12/20/08

Are there any lawyers reading this blog? They have upped the ante with this one. Holy jeez. I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is nobody on that dating site who looks this good. This false advertising has to stop!

I got caught up in a long and drawn-out war with the Aztecs during last night's game of Civilization III. As a result of that battle, I have no idea what time I finally fell asleep. It was late. I do know that much. It was nice and cold ouside though, so the sun didn't heat up my truck and wake me this morning. I rolled out of the sack around 11am and got set to hit the road.

The traffic flow through Missouri was much more efficient today than it was last night. The speed limit is 70mph across most of the state and my truck can go 65mph. This generally means that the cars pass me continuously and never really cause me any trouble on the hills. I don't know what was the issue last night. Today it was all good. There was a Werner guy who couldn't figure out how fast he wanted to go, but I handled him.

Then I got into Illinois. If you ever have to drag a heavy trailer for a few hours, I-55 in Illinois might be a pretty good place to start. It's flat. It's sparsely populated for the most part. The speed limit for trucks is 55mph and almost nobody drives that slowly. For those of us who do obey the limit, that's a nice stretch of road for setting the cruise control and enjoying the ride while everyone else passes on the left.

My normal approach for a short weekend trip like this would be to split it somewhat evenly between Saturday and Sunday. I prefer to spend a little time driving on both days instead of driving a lot one day and sitting for the other day. Once I got to the halfway point on this trip, it started to snow. The roads were clean and dry though. I decided to keep rolling until things got slick, since I have no idea what kind of weather tomorrow will have in store. I know it's supposed to be pretty damn cold. Better to be fairly close, just in case tomorrow's drive is a rough one. The last twenty or thirty miles before I-80 started to show some accumulation and the temperature was well below freezing, so I've stopped in Wilmington for the night. The roads weren't too bad yet, but such a long ride today with the cruise set and no traffic had left me feeling pretty complacent. I wasn't really on my 'A' game so there was no point in diving into a snowstorm when I didn't have to. From here I have about 120 miles to cover tomorrow.

I tend to think that I'm a college football fan. Right now, I wonder. I simply can't watch South Florida vs. Memphis. It's too incredibly boring. BYU vs. Arizona? Not likely. I guess I'll fire up the good old Civ III and start a war with the Mayans.

12/19/08

I guess we can always find a silver lining if we're inclined to do so. I got five phone calls warning me to be extra careful on my way home this morning. Apparently the folks back in Michigan got pounded by some pretty heavy snow today. The joke's on you, suckers. The weather in Oklahoma and Missouri was fine.

I also got my layover paid today for the shop time in Tennessee. This was a much quicker turnaround than they made with my Thanksgiving layover pay, so that's pretty nice. An extra sixty bucks (when the breakdown itself cost me $260 in lost miles last week) obviously ain't gonna make me wealthy, but that sub-$700 thing was some kind of psychological threshold for me. At least now this week is over $700 and we can hope for some kind of decent luck moving forward.

After an extended lunch/shower/nap/etc. break outside Springfield, I dragged my nice heavy 44,000 pound load back onto the highway. Very shortly thereafter, it became readily apparent that I should have just stayed where I was. People were constantly passing me going up the hills and then coming down the hills in front of me at 55mph or so. I got to Saint Robert before deciding to cash in for the night and try again tomorrow. My road rage threat level had reached the red zone. Slamming someone into a ditch so close to Christmas just didn't sound like the right thing to do. Tomorrow is another day, or something like that.

It looks like I have a total of nine hours in total to drive over the next two days, ahead of my Monday morning appointment. Pretty easy weekend. If I'm gonna make seven hundred bucks, I might as well not work hard for it, right? You know, silver linings and such.

12/18/08

I know this doesn't exactly make me any kind of seer, but I'm pretty sure we're in for a long and boring winter in the old truckin' bidness. We're getting the PR spin from the company now about how, starting in January, they'll be using more ConWay and Menlo freight to keep us moving. You know, like they said they would be doing starting last January. You know, like they said they would be doing starting last May. You know... whatever. I guess things were rolling along pretty well so we didn't need any extra freight at the time. Now they're saying again that they're gonna get us more of that freight, so we'll see what happens there. I guess you can count me among the skeptics.

Today was another sweet one. Nobody kicked me out of my last customer's parking lot, so at least I had that going for me. Otherwise there wasn't much. I sat around all morning and most of the afternoon before being assigned to a 112 mile deadhead. The load that I pick up tomorrow delivers in Niles, Michigan... on Monday. For those of you keeping score at home, Monday will be day #6 and I'll be 185 miles from my house when I get unloaded. According to the "rules" I should be deadheaded home, with pay, at that time. Anybody wanna lay odds on whether or not that happens? Of course, Monday morning is exactly late enough for me to miss the entire weekend that Mom put together for the family. So now I'll be going home simply to get next year's permits for my truck and do my laundry. Then I'll be right back out on the road. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Adding insult to injury, the run that ruined my weekend and failed to get me home is a whopping 756 miles. For those of you keeping score at home, this will give me a total of 1,769 miles for the week. As of yet, the chickenheads in Joplin haven't sent me the message indicating that the layover pay for my truck being in the shop has been processed. Without that I'll fall below $700 for the week. It's a good thing I had a damn busy nine months to start this year. We're sure as hell limping to the finish here. I'm told that everything will be great when all the hopenchange arrives next month though. I still haven't been told exactly how but, you know, I can't wait to see.

12/17/08

I awoke to the sound of a beep this morning. Nah, not the satellite thing. I forgot to shut my phone off last night. I got a text message saying, "Good morning," way the hell before I got out of bed. Where are the text messages from my fiance? She can get in touch with me anytime she wants to, if you know what I mean. I'm starting to suspect that she was never told about our engagement.

After I managed to get back to sleep, the satellite thing beeped and I was awake once again. It was a message from my fleet manager, asking about my trailer situation. I cruised across the lot to see if my empty was ready. It was. I sent a reply and then hooked to my trailer. I was #1 on the board by that time so I didn't want to drive too far in search of a parking spot. I was parked in the bobtail area at ConWay overnight, but they really don't like us hanging around there hooked to a trailer. There has been a whole lot of that going in the wrong direction crap lately, but I had to go somewhere. Luckily there was a Petro right down the street. I headed over there and hopped back in bed.

Not long after I started to doze off, I received my next assignment. As seems to be the case quite often in recent weeks, CTL pimped out my services to a broker. As the brokered loads tend to be, this one was 44,000 pounds of paper. I had to head down to the paper mill outside Mansfield for an afternoon pickup. I took a nice nap to finally finish off my night's rest and then drove down. I was a couple of hours early but they checked me in right away and sent me to the warehouse. The guys back there were on their lunch break at the time. Once they got back, I was loaded fairly quickly and sent on my way.

Toward Michigan, you ask? Not exactly. For those of you keeping score at home, I began the day in Shreveport, 1,058 miles from home. I ended the day in Oklahoma City, 1,021 miles from home. Well hell, I guess I am getting closer after all. There is the possibility that there is freight heading north from this area and that's why I was sent over here. Of course, if this is the case, I'm not allowed to know. The driver is required to be the least informed person involved with every load. I'm pretty sure that rule is in the company handbook somewhere. Then there's also the possibility that there is no plan and they just sent me wherever they could send me today. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens soon enough. I got another decent day's worth of miles so I'll take it for what it's worth.

In what could be considered a minor coup on my part, I noticed that the consignee's receiving hours were listed on the bill of lading. They are open from 7am to 11pm with no appointment required. I was dispatched to deliver at 7am. Instead of waiting until tomorrow, I hauled ass to Oklahoma City and got rid of the load tonight. The traffic around Dallas was horrendous but otherwise I made pretty good time. The temperature stayed above freezing the whole way so that misty foggy crap never turned to ice. Good thing the shipper checked me in early.

I'm #3 on the board right now. Hopefully getting here tonight will give me a leg up on whatever the planners start assigning in the morning. I didn't have any bright ideas concerning parking tonight so I've pulled off to the side of the consignee's lot. They use this area to drop trailers. I might end up getting kicked out if I'm in someone's way. So far though, nobody has bothered me. I guess I'll hop in bed and see if my luck can hold out until morning.