10-29-06 - Sunday - Back HOME!!!
I am back home in Denver! That's right. It's only for a day because our load dowesn't have to be in Dallas until Monday morning, but this is the first time I have been home in 8 weeks.
To recap the week, my CAT first seat picked me up in Mira Loma, CA on Satruday morning and we picked up a load going to Salt Lake City. My first seat CAT is a 22 year old driver that has been leasing his truck for about 2 months. He sort of knows what he is doing, but it's kind of like we are dumb and dumber running the truck. He doesn't follow the CRE policies too much which is frustrating to me because as a new driver I am pretty much by the book. I want to do things the right way before I start cutting corners. So the week has been pretty tense for me as I try to keep my mouth shut about doing things right and not blowing things off. I only have about one more week on the truck with him, so I think I can make it. He says he will try to drop me off in Salt Lake City by Friday or Saturday. That would be great. Then I can lease my own truck and start rolling and making my own money. Right now I'm only making 11 cents a mile for all the miles the truck is rolling. Not much, but it's the experience that matters. Well, enough about that.
We got to Salt Lake City late Saturday night and dropped our trailer and picked up another one going to Rock Island, IL. I started driving about 0300 Sunday morning in western WY on I-80. It was fine for about 65 miles then we hit fog, then a little ice on the road, then alot of black ice and other slippery stuff on the road. YUCK! We sat for about an hour while a flipped over semi truck was cleared from the road and then slowly made our way down the road. At Larimie, WY, the roads cleared up nicely and it was smooth running from there on. I hit the bunk after my driving shift and when I woke we were at our delivery point. We didn't have a reload yet, so we both rested till morning when we got a load out of Wenona, IL. It was about an hour and a half run down to Wenona and when we got there we picked up our load going to Hershey, PA. It was a load of chocolate or something. We ran through Chicago and I got a shower along the way. We were running pretty much ahead of schedual, so when I stopped driving at 2300, we just parked it and we both slept till morning. My co-driver drove all day tuesday to our delivery point and then I started driving to our reload point that was only about 20 miles away in another town near Hershey, PA. The problem was that the directions we got took us through the town itself. Bad, very BAD! We should have stayed on the highway, but we followed the Qualcom directions. We had to go under a bridge that was only 13'6". There was probably only about a hairs clearence. When we did get to the pickup point the guard at the gate wouldn't let us in with the trailer we had. It smelled like onions and garlic. I guess Hersheys doesn't want their chocolate smelling like that. So I had to drive about 12 miles down the road to a truck washout place and then go back to the customer. OK, the truck got washed out, but it still smelled and they wouldn't take it. Back to the truck wash and this time we put our own soap in the trailer before they sprayed it out. The customer finally let us in with the trailer and we picked up and I drove down I-81 to where I-40 intersects with it and we headed west. I stopped driving at about 0700 and gladly went to bed.
OK, now the interesting part. We were in western Arkansas when we got a message to go to Miami, OK and trade loads with another driver. I was driving and it was about 2200 when we got the message to trade loads. We got some directions that made it seem like it wasn't that far away, but it took about 4 hours to get to where they were supposed to be. We exited at the exit that we were told to, but the other truck wasn't there. We drove around for over an hour in the middle of the night in a tiny OK town. Finally we say a CRE truck at a rest area on the highway near the exit we got off at. We were behind the rest area with about 200 yards of field between us and the rest area. The highway was a toll road, so we weren't going to get back on it and try to circle around to get to the rest area, it was over 30 miles to the next exit to turn around. So, I grabbed my flashlight and took off through the field. I bang on the truck for about 5 minutes before they woke up and I told them to meet us at the Super 8 motel near where we were off the highway. They had their CB turned off, they weren't answering the Qualcom calls we were making to them, and they didn't give dispatch their cell phone number. Dumb, very dumb.
We got the load from them and headed to Phoenix, AZ. They got our load going to Redlands, CA. I drove for a while longer and it was time for bed. What a night. I started driving again in Alberquerqe, NM and took us to Phoenix. It was uneventful. We got to Phoenix at about 0300 in the morning and dropped our trailer and grabbed an empty one. We didn't get a reload till morning and it was to trade trailers with another driver in Phoenix and head to Loveland, CO. We did that and headed back where we came from up the 76 and across the 40 to Alberqureqe, NM. Between the two of us driving, we hit Loveland, CO at 0800 in the morning on Saturday. Our pick up was at Ft. Morgan and it was going to Dallas. It has plenty of time to get there, so we decided to overnight in Denver. That's how I got home. I have about 5 hours left here with my family, so I'm going to get visit with them some more. I hope to be back here in a week and half or so with my own truck for some much needed home time.
To recap the week, my CAT first seat picked me up in Mira Loma, CA on Satruday morning and we picked up a load going to Salt Lake City. My first seat CAT is a 22 year old driver that has been leasing his truck for about 2 months. He sort of knows what he is doing, but it's kind of like we are dumb and dumber running the truck. He doesn't follow the CRE policies too much which is frustrating to me because as a new driver I am pretty much by the book. I want to do things the right way before I start cutting corners. So the week has been pretty tense for me as I try to keep my mouth shut about doing things right and not blowing things off. I only have about one more week on the truck with him, so I think I can make it. He says he will try to drop me off in Salt Lake City by Friday or Saturday. That would be great. Then I can lease my own truck and start rolling and making my own money. Right now I'm only making 11 cents a mile for all the miles the truck is rolling. Not much, but it's the experience that matters. Well, enough about that.
We got to Salt Lake City late Saturday night and dropped our trailer and picked up another one going to Rock Island, IL. I started driving about 0300 Sunday morning in western WY on I-80. It was fine for about 65 miles then we hit fog, then a little ice on the road, then alot of black ice and other slippery stuff on the road. YUCK! We sat for about an hour while a flipped over semi truck was cleared from the road and then slowly made our way down the road. At Larimie, WY, the roads cleared up nicely and it was smooth running from there on. I hit the bunk after my driving shift and when I woke we were at our delivery point. We didn't have a reload yet, so we both rested till morning when we got a load out of Wenona, IL. It was about an hour and a half run down to Wenona and when we got there we picked up our load going to Hershey, PA. It was a load of chocolate or something. We ran through Chicago and I got a shower along the way. We were running pretty much ahead of schedual, so when I stopped driving at 2300, we just parked it and we both slept till morning. My co-driver drove all day tuesday to our delivery point and then I started driving to our reload point that was only about 20 miles away in another town near Hershey, PA. The problem was that the directions we got took us through the town itself. Bad, very BAD! We should have stayed on the highway, but we followed the Qualcom directions. We had to go under a bridge that was only 13'6". There was probably only about a hairs clearence. When we did get to the pickup point the guard at the gate wouldn't let us in with the trailer we had. It smelled like onions and garlic. I guess Hersheys doesn't want their chocolate smelling like that. So I had to drive about 12 miles down the road to a truck washout place and then go back to the customer. OK, the truck got washed out, but it still smelled and they wouldn't take it. Back to the truck wash and this time we put our own soap in the trailer before they sprayed it out. The customer finally let us in with the trailer and we picked up and I drove down I-81 to where I-40 intersects with it and we headed west. I stopped driving at about 0700 and gladly went to bed.
OK, now the interesting part. We were in western Arkansas when we got a message to go to Miami, OK and trade loads with another driver. I was driving and it was about 2200 when we got the message to trade loads. We got some directions that made it seem like it wasn't that far away, but it took about 4 hours to get to where they were supposed to be. We exited at the exit that we were told to, but the other truck wasn't there. We drove around for over an hour in the middle of the night in a tiny OK town. Finally we say a CRE truck at a rest area on the highway near the exit we got off at. We were behind the rest area with about 200 yards of field between us and the rest area. The highway was a toll road, so we weren't going to get back on it and try to circle around to get to the rest area, it was over 30 miles to the next exit to turn around. So, I grabbed my flashlight and took off through the field. I bang on the truck for about 5 minutes before they woke up and I told them to meet us at the Super 8 motel near where we were off the highway. They had their CB turned off, they weren't answering the Qualcom calls we were making to them, and they didn't give dispatch their cell phone number. Dumb, very dumb.
We got the load from them and headed to Phoenix, AZ. They got our load going to Redlands, CA. I drove for a while longer and it was time for bed. What a night. I started driving again in Alberquerqe, NM and took us to Phoenix. It was uneventful. We got to Phoenix at about 0300 in the morning and dropped our trailer and grabbed an empty one. We didn't get a reload till morning and it was to trade trailers with another driver in Phoenix and head to Loveland, CO. We did that and headed back where we came from up the 76 and across the 40 to Alberqureqe, NM. Between the two of us driving, we hit Loveland, CO at 0800 in the morning on Saturday. Our pick up was at Ft. Morgan and it was going to Dallas. It has plenty of time to get there, so we decided to overnight in Denver. That's how I got home. I have about 5 hours left here with my family, so I'm going to get visit with them some more. I hope to be back here in a week and half or so with my own truck for some much needed home time.
posted by BigJohn at 9:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home