In Mass -

I'm in Springfield, Mass. I've covered the 1,200 or so miles. As I planned it out I noticed there was only 1 truck stop between CT and MA and I made it. It's at exit 4 in Springfield.

From conversations today it looks like Schneider has conceeded to letting me have two weeks at Christmas. I only had to give up Thanksgiving. So it looks like the Funny Lady and I will be dining on the road. Small sacrifice.

Also, from conversations it looks like they are trying to renege (sp) on my guaranteed TAH in OKC starting Sunday. That's not definitive yet, I think they were trying to soft sell me on it.

After updating my blog I'm going to send out a couple of ranting emails. We'll see what develops.

Since I don't have anything to report I thought I would throw a couple of pictures up that I had promised awhile back.

This is Teresa's prize winner in the county fair. It's the one with the red ribbon mixed in with all the others.

The round basket is the ones Joe makes and the satchel behind it was made by Beth. Creative folks aren't they ?

Here are two more Teresa finished during our last TAH.

This is Joe's T Bucket roadster. Adam and I took it for a spin while he was here. What a blast.

Bob

Three In a Row...

When I got back to the truck last night my NEXT w/a was chirping into the QC. A whole day early. I'm guessing that since I would be done Sat morning they shipped the next one.

Hold on to your hats. After delivering in DePere, WI I'm to go over to the Green Bay OC (10 miles) and pick up an empty trailer to take to Quinessec, MI. If you think Green Bay is north check out Quinessec on the map. It's 100 miles straight north from Green Bay in what they call the UP - Upper Pennisula. Anyway back to the w/a. After picking up 44,610 lbs of newsprint I'm to take it to three locations around Springfield, MA and start delivering at 0700 on Monday 9/29. Can't be done. It's 1200 miles from Q to Springfield and that's at least 24 hours of driving and at 11 hours per day thats over 2 full days + 3 or 4 more hours. And I wasn't even in Green Bay yet, I was still on my 10 hour break in Rockford, IL.

I called the after hours shift support and they said "Oh go ahead and pick it up, we'll work with the deliveries after you've made it part way by Sunday."

So, eager beaver that I am I got up at 0500 this morning and headed out. Made it to DePere by about 0915 and off to GB at 0930. Grabbed a shower, at some cereal in the truck and picked up the "MT" (empty).

Got up to Quinessec at 1230 dropped and hooked and headed out.

WOW what a colorful ride. I drove US 2 all around the north shore of Lake Michigan.

I've stopped for today at this overlook at a little fishing village called Epoufette, beautiful !!!

Here's my sunset view.

Here's a look at the colors. Ignore the bug splatters on the windshield.

454 miles today which gets about 150 out of the way to Springfield. So I figure 2 days of 550 miles and then one day to deliver to the three consignees. AND THEN I have to get back to OKC some time on Saturday. We have plane tickets to go to Idaho leaving Sunday morning at 0600.

And that is about 1,800 miles back to OKC for Wed-Sat. Not really too far, just if they can get me loaded.

Two Days in a row

Left the Seville OC at 0545 and headed over to Toledo, very pretty drive.

Oh, I forgot. The trees are sure turning colors in PA. I woke up that morning in Punxsatawney and it was 45 degrees. That will put frost on the pumpkin.

The load in Burlingdon, PA was clothes and the load in Toledo was Calphalon pans all for Macy's.

Made it all the way to Effingham, IL 535 miles on Thursday. By the way Bill, on this load (14,000 lbs) I got 8.72 mpg all the way to St. Louis.

I delivered at Macy's at 0700 this morning and immediately got my next w/a. Pick up an empty trailer at Macy's and, hold the phone. They have no empties. So I have to travel across St. Louis during traffic to find a trailer... Finally got one and zipped, literally, with the hour or so of lost time getting a trailer I was actually behind schedule. So, I headed to Roodhouse, IL to pick up a so called high-value load of scrap envelopes to be recycled. I guess someone thinks recycling is important.

Enroute I got two messages and 1 phone call - highly unusual. I was supposed to be there AT 1200 and any delay was going to be costly. Anyway, got there at 1115. No sweat.

The soybeans are being harvested here in IL and some corn. That's my ag report for the week.
I'll get the price on pork bellies later.

I'm doing my blog update slightly south of Rockford, IL and am headed to De Pere, WI, right next to Green Bay. I figure to be there by about 1300 tomorrow.

Think about it; Wed in PA, OH Thurs in OH, IN, IL. Fri in IL, MO and IL. and tomorrow in IL and WI. That's a lot of scooting, more than 1,500 miles in three days.

No grass under my feet, maybe a bunyon on my butt though. Not really. Time for a walk.

Bob

Forever Catching Up

I know, I know - back to weekly updates, been a rough week.

Saturday we made it on up to the Gary, OC in good order, 515 miles, easy money. Finally got to our car. Fired 'er up, put the top down and took a spin. Got to wonder about people that spend 12 hours on the road and then jump in their VW Bug and then hit the road for fun !!! But we're still loving it.

Monday morning was a bit sad. The Funny Lady headed off to Champaign to see the girls and I headed for Battle Creek, MI.

Funny thing about this load - the W/A indicated that it was "emp totes" so I was thinking they were going to be like "employee bags" for some event or something. They were actually just empty bins to ship parts from plant to plant. I thought we might score one, but who wants a bin they call totes ?

I delivered the totes and headed off to a close by truck stop to wait it out... about an hour later my next w/a said to run over to Romeoville to a Kimberly-Clark facility and pick up a load to go to Punxsatawney, PA, you know Phil's place. Got it and headed back to the Gary, OC for the night. I spent Tuesday night at the consignee. Walked a bit around town, but the PP place was to far to walk to.

Yesterday was tough. I backed into the dock at 0545 est, which was 0445 my time, for my 0600 AT delivery time. For some reason I haven't figured out the driver is supposed to "help" unload here. Help in this situation was assisting the fork lift driver to get stuff out and onto skids (pallets). And again I haven't figure this one out, they load it without skids. So each shrink wrapped stack is tweaked and picked and slowly dragged out. Then if the stack is a single product it's put away. If the stack contains multiple products it has to be "broken down" and restacked. Pain in the butt. Almost six hours.

By the time I crawled into the truck my next w/a was there. Darn, I figured a nap might be in order. Not to be. So I dead headed over to Huntingdon, PA to pick up a partial load headed for Macy's in Bridgeton, MO. But I've got to get over to Toledo this morning to finish out the loading.

I can't start until 0645 this morning since I didn't get here - Seville, OH OC, until 1945 last night.

Long day. I heard from another driver that I should get $100 for "lumping" yesterday's load. OK, then that's not so bad.

Teresa had a nice dinner with Tracie and Andrea and her boyfriend Josh. Teresa says he's quite nice. She made it on to OK on Tuesday and is waiting patiently - sort of - for me to get there 10/4. Joe recorded DWTS so she didn't miss it.

Bob

Is It Holloween Yet

We stopped last night we finished the day in Belton, TX about 100 miles from Dallas. So today was a bit longer than we would have liked - 575 miles. We got into the Memphis OC at 8 pm.

Showered and then guess who scares us - Big Bill Beckley - you may remember him, or you should, he was my trainer. He jumped us from behind, literally made Teresa scream. Even so, nice to see him. Says he's had 15 trainees. What patience.

I forgot to include the other night we got the Direct TV working for the first time. Yeah... BUT, I haven't figured out how to get the local channels yet and that's why I got it, so the Funny Lady can watch "Dancing with the Stars."

We've got 5,000 lbs of empty "totes" headed to Battle Creek, MI. Tomorrow we'll be in Gary.

Not much else to report...

Benton, TX

Yesterday we picked up the 40,000 lbs. of newsprint and headed back through Houston enroute to Beeville, TX. On the way we through Louisiana we passed though some beautiful country.

We passed a real chain gang - A row of about 60 detainees encircled by sheriffs on horse back and carrying shotguns.

We passed on through Houston during the afternoon and saw some of the downtown area - the high-rises with windows boarded up. It didn't seem that the high windows were impacted mostly the ones low that probably were knocked out by flying debris.

Made it on to Beeville and dropped our newsprint. What a quaint place, like stepping back in time about 40 years. It was office for the Beeville-Picayune (sp).

Our next w/a came while we were shopping for the next few days' food. We hopped over to San Antonio to big Toyota plant and pick up some of their empty tool bins and are on our way to Battle Creek, MI. Tonight we're in Belton, TX and plan to make it about 500 miles to the OC in Memphis and another 550 miles on Saturday to Gary. The delivery is for Monday morning so we'll have Sunday to run aroun Chi town and on Monday the Funny Lady will be driving her VW bug down to see the girls in Champaign and then on back to Oklahoma. I'll be on my own for the following about 12 days. Can you hear my tear drops falling ?

At least when I get back to OKC we'll be headed off to Idaho to see more of my family.

Bob

Back at it

We had 9 days at home, we started 2+ days early. Then someone (DBL?) decided to block me from going back at until I had my OK driver's license. Not much of a problem because I did it during the TAH week. EXCEPT they didn't make any provision to clear it over the next weekend when we were supposed to be going back out. So on Monday I emailed a scanned copy and the cleared it. That gave us a couple of days extra. DARN.

Teresa, Beth and Joe entered some of their creations in the Kay County fair and all won prizes.
I forgot my camera this morning but I'll put some pictures on the blog later. Teresa completed a couple of new quilts this week and cut out some more to take to Idaho on our next TAH.

Unlike Craig and Diane we put on our pounds at home and take them off on the road. Joe is such a great cook and loves to try new recipes and we like to eat them. Great, or not, combination, so we have some work to do for the next 3 weeks.

Joe and Beth drove us down to the drop lot in OKC. On the way we had to drop off their son's bed in OKC and Teresa's sewing machine at the shop. She zigged when she should have zagged and messed it up.

We arrived and signed in, Whoops there it is ! a new work assignment. There was a trailer there that was relayed to go to Houston. We picked it up and headed on to the Dallas OC and fueled and spent the night, with 5 hours left to Houston. We had estimated to be at the consignee at noon. Got there at 11:55 - not bad.

Houston is a mess! Since we only travel at 60 mph we are always passed by everything, even turtles on the road. Funny though, since we can get close to 1,200 miles on one fillup we usually see the same vehicles more than once.

Here's a collection of the types of folks that passed us heading into Houston:

• Search and Rescue folks including Divers and dogs
• Trucks full of water, generators, roofing supplies
• Empty garbage trucks
• Hundreds of phone/electrical trucks, from every state
• Feed the Children trucks
• RVs and trailers for housing
• National Guard convoys
• Replacement glass

The sights into and out of Houston was tough and tough to see. Many, many billboards trashed and some of the big ones blown over on buildings. Throughout most of the day there was no power so most business were closed. Looked like a ghost town, except for the lines at the gas stations, at least those that had gas and power. We passed one line for gas that was a bit over a mile long.

Trees blown over or snapped off. Trees up to a foot in diameter snapped and the biggers one blown over. Barns in yards where they were not supposed to be. Trailers toppled over. Houses crushed and surrounded by fallen trees. Quite sad.

There were lines to get into the Home Depot - couldn't tell why but there were at least 60 people standing to get in. Lots of roofs blown off. Blown off roofing materials everywhere. Metal roofs literally rolled up from the wind. We were on the north end of town and didn't see the flooding and some of the worst stuff, but even what we saw was tough.

As I indicated there were literally hundreds of electrical/phone trucks/repair persons. They've got a heckuva job ahead of them. Phone poles were blown nearly horizontal. I guess from the wet soil and high wind they were just blown over. Downed lines on the road, but without power I figured it was safe, for now.

What a sight !

I knew it was going to be tough to get a load out of Houston but we were patient. We headed to a Flying J a bit north to wait it out. Like Diane (in her blog, http://shantztravels.blogspot.com/) says people watching is interesting and we took this occasion to do so, tempers were running a bit short.

About 3:30 we got out next w/a to dead head to Deridder, LA (185 miles) to pick up newsprint and bring it back to Beeville, TX. Happy to be on the move we headed out northeast. Interesting and revealing trip but every light for 60 miles was out and had lots of traffic. I think it took almost three hours to go 60 miles.

We spent last night in Vinton, LA about 20 miles from the shipper - Boise Cascade. The Funny Lady is still sleeping and so I have this opportunity to update our blog.

Good luck, Houston. Keep the faith.

2 Days Left

We dropped our load of pallets in Jackson, Il and picked up another load across the street at Procter and Gamble(BIG Schneider account) in Neely's Landing, IL and took it up to Mt. Sterling, IL. So you figure they're keeping us south... Wrong, the next load was headed to PA. I called 'em up and politely declined the opportunity to go to PA. A bit later they QCed back to relay it to the Edwardsville, IL OC. Cool. Showered and fueled up and ready to go. Are next W/A was back to Neely's Landing to pick up at P&G again and take it to Ardmore, OK.

We dropped at 0800 this morning and are now sitting at exit 40 on I35 in OK. We're debating.

Tell them if we can't get a load we'll just take TAH early. But that doesn't mean we're coming back early. We've been out 4 full weeks and are ready for a break.

The Funny Lady has plans for us to go to the OK State Fair this TAH. I don't particularly like them, but she loves them... so we're going. Whatever makes the Funny Lady happy is fine with me. My son, Adam is flying in Tuesday to buy my Ford p/u truck. Hate to see it go, but I hate worse for it to just sit around. I'm sure it misses me - that's guy talk. Anyway we still have the VW convertible, but it's still up at Gary - all alone and I'm sure it misses the Funny Lady. By the way the license plate on the bug is KIDNME... can you figure the three variations that it means?

While Adam is here I'm hoping he'll stay around a day so we can go golfing. Then he can drive back to Monterey, CA.

Next TAH we're flying to Nampa, ID where my Mom, son Scott and fam, and two aunts live.

I guess it's time to call in and give 'em hell...

Bob

6 Days till TAH

Friday was a long day for us... at the end of the day we were headed to a place that makes the plastic bags for the Coca Cola fountain drink boxes. No problem except when the directions appear to say take a right, which we did and a 1/4 mile later the road turned into 1 single lane. That was a sign - zigged when we should have zagged. Up a hill was a church with a sort of large lot. I figured maybe I could turn around there. No luck, too tight and straight up. Those darn VA hills. I chatted with a neighbor and he said I could "probably" make it through his neighborhood and back out to the street. So I proceeded slowly through the hood and promptly took out the next guys basketball hoop. It was on the corner and my tandems rolled over it. I gave him $20 to soothe over both our pride. Went on to the shipper, taking the correct left this time. Loaded up and headed to an Idle Aire truck stop 10 miles down the road. Now it's 9 PM and we're pooped.

Usually the entrances are pretty well lit and this one wasn't, missed another one. So we turned the corner to see if there was a side entrance, nope. Not to worry, there was a Dollar General there and they usually have a large lot for trucks to come in and out of. I pulled into the alley and headed back. NOPE... no back. Can't turn around. Stuck... Well the Funny Lady and I moved some stuff crossed about 30 feet of wet field and made it out. She says I have stones of stone... You know what I mean.

Sunday we dropped our coke bags, sounds funny doesn't, in Dallas and headed for the Dallas OC. I was pretty sure we would be stuck there for Monday (Labor Day) but no, got to move some water. We picked up 45,000 pounds of water in Ft. Worth and headed for Wal-Mart in Arkansas. I think they were piling up to be ready for after Gustav went through.

We dropped that in Clarksville this morning and then headed to Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville to pick up a load of pallets that are going to Jackson, MO. It looks like Schneider is running us around the mid-south to keep us close for our TAH next week. Good thinking.

We're in Cabool, MO tonight and will deliver tomorrow about noon. We'll see how smart they are after that.