My relay truck came rolling own the aisle at about 4:15. He asked if I wanted him to put the empty in a slot next to me or just drop it on the aisle. I told him I was going to bed after we made the switch, so he put it in the slot. The guy made a wacky maneuver and backed the thing around 135 degrees against the grain. Picure it this way. I'm pointed 45 degrees to the right of perpendicular. He was coming from my right. Instead of turning around and doing a 45 degree back into the hole, he just backed it all the way around, against the grain, and jackknifed it in there. He's either really good or really crazy. I suspect both. Anyhow, he got rolling and I went to bed.
I have learned to take things that other drivers say with a block, not just a grain, of salt. That being said, try this one on for size. He said he has been highlighted for West Memphis for eight days, and has been sitting here for two days (remember "that driver is 21 miles out?" Hmm...). According to my understanding of the hometime policy, he should have been deadheaded to West Memphis, with pay, two days ago. Either he was embellishing his story or somebody at CFI screwed him over. There is no way he should be sitting here for two days waiting for a load to West Memphis. As it stands, he was taking the load from here to West Memphis for his home time and someone else has to pull it to Texas from there.
I got an assignment this morning, taking a relay from here to the Pilot in East St. Louis, then passing it off to another driver. With all of the team drivers getting lower miles, I wonder what is the story with us solos taking so many relays. I'm not complaining about my end of the deal. Miles are miles as far as I'm concerned. I just wonder why a team wasn't put on the run to take it straight through. The load I'll be getting is another UPS run, sent from QVC. Same deal as the one I brought here. I usually do okay getting freight out of the St. Louis area, so I hope to keep my good month going. The only downside is that I've fallen back into this overnight trap again. By the time I drop at 7am tomorrow, my hours for the shift will be running low. If I don't get something within 100 miles or so from there pretty quickly, I'll have to take a ten hour break. Then it will be evening and most of the 'normal' freight will already be assigned and I'll be looking at either sitting until Wednesday or getting another overnight run. There's a brewery in East St. Louis that sends overnight stuff to Kansas. It won't surprise me if I get one of those runs.
It seems that, for the last month or so, 90% of my runs were ordered by Wal Mart, UPS, or ConWay. I guess, in a time when the pundits say freight is slow, it's a good thing we have some really steady customers. Miles=money, so I will hopefully just keep on rolling.
The day of sitting in Virginia has turned out to be a good thing vis a vis my logbook. I was getting up against my 70, so by essentially taking Saturday off I got enough hours back to keep me moving. I only pick up five hours tomorrow, then five the next day, so by the time I run the 500 miles to ESL I'll be back in the low hours end of the pool.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
10/7/07
I learned a valuable lesson today. But first, the background for the lesson...
- The truck stop where I spent the night had a belt for me. It's a little on the hillbilly side for my taste, but it holds my pants up.
- The weather was beautiful all day.
- I got to the shipper seven hours early and my load was ready
- The drop lot had plenty of room to set up and drop my empty without much effort.
- Despite sending my loaded call early, I was still dispatched for the original relay time, allowing for a nap and a nice relaxing ride down to Knoxville
- The load was only 12,000 pounds, making me King of the mountains.
- My 'Skins put a beating on the Lions.
- There was no line at the fuel desk of the Pilot in Waynesville, and the restroom didn't smell like rotten ass. Nice change of pace there.
- The Billy Big Rig that sped past me in the 'no trucks' lane heading out of North Carolina got pulled over. I smiled and waved as I drove by, but it was dark so he probably didn't see me.
- I was going a bit faster than I should have been as I approached the construction in Knoxville. The cop sitting with his lights off gave me the "slow down jackass" flash of his lights, but didn't pull me over. Thanks man.
- The whore who just approached my truck skipped the "need any company" line and showed me her tits instead. It wasn't a pretty sight, but I always appreciate a good laugh.
- The weather is cool enough and no trucks are idling near me, so I'll hopefully get a quiet night of rest.
The lesson in all of this? The world is a better place after a Notre Dame victory. I owe a big thanks to the guys who showed me how to work around the ESPN360 restrictions and get the game on my laptop. It was well worth the effort.
That's not to say it was a perfect day, by any means. The cord to my cooler quit working and they didn't have a replacement at the Pilot, so I need to work on that one. I'm also having trouble deciding who is more of a genius - my company for setting up a relay at a crowded truck stop with 90% Idleaire parking or the outbound driver who is parked nose-in. Pretty tough to drop a trailer from that spot. There are plenty of spaces down here by me where he could have backed in.
I sent a message as soon as I got rolling, asking the folks in Joplin to let the other driver know I would be a few hours early. I didn't want to wake him up at 1am if he was planning to get up at 4am, but I wanted him to know I would be here. That way, if he preferred to get rolling early, he could be ready. I received a reply a little while later - "That driver is 21 miles out right now." Huh? What in the hell does that have to do with anything? Whatever dude, I tried. After I got here and found the (nose-in) truck to whom I'll be giving this load, I sent another message. I told them to wait until 4am, as the other driver is sleeping and parked nose-in, then send a message telling him I'm backed in near the truck wash. Anybody want to give me odds on whether or not that message gets sent? I won't hold my breath.
One week into the month, let's see how the paycheck is looking: 2,951 miles, $50-60 in northeast pay, and $25 in Canada pay so far. Tough to complain about that I suppose. I have a couple of hours until this guy is supposed to take this relay, so I guess I'll start a movie and relax a bit. Cheers.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
10/6/07
When the alarm went off at 2am, I reached over and hit the snooze button. Or so I thought. Apparently I shut the alarm off. I woke up at 3:15 and had to piss, thinking it was three or four minutes later. Yeah, not exactly. Anyhow, I gave the truck and trailer the once-over and got on the road. I had about 45 minutes to spare when I got to the customer, so I guess that extra hour of sleep did me some good. I know I didn't fall asleep in the first place until some time after midnight.
The ride was much easier than expected this morning. As I came up to the Beltway, I needed to go from I-66 (due west) to US-50 (due east). It was basically the same distance if I chose to go across the top or across the bottom of the loop. Truckmiles.com said to take the top, but the bottom looked like a straighter route to me. So... I took the bottom. I don't think I've ever gone all the way around there before. Usually it's a matter of going from a north/south freeway to an east/west one. I did run from south to north on I-95 one time, but that just runs up the east side on I-495. Anyhow, the lower half of the loop is much better than the upper half, as far as I'm concerned. Less merging and exiting, fewer tight curves, fewer cities and towns, not too bad at all.
Once I got across Chesapeake Bay, the fog turned into that pea soup stuff you always hear about. There were actually people driving in that shit with their high beams on. The year 2007 and we still haven't learned about light and reflection? Idiots. Anyhow, the ride along US-301 to Maryland 300 and straight across was uncongested and smooth.
I got to the assigned section of the drop lot at the DC and set up to back my trailer in. Normally people favor the left side of a parking spot. That's pretty natural as we can't see our right side so we hug the left to be safe. So, as a result, one guys stays left, the next guy stays left, etc. And thus you end up with evenly spaced trailers. Not today, my friends. There was one, exactly one, empty space in my section. There was a JB Hunt trailer parked right on the line to my left and a Swift trailer parked right on the line to my right. I don't care who you are, that's funny right there. I couldn't help but picture the two drivers looking at each other and saying, "We'll show those guys to keep making fun of our trucks." Anyhow, what it meant for me was a wicked tight parking job. I usually do a pretty half-assed job of setting up to park, and today was no different. Most people say a good setup is a key, but I find that this only holds true until you start moving back. Then, a fuck up is a fuck up and your perfect setup just went out the window. So I did the usual and angled out a little until I thought it looked good enough. Back, back, back... Ever seen Ace Ventura, Pet Detective? That was me on this fine morning - "Like a glove!" Right on the money with one shot. Of course squeezing my ass in there to lower the landing gear was a bitch, but I got it down.
Then on to find a parking place. No truck stops anywhere near there. The one I thought was in Delaware was actually in Maryland and it was a long way from Smyrna. My atlas didn't really show any nearby rest areas either, so I just decided to take US-13 north and see what I could see. One mile north - rest area. Beauty. I hung out for an hour or so and then got my next assignment. Deadhead 222 miles to Suffolk and then leave tomorrow afternoon with a relay to Knoxville.
I was in the mood to kick back and watch football, so my route will actually be about 290 miles. I drove over to I-95 to get to a truck stop with Idleaire so I can get the satellite TV channels. From here I'll probably try to take the shortest legal route to Suffolk since I'm empty and I have plenty of time. I'll make up for the extra fuel I burned by not having to idle all day in the 80 degree heat, so nobody should mind. Of course, I'll mind eight days from now when I am short the extra two hours I wasted, but that's okay.
Notre Dame (+22) @ UCLA. That's just depressing. I didn't think I'd ever see a +22 point spread, but I guess it's just one of those years for the lads to take their lumps. The last time I stayed at an Idleaire location, I got San Francisco channels in Denver. Therefore I assumed they just used the west coast feed everywhere. Wrong. I have local Virginia channels here, so there's about a 99% chance I'm not seeing the Irish tonight, unless a new streamer shows up. The guys who put the games on SopCast are all on the east coast, so they can't help tonight. I guess it just isn't meant to be.
The ride was much easier than expected this morning. As I came up to the Beltway, I needed to go from I-66 (due west) to US-50 (due east). It was basically the same distance if I chose to go across the top or across the bottom of the loop. Truckmiles.com said to take the top, but the bottom looked like a straighter route to me. So... I took the bottom. I don't think I've ever gone all the way around there before. Usually it's a matter of going from a north/south freeway to an east/west one. I did run from south to north on I-95 one time, but that just runs up the east side on I-495. Anyhow, the lower half of the loop is much better than the upper half, as far as I'm concerned. Less merging and exiting, fewer tight curves, fewer cities and towns, not too bad at all.
Once I got across Chesapeake Bay, the fog turned into that pea soup stuff you always hear about. There were actually people driving in that shit with their high beams on. The year 2007 and we still haven't learned about light and reflection? Idiots. Anyhow, the ride along US-301 to Maryland 300 and straight across was uncongested and smooth.
I got to the assigned section of the drop lot at the DC and set up to back my trailer in. Normally people favor the left side of a parking spot. That's pretty natural as we can't see our right side so we hug the left to be safe. So, as a result, one guys stays left, the next guy stays left, etc. And thus you end up with evenly spaced trailers. Not today, my friends. There was one, exactly one, empty space in my section. There was a JB Hunt trailer parked right on the line to my left and a Swift trailer parked right on the line to my right. I don't care who you are, that's funny right there. I couldn't help but picture the two drivers looking at each other and saying, "We'll show those guys to keep making fun of our trucks." Anyhow, what it meant for me was a wicked tight parking job. I usually do a pretty half-assed job of setting up to park, and today was no different. Most people say a good setup is a key, but I find that this only holds true until you start moving back. Then, a fuck up is a fuck up and your perfect setup just went out the window. So I did the usual and angled out a little until I thought it looked good enough. Back, back, back... Ever seen Ace Ventura, Pet Detective? That was me on this fine morning - "Like a glove!" Right on the money with one shot. Of course squeezing my ass in there to lower the landing gear was a bitch, but I got it down.
Then on to find a parking place. No truck stops anywhere near there. The one I thought was in Delaware was actually in Maryland and it was a long way from Smyrna. My atlas didn't really show any nearby rest areas either, so I just decided to take US-13 north and see what I could see. One mile north - rest area. Beauty. I hung out for an hour or so and then got my next assignment. Deadhead 222 miles to Suffolk and then leave tomorrow afternoon with a relay to Knoxville.
I was in the mood to kick back and watch football, so my route will actually be about 290 miles. I drove over to I-95 to get to a truck stop with Idleaire so I can get the satellite TV channels. From here I'll probably try to take the shortest legal route to Suffolk since I'm empty and I have plenty of time. I'll make up for the extra fuel I burned by not having to idle all day in the 80 degree heat, so nobody should mind. Of course, I'll mind eight days from now when I am short the extra two hours I wasted, but that's okay.
Notre Dame (+22) @ UCLA. That's just depressing. I didn't think I'd ever see a +22 point spread, but I guess it's just one of those years for the lads to take their lumps. The last time I stayed at an Idleaire location, I got San Francisco channels in Denver. Therefore I assumed they just used the west coast feed everywhere. Wrong. I have local Virginia channels here, so there's about a 99% chance I'm not seeing the Irish tonight, unless a new streamer shows up. The guys who put the games on SopCast are all on the east coast, so they can't help tonight. I guess it just isn't meant to be.
Friday, October 5, 2007
10/5/07
Memo to the Sunflower driver who went through Knoxville early this morning: You're an asshole.
Okay, it was good to get that off my chest. I got rolling before the sun came up today. My dispatch has me at the Wal-Mart DC in Delaware by 7:30 tomorrow morning, although I suspect there's no real reason for it to be that early. I have nothing better to do so there's no point calling to see if it can be moved back. What the early appointment did was force me to keep the breaks to ten hours and stay moving. That's not always a bad thing either. Sometimes I tend to waste time if I have extra time on a load, so this schedule will keep me focused.
Rolling up I-59 in Alabama, there were bumps in the road that were spaced roughly 20 feet apart. This went on for about thirty miles. Bumps are bumps, but this arrangement made for a constant vibration of my dumbbells. If I were strong enough, I'm pretty sure I would have reached over and launched them out the window. Eventually the road smoothed out and I got over it. Eventualy.
My route took me through a little bit of Georgia, on to 24, 75, 40, and 81 in Tennesee, on up to Virginia. Ideally, I would have driven a full eleven hours today, leaving me the shortest trip possible before my drop tomorrow morning. The catch is that I actually did a little trip planning for a change. As near as I could tell, there are no rest areas on I-66 on the way to D.C. As nearly as I can tell, the only truck stop along my route once I leave I-81 is all the way into Delaware, too far to make it within eleven hours today. So... Toms Brook it is. I'll take my ten hours here and then roll sometime after midnight. The weekend trip around D.C. should be better than most, but I expect a crowd anyway so I want to get through as early as possible.
Virginia is a pretty long, pretty straight ride on I-81. It's hilly, but with a light load like this one I can run the hills without much of a problem. Here's my beef with Virginia though. 95% of the state is only two lanes in each direction. There is way too much traffic in most of Virginia for just two lanes. Nevermind the trucks going slow on the hills, the cars drive anywhere between 55mph and 80mph. Further to that, people don't seem to understand the 'drive right, pass left' concept. They just line up in the left lane like it's a parade route. So, whenever a truck driver (like me) encounters a slower moving car, it takes ten minutes to find an opening and move over to the left. When you have 300 miles of that, it gets pretty obnoxious.
Over the course of the last week, I've been scouting the truck stops for two items that I need to buy. When I don't need anything, I see everything at the truck stops. Now, I need a new belt (broke mine) and a new truck stop directory (mine's pretty beat up). I have yet to see a belt anywhere. Lot's of cowboy hats, boots, socks, shirts, etc. but no belts. They all seem to have the Rand McNally directory, but I like the Trucker's Friend one better. I've seen them a hundred times, all over the place, but now that I want to buy one they're nonexistent. Hmm...
I need to sleep a little tonight, but right now I'm wide awake. I seriously think we should be allowed to whack down a six-pack once in a while out here, but I don't make the rules. So I guess another night of tossing and turning lies ahead.
Okay, it was good to get that off my chest. I got rolling before the sun came up today. My dispatch has me at the Wal-Mart DC in Delaware by 7:30 tomorrow morning, although I suspect there's no real reason for it to be that early. I have nothing better to do so there's no point calling to see if it can be moved back. What the early appointment did was force me to keep the breaks to ten hours and stay moving. That's not always a bad thing either. Sometimes I tend to waste time if I have extra time on a load, so this schedule will keep me focused.
Rolling up I-59 in Alabama, there were bumps in the road that were spaced roughly 20 feet apart. This went on for about thirty miles. Bumps are bumps, but this arrangement made for a constant vibration of my dumbbells. If I were strong enough, I'm pretty sure I would have reached over and launched them out the window. Eventually the road smoothed out and I got over it. Eventualy.
My route took me through a little bit of Georgia, on to 24, 75, 40, and 81 in Tennesee, on up to Virginia. Ideally, I would have driven a full eleven hours today, leaving me the shortest trip possible before my drop tomorrow morning. The catch is that I actually did a little trip planning for a change. As near as I could tell, there are no rest areas on I-66 on the way to D.C. As nearly as I can tell, the only truck stop along my route once I leave I-81 is all the way into Delaware, too far to make it within eleven hours today. So... Toms Brook it is. I'll take my ten hours here and then roll sometime after midnight. The weekend trip around D.C. should be better than most, but I expect a crowd anyway so I want to get through as early as possible.
Virginia is a pretty long, pretty straight ride on I-81. It's hilly, but with a light load like this one I can run the hills without much of a problem. Here's my beef with Virginia though. 95% of the state is only two lanes in each direction. There is way too much traffic in most of Virginia for just two lanes. Nevermind the trucks going slow on the hills, the cars drive anywhere between 55mph and 80mph. Further to that, people don't seem to understand the 'drive right, pass left' concept. They just line up in the left lane like it's a parade route. So, whenever a truck driver (like me) encounters a slower moving car, it takes ten minutes to find an opening and move over to the left. When you have 300 miles of that, it gets pretty obnoxious.
Over the course of the last week, I've been scouting the truck stops for two items that I need to buy. When I don't need anything, I see everything at the truck stops. Now, I need a new belt (broke mine) and a new truck stop directory (mine's pretty beat up). I have yet to see a belt anywhere. Lot's of cowboy hats, boots, socks, shirts, etc. but no belts. They all seem to have the Rand McNally directory, but I like the Trucker's Friend one better. I've seen them a hundred times, all over the place, but now that I want to buy one they're nonexistent. Hmm...
I need to sleep a little tonight, but right now I'm wide awake. I seriously think we should be allowed to whack down a six-pack once in a while out here, but I don't make the rules. So I guess another night of tossing and turning lies ahead.
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