12/2/07

First things first - if you're one of the sickly or old CFI/ConWay employees who will be spending my insurance premiums next year, you're welcome in advance. The roll of the dice came up snake eyes and I won't be heading east. Maybe I'll get to my benefit information before the deadline, maybe not. Given that we're on the road for a living, couldn't they do this stuff by e-mail? I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

I also didn't have to sit at that customer and wait for Monday morning to get a trailer, although it wouldn't have made a huge difference in terms of miles. They bobtailed me up to Howard City to grab an empty, then dispatched me to pick up a load outside Grand Rapids tomorrow morning. It's another one of those Peterbilt P&D runs like the one I had the last time I went back to work. Three pickups and a dropoff. Also like last time, they planned me on another load behind it. Why are the people in Taylor so much better at their jobs (at least in the planning arena) than the people in Joplin? Almost every time they've given me something short out of Michigan, they've tacked a longer run on behind it. Is it just the smaller number of trucks involved or maybe the smaller territory? Wouldn't that simply suggest that they need to staff more people, or better people, in Joplin then? I don't know. Anyhow, after my drop in Indiana it looks like I'm set to make a pickup nearby and then two drops in Florida. Given recent events, I won't count my chickens before they hatch but hopefully that will work out. In December, I find the south to be quite tolerable.

Ever tried to slide tandems on a solid sheet of ice? I hadn't before today, but it's not quite as fun as you might think. On a good note, I did find a use for my tire chains. Chain up? Hell no. I don't even know how to get them out of the bag. But that fifty pound bag does make for one hell of a wheel chock. Mission accomplished.

I did a lot of driving today for 56 dispatched miles. I had to go quite a bit out of the way to get some fuel before I could set up shop for the day. I still have that issue with the engine only pulling fuel from the left tank so I have to fill up almost every day. For reasons I won't go into, I couldn't make a fuel stop along the way last night. By the time I got to Cedar Springs, the needle was buried on 'E.' So, in my own clever way, I parked horizontally across their loading docks and went to sleep. That tilted my truck to the left and, by the time I woke up, some fuel had migrated over and pushed the needle to around 1/8 full. Of course, that meant I had 1/16 since the fuel in the right tank is useless, but that would be sufficient to get me to my trailer and to a fuel stop.

After that, I headed back west toward tomorrow's first pickup. I thought about heading straight to the customer and parking, but decided on the nearest truck stop instead. I have had my fill of parking lots covered in ice and snow. Hopefully they'll get their plows over there and salt everything down before the work week starts tomorrow. It's raining right now so, if it gets cold enough tonight... nah, let's not think about that just yet. Also, getting done early in the afternoon usually means it's a good idea to have a store and restrooms nearby.

Bring on the Sopranos. Nine more episodes and I'll be caught up with the rest of America. Better late than never. Cheers.

12/1/07

Wanna play a game? Try to guess which lane has the big truck that just passed me:

Trick question. One guy passed and was right in front of me (maybe fifteen yards ahead), while another was passing him in the left lane, so there were big trucks in both lanes. Do you see them now? That was the good part of the day. At that point, it was about twelve degrees outside and the snow was just that powdery blowing stuff, making visibility the only issue. Even that wouldn't have been bad but the roads had not been plowed, so the less traveled left lane kicked up a hell of a smokescreen whenever someone went by.

About five minutes after I snapped that shot, I guess an angel must have whispered in my ear. Traffic was moving along anywhere between 45mph and 60mph when I got the sudden feeling that something wasn't right. I have no idea where the feeling came from, as traffic was moving along and I could see nothing wrong, but it was a pretty strong feeling. So I started slowing down... way down. Then I spotted the traffic at a dead stop right in front of me. (Maybe I should think about getting another CB in here.) I managed to stop in time, as did the first two people behind me. Others behind them started skidding off the road. The cause for the stoppage was a string of accidents on both sides of the road ahead. The most gruesome thing I saw was what looked like a trio of firemen trying to retrieve the body of a truck driver from his burned-out cab on the westbound side. Why in the hell do these trucks always burn to the ground, by the way? I'm not gonna lie to you - it's pretty damn disconcerting. According to news reports (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel linked below) there was only one fatality and it was on my side, so I guess they were pulling something else from the wreckage on the westbound side.

"The worst car accident appeared to have occurred in Dane County near DeForest, where a 37-year-old Madison man died after his Jeep rear-ended a semitrailer truck that had slowed for other semis that had slid off the freeway."

So, the freeway was closed for around an hour. Good times, good times.

After that, things got progressively worse. The temperature started to rise, so the snow started to pack as it got more wet. Then the freezing rain kicked in. Then more accidents, a few of them again looking pretty damn wicked. I managed to plug along, but it was tough sledding (pun intended) to say the least. Above 40mph, it was tough to maintain traction. The roads were bumpy and it was windy as hell. The performance of the Wisconsin highway department was an absolute disgrace. It's understood that someone who loses control on a slick road was going too fast, by default. I have no disagreement there. That being said, a halfway competent effort to tend to the roads could have saved at least one life today. I honestly believe that.

Once I crossed into Illinois the roads had been plowed and salted, leaving them clean and wet in some spots, dry in others. Furthermore, they were in the process of replowing and resalting to prepare for the overnight precipitation. This storm started early in the morning. The fact that Wisconsin had done nothing by this evening is unacceptable. It was eerily reminiscent of the worst road situation I encountered last winter. On that day, Missouri was a steady scene of carnage and disaster. Then, across the bridge, Illinois' roads were clean and dry. Something is very wrong there.

The rest of the drive was a slow but steady affair. The freezing rain gradually became rain. The traffic got progressively lighter, at least for a while. Closer to Chicago there was plenty of slower traffic that refused to keep right. Until that time I hadn't decided which route to take. Since most of those douchebags were heading down the bypass, I stayed on I-90. Back to the speed limit. Beauty.

Indiana - no issues.

Michigan - no issues... almost. The last part of the drive, from Grand Rapids to Cedar Springs, was on a fucking hockey rink. Cars, unable to see what was ahead of me, kept passing me. Then they kept spinning out. So I kept slowing down to keep my distance from them. So more cars kept passing, and spinning out, and I kept slowing... I made it to the customer in something loosely resembling eleven hours, so that's good enough for me. Then came time to drop the trailer...

You know the deal. Snow, then rain = ice sheet. I got into the customer's unplowed lot (they're not open on weekends, remember?) without any major issues. Too bad I don't have my skates with me. I set up carefully, not making any sudden changes in direction, and backed my trailer to a spot on the yard. No worries there. I released the fifth wheel and the connections. So far, so good. I put the truck in gear. And I went nowhere. I got out, pulled out my crowbar, chipped away as much ice as possible, and tried again. And I went nowhere. Just about the time I was out of bright ideas, I remembered a bit of advice I got from a Canadian tow truck driver last winter - "Quit being such a pussy. Start it in third gear and give it hell." Well, his advice got me out of the ice in Canada at the time. It also got me out from under that trailer tonight. It's a little scary gunning it in third gear when you're used to inching out and making sure the trailer sits steadily on the ground. Visions of my truck flying forward and the trailer crashing down were in my head at the time. As it went though, gunning it in third gear on the ice caused me to inch forward more slowly than I would have in low gear on dry pavement.

There are a few CFI trailers here, but they're all locked in the docks. (This place is closed on weekends, remember?) So, sans empty, I had to call and talk to someone in Joplin. This is becoming far too common for my liking. I can usually go a month or two without talking to those people. Lately I have to call about every load. She put me on the board with no empty. I'm not going to highlight for home now, instead rolling the dice that I'll get bobtailed to Taylor to board there. I only need ten minutes to run home and grab my mail. Unless there's a load to pick up that won't require me to drop an empty, bobtailing to the yard seems like the most logical thing. The other less desirable option is that they could sit me here for a day until this place opens at 7am Monday. We may have a fight on our hands if that happens.

This was one of those days that leaves me thinking it over after all is said and done. For a restless mind like my own, this is usually not a good thing. Anyhow, I turned sixteen and got my driver's license on September 10th, 1992. A couple of months later I was learning at the winter driving school of hard knocks. Now I guess this would be my sixteenth winter in this stuff and my second in a big truck. I have to imagine that, through so many years of trial and error (with plenty of error), I've developed a pretty sound feel for how to handle the nasty roads and how not to panic when things don't go perfectly. That would be a good thing, I think. I also tend to just drive along in whatever weather comes my way, when most drivers would shut down for the day. Maybe that's a bad thing. I don't know. I can say without a doubt that I would be sleeping in Wisconsin right now if I hadn't spun so many cars in my day and subsequently learned how to keep them under control. It was a pretty rough scene up there today, and my ass end got loose more than a few times, but I simply didn't give a shit. I don't know man. I don't know.

11/30/07

Good day today lads. I didn't set an alarm for this morning, so I slept kinda sorta okay for a few hours before I had to get up and use the facilities. Then it was eastbound and down, loaded up and trucking. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was a perfect fit for today's drive. I finished up the last disc just as I parked for the night. I had gotten away from the audio books for a while, staying more with the talk and news on XM. Without my XM functioning, it seems like a good time to get myself cultured a little better. Further still, I had time for a nice long nap this afternoon while staying within the 14 hour limit. Nice.

As I was rolling along, watching the miles tick away, it occurred to me that I had no idea where I would end up tonight. I knew I had time for nine hours of driving, plus an inspection and a fuel stop, but I had no clue where that would leave me. One of these days I might start that trip planning stuff. Nah, probably not. I kinda like to fly by the seat of my pants. Anyhow, it worked out perfectly for me. There's a rest area just before the Twin Cities, exactly nine hours from where I started, and it had a spot open for me. Weekends are definitely my favorite times. I have no illusion that I would have found a parking spot here mid-week, but tonight it worked out nicely.

It was definitely a welcome sign to see that I was gradually approaching civilization as the day wore on. At some point during the day, my phone beeped and told me that I had three voicemail messages. My phone never rang today. Freaking North Dakota. As it stands now, even my internet connection is back to normal. Technology is a beautiful thing as long as you're not in the wilderness.

The practical route from here would seem to take me down and around Chicago on I-80, but I've had better luck in recent months running straight through on I-90 and across the Skyway. I guess my mood tomorrow evening will dictate the route. I imagine it's six of one, half dozen of the other.

I get a report on site traffic to the blog every now and then. As of today, it looks like Jim over at OTR Journal is providing more referrals than any other site, passing up the message boards within the last few days. Good lookin' out my brother.

11/29/07

Well, at least I got out of Montana. After crossing that state twice in the last week, I have to wonder why General Custer even bothered.

The first half of the day was a pretty snowy affair. Aside from the mountain passes though, the roads weren't bad. The passes got a little slick, but nothing like some of the ones I saw last winter. So far, so good. In reality this truck handles the snow ten times better than any car I've ever driven. The only catch is that the extra weight can turn momentum against you if you're not careful. No troubles today.

I had planned to cover at least six hundred miles, which I did. That leaves me somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve hundred miles from my destination. According to the PC Miler application that I get to use with my wifi access here at Flying J, the trip should be around eighteen and a half more hours. With the hours I pick up at midnight, I can drive nine hours tomorrow. Then I pick up eleven more on Saturday. So... if all goes well, I can knock out the rest of this run in two shifts and get rid of this load on Saturday night. If all goes well.

I haven't decided yet whether or not to request a day off at home once I make my drop. I'd like to take a look at the open enrollment package that we are supposed to receive from ConWay before the deadline passes. If they're going to raise my premiums much, I'm inclined to think I'll just drop the health insurance altogether. I can buy an independent catastrophic loss plan for a pretty cheap price to cover major emergencies, but the premiums that I pay now are basically just providing care for someone else. For most of the crap people get with their health insurance, I have no use. I don't trust doctors. If they were any good, they would heal people the first time. Then they would be out of business. Something about an apparent conflict of interest just doesn't sit right with me, so I stay away from them.

Anyhow, more of the AM radio today. I had the basic choice between the evangelists reminding me of what a piece of shit I am or the country music making my ears bleed. What a selection! There was a brief discussion of the Israeli situation that I found interesting, but otherwise just a long day of boredom. I think I'll burn a few audio books onto CD's to get me through tomorrow.