Sleepy started out fresh in trucking on the same day, and each one had strengths and weaknesses, in order to succeed they had to learn from each other, and overcome the obstacles along the way. All the while inevitably ending up in some form of misadventure, but all the while strengthening their friendship. Sometimes fun, and sometimes sad, it sure to keep you interested and always wandering what will happen next.
Our story begins in February of 2002 with Sleepy who was fresh out of trucking school and had gotten hired by his first trucking company and was in the process of the three week training program. This is not a very long training program at all, and the learning is very fast paced, the main objective of the trainers here is to get there student passed by the companies safety department so they can get there five hundred dollar bonus and get their next student, the emphasis on safely training new drivers is secondary as far as most the trainers here are concerned.
Sleepy however was having a little trouble picking up everything in this short amount of time, especially with the shifting, because the Volvo truck he learned on at the school was a ten speed, and this Freightliner FLD 120 was a “super ten speed”, and the concept is a little more difficult for a new driver to pick up on. He also had some issues in following the correct highways and would often get lost and confused on back roads. Near the end of his training his trainer told him that he may not be able to pass the final test, and thus would be terminated from the company. This affected Sleepy in a very deep and emotional way, because driving a truck was his childhood dream and he had come so far, the thought of failing now made him very sad. He went into the truck stop and got a shower, while in the shower he broke down and started crying. He is not a really sensitive type of guy, but the thought of failure and not becoming a trucker was a very deep blow to his dreams.
His trainer never saw him cry, but he could tell that his comment had affected Sleepy and made him very depressed. He decided the best thing to do was take him to the French Camp, CA terminal because the safety department here was the most lenient and he would have the best chance of passing. At the end of the three week training period Sleepy and his trainer headed to French Camp, along the way the trainer made a suggestion that Sleepy meet up with another student and run teams for awhile to improve his skills before going solo. It was Sleepy’s goal to be a solo driver, but he was very nervous about doing it right now, he was very scared still about driving the truck and knew he wasn’t ready to be solo, so he agreed this was a good idea. But how would he make this work, he would need to find someone who lived close by so they could at least share home time, and how do you convince a total stranger to let you drive with them? It was a great idea, but the chances of actually making it a practical one seemed very vague, so Sleepy was convinced that he would end up being thrown in a truck solo and that scared him to death.
They arrived at French Camp and they stopped at a nearby truck stop, tomorrow was the big day and Sleepy was very nervous if he would even be able to pass at all, and if he did, then what? How in the world was he going to drive a truck alone when he was still so scared of his inexperience behind the wheel? While standing outside the truck stop a man approached him and asked for a few bucks for gas, Sleepy doesn’t have a lot of money, as he was only making twelve cents a mile for training, but he has a big heart for people and he gave the man a few bucks. Next thing he knows he is standing next to a mountain of a man, just over six foot and about three hundred pounds of solid muscle. Sleepy is about five foot eleven inches and one hundred thirty five pounds.
He decided to start a conversation with the massive stranger and told him that he was a student and was here to test out of the training program, the kid then told Sleepy he was also a student with the same company and he was here for the same reason. Sleepy told the kid how nervous he was about testing out and the things his trainer has said. They started talking about home, and he told Sleepy he was from Ohio. Sleepy lived in Colorado, but he had no ties there since he was living with his parents, but he was actually born and raised in Ohio and still had a lot of family there. The kid introduced himself as Nick, he said “they call me Jake Brake, my trainer gave me that name because I never shut my jakes off.” Sleepy told Jake Brake his name was Rich, and he had gotten his handle from some friends before getting into trucking because he worked third shift, and they always found him asleep when they needed him. As you can see, the character “Sleepy” is me, and “Jake Brake” is someone whom I was about to engage on a never ending journey of friendship and adventure with.
Nick was doing very well in the training program, and after talking with me and my trainer at the truck stop that night he agreed to take me under his wing for awhile so that I wouldn’t have to face the big road alone until I was ready. Being that he lived in Ohio and I had family there, it was a perfect match; fate had taken its course and brought us together here this night.
The next day Nick and I and another student crowded into a truck and took turns taking our road test and backing exams, we both passed with flying colors. There was a female student with us who could not even get the truck into gear or shift without excessive grinding, and she passed to, so my trainer was correct, this was very lenient safety department.
Jake Brake and I were assigned our truck, a 1998 Freightliner FLD120 that was located somewhere in the Los Angeles area, abandoned by the previous driver, so we both headed to the local Greyhound station and had to take one more horrendous ride on the grey dog, luckily a short one. After arriving in the Los Angeles area we hopped in a cab and headed to our truck. Much to our surprise we found a ragged out model of something that resembled a truck, we opened the door and found the interior was trashed and filthy, we started the truck up and immediately all kinds of bells and whistles started going off. This was certainly not what we expected to start our career, especially as a team, but hey we were truckers none the less, and we were going to take whatever we had to, we were ready to hit the open road! After a few minor repairs that was, our first trip was to drive the truck to the company shop in Fontana, CA to get rid of all the alarms that were going off indicating some issues that needed to be addressed.
In the next edition we will discuss the first trip out for Jake Brake and me, the start of our bonding together as best friends.
Copyright (2009) Richard Goon

New Truck Video Tour

8Ball Busted Me

I was trying to be sneaky and buy chrome for the new Pete, but Danny caught me red handed! This is like the 4th time in the last 2 years we ran into each other at a truck stop like this.

Back to the West Coast

Its been a fun summer this 2010. Running regional and being home every week gave me a chance to do lots of fishing and other activities that I never really got to do since I started trucking back in 02. But the main reason why I came here was to run the west coast, which is what I love the most. The opportunity wasn't available until a few weeks ago when one of our west coast drivers decided he wanted to run regional, the opportunity was perfect! All of our west coast drivers get to drive the new trucks, and the old beat up trucks like I had stay on the east coast. So we just swapped trucks and now I'm rolling in a 2011 Peterbilt 386, beautiful truck!

















It comes with all the necessary comforts, a comfortable bed, Sirius radio for that Road Dog truckin, and a factory refrigerator & freezer, which is my favorite accessory. My 1st week out I ran regional, 2 trips between Indianapolis to Detroit, 5 stops of produce each time. I had to attend the company safety meeting last Saturday and after that I took off on my first return to the left coast trip with seven stops.

I ran down to Lubbock, TX for Monday morning and delivered a door there and went to El Paso where I stayed the night and delivered a couple more doors there on Tuesday. These doors were the biggest I'd ever seen, special order for an 8,000 sq ft home! It took three of us to get them off the truck. I think I'm going to get very strong delivering these doors on a regular basis. LOL
From there I came over here to Phoenix for four drops today. I started this morning in Tolleson with empty pill bottles, then more pill bottles to Phoenix, and finally doors and wood shims to Tempe. Now I'm back at the Flying J where our buddy Vern Gill has kindly asked me to join him and his girlfriend and their children for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

After that's all over I will head out tomorrow night to deliver a couple more doors to San Diego, CA on Friday morning then wait to see what the back haul will be. Produce more than likely.
I leave you with the sunset at Texas Canyon on 11/23, my 30th birthday. What a way to watch this milestone day in my life fade away.

5/26/2010

So on Monday morning my wife and I went down to the heart of Amish country in Berlin, OH and we did some walking around looking in the western wear shop and a couple antique malls, she bought a new end table for the living room and I bought a whiskey bottle, I love too see antique glass bottles for some reason. LOL We had lunch at a diner in town there and she took me back to my truck. I hopped in and bobtailed back to Berlin to pick up my loaded trailer.
I set off for MN to deliver Tuesday night. Chad aka DrSuessMN was waiting for me up at the Flying J in Lake Station, IN. So I finally made it up there and met up with him and we took off, this was like 1am so the ride through Chicago was a breeze, we did the I94 to IL41 back to I94 deal to avoid the tolls and when we got into WI we decided to shut down for some rest.

He was delivering in Milwaukee in the morning and I was already half way to Rogers, MN for 8pm Tuesday. So we drove through the Petro in Racine and it was packed so he said we should go check out the Kwik Trip across the street. We drove over there and backed up against the wall but the lady came out and said we couldn't park there, so we asked her if we could run inside real quick and then leave and she said okay. I go back out and stick my key in the door and the lock sometimes sticks so I put pressure on it and *SNAP* key breaks off right in the door! I always carry my spare key in my pocket with me but of course now its not there. Luckily my sleeper door was unlocked so I climbed inside and I tore the truck apart and couldn't find the spare key anywhere. So we hop in Chad's truck and drive back to the PETRO and they say they don't do anything with keys so we got directions and headed to WAL-MART but they couldn't help neither because they don't use the old style key machines anymore where they could clamp it together and trace the cut.

Chad drove me back to the Kwik Trip, also he called them before we went to WAL-MART so they would know what was going on. He dropped me off and he went over to the burger king lot to get some sleep. So I searched some more for that key with no luck, finally I called our mechanic at home and he told how to hot wire the truck from the ignition switch to get it running. It fired right up and I went over to the PETRO and got some sleep.

When I woke up I took off and headed west and I passed a Peterbilt dealer right off the interstate and I ran in there and gave them the vin # and they made me a new key for 5.00, so now I have a key again.I delivered my load last night in Rogers then went to Bogards for my first pick up this morning. Got loaded at 7:30 and headed into WI for two more pick ups in Granton and Appleton and I'm sitting in Luxemberg now for my 4th pick up in the morning then my final pick up in Hilbert and I'll be off to Ohio to drop the load tomorrow night in Navarre.

5/23/2010

I left the house Thursday night and picked up my truck from the yard with a fresh new A/C and all, it was a big relief! I went over to IN and loaded up Friday morning and drove all the way to Keasbey, NJ and parked in the holding area and check in. They started calling trucks around 0400 and I swore I heard them say something about truck 233, I walked into the office to see if they were talking to me but they didn't know what I was talking about, I don't know maybe I was hearing things, or wishful thinking. They finally did call me to a dock around 0800 and of course I didn't get out till 1100 and made it to the final stop last minute, they stop receiving at noon. It's a driver unload,one pallet breaks into six, so I knocked that out real quick and headed to DE to pick up the bananas for delivery in Newcomerstown, OH this morning.

I always take 287 to 202 and 31 to I95 to avoid the ridiculous tolls on the turnpike. Coming out of DE last time I took 202 and it had a lot of lights so this time I went back into PA and took some other roads I thought might be quicker to pick up 30 but just ended up right back on 202 anyway and it just wasted more time I think. I did find a nice diner outside Lancaster with truck parking called "Jennie's Diner" the food was great, had that homecooked feel to it, and plenty of it, I took the rest with me for later.

I took 30 into Lancaster and 283 into Harrisburg then went over to I-81 and down to Carlisle and fueled up and ran over to Breezewood then 30 to 220 and I-99 then 22 into Ohio. This is a good road and saves a lot of money and doesn't take too much more time. The fog got really thick by the time I got into Ohio, couldn't even hardly see the road in front of you. I made it to the 250 get off and instead of going west I accidentally got off the east exit. Now there was a parking lot I could have turned around in, but due to the fog I didn't see it until it was to late so I went into Athens, and I knew I didn't want to go east because there was no turn around down there for sure. So I took Ohio 9 south and hoped for something, well no such luck. For a state road this was like a COUNTY road. It may have been eight foot wide, but not an inch more twists and turns and hills so steep I was climbing them in 3rd gear and barely made it the top. it was a white knuckle ride for sure! Couldn't see ten foot in front of the hood and them sharp turns and steep grades. I finally came to a town and saw a sign for route 22 turn right six miles, so I turned right and followed that highway, pretty much the same thing as route 9. Finally made it back to 22 and had to make an impossible right turn and followed that back to 250 then 36 into Newcomerstown, the fog never did let up a bit. After all that it took me 2.5 hours to get there from the time I originally got off the exit, forty miles away.

I was so tired after I got unloaded I went back to the truck stop and went to bed before driving to the yard where my wife came and picked me up this afternoon. Tomorrow night I'll be setting out for MN.

Chicken Haulin' Adventures #1

Chicken Haulin' Adventures #2

5/20/2010

I got my stop off in Kansas City the other day and headed to Springfield, MO and parked at the TA and got unloaded Monday morning. While parked at the dock there I fell asleep and had a very weird dream, one where you don't realize your dreaming because it seems so real. I dreamed that I had woke up and I was somehow back in a Navajo truck. I was freaking out trying to figure out how in the hell it happened. I was very depressed and I took my truck and was driving it all over the grass at the terminal and shit. They gave me a load of beer to deliver and I just ignored it then they wanted to know why I didn't deliver my load and I was like I don't give a F%^&, I'm not supposed to be here, I hate this place! Then I finally woke up and I had to get out of bed and check to see that I was indeed still in my Pete, and I felt a big relief it was only a dream, or more like a nightmare! Maybe they're putting something in that flavored water I'm not sure, I'm trying to cut out all the soda and junk food so I just been drinking the flavored water from Wal-Mart. LOL

After I got empty there I headed down to Oklahoma City for my final stop at Associated Wholesale Grocers there, my "appointment" was for 2030, of course so was about 100 other trucks... On the way I stopped off in Tulsa and had lunch with my buddy Andrew Marshall there at the QT truck stop.





































I got to OKC and parked at the TA until 1930 then went down to the warehouse and trucks were backed up clean into the road already. I just made it in the gate and got checked in and everything stopped because the staging area was filled up and it wasn't until after 2030 they started calling trucks into the dock, eventually they moved me and a bunch of other trucks to another staging area so that the trucks in the street could check in and get out of the street. So I could see already this was one messed up operation. Eventually I got called into a dock and was there until about 0300 before I finally got out of there. Now I had a pick up at the caves in Carthage,MO at 0800, needed to be in Delphos,OH ASAP. I made it up to Carthage and got loaded at the caves about 0900.















I delivered that load in Delphos early Weds. morning and the final stop in Cleveland at 1000.
I went back to the yard and turned my truck into the shop to get my A/C fixed. I figured out why I didn't have any heat or bunk blower also, the fuse was blown that controls those things.
Also my CD player quit working, not sure what's wrong with that..LOL It just wasn't my trip, I was either burning up or freezing! I'm loading out tomorrow morning in IN for NJ then bring a load of bananas back to OH Sunday and I'll be home again until Monday night.