California Dreamin' & Making Plans

Most truck drivers, whether driving solo or team, live for long runs -- especially long runs out west.   For the second time in two weeks, we are headed west.  The first time, we left from Texas and drove out on I-40 through New Mexico and Arizona to Southern California.   That was a nice run, but we were on a pretty tight schedule and had to keep moving at a pretty constant pace.

This time, we have plenty of time, and the route we are taking is probably my favorite drive out west.  We left this morning (Easter Sunday) from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and are taking I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska, taking I-76 down to Denver, and then finishing up the run on I-70 through the beautiful Rockies in Colorado and Utah.  In Utah, we'll hit I-15 and go south through Utah, Nevada, and California.

For me, I-70 west of Denver all the way through western Colorado and Utah is probably my favorite stretch of road in the world driving a truck.  Except in winter, of course.  My first time driving through there a couple of years ago, I think I stopped at every single rest area just to take in the view, take pictures and video, and enjoy just being there.  

As I type this, Terry is driving, and we are on I-80 west of Des Moines (where we changed shifts) and will probably shut down for a little while somewhere in Nebraska before we head into Colorado.  It is cold (about 35 degrees), but the sun is shining and the countryside here is beautiful.  

Pardon me while I pinch myself again to make sure I'm really doing this and getting paid for it.

Yep, I'm awake alright.

I suppose I can write a little bit about downtime.  Terry and I are planning to stay on the road for long periods of time without a formal break, so it will be important for us to carve out little bits of time when we can to take a break from driving, just relax, and decompress a little bit.  We were able to do that last night for the first time, and it was wonderful.

We dropped a trailer in Wisconsin Saturday morning, and then had to go up to Green Bay to pick up a loaded trailer going to California (the load we are under right now).  We got to Green Bay yesterday afternoon, and because of the fact that we have plenty of time to get the load to SoCal (Southern California), we decided to just shut down until early this morning.  

One of the nice things about driving a truck and being in our situation (not having to worry about getting home to spouses or kids) is that we can choose when and where to spend our time away from the truck.  We both love the music of  Norah Jones and have talked about going to see her in concert if we get a chance.  Well, she's going to be at Red Rocks in Colorado in June, so we are going to make plans to take a couple of days around that time and go to see her and enjoy being in that area of Colorado.  I'll keep you posted.  How cool is it to be able to even think of doing that?  Wow!

I suppose I've rambled on enough for now, and my laptop has endured enough shaking from this rough road, so I will end things for now.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . .
Allan

 

Dallas to California to Arkansas in 15 minutes

Yesterday we got a lesson (if we needed one) in how quickly things can change in the world of truck driving.  I finished up my orientation, and Terry and I were on track to get our truck in Dallas sometime this weekend.

However, at the end of my last class when truck assignments were being given out, I learned that Terry and I are getting a new truck with an automatic transmission.  We were supposed to go to Houston to receive some training for that and then we were going to drive a rental car out to French Camp, California, to pick up our truck.  

We won the grand prize!   Not only were we getting a new truck, but it had an automatic transmission (which most drivers love, and which Schneider has few of) and they were giving us a road trip to California to boot!  

Terry wasn't there, and since this new development put a wrinkle in our original plans (we were both going to be somewhere else on Friday), I asked my instructor if it would be possible to do the training on the weekend or on Monday, and he said he'd work it out.  Then it was time for our lunch break.

I had just enough time to call Terry and leave a voicemail about our good fortune when I saw Mike (the wonderful instructor for my orientation) and he told me everything had changed.  Our good fortune had been unwound because of the fact that we could not be in Houston on Friday.  I told Mike that if I had known that, we would have changed our plans to be in Houston.

By that time Terry had gotten to the OC, and we called our new dispatcher (called an STL at Schneider), told him what was going on, and in the end, worked it out to still get a new truck, but we are picking it up in West Memphis, Arkansas, which is where our STL is based also.

So instead of having 3 or 4 days to get things ready, we had 3 or 4 hours.  Talk about stress -- I just had to almost-randomly choose things to take with us and put the rest in storage until we can get back through Dallas to go through things more formally.  And by then, we'll have an idea of just how much room we've got and what we really need in the truck.

We put everything we are initially taking in the truck into the back of Terry's pickup, and we left late yesterday afternoon.   We stopped last night in Blossom, Texas, where we saw a mutual friend we've known for over 20 years.  (Billy and Corey:  thanks for your hospitality; we really enjoyed our short visit!)

Later this morning (it's 3:30 am on Thursday as I type this), we'll go up to Siloam Springs, Arkansas, visit with Terry's daughter and her family, and then go down to West Memphis, Arkansas, where we will pick up our truck on Friday afternoon.

So, in theory at least, we could be rolling on our first load tomorrow afternoon.

Where do you think we'll go first?  Will we get our California road trip after all?  

Wherever we go, we should make good time.  After all, we went from Dallas to California and then to Arkansas in 15 minutes yesterday.  

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . .
Allan