I made it back to the yard yesterday. I'll be hauling a load home this time around. I need the time off after more than two months on the road. As Monday is a holiday my first stop, in Savannah, GA, won't be until Tuesday so I had some time to kill. I wanted to get a room for the night but as this is the 105th anniversary weekend event for Harley Davidson I suspected that getting a room would be both difficult and expensive.  I was right. I called my usual hotel and they told me they ...

In what I can only describe as a deplorable action on the part of an employer, trucking company Sid Wainer & Son fired truck driver John Acheson. Not for being a bad driver, not for being a bad employee, but rather for being a good, decent, responsible citizen and helping the NYPD make five, count em folks, five arrests. Here is the story in the New York Post:   SAMARITAN TRUCKER FIRED By PHILIP MESSING Posted: 4:04 am August 25, 2008 A trucker who helped the NYPD mak...

Yesterday I made my first stop on time. A crane was to meet me at the site at 8:00 am local time. I found the place ok and the crane was waiting. They had instructed me to come in gate #2. I saw the large "No trucks this gate" sign as well as the crane sitting there. That drive was built for cars not large trucks. Oh well. I managed to wiggle my rig into place next to the crane and pulled the chains off the large, 13,000 + lbs generator and the crew set to work rigging it for the lift. Everyt...

I made my delivery over in RI last week, picked up a dozer in CT, and a 7,000 lbs steel door in PA, and hauled them back to WI. On the way across NY state I stopped in at a small road house with truck parking. I used to visit there failry often but as I don't normally go out that way much any more I hadn't been there in a few years. The place hadn't changed too much. They still have truck parking and a large "Truckers Welcome" sign. The biggest change is that the joint has never owners sin...

I'm hanging out in a truckstop hotel waiting out the PA oversize curfew (can't run on the weekend). The place happens to have a bar. Several of us drivers were standing outside talking. One driver happens to be black and he got to talking about how some people toss around the word nigger, and how he didn't consider himself to be someone to whom that word applies. The conversation turned to the whole moronic race thing for a bit, and I voiced my own opinion on how stupid racism is, as well ...

I just vwatched an olymplcs fight between Ola and some guy who's name I can't recall at the moment. What a farce! During most of the fight I thought Ola was just wearing his opponent down with the Ali "rope a dope". But as the final round came and went it was obvious that Ola was more worn down than his opponent. Who won the decision? Ola, WTF? His opponent landed far more effective punches than he did. It wasn't even close. It was obvious the other guy won the fight. I boxed in High Sc...

While sitting in the truck stop this evening there was this one driver who pretty much lied about everything he talked about. After a few minutes I just couldn't take it any more and started questioning him about some of the stuff he was saying. After catching him in several lies, like "it only takes me about a minute and a half to download a DVD" he started getting pissed and finally told me he didn't think he wanted to talk to me any more. I can't imagine why. I can't even imagine what w...

Over the weekend I either picked up some stomach virus or ate some bad chow, I'm not sure which. The effect is the same though. Being sick any time sucks, but somehow being sick out here on the road is especially bad, and having extreme diarrhea make driving especially challenging. I was supposed to deliver my first stop in the suburbs of Chicago yesterday morning and the second stop this morning. No such luck. I was unable to move from the truck stop for fear of not being able to reach a ...

I finally got a bit of time to install Slackware Linux on my new laptop. It was well worth the small amount of time involved. The default installation ran pretty well, but after I reconfigured for the sound card and installed the nVidia graphics driver, as well as some of my personal tweaks, it is amazingly fast. The damn thing screams. While Slackware has a reputation for being difficult to install and configure, I've been using it since 1995, the total installation and set up time was ab...

The shop was too busy to get my truck in today so I checked into the local hotel. As per normal routine I went over to Applebee's for dinner and a few adult beverages. As with any restaurant Applebee's has a certain amount of turn over so there are usually some new people working there whenever I stop in. Tonight was no exception. I saw several new faces, along with the expected ones who seem to always be working there. I was particularily stricken by one new young lady. She has a classic ...

I delivered in Oshkosh this morning and then made my way down to the yard. I am now waiting to get my truck into the shop for servicing and then I'll be heading for Gulfport. I have a military truck going to gulfport, and some crane parts I'll be dropping off at two different locations along the way. It's an ok run. We had a pretty nasty storm pass through here in the wee hours this morning and now the air is heavy and humid. It feels more like Florida than Wisonsin today. I'll be happy to...

Yesterday I went over to Wal Mart from the motel. While there I saw that they had knocked $100 off a fairly nice HP laptop. As mine is showing signs of age and wear and has been giving me some problems I decided it was time to replace it. So far I really like this machine. It's an HP Pavillion dv6000, had a wide screen, AMD Turion 64x2 processor, an nVidia video card, 3GB RAM, CD/DVD burner, and a 120 GB hard drive. It's a real step up from my older, more expensive Dell. Naturally it came ...

Well, it took a while as I only knit and little here and a little there, mostly in truck stops, taverns, and honky tonks, but  I finally finished the sweater last night while tossing back a few cold ones in a little honky tonk in Texarkana. I think it turned out ok. At least it fits LOL  

I'm currently sitting in a truck stop in Weatherford, TX. I'll be here for the night. Monday I picked up a fire truck heading for the Air Force base in Abilene, TX. Once I loaded it up and chained it down I stopped by the yard to see if they had anything else going this way. I was told that they didn't so I hit the road for Texas. I stopped down at the WI/IL to fuel up. Once fueled I was preparing to hit the road so that I could be in Abilene by Wednesday (today). Just as I was about to pu...

Ever since the wreck in '04 and the subsequent 14 month recovery period, I've had some days that are good and some days that are less than good.  I call the latter pain days. Every day is an exercise in constant pain for me, but some days it's not so bad. Other days, it really sucks. Today was such a "suck" day, or a pain day. Every movement, walking, moving the arms, head, whatever, is painful. My whole body hurts, especially the joints. Walking is sheer will as the pain is amazing. ...