Ahh yes, just another case of The Man tryin' to keep a brother down. I waited and waited for the tractor shop last night. They never came a-knockin'. Then at the buttcrack of dawn today, they woke me and did their business. I have no idea what went on in there but my truck was running like shit when I got it back. That happens sometimes with cold fluids and stuff (maybe, I think?) so we'll see if it shakes out by tomorrow. Perhaps they added some stuff after fixing whatever they fixed. Anyhow, yeah, my truck was running like shit.
Then I hung around through the morning and into the afternoon waiting for my call from the body shop. At one point my Qualcomm beeped and I thought it was them but it was someone else. I was getting the obligatory congratulation for having no violations on my DOT deal in Kentucky last week. At some point, having showered and eaten and gotten my permit book reviewed and exhausted pretty much every plausible reason to stay near the driver services building, I pulled across the lot and parked in front of the body shop. Ten minutes later a guy walked over and told me to pull into a bay. Hmm...
He pulled off the old logos from my doors and put new (white) Con-way Truckload logos in their stead. The cab extender air deflector things on my truck had stress cracks emanating from the rivets at the bottom, so he pulled those off. Apparently they're being replaced with a slightly shorter pair. As for the new parts... no. They were still being painted today and won't be ready for installation until tomorrow. I'm supposed to head back over there at 6am and they say that they'll be ready to rumble.
So this week has gone from one in which I was empty on Tuesday morning with just under 500 miles to one in which I'll be empty on Thursday morning with just over 500 miles. Anybody think I can go another year and a half without seeing this town? Lord willing, we can pray.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
2/24/09
Today's episode of Fenian Godfather Jeopardy;
A: The place where promising weeks go to die.
Q: What is Joplin, Missouri?
Yep. I got up this morning and finished off my trip. The four pallets took only a few minutes to unload. From there I headed westward toward that medium Pilot truck stop near the freeway. I was hoping that enough people had left this morning to leave me a decent place to park. As I approached the freeway, my Qualcomm beeped at me. 'Planned deadhead.' If I hadn't given away the rest of the story in the opening of this post, the geography enthusiasts among you probably would have figured out that Joplin is only 75 miles from Springdale at this point. Shit.
So I pulled into the inspection bay in Joplin and the guys did their thing. The alternating looks of surprise and amusement were pretty funny to me. What was so surprising? Behold the end of an era...
By this time tomorrow, that door will say "Con-way Truckload." I can't say for sure, but I suspect that I may have been the Josey Wales of this little transition from CFI to Con-way. Everyone else surrendered to the new regime but I was the lone holdout. They started the rebranding toward the end of 2007 as trucks passed through Joplin. This is my first trip to Joplin since that time. Of course, there may be a bunch of other trucks out there with Contract Freighters on them. I really don't know. I just know that I haven't seen any of them in a long time. So I used the little Google feature up there in the corner and took a look. I've managed to steer clear of this place since August 13, 2007. Oh well. All good things must come to an end.
So we already knew that I had some body work to be done after that fella in Atlanta did his bit on my fender. In addition, I was way overdue for an alignment. I had suspected as much, since my steering wheel had developed a bit of a wiggle at high speeds, but I'm not a mechanic. I just go with the flow. There is also a recall on my transmission something-or-other valve. And my tires were due for a rotation.
Our alignment bay is down for some sprucing up ahead of some important visitors, so I headed down the street to a local tire shop for that part. Back at the terminal, I checked in with the body shop. Pretty basic repair job there... for 99% of our drivers. My truck isn't red or white. For me, they'll have to get some black parts ready. I get to wait until tomorrow. Oh joy. I took care of the tires a little while ago and the tractor shop should get to me for the transmission work at some point today. Then tomorrow I'll get the new fender and bumper installed before getting myself back on the board. Then there will be fifty people ahead of me and I'll once again convince myself that the whole world is out to get me. Just another case of The Man tryin' to keep a brother down.
A: The place where promising weeks go to die.
Q: What is Joplin, Missouri?
Yep. I got up this morning and finished off my trip. The four pallets took only a few minutes to unload. From there I headed westward toward that medium Pilot truck stop near the freeway. I was hoping that enough people had left this morning to leave me a decent place to park. As I approached the freeway, my Qualcomm beeped at me. 'Planned deadhead.' If I hadn't given away the rest of the story in the opening of this post, the geography enthusiasts among you probably would have figured out that Joplin is only 75 miles from Springdale at this point. Shit.
So I pulled into the inspection bay in Joplin and the guys did their thing. The alternating looks of surprise and amusement were pretty funny to me. What was so surprising? Behold the end of an era...
By this time tomorrow, that door will say "Con-way Truckload." I can't say for sure, but I suspect that I may have been the Josey Wales of this little transition from CFI to Con-way. Everyone else surrendered to the new regime but I was the lone holdout. They started the rebranding toward the end of 2007 as trucks passed through Joplin. This is my first trip to Joplin since that time. Of course, there may be a bunch of other trucks out there with Contract Freighters on them. I really don't know. I just know that I haven't seen any of them in a long time. So I used the little Google feature up there in the corner and took a look. I've managed to steer clear of this place since August 13, 2007. Oh well. All good things must come to an end.So we already knew that I had some body work to be done after that fella in Atlanta did his bit on my fender. In addition, I was way overdue for an alignment. I had suspected as much, since my steering wheel had developed a bit of a wiggle at high speeds, but I'm not a mechanic. I just go with the flow. There is also a recall on my transmission something-or-other valve. And my tires were due for a rotation.
Our alignment bay is down for some sprucing up ahead of some important visitors, so I headed down the street to a local tire shop for that part. Back at the terminal, I checked in with the body shop. Pretty basic repair job there... for 99% of our drivers. My truck isn't red or white. For me, they'll have to get some black parts ready. I get to wait until tomorrow. Oh joy. I took care of the tires a little while ago and the tractor shop should get to me for the transmission work at some point today. Then tomorrow I'll get the new fender and bumper installed before getting myself back on the board. Then there will be fifty people ahead of me and I'll once again convince myself that the whole world is out to get me. Just another case of The Man tryin' to keep a brother down.
Monday, February 23, 2009
2/23/09
After something along the lines of 350,000 miles on the road, I've covered almost every major highway in America. Today I got to check out some uncharted (for me) territory. My satellite beeped at some bizarre hour last night or this morning or whatever it was. Hopeless insomniac that I am, I was awake at the time. It was a pre-planned load to be picked up after I made my drop this morning. Good deal. I'm not exactly sure who was planning loads at 2am or 3am or whatever it was... but good deal.
My drive down to the consignee was less than twenty miles and didn't present any issues, once I actually got rolling. It was fairly cool last night but not too cold. Ergo, I slept with my truck turned off. When I reached down and turned the key this morning, it just spun around and nothing beeped or clicked or anything. Shit. After spending ten minutes looking (like a moron) for the screws to remove the panel and see what was going on with the ignition switch, I got pissed off and yanked on my keys as they were still engaged in the switch. How about that? The panel just snaps right out without any screws. I found some kind of plug that appeared to match up with the ignition module. Plugged it in, turned the key, yep. That was the ticket. From that point forward I encountered no issues.
I had a drop/hook at the customer so that was nice. This was one of those loads where, along with my dispatch, I got the number of an empty trailer to retrieve. This typically means that the delivery is a drop/hook. That was a brokered load though, so I wasn't convinced that it would be a drop/hook. It was. Good deal.
Then I had to shoot up to Troy and make my next pickup. My appointment was for 10am but things had gone so quickly at the previous stop that I was about an hour and a half early. The lady said that it would be around an hour until they were ready to load me. I backed into the dock and slept like a log for an hour. (See earlier about that insomnia bit from last night.) Once my trailer started bouncing I got back out of bed and thought that I would be hanging around for a bit. Nope. As quickly as they started loading me, they finished. Four pallets. 2,300 pounds. Good deal.
From Texas I had a good trip to the north. I got through Dallas well ahead of the afternoon rush. Then the drive on a sunny afternoon through Oklahoma on US-69 was calm and peaceful. Tomorrow morning's destination is Springdale, Arkansas. This destination found me heading east on I-40 and up I-540. As nearly as I can recall, I've never been on I-540 before. Pretty cool road on a sunny day with a light load. The road was mostly rolling hills with a few decent climbs where I was able to blow past the other trucks with the heavier loads. I've stopped for the night in Greenland, since my directory lists the only truck stop in Springdale as being a Pilot with a medium parking lot. 'Pilot - medium' tends to be code for 'nowhere to park.' I played it safe instead and left myself around fifteen or twenty miles to drive in the morning.
For the first time since that massive week at the beginning of the month, I wrap up my Monday with some decent miles on the books. 17 miles on the deadhead and 457 loaded miles should have me set up for a decent week. I have plenty of hours available on account of the restart that I caught while my truck was in the shop. Good deal.
My drive down to the consignee was less than twenty miles and didn't present any issues, once I actually got rolling. It was fairly cool last night but not too cold. Ergo, I slept with my truck turned off. When I reached down and turned the key this morning, it just spun around and nothing beeped or clicked or anything. Shit. After spending ten minutes looking (like a moron) for the screws to remove the panel and see what was going on with the ignition switch, I got pissed off and yanked on my keys as they were still engaged in the switch. How about that? The panel just snaps right out without any screws. I found some kind of plug that appeared to match up with the ignition module. Plugged it in, turned the key, yep. That was the ticket. From that point forward I encountered no issues.
I had a drop/hook at the customer so that was nice. This was one of those loads where, along with my dispatch, I got the number of an empty trailer to retrieve. This typically means that the delivery is a drop/hook. That was a brokered load though, so I wasn't convinced that it would be a drop/hook. It was. Good deal.
Then I had to shoot up to Troy and make my next pickup. My appointment was for 10am but things had gone so quickly at the previous stop that I was about an hour and a half early. The lady said that it would be around an hour until they were ready to load me. I backed into the dock and slept like a log for an hour. (See earlier about that insomnia bit from last night.) Once my trailer started bouncing I got back out of bed and thought that I would be hanging around for a bit. Nope. As quickly as they started loading me, they finished. Four pallets. 2,300 pounds. Good deal.
From Texas I had a good trip to the north. I got through Dallas well ahead of the afternoon rush. Then the drive on a sunny afternoon through Oklahoma on US-69 was calm and peaceful. Tomorrow morning's destination is Springdale, Arkansas. This destination found me heading east on I-40 and up I-540. As nearly as I can recall, I've never been on I-540 before. Pretty cool road on a sunny day with a light load. The road was mostly rolling hills with a few decent climbs where I was able to blow past the other trucks with the heavier loads. I've stopped for the night in Greenland, since my directory lists the only truck stop in Springdale as being a Pilot with a medium parking lot. 'Pilot - medium' tends to be code for 'nowhere to park.' I played it safe instead and left myself around fifteen or twenty miles to drive in the morning.
For the first time since that massive week at the beginning of the month, I wrap up my Monday with some decent miles on the books. 17 miles on the deadhead and 457 loaded miles should have me set up for a decent week. I have plenty of hours available on account of the restart that I caught while my truck was in the shop. Good deal.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
2/22/09
Leisurely Sunday drive without anything real to say... that counts as a good day in my book. My personal outlook for our nation's future continues to deteriorate on a steady basis, but I guess there ain't a whole lot I can do about that. Might as well enjoy the sunshine while It's still free and enjoy the day for what it's worth.
And this story, I don't care who you are, would have to make you chuckle at least a little bit.
And this story, I don't care who you are, would have to make you chuckle at least a little bit.
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