After sitting around since Monday afternoon I am finally loaded and on my way to Texas. I picked up the pavement roller at a road construction site. I had to just park and detach on the shoulder while trying to not get run over by the idiots whizzing past much faster than the posted work zone speed limit. Once I was detached the guy pointed to the roller and said "There she is." I told him that's great and that everything was ready for him to drive it onto the trailer. "What?" he asked, "y...
One of the annoyances of trucking is the lot lizard. They are creatures that wander the parking lots of truckstops knocking on truck doors. As I was sitting here surfing the net I heard a knock on my door. I didn't even need to look to know it was such a creature. I hit the button to roll down my window a bit and asked her what she wanted although I already knew the answer. "Want some company?" she asked. "No" was my reply. That is usually enough for them but this one responded with "No? ...
As i am stuck here at the truckstop in Denver until tomorrow afternoon I decided to go exploring. I fired up my GPS and inquired as to the location of the nearest bar. It informed me that there was a Mexican restaurant about a half a mile away that had a bar. Off I went. I walked down to the place and found that it was indeed a Mexican joint. I was the only gringo in the place. I didn't care as I wanted a beer so I sat down and ordered one from the very pretty Mexican bartender who was all...
The good paying oversized load to Miami fell through. It happens. They booked me on a legal load to TX instead. It was supposed to load after 2:00 this afternoon. I called the guy around 1:00 to let him know I was about to leave and head his way. He informed me that the roller loads tomorrow afternoon, not this afternoon. WTF? I called dispatch and let them know there was some confusion about the load and left it to them to handle it. Not my job, man. I finally got a call back saying to...
I spoke with dispatch this morning. He said he found a very good paying load going to Miami that loads close to here. It can't load until tomorrow but it pays well enough to make it worth waiting. It's a dozer and will be an oversized load. So I have an entire day to kill here in Denver. I suppose there are far worse places to be stuck for a day. At least I have a nice view of the mountains from here. I have my laptop, Sirius radio, and my knitting to keep me occupied as well as food and ...
I delivered the snowplow blade to the Air Force base in Colorado Springs this morning and then the snowplow truck to a dealer in Denver this afternoon. Everything went surprisingly well despite all the road construction and some tight turns. I'm now parked at a truckstop in Denver awaiting a reload. Same old story, hurry up and wait. Makes me kinda glad I took my time getting here. I'm going to wander inside and see what's to eat as I haven't eaten all day and my stomach is starting to...
It's pretty damn chilly in WI about now. Long sleeves and jackets chilly. It's too early for this crap. When I was in VT earlier this week I noticed that the leaves on the trees are already starting to change colors. It's too early for that too. I've opened up the heat valves in my truck and have the heat going in my hotel room now. I checked into the hotel today and spent the evening hanging out at the Appleby's next door. I worked on my knitting a bit while I was there and it was confirm...
I'm currently on I-80 in central PA enjoying a bit of quiet time before hitting the road again. The trip into the NE was interesting and served to remind me once again why I don't like running up there. The first stop, in VT, required driving through some beautiful country on narrow, winding roads. When I finally rolled into the little town and came upon the place I was to deliver it was painfully obvious that it was simply impossible to turn my rig into that narrow, sharply angled gravel ...
I finally made the two deliveries in Des Moines this morning after spending last night in a hotel. This stupid load that should have taken at most three days has had me tied up for 6 days. Absurd. The final insult added to financial injury was when I called to check the balance on my fuel card as today is payday. My payroll was a whopping $24. WTF? I got on the phone to the boss. I have bills to pay. It seems that we got screwed on the rate for the load I hauled up out of FL. Big time scre...
After making the Chicago delivery this morning I beat it out of there as quickly as I could and then stopped at a truckstop on I-80 for some breakfast and to make contact with the two Des Moines locations to notify them that I will be making their deliveries tomorrow morning. Or so I thought. The one was no problem at all, but when I contacted the second one I was told that they are having some sort of bullshit grand opening open house sort of thing tomorrow and won't be accepting any deli...
The day got off to a bit of a shaky start but otherwise didn't go too badly. A portion of this load of conduit, a stack of elbows, shifted on my way to the first stop but stayed in place well enough for me to get there. After they unloaded their stack I carefully loosened the straps on the shifted stack so as to not release pressure too quickly and cause the whole thing to fall over and off the trailer. I then climbed up (the stack was on the top deck of course) and began pulling and shovi...
Geez, I could have easily gone postal the past couple of days. I decided to switch from XM to Sirius a couple of days ago so I bought a Sirius radio receiver. I have yet to actually activate the damn service. I've stopped at no less than five different places that sell Sirius radios so that I could buy an activation card in order to start the service. Two of the five don't sell the cards for some damn reason, one sold them but the idiot clerk didn't know how to activate the damn thing, a...
I'm parked for the night in North Little Rock, AR after spending last night in a motel in a little burg known as Seven Oaks, TX. The motel was cheap, the lounge wasn't overly busy, and it was a relaxing evening. The drive up to here today wasn't too bad but could have been better if there weren't so many complete morons on the roads. Happens every holiday weekend. One in particular had me about ready to run her dumb ass off in the ditch if for no other reason than the safety of the motorin...
I made delivery at the Army Depot in Texarkana, TX this morning despite having a little too much liquid fun last night. I felt better than I expected when I woke so I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed on over there. It actually went pretty smoothly for a change. I cruised on down towards Houston after that. I'm parked about an hour North of there. When I got here I fueled up although I was only down to about 50%. I wanted the free shower that comes with fueling up. I had my shower and sha...
The past couple of days have been a tad tough. I picked up some stuff, steel parts, in Milwaukee and hauled them up to the yard, loaded and secured my own load which was a mixture of air units, a military truck cab, and a pavement roller, and started for OK. I had to make delivery in Seminole, OK before noon on Thursday as they were knocking off for the holiday weekend. I need to make delivery at the second stop, Texarkana, TX (military base) before 1:00PM Friday as that's when they knock ...