Got a bit of catching up to do, guess Jason's motivator speech didn't hold. We've been pretty busy since Sat. We slipped on into WI and dropped our load at WalMart early Sunday and got our next work assignment for Monday morning. We were to pick up a load (41,000 lbs) of Aluminum coloring for ceramic mixing close to the Detroit OC so we headed over there and had a nice afternoon. Had a picnic and got our walk in - nice afternoon. We picked up the powder and headed for Kansas City, MO. On the way we dropped in on Andrea and had a great dinner at the Flat Top grill in Champaign and spent the night. In the morning (Tue) we continued on. We dropped into the Edwardsville, IL OC about 10 am and got fuel and took showers. I had planned to stop just east of KC and spend the night, but no the consignee needed the product for production the next day. So we hustled our butts on in. Well we figured we would spend the night in KC and hopefully get a load early Wed. Nope. Got our next W/A to go over to Procter & Gamble and pick up another 40,000 pounds of --- coffee.
I had a bit of consternation on this.... we woke up early and decide to hit the road about 5 am I had figured to be in Oconomowoc, WI (534 miles) by 5 pm and unload and then we could rest. Nope again. They only take deliveries after midnight. That's going to be tough since I can really only work 14 hours and then take a 10 hour break. You can't get that all in by midnight. What to do, what to do ? We checked into a Hilton Garden Hotel at 5 and ate, swam and other stuff and at midnight I ran over ( about 1 mile ). They finished unloading at 2:00 am so I ran back to the hotel and we slept in to about 7:30. I checked in with the office then and as I suspected the satellite didn't even know I had moved, since I had only traveled less than a mile, so they thought I was actually done at 5 pm. Works for me.
Then we headed into Milwaukee and picked up our next load and are now in St. Louis, MO with a load of cardboard headed for Springfield, MO.
We are both pooped out. The good thing is IF everything goes right we'll be done next Wednesday for a few days of well earned TAH.
I have a bit of trouble brewing... I have supplied the "mgmt" folks with my TAH schedule for the rest of the year. December includes two weeks so we can use our timeshares in Vail over Christmas and New Years. They didn't take it well. We can't figure what their real issue is. They have 15k drivers and it's unpaid time. So far they think they haven't approved it. What they don't realize is that I wasn't asking, I was informing. I'll give them a little time for it to soak in and figure out how to deal with it, but in the end, we're going. All the kids are coming, and we think we deserve it.
You figure on a normal year, getting weekends off you get 104 days off. They way we're working we get 5 days every 4 weeks. That's 65 days off. I think we're entitled to it.
Happy Friday 8/1, one week till the Olympics. Oh yeah, Dancing With the Stars starts in September and I'm told that I need to get Sat TV before then. Anyone got any poop on that ?
Bob
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
WalMart Ships ...
We at an IdleAire in Columbia, NJ. It's right on the border of PA and NJ. Beautiful with lots of trees. It's still early and the Funny Lady is catching a few extra winks, we're both much happier if she gets them.
Yesterday we dropped our TVs at PC Richards and Sons. They've been in business since 1909. Quite a huge operation. We got some personal finance stuff done, shopped in Costco for 20 minutes and headed out to Deer Valley, NY, Also on Long Island, to pick up a load of "supplements" at a little Chinese operation. We picked up 400 about 2 gallon drums of "powder" we joked it could be anything in them and we would never know. We dropped them at a Schneider lot in South Kearny, NJ and picked up a WalMart load headed for Coldwater, MI.
I wanted to do a little shout out to Grandma who catches all of our mail, checks for things important and gives us a jingle if she sees anything. We appreciate your efforts Grandma, and just thought I would let you know. Thanks !!! Thankfully we don't get any porno so Grandma is safe.
We're planning on a relatively light day today - 380 (about 7 hours) miles to another I/A and then about 4 more hours on Sunday.
Yesterday we dropped our TVs at PC Richards and Sons. They've been in business since 1909. Quite a huge operation. We got some personal finance stuff done, shopped in Costco for 20 minutes and headed out to Deer Valley, NY, Also on Long Island, to pick up a load of "supplements" at a little Chinese operation. We picked up 400 about 2 gallon drums of "powder" we joked it could be anything in them and we would never know. We dropped them at a Schneider lot in South Kearny, NJ and picked up a WalMart load headed for Coldwater, MI.
I wanted to do a little shout out to Grandma who catches all of our mail, checks for things important and gives us a jingle if she sees anything. We appreciate your efforts Grandma, and just thought I would let you know. Thanks !!! Thankfully we don't get any porno so Grandma is safe.
We're planning on a relatively light day today - 380 (about 7 hours) miles to another I/A and then about 4 more hours on Sunday.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Stuffed---
Our waitress, Deborah, didn't get as much of the food in as I wished. We're in Farmingdale, NY carrying 300 TVs. We headed out to eat and made a mistake... passed a Melting Pot. Ever been to one ? Be careful. Don't get me wrong the food is excellent, of course you cook it yourself and if you mess it up shame on you...
And you get four courses and even more if you need it. I can eat a lot (not like my boys) and I am stuffed. The preparation is excellent and there are many flavors to savour and you even get fondue chocolate for dessert. The entre had filet mignon, pepper steak, chicken, pork, shrimp and veggies. What's the rub you ask ? The price was $115 for two, including tip and no alcohol. We got there at 5:00 NY time and were second to be seated. Within a half hour the place was half full.
We deliver at 8:00 tomorrow morning and don't know what follows, but we're still having a blast at it.
Mon - Wed we were down to Bedford, PA, and back to Cleveland, OH yesterday and today 500 miles to NY.
We're going to take a walk over to Lowe's, look around (use their bathroom) and get ready for bed.
Will get an update in over the weekend. What did you think of Tracie's note ?
12 days till next TAH.
Bob
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Letter From Tracie
Our youngest is on a school internship in Ireland and having a blast. I thought I would post her last letter for fun.
Week 6 and 7 – July 20, 2008
Last weekend we went to Southern Ireland. Of course are first stop was Blarney Castle. Whenever you mention going to Ireland people always ask if you have kissed the Blarney Stone, and now I can say I did. There was a line to kiss the stone and when you get there, you just lie on your back, kiss whatever you can, and get out of the way.
The grounds were beautiful; I wish I could have explored them more. Our second stop was Cork. It is such a handsome modern city. We walked down the main street with all the shops and went to the English Market. We strolled around and ate some of the local cuisine. Unfortunately, the girl who planned the trip did not pick out things for us to see so we just walked up and down the main street a lot. That was a disappointment because Cork seemed like such a great city. The next day we went to Killarney National Park. We took a guided tour of Ross Castle, which provided us with many interesting facts. The spiral staircases are called stumble stairs because none of the step heights is the same. This was done so that invaders would have a hard time charging up the stairs. They even caught me a couple of times. The town of Killarney was kind of a tourist trap but still nice anyways.
The next town was Dingle in the Ring of Kerry. The bus ride there was terrific with so many shades of green. Dingle is a nice little coastal town with a rogue dolphin in its harbor named Fungi. We did not see the dolphin but we took a bike ride around the peninsula. There were breathtaking views everywhere I looked. The bike ride took all day so I was exhausted afterwards. It took four different bus rides to get home that night so I had a lot of time to sleep.
At work, our boss was out for the week so Christina and I took time to plan our Dublin trip. We made a list of forty things to Dublin and plotted them all on a map. We are going to flip a shit if one of the girls tells us they are bored while there.
Thursday was my birthday and I had a great time. The Women in Engineering Dean came and took us out to dinner that night and the girls pitched in and bought me a cake and chocolates. Then that night we went out to a new club and danced the night away. Overall, it was a great birthday.
This week is the Galway Arts Festival so there are many people in town. I volunteered for Circa, which is like Circ de Soleil. They had gymnastics, ribbon acrobats, trapeze artists, and the last act they had the woman walk over a man in four-inch heels! It was so good I volunteered for it twice. I also volunteered for a street performance of stilters. They have a moving dinosaur on them, head in front and tail in back. They run up and down Shop Street on their stilts and freak people out. It is good. Tonight is the Macnas prarade where I am in the Deadly Choir. I am really pumped.
She's a kick-in-the-pants ain't she ?
Week 6 and 7 – July 20, 2008
Last weekend we went to Southern Ireland. Of course are first stop was Blarney Castle. Whenever you mention going to Ireland people always ask if you have kissed the Blarney Stone, and now I can say I did. There was a line to kiss the stone and when you get there, you just lie on your back, kiss whatever you can, and get out of the way.
The grounds were beautiful; I wish I could have explored them more. Our second stop was Cork. It is such a handsome modern city. We walked down the main street with all the shops and went to the English Market. We strolled around and ate some of the local cuisine. Unfortunately, the girl who planned the trip did not pick out things for us to see so we just walked up and down the main street a lot. That was a disappointment because Cork seemed like such a great city. The next day we went to Killarney National Park. We took a guided tour of Ross Castle, which provided us with many interesting facts. The spiral staircases are called stumble stairs because none of the step heights is the same. This was done so that invaders would have a hard time charging up the stairs. They even caught me a couple of times. The town of Killarney was kind of a tourist trap but still nice anyways.
The next town was Dingle in the Ring of Kerry. The bus ride there was terrific with so many shades of green. Dingle is a nice little coastal town with a rogue dolphin in its harbor named Fungi. We did not see the dolphin but we took a bike ride around the peninsula. There were breathtaking views everywhere I looked. The bike ride took all day so I was exhausted afterwards. It took four different bus rides to get home that night so I had a lot of time to sleep.
At work, our boss was out for the week so Christina and I took time to plan our Dublin trip. We made a list of forty things to Dublin and plotted them all on a map. We are going to flip a shit if one of the girls tells us they are bored while there.
Thursday was my birthday and I had a great time. The Women in Engineering Dean came and took us out to dinner that night and the girls pitched in and bought me a cake and chocolates. Then that night we went out to a new club and danced the night away. Overall, it was a great birthday.
This week is the Galway Arts Festival so there are many people in town. I volunteered for Circa, which is like Circ de Soleil. They had gymnastics, ribbon acrobats, trapeze artists, and the last act they had the woman walk over a man in four-inch heels! It was so good I volunteered for it twice. I also volunteered for a street performance of stilters. They have a moving dinosaur on them, head in front and tail in back. They run up and down Shop Street on their stilts and freak people out. It is good. Tonight is the Macnas prarade where I am in the Deadly Choir. I am really pumped.
She's a kick-in-the-pants ain't she ?
To Tennessee and Back
Friday started off a bit rough and ended rougher...
I got up at 4:30 my time (5:30 Detroit) and walked over to the OC to check on the truck. Imagine my surprise - no it isn't ready, should be by about 1 or 2. Oh, heck... I need to be at the shippers at 8 and it's about an hour and a half away. Calling Schneider rent-a-truck. Not really but I was able to get a loaner and get on the way. It was a day cab - no sleeper. Got back at 10:00 and had a nice breakfast. At least the food is good at the Detroiter truck stop. About noon we came back to the OC and no parts, yet. 1,2,3... no parts. So I called my DBL (Driver Business Leader) group. I thought why not just wait until tomorrow (Sat) and take the load on down to Columbus. Oh, no, can't do that. I'm scheduled to pick up another load tonight (Fri) at Wal-Mart in Columbus.
Another loaner truck, a sleeper this time and we moved "some" of our stuff over and hit the road. I was scheduled to pick up at WalMart at 8:40. Guess what time we got there ? 8:41.
Just lucky I guess.
We stayed there in Columbus (Fri) and headed for WM in Midway, TN on Sat morning. Made it on down and dropped the load and skipped over to Premium Waters to pick up 43,000 lbs of water to take back to MI. At least we're headed back to our truck. We spent last night at a Super 8 and saw a bit of the races at the Bristol raceway. Got back to the MI OC this afternoon. THE TRUCK WAS DONE, pretty good. The Funny Lady has a bit of trouble cranking the handle. It will probably break again before too long. We moved all of our stuff back and got showered up and are ready for tomorrow.
The ride both ways was beautiful. On the way back we came through the Cumberland Gap. What struck us most odd was that the smog was worse down there than back here in OH and MI. You could not even see a mile across the mountains in TN and KY.
So, Jason, is that better ? Thanks for motivating me !!!
I got up at 4:30 my time (5:30 Detroit) and walked over to the OC to check on the truck. Imagine my surprise - no it isn't ready, should be by about 1 or 2. Oh, heck... I need to be at the shippers at 8 and it's about an hour and a half away. Calling Schneider rent-a-truck. Not really but I was able to get a loaner and get on the way. It was a day cab - no sleeper. Got back at 10:00 and had a nice breakfast. At least the food is good at the Detroiter truck stop. About noon we came back to the OC and no parts, yet. 1,2,3... no parts. So I called my DBL (Driver Business Leader) group. I thought why not just wait until tomorrow (Sat) and take the load on down to Columbus. Oh, no, can't do that. I'm scheduled to pick up another load tonight (Fri) at Wal-Mart in Columbus.
Another loaner truck, a sleeper this time and we moved "some" of our stuff over and hit the road. I was scheduled to pick up at WalMart at 8:40. Guess what time we got there ? 8:41.
Just lucky I guess.
We stayed there in Columbus (Fri) and headed for WM in Midway, TN on Sat morning. Made it on down and dropped the load and skipped over to Premium Waters to pick up 43,000 lbs of water to take back to MI. At least we're headed back to our truck. We spent last night at a Super 8 and saw a bit of the races at the Bristol raceway. Got back to the MI OC this afternoon. THE TRUCK WAS DONE, pretty good. The Funny Lady has a bit of trouble cranking the handle. It will probably break again before too long. We moved all of our stuff back and got showered up and are ready for tomorrow.
The ride both ways was beautiful. On the way back we came through the Cumberland Gap. What struck us most odd was that the smog was worse down there than back here in OH and MI. You could not even see a mile across the mountains in TN and KY.
So, Jason, is that better ? Thanks for motivating me !!!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Catching Up Again
I got a note from Jason today... says he is disappointed with my lack of blog updates. Sounded like an review from the big "A." I figure I'll try to catch up a bit.
Happy Birthday, Tracie - in Ireland. Last of the teens.
Happy Birthday, Tracie - in Ireland. Last of the teens.
We had a nice and relaxing TAH in Ponca City with G-Ma, G-Pa, Joe and Beth. Seems like we take off a few pounds while on the road and Joe puts them back on while we're home. He must feel sorry for us.
Was off from Wed afternoon until Tuesday morning. Wow can you believe that and didn't even have to drive to and from Gary for it. Wonders will never cease. I went down to OKC on Monday to vacuum the truck and wipe all of the surfaces down in prep for Tuesday. At least we start off on the right foot.
The Qualcomm indicated that freight was real slow so I was a little sceptical about getting a load on Tuesday. Not to worry. The first load was to pick up a trailer there in the drop lot and head up to I35 to Wichita, KS. Just where we came down from. We went to Coleman and picked up a load of their stuff and took it to Hebron, KY to --- Amazon.com. We noticed at least four huge buildings there with Amazon.com on them, they have a huge presence there.
This morning we dropped that and then picked up a load (40,000 pounds) of paper headed for Canada. But we're dropped it at the Detroit OC for someone (assume Canadian) to take on his/her way home. While we're here at the OC I asked if they could fix the passenger door handle. Viola they said they could. Everywhere we go I have to open the passenger door for the Funny Lady. I think bystanders think it's a bit weird, but they don't know the whole story and I'm not going to tell.
Schneider has a relationship with the truckstop next to it called the Detroiter. So while they work on the door tonight we came over here to stay.
This place was built in 1965 and I'm pretty sure not much has been changed over time. The hallway surely isn't any wid
er than 32 inches. It looks like prison walls for sure.
This place was built in 1965 and I'm pretty sure not much has been changed over time. The hallway surely isn't any wid
er than 32 inches. It looks like prison walls for sure. If you check in after 7 pm it's 24 dollars, which we did. Course they didn't tell us there were only single beds. But at least we got a shower and A/C. Look the Funny Lady likes the Detroiter, too. We certainly have got a kick out of this place. It's another one of our treats we get from our grab bag of adventures everyday.
This morning in Indiana we bought baked goodies from some Amish kids selling their wares at a truck stop. They were cute.
Tomorrow we're headed over to Brighton, MI to something called Office Attire to pick up 44,000 pounds of furniture and take it to the OC in Hilliard, OH. Another relay. I'm not sure why I have turned into the relay person. Could be that I have migrated to my permanent dispatching board and maybe now I'm the new kid on the block. We'll see what the weekend holds.
Anyway, we're still having fun, enjoying traveling and each other.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
TAH - Ponca City, OK
Time for a little catch up. We're in day 1 of our time at home. I'll need to back up to last week and quickly come forward.
We headed of to Denver had a nice trip across the country. Made it to Tennessee the first night and Hays, KS the second which was the Fourth of July. We pulled into an empty lot on the edge of town. The Funny Lady watched PS I Love on our little DVD player while I read and about 9 pm the personal fireworks started and then at 10 pm the city of Hays' fireworks started. Was very nice.
We hoofed on into Denver (Saturday) and dropped the load by about 1:00 and bobtailed downtown. We had and excellent Mongolian BBQ at BD's on Wazee three blocks from Coors Stadium. There's a thought. We went to the movie in Northfield and saw the tail end of Love Guru - save your money, and Hancock. Can't recommend that one either, though I like Will Smith a lot. No load yet...
Sunday, no load yet... So we went to the CO Rockies vs Florida Marlins baseball game. Great afternoon at the ballpark. Brats and kettle corn. Look, the Funny Lady made it, too.
Coors Field is a very pretty ballpark. The Rockies lost but we had fun anyway.
Late Sunday we get the next work assignment; pick up a load of Coca Cola and take it to Roswell, NM. Hmmmmm that doesn't get us close to home... Well I went to get it anyway and somehow there was a mix up at the shipper so that was canceled. Shortly, got another w/a. Go up to Ft. Collins, CO and pick up a load of Bud Light to take to El Paso, TX. Now that doesn't get us home either. I'm pissed and pooped.
After some significant bitching on my part we met up with a Schneider Driver who had a load to Muskogee, OK and swapped trailers. We made it to Ponca City on Tuesday - 601 miles.
I ran it over to Muskogee yesterday and then met the Funny Lady in OKC and we came on back to PC yesterday.
French toast and bacon with Grandma and Grandpa this morning. Grandpa has requested biscuits and gravy for breakfast tomorrow. And we're making Fajitas for dinner tonight.
Got a 2 hour nap in today.
I'll make another update in a few days.
We headed of to Denver had a nice trip across the country. Made it to Tennessee the first night and Hays, KS the second which was the Fourth of July. We pulled into an empty lot on the edge of town. The Funny Lady watched PS I Love on our little DVD player while I read and about 9 pm the personal fireworks started and then at 10 pm the city of Hays' fireworks started. Was very nice.
We hoofed on into Denver (Saturday) and dropped the load by about 1:00 and bobtailed downtown. We had and excellent Mongolian BBQ at BD's on Wazee three blocks from Coors Stadium. There's a thought. We went to the movie in Northfield and saw the tail end of Love Guru - save your money, and Hancock. Can't recommend that one either, though I like Will Smith a lot. No load yet...
Sunday, no load yet... So we went to the CO Rockies vs Florida Marlins baseball game. Great afternoon at the ballpark. Brats and kettle corn. Look, the Funny Lady made it, too.Coors Field is a very pretty ballpark. The Rockies lost but we had fun anyway.
Late Sunday we get the next work assignment; pick up a load of Coca Cola and take it to Roswell, NM. Hmmmmm that doesn't get us close to home... Well I went to get it anyway and somehow there was a mix up at the shipper so that was canceled. Shortly, got another w/a. Go up to Ft. Collins, CO and pick up a load of Bud Light to take to El Paso, TX. Now that doesn't get us home either. I'm pissed and pooped.
After some significant bitching on my part we met up with a Schneider Driver who had a load to Muskogee, OK and swapped trailers. We made it to Ponca City on Tuesday - 601 miles.
I ran it over to Muskogee yesterday and then met the Funny Lady in OKC and we came on back to PC yesterday.
French toast and bacon with Grandma and Grandpa this morning. Grandpa has requested biscuits and gravy for breakfast tomorrow. And we're making Fajitas for dinner tonight.
Got a 2 hour nap in today.
I'll make another update in a few days.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
TAH is coming
Sunday morning we did not get a load so we headed to the casino area in downtown Detroit. I figured the Sunday buffett at the MGM would be a good starting point. It was, the food was excellent and lots and lots of variety. But it was $26 each. That's a bunch. I can't say that it wasn't worth it but I certainly didn't expect it to be that expensive. After we ate I played a couple of penny machines and won $400. Guess I can't complain about the price of the food then, can I.
Then we headed out - trying to decide if we wanted to go to a Detroit Tigers baseball game or not. It had been raining off and on during the morning and while we were debating it the rain started coming down again. End of debate. But we still didn't have a load. So headed to the the Detroit OC and had relaxing day Sunday. Took a couple of long walks and certainly didn't have to eat again !!!
Monday came around and we got a work assignment - head to Brownstown (5 miles away) and pick up some auto parts to take to Charlotte - way cool, called Ron and set up a meet for Tuesday. Picked up the trailer about 6:30. The tandem wheels were all the way forward and I wanted to move them back a few holes. Nothing doing. So since we were so close to the OC I headed back to have them fix it. But now I find that the trailer needs its annual PM. So finally got out of there at 3:00 Monday afternoon - new brakes, tires and at least I can move the tandem wheels. We could only get about 200 miles down on Monday. Tuesday we made it into the Charlotte OC about 5:00, showered quickly and Ron picked us up at 5:30.
We had a great steak dinner with Ron and family and lots of chatting. Was able to see Douglas this time as he was home from college. Jennifer is still the horse whisperer and is headed off to Hawaii with family friends soon.
And the Funny Lady got her laundry done. What more would a guy want !!!
We're going to drop the load this morning and we have our next assignment. Pick up in SC and take it to Denver. Looks like we're headed back towards OK for our TAH next week.
Sorry, I was remis - no pics.
Then we headed out - trying to decide if we wanted to go to a Detroit Tigers baseball game or not. It had been raining off and on during the morning and while we were debating it the rain started coming down again. End of debate. But we still didn't have a load. So headed to the the Detroit OC and had relaxing day Sunday. Took a couple of long walks and certainly didn't have to eat again !!!
Monday came around and we got a work assignment - head to Brownstown (5 miles away) and pick up some auto parts to take to Charlotte - way cool, called Ron and set up a meet for Tuesday. Picked up the trailer about 6:30. The tandem wheels were all the way forward and I wanted to move them back a few holes. Nothing doing. So since we were so close to the OC I headed back to have them fix it. But now I find that the trailer needs its annual PM. So finally got out of there at 3:00 Monday afternoon - new brakes, tires and at least I can move the tandem wheels. We could only get about 200 miles down on Monday. Tuesday we made it into the Charlotte OC about 5:00, showered quickly and Ron picked us up at 5:30.
We had a great steak dinner with Ron and family and lots of chatting. Was able to see Douglas this time as he was home from college. Jennifer is still the horse whisperer and is headed off to Hawaii with family friends soon.
And the Funny Lady got her laundry done. What more would a guy want !!!
We're going to drop the load this morning and we have our next assignment. Pick up in SC and take it to Denver. Looks like we're headed back towards OK for our TAH next week.
Sorry, I was remis - no pics.
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