A Walk in the Wetlands

Hello again. Not much happening today. If you remember from yesterday, I had a hard time finding the Caterpiller plant. As it turned out, this morning when I woke up, I drove over there to make my delivery. They sent me back over to the warehouse in which I spent the night to unload. OK, not a problem.

After unloading, I waited for my next load assignment which came after about an hour. A Sears load picking up at midnight 136 miles away with a 4AM delivery. Great that means a night time drive with little sleep. Fortunately it's a short run!

So about 10:00 AM I leave Lafayette, IN and head over to Romeoville, IL, which is just south west of Chicago. I arrived at the Sears DC at 1:45 PM and drop my empty trailer. They have parking available there so that is where I'll hang out.

Now comes the hard part. I had a great nights sleep last night. But I have to drive after midnight tonight. That means that somehow I have to figure out how to take a nap this evening! Also, the nearest truck stop with a shower is nearly 20 miles away so I can't just hop on my bike and sweat off some energy.

I look up some Geocaches and discover that there is a federal wetlands preserve running along the back of the warehouses here. And that there is a paved trail with 2 geocaches along it. OK, so I go off and find those fairly quick. Now what?

Around 4PM, I bobtail down the street to Popeye's for some chicken. They say poultry makes you drowsy also.

After dinner I decide to go back to the wetlands trail with my camera and walk almost the entire length which is probably about 2 miles round trip. I've posted some of the photos below. It was a pleasant walk. Lot's of different kinds of birds and wildflowers. Took my 300mm lens this time. Wished I had something better to capture the big white egrets (i think?) across the water. The last photo is a tiny little turtle trying to cross the walkway. I almost stepped on the little guy. I put a quarter down next to him for size reference.

Now, it's time for a nap. Tomorrow I'll let you know if it worked. See ya then.

A Day Off in West Memphis Then to Indiana

Saturday I spent the day at our terminal in West Memphis, AR. Didn't do much. The highlight of the day was going to lunch at Margarita's Mexican restaurant. The beef burrito special! A beef burrito covered in red sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream. Then I followed that up with their excellent dessert of fried cheese cake and vanilla ice cream. MmmMmm Good!

The rest of the time I spent looking up geocaches for my vacation next week. I didn't get my load assignment until after lunch and it was just a short 500 mile run up to Indiana due Monday. So I waited there at the terminal and reset my work clocks.

Sunday morning I bobtailed over to McDonald's for breakfast getting my usual sausage egg and cheese McMuffin, orange juice, and sweet tea. Then back to the terminal to pick up my loaded trailer. I have a load of Caterpiller parts going to Lafayette, Indiana. By 9:00 AM, I'm headed north on I-55 then north on I-57.

At 2:15 PM, I was getting kinda hungry so I pulled over at a truck stop in Effingham, IL. A good choice because right across the street was a Friday's restaurant! So much better than truck stop food. Lunch took just over an hour because they ended up giving my ribs to another customer. But I did receive a coupon for a free dessert and an additional $5 off my meal. I can deal with that. Plus it was a good thing I wasn't in a hurry!

Now heading east on I-74, I stop for fuel at a Pilot in Covington, IN. Continued east on I-74 to US231 north.

I arrived in Lafayette, IN around 7:00 PM. My instructions had me going to two different locations about a mile apart as if I was making two different deliveries. And to make matters worse, the directions for my first stop went to two different areas. So I went for the first location but couldn't find the Caterpiller plant. Then I proceeded to find my 2nd stop which was fairly easy. It was a Caterpiller warehouse which was closed. BUT they had parking!

After sitting there a few minutes, I decided to drop my trailer there and bobtail around to try and find the other location. It makes it much easier to get around when you're not sure where you're going when you don't have a 53' trailer following along behind you! So using Google Earth and my GPS, I eventually found the main plant. Cool! Now I know where I'm going in the morning.

Now I'm sitting at the quiet warehouse and the weather is cool so I can get some sleep with the truck turned off. That's it for now. See ya next time.

From Baton Rouge to West Memphis

Welcome to my little blog about a day in the life of a truck driver. Today I awoke at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, LA around 6:00 AM. Heading out about 6:30, I arrived in Baton Rouge at my next pickup location at 7:00. After checking in, I was told that they get started about 8:00 which was my appointment time.

Sitting in my truck until around 8:20 though and still nobody coming out to get me, I decided to see what I can find out. I walk back to the office and there's nobody around. After about 5 minutes I decided to go back and wait in the truck again. About 8:45 I decided to give it another try. Finally I found somebody who looks like they may know what's going on. Well I was wrong. I asked him what time do they start loading here. He said 8:00. So I look at my watch and then back at him. He then proceeds to tell me that the person in charge of shipping goes over to the main office at 8:00 to get paperwork and usually gets back around 8:30. I look at my watch again, 8:45. He says What time is it?" as he turns to look at his clock on the wall. I said 8:45. Then he again proceeds to say, "well he's usually back by now. It may be closer to 9:00." By the time everything was done, loaded, and paperwork signed it was 10:40!

Finally I'm on my way! South on I-110 to I-10 to east on I-12. I quick stop at the Pilot in Denham Springs at exit 10 to weigh out. The 45,000 pounds of plastic beads balanced out perfect and I'm on my way again.

Continuing east on I-12 to I-55 northbound, I make a quick stop in Mississippi at a McDonald's. Just a quarter pounder and a sweet tea.

Next it's non-stop to West Memphis, Arkansas. This load is actually going up into Ontario Canada, but I don't go to Canada so I'm dropping it off at one of our terminals. From there someone else will take it all the way up into Canada.

After checking in with Dispatch, I bobtailed on over to my favorite Mexican restaurant. Margarita's here in West Memphis has got to be THE BEST Mexican restaurant in the country! I love coming here. Tonight I choose the Enchiladas Supremos. It contains one each of beef, chicken, bean, and cheese enchiladas topped with a sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and cheese. It was too good and filling that I passed up on my usual Fried Cheesecake dessert.

Anyway, back to our terminal and that's where I now sit. Probably won't get a load out of here until tomorrow. Until then, see you on the highways...

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.

A Great Weekend Followed By Heat

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I know I did. It started last Friday when I got a load assigned for Jacksonville, FL. Arriving at the Florida Welcome Center on I-95 that night, my wife drove up from Orlando to meet me. Because it was late by then, we stayed there in the truck. On Saturday morning, she followed me down to the Pilot Travel Center on the south side of Jacksonville. There we left the truck and drove on home to Orlando.

After a couple of days home with family and friends its back to work. After my wife got off work today, we drove back up here to Jacksonville. She dropped me off at the truck and returned home. I started up the truck and started putting away my laundry and everything.

But inside the truck wasn't cooling down. The a/c was blowing but it wasn't cold. Not a good thing! I drove up 35 miles to the north side of Jacksonville to the consignee where I deliver in the morning. It still wasn't cold. After about an hour, I couldn't take it anymore. It was over 90 degrees inside. So I called Con-Way and requested a hotel for the night. Kenworth was closed due to the holiday. They agreed so that's where I'm at now. I've already got my next load assignment, so after I unload first thing in the morning and pickup my next load soon there after, then I'll head over to Kenworth to get it fixed.

That's it for now. Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Arriving in Florida Once Again!

Today turned out to be the start of a GREAT weekend! I'm headed home again for the 2nd weekend in a row!! WOW!!

I got my load assignment about 7:00 AM and by 7:30 I left Newport News, VA and headed 80 miles over to Richmond. There I picked up 32,000 lbs of those cup-a-soup packages. About 2 hours to load and then head south on I-95 at 11:30. After about an hour, I stopped for lunch at McDonalds in a little town called Skippers, VA.

Back on the road non-stop all the way down to the Florida Welcome Center. That's about as far as I could get before my clocks ran out so I had to park it there. My wife did drive up from Orlando to meet me here. We'll stay here overnight in the truck. Then in the morning I'll drive down into Jacksonville and leave the truck there. I can't deliver the load until Tuesday morning because of the holiday weekend, so I'll ride home with the wife. Then she'll bring me back Monday night.

So that's it for now. I probably won't have another update until either Monday night or Tuesday. Until then, have a GREAT weekend!