12/04/06

I'm still working on getting my genset fixed.  So far they have put off getting to it 3 times.  I will be calling again this afternoon in the hopes that it will put a little fire under them.  I would at least like them to see what is wrong with it to see if it is worth fixing.  I want to stay with the diesel engine because it is much easier to fuel let alone the face that I have 300 gallons on the truck to use if needed.

My parents will have been called to serve a mission for our church in the Jacksonville, FL mission.  I have also found out that Kodak has given the CR England container division a new route that goes from Windsor, CO to Jacksonville, FL.  So I will be able to stop in and see them on occasion.

Not much else has gone on out of the ordinary.  I am going to start taking pictures of what I have in my truck in the way of electronics and let you know how I did it in case you have similar ideas.  Keep an eye open on the picture page to new photos.

12/11/06

My Wild Goose Chase,

First before I start I need to tell of the DM structure so it makes a little more sense.  There are 3 members of the DM team that I know of.  First there is my Driver Manager and that person we'll call DMm1.  Second is the Driver Managers assistant, we'll call that person DMm2.  And finally we have the Load Planner, that person we'll call DMm3.

I'm going to tell you about what I'm calling my wild goose chase and it involves the search for an empty trailer that didn't exist. It all started last Wednesday when I was asked by DMm3 to take a non-functional reefer to a Thermoking dealer for repair. Not a big deal in that it was only 36 miles away. I had gotten there after they had closed so I had to wait until morning to get them started on the repair. So far not that bad but an hour into it they told me that they would have to order the part and that I would need to get another trailer. Bare in mind that I had already taken in a trailer to exchange for my load, which was ready when I got there the first time. When I told DMm2 of the status of the trailer at Thermoking, he was then informed by the  DMm3 that I had to get another trailer to take back to Premium Standard Farms. Well that was understandable at this point, so they sent me some 80miles away to a location in Tarheel, NC only to find out that the empties that were there were already assigned to loads and they wouldn't release one. I was then told that I was to drive to Conway in Columbia, NC to see about a trailer from there. Upon my arrival I found that there were only 3 trailers there but they were loaded, again no empties. This time I called and got a hold of DMm1 who up till then didn't know anything about what was going on with this chase. After I filled her in she told me to hold on for a little bit and she would get a hold of the equipment people to see if there was one to be had. After waiting an hour and a half I contacted DMm2 who hadn't heard anything either and he told me just to start back to Clinton, NC and get my load. 45 minutes later I was then told to head for Spartanburg, SC and there was supposed to be 2 trailers there that I could take. Ok fine I thought and turn around and headed there. Well guess what I didn't fine when I got there, you guessed it, no trailers. I will say though, one of the trailers was there but another driver beat me to it and the guard had no record of the other. Again there were only 3 trailers there and 2 had seals and the third hard a lock on it, I have to wonder if it had anything in it but there was now way I could know. By this time it was 17:00mst and I needed to get back to get my load before it was to late, so I did just that. I also got a hold of DMm2 on the cell and told him what I found. All this for the miles was great, bobtailing 650 miles and that is fine for my pocketbook but the reason I tell you this is two fold, first, for the amount on money that will be in my pocket could have been spent having the Thermoking mobile unit go there and fix the trailer on site. Second, in order for me to get my load to Calif on time I have to pedal to the medal, which is going to blow any money that I would have gained out my exhaust stack and I will have to run sleep run sleep run. I'm doing in 3 days what would be normally done in 4. As a result of all this if there are ANY problems, and thankfully there haven't been, this load will be late. Even something as simple as a blown tire will eat up the time that I have been able to make on this load. As it stands right now I will get there about two hours before my appointment time and that is if traffic cooperates when I get into Oakland in the morning. Basically my day spent searching for and empty trailer was a complete waist of time and money.  That is how this load has start, now for the rest of the story.  The sleep run sleep run sleep is not a fun thing to do.  What it boils down to is this.  In driving hard I have to drive for 11 hours straight then sleep or have down time for 10 hours and then drive for 11 hours again.  Adventually what is going to happen, which did. I'm going to come to the end of my 11 hours in the middle of the day and expect to get some sleep before heading out for the final push at 2100 tonight and drive through the night.  I know have to drive through the most dangerous time of the day, midnight to 0600 in the morning.  It is those times that are the hardest because your body wants to be asleep at those times.  Hope fully I will have gotten enough sleep to get through.  I guess if you don't hear form me again you will know what happened.

12/13/06

I'm not dead and made it, I'll fill you in more later when I have more time.  It's time to sleep

12/15/06

Now that I can slow down and breath I'll fill you in on what has happened since I last spoke to you.  It tool me 3 days to get to Oakland from Clinton, NC.  That trip would normally be done in 4 days.  The first two drive cycles went ok but when I got to Kingman, AZ I arrived there at 12:00 and that was the end of my driving day.  So I needed to try and get some sleep of the next 10 hours.  By this point I had turned my day inside out.  I think I only got about 5 hours of sleep while I was there.  I've been in this situation before and I just had to deal with it.  Come 21:00 I was feeling ok and at this point I had made up enough time to get there 2 hours before my appointment and that is if nothing gets in the way, ie traffic, blown tire, and so on.  Well my first challenge came when I got to the first DOT (department of transportation) scale in Calif.  I wasn't given a bypass signal so I had to enter the scale and weight.  I was then instructed to pull around and bring in my paperwork.  I was then instructed to pull into the inspection garage.  I was about to have a complete level 1 inspection, my first of this level.  As it turns out that I passed my inspection which makes for a good day.  As the night proceeded it got to the point that I had to pull off and take a 30 minute nap.  That night was a hard one and all I could do was push on as best I could.  I had one more problem to deal with and that was traffic.  I got into Oakland during rush hour traffic.  What should have taken me 1 hour to do, took almost 3.  Despite all that had gone on that night I still made my appointment on time although I did find when I got there that they weren't expecting me until 11:00 and my load assignment had me there at 09:00.  I had one more thing happen while traveling to my destination.  5 minutes before I got there, my inverter decided to burn up and everything that is running off it shutdown.  The bummer  with that is I had only had that inverter for a little over one month.  So I went to Flying J, which is the closest truck stop that would have what I needed and bought a new one.  I will have to take the dead one back to TA and get a replacement.  I'm not going to get a refund and a replacement for when this one dies.  Hopefully that will mean that this one will last a long time.  So as you can see I made it alive and relatively few problems.

Now for those that are wondering, the big white dome on my truck.  Well I tell everyone that asks that it is my UFO and then laugh.  No I then tell them that it is a satellite dish.  It is a full in motion satellite tracking system.  In other words, I can record my programs while I am moving so I can watch them later.  It's also great for when I have the kids on the truck.  Unfortunately there isn't any other place on this particular truck type to mount one so I built the mount and there it is.  I have only sent 5 other trucks that have mounted similar dishes on the front of their trucks.

I'm now heading for Chicago and Detroit and I get to take my time getting there.  After the hard push it will be nice to take it slow.

12/17/06

It is Sunday morning and thanks to this load I can take it easy.  I only have 341 miles to go today and I will be to my first stop.  The only thing that would make this better would be to not have to drive and go to church with my kids.  Although right now I can't see my kids because I have Christmas presents in the truck for them.  So I'll just have to wait until Friday when I will see them in Utah.  I tell you it has been nice to be able to catch up on my sleep and get back on a day schedule.  I used to prefer driving at night when I would go once a month to Phoenix for my last job.  But now it is much easier to drive during the day.  One of the big reasons that I liked, and still do, is the lack of traffic.  But unless I'm going into a big city like LA or Chicago I prefer to drive during the day.