If only I could blog while driving...

Wouldn't that be great? I spend so much time sitting in the drivers seat driving along with so much time to think, it would be awesome if I could somehow blog it while I was thinking it. I think of so many things I want to write about and I always tell myself that as soon as my shift is over I'm going to log on and write it all down, but of course that never happens. If I do actually get out the computer and try to blog, I can't remember anything that I was thinking about earlier.

We are currently on our way to Laredo, Texas. Keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have bad luck while we're down there because if we have to take the truck back to that crappy International dealership for repairs I think I would go postal. Such a shame to have to worry about that because I really do enjoy going to Laredo. For me, Texas is such an easy place to drive. I know a lot of other truck drivers don't care much for Texas, but I personally enjoy it. Any state that makes everything truck size is all right with me.
I'm hoping that after this load we will get something going towards Indiana. We would like to go back to the shop that installed our generator and have them raise it a couple of inches to give us more clearance. We've been dealing it with it since March, but it is a worry that we would rather not have to deal with. Also, our sons are there right now getting their generator put on and will be staying there the weekend. We have our fantasy football draft on Sunday night and it would be awesome if we could all be together while drafting. Unfortunately, we can't choose where our next load will go, so we just have to be flexible and work with what we get.

I was talking to my Mom on the phone yesterday and they have a camping trip planned next month at Lake Monroe, In. My sister and her husband will be going also. Mom wants us to come, but I think we are going to try and go home again around that time. I've been hearing talk on the news of a possible hurricane that may affect Florida in the next few days. I hope it isnt something that we need to be worried about. Guess I need to get some more in depth info.

Another reason we want to get home is to sign up for gym memberships with Anytime Fitness. I am really excited about the thoughts of having nationwide access to a 24 hour gym. I truly hate exercising so it's kind of weird that I would be excited about it, but after riding around in a truck for over two years, the idea of actually getting out of the truck and working out sounds good. I really like the fact that they have private showers. I didn't like showering in gym class in school and I still don't like the idea of public showering as an adult. I've been watching as I drive and I've spotted a lot of Anytime Fitness locations. Also, anytime we stop somewhere I use google map to check for nearby locations and there's always one nearby. The only downside to the whole thing is that it's a 30 day wait period for our membership key to become activated for nationwide use. Again, I need patience and  I still don't have any!

Who's hiding the freight?

So we delivered yesterday in Shreveport. It was a nice smooth routine delivery. I love those and wish they happened more often. We drove about 2 miles to the Petro after that and parked and waited for the next load. We've had about 3 load offers but turned them all down for various reasons. Probably should have taken one of them but at the time we didn't realize that we would still be sitting here this morning. We had been having pretty good luck with getting loads, but since coming back out after our last time at home, it's been completely different. Hopefully things will turn around soon.

This particular segment of trucking is unique because of the nature of expedited freight. What can be a good area one visit can turn into a slow area on your next visit. It's always a gamble. Patience is a requirement for this job. You really must have some form of activities that you enjoy that can be done while sitting and waiting or you would go nuts. For me, it's reading. I read books, news, and blogs. We watch movies and tv some. Not a whole lot, but if we're in the mood, we will. I have the ancestry project that I started on. Also, my newest project of the travelblog for expediters. I can keep myself occupied pretty well. As long as I'm satisfied with the amount of money that we have in the bank, I can sit for a while without getting too cranky.

Thank goodness the weather is starting to cool down a little. It's 10 AM here and it's still cool enough that we haven't had to run the ac. I much prefer to have the windows open with the fan running. We had breakfast this morning in the Iron Skillet. We had high hopes for it because we ate there yesterday and everything was delicious. My eggs were the best I'd had in a long long time. My bacon was cooked perfectly. The french toast was delicious. Today, however, all those same things were completely different. Apparently there was a different cook today. Very disappointing.
I think it's nap time.

In Mississippi, on the way to Louisiana

Last I posted, we were sitting in Wildwood, Fl waiting on a load. Turned out to be quite the wait. We had gotten there on Monday and had to wait until Thursday before we finally got out of there. To top it off, the load we got wasn't that great, but at least it got us out of Florida. It was only 400 miles up to Troy, Alabama. That delivered on Friday which gave us plenty of time to get it there. We drove up to Troy and parked at the Walmart since there weren't any truck stops near our delivery point. We did some shopping to get the truck fully stocked. They had a redbox so we rented a movie called In Time with Justin Timberlake. It was pretty good. One of those movies that kinda messes with your mind. We ate dinner and went to sleep.

Got up early the next morning and headed to the consignee. Made our delivery and drove almost 40 miles to the nearest truckstop. Parked and went back to sleep waiting for the next load. We started getting load offers right away but they were pretty crappy. The first one was too heavy. The second one was a train wreck. There was so much about the load that we didn't like that we wouldn't even make our carrier an offer on it. The third one was too short. Finally, we took the fourth one which again wasn't great, but was better than the prior ones and it was getting late on Friday and we didn't want to spend the weekend without any load at all. This one picked up in Alabama and will deliver in Shreveport on Monday.

Once again, we will be taking our time on the load. 530 loaded miles in 3 days is pretty pathetic. It's nice to be able to take your time and do other things along the way, but you don't make a lot of money that way. Next week should be better now that we have everything with the truck taken care of and we will be up in better freight lanes.

I've got our bookkeeping paperwork all caught up. I also started a new project. This one involves gathering all the information I can find online from other truck drivers and compiling it into one area. The information is for daytrips that are accessible to truck drivers. So many times we are laid over somewhere and would like to do something but not sure what is available in the area and where we could park the truck. The information is out there, but is so scattered that it would be a pain to try and find it when you're in a hurry. So, I'm working on putting it all into one spot so I will have easy access.

I've run across several exciting things to do in Las Vegas. Two involve driving cars. Exotic cars and Nascar type cars. The other involves flying in acrobatic stunt planes. I'm sure John would absolutely love driving some of the cars I saw listed on the websites.

Now that we've been out on the road for over two years and have our own truck, paid for and the repairs caught up, it seems like the job is getting easier and we are to the point where we can start having some fun out here. This is what we've been working toward and the time is finally here!

One other thing that I'm pretty excited about. John has always said that the biggest drawback of this job was the inability for him to get a workout. I've never been much into working out so it hasn't really bothered me so much, but as I'm getting older, I do feel like I need to start doing something to keep from rusting up. I recently found out from a trucking web forum about a fitness chain that has 24/7 access and BEST PART has private showers! This is great because it allows a truck driver to get their workout at any time, and get a shower before getting back into the truck. The shower part is a big deal. There are ways out here on the road to get your workout in, but without access to a shower, who wants to work out and get all sweaty and then get back in the truck? I will definitely be looking into getting us a membership for this fitness center. They have almost 1800 locations throughout the US and your membership allows you entry into all of them.

So So Much to Catch Up On...

Lets see. When I left off, we were heading to Nebraska with the hazmat load. We delivered that load and immediately got a return load that took us to Michigan. We delivered there and then debated on whether we would get a load taking us closer to southern Indiana for our time off or if we should deadhead ourselves there. While we were trying to decide, we received a load offer picking up in the Indy area delivering to New Jersey on Thursday. We declined the load and told dispatch that we had to be in Indiana on Friday for a planned family event. Dispatch begged and pleaded with us to do the load because they had no other trucks that had the qualifications to do it. Finally they offered us some layover pay along with a $550 bonus so that after we delivered, we could turn around and deadhead back to Indiana and be there by Friday for our family event. We gave in and took the load. The load went smoothly and we made good money on it.

On the way back to Indiana, just as we crossed into Pennsylvania, they sent us another load offer that was picking up Friday morning in Ohio and delivering that afternoon in the Indy area. We agreed to take it because we could do it and still get to our familys house by Friday evening. We parked at a truckstop about 20 miles away from the pickup. Set the alarm for 2 AM. We got up, got dressed, had a little snack and John started up the truck and turned the lights on. Problem. No lights on the trailer. They worked perfectly fine when we parked the night before. But now, no lights. We checked the fuses and looked for any obvious problems, but couldn't find any. Finally we had to call in and let dispatch know that unless the customer could wait until daylight, we couldn't take the load. Turns out the customer couldn't wait, so we were taken off the load. We went back to sleep and got up when it was daylight. We drove to a TA in in the Columbus, Oh area and had them fix the problem. They found a broken wire and repaired it. After that we continued on to Mom's house. Finally made it there that evening and got the truck parked out in the back yard. They have almost 2 acres and we were turning it into a campground for the week. We got settled in and visited for a little while and then had a good nights sleep.

The next day, we had Mom and Dad take us to town to buy some supplies for our week of fun that was coming up. We also bought a new fridge for the truck and John got it swapped out with the old one. Turns out this new one works far better than the old one, even though they are the same exact model. Makes us wonder if there was something wrong with the old one from the beginning. For all we know, it could have been the cause of our electrical problem. We will never know, but anyway, things worked out and now we have a fridge that works great!

Our time in Indiana flew by. We have so many family and friends there that it always seems there's never enough time to visit everybody. All in all this visit was an overall success! Every single member of my family was able to make it with the exception of one nephew who couldn't get any time off from work. We had great food, great company and will have a lifetime of memories. We try to do this once a year, but we had to miss out last year due to issues with the truck. The only negative thing about the week was the extreme heat. We had temps of around 100 degrees every single day. Since we were spending everyday outside, that was a pretty big deal. Happily though, even with the heat and all the alcohol that was consumed, there was not a single argument the entire week. That's pretty good I think!

After that weeks was over, we headed back to work. I don't remember all the details of the loads that we did and I'm too lazy to look them up. I do know that we made several trips to California and Texas and we were extremely busy, which is a good thing!

On July 19th, we made our FINAL truck payment!!!! I can't believe what a huge relief it is to have this truck paid for! We bought it on contract and made payments for 15 months. It was a very stressful 15 months as we had to make payments, and keep the repairs and maintenance done. Their was a lot of catch up work to do on the truck, but we have gotten it to the point that we only have one major job left to do and that is to have the frame of the box sanded and undercoated. After that is done, it will look like a new truck! Since we got the truck paid for, the lady we bought it from mailed us the title, so we headed home at the end of July to deal with getting the title switched over into our names.

Along with that, we had to do a new contract with our carrier which is a lot more complicated than it sounds. You would think that since the truck and both of us were already on with the carrier that it would be a simple process, but unfortunately with all the government regulations involved, it gets complicated and expensive. It took us a full week to get everything squared away. While I worked on the paperwork side of things, John used the time to do some more cosmetic work on the truck. He is such a perfectionist. Even though he is driving a 2006 truck, he expects it to look like a brand new one. Which is fine, except for the fact that it was hotter than heck at home in Florida and he was trying to work outside on the truck in that heat. That and the fact that every afternoon and evening we would get storms with lightning and rain. Very frustrating, but he got almost everything done that he wanted to get done.

Our carrier for some reason required us to get a new DOT inspection done, even though our last one is only 4 months old. There isnt anywhere near us that did them so we had to drive up to Wildwood and go to the TA and have it done. We did that yesterday and finally we were cleared by the safety dept to go back into service. Of course, by that time two other trucks got on the board ahead of  us. They are both gone now, so hopefully we will get a load soon and be back in business. Florida can be very tricky sometimes to get a load out of. At least in the expediting business.

We plan to stay out for about 3 to 4 weeks and then go home again. Right now, our truck only has a paper plate since the title and registration had to be switched over. Our new plate will be waiting for us when we go home.

Did I say how good it feels to have the truck paid for?