Back in Indiana Again

Woke up to a cool low 60's morning at a rest area near Highland, IL which is just east of St. Louis about 0700. Took my time getting ready, had an always wonderful chat on the phone with my lovely wife, and then drove about an hour to Effingham, IL. There I stopped at a T/A Travel Center for 3 eggs, bacon, hash, wheat toast, and of course sweet tea!

I needed to get some laundry done too, but I didn't feel like it yet. Plus I wanted to hurry and deliver this load even though it wasn't due back until 6 PM. But the sooner I get back, the sooner I can get another load. As I said before, I only get paid for driving not sitting around waiting.

After breakfast, I continued east towards my destination. While in route I received a pre-assigned load message. I check the message and it picks up just a few blocks from my delivery point and it doesn't pick up until tomorrow morning! So now I have no need to hurry anymore.

About another 2 hours down the road, I stop in Clayton, IN at another T/A truck stop to have a slow leak fixed on one of the trailers tires. They were able to get me in and out in about 10 minutes so it still wasn't long enough to get laundry done also. Therefore I just continued on another 30 minutes to my destination.

I dropped the loaded trailer and picked up an empty. Then I headed a few blocks over to tomorrows pickup location and dropped the empty there. Now I can bobtail around much easier. That's driving the truck without a trailer hooked to it.

Looking on Googles maps, I found a laundry mat about a mile away. Once laundry was done, it's now dinner time. And I like eating while bobtailing because I have a better selection of restaurants to choose from! Tonight it was the buffet at a Golden Corral! So much better than most truck stops.

After that, back to the shipper where I'll be sleeping there overnight in their parking lot. I was going to go for a geocaching / bike ride but now I'm too full! My load won't be ready until 10:00 AM, so maybe in the morning. Plus it will be cooler and afterwards I can hook up to my trailer stopping at the first truck stop for a shower!

In tomorrows post I should have some cool pics to show you. There's a place I've always wanted to stop at along I-70 but never had the time. But on this next trip I got the time.

See ya on the highways and byways.

A Long Day

What a long day. I woke up this morning at 4:00 am to be ready by 4:30 so that Dick's Sporting Goods store can start unloading. At 4:30 they get there, but first there's a storage trailer parked at the loading dock. OK, so now I have to disconnect from my trailer and hook to it. Pull it out from the dock and drop it somewhere in the parking lot. Hook back up to my trailer and dock it. As for the load itself, come to find out that only 2 pallets are loaded. The rest of their order is stacked on the floor. 500 packages have to be unloaded by hand. Well 2 1/2 hours later, they finally get it done. Off to store #2.

Store # 2 was just 16 miles down the road. I get there and same thing; there's a storage trailer in the dock. OK, so now I have to disconnect from my trailer again and hook to it. Pull it out from the dock and drop it somewhere in the parking lot. Hook back up to my trailer again and dock it. Well they only had 300 packages to unload so it went a little quicker, but by only 30 minutes. Off to store #3.

Store # 3 was just 13 miles down the road, but again there's a storage trailer in the loading dock. So I disconnect from my trailer and hook to it. Pull it out from the dock and drop it somewhere in the parking lot. Hook back up to my trailer and dock it. They had even fewer boxes to unload. A mere 240 packages. YEA! Oh, but wait, they only have one person to unload them. I offered to help, but the company does not allow outside help.

OK, fine. I'm hungry anyway. I also had previously looked up some Geocaches and there were 4 in the mall area. One was just 178 feet from the dock I was parked at! I grabbed the GPS'r and headed off. I found the close cache first, an easy light post cache. Then I looked for a McD's around the shopping mall but don't see one. Mostly because I can get a sweet tea to go also! But no McD's. But there is a Bob Evans and they serve a pretty good breakfast too.

After eating, I went for another Geocache in the shrubs near Bob Evans but couldn't find it. Then I moved off to the next cache and found it. After signing the log I headed back to the truck. Just after logging the 2 cache finds at Geocaching.com, I noticed another older couple headed for that light post. It was obvious to me they were also Geocachers. I went over and introduced myself. They were in town from Washington State and had been caching for about a year.

Anyway, after they found the 2 caches I had found, we went in search of the other 2 caches. First the one I had yet to look for and then the one I missed. We said our goodbye's and then I headed back to the truck.

Finally, 4 HOURS LATER my truck was unloaded and I was ready to move on. But now in reverse order. I had to pick up the stores returns and take them back to the Distribution Center in Indiana. So I pull my trailer out from the dock and drop it in the parking lot. Hook up to their storage and put it back. After hooking back up to my trailer, I arrived at store # 2 and back in to the dock. Fortunately it only takes 5 minutes to load the returns on. I pull my trailer out from the dock and drop it in the parking lot. Hook up to their storage and put it back. After hooking back up to my trailer again, I arrived at store # 1 and back in to the dock again. They load their returns and shuffle the trailers again.

Now it's 3 PM and I'm finally ready to head back to Indiana. It's 482 miles and I know I won't make it tonight. But I atleast want to get to the east side of St Louis so I won't have to deal with rush hour traffic. 284 miles later, I find a rest area in Illinois and pull over for the night.

So that was my day today. And oh by the way, I did make a quick stop at a McDonald's halfway across Missouri for a burger and my large sweet tea. That's it for now.

Goodnight.

DUH! There's the Paperwork!

Like I said in the previous post, I was sitting at Dick's Sporting Goods DC waiting for the paperwork. Now, for those who don't know when I'm sitting, I'm also NOT getting paid. I get paid by the mile not by the hour. Well I'm sitting there for 2 1/2 hours when they finally come out to my truck saying "it was there all the time. We just filed it in the wrong place."

So I finally leave there at 1:00 pm, hop on I-70 westbound and head for Kansas. I made it through Illinois without stopping. The truckers were good on the CB and the bear alerts were made. Hammer down at 65 mph wasn't bad. It's tough to hang back at 55 mph when the cars are wizzing by at 65-70!

Anyway, a quick stop at the Missouri State line welcome center for a ham and cheese sandwich. Hey, there's also a Geocache here which I haven't found yet. I program the GPS'r and hunt down the cache. A quick find and I sign the log.

Back in the truck and westbound again. Non-stop to Kansas City, KS. I get to the Towne Center Plaza Mall and try to find a truck entrance. No "Truck Route" signs posted. They sure don't make it easy for us. It's 9:00 pm now and fortunately not too many cars in the parking lot either. I also don't see the Dick's Sporting Goods store either. So I pick an entry point and turn in. Just as I drive into the parking lot and take the loop around to the right, I see the store off to the left. Figures! So I park the truck and walk down about a 1/4 mile to the other end where the stores at. I determined how to manuever down there and then drove the truck down.

After parking and open this blog and make my post. Now it's time for bed. Hey, I got to get up at 4:00 AM for unloading at 4:30. Good night!

Sitting in Indianapolis

Woke up this morning about 6:30 am. I waited for Great Dane Trailers to open at 7:30. Talked briefly to another truck driver who was also there picking up his trailer. Finally getting hooked up and sweeping out the trailer, I make my way around the I-465 loop of Indy to the south side. Pulled into the Pilot truck stop for a shower. Now, what's for breakfast? The Pilot has a Subway which isn't much for breakfast. So I drive 2 blocks down to the Flying J and suffer through their buffet. Halfway through eating I call in to check my messages. Got a load assigned quicker than I thought I would. 30 minutes later and 16 miles, now I'm in Plainfield, IN sitting at Dick's Sporting Goods distribution center. Trailers loaded and waiting but no paperwork. That's my job; Hurry Up and Wait! Oh well, more later.

Indiana to Illinois and Back Again

So my day today started out in Bloomington, IN. I unloaded yesterday about noon and parked overnight here at a small truck stop. At 9:30 am today, I finally get my next load assignment. I dead head (hauling and empty trailer) 219 miles west over to Hartford, IL.

The first 40 miles or so was a nice drive through some small towns along State Road 46. There was one town I passed through called Bowling Green that looked like a ghost town. It was maybe a quarter mile across and I didn't see a single person. Once I reached Terre Haute, I jumped up onto I-70. Now I can cruise! No wait can't cruise. Terre Haute is right on the border of Illinois. As soon as I cross the state line it's only 55 MPH for trucks.

Taking I-70 all the way across the state and just before St. Louis, you turn north a few miles to Hartford, IL. I picked up a 32,000 lbs of oil (1104 cases) from Conoco and then turned right back around heading to Indiana again. Once in Indiana, I headed north on US231 to Greencastle.

What was supposed to be a drop & hook at the WalMart DC in Greencastle, it turned into just a drop. I dropped my loaded trailer but they did not have am empty ready for me to hook up to. That is NOT a good thing. Not having an empty makes it hard to pick up your next load. Especially since I have already been pre-planned on my next load and still had 200 miles to drive tonight.

By the time the planners back at the home office figured out what to do, it was getting too late. They dispatched me to Great Dane Trailers in Indianapolis to pick up an empty. But by this time they were closed. Therefore I have to wait until 7am. That means I also lost my previously assigned planned load. So we'll see what happens tomorrow.

That's it for today. Now I'm sitting here in the Great Dane Trailers parking lot waiting for them to open. Good night.

Starting a Blog

Well I've been thinking of doing this for a while but never got around to it. But now I'm doing what truck drivers do alot and that is to sit and wait. So let's go for it.

What I hope to do with this blog is to give you a sense of what an over-the-road trucker has to deal with on a daily basis. A review of my day, maybe some photos, and eventually a video log of my daily trip. So hang on, we're going for a ride!