You're Sending Me The Wrong Way!!!

What a day! Sometimes you just gotta wonder what some people are thinking.

I woke to the alarm this morning at 4:30 AM. The Michael's store crew was in and began unloading at 5AM and finishing up around 7:30.

Now I'm sitting there in Raleigh, North Carolina and have already requested to go home for the weekend in Central Florida. At 9AM I get my next load assignment... GOING TO PENNSYLVANIA!! That's 400 miles in the wrong direction! You just have to wonder what the so-called "Planners" are thinking sometimes.

I called my fleet manager, but she wasn't much help. Didn't hear any concern in her voice over the phone like she'd be finding out anything from the planners, so I just let it go and accepted the load. That puts the chances of getting home this weekend VERY SLIM!

So I drove for an hour over to Rocky Mount, NC at the QVC warehouse. My trailer was supposed to be ready, but it wasn't. Two hours later, I'm finally hooked up and rolling.

North on I-95 non-stop all the way to Horsham, PA which is just to the north of Philadelphia. I arrived at the UPS distribution center at 8PM due to the rush hour traffic around DC, Baltimore, and Philly! I dropped the loaded trailer and picked up an empty.

After programming my next pickup location in the GPS, I was rolling westbound by 8:45 PM. I arrived in Topton, PA at 10PM where my next load picks up in the morning. It delivers down in Winston-Salem, NC on Monday. So much for my weekend at home.

See ya next time.

From Florida to North Carolina

Last night when I posted my daily blog, I was still in Gainesville waiting to unload at the Sam's store. Well after unloading I decided to go ahead and make the drive to Jacksonville to get ready for my pickup this morning. I still had 2 hours of available driving time and it was only 72 miles away.

So I left Gainesville at 9:30 PM and took SR24 east to US301 north into Baldwin. There I turned east on I-10 into Jacksonville, arriving at the Michael's Distribution Center. They have 2 DC's there in Jacksonville and this was the first time at this particular location. I've been to the other many times.

So as usual upon arriving to a new place, I look up Geocaches. There were several within this office/warehouse complex, but I only program the 2 closest ones within a 1/4 mile. And yep, I'm walking around there at midnight, 54 degrees, wearing shorts and a tshirt, looking for Geocaches! I found the small one, but not the micro. The flashlight just wasn't good enough to find the micro.

After that I get some sleep.

About 6AM, the security guard comes knocking on my door to wake me up. After getting up and checking in, I find out that my loads not ready. Oh well. I dropped my empty and waited just a little while.

It wasn't too much longer and now I'm hooking up to a loaded trailer. Get all my paperwork ready, my GPS up and going, and now I'm rolling northbound on I-95.

I stopped once in Port Wentworth, GA (near Savanna) for fuel and breakfast. Then it's nonstop all the way to Raleigh, NC, arriving about 4:30PM.

A quick check on Geocaches again and I go for another walk. And again I only find 1 of the two I had looked for. But I walked about 3 miles.

Now I sit and wait behind the Michael's store for a 5AM delivery time in the morning.

That's it for now. See you again tomorrow.

From Northern Alabama to Southern Louisiana

Oops! I missed a day yesterday. Sorry about that. So here's a quick update on yesterday. It started out in Hoover, AL at 5:00 AM. I was on a Michael's Arts & Crafts run with 4 stores. The first in Hoover, 2 in Birmingham, and the last one up in Huntsville. Each of the unloads took approximately 1 hour and while they unloaded I managed to find 6 geocaches at the various shopping centers.

After the last store unloaded there in Huntsville, I left the truck at the dock and walked around to Logan's Roadhouse to finally get a bite to eat for what turned out to be my ONLY meal of the day. But it was a good one! Baby back ribs, sweet potato, and a salad.

Then I drove back down to the southern side of Birmingham to be ready for my next load this morning.

Today was another 5:00 AM start. It was a Con-Way Freight load going to Laredo, TX. However the Freight loads typically must keep moving. So I was only taking it to Sulphur, LA where I would swap trailers with another driver who would continue it further. After a quick stop for breakfast at a Hardee's along I-59 southbound, then west on I-10, I arrived in Sulphur at 2:00 PM. I swapped trailers with the other driver, taking his empty.

I already had my next load assignment and had some time to spare so of course I looked up some geocaches. There was one less than 500' from where I parked so I grabbed the GPSr and found it.

My next pickup is back in Baton Rouge in the morning. It's about 135 miles east along I-10, so I wanted get closer to there tonight. I also wanted to find a shower and dinner. I then head back east and stopped in Beaux Bridge, LA at a Pilot Travel Center. There I quickly fueled up and showered. 30 minutes later and I'm off again.

Just a little further east on I-10 is the Tiger Truck Stop. It gets its name because they have had a tiger in a cage at the east end of the parking lot for over 20 years. The current tiger "Tony" was born there at the truck stop in 2000. Anyway, I stopped here because they have a great restaurant. And this is where I sleep tonight.

Tomorrow I pick up a load in Baton Rouge and head to West Memphis, AR. Until then, thanks for stopping by. See you on the road...

Cool Again From Jacksonville to Hoover

Praise the Lord! My a/c is fixed and quicker than I had expected! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Happy Tuesday to you! I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM in a nice cool hotel room. Checked out at 6:00 and walked back over to the warehouse. They finally showed up at 8:00 and it took them 1 1/2 hours to unload. I must have gotten the slow one, because 4 other truck who docked after me unloaded before me. Oh well, what can you do.

Anyway, once empty I drove 14 miles down the road to the Michael's Distribution Center for my next load. After checking in and dropping off my empty trailer, I bobtailed back a mile to the Kenworth dealer to get my a/c fixed. By now it's about 10:30 and I'm getting hungry. The service advisor told me about the lunch buffet at the nearby Holiday Inn. It was about a mile walk, which was no big deal for me. So I walked on over there.

I had to wait 5 minutes because their lunch buffet doesn't open until 11:00 AM. Well it was definitely worth the walk! I had fried catfish, green beans, mac & cheese, and stuffed cabbage for lunch. They also had some great looking fried chicken, pork chops and more which I was about to get. But after my first plate, I was already eyeing dessert! I tried 2 of the 6 different desserts offered and they were great. Everything was GREAT! So if you're ever in Jacksonville, FL the Holiday Inn on I-295 x 22 has a breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet.

Once I got back to the truck at 11:45, they had already pulled it into the shop. I figured maybe not until 1PM or so. This was good to see. But then I talked to the service advisor again and after thanking him for the great lunch advise, he told me the issues on the truck. The a/c was a leaking condenser and would take 2 hours and then there was some sort of recall which would take an additional 3 hours. Therefore I was looking at around 5-6PM for completion. That means I wouldn't get to my delivery until around 2 AM! YIKES!!

Then surprisingly around 2PM, the mechanic came in to the driver lounge and said I was ready to go! The parts required for the recall were not in stock and had to be ordered. WOHOO!! Now I won't have a late night of driving.

So I headed back over to Michael's, grabbed my loaded trailer and I was on the road. Westbound on I-10 for 2 1/2 hours, I stopped in Marianna, FL for some fuel. Then non-stop north on US231 to I-65 north all the way to Hoover, Alabama. I arrived there about 10:15 PM and I'm tired. I have a 5:00 AM delivery time in the morning so not much time for sleep. But I'm thinking of my readers here too and wanted to write today's blog first.

But now it's time for bed. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you down the road.

From Alabama to Texas

Another long day today. Like I said in yesterdays post, I didn't do much of anything. Sitting around in the truck all day except twice when it came time to eat. That also means I don't burn much energy, so I don't need much sleep. I awoke this morning around 3:00 AM, fully rested and not able to fall back to sleep. I hate when that happens.

Anyway, the crew from the Michael's store arrived about 5:00 AM and began to unload their half of the trailer. The Michael's loads half to be unloaded by hand for the most part. They only put 2 wrapped pallets at the tail end just to hold the rest of it in place. The rest of the 6000+ boxes are just stacked inside the trailer. They usually have a crew of 5-6 store employees who unload by hand. I normally help out too because it just makes things go faster and I can move on to the next stop.

After they started unloading here though, I went back to the truck to catch up my log book from yesterday and get my GPS software ready for the next stop. Then as soon as they're done, I can take off. However, they closed the little side door and I couldn't get inside to help out. Oh well. So I just continued in the truck and waited.

They finished up about 7:00 AM and I was off to Mandeville, LA which was 134 miles away to another Michael's store for the rest of the load. After a quick fuel stop and a run to McDonald's for breakfast, I arrived at the 2nd Michael's store at 10:00 AM. This one was tight backing into their loading dock. I just don't get some of these architects who design these buildings sometimes. What were they thinking?

Anyway, their crew wasn't due in until 10:30 so I had to wait a while yet. That's OK because I looked up online and there was a geocache in this shopping center parking lot. So I went and found it before they arrived. This time I was able to help also and that lasted until about 12:30 when we finally finished. Signed the paperwork, swept out the trailer, and off to pickup the next load.

I arrived in Baton Rouge, LA about 1:45 PM to pick up my next load going to Baytown, TX. They got me loaded pretty quick. They loaded 26 giant bags of Polypropylene weighing in at a total of 41,000 lbs! For you and me that's 26 giants bags of tiny plastic balls that look like BB's. I haul them off to Baytown where they get melted down and formed into something useful.

The problem I ran into today was scaling the load. In other words, going to a truck stop the have the truck/trailer combo weighed. On loads that heavy, I need to make sure that the weight of the drive tires (the eight wheels at the back of the tractor) and the weight of the tandems (the eight wheels at the back of the trailer) do not exceed 34,000 lbs per set. It can be a hefty fine if they do! I should know I've had to pay it TWICE!

Anyway, normally this isn't a problem. But the first truck stop I come to has a line at the scales. I'm 4th in line before everyone begins to realize that the guy who's sitting on the scale's is broken down. So that wasted about 15 minutes to get back on the interstate. At the next exit for truck stops, there were 2 located there. Neither had scales! But they did have a restaurant and by now I'm starving again.

So I ate at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, LA which is so named because they have a rather large cage off to the side of the fuel island with a real live tiger in it. Almost like a mini zoo, but just the one animal and it wasn't a petting zoo. At least I wasn't going to try and pet the tiger!

Speaking of eating, I had their special of the day; BBQ pork ribs and smoked sausage, BBQ beans, green beans, mashed potatoes and some really good corn bread all washed down with some good ole southern sweet tea. It was sooo good! And they also had some home made pies. Even though I was stuffed from the dinner, I got a slice of coconut cream and the chocolate cream pies to go. I'll probably eat them tomorrow. Can't wait!

So now I'm back driving down the highway several miles and come upon another exit with 3 truck stops. One even had a scale, but it was broken. More wasted time. Continuing on down the highway and I finally found a truck stop with a scale just 1 mile before the weigh station! Whew that was close. As it turned out, the trailer balanced out OK and I would've been alright. But you never know for sure and like I said I've been burnt twice before costing almost $200 EACH TIME!

Now I'm parked at a rest area in Texas near the town of Hamshire. I could have driven the remaining 40 miles or so to Baytown, but my 14 hour clock has expired. For those none truckers who don't know what the 11-14-70 hour clocks are, leave a question in the comments below and I'll explain them.

Anyway, the loads not due until 9:00 tomorrow so I have time in the morning to deliver. The downside for today, with all the time wasted looking for a scale I didn't get time to stop for a shower. I was hoping to stay the night at a truck stop further down the interstate at my exit, but I ran out of time.

The life of a truck driver. See ya tomorrow. Good night.