4/3/10

I probably say this on every holiday weekend, but it really does bear repeating.  If I could do all of my driving on holiday weekends, then my job would be pretty groovy.  Even with the built-in tedium of dragging a 44,000 pound payload up and down the hills all day, things seemed to go pretty smoothly.  The largest factor would have to be the lack of cars passing me on the way up the hills and cutting me off on the way down.  The handful of cars and trucks that did pass me were usually long gone by the time I got back through my gears and up to cruising speed.

Last night's pickup was pretty uneventful.  I got over to the shipper around midnight and they had me loaded and rolling by the time my 1am appointment rolled around.  The place was a paper mill at the end of a desolate road right along the Delaware River.  Sitting at the outdoor picnic table next to the shipping docks, I actually found it to be rather scenic, at least as far as factory locations go.  I remember thinking as I drove in that it seemed like I was going back in time.  During a conversation with the forklift driver, I learned that the place runs 24/7 because it's so old that they hate to shut it down.  It takes several days to get the machinery up and running again.  Funny.

The road leading into the place comes from the top of this picture.  In order to access the docks near the bottom (in the interior courtyard), one would have to spin around in the lot at the entrance and then back all the way in between the buildings and around the corner.  There's a sign at the entrance advising drivers of this inconvenient fact so that they don't drive in forward and find themselves in a jam.  In breaking with what seems to be my traditional luck, I didn't have to use those docks.  The shipping docks are the ones at the top of the photo.  Nice and easy.

I hadn't slept in nearly 24 hours but I wasn't terribly tired yet, so I decided to head out and see how it went.  My delivery appointment came through as 8am on Monday, meaning that I had all the flexibility that I could want for this weekend.  After an hour and a half I saw a rest area with lots of open parking.  I was getting into that 'kinda tired but kinda not' condition at the time, so I decided that I might as well pull in and call it a night.  Mountains and heavy trailers and so forth.  Better to err on the safe side.  Four hours later I actually managed to fall asleep.  Story of life.

With no alarm clock set for this morning, I slept pretty soundly until the greenhouse effect dragged me out of bed.  At that point I felt nice and refreshed, but I still had two hours until my break was complete.  In hindsight, since I didn't drive all that far this afternoon, I could have used a split and taken off earlier.  It didn't occur to me at the time though.  In any event, the afternoon drive went nicely and smoothly, as noted above.

The Pilot in Austintown, Ohio is home for the night, leaving something under 300 miles to cover by Monday morning.  My directions to the consignee don't mention anything about overnight parking but there aren't any truck stops that are really close to the location, so I may just drive there tomorrow night and see what happens.  Otherwise I'll have to get cracking early on Monday to reach Cincinnati by my 8am appointment time.  One thing's for sure in either case - no alarm clock tomorrow.  That ain't half bad.

The week wraps up with a nice and steady 2,723 miles plus some northeast pay, leaving my earnings at almost two and half times what I made last week.  Peaks and valleys...

4/2/10

Inspiration comes from the damnedest places sometimes.  Like, in my case, from a rest area along I-80 in eastern Pennsylvania.  After rolling over to Hazleton and making my drop/hook this morning, I received a new assignment immediately.  My next pickup is scheduled for 1am in Delaware Water Gap, right on the edge of the state.  So I drove eastward for a little while and then set up shop to see if I might catch a few winks today.

No luck on the sleep, but I did have time to do some reading, browse the interwebs, and watch a movie.  Zack and Miri Make a Porno - decent.  Not great, but decent.  Now you might think that the aforementioned inspiration came from that movie.  After all, what fat shmuck who lives a nondescript life in the suburbs wouldn't want to have a run at that Elizabeth Banks?  I mean, come on.  But no, that wasn't the inspirational event.

I was perusing the day's headlines when I stumbled across what just might be my ticket to a life of crime.  If they can't jail this dude, then I've got some catching up to do.  I'm not breathing with the aid of a respirator just yet.  Hopefully I can think of a more creative crime spree than scamming restaurants (although I do like me some jerky), but I suppose we'll have to see if that bit of inspiration strikes on my way across to Cincinnati. 

My delivery schedule is one of those 00:00 deals, so I don't know if I'll have to drive all night or if I'll have an easy weekend.  In any case, this week's miles will be a pretty decent rebound from last week's debacle.  I think I'll head over to the shipper a little early and see what's what.

4/1/10

There comes a point during every stint on the road when I've been away from home long enough.  I don't think there's a definite time that signifies 'long enough' though.  It's more of a feel thing.  Unfortunately for me, I'm pretty sure we reached 'enough' status today.  I have plans for the weekend of the 24th and I don't intend to spend the next three weeks at home, so this is probably gonna be a long month on the road.

When my alarm is set for 5:45am, we're already off to a bad start.  When a forklift driver bangs on my door and wakes me at 4:30am, it's time to hunker down for one of those days.  Adding to my bleary-eyed delight, someone had arrived and backed into the dock next to me at 2am, waking me in the process.  That part wasn't a huge deal since pretty much anything can wake me these days.  The issue was that his presence made the job of pulling forward to open my trailer and then backing into the dock on my blindside even more difficult than it already was going to be.  In order to get my trailer doors clear of his truck, I had to vacate the dock area completely.  Then I had to back around his truck, avoiding the steel racks in front of the dock, and get myself squared away without hitting the brick wall on my left.  That was a treat.

Once the forklift driver was down to his last few pallets, I sent in my empty call in hopes of catching a new assignment before I would have to leave and find somewhere to park.  The new assignment hadn't come by the time I was empty and there were three more trucks lined up, so I had to head out.  I decided to take I-90 eastbound toward the service plaza in Des Plaines.  My hope was that at least one person would have spent the night at the service plaza and then gone to work in the morning by the time I got over there.  I found an empty space so I guess that part worked out pretty well.

Ten minutes later, I got a new assignment... back to the southwest... to pick up a load that had been sitting in New Lenox since yesterday at 5pm.  Like I said, one of those days.  I caught I-294 to the south and then shot over on I-88 to I-355, adding around fifteen unnecessary miles on account of not having gotten the assignment any earlier.  My drop/hook in New Lenox was quick and easy, then I got a ball-busting dispatch that requires me to deliver in Hazleton, Pennsylvania tomorrow morning.  Just enough time to drive all day, take a ten hour break, and then finish off the trip.

As I rolled out of Illinois I finally received an answer to my request for layover pay from last weekend.  The following exhange of messages left me absolutely speechless.  (Proprietary load number and fleet manager's name redacted.)

My math?  Layover math?  Is there some other type of clock of which I'm not aware?  On what planet is 10pm on Sunday less than 48 hours from 9:18pm on Friday?  I even made sure to sit parked at that fucking truck stop for 48 hours, just to make it clear.  You can't make this shit up.  Not an April Fool's joke or anything.  I might as well be discussing Guam with that congressman from Atlanta.  So that didn't do a whole lot to improve my mood, obviously.

The trip across I-80 was a pretty standard trip across I-80.  Some construction zones without any actual construction happening here and there.  Some people who don't know how to merge causing traffic jams here and there.  Some Schneider drivers (lots of ugly orange tankers today) and JB Hunt drivers running alongside each other at 63mph and causing more traffic here and there.  Like I said, pretty standard.  For what it's worth, I finally have a light load so I was able to cruise through the hills and pass most of the slower traffic whenever the left lane was actually open.

I decided to hop off the road and call it a night once I got to Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania.  My eleven hours probably would have lasted all the way to Lamar, but with the slowdowns from the construction zones I wasn't quite sure.  Better safe than sorry.  I'll just have to get up early again and finish off the run from here.

I caught some of Archbishop Dolan's homily from St. Patrick's in New York tonight.  Humility and service, forgiveness, selflessness...  That'll serve as a bit of an eye opener as I'm driving down the road, during the Mass of the Lord's Supper, cursing everybody in sight because I think they've somehow managed to inconvenience me.  One more reminder that I'm pretty much a shithead, I suppose.  I should work on that.  It's not everyone's fault that they're stupid... or something.  I'm sure they mean well.

3/31/10

Since my air conditioner doesn't work and I have been heading northward over the last couple of days, I expected a little relief. Good time for a little Al Gore style global warming, eh?  I don't know exactly how accurate my truck's temperature readout is but it said 82° when I reached the Chicago area this afternoon.  That ain't right.

Other than the heat, which wasn't all that terrible with the windows down and the vent fan on, I don't recall too many major issues today.  US-67 in Missouri is apparently going to be a big-boy highway pretty soon, so there were a lot of construction zones down there.  Moving freely though.  Then a couple of spots on I-55 were down to one lane.  Not moving freely.  All in all though, pretty standard seven and a half hours on the road.

This consignee's parking lot is a doozy.  After arriving, I asked a guy inside the building whether or not I should back into a dock tonight.  I could see nowhere else to park.  He said yes, I should back into the dock, but that I would need to have the receiving people break the seal on my trailer tomorrow morning.  Fair enough. 

The loading docks are on the left as you enter the receiving area, but they're at the end of the road.  In other words, there's no way to drive past the docks and set up to back in from the standard angle.  In a fun little coincidence, there's also not any room to swing out in front of the docks and back straight in.  So we get to pull the good old spin-around-and-blindside maneuever that they conveniently forgot to mention in truck driving school.  It took some work but I got back to the dock without hitting anything.  After getting settled in, I realized that I won't be able to pull straight forward far enough to open my doors in the morning.  (Fairly logical, since I wasn't able to back straight in, but it hadn't occurred to me.)  This means that I'll have to pull out around the corner to my right, open the doors, and then hopefully retrace my path back to the dock without getting askew.  The smart money is against this happening on the first try but we'll see.

I've got plenty of hours to burn once I'm empty in the morning, but still no pre-plan as of now.  Also still no word on last weekend's layover pay, so I wouldn't mind hearing the damned satellite unit chirp at me a couple of times before my trailer is unloaded.  One to give me my money and one to give me somewhere to go, in essence.  I have no idea where I can go from here to find parking and the idea of wandering the Chicago suburbs during the morning rush is fairly unappealing.

The worst part about a broken air conditioner isn't driving on a hot day, although this does suck.  The driving part of the day is helped by the moving air.  The worst part is trying to sit in the truck after the drive is over.  Even though the outside temperature has dropped quickly since the sun went down, the truck's engine will be radiating heat for a few more hours.  There's a breeze coming through with my windows down.  That breeze is carrying various insects.  This, my friends, is the worst part about a broken air conditioner.  I'm not ready to capitulate yet though.  Still hoping to stick it out for another couple of weeks and then put the truck in the shop while I'm... ahem... sitting on my couch and drinking beer.

Update - 12:23am - I can't sit on this one until tomorrow.  In our ongoing series of videos showing the intelligence of our elected leaders... oh hell, I don't even know what to say here.  Just watch the admiral's reaction.  (You'll know when.)

3/30/10

A while ago, I was sitting on my couch and drinking a beer.  (I know that's hard to believe, but you'll just have to take my word for it.)  As the night wore on and I became somewhat intoxicated, I started watching some YouTube videos that had been e-mailed to me.  One of them showed a guy who had installed a train horn in his car.  He drove around and blasted the horn whenever he saw a chance to startle someone, filming their reactions as he went along.  I found it hilarious.  This morning, I had a change of heart.  I'm not sure how close the train tracks come to that truck stop in Shepherd, Texas, but it sounded like the damned train was rolling right through my bunk.  This was not funny.

After the train horn receded into the distance I thought that I might be able to get back to sleep for a little while.  Then some fartknocker pulled in and decided that, among the 200 empty parking spaces in the truck stop, only the one right next to me would be a good place to work on his truck.  Slamming doors, a revving engine, fine... I'm awake.  So I started driving earlier than I usually care to do so.

The trip up through Texas and Arkansas was fairly uneventful.  During the afternoon I checked my truck stop directory and decided that Poplar Bluff, Missouri would be a pretty good place to spend the night.  Only as I was rolling up US-67 in northern Arkansas did I realize that Missouri was so far from where I started.  I stuck with the plan though and knocked out almost 600 miles by the time I reached Poplar Bluff.  Not bad.  Somewhere around 440 miles to go from here.  My directions say that I can park overnight at my consignee in Schaumburg, Illinois so, as long as no trains come rolling through, I expect to sleep nice and late tomorrow morning.  That's pretty groovy.

On second thought, I don't know.  That train horn thing does seem like it might be fun...

3/29/10

I really intended to do a lot of driving today.  Really.  After getting unloaded in Liberty this morning, I took a nice nap and hung around to complete a ten hour break, then made the short drive over to Houston.  I was sent to a dock immediately and things were looking good.  The loading process took three hours, meaning that I would catch some of the afternoon rush leaving Houston, but I remained optimistic.

We'll make today's story a pictorial.  First - 4pm - Things come to a stop.

Second - 5:30pm - We've moved almost a mile and the shadows are getting a little longer.  Some people have been lucky enough to move along the access road, but now it's backed up as badly as the freeway.

Third - 6:15pm - Another mile behind us as the fourth heavy haul wrecker makes its way up the shoulder, 90 minutes after the first three had gone by.

Fourth - 7pm - The cops are forcing everyone off the freeway and onto the access road. I've never had any law enforcement training, but something tells me that these Billy Bobs should be controlling the flow of traffic on the access road in order to allow people to proceed off the freeway. I'm just a truck driver though. I'm sure that the general free-for-all clusterfuck was a more desirable approach.

Fifth, 7:15pm, we've covered the last half mile to the freeway exit and made our way onto the access road. Quite a bit of the carnage has been removed, but the CB chatter suggests that the driver of the white work truck toward the right of this picture was killed. CB chatter should never be taken at face value, but the freeway closed for at least three hours (I'm not sure when the accident happened nor when the road was reopened). Something bad must have happened.

And finally, 7:30pm, this one speaks for itself.

I couldn't manage to talk myself into driving past the truck stop in Shepherd after that debacle.  I was getting hungry, I had to piss, and my frustration meter was pegged in the red zone.  My delivery appointment is Thursday morning at 6am, so I'll have a manageable enough schedule over the next couple of days.  Probably a little over 1,000 miles from here if I angle up US-67 from Little Rock to Saint Louis.  Good enough.

3/28/10

I don't know why that statue of Sam Houston bugs me so much.  It does though.  There's a gigantic city named after the guy.  That's where the statue should be.

One of the many CTL drivers who spent the weekend at the truck stop in Robinson knocked on my door this afternoon and told me that the weekend loads had all been sitting on the yard since Friday, in case I felt like getting an early start today.  I decided to stay put until tonight though.  One reason was that I would be going through a few towns, along a route that I had never traveled, and I thought that the overnight traffic would be easier to manage.  Another reason was that I'll be owed some layover pay from this weekend and I find that it's best to keep things simple for the operations people.  Sometimes, if the down time gets interrupted but is still adequate to qualify for layover, they get a little confused. By seeing to it that my truck didn't move for 48 hours, hopefully I will have streamlined the process of getting paid.

After topping off the tanks and grabbing my loaded trailer from the distribution center, it was time for some more country driving.  My route included a brief stretch on I-45.  Otherwise it was mostly two-lane highways.  In a few spots I was glad that I chose to drive through the night.  Situations where I wasn't clear on which lane to take and things like that.  It's always a little easier to manage that stuff when there's nobody else on the road.

As I took off from Waco, I received the information for my next planned load.  I'm glad they had something lined up because otherwise I was going to request a day at home once I got to Liberty.  I wasn't about to entertain the chance of another run back to Waco.  As it turns out though, I'll be picking up in Houston tomorrow afternoon and then heading to the Chicago area.  I'm pretty sure that Chicago will be far enough away for me to escape Waco's sphere of influence, at least for a few days.  I won't be shocked to find the next run from the Midwest taking me back to Laredo or something.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though.  For now, this week is shaping up far better than last week. 

Time to get a few hours of sleep.  Nighty night.