5/31/09

I need someone to answer for this one. On the following map you'll see Sandusky, Ohio. For those of us from the Great Lakes region, Sandusky is home to Cedar Point and some awesome roller coasters. For everyone else, it's the home of Callahan Auto Parts from Tommy Boy. Anyhow, I've circled Sandusky up there at the top of the map. You'll also see Upper Sandusky, where I stopped for fuel this afternoon. Now, I have an understanding of the meaning of the word 'upper' and this doesn't conform. I don't want to hear about rivers and all that nonsense either. If there is a city called Upper Sandusky, it needs to be above the city called Sandusky. This simply isn't right.


After staying up later than planned last night and sleeping later than planned this morning, I made my way westward across that confounding state. It was the kind of drive that I tend to enjoy most - a little bit of interstate driving and quite a bit of US highway driving, with smooth roads, good weather, and light traffic. As I crossed Indiana and approached Valparaiso, it occurred to me that I hadn't thought about where to stop for the night. US-30 is a fairly heavily traveled route so I had just assumed that I would find a truck stop somewhere around the Indiana/Illinois line and call it a day. I grabbed my directory to see what was around. It looked like Valparaiso would actually be my last shot unless I wanted to go quite a bit off route. I hung a right into the little Pilot in Valpo and found one open space. Nice. Trip planning at it's finest right there.

The process of getting my computer back to it's prior status has been coming along slowly but surely. In point of fact it's running quite a bit faster than it had been before the crash. Less clutter from old files and programs, I suppose. My connection speed seems to be pretty solid here so I guess it's time to kick back and watch some playoff hockey. Truckmiles.com says that it's 56 miles from here to New Lenox and the remaining stretch of US-30 gets pretty congested on weekdays. I imagine I'll allow for a couple of hours to my consignee. Then back on the board and hopefully homeward bound.

5/30/09

I know that some of you think you had fun on this particular Saturday. Amateurs, all of you. If you really want to have fun you need to do what I did tonight - Back up all of your data and re-image a corrupt hard drive with the factory default settings. Yeah. Good times. Good times.

The old truck driving bit somehow seemed awfully easy in comparison. It wasn't totally easy though. By the time my alarm went off this morning, we were up to six CTL trucks in the shipper's lot. Shortly thereafter, two more rolled up to the gate. This time we do have some aerial photography with which we can work...

Interestingly enough, the dock situation this morning was somewhat similar to what is pictured here (but with an extra bunch of trucks hanging around just for good measure). The other CTL drivers started pulling off in various directions to make room for those of us who were assigned the first round of doors. Looking at this picture, the astute trucking aficionados among us might quickly identify the one door that would be a royal pain in the ass to access. Moving in around a dropped trailer? That wouldn't be so bad. Moving into a dock with a trailer on your right but some extra room on the left for a decent approach angle? That wouldn't be so bad. Coming around the one truck that is already backed in and hitting the door right next to it? Yeah, that was my job this morning. Of course, I didn't get the luxury of the extra open space that would be on my right in this picture. That one had a trailer in it this morning. There wasn't enough room on the outside to cut the wheel to the right and take a sharp angle around the parked truck, so I had to come in from a shallower angle. Thus, I couldn't exactly get my trailer turned all that quickly. Thus, I was cutting it pretty close to the aforementioned trailer on my right. Thus, I couldn't turn my wheel to the left and try to get under the trailer, lest it stop turning. Thus, my trailer was way past perpendicular by the time I got far enough from the trees to do anything about it. Thus, I had to do the old Austin Powers routine (two feet back, two feet forward) to swing my truck around, then more or less blindside it in the rest of the way. Still easier than dealing with this computer though.

In assessing last night's parking options, I seem to have overlooked the fact that today was a Saturday. I kept driving last night partly because I didn't want to fight the Philly traffic this morning. As it turns out there was no Philly traffic this morning. There was also no traffic anywhere else along my route today. I have another easy payload (15,000 pounds) as well, so the trucking part of the job was definitely a piece of cake.

I got to the first Flying J in Ohio and stopped driving for the day. In case I couldn't get a fast enough connection on my Sprint card, I wanted to have the option to use Flying J's internet service to watch the hockey game. Their wifi is usually fast and reliable. I fired up the machine, let the startup process cycle through, and then connected to my Sprint service to check on the speed. It was decent but not overly impressive. I read a few e-mails and then decided to wait until closer to game time before logging onto the wifi service. I clicked on another site to see what I had missed in the world today while I was jamming to some homespun CD's. And that was that. No more computer. I tried the old standby of turning it off and then back on. Everything worked again. Sweet. Five minutes later... dead. System Restore... failed. Safe Mode... wouldn't function. Every other step that you're supposed to take... worthless. I was stuck with a situation where my computer would work fine for five to ten minutes and then completely froze without any rhyme or reason.

With a fairly powerful machine, five minutes is just long enough to jam around 500MB onto a DVD before the system crashes again. My install codes and receipts are saved offsite in my e-mail account for the majority of the programs that I would have to whack, so I just needed to get my data backed up before nuking the hard drive. Luckily for me, I had enough blank DVD's handy to do the job. This took a few hours (in five minute increments) while I listened to the Tigers and Wings on the radio. Then the time-honored tradition of setting up a "new" computer... good times. I'll probably have everything back to normal by July, just in time for the sucker to crash again. See? I had more fun than you had tonight.

When a week during which I requested home time comes in at 2,688 miles plus $60 in holiday pay and another $37 in northeast pay, we have to say that it was a pretty good week even with the computer hassle. I'll cross Ohio and Indiana on US-30 tomorrow and then try to find somewhere to set up shop ahead of a Monday morning delivery.

5/29/09

It's official now. No rain at all today. It feels good to get that behind us. The official definitions should be ironed out before the issue arises again.

My alarm was set for 7:30am and nobody woke me until 7:20am, so that was a pretty good start to the day. Once I was empty I headed over to the Flying J on I-71 to wait and see what would come next.

You've heard me whine about my Qualcomm unit's power saver mode plenty of times. Usually it doesn't affect things and my complaints are in the 'what if' context. Today the 'what if' came to bear. I got a call from the folks in Joplin while I was trying to decide which news was better - the fact that Pravda (for crying out loud) is stunned by how quickly we're adopting Marxism in this country or the fact that each American household is on the hook for an additional $55,000 in debt this year alone. Pravda had some banner ads with hot chicks on them, so I think they were in the lead when the phone call came. They had sent me a load assignment but the message hadn't come through yet. As nearly as I can tell, the Qualcomm turns itself on and checks for messages once every half hour or so. In this case the message must have been waiting to be delivered for the full half hour. I was needed in Lordstown for a ConWay run in exactly three hours. The distance from the Flying J to the ConWay yard was right around 160 miles. That's a pretty tight timeline in a 55mph state. Away we go then...

Due to some lingering uncertainty regarding my legal status in Ohio, I'm pretty diligent about observing the double nickel. I don't know for sure that they have an issue with me but I also don't know for sure that they don't. Better safe than sorry. Today I had to let my Swedish buddy Sjoe take the wheel for a few hours. ConWay loads are absolutely required to pick up on time and I'm one of those guys who is never late. He went ahead and fell in line with the usual flow of trucks moving a little more quickly than 55mph. The speed limit is slated to go up sometime in the near future, but as of today Sjoe and the boys were still bending the rules a little. The cops were out in full force on I-71 but they didn't seem too concerned with us.

I got to the ConWay yard with plenty of time to spare and checked in with the dispatcher. And... my load was ready an hour after my scheduled pickup time. Typical. I made a quick four-hour hop over to New Columbia, Pennsylvania and got rid of that load without incident. The nice and easy 17,000 pound payload took most of the frustration out of I-80 along the way. Also along the way, I got a pre-planned assignment to pick up tomorrow morning. Beauty. As we've covered in previous posts, I wasn't too optimistic about making any money this weekend. Gotta give the planners some props this time around.

I headed eastward on I-80 toward Levittown without any concrete plans regarding parking. I have to pick up early in the morning and there isn't a whole lot of available parking in the vicinity. My last decent bet was probably the service plaza on I-476 outside Allentown. Parking there and fighting the traffic toward Philly tomorrow morning sounded like a shitty idea though. Oh hell, it must be about time for a good old roll of the dice. I got to the shipper a little while ago and found an open gate. Charmed life, I tell you. There's a chain with a lock hanging from the gate but apparently someone forgot to close up shop tonight. As that preacher on the radio in Iowa once told me - "You're never lucky. You're blessed." Two other CTL guys showed up after I did tonight. I'm pretty sure that this makes me an official trailblazer or something.

I'm picking up a load headed to Illinois for a Monday morning delivery. Since I don't pay cash tolls, I'll spend a little extra time crossing Ohio on US-30, but I still will have plenty of time to hang out and watch some hockey over the weekend. Then I'll be set up nicely for something back toward Detroit. Usually lots of freight originating from Illinois. Beauty.

5/28/09

We almost had a full-blown controversy on our hands in the news department at Fenian Godfather Inc. today. I have encountered rain every day for at least two weeks and probably closer to three. Today looked like it may be the first day in a long time that I didn't encounter any rain. Here's the thing though. There was a ten mile stretch of I-71 in Kentucky where I had to use my wipers on account of road spray from a storm that had preceded me through the area. The news department couldn't reach a consensus. Is road spray a form of rain or has it ceased to be rain once it reaches the ground?

As it turns out, the 'no rain' story won't be reported this evening so we'll have some time to work on that one. After a long break at the Pilot in London, I got back out on the road and finished my drive to my consignee in Delaware. There was a bit of a steady rain shortly after I left the truck stop, so the streak of days with rain has been maintained. Controversy avoided... for now.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be parked here or not but it looks like I'm not bothering anyone. The purpose of the break at the truck stop was to wait until the consignee had closed up shop before I arrived. There are a handful of cars in the lot and the lights are on, so I guess my plan missed the mark by a little bit. We'll have to see if anyone kicks me out before tomorrow morning. I think I'll be fine.

My home time request has now been sent in advance of my time off for next week. If history is any guide, I'll be heading home in short order without making any more money this week. Obviously I would prefer another few hundred miles first but I don't really have any say in the matter. Either I'll make a few more bucks and get home early next week or I'll get home and have an extra weekend off. No tears will be shed either way. (Still prefer the few extra bucks though.)