2/11/09

Okay, back to the driving thing. I guess it's good to get into the flow with a fairly easy day. My quick drive to the shipper was uneventful, then I got to hang out there for quite a while. According to the shippers, I was supposed to arrive at 10am. According to my dispatch, I was to arrive at 8am. Whatevs. At least I was there long enough to get an incredible carne asada burrito with no beans from the Mexican vendor guy who showed up at 11am. I'm not kidding, That thing was awesome.

Once I was loaded and rolling, I had the nice and easy route along the Columbia River on I-84. This is one of the nicer drives that I get to make from time to time. Scenic, uncongested, flat, simple. Good deal. As I rolled back through Portland I received a pre-plan for my next load. Given the way the week started out, this was obviously welcome news. It's always best to go into a weekend knowing that I have some miles coming. I'll be picking up in Washington and heading down to El Paso. So it looks like we'll have another couple days of the Edmund Hillary routine coming, but at least I should reach warmer weather before too long.

My consignee for tomorrow morning is in Kennewick, Washington. According to my directory there is a small truck stop in Kennewick. I think I saw it as I passed through, but it was on the southbound side of the very busy highway and I was heading northbound. Trying to figure out how to get over there and then pull in and park looked like it would be a pain in the ass. I kept rolling north instead and parked for the night in Pasco. It's only a few miles from here to the customer in Kennewick. Good enough.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have serious work to do. I'm going to compile a spending wish list so I'll be ready to spend my extra $13 a week starting in June, doing my part to stimulate the economy. And you cynics out there didn't think we would really get a tax cut.

2/10/09

When you get a day off at a time when you feel like you could use a day off... not bad. I dragged myself out of bed this morning and sent in the form to put myself on the board. I was #2 at the time so I went back to bed. After spending yesterday lounging around, another day of the same sounded pretty good to me. There's rain and snow and crap coming down and I'm feeling rather lazy.

I got my next assignment at some point during the morning after I was up and at 'em. I'll be picking up around 25 miles to the north of here and then running a little over 200 miles to the east, along the gorge. I have to pick up at 8am tomorrow but, since they set their clocks funny around here, I won't have to get up too early. Driving 25 miles by 11am will be nice and easy.

The week will be off to quite a lousy start since I won't be empty until Thursday morning. That's the flip side of running out your hours in a week, I guess. The next week pays a price. It seems that I used to catch a nice long run out of the Pacific Northwest whenever I was up here in the past though. I haven't been up this way in quite some time. I guess I'll just hope that things are still the same. I'll be nice and rested and ready to rumble.

I was going to ask Chuck Schumer how the American people feel about pork spending, but he was kind enough to answer me in advance...

2/9/09

Well that's that. Apparently, we're all told, OTR drivers work 70 hours every week. I worked 70 hours in the last week. I can assure you that weeks like that are few and far between. Unfortunately, weeks with over $1,600 in gross pay are likewise few and far between. The conundrum persists. How can I work my typical 45-50 hours and get paid like I worked my ass off? Probably doing something other than driving a truck, I suppose. But sometimes I like driving a truck for a living. The conundrum persists.

The weather was a little dreary and a little rainy on the way up to Portland this morning. Still no snow though. I'll consider this a significant victory for global warming over those anti-science right-wingers out there. Good enough for me anyway. I was able to make it to Portland within my available hours. The last stretch over to my consignee on the northeast side of town by the airport? Well... I made it to Portland within my available hours. We'll leave it at that.

Now my log book is shot so I have to take today off. The glamorous Jubitz truck stop will be home for the day. I told my fleet manager that I'll get back on the board by tomorrow morning, but I'll only have a few hours coming to me at that time anyway. If I don't get anything assigned tomorrow, I'll stay here and get a 34-hour restart. If I do get something assigned, I'll pick it up and see what happens from there. I'll have lots of available hours coming back into the fold starting Wednesday. Either way I'm not complaining.

2/8/09

I was supposed to get up and rolling bright and early today. Yeah, that didn't exactly happen. When my alarm went off, I reached over and smacked my phone. The thing ended up on the floor in front of the driver's seat. I wasn't sure where it went when I hit it. I was pretty sure that I didn't care. I wasn't getting out of bed.

When I finally did wake a few hours later, I found fairly light traffic going through Sacramento and then up into the mountains. There was supposed to be snow, at least in the mountains, all over Southern Oregon this afternoon. The weatherman is 0-for-2 on this trip up the coast. I ain't complaining. It was rainy in some of the higher spots but the temperature never got below 40 degrees. There was a tiny bit of snow visible on the tops of the highest peaks. Definitely none falling today though.

I got into Oregon a little ways before my 70 hours had expired. I'll pick up enough to get to Portland tomorrow, then have to sit out the rest of the day. I don't pick up a ton of hours Tuesday either, but hopefully enough to get me off this coast. They have Veggie Burgers at SubWay out here man. This is not where I belong.