Could it really be possible for me to be disappointed not to be heading to California? Probably not. Well, maybe a little. Nah, not really.
My drive down to Laredo this morning was just a basic one-hour affair. I got on the board at #11 and headed down the street to the broker. Live unload this time around instead of a drop. Groovy. The forklift guy had me on my way before too long and I headed back to the yard.
After going back through the inspection bay with my empty trailer, I got lectured by the maintenance supervisor. He asked if I knew that the trailer's DOT bumper was dented. Yes. Then he asked if it was like that when I picked up the trailer. Yes. Then he asked if I had called our safety department to report it. No. I need to report these things right away so I won't be held liable for the cost of the damage, yada yada yada, blah blah blah. I actually did call both the road service department and the safety department the first time I got a trailer with a dented bumper, a few years ago. Anyone wanna guess if they gave a shit? As long as it wasn't broken or loose, I was told, no big deal. This was the standard that I followed from that point forward - dents were no big deal. Now apparently a dented bumper is cause for alarm. Whatever dude. They would need to add a few extra phone lines to handle the volume if we were really going to call the safety department about every minor dent and ding in the trailers that we pick up.
After a few hours on the board I got called to the dispatch window. San Antonio for tomorrow morning or Mira Loma, California for Friday afternoon. There's a freaking devil's bargain, eh? I took the California run and headed out to grab my loaded trailer. I had to move the trailer axles forward to get within the 40' maximum wheelbase allowed in California. The load was a heavy one, so I made sure to scale it before I left the yard. Shit. 30,060 pounds up front and 35,000 on the back. I was right on the 40' mark with my rear axle, so there was nothing that I could do to move any weight forward. Back on the board we go then.
I don't know how the company deals with that issue. Maybe they have someone take some freight off the trailer or maybe they just try to pawn it off on another driver who thinks he can get away with it. One of the old guys at the terminal was trying to explain how I could take this route and that route and the cops at the scales wouldn't bother me. Yeah, not like the People's Republic needs the money or anything. No thanks dude. I'll stick with the legal loads for now.
I wound up with a run heading to Lufkin, Texas for a delivery tomorrow afternoon. 1,364 miles lost and 470 gained doesn't sound so hot. I will be empty on Thursday as opposed to Friday, but I don't imagine I'll be running 894 miles in that extra day. I can't say that I'm terribly worried about it though. Holiday weekends are always unpredictable anyway. If I can get some decent work for the weekend and stay away from California, I'll consider the outcome to be a good one.
I headed up US-59 toward Houston once I had my new loaded trailer. I wasn't really sure how far I would drive but that usually seems to work itself out. As I got further into the evening, I found that my 14 hours would likely run out when I was just north of Houston. That's a pretty crowded area and there are no sure bets for parking so I decided to stop short of Houston instead. I don't know exactly what would be the English translation for El Campo. Sounds like 'the campground' to me, so I'm camping here for the night.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
6/30/09
I fully expected to be writing some sort of miserable diatribe by the time I sat down to my computer tonight. I had to get up early this morning (which I hate doing), drive down Satan's Driveway (which I hate doing), dodge the incompetent Texas drivers in the rain (which I hate doing), and work for a full eleven hours (which I hate doing). Surprisingly though, the drive wasn't all that bad. It wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination, but we've certainly seen worse.
The traffic down US-69 and US-75 through Oklahoma was pretty light for the most part. Dallas, of course, had pretty heavy traffic and a steady stream of slow drivers in the center lane. For whatever reason, there's a stretch of US-75 where the lanes can't be more than a few inches wider than a 102" truck and trailer. With all the traffic merging and exiting, you definitely have to be on your toes. The left lane turned out not to be quite as skinny as the center lane though, so I was content to fall in behind another truck and cruise on through. If only I had that option on I-35...
As I dropped down toward Waco I was in the mood to stop for a steak, so I pulled off at Exit 343. The folks at Heitmiller Steakhouse are usually reliable for some good grub. Tonight I must say I was less than impressed. My five-dollar mozzarella sticks were far better than my eighteen-dollar steak. You win some and you lose some I suppose. At the restaurant, I ran into my trainer from the summer of '06 (when I got started with this vocation). He is currently training his brother and they'll be working as a team for the foreseeable future. Good luck with that. My old trainer is a pretty good guy, but sharing an enclosed space with another grown man for four weeks was about all I could handle.
After dinner it was time to deal with Austin and San Antonio. My break had been long enough to allow most of the afternoon rush to abate, so the Austin traffic was only 90% ridiculous instead of 150% ridiculous. San Antonio really wasn't bad at all, aside from the brief rain that I encountered on the north side. Today's eleven hours got me down to Cotulla, leaving around an hour to drive in the morning. That's not bad at all. I pulled into a massive truck stop parking lot at 9:30pm local time and found that there were only four trucks parked here. That doesn't make any sense. I wonder if they had a swine flu outbreak here or something. I hope not. I just went inside and bought an iced tea. That cashier did look a little sketchy. Hmm.
I saw a shit-ton of our trucks heading north on I-35 today. That's generally a good sign that the freight out of Laredo is plentiful. Hopefully there won't be too many people getting there tonight and filling up the board ahead of my arrival.
The traffic down US-69 and US-75 through Oklahoma was pretty light for the most part. Dallas, of course, had pretty heavy traffic and a steady stream of slow drivers in the center lane. For whatever reason, there's a stretch of US-75 where the lanes can't be more than a few inches wider than a 102" truck and trailer. With all the traffic merging and exiting, you definitely have to be on your toes. The left lane turned out not to be quite as skinny as the center lane though, so I was content to fall in behind another truck and cruise on through. If only I had that option on I-35...
As I dropped down toward Waco I was in the mood to stop for a steak, so I pulled off at Exit 343. The folks at Heitmiller Steakhouse are usually reliable for some good grub. Tonight I must say I was less than impressed. My five-dollar mozzarella sticks were far better than my eighteen-dollar steak. You win some and you lose some I suppose. At the restaurant, I ran into my trainer from the summer of '06 (when I got started with this vocation). He is currently training his brother and they'll be working as a team for the foreseeable future. Good luck with that. My old trainer is a pretty good guy, but sharing an enclosed space with another grown man for four weeks was about all I could handle.
After dinner it was time to deal with Austin and San Antonio. My break had been long enough to allow most of the afternoon rush to abate, so the Austin traffic was only 90% ridiculous instead of 150% ridiculous. San Antonio really wasn't bad at all, aside from the brief rain that I encountered on the north side. Today's eleven hours got me down to Cotulla, leaving around an hour to drive in the morning. That's not bad at all. I pulled into a massive truck stop parking lot at 9:30pm local time and found that there were only four trucks parked here. That doesn't make any sense. I wonder if they had a swine flu outbreak here or something. I hope not. I just went inside and bought an iced tea. That cashier did look a little sketchy. Hmm.
I saw a shit-ton of our trucks heading north on I-35 today. That's generally a good sign that the freight out of Laredo is plentiful. Hopefully there won't be too many people getting there tonight and filling up the board ahead of my arrival.
Monday, June 29, 2009
6/29/09
It's about time to go after another group of people who get on my nerves. Tonight - you hippies who make sure all of the public restrooms get those worthless low energy hand dryer things. Just drink your damn soy milk and let a fella wipe his hands for Pete's sake. We can always plant more trees.
I wound up with a pretty long day of work today, which is good in the sense that I don't make a whole lot of money from short days of work. I had been getting used to those 4-5 hour days though. This one was damn near 11 hours of driving once all was said and done. The morning's drive to my consignee was fairly easy. That's always nice. The directions did tell me to make a right turn onto a street called 5th Avenue though. As I passed a yard with trailers in it and approached 5th Avenue, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was driving past my customer. I swung all the way to the far side of the road and began to make my turn onto 5th Avenue. Yeah, that wasn't happening. I got about halfway through the turn and realized that I could go no further. It was a skinny residential street with utility poles guarding both corners. Fortunately, your don is no stranger to wrong turns and the resulting backup jobs that tend to follow.
After backing out of the ill-fated turn and then continuing backward another hundred yards or so, I turned into the yard with the trailers and found that it was in fact my consignee. I was unloaded within a short time and then pulled into a neighboring vacant lot to await whatever came next. I was #2 on the board, behind a guy who hadn't followed the wrong directions and thus arrived a minute ahead of me. He had requested home time though, so he would have been given priority over me anyway when it came time for a load. We sat for maybe a half hour and then each received our next assignment. My colleague was heading homeward (to Ohio) and I was going to Laredo.
I had to drive down to Eddyville for my next pickup, so I angled out of Oelwein on IA-281 and followed it to Waterloo. According to my atlas, I would catch up with US-63 in Waterloo. According to the 'Dead End' sign that wound up staring me in the face, I probably should have checked a more detailed map. I'm not sure exactly where IA-281 officially ended, but I wound up on a somewhat skinny stretch of road with houses on both sides. I could see what looked like a bigger road with traffic lights, one block to my left. Guess we had better make a left before the road ends then. There were no cars parked too close to the corner, so that left turn wasn't a major issue. I caught up with the bigger road and continued westward, catching up with US-63 a couple of blocks later. The cop who wound up behind me as I emerged from the residential neighborhood was kind enough not to pull me over for being where I didn't belong. Good lookin' out, my brother.
I got checked in at the shipper in Eddyville and jumped through their sequence of hoops in order to get loaded and sent on my way. A light load would have been a nice change of pace after the last few. So of course this one is 43,000 pounds. My fuel mileage last week was a groovy 4.9mpg and I'm headed into some less than temperate climates (along with the idling that tends to correspond), so this heavy load won't be doing me any favors. Have no fear though, shareholders of CNW, there's always next week.
I'm due in Laredo by Wednesday morning, meaning that I'll have to complete two ten-hour breaks between now and then. I wanted to get as far as possible today so that I can get as close to Laredo as possible tomorrow. This way I drive as little as possible on Wednesday and leave myself some time to pull a load out of there if I'm high enough on the board after making my drop. I was able to get into Oklahoma tonight before my 14 hours were up. 605 miles total for the day and 10.75 hours of driving. So far, so good. Even with Satan's Driveway waiting in the wings, I should be able to make it well past San Antonio before tomorrow's 11 hours run out. Another quick turnaround in Laredo and we could be looking at a pretty solid week. 100 trucks on the board and we could be looking at a lot of fajitas. Which will it be? Time will tell.
I wound up with a pretty long day of work today, which is good in the sense that I don't make a whole lot of money from short days of work. I had been getting used to those 4-5 hour days though. This one was damn near 11 hours of driving once all was said and done. The morning's drive to my consignee was fairly easy. That's always nice. The directions did tell me to make a right turn onto a street called 5th Avenue though. As I passed a yard with trailers in it and approached 5th Avenue, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was driving past my customer. I swung all the way to the far side of the road and began to make my turn onto 5th Avenue. Yeah, that wasn't happening. I got about halfway through the turn and realized that I could go no further. It was a skinny residential street with utility poles guarding both corners. Fortunately, your don is no stranger to wrong turns and the resulting backup jobs that tend to follow.
After backing out of the ill-fated turn and then continuing backward another hundred yards or so, I turned into the yard with the trailers and found that it was in fact my consignee. I was unloaded within a short time and then pulled into a neighboring vacant lot to await whatever came next. I was #2 on the board, behind a guy who hadn't followed the wrong directions and thus arrived a minute ahead of me. He had requested home time though, so he would have been given priority over me anyway when it came time for a load. We sat for maybe a half hour and then each received our next assignment. My colleague was heading homeward (to Ohio) and I was going to Laredo.
I had to drive down to Eddyville for my next pickup, so I angled out of Oelwein on IA-281 and followed it to Waterloo. According to my atlas, I would catch up with US-63 in Waterloo. According to the 'Dead End' sign that wound up staring me in the face, I probably should have checked a more detailed map. I'm not sure exactly where IA-281 officially ended, but I wound up on a somewhat skinny stretch of road with houses on both sides. I could see what looked like a bigger road with traffic lights, one block to my left. Guess we had better make a left before the road ends then. There were no cars parked too close to the corner, so that left turn wasn't a major issue. I caught up with the bigger road and continued westward, catching up with US-63 a couple of blocks later. The cop who wound up behind me as I emerged from the residential neighborhood was kind enough not to pull me over for being where I didn't belong. Good lookin' out, my brother.
I got checked in at the shipper in Eddyville and jumped through their sequence of hoops in order to get loaded and sent on my way. A light load would have been a nice change of pace after the last few. So of course this one is 43,000 pounds. My fuel mileage last week was a groovy 4.9mpg and I'm headed into some less than temperate climates (along with the idling that tends to correspond), so this heavy load won't be doing me any favors. Have no fear though, shareholders of CNW, there's always next week.
I'm due in Laredo by Wednesday morning, meaning that I'll have to complete two ten-hour breaks between now and then. I wanted to get as far as possible today so that I can get as close to Laredo as possible tomorrow. This way I drive as little as possible on Wednesday and leave myself some time to pull a load out of there if I'm high enough on the board after making my drop. I was able to get into Oklahoma tonight before my 14 hours were up. 605 miles total for the day and 10.75 hours of driving. So far, so good. Even with Satan's Driveway waiting in the wings, I should be able to make it well past San Antonio before tomorrow's 11 hours run out. Another quick turnaround in Laredo and we could be looking at a pretty solid week. 100 trucks on the board and we could be looking at a lot of fajitas. Which will it be? Time will tell.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
6/28/09
Have you ever been to Urbana, Iowa? Now I have. Can't say that I'll be in a hurry to return. After an uneventful four hours on the road, I found that this was probably the last safe bet for parking along my route to Oelwein. So this is home for the night. The highlight of the day's entertainment was probably the saga of two big dogs running away from a couple of kids and then barrel-assing down the ramp to the interstate. You see a lot of carcasses on the highway in this part of the world, so it didn't look like that story would have a very happy ending. About fifteen minutes later though, one of the dogs returned. Ominous implications for the other dog then, right? They had stuck together the whole time, as nearly as I could tell from a distance. No worries. The second dog came trotting back ten minutes after the first one. And Michael Jackson is still the leading news story nationwide. Boring. Back to my collection of books then, I suppose.
I'll have to cover about thirty miles or so tomorrow morning by 9am to make my delivery. As of yet, I don't have anything else lined up afterward. Most runs originating in this part of the country are fairly long ones, so we'll hope for a good start to the week. I got a good deal yesterday on a hotel in Pittsburgh for the weekend of the Notre Dame game, but it had to be prepaid. I could use a decent week to overcome the momentary interruption in my cash flow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)