So... that dock this morning turned out to be no trouble at all. By the time they were ready for me, the bedbuggers had all moved on out and I had plenty of room to work. I did have to pull into the lot across the street, but I didn't encounter any traffic.
That was the part that I thought would be difficult, and it turned out to be easy. Driving into the terminal was the part that I thought would be easy. Think again.
Eureka Road has been under construction, of and on, for what seems like several years now. For a while, we couldn't make the left from the I-75 ramp and head toward our terminal. My last few times home, the left has been okay and I've had no issues. Today it was closed. No problem.
Since Racho Road (on which the terminal sits) is restricted to trucks, the only legal approach is from the north. I.e. from Eureka. So, the best thing would be to use the U-turn lane and come back up Eureka to Racho. Well, there were orange barrels taking away one of the lanes on Eureka and the day cab guy that I saw ahead of me... hit one of the barrels. That was enough to convince me that the U-turn didn't look like a good option. No problem.
I could make a left on Allen, then a left on Northline, then a left on Racho and run straight across Eureka and into the terminal from the north. No tight turns, no restricted routes, no bridges, all good. Yeah, no. I got onto Racho and saw that the left lane was closed. The right lane was a little tight, but no tighter than any urban construction zone on the freeway. Halfway down, there was a sign saying that Racho was closed at Eureka. Well shit, that didn't sound too cool. There was nowhere for me to turn around, so all I could do was drive along and hope they left me an out. They were routing the traffic onto the access road behind the mall. No problem.
Houston, we have a problem. The turn was crazy tight. I could make it with my truck but the trailer was another story altogether. I moved the barrels that were closest to the turn and got as far along as I could, then got out to take another look. Oh boy, this was a doozy. There was already a line of cars down Racho behind me and another lining the access road in front of me. Fuck 'em. They weren't going anywhere until I figured my way out of that mess. The only trouble was that the track my trailer tires would have to follow... wasn't there.
The road had been cut and the right trailer tires would have to go into a trough that was pretty damn deep. I concluded that this would be my best bet. It wasn't deep enough to drop the axle below the edge, and I had no weight at all in the rear of the trailer, so I hoped to be able to drag it up and over once it went into the cut out. The left tandems hadroom to stay on the road, so I felt pretty good about my prospects. And down they go... slowly... slowly. And now up the other side... I said up the other side... Come on now, up the other side... The trailer being cocked to the right was taking the pressure off of my left side drive tires, so I tried locking in the differential and gave it another tug. And away we go! Beauty. I don't mind telling you - that was some stressful shit right there. No harm, no foul though. No damage, a few people inconvenienced, but not too terribly, and I got back to the yard.
I guess sometimes it can be harmful to have knowledge of the local routes. If I weren't from around here, I would have probably driven all the way down to Southgate before I saw a big parking lot, and then turned around to head back up Eureka to Taylor. Such is life.
Laundry is done, so now it's a question of how to spend the next few hours. I am struggling with that decision, but I'm down to three choices:
1) Volunteer at a homeless shelter.
2) Write a thesis regarding the world's shifting demographics and the impact they will have on the long-established macroeconomic paradigms upon which modern governments are based.
3) Go to the Wheat & Rye with some friends for beer and baseball.
I'll wrestle with this decision for a while, I'm sure. Tune in tomorrow to see how it all ends!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
10/15/07
Well, in a perfect world I'd be sitting at the pub with a pint in my fist, watching the ballgame right now. In the real world though, the customer was all locked up by the time I got here this evening. I'll have to make the scheduled drop tomorrow morning and then head home.
The guys at the place in Nashville woke me up this morning and got to work right away. From there it was a pretty easy ride up to Ohio, although I got tired and had to take a nap for a few hours halfway here. Without the nap, who knows? Maybe I get here early enough to get right of the freight today, although I doubt it. From the look of the way the trailer is loaded, they probably don't want anything to do with it until the scheduled time comes around. No big deal really. The biggest positive about getting home tonight would have been that I could get a restart before I drop in Brighton on Wednesday. As it stands, I'll just accumulate some hours from the three or four easy days in a row.
Coming through Cincinnati, right at rush hour, there was hardly any traffic at all. Pretty cool. Then, once I got out to the suburbs, the brake lights started. I broke north from exit 28 and ran US-42 all the way across. I've seen enough of the interstate lately and my patience for traffic was wearing thin. That was a stretch of road I don't remember running before, so I figured what the hell. It was a pretty mellow ride up here.
I got out and took a look through the locked gate at the dock I'll have to use tomorrow morning. I'm not entirely sure how that's going to work, but it looks like I'll have to pull into the lot across the street and then back into the lot, around the corner and back to the door. That and wrestling with the load straps will be about the hardest parts of my day tomorrow. These newer trailers don't seem to fit the locking mechanism of the straps as well as the older trailers do. It's like the holes are about a sixteenth of an inch too small or something. I had to bang on the thing with a rubber mallet to get the strap loose this morning, then do the same to re-secure the load once the first batch of stuff was pulled from the trailer. As for the actual driving, it's only about 175 miles from here to Taylor so it will be an easy day.
I wrapped up the first pay period of the month with 6,293 miles plus some extra pay to kick the gross over $2,300. I'll probably see the extra $52.50 for this run on that check too, so somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,400 should be the number. The extra stop pay doesn't show on my account until I've made the last drop, but the last few times I've earned pay, after a pay period ended, for a run that started during the pay period, it has been on that check. Since I have to plan a wedding with that French-Canadian chick, I need every little bit I can get.
The guys at the place in Nashville woke me up this morning and got to work right away. From there it was a pretty easy ride up to Ohio, although I got tired and had to take a nap for a few hours halfway here. Without the nap, who knows? Maybe I get here early enough to get right of the freight today, although I doubt it. From the look of the way the trailer is loaded, they probably don't want anything to do with it until the scheduled time comes around. No big deal really. The biggest positive about getting home tonight would have been that I could get a restart before I drop in Brighton on Wednesday. As it stands, I'll just accumulate some hours from the three or four easy days in a row.
Coming through Cincinnati, right at rush hour, there was hardly any traffic at all. Pretty cool. Then, once I got out to the suburbs, the brake lights started. I broke north from exit 28 and ran US-42 all the way across. I've seen enough of the interstate lately and my patience for traffic was wearing thin. That was a stretch of road I don't remember running before, so I figured what the hell. It was a pretty mellow ride up here.
I got out and took a look through the locked gate at the dock I'll have to use tomorrow morning. I'm not entirely sure how that's going to work, but it looks like I'll have to pull into the lot across the street and then back into the lot, around the corner and back to the door. That and wrestling with the load straps will be about the hardest parts of my day tomorrow. These newer trailers don't seem to fit the locking mechanism of the straps as well as the older trailers do. It's like the holes are about a sixteenth of an inch too small or something. I had to bang on the thing with a rubber mallet to get the strap loose this morning, then do the same to re-secure the load once the first batch of stuff was pulled from the trailer. As for the actual driving, it's only about 175 miles from here to Taylor so it will be an easy day.
I wrapped up the first pay period of the month with 6,293 miles plus some extra pay to kick the gross over $2,300. I'll probably see the extra $52.50 for this run on that check too, so somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,400 should be the number. The extra stop pay doesn't show on my account until I've made the last drop, but the last few times I've earned pay, after a pay period ended, for a run that started during the pay period, it has been on that check. Since I have to plan a wedding with that French-Canadian chick, I need every little bit I can get.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
10/14/07
So old Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. Ain't that special? It did get me thinking though... I could probably have a shot at a future award if I took up the cause of getting regular iced tea into every retail establishment south of the Mason-Dixon line. It would be quite a crusade, but I'm sick and tired of that brown-colored sugar water you people drink down here.
I had a pretty lazy day today. I woke up with a headache, then killed some time watching football. After the 'Skins gave away another game, I got my act together and headed for Nashville. I checked Google Earth and live.com before I left. It looked pretty good in terms of having room to park at the customer tonight, so I headed straight through. There was a convenient spot along the bulding when I got here, so I'll get some sleep and be ready to rock in the morning. The docks face the street, but there appears to be a whole bunch of room on either side of the street, with no curbs, so my job should be easy in the morning.
From here I'll head to Columbus. From looking at the aforementioned aerial photography providers, I'm pretty sure I'll have room to set up shop at that customer as well. I'm due there by 10am Tuesday, but I'm going to try and pull off a little switcheroo. If I can get to Columbus during business hours tomorrow, there's an outside chance they'll go ahead and unload me. Probably not, but I'm going to try. If that happens, I can head from there to Taylor and take a day off Tuesday before delivering in Brighton on Wednesday. My focus level has been sorely lacking for the last few days, so a day at home might do me some good. It seems like I've been on autopilot lately and that's not the best thing when you're barreling down the highway.
I was scanning the XM channels tonight and I came across a show that blew my mind - Gun Talk. Make no mistake about it. I'm a decent marksman myself and I think more guns, rather than fewer, would make us safer as a people. I just can't believe that people actually call in to a radio show in order to discuss their guns. What's next? A show about organic vegetable garening? Oh, too late, nevermind.
I had a pretty lazy day today. I woke up with a headache, then killed some time watching football. After the 'Skins gave away another game, I got my act together and headed for Nashville. I checked Google Earth and live.com before I left. It looked pretty good in terms of having room to park at the customer tonight, so I headed straight through. There was a convenient spot along the bulding when I got here, so I'll get some sleep and be ready to rock in the morning. The docks face the street, but there appears to be a whole bunch of room on either side of the street, with no curbs, so my job should be easy in the morning.
From here I'll head to Columbus. From looking at the aforementioned aerial photography providers, I'm pretty sure I'll have room to set up shop at that customer as well. I'm due there by 10am Tuesday, but I'm going to try and pull off a little switcheroo. If I can get to Columbus during business hours tomorrow, there's an outside chance they'll go ahead and unload me. Probably not, but I'm going to try. If that happens, I can head from there to Taylor and take a day off Tuesday before delivering in Brighton on Wednesday. My focus level has been sorely lacking for the last few days, so a day at home might do me some good. It seems like I've been on autopilot lately and that's not the best thing when you're barreling down the highway.
I was scanning the XM channels tonight and I came across a show that blew my mind - Gun Talk. Make no mistake about it. I'm a decent marksman myself and I think more guns, rather than fewer, would make us safer as a people. I just can't believe that people actually call in to a radio show in order to discuss their guns. What's next? A show about organic vegetable garening? Oh, too late, nevermind.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
10/13/07
Well hell, they beat the spread at least.
I got rolling nice and early and, even though I covered over 600 miles today, it seemed quite easy. The first stop was the Georgia Port Authority in Garden City, near Savannah. I was actually struck by the sheer enormity of the place. Stacks of shipping containers, looking like office high-rises in a big city, stretched as far as the eye can see. I checked in with the security guard, who promptly sent me to a different guard at a different part of the facility. I had to wake that guy when I got down there. He directed me to a drop lot, but seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that I wasn't picking up anything. I was just there to drop off an empty, ostensibly to be used for some future shipment.
The drop lot presented a couple of issues. First was the fact that a train was blocking the driveway. Then, after the train finally moved, the lot itself was a tester. It really was pretty tight while I was driving in... forward. Backing into a slot in the dark was wicked tough. Judging by the dings in the sides of many of the trailers, I suspect that the yard dogs aren't too concerned about the close quarters. I got mine in squarely and safely, then took off bobtailing across the state.
And on to Lawrenceville... The ConWay facility is in a really stupid location, down a winding road and behind a residential neighborhood. That being said, the directions were easy enough to follow. Since ConWay is closed on the weekend, the security guard thought he was King Salami. I had to show him my CFI identification, confirm the emptiness of the trailer I received, and initial by my arrival time before he would leave me alone. I convinced him that I wouldn't hurt anybody by parking in their (empty and inactive) lot to watch the football game. I took a nap and then turned on the TV. My signal was pretty crappy, so I found a stream on the internet instead.
Yeah, I watched it. Moving along...
At some point I got my next load assignment. I was to drop my empty trailer at our yard in Atlanta and pick up a loaded trailer headed north. The next few days will be fairly unproductive, but I've been running pretty hard so a little break won't kill me. I'll leave Atlanta tomorrow, drop in Nashville on Monday, drop in Columbus on Tuesday, and drop in Michigan on Wednesday. The drops are only a few hundred miles apart, so I won't exactly be working my ass off. I've been trying to catch up on my movies anyway.
Once my ten hours were up, I headed over to Atlanta and dropped my empty. As I got off of I-285, there were lights flashing everywhere. Another freaking fatality accident? This is starting to give me the heebie-jeebies. There was an SUV that was smashed like a pancake, as well as a VW Beetle that had massive front-end damage. It's hard to imagine anyone in that SUV surviving. As I slowly inched past the carnage, I passed our drop yard. I had never been to this location and it's not exactly clearly marked. In fact, I don't think it's marked at all. My directions said our lot was across from Roadway. As I passed, with the bright lights flashing in my mirros, I noticed Roadway (also not marked) on the left. Luckily there was a parking lot at the next light with enough room for me to loop back around.
I dropped the empty ConWay trailer on the yard. I'm not sure exactly what is the story with the electric landing gear, but I just used the handle. The security guy at ConWay wasn't exactly going to be much help, but it really made no difference to me. The crank had two gears, contradicting what I had previously heard. Easy enough.
Then it was off to the local grocer for some dinner and refreshment. I got a few sideways stares down there, presumably because white dudes are not exactly prevalent in these parts. Makes no difference to me. I spend plenty of time in the ghetto back home, so why should it matter in Atlanta? With groceries and refreshments in hand, I've settled in for a nice relaxing night of watching baseball. I have to be in Nashville by 10am Monday, so I have no intention to set an alarm for tomorrow. I have Cleveland at pretty decent odds to win the World Series, so I'm hoping this score holds up.
Slightly off topic, well it's my blog so I guess it would be on topic, unless the topic is truck driving, but I'm the driver so anything goes. Either way, I was watching some lousy movie called Adam & Eve and I found the future Mrs. Godfather - Emmanuelle Chriqui.
She's not aware of this fact yet, but that's okay. I'll have to overlook her French heritage and she'll have to overlook the fact that I'm a deadbeat, but I think we can make it work.
I got rolling nice and early and, even though I covered over 600 miles today, it seemed quite easy. The first stop was the Georgia Port Authority in Garden City, near Savannah. I was actually struck by the sheer enormity of the place. Stacks of shipping containers, looking like office high-rises in a big city, stretched as far as the eye can see. I checked in with the security guard, who promptly sent me to a different guard at a different part of the facility. I had to wake that guy when I got down there. He directed me to a drop lot, but seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that I wasn't picking up anything. I was just there to drop off an empty, ostensibly to be used for some future shipment.
The drop lot presented a couple of issues. First was the fact that a train was blocking the driveway. Then, after the train finally moved, the lot itself was a tester. It really was pretty tight while I was driving in... forward. Backing into a slot in the dark was wicked tough. Judging by the dings in the sides of many of the trailers, I suspect that the yard dogs aren't too concerned about the close quarters. I got mine in squarely and safely, then took off bobtailing across the state.
And on to Lawrenceville... The ConWay facility is in a really stupid location, down a winding road and behind a residential neighborhood. That being said, the directions were easy enough to follow. Since ConWay is closed on the weekend, the security guard thought he was King Salami. I had to show him my CFI identification, confirm the emptiness of the trailer I received, and initial by my arrival time before he would leave me alone. I convinced him that I wouldn't hurt anybody by parking in their (empty and inactive) lot to watch the football game. I took a nap and then turned on the TV. My signal was pretty crappy, so I found a stream on the internet instead.
Yeah, I watched it. Moving along...
At some point I got my next load assignment. I was to drop my empty trailer at our yard in Atlanta and pick up a loaded trailer headed north. The next few days will be fairly unproductive, but I've been running pretty hard so a little break won't kill me. I'll leave Atlanta tomorrow, drop in Nashville on Monday, drop in Columbus on Tuesday, and drop in Michigan on Wednesday. The drops are only a few hundred miles apart, so I won't exactly be working my ass off. I've been trying to catch up on my movies anyway.
Once my ten hours were up, I headed over to Atlanta and dropped my empty. As I got off of I-285, there were lights flashing everywhere. Another freaking fatality accident? This is starting to give me the heebie-jeebies. There was an SUV that was smashed like a pancake, as well as a VW Beetle that had massive front-end damage. It's hard to imagine anyone in that SUV surviving. As I slowly inched past the carnage, I passed our drop yard. I had never been to this location and it's not exactly clearly marked. In fact, I don't think it's marked at all. My directions said our lot was across from Roadway. As I passed, with the bright lights flashing in my mirros, I noticed Roadway (also not marked) on the left. Luckily there was a parking lot at the next light with enough room for me to loop back around.
I dropped the empty ConWay trailer on the yard. I'm not sure exactly what is the story with the electric landing gear, but I just used the handle. The security guy at ConWay wasn't exactly going to be much help, but it really made no difference to me. The crank had two gears, contradicting what I had previously heard. Easy enough.
Then it was off to the local grocer for some dinner and refreshment. I got a few sideways stares down there, presumably because white dudes are not exactly prevalent in these parts. Makes no difference to me. I spend plenty of time in the ghetto back home, so why should it matter in Atlanta? With groceries and refreshments in hand, I've settled in for a nice relaxing night of watching baseball. I have to be in Nashville by 10am Monday, so I have no intention to set an alarm for tomorrow. I have Cleveland at pretty decent odds to win the World Series, so I'm hoping this score holds up.
Slightly off topic, well it's my blog so I guess it would be on topic, unless the topic is truck driving, but I'm the driver so anything goes. Either way, I was watching some lousy movie called Adam & Eve and I found the future Mrs. Godfather - Emmanuelle Chriqui.
She's not aware of this fact yet, but that's okay. I'll have to overlook her French heritage and she'll have to overlook the fact that I'm a deadbeat, but I think we can make it work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)