Got to be fluid

Boy was it hot in Laredo last night. Not sure of the temp but we saw nineties on the road. Made it with 15 minutes to spare for DWTS. Lucky me.

Went to bed with a fan on, and went to sleep pretty well as we were both pooped. About 2330 we both awakened feeling suffocating. I closed everything up and turned on the engine to run the A/C. I'm not a good sleeper with the engine running, but I finally got back to sleep. Let me tell you the A/C works good. About 0330 I woke back up and turned the engine off and opened back up. Luckily got back to sleep again. Unusual for me though.

This morning we picked our fuel stop at Van Horn, TX to stop for the night. Some time during the day I decided we should push on to El Paso and we're here - 580 miles. Tomorrow we're going to go about 440 miles and stop somewhere around Phoenix and get a Motel 6. We should be there by 1300 - 1400 and so we'll have a good opportunity to enjoy the pool and relax. Then Thursday we'll head on to Delano, CA.

Now we have a new plan, but as you know plans are made to be changed. You never know, and we like to be fluid and enjoy everything we can.

We just finished a walk-about and Teresa's ready for DWTS elimination.

One of the speakers is "blown" on my side of the truck. After we got here I put some "Nu-skin" on it. You know that paint on band-aid stuff. I'm going to let it dry good then see if it works. It works on me so who can tell.

Go West Folks

We delivered our load at 0830 this morning in Laredo. Had a bit of anxiety passing long lines of trucks waiting to do the same thing we were. Thankfully we were the only one at our forwarder.
We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. While I was dropping the trailer we got the first blip on the QC of our next w/a. A little squeel from Teresa and I figured it was good.

We went further south in Texas and picked up another load coming north across the border and we're headed to Delano, CA - 1662 miles loaded. We covered 350 today going south and coming back. We're back in Laredo at the Pilot watching DWTS. Our delivery is by Friday but I figure with three back to back 500 mile days we can be done on Thursday and be ready for another one on Friday.

We love our Sirius radio but you can only sing so much to the radio. I also catch CNBC in the morning and some FOX and CNN. Pretty sure I catch most of President Obama's speeches. Caught today's on the auto bailout. I mostly agreed with him, but figured that stand should have been taken before the previous $17 billion was paid out.

My issue is where do the rest of the overpriced occupations come in ? Should it really cost $75 - $85 per hour for a plumber or $100 for a mechanic. I realize they are not being bailed out but the inconsistency baffles me. That's my political comment for the day.

18 days till TAH - I think we're planning on taking Teresa's dad to the OSU Cowboys baseball games.

Good stuff at Jalepeno Tree

You may recall our recounting of eating at The Jalepeno Tree in Marshal, TX awhile back. Naive, we might be, but we did not know at that time that it was a chain, but we're happy that it is.

Thursday night thinking about how to execute our 1408 mile trip to Laredo, TX with a 1000 live load I had figured; leave CN about noon and then cover about 350 miles, then 450 Sat and 450 Sun and about 150 on Monday and we could deliver at about 1000 on Monday and be ready for our next load.

As usual we got there early, about 0830 and were loaded by 0900. Headed back to the Pilot to scale the 43,690 lb load. Before driving onto the scale I set the tandems in the 10th hole. When I got the scale receipt it was dead on. So by 0915 we were on the way. Now we can't just stop at 350 miles can we ? Nope, we covered 450 and got to Charleston, MO. Took our walk with weights and then walked about 1/2 miles to a Dairy Queen. See how that works; calories out - calories in.

As we headed out yesterday Teresa was checking for another Jalepeno Tree. Yep, there's one in Mesquite, TX, right on I635 where we were headed in Dallas. So we pushed it 579 miles and got there for dinner. Yummm, they get our hearty recommendation. We then finished up 10 miles later at the Dallas OC. Now we have only 420 left for today to Laredo and we'll make it to the OC early this afternoon and deliver early tomorrow morning.

One more comment on the digital to analog converter; seems to work very well in many locales.
We got great signal in Charleston and here in Dallas. I'm guessing that all of the stations have turned on their digital signals but have not turned off their analog signals and will not until the official June 12th cutoff.

Time to call my Mom and hit the road. If you're in Texas - hit the Jalepeno Tree !!!

Looping around Indiana

Wednesday night on our way to Elkhart we passed through South Bend. Last night we ended back up in South Bend. After unloading in Elkhart we waited, then waited, then waited more. It really wasn't that long, about 2 hours. The morning was fruitful though. Seemed in Elkhart we could not get any TV signals. While we were on TAH I had picked up the new Digital to Analog converter. While waiting I hooked it up and voila, there they were. All of the TV stations there have already switched. We got all the stations great - cost $9 plus tax after the rebate. Not bad, we may even be able to dump the satellite dish.

Cathie, my DBL, had called and said she had 3 loads, all short and which would I like. Nice of her to inquire. In the end, she decided to wait and see if something better came up. While waiting I sent her a QC note just to give us anything, to get moving.

So she gives us this little w/a to deadhead over to Albion - 45 miles and pick up 1 pallet and take it to Ft. Wayne - 45 miles. Not too much in that. Apologetically, she says the load was given to someone else that couldn't get there in time. This load was time critical for p/u - all GM loads are. Anyway she says she find us a good mileage one after. En route to Albion it comes through. After Ft. Wayne we are to head for a pickup at 100o in South Bend and take it to Laredo, TX - 1408 miles. Now that's a good one. Hence the reason back in South Bend. So this morning we'll fuel and shower and maybe "something" else. Then we'll head for Texas, which is great timing since that snow storm is headed this way fast.

Indiana is an interesting amalgam of farming, industry and people. We passed through the Nippersink area of Amish which is always exciting to see.

Thinking ahead we figure to get 300 miles in today, then 550 on Sat and Sun and be in Laredo Sunday evening, in time for Teresa to see The Amazing Race. Typically it's not quick to get a load out of Laredo, which works well so she can also see Dancing Monday night. Although the last time we were in Laredo we got a fast one out. You never really know. Anyway we have our plan, we'll see how it works out.

You may recall that about a month ago I wrote that Schneider had stopped all pay raises for 2009. Turns out I got mine. For enquiring minds I'll let you know. Now we get .37 cents a mile which means a 550 mile day earns us $203.50 which takes about 9 hours. That's about $22 per hour of driving, about 1/4 of what we used to make. That works out fine since we have no house payment, car payment, utilities and so on. We still put 20 percent away in my 401k. I'm not sure why since we lost over $200,000 the last year in our old ones. It's still the right thing to do though and I'm REASONABLY sure in the next 10 years most of it will return, so we're not getting out.

And what other job can you have that you spend 24/7 together like we do ? We really do like it, and each other !!!

Back at the grind

Well, we're back at it. Yesterday, actually. The first day is always the toughest. First we add an extra 2 1/2 hours to get from Ponca City down to Oklahoma City. Of course that's if you don't forget anything important. Which I did. We were about 18 miles from Joe and Beth's place and I realized I had left my phone on the bed after we assembled it. So add another 40 minutes to our original 2 1/2 and it can be a long day.

Our first w/a came immediately after signing in - pick up a trailer there at the drop lot and dead head up to Winfield, KS, 143 miles, deliver in Elkhart, IN on Friday at 0800 est. The w/a indicated there would be a trailer preloaded for us. No such luck. The guy there said Schneider always tells their drivers that is the case and it never is. The loaded us up with tote-and-store rollie carts that they make there. We got as far as Springfield, MO for the night.

Since the Funny Lady hates early morning departures I wanted to get as close as possible to Elkhart tonight so we could get up at 0700 est and make it there early. We jammed into Gary, IN at 1615 and showered at the OC then skipped on over to Elkhart, 580 miles for the day. We are on I80 toll way 2 miles from the exit for the consignee. We should be there by 0730 and unloaded by 1000.

I have to make this catch up post quick. I couldn't find any plugins at the service plaza and the laptop is running on fumes.

We're good and have 23 days until our next TAH. Seems like a long time without a day off, but we're still enjoying it. Spring is springing everywhere and we get to see it all over the country.

Bob

On our way out

We delivered in Ft. Worth and scooted on over to the Dallas OC. We got our next w/a that evening, it was a pisser. We were to pick up a relay trailer there at the OC and deliver at another location in Dallas at 1400. At least it gave Teresa a chance to catch up on all her morning programs; The View, Regis and Kelly and the like. As always I'm hopeful that we can deliver early so we hit the place about 1230. That didn't work. They didn't start unloading till after 1430 and finished at about 1630. Since it was also in Dallas the miles was zero. Seems we get a whopping $25 for a short load. Hurray, a whole day and $25. I think we might get an extra $15 or $25 for detention pay since they took over 2 hours to unload. Then we had a pick up another 20 miles away. But since it's still in Dallas it's zero miles again. So I've driven about 35 miles so far and get no miles recorded I'm OOR (out of route) by 35 miles. Then they, Scheider, wonders why the drivers are OOR. Go figure.

The next p/u was at 1900, but again got there early. This time it helped by about 20 minutes. We got out of there at 2015 and headed for a place to rest. We made it to the Love's truck stop north of town and have about 180 miles left to OKC today. That was supposed to be our start of TAH but we got a message that they may need us to pick up another load around OKC and also drop it at our drop lot in OKC. No details yet. Needless to say we're ready to be done for this 3 weeks on the road.

"Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you" I think yesterday the bear got us!!!

All for Naught

Saturday we got our next w/a; pick up a trailer there at the Edwardsville OC and take it to Laredo, TX. Cool. Only problem is the trailer doesn't arrive until 0230 Sunday morning. It's a HOT load, needs to be there on Monday. Not too bad 1087 miles - two days.

Got up about 5:30 and started looking for the trailer... nope nowhere. I called the support folks and was told the previous driver had put the wrong trailer number in on the Qualcomm. So I started looking again. Yep, there it is. Might have been there awhile, who knows.

Anyway got hooked up while Teresa slept and hit the road. Made it all the way to Durant, OK 565 miles. Not a bad day. This morning I got up a bit too early - 0400. Got in a bit of trouble for that one. Anyway we got to the freight forwarder (it's actually headed across the border into Mexico ) at 1600 and they were locked up tight. They left early for a Mexican holiday.

Tomorrow we'll head back and deliver at 0700 then there is a load at the Laredo OC that HAS to be back in Ft. Worth, TX tomorrow. The w/a say 427 miles. Should not be a problem, depending on traffic.

We're hanging out at an IdleAire at the Pilot in Laredo. Teresa's so excited watching "DWTS."

After waking her up at 0400 this morning, it's the least I can do.

Here's a sunrise from OK, I took the morning of my Mom's birthday. It's a little blurry but the colors are good.

Edwardsville, IL

After looking at our timeline I could tell that we were not going to make it to St. Louis by 0900 on Friday. The load had been scheduled out at 0800 on Wednesday. We didn't get it till 1230. By the time we were loaded and through Houston traffic headed back north on US59 it was 1700 and we had been on the road for 11 hours, not all driving but on-the-road none the less. By then we had only covered 60 miles of the estimated trip of 787. With really only one full day of driving and a bit on Friday morning, no way.

I put in a change to deliver at 1300. I figure, no problem, we don't have any blood or organs so who would care. Nope, they moved the delivery to Monday. As a result Friday at 1230 we dropped the trailer at the Edwardsville, IL OC and Teresa went in to start laundry. Since I still had some hours available they sent me over to New World Pasta to pick up a load and bring it back to the OC. The pasta is headed for Green Bay, not sure who is going to get it, but for now we're loadless.

I'm letting Teresa get the last of her beauty sleep and then head out to see if there is any assignment for us.

Alls good for us. TAH next Friday. No big plans for that 4 days yet. Rest, golf and sewing I imagine.

Still in Texas

Called and sang "Happy Birthday" to my Mom on Monday. Then we had a great breakfast with Teresa's Mom and Dad. They are as excited about going to Las Vegas as we are.

Teresa had the, ummm, audacity to ask our waitress her age. Funny thing she had Teresa's same birthday, except 32 years earlier. She was 82. Cute and efficient. I'll bet she could do some training. Grandma said she's been there for as long as she has been coming, and that's a LONG time.

We delivered our beer in Perry and took a walk. We're back to using our weights again. When we got back we had a smallish work assignment. We went over to Tulsa and picked up a relay load of flour from Houston and took it to Vinita, OK for delivery Tuesday morning.

Then we headed back to Tulsa, Jenks, actually and picked up a load of Scott paper towels and took them down to Houston. We delivered this morning. I didn't figure we would get another load soon so we headed over to the Houston OC. Fairly quickly we did get another w/a. We were 13th on the list. But this is a HAZMAT load and not all drivers have that endorsement. Anyway, I do. We ran into the OC and showered. Which was very badly needed. Since we were on a lot of state highways there weren't any Pilots to fuel and shower at. I even had to buy $100 of diesel to get going on Tuesday. Course they reimburse, eventually.

We headed over to Chem One and picked up Zinc Sulphur - I have no idea what it's used for, except we get to haul it to St. Louis.

We've stopped for the night at a little truck stop north of Cleveland, TX, owned by eastern Indians. The guy gave me my scale receipt, then ran over and made pizza. Multi-faceted and multi-tasking.

Must be Beer-thirty

Saturday morning I was checking with Motel 6 and Super 8 for room availability and rates and decided on Motel 6 - they had the best rate and had truck parking nearby. About 1100 I made a last check on the QC. Whoops, there it is.

We dead headed down to Ft. Collins, CO to an Bud plant and picked up 44,600 pounds of beer. It was still fairly early so we headed down to Denver where I knew the temperatures would not freeze the beer. Beer is an FP (freeze protect) load and you have to be aware of the temps and if it's below freezing you have to run the truck all night. It was snowing in Cheyenne, WY and Ft. Collins but Denver was very nice.

We saw more wildlife on this trip than any other, I think. No, the Funny Lady is not out there with the buffalo. We also saw pheasant and a couple of Eagles. Try to get a picture of either of those some day, HAH.

Yesterday we left Denver and made it all the way to Wichita, KS and it's still warm. Glory, I think winter is on the wane. We're meeting Grandma and Grandpa for breakfast at 0900 in Blackwell, OK then we'll head to Perry, OK to deliver our beer at a Anheuser Busch distributor, about an hour from Blackwell.

We need to stay in OK today so I can get the satellite set up - you should know that "Dancing With The Stars" starts tonight. That means every Monday and Tuesday for the next whatever weeks we have to be able to get a good ABC signal, or the satellite in local, or a motel or something. Small concessions to keep the Funny Lady along.

We've made our arrangements to Las Vegas. Got to love cellular phones and wireless. Traveling across South Dakota we made 5 airplane reservations and secured our timeshare on the LV strip. We talked to all the kids to put the bugs in their ears about coming. Grandma and Grandpa Purvis are coming, my Mom is coming, and I'm hopeful most of the 5 kids and their families will be able to come, too. Those from Monterey have 500 miles and Scott from Boise has 600 miles. I'm thinking they can drive to LV pretty easily. Course I'm a little jaded, I drive that many miles every single day. The girls will have to fly from Chicago, that's next on the arrangement agenda.

Time to get the Funny Lady out of the sack.

Gillette, Wy

Ok, last time you have to hear about our aborted trip to Cancun. Grandma took this picture that Sunday we were headed to the airport. Think we were in the spirit ? You betcha.

Beautiful trip across Wisconsin, Minnesooota, South Dakota and into Wyoming. Not even too cold during the day.

As mentioned earlier, Teresa had a place in mind to have dinner in Sioux Falls, SD, Minerva's. I could tell it was a little more upscale than Golden Corral or the like. Evidenced by the white table cloths and napkins on the tables. Minerva's was very nice, food was great. I had a nice steak and salad bar Teresa had a lamb steak with risotto. She even had some left over for lunch yesterday. The tab wasn't as bad as I thought for as good as the food was, $58, including tip.

Enroute we took some time to wander around the famous Wall Drug, in Wall, SD. Cute, interesting and huge. Just about anything a visitor or tourist would like to buy, including multiple restaurants. Was fun and got out of there without spending any money and a free bathroom. Can you imagine having to pay for a bathroom on an airplane ? Well they're free at Wall Drug, like everywhere else!!! I do remember a time when there were some places that had a quarter slot on the door to open it, but I haven't seen any of those for a LONG time.

Made it to Gillette at 1400 MST then I got a look at the load. All of the bathroom and kitchen cabinets needed for 24 apartments. None on skids. They pulled a crew together, they had done this a lot of times before. They pulled up a forklift with a platform and nailed on some 2 x 12's to make a slide. Then I got to pull them down and carry them to the tail gate and someone else loaded them onto the slide and three other guys carried them into the storage area. When I got about half way through another guy appeared in the truck and I continued to pull them down and he slid them back to the tail gate. Two hours and down to a t-shirt and it was snowing lightly outside.

I was getting sore by half-way through. When we were all done I grabbed some Motrin, not too bad today.

No new w/a yet. If we don't get one this morning we'll go check into a hotel, probably for both Sat and Sun nights.

Across the field from the apartments there was a herd of antelope. One of the guys said there were more antelope in Wyoming than people. From what I had seen on the way, I believe it.

Back in Gary

We made it back into Gary this evening at 1900 and dropped the trailer headed to Canada. Our new w/a is to pick up a loaded trailer here and take it to Gillette, WY, 1015 miles and deliver by 1300 on Friday. I'm going to try to change that to 1500, it's a little more reasonable. Cabinets; don't know what kind, but it's supposed to be 15,000 lbs. LOVE THOSE...

We're going to leave here about 0530 and make it to Sioux Falls, SD for the night. Teresa used to live there and has a place picked out for dinner tomorrow - Minerva's.

Not much to report traveling I80 west then east for two days. I think tomorrow we're headed up I90 and west. Cows and harvested corn and lots of it.

I'm guessing after unloading Friday we're going to be laying over, we'll see.

I promise to start taking a few pictures... course you know the Funny Lady will be in most of them.

Got an email that Craig and Diane put in a comment - but I haven't seen it yet.

Want to post a comment

I have had a couple of emails wondering why I don't allow comments. Well turns out I do.

If you move the cursor to the right of my name at the bottom of each post you will see the hand come up. It will open a comment box. It's invisible. Try it a couple of times it will work.

Sioux City

We high tailed it out of Gary at 0515 this morning. Just in time to grab a cup of coffee and hit the road. Course the Funny Lady was still in the sack till 0700. We made it to Aurelia at 1430 and we unloaded by 1500. We updated the Qualcomm with a no load message and waited. About 20 minutes later I figured to head east to a truck stop for the night. Enroute we got our next w/a. Head to Sioux City and pick up a load of pet food tomorrow morning. So we made a few rights and a left to get turned back around headed east.

This load is headed for Canada. Oh, heck, no passport. Turns out we're supposed to drop the trailer in Gary for a Canadian driver to take home for TAH.

We made it on into Sioux City so we're here for the night and a quick jaunt in the morning to the consignee. Today was 590 miles. If things go well we'll make it 450 miles tomorrow back to Gary.

There's an Aussie truck driver here says he can get me a driving job in Australia. Wouldn't that be a kick. I'm not packing my bags just yet.

Long day today, Teresa's watching House while I blog. Read for bad, I meant bed.

Three Days in Indiana

We arrived in Champaign about 1630 Friday night. Looks like Pilot has bought Road Ranger. A couple of miles north of Champaign is an old Road Ranger moving into Pilot life. We dropped our trailer there and headed into Champaign. We had a nice dinner with Tracie at Chevy's and then Teresa and Tracie walked the mall looking for a formal dress for a sorority function Tracie was planning to attend. I figured "oh, no" I'm gonna get hit big for this one. Nope, $10. Everyone was happy, including me.

Saturday we trekked on up to Gary and got here by 1015. We left this morning for our delivery. So either we had a nice restful Sat and Sun in Gary or a pretty boring weekend, right ?

Well not too bad. We used the company car a couple of times. Trips to Costco and out to dinner. And a shower every day. Almost heaven.

This morning we left at 0515 headed for Elkhart, IN a little over two hours away for an 0800 delivery. Turns out we were late - I forgot the 1 hour time zone difference.

After a quick delivery we got our next w/a. Deadhead down to Bluffton, IN and pick plastic bins headed for Aurelia, IA. Tonight we made it back to Gary and another shower. Tomorrow we have to leave about 0500 to make it 450 miles to Aurelia by 1500.

We're doing fine though and our next TAH is scheduled for 3/21 - 3/24 so we have something to look forward to.

Ron, I figured I would get a chewing out from you for leaving Teresa at the rest area last week, are you sleeping ?