Yesterday my escort and I arrived at the Port of Miami with the really long oversized load. We checked in at the security checkpoint. Everything seemed pretty normal, present identification to the police officer and he runs it through the system. This process normally only takes between ten and twenty minutes. After an hour of waiting I knew something simply wasn't right. The cop said their system was down, but I didn't buy it. As soon as three police cruisers pulled up I knew something was d...

I'm holed up in a motel in Georgia until Monday morning. I won't have to worry about getting and early start tomorrow as I can't pass through the Atlanta area until after 9:00 am due to the restrictions there for oversized loads during rush hour. Last night I went to the little sports pub and grill next door for some dinner and adult beverages, and just to get out of the room for a little while. I had a pretty good time there.  I had a number of people, especially the women, express inte...

Since Georgia has a curfew on oversized load movements from noon Saturday until sunrise Monday I checked into a motel. This gave me the chance to spread out the sweater and shoot a progress pic. Still a ways to go before it's  finished but it's coming along.

As much as I despise insurance companies I went ahead a signed up for health insurance through my company. I figure worse case I can use them for the routine crap they normally don't cause a fuss about and if I need something they want to be pricks about I can just do it on my own like I always have. The economy is getting tighter and I came to the conclusion that perhaps the insurance thing might be a good idea if things get worse or I do develop some serious illness. I'm not too concerned a...

I made it to Little Rock around 5:00 this afternoon. On the way down I-55 in AR there was a fatality accident that shut down the interstate and backed up traffic. Luckily I was able to use my handy dandy GPS to route myself around it pretty easily without losing much time at all. I do enjoy the fact that our technology has reached a point where things like navigation and communication are quite easy for anyone. Just a few button presses and one can navigate anywhere around the world, or be ta...

When I finally made it to the yard yesterday I put my truck into the shop for servicing, which didn't take very long. Once I had my wheels again I checked into the hotel for the night to get some rest after a busy week. Once I had jumped into the shower to de-hog myself I walked over to Appleby's for dinner, a few adult beverages, some conversation, and some knitting time. The sweater is really coming along and I am almost finished with the ribbing at the bottom. Once that's done I'll just ha...

I'm currently sitting in Seymour, IN waiting to hear from dispatch. I pulled in here late yesterday afternoon. I picked up some electrical equipment in NC and am hauling it to a Wal Mart store currently under construction in Milwaukee (as if they need another damn Wal Mart). Since I still have a lot of open space on the trailer they're looking around to see if there's anything else I can pick up along the way to add to the revenue. Personally, I'd just as soon deliver this crap and go to the yar...

It's been an interesting few days. I picked up a couple of military trucks down near Houston on Tuesday. The place was seriously busy and I sat out in that hot sun for over eight hours waiting to load. It was well over 100 degrees. Once I finally got loaded I started North towards Wisconsin to deliver the trucks at Ft. McCoy. I had planned on being there yesterday but ran smack into the serious storms hammering the Midwest. I wound up parking and sitting out one storm Wednesday night as the r...

I made it back to the yard in WI late yesterday after delivering some railroad spikes to a rail yard in Green Bay. I'm having the truck serviced this morning and then picking up another load of oil field compressors and heading back to Texas again. I picked up the railroad spikes in a small town in Arkansas on Thursday. I had to run a lot of back roads to get there and it was an interesting ride past a lot of rice patties and not much else. They grow a lot of rice in AR, the largest rice prod...

I made it to the Chicago area and delivered the two forklifts on Friday. I then ran down a bit SW of there to pick up three pieces of construction equipment going back to the factory in WI. When I got there I stopped in at the little fuel stop near the place to grab a quick bite to eat. I saw another one of our drivers parked there and walked over to say hello. It was "Scooby" and he didn't look happy. Seems he had been sitting there since 7:00am that day waiting to pick up some of the same s...

Ah well, it's that time yet again. I got an email from dispatch providing me with load information. I have to pick up a couple of forkilfts in Jacksonville tomorrow going to the Chicago area. Well, at least I have one more night at home. I'll spend the evening finishing packing up and getting the house ready to close up again. I don't plan on staying out as long this time, maybe three or four week, six at the most. It'll just depend on the loads and the associated income from them. I'm ...

One clean, one dirty, and one on. That was pretty much the uniform issue when I wa in the service. In the Navy we had two different dress uniforms, a set of whites and a set of blues worn depending on the season, and three work uniforms. The idea of the work uniforms being that at any given time you would be wearing one work uniform, have one in the laundry, and one clean and ready to wear. That worked pretty well on a ship and saved storage space. After three months on the road I've been doi...

I was watching a crafts program and the woman was saying that a bighindrance for a lot of people is that they get so hung up on trying tomake things perfectly that they wind up either not enjoying it orsimply never finish at all. She said that perfection is highly overrated. It's a hobby and oneshould enjoy it, not stress over making it perfect. I have to agreewith her completely. I remember when I first started knitting. As I tend to be something ofa perfectionist by nature I experienced a...

Earlier I hopped on the bent and rode to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for the next few days. While wandering the store I was trying to decide what I wanted to cook for tonight's dinner. I wandered down an aisle and without even really making a decision starting putting tomato sauce, tomato paste, and a few other items in the cart and then suddenly decided to make some chili as I hadn't made any in a while. I do love a good chili, and am especially fond of my own. I make it the w...