DATELINE: HUTCHINS, TX, 5:15 p.m. CDT
Miles Today: 0, Zero, Zip, Nada, Zilch
It's my off day (from trucking, anyway) since I've burned up the hours I can work in the 8 days (including today) since I got back on the road. So I'm taking a break to re-set my 70-hour counter. But I have had some things to take care of, anyway.
I did manage to finish up my tax return, so that worry's outta' my hair. I also returned to the online Poker racket, with some success. Instead of detailing that here, I'm gonna' write it up next on my other blog, http://ziptochips.blogspot.com. Check that out if you're interested.
So, it's been a grey day here in the Dallas area. The forecast called for thunderstorms, some possibly severe, but we ain't had none of that yet. It hasn't even rained very much (some, but nothing heavy). It has been quite windy, as my truck's been shakin' a bit. And lately the sun's been peeking out pretty brightly at times, including right now as I type. I don't know what the evening holds in store, if the storm front has fizzled or if it's gearing up. I haven't been inside to check the Weather Channel on the TVs hanging from the ceiling in the building. (Nor have I checked online; guess I could do that.)
Not much else to say about my day today. I did grab breakfast this morning in Carl's Jr.--a Steak & Egg Burrito, probably the best breakfast burrito available out there. Mmmm, mmm, tasty! But I've fought off the urges (so far) to eat another meal in there. I'm trying to stick to the food I have with me in my truck.
Thanks for peeking in today. Drop me a comment, question, and/or multiples of each, and keep on truckin'.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Dallas Downtime
DATELINE: HUTCHINS, TX, 9:35 p.m. CDT
Miles Today: 344
The alarm on my watch sounded at 5:15 this morning as expected. I dutifully got up to get my day started. It was raining, but not terribly hard, so I didn't get soaked on my way to or from the building to freshen up. When I got back to my truck and started filling out my work log, I glanced at the clock on the radio--which I always keep on Central Time because I log all of my hours per that zone--and it was only 4:30. Zounds! I had forgotten to set my watch to the local time when I crossed the time zone boundary on Saturday! Oh well, that just meant I had an extra hour to get to my noon delivery in Dallas (I was starting out in North Little Rock, AR, remember?). Therefore I had enough time to stop for a shower and shave en route.
I hit the road to still more rain, and some fog here and there. 45 minutes later I stopped to fill up my tanks at a Pilot truck stop that's on the company's fuel network list, then continued on. Another 80-ish miles down the road I pulled into the TA in Prescott, AR for the aforementioned shower & shave. (I have some shower credits at TA, none at Petro, the place I spent last night, hence no shower there...unless I wanted to pay $10 for one.) All clean and refreshed, it was time to make tracks to the delivery.
Through more rain and fog, and some light shows in the sky, I only made a couple more short stops on the trip. The second was for a quick bite at a Carl's Jr. inside a Love's truck stop just east of Dallas, as I was getting quite hungry and was still ahead of schedule. (I highly recommend Carl Jr.'s Teriyaki Burger.) Then it was into the big city to drop my load.
The delivery site was actually within the city, not far from downtown, so I had to wind through some smaller city streets. Happily, being Sunday morning, those streets were all but deserted, so I had no difficulties with traffic impeding my progress.
It was a drop-and-hook delivery, so it went quickly. Afterwards, I headed down I-45 to another Love's that I'm familiar with (and also having a Carl's Jr.), less than 10 miles from where I was. I was down to 3 hours left of my 70-in-8-days limit, so I sent a message to Dispatch (remember, I'm dealing with the weekend crew today) asking if they were going to assign me a load to pick up, or just let me start counting down a 34-hour break to reset my 70 hour counter to zero. Their reply: Yes, and send a Mac 15 ("back-to-work" message) when ready for a load.
I called Mrs. R.T. to let her know where I was and that I'd be here for that break, and to say, "Howdy-do" as married couples do. Then, feeling fatigued from several long days of work, I settled in for a nap. Before I even got comfortable, my Qualcomm box sounded 3 short beeps, the signal that a load assignment message had arrived. (Naturally.)
I checked it out, and the assignment was to pick up a load in Lawton, OK (a pickup I've made numerous times before), 189 miles away, at 11:00 tonight. The 11:00 p.m. pickup wasn't likely a problem, because the load--it'd be a drop-and-hook--would likely be ready early if I went over right away. Being down to 3 hours available for work, and Lawton being more than a 3-hour drive away, the math didn't compute. So I had an hour of stress as I tried to communicate back and forth with Dispatch whether they wanted me to keep the assignment and pick up the load after my break (it wouldn't be due for delivery 'til Thursday in Ohio, so there'd be plenty of time to make the drive after picking it up Tuesday morning), or if they'd just take me off the load. Finally they let me know that I was off the load.
So now here I sit reporting it all to you. After getting let off the hook, I gave in to my fatigue (exacerbated by that stressful hour) and hit my bunk for a nap. That was just after 3:00, and I stayed asleep 'til after 7:30. I guess I really was tired. So I then got up and headed in for some dinner.
My dietitian is gonna kill me--well, s/he would if I had one--but I gave in to the siren song of the "Guacamole Bacon Six-Dollar Burger" (and fries). No. it doesn't actually cost $6, but it's a BIG burger; 1/2 pound of beef if I recollect correct. After eating that, I needed to work it off (or at least some of it), so I walked some laps around the truck stop's property for an hour. Then it was back into the truck to haul down my laptop and write y'all about it. So how was that for a Sunday? Wanna trade?
Tomorrow, as noted, will be a day off for me, my first while on the road for a while (none on at least my last couple of tours of duty, as I recall). The Weather Channel says this area may have some severe thunderstorms, so I guess I'd better batten down my hatches. But it won't be as bad as up in Oklahoma, so I'm glad I didn't get headed that-a-way with my remaining hours today to go get that load. I'll be online all day, finishing up my tax returns then, if that leaves any time, finally returning to the virtual felt of the online poker tables. Time to get back to working on that second income. ;-)
Thanks for checking in today; I hope I'm keeping you entertained. Let me know how I'm doing, and keep on truckin'.
Miles Today: 344
The alarm on my watch sounded at 5:15 this morning as expected. I dutifully got up to get my day started. It was raining, but not terribly hard, so I didn't get soaked on my way to or from the building to freshen up. When I got back to my truck and started filling out my work log, I glanced at the clock on the radio--which I always keep on Central Time because I log all of my hours per that zone--and it was only 4:30. Zounds! I had forgotten to set my watch to the local time when I crossed the time zone boundary on Saturday! Oh well, that just meant I had an extra hour to get to my noon delivery in Dallas (I was starting out in North Little Rock, AR, remember?). Therefore I had enough time to stop for a shower and shave en route.
I hit the road to still more rain, and some fog here and there. 45 minutes later I stopped to fill up my tanks at a Pilot truck stop that's on the company's fuel network list, then continued on. Another 80-ish miles down the road I pulled into the TA in Prescott, AR for the aforementioned shower & shave. (I have some shower credits at TA, none at Petro, the place I spent last night, hence no shower there...unless I wanted to pay $10 for one.) All clean and refreshed, it was time to make tracks to the delivery.
Through more rain and fog, and some light shows in the sky, I only made a couple more short stops on the trip. The second was for a quick bite at a Carl's Jr. inside a Love's truck stop just east of Dallas, as I was getting quite hungry and was still ahead of schedule. (I highly recommend Carl Jr.'s Teriyaki Burger.) Then it was into the big city to drop my load.
The delivery site was actually within the city, not far from downtown, so I had to wind through some smaller city streets. Happily, being Sunday morning, those streets were all but deserted, so I had no difficulties with traffic impeding my progress.
It was a drop-and-hook delivery, so it went quickly. Afterwards, I headed down I-45 to another Love's that I'm familiar with (and also having a Carl's Jr.), less than 10 miles from where I was. I was down to 3 hours left of my 70-in-8-days limit, so I sent a message to Dispatch (remember, I'm dealing with the weekend crew today) asking if they were going to assign me a load to pick up, or just let me start counting down a 34-hour break to reset my 70 hour counter to zero. Their reply: Yes, and send a Mac 15 ("back-to-work" message) when ready for a load.
I called Mrs. R.T. to let her know where I was and that I'd be here for that break, and to say, "Howdy-do" as married couples do. Then, feeling fatigued from several long days of work, I settled in for a nap. Before I even got comfortable, my Qualcomm box sounded 3 short beeps, the signal that a load assignment message had arrived. (Naturally.)
I checked it out, and the assignment was to pick up a load in Lawton, OK (a pickup I've made numerous times before), 189 miles away, at 11:00 tonight. The 11:00 p.m. pickup wasn't likely a problem, because the load--it'd be a drop-and-hook--would likely be ready early if I went over right away. Being down to 3 hours available for work, and Lawton being more than a 3-hour drive away, the math didn't compute. So I had an hour of stress as I tried to communicate back and forth with Dispatch whether they wanted me to keep the assignment and pick up the load after my break (it wouldn't be due for delivery 'til Thursday in Ohio, so there'd be plenty of time to make the drive after picking it up Tuesday morning), or if they'd just take me off the load. Finally they let me know that I was off the load.
So now here I sit reporting it all to you. After getting let off the hook, I gave in to my fatigue (exacerbated by that stressful hour) and hit my bunk for a nap. That was just after 3:00, and I stayed asleep 'til after 7:30. I guess I really was tired. So I then got up and headed in for some dinner.
My dietitian is gonna kill me--well, s/he would if I had one--but I gave in to the siren song of the "Guacamole Bacon Six-Dollar Burger" (and fries). No. it doesn't actually cost $6, but it's a BIG burger; 1/2 pound of beef if I recollect correct. After eating that, I needed to work it off (or at least some of it), so I walked some laps around the truck stop's property for an hour. Then it was back into the truck to haul down my laptop and write y'all about it. So how was that for a Sunday? Wanna trade?
Tomorrow, as noted, will be a day off for me, my first while on the road for a while (none on at least my last couple of tours of duty, as I recall). The Weather Channel says this area may have some severe thunderstorms, so I guess I'd better batten down my hatches. But it won't be as bad as up in Oklahoma, so I'm glad I didn't get headed that-a-way with my remaining hours today to go get that load. I'll be online all day, finishing up my tax returns then, if that leaves any time, finally returning to the virtual felt of the online poker tables. Time to get back to working on that second income. ;-)
Thanks for checking in today; I hope I'm keeping you entertained. Let me know how I'm doing, and keep on truckin'.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Trading Texas Towns in Tennessee
DATELINE: NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR, 6:30 p.m. CDT
Miles Today: 555
Well here I am, back in the Central time zone. I think I actually prefer working over here (as opposed to the Eastern zone) because, for the most part, the driving and docking are easier. Most of the roads and company sites are younger than those back east, so they generally are larger, making maneuvering a big rig with a 53-foot trailer much easier. Plus, the topography is so much different than I'm used to back home that it's more interesting to drive across. But I digress; let me move on to today's recap.
I slept in an hour later than usual--'til 5:15 instead of 4:15--this morning 'cuz I'd be heading into Central time within a couple hours of getting started. After a quick shower (2 days in a row now--what a joy!) I fueled up my truck and hit the road.
It was still dark and raining pretty steadily as I set out, but the rain eased up and dawn broke on my way to Nashville to drop off my load. The weather was cloudy, gloomy, and off-and-on-rainy throughout the day, though. I made it to Nashville and found the yard where I was to drop off my trailer easily (Mapquesting the place last night helped immeasurably). I was surprised that another driver was already there, waiting for it. That load's not due for delivery 'til Tuesday outside of Houston, so I figured Dispatch would let it sit for a day before assigning someone to pick it up. Oh well, what do I know? I'm just a driver. Anyway, back to what I do get to do.
I had to wait 30-45 minutes before my next assignment came in, and, as it turns out, I'm still going to Texas (Yee-Ha!). I was to make a pickup in Springfield, TN (a little ways north of Nashville) and take the load to Dallas for a noon delivery tomorrow (Sunday). Well, that's good 'cuz it's a bunch of miles real quick. And it's gonna' use up most of the rest of my 70-hours-in-8-days allotment, so I'll likely have a free day on Monday. Ya' know, I haven't been able to play any Poker online in over a month now. Wonder if I remember how. But that'll have to wait 'til I finish up my tax return first. But I've digressed again.
I made the pickup just fine, although it took a while for a drop-and-hook pickup. The company from which I picked up the load was busy (and they have a small lot, so I couldn't even get in the gate for 20-25 minutes after I arrived). Then they had to inspect the trailer I brought in (thankfully there had been 1 empty one at the yard where I dropped my first trailer of the day) and I had to sweep that out. At long last they told me which trailer I'd be taking and directed me around their building to their trailer yard. After that, I was outta' there pretty quick.
And after that, I just made tracks to get as far as I could within my hours for the day. And I've made it, as I expected, to the Petro Stopping Center (really, that's what they call it) here in North Little Rock. Dallas is another 5-1/2 hours or so from here, so to make a noon delivery tomorrow, I plan to get rolling by 6:00. Being Sunday morning, traffic shouldn't be very bad anywhere along the way. I'll give y'all a report on how it all goes tomorrow when I get parked for the night.
By the way, for your general edification, I've planned for this to be a 3-week tour of duty. I'll get home next--if all goes as planned--on Monday, April 14. So I'll be home for some weekdays for a change, instead of over a weekend. That's so I can get another 3-week tour in after that and be home for Measure for Measure's spring concert in May. So that's my plan for the next few weeks. Unless, of course, I hit it big in an online Poker tournament and can give all of this trucking glamour up. ;-) Hey, I can dream, can't I?
Thanks for reading up on me today. Send me a comment or query so I can read up on you, too, OK? And keep on truckin'.
Miles Today: 555
Well here I am, back in the Central time zone. I think I actually prefer working over here (as opposed to the Eastern zone) because, for the most part, the driving and docking are easier. Most of the roads and company sites are younger than those back east, so they generally are larger, making maneuvering a big rig with a 53-foot trailer much easier. Plus, the topography is so much different than I'm used to back home that it's more interesting to drive across. But I digress; let me move on to today's recap.
I slept in an hour later than usual--'til 5:15 instead of 4:15--this morning 'cuz I'd be heading into Central time within a couple hours of getting started. After a quick shower (2 days in a row now--what a joy!) I fueled up my truck and hit the road.
It was still dark and raining pretty steadily as I set out, but the rain eased up and dawn broke on my way to Nashville to drop off my load. The weather was cloudy, gloomy, and off-and-on-rainy throughout the day, though. I made it to Nashville and found the yard where I was to drop off my trailer easily (Mapquesting the place last night helped immeasurably). I was surprised that another driver was already there, waiting for it. That load's not due for delivery 'til Tuesday outside of Houston, so I figured Dispatch would let it sit for a day before assigning someone to pick it up. Oh well, what do I know? I'm just a driver. Anyway, back to what I do get to do.
I had to wait 30-45 minutes before my next assignment came in, and, as it turns out, I'm still going to Texas (Yee-Ha!). I was to make a pickup in Springfield, TN (a little ways north of Nashville) and take the load to Dallas for a noon delivery tomorrow (Sunday). Well, that's good 'cuz it's a bunch of miles real quick. And it's gonna' use up most of the rest of my 70-hours-in-8-days allotment, so I'll likely have a free day on Monday. Ya' know, I haven't been able to play any Poker online in over a month now. Wonder if I remember how. But that'll have to wait 'til I finish up my tax return first. But I've digressed again.
I made the pickup just fine, although it took a while for a drop-and-hook pickup. The company from which I picked up the load was busy (and they have a small lot, so I couldn't even get in the gate for 20-25 minutes after I arrived). Then they had to inspect the trailer I brought in (thankfully there had been 1 empty one at the yard where I dropped my first trailer of the day) and I had to sweep that out. At long last they told me which trailer I'd be taking and directed me around their building to their trailer yard. After that, I was outta' there pretty quick.
And after that, I just made tracks to get as far as I could within my hours for the day. And I've made it, as I expected, to the Petro Stopping Center (really, that's what they call it) here in North Little Rock. Dallas is another 5-1/2 hours or so from here, so to make a noon delivery tomorrow, I plan to get rolling by 6:00. Being Sunday morning, traffic shouldn't be very bad anywhere along the way. I'll give y'all a report on how it all goes tomorrow when I get parked for the night.
By the way, for your general edification, I've planned for this to be a 3-week tour of duty. I'll get home next--if all goes as planned--on Monday, April 14. So I'll be home for some weekdays for a change, instead of over a weekend. That's so I can get another 3-week tour in after that and be home for Measure for Measure's spring concert in May. So that's my plan for the next few weeks. Unless, of course, I hit it big in an online Poker tournament and can give all of this trucking glamour up. ;-) Hey, I can dream, can't I?
Thanks for reading up on me today. Send me a comment or query so I can read up on you, too, OK? And keep on truckin'.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Jessup (Baltimore) to Knoxville
DATELINE: KNOXVILLE, TN, 5:45 p.m. EDT
Miles Today: 530
Today was almost my favorite kind of day on this job: all driving, no deliveries or pickups to make (and eat up my time for driving paid miles), and a full complement of hours available for driving. The only downer was gloomy, intermittently-rainy weather. (Well, except for having to be on the road, away from home, in the first place. That is a bigger downer.)
I got up this morning around 4:30 so I could have time for a shower (first in 3 days) and shave (ditto) before hitting the road good and early. As all you regular readers know, I like to start early so I can finish up early before the truck stops start getting congested. And that strategy worked today, as I pulled into the Flying J here round 4:45 with plenty of open real estate in the lot. I opted against fueling up before parking (this place is on the company's fuel network list) because, although the parking lot was wide open, the fuel islands were pretty backed up with traffic. (I usually stay at the TA across the highway instead of the "J" when I stop in Knoxville because of this place's poorly-designed access route into and out of the lot. When the fuel islands get busy and backed up, the backup is right in the driveway.) I'll fuel up when I get started in the morning (early again).
I decided to stay here tonight, though, because, as a member of FJ's Frequent Fueler program, I get coupons in the mail each month based on my purchases at the chain's outlets. The coupons are good at the FJ's restaurants, and they expire at the the end of the month, so I had $7 in free eats to claim. Didn't want to miss out on that in case I don't come across a Flying J at a convenient time in the next couple of days.
Tomorrow morning I have about a 3-hour drive (maybe 2-1/2 hours) to Nashville to drop this trailer I'm hauling right now. Then I'll have another new assignment, so who knows where I'll be going next? Check back and find out.
Thanks for checking today's update. Let me know what you want to know about this life on the road, and keep on truckin'.
Miles Today: 530
Today was almost my favorite kind of day on this job: all driving, no deliveries or pickups to make (and eat up my time for driving paid miles), and a full complement of hours available for driving. The only downer was gloomy, intermittently-rainy weather. (Well, except for having to be on the road, away from home, in the first place. That is a bigger downer.)
I got up this morning around 4:30 so I could have time for a shower (first in 3 days) and shave (ditto) before hitting the road good and early. As all you regular readers know, I like to start early so I can finish up early before the truck stops start getting congested. And that strategy worked today, as I pulled into the Flying J here round 4:45 with plenty of open real estate in the lot. I opted against fueling up before parking (this place is on the company's fuel network list) because, although the parking lot was wide open, the fuel islands were pretty backed up with traffic. (I usually stay at the TA across the highway instead of the "J" when I stop in Knoxville because of this place's poorly-designed access route into and out of the lot. When the fuel islands get busy and backed up, the backup is right in the driveway.) I'll fuel up when I get started in the morning (early again).
I decided to stay here tonight, though, because, as a member of FJ's Frequent Fueler program, I get coupons in the mail each month based on my purchases at the chain's outlets. The coupons are good at the FJ's restaurants, and they expire at the the end of the month, so I had $7 in free eats to claim. Didn't want to miss out on that in case I don't come across a Flying J at a convenient time in the next couple of days.
Tomorrow morning I have about a 3-hour drive (maybe 2-1/2 hours) to Nashville to drop this trailer I'm hauling right now. Then I'll have another new assignment, so who knows where I'll be going next? Check back and find out.
Thanks for checking today's update. Let me know what you want to know about this life on the road, and keep on truckin'.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Can't Come Up With a Good Title for Today's Report
DATELINE: JESSUP, MD, 9:00 p.m. EDT
Miles Today: 420
Miles Yesterday: 377
Well, yesterday turned into one of "those" days, and I just wasn't of a mind (or energy level) to log on an re-hash it when I stopped for the night. Today was better, so I'll get right to re-hashing my past two work days.
Things started fine yesterday, as I was up on time and ready to go. I was rolling at around 5:45 a.m. to make the trek from New Haven, CT to Cape Cod. As I neared Providence, RI, I noted a sign advising truckers that the Pawtucket Bridge along I-95 had a weight limit of 23 tons. My truck with its 43,000+ load was most of 40 tons. I knew that at some point around Providence I wanted to get off of 95 onto I-195 to head towards the Cape, but I had no idea whether that'd be before or after I would come to the Pawtucket Bridge. So I had to take the alternate route north and around the city. That wound up adding nearly an hour to my drive--making it a total of 3:15--but that just meant I arrived at my delivery right on time instead of early. So no big deal.
The delivery was to a U.S. military reservation, so after snaking through the off-set barricades up to the gate, they had me park just inside the gate to wait for an escort. The procedure was that when I arrived I called the guy who would handle the unloading, and he told me he'd be out to the gate to get me in about 20 minutes. Well, it actually wound up being an hour before he showed up to escort me and another USA Truck driver (who had arrived just a few minutes after I had) back to the site where they'd unload our trailers.
In order not to give away military secrets about what was in our loads or where and how they unloaded them, I'll skip forward to let you know that my whole stay at the camp was about 3-1/4 hours, just a bit longer than we like. When I left I then boogied on down to a rest area (about a 30-minute boogie) to wait for my next assignment.
Lately I'd been getting assignments pretty quickly after sending in my "empty call" messages. However, yesterday it took an hour and a half of waiting at that rest area before the assignment came in. I was to head back into CT to a company in a small town (Montville) and drop my empty trailer there, then bobtail a little ways to another small town (Versailles) and pick up an empty trailer from a company there.
Step one went fine, although I had to negotiate some narrow, twisting roads on the last stretch to get to the company, then maneuver in a fairly small lot at the company to park the trailer. But nothing too stressful or terribly difficult. By the way, on my way back past Providence, with an empty trailer my truck was below the 23-ton limit for the Pawtucket Bridge, so I took the route I had intended to begin with. TO my dismay I discovered that the bridge is farther north on I-95 than the junction with I-195, so I wouldn't have gone over it anyway. Therefore my morning detour was unnecessary. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
Step two was another matter. When I arrived at that company and told them that I was there to pick up an empty, they let me know that they didn't have any. All of the USA Truck trailers on their lot were either already pre-loaded or designated for a load. Figures. So I had to communicate back to Dispatch to give them that info and have them find me another empty trailer to use for my next pickup.
While I was awaiting word about an empty, they sent me my next pickup assignment anyway: I was to pick up a load in Clayton, NJ (southern part of the state, east of Philly) at 7:00 Thursday morning. I knew right away that I'd never be able to get there by 7:00, what with my time for yesterday running low, a 250-mile-plus drive to Clayton, and a requisite 10-hour break to fit in. But that's just par for the course these days. The load is bound for Humble, TX, just north of Houston, with delivery on Tuesday, so there's ample time in that run to be a little late for the pickup.
Anyway, after 30 minutes or so and no news about an empty to pick up yet, and my driving window shrinking, I decided to get started on the drive towards Clayton, expecting that dispatch would find me an empty somewhere along the route. (I rather expected that would be somewhere in Jersey, since we do a LOT of business in the Newark area.) I halted for the night at yet another highway Service Plaza, this one just a bit farther east on I-95 than the one at which I had spent the previous night. (That made me 3-for-3: 3 days on the road on this tour of duty, 3 nights at highway Service Plazas. Good thing I grabbed a shower on Tuesday when I stopped at that Flying J for fuel and a nap.)
After stopping, I finally got word about where to get an empty: from a Lowe's Distribution Center in Bloomfield, CT. Well now, that certainly isn't on my way; Bloomfield's about 50-ish miles north of New Haven. But what's a guy to do? Gotta go get it, so now there was absolutely NO way I'd be able to make the next pickup on time. Just gotta make sure Dispatch'll pay me for those extra empty miles. By the way, the message telling me to go to Lowe's didn't include directions to the site, so I replied back with a message saying, "Directions?" Needless to say, by the time I hit the sack I hadn't gotten any directions yet.
This morning when I woke up, the first thing I did was send in another message asking for directions to the Bloomfield Lowe's DC. Then I went inside the Plaza to freshen up and grab a bite from their McDonald's. Back in the truck, I finally got the directions...to a Home Goods DC instead of Lowe's, but also in Bloomfield. Fine. Whatever. So at 5:15 a.m. I was back on the road.
Yada, yada...the rest of the day was just driving, except for the quick trailer pickup in Bloomfield and loading in Clayton, which was also very quick--in and out in under 45 minutes. I hit some traffic slowdowns, but nothing major. I used up well over half of my 11 allotted driving hours for the day just getting to the Clayton pickup, so I wasn't destined to get tremendously far on my journey south and west. By the way, my Fleet Manager let me know that I won't be taking this load all the way to Humble. With delivery not 'til Tuesday, that wouldn't be enough miles per day. So instead, I'll be dropping it in Nashville, TN when I can get there, which will likely be Saturday morning.
So this evening I made it to the TA (no Popeye's Chicken, unfortunately) here in Jessup, which is just south of Baltimore. You may recall a few months ago when I wrote about my trekking back up and down the eastern seaboard along I-95, and I spent consecutive nights at this very same TA. So I'm on familiar ground here. The weather is a little warmer this time around. In fact, I want to point out to everyone back home that the Forsythias are blooming in New Jersey now. Any at home yellowing up yet?
And by the way, I realized that today was another 5-state day for me: CT, NY, NJ, DE, and MD. (Tuesday was, too: OH, PA, NJ, NY, and CT.) I could have pushed on into VA today, but the route I intend to take has no truck stops along it around the point I'd need to stop. So I pulled in here with a little time to spare.
OK, now it's time to get to bed. I want to get an early start in the morning again so I can roll into a truck stop tomorrow afternoon some 600 miles down the road (don't know just where yet) before they get filled up. Thanks for taking a look at today's report. Send me your comments and questions so I can keep up with y'all, too, and keep on truckin'.
Miles Today: 420
Miles Yesterday: 377
Well, yesterday turned into one of "those" days, and I just wasn't of a mind (or energy level) to log on an re-hash it when I stopped for the night. Today was better, so I'll get right to re-hashing my past two work days.
Things started fine yesterday, as I was up on time and ready to go. I was rolling at around 5:45 a.m. to make the trek from New Haven, CT to Cape Cod. As I neared Providence, RI, I noted a sign advising truckers that the Pawtucket Bridge along I-95 had a weight limit of 23 tons. My truck with its 43,000+ load was most of 40 tons. I knew that at some point around Providence I wanted to get off of 95 onto I-195 to head towards the Cape, but I had no idea whether that'd be before or after I would come to the Pawtucket Bridge. So I had to take the alternate route north and around the city. That wound up adding nearly an hour to my drive--making it a total of 3:15--but that just meant I arrived at my delivery right on time instead of early. So no big deal.
The delivery was to a U.S. military reservation, so after snaking through the off-set barricades up to the gate, they had me park just inside the gate to wait for an escort. The procedure was that when I arrived I called the guy who would handle the unloading, and he told me he'd be out to the gate to get me in about 20 minutes. Well, it actually wound up being an hour before he showed up to escort me and another USA Truck driver (who had arrived just a few minutes after I had) back to the site where they'd unload our trailers.
In order not to give away military secrets about what was in our loads or where and how they unloaded them, I'll skip forward to let you know that my whole stay at the camp was about 3-1/4 hours, just a bit longer than we like. When I left I then boogied on down to a rest area (about a 30-minute boogie) to wait for my next assignment.
Lately I'd been getting assignments pretty quickly after sending in my "empty call" messages. However, yesterday it took an hour and a half of waiting at that rest area before the assignment came in. I was to head back into CT to a company in a small town (Montville) and drop my empty trailer there, then bobtail a little ways to another small town (Versailles) and pick up an empty trailer from a company there.
Step one went fine, although I had to negotiate some narrow, twisting roads on the last stretch to get to the company, then maneuver in a fairly small lot at the company to park the trailer. But nothing too stressful or terribly difficult. By the way, on my way back past Providence, with an empty trailer my truck was below the 23-ton limit for the Pawtucket Bridge, so I took the route I had intended to begin with. TO my dismay I discovered that the bridge is farther north on I-95 than the junction with I-195, so I wouldn't have gone over it anyway. Therefore my morning detour was unnecessary. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
Step two was another matter. When I arrived at that company and told them that I was there to pick up an empty, they let me know that they didn't have any. All of the USA Truck trailers on their lot were either already pre-loaded or designated for a load. Figures. So I had to communicate back to Dispatch to give them that info and have them find me another empty trailer to use for my next pickup.
While I was awaiting word about an empty, they sent me my next pickup assignment anyway: I was to pick up a load in Clayton, NJ (southern part of the state, east of Philly) at 7:00 Thursday morning. I knew right away that I'd never be able to get there by 7:00, what with my time for yesterday running low, a 250-mile-plus drive to Clayton, and a requisite 10-hour break to fit in. But that's just par for the course these days. The load is bound for Humble, TX, just north of Houston, with delivery on Tuesday, so there's ample time in that run to be a little late for the pickup.
Anyway, after 30 minutes or so and no news about an empty to pick up yet, and my driving window shrinking, I decided to get started on the drive towards Clayton, expecting that dispatch would find me an empty somewhere along the route. (I rather expected that would be somewhere in Jersey, since we do a LOT of business in the Newark area.) I halted for the night at yet another highway Service Plaza, this one just a bit farther east on I-95 than the one at which I had spent the previous night. (That made me 3-for-3: 3 days on the road on this tour of duty, 3 nights at highway Service Plazas. Good thing I grabbed a shower on Tuesday when I stopped at that Flying J for fuel and a nap.)
After stopping, I finally got word about where to get an empty: from a Lowe's Distribution Center in Bloomfield, CT. Well now, that certainly isn't on my way; Bloomfield's about 50-ish miles north of New Haven. But what's a guy to do? Gotta go get it, so now there was absolutely NO way I'd be able to make the next pickup on time. Just gotta make sure Dispatch'll pay me for those extra empty miles. By the way, the message telling me to go to Lowe's didn't include directions to the site, so I replied back with a message saying, "Directions?" Needless to say, by the time I hit the sack I hadn't gotten any directions yet.
This morning when I woke up, the first thing I did was send in another message asking for directions to the Bloomfield Lowe's DC. Then I went inside the Plaza to freshen up and grab a bite from their McDonald's. Back in the truck, I finally got the directions...to a Home Goods DC instead of Lowe's, but also in Bloomfield. Fine. Whatever. So at 5:15 a.m. I was back on the road.
Yada, yada...the rest of the day was just driving, except for the quick trailer pickup in Bloomfield and loading in Clayton, which was also very quick--in and out in under 45 minutes. I hit some traffic slowdowns, but nothing major. I used up well over half of my 11 allotted driving hours for the day just getting to the Clayton pickup, so I wasn't destined to get tremendously far on my journey south and west. By the way, my Fleet Manager let me know that I won't be taking this load all the way to Humble. With delivery not 'til Tuesday, that wouldn't be enough miles per day. So instead, I'll be dropping it in Nashville, TN when I can get there, which will likely be Saturday morning.
So this evening I made it to the TA (no Popeye's Chicken, unfortunately) here in Jessup, which is just south of Baltimore. You may recall a few months ago when I wrote about my trekking back up and down the eastern seaboard along I-95, and I spent consecutive nights at this very same TA. So I'm on familiar ground here. The weather is a little warmer this time around. In fact, I want to point out to everyone back home that the Forsythias are blooming in New Jersey now. Any at home yellowing up yet?
And by the way, I realized that today was another 5-state day for me: CT, NY, NJ, DE, and MD. (Tuesday was, too: OH, PA, NJ, NY, and CT.) I could have pushed on into VA today, but the route I intend to take has no truck stops along it around the point I'd need to stop. So I pulled in here with a little time to spare.
OK, now it's time to get to bed. I want to get an early start in the morning again so I can roll into a truck stop tomorrow afternoon some 600 miles down the road (don't know just where yet) before they get filled up. Thanks for taking a look at today's report. Send me your comments and questions so I can keep up with y'all, too, and keep on truckin'.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Back to the Airwaves
DATELINE: NEW HAVEN, CT, 9:00 p.m. EDT
Miles Today: 570
Miles Yesterday: 383
Finally, R.T. fans, I'm back on the road and "on the air". I got home for Easter weekend from my previous tour of duty, and headed back out in my truck--with my new transformer for my laptop--yesterday. Naturally, my first night out with the capability to go online and write an update for y'all, and I stop for the night at a place where I couldn't get a signal for my Verizon card. (I was at a Service Plaza along the Ohio Turnpike.) So I had to wait one more night before giving you something new to read on this blog. Sorry 'bout dat. Anyway, on to the news.
I'm currently on a run from a pickup yesterday morning in Linwood, MI (just north of Bay City) to delivery tomorrow morning in Camp Edwards, MA (at the base of Cape Cod). The driving's been fine, 'cept for a traffic jam in NYC at and past the George Washington Bridge. Plus I've been a bit tired so far--too much to do while I was home and not enough time for sleep, and I haven't caught up yet. That's why I only made it into OH yesterday, having stopped after only 7.5 hours of work. And this morning, after having hit the road at 3:00 a.m., I had to take a nap when I stopped for fuel in Brookville, PA, 3 hours into my work day. Today, though, I used up just about all of my 11 driving hours for the day, so I'm only a couple hours or so from my destination. My delivery is set for 9:00 tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, so I'll have plenty of time to get there on schedule.
This run is exciting because I'll get to add another state to my list of those I've trucked through--Rhode Island. In fact, I was hoping to get to the one truck stop in the state (the only one in my truck stop directory, anyway--I don't know if any new one's have appeared in the last year and a half) tonight to spend the night. If it hadn't been for the NYC traffic jam, I probably coulda' made it. Oh well, I'll have to find another opportunity to spend a night in our smallest state, something I've never done before. In fact, I've only spent a few short hours in RI once on a family vacation a few years back, and that was just a foray into Providence from Boston. This time I'll get to traverse the entire state (and I'll try not to blink so I don't miss it).
So that's my news for today. I'm gonna cut this short now so I can get to bed and get maybe an adequate amount of sleep before I get up around 5:00 or 5:30. I plan to get rolling by 6:00. By the way, I'm parked at a Service Plaza along I-95 just east of New Haven. I had planned (after determining I couldn't get into RI within my allotted hours) to park at a Popeye's with a TA just east of here, but after stopping there to fuel up, there weren't any open parking spots. That's one of the smallest TAs in terms of parking spaces I've seen--only 75 spots. So I had to ease on down the road to this here Service Plaza.
Anyway, thanks for waiting out my "off-air" period--I'll try not to let that happen again. Some day when I have gobs of time I'll write up a summary of my journeys during that dark period. (Let's just say now that is wasn't my favorite deployment.) Send me lots of comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
Miles Today: 570
Miles Yesterday: 383
Finally, R.T. fans, I'm back on the road and "on the air". I got home for Easter weekend from my previous tour of duty, and headed back out in my truck--with my new transformer for my laptop--yesterday. Naturally, my first night out with the capability to go online and write an update for y'all, and I stop for the night at a place where I couldn't get a signal for my Verizon card. (I was at a Service Plaza along the Ohio Turnpike.) So I had to wait one more night before giving you something new to read on this blog. Sorry 'bout dat. Anyway, on to the news.
I'm currently on a run from a pickup yesterday morning in Linwood, MI (just north of Bay City) to delivery tomorrow morning in Camp Edwards, MA (at the base of Cape Cod). The driving's been fine, 'cept for a traffic jam in NYC at and past the George Washington Bridge. Plus I've been a bit tired so far--too much to do while I was home and not enough time for sleep, and I haven't caught up yet. That's why I only made it into OH yesterday, having stopped after only 7.5 hours of work. And this morning, after having hit the road at 3:00 a.m., I had to take a nap when I stopped for fuel in Brookville, PA, 3 hours into my work day. Today, though, I used up just about all of my 11 driving hours for the day, so I'm only a couple hours or so from my destination. My delivery is set for 9:00 tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, so I'll have plenty of time to get there on schedule.
This run is exciting because I'll get to add another state to my list of those I've trucked through--Rhode Island. In fact, I was hoping to get to the one truck stop in the state (the only one in my truck stop directory, anyway--I don't know if any new one's have appeared in the last year and a half) tonight to spend the night. If it hadn't been for the NYC traffic jam, I probably coulda' made it. Oh well, I'll have to find another opportunity to spend a night in our smallest state, something I've never done before. In fact, I've only spent a few short hours in RI once on a family vacation a few years back, and that was just a foray into Providence from Boston. This time I'll get to traverse the entire state (and I'll try not to blink so I don't miss it).
So that's my news for today. I'm gonna cut this short now so I can get to bed and get maybe an adequate amount of sleep before I get up around 5:00 or 5:30. I plan to get rolling by 6:00. By the way, I'm parked at a Service Plaza along I-95 just east of New Haven. I had planned (after determining I couldn't get into RI within my allotted hours) to park at a Popeye's with a TA just east of here, but after stopping there to fuel up, there weren't any open parking spots. That's one of the smallest TAs in terms of parking spaces I've seen--only 75 spots. So I had to ease on down the road to this here Service Plaza.
Anyway, thanks for waiting out my "off-air" period--I'll try not to let that happen again. Some day when I have gobs of time I'll write up a summary of my journeys during that dark period. (Let's just say now that is wasn't my favorite deployment.) Send me lots of comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)