This morning I delivered an armored troop carrier to Camp Lejuene, NC for a Marine Corps Expo show taking place over the next couple of days. I met with the factory rep, unloaded the truck, and after the paperwork I headed for the gate. Another of our drivers was also there delivering a Sandcat and we departed together. As we have to lay over here until Thursday afternoon to reload the vehicles and haul them back out again we decided to drop our trailers at Lot 201, which is one of the logist...

In Holland, MI tonight. When I left Seattle it was still snowing up on Snoqualmie Pass and they were requiring trucks to chain up. My policy is to not chain up as I figure if the road is that bad I don't need to be on it with a big rig. Fortunately, the company for whom I work feels the same way. No sense in risking an expesnive truck and load over a slick roadway. So, I went down to Portland and ran across through Salt Lake City and across I-80. It was 200+ miles longer going that way, but i...

Yesterday I delivered a couple of snow plow blades in Washington. One plow blade, along with a hitch and a spare tire, went to the port in Seattle. The other blade, along with a hitch and spare tire, went to the port in Tacoma. Both are going to the same Air Force base in Alaska. Why on two different ships from two different ports? Who knows? The trip out here was fairly pleasant. I ran into a little snow in Wyoming and a pretty fierce snowstorm coming across Snoqualmie Pass in Washington, bu...

I generally hate having to go into any port to pick upor deliver. They're all a pain in the ass, but somehow the ports in New Jersey are especially ass-painful. After picking up my truck from the engine shop in Milwaukee last Saturday morning I ran a load out East. I delivered some stuff at the airport in Manchester, NH and then delivered the rest of my load to two different ports in NJ. Both were a royal pain, made worse by the constant rain that was falling which made for miserable working ...

Since I'd retrieved my truck from the garage down in Orlando it's had a very loud and very annoying whistling sound coming from either the turbo or the air intake feeding the turbo. This morning I had to put the truck in our shop for it's monthly inspection and I asked the mechanics to see if they could track down the source of the annoying whistle, thinking it was probably just a loose hose or something. Wrong. They found that the NEW turbo installed by the guys in Orlando is bad. Damaged...

I've been in this motel for over two weeks now waiting for my truck to be fixed. One of the housekeepers here, a black lady, has been calling me either "Mr Blue" or "Mr B" since I've been here. Tonight that housekeeper happened into the motel lounge after her shift. I asked her why the hell she referred to me as Mr Blue. She told me the first time she saw me I was smoking a pipe and wearing a royal blue dress shirt and after that every shirt she saw me wearing was some shade of blue, and she ...

I've placed a couple of free online classifieds trying to sell my Sony Pocket Edition eReader with hard cover for $150. This extended stay here while the truck is broke down has strained my wallet and I am trying to raise food money. Obviously it'll have to be someone local who can come to the motel and pick it up as it needs to be cash and shipping isn't really an option. Anyone down this way in the market for one, let me know. Hopefully something will come of it. I really don't want to t...

I am still sitting in a motel in Orlando waiting for the garage to finish the repairs to my truck. When I spoke with them on Monday they told me it would be ready tomorrow, Thursday. I called them a few minutes ago and now they say Friday. On and on it goes. It's been two weeks now and I am wondering now if it will be ready this week at all. Delay after delay has dragged this thing out to an aburdity. My friend called me and said there was a woman who was interested in buying my place. I t...

After the garage told me this morning that my truck would "probably" be ready on Tuesday I decided that I should go and pick up some groceries to tide me over and save a few bucks. I had noticed there was a bus stop across the highway from my hotel so I got online and checked the bus routes and schedules. That line runs by a Wally World and has a stop there. Now, I must confess here that I have never ridden on a city bus in my life. I have always driven or taken a taxi. Taking a bus was a new...

As I have posted my truck is in a "broke down" state in Florida and I am holed up in a motel. Today the housekeeper came in to clean my room as I was smoking a bowl of Uhle's Bishop's Move. I was somewhat surprised as she said how much she likes the smell of a pipe and commenced to tell me how her grandfather smoked a pipe and how she liked the smell. Bishops Move is pretty heavy on Latakia so I am always surprised when anyone says they like the smell of it. This lady especially surprised...

This morning I spoke with the engine shop that has been working on my truck since last Wednesday. They still have the engine torn down and still have to replace the pistons and cylinder lining as the blown head gasket that started this mess caused the tops of the pistons and the cylinder walls to be burnt and pitted. Wonderful. So basically they are having to rebuild the engine. This is probably a good thing in the long run as the warranty is due to run out in less than 200,000 miles (not ...

I may have mentioned in some previous article that I am rather fond of wearing a tie on most days. While I do often wear what one may think of as a traditional tie, I am also fond of the good old, much maligned, bow tie. While killing some time at the local mall yesterday I wandered into Bloomingdale's to have a look around. I noticed they had many menswear items marked down 40%, making the prices almost reasonable. While looking at some of the sale items I came across a rack of bow...

Just to get out of the motel today I took a cab to the local mall. I had him drop me off at a corner and started walking. As I was standing and waiting for the light to change so I could walk across the street this guy stops his car and asks me "Where is Starbucks"? Hell if I know. The car behind him was honking the horn, as was the car behind that one. I decided to have a little fun and pretended I didn't hear him. I got away with it three times and numerous honks before he figured out I ...

This morning I called the engine shop to get an update on the repairs to my truck. The news was by no means good. This morning they arre pulling the head. He told me they had received some of the needed parts but were still waiting for some of them and the truck would be in the shop at least until the early part of next week. Wonderful. I'll be spending the weekend in this motel room. As I've already been here for two days, that's going to pretty much make a week of down time by the time my t...

After getting my truck out of the shop in WI I headed south with my load. I had a stop at a military base in AL, then a stop at a construction site in Palm Bay, FL, then a final stop in Miami. The stop in AL was a bear as an ice stoem had hit the place and several roadways were shut down includiing two I needed to use, forcing me to find some "intersting" detours to get where I was going. Once I left that stop my truck started giving me problems. I had a crane appointment in Palm Bay I nee...