Indianapolis, IN

Don't you love it when you have one of those days that goes exactly according to plan? I kinda wish I had a few of those. :)

Joking aside, though, it went pretty close to plan compared to how things have gone lately. I started a little later than I intended, but I made up almost an hour on the road, which negated that loss. When I got to the operating center, apparently the hole in the roof was too large for a simple plug and needed a full-size patch welded on, among lots of other repairs, which would have cost me at least six hours. However, I called operations and they assigned me a different empty, which meant I was out of there even faster than I expected. I lost most of that time dealing with the shipper, though; the female at the guard shack was exceptionally rude and the facility was difficult to maneuver. I made a quick stop for a snack on the way here and ended up arriving here at the operating center more or less on schedule.

I'm currently waiting in line to get a couple of tires replaced on the trailer, then going to take my 10 hour break here. I'm not sure when I'll leave in the morning yet, but it will probably be fairly early. I'll drive into Pennsylvania, take a break at whatever truck stop I come across when I'm running out of hours. That will leave me anywhere between one and four hours to go in the morning and presumably just enough time to make it to the Carlisle OC.

There's just one problem left that I can't get repaired here in Indianapolis: my air conditioning. It broke yesterday morning and now blows exceptionally hot no matter what I set the temperature dial to. But if I put it in the shop here at Indy it would be at least Wednesday before they got to it and it's unlikely I'd get paid for the downtime. If I get routed to Carlisle, I might be able to get paid (and reimbursed for a hotel), but I don't know anyone there so it would be a very boring 34+ hours. And in both cases, I'll delay getting home, though I might need a 34 hour break anyway. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Oak Grove, IA

Another day, another round of frustration and annoyances. Apparently Kansas drivers not only understand the concept of a "speed limit" but they take it a little too far; I was stuck behind someone doing at least 10 under the limit more times than I'm willing to count. I also had an instance where I made a wrong turn. How I can be going west and make a right turn to go south is entirely beyond me. On the flip side, though, I don't even know which direction I was driving on that road; it was simultaneously east 160, west 400, and north 69. I'll post a photo of the sign later.

At least I have a decent work assignment for someone other than Kimberly Clark; I'm picking up at a place in the same industrial park as our Edwardsville, IL operating center, so I might be able to kill a bit of time there in the morning before the load is ready, presumably at 8AM. From there, I'll probably go to Indianapolis and make it a slightly short day, then leave from there and drive my full 11 hours to get into northern PA. If all goes according to plan, that will leave me a little under 50 miles to go on the run, which will be trivially easy to finish on Tuesday morning. That leaves me about 1,080 miles from the drop yard I use as my "home" location, which is a decent two days of driving. There's obviously no way of telling whether or not they're going to route me straight home or not, but I would be surprised if they didn't start sending me that way. Of course, I've been wrong before.

North Little Rock, AR

June 27, 9PM

Today was... well, entirely uneventful. I left the operating center, made a quick stop for lunch, then drove down to the Petro truck stop here. I've about 20 miles left to deliver this load, then I'm picking up another trailer from the same facility and taking it 375 miles for another delivery. I'll have no problem doing them both tomorrow, though I hope that they'll have something a little better for me once I finish it; I should make the delivery by 3:30 or so, leaving me two and a half hours to run.

Edwardsville, IL - Up and Down

Today was a rather frustrating day, if nothing else. I put a trailer in for a PM last night and told them that I needed it done by 5AM. I checked at 6AM and got told that it was in the shop, but it had never even been written up as a PM. Even more amazing is that, despite not marking it as a PM to be done, it took them another two hours to finish what they were doing. I have no idea what they did, but the trailer was in worse shape when they were done; the ABS was no longer working and I'd swear the brakes were way out of adjustment. In any case, I was already two and a half hours behind schedule, so I didn't care enough to complain.

So I arrived the shipper and had a rare bit of good news: my load was on a pre-loaded trailer, instead of it being a live load. Whee! I just had to drop the one I had, hooked up to the one I needed, picked up the paperwork, and resumed driving in less than half an hour. Things were going well until I got to a truck stop to fuel and had to wait about ten minutes just to get to a fuel pump, in part because another driver deliberately blocked me from pulling up to the fuel island. I wanted to stop there for food, too, but I couldn't get into a parking space because - once again - other trucks kept getting in my way as I tried to maneuver into a parking space. Even once I gave up on it I had to wait several minutes for someone to stop blocking the exit so I could leave.

Those complaints aside, the day was pretty uneventful. I just wish that stuff like that would stop happening; I'm finding myself becoming increasingly impatient with such things. I guess that it's just as well that I will be home in about a week, if all goes well; I'm supposed to be back in Pensacola on Friday, July 4. Granted, knowing how my time at home usually goes, I'll be lucky to even be home over that weekend, but at last I have some time coming up.

One other thing: I managed to break my cell phone. Apparently I stepped on it or something, but it won't turn on. So unless I'm at an operating center or otherwise find wi-fi, this might be the last update until I get home. I'll type them up and post them later, but there probably won't be regular updates this week.

Green Bay ,WI

The freight I had in the trailer fell over, so I had the "pleasure" of restacking a pallet's worth of boxes. At least it was only one pallet and toilet paper doesn't weigh a lot. Of the 30 boxes, though, eight were wet and five were damaged, which is generally a bad thing... amazingly, though, these guys didn't care at all. And rather than having to unload the whole thing by hand, once I fixed that one pallet, they took care of the rest themselves. So I decided to come up to Green Bay to get a few repairs done; I had a nonessential light that was damaged and dangling by a wire, a tire that had something stuck in it, and a trailer due for its annual inspection. They're done with that, so now I'm just waiting on laundry to finish up while typing this.

I'll hopefully be down near St. Louis again tomorrow night, if all goes well, though that's entirely dependent on how long it
takes for them to load the trailer. If they finish in under 2 1/2 hours, I'll have that much time to spare; if they take more than that long, I'll have to either find somewhere else to park or make up some time on the road. I really hope it doesn't come down to that...

Sheboygan, WI

The drive up here was fairly uneventful, aside from the occasional rain shower that got people to actually drive the speed limit. For a little while, anyway. It got more interesting when I arrived at the consignee and saw I had a work assignment... that was for both pick up and delivery in the same town. So, as a a result, I would get paid zero miles. I was going to call and complain about that after I'd gotten backed into a dock, but they took me off the load; apparently it was something meant as part of a dedicated account. So I got another assignment instead, also going to the same town, but instead delivering about 700 miles away. As a bonus, it's a "by" delivery, so I can get there pretty much any time that I want, as long as it's no later than midnight on Saturday, though there's no reason I won't be able to deliver it by Friday afternoon.

In short, I've gotta some halfway decent miles and I intend to move as fast as I can with it.

Walcott, IA

After playing tag over the satellite system for a little while, requiring me to stop at three rest areas in a row, I found out that I couldn't get the load relayed and, at first, couldn't get the appointment moved up. Then, apparently, the consignee had a cancellation and my appointment got bumped up to 2:30PM, subtracting several hours from my wait. So now I get to wake up at 7AM, start driving at 8 or so, and arrive there (ideally) about half an hour before my scheduled time. I'm sure that it's going to take me more than the "average" three hours to unload this truck, since I'm not in particularly good shape; I'm almost hoping they require me to hire a lumper instead of doing it myself, since that would be faster. At least, if I have to do it myself, I get an extra $50.

Kearney, MO

You know that you've gotten a lousy work assignment when you call up the trip planner and even she comments about how horrible your utilization is. :)

I have an assignment... not Wal-Mart, like I was told it was going to be, though. It also was an open pick up window, so I slept in a little bit, and it doesn't deliver until tomorrow night at 8PM. The problem is that I could get there at 11AM very easily, and even that's assuming I average just 50mph, take the Interstate the whole way (there's a roughly 35 mile shortcut I could take), and take an extra half-hour worth of breaks along the way. So I'm on hold right now trying to either get the load relayed or the appointment moved up. Failing that, I might at least see if I can get hotel reimbursement for having to lose most of a day.

... and, apparently, she's on lunch so I got someone else. I'm going to have to keep driving with it in the meantime, but I need to stop for fuel at one of our drop yards anyway and I should have an answer by then. I wouldn't mind if they let me drop it there and allowed me to get on break, since I could then be up and running at 3 or 4 in the morning, as I should have been today.

Spring Hill, KS

After taking a day off yesterday, just to enjoy having another day off on a weekend, I drove the 280 miles from St. Louis out here. I'm getting unloaded right now; soon as the trailer is empty, I will probably be driving about five miles up the road to a truck stop and going on an unexpectedly early break. Why? While I was driving here, I got a message telling me to be ready to go at 4AM since they'll have a load ready for me, but that load apparently isn't ready and they don't have the information for it. I'm trying to see if I can find out where exactly I'm supposed to pick up the freight at and whether or not they'll let me park there. If so, it'll save me an extra half hour in the morning; if not, at least I have one place that I can stop near here.

2:20PM: Okay, this is more than a little frustrating. I was on hold for 15 minutes waiting  to talk to operations to find out what I need to do tonight, asked what I should do, then was put back on hold while they made a few phone calls and tried to find out. While I was on hold, my cell phone dropped the call. So I had to call back, wait another 15 minutes, and got someone else who wouldn't even look it up for me after I repeatedly asked her to. She wasted more time explaining to me why I should just park at the nearest truck stop then it would have taken her to look up the information I needed. So because nobody can confirm parking for me, I have to park here, leaving me 30 miles to drive at 3:30 in the morning. I really would have liked to get an extra half hour of sleep; apparently that's just not an option now.

Monee, IL

I decided on taking a short day today since I'd worked 32 hours in the last three days. It worked out rather well, too, since my next assignment actually took me toward the truck stop I planned on stopping at anyway. So instead of taking it as out of route, I got paid for it. Whee! So I had a nice, steak and shrimp dinner at the Iron Skillet up here and now I'm just winding down before bed. I have a live load to get at 9AM tomorrow... up in Chicago. I'm going to plan my route out tonight and expect to average about 25 mph going through Chicago; morning traffic is usually horrible, especially on the routes I'm likely going to need to take. I'm only dropping this as a relay over in Gary, but at least that leaves me enough time to go somewhere else. Hopefully I'll get another really nice run once I drop this relay off.

Pharr, TX - Miscommunication and sleep deprivation

This is definitely going to be "one of those nights." I had trouble enough falling asleep, but then, just a few minutes ago, I had a security guard start banging on the side of the truck. I tried to figure out what was going on, which was not easy since the guard spoke only minimal English, but apparently he thinks that this drop yard is closed and, as such, I shouldn't be parked here. Never mind that the guard on the previous shift, the manager at the shipper, and the people at customer service all have given me information saying that I can park here. He's gone away, for now, but both the operations people and I are worried that he's called the police, a tow truck, or done something similar.

Edit (10 minutes later): He came back and handed me a cell phone with someone back at the warehouse on the line. They apparently wanted me to move back over there and park against one of their docks, which contradicts what I was told earlier (specifically, that I could if I wanted to but it was not necessary). I explained this and that I wouldn't be leaving until at least 7 o'clock since I had a tire that needed to be replaced and that the tire bank won't be open until 8. So, after they explained all that to the guard, he just told me that they wouldn't open the gate until 6 (more than an hour before I need to leave) and is now letting me go back to sleep.  I'm not going to have nearly as much time to sleep now as I'd like, but at least I can be reasonably certain that I won't be disturbed again.

Pharr, TX - How low can I go?

Today was a very long... waiting game. I made the delivery at about 9 o'clock this morning, then drove back to a truck stop less than a mile away. While I was making that delivery, I got a message asking me about directions for the next load... but then I never got the rest of my work assignment. So I waited about an hour before I sent in a message asking what was going on. I got a response nearly an hour after that explaining that they had a load ready for me but they couldn't find any empty trailers, so they would have to wait until some empties were available. So I waited. And waited. Then waited some more. I finally got tired of waiting and sent in asking them to update me with some new information; they finally told me to just bobtail down there and that customer service would work out all the details.

So, I proceeded down there. However, there's one thing that I hadn't accounted for: batshit crazy Mexican drivers. Of the people on US 83, about a third were driving reasonably, a third were doing at least 10 under the speed limit, and a third seemed intent on trying to cause accidents. I counted three separate times where someone passed over a double yellow line, two of those three nearly resulting in a head-on collision. I tried to pass one of the slowpokes, only to have him speed up, then slow down once I slowed down to try and get back into the right lane, all while another rig approached. Ultimately, I had to force the idiot onto the shoulder of the road to avoid a collision; I know that wasn't necessarily the best solution, but at least nobody was hit.

At least I made it down here. The place I picked up the load from handed me the paperwork, told me to go across the street to get the trailer, and said they had no problem with me taking my break here. So I get here, do my pre-trip... and find that one tire is just about shot. It's badly bulged out and definitely wouldn't pass a DOT inspection. I called maintenance and found out that we do have a tire bank we use down here... one that only is open 8-5. So I have to wait a couple of extra hours in the morning before I take off; I was originally planning on hitting the road by 6. On the bright side, this is directly along the way, so I won't be adding to my out of route. And this load is the second in a row that I've had of over 1,500 miles, so I have to show some love to the trip planner. Now I just have to catch up on sleep!

Laredo, TX

Another day, another several hundred miles. I had several more people decide to cut me off today, one of whom ended up on the shoulder of the road after I had to make a sudden move to get away from a mechanic working on a broken-down rig. I would rather get someone like that off the highway than take out a mechanic. Also, I had to make up a route around San Antonio since it seemed like traffic was at a standstill everywhere except going around the east side of I-410; traffic.com listed delays of several hours on I-10, I-35, and the west side of I-410.

In any case, the place I'm delivering to isn't open until 9AM tomorrow, meaning I have enough time to sleep in ('til about 7) get a shower, and still make the delivery at a reasonably early hour. I don't plan on working a full day tomorrow - I think I'll put myself as available for about nine hours - so I should be able to get back onto pattern of early morning hours if the freight allows it. Hopefully that will work out for me.

Colbert, OK - Window of Opportunity

I called maintenance to get that window fixed... and the tech pointed out that I'm less than two hours from Dallas, TX, where we have an operating center. It would be trivial for me to get it fixed there. So I ended up wasting 45 minutes for something that I should have thought of myself. Oops. At least this is more amusing than all the problems that happened yesterday.

Colbert, OK - Drivers are not OK

It seems like, after taking the day off yesterday, everything that could possibly have gotten on my nerves decided to come up. I had three separate people cut me off as they "merged" into traffic, including one dolt who insisted on doing 45 mph on the Oklahoma Turnpike, which has a speed limit of 75 and a posted minimum of 50. My truck was ready for me when I got back to the operating center, but they also managed to break at least one thing that wasn't broken before. Namely, my driver's side window switch. I was able to lower the window a couple times, but now it seems there's nothing left for it to make contact with. This, of course, after I put in a window screen, meaning I now have this screen stuck in my window unless I can somehow get the switch to work.

In any case, I'm tired, frustrated, and have to be up at 6AM to be on the road by 6:30. There's almost no chance that I'll be able to deliver this thing tomorrow, since it's still about 500 miles away, I have to get the trailer inspected at the nearby operating center, and they close at 4PM. Thankfully, I should be able to drop the load Tuesday morning, though that won't be until 7AM (when they open), meaning I'm going to lose a few hours. But to do any of that, I really need to get some sleep; this is going to be enough of a pain in the rear if I'm well rested and doubly so if I'm tired.

Edwardsville, IL - Restarted

I'm currently enjoying the tail end of a 34 hour break here, though I am going to have to sleep shortly, so this is going to be a similarly short post.

Ultimately, I did find my way around and picked up the load. Ultimately, I had to take US 12 all the way. I was in and out of the place in record time, too; I dropped, hooked, inspected, and left in 27 minutes. I stopped for fuel on the way down, since I didn't have enough to make it all the way down here, though even that went rather quickly. So in the morning, I have to get out of here as early as possible, do my pre-trip inspection and all that, then try to make as many miles as possible before it gets too late in the day. I'm hoping to make at least 550, though obviously that plan could change if anything unusual happens.

Relationships

Is it just me, or is the only thing that comes from being mated is having someone to nag you and tell you what not to do with your life? And not just telling you not to do something stupid, either, but insisting that you not do things that you'd happily do and enjoy if you didn't have "that special someone" telling you no. It seems that the overwhelming majority of people in relationships have no business being in them as they become, quite simply, worse people for it. There are a few that can make it work, I will concede that; I'm simply referring to a majority that become less enjoyable company simply because they are so busy worrying about someone else to actually enjoy themselves.

Yes, I'm ticked off about this because, despite it being so early this morning, I've already had tow people pull that card. Seriously, what the fuck?

Edwardsville, IL - Too tired to write

Today was far, far too long for its own good. I'm exhausted, though, so I'll have to write a full post in the morning after I've gotten some rest.

Mauston, WI

I-90 eastbound is closed. I need to take this route to Madison, where I'm picking up my load. There's no posted detour, either, unless I just can't find it via Google; the state's road information site simply says "travel in the area is not advised." So now what? Does anyone out there know something I don't? Please comment if you have any road information.

Durand, WI

After getting those loads, it was quite a quick drive to where I'm delivering to. I dropped the empty, picked up a second empty, took that to the new location, picked up my load, and hurried over here in record-setting time. I parked here, walked to the office... to see a sign that said "open 8-5, Monday-Friday." But, wait a second, I have a 7AM appointment! As I'm turning around, someone comes out from another exit and asks me what's going on. I explain. He then tells me to back up in front of the dock and just park; they'll have someone wake me up when it's time for my appointment. So I walked to a McDonald's a couple blocks away, got dinner, and now am just winding down for the night. Tomorrow's going to be several hundred miles of Interstate goodness; I hope I can make it to a decent park location by sundown.