Time Flys When You're Having Fun

I can hardly recall the last three days, but I'll give it a go.

Sunday folks at the Atlanta OC DID fix the a/c. I'm not sure they know what exactly, but they replaced a few parts and voila, it's working fine. We left out of the OC about 1530 heading for close to our delivery point - AutoZone in Lavonia, GA. About 50 miles outside of Atlanta we had a blow out on a trailer tire. That's three this summer. We limped into a Pilot truck stop and called Schneider Emergency Maintenance. They got someone from the TA about 20 miles away to come fix it. Took about an hour and a half.

We made our delivery at 0800 and were out of there by 0930 and on our way to our next w/a. But whoa... the delivery is in Indianapolis on Wed at 0300. I sent them a message to change it to either after 1400 on Tuesday or after 0700 on Wednesday. I did not want to ruin a whole nights sleep. We pulled into the Atlanta OC and discovered they had removed that load and given us another. We headed out and picked up 45,000 pounds of rolled paper stock in Coosa, GA and headed for Nashville. Surely by now you know we enjoy the mile walk over to Broadway and the honkey tonks. The Stage seems to always have the best bands. The brick building is the Ryman Theater, the location for the original Grand Ole Opry. And that's the Funny Lady in the fountain in front of the court house. No we did not end up in jail for vagrancy... But we had fun as always.

Tuesday we headed up to Indianapolis and unloaded the paper and then got out next w/a; about 10 miles away pick up a load of "starch" to deliver in Mobile, AL. We headed back down I65 and decided to stop just north of Louisville, KY as it was 1700 and who needs commuter traffic.

This morning we left at 0615 to avoid the commuter traffic and made it 585 miles to the WindCreek casino. Good buffet. Looks like they have a nice pool and hot tub so we're planning on taking advantage in the morning. To stuffed to swim tonight. We deliver at 1300 about 60 miles away so we've got some time to "fool around" in the morning. HAH.

Still Hot in Atlanta, GA

Thursday we had a light day. Dropped out trailer in Harker Heights, TX west of Temple and then picked up an empty at WalMart in Temple and deadheaded up to the Dallas OC. I tried to get them to look at the a/c. Appears to be getting more sporadic. Still runs great when we're driving but at night sometimes it works and sometimes not.

They advised me to come back after our pick up at 1930 about 15 miles away, another 44,000 load of water headed for Hammond, LA. The service writer assured me by then they would be looking for work. HAH !!! Stopped back in at 2030 and got they " oh, no, we couldn't look at it until tomorrow morning." Sounds like they really didn't want to take my work, doesn't it ? We delivered our water Friday night at about 1900 then headed for a place to bed down.

Saturday we picked up a load of Castol motor oil headed for an Auto Zone distribution center in Lavonia, GA with delivery at 0800 on Monday morning. Since we were coming through the Atlanta OC I figured why not try again. At least the a/c tech was interested. I indicated we need to be on our way by about 1600 to be close to our delivery location in the morning.

We headed right through Mobile, AL - though about Dan D on the way through. Took them 4 hours to load us so we were headed right on through. I honked or farted, can't recall which, as we passed through - did you hear us Dan ?

Just went out to get lunch stuff, and they still haven't touched it but at least I've been placated for awhile.

Nine days till TAH - Rodeo time.

Temple, TX

We finally got out of Laredo and the heat that goes along with it, but not too far.

We picked up a load of empty Coke cans there at the OC and dropped them in Lufkin, TX. Our next w/a was to pick up a load of water. Of course by now you know I hate the water loads, 45,333 pounds of it. We picked it up at 0900 this morning which was 107 miles away and are to deliver at Sam's Club in Temple, TX at 0200 tomorrow.

We arrived about 1600 and there's another Schneider truck here with a load of... you guessed it, water.

The temperature this afternoon was 97 so we walked over to the mall to hang out in their a/c.

Oh, another first. The a/c in the truck works just wonderful when we're driving but last night when we went to bed it pooped. It wasn't that hot, not sure exactly but with both fans on we did alright. I tried several times today to let the truck idle hoping it would poop out again so we could drop into the Dallas OC on our way down here to Temple. But you know how those gremlins are. They show up when they want, not when you want.

It seems the temp has dropped a bit this evening and we're not supposed to idle here at Sam's while parked. So we'll have to take a wait-and-see approach. Update on that tomorrow.

Sunday and Monday in Laredo

We're boiling in Laredo... not too bad though. We spent the afternoon at the movies a hamburger at Fuddruckers, picked up some MATCHING western shirts at Mike's Western Wear and generally had a great day. But it's still hotter than heck, the official city website shows it as being 107 degrees. Top that if you can.

Anyway we obviously did not get a load out of here yet. See what tomorrow holds. I already know we're headed for Krispy Kreme in the morning.

Had another first today; after unloading us the forklift driver asked if we had a cold soda in the truck. Sure I said and gave hime one of Teresa's WCDP - Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi.

Looks like there are still 30 - 40 drivers here waiting for loads so we're not holding our breath.

Sunday in Dallas

Thursday morning was nice in PA. Light rain in the early morning hours, cleared everything up. Boy they've got some hills in that part of the country. Not long necessarily but steep, some over 8 degrees. Doesn't sound like much but try pulling 43,000 pounds over it. On one hill I slowed so fast I missed a downshift and then the next and before I knew it I had to stop completely and actually use 1st gear to get started. Really unusual and unnerving. As I have said plenty of times in this space, the directions are most times very good, but occasionally they're not. Well, I missed one turn; I was looking for an address on RR 837 but I was supposed to turn on Hwy 837, knew it as I passed it but what can you do ?

I called the shipper and talked to the receptionist she gave me clear directions, indicating NOT to take the turn as it came upon us rather to go on down the road and take the jug handle to make a U turn. She was very clear, our truck wouldn't be able to make the turn. I was privately thinking I could probably give it a go. As I arrived at the turn the sign indicated "No Trucks Over 40 feet Long" I could definately see where both sides had been beaten up heavily. Needless to say we took the jug handle.

Our w/a had given us an estimate of 3 hours for load time. Took them about 30 minutes. We skipped on down to Louisville, KY Thursday then into the OC in W. Memphis on Friday arriving at about 1500. I had called on Thursday for an appointment for the 50,000 mile PM. Got 10 new tires, front end alignment and all the other regular stuff. Since this PM usually takes several hours we checked into a hotel for the evening. Nice dinner at Ameca and a swim in the pool. Life is good.

We made it on down to the Dallas OC yesterday and will be heading out for Laredo this morning, with a delivery at 0800 tomorrow. We can only hope to get a quick w/a out of there after delivering. The weather forecast indicates 104 for today and 106 for tomorrow. Guess we'll be "idling" tomorrow night.

Turns out all of our diligence paid off for last quarter; we were notified that we met the bonus criteria. The bonus is 2 cents per mile for each mile ran during the quarter. On average we covered about 2,200 miles a week. If you're a mind to you can extrapolate the bonus, I'm just trying to convey that we worked hard and suffered a bit and got it. Not sure that will hold for the summer months since idling is a big piece and at 106 you've got to stay comfortable some way.

As I get my update in the Funny Lady is getting her beauty sleep. We've only got about 420 miles to Laredo today, so she can sleep as long as she wants this morning.

Wednesday and we're hanging out in Smithton, PA.

Monday was a tough day. We started out in Franksville, WI just south of Milwaukee. We planned correctly and left there at 0830.

We delivered in Romeoville, then headed into Chicago to pick up a load of scrap paper headed back to Neenah, WI. They're converting it into tissues.

Just for the record here's the building where I worked before "junking" it all to be a truck driver, Northbrook, IL. So far, no regrets for either of us.

We deliverd at 1800 in Neenah. Then at 1930, still on Monday, we picked up a load of "wedding paper" and stopped back in Franksville at 2215. Almost a 14 hour day.

Yesterday we ran all they way here to PA, 570 miles, and delivered this morning. National Envelope prints all things for weddings, plus. Looked like they were doing a booming business and looking to hire, too.

Last night we found a nice quiet truck stop. That's the way it seemed at 1830. At about 2100 a truck pulls right next to us and and tied his Beagle up, outside. If you know anything about Beagles you know they are barkers. Talk about discourteous. Anyway we moved.

Tomorrow we're picking up a load in W. Elizabeth, PA and headed for Laredo, TX. We've been pretty lucky with the temperatures so far this summer. Looks like we're headed for the hot stuff now.

Chilling in Milwaukee

We had a very restful 5 days off in Ponca City. When we arrived in OKC on Friday it was 103 degrees. Man that's hot. We swapped our stuff to the Bug and headed out and watched the temp climb to 105, and man that's hotter still. Fortunately the next day a cool front came through and dropped the temps into the high 80s and low 90s for the next 5 days. Thanks Mother Nature. Of course that brought in some much needed rain to the area. Disrupted one of my planned golf days but for the relief it brought I'll take it.

Lots of good eats, most notably I fixed a brisket (sp) that I thought was pretty good. I cooked it Quincy Jones style. I used to regularly ruin ribs on the grill but years ago I picked up the Quincy Jones Ribs recipe off of Oprah's web site. Oprah raves over the these ribs and I have to tell you, they're really good. Anyway I picked up a 7 lb brisket and some green and red peppers and a Vidalia onion. I rubbed the brisket down with Uncle Joe's mix and cut the peppers up and put the fat side of the brisket up, on top of the peppers, wrapped it all in foil and "aged" it overnight. The real secret is to cook the whole thing at about 300 degrees for 8 hours. Then I lowered the temp to 170 till dinner time. Real tender and juicy.

We got back to the truck Thursday morning at 0800 to find dead batteries, not a great start. I called Schneider's emergency maintenance (SEM) and the guy was there in about an hour.

Our first w/a was to pick up a trailer in OKC and head over to Pryor, OK to pick up a load of paper headed for Indianola, MS. We spent the night in Little Rock, AR and dropped at Dollar General on Friday morning. Our next w/a was to pick up a load of recliners in Houston, MS and deliver to Wauwatosa, WI Saturday. We dropped that trailer last night at a JC Penny distribution center. When I got up this morning it was about 60 degrees, real nice.

We were headed up I57 right through Champaign so we called the girls for a lunch date. Teresa was uncontainable.

Our upcoming load is to head north to Neenah and pick up a load of consumer goods headed for Romeoville, IL with a delivery some time tomorrow. Right now I'm planning to sit here till 1800 tonight which will be 24 hours after delivering yesterday. The 24 hour sit time means Schneider will owe us $65 for layover pay. We'll pick up tonight and head back through Milwaukee without traffic and stop north of Chicago and wait out the morning traffic till about 0900 then head for our delivery, which we should be able to make by 1100.

I think our TAH counter is 23, after 3 days already on the road. We're headed home for rodeo.

We're planning a trip to CA to see Adam and Claire in September and a Mediterranean cruise for next spring.

Life is one big trip for us, whether in the truck or not.

Pooped out and home

Since the load from Knoxville to Muskogee was going to be our last we figured the quicker we got there the quicker we would get home. On Thursday we covered 585 miles, ALL the width of Tennessee and most of Arkansas. Then wrapped up the delivery by 1100 and headed for OKC. The geography of Tennessee is one of the pretties of all the states we've been to, for sure. Lots of tall trees and water. Right up there with the Carolinas.

So we're home now. Course you know we have no home, we rely on the "home is where the heart is" axiom.

Jennie and Scott sent this picture of Hunter and Sophie. Pretty cute, huh ?
We really enjoyed them, of course Scott and Jennie, too, in Las Vegas.

We're TAH (time at home) for 5 days. Ready for some rest and relaxation. Between cooking, golfing, wave runnering and so on, I'm sure I'll get some.

Happy 4th of July to ALL.

Bob

Alive, Frustrated but headed home

Monday turned out to be a disaster, not really just time wise. We arrived at the CN (consignee) about 1130 est, backed into the dock rather quickly and could tell they were working on it. There were 34 pallets that had to be separated into 64. This is one of those places where you have to hire a lumper. They won't let a driver use an powered jack. So if you want to do it yourself (and get paid for it) it's a lot of work. So you don't. With approval from Schneider I paid $80 for the lumper to unload and separate the load. Everything seemed to be going fine until the lumper left without letting anyone know she had not finished the paperwork. I heard other drivers complaining to the receiving department about how long it was taking and I didn't want to go there. You know, make the chef mad and you never know what they're going to do with your food. So we waited. While there we got our next w/a; head up to Eden, NC to the Miller plant and pick up a load of beer headed for Knoxville, TN. The w/a indicated the load would be ready by 2200, but I didn't have that much time on my 14 hour clock. I think we got out of there about 1800. I thought if we headed right out and didn't stop we could grab the load and be ready to head for Knoxville the next morning.

We were at the CN for about 6 1/2 hours. That's rough.

We made it to the Miller plant 15 minutes before my 14 hour clock ran out. Nope the load wasn't ready. No big deal really, we figured we could pick it up in the morning and still be headed west.
Not to be... every hour or so I check with the guard shack to see if it was ready till about 2000 last night. Finally we decided to pack it in and relax and make our plan for the next day. I had indicated we would deliver at in Knoxville at 1530 Wednesday. We THOUGHT; hmm if I get rolling at 0500 and pick up the load, head for Knoxville. We could stop at the same place we were at on Sunday and take a raft trip at 1100, be done by 1300 and still deliver by 1530. Nope, enroute we got a message that they needed the beer by 1300. Well, that blew our raft trip. We were wondering, what would they have done if we hadn't planned to hit the road at 0500.

Anyway we arrived at 1230 and were out of there by 1330. We got our next w/a after delivering; pick up a load of scrap paper about 7 miles away and take it to Muskogee, OK on Friday. Hoooray, we're headed home, right on schedule.

Some things work and some things don't, you've got to go with the flow !!!

We dropped the trailer at the shipper hoping to pick up the load this afternoon, but it won't be ready till the am. No problem, we'll probably run about 550 miles tomorrow which will leave about 180 miles. We'll finish in the am on Friday then head for OKC and pick up the bug and head for Ponca City.

Sewing, golfing and wave runners are on the schedule so far.