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