The roads and woods of Oregon

I grew up along the coast in northern California in places that looked much like this. The air is clear and clean, the trees tall and green...

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While you are in Oregon...

... you may as well enjoy the hospitality at the pump. That's right: you can't pump your own gas here (diesel is another matter, dang it) so service stations actually offer service. Great concept, wonder if it will catch on.

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Big Storm in Wyoming

This is out of chronological sequence, but I saw this post over at the Heads Carolina / Tails California blog about a storm they were in and I happened to grab a few pics of the same storm and just brush the edge as I traipsed through on my way out to Iowa!

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I was concerned for a while, thinking I would be driving through it but as it turned out it was to the north of me. The massive intake of air into the mass made for some interesting driving with 30-50 MPH gusts from my right side -- thank goodness I have 77,000 lbs of truck and cargo to keep me down!

Des Moines, Iowa

We arrived early this afternoon after a long and event-filled trek from the left coast. More information to follow later.

Back roads of Oregon

I dropped the load of beer this morning in Medford then headed a few miles down the road to White City, which has a lot of paper mills, lumber mills and the like. I will be taking a (probably very heavy) load of wood products back east to Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin to end up with. In order to get back to civilization, I have to take hundreds of miles of state highways out to I-84 then out to Salt Lake City then further east.

Sprint has little or no coverage out there so I expect to be offline for several days. Good thing I have a couple hundred hours of Tivo shows stored up!

Arrived in Medford, Oregon

After the later-than-planned start I made my way up I-5 and over the mountains in northern California and southern Oregon. Not a lot of fun in a vehicle that weighs almost 80,000 pounds. I phoned the consignee and they aren't able to take it early so I'll be there early tomorrow morning.

Got pre-planned again, this time with a very long load going from a city near Medford all the way to Iowa, then Minnesota, then Wisconsin. A total of approximately 2,500 miles which is a fantastic weekend run, but doesn't bring me closer to Blaze's vet. Doctor Martin called again today to check up on The Furred One and we discussed her diet and what an easy touch I am, giving her treatsies almost on command. By her command, I mean.

Got an early start... then foiled again

I left the truck stop around 5 AM local time and made an uneventful trip in to Fairfield, CA to the Busch plant. Dropped my trailer, got weighed, found the preloaded trailer I was to pick up and hooked to it. Unfortunately, during my pre-trip inspection I noticed that one of the tires was flat, with zero air pressure. None of the three or four tire locations in this area opens before 8 AM local so I get to wait for a few hours to get one of them out here to fix the flat. The load is maximum weight so I won't even attempt to drag the trailer to them.

Okay, this is RIDICULOUS!!!

Front and back AC are on (3/4ths up front, 2/3rds in back... nice to know there is still a bit left as far as cooling goes) and the cab sides are still pretty warm to the touch. Thank goodness there isn't any chance of global warming, I'm told, or this could turn into a problem.

Using the heavy equipment now, hoo-ahh!

I arrived just early enough to not annoy the folks at the SBC warehouse -- hard to see how anyone would do that with as laid back as they were. Anyway, I was the only truck there so I took a door and they pointed me at an electric pallet jack and went off to squander time however they normally do.

It took me a few minutes to remember the ins and outs of one of these beasts. This was a walk-along model (they had larger kinds you ride as well, but not for the random trucker that comes in to deliver). They showed me how they wanted them arranged on the dock and one by one the twenty-two pallets got extricated from the bowels of the trailer. Hot, sweaty bowels, I might add: it was around 100 degrees when I arrived.

Each pallet had a huge roll (perhaps three feet in diameter) of SBC billing forms or some such and weighed almost a ton. These are designed to feed into high speed automated printing systems.

After a total of about 40 minutes I was done and got the paperwork signed off. Before I had arrived I had a preplan for Medford, OR. I am to pick up a load of beer in Fairfield, CA about 45 miles away tomorrow morning and deliver it Friday morning. The crack addict that has me picking up at 0900 just off of I-80 on a weekday will be disappointed to learn I will be there at least three hours earlier to avoid the traffic.

Blaze has been very quiet and resting comfortably, as only cats can. She did throw up a small amount early this morning which prompted me to clean the carpets... again. I still have a lot of laundry to do with her vomit stains on them. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.

40,700 lbs of paper rolls for SBC

Got loaded this morning with my load a bit earlier than I had expected and made my way to California. The drive was boring until I neared the greater Los Angeles area where traffic and some very long, steep grades up I-215 woke me out of my stupor. I am very glad my engine cooling system is working properly... I passed numerous trucks along the side of the road whose drivers wished their systems were working as well, I bet.

I have about 400 miles to go tomorrow and I can't arrive before 4 PM local time; union shop, don't you know. They won't touch the cargo while it is on my truck so I get to use a pallet jack to move it to the dock for them. Haven't used one of those since 1993 when I delivered ice for a while.

Dangerous Towels

I was returning the towels to the proper bin in front off the Loves I spent last night at when the swinging door came down with great speed and smashed my left middle finger. I will be flipping people off with my right hand only for a while. Thank goodness for band-aids.

What, me worry?

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Yes, that is a rat dog off in the background.

A glimmer of hope

Yesterday and today I had phone consultations with Blaze's regular vets and there seems to be some difference of opinion on the meaning of her blood and urine workups. On a positive note, they have ruled out hyperthyroidism in her case: they had run a panel including that the last time we were by and everything there is fine.

Blaze hasn't puked for almost two days now and her regular vet was understanding about the pill issue (the issue being that she is too smart to permit me to hide a pill in her cat treats any more).

I spoke with my fleet manager at CFI today and she knows I'm trying to swing through southern California to get Blaze poked and prodded. We'll see how that turns out.

Hot, windy and dusty

That is the forecast for Arizona, I think. It was cloudy this morning early on but eventually the clouds went away and the temperatures moved up past 100 degrees. I got to the first delivery about 90 minutes early and it turns out they open on time, every time.

The paperwork indicated I had to help with the unload so I did -- it wasn't too much effort, as there were only 11 boxes and they weren't individually heavy. The entire remaining part of the trailer was filled with many more boxes, sofas and other kinds of furniture which I would also get to help unload.

I drove up to Phoenix and made good time, only to have to wait for another couple hours while the warehouse folks tidied up. Eventually, lunch time was over and I got waved in. Nice big open dock and it took me four pull-ups to finally get it in place for some reason.

Eventually the trailer was empty and I collected the paperwork and shoved off. Within 15 minutes I got a dispatch to nearby Tempe to pick up tomorrow and run a load out to Sacramento, California for the day after. Lots of special notes on the load, and I get to unload the stuff with an electric pallet jack all by my lonesome, too.

Blaze seems to be back to normal. She hasn't puked since just after we got back into the truck at the vets office. On the other hand, even though the pills she has to take every 8 hours are very tiny (very small pills quartered) I haven't been able to sneak one by in the middle of a treatsie yet. Rebellious teens.

3 AM trip to the Vet

I awoke this morning to Blaze chundering once again, this time all over the sheet on the foot of the bed. I phoned her regular vet in California yesterday and he felt if it continued I should get her in to be seen by a vet. My wonderful Garmin GPS unit includes addresses and phone numbers of millions of locations, including vets so I called around until I found one open 24 hours and brought her there.

After a barrage of x-rays, blood and urine tests and an exam the vet on duty believes the problems she is having are related to an enlarged spleen. Hers is two or three times normal size and her red blood cell count is in the average range... meaning something other than red blood cells are partying down there. Since she already has a mast cell tumor under her left eye he believes either it has migrated to the spleen or it may be a separate lymphoma. The size of the spleen causes it to interact with the vessels connecting it to the stomach which are causing her to throw up. We were able to pretty definitively rule out a foreign object causing her problems.

She was given a shot of an anti-nausea drug, some sub-cutaneous Lactated Ringers to help with her hydration and a course of pills to take every eight hours to keep her stomach moving in the right direction.

Treatment options may include a spleenectomy (removal of the spleen) and chemo.

After several hours at the vet we returned to the truck. Blaze puked a celebratory thank you shortly thereafter and went back to bed.

Triple "T" In Tucson

Yes, there is actually a truck stop called the Triple T (Tucson Truck Terminal). In my case, the Triple T were the trio of throwups the cat spat out last night. I'm concerned enough I have a call in to the vet.

This load doesn't deliver until Monday morning at 9 AM local so I have time enough to get a 34 hour break in. That period of time spent not working resets a driver's 70 hour work clock which should hopefully allow me to run better later on this upcoming week.

I've made it very clear to Blaze that tossing her cookies is not acceptable in the truck. Like many 16 year olds, the fact that I said it doesn't necessarily mean it has sunk in.

I'm a Lazy Boy

Those that know me know my lazy side, but actually I'm referring to the load I picked up at our Joplin yard this morning, from the local Lazy-Boy factory. It was the only one heading out west (alternatives including an oh-so-special run up to Ontario, Canada or New York), and it has two drops on Monday, in Tucson and Phoenix.

Unfortunately for the Forces of Laziness, a big red stamp on the dispatch envelope reads "Driver must tailgate load." In other words, I get to push the boxes from the front end of the trailer where they are loaded to the back, where the furniture folks will take over.

I woke up at 5 AM and by 5:45 I was awake, hooked up, fueled, inspected and on the road. Some 620 miles later, I backed into a spot at a truck stop in Santa Rosa, NM.

The timing of this load will allow me to get in a 34 hour reset if I arrive in Tucson tomorrow. Santa Rosa is almost exactly half way and the trip today was no problem, so hopefully I will arrive in Tucson in the early afternoon.

After a few days without puking, Blaze came out swinging with three different blobs this morning. Alas, I noticed two until I carefully stepped into the third one. Socks really do experience their own little slice of hell out here on the road. I cleaned up the mess, threw out her bowl of Science Diet and opened a new bag, replaced her water and growled threateningly at her. None of this seemed to interest her, and her appetite remains good.

Blog Maintenance

I went through many of the posts during the past month and cleared up inconsistencies, enlarged the preview images for pictures and did some other touch up work.

Curiously Contented Cat

After puking up her guts every day for a week, last night was the first time in a while she has managed to keep her cookies to herself.

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Even though I made it clear that our home terminal in Joplin had secure truck parking, she insisted on taking her customary overnight post. Can't get good help like that any more.

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I Pity The Fool

Seen just north of the DFW metroplex last week:

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I always wondered what Mr T, Peppard and Co. were up to...

In Joplin for some time off

Minutes after I dropped the last load in Roanoak, TX and pulled an empty trailer out of their facility the Mobile Max unit went off telling me I have a new trip. From Roanoak, TX to Joplin, MO. From the same facility I just delivered at! So I turned around, went back and checked in the empty and grabbed a loaded trailer of "high value" cargo and moseyed down the road to Joplin.

Upon arrival the tractor was sent to the shop for routine maintenance (and to replace the windshield smearers AKA wipers) and I picked up a rental car and got myself situated in a room over at the Holiday Inn that CFI uses.

I'm taking off six days, returning to work the morning of the 8th of June. I will spend this weekend seeing the relations, relaxing in the hotel and taking care of various things then return to the truck for a few days before I head out again.

Birds of a DIFFERENT feather flock together

I was sitting around waiting to be unloaded at the Sam's Club in Albuquerque when I saw this flock of birds swoop down and start gobbling up stuff on the ground. Another truck went by and disturbed them, but they soon flew back and continued apace. Only thing is, one bird didn't seem to belong...

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New Mexico Sunrise

From the I-25 corridor north of Las Cruces when I went through there yesterday.

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68221

Today marks the six-month period from the time I started driving with CFI. During that time, I have driven 68,221 miles, with 7,500 of those being with my finisher at the beginning. My target was 70,000 so I came close to that goal. I'm looking to drive 75,000 miles during the next six months though I may take more time off (I have a considerable amount of time off banked) which might lower that a bit.

Delivered in Roanoak, TX

Roanoak is a suburb of Fort Worth, so I'm near our Lancaster terminal, though on the opposite side of the DFW metroplex. The load I delivered was some electronics for Phillips that came up from Mexico via our El Paso yard. They had me drop my trailer and hook another one and I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.

Blaze apparently didn't like being forced to guard the truck last night as she puked all over the front area. In particular, all over my camera bag... thank goodness it was closed at the time! I've sent her off to bed. Okay, she kind of went to bed herself, but you get the picture.