On the Road . . . Alone

Going it alone. As I said in the last entry, Terry took off for Ohio on Sunday afternoon. He is currently (unless something changed since we talked) headed back for Dallas with a relay load. Monday morning, I went to pick up an empty trailer in Garland to take down to Athens, Texas, for a live load going up to a Wal-mart distribution center in Hope Mills, North Carolina, just a little bit south of Fayetteville.

When I got to the place I was supposed to get an empty, there were plenty of Schneider trailers, but they were all still loaded. After some waiting, I was told to go right up the road to Sunnyvale to get an empty trailer from another place. This time, it worked. Off to Athens, arriving just in time for my appointment.

Got loaded pretty quickly, and within an hour, I was rolling northeast up to catch I-20 headed east. I stopped for the night in Jackson, Mississippi, and got a great night's sleep.

Up early the next morning and I made it to Aiken, South Carolina, before shutting down. I had plenty of time on the load, but I woke up really early (about 2:30 am), and just decided to start rolling since my 10 hour break was just up. Made it to Hope Mills with no problem and picked up an empty trailer (this is one of the only Wal-mart distribution centers I've ever seen in which all the Schneider trailers are not filled with pallets, which drives us drivers crazy if we are trying to get an empty).

Next load (the one I'm on now) is going to be very tight on delivery. I went up to Brown Summit, North Carolina (just north of Greensboro), to pick up a very heavy paper load at Procter and Gamble. It is delivering in the morning at 6:45 (I hope) up in Perryville, Maryland (I'll have to correct the town name later . . . I can't remember it exactly, and my load info isn't handy). It's a drop load, which usually means there is a window that is flexible for delivery, but this is an appointment time that's specific.

Of course, sometimes, when I get to a delivery like that, it will turn out to be a live unload.

Today, I made it as far as Bracey, Virginia, before shutting down. Bracey is 4 miles across the Virginia state line from North Carolina on I-85. I have about 270 miles to go in the morning. And it will be mostly on I-95 (my least favorite interstate to drive on) through Richmond, DC, and Baltimore. My one advantage is that I'll be able to leave at 1:00 am from here, and hopefully that will at least get me through DC before the morning rush kicks in. Baltimore wouldn't be nearly as bad as DC.

If I don't run into any traffic or construction delays, I will be able to make the delivery on time. I will do my best in any case. The main thing in those situations is to communicate with Schneider and let them know what's going on. If I do that, I've never run into any problems (or at least not many – ha ha).

It has been a long time since I have had to drive any length on I-95 north of Richmond, or spend much time in the northeast. Running solo, I will make up for much of that lapse, based on my past experience. But it sure would be nice to get a load going west, or south, out of Maryland.

Since I began writing this entry (I'm sitting in the restaurant at the Simmons Travel Center here in Bracey; had a very nice meal, and I'm pleasantly surprised to know that they have free wireless internet. It wasn't advertised, and Bracey isn't a place I'd expect much more than two cans and a string for communication. I think I would have had a connection with my Verizon card, but wasn't expecting much speed. I'm also enjoying this sweet tea.), Terry called me. He is still in Ohio, and has had a long and rough day of it. He had to go, and told me to call him back in a few minutes. So I don't have all the juicy details yet.

Sleep calls. My intention when I sat down here was to write more . . . about the recent political races, talking to my ex-wife and mother-in-law over the past few days, and other things. But, since I'm going to have to start rolling at midnight (1:00 am local time), I need to get out to the truck and get some sleep.

More of everything later . . .

Until then, keep the wheels rollin' . . .

Allan and my half of the Lonesome Dove Xpress

"Two Roads Diverged . . ."

An Ending. A Beginning. Well, it's official. Terry and I are not teaming any longer. I was working my way (as quickly as Schneider would let me) to Dallas to meet back up with Terry last week. Terry got to Dallas on Friday, the 3 ^rd , and our DBL (dispatcher for those not with Schneider) had left him a message on his phone that there was a truck available for him in Dallas.

And so there was.

I got here to Dallas (which is where I still am until tomorrow) yesterday afternoon. We had to have the maintenance shop take out the invertor that was installed for Terry's CPAP machine (some of you misread “CPAP”, didn't you? Ha ha) so it could be put in his new truck. We got that done.

We took the rest of our stuff out of the storage unit we had rented here in Dallas when we first started teaming. All my stuff is in my car until they decide when I'm going to be able to take it to Atlanta, when I'll be able to go by my storage unit in Rome and put anything in there that's not going to be in the truck with me. I will (I suppose, since they haven't told me anything differently) keep driving our truck until they tell me otherwise.

Terry spent a good part of last night and today getting things situated in the truck. We had some good time to talk and just visit, which was nice. Last night we went to Outback for a nice meal.

We both waited around all day for loads which never came. Finally, Terry got a load that's taking him up to Ohio. He's gone, and I miss him already. I mean, he's been out of the truck since Christmas, but now that we are officially not teaming, it's just more real in my emotions and mind.

I got a message from operations on my satellite unit in the truck that they were still showing the truck in the shop being worked on (they finished it last night, actually), and that's why I hadn't been sent a load yet. Since it was getting later in the day, I told them to just show me available in the morning early and that way I wouldn't get a load (probably) that would totally wreck my schedule. And it will let me get in a 34-hour restart (not driving for 34 hours lets you reset your clock for the number of hours one can drive – now, c'mon, admit it: don't you wish there was such a thing as a “restart” for some of the dumb things you've probably done in your life?) also, which never hurts.

So, now, I find myself sitting in the very crowded (mostly with students who are in training here at the Dallas OC) cafeteria area of the OC catching up on some e-mail, blog-reading, and some writing, while listening to some cool Avril Lavigne tunes.

I will be continuing this blog, but of course, it will be different in some ways. To those of you who have followed our teaming adventures, thanks for your interest. I hope you'll keep reading.

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

Allan

Happy New Year! -- Atlanta -- Changes to changes?

Happy New Year! I hope your new year has already gotten off to a good start. I spent the first day of the year driving from Knoxville, Tennessee (where I shut down last night) to Jeffersonville, Ohio, about 40 miles south of Columbus (which is where I have a live unload in the morning). Part of the day I drove through snow, and there is a chance for several inches to accumulate tonight. I'm glad I have only 40 miles to go in the morning.

Atlanta. Last time I wrote, I was in Atlanta, anticipating taking a loaded trailer to Tucker for a live unload at some electrical supply company.

I woke up early, did a good pre-trip on the truck, and drove in the foggy darkness up to Tucker, only about 20 miles from the OC (which is on the south side of Atlanta). The turn-by-turn directions I got on the satellite from Schneider and the route my GPS was taking me were the same, so I didn't anticipate any problems.

About 2 miles from the place I was going, I was supposed to turn on Old Norcross Tucker Road. As I peered through the fog waiting on the traffic light to turn green, I saw what every truck driver dreads: a sign that clearly indicated NO TRUCKS. I can't legally go down the road I am supposed to go down to get to the place I have to get to.

No problem. Ask my GPS to figure an alternate route. Okay. Go on up to Jimmy Carter Boulevard. I know that is a good road.

But I come back to the same street, only from the other direction. To get to the place I'm going, I must go down this street that says NO TRUCKS. What to do?

Well, when I used to drive for the local company in Georgia, I made deliveries to every kind of small place (including people's homes) you can imagine, and sometimes it involved going on roads marked with those signs. I also figured that if we have delivered to this company before or other companies have, trucks have to get there somehow.

So off I go. It was less than a quarter mile, it was dark, not much traffic, and foggy as all git-out (I'm from Georgia, remember; that's what we say there), and I felt like I had a reasonable explanation should I get stopped.

Got to the place with no problem. But the place was not what I thought it would be.

I verified the address several times. There was no other place it could be: I was in front of an elementary school, thankfully closed for the holidays.

Then I realized: the electrical company was doing some work at the school – it had to be it. No wonder the route was a little weird. But still, it was time for the load to deliver, according to the information I had, and no one was around.

I had a phone number for the customer, so I called it. It was an electrical company but they were closed, so I left a message.

Guy finally calls me back after a little while. This company ordered the product, but the guy doing the work at the school is actually a different company, and he gave me the man's number. Called the guy.

“ You're there already?”

“ Yes. I was told this was a live unload at this address – the school – at 7:00 am. I've been here about 30 minutes.”

“ Well, it's not a live unload. You're supposed to leave the trailer. We're going to be working out of it for several weeks.”

“ Oh. Okay. That's not a problem to drop the load.”

“ I'll come over as soon as my guys get in and I get them out to show you where to put the trailer.”

He got there about 8:00 am and I backed the trailer into the spot at the back of the school where he needed it.

Once everything got straight on what was going on, it was an easy delivery. I kept sending messages to Schneider letting them know what was going on, and everything ended up being okay.

I bobtailed back to the Atlanta OC since I didn't have my next load yet. On the way there, the satellite unit started beeping, letting me know my next load was coming in.

I was to go down to McDonough and pick up a load going up here to Columbus with a live unload appointment for 8:00 on the 2 ^nd , which is tomorrow morning as I write this entry.

I picked up the load with no problem, even though it was later than I would have liked it to be leaving Atlanta. Still, no major problems.

Since I had time on the load, I decided to shut down in Knoxville last night and do most of the driving today.

Driving both days was good, and I mostly occupied myself listening to satellite radio, mostly coverage of the primary pandemonium surrounding the Iowa caucuses coming up on the 3 ^rd . I'm enjoying all that. Like I've said before, I'm a political junkie.

Changes to the changes? Stay tuned for possible changes to what Terry and I are doing. Don't know much . . . can only say that we are going to have a long talk when we both get to Dallas. Terry called me a little while ago, and he is stuck in Chicago at the airport because of the same winter weather I'm looking at outside this window here at the Flying J where I stopped for the night.

I'll keep you posted.

More or less.

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

Allan

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