Man, I got hoodwinked on that football game last night. They didn't broadcast it live in Japan so none of my streaming sources proved useful. Apparently they're supposed to broadcast it on tape tonight instead. Now that I already know that the Irish won the game though, I can't really see any reason to stay up until 6am to watch it.
As a result of the football game not being televised, and as a result of not having to set an alarm for today, I got to sleep somewhere right around my preferred time range last night. I rolled out of bed late in the morning and set out for what turned out to be a rather easy day on the road. By the time I reached Pocahontas, the Tigers' game was just getting heated up and I saw no reason to stop, so I continued driving and listening. Another fantastic finish has the boys in position to sweep those thugs from Chicago tomorrow night. Excellent.
The ballgame lasted long enough to get me into Indiana. This means that I covered a little over 500 miles for the day and left myself a couple of reasonable shifts to reach Massachusetts by Monday night. Beauty. I'm at the Indiana welcome center, not too far outside Terre Haute, and my Sprint internet card has no signal. For a company that likes to market itself as some kind of leading-edge innovator, Sprint really does leave something to be desired with its network coverage. In most of the country I can get at least some signal and the number of areas with broadband speed has improved over the years, but come on. I'm right on the interstate and maybe six miles from a medium sized city. No signal at all? For shame.
I realized, after seeing that the Sprint option wasn't happening tonight, that I haven't had to tether my cell phone for internet service since the nuking of my hard drive. I had a rough idea of what the settings were, but it took me a few tries to get it right. All good now though. No access from Sprint and five signal bars from AT&T, go figure. Occasionally it does make at least a little sense that I have unlimited internet on two different devices. Not often, but occasionally.
I think I'll angle up through Ohio tomorrow and then run the turnpike across New York on this trip. Should be a little more relaxing that way than crossing Pennsylvania and Jersey, I think. I seem to recall something about the truck speed going up in Ohio at some point as well. If that's the case, then my weekend should keep rolling along quite nicely. The 55mph doesn't bother me, but going 55mph all damned day can be tiresome.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
7/24/09
Nothing like a decent Friday to soothe the soul. The Tigers take a pair from the bad guys and my work week gets a shot in the arm. Hell, even the worst investment that I ever made is starting to show signs of life. Yeah, I held onto that sucker all the way down. So what? I was like a battered spouse or something, always hoping things would get better. Things are looking up today though.
My load wasn't ready early at the Con-way yard in Salem, but this was one of those odd Con-way runs with a boatload of time on it so the timing didn't really matter. I had to chuckle as I drove across Illinois on US-50. Most of the route was a two-lane. One of my CTL colleagues and two of the Con-way Freight guys were riding my ass for a while. Then, in one of the stretches where the road had an extra lane, the three of them flew past me and sped along on their way. After that, every few miles or so there was a town and guess where I ended up. Give yourself a point if you said, "Right behind them." Morons.
I had to make the call regarding St. Louis once I got to the interstate. Drop down on the bypass or go right through? I've generally found the suburbs to be worse than St. Louis itself so I stayed on I-64 and crossed the Mississippi up there. There was a massive backup waiting to get onto I-55 and I-44. "Screw that," I muttered as I stayed to the left and started on another ill-advised expedition into uncharted territory. I knew that I-64 was closed and I wouldn't be able to get all the way through town, but I didn't think it would be too hard to find my way to I-44. No repeat of the Raleigh debacle this time around. For reasons of questionable legality we'll have to leave the exact route undisclosed, but it wasn't bad at all. A few strange looks from the local tenants, of course, but I'm used to that. I was probably on I-44 and headed westward before all those people who were waiting on the ramp.
Around halfway through Missouri my satellite unit gave me a chirp. A second chirp means a pre-plan so I waited with my fingers crossed. If I had to go into another weekend without an assignment, I would be tempted to grab my second week of vacation pay. Come on, pre-plan! No second chirp though, so I accepted that it must be some inane message to the whole fleet. As I reached over and hit the button to have the Qualcomm digital voice chick read the message to me, I got my belated second chirp. How about that? Nice big pre-plan for the weekend - beauty.
I wasn't due in Sapulpa until 7pm Central, but the scheduling of my next planned load would have been tricky if I took too long, so I kept the pedal to the metal and got there several hours early. This way I had time for a ten-hour break before the next load was scheduled to leave Tulsa. The plan summary said that I had to pick up at midnight, so either I could get it early and work with what was left of today's 14-hour clock or I could take my break first and then start with a fresh clock. I decided to shoot over to the shipper and try my luck this afternoon, just in case it was a pre-loaded trailer. It was. Beauty.
By this time the Tigers had won their first game of the day and any doubts about the quality of my next paycheck had been erased, so life was looking pretty good. I had a couple of hours still available so I headed back eastward. Massachusetts or bust, as the hitchhikers might say. Once I got back out onto the turnpike I received a message from the safety department. It said that I would be receiving a call from an insurance adjuster about checking out the damage to my truck from the Indianapolis episode. Umm, okay. I wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but whatever.
The insurance guy called a few minutes later and said that he was coming from Tulsa and he needed to know where he could meet me to look at the truck. Okay, I get it now. They're gonna bill the company of the dude who hit me so they need someone to put an official price tag on the damage. Big Cabin was my next option and probably where I was spending the night anyway, so I made an executive decision and told him to meet me in Big Cabin. He showed up a while later, wrote a bunch of stuff, and took a few pictures. Tough job, eh? Then he was on his way and my day was through.
The second win of the day for the good guys was a nice wrap-up to the evening. They gave us a little scare in the 7th but all's well that ends well. One day of sharing first place was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
A quick look at the company web portal shows that my week will end with 3,419 miles plus $40 in northeast pay. Last week gave us a little scare but all's well that ends well. One week of sub-par mileage was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
The standard approach on a lengthy run like this would be to knock out a long day of driving up front and then take things a little easier on Sunday and Monday. This time, however, I think we're going to have to switch it up a bit. Our Lady's glorious defenders of the past are about to go all MacArthur on the Japanese at 3am. Perfect ending to a pretty damn good Friday, I must say. I seem to have found a couple of sources for the Nippon TV stream. This means that I'm staying up pretty late tonight. This also means I'm sleeping pretty late tomorrow and probably not driving terribly far whenever I wake. I'll have a guaranteed parking space at our yard in Pocahontas no matter how late I get there, so that should work pretty well. Then two somewhat longer days will get me to Massachusetts well ahead of my Tuesday afternoon delivery. Go Irish!
My load wasn't ready early at the Con-way yard in Salem, but this was one of those odd Con-way runs with a boatload of time on it so the timing didn't really matter. I had to chuckle as I drove across Illinois on US-50. Most of the route was a two-lane. One of my CTL colleagues and two of the Con-way Freight guys were riding my ass for a while. Then, in one of the stretches where the road had an extra lane, the three of them flew past me and sped along on their way. After that, every few miles or so there was a town and guess where I ended up. Give yourself a point if you said, "Right behind them." Morons.
I had to make the call regarding St. Louis once I got to the interstate. Drop down on the bypass or go right through? I've generally found the suburbs to be worse than St. Louis itself so I stayed on I-64 and crossed the Mississippi up there. There was a massive backup waiting to get onto I-55 and I-44. "Screw that," I muttered as I stayed to the left and started on another ill-advised expedition into uncharted territory. I knew that I-64 was closed and I wouldn't be able to get all the way through town, but I didn't think it would be too hard to find my way to I-44. No repeat of the Raleigh debacle this time around. For reasons of questionable legality we'll have to leave the exact route undisclosed, but it wasn't bad at all. A few strange looks from the local tenants, of course, but I'm used to that. I was probably on I-44 and headed westward before all those people who were waiting on the ramp.
Around halfway through Missouri my satellite unit gave me a chirp. A second chirp means a pre-plan so I waited with my fingers crossed. If I had to go into another weekend without an assignment, I would be tempted to grab my second week of vacation pay. Come on, pre-plan! No second chirp though, so I accepted that it must be some inane message to the whole fleet. As I reached over and hit the button to have the Qualcomm digital voice chick read the message to me, I got my belated second chirp. How about that? Nice big pre-plan for the weekend - beauty.
I wasn't due in Sapulpa until 7pm Central, but the scheduling of my next planned load would have been tricky if I took too long, so I kept the pedal to the metal and got there several hours early. This way I had time for a ten-hour break before the next load was scheduled to leave Tulsa. The plan summary said that I had to pick up at midnight, so either I could get it early and work with what was left of today's 14-hour clock or I could take my break first and then start with a fresh clock. I decided to shoot over to the shipper and try my luck this afternoon, just in case it was a pre-loaded trailer. It was. Beauty.
By this time the Tigers had won their first game of the day and any doubts about the quality of my next paycheck had been erased, so life was looking pretty good. I had a couple of hours still available so I headed back eastward. Massachusetts or bust, as the hitchhikers might say. Once I got back out onto the turnpike I received a message from the safety department. It said that I would be receiving a call from an insurance adjuster about checking out the damage to my truck from the Indianapolis episode. Umm, okay. I wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but whatever.
The insurance guy called a few minutes later and said that he was coming from Tulsa and he needed to know where he could meet me to look at the truck. Okay, I get it now. They're gonna bill the company of the dude who hit me so they need someone to put an official price tag on the damage. Big Cabin was my next option and probably where I was spending the night anyway, so I made an executive decision and told him to meet me in Big Cabin. He showed up a while later, wrote a bunch of stuff, and took a few pictures. Tough job, eh? Then he was on his way and my day was through.
The second win of the day for the good guys was a nice wrap-up to the evening. They gave us a little scare in the 7th but all's well that ends well. One day of sharing first place was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
A quick look at the company web portal shows that my week will end with 3,419 miles plus $40 in northeast pay. Last week gave us a little scare but all's well that ends well. One week of sub-par mileage was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
The standard approach on a lengthy run like this would be to knock out a long day of driving up front and then take things a little easier on Sunday and Monday. This time, however, I think we're going to have to switch it up a bit. Our Lady's glorious defenders of the past are about to go all MacArthur on the Japanese at 3am. Perfect ending to a pretty damn good Friday, I must say. I seem to have found a couple of sources for the Nippon TV stream. This means that I'm staying up pretty late tonight. This also means I'm sleeping pretty late tomorrow and probably not driving terribly far whenever I wake. I'll have a guaranteed parking space at our yard in Pocahontas no matter how late I get there, so that should work pretty well. Then two somewhat longer days will get me to Massachusetts well ahead of my Tuesday afternoon delivery. Go Irish!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
7/23/09
Dude. My team can't hit. Their team can't lose. It's gonna be a rough weekend against those thugs from Chicago, I suspect. That Buehrle fella sure didn't help my confidence with his perfect game today. Peckerhead.
After a much-needed night of quiet rest in cool weather, I had a pretty easy day of driving. Across to Paducah, quick fuel stop, then into Illinois. You know the deal in Illinois - Set the cruise control at 55mph and enjoy the ride. As soon as my consignee in Greenville checked the seal and told me where to drop my loaded trailer, I received my next assignment. I made my drop/hook and then took a look at the Qualcomm. Meh.
This afternoon's work consisted of a 45 mile drive down to Salem, Illinois to set up for a run leaving early tomorrow morning. From here I'm going to the Tulsa area. After that, nothing so far. Pretty slim pickings in the 'paid by the mile' world lately. I'll be at 1,843 miles once I'm empty tomorrow though, so a decent weekend could change that song in a hurry. Hopefully I won't have a lot of time to watch baseball.
After a much-needed night of quiet rest in cool weather, I had a pretty easy day of driving. Across to Paducah, quick fuel stop, then into Illinois. You know the deal in Illinois - Set the cruise control at 55mph and enjoy the ride. As soon as my consignee in Greenville checked the seal and told me where to drop my loaded trailer, I received my next assignment. I made my drop/hook and then took a look at the Qualcomm. Meh.
This afternoon's work consisted of a 45 mile drive down to Salem, Illinois to set up for a run leaving early tomorrow morning. From here I'm going to the Tulsa area. After that, nothing so far. Pretty slim pickings in the 'paid by the mile' world lately. I'll be at 1,843 miles once I'm empty tomorrow though, so a decent weekend could change that song in a hurry. Hopefully I won't have a lot of time to watch baseball.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
7/22/09
♫ Heaven help me for the way I am. Save me from these evil deeds before I get them done. I know tomorrow brings the consequence at hand, But I keep living this day like the next will never come... ♫
Oh well. Always good to make a new friend, I guess. After getting back to my truck this morning, the drive up to my shipper was quick and easy. I ignored the signs about 'thru trucks' and went straight through town this time. Rebel without a cause, man. Rebel without a cause.
I dropped my empty trailer and grabbed my loaded one and then headed westward. I don't know exactly how the overall miles stack up but I had no desire to go northward into West Virginia and then cut across to Illinois. West Virginia, in a manner of speaking, sucks balls. Dragging a heavy load through those mountains after a questionable amount of sleep last night sounded like a terrible idea. I went west on I-40 instead. Still plenty of mountains and slow traffic but at least it's a little straighter.
As I was rolling along, I got a phone call from Mom. She, my sister, my niece and nephew, and my youngest brother were on their way down to Pigeon Forge. The hillbilly side of my family does its little reunion deal every July and apparently this is the week. They got to Knoxville shortly before I did, so I stopped and we got together for a bite to eat. That was pretty cool.
After dinner I slugged out the rest of Tennessee before getting to the Kentucky welcome center and calling it a night. It looks like I only have around 235 miles left to knock out tomorrow, so I should be able to get some decent sleep tonight. That's good. I'm tired.
Oh well. Always good to make a new friend, I guess. After getting back to my truck this morning, the drive up to my shipper was quick and easy. I ignored the signs about 'thru trucks' and went straight through town this time. Rebel without a cause, man. Rebel without a cause.
I dropped my empty trailer and grabbed my loaded one and then headed westward. I don't know exactly how the overall miles stack up but I had no desire to go northward into West Virginia and then cut across to Illinois. West Virginia, in a manner of speaking, sucks balls. Dragging a heavy load through those mountains after a questionable amount of sleep last night sounded like a terrible idea. I went west on I-40 instead. Still plenty of mountains and slow traffic but at least it's a little straighter.
As I was rolling along, I got a phone call from Mom. She, my sister, my niece and nephew, and my youngest brother were on their way down to Pigeon Forge. The hillbilly side of my family does its little reunion deal every July and apparently this is the week. They got to Knoxville shortly before I did, so I stopped and we got together for a bite to eat. That was pretty cool.
After dinner I slugged out the rest of Tennessee before getting to the Kentucky welcome center and calling it a night. It looks like I only have around 235 miles left to knock out tomorrow, so I should be able to get some decent sleep tonight. That's good. I'm tired.
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