Going solo -- 200,000 miles -- XM radio

Running solo. I had another relaxing day in Dallas on the 26 ^th .

I started running early the next day, going to pick up a JC Penney load over in Haslet, Texas, just north of Fort Worth on I-35. The load was going to Plainfield, Indiana, about 20 miles west of Indianapolis.

I delivered that load on Friday, the 28 ^th after stopping for the night in Stafford, Missouri.

That load was taking me right past the headquarters for Prime, Inc., in Springfield, Missouri, a company I've been strongly considering giving a try with their lease program if Schneider still doesn't have a truck for me soon, when Terry and I officially stop teaming. I called ahead to make sure it was okay, and then stopped in, talked to a recruiter, and got a tour of their driver facility known as the “Millenium Building.” I must say, it was the most impressive facility for truck drivers I've ever seen, and if they treat their drivers out on the road the way they have provided for them in the facility in Springfield, they are a good company.

I picked up a load in Plainfield right after I dropped the JC Penney load that was going to a Walmart distribution center down in Midway, Tennessee, not too far from Knoxville. It was a short run with plenty of time on it (it didn't have to be delivered until today), so I shut down at the Indianapolis OC Schneider has.

Now here's an example when driving a truck solo is nice as far as some freedom and flexibility to adjust your schedule: I had started my day very early the first two days on the load to Plainfield (between 2:30 and 3:00 am both days), but since I had plenty of time on the load to Midway, I had the luxury of sleeping as long as I wanted on Friday night. I still started at about 5:30 am, but it was nice to get all the sleep I wanted. I must have been tired, because I didn't even get out my laptop, and I slept very solidly for about 10 hours (almost unheard of for me). But it was nice to have that option.

I got to Midway early afternoon yesterday, dropped the load, and I still didn't have my next load. Walmart didn't have any empty Schneider trailers (well, there were plenty of SNI trailers, but they were all loaded with pallets. Walmart has a habit of using empty SNI trailers for their own storage. SNI knows about this, but apparently there is little they will do about it. But it's frustrating as a driver if they tell you to pick up an empty trailer at one of these places – which they do – and then you can't find one that Walmart isn't using for their own storage.), so I just bobtailed (drove my truck with no trailer attached) over to this place I could park a few miles away next to a convenience store and waited.

I didn't have to wait too long. They sent me back to Walmart to get a different kind of trailer – the kind of trailer specifically designed to travel by train. It can also be hooked to a truck, but it's just a different kind of trailer. Walmart did have some of those. I was just taking the empty trailer from Midway down to Atlanta.

That usually happens when a driver is in an area with not too much freight, and they move the driver to an area that has more freight. I shut down in Knoxville, Tennesee, at a Pilot there.

It was only 200 miles from there to Atlanta to the OC here, so I was able to take my time (which I had to do anyway since it was raining and there was quite a bit of traffic on I-75 today). I called my Mama last night and told her I might get to stop at this truck stop off the interstate in Cartersville (usually it's the TA off exit 296) if she wanted to come over and visit for a little while.

We did that this afternoon, and we had a nice visit. She was able to bring my mail also, which will give me something else to do when I get off the laptop. Ha ha

I got my next load assignment, which really isn't much of anything as far as driving is concerned. I'm picking up a loaded trailer that was dropped here earlier by another driver (I think it was originally picked up in Laredo) and taking it less than 20 miles away to Tucker, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta), for a live unload in the morning at 7:00 am.

SNI pays more for short mileage, and for time I'll be there getting unloaded, but it's not nearly as much as if I were using that same time driving. But those types of loads happen occasionally, especially to a solo driver. It's just a fact of life, and if it doesn't happen a lot, it really doesn't impact things a whole lot.

So, right now, I'm just sitting here in the Atlanta OC catching up on stuff online, periodically watching the Cowboys-Redskins game on TV. Incidentally, Terry is at that game with his son. Right now Dallas is losing, so I hope things improve since they went to all the effort to go watch it live.

Terry is getting back to Dallas on January 3 ^rd . I'll call tomorrow to make sure they have me being routed through there about that time.

I miss Terry, but I'm enjoying driving solo, just like I always did before. There are advantages to driving as a team and driving solo. I like them both. The main things for me right now are that I'm sleeping better since I'm sleeping when the truck isn't moving, and I'm able to listen to some things on XM (mostly news or talk radio) that I don't normally listen to because the volume would wake Terry up.

200,000 miles! I forgot to write about it when it happened, but a couple of weeks ago, we officially passed the 200,000 mile mark for how much we've driven since March. 200,000 in 9 months! That may not seem like a lot to you, but it amazes me that we have driven so far. Very cool.

Cool programs on XM radio. Over the weekend, I've listened to a lot of political coverage on XM radio. I have stumbled across a couple of programs on C-SPAN radio (just like the cable TV channel) that were fascinating if you like history at all. Yesterday, they were playing some newly released phone conversations of LBJ from 1967. I had never heard LBJ aside from some bits of speeches and things. I was amazed how blunt and coarse he was on the phone. Definitely sounded like a man not afraid to tell things the way he saw them. Reminded me of my father-in-law, a great man, whom I loved dearly and still miss three years after he's been gone.

Today, I heard some taped interviews of Harry Truman that were recorded in 1961. Very enjoyable listening. You can listen to all that stuff online. Just go to C-SPAN.

I suppose that's it for now.

Until next time, keep the wheels rollin' . . . even if it's only to go 20 miles away . . .

Allan

Christmas in Dallas -- Pictures of Montana

Christmas Day (and then some) in Dallas. It is the day after Christmas as I write this, sitting in the dining area of the Schneider OC in Dallas. We got here yesterday morning about 5:00 with our load, and then went right to the OC.

Terry loaded all his things he'd need into my car, and he drove on up toward Little Rock. He is supposed to come back to Dallas on January 3.

I decided to take the rest of the day off yesterday because I was exhausted (I didn't sleep well Monday night, and then drove from midnight until we got here to Dallas). I slept a few hours in the truck before the phone woke me up. It was time to wake up anyway and call all the people in my world who love me and whom I love, mostly my family and a few friends. Everyone with whom I spoke said they had a great Christmas. Some are glad that it's going to be over.

I sent Schneider a message using the satellite link in our truck (we call it the “Qualcomm”) around noon to make sure that they were showing that Terry was taking time off and that I was running solo until after the first of the year. I was only a little surprised when they told me that they showed both Terry and me being off until January 2 ^nd . They told me in order to change that, I'd need to call our dispatcher this morning.

I got a great night's sleep last night with the truck not moving. When I woke up I called our dispatcher and asked him to show me running solo until January 3 ^rd when I'll come back to Dallas to pick Terry up. Of course, we are both still on waiting lists for trucks. And I don't know quite what's going to happen while Terry's gone on his end that could alter his own plans somewhat. So our ultimate plans are still quite up in the air.

When I talked to our dispatcher I told him to just go ahead and push my availability out to tomorrow (Thursday) morning about 8:00 and that will let me get a full 34-hour restart and I can begin with a full slate of available hours to run the next week or so.

So I spent Christmas day here at the OC and am spending another one also. Yesterday I put our truck in the shop for some routine maintenance. They couldn't repair anything that we were hoping to get fixed before we turn in the truck because there is a wait of several days to even get a truck into the shop for anything that can't be done in just a few minutes in what they call the Express Bay.

I cleaned the truck out – it was really dirty from all the snow, ice, mud and rain we've been in the past couple of weeks.

I spent a good amount of time in the afternoon in the laundry room washing clothes and talking to some other drivers who were here on Christmas day also. I always like talking to other drivers because I always learn something new. And I'm usually entertained on some level. The people in there yesterday all had interesting stories to tell and were very nice people.

Schneider provided Christmas meals for everyone here, and it was actually quite good. Enjoyable.

I spent a good part of the rest of the day and evening on the computer catching up on blogs I read and doing some reading and posting in a couple of driver forums on the web. Also doing some research, asking some questions about Prime and their lease program in case Schneider doesn't have a truck for me in a couple of weeks.

Pictures from Montana. Last week I took some pictures while we were going through Montana. We had stopped at a rest area on I-90 eastbound just before Lookout Pass and the Idaho state line. I took some pictures there (a couple of black and whites look really cool I think) and I thought I'd try to post them to the blog. This is experimental since I haven't done this before on Blogger, so I may have to work with it a little bit. Enjoy!

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

Allan

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Lonesome Dove Xpress!! Terry and I want to wish everyone who reads this blog a very good Christmas and New Year!

It is Christmas eve as I write this entry. We are going east on I-70 in Colorado on our way to Dallas with what may well be our last real load as a team. We will spend Christmas morning driving to Dallas to drop this load, and then we are going to the Dallas OC (Operating Center). From there, Terry's leaving to enjoy a few well-deserved days off.

I'm putting the truck in the shop for some maintenance. We are trying to get the truck ready for the next team that gets it so they won't have to waste time having Schneider fix some things that are wrong (e.g., the passenger seat won't adjust properly, one of the dome lights in the back blows a fuse whenever you turn it on, etc.).

I'll be on the road by myself until around January 2, when Terry comes back. Depending on what's happening then, we will either be put in our solo trucks or we will continue teaming until the middle of January.

If the middle of January comes and goes and we still don't have trucks from Schneider, Terry and I both will face some difficult choices. For my part, I will simply accelerate an alternate plan I am considering pursuing eventually anyway, and will go to Springfield, Missouri, and check out the possibility of driving with Prime doing their “walk-away” lease program. I will go into more detail about that if it becomes obvious that is the path I'm going to be taking. I'm still doing research at the moment.

Since last time. The last time I wrote, we were on our way up to Naperville, Illinois (a suburb west of Chicago), for a live unload. That was the last day I saw blue skies and sunshine until this morning. We've been in some kind of winter weather since we got to Arizona on that trip to Naperville.

The load in Naperville was a live unload, something we don't see too much of as a team. Usually we just drop a trailer and then hook up to another one (that's why it's called “drop and hook”). But this was a live unload – and the most unpleasant experience I've had at a customer of Schneider in a long time. I'll describe my day there.

We got there a couple of hours early. Get to the gate, talk to security, tell them our appointment is at 1:00 pm and we are told to come back at 1:00 pm. Not before. Can't park here, and there is no place close by to park – no truck stop or anything like a Walmart where we can park our big truck. So, for the next couple of hours, we just parked on the side of the street in front of the warehouse (even though there were “No Parking” signs), and I messed with my laptop. Terry was asleep (lucky him).

1:00 o'clock (well a little before then). Pull back to the gate. Talk to the lady in security again (don't ever see anyone – just talk to them through a speaker that looks like the speaker on the drive-through at McDonald's or somewhere). “Come on in. Park your truck in the staging area and go through the little door to receiving. They will assign you a door to back into.”

No problem. Do what she says. Find the door that says “Shipping & Receiving”. I enter this long hallway that is separated by huge chainlink fence and covered with sheets of tin so no one can see inside the warehouse (it's a computer distribution center, so I guess they think what they are doing is so important and top-secret, they can't let anyone see what they are doing). As you walk down this long corridor, at the end, on the left, there is a door that leads into a small area with a restroom, and a table with a soda and snack machine.

In the middle of the passageway, mounted on the left wall there is a phone and a list of extensions. To the right, across from the phone, there is a wooden box mounted inside the fence and it has a door that opens up (like the peephole on the gate to the Emerald City in Oz). It was closed and pasted inside the door is a handwritten sign that says “Receiving” and below that “Extension 4128”.

I guessed that you picked up the phone, called the extension, and let them know you were there so they could assign you a door and start unloading you.

My guess proved horribly incorrect.

I picked up the phone and went right away into a voicemail. I tried other extensions listed on the wall next to the phone (I almost ended up calling the “For a good time call . . .” number out of frustration before it was over) with the same result. I heard activity through the wall, but could not find a way to even let them know someone was standing at the little window.

I ended up calling security and asking them to page someone to let them know I was there.

15 minutes go by. Another call to security. 30 minutes. 45 minutes. Multiple calls to security. And trying the extension listed on the window's door. Nothing.

Finally, someone actually opens the door, and seems surprised to find anyone there. I guess they hope if they wait long enough, whoever was stupid enough to think they could talk to someone would just go away. But I had nowhere to go.

Gave the young lady (who would have been cute if I hadn't been so annoyed) my paperwork. “Back into door 19.” I told her I had a seal that needed to be broken so I could open the trailer doors (a seal is something they usually put on a loaded trailer so they can see if it's been tampered with; they are usually easy to take off -- “break” -- but sometimes on high value loads like electronics they put on a seal that has to be taken off with bolt cutters; the seal on our trailer was like that). She sort of looked at me like I had spoken Swahili and then just nodded her head.

I pulled in front of door 19 ready to back in when they broke the seal. The guy in door 18 told me had been there 2 hours and they still hadn't broken his seal. So I just sat back and prepared to wait some more.

Finally, I just got fed up, and went back inside to where the phone was and called the security office again (since I knew I could get a live person there). I told them that I and the guy in door 18 had been waiting a long time to have someone come break our seals so we could open our doors and get backed up to the dock.

By the time I got back to my truck, they had broken both our seal and the guy's in door 18 next to us.

Back into the door. Wait while they start unloading. The actual unloading didn't take too long once it was started.

They finish unloading the trailer. I've got to go back to get a copy of the paperwork so that I can turn it in to Schneider.

I go back to the place with the little window. Wait. Wait. Wait some more. 15, 30, 45 minutes.

Call the extension 4128 and someone actually answers. Tell the lady (not the same one who came to the window earlier) that there are several drivers standing out here waiting – all they have to do is sign it and bring it over, is that too hard to do?

30 seconds. The window opens, and all the paperwork is shoved through the window.

Three drivers who were wondering why they drove a truck at all were much happier.

By the time we finished our long unloading ordeal, we had our next load. Pick up over in McCook, Illinois (a place we've picked up at before), a load going to Auburn, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. We were able to pick the load up early, so we had plenty of time on the clock to get there.

Which is a good thing. We drove in winter weather all the way through Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

The worst part of this trip was when we got ready to go over Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 just east of Seattle. The weather in the pass was so bad that they were requiring chains on all vehicles except all wheel drives (which, of course, doesn't include our Big Orange Truck).

So we start toward the pass after changing shifts in Ellensburg (at the Pilot at exit 106). Terry is driving. I've been up since 2:30 that morning, but no way can I sleep during all this, especially if we have to chain up.

We have had to use the chains once before when we went over Vail Pass on I-70 in Colorado.

Every year Schneider has winter training for their drivers. Part of the winter training is to show us (remind us?) how to put on tire chains if we ever have to use them. This year, we took winter training in Dallas in September, when it was still 1 million degrees. There was a tire sitting out there with the chains already on it. The instructor said: “We can spend 15 minutes out in this heat taking the chain off and putting it back on if you want to, but you can look at it there how it's on the tire. Just do it like that.”

Now we have to figure out (again) how to put on chains. We pulled off the side of the interstate in one of the areas designated for putting on chains, along with hundreds of other cars and trucks. It is bitterly cold, snowing, messy and slushy. We are both tired and a little cranky. Putting chains on Lorie (what we call our truck in case you have forgotten, shame on you) was the last thing we wanted to be doing.

One tire at a time – one on each side of the rear and one drag chain on each side of the trailer tires. Four chains. Ugh.

We draped one chain over the first tire as best we could. Then one of us has to get in the truck and pull forward to roll the chain around so we can hook it and then tighten it so it stays on the tire while we are driving through this mess. We don't have a clue what we are doing. The tire with the chain already neatly applied in the September heat of the Dallas afternoon is a distant memory that could not be retrieved if a date with Heidi were the prize for doing so.

Thirty minutes and some amount of cursing later, and we are making progress. One hour later, and we have all the chains on (of course, we are still sitting there, so we don't know if they will stay on once we start rolling again).

We are still friends. Which may be as amazing as us getting the chains on.

We get in the truck and start rolling slowly. There is a lot of traffic and these people are driving crazy.

Later we find out that by the time we had gotten our chains on, they had lifted the requirement because the storm had passed. We were not laughing.

Once over the pass, we stopped to take the chains off. They came off much easier than they went on.

We are still friends.

Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

Okay, so we roll into Seattle. We deliver our load. No problem. We get our next load just down the road in Kent. It's about 9:00 pm local time when we get there. Trailer is ready. Hook up and go. No problem.

You know there was a problem.

We finally get all the paperwork the security guard wanted signed (he asked for one thing at a time instead of asking for everything he needed, so it was quite maddening). We hook up to the trailer. It weighs 45,000 pounds – the most we can legally carry behind our big rig.

Terry backs under and we hook up to the trailer. I'm raising the landing gear, and normally, you can feel about how heavy it is. It feels empty.

Terry pulls out so we can close the doors. I joke with Terry and ask him if it feels like he's pulling 45,000 pounds. He laughs and says no.

I get the lock and go back to close the doors. The trailer is empty. No wonder it felt empty.

Our first thought is that they haven't loaded the trailer and there is a huge problem.

Then I check the trailer number. We hooked up to the wrong trailer.

The correct trailer was two spots down. So now we have to back it into the spot again, unhook, and hook up to the right trailer.

Now we have to go scale it to make sure it is not overweight. There is a little truck stop down the street where we can do this. It takes three times adjusting the tandems (you can slide the trailer axles forward or backward to adjust the weight on each axle and balance it with the weight on the truck axles.

Finally, at almost midnight, after being up 22 hours, I lay down. Terry gets us out of Seattle and stops somewhere down on I-82 in Washington. The weather improved, but not enough. I was so exhausted I slept until about 8:30 Sunday morning before I started rolling.

We drove through more winter weather all the way through Oregon and Idaho, and things cleared up a bit in Utah and Wyoming.

One thing about driving through Utah and Wyoming last night and early this morning that Terry and I both noticed and enjoyed: even though there was cloud cover, the moon was full, and the brightness of its light just made everything visible with sort of an ambient light effect. This morning as I was driving east on I-80 in Wyoming, especially between Rock Springs and Rawlins, it was just magical seeing all the mountains and snow everywhere in that wonderful, nocturnal, romantic glow.

The roads still had patches of ice on them, and at one point between Rawlins and Laramie, snow was blowing in 60 mph winds and it was so thick at times that my visibility was near zero. Thankfully it only lasted a little while each time. Driving in winter weather is fatiguing though.

When we got to Cheyenne this afternoon, I saw the sun for the first time since we left California last week. It was glorious. We are in Colorado, the signs of winter weather are lesser and we can still see the sun.

We'll get into Dallas early in the morning. Merry Christmas!

I'll post some pictures I took later on from when we stopped at a rest area in Montana just before we went over Lookout Pass into Idaho on I-90 the other day. Very beautiful. I'll update this post when I do that.

Guess that's enough for now. I'm sure my Mama will enjoy this entry more than some of my more “ personal” posts because I talk more about the trucking side of things. Those are the entries she enjoys most (so, Merry Christmas, Mama!).

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin'. . . hopefully without chains . . .

Allan

Since Houston -- Days I Love -- Changes

Since Houston. It was nice to get a little break last weekend. We had told Schneider that we'd be available at 4:00 pm Saturday. We picked up an empty trailer at the place we had dropped our last load on Friday, took it Lacombe, Louisiana, and picked up a load headed for Chino, California, to a place we'd been to a couple of times before.

We had plenty of time on the load, so we decided to park at the OC in Fontana Monday afternoon when we got there, and go over to the mall, have a nice meal and shoot some pool. They have a Dave & Buster's there that we had gone to once before when we were there. We had an enjoyable time. It was sort of our last “pool night” before we split up as a team (more news on that later in the entry).

We delivered Tuesday morning and then had a live load to get over in Compton, California. It's the load we're on now, and it's going up to Naperville, Illinois, where we have a live unload on Thursday afternoon. We're going to get there early, so we're hoping we can unload early. If not, it will be good nap or computer time.

These are the days I love driving! Since we left Houston, all the way across on I-10 to LA, and now back east across I-40 (we are in Oklahoma City as I type this, getting on I-44), we have had ideal weather: clear skies, no winter weather, nice cool (or cold) temperatures – and out west, less traffic. It's those conditions, plus getting to drive all the way across 900 miles of Texas on I-10 and then out west for a couple of days, that make driving those days just my ideal job. It's those days that I can't believe I'm paid to do this.

Changes to our plans. Change truly is the only constant. We had our plans tentatively made on what we were doing, but our dispatcher called yesterday afternoon just as we were pulling out of LA on the 15 and let us know that right now, Schneider doesn't have enough trucks for all the drivers and we might be on a waiting list.

Not what I wanted to hear just a week away from when I was going to get in a new truck!

For now, at least short-term, we are going to continue teaming until something more substantive works out with a truck situation. We are just taking one day at a time, but both of us in our own way don't like the frustration of this uncertainty.

One result of this development is that for the first time I'm giving some thought to my other options as a driver, maybe going to another company (would lean toward Prime from some things I've read lately on a driver message board), or even trying to hire on with KRB and go to Iraq for a year to drive a truck – I think the pay would be in the range of $125,000 or so. I'm just thinking. I would really like to stay with Schneider and just see how things will work out driving solo with them again. But I also know that I can't afford to just sit around indefinitely waiting for a truck to become available.

I will keep you posted on how things develop (or not). Stay tuned.

That's all for this entry, I suppose.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' (if they can find you a truck) . . .

Allan

Since California -- Winter Weather -- Plans

Currently. We shut down in Houston, Texas, yesterday after delivering our load here because we were both out of hours to run. The rule is that you can only drive/work 70 hours in 8 days (seems like a lot, but it is not when you are driving and doing everything that goes with that). You can reset that clock to zero by taking 34 hours off. So that's what we are doing here.

We had talking about doing something – going out to eat, going to shoot some pool, or something else, but both of us were so tired we just sort of hung out here in the room. We did watch part of the movie Fight Club on TV. I had never seen it, and I fell asleep before it was over, so I'll have to watch the whole thing another time.

Since California. The last time I wrote, we were shut down in California because our truck was being worked on. It was ready a day sooner than we thought it would be. We got a nice load (as far as mileage) going up to Connecticut. It was the first load going up to New England we had had in a long time. Not a bad trip, and the miles were good.

From Connecticut, we picked up a load in Elizabeth, NJ, that was going down near Fort Worth. Ah, The Great State of Texas! The perfect place to go after being in New Jersey. :-)

I can't remember every single load we've had since that, but we've been over to Georgia once, out to California again, down to Nogales, Arizona (south of Tucson, right on the Mexican border), up into Oklahoma a couple of times, and finally, yesterday we ended up here in Houston. Don't know where we will go from here.

Weather. It is winter time (or at least, it is winter weather time), and if you drive a truck all over the country that means that you will see more than your share of it. It's not even winter on the calendar yet, and we have already seen too much snow, ice, sleet, freezing rain, slick roads and cold winds. It seems that we have been following (or have been followed by) some kind of precipitation since we left California after the last entry.

The most amazing thing was driving through ICE in West Texas! Even as far as El Paso.

According to the weather I heard on TV last night, almost anywhere we get a load from here will take us back into some type of winter weather.

The rule is that if it gets to the point that we don't feel safe driving, we shut down. Schneider has never questioned us on any decision we have made in that regard (like when the winds/fires had us stuck for 3 days in California a couple of months ago).

Plans for the future. I mentioned in the last entry or two that Terry and I will no longer be teaming after the end of the year. A couple of weeks ago, we went through West Memphis to talk to our dispatcher about all that and try to outline what would happen with both of us.

Some things for both of us are still uncertain. But here's the general way we want it to work: we are going to go through Dallas on December 26 ^th so I can get my car. I'll take my stuff out of the truck and out of storage there, and will drive to Rome. I'm planning to drive through and spend some time with my good friend Billy Day on the way. I'll spend a couple of days (or so) in Rome, and then be ready to go on the road again driving solo.

I thought I was going to pick up a truck in Atlanta and be based in Atlanta like I was when I drove for Schneider a couple of years ago. But, I'll still have the same dispatcher in West Memphis (that is a good thing) at least for a while.

And I probably won't pick up a truck in Atlanta, even though I'll park my car there. I'll probably have to rent a car and go pick up the truck somewhere else – either Charlotte, North Carolina, or West Memphis, Arkansas. Schneider will pay for the rental car so that's no problem.

Terry will take our truck from Dallas to West Memphis on the 26 ^th and will turn the truck in there. He's going to take a few days off, and then will be driving in some capacity solo with Schneider after that. He's still looking at his options and working all that out.

I'm not sure how the blog will change after that, but I plan to continue writing about my adventures in the truck. I hope you will keep reading.

Until next time . . . so long from Houston . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . .

Allan

Trouble in California -- And Two Movies

Hello everyone!  I can't believe I'm writing an entry so soon after the last one, but I have the time, so it seemed good to do so.  

California.  We are in California, near LA.  We delivered our load to South Carolina, stopping on the way on Thanksgiving Day for a meal together.  

From South Carolina, we picked up a load going up to Dayton, Texas, to a Sam's located there.  From the time we left Green Bay, Wisconsin earlier last week, we drove in some kind of precipitation almost the entire way -- either snow or rain.  Of course anything short of the snow and blizzard conditions we were in through Montana the other week were not too bad.

From Dayton we took an empty trailer all the way back to New Orleans and picked up a load there that was going to Chino (might as well just say LA), California.  We delivered that load yesterday morning, and then gave ourselves some time to take a little break, do some laundry,  and go see a movie, so we were ready to go again this morning.

We had a load to pick up that was going up to Denver.  I was excited about that, because my Daddy is working up in Denver until the middle of this month, and I was looking forward to seeing him for a little while.

I left this morning around 0600 California time going to pick up an empty trailer that we were taking to the place we were to pick up the load.  Almost to the place we were picking up the empty (the same place we delivered to yesterday in Chino), I had just gotten off the 71 Freeway at the Chino Hills Parkway exit, the truck started flashing lights at me and acting funny, just the way it did several months ago up in Oklahoma when we had the transmission problems.  

The bottom line is that we got towed back to the Schneider OC in Fontana (about 20 miles away), and we will be here until at least Thursday.  Maybe longer.  So we are staying in the motel that SNI uses in LA, which is near the Ontario, California, airport.  It's the same place we stayed the time we just took a little time off here several months ago.

No Country For Old Men.  One reason we decided to take some time off yesterday was to be able to go see the movie that just came out.  It's a Coen Brothers movie based on the book of the same title by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote the excellent book I just finished, Blood Meridian.

I won't go into details about the plot, but it was an excellent movie, one I would rate 5 out of 5, or 10 out of 10, or whatever scale you would like to use to measure such a thing.  It is not a gentle, kind movie, and the ending doesn't wrap everything up neatly, and not everyone lives happily ever after.  It's disturbing, but it's disturbing in the sort of way that leaves you asking questions, challenges your view of the world and the way it works.  Profound in some of those challenges.  Excellent film on many levels.  

Go see it.

Beowulf.  Another movie that we've seen previews for, and here in Ontario, it was playing in High Definition on a huge IMAX screen in 3D.   Based on the epic poem of the same name, really the only requirement for me to see it was that Angelina "oh those lips" Jolie was in it.  Also Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone (whom I don't remember seeing in anything else, but he plays the title character very well), and Robin Wright "oh isn't she just lovely dressed as the Queen" Penn.

Good story just for entertainment.  4 out of 5 on the scale (if we are still doing that).  Go see it also, even if you aren't a guy who wants to see Angelina and her lips in 3D.  

Added:  a link to an excellent discussion of Beowulf, especially its depiction of pagan versus Christian virtues and heroes, with a reference to a lecture on Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien I didn't know about.

Other stuff.  There is more going on with us, about which I will write more later, perhaps.  We still have to work out the exact details of our upcoming changes.  I'll keep you posted, one way or another.

On Thanksgiving Day, I got a call from my ex-wife, Charlotte.  We don't talk often, and it's usually when she calls me to talk when she needs a friend to listen.  We talked about an hour.  And, for some reason, more than in almost two years, talking to her this time really just made me miss her more than I have in a long time.  That lasted for a couple of days.  I just had to hang on and let it ride out.  There's something about driving a truck with all that time just with your feelings and thoughts that sort of magnifies the effects of something like that.  

I didn't really listen to a lot of Amber Digby during that time, or I would have been in an emotional whirlpool.  Which is sometimes okay; but I needed to focus on what I was doing, so it wasn't the right time to jump in the deep end of that pool.

Interesting -- why did I just write about that here?  Guess I needed to.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . hope your time preparing for whatever holidays you celebrate (if any) coming up don't drive you too crazy . . .

Allan

Happy Thanksgiving! - Since California -- Changes

Happy Thanksgiving!  It is Thanksgiving Day as I write this (albeit, late on Thanksgiving Day).  We are on the road, currently in South Carolina, where we are dropping the load we picked up last night in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and where we will pick up our next load going out to Dayton, in The Great State of Texas.

I hope that all who read this will have had a great day, hopefully spending time with family or friends, and also taking some time to think about what you are grateful for in your life.

I spent some of my drive-time earlier today thinking about just that.  Driving affords plenty of time for thinking -- sometimes, too much time for thinking.  :-)

Some things I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving 2007:  

• my family and friends;
• having this job that I love and being paid well for getting to drive all over this beautiful country;
• the simplicity and contentment I have in my life right now -- I cannot imagine my life being any better unless I had lots of money and could just live in an RV driving around the country or traveling to other countries;
• the fact that I have known the love of the most wonderful woman I've ever met in my ex-wife;
• I'm thankful for the time I've enjoyed being able to drive as a team with one of my best friends.
• I'm thankful for the fact that I live in this country at this time and have the freedoms I enjoy

Since California.  In one month since being stuck in California, we have been more places than I could remember without looking at my notes.  We have driven very hard for the most part since most of our loads were on a tight schedule.  I'll just list the places we went to from LA after the winds and the fires calmed down (see last entry for details on that) and then comment on anything that comes to mind.

Fasten your seat belt:  From LA --> Otay, CA --> Mississauga, Ontario, Canada --> Laredo, TX --> Swartz Creek (Flint), MI --> Roanoke, TX --> San Leandro, CA --> Dallas, TX --> Phoenix, AZ --> Little Rock AR --> Kent, WA --> Chicago, IL --> Auburn, WA --> Green Bay, WI --> Beech Island, SC (on our way there as I type this) --> Dayton, TX

Some comments:

• On our way from LA to Otay (down near San Diego literally only yards from the Mexican border), we still saw some smoke and some remnants of the fires that seemed to engulf whole areas of Southern Cal.  We were glad to be able to get out of there after being stranded for 3 days.  One thing I have to say about Schneider also:  they never pressured us to start moving until we thought it was safe to do so; they never second-guessed us; all they asked us to do was to keep them updated on our situation.  That's one of the reasons I like Schneider -- they don't press drivers to compromise on safety.
• Canada:  this was our second trip up to Canada.  We had no problems getting into Canada this time (unlike the last time), but coming back with the load from Canada, we were missing a critical document, so we were delayed for a while until we were able to get that.  I always love going to Canada, even with the hassles one encouters at the border sometimes.
• Border crossing and Homeland Security Dept:  All I have to say is that if the border crossing office and its people are an example of what has been produced post-911, I think that it confirms my existing opinion that a lot of money has been spent, a lot of bureaucracy has been created, and our national security has not been enhanced a great deal.  Think about the stupid stories you hear from the past few years about getting on an airplane:  this bureaucracy has created a system that routinely issues stupid mandates that defy common sense (as any bureaucracy tends to do), and there is a bloat of expense and layers of red-tape that actually create a worse problem than it was intended to solve.  If that raises hackles, good; feel free to leave comments.  At least do some thinking on the subject.  That's one of my goals in writing about it.  Anyway, if those buffoons at the Detroit Border Crossing Office are in charge of protecting my country, then I do not feel very safe.  End of comment on that (and aren't you so glad of that?).
• Running in the northwest:  the past couple of weeks, we have been turned loose on the roads of the West/Pacific Northwest, and it has been great! I would run like we have the past couple of weeks all the time if I could.  And, I am happy to say that in going up to Washington state, we have crossed North Dakota several times, and that means we've now been to all 48 states and Canada in the 180,000 we have traveled since March.
• Winter driving:  driving on I-90 and I-94 through Montana, Idaho, and Washington this time of year means that we have seen winter weather.  This last time, coming over Lookout Pass on I-90 crossing the mountain between Idaho and Montana, we ran into our worst winter weather so far.  It got so bad early one morning about 4:30 that I could not see the road, and the snow started freezing on the windshield because the windshield wipers were frozen and weren't working.  We found a truck stop and pulled in and just stayed there until daylight when the worst of the storm had passed.  It was a very scary experience.
• I think for Terry and I, our favorite drive in the whole country now is on I-90 in Montana, between Missoula and Ceoure D' Alane, Idaho, going over Lookout Pass.  It is simply overwhelming in its beauty, and when the snow has fallen on the cedars that cover the sides of the mountains everywhere, it is a living postcard.  Incredible in every respect.  Another favorite drive for me this time was taking Montana highway 200 from east of Missoula all the way across the state, but especially between I-90 in Missoula and Great Falls, going over Rogers Pass.  For a long time, the road parallels the Blackfoot River, and is the general area where the story A River Runs Through It takes place.  If you've seen the movie, you must remember the beautiful scenery along the rivers -- that's exactly what driving on Montana 200 looked like.  I'm sitting here and still thinking:  "Wow!"

Amber Digby.   The last entry I meant to say something about a new country singer I heard first on XM 13 -- the channel that plays all the old country, mostly stuff from the 60's and 70's, like Loretta Lynn, Porter Waggoner (R.I.P.), Conway, George Jones, Willie, Johnny Cash -- what some folks would call "real country".    For a couple of weeks, I heard this song called "If You Were Me" and it was beautiful, bluesy, just good old sad country -- and that voice!  

The first thought I had was to ask why I had never heard this song or this voice before.  I got the name of the singer (Amber Digby) and did some searching on the net.  I found out that she is a relatively young singer who has had a couple of CD's released of covers of some old songs.  According to her MySpace page (here), she plays pretty regular dates mostly in Texas.  

I ordered both her CD's, and love them.  If you want to hear some good, sad, heartbreak, blues, cry-in-your-beer traditional country, you can't go wrong with her.  If you don't like this kind of music, don't bother; but if you do -- this is the best I've heard in a long time.  You can hear samples of her music on her MySpace page.  

There is something about good blues/country/bluegrass and their lamentive quality that is very cathartic emotionally.  At times, I love to just immerse myself in it, let it take me to those deepest, darkest places of past hurt, pain, regret (mostly for me this involves Charlotte, my ex-wife) and let it just wash over me.  I don't stay there -- that's emotional suicide -- but it has the benefit of making things clearer when I come back up.

And those of you who are reading this with your "religious" perspective judging me, wondering why anyone would want to listen to that stuff -- I mention this:  lament is part and parcel of most religious traditions -- read the Psalms, the book of Lamentations.  You think your faith doesn't understand suffering, pain, hurt, longing, regret?   Listen to some Southern country gospel, especially from the 1930's through the 1970's, and you will find much in common with the kind of country music I'm describing; it's music that reflects the human condition, our struggle, our pain, as truly as anything else.

And by the way, if you like Christian blues, you can do no better than music by Glenn Kaiser (my old pastor in Chicago), Darrell Mansfield, or Larry Howard.  Excellent stuff.   One of my favorite blues songs in the world is "Where Roses Grow", especially the live version done by Resurrection Band at the 20 Years Live concert in Chicago (also on the live CD) back in 1992.

If you have ever been hurt in love or have hurt someone else in love, I challenge you to listen to a song like "Bitter They Are" (written by Mickey Gilley, and covered by Elvis in the mid-70's) and not relate to it.  When I listen to "Three Years" the way Amber sings it, it echoes my heart's cry for my own lost love almost perfectly.  It helps me grieve, mourn, and go on.  It's healing.

To finish, I'll just say that sometime next year, I'll be going to see Amber in concert somewhere in Texas.

Changes.  So it is, that change is inevitable.  When Terry and I started this part of our journey 9 months ago, it signaled a major change for both of us.  We were both in a unique place in our lives with no obligations, and a level of freedom that let us be able to do what we have been doing:  driving all over the country for long stretches of time in our orange Schneider truck.

We didn't know how long it would last, or how it would evolve over time.  

As it happens, quite unexpectedly and suddenly, Terry has been fortunate enough to find a true love in his life.  And, as these things have a way of doing, they have progressed to the point that Terry and I are no longer going to be able to continue as we were before.  And, with equal parts happiness (for Terry and what he has found) and sadness (for what we will lose in not teaming), I report that at the end of the year, Terry and I will take separate forks in the road.  We both still plan to drive for Schneider, but we'll just be doing things a little differently than we have been.  

The future is bright for both of us, and I still can't wait for the next mile of the road just to see what's there . . .

This blog will continue, and will reflect some of these changes as they occur.  I hope you stay tuned . . . it's been nice having you in the truck this far . . .

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . and enjoy some good ole tear-jerker country . . .

Allan

Winter is here and stuck in Califonria

Hello everyone!  I'm writing this from the cafeteria/driver's lounge at Schneider's Fontana, California OC (Fontana is near San Bernardino, about 40 miles east of LA, where I-10 and I-15 intersect).  We are currently on day 3 of being stuck in LA -- more on that later.  

Too hard and too fast for me.  The last time I wrote, I mentioned that Terry and I had been asked to run a dedicated route for a week.  All I can say about that week is that the tight schedules on those runs just about exhausted me; we had to run at top speed non-stop the whole week.  And, the last load, we just didn't have enough hours to run legally (it would have put us well over our 70 hours in 8 days limit), so we just made our last run from Wisconsin to Carthage, Missouri (just east of Joplin), and then decided to get a hotel and tell Schneider we'd be available to run the next day (a Saturday).

I normally sleep about 5 or 6 hours a day, and in the truck while it's moving, it's hardly ever that long at one time; I typically just take little naps when I'm in the truck and we're rolling.  Some days I sleep better than others.  But by the time we shut down that Friday morning in Joplin, I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.  Maybe 20 years ago I could have run like we had that week without lingering ill effects, but it ain't 20 years ago and I'm feeling every minute of my 42 years when we stopped.  

I lay down at 3:00 pm Friday and didn't stir, roll over, wake up until the next morning at 5:30.  I got up then just long enough for a visit to the reading room (but no reading this time) and then went right back to sleep until I finally got up about 8:30.  That's about 17 1/2 hours of sleep.  And I needed it.  I felt great when I woke up the next morning.

Some truck drivers like to run hard and fast, at full-tilt capacity, all the time.  They like to drive as fast and far as they can.  

I'm not like that.   I like to pace myself.  One reason is that I love to drive, but I hate to rush.  And I have to ask the question:  "Why?  What's the advantage?"  All of us have the limitations imposed upon us that we can only drive so many hours in a specific amount of time (8 days in this case).  If a driver uses up his hours in 6 days, he's sitting for two days anyway.  There is no advantage; he's not running (in theory, all else being equal) any more miles or making any more money than I am as a slower driver.  

My ideal pace (this is what I did most of the time as a solo driver) is to start early in the morning, run about 500 miles and then shut down in the middle of the afternoon.  That's what works best with my natural body rhythms and inclinations.  Of course, there are times when you can't run like that; a truck driver's schedule is dictated by the pick-up and delivery schedule of the load he's under at that moment; some loads are tighter than others.  Sometimes you just have to rush; there's no remedy for it.  I don't mind that occasional sprint.  But if I had to do it all the time, I would quickly lose my love for driving a truck, and I'd go be a greeter at Wal-mart or something else that I'd like to do.  

I'm too old to do something I don't like to do, and I am very fortunate to have experience and skills so that I've always been able to choose jobs that I've liked very well.  

Seeing family.  For the first time since we started driving in March, a couple of weeks ago, I scheduled some time to see my family in Georgia.  I enjoyed it tremendously, but, as always, there was not enough time to see everyone I really wanted to see.  

I got to enjoy some great time with my Mama (we took a day to go to a place in Tennesee called The Lost Sea that we'd been to when I was 5 or 6 years old and that was very enjoyable for both of us, I think), my sister and her family, and some cousins.   I got to see my grandmother (Nanny) also.

Winter at last.  This past week, we experienced our first dose of real winter driving in Colorado and Utah.  We were on a series of loads for Fed-ex that took us from LA up to the Chicago area, and then from Chicago over to Salt Lake City, Utah.

To get to Chicago, they routed us (for some reason) up I-15 to I-70, and that took us east through Utah and Colorado.  As we started heading up into the mountains that night (Terry's shift), we encountered quite a bit of snow.  I slept through the whole thing in Utah, but then we changed shifts and I got my turn.

There is one area (beginning near the Vail pass on I-70 -- you've heard of Vail as a ski mecca before) where trucks are required to have tire chains.  I've had training in using those things, but have never had to use them before, so it was a new experience for both of us.

About daylight, we were in a place where we had to put them on:  it was about 21 degrees, snowing, and the roads were pretty messy; not icy yet, but just covered in snow in places.  The wind wasn't really bad or we just wouldn't have been able to (safely) cross the pass and make it down to Denver.

I was a little anxious about driving for the first time in that much snow on the mountains, especially coming down; coming down, you have the load behind you pushing you down, making you pick up speed very quickly, but you are limited in your options for slowing down.  So, I just started out slow at the top and kept it that way as best I could.  Since we didn't fall off the mountain or crash, I guess I did alright.

When we got to Denver, I was able to meet my Daddy at a local truck stop (he's working in Denver for several months) for about a half hour.  We had a very nice visit.

After we got through Denver, all the way across the rest of Colorado and Nebraska, there were very high winds (but no snow or rain) that made driving hard in some places.  

On our way back from Chicago to Salt Lake City, we ran into more high winds and winter weather going across Wyoming and Utah.  From Salt Lake City, they had us take an empty trailer over 600 miles down to LA.  We left Salt Lake last Saturday night.

As we came out of the mountains, by the time we got to Las Vegas (one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen is coming out of the high desert from northern Nevada and seeing miles and miles of lights from Las Vegas suddenly sprawling across the desert horizon.  One moment it's totally dark out there, and then you come over this rise, and it's there.   Just breathtaking every time I see it.) it was in the 50's and we were driving in dry weather.

Then we got to California.  It was early Sunday morning.  I saw these signs "High winds ahead.  High profile vehicles not recommended."   After 20 miles, when there weren't any winds, I stopped looking for them.

Then, almost out of the mountains north of San Bernardino on I-15, close to the Sierra Avenue exit, the first gusts hit.

I thought the truck was going to turn over; remember, we've got an empty trailer, so it didn't take much wind to shake it around.  These gusts were (we found out later) up to 80 or 85 miles per hour.  

It scared me much worse than driving in the snow over the Vail pass last week.  I yelled at Terry to wake up:  "Wake up Terry!  The truck's going to turn over!  Wake up!"

I slowed the truck down, tried to keep it in the road, and pulled over under an overpass, which provided some shelter from the winds, if not very much.  The truck shook like we were in a hurricane or tornado.

We were the only truck pulled over for a while, except for a couple of trucks and an RV stopped on the northbound side.  But, several hours later, when we were still stuck there -- only 12 miles from the Schneider OC in Fontana, where I am writing this entry -- we were in a crowd of trucks, RV's, cars and motorcycles that had stopped.  

I took some video with my phone.  The quality is not great, but if I decide it's worth posting on Youtube, I'll update the entry with links.  

Just when I was starting to think about maybe trying to leave where we were after several hours (Terry had been able to go back to sleep after my imitation of Chicken Little was over), I was watching the traffic, and suddenly, this truck on the northbound side which had been stopped on the side of the road for over an hour started to move again.  After only about 100 yards, the wind caught it and flipped it on its side like it was a little toy.

It was scary to watch.  The driver was able to get out and wasn't hurt.  But it made me realize that I had made the right decision to stay put.  

After about 12 hours, the winds started to die down a little bit (they are worst at night and early morning), we did make it the rest of the way to the OC, but we have been stuck here ever since.  We have been assigned 3 loads, but have been unable to even make it to go pick them up.

Fires and winds are all over the TV news -- you may have seen it if you haven't been living in a cave.  

Anyway, we are okay.  That's the main thing.  But we are ready to get on the road again.  I know that for sure.

Movies.  Terry and I have been able to see a couple of good movies lately.  The first one, 3:10 to Yuma, we saw several weeks ago while we were up in Illinois, near St. Louis.  We took time one Saturday afternoon to drop our trailer in the Schneider facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, and we bobtailed (just drove the truck with no trailer) up to Altonville, Illinois, a small village northeast of St. Louis.  We enjoyed a great movie (which  was a remake of an earlier movie, which was an adaptation of a short story by Elmore Leonard; I haven't seen the original movie or read the short story yet, but plan to) and the downtime outside the truck was good.  

Yesterday, we took a cab to a mall a few miles from here and saw the movie Michael Clayton and we both found it interesting.  It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, it was very intriguing.  

In a little while, we're going to see Into the Wild, which could sometimes be the title of a movie depicting a trek into many truck stops.  

Billy Day.  Our good friend in Texas, Billy Day, is having a procedure done this Friday -- Billy, you are in our prayers and we expect to hear from you soon by e-mail.  He will think it is funny to see his name in the blog this time.  

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.  I'm currently enjoying this book that Terry recommended to me.  It's my first book to read by McCarthy (to my surprise), and it's quite a graphic tale of violence and brutality in the Old West.  Another McCarthy book, No Country for Old Men, is soon to be made into a movie.  I'm looking forward to reading others book he's written.  

I'll cut things off there.  It's almost time to leave here to go to the movie.  Hopefully, before I write again, we will have been able to leave here.  

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' (except when the winds are blowing 80 mph) . . .
Allan

One result of thinking while driving . . .

My, how time flies! Hello, everyone! I thought since it's been a month, it should be time to write in the blog. Lots of things have been happening in the Orange truck we call Lori.

A word of explanation before I begin in earnest: this entry will likely also bleed over into some personal journaling, but I'll cover the trucking stuff first, and then will warn you before I venture off into more personal thoughts and journaling. Then you can decide if you want to continue reading or not. I hope you do.

“Roll on, big wheels, roll on!”. Those words are adapted from a cool Alabama song called “Roll on”.

Last time we joined our heroes (isn't everyone the hero of their own story?), the wheels were not rolling. They were waiting.

The only thing drivers do more than drive is wait. Wait for a load. Wait to be loaded. Wait to be unloaded. Wait in construction. Wait in bad weather. Wait for payday {laughing}. Wait while the truck is being repaired.

We had picked up a load on a Friday down in Laredo that had to be up in St. Charles, Missouri, for a live unload at noon on Monday. (That would have been September 10th, if you are keeping track.) It didn't make sense to go all the way to St. Charles two days early; we could have gone to the Schneider OC (Operating Center) northeast of St. Louis, but we would have been no better off. So we opted to stop in St. Robert, Missouri, just off I-44, and wait out the time there until Monday morning.

Terry spent that time mostly watching football, watching movies, and catching up on sleep. I spent time on the computer, reading, watching some TV and also sleeping quite a bit. Terry also made a run to Walmart to get some things that he needed.

Monday morning came and we drove the rest of the way to St. Charles. We got there early (but only a couple of hours instead of a couple of days). I went in to find out which door we would be assigned to back into on the dock, and the guy in the office didn't have our load number scheduled. He said our load wasn't scheduled until Wednesday! What!?! We've already had this load as deadweight for almost 3 days, and now we still can't get it unloaded!?!?

It was really funny; at worst, we would have been told to drop the load somewhere so it could be relayed by someone else on Wednesday. But, after a couple of phone calls (“have your people call my people and we'll do lunch”), we were able to get unloaded as we were originally told we would be. There was just a mixup when various folks were talking to one another (and I'll bet there was no lunch, either).

I'm going to fast-forward through time a little bit and simply list the places we've gone since the last entry. Hold on to your hats.

St. Charles, MO --> Kansas City, MO --> Portland, OR --> Sumner, WA --> Portland, OR --> Clackamas, OR --> South Gate (LA), CA --> Wurtsboro, NY --> New Milford, CT --> Newport, MI --> Grand Rapids, MI --> Laredo, TX (yay! Texas! My fave place in the world!) --> Pharr, TX --> Olive Branch, MS --> W. Memphis, AR --> Ogden, UT --> Fontana, CA --> W. Memphis, AR --> Dallas, TX --> Grapevine, TX --> Stuarts Draft, VA --> Chesapeake, VA --> West Jefferson, OH --> Hilliard, OH --> Mt. Pleasant, IA --> Wisconsin Rapids, WI --> Carthage, MO --> Logan, UT (we are at this very moment as I write this on our way to Logan, traveling with 40,000 pounds of cheese (that's a lot of pictures to smile for) through the mountains of beautiful Wyoming with gusting winds of over 65 mph) --> then back to Carthage, MO --> then to De Pere, WI.

In the 3 weeks and 3 days since the last blog entry in going to all those places, we've have driven over 19,000 miles. It still amazes me how many places and how many miles we go in a very short time. And that time includes some downtown (3 days) when we had to attend Winter training, put the truck in the shop, and Terry had to have some things done.

Some notes about the last 3 weeks.

• We have managed recently to make it to all of the remaining lower 48 states that we hadn't been through yet except North Dakota. These included Oregon and Minnesota. Not too bad for six months on the road to have been to 47 states and Canada. Pretty cool if you ask me – I think I have the very best job in the world! Go ahead and envy me.
  

• The place in New York that we went to (Wurtsboro) was a beautiful little village (maybe they would call it a hamlet up there in New England) in western New York, not far across the Pennsylvania line. After we delivered our load there, we took time to just walk around the little town (we didn't have a trailer so it was easy to park the truck) and we found a great little pub and grill (Benny's) where we had a nice meal, and Terry got to watch some of a football game.
  

• Have you ever had a problem with your car, or washing machine, or another appliance, but it disappears as soon as you have a repairman take a look at it? The car clangs, bangs, hiccups, and sputters for weeks. When you finally take it in to the shop, it runs as if it just drove off the factory floor. Well, we've both felt like something wasn't quite right with the brakes on our nearly-new (it's a 2007 model) truck since shortly after we started driving it. It stops – it's not as simple as that. It just feels and sounds funny. It's nothing I can put a finger on. But we've told several maintenance folks at several Schneider OC's; they always either ignore us or look at it and tell us everything's okay. Hmmm. I don't know what's up, but everything's not okay.
  

• The drive from Laredo to Pharr, Texas, down US 83 towards Brownsville and McAllen is beautiful. Most of the way on that road, you can literally look over to the southwest and look into Mexico. And, for all practical purposes, as far as language and culture is concerned, that area resembles Mexico in a beautiful way (not the least of which is that there are plenty of beautiful women to smile at and acknowledge, and think about later – ah, Heidi, you are everywhere at all times, are you not?).
  

• Last Sunday, when we were on our way to Hilliard, Ohio, with our load, we got a phone call from someone at Schneider who coordinates loads for a dedicated account (the drivers who work on a dedicated account only work with that customer, and usually deliver to the same places all the time; Terry worked on Schneider's Family Dollar account before we started teaming.) for a frozen foods company. She wanted to know if we would be willing to help them out because some of their regular drivers were sick (or maybe one of their regular teams more precisely). Very tight schedules but the runs would be all drop-and-hook (no live loads or unloads) and we'd get plenty of miles. She told us some of the places we'd go: Wisconsin, Missouri, Utah. Of course we'll go; you had us at “Utah”. Or anywhere out west. So, that's what we're doing now, probably through the end of this week.
  

Well, that pretty much catches you up on what's been going on with the Lonesome Dove Xpress the past few weeks.

We'll have a short intermission so that those of you who wish to leave at this point may do so without disturbing others. House lights, please. (My eyes look in vain for Heidi – she was here only moments ago in this entry, I would swear it! But she is gone faster than a wisp of smoke taken on a whisper of wind. * sigh * )


{cool music from Norah Jones and Blueground Undergrass plays for your enjoyment}


Are you still here? Great! The rest of this entry will mostly be personal, not directly related to trucking. What I've written here (as always, but especially now) are my own opinions, and have nothing to do with Terry or his own views. I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you kept that in mind, especially if I write something that upsets you (and I hope I do; I hope, if you bother to read this part, that something I write challenges you to think, challenge yourself, come outside the confines of your boundaries).

Ready or not, here we go!

Last lecture of a dying man: Randy Pausch. If you were sick and knew you had about a month to live, what would you do? How would you react? That's exactly the situation that Dr. Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie-Mellon University found himself in.

Amazing story of courage and what's really important – at least to this one man.

This first link is to a short summary of the speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a60ATArNEcQ

Here's a link to the entire speech (about 2 hours total): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=362421849901825950&hl=en

Do you use Youtube a lot? If you use Youtube, Googlevideo, or other similar sites to watch streaming video very often, you've probably wondered how you could save those videos to your computer. The answer (at least one that I've found that I like) is a program called Atube Catcher. Download it here:
http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/youtubecatcher/YouTubeCatcher_1_0_rc2_r109_english_setup.msi


Just for fun: “What old people do for fun” video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8735889757702013026&q=what+old+people+do+for+fun&total=1184&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

“Never talk about religion or politics.” Except when it's your blog and you can talk about whatever you want. You could have left during the earlier intermission. * laughing *

I confess: I'm a political junkie. I have been since high school when my political belief system was being formed. I even got to work for my senator (Sam Nunn) when I was in high school. There are several things to write about under this general heading.

Rudy! What were you thinking?!?! Recently, the major Republican candidates for President spoke to the NRA, a group most people acknowledge is important to be on friendly terms with as a possible Republican nominee. Rudy Giuliani was one of the ones who spoke.

Rudy already scares many conservative Republicans because of his past statements on various social issues. He really needed to make a good impression with this already-dubious crowd. During his speech, his cell phone rings! His cell phone rings! He answers. It's his wife. He talks to her, interrupting his speech to do so.

I like Rudy, and have been leaning toward supporting him over the other Republican candidates for months now (the only other possible person I've considered supporting is John McCain of those I think are electable to begin with; many of the Republican candidates are nice guys who stand for many things I agree with, but they are not, in my opinion, electable for any number of reasons.), but this gives me pause.

Link to one version (among many) story here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297649,00.html

Hillary will be the Democratic nominee and she may win the election. Here's why. First of all, in my opinion, unless something truly dramatic and unforeseeable happens, Hillary is already the de-facto Democratic nominee. The formalities still have to be gone through, but in the end, she is the only credible candidate for the Democrats.

Barack is nice – but he needs to be in the Senate a little longer, in my opinion. He caused a splash when he first entered (much like the idiot known as Howard Dean), but it's for all practical purposes died down already.

John Edwards is a joke. Please. Do any Dems even take him seriously?

Is there any other Democratic candidate who could seriously contend for the nomination, much less the Presidency?

Why I think Hillary might win. First of all, let's get this out of the way: Hillary is one of the shrewdest, most intelligent, and ambitious people in the country today. To dismiss her or not take her seriously is to almost certainly spell defeat for anyone who does so.

Hillary is also one of the most divisive personalities in any public arena today. Even within her own party.

She has the advantage of many loyal supporters, access to sufficient financial resources, and the expertise of the most gifted politician of the baby-boomer generation in her husband, Bill. (Whatever you think of him personally, or his politics, I think Bill Clinton is the most naturally gifted politician certainly since Ronald Reagan. As an advisor, Karl Rove is probably in the same league, but I'm talking about just the politician as a man or woman.)

The reason I think Hillary might win has more to do with the Republicans than anything else. In this upcoming 2008 election year, several things are happening at once:

• You have a very unpopular President and a very unpopular war. Even those who were passionate supporters of George Bush and, in particular, the war in Iraq, have waned in their support, for whatever reason. At best, except for a few loyalists, most people are ambivalent towards both Bush and Iraq right now; perhaps weary is the better word.
• The so-called “Religious Right” is losing its influence and is unfocused for 2008. This is a two-part development. For over 20 years, beginning in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan (some would date it from the beginning of the Moral Majority in 1976), politically active conservatives (mostly Christians and mostly evangelicals) have grown in power and influence in the Republican party at large. This has had the practical effect of making the support of this group (who vote more actively than some other groups of Republicans) necessary to win the Republican nomination, and, by extension, the Presidency.
  

           Last year, some conservative Republicans not part of the “religious right”, voiced some dissent about the extent to which the religious conservatives had “hijacked” the party away from its traditional base of the party (those who are economically conservative, but not necessarily socially or religiously conservative).
          The most prominent example of this was an editorial written by former Texas congressman, Dick Armey. Link here: http://www.freedomworks.org/informed/issues_template.php?issue_id=2731
          In addition to a split between some parts of the Republican base that used to be allies, there is the fact that there is no single candidate in the Republican field (I should say “electable” candidate) to whom the majority of conservative religious voters have cast their alliegiance. And, in my opinion, this development, coupled with the split in the base, could equal a victory for Hillary.
          If people are not passionate and committed to something, they are not going to vote. Just look at the last congressional elections for the practical effect of this.
          I don't see anything or anyone on the horizon to change these things before the elections of 2008.
         Can you say “President Hillary Clinton”?

Political resources I like. Like I said, I love politics. Here are some blogs and a web site that I love – there are many more; these are just off the top of my head.

Real Clear Politics: in my opinion, the best web site for political junkies; has a conservative slant:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

Ann Althouse blog: she's a law professor (formerly at University of Wisconsin in Madison, but she recently moved to Brooklyn and I never kept up with what that was all about), but writes about her political opinions a good deal. One of my fave blogs. http://althouse.blogspot.com/

Betsy Newmark's blog: Betsy is a teacher of AP Government and History in Durham, North Carolina. Always interesting. Definitely a conservative perspective. http://betsyspage.blogspot.com

Michael Barone: a writer for U.S. News and World Report, and a regular contributor on Fox News, his perspectives are always enlightening and many times challenging. Great read. http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/

Meagan McCardle: writes about economics (from a mostly Libertarian perspective) and other things; always interesting. The comments on her blog are almost as interesting as the original entries. http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/


Now, on to other things . . .

R.I.P. Robert Jordan. Robert Jordan, author of the best-selling fantasy series, “The Wheel of Time”, recently passed away after a long bout with illness. I was very sorry to hear about his death. His series is my favorite modern fantasy series by far. It has spanned 11 books so far, and the last one is still to be published (sometime in 2009 I think I read somewhere). Excellent series I'd recommend if you like fantasy. More info here: http://www.dragonmount.com/

Speaking of fantasy and science fiction . . . If you like fantasy and/or science fiction, I'd also recommend the Order and Chaos series by L.E.Modessitt. Wonderful stuff. Link to a good fansite here: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/9679/

Also, fantasy, anything by David and Leigh Eddings. Especially the Belgariad and Mallorean books.

Dark fantasy: try the first six novels by Stephen R. Donaldson – the Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series. Very thought-provoking.

Science fiction: anything by Isaac Asimov (esp. the Foundation series) and Robert Heinlein (Stranger In a Strange Land should be read by every sci-fi fan – you grok?). Scores of other great writers that don't come to mind at the moment. For Christian sci-fi/fantasy, try anything by Stephen R. Lawhead. Excellent stuff.

Books I'm reading or have read recently. No energy to comment right now. I winding down as far as my energy goes, but this stuff is on my mind, so it demands expression, I suppose. Just a list:
Lonesome Dove and Roads (Larry McMurtry); The Outsider (Colin Wilson); Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut); Lisey's Story (Stephen King); False Memory (Dean Koontz). Others too numerous to remember; I'm a voracious reader. Ask anyone who really knows me.

Tornado in Eustis, Florida, where I used to live. For ten years when I was married, I lived in Eustis, Florida, about 30 miles northwest of Orlando. Almost two weeks ago, a good friend of ours (Terry and me), Van Freeman, called and told us about a tornado that went through Eustis. I hadn't heard anything about it, so I called Charlotte (my ex-wife) and made sure she and her family there were okay. She told me she was fine, and the house we had bought just six months before we separated was not damaged very much. But the tornado went right down that street, and most of the houses right around hers were destroyed or damaged a great deal. Link to the story for those interested: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-eustisstorygallery,0,6188558.storygallery

I'm tired and that's all I can write for now – if you have made it this far, I admire your perseverance.

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

Allan

Running hard and hardly running

Terry returns from vacation.  As planned, Terry returned to Dallas from his vacation, and by Monday morning after the last entry (this would have been August 20th), we were ready to roll.  And, as we had been told to expect, we got one of those "expedited" loads (the ones with possible escorts that you have to go 250-300 miles without stopping on and that you also have to tell Schneider every time you breathe on) going from Fort Worth up to a suburb of Chicago.

We picked up the load in Ft. Worth with no problem and (yippee!) there was no escort.  Now you're talkin', baby!

We had planned to change shifts up in Eufaula, Oklahoma, like we did last time on this load.  Several times on the way up, Terry said things like he couldn't "wait to get behind the wheel" and "I'm so ready to start driving".

It's funny how it's nice to be out of the truck sometimes, but after just a little while, it feels good to be back in the truck, too, seeing the next bend in the road.

Alison Krauss (ah, be still my heart!) has a song that sums up my feeling about driving and the road called "Gravity".  It is the theme for this part of my life, I suppose.  Great lyrics.  

About 20 minutes before we changed shifts, the cruise control went out on the truck, suddenly without warning.  We figured it was a short that we would have them look at in Chicago after we delivered our little top-secret (oh, gimme a break) load.

So we pull into the truck stop in Eufaula, change shifts, and Terry gets his wish to start driving.

For about 500 yards.  

Then the automatic transmission starts acting up, and the truck won't go any more.  By this time, we are out on the access ramp to get back on U.S. 69, and there is nowhere to go but over on the side of the road.

Just great.  

We have this load that they are so paranoid about being hijacked and stolen (I doubt they've even had anyone ever try to steal one of these loads, really), and here we are stuck on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere.  Well, yes, I know I said we were in Eufaula, Oklahoma.  Like I said, stuck on the road in the middle of nowhere.  

One nice thing about Schneider in a situation like this is that when we do break down, we call a toll-free maintenance hotline that is staffed 24/7/365 up in Green Bay.  So we called them, explained the situation, and found out that Schneider is having a lot of problems with these automatic transmissions in the newer trucks (we have a 2007 model).   

One nice thing about us having this valuable load was that it sure got things moving in a hurry.  It still took about 3 hours to get someone out to tow us, but at least someone came.  We were still able to idle the truck with the air conditioner going, so we didn't have it so bad.  

Of course, Schneider had to decide what to do with the load we had.  Once they figured out our problem was major and the truck would have to be put into the shop to fix, they could either send someone out with another truck for us to drive (neither of us wanted to have to lug all our junk out of our truck into another truck) or they could have another team meet us wherever we were taking the truck (oh that's a funny part of this story -- just read on) and continue the load on up to Chicago.  They ended up decided to let another team meet us up in Muskogee, which is where we ended up being towed the first time.

They guy who came to get us was Dewayne, who owns D's Towing in Checotah, Oklahoma.  He also has a shop in Muskogee.  He was a nice guy and his business does lots of work for Schneider.

They had told us we were being towed to the Freightliner shop in Muskogee to have our truck looked at.  When Dewayne came to get us, he told us that he knows the shop in Muskogee and he told us they couldn't work on our transmission there because it's a small shop.  He told us we'd need to go to Tulsa to have it worked on.  

We figured that Schneider would like to know this since Dewayne knows the local shops really well.  So we called them, they thought about it for half a second and told us to go to Muskogee anyway "and we'll just see what happens in the morning when they open."  In other words, "You're just a driver so how could you know anything about this?"

We told Dewayne what they said, and he said, "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you in the morning when I come back to get you and take you up to Tulsa."

The next morning, the shop opened, and the guys told us exactly what Dewayne told us they would:  they couldn't work on it, and it would need to be towed up to Tulsa.  

One day wasted.

So Dewayne (and the wonderful calendar in his truck) came back to get us and take us on into Tulsa.

We had stayed in the truck that first night, but when we got to Tulsa the next afternoon, and they told us they wouldn't even get to look at it that day, we found a motel nearby and checked in.  

They had our truck ready the next day (day two).  There was some kind of "data link" in the computer that controls the automatic transmission (that's right:  our truck's transmission is controlled by a computer) that went bad and had to be replaced.

So we were ready to roll again.  And did we ever!

Running hard.  If you've been reading this blog at all, you know that we like running lots of miles because it gets us into a groove and the money is good.  If the wheels aren't rolling, we aren't making money.  It's as simple as that.  

After our truck was repaired, we ran non-stop for two weeks and a little more.

From Tulsa, we went down to Oklahoma City and picked up a loaded trailer that we took to Calexico, California.  That took us down on I-10 from El Paso into Arizona, and then on I-8 into California.  

Then we went back up to Phoenix and picked up a load going to Valdosta, Georgia.  Then we went to Mobile, Alabama, and picked up a load going to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Then, down to Colonial Heights, Virginia (just south of Richmond), to pick up one of those "expedited" loads going to Kent, Washington, near Seattle.  That load was our longest ever at about 2900 miles, and it took us through some of the states along I-90 that we hadn't been on yet.  

We got to go through South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington state.  And it was probably my favorite run we've had so far.  I just loved going through that whole stretch, especially western Montana.  

That part of Montana was so beautiful, I'm already planning on taking my vacation up there next year, probably around Glacier National Park.  Can't wait to drive on the famous "Going To the Sun Road".  Read about it here if you want to.

By the time we got to Seattle, we were out of hours to run legally (you can only drive 70 hours in 8 days, and Terry and I both were against that limit), so we took a day to just relax and restart our hours at zero again.  

The next morning (this would have been Friday, August 31st), we picked up a load in Everett, Washington, that was going to McDonough, Georgia.  I could have stopped to see my family for an hour or two if we had been going through at the right time, but it just didn't happen.  

From there, we got loads that went up to Chicago and from there down to Laredo.

Hardly running.  Now, we have a load that's going from Laredo up to St. Louis.  We picked it up yesterday (Friday) and it doesn't deliver until Monday.  It's normally a run we could do in one day, but now it's a 3-day run because we can't deliver until noon on Monday.

So we drove from Laredo up to Oklahoma to visit with Terry's daughter and grandson, and now we are in St. Richard, Missouri, and will probably just stay here until Monday morning.  

Driving a truck is generally one extreme or the other:  running so hard, you're exhausted all the time, but making money; or, hardly running at all and having plenty of time, but not making money.  

But you know what?  In spite of those extremes, and the irritation of loads like the one we have now, I still love driving a truck as much as anything I've ever done, and to be able to drive through the country we have been able to see the past 3 weeks makes times like this tolerable.

And it's not like I mind taking a break.  That means I get to write in this blog.  

I love this life!

Until next time, keep the wheels rollin' (as long as your transmission holds out) . . .
Allan