I find that the walk actually relaxes me and helps me get to sleep a little bit better too. As for the mountain bike, I will get one soon and store it up by the spare tire. I have seen a couple of guys that do this even though Swift says "No personal gear stored behind the sleeper or on the cat walk".

 

So we had been running great this week with about 650 miles for Monday and tuesday! By 0700 Wednesday, we had two preplans that would get us about 700 miles for the day.

Just as we left Costco in CourDlean ID, the truck started acting up. All the gauges started sweeping up and down, and all the dash lights started flashing. There was no throttle at all, and this was very intermittent. We were doing 35mph, then 12mph. The mentor was driving, and he knew that he could make it to the FreightShaker Dealer in Spokane, so he limped the truck there.

We called the Driver Manager and told her to take us off those 2 loads, we would be sitting in the shop all day.

Now, Tuesday was my first payday! A whopping $356, and all of it went onto my Comdata card because there is no direct deposit set up yet. So I got online and found a Bank Of America and started walking. Google said it was 2.9 miles, and I had all day so what else was I to do.... Anyways, it seems there is a lot of construction here in Spokane! So I ended up with a few detours which made my walk a little longer. So as I neared the address for the Bank I realized that it was no longer there!

Called the B of A hotline, and found another branch. Anyways, when all was said and done, I had walked a total of 11.3 miles today. Needless to say, my feet are now killing me!

The tractor was ready at about 6pm on Wednesday, but we waited to get it till Thursday morning. I spent the night at a Super 8 in Spokane and had a good meal at a local pub.

We got in the truck and headed to a T/S to wait for a load assignment. Nothing came down till 2pm, so we sat around watching movies at the Petro in Spokane all morning.

One thing we found is that when the dealer replaced the CPU and reprogrammed it, they used different settings than it had before! Now the high rev limits at 1700 rpm as opposed to 2000rpm, and it appears that we are no longer governed for speed. At least not at 62mph as we had been before, but I don't want to go over 65 too much with Big Brother watching and all.

So we got a live load to pick up in Walla Walla prior to 1900. I drove to the juice factory, we got loaded and I drove again till we got to the Pilot at I90 exit 106 in Ellensberg. The mentor got some rest in the bunk, and then he drove the rest of the way to Sumner while I got some rest.

Now we wait at the Terminal in Sumner for another load, but nothing as of 1000 on Friday. Looks like I may go home again, no sense in sitting at the T/S all weekend and losing out on my training time!

I have my replacement phone sitting at home. Oh yeah did I mention that my Blackberry went through the washer a couple of weeks ago? Well the LCD is bad, the camera don't work and the Keypad is a little hard to use. I took it apart and dried it out the best i could but was only able to send and receive phone calls, and tether it to my laptop for internet.

Thank's to everyone that is following these posts, and thank you for all the encouraging PM's, you know who you are! I don't want to post mindless dribble, so I will try to keep the stories as interesting as I can.

 

they say it but they don't follow their own rule on it. however, i did get barked at from somebody at the denver terminal for having my bike on the back of the mid-roof volvo i had been assigned to. he gave me the gauntlet of the fear tactics about dot this, dot that, and i have never been stopped, pulled around back, or anything at ANY weigh station i've been across. i've taken my bike to the world famous burnside skatepark in portland, oregon. i had a freaking blast there. it was the closest thing to a religious experience i ever had.

 

i didnt take a close look at the bike, how do you keep it up there besides bungie straps? i've got my bag chair strapped down to the cat walk right in front of my spare tire. never had anybody b!tch about it yet.....

 

the bar above the spare tire is where i slid the handlebars between. besides using bungees to keep it in place, i used a cable lock so that nobody could steal it.

 

I said it in that thread and I'll say it again here . . Swift heavy haul training is the finest Driver training available, period. You will experience a variety of equipment, terrain and weights of loads that 99% of your peers will never know. I did my 2 x 6 (two trainee graduates running team for 6 weeks) with a guy who trained on the J C Penny account. I'm not boasting. I was very confident with any load, he was terrified of anything over 15k. I spent half my time retraining him. While I was hooking, pulling and breaking down Rocky Mountain doubles in my first week, he was pulling clothes down from a rope hook. That's all there is to it. The only thing I can think of that would make your training better would be ice and snow, which I'm sure you're praying for! There is nothing more relaxing than 104,000 lbs, downhill on Snoqualmie when it's slushy.

I'm sure your trainer is doing a fine job but I'd like to add: It doesn't matter who thinks how hot the freight might be, especially Costco, it won't ever get there unless you and the truck get there first. Drive to get you there and let the freight follow.

I hate to close on a sad note but when you get your hands on that 10 speed, as I'm sure you will, you're definitely going to miss those three extra gears. Get over it or go heavy!

 

What is Swift's heavy haul?

 

Swift's "heavy haul" consist's of 4-axle tractors, pulling either a 4-axle 53 foot dry van, or pulling a 45 foot 3-axle dry van pulling a 28 foor 2-axle dry van (rocky mountain double) behind it.

105,500 pounds is the weight configuration. BUT they do not pull regular "Heavy Haul"....RGN or Lowboy frieght.

 

ok, gotcha.......

 

3 and 4 axle reefers, as well.

By the way, Jerry's in line for a haircut . .

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