02/25/2010

This one will be a short one.

It was only 4 hrs to the consignee this morning and besides a bit of heavy snow east of Raleigh, NC it was a nice ride. I got to the consignee about 11am and the receiver there was extremely nice and cooperative. I mean it was like he wanted to facilitate the receiving of the product and sending me on my way. A good deal of the companies (shippers or receivers) we deal with seem like they could care less. For this shipment both the shipper and the receiver were focused on moving the product. Good deal all the way around. Anyway once empty I sent off the empty call and then proceeded to put all the equipment away.

About an hour and several hands of Texas hold'em on the Blackberry later I get a work assignment. A load that loads sometime today and delivers in Salisbury, Nc Monday at 7am. Not a perfect homeward load, but considering market conditions nothing to complain about.

So I get to head straight home from here. I got to conspire with my daughter and tell the wife that I would be home sometime Friday evening. Kimberly (my daughter) said Cheri (my wife) was ranting a bit about my never getting home early. As a side note last time home was delayed by the ice storm north of Atlanta. Perfect I thought only 5 hours from the house. So I got home last evening about 7pm eastern time. So I'll end up with almost 72 hours at the house. Which is considerably more than usual.

Well it wasn't as short as I thought

At any rate have a nice weekend
Bookerz out

02/24/2010

Had the midas touch today. Well....almost and that is good enough for this ole boy.

I awoke a bit early as is my habit and the work assignment described the load as a single coil. So I set up the deck with coil racks and such to receive a coil weighing 44,200 lbs. With this being a brokered load there is a chance that the load description is totally wrong. Such as multiple coils and so on. Next the work assignment said not to show up for the appointment more than an hour early or an hour later than the appointment. The hour later than the appointment was the weird part. Next potential problem is sometimes steel plants take forever to get you loaded and then bust your chops to get out of the way. Next weird thing was there isn't a pick up number in the work assignment. Most places if you don't have a pick up number, well you don't get to pick up anything. With all these potential problem points I kinda figured today might turn into one hassle after another.

But this is how it played out.

I left the truck stop early enough to arrive 30 minutes prior to the appointment. The highway was crawling at 30 mph till I got considerable closer to Toledo, OH and road conditions improve quite a bit. So that I ended up only 5 minutes prior to my appointment. So far so good. I pull up to the guard shack and before I can explain anything the guard hands me my pick sheet to give the loader. She tells my to pull in the door all the way to the right (no backing! Sweet!!). I take a second to look at the pick sheet. Load description is right and the destination is right so far so good. Next I pull into the building there isn't truck one in here. Wow!. I pull up to the indicated spot. Hop out with load sheet in hand the factory guy waves me off and says just get your deck set up. He said it nicely though. So I pull the strap that is holding down my coil racks and put on a couple of coil pads. I soon as I get the coil pads on here comes my coil. Then he wants my pick sheet signs it and hands it back. Then he starts talking about his son and the weather and where I was going and and. Nice guy usually you can't get them to answer simple questions and this guy is talking my ear off. I did during the course of the conversation ask him if I should secure and tarp the load here. He said if it is going to take you a while to pull off to the side and secure it there. Cool inside out of the weather what could be better. An hour and fifteen minutes after pull in the building I'm pulling out secured, tarped and ready to roll. And don't you know the tarp job actually looks like a professional did the job. Will miracles never cease. Everything I was worried about was for naught.

Now the only bad thing about this load is the “up the hill down the hill” pull the the Virginas on I-77. It was overcast all day but until I got to US35 in southern Ohio there hadn't been any precipitation. Once there it decided to snow and the further south I got the heavier the snow. Once in West Virgina it even had some freezing rain for a bit. The whole time I am thinking Charleston is going to be a nightmare and rush hour to boot. Once I got east of Nitro on I-64 though it dried up at least until I got to the higher elevations on I-77 where it snowed some more. So now I am thinking to get out of the mountains at least before I call it a day. Perhaps I won't have to face snow/ice covered roads in the morning. So I made it to the new Loves' at exit 1 in Virgina and called it a day.

Have a good day

Bookerz out

02/22-23/2010

I need to get back in gear skipping days and all that.

Well the run up to to Fenton, MI went off without a hitch. You can park at the consignee and looks like there is a nice eatery across the road. I had arrived at 3:30 and didn't feel hungry yet. I crawled back into the bunk to relax for a FEW. Ten O'clock I woke up and dreams of a decent non microwaved dinner crumbled. Messed around a bit and went back to bed.

My appointment time was 8am so about a quarter till I checked in. Ah you'll be back in that door over there. Kool so I moved the truck and started backing in towards the bay. A forklift driver pops out the door. He is dumping scrap into the bin and has one more if I can wait a minute. Alright 10 min later he comes out the door with his final load. I finish lining up with the door. Go in and see if the door can open. Another place that stacks finished product in the receiving door area. And I will have to wait for it to be cleared. By now I've come to the conclusion that being anything other than mr patience is just going to ruin my day. After everything was said and done I was empty at 11am. Could have been worse.

An hour later I get a message go ahead and break down your racks. I don't mind this the air hammer has made doing this a simple thing. But today the air hammer has decided to retire and I gave away the ratchet to do it manually to a friend of mine. I'm only 10 miles from Flint, MI and there is a Home Depot and Lowes across the street from each other. I didn't know all this prior to today, I hopped on the Internet and looked it up on google. Anyway I exchanged the air hammer for a replacement and purchased a manual ratchet for just in case. I doubt that next time I'll be so lucky as to have both or one of the places that close. Anyway I got the racks broke down and called and let the boss know.

About 4pm I start thinking about the eatery across the street again. If they just leave me here tonight. So I begin to stare at the qualcomm, don't beep, don't beep …. ..........

4:25 beep (crap)

Dreams of tasty morsels banished again, but I am going to start making money again.

Well I'm picking up a coil in Walbridge, OH tomorrow morning and taking it down to Clinton, NC for Thursday or Friday and depending on how the pick up goes will determine when it is delivered. Although Thursday would be better because this weekend is hometime.

Now that I'm caught up you have a good day!

Bookerz out

02/21/2010

The drive down to Laurinburg to grab my load went rather well. And the trip up into to Virgina was nice as well. It was a rather toasty 69 degrees when I took off in Candor, NC and only 49 degrees at 8pm in Hicksville, VA.

I don't know about you but if I lived here I seriously consider changing the name. I can't imagine a high tech or any other self respecting business locating there. Think about having to recruit new hires to work/live there. It would be a rough sell.

Well I left myself 490 miles to go tomorrow and the location has overnight parking. So that is the goal for tomorrow.

Have a good night

Bookerz out

02/20-21/2010

Friday evening I had decided to do my reset in Laurinburg. So I took off rather late after my 10 hour break and a nap. I only made it to Candor, NC and the last 60 miles were looking like a million miles. To hell with it. I can grab a shower here and there is a Wendy's to eat at should I be starving. So here I sit in Candor taking a reset. It is a nice Wilco quiet for the most part.

I had arrived here about 2am and went to sleep. I didn't wake up till 9 and for some reason I didn't make my morning coffee. I grabbed a shower about 11:30 soon after I got back to the truck I started getting a bad headache. It was one of those headaches that cause you to sweat and upset your stomach. I rarely get these and could only figure it came from two different things. Either the food I ate last night for dinner, not really sure how that could give a person a headache or a low caffeine problem which has caused this kind of headache in the past. So I quickly brewed a pot of coffee and drank half of it, took two Tylenol and laid down to take a nap. Three hours later I awoke and the headache was gone. Kool.

So I spent the rest of the day listening to books and catching up my spreadsheets and being generally lazy. Wish I could say cleaning the truck was in the list of thing I had done but alas it is not.

Sunday morning –

Only 6 hours before the reset is done. Wendy's for breakfast 2 grande breakfast burritos, a sample of hash rounds, and a rootbeer. First time I've eaten at Wendy's for breakfast may not be the last time but I won't be going out of my way to eat breakfast there again.

Anyway the plan for this afternoon is to get to Laurinburg grab the load and get about 240 miles up the road. There is a nice rest area in VA along I-77. I think it is in the national forest up that way and if all goes to plan I should be there by 6 or 7pm.

That is all for now

Have a nice day

Bookerz out