I've been out to Tacoma, down to Denver, and now back to Wisconsin once again. I saw snow, yuck!!!!, out in Laramie, WY. That really sucks this early in the year. What's worse, I saw it again in CO. Double yuck!!!!! Once I made it back to the yard I lined up my next load, a snow blower truck going to an airfield in WV, and checked into the hotel. Once I was checked in I headed over to the tobacco shop to pick up some pipe tobacco as I was running low. I picked up some more Irish Aromatic blen...

It’s no secret that I love my pipes and pipe tobacco. I’ve found a forum all about pipes and pipe tobacco and the people there are friendly and civil in the extreme, even when they disagree. I find this very refreshing. It’s nice to find a web community where the people go out of their way to be civil and supportive at all times. It’s a breath of fresh air in a medium that can be anything but civil. But then, pipe smokers in general tend to be a friendly, supportive lot anyway. I’ve never ...

I delivered a snow blower truck to the port in Tacoma, WA on Friday. It’ll be loaded on a ship and make it’s way to an Air Force base in AK. As I expected, a reload wasn’t forthcoming and I am spending the weekend in WA. I spent Friday night at the truck stop in North Bend. Well, ok, actually I spent it at the tavern a mile down the road from the truck stop. I had a great time there. Friendly people with which to chat and a really good four man blues band played. I spent a good deal ...

Late this afternoon I called in to the office and spoke with one of our dispatchers (mine is on vacation) and requested that a sum of money be transferred to my fuel card. I was pretty much out of cash and needed that money to purchase dinner tonight. I continued down the road to my planned stop, which I arrived at well after our office had closed. I called the number to check my card balance and found that, despite her assurance that she would transfer the funds, she had failed to put the mo...

Below is my new look, which I happen to like even if others don't. I've received several compliments on my appearance and a few questions, but overall the general consensus is a positive one. Yesterday I stopped at a truck stop in rural NC to refuel my truck. After fueling up I walked inside to the fuel desk to sign and receive a copy of my fuel ticket. As I walked up a driver was standing at the counter who had obviously watched through the window as I walked up and he said "I know you'...

The load I hauled to Antioch, CA this past week was not only a wide load but also it was quite heavy. The normal legal weight for a load is 80,000 lbs and with this one I was weighing nearly 90,000. That's pretty heavy. Due to construction CA wouldn't permit the load the move on I-80 and instead they routed me over 200 miles out of my way on secondary state highways through the mountains. It was a very slow drive through there with a number of steep grades. One downgrade had a truck speed ...

I delivered the load to Antioch, CA late Friday afternoon. I then had to be in Twentynine palms, a mere 500 miles away, at the Marine Corps base there at 8:00am this morning (Saturday) to pick up a 7 ton truck going to Camp Lejeune, NC.  Needless to say I am now quite tired. I made the pick up on time, made my way to Kingman, AZ, and promptly checked into a motel for the remainder of the day and night. In a word, I'm pooped. I was also in serious need of a shower as the trip from Antioch...

I'm parked for the night at a truck stop just West of Salt Lake City. It's been a long day of driving, as puliing over sized loads tends to be, and I'm pretty beat. When I pulled in and parked I walked inside to wash up, grab a cold drink, and prepare to settle down for the night with a DVD. As I was standing in line to pay for my purchase I got to talking with a lady trucker standing in the next line over from mine. She mentioned that she had loaded today for WI. I told her that I just ca...

As my GPS unit has the ability to play MP3s and audio books through it's internal FM transmitter to my FM radio I've been downloading audio books from various websites that offer them for free download. I've found them to be a great way to pass the time while driving over long distances. There are a wide variety of genres to download and anyone can find something to suit their taste. Most are classics which are always nice to revisit from time to time. I'm especially fond of the Sherlock Holm...

I'm back in WI and taking the weekend off. Monday I have to pick up a military vehicle from the factory's testing and development department and run it out to CA. Not sure what it is yet, or exactly where it goes as most T&D loads are classified, but I do know it's going to be an oversized load. I normally wouldn't want to take a CA load, but T&D loads pay especially well and I need the money. Thursday I got a call from my friend in FL who keeps an eye on my place while I am on the...

I'm back in WI again. It's been a really rough week for me and it seemed like everything I hauled needed to be tarped. By the time I finally reached the yard yesterday afternoon my bum hip was killing me and I could barely walk. The fact that it has turned chilly here didn't help as it just made the hip ache more. I told dispatch that I was hurting and was going to go check into the hotel and get some rest. Everything else would just have to wait. They worked with me and set me up a load that...

I ran down to Texas and delivered my load. I was supposed to pick up from the same site and run back to Wisconsin but things being things they weren't finished with that machine so it wasn't ready to go back to WI. I wound up sitting a couple of days in TX. It was hot. Really, really hot. Like would fry a lizard on a rock hot. I finally got a load out of Ft Worth going to OH. Better than nothing. It was a load of roll roofiing and had to be tarped. This is not a good thing IMHO as the t...

Feeling the need for a bit of image change I've reverted back to an old style of mine, wearing a tie. It's really funny how such a stupid thing as a piece of cloth tied around your neck can change how people react amd interact with you. Just wearing a tie really does change how people act around you. Since I've started wearing a a tie again my customers want to shake hands with me, people call me "sir", and folks in general talk to me differently. Pretty absurd really, but it's true. I was...

After spending all weekend holed up in a cheap motel Dispatch has found me a load out of TX. Tomorrow morning I am to pick up down in Victoria, TX at a National Guard post. I'll be picking up a couple of Humvees and a trailer. Victoria is a couple of hours from here, and as I don't have the cash for another night in the motel anyway, I'll be checking out shortly and moving down closer to there so I can pick up first thing in the morning. Yesterday I started downloading the Windows 7 RC DVD...

One lesson I learned at an early age was "Never beat a lady at pool" and I have always stuck to that. If she's really good ya shoot your best but if you get the kill shot, let it pass. It has always served me well. Tonight I walked from my motel room to the bar. There was nobody else in the place. I got to talking with the bartender and she asked me "Do you shoot pool?" I gave her my standard answer "Badly". She invited me to shoot a game. I should say here that I grew up shooting pool and...