Howdy...

Wow, I really need to update the BLOG!

This has been an unusual run for me, not a lot of time with an Internet connection nor a lot of time for being colloquial.
After five wonderful days at home, I hit the road with my usual load of paper heading out of Maine, this time to Ohio. Due to this being the first quarter of the year, and the crappy economy, my runs have had more urgency put on them than last years. I can tell that the sales and dispatch teams are working overtime just to keep the wheels rolling. My current drive schedule has me running late into the night, and as anyone who understands DOT regulations on driving will tell you, once you get into a driving schedule, it is hard to get out of it. I, for one, do not like driving at night especially after driving all day. I don't mind driving early in the morning darkness and finishing up my day while the sun is going down, but that is not happening at the moment. Oh well, my wheels are still turnin' a lot!

I go for my HAZMAT endorsement test on April 10, hopefully that will go well. My ace in the hole at the moment is I don't mind running Canada, that is usually good for some extra miles, the HAZMAT can only add to my collection of loads. I already have my tank endorsement, so who knows... maybe I'll go for Schneider Bulk division...Nice pay raise there!

On top of all this, I have a head cold going on which is making life more difficult, but it is the season what with warmer days and cooler nights, this is the time of year when my ass gets kicked around by a cold.

This to shall pass...

Someone having a bad day...

I figured out that this was a truck that loaded after me in Arkansas. We were both loading and going to West Virginia. Nice guy, but he was running some real old equipment. Oh well, I've seen newer trailers broken in half on the side of the highway, at least he could get unloaded, and roll out to a repair shop.

I'm home for a few days, see y'all next week.

Breakfast in Dallas, Dinner in Laredo

I am definitely getting around this trip out. Usually I stay in one area more or less when I do my 3 week runs, but this time I have been from Canada to the Mexico border. I am in Laredo Texas right now, where the temp is 77 degrees, and the locals are wearing coats and hats. Man, I'm dying in a T shirt!
My delivery in San Antonio was at 6:30 this morning, so I had to leave Dallas around 2am to get there on time, and it was raining, hard. I have never seen rain like I've seen in Texas, I have driven through four rainstorms here in the past year where you just can't see anything in front of the windshield. Slow and steady wins that race, even if the people in around me don't see it that way.
I'm headed to Arkansas next, where I understand the weather has improved somewhat over the last week.
I almost forgot to mention, on my way to Texas last week, I stopped at the Petro in Joplin, MO. to fuel up. Some of you may be going "cool!" and some of you may be going "WHAT?" For the uninformed, that is the location of the Chrome Shop Mafia, and the Petro is where each episode of "Trick My Truck" is started from. The Mafia boys have their shop just across the street. "cool huh?"
OK, another quick video clip...

Lazy day in Dallas

I'm enjoying a warm, sunny, lazy day in Dallas today and not feeling all that inspired to write today, so here is a video I shot in January at a truckstop. I'm headed to San Antonio tonight, and from there...who knows. The great thing is that my miles are up, so the paycheck will begin to look respectable again! YAY!

Riders of the Storm

It's been a while since I have been able to get to an Internet connection, and have some free time to post, so let's see how much I can catch you up on.

I have made a run through Canada, delivering widgets to one place, and bringing whatnot back to the States. Most of this was done in ice and snow, and would qualify as no fun in my book, but I know the drill. At least this was done with loaded trailers which don't slide around as much as the empty ones do.

My run out of Canada took me to Belleville N.J. Can I just say that if one has to go to New Jersey for ANY reason, don't make it Belleville. It looked more like Tijuana what with the narrow streets and broken wires hanging from the phone poles. For those of you that can appreciate a blind back on a one way street, uphill to a broken loading dock, with 78,000lbs of truck, you will get my drift!

Anyway, I spent the night at our South Kearny drop lot and had fabulous parking! I usually don't get to park so close to the facilities, but luck be a lady tonight, there I was in the front row! The good news was the weather was 67 degrees and blue sky, man I haven't seen a day like this in a while, amazing what a little sunshine will do for the spirit.

I picked up a load in Jersey City, another not fun place to cruise in a semi, and am on my way to WI. via the Seville OC, which is where I am right now waiting out some bad weather. Things are supposed to clear soon, but this run takes me off the interstate (US 30, one of my favorite drives!) and I want to give the road crews a chance to clean things up before I leave.

Sorry about the audio, still on the learning curve with that!

The forecast is calling for more of the white stuff everywhere it seems, so be safe out there. Remember, you may be driving home from work, but the truck driver beside you in traffic is still AT work.