Here goes....
Waffle House - 3.11.10
I have found the breakfast restaurant I have been looking for all my
life. There is no comparison. The food is outstanding. It isn't at all
expensive for what you get. The milk is ice cold, just the way it
should be. And even the TP holder is vertical, which solves the whole
over/under debate
Fire! - 3.11.10
So I'm sleeping in the bunk when I wake up to another truck just layin
on his airhorn. I get up to my mentor saying he's gotta pull over.
Once he gets stopped, he gets out, makes it about half way down the
trailer before running back and tells me to call 911 for fire and
grabs the fire extinguisher. He's able to get the fire out,
fortuanately. It was kinda cool to watch the FD come on the off ramp.
They sprayed the wheels some more. It seems like the airline for the
trailer came unsecured, drug on the road causing the trailer to lose
air pressure and the spring brakes to engage. All unknown to us. Well
some truck repair guy happened to drive by and stopped, got it patched
back together, and got us off the freeway to this little Podunk truck
stop where he is currently fixing the trailer.
More later.
Georgia on my Mind - 3.12.10
Being in the south reminds me of the song "When the lights went out in
Georgia" and more noteably the movie "Forces of Nature". Especially
after yesterdays fire and today's lightning and thunder. And for some
reason (not Georgia related, I realize) I have this burning desire to
watch "My Cousin Vinny" for the 100th time.
This morning we stopped off at the Huddle House. I suppose it's some
sort of Waffle House knock off. I was warned it wasn't nearly as good,
which I kinda figured but I was hungry so in I went. Against my better
judgement I ordered the Souther Smothered Biscuit breaskfast or some
such. It's 2 biscuits covered with hashbrown, covered with sausage,
covered with sausage gravy, sprinkled with cheese. Yeah, it's about as
bad as it sounds. Kinda glad I chose to get a waffle too cuz that's
about all that was workable.
I tried to redeem myself with lunch at the Waffle House, which I'll
say does have a pretty good burger, not quite their breakfast, but
it's up there i'd say with Big Toms. Was a buy odd pairing a burger
with hashbrowns tho... The Travis sized slice of chocolate Sara Lee
pie for $1.90 was the perfect end to that meal. Thank god I got some
subway for dinner later.
It will be nice when I get my own truck and mini fridge and can go
grocery shopping rather than eating out all the time.
I am yet to visit Cracker Barrel. I keep seeing their billboards so I
must go. I think that will about round out the popular places we don't
have. Until I find some more.
Looking forward to getting to Richmond,VA tonight for a nice hot
shower and a good night sleep, then it's off to NY State somewhere to
deliver this load of who-knows-what to the Wally World Dist Center up
there. Hoping we head back west after this, hoping to make it home
next weekendish for a couple days before I finish up my 6 weeks of
training.
More later, I'm sure, especially after venturing to New York.
How do you film the wind? - 3.13.10
Talk about a stressful day. Started driving from Richmond, VA around
11am (home time) headed to Sharon Springs, NY. Really wasn't too bad
until somewhere in Virginia, traffic was horrible for really no
apparent reason at 3pm local time on a Saturday. Then in Pennylvania
it was super windy. And once it started getting dark it was definately
a challenge. Rain, wind, and dark. There's nothing that will get your
heart racing than coming to the crest of a hill on a curve and having
the road simply disappear on you. This happened quite a few times.
They just don't light the freeways over here the way they do back home.
On the bright side, my instructor said today that he was bored.
Because I am driving well enough he can't really yell at me or
anything. He said there's people who don't really like the job and do
it for the money and don't really catch on too well. And there's
people who like the job and enjoy driving and they learn quicker and
improve. He said I fall into that category. I would agree to that.
However, I know I'm a bit hard on myself, but I think I should be
doing better than I am, then again maybe I'm about where I should be.
On another positive note, I stopped at a Pilot today and grabbed a hot
dog. While "preparing" it I managed to make a little mess, which I
naturally cleaned up. Much to my surprise the manager was apparently
watching me and took the time to thank me for cleaning up after myself
and went on to say "your mama must have raised you right". So I
suppose props to "mama" are due. In any case I just thought it was
kinda cool he said something, especially since it was completely
unexpected.
And we are now officially driving on a snow covered interstate. Well
at leadt were almost to our stop. Hopefuly it melts quick I want out
of the NE as quickly as possible.
I will try and get some pictures up in the next day or two, make this
a little more visually pleasing.
More later.
Long update, but hey it's 4 days worth - 3.16.10
Wow, so the last few day, what an adventure.
We got ourselves unburied from the snow. Don't let your imagination
get the best of you, we were stuck in a whopping 1 inch, yes, inch of
snow. Apperently, neither of us thought to chain up prior to heading
up the hill. Oops.
So basically about 10 minutes after I traded driving and let my mentor
take over it just started dumping snow, and it was windy, so it seemed
like blizzard conditions (then again, I'm used to clear snow). It
wasn't. Anyway, so we embark (after getting lost several times, more
on that in a moment) on the final road, the GPS says were 12 miles
out. Alright, it's snowing, but we can do this. No we can't. We
started up the hill, and for some reason, he tried to up shift, I
there was ever a time to not miss the gear, that was it. He missed. We
stopped. Now, when you're going up hill, in the snow, with almost bald
tires, and 30k pounds of freight behind you plus your truck and
trailer weight, and you stop, the only direction to go is down. Which
we did, not sliding, purposefully, (I will never understand this
decision, it doesn't take a seasoned driver to know that if you try to
back a trailer downhill, in the snow, it's gonna go anywhere but where
you want it) right into the guard rail. And there we sat, for 3 hours
waiting for the tow truck to show up. Then the fun began, getting
wiched up the hill, it took him pulling us up, him moving, pulling us
up, repeat like 3 more times. Oh, finally the snow plows show up.
So, we finally made it to WalMart. I think they have the same
philosophy with their DC's as their stores. Put them in the middle of
nowhere, and support the local economy. This town was smaller than
Rainier (you're welcome AJ) and further off the beaten path.
Speaking of the trip out there, and finding places in general, it's a
bit hard in the NE because you can't always use the GPS due to non
truck routes and low clearances, which brings me back to finding
WalMart in NY. So my trainer isn't the most observant person in the
world, case in point the 12'8" bridge sign I pointed out as he drove
past, on the two lane country road on a hill, on a curve with no where
to turn around. (For those unaware, our trailers are 13'6"). On the
upside he was able to back up the 300 or so feet to a place we were
able to get turned around in. Then of course the next day, and the
day after, we go to P&G DC's within miles of each other, on the same
road and our directions (from dispatch) are completly different and
about 30 minutes different, go figure. Teach you to read a map I guess.
By the way, except for the WalMart and the McDonalds inside it,
upstate New York is a ghost town after dark.
So heres all our loads so far: WA to UT, UT to NV, NV to AZ, AZ to CA,
CA TO PA, PA to NJ, NJ to KY, KY to OH, OH to GA (the fire run), GA TO
GA, GA to NY (snow run), NY to PA, PA to NY, NY to PA, PA to CA
(changed to NM) and everything in between, glad to be headed back west.
Driver Tips - 3.17.10
Tip # 1
Bring laundry soap from home, or at least buy some at the first
opportunity. Most terminals are out (and probably have been forever).
Shampoo is a substitute, but I don't think it works as well.
Tip #2
(another laundry, and also vending tip)
Carry cash, in small demonations. I currently have $16.25 in quarters
in my pocket from putting a $20 into the change machine.
More tips to follow...
Guess I was too lazy to come up with a subject for this one - 3.20.10
Alright, well I've been reminded a couple times that I have not
updated in a few days, so I shall do so now. I figure the reminder is
good, means you guys (yes you) are reading this, so YAY!
Well, we finally made it out of Albuquerque on Friday morning. I like
the town, but wow it was starting to get old. (Don't take that the
wrong way, I was basically sequestered in a very small, outskirtsy,
and apparently dangerous part, thanks to the manager from Carls Jr for
letting me in on that little secret, but I digress).
In any case, we finally got a load from ABQ to Lubbock, TX due on
Friday afternoon. Since it's only a few hours away we decided to wait
until morning. That turned out to be a bad idea, sorta. As we
attempted to locate our trailer, we searched the yard high and low,
then finally found it in the repair row by the shop, where it had been
for about 3 days. It wasn't until we hooked up to it that we figured
out the problem, no trailer brakes. Of course the shop wasn't open
yet, and why they didn't fix it any of the other 3 days is beyond me.
So a few more hours later, we finally got out of there!
Made it to Lubbock, late on delivery of course due to repair, then
found truck stop, and enjoyed some "truck stop" food. If you ever
want to go visit Lubbock, don't. Nothing to see or do. Of course the
27 degrees I woke up to, then discovered it had snowed overnight was
midly exciting.
Got a dispatch outta there to Pueblo.
My mentor was driving, and did manage, on the trip, to loose control
of the truck not once, but twice by hitting patches of ice at freeway
speeds while driving through slushy type conditions, no bother to the
numerous vehicles spun out on both sides and the center medians. I'm
not sure I have ever been that scared in my life. Oh well, made it
through, and one more lesson in the what not to do category, in case
this one wasn't obvious enough. I'll likely laugh about this later,
but at the moment I'm still a little bit riled up about it.
I took over driving in Amarillo and got us up to Pueblo, incident free.
Here we rest, in the Wal Mart parking lot, hopefully tomorrow goes
better than today.
Good Night
Begin Round 2 - 3.31.10
Okay, okay, I know it's been a while since I last updated but there
hasn't been a huge amount to report. From Pueblo we headed back east
to Memphis then down to Tampa. We then picked up a load in Jacsonville
of Bacardi Rum and headed home. We left Jacksonville on Wednesday
morning and arrived in Sumner on Friday night.
Just got back to Sumner this morning and headed out for Round 2.
Should only be a couple weeks this time, then it's back to Sumner to
"process out" which is basically test day (all day from what I'm told)
then home for a couple days then out on the road solo.
Well time to head out, back to Colorado.
More later.
Welcome back to Skunk Country - 4.4.10
Yup. Oklahoma. I promise I'm not counting this time.
Happy Easter to those following, and with whom I will not speak.
Here's a thought: The more I've been out here (albeit the short time
it has been) I have found for various reasons that I do not "fit in"
with most of the other truckers. Let's keep it that way.
Randomally stopped at some side of the road gas station/C-Store where,
while waiting in line to use the restroom, I see standing waiting for
the women's is a woman I can only describe as dressed Amish-like. In
walks this girl likely about 12, dressed in some of the shortest
shorts I have ever seen. Inappropriateness (theres no way thats a
word) aside I thought the contrast was kinda funny. I can only imagine
what the woman was thinking. Not to mention the mother for letting her
daughter dress like that, and I thought we were in the bible belt.
Must have been out-of-towners.
Not much else to report, been pretty uneventful out here, which is a
good thing. Looking forward to being out here on my own within the
next just over a week, it's gonna feel a bit awkward at first I'm sure.
And I'll leave you with: Waking up from a nap to hear the GPS girl say
"Arriving at Waffle House on the right" was a great start to the day,
and kindof funny when I realized what it had just said.
For those that are still with me. I promise the next post will be shorter.
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