Thurs, Mar 19 .... A Bit Stressful...

Today is Thursday, March 19. I have to remind myself at times...

Trapper's mother had major back surgery today. This is one thing with being in the trucking industry, you miss things because nothing is guaranteed and you can't always be where you need to be... and especially when you need to be. Trapper's sister is with her and other family members and by all reports... she is doing as well as expected. (Please remember them all in your prayers.)

We spent the night last night at the famous IOWA80 truck stop! I can mark that off my "bucket list". The truck stop is billed as being the largest in the world with 800 parking places. That's a lot of asphalt!

For the drivers, it has the basics... showers, tv room, game room and then it has a chiropractor, barber, movie theatre, shoe shiner, a gift shop a, a truck museum and the list goes on. If it is made for a truck... this truck stop has it.

Yesterday, leaving Corydon, IA... well... we're winding our way around a 13'3" bridge on this "truck route" and low and behold... we see the LOCHNESS MONSTER! I, of course, yell "Stop!" I have got to take a picture of this!!!

I know everyone thinks the Lochness Monster is the imagination running wild, but it's not... it's alive and well in Corydon, IA!

That's all the excitement from yesterday.

Today we have driven absolutely as many miles as our 11 hours will let us. We are both exhausted. And normally the truck idling doesn't bother me at all, but tonight I'm glad it is quiet.

Tomorrow will end our run to PA... we have a little of the trip to finish in the morning and we'll be on the board! Waiting on the load.

Tues/Wed, March 17-18... St Patrick's Day & Beyond!

Today started early as we delivered to Western State Envelope in Butler, WI. The last time we were here.... this is what it looked like....

And here we are today, just two months later....

I was surprised, as we rolled through Wisconsin, the number of people in shorts and short sleeves and a few that were laying out in the sun!

I had on jeans and my sweatshirt. My southern blood is still with me and although the temperature was in the 60's... the sweatshirt was still on!

As we were being unloaded, the qualcomm beeps and tells us we are suppose to pick up in Aurora, IL on 3/18 at 5:00 am. Aurora, IL is about 100 or so miles from where we are. We are picking up at a Con-Way yard, so we can drop the trailer and bobtail around the town, if we wish.

The preplan says we have to deliver this in Clyde, OH around noon on 3/18 as well.

So being in no real hurry... we headed on south to Aurora, IL. I wasn't real thrilled due to having a bad experience in North Aurora, IL with a 12' 4" bridge once before. The older the town... the shorter the bridges!

We arrived in Aurora and dropped the trailer. It's not normal for us to be able to get around, without the extra 53' behind us, so we decided to explore the town a little. We were only 3 miles from downtown and they have a river boat casino. Naturally, I wanted to walk in there. I've been to several on land, but never one of these that are "riverboats".

This is Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL... the riverboat didn't get in the picture, but the funny thing is... the river boat part isn't even a real river boat! No one told me this. Once you walked in the front door... you didn't know if you were on the land part or the part that is built out into the water.

-$20 later... I walked out.... back to the safety of my big red mobile home.

The bag pipe players were showing up at the local Irish Pub for St. Patrick's Day celebration!

This is the original Aurora Fire Department. I love the look of this building!

This is just a building that are renovating... we were taken back by the ladder on the building.

After a couple of hours walking around, we decided to head back to the yard so Trapper could get some sleep... 4:00 am was going to come early.

Needless to say his "night" was cut short when the phone rang at 9:30 pm... I knew that wasn't good when I saw area code 417... uh oh... Joplin was calling.

We had been unassigned from our 5:00 am load and reassigned a load to pick up at 4:00 am in La Salle, IL. I was playing on the computer and heard Trapper say, "Yea, ok, that's fine... we're here at the yard, that'll work. Send me the info on the qualcomm."

As he was still trying to wake up... I look at the qualcomm and had to break the news to him that we were in Aurora, IL and this load was to pick up in La Salle, IL.... 100 miles away! I hate it when I have to do that!

So... we were off.... the plan changed, the mindset changed... that fast!

I'll only add the abbreviated version from here....

Arrived in LaSalle, IL with 3 hours to sleep... slept 2.5 hours.

Dropped trailer and picked up loaded trailer.

Met our relay in Altoona, IL

Dispatched to Corydon, IA to pick up load and deliver in Topton, PA on Friday around noon.

Whew! No play time now. The log book looks like a polygraph with all the up's and down's on it.

This is how you end up running nights... our legal breaks are ending up being during the day, so we're running at night but hopefully once we get to PA... we'll make it back to the day shift!

Although I don't drive, I just ride... this stretch of interstate completely threw me off. We're both tired and when I looked up I see... to my left traffic we are meeting and the lanes we are in... then to my right I see more traffic we are meeting and beyond those lanes are more lanes going in the same direction we are!

This could mess a person up quick!

We're stopping tonight at the IOWA80 truck stop. I can't wait to see this place!

Sun-Mon, Mar 15/16... Off to Wisconsin...

We sat in Wilkes-Barre, PA with the other 8 trucks all day Saturday... "here comes another one" became quite redundant as the parade of CFI trucks kept happening!

Sunday morning, our dear Qualcomm... aka... big brother, beeped at yes... 4:30 am. You see, we were bob-tailing because there were no empties at our drop n hook yesterday. Bob-tailing is good if you have errands to run but puts you in a bind when trying to get a load.

We were dispatched a hundred miles to pick up an empty trailer at UPS and then another 100 miles to our load in Spring Grove, PA. I recognized the name of the place and remembered the route. This town was completely built around this plant.... such a quaint town.

This is the truck route.


And this is the plant... the truck route, main road, goes right through it...


With our load in tow... we are headed to Butler, WI. Again, we've delivered at this place once before as well. It makes following those pesky directions easier.

Here's a picture I wanted to share with everyone, kind of off the subject... This was taken at our "home" truck stop the day we left. The car carrier was nose-in the parking space and was backing out... the other truck was backing in a spot and the two got to know each other really well.

The van plowed in to the car carrier. Once they separated the trucks, the silver truck on the bottom rack was totally crushed on the right rear side. I think this was a preventable...


So tonight we're sitting in Butler, WI. Our truck temperature says it's 74 degrees outside.... yeah right... it's gone on the blink... it feels like 24 outside.

Tomorrow, at some point, we'll be headed somewhere else, USA... stay tuned....

(A note to Elaine! .... Elaine, if you read this, please call Trapper... I lost your number!)

*** MY TRASHY RANT ****

I read an article last week eluding to the fact the general public has the opinion that "truckers" are nasty, dirty, and generally uneducated individuals. I was appalled.


My first instinct was to shoot a quick email to the editor standing up for and defending the REAL road warriors of the country, The Truckers!


I wanted to stand firm on my position that the individuals in the cabs of all these trucks are people who forfeit being at home, with all the conveniences at their fingertips, so they can be the "supply" part of the "supply and demand" chain this country survives on.

I wanted to explain that although truck stops are not in abundance, in certain parts of the country, there are available showers along every main route and no we are not "dirty!"

I wanted to blast the author of the article with the facts stated in all my former corporate america jargon I could muster.

Basically, I wanted to rant and rave with a little diplomacy!

And then it dawned on me, as I started to reflect on my own experiences living over the road for the past six months....

I realized I had taken "their" point of view to heart and was personally offended.

For me, I am a neat freak... self confessed... neat FREAK. I like order, I like organization, I like cleanliness, I like things to be in place.

Most of us drive into a truck stop, park, and either don't leave the truck or we walk only in front of the truck toward the truck stop. I would dare say we just don't take the time to really notice our surroundings.


I decided, while we were in Fletcher, NC, to walk to the back of the trailer and scope out the scenery... we were parked in the back row...


Here I am walking toward the rear... notice anything... "nasty"

As I looked to the left... notice anything "trashy"...

And as I looked to my right... the mother load!

There was evidence of swept out trailers, bunk covers, bunk mattress, and more trash and pee bottles than I could count. This is disgusting. The people that owned this trash... I wonder what the inside of their truck looks like? I wonder if their backyard looks like this? Would they mind if I swept out our trailer in their driveway? How about leaving a few hundred pee bottles by the mailbox?

And we wonder why Wal-Mart is a little LESS trucker friendly now???

My point with this post is this.....

If the general public regards "truckers" as dirty, trashy, nasty, uneducated... OK... if this is all they see, if this is what "truckers" leave behind.... then I too would use dirty, trashy, nasty, and feel that education wasn't on the list of priorities.

We all complain, at one point or another, about the lack of parking. Parking is a huge concern in the trucking industry but answer this...

Business101... would you open a nice truck stop just to have the patrons trash it? And, by the way, the actual building and parking lot of this particular truck stop were outstanding.... very nice, clean, and orderly. And the parking lot part had enough room to actually move the truck around in.

We've been at 3-4 truck stops since I took this picture and two of them were just like this. I found it disgusting but I'm less appalled at the article now... I can see why "truckers" are generalized if this is what the public sees.

Pass the word, for all of us.... PUT TRASH IN IT'S PLACE... Please! If not for the environment... at least for our reputations!

Thank you for listening... or reading rather...

Sat, Mar 14... Eight is Enough

Immediately after I finished my last post... we were dispatched to pick up a load in Arden, NC (about 5 miles from where we were) at 9:00 pm and run it to Knoxville, TN... to be there at 11:00 pm.

Well, as fate would have it, we went over to the shipper's around 6:00 pm and this load was not going to be ready until Tuesday! WHAT???? Someone got their wires crossed! A quick call to dispatch and we were being sent home... which was only 30 miles south of where we were!

Arriving home is always a challenge, especially this time. My daughter was home for Spring Break, which meant it was time to do her taxes and mine so I could complete that infamous FAFSA form! If you have kids in college or preparing to go to college.... you can sympathize with me! Two days of "our" taxes... I finally finished them!

My son came down to visit and his taxes were completed as well. Then there was the trip to my "new" doctor is SC and yard work!!

It's funny how life goes on and grass keeps growing although you're on the road! I wish the yard had an "off" button... wouldn't that be nice! We did get an enourmous amount of things done in a very short amount of time. You always have to count 1 day out to get the truck back in order, get repacked, and cram all the groceries on board.

Plus, has anyone else ever noticed, you spend a lot of money when you go home and it takes a couple of weeks to get the checks coming back in properly??? It's a catch 22.... your miles for the week you highlight to go home will be down, you don't get paid while you're at home, and the week you return the miles are always down... so you have to stay out at least a month just to recoup from going home! And people wonder why we stay out 7-8 weeks at a time!

With our quick trip home finished, we are back out and at it. We were sent to Gaffney, SC to pick up a load and we delivered here in Wilkes-Barre, PA bright and early this morning.

I think we're number 4 on the board, but as I take a quick scan of the parking lot... at the Pilot... there are 8 CFI trucks here! We're having a little CFI party!

Looks like the weekend will be here... I knew I should have wished a little harder for Miami!

Mon-Thurs, Mar 2-5.... We're Here....

We're here... ok... so now what?

We were dispatched out of the Laredo terminal Sunday afternoon. The plan was to run up I-35 and actually get loaded live! I called my 20 year old son, as we sat at the dock, and upon his inquiry as to where we were and what we were doing... I proudly and innocently answered, "Oh Trapper and I are sitting here at the dock getting loaded." Due to his response, he must have imagined the two of us sitting by the lake, on the dock, "getting loaded."

I sat him straight and we both got a good laugh out of it. (Crazy child of mine.)

We were dispatched to Atlanta, GA with our tonic water and our delivery was set for Wednesday at 1600 hours. Not a bad run at all.

Arriving in Atlanta, early, we were empty and dispatched immediately to Cartersville, GA for a "beer run". The problem with hauling beer is that the dispatches are fast. It goes from brewery, to long haul truck, to distribution within a matter of non stop hours.

The load didn't pick up until 1:00 am on Thursday morning and delivered a couple hundred miles away in Fletcher, NC at 6:00 am. Driving at night isn't our favorite thing to do, so dinner and naps were much needed.

We arrived at the brewery early and this was a drop and hook. We dropped quickly and found our new loaded trailer. As we were scaling on the way out of the brewery... we were 460 lbs over our allowed 80,000 gross weight. Just great... back to the dock to have them unload a little and go weigh the truck again. Our second weight wasn't a lot better, but at least the load was legal weight.

Our trip to Fletcher, NC was, again for the third time in two weeks, taking us right by our house again. This time within 4 miles! We've been out for 8 weeks and we're both ready to take a couple of days off, so of course, the idea of highlighting for home came up. At times, there are just things you need to return home to take care of.

The drive to Fletcher was a familiar run, straight up I-85 to I-26 toward Asheville, NC. Both of us, being from the general area, we anticipating how our 47,000 pounds of liquid courage was going to affect our steep climb up Saluda Mountain when we crossed over the NC state line on I-26. We had our momentum going good and within about 15 seconds we dropped from a steady 65 mph to an outstanding crawl of 19 mph! Turn the hazard lights on, grab the coffee, sit back and relax... it took us a few minutes to reach the top...

The plant in Fletcher was easy enough to find and we were unloaded quickly. If every company operated like the breweries... this job would be so much easier. There are very seldom any problems and they move trucks through like clock work.

Anyway, as soon as the "arrived at customer" qualcomm message was sent, the next one was to highlight for home. Hoping they would go ahead and dead head us there today.... we are 35 miles away, right...

We still had time on our 11 (driving hours) but for some reason we are still sitting in Fletcher, NC taking our mandatory 10 hour break. It's funny, for us anyway, once we decide to take a break and go home... we are READY to get there. However, the company has 5 days to accommodate us.

The likelihood of doing another "night" run is looking better and better as the day drags on...

Sun, Mar 1.... Home Sweet... Texas

We decided today, upon arriving in Laredo, TX, maybe we should find a small house here... we'd be home more! But, coming to TX is good... it's typically the warmest place and we know our way around. And after this 1600 mile run... anything that looks familiar seems like home. We dodged the tornadoes in AL and looks like we've dodged the snow! (for now)

As we sit here, number 19 on the board, I thought I'd share some fun things that I have taken pictures of these past 6 months living on the road.... you never know what you might see....

New Hire?

This is what happens when everyone is governed 2-3 mph apart...

Two grown men... and the two year old is doing all the work!

The driver didn't realize he could not drive straight through here. He'd been driving for two weeks and now was completely stuck... nose in...

At 11,000 feet... the air gets sucked out of everything!

Except for the Pringles... I thought the seal was going to pop!

A little weird... speed limit 9.85

A little extreme...

And finally... due to me always hitting my head when I stand up in the cab... my new safety equipment.

Every day is something different....