12/31/07

Well, another light day today. I hung around Portland this morning and then got my assignment this afternoon. Back east on I-84 for a few hours. If I could get a dedicated run along that route, I might be convinced to move up here with the hippies. Nah, who am I kidding? It is one of the easiest routes anywhere though. I've stopped in Umatilla for the night and found that someone in the area provides free wi-fi. Groovy.

My load is scheduled to pick up tomorrow morning just across the bridge in Wallula, Washington. From there it's supposed to go to... Wallula, Washington. They do that sometimes. Apparently the customer just said they need a truck and nobody knows where the load is going just yet. No big deal. Hopefully it's somewhere far, far away from the northwest.

I didn't get the big finish I had hoped for, but the 217 mile dispatch will put me right at 5,100 miles for the pay period. Considering that I haven't worked very hard at all, I guess it's not so bad. The next pay period is only a five day thing, so a decent dispatch tomorrow will kick that off to a good start. I hope. Hey, I'll be making .37 a mile tomorrow too, I think.

So it was 126,948 miles for the year. I was home for 77 days (what!?!), so that was certainly the biggest factor in my miles slowing from the 147,000 I had from July 2006 through June 2007 (my first twelve months). When I first started I ran my ass off and hardly ever went home. There were numerous times this year that I spent a day at home on account of freight passing through the area. The rest were actual home time. I have to admit that I thought 60 days would be a high estimate. I had no idea I was home that much. If I can be off work for two and a half months and still make more than the 10,000 mile monthly average that I was told to expect... well that ain't too bad.

The nice thing about getting out of the first year is that the income is a lot easier to earn. My gross wages were $47,618. That's almost exactly what I made in the first twelve months, even though I drove 20,000 fewer miles. Getting through that first year of wage increases certainly has its benefits. To be honest I was hoping that 2007 would be over $50,000 but I gave that up a while back. I reached the .36 pay rate some time in May or June (can't remember) so I spent roughly half the year at my current pay rate. I had to acknowledge that, once I get drunk for a day or two, I tend to drag my feet about getting back on the road. Every time a couple of days off turns into a week off, it costs money. If anything kept me under $50,000 it was myself.

So, what will '08 have in store? It will have a half hour drive to a customer in Washington. I can tell you that much for certain. Beyond that, I guess we'll just have to find out. Happy New Year everyone.

12/30/07

Today was nice and easy. The stretch of I-84 along the Columbia River is nice. For some reason though, it made me want to go back to elementary school and play Oregon Trail on one of those old Apple computers. It runs along the bottom of the gorge so there aren't a lot of elevation changes. Plus, the 55mph speed limit means I can just set the cruise control and watch people pass me along the way. Well, for most of the trip...

The evergreen trees, sunny skies, and moss-covered ground made it look like a nice spring morning for a few hours. After recent weeks, it was almost enough to make me forget that it was winter in the northwest. Almost. The last thirty miles into Portland were a pretty snowy mess. The weather was above freezing and it was just wet snow so it didn't cause me any problems, but the motorists were either really fast or really slow at that point. I wound up cruising along in the left lane more often than not until we got into Portland and it turned to rain. All in all though, a pretty cool ride.

Not only was the beer distributor open today, it was like Grand Central Station. I had to wait a while for a dock. That worked out cool for me because my wireless connection is wicked fast within major cities. I got to kick back and watch the Redskins spank the Cowboys and secure a playoff spot. (They would have backed in anyway, but they finished the season with authority.) Great job boys.

I was at the customer for a couple of hours, then tooled up the road to the Jubitz truck stop. I was #2 on the board when I got here (and I'm still #2 now), so my chances of tacking on some decent miles tomorrow to close out the year should be pretty good. I haven't been up this way a ton, but every time I've left Washington (closest to Portland I've picked up) the run has been a long one.

So I've spent the evening reading and eating and smoking cigars and just generally being useless. I did get an e-mail from YouTube saying that Paramount Pictures told them to remove my ninety second clip of Beavis and Butthead. That's pretty pathetic, honestly. It's their copyrighted material, of course. But seriously, a few laughs? Who is that harming? Where was the financial damage to them and where was the financial gain to me? People need to get a life.

12/29/07

The difference between tonight and today was like... well, it was like the difference between night and day.

The daytime was a pretty mellow affair. Lots of mountains, a few snow storms, pretty decent roads, not much traffic, plenty of boredom.

Tonight I made a call to the Oregon 800 number to see what was what. They said that Cabbage was snow packed and icy and that chains were required from mile 221 to mile 252. Okay, we'll just put in at the Flying J at mile 265 and head back out in the morning.

At mile 285... chain law. Shit. I got hoodwinked. Fucking 800 numbers.

So I pulled over and cracked the side box. It took me a bit to figure out how the damn things worked, but I had a pretty good idea. Then I realized something. Your humble blogger does not have the ability to put chains on tires. I'm not talking about the willingness. I did try. I moved up and back. I tried different approaches. I don't have the ability. I wrestled with those damn things for what seemed like an eternity. I was out of breath, dirty, covered in snow, and generally discouraged. So I hopped back in the truck to take a break, warm up a little, and see what I could come up with. I had managed to get the chains mainly on the tires, but I couldn't for the life of me get them centered.

Just then, the overhead street lights shut off. I assumed that there was a reason, so I called that damn 800 number back. No more chain law. Beauty.

At that point I decided that I might as well not stop at that Flying J. If they just lifted the chain law, they probably just plowed the road. Now is probably as good as ever. Let's go. I must admit that I'm at least a little disappointed. I had read some website that said Cabbage has the tightest turns on the interstate system. I'm calling bullshit on that one. I'm not an engineer, so I don't know how you measure the tightness of turns, but I've been on nearly every interstate in this country. There are a lot of turns tighter than those ones.

I had to chuckle as I rolled past all the guys who chained up while I was cursing the state of Oregon. My incompetence got me across the mountain a little faster. According to the little chart before the steep part, my max speed was 18mph. I came down at 24mph. What can I say? I'm a rebel.

Anyhow, down the other side of the mountain it was just a little rainy. Of course, at that point it was time to call it a night. Story of my life.

It will be a couple hundred miles into Portland from here. Apparently the beer distributor is open on Sunday (according to my dispatch) but we'll have to see.

12/28/07

The wind woke me up this morning. I looked out the window, and it seemed like my truck was leaning about ten or fifteen degrees to the right. Then the gust let up and the truck settled back down. Then more wind. Since I was hooked to an empty trailer, I took this as a sign that it was going to be a long day. Today was a long day...

It didn't take long to get started. I hopped in the trailer to sweep it out. The breweries are picky so I got it nice and clean, but froze my balls off in the process. Then I headed out of the truck stop. I was behind a tanker pulling doubles, but we were both making our way slowly up an icy embankment and toward the freeway ramp. About the only rule there is not to stop. Go as slow as you need to, but don't stop. A car came flying up the ramp, looking like he was going to cut off the tanker. "Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. DON'T DO THAT!" hollered I. He did. He cut right in front of the tanker. Ergo, the tanker had to stop. Ergo, he got stuck. Ergo, I had to stop. Ergo, I got stuck. Ergo, a line of cars formed behind me as the source of the trouble went on his merry way.

Eventually the cars behind me made their way around. Then I was able to back down the hill to a spot where my tires could touch pavement. With a little momentum and no weight, I was able to scoot around the tanker and up the hill. There was a dry spot about thirty yards ahead of him, so I pulled over and headed back to see if he needed any help. Maybe we could throw some chains on his tires or chip away the ice or something. It just seemed like stopping was the decent thing to do. After all, it was ten degrees outside. He said that he had called his shop and someone would be there in a few minutes. That was enough to convince me that he didn't need my help. After all, it was ten degrees outside.

On I-25 the road surface unfortunately mirrored that of the side street. Ice, ice, and more ice. I've always thought that I-25 was my least favorite highway, but that was more related to the mountainous and arid portions in Colorado and New Mexico. Now, with the addition of the debacle that is Wyoming in the winter, it's official. I-25 is the worst highway in America.

It should come as no surprise that I-25 in Colorado was clean and dry, despite last night's snowstorm. Once at the brewery, I was informed that they would need a bobtail weight. Some of the breweries do that while others don't. On my first visit to one that does, I have to wait in line, scale with my empty, drop my empty, wait in line again, scale my bobtail, pick up my loaded trailer, wait in line again, and scale loaded before leaving. Oh, how I love inefficient buraucratic wastes of time. I did get good news though, as my load was ready when I got there. Always remember the good stuff, right?

I got my dispatch and decided that it was a damn good thing my load was ready early. They have me set for 11am Pacific on Sunday. Think the customer will be open? Let's just say I have my doubts. If the load had left tonight, as scheduled, I would have had to pull two straight long overnight shifts to make it. The overnighters don't bother me per se, but with the road conditions I prefer to have the slight benefit of the sunlight and better visibility. As it worked out, I headed a couple hundred miles west tonight. I can put in a full day tomorrow and then finish off Sunday morning. The forecast for Pendleton, Oregon says rain and snow for the next couple of days so that mountain might be fun for me. It looks like I'll probably wrap up tomorrow somewhere just short of there and then run into Portland on Sunday when it is supposed to be a little warmer. Let's hope...

I'm going to take a few minutes now and share a little story. Some people, through this blog or through the message boards, occasionally ask me about coming to work for CFI. A common comment is that they appreciate hearing thoughts from someone who isn't trying to recruit them. I am not really accustomed to receiving many compliments, but I do take this as a compliment. As I've always maintained, my own selfish preference would be that CFI never hired another driver. That would mean less competition for loads and more money for me. That being said, I try my best to be as candid and honest as possible. For some people, CFI is a great fit and I tell people as much. For inexperienced drivers, I dare say it's one of the best options out there. A question that pops up quite a bit recently is whether or not people should come in amidst the "changes" related to the merger. Since there really haven't been any changes, I can only assume that they're reading some of the message board vitriol and getting confused. Maybe my little story here will resonate with some of you, maybe not. Either way, it's my blog so I'm telling it.

When I was at U of M, I was working as a NAFTA analyst for a large customs broker and going to school at night. The job involved a lot of paperwork and tedious phone calls. I really hated it, but I have always led a fairly expensive lifestyle and I needed the money. I started delivering pizzas on weekends for extra beer money and such. By pure accident, I wound up in charge of the pizza place and quit my job at the customs broker. At the age of nineteen, I had my first general manager job, at Pizza Hut.

We did annual performance reviews of the hourly employees back then. Those who got a poor review received no pay raise. Those with an acceptable review got a nickel an hour. Those who got a good review got a dime. I was allowed three "exceptional" reviews among my thirty employees, netting those people a whopping fifteen cent hourly raise. It's pathetic, I know, but that was the system. My typical employee worked around twenty hours a week. The vast majority got the ten cents, because the money they made was so pitiful and I appreciated the work they did. I was a GM at Pizza Hut for two years, meaning I went through this process twice while I was there.

Both times, I lost a handful of employees because they didn't get the fifteen cent raise. Let's think about this for a second. At twenty hours a week - Five cents equals a dollar raise. Ten cents equals two dollars. Fifteen cents equals three dollars. I shit you not. I had employees, who had always enjoyed their jobs, quit... over a dollar a week.

The majority went to other pizza places in the area. I know for a fact that Little Caesar's, where a few of them ended up, was starting people at minimum wage. I used to have beers with their GM on Sunday nights. So these people went from a job that started at $6/hr to a job that started at $5.15/hr, simply to protest the extra dollar a week that they thought they deserved. Inevitably, they would come into Pizza Hut and order breadsticks or something, so they could hang around and tell their friends how great they had it elsewhere. Then they would be asking me for a job in a few months because they were only getting ten hours a week at their new places of employment. If I had an opening I would take them back. If not, I wouldn't.

What is my point here? People are not always intelligent when it comes to their work and their pay. The sense of personal entitlement that these teenagers felt caused them to make irrational and emotional decisions regarding their employment. It seems painfully obvious to me that many people never outgrow this sense of personal entitlement. So, when they determine (for whatever reason) that they deserve something, they continue to make irrational and emotional decisions. There have been no changes related to the merger with ConWay, save the trucks being turned down to 65mph. If this was a good job six months ago, it's a good job now. If it sucks now, it sucked six months ago. If it was better to work at Little Caesar's than it was to work at Pizza Hut, then this was true before the performance review. Yet the changes, or lack thereof, spawned the discontent.

People also don't seem to outgrow the need to "stop by" their old employer and tell everyone how glad they are to have left. I'm not going to blast any trucking companies here, because I don't know enough about them or how they work for a given employee. I will say that people who will blast CFI for turning the trucks to 65mph, and then pimp a (nameless) company that is going to 62mph, are not very bright. People who will go to a company that pays teams less than CFI does, simply because pet owners don't have to "earn" the same pay as non-pet owners, are not very bright. People who will criticize CFI's "benefits" for things like a lack of vision coverage, when vision coverage typically provides savings exactly equal to the premiums paid, are not very bright. So, when you see them inevitably spout off about how bad CFI sucks now, my best advice would be to consider the source. They weren't saying that a few months ago and it was the same job at that time.

In summary, don't stay away from CFI because some people are factually challenged. Stay away because I don't want you taking my miles.

Cheers.

12/27/07

I know a guy. He's some kind of senior citizen fella that pulls a tanker. Anyhow, he used to work for CFI. Before I started here, he mentioned that one of the things that was nice about CFI is that they aren't afraid to move the power to wherever the freight is. I wasn't too sure what that would really mean to a driver, having never experienced how the process works, but it turns out he was right. They do sometimes move us a long way to get a load and that is a good thing when you get paid nothing for sitting. Today I received, to the best of my recollection, the longest deadhead I've ever had. After I got unloaded in Great Falls I was immediately dispatched to Fort Collins, Colorado. That's some 720 miles away. I've had a handful of deadheads of over 500 miles, but I think this is my longest. I get paid the same empty or loaded, so CFI has to eat the cost of moving the truck and I don't have to sit and wait. I don't know who in Joplin made the call in this case, but whoever it was - Good lookin' out my brother.

From Fort Collins, I'll be hauling a load of beer up to Portland, Oregon. That will be another 1,170 miles or so. There's still hope yet for this to be a nice paycheck. With holiday pay and stop pay and border pay and the rest of it, I'll be approaching the $2,000 mark. Then I hope for one nice-paying run to close it out. Any time I've left Oregon or Washington with a load, the miles have been nice. Since there will still be a day left in December when I get up there, I have a shot.

I headed back down through central Montana on the state and U.S. highways from Great Falls to Billings. A funny thing occurred to me as I was a couple of hours into the drive. US-12 is the same street that runs across about three miles north of my house. There it's called Michigan Avenue, but it's the same US-12. There are movie theaters, bars, restaurants, stores, and such. In Montana... umm... maybe Kevin Costner dancing with some wolves or something. Not much else.

After a nice afternoon nap in Billings, I got back on the road and rolled on into Wyoming. I had the cruise set at 65mph and the radio blasting, just enjoying the ride. Then the road was pointing south and my truck was pointing west. Oops. Didn't see the ice coming. Better get off that cruise control. The rest of the ride was pretty damn slippery. Here's something I don't understand; There aren't that many highways in Wyoming. They obviously have a prevalent winter weather pattern here every year. Why in the hell do they do such a piss poor job of maintaining the roads? It's five degrees outside right now, so the salt wouldn't help, but it was sunny and in the high 20's today. Some salt on the roads would have allowed all of that moisture (now known as ice) to evaporate. Can they just not afford it or what?

In any case, I stopped in Evansville for the night. I have a few hours to go in the morning, then I'll take a break at the brewery to prepare for my nighttime dispatch from there. I've never gone across Cabbage before, so that will be something new. I'm obviously hoping for good weather. I seriously don't know how to use tire chains. I'm not entirely stupid, so I'm sure I can figure it out, but I'll just keep my fingers crossed. The Denver radio stations are saying they got blasted pretty good tonight, but my connection is so slow right now I have a hell of a time getting any weather reports to load. Since I don't have to go all the way down into Colorado, the highway should be in decent shape for me by tomorrow afternoon when I get to Fort Collins.

Now I think I'll load my latest game of Civilization III and wrap up my epic battle against Bismarck and the Germans. I've refrained from going nuclear in order to placate the Chinese, but they're starting to piss me off. This thing might get crazy.

12/26/07

I'm 31 years old. I'm not nearly old enough to have achieved that wisdom or enlightenment or whatever you old guys call it. I did, however, learn a pretty valuable lesson a long time ago. My reaction to various things in life will be almost entirely shaped by my expectations with respect to whatever those things are.

I fully expected to be dispatched to deliver in Great Falls sometime tomorrow morning. After I got unloaded at the first drop, I headed north. A little while later, my dispatch came through - 4pm today. No great shakes there. It was only a 320 mile drive. But, since I had expected tomorrow morning, I thought it was great. Getting empty today would allow me to go on the board and, even if not assigned a load today, get something first thing tomorrow. Excellent.

Ten minutes later I got a new appointment time. Tomorrow morning at 7:30. Bogus. If that had been the original dispatch I wouldn't have been thrilled but it wouldn't have bothered me. It would have met my expectations. Since I was given the expectation of getting empty today, the new dispatch time sucks. By the time I send in my empty call, the planners will already have started assigning freight. Maybe that costs me, maybe not. If I were on the board today though, I would have been sitting there waiting for them when they got to work in the morning. It's all in the expectations. It's one thing to sit here and acknowledge this. It's another to try not to be disappointed. Oh well, just another day I guess.

The drive was pretty easy today. Driving these U.S. Highways with no towns for 50 miles is actually better than driving the interstate as far as I'm concerned. There's hardly any congestion, the speed limits are more than adequate, and it just has a more relaxing feel to it. I got to the Flying J in Great Falls a little while ago. From here, it's about five miles to the place where I deliver in the morning.

I'm still a boy with a dream at this point, but I think by tomorrow I may have to discard my theory about getting great miles during the holidays. The year is quickly approaching its conclusion. Getting empty today, rather than tomorrow, would have made a pretty big difference. It wasn't meant to be. So, depending on what comes over the satellite in the morning, I'll either take a big step forward or just settle into a ho-hum pay period. I'm still hoping though...

12/25/07

In my quest for fame and notoriety, I think I've finally arrived. I got a note from my fleet manager yesterday mentioning that he heard about my blog. I had to chuckle as I tried to remember the last time he pissed me off and I wrote about it. I'm pretty sure it's been a little while though, so I think we're okay there.

People always talk about that show with the ice road truckers. I've never seen it, but today I got to live it for a while. Not so bad. For the first hundred miles, I don't believe my tires ever touched asphalt. I-80 was pretty lousy, but the state and U.S. highways were far worse. It might have been a problem, but as it turns out there was nobody on the road today. The bad part about the slick roads is always the speeding up and slowing down. With nobody in front of me, I could just let it roll and stay off the brakes so it wasn't that terrible. It wasn't any fun, but it wasn't terrible. My truck was doing it's best Spy Hunter smokescreen impersonation with the blowing snow, so I have no idea if anyone was behind me for a couple of hours, but there was nobody in front of me.

After I got through Lander, I saw the first signs of road maintenance since leaving I-80 in Rock Springs. The roads were a little wet and a little snowy, but not too bad. Then past Riverton it was perfect. Clear blue skies, clean dry pavement, and not a soul on the highway. Sweet.

I got another reminder today of one of my favorite things about this job. Yesterday there was the Provo Canyon situation, which may or may not have been legal. Today there were two spots that were just beautiful. First was the stretch of WY-28 winding through the mountains near South Pass City. That would have been a little better if I weren't worried about sliding off a cliff, but I got a chance to sneak a peek here and there. Then, north of Shoshoni, US-20 wound it's way through a huge canyon. I don't know what it's called, but it's every bit as picturesque as Glenwood Canyon in Colorado and a much easier drive. That was on the clean roads too, so I was able to enjoy it a little more.

For perspective, I'm a city boy. My idea of "getting away from it all" involves hopping a plane to New York and disappearing among the crowd for a week or so. I'm not what you would call a nature lover. Sometimes though, the view is pretty spectacular. I could always work in an office and drive out to Wyoming for leisure, but seriously, no. It's cool to have a job that puts me in those places every now and then.

The topper came a little further along the way. I might be the only one left who thinks that Beavis and Butthead are hilarious, but I almost lost it when I rolled through Meeteetse...

The next stretch after that was actually the slickest part of the trip, but I had such a dumbass grin on my face that I didn't pay much attention. For about ten miles, we're talking full-on hockey rink up and down hills and around curves.

Then upon rolling into Powell, I was reminded that I'm retarded. By the measure of every standardized test I've ever taken, my IQ is in the exceptional range. Personally, I have my doubts. I didn't realize until I got here that I had no idea where I was going. I never got directions from my employer, only an address. I meant to check Streets & Trips to get an idea before I left this morning, but I never did. So I found a parking lot and stopped to take a look. Then I passed the place and had to drive a couple of miles to find a turnaround spot. I sent in directions, but I have no idea who is working today or if they'll actually put the directions in the CFI computer. Oh well, at least I did my part. Now I get to hang out on the street until morning and then see what tomorrow holds.

Merry Christmas everyone.

12/24/07

Hahahaha, Tarvaris Jackson... hahahaha! I only got to watch the first quarter, but it looked a lot like last week's game against Chicago for that poor kid. Just out of his league man.

So... my plan summary said that I was to receive a relay in Salt Lake City at 3am Mountain. So, I set my alarm for a half hour before. When I woke up, I still hadn't received the information on the inbound truck and trailer. That's unusual. I sat around until 3am came and went, then hopped back in bed. I guessed that it was one of those imaginary ConWay loads. Sometimes ConWay will tell CFI that a load needs to go from here to there. Then CFI will get the trucks all lined up to relay the load across the country. Since the freight is time-sensitive, we have to be at the relay point early enough to take a full ten hour break. That way we can run a full shift without stopping once we get the load. Then sometimes ConWay calls CFI back and says, "Just kidding." Then the drivers have all wasted a day preparing to pull a load that doesn't exist. Maybe that's what happened to this relay, maybe not. I don't know.

In any case, they beeped me at around 8am to say that I was being re-assigned. I would be heading about 60 miles south and getting loaded for one stop in Wyoming and a second in Montana. I went down to the shipper and found that it was actually a drop/hook. The trailer was ready. The paperwork was ready. Not bad. Then, back to the north.

I got off I-15 at the exit for US-189 and ran it up through Provo. They had signs along the way saying, "Overweight and overheight vehicles, including 53' trailers, prohibited in Provo Canyon/US 189." Now, I think they probably meant that you aren't supposed to take a 53' trailer through the canyon. I think so, but I don't know. The wording was ambiguous enough to let my curiosity get the best of me. Maybe they meant the overweight/overheight part applies to 53' trailers, right? In that case, I was neither overweight nor overheight. Good enough for me. Into the canyon I went.

About four miles in, I saw something that I was hoping not to see. There sat a sheriff, hanging out and monitoring traffic. As I approached, he inched out toward the road. Shit. Well, you win some and you lose some. I started preparing my best, "Sorry sir, I misunderstood the sign." Then I passed him. He pulled out onto the road... and headed south. Beauty. Either my interpretation was good enough for the law or he just had better shit to do. Either way, it was onward and northward for me.

I kept waiting to see a reason that they didn't want 53' trucks going through there, but I couldn't find one. The lanes were nice and wide. There were no prolonged climbs. There was no snow on the road. There were no tight turns. There were no towns. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. In point of fact, it was about the nicest ride I've had in the last few months out here. I guess the locals just don't want these big ugly trucks screwing up their view.

I got up to Little America and stopped for a break. The rest of the trip is a little over 300 miles, but I don't have to be there until the morning of the 26th. I was planning to head a little further north today, but I don't know man. It's all off the interstate once I hit Rock Springs. There are no 24 hour truck stops on my route and tomorrow is Christmas, so I'm not too confident that I will find a place open with adequate restroom options along the way. I'm probably better off spending the day here and driving up tomorrow. An eight hour drive with no restrooms I can handle. A day and a half, not so much. My brother got me a couple of books for Christmas, so I guess I'll do a little reading.

So, what's the net result of the day's events? Lost a 500 mile run, replaced by a 518 mile run plus a 58 mile deadhead. I can't deliver this until the 26th, which makes tomorrow a lost day. But the original plan would have probably had me sitting tomorrow anyway. Plus, I have something like 320 miles from the first drop to the second one. At least that's some more miles plus a few bucks for the extra stop. All in all, it probably worked out better for me in the long run. By the time I drop in Montana I'll be right around 3,000 miles for the pay period. I'm still holding out hope for a strong finish to the year. Then apparently we'll have a five-day pay period as we transition to weekly pay. Then it will settle in to a paycheck once a week.

12/23/07

Sometimes timing is everything. I got through most of Wyoming last night, then they closed I-80 behind me this morning. As the winds kicked up last night, I thought about turning in early. The fact that I decided to keep moving then paid off today. Snow started kicking up as I left Wyoming, but the accumulation was still light at that time. If I were a little later, that too might have been a problem.

I'm not a meteorologist and I guess that's a good thing. I would tend to think that the windward side of the mountains would have worse conditions than the leeward side, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Down the west side and into Salt Lake City everything was clean and dry.

I got to the ConWay yard and checked in, only to be told that they had no empties. Yeah, nice. Here we go again... I dropped my trailer, although it took twenty minutes to get out from under it. Freaking icy drop lots. Then, I caught a break. Apparently they had one guy breaking down loads today and I went looking for an empty right after he brought one out. Sometimes timing is everything.

Over at Sapp Brothers, I put my feet up and hoped for the best. I wasn't sure about what kind of freight to expect, but I got an answer about an hour later. They have me scheduled to take a relay here at the truck stop tomorrow morning and then pass it off to another driver in Sparks. That's a good 500 mile day for tomorrow, so I have no complaint there.

Waiting for Santa in a casino? Maybe.

I have to get some sleep on account of an early relay tomorrow, so I won't be able to watch much, but you guys know where my heart is tonight:

12/22/07

Old Mother Nature was a cranky bitch today. The wind in Wyoming was the strongest I've ever seen. There was a day last winter when I saw four or five trucks blown over on their sides on my way to Denver. The winds tonight were far worse, although the only accidents appeared to involve people driving off the road. It could have been even more wicked, but fortunately I don't think the temperature ever got above freezing today. That kept the blowing snow from melting and re-freezing. There were icy patches here and there, but they were few and far between.

I don't know if there's a general rule for deciding when a trailer is heavy enough to pull through winds at a given speed. About all I could conclude was that people were passing me going up hills, so they must have been lighter than I was. If they weren't getting blown over, I might as well keep rolling. It got a little scary once or twice, but my 37,000 pound load seemed to keep me anchored to the road pretty well. By the time I finished the audiobook of Wuthering Heights, I had worked a full day. I ducked into the major cosmopolitan center known as Wamsutter, Wyoming for the night.

I'll have around four hours to drive tomorrow. I have to be there by midnight, but I'll head on in to Salt Lake City whenever I wake up. I'm not sure what to expect after this run. With Christmas falling on a Tuesday, I would speculate that several of our regular customers will be closed Monday. Maybe I'll get a long ConWay run to keep me going for a few days. Since they are expecting this load on Monday I have to guess that they're working that day. As always, time will tell soon enough.

12/21/07

There's an old running joke among Notre Dame fans. Every week during football season, without fail, a handful of people would ask what time the game starts. For half the season, Notre Dame was on Central Time. Then, when we would "fall back," they stayed the same so they joined those of us on Eastern Time. So, when the game time said 2:30pm EST, sometimes it meant 2:30pm and sometimes it meant 3:30pm. Indiana joined most of the country in adopting daylight savings time a few years back, so the people asking "what time is the game" just sound silly. Most of Indiana, that is. Apparently Gary, aka the Paris of the midwest, is on Central Time. I did not know that.

I checked in this morning at 4am (Eastern), was told that I was an hour early, and went back to bed for a little while. There was a CFI trailer sitting on the lot. I suspected that it was mine, but the broad behind the counter was having none of it. An hour later I got my trailer assigned and grabbed my paperwork. Yep, that trailer.

This run has to be delivered by 4am Monday (according to ConWay), but my dispatch says 11:59pm Sunday. No big deal there, as I have no desire to get up at 4am Monday anyhow. Since I can drop and hook any time, this schedule is a pretty favorable one. I can run hard, limit my breaks, and get there very early Sunday. Or I can take it a little easy and get there Sunday night. My guess is that the weather is going to have a say in things before all is said and done. Today's only issue was wicked heavy fog all the way across Iowa. The local radio here in Nebraska says that snow and sleet are coming overnight, so we'll see how things look in the morning. I'm hoping whatever comes through tonight is cleaned up a little before I get further west tomorrow. The forecast for Cheyenne looks pretty decent, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'm still holding out hope that one of these economic think tanks will offer to throw some money my way. Since they're never right anyway, what could be the harm in giving me a shot? Remember my less than eloquent summary of consumer attitudes the day after Thanksgiving? It looks like even I manage to get one right every now and then. Send those offers for employment at your local D.C. think tank to the feedback link below.

And I know some of you will get a chuckle out of this one. What's the point in having a sense of humor if you can't laugh at yourself, right?

12/20/07

Here's some shocking news: I didn't sleep worth a shit last night. Thus, I was a little tired along the drive to Illinois. I left early enough that I had time for a nap along the way, so that worked out okay for me.

I arrived at the customer and was delighted to see a wicked tight dock, on my right, facing a street. Beauty. I had no desire to tackle that thing from the blind side, so I cruised through a residential neighborhood and went around a couple of blocks to get set up facing the other direction. I don't imagine that this was completely legal, but it ain't a crime if you don't get caught. Even from the left, it took me a while to get settled in without hitting the truck next to me. He had arrived the night before and gone to sleep, so he got the easier of the two open docks. Of course, the largely deserted road turned into Fifth Avenue at rush hour as soon as I blocked it with my trailer. Story of life out here.

When the customer opened for business, I was unloaded quickly. I had noticed a few trucks parked at the local WalMart on my way into town, so I headed over there and hopped in bed for a spell. After a few hours of sleep I got my beep. I honestly didn't know what planet I was on when the thing went off. I was looking around, wondering if I had missed an appointment. The sense of relief when I realized that I was already empty and just waiting for work was quite immense.

My next run is a ConWay load, leaving Gary, Indiana tomorrow morning and heading for Salt Lake City. The directions say that SLC is a 24/7 drop/hook location, so I'll have some flexibility to get there whenever I want to this weekend. Now it's just a matter of killing time until morning. The deadhead over here was only 60 miles, so again my pay period is off to a slow start. I started on home time, then spent a day on the board, then got a couple of fairly short runs, then this short deadhead. The run to SLC is over 1,400 miles so that will hopefully get me kick-started. Last year I was on the road through Christmas and New Year. I got pretty huge miles during that time. Since I just got a restart at home a couple of days ago, I'll be poised to run a lot of miles over the next several days. We'll see how it goes.

12/19/07

Pretty slow going across the bridge after midnight, but otherwise it was a nice simple three hour trip to Canada. The customer was right off the highway, so I was checked in and docked before I knew it. The forklift guy pulled most of the freight from my trailer and then sent me to a different dock to get rid of the rest of it. I couldn't find anyone with whom to check in over there, so I taped the bills to a post and hopped in the bunk. Screw 'em. I was tired. The guy at the first dock told me it might be "a while" until they got to me at the second one, so I wasn't in the mood to stand around with my thumb up my ass.

A few hours later, a dude came out and knocked on my door. I rolled down the window and he asked, "What can we do for you?" Umm, unload my trailer, maybe? He said it was all unloaded and he was just wondering what I was picking up. Nope, not picking up sir, just delivering. So I sent in my empty call and immediately got my next assignment.

Fucking 'need to know basis' bullshit. I was picking up at the same dock and heading to Illinois. Only, by this time, the guy had taken off because I told him I wasn't picking up anything. So it took a half hour to track him down and fill him in. He was visibly annoyed, since he was ready to load me when he came out in the first place. Yeah, take a number dude.

The shipper didn't have a fax for me to use, so I had to stop in at the Flying J in London. I sent in my customs paperwork and headed west. I let the Taylor terminal know that I would be stopping at the Pilot in Tilbury to pick up their return fax. What a convoluted bunch of bureaucratic bullshit that whole system is. If everything is electronic, why in the hell do we need to stop and pick up a fax? Is the barcode truly the be and end all of modern technology? Are the customs agents no longer capable of typing an entry number into their computers? Stupid. I sat at the Pilot for about an hour before I got my fax. This was a marked improvement over the eight hours I sat the first time I had to do this song and dance. Then on to the bridge... at shift change. Beauty.

By the time I got across, my 14 hour clock was toast. So I'm taking my break at the terminal. I thought about heading home, but sometimes a ten hour break at home is really more trouble than it's worth. I'm feeling pretty sluggish right now, so some sleep will hopefully find its way to me soon.

Today has me thinking that I am probably going to stick with my original decision to forego Canada loads in 2008. I have gone back and forth regarding whether or not I want to take Canada loads in the future, but I tend to think the answer is 'no.' The biggest downside to turning down the 'option' for Canada loads is that I'll miss out on a few chances to stop by home on the way up there. I get through home every couple of months or so, irrespective of actual home time, by virtue of Canada-bound freight. I don't know. Maybe I'll change my mind. For now though, I'm perfectly content to let someone else deal with that shit.

12/18/07

Well, what will be today's cliche? How about 'beggars can't be choosers'? Yeah, that will work.

I got my truck back from Kenworth this afternoon and went on the board. #5. Okay, not so bad. Then 2pm turned into 10:30pm and here I sat. Just about the time I was about to write the day off as a complete loss, I got a call from the terminal. I have a load sitting on the yard, delivering to somewhere in Ontario between midnight and 4am. Awesome. 156 miles, middle of the night, short notice, freaking Canada... just awesome.

But hey, at least it will get me out of town for the time being. Better than nothing. Now you'll have to excuse me, as I have to go to work.

12/17/07

First things first - over to Kenworth. They told me that the truck should be ready some time tomorrow. Then I called for my ride home... and my buddy's phone was shut off. Try another person; working. Try another; no answer. Try another; working. Try another; car won't start. Finally my mother came and got me on her lunch break. Moms can always take care of everything, can't they?

Then I wrapped up a little personal shopping before taking a nice nap. I've been coughing incessantly at night lately, so I'm sleeping even less than normal. Back awake in the early evening, it was over to Mom's house for dinner.

Apparently she called everyone and put together an impromptu Christmas party. My sister brought the kids over. My brothers were there. Pretty cool. My niece is four years old, so any opportunity to open a few presents from Uncle Joe before Christmas is good news for her.

So that was that. Back to work tomorrow.

12/16/07

I think I have gremlins in my apartment. Before I went to bed last night, I wrote a list of stuff to do today. When I woke up this morning, the list had all kinds of shit on it. I could have sworn it was supposed to say, "Sit on ass and drink beer all day." Apparently not. I think the little green bastards rewrote it while I slept.

We got hit with around 6-8" of snow last night, so it was a little nasty out today. The good thing was that there was apparently enough snow to convince most people to stay home. Going to the mall around here, a week and a half before Christmas, forget about it. Today though it wasn't bad at all. I didn't knock out the whole list today, but I'll only have a couple of things to do tomorrow. Obviously the most important will be to get my truck over to Kenworth so I can get out of town by Tuesday.

Don't fret, good friends, I have now made my way to the couch and the frosty cold refreshment is flowing generously. Can the 'Skins pull off another miracle? One game at a time boys, one game at a time.

12/15/07

Dear Southwest,

I know our relationship hasn't always been the greatest. I know I've called you "useless" and a "Godforsaken wasteland." It wasn't me talking. It was the fact that my mother never loved me. I know I thought your drab red and brown landscape was ugly. Really I just need to learn to appreciate your lack of beauty. I know I prefer places that seem a little more civilized, but I need to learn to appreciate the things about you that say "no man belongs here."

So what do you say, Southwest? When I go back to work in a few days, do you think maybe we ought to give this thing another try? Michigan is freaking cold.

I made the overnight run up here and dropped my loaded trailer at the terminal, then proceeded to come home and drink heartily until I fell asleep. Ahhh, that's better. Pizza's on the way, the day has just begun, the snow doesn't look too heavy, and there's more beer in the fridge. Sometimes it's the little things, right?

12/14/07

Well, how did we do today? I ain't getting to Taylor by 3am. I can tell you that much. I called in and, predictably, "No problem." Since tomorrow is going to count as a day off anyway, I'm going to go ahead and head up there at midnight. I'm just more than three hours away right now.

On the roads, it was a typical weekend day. Light traffic, no delays, uncrowded fuel stop. Man, I wish every day were like a weekend out here. They say there's more snow coming through, but I think I'll stay ahead of it this time around. I did find a little issue as I was checking the truck over a little while ago. In addition to the leaking steering fluid, now I have a little fuel leak. I guess there's something to be said for timing. If that had to come up, it might as well come up when I'm on my way to the shop.

I managed to exchange a couple of messages with a buddy of mine earlier tonight. It looks like he'll be doing a show in Detroit this weekend, so anyone around there might want to head down to Jacoby's on Saturday night. Ty Stone won't let you down. Always a good time.

12/13/07

I don't know what's wrong with me. Usually a long day on the road involves me getting bored or hungry or just generally distracted, so I get off the road and screw up my schedule. Then I end up running hard to finish off the trip. These last two days have flown by and I've stayed on the road. That's actually the case for pretty much the whole last week. Crazy. I'm starting to seem like a real truck driver or something.

The plan was originally to split my remaining hours between today and tomorrow morning. After I got to the nine hour mark today though, it seemed like I had hardly driven at all so I just kept going. I put in a full eleven and knocked out 700 miles, so it was a very productive day. Tomorrow morning I'll run until my hours are out, then have time for an eight hour break to extend my 14 before I finish off after midnight. Dumb schedule? Yep. Illogical way to prevent tired drivers? Yep. Typical of a government mandate? Yep. Another day in the trucking business? Yep.

Oklahoma, damn! I've never seen so many busted trees in my life. I got a pretty good AM signal out of Tulsa so I was listening to the stories of the general misery those people are suffering. Power failures, people using stoves for heat and getting carbon monoxide poisoning, improvised heating devices causing house fires, hard-wired smoke detectors not working due to the power outage, smoke inhalation deaths, traffic deaths. Sheesh! The roads were clean and dry today and the traffic flowed freely. That was a very big deal for me, considering the timeline I'm on.

So I guess I'll fire up a cigar and watch another movie. I get wicked fast download speeds at home so I need to get some of these off of my hard drive before I get there.

12/12/07

Well, I got a little over 600 miles in today. Depending on the weather in Oklahoma and Missouri tomorrow, this timeline might need some adjusting. Looking at my log book, I'm going to run out of hours on the 14th. Then, when midnight of the 15th rolls around, I'll be legal again. So I'll be, according to the dispatch, due in Taylor three hours later. According to PC Miler, that will be right on the edge of workability. As long as there are no major slowdowns, I think I can pull it off.

I was noticing that my truck has been burning oil a little faster than usual lately. That's usually a sign that it's due for a PM service. The shop sent a message this morning - "Truck due for service." Damn I'm good. Or I guess it could be bad, since I don't really keep track of the miles in-between. I probably should pay more attention. So I stopped at a T/A and got that done. I also had a bad light on this trailer that I picked up. And they threw in some steering fluid. That should hold me over until I get to the dealership in Michigan.

Some days just seem easier than others. Today went really smoothly. Even I-25, which has to be one of my least favorite highways, was pretty mellow today. I was rolling along and looked up to see "Welcome to Texas" and thought damn, that was quick. It was only nine and a half hours of driving, but due to the log book issue there was no need to go eleven today. I'll spread out the hours that I have left so hopefully I can maintain some sense of balance without sitting for twenty hours on the 14th.

I guess it's time to watch Transformers. A friend of mine says it's pretty good, so I had better not be disappointed.

12/11/07

I think it's more tiring to sit around and wait for work than it is to work. I didn't sleep very well last night either (big surprise), so I guess that doesn't help. I got rid of my loaded trailer this morning and went on the board. I didn't check my number right away, but a couple of hours later I was #10. So I sat and waited, all day.

A little after 4pm I got my assignment. I was heading over to the yard I used on my first trip to Nogales. From there I was heading home, at least temporarily. I never really know for sure whether or not they're going to send me into Canada, but I don't have any pressing issues this time around so I get home when I get there.

They didn't fuck around with this dispatch, scheduling me into Taylor at 3am on the 15th. Why 3am, seriously? I hate how they do that. This load was shipped in June. Now suddenly I have to use exactly the available hours to get to Taylor and have them tell me to come back in the morning for my customs paperwork? Annoying. This is another of those situations where I could probably call and whine about it and they would move the time back, but we'll see how the next couple of days go. I only went three hours out of Nogales this evening before I had had enough, so I have some tough running ahead of me. No more flexibility like I had on the last trip. My breaks will have to stay at ten hours and I'll have to stay focused.

I'll get home on the 14th or the wee hours of the 15th, and this kicks my miles over 5,900 so that's good. The fact that I'll get home loaded is always helpful. Whenever I get home I'll run the truck over to Kenworth and get it fixed up. Then I'll have a fresh log book, ready to run hard through the holidays.

12/10/07

You know how, in elementary school, there was always the one slow kid in class? You knew you shouldn't laugh when he said something stupid, but you just couldn't help yourself. Then, what did we do? We'd egg him on and get him to say even more stupid stuff so we could amuse ourselves a little more. After all, the poor kid didn't know how dumb he sounded, right? What was the harm in getting him to open his mouth every now and then? If you know what this is about, rest assured that I have some confessing to do when I get back to Detroit, but it's just so damn funny sometimes I can't help myself. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's probably just as well.

So... today... I was in no mood to drive this morning so I didn't drive this morning. I got going a little while after noon. Fortunately, I got far enough south last night to avoid the nasty stuff. Apparently half of Oklahoma has no power? Damn. On my route it was a rainy and dreary day, but the temperature never got below the 40's. Aside from stopping for dinner in Lordsburg, I stayed on the road all day.

About the only thing notable along the way was some kind of INS situation going on in the middle of I-19, a little way south of Tuscon. There was a car sitting sideways in the median, with ten border patrol cars around it. As I rolled south from there, I saw three more with their lights blazing as they raced toward the scene. I don't know if it was drugs or what the deal was, but they were bringing in the cavalry for something.

I learned something about my job today. Apparently Nogales is like Laredo in terms of how we get rid of our loaded trailers. I had only been to Nogales once and I dropped my trailer on a yard similar to the one in Calexico, grabbed another loaded trailer, and headed north. I assumed that that was our yard and we could drop or hook freight as we pleased. Wrong. It turns out that we use different brokers for different loads. I'm at some ghetto warehouse within spitting distance of Mexico right now, but there's nobody here. There are also no CFI trailers here, so I'll have to wait for someone to take this one in the morning and see what they're going to do with me from that point. I put in a request for home time when I got here, so I'll be routed that way sooner or later. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping they steer me clear of Joplin. I'd like to hang on to my 70mph truck for a little longer.

12/9/07

So, that notorious lack of discipline of mine...

First test, get some sleep - failed. As usual, I tossed and turned and didn't manage to nod off until way too late. I just need a way to get my brain to shut off, but we're not allowed to drink aclohol so what's a fella to do out here?

Second test, get rolling early - failed. The alarm went off at 5am. I looked at the clock, said "screw this," and went back to bed. I rolled out of the sack around 9am and got going a little while later.

Third test, stay on the road all day - passed with flying colors. 705 miles is a pretty good day's work. From here it will be less than 600 miles to Nogales so I'm in good shape. That's a good thing since I've basically pigeonholed myself into making it by tomorrow. I haven't done the math to see if there is time for this ten hour break plus another one, but it shouldn't matter either way. I should get there tomorrow evening (or tomorrow night if I get a late start).

As I rolled across the rest of Louisiana and into Texas it was in the mid-70's with a few clouds. Nice. Then the temperature started to drop... like a brick. By the time I got to Dallas it was 35 degrees. In Abilene, it was down to 31. I was kicking around the local AM stations and they were forecasting freezing rain tonight, more bad weather tomorrow, and generally miserable conditions. Well that's not good. After I stopped in Midland for fuel though, the temperature started to rise again. Hopefully I am angling far enough south to avoid any icy stuff. I have a timeline to keep. When I rolled into Pecos a couple of hours ago, it was 41 degrees. That works for me. Let's hope it keeps up.

I really have no idea when my body will decide to shut down for its customary five hours, so I'll just fall asleep whenever it happens and wake up whenever I wake up. It was days, then nights, then days again... now I don't know. The yard in Nogales has parking for us, so I can get there any time before noon on Tuesday. That means that there's no particular reason to get going early tomorrow if I'm not feeling awake yet.

Along the way today, I had a phone conversation with my trainer from last summer. If I had to envision a person who is the absolute opposite personality from myself, he would definitely make the short list. Still, it's entertaining to catch up every now and then to see what's new. I thought I saw his truck pass in the other direction on I-20 (wasn't him), so I gave him a call. His perspective on the whole hullabaloo concerning the pay structure and the trucks being turned down and all the rest of it was pretty interesting. Apparently, in his twenty years with CFI, he's seen this pattern a few times before. Changes are made, people threaten to quit, a few of them do quit, most of them end up coming back in six months, and things settle in until the next time. I'd say that sounds about right, based on my experience in other lines of work. He seems to agree with me that those of us who keep our heads about us will be better off if a bunch of people do actually quit. Same freight/fewer drivers=more money for me. That's my take.

12/8/07

Well, I think today was just what the doctor ordered. No traffic, no customers, no contact with CFI, no delays, no worries. My morning nap ran a little long, so I couldn't get a full eleven hours in before my fourteen ran out, but I covered almost 600 miles. In fact, it looks like I can get to Nogales a day early if I'm feeling ambitious. I should have enough hours available, but I'm prone to distraction and a severe lack of discipline. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I imagine I'll get rolling pretty early, but it won't really be necessary to take off right after midnight if I don't want to.

12/7/07

I had been running days for a while lately, so I started to forget just how much easier it is to run overnight. The only catch is that the first day after flipping the schedule can leave me a little tired. It wasn't bad, but I think by tomorrow I'll be on track for a few more days on the graveyard shift.

I tooled up to the brewery in Jacksonville to check in and drop my empty. Nope. Live load. My instructions said that it was a draft load, so I suspected it might be a live load, but the stop summary said drop/hook. No such luck. This was one of the customers who do their communicating by CB, so I threw them off a little. I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one out here without a CB, but whatever. I checked in with a guy at the dock and got a door. An hour or so later it was time to roll north.

Same old song and dance in Georgia - construction and cops. The overnight traffic was nice and light though, so I didn't really get slowed down. When I arrived at the beer distributor there were several trucks ahead of me. The difference between getting loaded last night and just picking up a pre-loaded trailer became a big one at that point. I probably could have beaten a few of them there if I were rolling before midnight. I sat, and sat, and sat, and sat. I arrived before 7am and I was empty at 12:45pm. Will I get paid for sitting there? I won't hold my breath.

Then it was a short jog over to the next shipper, but I made it a little longer by going the wrong way at first. This time I did have a drop/hook, so I was in and out quickly. Of course, by the time I moved down the road a bit, I got 14-houred. Oh well. I was a little tired and a lot hungry anyway, so that was as good a time as any to take ten hours off. By tonight I should be acclimated to the overnight routine. We'll see.

One drawback to sleeping by day and driving by night is the damn greenhouse effect. No, don't you Al Gore fans get started. I'm talking about the greenhouse effect in my truck. It's in the mid-60's today, but this thing heats up like a son of a bitch in the sun. So I'll be idling while I sleep. Of course, I don't have a pet so apparently my company doesn't care about my fuel mileage. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

My usual one week summary will be a little misleading in terms of miles, since I just got 2,000 dispatched today. I'm sitting at 3,865 miles right now, but I won't drop this load in Arizona until the morning of the 11th. So, assuming I sleep the rest of the 11th, it will be around 350 a day for the first part of the month. As long as I get some decent miles from the 11th to the 15th, it won't be a bad pay period.

12/6/07

It was a simple knock on the side of a truck, nothing more. There was no sinister motive, no apocalyptic underpinning. A simple knock. For the driver inside the truck, it might well have been the end of life as we know it. After tossing and turning through the night, as he is prone to do, he had just managed to reach that state where our most fanciful desires and our darkest fears intersect in the vivid landscape of our dreams. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. The sound tore through his eardrums and flung the driver back toward an awakened condition. To him, it was no less startling than an air raid coming to some remote village of some far-flung nation with which a superpower has achieved a quarrel.

Peering out his window, toward the south, the driver saw the horizon. It was a virtual rainbow of color, beginning with the deep dark orange and progressing through the various shades until it reached the equally deep indigo of the pre-dawn Florida sky. The driver wasn't sure just yet of where he was or what was happening. In his groggy state, he searched for more clues. His shoes were on the floor beside his bed. His blanket was half on the bed, half on the floor. A television rested on a shelf, high above his feet. The space around him, while not uncomfortable, was indeed small. He was in his truck. This tiny bit of familiarity brought a correspondingly tiny sense of reassurance. But where was his truck? He staggered toward the front of the cab, all the while trying to ascertain the nature of his predicament. Through the driver's side door, he saw yellow shipping containers. Through the right, he saw a tan stucco wall. The wall was plain and nondescript, save for a band of green running the length of the wall near the top. He was behind a store, or so it appeared. The surroundings were at the same time foreign and familiar. He had awoken behind numerous stores of a similar type, but still it was if this one was entirely new.

Just then, he spotted the shadowy figure of a man outside the driver's side of the truck. As the figure drew closer, he was able to see that it was a young man of fairly large build. The driver's eyes began to adjust to the surroundings. He noticed that the young man appeared to be of Cuban descent, although he might just as well have been Puerto Rican or Dominican or any of the ancestral lines beginning in Latin America. The young man had a neatly trimmed goatee, kept very thin. The thinness of the goatee was not lost on the driver. Perhaps it was a simple fashion choice, but he suspected that the man's youth was the more prominent factor. On a subconscious level, the driver surmised that the young man's whiskers had not yet reached the level of maturity and fullness that those of an older man may possess.

The young man was most certainly the source of the knocking, but what did he want? Sliding his feet into his shoes, the driver slowly assumed a position behind the wheel of his truck. As his right hand wiped the sleep from his eyes, the driver reached for the window knob with his left hand. Before he had the opportunity to roll the window completely down, the young man spoke. "What's up?" he queried. What's up? What's up? This was a useless statement in the driver's quest to identify his particular state of affairs.

About that time, things came suddenly into focus as the last vestiges of dreamlike mental wanderings were cast from the driver's mind. He noted the presence of bolt cutters in the hand of the young man. He noted the faint hint of light from around the edges of his trailer's rear doors. He noted the bills of lading sitting patiently on his dashboard, waiting for their chance to be put into use. The driver was at his delivery point and he needed to pull forward so that the mysterious young man could cut the seal from his trailer. The clock read 6:15am and it was time to go to work. He placed his left foot on the clutch pedal, his right on the brake. He pushed, firmly but in a controlled manner, against the buttons that would supply his brake lines with air pressure. He reached down and turned the key. His day had begun...

Sorry about all that. I think these damn audio books are getting to me. So yeah, I got going a little early at the first drop. Then it was about ninety miles to the second one. The tight backing that was mentioned in my directions wasn't so bad. The setup was the pain in the ass. I had to jack the trailer to the blind side in order to direct it toward the dock area, then jack it back to the left in order to hit the dock. No troubles.

I got a good news/bad news deal on the beer run. I am getting rid of it tomorrow, not Saturday, but I have to pick it up at midnight tonight. I might head over a little early, but it's a draft load so I don't imagine it will be ready much before 11pm. Then tomorrow morning I'll make the next pickup and head west.

So, where I thought today would be mostly wasted, it won't. I need to get some laundry done and clean up the truck a bit, then try to sleep for a while. Cheers.

12/5/07

We're all behind our baseball team. Go get 'em Tigers. World Series bound and picking up steam. Go get 'em Tigers. There'll be joy in Tiger Town we'll sing you a song, when the Bengals bring the pennant home, where it belongs. We're all behind our baseball team. Go get 'em, Detroit Tigers. Go get 'em Tigers!

Today was a good day, regardless of how my job went. That's not to say my job was bad today, just that it wouldn't have mattered. Dave Dombrowski sacked up and did the job he's paid to do. What good is it to have a bunch of talented minor leaguers when they won't see the field any time soon? We needed a third baseman and we needed an established starter. We got both. Nice job! I almost feel guilty typing this from Florida, since the Marlins just got bent over. But anyway...

I fell alseep at some point early in the morning after watching 3:10 to Yuma. It was a good flick. Interesting characters, well-acted, cool story. But, in typical 21st century fashion, the conclusion was a real deus ex machina. I think screenwriters are just lazy.

I got rolling around 11am and headed into Georgia. This is the second time in a row that Georgia has been crawling with cops, so I suspect that budget troubles plague the old Peach State. I popped in at the T/A in Cartersville to get that light replaced, then headed south again. Traffic around Atlanta was, well, traffic around Atlanta. What are you gonna do?

The rest of the drive was pretty cool. I took a couple of breaks to make sure I showed up at the customer after they were closed and gone for the night. Pretty good move, as this parking lot is tight. Nothing says "oldest city in America" like a nice shiny new strip mall. As new as the place is, the loading docks seem to have been an afterthought. Pretty typical. I took a flyer and passed the building in order to approach the back from the north, guessing that the docks would face south. They do. Sweet. Coming around behind these stores, if you're facing the wrong way, can be a real bitch. There's not exactly room to turn around back here, so you have to circle back out and find a place in the parking lot between the light poles and grass islands and shopping cart corrals and abandoned cars and all the rest of it. My directions to the second drop say "real tight backing" so I also have that to look forward to, which is nice.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," they say. If someone gives you a horse, don't check his teeth to see how old he is. Just be glad they gave you a horse. That's the lesson I have to keep in mind today. I had planned to highlight for home when I got to the last drop tomorrow morning. Go through my benefits information, get a few little things touched up on the truck, and prepare for a busy month of work while people come off the road for the holidays. Halfway through Georgia... I don't have to tell you. You know what happened. Preplan. I never get them when I want them. It's always when I have something else in mind. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

The preplan that I got left quite a bit to be desired. I'll be empty in Lake Mary tomorrow morning and they sent a plan summary for a load leaving Jacksonville on Friday and delivering in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday. That's not a lot of miles and those two cities mean beer, which is less than fun. The beer distributor in Columbia is no picnic when it comes to backing and parking and all the rest of it, so yeah. So, tomorrow will consist of the short trip down to Lake Mary and a pretty short deadhead back up to Jacksonville. Right about the time I started cursing the planners, one of them called my cell phone.

He said that they sent me a preplan. Yeah, no shit, I already replied to it. What's up? He then asked if I got the info for the load that was stacked behind it, because it wasn't showing that it went through on their end. I took another look. Nope, just Jacksonville to Columbia. He informed me that, after the beer load, I'll have a run going from South Carolina to Nogales. So, not heading home any time soon, but "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," right? Miles are miles, so I ain't complaining.

The oil gauge hasn't stuck any more since a few days ago, and the steering seems okay. I think there might be an issue with the pump, but it felt right today so I'm just going to go with it. I'll likely highlight for home from Nogales, so I can have things in order before the holidays. That was the best time of year for me to make money last year, so I'm hoping for a repeat.

12/4/07

You know, I started this blog a while back in order to give the best and most real answer I could to the ever-present question - "What's it really like out there?" You can't really answer in a sentence or two, so I started typing each day, day after day, week after week - this is what today was like out here. I get feedback from quite a few people, either through the feedback form or the comment function. I enjoy the conversation and support from everyone, but I honestly could use a day where I have nothing to say to you guys. Something along the lines of "I went from there to here, logged a few hundred miles, that's all" would do me some good right now. I don't mind the typing, and I always have plenty of spare time, but I just need a day where nothing actually happens... I guess there's always tomorrow.

My customer this morning was about a mile from where I slept at the Flying J. I took my ten hour break there, got my act together, and headed over. The directions were nice and simple - take a left on Enterprise and a right on Purity Drive. 6am appointment, it's 5:30am, we're good to go.

The left on Enterprise was clearly marked, which is always nice before the sun comes up. No worries there. Then rolling along slowly, holding up traffic (as if I give a shit), I started looking for Purity Drive. All the way through the industrial park and back down by the Flying J - no Purity Drive. So I doubled back. It was dark, so maybe I missed it. Back through again. Nope, no Purity drive. By this time it was 5:50am, so I had ten minutes. No big deal, I'll call the customer and see what they have to say. I got some canned message saying to e-mail for assistance. Okay, I guess I'll call CFI and get another number. They gave me the same number I had already called. Honestly, why would I expect anything different? So I headed back through again. There was a street going west, roughly where I would expect to find Purity Drive. It was called Mt. Zion, but maybe they just changed the name or something. It had a couple of businesses with loading docks so I gave it a shot. Neither business was my customer and both had closed gates, so I needed to find a place to turn around. 90 degree turn, and another, then an 's' curve, then another 90. This ain't good. Hopefully I can at least catch a connecting street and get back out to the main drag. Nope. The street wound around for a half mile, then turned into a one lane dirt road with a 4 ton weight limit. Nice.

So as I sat there, preparing to back out of the jam I was in, the clock struck 6am. The scenarios started going through my head - I'm going to clip a mirror on a pole coming around one of these blindside corners and get a preventable accident. Or maybe my fleet manager is going to give me shit about being late and I'll threaten to kick his ass. Then I'll lose my job. Or maybe the customer will kick me to the back of the line for missing my appointment. Then I'll have to sit all morning and wait to get loaded. Lots of scenarios, none of them good.

On a positive note, whatever backing issues I had yesterday seem to have worked themselves out. Blindside, sightside, 90 degrees, 45 degrees, 'S' curves, I did a pretty nice job backing out of there this morning. It only took about ten minutes to get out. That seems pretty solid to me, considering it was a half mile around five or six turns.

At that point, my only choice was to start going building to building. Something had to give sooner or later. First driveway - nope. Second - nope. Third, fourth, fifth - nope, nope, nope. At some point I found a driveway that went around the side of a building and further back. Purity Drive. It didn't have a sign, but the building at the end had an address on it. So, twenty minutes late, I checked in. I wasn't being loaded. I wasn't late. I didn't have a 6am appointment. It was a drop/hook to be made any time between 6am and 3pm. The stress, anxiety, and uncertainty of the morning were caused by my company's policy that drivers can't be trusted with complete information since a few of them might not use their time wisely. In light of a recent message board conversation, this is either completely hilarious or utterly disgusting. I haven't decided yet.

If I knew it was a 6am-3pm drop/hook, I would have rolled out of bed around 8am instead of hearing the alarm at 5:15am. I would have been more rested than I was. The sun would have been up. Perhaps, as I drove past Purity Drive the first time, I may have seen the sign for my customer about a hundred yards down. Perhaps I wouldn't have. Either way, I wouldn't have felt rushed for time and grasped for straws. I most likely wouldn't have ended up at the end of a road from which, quite frankly, half of our drivers probably couldn't have backed out. Instead, I got what I got. And that's just the way it is.

Things did get better from there. The load is 20,000 pounds. It's light enough not to drag me too bad on the hills but heavy enough to make for a smooth ride. The traffic around Indianapolis was light and quick. I caught a nice nap just outside Kentucky. The traffic through Louisville was light and quick. The weather was clear and dry, getting progressively warmer as I got further south. The traffic through Nashville was light and quick. I actually saw a big truck that had rear-ended someone and it didn't burn to the ground. That eased my mind a little bit, in light of the last few that I've seen.

Just past the scales on the way to Chattanooga, I ducked into the parking area and called it a day. I'm not all that tired, but sometimes I need to learn when to say when. (A friend of mine is a shrink and that's what she says. She claims that it's an Irish thing. I don't know. But anyhow...) I'll have about nine hours of driving tomorrow, then a Thursday morning drop. The customer is a store, so I'm parking in their lot whether they like it or not. That means I don't have to worry about setting an alarm. I'll just get there when I get there. I need to get a marker light on my truck replaced along the way, but that shouldn't take too long.

For the second day in a row, the only radio station that would come in for more than ten minutes was NPR. I got the extreme pleasure of listening to their assessment of the worldwide terrorism threat (or lack thereof) and what they think should be going on in America. You know how some people think in movie quotes? I'm one of those people.

12/3/07

There's a lot of chatter around about whether LTL and local drivers have it better than OTR drivers, and vice versa. To me it's like asking whether a blonde with big boobs is better than a redhead with no gag reflex - different strokes for different folks. Anyhow, one thing I can say for certain is that the typical OTR day is a hell of a lot less like work. Today wasn't backbreaking or anything, but I only made three pickups and a drop. Those guys making a bunch of stops every day - let's just say I'd have to make a lot of money. According to the LTL companies with whom I've spoken, the part about those guys making more money than us is utter bullshit. But anyway...

The first stop was in what looked like a fairly modern industrial area. So of course it had almost no room to maneuver a truck. I got in and snaked through the driveway without taking out any trees, then checked in. I had a 9am appointment, according to CFI. I was scheduled to pick up any time after 10am, according to the customer. Don't even get me started on the communication thing today. So I hung out for a while, then backed into the dock. There was room on my right, which was good since there was hardly any room in front of the dock. I had to come in at a pretty shallow angle and twist the hell out of it, but I got the trailer settled in. Two pallets and 400 pounds later, I was ready to wind my way back out of there.

Then a nice little stretch down to Lafayette, IN. The traffic leaving the Grand Rapids area was a bitch. Then it settled in for a bit. Then that stretch of Indiana where everyone thinks Chicago is going to disappear if they don't get there last week. Then I-65 settled in for a bit. Then, when I made it to Lafayette, I had another wicked tight entrance and dock area to navigate. A guy carried a pallet and set it in the trailer. Yes, he carried it. It was a total of 50 pounds, including the pallet.

Then leaving Lafayette and getting back to I-65, a stretch of maybe three miles, took forever. I ran down to Frankfort, where I got to back into another pain in the ass dock. This one wasn't as tight as the first two, but it was still a day cab job. Four pallets and 1,000 pounds. Do the math if you want to. It seems like a waste of a 53 foot trailer behind a sleeper cab, but I don't pay the bills.

The route from Frankfort to Anderson, where I would deliver, was IN-38 over to IN-32 over to Anderson. It was dispatched at 54 miles. I took the most direct route, so I don't imagine it could have been much longer than the dispatch. It took a little over two hours. IN-38 is on my version of the 'do not call' list from now on. It's a 55mph state highway, but there's a stretch that totally sucks balls. The lanes were so skinny that I had tires on the white line and yellow line, at the same time. There are a bunch of 10mph curves that require the use of the oncoming lanes. That's well enough, but a few of them were in wooded areas. I couldn't see through the trees, so I had to ease into the oncoming lanes just to see if there was anybody coming at me... in the oncoming lanes. See a problem there? Then the towns along the way had more crazy tight turns. I can handle them, but man. After a while it seemed way too much like work.

The guy at the Peterbilt place is pretty cool. It was the same guy from the time I ran down there last month. He started working and I sent in my empty call so I could I check the directions to my next pickup (I did get the Florida run). After a while, I didn't feel any bouncing so I went inside. He was nowhere to be found, but there were still the two pallets from the first place in the trailer. So I went back outside and caught up my e-mails. Still no bouncing, so I headed back in. He was there this time. "Your bills are over there." Uh, sir, do you want those other two pallets? "Oh yeah, that would be good." So he unloaded the last two and I took off.

The route to Lebanon, where I pick up tomorrow morning, would be straight back across on IN-32. Yeah, maybe another time. I had my fill of that shit today. Here's a serious question: If you were driving along and saw this big-ass red truck pulling this big-ass white trailer, blocking your travel lane as it came around a corner, why in the hell would you continue driving right into its path? There's always a dumbass here or there, but this must have happened ten times today. One lady (I think the town was Edgewood) just sat right in front of me and refused to back up. The people behind me stopped. The people behind her backed up. She just sat there and waved her arms at me. Well I hope you packed a lunch sweetheart, because there's only one way I can go from here. The light changed. She sat through a green facing her direction. Man, did that piss her off! Whew! Then it changed back to green for me. We had quite a few spectators lined up along both roads by the time she backed it up. Then, she would back up a foot, I would go forward a foot. She would roll her eyes and back up another foot. I would yell out the window at her and go forward another foot. And so on and so forth, until I got around the corner. Dumb bitch. Anyway, what was I saying?

Oh yeah, over to Lebanon. After the way this afternoon went, I just took I-69 to the loop and back up I-65. Nice and easy. I rolled through the Flying J parking lot, expecting to find it full. I got a spot. It was pretty tight and I can't back worth a shit today, but I'm there. That saved me from having to scout the industrial park for one of my hiding places. Beauty.

Early start tomorrow, then it's southward and away from the cold for a few days. I may, depending on how the next couple of days go, actually end up highlighting for home when I get down there. Something about my steering seems a little off today. I'll give it the trip to Florida and see if it's actually the truck or if it's just me. Plus, my oil temperature gauge sometimes sticks at 300+ degrees. I know that's not right, but the gauge is supposed to work. If those things are still going on, I'll head back to Michigan and take a day or two at home while it's in the shop. I guess I could even have them take care of that fuel tank while it was there. This is actually starting to sound like I probably should highlight. (My apologies for the rambling in this last paragraph. Sometimes you folks get to join me as I figure things out for myself, or at least try to.)

12/2/07

First things first - if you're one of the sickly or old CFI/ConWay employees who will be spending my insurance premiums next year, you're welcome in advance. The roll of the dice came up snake eyes and I won't be heading east. Maybe I'll get to my benefit information before the deadline, maybe not. Given that we're on the road for a living, couldn't they do this stuff by e-mail? I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

I also didn't have to sit at that customer and wait for Monday morning to get a trailer, although it wouldn't have made a huge difference in terms of miles. They bobtailed me up to Howard City to grab an empty, then dispatched me to pick up a load outside Grand Rapids tomorrow morning. It's another one of those Peterbilt P&D runs like the one I had the last time I went back to work. Three pickups and a dropoff. Also like last time, they planned me on another load behind it. Why are the people in Taylor so much better at their jobs (at least in the planning arena) than the people in Joplin? Almost every time they've given me something short out of Michigan, they've tacked a longer run on behind it. Is it just the smaller number of trucks involved or maybe the smaller territory? Wouldn't that simply suggest that they need to staff more people, or better people, in Joplin then? I don't know. Anyhow, after my drop in Indiana it looks like I'm set to make a pickup nearby and then two drops in Florida. Given recent events, I won't count my chickens before they hatch but hopefully that will work out. In December, I find the south to be quite tolerable.

Ever tried to slide tandems on a solid sheet of ice? I hadn't before today, but it's not quite as fun as you might think. On a good note, I did find a use for my tire chains. Chain up? Hell no. I don't even know how to get them out of the bag. But that fifty pound bag does make for one hell of a wheel chock. Mission accomplished.

I did a lot of driving today for 56 dispatched miles. I had to go quite a bit out of the way to get some fuel before I could set up shop for the day. I still have that issue with the engine only pulling fuel from the left tank so I have to fill up almost every day. For reasons I won't go into, I couldn't make a fuel stop along the way last night. By the time I got to Cedar Springs, the needle was buried on 'E.' So, in my own clever way, I parked horizontally across their loading docks and went to sleep. That tilted my truck to the left and, by the time I woke up, some fuel had migrated over and pushed the needle to around 1/8 full. Of course, that meant I had 1/16 since the fuel in the right tank is useless, but that would be sufficient to get me to my trailer and to a fuel stop.

After that, I headed back west toward tomorrow's first pickup. I thought about heading straight to the customer and parking, but decided on the nearest truck stop instead. I have had my fill of parking lots covered in ice and snow. Hopefully they'll get their plows over there and salt everything down before the work week starts tomorrow. It's raining right now so, if it gets cold enough tonight... nah, let's not think about that just yet. Also, getting done early in the afternoon usually means it's a good idea to have a store and restrooms nearby.

Bring on the Sopranos. Nine more episodes and I'll be caught up with the rest of America. Better late than never. Cheers.

12/1/07

Wanna play a game? Try to guess which lane has the big truck that just passed me:

Trick question. One guy passed and was right in front of me (maybe fifteen yards ahead), while another was passing him in the left lane, so there were big trucks in both lanes. Do you see them now? That was the good part of the day. At that point, it was about twelve degrees outside and the snow was just that powdery blowing stuff, making visibility the only issue. Even that wouldn't have been bad but the roads had not been plowed, so the less traveled left lane kicked up a hell of a smokescreen whenever someone went by.

About five minutes after I snapped that shot, I guess an angel must have whispered in my ear. Traffic was moving along anywhere between 45mph and 60mph when I got the sudden feeling that something wasn't right. I have no idea where the feeling came from, as traffic was moving along and I could see nothing wrong, but it was a pretty strong feeling. So I started slowing down... way down. Then I spotted the traffic at a dead stop right in front of me. (Maybe I should think about getting another CB in here.) I managed to stop in time, as did the first two people behind me. Others behind them started skidding off the road. The cause for the stoppage was a string of accidents on both sides of the road ahead. The most gruesome thing I saw was what looked like a trio of firemen trying to retrieve the body of a truck driver from his burned-out cab on the westbound side. Why in the hell do these trucks always burn to the ground, by the way? I'm not gonna lie to you - it's pretty damn disconcerting. According to news reports (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel linked below) there was only one fatality and it was on my side, so I guess they were pulling something else from the wreckage on the westbound side.

"The worst car accident appeared to have occurred in Dane County near DeForest, where a 37-year-old Madison man died after his Jeep rear-ended a semitrailer truck that had slowed for other semis that had slid off the freeway."

So, the freeway was closed for around an hour. Good times, good times.

After that, things got progressively worse. The temperature started to rise, so the snow started to pack as it got more wet. Then the freezing rain kicked in. Then more accidents, a few of them again looking pretty damn wicked. I managed to plug along, but it was tough sledding (pun intended) to say the least. Above 40mph, it was tough to maintain traction. The roads were bumpy and it was windy as hell. The performance of the Wisconsin highway department was an absolute disgrace. It's understood that someone who loses control on a slick road was going too fast, by default. I have no disagreement there. That being said, a halfway competent effort to tend to the roads could have saved at least one life today. I honestly believe that.

Once I crossed into Illinois the roads had been plowed and salted, leaving them clean and wet in some spots, dry in others. Furthermore, they were in the process of replowing and resalting to prepare for the overnight precipitation. This storm started early in the morning. The fact that Wisconsin had done nothing by this evening is unacceptable. It was eerily reminiscent of the worst road situation I encountered last winter. On that day, Missouri was a steady scene of carnage and disaster. Then, across the bridge, Illinois' roads were clean and dry. Something is very wrong there.

The rest of the drive was a slow but steady affair. The freezing rain gradually became rain. The traffic got progressively lighter, at least for a while. Closer to Chicago there was plenty of slower traffic that refused to keep right. Until that time I hadn't decided which route to take. Since most of those douchebags were heading down the bypass, I stayed on I-90. Back to the speed limit. Beauty.

Indiana - no issues.

Michigan - no issues... almost. The last part of the drive, from Grand Rapids to Cedar Springs, was on a fucking hockey rink. Cars, unable to see what was ahead of me, kept passing me. Then they kept spinning out. So I kept slowing down to keep my distance from them. So more cars kept passing, and spinning out, and I kept slowing... I made it to the customer in something loosely resembling eleven hours, so that's good enough for me. Then came time to drop the trailer...

You know the deal. Snow, then rain = ice sheet. I got into the customer's unplowed lot (they're not open on weekends, remember?) without any major issues. Too bad I don't have my skates with me. I set up carefully, not making any sudden changes in direction, and backed my trailer to a spot on the yard. No worries there. I released the fifth wheel and the connections. So far, so good. I put the truck in gear. And I went nowhere. I got out, pulled out my crowbar, chipped away as much ice as possible, and tried again. And I went nowhere. Just about the time I was out of bright ideas, I remembered a bit of advice I got from a Canadian tow truck driver last winter - "Quit being such a pussy. Start it in third gear and give it hell." Well, his advice got me out of the ice in Canada at the time. It also got me out from under that trailer tonight. It's a little scary gunning it in third gear when you're used to inching out and making sure the trailer sits steadily on the ground. Visions of my truck flying forward and the trailer crashing down were in my head at the time. As it went though, gunning it in third gear on the ice caused me to inch forward more slowly than I would have in low gear on dry pavement.

There are a few CFI trailers here, but they're all locked in the docks. (This place is closed on weekends, remember?) So, sans empty, I had to call and talk to someone in Joplin. This is becoming far too common for my liking. I can usually go a month or two without talking to those people. Lately I have to call about every load. She put me on the board with no empty. I'm not going to highlight for home now, instead rolling the dice that I'll get bobtailed to Taylor to board there. I only need ten minutes to run home and grab my mail. Unless there's a load to pick up that won't require me to drop an empty, bobtailing to the yard seems like the most logical thing. The other less desirable option is that they could sit me here for a day until this place opens at 7am Monday. We may have a fight on our hands if that happens.

This was one of those days that leaves me thinking it over after all is said and done. For a restless mind like my own, this is usually not a good thing. Anyhow, I turned sixteen and got my driver's license on September 10th, 1992. A couple of months later I was learning at the winter driving school of hard knocks. Now I guess this would be my sixteenth winter in this stuff and my second in a big truck. I have to imagine that, through so many years of trial and error (with plenty of error), I've developed a pretty sound feel for how to handle the nasty roads and how not to panic when things don't go perfectly. That would be a good thing, I think. I also tend to just drive along in whatever weather comes my way, when most drivers would shut down for the day. Maybe that's a bad thing. I don't know. I can say without a doubt that I would be sleeping in Wisconsin right now if I hadn't spun so many cars in my day and subsequently learned how to keep them under control. It was a pretty rough scene up there today, and my ass end got loose more than a few times, but I simply didn't give a shit. I don't know man. I don't know.

11/30/07

Good day today lads. I didn't set an alarm for this morning, so I slept kinda sorta okay for a few hours before I had to get up and use the facilities. Then it was eastbound and down, loaded up and trucking. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was a perfect fit for today's drive. I finished up the last disc just as I parked for the night. I had gotten away from the audio books for a while, staying more with the talk and news on XM. Without my XM functioning, it seems like a good time to get myself cultured a little better. Further still, I had time for a nice long nap this afternoon while staying within the 14 hour limit. Nice.

As I was rolling along, watching the miles tick away, it occurred to me that I had no idea where I would end up tonight. I knew I had time for nine hours of driving, plus an inspection and a fuel stop, but I had no clue where that would leave me. One of these days I might start that trip planning stuff. Nah, probably not. I kinda like to fly by the seat of my pants. Anyhow, it worked out perfectly for me. There's a rest area just before the Twin Cities, exactly nine hours from where I started, and it had a spot open for me. Weekends are definitely my favorite times. I have no illusion that I would have found a parking spot here mid-week, but tonight it worked out nicely.

It was definitely a welcome sign to see that I was gradually approaching civilization as the day wore on. At some point during the day, my phone beeped and told me that I had three voicemail messages. My phone never rang today. Freaking North Dakota. As it stands now, even my internet connection is back to normal. Technology is a beautiful thing as long as you're not in the wilderness.

The practical route from here would seem to take me down and around Chicago on I-80, but I've had better luck in recent months running straight through on I-90 and across the Skyway. I guess my mood tomorrow evening will dictate the route. I imagine it's six of one, half dozen of the other.

I get a report on site traffic to the blog every now and then. As of today, it looks like Jim over at OTR Journal is providing more referrals than any other site, passing up the message boards within the last few days. Good lookin' out my brother.