Loving the Cooler Temps of Fall

We delivered our load in San Diego. Afterwards we drove down to a Pilot truckstop very near the Mexican border. We aren't familiar with that area so we were blindly following along with our trusty gps to get us there. Sometimes, that's not such a good idea. I swear, one day that gps is gonna send us over a cliff! They were doing road construction in that area, so I am assuming that is the reason for the error in the gps. She didn't tell us to take the exit when we should have and next thing we know we see a sign saying last US exit, all trucks must exit. One of these days I just know we're going to accidently end up  in Mexico. Luckily, we avoided it this time and managed to find our way to the truckstop.

We were both really worn out from the long drive and frustrated from the chaos of the delivery. The place we had to deliver to was in the middle of an area that had road construction all around and we couldn't get there the way we planned on. We had to detour and the detour included crossing railroad tracks. Not a big deal, normally, but at this crossing, the rr arms that come down to prevent you from crossing when a train is coming got stuck in the down position and we couldn't get across. We sat and waited for a while and nobody came to fix it. There was no other way out, we were trapped there. Finally, in desperation, I got out and manually raised the arms one at a time and John drove through. It was perfectly safe, there was no train coming, and the arms were spring loaded so as soon as you start raising them, they go right up. Probably could have gotten in trouble for doing it, but we needed to get out of there and we had waited long enough.

After that, we had to figure out how to get to the delivery with the detour and construction messing up everything. It took us awhile but we finally found it. This place had really tight security protocols and they wouldn't let our dog go in, so I ended up having to sit outside the gate with the dog while John went in and completed the delivery. Needless to say, we will not be delivering there again. What a bunch of crap. Our dog is a Maltese/Poodle mix and weighs 13 pounds.  I don't understand what harm he is going to do as long as he stays inside our truck. I'm sure they have their reasons but we're not going back there because I don't like sitting outside with a dog, waiting. There are plenty of other loads that we can do.

After getting to the truckstop, we filled up the tanks and found a parking space. Went inside and ate at the Wendy's. Came back out to the truck and got some much needed rest. We had ourselves off the board till the next morning. We went in and had a shower in the morning and then went back in service. We got a couple of crappy load offers that we turned down and then finally on Wednesday evening we got an offer that we accepted. It was picking up in Carson, Ca going to El Paso, Tx. I drove the deadhead up and got checked in with the shipper. John went inside to find out if the freight was ready and while he was inside, dispatch called and said the shipper just called and said it wouldn't be ready till sometime the next day, so we got dry run pay. We headed out and went to the TA truckstop in Ontario, Ca.

We usually go to that one when we're in the area because they have a special parking area just for expediters and it's free to park there. A lot of places in Ca charge for truck parking. The drive up from San Diego was nice and easy. It was about 3 AM when we got there and I was starving. We went in and ate at the restaurant there and then back out to the truck to sleep and wait for another load. When I got up later that morning, I turned the key in the ignition to the on position so our qualcomm would come back to life. When I turned the key, the windshield wipers started running and a check electrical system light came on the dash along with a buzzer sound. After about 30 seconds it all finally stopped. Me and John looked at each other and said what now? We looked at fuses and he checked the wiring in the battery box, but all seemed to be okay. We turned the truck on and let it idle for a while and everything seemed okay. I lost my appetite because I knew that there was a problem somewhere, but we were going to find out what it was the hard way.

While we were looking around at things on the truck, dispatch called with a load offer. He started out by telling me that he had the best weekend load offer I would ever get. He was right about that. It picked up the next day on Friday up at Beale Air Force Base, a little north of Sacramento. Then it went almost 2900 miles to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. The weird thing was that our sons had just gotten a load to deliver at the same place, but we wouldn't be seeing them because we had to deliver on Sunday night and they weren't delivering until Monday morning.

We accepted the load, even though we were worried about what might or might not be going on with the truck. The deadhead on this load was 450 miles so we figured that would be enough time for any problems to show up. John did the first half of the deadhead and the drive was pretty sucky heading north through California on I5. That road is a joke. So bumpy it's awful. Add in the congestion, the mountains, the heat, and it doesn't make a pleasant drive. He made it about 70 miles or so when I noticed that our battery gauge was dropping. This was in the daytime, no headlights were on so there was no way our batteries should have been that low. Suddenly we realized our alternator must have stopped working. Fortunately, we have our generator so we turned it on and it kept the batteries charged up. I started making phone calls to different places along our route and found an International dealer in Turlock, up by Stockton who said they would take us in and change out our alternator.

We made it there and they were awesome! It only took them about half an hour to do the job and the bill was only $289. We had had the alternator changed 15 months ago at a TA in Baltimore and they charged us $480 and it took them almost 3 hours. Hard to believe that a TA charged that much more than a dealership. What a racket!! The good news in all that is that we now know why we had the crazy ck electrical system message that morning. Apparently the truck somehow knows when it has a problem and tries to tell you. If only it had a message on the dash that would say, need to replace alternator instead of a generic check electrical system. Oh well. It's fixed now.

We made our pickup the next morning and began the long long drive to New Jersey. This load was a straight thru drive. We only stopped to fuel up and switch drivers. Our delivery time was set for 11:30 Sunday evening, but we got there two hours early. I was pretty impressed with us! Before we had even left out of the delivery point, dispatch was on the phone with three more load offers. They were all military loads. First one picked up in Connecticut on Monday morning and delivered to Crane, IN on Tuesday morning. Then we reloaded in Crane, In at the same place and delivered to Ft. Campbell, Ky on  Wednesday morning. The third load we are on now, so I won't say anything about it until later. After we make this delivery, we are out of available hours to work so we will have to do a 34 hour reset. We will be happy to do the reset as we are pretty well wore out. Very happy though as we have made quite a bit of money these last two weeks. It's about time!!   

A funny story involving our sons. They drive a truck just like ours and are signed on with the same carrier as us. Our oldest son called me up the other day and said you will not believe what just happened to us. I said what now? He was driving along the interstate and a truck pulled up next to him and was honking his horn so Johnny looked over at him and the guy started waving his cb microphone at him. Johnny just kind of ignored him because he didn't want to talk to the guy.

The guy kept honking and waving and then finally gave up and went ahead of him. Johnny suddenly had the thought that maybe the guy was trying to tell him of a problem so he turned on his cb just in time to hear the guy telling another driver that he tried to tell him but he must not have his radio on. Johnny got on the cb and said I have it on, what's going on? The driver says, man, you got sparks coming out from under your truck! Johnny looks in the drivers mirror and sees nothing so he yells at Steve and Steve looks out the passenger side and sees the sparks. Johnny pulls over on the side and they get out to look and find out that their tail pipe that comes out of the muffler had rusted through and broken and was hanging there dragging along down the road so sparks were flying off it. The pipe is about 4 feet long and they had a load in the trailer with a seal on the door so they had nowhere to put the pipe. They just took it the rest of the way off the truck and had to continue on to the delivery without it.

Today is a Lazy Day...with Pay!

Yesterday we drove from Chicago to Goshen, In to pick up a load going to Aurora, Nebraska. We were told that it was a hazmat load which is not a big deal, we do them all the time. Since the load was picking up on Friday and not delivering until Monday we are getting paid two days of layover pay in addition to our regular mileage pay. I love weekend loads like that! After we arrived at the shipper and got loaded, we received a message on the qualcomm telling us not to depart until we verified some information with dispatch. I called in and went over some things with them and then the dispatcher transferred me to safety to go over some info. This is not the usual way of doing things there, so I don't really know why I was being transferred to safety. Turns out that it opened up a can of worms. Safety immediately informed me that we are not allowed to sit on a hazmat load over a weekend. We weren't going to be allowed to do the load. I said, well, we're already loaded. He told me not to leave, he was going to get into contact with dispatch. Great! Now what? I sat and waited for about a half an hour and finally I called dispatch back. I said what is going on?

I've never heard of this policy before? I ended up talking with about 5 different people in dispatch and they all said they had never heard of that policy either. They kept telling me to sit and wait while they worked on a solution. Finally after about 3 hours they called and asked me if there was anyone available in shipping that they could talk to. I had been waiting in the truck so I walked back to the shipping office and discovered that the lights were off and everyone was gone home! This meant that there was no way they could take the load off our truck now. Dispatch was going to have to figure out a new solution. Another hour goes by and finally they called and said they found a hazmat certified cross dock in Lake Station, In. We had to drive there and have them unload our freight. It has to sit there until Sunday afternoon at which time we will go back there and pick it up and then we can finally be on our way to Nebraska. The good news in all this is that we are getting paid an additional $150 for layover for our troubles along with 2 hours detention time for sitting so long at the shipper while dispatch worked to correct their mistake. I needed a 34 hour restart anyway so it's all good!

After we unloaded at the cross dock we headed over to the TA down the road and parked the truck. We'll sit here till Sunday and get the reset on our hours. We have our bicycles with us now but this area isn't really bike friendly so I guess we won't be doing that. We've been to a lot of places that would be good areas for bike riding. We will be prepared next time we get back to those areas. One in particular is in Ripon, Ca. I really like that area. We'll also be able to use the bikes next week when we take our time off at my Mom and Dad's house. It will nice to get some exercise. I hate exercise unless it's in the form of swimming or biking.
Really looking forward to our time off. Turns out that pretty much all my family is going to be able to make it. They won't all be there for as long as me and John will, but that's okay. The additional time we are there will allow us to go visit some friends we haven't seen in awhile. I just hope it doesn't rain!!

It looks like we are going to need to replace our refrigerator in the truck. We'll do that when we take our time off. We are guessing that when we had our electrical problem with the truck that it somehow damaged the fridge. The fridge worked before the problem and not after so I would say it's safe to assume the problems are related. We'll just have to buy ice and use a cooler for our drinks for a week. These kinds of problems I can handle.

Moving Again. Just not out of Texas

Finally got a call this morning from dispatch wanting to know if we would be interested in a load picking up in El Paso going 413 miles to Del Rio Texas. Not the greatest load, but not the worst either. Picks up this afternoon, delivers at 8 AM in the morning. We said we would take it and this time they finally won the bid on the load so we are now at the shipper waiting for the freight. One thing about picking up loads in Texas border towns, you almost always have to wait on the freight. At least we do with the carrier we are with. We were told to be here at 3 PM and it's now 5 PM. The shipper said the driver called in and said he was on the bridge trying to get through customs. They were in the process of xraying his truck. Shipper says probably 30 minutes to another hour before he gets here. I told him we were in no hurry because we have plenty of extra time on this load, but the shipper said he has plans to go to the movies and got called in today on his day off just for this load, so he is actually in a hurry. That's a switch!
The reason I say this isn't the best load is because it delivers in Del Rio. I am unfamiliar with that area and have no idea what kind of freight comes out of there or if we will end up having to empty move somewhere else. I do know that we will be on the Laredo board after delivery. We will be about 185 miles north of Laredo. In the end, it just came down to us being bored sitting for so long in El Paso and needing a change of scenery. It feels good to be back on a load again. Hopefully it will work out for us and something else will come along pretty quickly tomorrow.
We've been making plans for the week of July 4th. We're going to take the week off and spend it at my parents house in Indiana. Hopefully we will get to visit with a lot of our family and friends. We've found over the last couple of years that in our line of work, it's pretty much useless to try and work through certain holidays. July 4th is one of them. So many car manufacturers have plant shut downs that week that everything comes to a crawl. Besides that, in our former regular jobs, we never got to be off together to celebrate holidays, so we have some lost time to make up. I'm hoping that our sons will be able to join us there. More quality time. One of the perks of this job is the ability to visit family when we want. It's nice to be able to drive to visit them and get paid to do it. Living in Florida when the rest of our families live in Indiana makes it hard to visit, but this job helps with that.
It was hard leaving the boys today. We've been with them now for almost a week. Felt like we were camping out together, just in a truckstop instead of a campground. This job is definitely more than a job, it's a lifestyle. Most people wouldn't like it, but fortunately, it works for us!

Labor Day

We made our delivery in Kitchener and headed to a nearby truckstop. We initially thought we might get some time off being in that area, but as usual we were wrong. We had a pick up the next day in Belleville, Ontario. This one went to Plymouth, Michigan. That's all right. We like to get paid extra crossing the border with a load on.

We next had a pickup in Chesterfield, Mi with a delivery in Princeton, In. Back in the Hoosier State! Seems like anytime we get in Indiana we can expect a load offer out of Crane. We were right. Next up was Crane, Indiana going to Norfolk, Va. Wow, that is an awesome navy base in Norfolk. We were shocked at the size of those ships. I don't know the proper names for them so I won't even try, but they are huge!

We next picked up in Richmond, Va and delivered in Grand Rapids, Mi followed up with a pickup in Grand Rapids, Mi. This one delivered in Wayne, Mi and had a pickup in Kenton, Ohio. Lots of little loads, but all picking up and delivering direct so we agreed to them. The Kenton load delivered in Kansas City, Kansas on Saturday.

Labor Day is Monday so we figure another long layover over the holiday.

Ran out of Juice

After another weekend off, it was back to work on Monday. We picked up in Pryor, Ok and delivered next day to Goshen, In. Then a pickup in Lima, Oh and a delivery in Green Bay, Wi. The only thing I think about when I hear Green Bay is Brett Favre. Yes, I am a fan!

After that it was a pickup in Green Bay, Wi with a delivery to Somersworth, Nh. Unfortunately, back to the northeast. Only thing worse would be a trip to Canada.

After our deliver we went to a truckstop to rest up, eat and shower. Our truck has an apu on it so when we park we run the apu for heat and air and to keep the batteries charged. It has a voltage monitor that will make it start automatically if the batteries get down to a certain level. We have now learned that if your batteries are bad, they will drop voltage faster than the apu can react and it will not be able to start in time to charge up the batteries. We learned this the hard way by having them go dead and leaving us with no way to start the truck or the apu.

We contacted the owner who wanted us to see if we could find a truck driver in the area who would be willing to jumpstart us. We didn't have any luck with that so we had to call mobile repair service to come out and jump us. The owner looked around for a place nearby to get the batteries changed out. She said she didn't see any so we just have to keep the apu running until we can get the batteries replaced.

Twic Card

Dad and John in a game of Cornhole

Wow, two weeks off with no worries. We never had that in our former jobs. Another benefit to be had from expediting. We camped in a state park with several members of the family.

 Other family who live nearby were able to come and visit so it was a nice family reunion. We played a lot of cornhole.


 Ate a lot, went for a swim in the river and played many many games of cards. We were all sad when the time came to leave. Hopefully we can do it again next year.

Mom and Dad 

When we left there, we drove up to Hammond, Indiana to apply for our Twic Cards. Our carrier has agreed to reimburse us for the cost so we figured why not? It wasn't too bad of a procedure and it's done. It'll take a few weeks to get the cards and then we'll see if anyone really wants to see them or not.

After that it was back to work. It was Crane, Indiana to Ft. Hood, Texas. Austin, Tx to Round Rock, Tx. Brownwood, Tx to Midwest City, Ok.

Nothing exciting, but good money and a weekend off. Love it!

Jessie's Graduation

We are on such a good roll! I am still loving the fact that we got to visit Graceland last week! And now this week has turned out to be special as well.

After deliving the load in Evansville, In we next picked up in Murfreesboro, Tn. That load took us to San Antonio, Texas which was followed by a pickup in Laredo, Tx which had a delivery in Memphis, Tn. Then came the really good part. Our next pickup was in Southhaven, Ms when a delivery in Sidney, Ohio.

However, the Southhaven load picked up on Friday and didn't deliver until Monday and with just a few miles added on, took us right by my parents house in Indiana. It just so happened that my niece was having a graduation party this weekend and this load gave us the opportunity to attend the party.

Topping all that greatness off, our son, Johnny who is driving solo for Conway right now, happened to be in the same area as we were on our way up from Mississippi and we met up at a truckstop in Tennessee and spent the night there while he took his required 10 hour DOT break. He was on a load that was delivering to the same town that my parents live in and his load didn't deliver until Monday either. What are the odds of that? We convoyed up to Mom's house and parked the trucks and had a fantastic weekend visiting a lot of relatives that we wouldn't normally have gotten to see, but because of the graduation party, they were there.

I have to say it again, I LOVE the opportunities that this job is giving us!

Visit to Graceland

After a couple of really busy weeks we have found that in our line of work, weeks with a holiday usually mean that things are going to slowdown if not actually stop. This is okay with us because it gives us an opportunity to do one of the things that attracted us to this job in the first place. Sightsee.

Last week we ended the week in Massachusetts. We got a nice long 4 day weekend and eventually got a load picking up in East Granby, Ct. That load took us to St. Peters Mo and while on our way there we received our next load which was picking up in Washington, Mo with a delivery in Laredo, Tx.

Gates to Graceland

I was happy for a couple of reasons. One was that it was keeping us out of Canada and the Northeast and another is that I like driving in Texas. Little did we know that it was going to lead to something even better to be excited about.

We received a load offer picking up in Laredo right away. It was picking up on Thursday and due to the Memorial Day holiday it wasn't delivering until Tuesday in Evansville, In. We were paid layover pay for the additional days that we would be stuck with the load. We were happy with the deal and after looking at the map to see what our route would be and trying to decide what to do with our extra time, we realized that we would be going thru Memphis.

Elvis' Pink Cadillac

John at Graceland

John and his Mom have always been Elvis fanatics and neither one of us had ever been to visit Graceland. We did some research and found out that they offered truck parking so we made a plan to stop in and take the tour. I wasn't expecting much. I figured it was just a house, what would be so great? But, I have to say, there is something really special about that place and the way they have preserved his memory. You get caught up in the atmosphere and you can easily imagine what it must have been like in his glory days. It was one of the best tourist experiences we have had and well worth the money.

We took a ton of pictures, took our time walking through the  house, the outbuildings, the planes were awesome, we ate at the restaurant and toured all of the cars. It is just really nice what they have done there.

One of Elvis' two planes

I am so happy we have a job that allows us this kind of opportunity!

Another Busy Week...Getting Tired

We thought we would at least get Sunday off, but the freight must be really running strong right now. We managed to get our truck maintenance squeezed in between loads and then it was off to Morganton, NC for a load bound for Louisville, Ky. Some car manufacturing plants are a real pain to deliver parts too. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

Next was a pickup in Cordon, In heading to Lake Orion, Mi followed by a load picking up in Manchester, Mi heading back up north of the border to Ayr, On. We get more and more irritated each time we take a load across the border. It gets old very quickly, all the questions and the being treated like a criminal just because you are doing your job and need to return to your own country. We are seriously reconsidering doing the Canada loads but we're just not sure how  busy we would stay without them. Other drivers say they think we would do better without Canada. We'll have to think it over.

After that, it was East Aurora, NY to Baltimore, Md. Yikes! Talk about traffic. You can't get anywhere fast up in the Northeast. I don't know how those people can stand to drive in that every single day. Then it was a pickup in Norwalk, Ct and a delivery in Weymouth, Ma.

Things died down after that one and we have received a couple of much needed days off. We still lack the stamina to drive miles like seasoned truck drivers do and I know it's because we still haven't learned to sleep in a moving truck. Hopefully soon a switch will flip and it will be easier for us to do.

Uptight Chemical Plant in Mt. Vernon

I am forcing myself to retype this entire entry to the blog. I had the whole thing done but some glitch caused it to disappear. Grrr!

We sat several days in New York after the routine maintenance debacle. Finally we received an acceptable load offer that would pick up in Waterloo, Ny. The load was delivering in Garret, Indiana. We're originally from Indiana so it felt like a homecoming going back there.

We weren't there very long before our next load offer came in so we didn't get to do any visiting with family members. The next load picked up in Fremont, Indiana and delivered in Lebanon, Tn. Again, a routine pickup and delivery.

One of the cute little 1000 Islands in Canada

Not too long after delivery, we received another load offer that we accepted. This time we were picking up in Mt. Vernon, In and the load would be going to Waterloo, Ontario. I knew we wouldn't be able to stay out of Canda for long.

I was on the night shift on the drive to Mt. Vernon. I had a little bit of trouble finding the place but eventually I got us there. The shipper was a very large chemical plant. This was our first time picking up at a place like this. Apparently chemical plants run a pretty tight ship and security is heightened. I pulled up at the guard shack and was immediately made to feel like a criminal. There were two guards. The first one came up to the drivers window and started a rapid fire q&a session. Did we have any cameras, cell phones with cameras, drugs, weapons, pets, etc. While that was going on, the second guard was running a mirror all underneath our truck. I don't know what he was looking for, but apparently we checked out okay. We were directed to our dock with strict orders not to be outside the truck unneccessarily, and to wear our seat belts at all times while driving.

We got to the dock, backed in, and went inside to check in. The person on duty was very unfriendly and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait until we were told our truck was loaded. We were not allowed to go back out to our truck until they said we were done. May not sound like a big deal, but when both the driver and the co-driver are forced to sit and wait inside, that means that no one is being allowed to get any rest. Why the government, who is supposed to be so concerned about the sleep that drivers get, allows this practice to go on, is beyond me. All I could think about was all the miles we were going to have to drive and how it was going to suck because we were going to be tired.

The loading took over two hours. Ridiculous, considering we were only picking up two pallets of freight. We were the only ones in the waiting room so I am assuming there were not a lot of other trucks being loaded, so I don't know what the hold up was. At long last, we were allowed back out to our truck and we headed back to the exit. We had to go through the two guards again and were given a pardon and allowed to leave.

Back to Canada we go.