10-20-06 - Friday - Solo Qualified!

Today I took the driving test for upgrade and got a 96%. Yesterday I took the general knowlege test and the trip planning test. I got a 90% on the GK test and missed one on the trip planning. Nothing was hard, just information recall. I'm now solo qualified. Only one more step to be on my own.

So now I'm waiting in the hotel for my CAT 1st seat to call me and tell me when he is going to pick me up. I have about 21 more days of driving with the CAT 1st seat and then I can get back to the CRE facility in Salt Lake to lease a truck and get on the road working for myself.

When I'm with the CAT I get 11 cents per truck mile. Not bad, but I want to drive for myself to get the 35 cents per mile that I would as a solo lease operator after paying expenses.

Not much else to report now. I'm just going to try to get some rest and hopefully I will get a call from my CAT sometime this evening.

10-18-06 - Wednesday - Upgrade!!!!!!!

OK, I'm in Ontario, CA now and tomorrow I start the solo upgrade process. My Trainer dropped me off today at the Mira Loma, CA CRE facility at about 11:00 local time and the shuttle to the Rodeway Inn near the twin TA truck stops picked me up at 1315. The upgrade coordinator told me to come back tomorrow at 0700. He said he usually has about 5 upgrade students, but right now he is working with 16, including me. CRE provides a room at the Rodeway Inn for all upgrade students. They provide a bed in a double occupancy room. I am kind of a privacy freak, and don't like the idea of being stuck in a room with someone I don't know, so I got a single room. They have decent free wireless internet and it's just nice to be by myself. I'm going to be a great solo driver.

The trip back west was interesting in the beginning. We picked up in Chatanogga, TN at a chicken processing plant. I can tell you that the smell was very "interesting" there. By that I mean it smelled like dead chicken mixed with cooking chicken. A very strange combination. I think I'll skip the chicken nuggets next time I'm at a fast food place.

We got out of TN and hit the heavy rain and wind from the gulf coast storms. That was fun to drive through,,,, NOT! I didn't have any problems though. I found out later that my trainer used my driving out of Chatanogga, TN as my final driving test. He didn't tell me that until today when he dropped me off. He said I did a "very good" job, and I was a safe driver. That's cool. What was even better is that he didn't tell me when he was evaluating me. That let me just drive and not get nervious about it being a test. Since I'm not with him anymore, I want to say that Andy Fechner was a great trainer. Anyone that gets him as a trainer is very lucky.

Now, let me try uploading some pictures. I'm at a good internet facility, so this should work. The first shots are from 9-30-06 when we had a blow out on CA 101. The last two pictures are from our Salinas, CA pickup point.


This is a shot of us along the side of CA 101 waiting for Road Service.

A shot of our blown out tire.

Another shot of our blown out tire.


This is a field of some green leafy stuff behind our truck in Salinas, CA. We hauled this stuff back east. I don't know what it is, but the pickers were loading it into the bins that we hauled.

This is a shot of our pick-up point in Salinas, CA. We waited here for HOURS for our load!

10-15-06 - Sunday - Waiting for a load,,,

It's Sunday afternoon and we delivered our load to Atlanta this morning. Now we are about 100 miles up the road and our pickup isn't until tomorrow afternoon. Our trip east was pretty uneventful. There were some pretty serious rain showers, but other than that it was just another drive.

We are picking up in Chatanugga, TN tomorrow then we head back west to Modesto, CA. I will be dropped off at the Mira Loma, CA CR England facility to take my upgrade tests.

For now it's time to get some relaxing time in. The past few days have been hard driving and not much rest.