Sometimes timing is everything. Backing a big rig into a tight space such as a parking spot is no easy task. It takes a great deal of practice and skill to get good at it and to not hit anything on either side while doing it. Some drivers are better at it than others and some just plain suck at it. Rookie drivers are notorious for backing accidents. It's the single most common accident rookies are involved in. The easiest way for them to avoid such an accident is to get their ass out of th...

Since I can't deliver this load in IL until Monday I have just been taking my time wandering over that way. Today I drove a few hundred miles and called it a day. I'm less than 500 miles from my destination now and will probably cover most of that tomorrow. I picked up a DVD copy of I Am Legend and will watch that this evening. I'm also knitting a sweater vest out of the alpaca yarn I bought in Ocala and have been working on that here and there today. It's coming along although there is still...

Last night I got a call from my mother. She had been in to the hospital last week so they could get a biopsy of a sore place in her throat. She's had throat cancer in the past and they keep a close eye on that. She got the results of the biopsy back yesterday and it was positive for cancer. It's back. She's not a candidate for radiation therapy again so they are going to opt for surgery and chemo. She meets with the surgeon next week. Her doctor warned her that there is a very good chance tha...

Yesterday when I spoke with the dealership they told me they had ordered the parts needed to repair my truck and expected to receive them today either at 9:00am or at noon. I called them this morning shortly after 9:00 to see if the parts had arrived and to get an idea when the truck would be ready to go. The guy told me that the truck was finished and ready to go. Huh? What happened to not having the parts? All he would say was that it was ready for me to pick up. Once I got there, got th...

Today someone mentioned to me that the hotel in which I am staying is reputedly haunted. I did a quick bit of googling and found that it is indeed listed among the haunted hotels of America. According to the story a bride named Rosieand her new groom checked into the hotel on their honeymoon. Oneevening the groom went down to the lounge to have a drink and while hewas there he met another woman. After a prolonged absence, Rosie went insearch of her new husband, only to find him and hi...

I am in a hotel in downtown Cheyenne, WY waiting for my truck to berepaired (again). I walked down to the lobby and into the coffee shopthis morning and what do I see? A fellow sitting in a wheelchairknitting a scarf in intarsia on large straights. He had several intarsia scarves in bright colors laying around him onthe backs of chairs and such. It was obvious he's trying to sell them.If I'd had any spare money I would have bought one to help him out butmy own wallet is a bit tight right no...

I am really getting fed up with this truck. Yesterday the turn signals kept tripping the flasher breaker and I had to stop at the dealership in Salt Lake City to have that checked out. Turned out the wiring harness for the left front turn signal and headlights got pinched in the hood's hinge and was shorting to ground. Luckily the shop guy found it right away as he'd seen it before, and I was on my way again pretty quickly after he spliced and repaired the wiring. I stopped in Western WY last...

This morning I picked up a load at the Las Vegas Convention Center. They had a huge construction trade show there which ended this weekend and there were hundreds of trucks picking up the stuff that had been on display to take it all back where it came from. Trade shows are always a circus, and this one was no exception. I had originally been dispatched to drive down to Vegas on Friday so I could pick up on Saturday. Shortly after crossing from AZ into NV I got the word that the schedule had ...

This morning in Dallas, TX a 28 year old woman threw her two children from an overpass into rush hour traffic and then jumped from it herself. Amazingly, at this point all three are still alive although in critical condition. Truly horrific.   AP Story

The Department of Transportation is actively blacklisting news outlets that are openly and aggressively critical of the Mexican Truck Pilot Program. One such agency, OOIDA (Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association) Media which publishes Land Line Magazine, a magazine dedicated to the trucking industry, has been subjected to such blacklisting. In August of 2007, after some articles that were highly critical of the pilot program, the DOT abruptly cut off all communication with OOIDA Me...

This has been a pretty good trip so far. I stopped Sunday night in SD and accidentally wandered into the bar next to the truckstop for a couple of cold ones before hitting the sack. Being Sunday it wasn't overly busy, just a few truckers and a few locals. As I was sitting at the bar knitting a sweater with some alpaca yarn I bought down in Ocala this big dude walked over from the other end of the bar and asked what kind of yarn I was using as he could tell that it wasn't regular wool. That gu...

Geez, between the whining about the new JU layout and the whining about the whining about the new JU layout I'm not sure which is worse. Either way there seems to be a lot of whining going on. Maybe it's just the fact that everyone is sick of the Winter weather. It sure makes me less than agreeable and far more bellicose than I would normally be. Folks get a bit depressed during the Winter months, some of us more than others. Some folks get downright cranky this time of year. That's no...

I finally delivered the two farm tractors in MI yesterday. As with the rest of this trip things didn't go smoothly. Neither tractor would start and so after spending a good deal of time trying to start them they simply dragged them off the trailer so I could be on my way. I had called in and let dispatch know that there were several minor things on the truck that needed to be repaired, basically a laundry list of items, and so after delivery I was told to just start making my way here so that...

I just spoke with the engine shop and once again my truck is supposedly repaired, reassembled, and ready to roll. I called dispatch so they could get busy ordering the new oversize permits for the load and am now waiting for the cab to take me over to the shop. As parking is a bit cramped here I'll leave my wide load at the shop until I have the permits and am ready to go. If the permits come early enough this afternoon I'll go ahead and hit the road, but if it's too late in the day I'll just...

After sitting in the hotel most of this past week I was bored to tears so I did a bit of googling, found a yarn shop a few miles from here, and called a cab for a ride. $25 later I was there. The yarn shop itself was a  bit of a disappointment as they didn't have a very good selection of good quality yarns. Most of what they had was the same acrylic yarns you can find at any Hobby Lobby anywhere in the country. I spent some time pouring through what they had anyway and did find a 1 lb ba...