7/4/09

Sixteen freaking innings. I had to work this morning, you know. It would have been nice of the Tigers to polish off the Twinkies a little earlier last night. Oh well. At least I didn't stay up all night to hear the end of a loss. (They did lose this afternoon, but that was during work hours.) So that alarm clock this morning was obviously unwelcome. I dragged my ass out to the highway and did some driving though. Life as a grownup does have its drawbacks. A few hours into the day I got a pre-plan for a load leaving Nogales. That helped to lift my spirits.

I decided to take US-90 down to AZ-82 and cut the corner to Nogales, so I ducked off at Exit 302 in Benson. There was the yellow sign that I remembered, right at the end of the exit ramp. Highway 82 is not recommended for trucks. Use I-19. (This one telling you not to leave Nogales on AZ-82 is a little more terse, but serves the same purpose.) I'm pretty sure that they just put up those signs to appease the residents of the little towns along the way. If they can make the truck drivers think that the route sucks, they can keep all of the truck traffic on the interstate. Highway 82 is nice and wide and the climbs are rather mellow. There's no reason not to take a truck along that route and save yourself 25 miles or so.

I got to the broker in Nogales and found that they were closed for the weekend. Color me surprised. Who could have guessed that showing up on a weekend (and a holiday) might be a waste of my time? There was one of our trailers backed up to the loading dock. It had the same types of seals that mine had, so Inspector Clouseau here figures that it must have come from the same shipper. There was nobody present to sign my bills and assume responsibility for my trailer though. After a call to Joplin, I was told to drag the trailer down the street to our main Nogales drop lot. The lot was jam-packed with trailers beyond belief. I found one fairly tight spot along the outer fence and did a pretty respectable job of backing my trailer into it, if I do say so myself.

Once I sent in my empty call, I was reminded of just how efficiently things operate in Nogales. A bunch of information came through regarding that pre-planned load of mine - set out from the same drop yard, relay in Tulsa, order number, load number, origin, final destination, etc. I was not, however, given the number of the trailer that I was to retrieve. Nor was I dispatched to the relay point. (I was already at the relay point but they have to dispatch me as a technical formality.) After a little while I sent a message asking if my trailer had yet crossed the border. I received a reply asking me to check the drop yard. Fuck. Here we go. I sent another message indicating that I didn't know what trailer I was being given. After quite a while, I received a reply with a trailer number. I walked around the yard and found that my trailer was not present. As all of this was transpiring, I was #4 on the board for Nogales. If I'm on the board, then the computer system doesn't have me tied to a load. And I still hadn't been dispatched to the relay point.

After a couple of hours, I sent a message asking if I was still assigned to the load. I got my dispatch after this message, along with a reply apologizing for the delayed dispatch and asking my to send my 'relay made' form once I had picked up my loaded trailer. Yeah, that trailer ain't in America, nearly as I can tell.

So what do we do in this circumstance? Get into a back-and-forth with someone who was probably forced to work today on account of not being important enough to have the day off? Get myself worked up about the fact that I would have a 4,100+ mile week if they could get me out of here before midnight. Pester someone in hopes of finding another load, since mine is apparently still in Mexico. Or just kick back and enjoy the evening off, with 3,040 miles plus my holiday pay already on the books for this week?

Yeah, I went with that last option... or so I thought. I sent a quick message telling the bosses that my assigned trailer was nowhere to be found. Then I was asked to do a yard check and let them know which loaded trailers were in the yard. Relaxation delayed. I wrote down all of the numbers of all of the trailers in the yard and sent a message with the twelve that were loaded. I got a quick reply thanking me for the info so I kinda thought that I might be assigned to one of the loads that was sitting there. Nope.

Once my 14 hour clock had expired for the day, it was time to get started with that relaxation. I made a trip down the business loop to everyone's favorite retailer. Since Wal Mart has decided to embrace mandatory health insurance that will drive its smaller competitors out of business, I figured I might as well drop a few bucks to speed up the process. Shopping list - 1/3 pound hamburgers, Colby-Jack cheese, spicy Italian sausage, sourdough rolls, 29% DEET insect repellant, styrofoam cooler, bag of ice, one undisclosed item, and my new favorite - the $6 single-use disposable charcoal grill.

As I came out of the store, I was treated to the revelation that Nogales' annual fireworks display is launched from a bluff across from the Wal Mart parking lot. That was pretty cool. After the show I drove back over to our drop yard and set up for dinner.

I think this post would be a lot more fun if the cooler's contents weren't fully disclosed... or something. Yeah, that's the ticket. The comfy $10 chair and the $6 grill are open for discussion though. One of my spicy Italian sausages hit the dirt as I was clearing the first round of meat from the grill, so I decided to embrace the local heritage and sacrifice it to the Mayan gods or Aztec gods or whatever it was in this part of the world. Maybe the farmers will get rain or something.

So I have some sausage left in the cooler for meals over the next day or two. That's nice. I ate one tonight and it was delightful, but it was merely an appetizer. Behold the beauty that anchored my holiday feast...


If that ain't fit for a celebration, I don't know what is. Six dollars for a disposable grill, man. I'm not kidding. You truck drivers out there need to pay attention.

So the border is closed for the night. My belly is full. I'm not thirsty, in a manner of speaking. I'm just relaxing and enjoying the evening. As an admitted right-wing hatemonger, fearmonger, warmonger, and whatever other labels we wear these days, it's tempting to do a little light reading and weep for the future as I reflect on another proud birthday for our nation. "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends..." Government destructive of these ends (along with about ten other passages in the Declaration)? I don't know man. It might be getting there. Here's some food for thought though. I'm 2,000 miles from home. I'm in the United States. While it may not have been their preference, everybody whom I encountered today spoke my language - English. I'm in the United States. Every transaction that I made took place in my own currency - US dollars. I'm in the United States. I'm sitting outdoors and typing on a computer that will communicate the message of my choosing throughout the world and nobody else has any say in the matter. I'm in the United States. This spiel could go on for a bit but I think I've made my point. Yeah, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would probably puke if they saw the non-productive Marxist nanny state that lies right around the corner if we don't wake up pretty soon. I get it and yes, it is a little sad. You know what though? They couldn't have imagined the amazing advancements and expansion that our free society would produce along the way. Whichever way it goes from here, at least I've never bowed to any descendant of King George III. That has to count for something.

Happy Independence Day everyone.

7/3/09

There's something inherently wrong with the notion that you can spend a whole day driving on a single interstate highway within a single state. It's probably time to partition Texas.

After getting through San Antonio, the remainder of today's route was just a whole lot of nothing. Hot sunny weather. Long desolate stretches of terrain. Boring.

When the day's bombshell came out of Alaska, I started to feel optimistic for a minute. Since we're in an age where married governors with national aspirations are finding 'soul mates,' I eagerly awaited a phone call. I could be the soul mate for Mrs. Palin... or something. No such luck though. Apparently she's just in the mood to piss away her political career. Not that I blame her. I wouldn't be able to keep my cool when dealing with those vipers every day.

I stopped for the night at the Love's in Van Horn, so it looks like I'll have somewhere around eight hours to drive tomorrow. It remains to be seen whether I'll go through Tuscon or whether I'll drop down the state route through the hills. This payload is around 30,000 pounds so it's probably a little on the heavy side to be dragging across the "not recommended for trucks" route. After another day on I-10 though, I don't know. I might be in the mood for a challenge.

7/2/09

So we got paid a day early this week on account of the weekend holiday. As a result of some shenanigans that left my bank account without enough money to cover my rent check, this turned out to be pretty important. Today's paycheck was more than enough to cover the difference and my rent check for July was processed today. If I hadn't been paid until tomorrow I would have had some issues. I didn't find out about a returned check from a deposit that I made last week until this morning, so I wouldn't have had a chance to transfer money out of my savings before the rent check cleared. Early paycheck - no worries. Not lucky, of course. Blessed.

My work day got started with some good news, which is always nice. I was getting ready to head up toward Lufkin when my satellite unit chirped at me. Pre-plan. Good deal. Then the traffic through Houston was reasonable, if not light. Good deal. I made it to the consignee about an hour and a half ahead of my 3:30pm appointment, then checked in with the guy on the dock. He told me to take the next open door since the 2:30pm truck hadn't arrived yet. Good deal.

After a short time in Lufkin, I was dispatched to make my next pickup in Houston. I had a 10pm appointment but the load was a drop/hook, so there was a chance that it might be ready early. I wasn't sold on the idea of heading down there in the afternoon though. I've been to that shipper before and found it to be a general clusterfuck. As nice as it may have been to get the load early, I decided to take a break in Shepherd instead. This way the evening traffic in Houston could work its way through before I headed down there. Turns out I made a pretty good call on that one. There were no other trucks waiting to get in to the shipper's driveway and my drop/hook was quick and easy. Then there wasn't any significant traffic leaving Houston either. Good deal.

I didn't have enough hours left on my 14 to get past San Antonio tonight, so the sensible thing to do seemed to be to stop in Sealy and call it a day. I'm not sure how crowded the truck stops would be once I got closer to San Antonio but there was no reason to go any further. I'm due in Nogales, Arizona by 3pm on Saturday so I'll have two pretty decent days of driving to go from here. Isn't Mountain Standard time the same as Pacific Daylight time? I think I heard that on the radio recently. If the rest of you could just get on Eastern time like the civilized world, this would be more simple. I'm pretty sure that I'm due in Nogales by 6pm on my clock but I'll probably get there before 5pm just to make sure. Arriving on a Saturday (that also happens to be a holiday) could very well be a waste of my time in any event. That's what my dispatch says though. I guess we'll see.

7/1/09

Could it really be possible for me to be disappointed not to be heading to California? Probably not. Well, maybe a little. Nah, not really.

My drive down to Laredo this morning was just a basic one-hour affair. I got on the board at #11 and headed down the street to the broker. Live unload this time around instead of a drop. Groovy. The forklift guy had me on my way before too long and I headed back to the yard.

After going back through the inspection bay with my empty trailer, I got lectured by the maintenance supervisor. He asked if I knew that the trailer's DOT bumper was dented. Yes. Then he asked if it was like that when I picked up the trailer. Yes. Then he asked if I had called our safety department to report it. No. I need to report these things right away so I won't be held liable for the cost of the damage, yada yada yada, blah blah blah. I actually did call both the road service department and the safety department the first time I got a trailer with a dented bumper, a few years ago. Anyone wanna guess if they gave a shit? As long as it wasn't broken or loose, I was told, no big deal. This was the standard that I followed from that point forward - dents were no big deal. Now apparently a dented bumper is cause for alarm. Whatever dude. They would need to add a few extra phone lines to handle the volume if we were really going to call the safety department about every minor dent and ding in the trailers that we pick up.

After a few hours on the board I got called to the dispatch window. San Antonio for tomorrow morning or Mira Loma, California for Friday afternoon. There's a freaking devil's bargain, eh? I took the California run and headed out to grab my loaded trailer. I had to move the trailer axles forward to get within the 40' maximum wheelbase allowed in California. The load was a heavy one, so I made sure to scale it before I left the yard. Shit. 30,060 pounds up front and 35,000 on the back. I was right on the 40' mark with my rear axle, so there was nothing that I could do to move any weight forward. Back on the board we go then.

I don't know how the company deals with that issue. Maybe they have someone take some freight off the trailer or maybe they just try to pawn it off on another driver who thinks he can get away with it. One of the old guys at the terminal was trying to explain how I could take this route and that route and the cops at the scales wouldn't bother me. Yeah, not like the People's Republic needs the money or anything. No thanks dude. I'll stick with the legal loads for now.

I wound up with a run heading to Lufkin, Texas for a delivery tomorrow afternoon. 1,364 miles lost and 470 gained doesn't sound so hot. I will be empty on Thursday as opposed to Friday, but I don't imagine I'll be running 894 miles in that extra day. I can't say that I'm terribly worried about it though. Holiday weekends are always unpredictable anyway. If I can get some decent work for the weekend and stay away from California, I'll consider the outcome to be a good one.

I headed up US-59 toward Houston once I had my new loaded trailer. I wasn't really sure how far I would drive but that usually seems to work itself out. As I got further into the evening, I found that my 14 hours would likely run out when I was just north of Houston. That's a pretty crowded area and there are no sure bets for parking so I decided to stop short of Houston instead. I don't know exactly what would be the English translation for El Campo. Sounds like 'the campground' to me, so I'm camping here for the night.

6/30/09

I fully expected to be writing some sort of miserable diatribe by the time I sat down to my computer tonight. I had to get up early this morning (which I hate doing), drive down Satan's Driveway (which I hate doing), dodge the incompetent Texas drivers in the rain (which I hate doing), and work for a full eleven hours (which I hate doing). Surprisingly though, the drive wasn't all that bad. It wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination, but we've certainly seen worse.

The traffic down US-69 and US-75 through Oklahoma was pretty light for the most part. Dallas, of course, had pretty heavy traffic and a steady stream of slow drivers in the center lane. For whatever reason, there's a stretch of US-75 where the lanes can't be more than a few inches wider than a 102" truck and trailer. With all the traffic merging and exiting, you definitely have to be on your toes. The left lane turned out not to be quite as skinny as the center lane though, so I was content to fall in behind another truck and cruise on through. If only I had that option on I-35...

As I dropped down toward Waco I was in the mood to stop for a steak, so I pulled off at Exit 343. The folks at Heitmiller Steakhouse are usually reliable for some good grub. Tonight I must say I was less than impressed. My five-dollar mozzarella sticks were far better than my eighteen-dollar steak. You win some and you lose some I suppose. At the restaurant, I ran into my trainer from the summer of '06 (when I got started with this vocation). He is currently training his brother and they'll be working as a team for the foreseeable future. Good luck with that. My old trainer is a pretty good guy, but sharing an enclosed space with another grown man for four weeks was about all I could handle.

After dinner it was time to deal with Austin and San Antonio. My break had been long enough to allow most of the afternoon rush to abate, so the Austin traffic was only 90% ridiculous instead of 150% ridiculous. San Antonio really wasn't bad at all, aside from the brief rain that I encountered on the north side. Today's eleven hours got me down to Cotulla, leaving around an hour to drive in the morning. That's not bad at all. I pulled into a massive truck stop parking lot at 9:30pm local time and found that there were only four trucks parked here. That doesn't make any sense. I wonder if they had a swine flu outbreak here or something. I hope not. I just went inside and bought an iced tea. That cashier did look a little sketchy. Hmm.

I saw a shit-ton of our trucks heading north on I-35 today. That's generally a good sign that the freight out of Laredo is plentiful. Hopefully there won't be too many people getting there tonight and filling up the board ahead of my arrival.

6/29/09

It's about time to go after another group of people who get on my nerves. Tonight - you hippies who make sure all of the public restrooms get those worthless low energy hand dryer things. Just drink your damn soy milk and let a fella wipe his hands for Pete's sake. We can always plant more trees.

I wound up with a pretty long day of work today, which is good in the sense that I don't make a whole lot of money from short days of work. I had been getting used to those 4-5 hour days though. This one was damn near 11 hours of driving once all was said and done. The morning's drive to my consignee was fairly easy. That's always nice. The directions did tell me to make a right turn onto a street called 5th Avenue though. As I passed a yard with trailers in it and approached 5th Avenue, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was driving past my customer. I swung all the way to the far side of the road and began to make my turn onto 5th Avenue. Yeah, that wasn't happening. I got about halfway through the turn and realized that I could go no further. It was a skinny residential street with utility poles guarding both corners. Fortunately, your don is no stranger to wrong turns and the resulting backup jobs that tend to follow.

After backing out of the ill-fated turn and then continuing backward another hundred yards or so, I turned into the yard with the trailers and found that it was in fact my consignee. I was unloaded within a short time and then pulled into a neighboring vacant lot to await whatever came next. I was #2 on the board, behind a guy who hadn't followed the wrong directions and thus arrived a minute ahead of me. He had requested home time though, so he would have been given priority over me anyway when it came time for a load. We sat for maybe a half hour and then each received our next assignment. My colleague was heading homeward (to Ohio) and I was going to Laredo.

I had to drive down to Eddyville for my next pickup, so I angled out of Oelwein on IA-281 and followed it to Waterloo. According to my atlas, I would catch up with US-63 in Waterloo. According to the 'Dead End' sign that wound up staring me in the face, I probably should have checked a more detailed map. I'm not sure exactly where IA-281 officially ended, but I wound up on a somewhat skinny stretch of road with houses on both sides. I could see what looked like a bigger road with traffic lights, one block to my left. Guess we had better make a left before the road ends then. There were no cars parked too close to the corner, so that left turn wasn't a major issue. I caught up with the bigger road and continued westward, catching up with US-63 a couple of blocks later. The cop who wound up behind me as I emerged from the residential neighborhood was kind enough not to pull me over for being where I didn't belong. Good lookin' out, my brother.

I got checked in at the shipper in Eddyville and jumped through their sequence of hoops in order to get loaded and sent on my way. A light load would have been a nice change of pace after the last few. So of course this one is 43,000 pounds. My fuel mileage last week was a groovy 4.9mpg and I'm headed into some less than temperate climates (along with the idling that tends to correspond), so this heavy load won't be doing me any favors. Have no fear though, shareholders of CNW, there's always next week.

I'm due in Laredo by Wednesday morning, meaning that I'll have to complete two ten-hour breaks between now and then. I wanted to get as far as possible today so that I can get as close to Laredo as possible tomorrow. This way I drive as little as possible on Wednesday and leave myself some time to pull a load out of there if I'm high enough on the board after making my drop. I was able to get into Oklahoma tonight before my 14 hours were up. 605 miles total for the day and 10.75 hours of driving. So far, so good. Even with Satan's Driveway waiting in the wings, I should be able to make it well past San Antonio before tomorrow's 11 hours run out. Another quick turnaround in Laredo and we could be looking at a pretty solid week. 100 trucks on the board and we could be looking at a lot of fajitas. Which will it be? Time will tell.

6/28/09

Have you ever been to Urbana, Iowa? Now I have. Can't say that I'll be in a hurry to return. After an uneventful four hours on the road, I found that this was probably the last safe bet for parking along my route to Oelwein. So this is home for the night. The highlight of the day's entertainment was probably the saga of two big dogs running away from a couple of kids and then barrel-assing down the ramp to the interstate. You see a lot of carcasses on the highway in this part of the world, so it didn't look like that story would have a very happy ending. About fifteen minutes later though, one of the dogs returned. Ominous implications for the other dog then, right? They had stuck together the whole time, as nearly as I could tell from a distance. No worries. The second dog came trotting back ten minutes after the first one. And Michael Jackson is still the leading news story nationwide. Boring. Back to my collection of books then, I suppose.

I'll have to cover about thirty miles or so tomorrow morning by 9am to make my delivery. As of yet, I don't have anything else lined up afterward. Most runs originating in this part of the country are fairly long ones, so we'll hope for a good start to the week. I got a good deal yesterday on a hotel in Pittsburgh for the weekend of the Notre Dame game, but it had to be prepaid. I could use a decent week to overcome the momentary interruption in my cash flow.