Just trucking along

My wife goes in for some tests this morning. She had a physical done and they found a lump again. Last time it wasn't anything serious and the Doc figures this one will be the same. It was about this time last year that she went through all of this the first time. I hope they are right because she was a basket case last Christmas and I want her to be able to enjoy herself this year. She also has to go meet with a doctor about a possible sleep study. She may have sleep apthnia. I had gone through one a few years ago and now sleep with a cpap machine. I slept better the very first night with it.I did keep waking up because I wasn't used to wearing the mask,but I still felt alot better in the morning. I'm not tired and needing to take naps during the day now.

Category: General

Now that turkey day is over it's time for Christmas. Luckily I wasn't out on the roads yesterday. I started putting up the Christmas lights today and will do some more tomorrow. I don't have to leave out until later on Monday. That gives me all day to work outside on decorations. I tend to get into decorating for Christmas.I always seem to buy something new every year to add to the collection. My wife just shakes her head and walks away. My decorating has gotten contagious around the neighborhood. When we first moved here there was hardly anything. But now more and more are getting into it. I enjoy watching people slow down as they drive by so that they can check out the lights.The adults enjoy it as much as the kids.Driving down the road all week gives me time to come up with more ideas. I sometimes think my wife dreads this time of year. She never knows what to expect or how much it will cost to decorate. I'm enjoying it even more this year because my niece and her 2 year old daughter are living with us and the little one was out trying to help me today. Her and I are like buddies. Mom just has to look for me and her daughter will be close by. My wife and I don't have kids of our own so this is the next best thing. Believe me when I say that I enjoy every second that I'm home.

Category: General

I just read a post by a wanna be driver and made a remark about messing with the logs. I'll be the first to admit(when away from DOT that is)that my logs get a little fine tuning done to them on a regular basis. But I bring home a mighty nice paycheck each week and home every weekend.Mine are never way out of wack like some drivers out here. I'm talking a matter of hours not days.I have known alot of longhaul drivers to be a couple days ahead of thier logbooks.Will pay cash for fuel so the company doesn't get anything with a time or date on it. When a driver starts driving 5000 or more miles as a solo per week, you can bet they can't match things and probably running at least two logs. Alot of companies have a limit as to how many miles a driver can log in one 11 hour period. The one I drive for said we can't average more than 61 mph or 671 miles for 11 hrs of driving. You can drive more than that in one day but the average has to stay below 61 mph.I know very few drivers that don't cheat at least a little on the books. Just so newbies and wannabes know you can log more than 11 hours in one 24 hour period. As long as there's a 10 hour break in there you can legally drive more than 11 hours. I may get some rebuttal on that but it can be done.I know because I have done 12+ hours of driving in one day. It's just mighty hard on the body to put those kind of hours in on a regular basis.
Like I said at the beginning of this post,I bring home a mighty nice check each week and my driver manager and customer service knows what I will and won't do. In other words, I payed my dues and proven to them what I can do. Now I almost never get garbage loads. The drivers that just hired on will get stuck with loads that may require some sitting around.My wife drives regional as well and this year we are looking at a combined gross income over $100,000. Not too shabby for regional company drivers that are home every weekend!!So we don't sit around at all. Many longhaulers don't make over $50,000/year and are out for weeks or months at a time. This business, like any other, is just a matter of what your willing to do to make a living. We are doing pretty good. We own a nice home,a boat, a snowmobile, a Honda Goldwing and looking to get a second bike, a 2001 Chevy Tahoe and a 2002 Monte Carlo. We don't have kids so we spoil our nieces and nephews. Teach them some bad habits,load em up with candy and soda then say here ya go mom and dad. Then jump in the truck and get out of town!!
So you can make some decent money out here,it's just a matter of what your willing to do.

Category: General

Well my dispatcher gave me another decent week. About 2950 for 5 days. I'm starting to get used to the good steady miles week after week. The only problem is that this coming week will be a short one. I have a Dr appointment Wednesday afternoon and then Thanksgiving will mean freight will probably be light. I got home Friday night and was wore out. But for some reason I wasn't able to sleep to well last night. Then was busy all day today. So that meant no nap for me. I know everybody feels just terrible about that! I should be able to get my beauty sleep tonight though. As soon as I'm done here I'm going to crash. I leave in the morning for Solon,Oh. I'll have enough time to get there so that I can take that nap tomorrow sometime.

Category: General

Well I managed to get out of Pa in one piece.Like I had said,Pa is a little too far east for me. I used to run the east coast alot and seen alot of the Pa countryside.The Pa dot checked my logs this morning. Lucky for me I was up to date. Most of the time I'm way behind. At least I wasn't pulled around for an inspection.I know I would have passed with no problem. It's just such a hassle and burns up time on the logbook.Granted we make $35 for a clean inspection.I just didn't feel up to the hassle.I just wanted to get in and out of the state as quick as possible.I'm sitting in Slohio waiting to pickup a load in Warren,Oh.It picks up early tomorrow morning and then deliver tomorrow night near Milwaukee,Wi.With any luck there will be a scrap load already loaded to Green Bay that I can drop and grab a preloaded trailer right out of the same place. I'm hoping to get about 3500 miles this week so that I can take a 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving. I want to go up to the deer hunting camp for a little relaxing. Haven't been up there for a real long time for deer hunting season.I won't be going out hunting at all but will volunteer to stand guard over the booze!! That's a rough job. Need to keep sampling everything to make sure it's not going bad. I'm not sure if I can handle a full day of that,but I'm willing to try. I know I never had a problem with that job when I was alot younger.The beer and liquor seems to pack alot more of a wallop nowadays. They must make it stronger now compared to when I was a kid. My wife says it comes from me becoming an old geezer. I'm not quite ready to admit to that!! I'm still having too much fun. I just don't drink like I used to.The boss and the authorities frown on that stuff so I very rarely drink any more.We might have a drink or two when we go out to eat with friends or family on a Friday night. Since we generally leave out on Sundays we avoid drinking on Saturdays. I went through too much to get where I am today to have it messed up by a drink. I can never figure out why so many drivers will sit in thier trucks and suck down a few beers and then sleep a few hours and head on down the road.With the rules on drinking being so strict I don't know why drivers want to risk thier jobs for a beer. Have an accident right after leaving a truckstop and they are in major trouble even if the accident wasn't thier fault. I'll be the first to admit I did more than my share of drinking and driving in a car when I was younger.I'm damned lucky I didn't kill anybody or myself. I used to drink until I would black out. I would wake up in the morning at home and the car parked in the driveway. I have even left places and not remember leaving and then the next thing I remember is I'm driving down the road. I had finally gotten my head out of my ass and started to straighten out.Once I started driving truck I have pretty much quit drinking. Like I said once in awhile we will go out and might have one or two drinks and thats it.My brother-in-law found out what drinking and then going to work can do. He went out to watch some buddies bowl and had a few drinks and then went to work at the mill.The boss decided to do a surprise drug and alcohal check. My brother -in-law was one of those picked and was fired on the spot.He couldn't even pass the breath test. He was told to go home after he gave a sample at the doctors office and was offically terminated after the test results came back. Some months later he was arrested for drunk driving right in his own driveway. He left the bar a couple blocks from his house and the cop followed him out of the parking lot and hit the lights as he was pulling into his own driveway.That makes a good impression on the kids who watched thier dad take all the roadside tests right there in the driveway.

Category: General

Well I managed to get home yesterday just as the white stuff started coming down.We ended up with a few inches of snow.It's sounds like I will get out just before we get some more. I wish we would have gotten more so that I could have gone for a little ride on the snowmobile. My boat and motorcycle are put away for the winter so I'm hoping for a enough snow now to go riding. Can't talk my wife into getting a four wheeler so I need to wait for the snow.In the mean time I guess I'll have to keep on trucking.Have to go to the central part of Pa for Monday.That's getting a little too far east for me but I guess they have something coming right back to Wi so it makes for an easy 1500 miles and it will only be Tuesday when I get back here.One more round trip like that and I will have my 3000 miles for the week and be home late Thursday or early Friday. That just breaks my heart getting home early like that.I wish it would always work out that way.I don't have a 9 to 5 job like VM so I have to deal with these odd hours.I don't make the big bucks like Lennut who has come down with the house keeping flu, so I need to put on the miles.Now that I have gotten a little jab in to you two I can go to bed and sleep all through the night and not worry about what to say. Gotta love this sight. Can lip off and not worry about getting punched in the nose!

Category: General

Well this one brain cell I have left couldn't come up with a specific idea to write about,so I figured I would start pecking at the keyboard and see what happens. I promise not to talk religion or try to sell anyone my ocean front property I recently bought in Montana. As far as politics, I'll just say I'm glad the elections are over so we don't have to listen to all those ads on the radio and tv for awhile.I'm sitting in Effingham,Il on my way to Mt Vernon,Il for 0600 delivery. Then I pickup a load that goes to Oshkosh,Wi.Freight has been rather light the last while. We try to avoid doing the grocery warehouse freight and that tends to limit what freight we get. You better believe that doesn't break my heart one bit! I don't miss them things one bit. Any of you newbies will get the privilage of doing alot of the grocery warehouses. I know my first few years out here was mostly grocery loads. Alot of fingerprinting loads or paying out a large amount of money to a lumper. The company I drive for now is about 95% no touch and the other 5% they rather have us hire a lumper so that we can kick back and relax for a few hours. I haven't touched a load for about 6 or 7 yrs now. I read one of the wannabe's blog tonite and I'm afraid he is in for a rude awakening after his training. If CR Englands school does a decent job,he may not get as much time for visiting as he thinks. Be prepared for the night running. Long hours of class room and long time in the trucks. During the school portion of the training you may be in a truck with a few other students and each gets time behind the wheel and the others are required to observe.We can put in up to 14 hrs a day and the school will be keeping you for that long each day. Not much time for a social life.
I didn't mean to jump on him about all the religous stuff,but that gets me ryled up just like people coming on here just to advertise.I believe what I believe just like everyone else believes what they believe and I refuse to put it on here. If someone wants to sign off with some religous saying,have at it. I was surprised that there wasn't any political ads showing up on here the past few weeks.
If I have ruffled a few feathers I can go to bed happy then. If not I will try again next time. Later Gators, Roadie

Category: General

Another week of running in and now it's time to enjoy some home time. I gave them another good week and glad to be out of the truck for a couple of days. We had someone quit last weekend and left the truck and loaded trailer sitting at a truckstop in South Bend,In. I refuse to call him a driver. Anyone that quits like that can be called alot of names but a truck driver isn't one of them. What I don't get about this one is why did he leave the truck there? He had picked up in New Jersey and the load was going up to the twin cities area in Minnesota. He lives around Green Bay. If I were planning on quitting, I would bring the truck and trailer to our terminal in Green Bay and jump in my car to go home. He left the truck out there, didn't let anyone know he was quitting and had to find a way home from out there. I ended up riding with my wife in her truck to retrieve it. Now this clown has to pay a buck a mile for the out of route miles my wife put on to drop me off plus a buck a mile for the mileage out there and back for me. So he is looking at over $700 for his stupidity. Plus he won't get another driving job anywhere because it will be on his DAC that he abandoned a truck and loaded trailer. If he would have came to Green Bay and let someone know he quit once he was there, his DAC would probably stay clean and wouldn't have been charged for a truck rerieval.
Anybody new to this business take note: DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT for any reason leave a truck out on the road someplace. It will cost you alot of money for the company to retrieve it and I can guarantee you will never drive over the road for another company again. Alot of local companies will shy away from you as well. So if you spent alot of time and money getting your cdl, don't mess up by abandoning a truck. As bad as you may hate where your working, stick with it until you can get back to one of the company terminals and then go in and tell them you quit. At least you will be able to get another driving job. Trucking companies view that DAC report like it came from God. No matter what you say it won't change the facts that they read on the DAC report.

Category: General