02/12/2010

02/11 – 02/12/2010

Blogging in the northbound granny lane. Yep stuck behind some pile up on I-85 north of Atlanta. So while at any moment we might be able to move 10 to 100 feet I am not blogging while in motion, but technically while I am driving.

02/11/2010

Got there the place was further down the street than originally thought. They had to load one of their trucks first. Once they accomplished that they started on my load. They took forever, or so it seemed, finally at noon they finished my 8am delivery. I send in my empty call. About an hour later I give them a call. Head to the nearest truck stop. Now I am in North Miami, Fl and truck stops are a bit rare in this neck of the woods. So I opted for the nearest rest area which was 90 miles north. I figured at the very least I'll be headed in the right direction. Once I get to the rest area I wait around for an hour. Fire off a qualcomm message and 15-20 minutes later I get a deadhead move to Palmetto, FL. Where I was would have been the best place to be cause I could have gotten on I-75 and followed it straight up. But here I got on US70 and scooted straight across the state. Got to the rest area at SunCity, FL and called it a day.

02/12/2010

Scheduled to pick up the load at noon. Still needed to break down the glass racks and I wanted to make it over there by 10am. Just to see if I could get loaded earlier. They were happy to see me so good deal. Took off and made it through the Florida rain and thirty miles into Georgia it turned into snow at some points quite heavy snow. Once I got to Macon the snow almost tapered off to nothing. I saw a warning sign about the back up on I-85 northbound but figured it would clear up before I got there or shortly thereafter WRONG on both counts.

So here I sit catching up on my blog in the middle of the interstate.

Have a nice weekend
Bookerz out

02/10/2010

Considering where there photo was taken he had been traveling quite a bit.

Today's journey through northern Florida for parts south went quite well. I had decided to take US27 through central Florida partly to avoid the turnpike toll and partly because I grew up in Sebring which is along this route. The stop lights have multiplied exponentially, but it was still an interesting ride. Once you get past Lake Placid the road opens up due in most part to the lack of snow bird destinations and a high degree of agricultural industry. I only made it to South Bay, Fl and called it a day. I did a Google map of the location and it shows perhaps 1 parking spot. I decided it was a bit chancy to show up and if that 1 spot was taken finding another might be a challenge. Especially with a Publix supermarket DC so close by. It also gave me an excuse to be lazy.

Now the question remains take off early enough to avoid traffic or time it to arrive on time hmmm.

We will just have to wait and see.

Have a nice day

Bookerz out

Aubiobook review -- Steve Martini - Prime Witness

Audiobook Review:

Steve Martini – Prime Witness

Series: Paul Madriani

Book #2

Excellent book

Excellent audio presentation

Deep crime drama interspersed with bits a humor. Enough depth of story and character development to keep it very interesting.

Brief synopses follows:

In the space of five days the college town of Davenport is rocked by four brutal murders: two couples - students - their bodies found tied and staked out on the banks of Putah Creek. Then two more bodies are discovered. This time the victims are Abbott Scofield, a distinguished member of the university faculty, and his former wife Karen. The police suspect Andre Iganovich, a Russian immigrant, but Paul Madriani thinks there is more to the case than meets the eye. Forensic reports on the physical evidence suggest lingering questions about the Russian's involvement in the Scofield killings, and Paul becomes increasingly convinced that the second murders are the product of a copy-cat killer - a cold and calculating murderer who has taken the lives of the Scofields for reasons that Paul is determined to uncover...

02/09/2010

Todays jaunt went rather well.

I traversed Shreveport, Baton Rouge, Mobile and not a traffic snarl among the three. I must be eating the proper amount of Lucky Charms. The sun actually made an appearance south of Shreveport for about an hour or so. I suppose it felt a need to check in on the southern United States as it has been so neglectful the last couple of days. Even the travails of excessive atmospheric moisture (rain) was held in abeyance today. The last sentence was a bit wordy but it sounded different or cool to me. The only contrary evidence being that the road surfaces were still damp.

That leaves a mere 533 miles to tomorrows journey. I've decided to pick up US27 a bit south of the Ocala area instead of up around Tallahassee. The difference being a half day of stop light traffic instead of a full one. The consignee has overnight parking so the plan is to travel all the way in and have a fresh 11 hours for driving for Thursday.

I attempted a couple (lot more than I posted) pictures today. It is hoped that at some point my skill will improve and the subject of the pictures will get more interesting. Until then bear with me.......

Have a good day

Bookerz out

Light

Proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. A rather bad picture. Still trying to conquer the picture taking and driving thing.

 

Mobile Bay photo

 

02/08/2010

It was raining when I woke. The consignee was only five minutes down the road so off I went. I got to the property and the sign clearly said to check in with security. Ok, no problem expect there was no one in the security shack. So I walked back to the truck and removed four of the six chains and waited a bit. About 7:30 went back to the shack and still no one. Poked my head into the facility of the few I spoke to all claimed not to speak English. Back to the truck. I get back to the truck. I then see a building about 200 yards off with arch welding going on inside. Hmm what are the chances, so I moved my truck over that way. Poked my head in again (this time a little more confidence was used). Yea I was in the right place. They had me pull around to the side of the building and wait there. Forty minutes later 2 tiny fork lifts, at least tiny in comparison to the forty foot steel beams they would be moving, they proceeded to do their dance of danger. Fortunately I didn't have to get out of the truck. It did serve to explain the dings in the metal building. I had been wondering how those happened they were too high for a big truck to do them. While they were doing their balancing act I got my next work assignment.

Grab a load out of Wichita Falls, TX and take it to Miami, FL for 8 am Thursday. I had to set up the glass racks on the trailer I had and other than the rain it was an easy $20.

I was loaded on on my way by 1pm. Other than a fuel stop east of the DFW metropolis todays goal was Louisiana. That will leave me a cool 1150 miles for the next two days and the consignee has overnight parking.

That will put me at 2683 miles for the week and $60 in ancillary pay. Assuming I won't get another load that closes this week not a bad tally all things considered. And home sometime Friday it doesn't get much better than that.

Have a good day

Bookerz out

Sunday 02/07/2010

Sunday 02/07/2010

Fired up the coffee pot first thing. As the coffee was brewing the sweet tooth monster grab me and took me into the truck stop to grab a quart of chocolate milk and 2 danishes. Fully armed with sweets and coffee I took off shortly after 3am. I got about an hour/ hour and a quarter down the road and my body/ brain started telling me it wasn't time to be driving yet. So I pulled off and got on the on ramp side of an exit and set the alarm for two hours and flopped into the bunk. I had just consumed half a pot of coffee, quart of chocolate milk and the danishes. Despite that I went right to sleep. Woke up fifteen minutes before the alarm went off and hit the road again.

Stopped in Jackson, MS to top off the tanks. As I crossed the border into Louisiana the sun came out for the first ten miles or so. Then it was back to drab overcast skies. The rest of the drive was pretty sedate. A couple of state troopers doing their part to keep the roads safe/ fill state coffers. A bit of drizzle here and there. The next thing you know I am 6 miles from the morning delivery point.

The truck stop I am at has a POPEYEs. I can't remember the last time I've eaten at a Popeye's. While the food wasn't bad, it wasn't remarkable enough to have me returning anytime soon either. That and the fact that I'm not a big fan of yard bird makes it unlikely that I'll be enhancing their revenue stream anytime soon.

Let's see speculation time for once I'm empty tomorrow.

15% Laredo, TX to pick up relay glass load

25% Corsicanna, TX glass load

25% Wichita Falls, TX glass load

35% System load location unknown

Now all that remains is to see how wrong I can be.

Have a nice day

Bookerz out

Book Review 2 Stephen Cannell -- At first sight

Another book I started but didn't finish was Stephen Cannell -- At First Sight. I was able to listen to it for about two hours before I gave it up. I personally thought it was a waste of time. I will provide a synopsis from Barnes and Noble to let you decide.

Scott Brick turns Cannell's over-the-top and completely stereotypical story into a rousing and endlessly exciting listening experience. Cannell's latest tells the tale of dot-com millionaire Chick Best, a family man who becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman by the pool while on Christmas vacation. There is the spoiled housewife that spends without a care in the world, the drugged-out teenager who couldn't care less about her parents, and the sexy, mysterious stranger who becomes the object of Best's every thought. As familiar as it all sounds, Brick offers a fantastic reading in which he delves so deeply into the character of Chick Best that he almost starts to go crazy himself. The performance is not the least bit overplayed. Brick's uncanny ability to tear words from the page and breathe life into them is almost scary, and the end result is perhaps one of the best commercial thriller audio books in recent memory. A Vanguard Press hardcover (Reviews, May 26). (July)

Book review

Something a bit different. Since the first of the year I have been listening to audio-books. And so far I've been listening exclusively to Tom Clancy and his Jack Ryan series. I enjoy this series of books I've read the books several times over the years. I got through the first nine books and I needed a break. So I pulled another book up. This one is by John Connelly I haven't read or listened to any of his books but I did recognize the name.


Anyway this one is called “The Lovers” and it is very different than the type of books I normally read. I enjoyed it for the most part every once in a while I would lose track of what was going on but I think that was more a function of my having to drive at the same time than the writing of the book.


Final opinion: Worth the read and if you enjoy the class of these books you enjoy it.


Here is a quick synopsis that is available on Amazon

Starred Review. Bestseller Connolly once again expertly melds a hard-boiled plot with the supernatural in his eighth Charlie Parker crime novel (after The Reapers). While previous books in the series explored the trauma at the heart of Parker's backstory, the murder of the PI's wife and daughter, this one examines an equally devastating family trauma—the suicide of his New York City policeman father, Will, after Will gunned down two unarmed teenagers decades earlier. As Parker, who was 15 at the time, seeks the truth about his ancestry, he comes to doubt that he was raised by his biological parents. When he learns a pair of undying beings have him at the top of their hit list, he decides to return to New York City after a stint tending bar in Maine. The underlying grim sadness and Connolly's unwillingness to pull his punches will appeal to noir fans, while his effective use of understatement and evocative prose makes his alternate universe plausible.