When I pulled into this hotel I parked next to a bus pulling a trailer. It had dark tinted windows and looked pretty much like every band tour bus I had ever seen. I just assumed it was some band on tour but didn't know it for sure. I just went out of my room to visit the drink machine and saw a young guy coming out of the bus carrying a guitar. I knew it! It's some band on tour. I didn't recognize the guy so have no idea what band it may be. When I got down to the drink machine the kid wa...

I'm spending the weekend in Manning, SC, not because I want to but because they couldn't find me a load out of here. I got a room for tonight and visited the Mexican joint close to the motel. The bartender is a very nice Mexican lady and she seemed really interested in my knitting. She told me she doesn't know how to knit so I told her she could learn on KH, just like I did. I think she really wants to learn. Her English is far better than my Spanish, but not perfect. We managed to cha...

The state police, particularly the commercial vehicle enforcement division, is using a "checklist" interview to determine if, in the officer's opinion, a trucker is too fatigued to be driving. This checklist is not based upon any scientific or medical criteria at all, and was put together by the head of the department. The cop basically interviews the driver, without actually telling the driver he/she is being interviewed or evaluated, and asks a series of questions and makes certain observat...

After all of the delays, including snowstorms, high winds, and having to stop and have a muffler replaced on my truck, I finallly delivered the 7 ton military truck in N Charleston yesterday. It was raining like crazy the whole time I was unchaining the truck, detaching the front deck, and then reattaching after the guy drove the truck off the trailer. I was soaked to the skin but just kept reminding myself "At least it isn't snowing". It was a bit chilly for SC but still a lot warmer than wh...

I got my load picked up in SLC and waited out the weather. I would normally have headed out on I-80 but the weather didn't look goog that way at all so first thing in the morning on Friday I went south on I-15 and cut across US 6 to "The Devil's Highway" which is old route 666. They changed the designation of 666 to 491 a few years ago because a lot the superstiotious types refused to run "The Devil's Highway" just because of the number. Idtiots. Most of us who have been out here a long time ...

I stayed the night here in Salt Lake City and some snow moved in over night. I had thought it was all over and was supposed to be warming up. That'll teach me to think I guess. Right now the big pass heading east out of SLC is requiring tire chains, as is the first 40 miles or so in WY. Company policy is that we don't chain up, better to just wait, and I agree with that. If conditions are so bad as to require chains it's better to just park and wait. This time of year can be so unpredictab...

I finally delivered the airfield snow blower truck in Salt Lake City this morning. I've managed to finish the body of the sweater now and have started one of the sleeves. I hope to have the thing finished before too much longer. I had started it right before my mother passed away in December and after that I just didn't bother to work on it for a while, so now it seems like I've been working on it forever. This morning I got caught in a smaller snowstorm as I crossed from WY into UT, but ...

I am hauling an airfield snow blower truck out to Salt Lake City. I stopped here in Cheyenne,WY yesterday morning to get some fuel and breakfast. By the time I had finished eating they had closed down the highways due to blizzard conidtions. As the wind was so extreme I really can't blame them. Even loaded as heavy as I am the wind was pushing my rig around like a toy. A lighter truck would have a lot of trouble staying on the road let alone in their lane. It's a recipe for a major accident. ...

I got a call from dispatch shortly after I posted my previous article. They had an oversized load for me picking up in Salem, SD heading back to WI. Cool. I really like the big loads because they pay better. It couldn't pick up until the following morning, "8:00 am SHARP" according to the old fart at the farm implement place, so I headed on down to Sioux Falls and back to the Red Eye Saloon for a second night. That put me just about 45 minutes from Salem. I had a pretty good time but again ca...

Monday I delivered the oversized load, a piece of construction equipment, in Paris, AR. When I had called to check in Monday morning the dispatcher told me he had a reload lined up for me, a milirary 5 ton truck coming out of Ft Chaffee going to MN. That was cool as I was delivering only a short distance from Ft Chaffee. When I unloaded the construction equipment and called in he said that the load had fallen through and to just find a truck stop and hole up until he found something. Damn the...

It's been a while since I've been able to blog. The last time I blogged I was waiting out a snowstorm in NY. I picked up a load in PA and ran it to WI with a stop in IL. I then loaded up an airport crash truck and hauled it down to Mesa, AZ. I am now on my way vack out of Mesa. The weather is pretty typical for this time of year. I'v gone from pretty warm to snowstorm. I'm spending the night in Amarillo and it's snowing here. Such is the way it is this time of year. I spent some time...

I am still sitting at the truck stop in NY waiting for them to find me a load. Yesterday's major snowstorm pretty well closed down a lot of shipping, especially for the type of stuff I haul. I spent the day sitting and watching it snow. The truck stop filled up very early in the day as more and more truckers found the roads too dangerous to travel. One truck went off the road and rolled over about 5 miles from here. I never did hear if the driver was ok. Today it's cold but the sun is shining...

I'm taking the weekend off in upstate NY just to get some much needed rest and to take some time to do some laundry as I was totally out of clean clothing. This morning I went to the local laundromat and naturally took my knitting along to work on while the clothes went round and round. Once I had my stuff loaded into the washers I went to sit down and saw that an elderly lady sitting on the bench opposite from me was knitting with a pair of straight needles. Of course I asked what she...

I spent last night at a truck stop in Hubbard, OH. As I was sitting around talking with some fellow drivers the conversation naturally turned to the economy and how slow business has been. That's when this young driver from CT spoke up and said with a great deal of vitriol "Yeah, Bush destroyed the economy!" We all just kind of stopped and looked at the kid. I asked him what, specifically, George Bush did to cause a world-wide economic recession. His reply? "He lied about WMDs." Huh? ...

I am now on my way to CT and MA. Not at all my favorite part of the country, but at least I am running instead of sitting around. Late yesterday, after getting my truck out of the shop (just routine servicing), they loaded up another piece to go with the machine I picked up in IL. It was a huge steel ring. We had to prop it up at an angle on the trailer so it wouldn't stick out over the sides and constitute an oversized load. That was something of a circus and took a while but it was final...