Oh how the worm turns

So I drop off my trailer and head a half mile down the frontage road to the local Petro to fix myself some (overdue) lunch and take a (very overdue) shower. I ate first then went inside and enjoyed a nice long shower. Shaved. Brushed my teeth. Flexed in the mirror. The usual stuff.

When I get back to my truck my satellite alert light is on, so I have a message. "Great," I think, "I already have a load."

Nope, it turns out that I've managed to forget my load lock on the trailer I brought in and there is a Mexican drayage driver waiting at our yard for me to unlock it or else they will have to burn it off. Sound familiar?

It is Friday afternoon at around 5 PM here locally. I send a satellite message in telling them I'm on my way. I phoned in to dispatch just to make sure. I get out of the parking lot and rush down the freeway the other way to get to the next exit then turn around on the frontage road to our yard, then turn at the gate. The truck is quickly parked and I rush up to the guard with my keys ready.

The trailer is gone. Somehow it is corporate policy at CFI that if another CFI driver is picking up a load you can be made to wait quite a while to get him or her to get it unlocked, else it gets burned off. If, however, it is one of our Mexican partners, a satellite beep and an unanswered phone call is more than enough authorization to cut off a lock.

As you can probably gather, I'm a bit upset. On the plus side, this means I can't haul any "high value" loads until I get to a terminal and pay the 50 or 60 bucks for a new lock.

Old El Paso

I left Tonopah, Arizona early this morning to try to beat the traffic in Phoenix and Tucson. Phoenix was no problem but I did get caught up a bit in Tucson due to construction along I-10. Still, I managed the 500 mile trip in just under eight hours which basically meant it was cruise control at top speed 99% of the way. Just the way I like it.

It turns out the load was high value so I probably shouldn't have posted my whereabouts before I arrived at my destination. Whoops. CFI hasn't asked me to take any particular measures in this regard, but I think in the future I will resume the "Where in the US is he?" posts.

When I was pulling out of our El Paso yard I noticed the CFI truck number 30000 in the back row. This is a new Kenworth T660 with its experimental (and tempermental, apparently) advanced HVAC system. I didn't see the driver when I started snapping photos of the exterior but it turns out he was there so we chatted for a bit. I will post pics when I get someplace with broadband, which isn't something El Paso is equipped with at this time.

131,711 miles

With this load that I will finish up today, I will have been dispatched for 131,711 miles in my first year at CFI. According to the folks in the rear with the gear at HQ, my 12-month out-of-route mileage is 4% more, so I've actually driven about 137,000 miles between my truck and that of my finisher.

This is an average of 10,975 dispatched miles per month which is, to be honest with you, more than I thought I had driven. I've had a couple slow months and recently what seems to be a lot more short runs, but they have kept me moving overall.

Anniversary

Today is the one-year anniversary of my hire date at CFI. I was just buzzed to run up to the Los Angeles area to grab a load and take it to El Paso, Texas. Better late than never.

Update: Here is the route:


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A Video First

James Cameron I'm not, but with any luck this will show you the speed at which the lock got removed from my trailer (from this post)

Found a new blog

America through the Windshield is a blog by a husband-and-wife team driving for the big Pumpkin, Schneider. It is a good read and I've added it to the blogroll on the sidebar there ------->>

Food warehouses

Suck. That is all.

I'm not sure why just about every one you go to has a messed-up parking situation. Slots are way too close to each other, backing seems to be designed for the 40-foot trailers and cab overs of yesteryear, and the personnel... don't get me started.

Anyway, I eventually made it out alive and was deadheaded to my designated Time At Home spot. Be back first thing Thursday.


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Mood swings

After three or four hours waiting yesterday, the shop opened up and they got to the business of taking off the other driver's padlock. Boy, were we jipped!

Corporate has gone on and on about how tough these locks are, how rarely a load gets stolen if you have your lock in place. I'm here to tell you that it takes about 20 seconds (yes, seconds) to go through one of these things with a small blowtorch. And the kicker is, the guy didn't even damage the door hasps or the door itself.

I have video of this on my camera that I will post soon if I can figure out how.

Anyhow, after this took place it was daylight out and I made my way west along I-10. I was feeling okay physically but I wasn't in a good mood. It is amazing how much more difficult it is to drive long distances when your mind isn't set on it. I droned on all day, looking at each truck stop along the way and asking myself "Can I stop yet?" but kept pressing on for 400 miles before I finally called it quits.

This morning I got up at my usual hour, didn't have a lock to cut off and made great time through Phoenix and on in to California. There were a number of high wind warning signs along the interstate, but you could hardly fly a kite with the wind I experienced. The wind turbines in the Palm Springs area were hardly moving, even.

Out to California

Once the lock gets burned off I'll be doing something close to this:


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Thanks a pantload, driver!

So, I get this load out to the Los Angeles area yesterday that doesn't deliver until Tuesday morning. This allowed me to spend the night at the local Petro down the street from our drop yard along with over a hundred other drivers, huddled up in the cold.

I carefully made my way back to the yard this morning to hook on to the trailer I will be taking for this run, only to find out that the previous driver who had relayed this load here has left his fairly expensive company-issued lock on the back. Our night dispatch folks rang him up and told him it would be $50+ bucks to replace the lock and apparently he took one look outside at the snow on the ground and said "hell yeah, I'm staying in bed".

Now, I suggested we just have him Fedex one of his lock keys to the consignee in Los Angeles so when I arrived they could take off the lock in some sort of ceremony, showing our commitment to keeping their 20 tons of laundry detergent safe and sound. Alas, the DOT folks have this regulation requiring us to be able to open our trailers at any time (in case the white powdery substance wasn't actually detergent) so that was out.

Instead, I get to wait here for four hours until the repair shop at the Petro opens up so they can cut or burn the lock off. Heck, I may video tape it just for giggles.

Speaking of giggles... thanks a pantload, driver!

Turtle Bob on the "down low"?

I collected this very disturbing evidence weeks ago and have wrestled with my conscience ever since... should I post it? What would my soon-to-be-ex-friend Turtle Bob say or do if he finds out I've revealed his secret?

Finally, the truth won out and I have decided to post damning evidence of Turtle Bob on the down low. Yes, I was suspicious when he hung up his driving spurs and became a dispatcher... he gave some fluff excuse about "true love", "being lonely" or other such blather and I have to admit, I bought into it. I am, after all, twice* the driver he was.

Then, a few weeks ago I was picking up a load and I noticed this truck:

I didn't think much of it for a few seconds until I looked closer, below the grill, and gasped out loud as I realized the extent of his betrayal:

I know night dispatchers at CFI don't make the kind of dough he was accustomed to making, but I couldn't figure out his scheme.

Now, I realize all this time he's been on the down low, cashing in. Oh, the humanity!

* If measured by weight.

El No-Paso

Yesterday afternoon a message came across the satellite system ordering me to El Paso with a trailer full of something-or-other. I was a bit tired, having come in from Waco a short while before, so I sweet-talked the dispatcher into giving me a couple more hours to run it, which would allow me to start early today and run it in.

The shortest, and best, way to run between Laredo and El Paso is to take a series of state highways that avoids San Antonio entirely:


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Until you reach I-10, the area you pass through is very rural and lightly populated... and the highways are 65 and 70 MPH most of the way. Just the kind of quick and easy run I like. I did the 600 mile trip in 9.25 driving hours, or 64.7 MPH the whole way.

The last third of the journey included a decent amount of snow falling. I recently purchased a video camera and I will upload some video soon if I can figure out how to make that work. Until then, there is this pic I took upon reaching our El Paso dropyard:

West Memphis to Waco, to Laredo

Yesterday I drove pretty much non-stop from West Memphis, Arkansas to Waco, Texas where I planned to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving meal at Hooters. Unfortunately, the bastards took the day off so I had a nice, but not as nice as I had hoped, meal at the Flying J truck stop.

The reason I even contemplated eating outside my truck was that CFI notified everyone they would reimburse you for a Thanksgiving meal up to $15. I like doing things just a bit differently than most others, so I figured submitting a $15 Hooters receipt would be right up my alley. Alas, no luck.

In order to make my arbitrary deadline in Laredo I had to be up at 0100 when I was still a bit groggy. After a couple hours I found a new Pilot that just opened north of San Antonio and pulled off to stop for a power nap. Fully refreshed, I breezed down to Laredo and was given the bad news that I needed to make my local delivery. I've been to the place before so finding it wasn't difficult, but I had to wait for an hour once I was there for them to open up for the day.

Trucking and time management

I am a big believer in making the best use of my time during my workday. Like most truck drivers, I am paid by the mile or as we like to say: "I'm earnin' when the wheels are turnin'."

Outside of shippers and receivers, traffic and weather are really the two things that can trip me up while I'm driving. Yes, things like blowing a tire or having some other sort of mechanical hiccup can occur, but they are essentially unpredictable events that you have to respond to.

I love ending a driving day near a city that I have to drive through the next day, because I'm usually up and running by 0300 or 0400 and traffic basically doesn't exist at that time. As the morning hours go by, however, there comes a time where another city before me needs to be crossed and I have to work out a schedule that will let me do this efficiently.

Consider today's run:


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I began today just north of Columbus, Ohio so even though the traffic there is dreadful in the mornings I wasn't concerned because it would be behind me by the time everyone else woke up. But there is Cincinnati, Ohio as well, about two hours beyond. If I start around 0400 (local time) then it will be 0600 or 0630 by the time I get down to that area.

With few exceptions, I'll head in towards a city before 0700 and not be too concerned with traffic (mega cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, etc. excepted). I was in and out of Cincinnati by about 0645 just as the northbound lanes of I-71 were filling up with the inbound commuters.

Now I have to worry about Louisville, Kentucky. It is about 90 minutes further and this could be a problem: I would be approaching the city around 0830 or so which is the height of most traffic congestion. So, instead, I stopped short at Pendleton, Kentucky at one of the truck stops there, enjoyed a long shower, made breakfast and caught a nice nap. I got back on the road at 1015 and blew through Louisville, hardly having to touch the brakes.

Next is what I consider the worst of the lot, Nashville, Tennessee. For a city of its size it has massive congestion and the roads are very poorly laid out. It is one of the cities I use a feature of my GPS unit to memorize the lefts and rights (eg "Stay right to I-40" or "Keep left on I-65") so I know when and where I have to switch over quickly. This time it was simple: right, left, right, left, like cadence.

Nashville is about two-and-a-half hours south of Louisville on a good day and today was a poor day, with lots of rain and a lot of holiday traffic. Still, I took a short 30-minute lunch break at a rest area in southern Kentucky in order to time my arrival after the lunch hour (gained an hour going from Eastern to Central time). By the time I made my arrival, the traffic was heavy but flowing well and I had no problems getting out the western side efficiently.

Finally, there was Memphis, Tennessee. I know from previous experience that afternoon traffic heading inbound to Memphis is light unless you come in around 1700, so I went directly from Nashville through Memphis and across the river into West Memphis, Arkansas in one shot, arriving at 1500.

Today, on one of the busiest traffic days I have seen this year, I didn't get caught in a single traffic jam or come to a complete stop even once. There were delays here and there, but despite spending the first two hours or so in a 55 MPH state, I averaged 64 MPH for the day (615 miles in 9.5 driving hours).

That, to me, is effective time management.

Indoor dock at Sony

Here are the pictures I took a few days ago when I delivered at Sony. These are taken from my driver's seat with my truck backed into the dock.

View all Indoor dock at Sony pics

Bonus points for counting the number of pull-ups I needed to make this dock... Hint: look at the tire marks on the floor.

West Memphis sunrise

Self explanatory:

View all West Memphis sunrise pics

Saddest cart EVER

Its like a golf cart, minus the amenities:

Thanksgiving

I have a theory about getting dispatches: if I'm waiting on one, the thing that makes them arrive instantly is taking off my shoes and going in back to lie down on my bed. It seems like there is a pressure sensor or something under the bunk that forces our dispatching crew to come up with something in a nanosecond. Or, I could be imagining things.

This morning after I dropped off the 650-odd HDTVs at Sony I had just sat down when my buzzer went off with a new load... and a happy Thanksgiving we will have this year!

First, I'm deadheaded north about 160 miles to Erie, Pennsylvania to pick up a load going to my own personal favorite terminal (not, but it will do in this instance), Laredo, Texas! A whopping 1,715 miles across the midwest to the border:


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I'm given until the morning of the 23rd to get it there, known in the retail sales industry as Black Friday.

Finally, a nice, long, don't-have-to-load-or-unload-every-day, just drive it, make my own hours, set my own path, kinda trip.

Thanksgiving, indeed.

West Memphis, Arkansas to Mt Pleasant, Pennsylvania

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That was the dispatch. Only about 800 miles for the three days but hopefully I am set up for a long run now.

The load contents were 13,000 pounds of HDTV sets for Sony. This was also my first indoors dock (as opposed to underground, as in here). Pictures to follow when I get a chance to upload them.

More high value hijinks

I finally got assigned a load this morning... it delivers sometime in the next few days someplace in the US. More details when I can share them.

Walking in Memphis

The song of that name is a good one... the singer is Mark Cohn I believe.

Anyway, made my drop in West Memphis then moved over to the terminal. I'll let the following graphically illustrate my situation now:

EDIT: It turns out the singer's name is Marc Cohn. Oops.

Merry-go-round

The Walgreens folks took their sweet time getting me unloaded, and once that was done the folks in the rear with the gear at HQ ordered me to St Louis first thing in the morning for a neat-o beer run down to West Memphis, Arkansas for noon tomorrow. Just the 357 miles I was looking forward to at the start of this weekend.


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Fall is definitely in the air

The drive this morning from Cartersville, Georgia to Mt Vernon, Illinois was interrupted in glorious fashion by a riot of fall colors on the trees. The reds, yellows, pinks, oranges... I have a good camera, but it still doesn't do it justice.

I report, you decide:

Great things come to those who wait

Where I parked last night

I got a long, uninterrupted, restful snooze last night and got up at my usual early hour to check if the load was finally ready. Not only was it ready, it turns out it only weighs about 9,500 pounds!

After an extended "I got a light load" dance -- I'm pretty sure I busted a move there somewhere, at least I was aching afterward like I had -- I locked on to my trailer, did my walkaround and blew out of town.

Waiting for a GP

No, not a doctor, Georgia Pacific. I finished my first run this morning up in the Jacksonville area then moseyed down to Palatka, Florida for my other run to Illinois. Turns out they are backed up big time and it will be a few hours before my load is ready. By then I will be out of hours to run for the day so I'm going to take my break here and get at it first thing in the morning.

I had an exciting morning. After I got loaded I had to fuel, but the only place to do so was up near Jacksonville so I spent the better part of two hours watching my fuel gauge. Last time I was in Joplin they rotated my fuel tanks so the spouts weren't on top any more which solved the problem of the tanks showing empty after about 700 miles. It also created the problem of me not knowing exactly how far "empty" is any more, and whether or not the gauges are accurate now. My truck is happy to report that they are fairly accurate and I ran over 1,000 miles on this batch of fuel, to the tune of 150 gallons to fill it back up.

Along the way I got flashed not once but twice, and by women both times (for a change). This doesn't happen to me that often, so it makes for an interesting day sometimes. When men flash it makes for an interesting day as well, come to think of it... bleh.

Things that make you say "Hmmmmm"

Just wondering why the Top Spy likes broadcasting that fact to everyone.

I landed a whopper!

A whopping 178 mile run, naturally.

Tomorrow, I am to show up mid-morning at a recycling place in Orlando after which I move said load to the Jacksonville, Florida area and drop it off:


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BUT, and here is the kicker, they have figured out how to leaven bad news with a bit of good, so behind that load is one from Palatka, Florida heading to ill noise, I mean Mt Vernon, Illinois:


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This is undoubtedly another load of paper products from the big mill there, which means heavy as heck and I have to drive down some narrow state highways to and from to get back to civilization.

And the winner is...

Brownsburg, Indiana to Lakeland, Florida!


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I got a load from that very same guitar warehouse place with 13 tons (this time) of guitars and amps... something like 1.5 million or so, I guess.

It was pouring cats and dogs and lots of lightning was flashing nearby as I dropped my empty trailer (the one I "loaned" from that very location the previous day) and hooked to my new one. Doing a PTI and sliding tandems in a thunderstorm sucks, folks.

Anyway, I ran down to just north of Atlanta yesterday then got a very early jump on the traffic this morning so it was a piece of cake. The rest of the way down to Lakeland was uneventful and I dropped around 1230 local time.

Hard to believe it is almost winter time... its 86 degrees down here!

Yet another secret mission

Late last night I was assigned a load that didn't pick up until Monday, then delivered in Waco, Texas the following day. This meant I would be sitting an entire day waiting around, then run that load down south.

This morning I was taken off that load and put on a new high-value load that picked up immediately, so that is what I'm doing. More info as it becomes available.

Figures don't lie, but liars sure figure

I'm not sure what that means, just tossing it out there.

I've been going over the miles I've run in the past 85 days and here are some of the figures:

Total loads: 40
Total miles run: 31,129
Deadhead miles: 3,407 (10.94% of total)
Average trip length (inc. deadhead): 778 miles

So, the average trip spans two days, totals just under 800 miles with 80 or so miles of that being deadhead.

Out of those 40 trips, only two have been over 1,500 miles in length. Nine more have been at least 1,000 miles, so those eleven total trips represent roughly 25% of the trips that I have. Another way to put it is, about 75% of the time the trips I've run have been less than 1,000 miles.

My shortest eleven trips were between 158 and 424 miles, averaging around 300.

It seems to me these figures are more representative of regional work than true 48-state OTR. I've spent an enormous amount of time in the midwest and midsouth, a bunch more on the east coast, but nothing at all west of New Mexico or Colorado in this time period.

Super-secret load

Yesterday I received strict instructions to not reveal to anyone that I had been given this load going from Bensalem, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia area) to Brownsburg, Indiana. It was about six tons of guitars, of all things! Apparently they are fairly pricey ones, as I've had loads of valuable electronics and such with fewer dire warnings over the satellite system.


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Anyway, the load was almost ready yesterday when I arrived with my empty trailer, so I dropped it in another dock then locked on to the new trailer. The building was set at an odd angle to the street, which actually curved away from it so the back was fairly difficult until you got it lined up correctly. Eventually, everything was set and I was given all the paperwork, the seal and a kick in the rear to get going.

I managed to throw off any potential pursuer when I misread my GPS system and ended up having to take all four loops of a cloverleaf to finally get to the correct highway so I could head out of town.

After 150 miles or so I pulled off at a truck stop for the night and went to bed shortly thereafter. When I awoke at 0300 I had to get moving so I could make my deadline here in Indiana. They schedule high value loads like that so the driver doesn't have time to do much other than drive... less chance an enticing sign for a casino or something similar catches their eye, I suppose.

I spent two hours in the first snow I've encountered this fall in the hills of central and western Pennsylvania. I lost traction a couple times but it was easy enough to correct. Spending all last winter out in the storms has paid dividends.

My arrival was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule and I dropped the trailer alongside an enormous warehouse that stocks... you guessed it... guitars (and amps). It is amazing there is that much demand for the things in all of the US. The guard mentioned they got in 60 truckloads like mine last week. It boggles the mind.

After grabbing a new trailer and moving down the road one exit, I'm parked for the rest of the day and hoping I finally, FINALLY, get a nice, long, boring, well-paying, easy-sneezy, don't-have-to-stress-over-it run.

In case I didn't make myself clear last time.

Splatterfest

Truck drivers see a lot of dead animals on and alongside the road. I've seen dogs, cats, armadillos, birds of all descriptions, pigs, rabbits, coyotes and just about anything else that moves from one place to another.

Ordinarily, you pass the poor carcass by. Perhaps even avert your eyes, if only to check to make certain the recirculate option is selected for the HVAC system. This morning, however, I ran across the most egregious example yet of this brand of vehicular mayhem: some poor animal splattered the full width of a lane and chunks of pulp that went on for a football field or so. It was dark and around a bend in the road so I, along with the vehicle that originally hit the poor thing, didn't really have time to move aside once finding myself rolling through its remains.

I only hope the mistake is mine and a truck hauling a considerable amount of very rare roast beef has arrived at his destination only to find most of it vanished out the back door.

Total splatterfest.

Anyway, I made it to the Walmart DC here in Delaware. Turns out my GPS didn't have it, so before I left I looked it up using Google maps then panned my GPS to the right spot and put down a virtual marker there, then used that as my destination. This works very well for any big building, which stands out like a sore thumb in aerial shots:


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I spoke with my fleet manager last night, asking plaintively (I even sniveled!) for a nice, long, relaxing, high-paying, not-much-thought-involved weekend run. My last three trips have been 600, 300 and 400 miles long and it is time for a change.

Today was a breeze...

If you mean Breezewood, Pennsylvania where I shut down for the night. I was getting anxious the last hour or two before my arrival, thinking I would use more than my allotted eleven hours of drive time. As it turns out, the clock I was referring to switched to Eastern time at some point which put everything an hour ahead.

Took quite a while to get the stuff loaded this time... turns out the new guy I swapped trailers with neglected to sweep his (now mine) out, so I got that chore. Thanks a pantload, dude!

My new favorite cute business name: Cabinets en-counters

Runner up: Quaker Steak

Off to Smyrna

Smyrna, Deleware, that is. As soon as I swapped trailers with the new guy my buzzer went off, sending me first back about 50 miles near Cleveland to pick up a load for Walmart. Non-stick cookware, looks like.

I don't have that many hours left today to run this, so it will get there sometime tomorrow most likely. Live load at the start, drop and hook at the end most likely. Most likely.


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Relay made

Made it to Girard, Ohio about 90 minutes early so the next driver in the relay can get out ahead on his leg of the trip up to Massachusetts. He is a new driver on his third load with CFI and doesn't yet have a GPS or computer in his truck. He wasn't sure where to go so I showed him my GPS route then printed him directions from Google Maps.

One of the doors on the trailer I brought was bent down a smidgen too far for it to close correctly so I had to use some "persuasion". After that, I put the hammer back in my truck.

Today and Tomorrow

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That is what it looks like. Today I make a short, 120 mile run to South Bend, Indiana then stage for a Conway load tomorrow morning at 0400. That load I will run for a whopping 311 miles then relay it to another driver in Girard, Ohio.

I'm not sure why I got so lucky this time... I was unloaded at 0240 this morning and was showing basically full hours available (11-14-60). Must be my lucky day(s).

Time slipping on a banana peel

Today's lesson in trucking: nice guys don't always finish first.

I was up around 0100 when the dock workers from the CDW warehouse came around to take off the seals to our trailers and assign dock doors. By the time I had my rig backed in, brakes set and wheels chocked I decided to grab a banana for some energy and then made my way inside the warehouse.

As I was walking in I passed a slower driver from Fedex LTL and didn't think anything of it. I was through with my snack and there was a dumpster about fifty feet beyond the driver's door so I detoured there to chuck the peel away, then opened the door for the Fedex guy and followed him inside to the waiting area.

Big mistake.

It turns out you are unloaded in the order in which you enter that door and sign in, and LTL (Less Than Truckload) guys have dozens or hundreds of BOLs (Bills of Lading) in each load. So I sat and waited while the lady behind the desk painstakingly entered each of them, stamped each of them, put a sticker on each of them then carefully piled them up for the driver. For more than thirty minutes!

Then, my turn came and mine took less than a minute, but the fun was only starting. Since his paperwork was done first, he started to get unloaded before me. As each package came off they had to hunt down the right BOL and check it off. Maddening.

Fortunately they had another dock worker there unloading so once he was done with the previous load he skipped past the Fedex guy and handled my load. One BOL, 24 simple pallets, no problem.

Turns out, the load was ten tons of HP laptops with a retail value of $800,000 to $1,000,000 or so. High value indeed.

Here I Am

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My high value load of HP products is sitting in my trailer, at the destination in Vernon Hills, Illinois at a CDW warehouse. They don't start unloading until 0200 so now is a good time to take my 10-hour break and get a good night's sleep.

Suspended

A few days ago I promised pictures of the wacky air suspension problem my trailer had. I took a number of pics but I realize belatedly they don't illustrate the problem very well.

In this picture you can see three of the normal air bags... the nearest two are on the back axle, the one behind is on the front axle. The one you can't see to compare is blocked by the left air bag. Whoops.

View all Suspended pics

Here is a slightly different shot showing the bottom of the front left air bag as well:

And here is a close-up which doesn't really give you an idea what is wrong with the airbag. Sorry.

Falling

Yes, it is that time of year again. For the past few weeks I've driven past many sights like this:

This morning, when I got up I noticed it was below freezing for the first time this fall, at least where I've been:

I ran the bunk heater to keep me warm and the cooler to keep my food cold overnight, and my batteries didn't give out! I had to start my truck a bit earlier than I wanted to when the low battery alarm came on, but it started with no trouble -- just like last winter. Yay!

Another high value load

As soon as I got on the board this morning I was presented with my load choices. I could:

• Pick up a load tonight in Coffeeville, Kansas from the Amazon.com warehouse there and deliver it to Kentucky in a few days.
• Take one of a number of loads up to Ontario, Canada.
• Take a high value load.

After a full ten milliseconds of careful thought I took the high value load. Because of this my whereabouts will not be displayed for a few days until I'm at my destination.

Odd thing with the trailer: it is one of our newer trailers with the large super-single tires, like our tractors. Three of the four tires were the kind you put on a trailer (almost full rubber across the tire with a couple deep grooves in the middle), but the fourth was one of the ones we put on tractors. So, I had to go by the tire shop to have them take off that one and put on a trailer tire.

My tractor got a lot of TLC in the repair shop this time... new wiper blades installed, an air leak fixed, both of my fuel tanks rotated so the caps aren't vertical and the batteries swapped out with new ones. They looked at the alternator and charging system and those were the only weak links. You can say many things about CFI, but most people would be hard pressed to find fault with the maintenance.

The Secret Mission

I made it to Joplin ahead of schedule, got the rig inspected only to find the trailer had a very interesting air suspension problem... one of the four air bags had been knocked loose during the trip and somehow managed to remain inflated. I will upload pics later when I get to civilization someplace with broadband.

The trailer got dropped off for repairs and I took care of fueling and cleaning my tractor so I will be ready to go on Monday. May as well "spend" that time now since my hours will reset, than spend them next week.

I rented what is perhaps the most soulless automobile ever... a 2007 Honda Civic. It is about as fun to drive as watching paint dry -- I'm serious, the best part of the cockpit was watching the digital fuel display dropping as I drove.


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I decided to make an overnight trip up to Omaha, Nebraska on a (for now) secret mission. Details in a few months, perhaps.

I'm back in Joplin now for a couple day's rest at the Holiday Inn then back to the truck on Sunday to reorganize and toss out some junk.