The choices on the radio tend to be pretty lousy on the weekend. Some of the CNBC investigative stuff can be good from time to time, assuming that they stick with the financial world and stay out of the political arena. Today brought a few decent shows to which I listened as I drove across I-44. The one that sounded most promising, however, turned out to be the worst. There was some sort of town hall event involving a few industry leaders, the head of the United Steelworkers, and the labor chick from the Obama administration. That sort of collection of viewpoints usually produces some worthwhile discussion. I didn't do a whole lot in college other than drink beer and write (brilliant, of course) papers, but I always made it a point to drop in on whatever roundtable discussions the schools were sponsoring. I enjoy the exchange of ideas. Today - huge disappointment.
I guess I should have expected as much, given that the premise of the discussion was something along the lines of 'how to bring manufacturing back to America.' When you start from the incorrect premise, it's tough to get anything more than the standard talking points. In related news, the show consisted of nothing more than people reciting the standard talking points.
One valid point was made during the whole thing and it was quickly dismissed. John Engler, the former governor of Michigan and current president of the National Association of Manufacturers, was responding to a question about reduced manufacturing output in the country. He noted that manufacturing exports are larger now than they ever have been. The objective should be to modernize at home, in order to maintain the jobs that we still have, and to make smart investments that allow us to capture more overseas markets. You know the knee-jerk reaction from the union guy, right? Manufacturing is a smaller share of GDP than it used to be. Well no shit, Sherlock. As our manufacturing economy has grown slowly, other sectors of the economy have grown more quickly. So the manufacturing share of the GDP goes down, even as the sector grows in real terms. This isn't exactly rocket surgery. It's just common sense. Then the guy went off on some stump speech about making sure that manufacturing keeps up with the rest of the economy.
Here's the reason that the discussion proved disappointing to me. It centered around the notion of going back to how things used to be. That's all well and good when you're trying to rally voters in a union election or a political campaign, but it makes no sense in real life. The vast majority of the things that you build when establishing an economy have already been built in America. We could tear down all of our buildings and roads and start over again, I suppose. This would ramp up our manufacturing activity quite a bit. It also would be colossally stupid. I don't think any of us will be lining up to set our clothes on fire in order to help the textile industry, will we? Not unless there's a 'cash for corduroys' program in the works to make someone else pay the bill. (We sure do love it when we think someone else is paying the bill.) There's no reason to expect that manufacturing will ever approach 20% of GDP again. That's in the past. As long as people continue to whine about trade agreements and pursue false objectives, they'll never focus on logical steps for the future.
There wasn't a single mention of the fact that our natural resources (the only thing on earth that can actually "create" wealth) are under-utilized, forcing us to transfer vast amounts of money out of our economy every year instead of bringing money in. There was only one mention of the fact that we're not allowed to build nuclear plants (which require massive amounts of steel and union workers, while providing cheap energy to the masses). There was no mention of the fact that the Chi-coms are cutting deals with developing countries all over the globe while we hamstring ourselves with our tax laws and environmental laws. We need to be focused on adding enough markets every year to offset the inevitable productivity gains that will be made in our factories. Otherwise you might as well get used to double digit unemployment in perpetuity.
Oh well, I'm getting way out in the weeds at this point. There's not a good selection on the radio on the weekend. That's all I'm trying to say.
I cruised through Oklahoma and half of Missouri before ducking off at the truck stop in St. Robert for the night. This leaves less than 600 miles to cover between now and Monday evening, so we're right on track for a couple more easy days on the road. My pay week wraps up with 2,557 miles plus the holiday pay for the 1st. Steady as she goes.
For whom should I root in the Alamo Bowl? Neither Michigan State nor Texas Tech amount to anything in my little world. Guess we'll go with the Sparties. Since their coach had the cojones to suspend a bunch of players for being moronic thugs, it would be kinda cool if he could win his bowl game. Plus the whole Mike Leach thing was just stupid. Screw Texas Tech. Yeah, see how easy that was? I just turned myself into a Michigan State fan for the night.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
1/1/10
Remember when there were like 20 bowl games on January 1st every year? You could sleep off a hangover and then sit on the couch watching football until midnight, skipping around between three or four games at a time along the way. I liked it better that way. This Rose Bowl has been pretty entertaining so far, I guess. I still say that they should go back to the old bowl system though.
Today's route was even easier than I expected it to be. I knew that the stretch on I-20 was pretty sparsely populated, but I wasn't quite sure about the next part. I angled up from Sweetwater to Wichita falls on TX-70, FM-57, TX-92, and US-277. It seems that I recall some previous trips through Wichita Falls having involved construction and major traffic jams, but there was none of that today. US-277 was a freeway all the way into town and then there was a ramp directly onto I-44. Beauty.
I was glad to see that I have a nice fast internet connection at the first service plaza in Oklahoma, so it looks like this will be home for the night. 412 miles on the odometer for the day, so I'm right on pace for a steady weekend. Not bad at all.
Today's route was even easier than I expected it to be. I knew that the stretch on I-20 was pretty sparsely populated, but I wasn't quite sure about the next part. I angled up from Sweetwater to Wichita falls on TX-70, FM-57, TX-92, and US-277. It seems that I recall some previous trips through Wichita Falls having involved construction and major traffic jams, but there was none of that today. US-277 was a freeway all the way into town and then there was a ramp directly onto I-44. Beauty.
I was glad to see that I have a nice fast internet connection at the first service plaza in Oklahoma, so it looks like this will be home for the night. 412 miles on the odometer for the day, so I'm right on pace for a steady weekend. Not bad at all.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
12/31/09
There is apparently an endless list of things that can piss me off. I heard on the radio a few days ago that tonight would bring the rare 'blue moon' for all of us to see. I had always heard the expression and looked forward to having a chance to check it out. Then, as I was angry to learn, I found that a 'blue moon' isn't blue at all. It's just a second full moon in a month. What a bunch of bullshit. That one pissed me right off.
I had time for a nice long nap in Deming, New Mexico during my overnight trip to El Paso. Then I got back out and scooted over to our drop yard before the morning traffic on I-10 started to pick up. I sent in my 'relay made' form and found myself on the board at #15. Beauty. Should be plenty of time to get some sleep.
I was out like a light as soon as I hit the bunk. Then, around three and a half hours later, my satellite unit chirped at me with a new assignment. When it comes to loads out of El Paso, there is one main criterion for which I look - I want the load to start from our drop yard. Otherwise I have to drive twenty miles back to the west for free, since I'm still considered to be in El Paso. Then I have to wait to get loaded and often drive the other twenty miles back to where I started before I actually begin to earn any money. When the loaded trailer is already at the yard (as this one turned out to be), I get to grab it and go.
Err, I would get to grab it and go, if not for the folks who will soon be running... oh, forget it. You know the rant by now. Our federal government and so forth. No, you see, by the time I got my assignment, 14 hours had passed since I left Avondale last night. Regardless of how I felt or how my day was going, the career bureaucrats dictated that I was staying put in El Paso all day. I walked over and made sure that the assigned trailer was actually present (not always a given) and then confirmed my assignment. After going back to bed for another few hours, I woke feeling very refreshed and ready to take on the world. Or, you know, to sit around in a drop yard with my thumb up my ass. It's pretty much the same thing.
After my ten hour break was complete, I hooked to my loaded trailer and scooted out of town. This trip is a nice solid 1,640 mile deal taking me to Western Michigan for Monday evening. I drove up to the Flying J in Pecos tonight before deciding to shut down and try to get back on a more normal schedule for a while. My Swedish buddy Sjoe is no longer thirsty this evening, shall we say, so a good night of sleep with no alarm clock will probably have us right on track.
This dispatch is obviously my last for the year, so the total miles will finish at 117,891. What is that, a little over 6,000 miles below last year? I think that's the case. Probably to be expected as I look back over some of those pay periods in February and March of this year. Some lean times in the trucking business overall and some wild fluctuations in my little slice of that business. I did spend 70 days at home though so, in a bit of a surprise, I was on the road a little less than I was last year. Still, there's no doubt that business was a bit slower.
On the 'dollars and cents' end, this is the first full year of this job during which my pay rate didn't change. I leveled off at 38 cents per mile in the summer of '08 and won't get my next (half cent) pay raise for a few more months. My safety bonus inched up a little at some point this year but it goes in quarter-cent increments, so the increases are not all that notable. Layover pay and such are irregular but their rates too were unchanged from '08 to '09. I finished the year right at $51,000, slightly more than $3,000 down from 2008's final number.
Overall, given the tales of woe from around the country (and especially from where I live), I have no complaints. I had hoped to keep this year's earnings fairly close to last year's and it looks like we were at least in the ballpark. Obviously I would have preferred another $54K, but $51K will do. Fortunately for me, I'm not living from paycheck to paycheck like some of my counterparts on the road are, so good enough. My impression as the months went by had been that I was home even less this year but, after reviewing things, I see that this was not the case. It does make sense though, in hindsight. I took at least a week off each time I went home (in addition to catching a day or two here and there as the freight took me to Michigan). So, while I may not have taken as many stretches of time off, those stretches lasted a little longer than in previous years. Our friend in Alaska will no doubt be relieved to know that I'm not in the poor house just yet, given his concern for us underpaid "coolie carrier" suckers and such.
The rest of this trip should set up pretty nicely in terms of scheduling. Between six and seven hours of driving per day should find me right where I need to be, assuming that no weather issues interfere. On a somewhat related note, my preferred amount of driving is between six and seven hours per day. Beauty.
You've seen and heard all of the year-in-review crap for a few days now, I'm sure. I still think that the folks at JibJab sum it up more effectively than anybody though. Happy New Year everyone...
I had time for a nice long nap in Deming, New Mexico during my overnight trip to El Paso. Then I got back out and scooted over to our drop yard before the morning traffic on I-10 started to pick up. I sent in my 'relay made' form and found myself on the board at #15. Beauty. Should be plenty of time to get some sleep.
I was out like a light as soon as I hit the bunk. Then, around three and a half hours later, my satellite unit chirped at me with a new assignment. When it comes to loads out of El Paso, there is one main criterion for which I look - I want the load to start from our drop yard. Otherwise I have to drive twenty miles back to the west for free, since I'm still considered to be in El Paso. Then I have to wait to get loaded and often drive the other twenty miles back to where I started before I actually begin to earn any money. When the loaded trailer is already at the yard (as this one turned out to be), I get to grab it and go.
Err, I would get to grab it and go, if not for the folks who will soon be running... oh, forget it. You know the rant by now. Our federal government and so forth. No, you see, by the time I got my assignment, 14 hours had passed since I left Avondale last night. Regardless of how I felt or how my day was going, the career bureaucrats dictated that I was staying put in El Paso all day. I walked over and made sure that the assigned trailer was actually present (not always a given) and then confirmed my assignment. After going back to bed for another few hours, I woke feeling very refreshed and ready to take on the world. Or, you know, to sit around in a drop yard with my thumb up my ass. It's pretty much the same thing.
After my ten hour break was complete, I hooked to my loaded trailer and scooted out of town. This trip is a nice solid 1,640 mile deal taking me to Western Michigan for Monday evening. I drove up to the Flying J in Pecos tonight before deciding to shut down and try to get back on a more normal schedule for a while. My Swedish buddy Sjoe is no longer thirsty this evening, shall we say, so a good night of sleep with no alarm clock will probably have us right on track.
This dispatch is obviously my last for the year, so the total miles will finish at 117,891. What is that, a little over 6,000 miles below last year? I think that's the case. Probably to be expected as I look back over some of those pay periods in February and March of this year. Some lean times in the trucking business overall and some wild fluctuations in my little slice of that business. I did spend 70 days at home though so, in a bit of a surprise, I was on the road a little less than I was last year. Still, there's no doubt that business was a bit slower.
On the 'dollars and cents' end, this is the first full year of this job during which my pay rate didn't change. I leveled off at 38 cents per mile in the summer of '08 and won't get my next (half cent) pay raise for a few more months. My safety bonus inched up a little at some point this year but it goes in quarter-cent increments, so the increases are not all that notable. Layover pay and such are irregular but their rates too were unchanged from '08 to '09. I finished the year right at $51,000, slightly more than $3,000 down from 2008's final number.
Overall, given the tales of woe from around the country (and especially from where I live), I have no complaints. I had hoped to keep this year's earnings fairly close to last year's and it looks like we were at least in the ballpark. Obviously I would have preferred another $54K, but $51K will do. Fortunately for me, I'm not living from paycheck to paycheck like some of my counterparts on the road are, so good enough. My impression as the months went by had been that I was home even less this year but, after reviewing things, I see that this was not the case. It does make sense though, in hindsight. I took at least a week off each time I went home (in addition to catching a day or two here and there as the freight took me to Michigan). So, while I may not have taken as many stretches of time off, those stretches lasted a little longer than in previous years. Our friend in Alaska will no doubt be relieved to know that I'm not in the poor house just yet, given his concern for us underpaid "coolie carrier" suckers and such.
The rest of this trip should set up pretty nicely in terms of scheduling. Between six and seven hours of driving per day should find me right where I need to be, assuming that no weather issues interfere. On a somewhat related note, my preferred amount of driving is between six and seven hours per day. Beauty.
You've seen and heard all of the year-in-review crap for a few days now, I'm sure. I still think that the folks at JibJab sum it up more effectively than anybody though. Happy New Year everyone...
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
12/30/09
Erratic sleep patterns can occasionally come in handy. Given my tendency to toss and turn until 4am or 5am and then fall asleep for a few hours, I often find myself battling an early wake-up call until I get settled into my day. This time around, the timeline appears to have fit perfectly. I took off from Carson last night and cruised for a couple hundred miles. Then, right around 5am (Eastern time) it felt like I needed to go to bed for a while. I ducked into a rest area and slept for a few hours, then headed back out to the freeway. My natural sleep pattern turned out to be a perfect fit.
The nature of this trip across I-10 allowed for me to take a ten hour break in Avondale, Arizona this afternoon, where I was able to visit with some friends. Some folks from back home are down here visiting their retired parents, so that was a pretty cool coincidence. Then I was able to catch up with a local guy who had extended an invite quite some time ago, but the timing and routing had failed to materialize since then. Good deal all around, even if he did have to mock my Redskins for a minute.
Now, after my ten hour break is up, I can hit the road to El Paso and get there in the wee hours of the morning, right when I'll be ready for another round of sleep. Driving through the night should provide plenty of easy time with the cruise control engaged and light traffic around me. I'm taking this load to our drop yard so I won't have any customers with which to contend. I'll be able to drop my trailer and go right to bed. Beauty. I would say that I love it when a plan comes together, but this one really wasn't planned. Just sort of fell together when the shipper took so long yesterday.
And have no fear. There will be no distractions for me in my preparation for the trip. None of those pudgy engineering students here in Arizona. We're gonna miss you, Mike.
The nature of this trip across I-10 allowed for me to take a ten hour break in Avondale, Arizona this afternoon, where I was able to visit with some friends. Some folks from back home are down here visiting their retired parents, so that was a pretty cool coincidence. Then I was able to catch up with a local guy who had extended an invite quite some time ago, but the timing and routing had failed to materialize since then. Good deal all around, even if he did have to mock my Redskins for a minute.
Now, after my ten hour break is up, I can hit the road to El Paso and get there in the wee hours of the morning, right when I'll be ready for another round of sleep. Driving through the night should provide plenty of easy time with the cruise control engaged and light traffic around me. I'm taking this load to our drop yard so I won't have any customers with which to contend. I'll be able to drop my trailer and go right to bed. Beauty. I would say that I love it when a plan comes together, but this one really wasn't planned. Just sort of fell together when the shipper took so long yesterday.
And have no fear. There will be no distractions for me in my preparation for the trip. None of those pudgy engineering students here in Arizona. We're gonna miss you, Mike.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
12/29/09
Dude, where did all the people go? I haven't been to the Los Angeles area very often but, during the few previous trips out here that I have made, I've always encountered at least some traffic. Not today. Ontario to Brea at 6am - nothing. Brea to Fontana at 7:30am - nothing. Fontana to Santa Ana at 8:30am - nothing. Santa Ana to Carson at 11:15am - nothing. From Carson back out to I-10... well, there's more to that story, but I'm pretty sure traffic won't be an issue. So exactly where did everybody go?
The day's first delivery, in Brea, was quick and easy. Once the guys showed up at 7am they did the old 'tag team' forklift routine and sent me on my way. Then my drop/hook in Fontana was at the Con-way yard and it too was quick and easy.
The Santa Ana delivery turned out to be an interesting one...
For starters, I drove past the office park where the consignee was located and missed my turn. As I looked over the addresses on the buildings and saw that I was right where I needed to be, I thought to myself, "There's no way that can be the place." It was the place. I doubled back and then said a quick prayer as I turned the tight corner between a building and some parked cars. I couldn't tell from the street whether or not there would be any way out if it turned out to be the wrong driveway. It was the right driveway though. Things opened up a little bit as I got further from the main road, but not a whole lot. Not surprisingly, there were no loading docks. So the unloading process took a little while, as you might imagine. My customer was in that building at the top of the picture, just right of center. I wound up having to turn the corner between those rows of parked cars (to the left of the building) and set up in the alley on the north side of the building. Fire lane, eh? Hah! We laugh at fire lanes here at Fenian Godfather, Inc... or something. Making my way out through the driveway on the east side was no picnic either, for what it's worth.
Then it was over to Carson for some good old ghetto trucking. Carson is right by Compton, after all. Yeah, I still have a few NWA CD's hanging around in my collection. I know the deal. The drive over, as I already mentioned, was nice and easy. Then I got there and, dude, what the hell? Just a typical suburban industrial park. Nary a gangsta to be found. No freaking L.A. traffic. No freaking rough neighborhoods. I really got cheated on this trip.
I had to park on the street and then check in with the security gal at the shipper. She took my phone number and said that she would call me when my loaded trailer was ready. I'll acknowledge that there's absolutely zero chance that she was hitting on me, but come on. You know what I'm telling myself whenever a chick asks for my phone number. Yeah, she wants me, dude.
And... this is where my day came to a grinding halt. I checked in with the shipper at noon. My appointment time was 1pm. I got my phone call at 6pm. And the security chick was gone for the night so, to add insult to injury, it was a guy who called. I didn't even get to hang on to my delusion for a single night. But hey, my trailer is ready.
The timing has left me in a less than desirable situation. I wouldn't have enough time on today's 14 hour clock to get anywhere useful, so I'm stuck hanging out at the shipper until I've been here for ten hours. I guess I could stay here until tomorrow morning if I wanted to but I really don't want to. I'll head out once my break is up and then take some down time tomorrow. I'm due in El Paso by Thursday morning so there will be plenty of time to catch up on my rest if I end up getting tired along the way. (In case you haven't put two and two together yet, I was only kidding about feeling cheated by the light traffic. I'm expecting that I can keep a good thing going by cruising out of this area in the middle of the night.)
Now let's see if I can catch a little nap before it's time to roll. I doubt it but it's worth a shot.
The day's first delivery, in Brea, was quick and easy. Once the guys showed up at 7am they did the old 'tag team' forklift routine and sent me on my way. Then my drop/hook in Fontana was at the Con-way yard and it too was quick and easy.
The Santa Ana delivery turned out to be an interesting one...
For starters, I drove past the office park where the consignee was located and missed my turn. As I looked over the addresses on the buildings and saw that I was right where I needed to be, I thought to myself, "There's no way that can be the place." It was the place. I doubled back and then said a quick prayer as I turned the tight corner between a building and some parked cars. I couldn't tell from the street whether or not there would be any way out if it turned out to be the wrong driveway. It was the right driveway though. Things opened up a little bit as I got further from the main road, but not a whole lot. Not surprisingly, there were no loading docks. So the unloading process took a little while, as you might imagine. My customer was in that building at the top of the picture, just right of center. I wound up having to turn the corner between those rows of parked cars (to the left of the building) and set up in the alley on the north side of the building. Fire lane, eh? Hah! We laugh at fire lanes here at Fenian Godfather, Inc... or something. Making my way out through the driveway on the east side was no picnic either, for what it's worth.
Then it was over to Carson for some good old ghetto trucking. Carson is right by Compton, after all. Yeah, I still have a few NWA CD's hanging around in my collection. I know the deal. The drive over, as I already mentioned, was nice and easy. Then I got there and, dude, what the hell? Just a typical suburban industrial park. Nary a gangsta to be found. No freaking L.A. traffic. No freaking rough neighborhoods. I really got cheated on this trip.
I had to park on the street and then check in with the security gal at the shipper. She took my phone number and said that she would call me when my loaded trailer was ready. I'll acknowledge that there's absolutely zero chance that she was hitting on me, but come on. You know what I'm telling myself whenever a chick asks for my phone number. Yeah, she wants me, dude.
And... this is where my day came to a grinding halt. I checked in with the shipper at noon. My appointment time was 1pm. I got my phone call at 6pm. And the security chick was gone for the night so, to add insult to injury, it was a guy who called. I didn't even get to hang on to my delusion for a single night. But hey, my trailer is ready.
The timing has left me in a less than desirable situation. I wouldn't have enough time on today's 14 hour clock to get anywhere useful, so I'm stuck hanging out at the shipper until I've been here for ten hours. I guess I could stay here until tomorrow morning if I wanted to but I really don't want to. I'll head out once my break is up and then take some down time tomorrow. I'm due in El Paso by Thursday morning so there will be plenty of time to catch up on my rest if I end up getting tired along the way. (In case you haven't put two and two together yet, I was only kidding about feeling cheated by the light traffic. I'm expecting that I can keep a good thing going by cruising out of this area in the middle of the night.)
Now let's see if I can catch a little nap before it's time to roll. I doubt it but it's worth a shot.
Monday, December 28, 2009
12/28/09
Well, there were no Qualcomm messages to wake me this morning. One came through after I started driving, saying that three of our trucks crashed over the weekend, but I don't know when it was sent. If it was sent earlier, then my Qualcomm's power saving feature was a good thing. No, today it was a text message that woke me...
Apparently she had the camera sideways in order to capture the full splendor. That's the GM factory in Lordstown, Ohio. An old girlfriend of mine used to always complain that it was such an ugly color whenever we traveled down the turnpike. So now, whenever I drive past, I snap a picture and send it to her. Probably not quite as funny as it seems to me, but I guess it's one of those 'you had to be there' things. Turns out that she was crossing Ohio toward Michigan as I slept this morning.
I was able to nod off for another couple of hours before I got up and hit the road. The drive across I-40 and then down I-15 was uneventful. Just set the cruise at 55mph and roll along. I do wonder if you could coast all the way from Cajon Summit down to San Bernardino if you were the only one on the road. I think so.
The T/A in Ontario is split into two gigantic truck stops. I decided to hang a left and go to the one on the eastern side of the street so that I could make right turns in the morning, perhaps cutting out a few minutes of waiting. Then I was dismayed to see that only the one on the western side has a SubWay. I wasn't dismayed enough to leave here and go to the other one though. Burger King ain't so bad once in a while.
After heading down to Brea and making my delivery in the morning, I'll have a pretty fun day of bouncing around Southern California. My next planned load information came through this afternoon. I'm picking up in Fontana and making a short hop to deliver in Santa Ana. I have no idea what that's all about, but I suspect that someone left a loaded trailer at the Con-way yard before going home for Christmas or something. We'll find out soon enough. Then I have to shoot over to Carson and pick up a load going to El Paso, Texas. So at least I'll get a few miles and I'll be off the West Coast shortly after arriving. Can't complain about that. I've been stuck going up and down I-5 a few times and I don't like it.
Long afternoon to kill now. Guess I might as well fire up a few movies.
Apparently she had the camera sideways in order to capture the full splendor. That's the GM factory in Lordstown, Ohio. An old girlfriend of mine used to always complain that it was such an ugly color whenever we traveled down the turnpike. So now, whenever I drive past, I snap a picture and send it to her. Probably not quite as funny as it seems to me, but I guess it's one of those 'you had to be there' things. Turns out that she was crossing Ohio toward Michigan as I slept this morning.
I was able to nod off for another couple of hours before I got up and hit the road. The drive across I-40 and then down I-15 was uneventful. Just set the cruise at 55mph and roll along. I do wonder if you could coast all the way from Cajon Summit down to San Bernardino if you were the only one on the road. I think so.
The T/A in Ontario is split into two gigantic truck stops. I decided to hang a left and go to the one on the eastern side of the street so that I could make right turns in the morning, perhaps cutting out a few minutes of waiting. Then I was dismayed to see that only the one on the western side has a SubWay. I wasn't dismayed enough to leave here and go to the other one though. Burger King ain't so bad once in a while.
After heading down to Brea and making my delivery in the morning, I'll have a pretty fun day of bouncing around Southern California. My next planned load information came through this afternoon. I'm picking up in Fontana and making a short hop to deliver in Santa Ana. I have no idea what that's all about, but I suspect that someone left a loaded trailer at the Con-way yard before going home for Christmas or something. We'll find out soon enough. Then I have to shoot over to Carson and pick up a load going to El Paso, Texas. So at least I'll get a few miles and I'll be off the West Coast shortly after arriving. Can't complain about that. I've been stuck going up and down I-5 a few times and I don't like it.
Long afternoon to kill now. Guess I might as well fire up a few movies.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
12/27/09
Well I did my part, by golly. I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. No sign of that girl in the flatbed Ford though, so I just ate my lunch and got back on the highway.
Another easy day of driving was certainly welcome. The temperature actually started to rise as I made the climb toward Flagstaff, reaching 40° at the top. Then it continued to rise as I came down the other side. By the time I got to Lake Havasu City anddid my part to dodge California's onerous fuel prices topped off my fuel tanks, I had done plenty of driving for today. I decided to press on into California though, since a night of sleep without any idling trucks around me sounded pretty okay.
I got to the rest area outside Essex and found plenty of parking spaces open. Also, in a bit of a surprise, my Sprint card has broadband speed out here in the sticks. Guess I'll get to watch my Redskins lose after all.
Tomorrow's drive will most likely take me from here to the T/A in Ontario unless I come up with a bright idea regarding parking. My consignee in Brea doesn't allow overnight parking, so Ontario will probably have to suffice. Good enough. The 7am delivery on Tuesday is actually 10am for those of use from the civilized world (aka Eastern time). I'm sure I can manage the last 20 miles before then without too much difficulty.
Another easy day of driving was certainly welcome. The temperature actually started to rise as I made the climb toward Flagstaff, reaching 40° at the top. Then it continued to rise as I came down the other side. By the time I got to Lake Havasu City and
I got to the rest area outside Essex and found plenty of parking spaces open. Also, in a bit of a surprise, my Sprint card has broadband speed out here in the sticks. Guess I'll get to watch my Redskins lose after all.
Tomorrow's drive will most likely take me from here to the T/A in Ontario unless I come up with a bright idea regarding parking. My consignee in Brea doesn't allow overnight parking, so Ontario will probably have to suffice. Good enough. The 7am delivery on Tuesday is actually 10am for those of use from the civilized world (aka Eastern time). I'm sure I can manage the last 20 miles before then without too much difficulty.
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