To El Paso with a side trip to Joplin

Hope this load goes well. Its pretty heavy for our truck. 10200 pounds. But the miles are good 1756 loaded. Just a little nervous due to yesterdays truck problems. I hate breaking down. It is soooo stressful.
If all goes well we plan to stop off in Joplin at the Chrome Mafia shop and see if we can get a new chrome bumper.
Our load doesnt deliver till Monday so we have plenty of time. Keeping fingers crossed!

Off to Alabama..or not

We delivered in Ohio this morning and had our next load within an hour. Nice load picking up in Ohio and going almost 700 miles to Alabama. The pickup was almost deadly for John. The docks were so close together the truck next to us almost ran over him when he was lowering our dolly legs. The other driver said he never saw him. Broad daylight and John wearing a bright yellow shirt. Very scary!

Luckily it turned out okay and I headed out to Alabama. Truck was running great I had the cruise on and was doing about 60 mph. 165 miles into the trip the cruise kicked off, the truck slowed down and finally died, engine light came on. I managed to get onto the shoulder and tried restarting. No luck. Called our carrier. They were going to send a tow truck to take us to the International shop 25 miles away.

 I tried starting it again and this time it started and we made it to the shop. Repair only took half an hour but we had to give our load up since we werent sure how long it would take. Turned out to be an ecm idb fuse harness shorting out. New one and $200 we were good to go but now our sleep schedule is messed up so we are not accepting any loads till in the morning. Time for some gooood sleep!

Happy 30th Anniversary to Us!!

From our wedding May 14, 1982

Yesterday was our 30th Anniversary. Surprisingly John forgot. I don't think he's ever forgotten before, and this was kind of a milestone anniversary, but oh well, I don't really make a big deal out of birthdays, anniversarys and all that stuff. If you love someone, dont wait for a holiday to tell them. Show them with your actions year round.

 Greeting cards dont really mean anything to me. Just words someone put on paper and people get guilted into spending money for. I'm much happier with being taken out for a good meal, skip the card. I remember way back, John had a dozen roses sent to me at the office I worked at. I was so mad at him for spending that much money on flowers that were only going to last a couple of days. I told him to please never do that again. Guess I'm not a typical girl, which is probably why I love the job we do now. Typical girls aren't crazy about becoming truck drivers :)

 We just got back on the road today after being at home for a week. It was unplanned time off but our last load took us within 150 miles of home so we decided since we were that close to go ahead and get some more work done to the truck. There is an International shop in Ocala, Fl that we really like. We've been wanting to replace our front bumper with a nice new shiny one. The shop there supplies the fire department with bumpers that also fit our truck and if the bumpers come in with any blemishes no matter how small, the fire department rejects them and orders new ones. So then the shop has to turn them in to insurance or warranty or however they d o it and about 3 months later the bumpers are released to be sold or sent to scrap. We found one there that is a perfect fit for our truck and only has the smallest of a scratch that most people would never see and they will sell it to us for half the cost of a brand new one. So, $400 instead of almost $900.

 We thought we were going to get lucky and get it put on while we were at home, but it didn't work out. The bumper hasn't been released by the warranty company yet, so maybe next time we go home . We also had an air hose installed inside the cab of the truck so now I can blow the sleeper and the cab out and get it clean like never before. We have a MaltiPoo (Maltese Poodle) that travels with us and he doesn't shed, but loses hair like a human and between me and him, there tends to be quite a few loose hairs that are pretty easy to deal with now that I have the air hose.

 We also had an airline installed on the air tank outside of the truck so that John can hook a hose to it and air up our tires if they are low. The other thing we had done was to have a metal transfer plate made to carry with us. It's just a flat heavy duty plate that can be used anytime we have to do a swap with another truck. We drive a straight truck, so if you back two trucks up to each other there is always a little gap between them. You can't get a pallet jack across the gap, the wheels would fall down in the gap and get stuck. So that is what we will use the plate for. All about making our lives easier.

 We just recently did a swap with another truck. They had picked up the load, which was only one pallet, about a thousand pounds. They made it about 25 miles down the road and discovered the bearing was going out to their drive shaft so they stopped off at a truck stop and let our carrier know that they werent going to be able to finish the load. The carrier called us since we were only 25 miles away and offered the load to us.

It was a good load about 750 loaded miles, only problem was, we didn't have the transfer plate. Carrier says no problem, head on over and we'll figure it out. So we get there and back the two trucks together. The other truck had a piece of heavy plywood that he laid down to drive the pallet jack over. It looked like it might work, but it didn't. As soon as the wheels of the jack got over the area where the gap was, they crashed through and everything came to a screeching halt. The jack was stuck. The freight shifted forward and spilled all into the floor of our truck. You should have seen the look on everyone's faces.

 About two hours later, the load was on our truck after being restacked piece by piece by John and the other driver. I couldn't help because it was pieces of steel and each piece weighed about 55 pounds That incident is what made us decide we were getting a plate made asap. It's kind of funny now but John was certainly not laughing at the time. It was in Texas and it was so hot and muggy. His shirt was wringing wet with sweat by the time he got done. Now all we have to do is wait for another truck to break down and we can try out our new plate...just kidding, I really don't wish that on anybody. Breaking down sucks!! We've got two loads booked right now. We will deliver the one we're on now in the morning and then take another to Ohio.

Catching up on our Loads

After an exciting ferry ride, we've really just been busy driving and making money. A good thing, much better than not making money, or even worse, spending lots of money! After the ferry ride, the loads went like this:

Liverpool, NY to St. Augustine, Fl
Beaufort, Sc to Indian Head, Md
Indian Head, Md to Yorktown, Va
Lynchburg, Va to Roanoke, Va
Blacksburg, Va to Tonawanda, NY
Meadville, Pa to Fond Du Lac, Wi
Escanaba, Mi to Water Valley, Ms

That rounds out the month of July. Not a bad month! The drive up to Escanaba, Michigan was a beautiful one. We drove right along the west shore of Lake Michigan and there are some really cute cottages all the way up through there. It would be a really cool place for a group of family members to be able to take a summer vacation together.

Our first Ferry Ride

Waiting in line for the ferry 

We left our comfy hotel room on Monday and made a pickup in Maple Grove, Mn. We delivered that load to Lebanon, Ohio and immediately made another pickup in Cleves, Ohio with a delivery in Athens, Tn.

From there, we next picked up in Anniston, Alabama and delivered in Colchester, Vermont. This was not the most pleasant of drives as it involved a LOT of small two lane twisting winding highways. Some drivers prefer those kind of roads for the scenic view, but I'm not one of them. I prefer to stay on interstates and large highways.

After our delivery we found a so called truck stop and headed there to wait for the next load. We went inside to eat and they had some brochures near where we were sitting that happened to catch my eye. I picked up a couple and they were ferry schedules. I took them back to the truck with me and studied them. For some reason, they were interesting to me.

The ferry pulling into the dock

As luck would have it, our next load was picking up in Liverpool, NY. I studied the map and saw that there was a big lake between where we were and where we wanted to go. We could either take the highway down, around and back up the lake, or......we could take the ferry across!

I was pretty excited about it. John was not thrilled at all! He did not like the thought of taking the truck onto a ferry. This was a new experience for both of us. I had read about other drivers having to take their trucks on ferrys to get where they needed to be so I wasn't too worried about it. I had to convince John of the safety though.

Our view out the windshield while on the ferry

I got my brochures back out and figured out which ferry we wanted and took off. John said since it was my idea, I could do the driving. Fine with me! I found the ferry with no problem and we got in line. As luck would have it, we were first in line which meant that we got loaded onto the ferry first. They motioned me forward until I swear I thought we were going to go right off into the water, but we didn't. We now had front row seats to enjoy the view across the lake!

We made it to the other side!

Luckily it was a pretty calm day and there weren't a lot of waves. After John's nerves calmed down, he actually was able to enjoy it also. The ferry took us across to the other side and we drove off and continued on to our next destination. Simple!

Working Hard

Nothing much to really write about. The truck has kept running and thankfully we are building our savings back up.

After the 4th of July that we got to spend at home with friends, we went back into service and immediately got a load. We kept busy the rest of the week. The loads went like this:

Mayport, Fl to Anniston, Al
Rome, Ga to Wapakoneta, Oh
Dayton, Oh to Lansing, Mi
Lake Station, Il to Avon, Mn

Because it is so hot out and our truck isnt equipped with a generator, we decided to get a hotel room for the weekend. We found a nice Red Roof Inn. They allow pets for no additional charge. It really is a nice place. It almost seems like a campground atmosphere here. Some of the guests have grills outside and we were invited to join in with them, but we declined. Sometimes, we are just not very sociable.

Home for the 4th

How ironic that we have decided to stay out on the road and make money to build our savings account back up after the huge repair we had and now we keep getting loads taking us close to home.

After finally getting our truck back we got a load picking up in Kansas City, Missouri and delivering in St. Louis, Missouri. We weren't thrilled with the load because of the short miles   and the fact that it was going to be a hand load and unload. But, dispatch made us a good deal on it and we decided maybe a short load would be a good test run after the major repair.

The truck ran fine and we breathed a little sigh of relief. I kept catching myself looking in the mirror expecting to see smoke coming out of the tailpipe, but fortunately, it never happened.

Next up was a load picking up in Ft. Campbell, Ky delivering in Tobyhanna, Pa. This would be another good test for the truck because it would involve a lot of mountain driving. Again the truck performed well.

Our next load picked up in East Hanover, New Jersey. The shipper manufactures flavors. We were picking up flavoring that was destined for an orange juice plant in Bradenton, Florida. It smelled delicious at the shipper. All those flavors floating around in the air. While we  were sitting and waiting to be loaded, we watched a group of deer who were munching away on the sweet smelling grass. I never associated New Jersey and deer together. In my mind, New Jersey is all concrete and steel, but there are actually trees and grassy areas and quite a few deer.

Bradenton was not too far from our home and we really wanted to go home for awhile but we forced ourselves to stay in service and keep making money. We did drive home and get the mail and check on things while we waited on our next load.

We didn't have long to wait, (of course) and we next picked up in Orlando, Florida and headed back up the east coast to Nashua, NH. I like the drive up I95 until you get up into all the congestion around Richmond, Virginia. From that point on up it's too much traffic and then when you get up to New York, the roads are horrible. I think it's criminal that you have to pay so much money to cross the George Washington Bridge and then on the other side the roads are so bad that you would swear your truck is going to be destroyed by the time you get to Connecticut.

The truck held together, and our next pickup was Ashland, Ma. This one was taking us back south to Tarboro, Nc. From there we picked up in Rural Hall, Nc and delivered it to Jacksonville, Florida. This is Friday and Monday is the 4th of July so we decided it would be okay for us to go home for the long holiday weekend. We really need a break!