Off to Indiana, with a scare

I managed to snag an empty trailer at the Walmart DC I dropped at yesterday and got on the board, and shortly I was given a deadhead back up to our Atlanta drop yard (wasn't I just there?) then to take a full trailer up to Carmel, Indiana.

The trip up to Atlanta was mostly I-75, though there was a good amount of traffic most of the way. About a hundred miles into Georgia there was yet another construction zone which had the two right lanes of a three-lane highway shut so everyone got funneled to the left lane.

They had just recently paved the left lane and there was drop off of about three inches of asphalt on the far left. The cones were arranged such that you had to run your left tires on the shoulder and your right ones on the fresh asphalt.

When I got to that point I was minding my business and obeying the speed limit and all of a sudden my tractor drops off to the left rather abruptly. I swerve back to the right and get off the accelerator only to see my trailer follow me over then violently whip four or five feet further to the left. If I had given it a touch of acceleration instead it would have kept the trailer in line by taking out the "slack" between us. A slight overcorrection or two caused my trailer to oscillate behind me both left and right which brought my heart up into my throat for safe keeping.

Anyway, I made it through without a scratch though there may be a new skid mark or two in the Fruit of the Looms.

Here is my route for today and tomorrow:


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Brooksville, Florida

I made it to my consignee ahead of schedule, as usual. After I dropped my trailer I looked through the empty trailer area and there were no CFI trailers to be found. Turns out there are only two CFI trailers at that Distribution Center and both are full yet.

I ran bobtail a few miles up the interstate to a rest area where I'm parked for the night.

Now these folks know tiedowns!

Seen a few weeks ago at a truck stop:

Load Craziness

I was assigned a load this morning with two pickups, one in eastern Alabama and the other in northern Georgia, then the job of running the completed load down I-75 to Florida. Only problem is, I brought my full trailer to our drop yard in Atlanta and there are no empties here for me to take.

This was the proposed trip I was to take:


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After some consultation, the Powers That Be have decided someone else with an empty trailer will run the first two stops then bring me the full trailer to move down to Florida, like this:


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Unfortunately, the load isn't due to be here until after 7 PM tonight, meaning I have to run it overnight for delivery, most likely.

Accident in Tennessee

Yesterday, while I made my way to Atlanta, I came upon an accident moments after it happened. Two vehicles traveling northbound mixed it up, causing one of them to veer off into the center median where it crashed, ending up in the southbound lanes.

After a short wait, the police, EMTs and fire trucks roll up to the scene and close off the highway:

This is where it occurred:

Soon, the whirring of a helicopter is heard as LifeFlight arrives at the scene:

After a few minutes on the ground, the occupant of the car has been transferred to the chopper and it hustles off:

Traffic is routed around the accident scene by taking up half of the northbound road for the southbound traffic at a conveniently-placed crossover point:

Even the big rigs are sent over to the other side, though it is a bit dicey:

A passing glance at the front of the car in question:

Made it. Am exhausted. Nite Nite.

See above.

Off to Hotlanta

... or perhaps Warmlanta, this time of year anyway.

I was buzzed around 0900 to go back over to Illinois and pick up a load for Walmart, destined for Ft Pierce, Florida. My instructions have me grabbing it this afternoon and running it down to our Atlanta drop yard where it will be relayed to another driver. Too bad about that -- I would have loved the rest of the miles.


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A bump in the night

Around 5:15 AM I felt a soft bump from the trailer and got up to check on things. Turns out a flatbed driver was trying to get into the spot next to mine but because the rest area is so packed he couldn't get a good shot in to the spot around the guy parked behind me against the curb. I pulled up so he could make it into the spot then backed up and parked. After everyone was settled in I went out and took a look at the back of the trailer... just very minor scratching of the aluminum.

Shut down and shutdown

I-70 westbound is shut down due to an accident and the traffic, and in particular trucks, are backing up all the way to indy in terms of where they are parking. I managed to snag the very last truck parking place in the eastbound rest area before calling it a night.

G'nite.

Good news and bad news

Well, the good news is my fifth wheel is just fine... the bad news is the cool little kingpin lock the Dick's folks were using kind of got all ate up and spit out.

They were using a kind of fifth wheel lock that fit snugly around the very bottom of the kingpin... up to this point the only kind I've seen were the sort that look like concentric tubes that fit around the entire assembly.

Guess I owe them a lock.

Anyway, headed back whence I came to the Dicks distribution center in Plainfield tonight.


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Those Dicks broke my 5th wheel!

I don't usually swear much, but read on and you'll get why I did it this time.

I was ordered to Plainfield, Indiana yesterday morning to pick up a load of merchandise for the Dick's Sporting Goods chain with three drops in Iowa then returning back to Plainfield with returns from the stores.


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The first stop in Davenport, Iowa went fine and I drove up the road to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the second stop. The store only has a single truck dock and they keep a trailer of their own in the dock for extra storage, so we have to unhook from our trailer, hook to theirs, move it out of the dock, drop their trailer, rehook to ours then push it back into the dock. It is even more laborious than writing it out, I assure you.

Anyway, I dropped my trailer and when I went to pick up their trailer I first made certain they didn't have anything blocking the kingpin, like a kingpin lock. It was just a normal kingpin so I bumped up against it once and it didn't catch properly, so I pulled up then backed up again while making sure I was aligned properly. Then I hear a crunch and I pull up and see a big chunk missing from the equipment under the fifth wheel plate. Oops.

What I suspect happened was that the angle my fifth wheel was connecting to the kingpin was off a bit because the dock angles down towards the doors. When the kingpin and the locking mechanism on my fifth wheel came into contact it was off just enough to hook up incorrectly and put pressure on the mechanism in an unusual way, and it snapped.

Anyway, I'm at the local Kenworth dealership waiting to get into the shop and get it fixed so I can try moving that trailer again...

Super Secret

I'm off on another high value load so my whereabouts will go undisclosed for a short while.

The Global War on Terre... Haute?

Apparently, the good citizens of Terre Haute, Indiana are about to be menaced by my 18 wheeler. My satellite unit just went off with the news that I need to deadhead there by 6 PM tonight, which should at least help my fuel economy compared to the 42,000 lbs I just got rid of.

Alas, I have to cross the molasses-like state of Illinois at 55 MPH for most of the day...


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Today I am making use of a little-used (and difficult to use correctly, I might add) provision of the Hours of Service called the Split Sleeper berth rule. Basically, instead of taking 10 consecutive hours off, I will take eight hours "now" (from 1 AM to 9 AM this morning) then another two later. The rule is kind of funky to follow correctly, and I'm only attempting it because I use the computerized log book software called Driver's Daily Log. Highly recommended, by the way.

Off and running hard...ly

So I get back on the board yesterday morning before 7 AM, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. As soon as I get to my truck and start her up, my satellite unit comes to life and I have a message from the shop: she needs maintenance. Why this wasn't taken care of in the three days I was taking off is beyond mortal ken.

I wait and wait and wait for the shop and finally around 3 PM my truck is taken in and an hour later pronounced hale and hearty. Back on the board and eventually around 9 PM I get told to take a trailer from the yard up to Jefferson City, Missouri because the tractor that brought it in (from its nice long run) was broke and someone needed to step up and cover it. Lucky me.


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A whopping 206 miles later and 1 AM I arrive to await my 7 AM unload.

Made it to Joplin for a few days

Just like the title says:


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West Memphis it is

And the winner is... West Memphis. I will be there late this afternoon then hopefully I will get a trip heading through Joplin for tomorrow.


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Going to West Memphis, or going to Joplin?

After waiting until early in the afternoon, I got a load picking up tomorrow morning in Louisville and headed out to Mexicali. It is a team-only load, but there aren't any teams in the area so I am dispatched to take it from there to West Memphis, Arkansas. I noticed when I was plotting my course that taking that load through Joplin, where I'm trying to get to now anyway, is almost as direct a route. So, I spoke with someone who is speaking to someone to see if we can get tomorrow's destination changed.

After dropping this morning I moved west out to civilization the nearest interstate then south a few miles to a fuel stop. Then, to get myself prepared to take the run I moved north then west to near Louisville thusly:


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This is what I mean by hell

As you can see, the last portion really is special:

You can keep Kentucky

As a trucker, you know right off the bat when a town is over 100 miles from the interstate that getting there is going to be a bitch. It took me three hours of creeping up extremely steep grades, then using my Jakes and brakes down the other side, winding and weaving my way up narrow state highways to get to Hazard, Kentucky. In short, it sucked.

The beer distributor in Hazard was difficult to get to, with very narrow residential streets and two active railroad tracks to get in and out. Both sides of my trailer got scraped by trees, and believe me, I was taking the corners as wide as possible.

Naturally, a remote spot like that didn't have any Sprint access so I have been cut off for a day.

On the way west from Hazard I almost got caught in a random truck inspection spot by a pair of Kentucky D.O.T. folks. The truck in front of me got to speak with them, and I got waved on.

The Route From Hell:


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Blooming Idiots!

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I'm parked at a truck stop in Virginia over the weekend, waiting to pick up a load of suds for Budweiser going to Kentucky. When I got up this morning to go inside and brush my fangs, I see a truck near mine with its hood up and a mobile repair vehicle in front of it. Then I took a closer look at the name, and here we are...

(View the archive of pics -- get a load of the license plates!)

Heavy Duty

Our trucks are equipped with a suspension load gauge which measures the PSI inside the tractor's rear suspension. It isn't exact, but you can tell most of the time when you need to scale a heavyish load and when you're still legal, on that set of axels at least.

When my gauge reads just over 50 I'm at my limit, so as you can see in this pic, this particular load of beer I took from St Louis was rather heavy. Fortunately I was able to slide the tandems forward far enough to even out the load -- on my first try even!

Ducks seem to be tracking me

Witness:

Tight Back

Yesterday, when I picked up my load in New Jersey, I had a fairly difficult spot to back in to. I was in an industrial park area with buildings next to each other sharing a central alley for the docks. The workers at the next building had their vehicles parked in my way and weren't interested in moving them for little old me.

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This isn't the toughest back I've had to do so far (this is one that was more difficult, for instance) but certainly one that makes a relatively new driver like myself work hard to make without hitting anything.

The one saving grace for this situation was I had room to maneuver next to the trailer you can see here; if there were trailers packed in on either side it would have been miserable.

Traffic up the Wazoo

Well, I got loaded and headed south along the I-95 corridor. Went through Philadelphia, Baltimore, around D.C. then south into Virginia but eventually the traffic got so bad it wasn't worth driving any further today. I'm 150 miles out from my drop for tomorrow at 0600. I can probably make it by getting up extra early (something like 2 AM my time) but I'm going to see if my new fleet manager can get the deadline bumped back a bit.


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UPDATE: Amanda is on the ball and the delivery is bumped back to 0800, so I can leave here between 0400 and 0500 and make it with plenty of time.

Shortness of loads

I'm dispatched for a disappointingly short run south of here, first to pick up in Pennsauken, NJ then to deliver first thing tomorrow in Newport News, Virginia.


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The route, revealed!

This is what I've been up to for the past two days:


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I picked up a high-value load of HP all-in-one printers in Memphis then ran it up to Carlstadt, New Jersey which is near Teterboro airport. By interesting coincidence, the hundreds of printers I'm carrying are the exact same model I myself use on the truck.

The two intermediate markings along the route where my overnight stays the past two nights. White Pine, Tennessee then Clinton, New Jersey.

UPDATE: It turns out only the last few rows of pallets contained that model of printer. The rest of the truck was filled with a wide assortment of other HP printers, scanners and other gee-gaws.

It also happens that one of the pallets near the nose of the trailer was short 13 or 15 boxes (each pallet was shrink-wrapped and a label placed on it with the number of boxes on that pallet). I got pictures of everything just in case.

Where in the world is Jim?

I'm on a super-secret high value load for the next few days so my activities and whereabouts will be left up to your imagination.

Ah, Memphis

I was unloaded by about 1000 this morning and I waited until 1245 when my break was up to get back on the board. Turns out I was 28th here so I won't be moving soon. The local Memphis dispatch had me run in to the terminal so I could fuel, eat and replenish my truck with supplies.

Away I go...


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Potato processing

It is enough to give Dan Quayle the willies: entire refrigerated trailers filled with potatoes (not boxed or anything, just sitting on the floor) scooped up into the air on a hydraulic lift and the spuds dumped out the back on to a conveyor belt.

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Here is a closeup of the rear of the trailer and the conveyor system in action.

More Clouds

I was in Graniteville, SC the other day near sunset and noticed the sky was looking kind of photogenic (to me at least).

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Made it

I made it. I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

A neat-o overnight run

Just for a bit of variety, my CFI / Con-Way overlords strongly suggested to me that I take a load of Budweiser from St. Louis, Missouri to a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee this very evening, in order to slake the thirst of all of those beer fans in the southeast. The load is to be ready around 2200 hours and has to be delivered by 1000 tomorrow, about 305 miles south of here, thusly:


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Oh, I arrived early this morning to drop off my trailer and pick up a fresh one to bring down to the beer plant in St. Louis.

640 miles behind me

I drove and drove and drove today, stopping only briefly in Paducah, Kentucky to refuel. I was inside eating some Subway when the clouds unleashed a huge downpour; naturally my truck was at the far end of the lot. After ten minutes or so the majority of the rain was on the ground and I got back to the truck mostly dry.

I asked to have my delivery rescheduled from 0500 tomorrow to 0900 and my (dispatcher) friend Turtle Bob happened to be working my fleet this afternoon and told me it was done. Nice having friends in high places.

My destination is about 120 miles up the road, which I will knock out first thing in the morning. Hopefully the rain inundating southwestern Missouri won't have flooded out St. Louis, as I have to cross it at least once tomorrow.

Arrived and not ready to go

It is Friday afternoon and traffic along the I-95 and I-20 corridors was congested. I asked to be allowed an extra hour to pick up this trailer but the Powers That Be demanded I arrive no later than 1800 hours local time. This meant I had to fuel in a hurry in Florence, South Carolina and pass up my favorite truck stop deal: the 20 ounce ribeye for $9.99 deal at the Petro, also in Florence. This business is damned inconvenient sometimes.

I arrived ahead of schedule despite my gnawing hunger pains and swapped my empty trailer for one full of tires. The left side of the trailer is bulging out an impressive amount; I wonder if I will get pulled over by a cop someplace to be questioned about it.

Since I started my day at 0400 my time, my 14 hour clock runs out at 1800 my time, or 1900 local time since I'm on the east coast. I know, its confusing, but basically I had enough time to get the load and head over to the local truck stop to park it for the night.

Tomorrow I motor up towards Illinois along something resembling this route:


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The weekend run

I am ordered to head southwest several hundred miles to pick up a pre-loaded trailer at a Bridgestone tire plant, bound for Missouri. This after several hours of waiting at a nearby truck stop.

I had a run-in with the local lot lizard while I was waiting at the truck stop. I made the mistake of rolling down my driver's-side window more than a crack and she took the opportunity to jump up and place her hands along the top edge. Even after growling "It gets off the truck or it gets the hose!" in an ominous voice she persisted. Next time I will get my camera and start taking photos to use by the police to identify one of these creepy women.

The route:


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The wait, the wait...

After about 90 minutes I was given a paper slip and directions around to the back of the plant and a dock number. As I made it to the back I saw a 53' refrigerated trailer hoisted up at about 45 degrees by a contraption -- after talking to another driver it turns out that is how bulk potatoes come into the plant. I will get a pic or two if I can get away with it.

200 on the nose

Turns out the trip took me exactly 200 miles to finish. The first third and last third along US-74 was pleasant, but the middle third took three or four times as long with lots of stop-and-go traffic in small towns along the way. Very tiring, compared to driving in most places.

I'm at a Campbell's Soup plant waiting to get unloaded along with a bunch of other drivers.

Saluda, North Carolina

Try finding it on a (non computerized) map. I dare you. I double dog dare you.

Anyway, that is where I am shut down for the night. Today's drive was much easier than yesterday's and I'm just under 200 miles away from my destination, though most of that distance will be over smaller state highways.

It rained much of the day as I crossed Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee. I grew up where it rained a lot so driving in rain has never felt difficult to me, and today was no difference. Hauling this heavy load in the 55 MPH zone on the eastern side of Tennessee and the western part of North Carolina did try my patience then, as the gearing of my truck isn't set to maintain that speed very well unless the ground is level, which it definitely isn't.

Slow, long slog

Today was a boring, slow, slog type of day that I just wanted to be over as soon as possible (eg when my hours ran out). Heading from Kansas City to Atchison, then reversing course to head east took a long time on small state highways and country roads and even the simple process of getting my truck weighed and the weight adjusted took 30 minutes at the craptastic Flying J in Kansas City off of I-435.

I drove and drove and drove and the miles slowly went by along I-70 across Missouri, then finally through St. Louis during the evening rush hour and into Illinois to finish out the day. For some reason I thought I was further north and I would be going by our authorized fuel stop in Bloomington, Illinois to fill up but reality intruded and apparently I'm not. I'm going to try to squeeze what I have left in the tanks to get me just inside Kentucky to our stop in Paducah. I have friends who live there but I won't have any time this trip to stop for anything but fuel.

My load is 43,620 pounds of some sort of flour product in case anyone cares.

New! Route mapping

Starting today, each trip will include a map of the approximate route between the shipper and consignee(s) for each load. You can use your mouse to push and pull the map around in its window, adjust the zoom level, and include a satellite or hybrid map / satellite view.

Atchison, Kansas

Atchison, Kansas is apparently the birthplace of none other than Amelia Earhart. The main part of town is dominated by a large Midwest Grain facility where I am being loaded at. One of the small state highways leading to here from the Kansas City area had a 20 ton weight limit which I was under on the way in but certainly won't be on the way out.

Dropped and hooked

I arrived about 30 minutes early to my consignee this morning, went inside to hand in the paperwork and they had me drop the trailer in an open part of their lot and grab the one CFI empty there. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes -- just about a perfect scenario. Wish they were all like that.

I ran over to a nearby truckstop I saw on the way in to park and after a few hours I just now got buzzed with a new load picking up this morning in Atchison, Kansas and headed to North Carolina.

Off to Kansas City in a Peculiar fashion

When I boarded this morning I was immediately given the choice between two loads: a trip out to New Jersey that delivered in four days, or a trip just up the road to Kansas City, Missouri which delivered tomorrow. I chose the load to KC which let me spend the morning relaxing, having a nice lunch, shopping for the truck and returning my rental car.

Once I was ready, I went to local dispatch and picked up the Bill of Lading for the load. Turns out to be a load of Continental tires going to a Ford plant. Fairly heavy and, like most tire loads, the sides of the trailer are bulging out due to the way they are loaded.

I found one of my headlights out during my walk around so I brought it over to the shop and they hooked me up with a pair of new, brighter ones. Amazingly, the CFI system showed my truck having a CAT engine instead of my Cummins; they checked, and indeed I do have a Cummins. How this went undetected for several years is puzzling.

The terminal was fading away in the distance by 2:30 PM and I stopped a bit short tonight in the curiously-named town of Peculiar, Missouri, thus the title of this post. I originally intended to drive up to a Flying J truck stop a few miles from the consignee but the last few times I've been there I have been pestered by the resident lot lizard, and I don't care for their parking lot. I'm about 30 miles out so I will have plenty of time for a good run tomorrow if I get one.

I also spoke to my new fleet manager, Amanda. I was with the previous one for almost nine months and wanted a switch.

In Joplin

I made it in to Joplin just before noon yesterday for some time off. I'm due back out on the road Tuesday morning.

Happy Labor Day everyone!