9-29-06 - Friday - Staying Clean,,,,

This morning at 0830 we delivered our load of 40,000 lbs of chocolate to the customer and drove about 75 miles to a Pilot in Salinas. Our next load doesn't go out till 1530 Saturday afternoon. We have about 24 hours to wait.

Now, a word for anyone reading this that doesn't know how exactly drivers get cleaned up while on the road, here is how it works. When you buy at least 50 gallons of fuel at a truck stop, you get a free shower. Whenever we fuel, we usually put in at least 150 gallons and that's about twice every three days. So we always have free showers. Truck stop showers are just a large full bathroom that is cleaned by a cleaning crew between every user. It's not fancy, but it's usually clean and servicable.

I got my shower this afternoon and we tuned in some local TV for a few hours. It's nice to be able to watch some sitcoms and relax without the truck moving. Also, as long as we stop at Pilot truck stops, I have access to the internet. That's when I will be updating this blog. Probably every few days.

Time to get a good nights sleep with the truck not moving. I have a feeling I'm going to be driving from about 1600 till 2330 tomorrow evening, so I want a good rest.

9-28-06 - Thursday - Back in West Valley...

Today we pulled into CRE's West Valley (Salt Lake), UT facility at 0630. My trainer got a haircut at 0900 and the trailer maintence shop was busy with our trailer brakes until 1500. Wow, what a long day of waiting around.

At 1515 we got on the road headed towards Stockton, CA for our morning delivery. We had about 790 miles to cover. I knocked out about 470 miles by 2300 and it was time for me to get some sleep. The drive wasn't bad. Good weather, but I have to say, driving into the setting sun isn't fun at all. Ouch, burned eyeballs!

Tomorrow, California.

9-27-06 - Wednesday - Westward Bound

Woke this morning at about 0630 and we were somewhere in Nebraska. My trainer slept a bit last night, so he is going to drive till 1100. I'm going to take over from there. I figure I might try to get some more rest, or maybe do some studying.

I got alot of my modules done , in the book at least. I still need to enter them in the Qualcom to get credit for them. I entered one, I'll enter the rest later.

Today I started driving in Lexington, NE. The same place we had been on Monday, only this time we are going west. We spent some time at the military vehicle museum and made a stop at Walmart, then it was on the road. I drove for about 7 1/2 hours straight and we finally stopped at Wamsutter, WY. A really big Loves truck stop there. That was it for the day. My trainer drove for a few more hours into the night and when I woke in the morning, we were only 40 miles outside Salt Lake City. We are going to stop there for a few hours and then do the last 700 or so miles to CA for delivery Friday morning.

9-26-06 - Tuesday - Chicago!

At 0400 we arrived in Franklin Park, IL. I got up to see what was happening and my trainer had me back up to the dock at Fresh Express. We then found another trailer and hooked up to it. We didn't have a load assignment yet, so we both got some sleep until about 0900. We got a load assignment. We are to go about 320 miles to St. Louis, MO to pick up a trailer at Conway and then take it to someplace in California near San Francisco.

On the road. We got rolling with me driving and about 60 miles outside St. Louis we stopped for fuel. We got to the St. Louis pickup at about 1545 and were rolling out of there by 1600 with 40500 lbs. of candy in our trailer. We made tracks for a Pilot truck stop about 50 miles outside Kansas City to get showers and some dinner.

We got to the Pilot at about 2000. Time to shower, eat and then get to bed. I drove about 510 miles today.

9-25-06 - Monday - It's Cold in Wyoming!

I woke up Monday morning and we were someplace in WY. It's cold here now. About 30 degrees outside. Brrrrr! I started driving at 09:00 and drove all day. Nothing much eventful to report. It was a beautiful, sunny autume day. My trainer has XM Satilite radio so there's always something to listen to. He also has a GPS navigation system with a large color display and a womans voice telling you where to turn and how far it is to the next turn or stop. Cool. Did I mention he also has a lizard living in a box on the dashboard. He catches grasshoppers when we stop to feed "Mr. Lizard Man".

We stopped at a rest area and then at another Walmart. Before the Walmart we spent some of our break time at roadside museum of old militart vehicles. Interesting. Back on the road and we made a fuel stop and at 1900 we stopped and it was time for me to go into the sleeper. We were just inside the IL border. I think I drove something like 545 miles today.

9-24-06 - Sunday - Waiting for my ride...

Today was spent waiting in the CRE parking lot for my trainer to pick me up. He was coming in from somewhere in CA where he picked up on Saturday night. At 18:00 he got to the CRE yard and dropped off the student he had for the past three weeks. I got my stuff loaded and we left at about 20:00.

Our load is going to Franklin Park, IL. It's a 32,000 lb. load of vegitables. Probably not much spinach in there, after all the worries about the e-coli that was found in spinach a week or so ago.

My trainer seems pretty cool. Patient and knowlegable. He was the CRE Company Driver of the year in 2004, but I havn't told him I know this and he hasn't said anything about it. He's not really the kind of guy to say much about himself. He has been a company driver for CRE for 14 years and has over 2,000,000 safe miles. I think I'm with a good trainer.

We headed east out of Salt Lake City on 80 up through Parley's Canyon. He told me to go to bed. No argument here. Just a note, it takes some time to get used to trying to sleep in the back of a truck that's BoUnCiNg down the highway. LOL

About an hour later we stopped at a Walmart to get drinks and some food. My trainer has a microwave in the truck, but his refrigerator is broken. That means coolers with ice. It's ok. I got some microwavable meals and bottled water.

Back on the road and I'm again trying to get some sleep.