Saturday, May 24, 2008

5/24/08

Posting via cell phone, so I guess we'll see if it works. I suppose you could deduce that I didn't find a new power cord. I tried stopping at a couple of places, but with a trailer and with the Saturday shopping crowds it just wasn't happening.
With good weather and light traffic, it was easy to knock out a few hundred miles. I'll probably do about the same tomorrow.

UPDATE: (Cue the Katie Couric music)... I was lying there trying to figure out how Socrates and Aristotle could get away with such half-assed circular arguments when I realized that the finals start tonight, and I would really like to watch the game. So I headed back out onto I-81. I saw a 'Best Buy' sign in Maryland, so I decided to circle back and see how accessible it might be. The store at the other end of the strip mall was vacant, leaving me plenty of room to park out of the way. Now we're all powered up and ready for some hockey. Sweeeeeet.

Friday, May 23, 2008

5/23/08

After I got on the board this morning, I was almost immediately assigned to a load, so that was nice. I had to head west to Newton and pick up at a rinky-dink little outfit. Paved parking lot? Who needs it? Level ground? Overrated. Blindside dock on the side of a thirty foot dropoff? Sounds perfect. At least there was room to pull forward so the angle wasn't too severe.

I'm headed up to New Hampshire for a load delivering Tuesday morning. That wraps up the week at a little under 2,800 miles. Given the holiday Monday, the outcome is a pretty good one. I'll be empty on Tuesday morning with a lot of hours to spare.

Now I must wrap this up quickly, as my power cord just crapped out on me and my battery is soon to expire. I guess I'll have to try finding an electronics store with a big parking lot this weekend. I thought I had a spare cord around here somewhere, but it appears that it must have been a victim of one of my purgings when I was home. It's probably sitting in my closet right now, where it does me a lot of good.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

5/22/08

You know, off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that I like about waking up at 5am. As such, I wasn't feeling too chipper this morning after I drove the last twenty miles to my customer and checked in. Then I was reminded that at least I don't work in a warehouse. The employees were in line, waiting to sign in for the 6am shift. Something about seeing a couple dozen grown adults, shuffling into work with blank expressions and lifeless eyes... never me, man. Never me. People can tell me how stupid OTR drivers are all they want to. The day I give up my individuality will be the day I'm six feet deep.

Once I was empty, I pulled across the street in front of a vacant warehouse and went back to bed. A little after 10am, I got my next assignment. I had to shoot over to Lancaster and then run down to Greensboro, North Carolina. That's a pretty decent day of work. The only catch was that the load was scheduled to leave Lancaster at 3pm. Since my 14 hour clock had started early this morning, I decided to head to the shipper and see if my load may be ready early. It wasn't. I dropped my empty and went into town for some lunch. (Silver Spring Restaurant - good stuff.) Back at the shipper, it was time to get back to my reading and watch the clock tick away.

Once I got my loaded trailer and sent in my forms, I got the message that I expected from the folks in Joplin. They were asking how far I could go tonight, so they could set up a relay to get the load delivered by 7am. I replied, telling them that I would handle it and they need not worry. Much to my (pleasant) surprise, they trusted me and let me keep the load. It took some log book gymnastics, but I was able to get eight hours of down time, turning my 14 hour clock into a 22 hour clock. Then I had just enough time to get to Greensboro within my 22 hour clock. If this doesn't sound like it makes any sense, that's because it doesn't. Your tax dollars at work.

At the UPS facility in Greensboro, my assigned space was occupied so I had to drop in another spot. Typical. Then I headed out to grab an empty. There was one CFI empty on the lot, with a package truck parked right in front of it. Beauty. I went back in and asked the dispatcher to have someone move the truck. The yard dog went over to take care of it, but the truck had no keys in it. Perfect. So they wound up having one guy put the package truck in neutral and steer it while another guy pushed it out of the way with the yard truck. Good enough.

On a positive note, this trailer wasn't full of shit when I picked it up. Since my employer is apparently unable to pay me for cleaning out trailers at UPS facilities, I really wasn't in the mood to unload five hundred pounds of cardboard tonight.

So then the focus shifted to finding a place to park. The industrial park to which I delivered had a few signs that said 'available,' but none of those buildings appeared to have room for me to park. My next best option was to head east on I-40 a little ways to a rest area outside of town. All of the spots were full, but there was room to parallel park along the side where I shouldn't be bothering anyone. I'm #1 on the board right now, but my hours are up so I'll have to come off the board and go to bed for a while.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

5/21/08

When my alarm went off this morning, I took stock of the situation. I was curled up on my nice comfortable bed, wrapped in nice expensive sheets, with no idling trucks or passing traffic around. So I shut it off and stayed in bed for a while. I was in no hurry to go anywhere.

A few hours later, I was in the shower. Again I took stock of the situation. The nozzle was higher than chin level. There was no chilly draft coming over the curtain from an unknown source. The temperature and pressure were not affected by neighboring showers or toilets. I was in no hurry to go anywhere.

Eventually I had to head back to work and get moving. The drive was pretty easy, mostly along the turnpikes, and traffic was light. Since I dragged ass getting out of the house, I fully expected to have parking issues in this part of Pennsylvania by the time I got down here. I found, however, that the rest area just before Carlisle had plenty of spaces. This will leave me maybe twenty miles or so to drive in the morning. That'll do.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

5/20/08

Well, this was a weird day.

I woke up and headed up to the consignee in Washington Court House, Ohio this morning. They assigned me to a dock right away. Then, once I got backed in and slid my tandems, a guy came out and told me to go to a different dock. So I did. The beauty about paper loads is that 45,000 pounds fit into eight rolls. Thus, I was unloaded very quickly and sent on my way.

There was room along the street going through the industrial park there, so I pulled off to the side and waited for what was next. I was #1 again when I got on the board and an hour later I had my assignment. It was a weird one. I had to deadhead up to the Toledo suburbs (157 miles) and then take a load to... Taylor, Michigan (51 miles). The load is going to Canada, but I don't go to Canada, so for me it went to Taylor. I guess they just needed a truck to get up there and make the pick up or something.

Along the way, I had quite the experience. That seems to be happening a little too often lately. So I'm rolling along on US-62, about to shoot over on OH-56 to I-71 northbound. OH-56 was closed for construction. There was a sign right there saying that there was a low bridge 13'5" ahead ten miles on US-62. So I was looking for another street that would get me off of US-62 and somewhere over toward I-71. The streets near the road closure were skinny residential ones with parked cars along the sides. Not a chance. I guess with some local knowledge one of those streets may have worked. They all looked awfully damn tight to me though. I had no desire to get myself stuck in a place from which I couldn't escape.

So I rolled along northward, thinking I would catch the next state highway to the east and just run up US-23 to the Columbus loop. I got to that road and saw a sign saying 13'3" on it. Well, that won't work. At that point I was getting pretty damn close to the ten mile mark. I was looking for a county road or an open lot or something, anything, that would let me turn around. Doubling back for a bunch of miles wouldn't have been too cool, but what else was there to do? Yeah, nowhere to turn. I was screwed. I seemed to have gotten myself stuck in a place from which I couldn't escape.

I pulled off to the shoulder and put my flashers on while I tried to think through my options. It really started to look like I was going to have to back down the highway for several miles. That sounded terribly unsafe, so I decided to roll up to the bridge and check it out. Letting a little air out of my tires and limping through was probably a much better bet than going backwards, assuming I was just an inch too tall. The bridge was well over a foot above my trailer before I got under it, so that was a good start. The trouble was that there was a hill on the other side that would be lifting me as my trailer passed under. I stopped every few feet, pissing off the trailing motorists no doubt, to check on the height of my trailer. The damn thing never came anywhere close to the bridge. I would say eight or nine inches at the closest. That was weird. So either my trailer was less than 13'6" or that bridge was a hell of a lot higher than 13'5". In any case, controversy solved. Moving along.

I got up to my exit on I-75 and got in another weird little pickle. I was about fifteen minutes ahead of my appointment time, and I needed to go south to the first gate on the right. Nice and easy. I turned south, or what I thought was south (actually east-ish more than anything). The sign about seventy yards down said "OH-65 North." Sweet. So we'll just find a place to turn around. Okay then, I guess we won't find a place to turn around. It was a pretty urban area and there was hardly even room to maneuver myself down the road in some spots. I had to take some other road up to some other road and across some other road, until eventually I snaked my way back to I-75 and headed back south. This time, I went the right way and everything was cool. I was about five minutes early for my appointment.

After I was loaded, the fella told me that I wouldn't be able to leave through the 'out' gate. That was weird. Apparently the CTL guy who left before me had a little meeting with the gate. We had to park and use a phone to notify the dispatch office that we were loaded so they could open the gate. It seems that my distinguished colleague got that part right, but forgot to set his parking brake. Ergo, broken gate. Bummer dude.

Back in Taylor I made my drop and got on the board. I was #1 so I hung around the yard. My mother called and I asked if she felt like getting some dinner. I let the dispatcher know that I would be heading out for a while, so she went ahead and told me that she had two loads from which to choose. One was going to Joplin and the other to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Here in my little world, we have a saying. "Anything but Joplin." So I'm going to Pennsylvania. The load is supposed to get here sometime tonight or tomorrow morning and it has to deliver at 6am Thursday. That means I can take a night off at home tonight and drive it down tomorrow. Beauty.

So the miles for today weren't great, but I got a break at home so we'll call it good enough. Tomorrow's run will be 468, so that's a pretty good day for me coming up.

Monday, May 19, 2008

5/19/08

My poor truck worked its ass off today. I took 47,000 pounds of water from Pennsylvania to Virginia. Then I took 46,000 pounds of beer from Virginia to South Carolina. Today's load is 45,000 pounds, so I guess I'm on schedule to get a light one some time this summer.

I woke up and bumped the dock at the beer distributor bright and early. There was a JB Hunt guy in the dirt lot before I got there last night, and he got up and moving before I did this morning. As it turns out, I did pretty well by spending the night at the customer. By the time he and I were unloaded, a pretty good line of trucks was starting to form.

They had me empty in pretty short order. I spoke with the guy who backed in right after I did (another CTL driver) for a few minutes. Apparently his miles are way down and he's considering leaving for a different company. I really didn't know what to tell him. I'd say my first five months this year are ahead of last year's pace, so I have no complaints there.

I was #1 on the board when I got empty so I just went back over to the dirt lot and hung out. I got my assignment around an hour and a half later. Looking at the assignment, I knew it would be a long day for the old Kenworth. I had to pick up at a paper mill. That always means a heavy load, at least in my experience. My route took me from South Carolina, up through North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, and into Ohio. That there's some rough terrain.

The dispatch to the shipper was a weird one. It was 87 miles and they gave me a little under two hours. That doesn't sound so bad at first glance. After catching about twenty red lights in the first twenty miles, I got a message from my fleet manager asking if I would make the pick up on time. It was looking pretty sketchy at that point, but things shook loose and I got there right at 11am. I had to wait in line to scale in, then check with the security guard, grab my safety gear, and proceed to the dock area.

I had received instructions to call some 800 number before I was loaded, so I did. The lady on the phone rattled off a bunch of stuff about where and when the load would pick up. She said that it picked up between 7am and 10am. I got the assignment after 9am and was dispatched for 11am, after I had been empty since around 7:30am. I don't know what that's all about, but I had to push it to make the 11am time. I don't know if someone just didn't assign the load to me sooner, or if we got the load late through a broker, or what the story was.

I backed in and hung out in the drivers' lounge with my hard hat, safety glasses, and earplugs on until the forklift lady had me loaded. Then I had to call the 800 number again and give them the information from the bill of lading. Then it was back in line to scale out, turn in the safety gear, and get released by the security guard. And away we go...

That drive would probably be pretty nice on a sunny Sunday afternoon with a light load. On a rainy Monday with a heavy sucker, not so much. There was a mix of two-lanes and interstates and 4-lanes along the way. I stopped for lunch in Mount Airy and, after not having eaten since yesterday morning, my little bit of junk food tasted like a prime porterhouse. Back to the road...

US-35 heading out of West Virginia was the only real super duper pain in the ass, but the interstates in West Virginia also suck pretty badly, especially in the rain. Up and down mountains and around tight curves, over and over and over. Once I hit US-35, I came up behind a Swiftie going about 40mph in a 55mph zone. It was a skinny, twisty, hilly road and there were three cars between him and me. So there was no way I could go around. By the time we got to Ohio and the road opened up to four lanes, there was about a five mile line of traffic behind us. The hockey game was well in hand, so I flipped on the CB to see what the guys were saying. Yeah, they weren't happy.

In Ohio, we got an extra lane and everybody passed the poor Swiftie. From there I was able to set the cruise control and roll along uninterrupted. I didn't have any real plan as far as parking tonight, so when I saw a truck pulling out of the rest area west of Jackson I decided to see if he had left an open space. He had, so here I am. My deadhead was 87 miles and the delivery is 499 miles, so the week is off to a good start for a change. I don't know exactly how far I have to go from here. I'll just leave as soon as my ten hour break is up and I should have more than enough time. My dispatch says 9:17am and the lady on the phone said it has to be there before midnight tomorrow night. Whatever. I think I'm less than fifty miles away.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

5/18/08

Today wound up being pretty easy, although it had plenty of uncertainty as the afternoon progressed. I checked my truck stop directory before I left and saw that there really isn't anywhere to park near Myrtle Beach. I figured I would spot something along the way and that would have to work. Aside from a handful of hotels that claimed to have truck parking, I saw nothing. I kept rolling, closer and closer to my customer, and still saw nothing. I got to the customer, thinking I may be able to park on the street. Nope. No room there. Around the corner is a big dirt lot with a decrepit old fence falling apart around the sides. There's some kind of nasty old building at the back of the lot, but otherwise it doesn't look like much is going on. I guess this is home for the night. I'm pretty damn hungry but I'm fat enough to survive without food for one night, I think. The beer distibutor opens at 7am, so my guess is that I'll be moved before anybody has a chance to get annoyed with me.

The drive down here was only four and a half hours, so my log book should be in pretty decent shape for the next few days. Hopefully they will assign me to another load before I'm empty so I don't have to drive thirty miles to find a parking place in the morning.
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