I wasn't gonna admit that our combined motivation was less than stellar, I was gonna say it was just the way we rolled......:lol:

 

DD, was that you on I-35 in Waco yesterday around lunch time?

 

Nope, I DH home from Houston on Thursday.

 

Hey, where are you at? I am headed back to Ft Worth from WA with another OD load(aircraft maintenance stand) that delivers on Monday. Also, on the trailer is aluminum forgings which go to Wichita(I have to deliver the aircraft stand first as I am routed for the OD). I plan to get the second stop off late Monday afternoon, so I hope I don't get hang up at the first stop. Once empty, my dispatcher is working on my picking up another 12' wide load in Wichita. I make an extra 10 cpm on these loads and with the days getting longer it works out pretty good.

You mentioned a DOT inspection. Last week I was inspected at Wheeler Ridge, CA on I5. Trailer passed, but the truck's service line pigtail had a kink in it and I was put OOS. Fortunately, I dropped the trailer, ran back to the TA truckstop, replaced the pigtail, and was reinspected that night. It cost me an hour, but I made it to my customer in the morning on time.

When I emptied out, I was sent to Calexico, CA for a cross border load of aircraft insulation blankets. The company has a couple old dry van trailers that they have shuttled back and forth over the border. The load then has to be moved from the dry van to my curtained trailer. It was 95F degrees in Calexico, so I hired the Mexican driver to help me lump the freight(this is the only load I have had to hand load/unload). It was hot, but we got it done in under an hour.

Hope to cross paths again. Funny how by chance we met up at the Eastgate TS in Casper last year. Do you make runs up to the NW?

 

I'm in Cali. Got to make a delivery to Elk Grove Monday. The last time I was in the NW was when I was leased onto the other "LS".

 

I left out of the house on the afternoon of the 27th and headed back over to the TA in Baytown, TX as I had to load 9 pieces of coated pipe first thing in the morning in Channelview heading to Elk Grove, CA. Funny thing about going back there was that I parked in the exact spot I did when I left there a week earlier, guess they knew I was returning and saved it for me .

Anyways, the agent with whom I booked the load had sent me directions to the shipper which were pretty straight forward, get off exit such and such, head south 1 1/2 miles and the customer is on the right side. He also stated that they open at 6am and start shipping by 6:30. I leave out of the TA right at 6am and bounce the whole 6 miles or so to the shipper. When I got there, there were 2 other LS trucks waiting. So I get out and we all shoot the B.S. One of the drivers has loaded here before and he tells me that they don't even open until 8am and usually don't start loading until 8:30ish. Freaking agent!

This was a decent paying load except 3 things.....
1) it's going to Cali
2) They won't allow us to deliver before Monday giving us a ton of time to get it there
3) Did I mention its going to Cali?

I get loaded and since there is a ton of time to get it there I decide to stop at the house for the night. The next day I lazily roll on out and head to Las Cruces, NM for the night. Again the next morning I lazily head on down the road and end up stopping in Coachella, CA. Talk about a piece of $hi* TA!

By now it's Saturday morning and I am only 500 miles away from the customer. I know I am going to reset my log but haven't decided where to do so. I get up on Hwy 99 north and stop at a TA in Livingston, CA for fuel. As you may know by now I usually stop at TA's mainly because I get a decent discount on fuel with LS (cost +). This was the first time I stopped at this particular TA and I must admit I was impressed. Not only was it clean both inside and out, but the staff was friendly!! The only thing I can think is that it must be faily new and the employee's haven't been poisoned yet by rude drivers.

Since I was now only about 80 miles from my customer and this place was so nice, I decided to go ahead and shut her down there and reset my log. While I am there, I watch an employee come out and check/clean the parking lot and empty the trash cans about every 2 hours or so. Again, hence why it was so clean. If you're ever rolling through the area and need a decent place to shut down I would recommend stopping there.

Got up early Monday morning and head the 80 miles up the road to the customer. They start receiving at 7am and I was there at 6:30. The 2 other drivers that I was B.S.ing with back in TX were already there as well as 2 other drivers that must have loaded after me. So I have 4 trucks in front of me but I think no big deal as we all have the same 9 pieces of coated pipe on deck and it shouldn't take too long. How wrong I was!!

They had one crane and unloaded one piece of pipe at a time :hellno: . By the time I got emtied, it was 1pm and my log was shot. So I headed about 50 miles up the road and over to Dunnigan, CA off I-5. I am sitting at the Pilot here waiting to find a decent load and by the looks of it, I am gonna be here a while.

 

Devil,

Happy to see things are going well. I remember you asked to let you know how school was going. It WENT great and I had a blast. I tested with DMV and was issued a CDL on 29 April. For whatever reason (nerves) I could not downshift to 7th for the life of me during the road test. I skipped it and got 6th. When we were doing our driving with the instructors, I had no problems at all downshifting....go figure.

I hit 20 in August, not sure if I want to stay longer or not. I do believe that until I see some more companies loosen up on the hiring I will stay. I plan to be a "company" hand to learn the ropes and gain experience with the ultimate goal of going out on my own.

 

DD....Does LS load pipe up at Fernley NV, out of Rinker Material? Maybe you ought to ask.

Scratch that idea. Looks like the plant was closed down.

 

Good to hear from ya'. Congrats on getting your CDL!! You know with the economy the way it is right now I wouldn't blame you one bit if you stayed longer than 20. I hung up the hat at 22 only because I felt that I had achieved all I could and didn't feel like there was much more I could give the Navy. I never have been and never will be one of those people that stick around for a free ride.....know what I mean?

Anyways, congrats again and stay in touch.

 

I see loads out of Fernley all the time but to be honest I am not sure what they are.