Adventures of a Mad Truck driver...

Here are just a few photos I took while on the road. I made them into a short movie, so hope you enjoy! Figured it would be a nice way of sharing my adventures with whoever wanted to see.

Fugitive on the loose!!!

I am currently stuck in Fontana, Ca, where I'm letting my Log book catch up to me. In order to make sure I could get home to see my kids, Gaige and Chelsea, I had to become a fugitive, or at least a law breaker to make sure I could pick up a load that delivers close to home.
There is this thing called a 70hr log book rule that says you are not allowed to work more than 70hrs in a 7 day period. Well, if I would be a law abiding citizen, I would never make it home so I bended that rule just a little by working about 84hrs in a 7 day period in order to make sure I could get my homeward bound Load!
Now, I am stuck in Fontana, Ca waiting for the log book to catch up to me, witch will be about 10:30pm tonight. As soon as it does, I'm out of here, and homeward bound! I just hope no DOT officers stuble onto my blog. Yesterday, driving to Fontana from Torrance, CA, I saw a police chase happening on the other side of the freeway. I immediatly thought that they could be after me next if they only knew what I was doing. LOL. Seriously though, it is not something I will do very often, because if I got into any kind of accident, or DOT inspection, the fines would be astronomicle!!! Even if an accident was not my fault, if I was involved while running past the 70hr rule, I would go to Jail! No passing go, no collecting 200$$$!!! That would suck!

A Tribute to My Wife, Teresa...

Here is a little video I put together as an appreciation to my wife, who has to put up with a lot being married to a Truck Driving Man...

I've been everywhere, Man...

I finally have my pic's from my trip to the east cost downloaded on my computer, so I thought I would share them. That trip was actually last month, but pic's were on my phone, and I just figured out how to get them downloaded onto my PC. Hope you like....

Got to Love Monday's!!!

That's right, It's monday, and back to work. I often wonder why it seems Monday's are almost always challenging for us? Why does it seem things hardly ever go as planned on Monday's???
Maybe it's because it's the first day back to work after a refreshing weekend of no work. After recovering, maybe we just have more patients on Mondays to handle the adversatie? Then again, maybe not??? Who know's, but Monday's always seem to post some type of challenge.
Today Monday did not disappoint either! I was suppose to pick up my first load of the week in St. Joseph, MO today, which was suppose to be ready at Noon! Well, it is now 4:00PM in the afternoon, and my load is not ready yet!! In fact, I have been told that it will not be ready until 8:00pm tonight. Considering I got here to the customer at 10am this morning, I will wait for this load for 10 hrs!!!! That's right, Monday bites again!!!

Thursday Night Blues...

Well, Another day is down, and I will get to be home in less than two days! For the last month and a half I have spent way more time in this truck than I ever wanted to, but with God's will, I'm hoping this is the mark of getting my job back on track where I can be home on the weekends.

This morning I loaded in Port Arthur, Tx (See Pics) which was right off the water, and I could even watch them unload one of the vessels that was docked there. It was pretty cool! Allthough it was a nice view, I couldn't see the Gulf, but if I where to cross that bridge you see in one of those pics, I would of been able to see it, I was that close! I would say within in a mile or so. I did notice there was still a lot of damage visable from the latest hurricane that hit that area last year, but for the most part, it wasn't too bad.

Now I'm sitting in Jenks, OK where I delivered my Port Arthur load, and now just taking my break. In the morning I will pick up a pre-loaded trailer at Whirlpool, and deliver it to Dallas, TX right smack dab in the middle of downtown, or at least pretty darn close to it, YUCK! Oh well, it was a good paying load, and set the ending of my week up just right to get home. And home is my goal!!!

Back On the Road Again...

It is about 6:30pm, and I'm now sitting in Houston, TX waiting for my appointment time at a Kroger grocery wharehouse, which is not until 8:00pm.

I've included a few snap shots of my latest trip down here, where it is a cool 68* and feels good! From what I've been reading, the wheather everywhere in the USA is crazy right now! There talking of multiple highway closings in the west/ northwest, But not due to Ice, or snow! At least not due to Ice or Snow out of the sky. I'm reading that many highways in Washington, and Colorado are closed because warmer temps have made it very dangerous for avalanches in those areas! They even closed I-70 through Vail, CO for this very reason.

Never heard of roads being closed for avalanches, at least not major interstate. I plan on calling it a night tonight in Port Arthur, TX, where my next load comes out of. Hope to get a few more snap shots of the land there, because it's right on the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico! Should be pretty!

34 Hour Break!

Ok, what is so important about 34 HR break? If I take a full 34 hrs off in a row, I get to restart my log book hours at 0! That means I have 70 fresh hours to run!
The best thing about my latest 34hr break is that I got to take it at home! I delivered a load to Harrisonville, MO Sunday night, and got to come home for the break. I did have to push my log book Sunday to make it here for that break, but I wasn't going to be denied!
Sunday I drove over 800 miles to get home, and legally the most I can log in a day is about 730. That is if all states I run through would allow me to drive 70mph or faster, otherwise that total goes down. The load I delivered came from Pennington, AL and I was told it was only about 682 mile drive. Well, there was no route that could get me there in that short of miles, but because they said it could be done in 682 miles, that's what I showed on the log book. Just a little fudging, but hey, you do what you got to do in order to spend some time with the one's you love!
Sadly, my break is now up, and I'm about to take out on another adventure, picking up my next load in St. Joseph, MO and Delivering to Jenks, OK. I plan on being back home for the weekend, but $$$ will decide if that gets to hapen or not...

Living on PB & J

I remember back when I was in the Marine Corps, at the ripe old age of 20, I was on deployment to Yuma, AZ and ran out of money a week before I got paid again. With my last 5 dollars, I went to the commissary and bought a loaf of bread, some Peanut butter, and some Jelly, and made that stretch for five whole days! Wasn't easy, but when you don't have any money, you do what you got to do.
Now, that I'm on the road so much, I'm finding out that the cost of living on the road is more than it use to be. Now, just about every time I stop to eat, it cost me about 7 to 8 dollars, and in some cases, even more! If you do the math on that, If I only ate twice a day, I would spend an estimated 112$ a week at 8 bucks a meal, twice a day. And that don't even count any extra stops for drinks or other snacks.
So how am I going to try and counter this expense problem?

PB & J!!!

That's right, if I was able to make it a whole week when I was in the military, I figure I could at least save myself a few meals by making me a PB & J sandwich at least once a day, leaving me only to have to buy 1 meal a day. If I can pull this off, I should save over 50$ a week! Wish me luck on my new PB & J diet!

Settling In for a long Break...

The sad thing is, I don't want a long break, I'd rather keep moving, but the Log book rules shut me down early today, and waiting for Midnight to roll around so I can move again. Actually, I won't be going anywhere until 7am, so I'll get a good night's rest.
Right now I am at Brookhaven, MS, where I've been since about 2pm this afternoon. Unfortunately, I had to get a new tire on my truck today because I picked up a nail somewhere, and had one go flat on me. Normally you can get a tire like this patched for about 25 bucks, but my tire was worn out, and had less than the legal tread depth left, so I went ahead and had the truck stop put on a used tire that still had pretty good tread depth on it. It's actually now the best tire on my truck, even though it was used. It is a Michelin, which are the most expensive tires you can buy for a big truck. This one used cost me 180$ plus mounting and tax, which came up to 224.50.
This is one of those bad things about owning your own equipment, when it breaks, you pay!

Six Days on the Road...

Ok, It's only been 5 days, but by the time anyone reads this, it will probably be at least 6, LOL.

I'm going to try and share more about my trips, to keep all of you who read boring me informed of where I am, and where I've been.

This trip has taken me south out of the Cleveland area, and down to the swamp lands of Louisiana. Right Now I'm sitting in a Casino truck stop in Opelousas, LA, where my load delivered. Here are a few Pictures of my Trip at the top.

This trip took me threw Cities such as: Columbus, OH, Cincinatti, OH, Louisville, KY, Nashville, TN, Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS, Just north of New Orleans, LA, Baton Rouge, LA, and ending in Opelousas, where I sit tonight.

Tomorrow is a new day, but I only have 3 1/2 Hours left on log book to drive, so it will be a boring day, as I pick up 12 hours after midnight, but not until then.

The Load I'm getting tomorrow is only a 218 mile load that delivers at 10am on Saturday in Hattiesburg, MS. It will be there that I will take a 34 Hour break to restart my Log book.

For those interested readers who do not know the Log book rules, I'm only allowed to work 70 hours in 7 days, I can drive up to 11 hours a day, and cannot work more than 14 hours consecutively. That means I can only use about 3 hrs a day for any breaks, or on duty work that is not driving if I want to get a full 11 hrs in of driving. Is any of this making sense??? Doesn't make sense to me either, but oh well, Schneider makes sure I abide by them!

Happy New Year!

2008 is now in the past, the memories from it will forever last.
Memories of the bad times, and of the good; The lessons from 08 should be understood.
Lessons of the good times when life was at it's best!, Lessons of the hard times when love is put to the test!
Rather it be lessons of Relationships, Employment, School, or other, In 09, these lessons over our hearts must cover!
The new year will bring it's own challenges for us to rise above, but with the lessons of yester-year, we will be able to sore high above these challenges in the sky, like a dove!
So when 2009 brings on a new challenge that leads you to fear, Fear not, and remember the lessons so you will indeed have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!