10-6-06 - Friday - Need to Get Going

I have to say that sitting for any amount of time seems strange. I feel like I need to get rolling again. It was nice to ave the night in a hotel and relax, but it's time to get going.

It's about 1000 and I'm waiting for my trainer to pick me up. I have the first shift of driving today, so I will be driving up to our pickup in Salinas.

That's all for now. Time to drive.

10-5-06 - Thursday - A Day Off

Today we spent the morning doing laundry and relaxing. We found out that we don't have to pick up in Salinas untill Friday evening at 2130. That givs us alot of time to burn. My trainer dropped me a local hotel for the night and will pick me up tomorrow morning to drive up to Salinas. It's nice to sleep in a REAL bed and take a nice long shower.

10-4-06 - Wednesday - It's all kinds of HOT!

Phoenix is HOT! It's October and it's 101 degrees. That's nuts. We drove to Flagstaff and headed south to Phoenix, getting to our delivery customer at about 1500. It was so hot. We dropped and hooked as quick as we could. To top it all off, the A/C in the truck decided that this was the best time to stop working. 101 Degrees and the A/C takes a dump! Damn!

Luckly the A/C started working again as soon as we got about 25 miles west of that horrid place. I hate HOT!

We headed west towards our next pick up in Salinas, CA. Along the way we will be stopping in the small CA town that my trainer lives in to do laundry.

Time for me to get some sleep. Tomorrow should be pretty relaxing.

10-3-06 - Tuesday - Through the States

Today is really just another day like most of the others. I drove from just outside Chicago to just inside the TX border east of Amerrillo. It was a pleasently uneventful day filled with rolling hills and listning to the XM radio. If you don't have a satilite radio, get one before you go on the road. It makes the hours fly by!

10-2-06 - Monday - Monsoon!

Rain. No, not just rain, A LOT OF RAIN! That's what we drove through today!

I started driving at about 1000 in the morning and by 1800 we were rolling in the the Chicago area. It started raining a little bit and it really didn't seem to be that serious. Ten minutes later the sky was falling. Traffic was crawling and the rain was coming down so hard the roads were flooding and cars were stalling out on the interstate. We just kept grinding along and once we hit the surface streets we ended up sitting for about 1 1/2 hours until the police and fire department opened our street. Only the big trucks were allowed through. The water was so deep it was washing into stores and homes along the route.

We finally got to our delivery customer and dropped our trailer. Then we had to drive across town to pickup our load going back west.

We got our load at 0100 bound for Phoenix, AZ. I slept and my trainer drove us out of the city. I can tell you, driving in bad weather makes you VERY tired!

10-1-06 - Sunday - Back in West Valley

I woke Sunday morning and we were rolling into Utah. We fueled up and stopped in the CRE yard in West Valley to pick up another spare tire to replace the one Road Service used to repair our blow out.

I drove us out of Salt Lake City and up over Parleys Canyon. I drove through Wyoming and into Nebraska. At 0100 it was time for me to get some sleep.

Just some side notes. As an apprentice at CRE you have to complete 4 Training Modules. These are a se of 10 booklets that have driver training and CRE policys. After each module you have to complete a multiple choice test on the Qualcom. Then you have to call your training coordinator to check in. The training coordinator will ask some questions about the module you have just completed to be sure you actually learned what you are supposed to learn.

I got my modules done and have completed the Qualcom tests. Tomorrow I have to call my TC. Once the TC is satisfied that I have learned what I need to, he will pay me $75 per module complete. More on pay later.

9-30-06 - Saturday - Blow Out!

Saturday morning we got going from the Pilot we were staying at and got over to our pickup point. We got our load of vegies and headed out of Salinas. We were only about an hour up the road towards Sacramento and BANG!

That's about it. I guided the truck onto the shoulder and we did some checking and found that the right front inner tandem tire had blow out and thrown the retread. Sitting on the side on the road is not fun, but it's part of the job.

About 45 minutes later Road Service arrived and replaced the tire. We were on the way again by about 1645.

The rest of the days driving was uneventful. I drove over Donner Pass and down into Nevada on I-80. My trainer took over around 2200.

I will post some pictures of the blown tire here soon.