Frustrating Logistics of Going Home

What on a map is only a two hour drive (from our apartment to the terminal) ends up being three hours of driving. That's a six hour round-trip. Not good. That ends up being twelve hours of driving (to be picked up at the terminal and then taken back). Getting routed to the Indianapolis terminal was a pain and then the logistics of being picked up.... mean I'm not going to be taking home-time again for a while.

Which sucks. Probably going to wait until I've earned enough home-time to take an entire week off before I try to come home again.

When my probationary period is done (and when I can afford the pet deposit), I'm going to look into having my cat in the truck. It would make life less lonely if I'm going to be gone from home for such long stretches of time.

Happy Christmas!

Unloaded this morning. It took me and the warehouse guy assigned to my truck over three hours to unload. It was a long morning.

I did a spot of shopping and then headed to the terminal in the afternoon. My sister and her boyfriend came to pick me up (she couldn't get there any earlier in the day today) and we got home around 10:30pm. I did make it home by Christmas after all.

Happy Christmas, everyone. Be warm and be safe.

Home for the Holidays.... barely.

So I was waiting near our North Carolina terminal all day Thursday. They didn't have a load for me, so I dropped my empty and I ran errands, went to McDonald's for wifi, etc. for most of the afternoon. I did go back to the truck about once per hour to turn it on and see if there were any new QualComm messages. There weren't. I'd gone to the terminal that morning to take a shower and to talk to one of the instructors.  He'd mentioned that there was a load going to the Indianapolis area, but it delivered the morning after Christmas. I wouldn't be able to make the delivery, but that load would have at least gotten me to the terminal by Saturday. The dispatcher wasn't at his desk, so I called and left him a voicemail saying that I'd take that load if I could leave the trailer at the terminal and another driver could deliver it the morning of the 26th. I never got a response to the voicemail.  The dispatcher for that area is really terrible about returning voicemails or QualComm messages.  Really frustrating.

When it got late, I went to Walmart to rent a movie from Redbox. About halfway through the movie (past midnight) load routing and fuel stops for a new load popped up in my Qualcomm. The message saying when/where it picked up and delivered wasn't there, so I responded and asked when the pick-up and deliveries were. It was really late at that point and I needed to sleep, so I went to bed (and forgot to return the Redbox movie).

There was a QualComm message waiting for me when I got up telling me that the load should have picked up yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and delivered Friday. I drove to the terminal and picked up the paperwork. There was no way I'd make it to either delivery on Friday (especially given the nasty winter weather I'd be driving through in West Virginia and Ohio) so I called the two consignees and made new delivery appointments. They both only had receiving hours from Monday through Friday, but the first one was going to be open on Saturday because of extra hours for the holiday. The second (and final) stop wouldn't receive any freight until Monday morning.

I delivered in Ohio at 8am on Saturday and am now just sitting around until Monday morning when I can make the last stop. My delivery appointment is at 7am (about half an hour's drive from where I'm parked now) and it isn't very far to the Indianapolis terminal from there. Unfortunately, my sister had plenty of time to come pick me up from the terminal (four hour round-trip) on Saturday, but no so much on Christmas Eve. She can't pick me up until late in the afternoon, so I'll be hanging out in my truck at the terminal until then. I called the Indy terminal when I first got the paperwork, hoping I could leave the trailer in the yard and that maybe a local driver would be available to deliver it on Monday. No local drivers are working on Monday because it's Christmas Eve.

So I do get to go home for Christmas after all. Just three days later than I'd hoped.

Uneventful (for once!)

Picked up a load in southern Kentucky yesterday morning. Drove until I was about an hour from the delivery (which wasn't until this morning) and then pulled into a rest stop for the night. I delivered first thing this morning and now I'm back in North Carolina and trying to get a load to Indianapolis. I did get to have a shower and turn in some trip envelopes, so that's good.

Nothing went spectacularly wrong on this last trip, so sorry for the boring post.

No Good Very Bad Day

Yesterday was a really bad day.

I had only about 30 miles to drive to my shipper for my noon appointment (just south of Las Vegas). I got loaded and everything was fine, but I had another incident. Not good. I'm not going to go into detail, but suffice it to say: it was my fault and totally preventable. I just didn't see the other truck. My truck was fine, but I messed up his headlight and bumper.  He just looked at the truck and said "You know, I hit a deer last year and it did about that much damage.  These things happen."  He was so nice about it though and far kinder to me than I deserved.

I have been told that if anything else happens, I will be let go. Honestly, I can't blame them. I'm not turning out to be such a great truck driver. I'm trying hard, but it just isn't going well.

Then I had a DOT inspection later in the day at a scale in California. And my load routing looked weird (there was a much more efficient way to get where I was going), but it's been mentioned to me several times lately that I have a lot of off-route miles and unscheduled fuel stops, so I followed the load routing. Any time I've missed a fuel stop or had to make one that wasn't in my routing (either due to a faulty fuel gauge or more commonly, not being sent my load routing or fuel routing until I was several hundred miles into my trip and had already passed the fuel stop), I've always called in and talked to the guy in the main office who handles all the fuel issues. That's what I was told to do. Apparently I need to be writing on the envelope that it's an out-of-route stop. So I've racked up quite a few fuel stop violations.

Anyway, those three things combined to make me late on this load. I was supposed to deliver at 10am, but there's no way I could get there. The shipper closes at 2, but they open again at 9pm so that is when they made my new delivery appointment for. On the bright side, it gives me plenty of time to get there.

Bowling Green and a Lovely Evening Off

I started the day in West Memphis, Arkansas... in an area which is basically like five huge truck stops all bundled together where I-40 and I-55 meet. You'd be hard-pressed not to find a place to park at one of them. I'd fueled up the night before so that I could leave first thing.

I was expecting rush hour traffic in Memphis... but there was hardly any at all. It was a brokered load of rubber tires and the bill of lading said that if it wasn't a drop and hook (which it wasn't) that I had to unload the tires to the rear of the trailer. Thankfully, that ended up not being true. I didn't have to help unload at all (nor were lumpers involved at any point). I was expecting to spend several hours unloading the tires by hand and to hit heavy traffic either in Memphis or Nashville, so I'd told dispatch that I wouldn't be ready for my next load until tomorrow morning. I sent my "empty and available" message, but they didn't have any other loads readily available and I didn't exactly mind having the evening off.

It was kind of nice to have an evening off and to find myself 20 minutes from Bowling Green, where I have friends. One of them drove down to the truck stop and kidnapped me for the evening. Dinner out was such a treat. And it was nice to see familiar faces.

I'm picking up a load about an hour away from here early tomorrow morning and heading down to North Carolina. I hope they can dispatch me right back north from there because I'm supposed to be home on Saturday. Here's hoping!

It Might Never Rain in Southern California, but Apparently It Snows!?

I picked up another load in Modesto (after dropping my empty at the terminal and reporting it for maintenance and grabbing another empty) and drove down to L.A. I stopped in the late afternoon so that I could get up around 2am and arrive at my delivery at 6am (and not worry about where the heck to park overnight in the city). It was snowing just north of L.A. Totally not expecting that.

Delivered on-time and then dropped my empty at the terminal and headed to the driver's lounge to do some much-needed laundry.

I got a load out yesterday. It's going to Tennessee, which is in the general area of home. Still very much hoping to get home for Christmas. I was told that if you worked Thanksgiving, you were promised hometime at Christmas. That is apparently total crap. I did put in for a few days off at Christmas (at the beginning of November). Very much hoping to get there.

I had to put chains on for the first time today. In Arizona. Totally not expecting that either. Was delayed about five hours by heavy snow and several wrecks ahead of me. So I spent my afternoon eating Gummi Bears in my truck with my rust-stained Oompa-Loompah hands, which I'm sure was somewhat less than sanitary. Baby wipes were no match for rust. They did eventually get traffic moving, but very few trucks bothered with chains (even though there were so many trucks either in the ditch or on the road, just spinning their tires and going nowhere). So every few hundred feet, another truck would get stuck or slide off the road and the traffic back-up would begin anew. There were signs coming up the mountain warning that chains and/or 4x4 were highly recommended. There weren't any places to pull off and chain up though. It was really hard to find a place to take the chains off once I got to a place where the road had been plowed and no new snow was falling. Any rest area or truck stop was full to the brim and the shoulders hadn't been plowed, and weren't generally wide enough for a truck anyway.

About the time I finally was able to get out of the mountains and find a truck stop (the first few were way overcrowded with people waiting out the storm), they closed the road. After I'd parked, but before I'd turned of the engine, we got a qualcomm message telling us that I-40 East in Arizona through the mountains was closed because of weather and a wreck. I'm surprised it took them that long to close the road.

About an hour before I stopped, I got this warning: headlight low beam right short circuit. It wasn't dark at that point, so I figured I'd check it as soon as I'd stopped. I have no idea whether that's a fuse or a bulb issue or what. I looked at the fuse panel, but I don't see anything labeled as headlights. There's no one in the shop on Saturday nights, but there should be somebody there in the morning that I can ask. I know absolutely nothing about headlights and I'm not driving it this way because the last thing I need (or can afford) is a ticket. And knowing my luck, the other headlight would decide to throw in with the first one. Mutiny!

And so here I sit. I could do a lot worse than a truck stop with hot showers, food and wifi. I could literally be stuck in a ditch somewhere. Very glad I'm not. It's snowing here and in New Mexico. I think I'm channeling the White Witch of Narnia. Winter seems to follow me wherever I go. Always winter and never Christmas. Sorry, folks!

I got to watch the news while I was eating dinner. The school shooting in Connecticut is just horrific. My heart goes out to them.

And I Lived to Tell the Tale

I went for a walk today (needed fresh air) because there's only so much time you can spend cooped up in a truck.  I think the walk did me good.

Going to talk to dispatch in the morning to see if I can just drive straight to one of the terminals in Montana to get my bunk heater fixed. It's mighty cold at night in these parts.

                                                                    *     *     *

Spent most of Thursday hanging out at Volvo repair shop in Spokane. They were looking into the bunk heater problem and they also put winter wiper blades back on my truck (when I was in Los Angeles, I asked told them that the blades were fine, but the wiper arms weren't pressing on the windshield hard enough... they just swapped out my winter blades for normal ones.... which would be fine if I were a local driver in southern California... but I'm not). It was after 5pm when they finished and so I drove a few blocks to a truck stop for the night.

My next load was picking up in Lewiston, Idaho and had to be picked up by 5am on Friday. I decided to take a nap and then drive over there really early in the morning. My bunk heater wouldn't come on.... so I tried to sleep for a while and then just gave up. I left at 1am local time and I'm glad I did, because it was icy out and I could take my time. I got lost in the town where I was dropping/hooking. It was dark and there were several huge factory/mill places on the same street along the river with multiple gates. One of the guys (the poor guy who had the on-call cell phone) stayed on the phone with me and gave me directions in. Once you get through the gate and past the guard shack, it's still about a mile until you get to the drop yard. The trailers were so close together that there was no way I was going to be able to drop mine in the empty row (not enough room to maneuver) so I flagged down a hostler and he gave me a different place to park it. Yay!

Hooked and did my pre-trip and was heading out right around 5am. I understood then why that was the latest I could pick up. That's when the early shift starts at the mill and there were tons of personal vehicles coming in. Makes sense.

It was snowing and visibility wasn't great. It was a lot easier to drive loaded than empty (driving an empy trailer in wind and ice is like trying to fly a kite in a wind tunnel, in my opinion). It was the first time I had to contemplate the to chain/ not to chain question (It was suggested, but not mandatory according to the signs). I was sitting in the chain up area (digging out my winter boots) and watching two cops help direct traffic around a truck that had slid/jacknifed off the road about 200 meters further on. Lucky for him, he'd slid into the ditch between the road and the mountainside and not off the cliff. He had passed me earlier going way to fast for the road conditions (in my opinion). It was snowing, but not much was accumulating on the road and it was above freezing, so the road was slushy and not icy. I chose not to chain. It was slow-going for a while, but only bad in the pass. After about half an hour, the road was fine, there was little snow and I could go at pretty much normal speed.

I made it as far as Boise (where I had a fuel stop). I had two hours left on my driving clock, but I was really tired from not having slept well, so I just stayed there for the night.

The next morning, the roads were terrible. There's a weigh station on the east side of Boise and some pick-up truck had slid off the road and flipped. He was actually blocking part of the left lane at the weigh station, so all the trucks had to go on the right.

The road was icy (and I saw three different plows driving around with their blades up. WHY!?) but about 30 miles west of Boise, the roads were fine. Either it was just a concentrated storm or the road maintenance just suddenly got a whole lot better.

I drove all day and made it to North Las Vegas (where I was doing a drop and hook). I had until midnight the following day to deliver (and I was tired), so I pulled into a truck stop for the night (where I had to stop for fuel anyway). I delivered this morning. WS doesn't have any loads out of the Vegas area until tomorrow, so here I am. I wasted a glorious amount of time in Walmart. I'm sitting in a McDonald's enjoying some free wifi. There's a Pilot nearby, but the lot is really small and I spent a good 20 minutes embarrassing myself earlier trying to maneuver into one of the two open spots. I gave up and called the Walmart and asked if they allowed trucks to park. Discretion is the better part of valor. Later, I'll probably drive back to the truckstop where I spent last night. I do so love showers and restrooms readily available.

I finally took the time to organize the cargo/tool compartment in my truck. We'll see how long that lasts. It might just be random truck housekeeping day. It's not like I have a whole lot else going on.

And so the bunk heater didn't work the first night after the repair, but it's worked for the past two nights. I'm just happy that it seems to be cooperating for now and I'm very warm at night.

Under the Weather in Idaho

My load out of Los Angeles had stops in Oregon and Washington, so I hooked early in the morning (so as not to be caught in rush hour traffic in L.A.) and drove as far north as I could and then found a Love's to pull into for Saturday night. It was only four hours to my first stop (which I couldn't make until Monday morning anyway), so I had an easy day of driving on Sunday.

My load routing on this trip made no sense at all. It had me making a stop in central Oregon, then backtracking 130 miles to a town I had just driven through to make another, then continuing up to Washington state. I shave six hours and a lot of miles off my trip by just switching around those two stops.

My third stop was our Vancouver, Washington terminal. I didn't get there until late afternoon, so I drove over to our drop yard to spend the night. There was a truck stop about ten miles away, but my back was killing me and I just couldn't drive any more that day. They unloaded me early in the morning and then I spent Tuesday driving to our Spokane terminal. I got there in the afternoon and they had me bump the dock so that they could unload the rolls of carpet, but left the furniture on the trailer and told me to drop it in the drop yard and take one of the empties.

At this point, I was feeling pretty ill. I'm 99% sure I have food poisoning from something I ate yesterday. I couldn't find the drop yard (had turned down the wrong street in the industrial park) and called a driver friend for help. He asked me to look around and tell him if I saw a water tower. I saw it. The drop yard is right next to the water tower. Why the heck didn't someone put that on the terminal map? That was really helpful.

I dropped and hooked and drove to the Love's I knew was about 10 miles away (just over the border in Idaho). I parked and made it into the bathroom just in time to be really sick. So I'm taking a day to just hydrate and sleep.

That was probably TMI. Sorry.