Wow, I don't know what the deal is, but I have been doing some serious sleeping of late. Wednesday night I went to bed at my usual time, 10:00PM and didn't wake until 8:00AM. I normally wake, without an alarm precisely at 6:00AM. Last night I went to bed again at 10:00PM and didn't wake until 9:30AM. That's just ridiculous. I about shit when I looked at the clock and saw the time. I never, ever sleep that long. I am just guessing that for whatever reason my body was needi...

I hauled an over-weight military truck from Wisconsin to Long Beach, California and delivered it on Friday. The trip wasn't without issues. I had high winds across Wyoming and a snowstorm in Utah. My trailer developed electrical problems in California but I managed to get the load delivered before putting it in a shop to be repaired. Once the trailer was repaired in Carson I made my way up to Ontario, CA to the truck stop. It was only a 46 mile ride but thanks to LA traffic it took 2 1/2 ...

Well I am now back in Wisconsin once again. It was raining down in Texas and I saw a lot of flooded out roads, not to mention all of the lakes that are normally fields. There was even a few cars I could just see the roofs above the water. Dumb asses actually drove into it, can you believe it? After spending a day in Kansas delivering one load and picking up another I made my way towards Wisconsin, I stopped in Council Bluffs, Iowa for the night and visited a little redneck, hole-in-the-wall d...

Well, the burden of yet another new regulation has been placed upon the trucking industry. No hand-held cell phone use at all. One must use a hands-free device and must use voice dial or one button speed dial. Pressing more than one button, or failing to use a hands-free device will result in a fine to the driver between $1,000 - $2,750 and a fine to the driver's company of $11,000 (and most likely costing that driver his job). In order to be certain to comply with this new law, and to ma...

This morning I delivered a farm tractor to a, well, farm. I pulled up and stopped at the place, climbed out of my truck, and immediately heard ferocious barking a little way from me and moving closer, fast. It was a medium sized black dog. There was a larger dog loping along behind her but he wasn't barking, just running along for the hell of it. I stood my ground and waited for the barking dog to get closer. I was watching her the whole way. She was barking madly but her tail was wagg...

Today I had to go in for my bi-annual D.O.T. physical. It's normally just a routine bit of nonsense needed to get a medical certification card for two more years. Today my blood pressure was 6 points too high for me to pass the physical. I have never had high blood pressure, not even close. The doctor did say that it could be due to the cold medicine I have been taking for the past week or so. She then issued me a 3 month medical card. I have to follow up with my regular doctor in a coupl...

I am holed up in a hotel in York, NE. I will be delivering over in Lincoln, NE tomorrow morning but in the interim I am trying to stay inside, slug down Nyquil, and try to get over this damn cold. I've been battling this cold for nearly a week now and I think it has hit it's peak now. I spent a lot of last night coughing and blowing my nose despite the Nyquil. It was the worst night since I started having cold symptoms. Hopefully I am on the downhill side of this thing now. I had p...

This morning finds me sitting in Houston. Yesterday I arrived at the jobsite with the large generator at precisely 9:30 am, as promised. My part of the job was over at that point. It went downhill from there. It only took a couple of minutes for me to figure out that the crane operator and his rigger didn't have the slightest idea of how to rig the straps to this big generator to lift it off my trailer. I stood and watched them for a few minutes as they discussed their various options....

This afternoon finds me just outside of Houston, Texas. I hauled a very large generator down here from Wisconsin. The load is 10' 7" wide, 13' 11" tall, and has my rig weighing in at 90,000 lbs. When I went to bed last night in Little Rock the temperature was pleasant so I didn't bother running my APU. I have caught a cold and wanted some nice, quiet sleep time between coughing and blowing my nose. When I woke this morning and tossed back the blanket it was downright frigid...

I am spending the holiday weekend in a small motel in Wisconsin. Could be worse, I suppose. There was some snow last night, just enough to cover the ground a bit but not enough to be a real traffic hazard. The folks around here seem happy to have the snow for the holiday. I'll be hitting the Piggly Wiggly later this morning to stock up on some food as I am sure nothing will be open tomorrow. The room has a fridge and microwave. My weekend layover is more or less forced. I had hoped ...

This morning finds me in Corpus Christi, Texas. Yesterday I delivered two stops in Houston and then made my way here so I could put off my final stop first thing this morning. The weather here is pretty comfortable right now. Not too hot, not too cold. I spent the night at the Corpus Christi Truckstop. The place is very old and looks like a dump, but the waitresses are friendly and the food is quite good. After delivering three trailer mounted generators this morning I returned to the t...

After a great deal of driving and trying to work my way through some terrible traffic, a couple of accident delays, and road construction, and delivering two stops, I finally pulled into a truckstop in Seymour, Indiana. There just happens to be a bar and grill called Brewskies about a block down the service road from the truckstop. I accidentally walked in to Brewskies. Since I was there anyway I decided to have a seat at the bar. I ordered a beer, lit up a pipe, and relaxed for a bit. Dur...

I am spending a couple of days laid over in North Carolina, in the Greensboro/Winston Salem area. The final stop on this last load was a small excavator. I delivered it on Tuesday and now have to wait around until Thursday to pick it up again and take it back to the factory in Wisconsin. As I have had a terrible backache for the past week this layover is a welcome chance to rest and try and get my back to ease up a bit before I have to hit the road again. I have had to use my cane the past co...