01/09/2010

After loading last night I headed over to the nearby Pilot. I've decided to do my reset there. The only problem is there isn't anywhere nearby to get something real to eat. Oh the Pilot here has a Mickey Ds and and Subway (yuk), but no menu place even within walking distance. Admittedly walking distance at -1 degrees isn't very far, but the only thing around here is car dealerships. Alas, we all have our crosses to bear perhaps I'll stop in Woodstock, ON tomorrow and grab a bite at the TA there and blow the Canadian money I received for change the other day as good a use for it that I can think of.

A shower was in order, you will have to trust me on that. So that was the first order of business this morning. And then comes the question of what to do with the rest of my day. When I was at home I picked up the first three seasons of Boston Legal. I brought the first year out on the road we me and plan to have it viewed prior to my return home. With that in mind a Boston Legal marathon day it is. Intersperse some web surfing and blogging and we will call it a day.

So until tomorrow Have a good day and Bookerz out

01/08/2010

01/08/2010

Woke up at 3am because I fell asleep so early and decided to putz around a bit with the computer and the blackberry. I wasn't able to head over to the consignee till 7:45 because their delivery window doesn't open till 8am. Anyway today I found the place it was a quaint little place that makes pallets. By the way quaint is a nice way to say it was a tiny little place that was a pain in the a** to maneuver around in. They were loading a truck with pallets and if he hadn't been there it probably wouldn't have been so difficult. I got unloaded and started heading over to the nearby Flying J to await my next load assignment.

Before I could get out of town -beep- ok cool. Deadhead move to Ottawa, IL (back to where I started the day). Imagines of a preloaded trailer where dancing in my head most likely going to Canada. So after reading the initial message I pull back on the road. As I was heading to Ottawa I get three rapid beeps on the qualcomm. A sure fire indicator of a Canada load. Buttttt... I have to grab a DGL trailer and take it to Mount Zion, IL for a live load. Of the places we live load Mount Zion is the worst and Mount Holly is a close second. For example today my appointment was for 16:00 I get backed into the bay at 17:00 I'm finally loaded at 19:30. And the last hour and a half is me tarping the load. But you have to report in 30 min prior to the appointment time and your trailer has to be ready.

Enough complaining on my part. I do totally enjoy the job, but every once in a while it gets to me.

This load will deliver in Mississauga, ON on Monday and I'll have 750 miles on the books first thing Monday morning so all is good.

Need to see if I can work in a 34 hour reset so next week it will be easy to stay in compliance.

That is all for now
Bookerz out

01/07/2010

01/07/2010

I've figured out how to post on my blog using the laptop to compose the post and then the Blackberry to transmit it. It would be easier if I was willing to pay ATT and additional fee but for now I'm going to try and avoid do that.

I use Open office writer to write it. This is an extra step but I need the spell check function.
Cut and paste the text into notepad to remove any formatting that writer puts in
Transfer the file to the Blackberry (here to fore known as 'BB')
open the file on the BB copy it
Go to the Blogger web site start a new post and paste it into that.
Sounds a bit more trying than it actually is.

Any way back to our regularly scheduled program.

I had 500 miles to go and a timezone to cross where I would lose an hour. So I took off at the earliest legal time 2am. Made good time to the border they actually had two gates open. So I figured not to bad. WRONG. Please pull your truck over to the xray bay I was told. The blank look on my face told the border official I didn't know where to go. He was kind enough to direct me and away I went. Other than the extra time it took the border guard to look under the bed of my trailer after taking the xray. We store all the fixtures for hauling glass under the bed when hauling other product. I was sent on my way a rather painless experience.

The day didn't get truly interesting until I got to southern Michigan and the snow began. The further south I went the heavier the snow the slower the traffic. When I crossed into Indiana the snow was heavy enough and the traffic was heavy enough to get bad slow (40 mph). When I got to the Gary, IN area we were down to 20-25 mpg and stayed that way until 20-30 miles west of the Greater Chicago area. My plan to arrive about noon was shot full of holes now it was just a question of if I could arrive in time. As it turned out if everything went just right I would arrive at 15min prior to the delivery window closing. My saying that clued you in to the fact that not everything went right. The directions were extremely weak and I didn't make it. After about a dozen phone calls some to the consignee to try and get better directions and not making any headway I decided to call it a day. I would tackle this in the morning and with the inclement weather my being late wasn't my fault.

Now the Ottawa yard is only 16 miles away and there is a purveyor of adult beverages that serves a mean sausage burger and it was calling my name. So off to the Ottawa yard I went. Arriving at the yard by 3:30 I was finally told that there was a driver there who had recently delivered to the consignee in question. After a few minutes of getting better directions and an equal amount of trucker talk. It was time to answer the call of the burger. It was shall we say just as tasty as I remembered it and the pair of brews that accompanied where tasty as well. Six pm and I was back at the truck stretching out to read a book and rapidly fell asleep.

Have a good day
Bookerz out

01/06/2010

01/06/2010
Took off at 2am just to make sure that the weather and the border crossing didn't make me late. It was only 130 miles to the consignee so best case scenario I'd arrive at 4:15-4:30 early enough to grab a nap if I so choose. But alas best case scenario was not meant to be. The roads while not terrible were not optimal so a bit slower and more cautious was in order. And the border well it was only 2:45 in the morning and they had only 1 gate open that added about 30 minutes. All in all I arrived at 5:15 so a bit of waiting ensued.
I had never untarped glass on a DCL trailed and while not all that different than a DGL it added a minute or two. The guys at this consignee are nice and relatively efficient at unloading trailers so it wasn't long and I was out of the bay.
Now here comes the fun part. I had gotten a preplan to pickup some lumber in Brantford, ON this would entail my breaking down the trailer into flatbed mode. Now I've never had to convert this particular model of trailer. Last night in a moment of fore thought I had read the instructions on how to do so. We have another model of trailer that breaks down similar to this one and in some ways this one is easier. On both types we have to run an additional electrical cord from the tractor to the trailer. Apparently some where in the last year, it has been that long since I've broke down the other model, the electrical plug on my tractor decided to call it quits. A mobile mechanic was call in and he bypassed the plug in order to allow me to break down the trailer. All in all <<(I get stuck on phrases) it added about 2 hrs to my break down time and put me a bit behind the curve so to speak.
I got down to were I was to load the lumber and they were a bit busy. Nice thing was it didn't take as long as I expected but it only left me an hour to drive. I was able to get over to Woodstock, ON were there is a nice TA and called it a day. This TA has an extremely nice buffet and the food is always very fresh and flavorful. It is expensive $20 with drink plus tip, but sometimes you just got to eat real food. I've almost sworn off fast food and a menu place or good buffet place once a week or so is needed.
So tomorrows journey will consist of 500 miles that needs to be done before 2pm central time. It is doable but will require I get rolling at 2am. More on that in my next post.
Have a good day
Bookerz Out

01/05/2010

01/05/2010
I opted for the east coast routing for two reasons. It is considerably less hilly than the I-77/I-79 corridor and according to the weather report I-79 was getting slammed with snow. On the down side I'll have to deal with the traffic headaches of the DC metro area. So I took off this morning at 4am with the knowledge that DC was going to be a hassle. I hit the area at 8:30 and much to my dismay there wasn't even a slow down beyond dropping down to 45 mph once in a while. Oh well it is always better to be prepared for the worst.
I did discover today that the Pilot just north of Harrisburg, PA has an actual restaurant in it. There wasn't time at the moment to test it out, but it was worth noting that it might be a place to try out in the future.
I was feeling my oats today the skies were crying SNOW but so far all I had seen was a few flakes. Perhaps just perhaps I'll make it all the way up without encountering the fluffy white stuff. Stopped in Kenona, NY to top off my fuel tanks and shortly there after is when my luck ran out. It wasn't snowing badly but enough that with the road salt being applied I was constantly have to use my wipers and wiper fluid. If I had been thinking I would have put a couple of bottles of wiper fluid on the fuel bill in Kanona, but alas I didn't. I ran out of wiper fluid shortly after getting on the Thruway (I-90) and that kinda decided it for me. So I called it a day at the Pembroke, NY Flying J.
I had also discovered that my supply of coffee was dangerously close to being out. So with much trepidation I went in to the Flying J bought coffee and wiper fluid. Now I'll get reimbursed for the wiper fluid. If I could only figure a way to sell them on the idea that coffee was truly needed to run the truck properly I'd have it made. Maybe we all would.
Anyway it was snowing pretty good by now and this was as good a place as any to call it a day.
Have a good day
Bookerz out

01/04/2010

01/04/2010 Part duece
Made it over to Laurinburg, NC without a hitch.ÿ The load I was to pick up was on a DCL type trailer.ÿ The DCL type didn't bode well forÿmy future of being a lazy truck driverÿ,but more on that later.ÿ I stopped in Saint Paul, NC at a Food Lion to stock up on some food items. I drove for about 2 hrs more after that and called it a day in Dorcthes, NC.

01/04/2010

Hope everyone had a very nice Christmas and enjoyed rolling in the New Year. My vacation got extended a couple of extra days cause the load I'm getting wasn't ready to pick up till today.

At anyrate I'll be picking it up in Laurinburg, NC and taking it to Concord, ON. The plan for today is to grab the load and drive an additional 200 miles beyond Laurinburg. That should put me just inside VA for the night. That will leave me about 600 miles to the consignee. They have overnight parking so I'll drive straight in and not have to fight traffic Wednesday morning. While it is not a slam dunk, so far all the loads I've carried here have been on DGL trailers and I won't be loading jumbo glass out of Canada. Sooooo I'll most likely deadhead to one of several locations the most likely of which will be Laurinburg, NC. That will make the mileage for this week pretty crappy, but sometimes that is just the way the ball bounces.

I upgraded my phone to a Blackberry bold and switched the data plan off my computer. Until I figure out how to transfer the text files from my computer to the blackberry and then post the blog the blog post will be shorter. The blackberry is good for texting but posting a long or longer blog would be challenging to say the least. There is suppose to be a way to teather the BB to the computer to share the internet. You can subscribe to ATT and pay the teathering fee of $30 a month. But there is suppose to be a cheaper way and I'm going to try that first. Att although I can't complain about their service is getting enough of our money at the moment.

On a side note:

Went and saw a couple of movies while I was at home. I'm a Sandra Bullock fan and we bought the DVD "All about Steve" sorry but that movie SUCKED! On a positive note the movie "Blindside" which also stars Sandra Bullock was great and I can't think of a negative thing to say about the movie. We also went and saw "What about the Morgan's" it was a bit formulaic and predictable. But it had quite a few funny moments and generally worth the hour or two of escapism. We also discovered that the Easley pictureshow house has the best popcorn in the South Carolina upstate. Why it tasted better than the others is beyond me, but it is true.

Occasionally when we are not sure if we will like a movie thats out on DVD we will rent it first typically we will rent them from the Red Box or the DVD express kiosk because they are only .99 cents to rent. That is just what we did with the movie "District 9" while it was worth the 99 cents I would have been sorely disappointted if we had spent $20 to purchase the movie.

Well this will be the longest post for a while till I figure out that teather thing.

Have a good day and a Happy New Year

Bookerz out