Go East, then come back

After our delivery to campbell's (V8 juices), we were sent to Lima Oh to pick up at Proctor and Gamble. Got a load of downey dryer sheets (44500lbs worth) headed to South Carolina. Kim has been sent to Atlanta. Today we were both in Virginia, about 175mi apart.
After this delivery in Lugoff, SC, we have been preplanned to go to Greenville SC for a load to Wentzville, Mo. They are finally heading us back toward Joplin to get our truck. Kim's dispatcher told her trainer they need to get them some more miles cause her husband was way ahead of her. DUH!
Looks like we deliver in Wentzville on Monday, then will probably get dispatched a load for Joplin on Tues or so.
Today has been kinda nice. Nice country, Jim and I split the driving so I got to see some of it. This is the heart of Nascar country. Bristol, Charlotte, etc. Many of the drivers also iive in this region, Mooreshed, NC, Kanapolis, NC, Charlotte, etc.

It's Official

We made our delivery last nite, and got dispatched this morning to Reading Pa. Picking up at a packaging place headed to Campbell's soup in Napoleon, Oh. Kim has already made a drop at this place. I passed my 7500mi mark on the deadhead from NY over here to Reading, so guess it's official now. Kinda wondering if truck might be at the Taylor, Mi terminal, as we will only be about 100 mi from there, it in Detroit area.
We are just sitting at the dock here waiting to get loaded now. Hopefully not as long as Kim had yesterday, about 5hrs for them to get loaded in Fla. Load of water headed to N.Carolina. That will be a heavy load. She is sitting around 5500mi.
I have heard from a few prople that have read the blog, both by comments and on phone. Glad we can share our story, and others enjoy it. Sounds like everyone from friends and family, to students, to other drivers, and hopefuls. Kinda neat, and we enjoy sharing it. We will try to get some more pictures as well, esp when Kim and I get together.
Cheers

THERE

Made it to Chester NY this afternoon. We will be able to deliver around 7pm tonite. Then we'll see when and where the next dispatch comes. Only problem with a nite delivery is finding another parking place. They are really crowded up here. The TA where we are now had no problem at noon, but now they are starting to fill up.
Its a good feeling to be finishing up my training, but kinda scary at the same time. Can't pull in somewhere, and say "whatcha think?" or get that little extra guidance around a corner, or a little prompt to send a reply on qualcomm, or a helpful "hint" on how to keep most hours available for good dispatches. But we'll learn.

Looong trip part duex

Made it to West Memphis Arkansas last nite around 5:30. Jim drove the first 230mi of the day, the rest was mine. Logged about 860 miles, so we got a good start on the trip. The next couple of days will be a little easier, but still 600mi days. We fueled up first at Lancaster, Tx, on the south side of Dallas. We have a terminal there, so I got to see where it was. West Memphis is also a terminal for us. When we got there, I backed the trailer into a spot, and unhooked the trailer. We bobtailed ove to a Petro truck stop and I ate at the buffet. Jim stayed in the truck and ate his dinner, he says he needs to stay away from resturants for awhile. I still want a meal at the end of the day.
Kim was still in North Carolina, and was set to deliver this morning. Then she makes a run down to Fla, another 400mi or so.
We got up at 2am and hit the road at 3am this morning. Made it thru Memphis and Nashville before 8. Otherside of Nashville, I couldn't get my second wind it got light, so Jim took over driving for awhile. The last couple of nites with little sleep caught up with me. I took a short nap on the bunk, and now here I sit watching the scenery. Trees a a little past fall prime colors, but still really pretty around here. We are just short of Knoxville, Tn. It is really foggy and raining and misting this morning, and the fog sitting on top of the trees and in the valleys is kinda neat. Some gorgeous farm homes and acreages around here. Kinda nice to just ride and look for a change.
Jim has pretty much stopped training and is just letting me do everything. He says I am well past where he started and is very happy with my progress. Ready to kick the baby bird outta of the nest. Once we get a dispatch Wednesday after out delivery, I will complete my training period.
Kim will be about 4800mi when she gets to Fla, and needs a couple of good runs to finisher hers. She is also ready to move on and get back together to start our adventures together.

Got a loong run!

We got our load about 3pm today. We were given several choices of places to go, so we picked the longest, 2017mi to Chester, New York. When we get there I will be 115mi short of my 7500mi required for the training period. When we get a load out of that area, I'll be done. 7500mi in 15 days isn't to bad! We will have to get a load back somewhere, and get to a terminal to get a truck for us. That could be West Memphis, Taylor, Michigan (Detroit area), Lancaster, Tx (Dallas area), back here to Laredo, or Joplin. Either way, I will need to get it to Joplin to get our stuff and have an inverter put in it by maintenance so we will have power for microwave, etc.That will take a day or 2.
We decided to wait here until 3am before leaving. Drivers are allowed to drive 11hrs per day up to 70hrs in any 8 day period. Each day kicks off the oldest day in that 8 day window. If you drive alot, you run out of hours towards the end of the week and next week if you keep going. If you stay down for 34hrs, you can reset the clock back to zero, and start all over on the 70hrs, so thats what we will do. Our 34hrs here is up at 3am, so thats when we will leave. If we go as planned, we'll arrive in NY on Tues afternoon, and our load is required to be delivered at 7am Wed morn. Maybe they will take it early if we're there.
Kim is also down for the weekend in Leland, NC. Her trainer got her a hotel room for the weekend, and he stays in the truck at nite. I think they deliver their load Monday morning, then to Yulee, Florida.
I ran into a couple of guys from our class at Crowder here at the terminal today. Kinda nice to see a familiar face, and compare notes.
Weather down here in S Texas is surprisingly cold and wet. I thought we were headed south for warm weather, it was warmer when we were up in Seattle!!!
An interesting sidenote to our load; it's 30,000lbs of rubber balloons!!!

Thanksgiving,,,,kinda

Well, we got our load of trees to Calexico, Ca so alot of kids in Mexico can have a Christmas tree now. We got notified in the middle of the nite a load was ready for Laredo Tx for us for pick-up as soon as our 10hrs down time was up (0600 CST/ 0400PST). So we got up at 3am local to find the trailer in the large parking area CFI uses there. After we hooked up, checked in the office on the way out, we were on our way. We headed down the road about 55mi to Yuma, and waited to 7am to call my parents. Jim, my trainer, gave me a couple of hours to visit with them. It was good to see them and their new place. Got a shower, some of Dad's french toast, and headed back to the truck. Showed my new home (the truck) to them, then off toward Laredo, Tx. We made it to El Paso for the nite and stayed at a Petro. There is a Iron Skillet resturaunt in the Petro's and this nite was a Thanksgiving Buffet. I got to have my turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, yams, and pumkin pie. It was really pretty good. Kim was also at a Petro in Virginia, but said her buffet wasn't that good. Sorry Bud!
This morning we left about 7:30 and drove to Laredo. Got here about 5:30. This is a CFI terminal. Lots of truck, trailers, maintenance, and a driver area. We are on the board for a new load and started at #33 on the waiting list, so you can tell its a busy area. There is alot of freight up from Mexico, to be delivered all over. Should get out tomorrow. In the break area I also ran into on of the guys that was in our class at Crowder. He had been east and said it was a pain. Told him thats where Kim has ended up.
We'll see where tomorrow sends us. Whave moved up to #26 in about 3 hours.

more pics

travel pics

Here are some pictures from some of our travels so far. The mountain is Mt Shasta in Northern California. The clouds streaking and colors over the top really made it impressive. This shot did not capture it as well as I hoped.
The Christmas trees are a load we picked up outside of Portland Or. They led us about 8 miles into the country on a narrow winding 2 lane road, then down a gravel drive back into a field. Then they asked us to turn around and back up to a conveyor belt in a mud field. After only a week on the road, I can't say I have seen it all now, it is certainly one for the books!!!
The other picture is Kim on the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersy to New York. CFI couldn't have got us farther apart if they tried!! :)

week 2

Picture is at dock in Renton,Wa. You can barely make out the mountains behind the clouds in the background.

My week started in the Seattle area, Renton to be precise. Renton is also the Boeing hdqtrs, and we actually spent the nite around the block from Alteon Training which is the simulator division of Boeing. I had to deal with them some when I had a 737 simulator in Salt Lake.
Weather here is like you would expect Washington to be, cold and wet. Kim sent me a message this morning saying she got into her dock 90% on her own. My trainer heard that so when we pulled into the dock area, he got out of the truck, said have fun, and walked away! It was a little tight, but thankfully not as bad as we have had lately, so I managed it on my own. Afterward, we went on the board and waited for notification of a load. About 3 hours later, we were notified to deadhead to Salem Or for a load to Denver. As soon as we got up on the Interstate, a cancel notice came across. We just went back to the truck stop we spent Sunday at and waited another hour. Finally we were dispatched to Portland to pick up a load to Calexico, Ca. a 1200mi run. This will take awhile as Oregon and Cal are 55mph states for trucks. Calexico is about 30 from my Mom and Dad so hopefully we can at least have dinner with them Thurs.
I talked with Kim some tonite and they are in Pa. with snow on the ground. She drove all day yesterday but only a few hours today. They also had a police escort blocking all 3 lanes for about 5 miles due to a fatality accident. That got to her a little and the fact that it is a year since her Grandma passed away. Kind of a rough day for her. Hopefully she'll be back to her "entertaining" self shortly. They will have about 2600mi when they get to Conn, and we will have about 4600 when we get to Calexico. Her trainer told her to tell me they'd catch up by Friday. We'll see!
We head over the customer early tomorrow morning, hopefully it won't take long to load us and we can hit the road early. I have no idea yet what the load is. I hope it's not a real heavy one, we have to get back thru all the mountains again.

First docks

Here is the first dock I had to hit. Lucky me, it was inside a building! The other two are at Fresno. 2 docks with no extra room.

I am in Tacoma now and have a down day. We will go to the customers place tonite so we won't have to deal with Seattle traffic in the morning. It is scheduled for an 8 o'clock delivery.
The drive up here was interesting to say the least. We left Freso about 3:30pm local, and drove about 475mi that nite. I wish I could tell you about how scenic it was but all I can tell you is how curvy and black the road was! 90% was nite driving and the last 100mi or so was all mountain driving. I sure got some practice going up and down thru the gears as we climbed up and down those mountains. Some of those curves just seemed to keep going on forever, at nite you couldn't get any reference to how far around the side of the mountain you were going. I know sometimes I was glad I couldn't see over the drop off! We made it to Phoenix that nite. Hmmm,,must've took a wrong turn! Thought we were going to Seattle! There is also a Phoenix about 25mi into Oregon.
Saturday we left about noon. We had to get 10hrs rest before we could drive again. Headed on up I-5 thru Oregon and on to Tacoma. This time I could see quite abit. It was a cloudy rainey day all day tho, in and out of the clouds thru the mountains.
The Tacoma area was really busy on the hiway even tho it was about 6pm on Saturday nite when we got here.
I can say without certainty, that Jim (my trainer) is really putting me thru my paces. (well,,,,maybe its just our luck in the dispatches.) He says I am doing very well, well ahead of where I need to be. Just need some more time and practice to smooth out abit.
Kim got to go to the I-80 truck stop in Iowa, it's the worlds largest. She said it was like a super wal-mart for trucks! This morning she headed out and gets the prividge of driving thru Chicago today. At least its Sunday. She yelled at me the other day tho. Told me I spoiled her! She is not used to driving the long hours and is having to work her endurance up some. She'll be fine, she's a trooper! Can't think of anyone else I'd rather do this with!!!!
I have a little over 2600mi now toward the 7500 required with my trainer. Should be another 10 days or so if we can keep running like we have. The kicker will be Thanksgiving this week. Hopefully we won't get "lost in the system" during the 4 days.

On the Road!

WOW, has been awhile since last update. I screwed up and left the computer in the motorhome the night we got bussed to Crowder for Boot Camp. Everything was rush, rush, rush there, and if you're late, it could be your job type of atmosphere. We rushed to get the motorhome parked, and rushed to get to the bus before they left us.
Had a great week at Crowder. Was a training atmosphere instead of a get rid of weak ones attitude, so we learned alot. Especially fun was the Skid Pad. It is a flat, smooth, polished concrete pad flooded with water. We got in some "nice" slides there!!! I had a bobtail totally sideways and managed to get it back the right way instead of spinning out. Kim loved it too. She realized she will react to the situation instead of just freezing up. Gave her more confidence.
Back at CFI in Joplin Monday morning, more training on situational awareness (SMITH system), paperwork, and assigned a trainer. As I mentioned, I already knew mine. He met us there a couple of times during the day. Back to the hotel Monday nite then to CFI first thing Tues morn ready to roll. My trainer and I did not get a load and hit the road until about 11am. Kim was not so lucky. She stayed around till 4pm, and got a load to Kansas City. My load had three stops, kinda unusual, but nice. We went from Joplin to Albuqurque, NM the first nite for a delivery the next morning, then to Las Vegas. Spent the nite, and delivered next day. From Vegas we headed over to Fresno, Cali. last nite. We are making our delivery right now. This load was all La-Z-Boy furniture. That makes for a light load. We were about 9000lbs to start with, and can haul about 40,000lbs, so you can see, that is pretty light for us.
Kim had a heavy load to KC, then got a load for Henderson, Ky. When they got rolling, they promptly broke down, and spent most of rest of evening getting it fixed. Next day they rolled on. Just found out this morning they are headed back to Lawrence, KS when they get unloaded this morning. She is a little frustrated by not getting the miles I am. She will have about 1100mi when she gets back tho. I have about 1700 and we are dispatched to Renten Wa next (another 900+) for a Monday morning delivery.
Kim's trainer wants to be in KC Mo for Thanksgiving, so sounds like Kim will be able to go to Arnie's. That will be a nice break for her.
Gotta run and get us goin, will post more later

UPDATE: at the next shippers waiting to be loaded now. It is a load of flavoring for Starbucks going to a shipping distr. center in Renton, Wa. This load will be over 38,000lbs, so this trip will be a little more work, esp going thru the mountains up in Washington. It should be rally scenic, thru the Mt Shasta area in N. Cal,etc. (that is if I have time to look :) We will be going up I-5 all the way.

Utah in the rear view

Been a couple of days since our last post, and things changed a little. Wed morning, Dad called at 6am just as I was about to get us over to FSI. He infomed me that Tina, my sis-in-law, had passed away at 2am. We were going to head to Beatrice, Neb to visit my aunt, but changed plans to just go pick her up and head on down to Okla to be with my brother and the family. We won't get to visit Arnie (Kim's bro) and family in KC Mo, but we need to be here.
So we are sitting in Jenks, Okla, at my brother's house until Sunday. Funeral is tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:30am. Tina was about 6 mo older than me, but had diabeties, had a heart attact a few years back, and a stroke on Mothers day. She has not had much quality of life since. I feel bad for Mark, she was too young to go, but is no longer in pain. Mark is totally worn out from the total care of her.
As we were leaving town Wed morning, it was really quite appropriate, we saw one of the Sage trucks with a student headed the other way! Shortly after, Dan called to wish us safe travels. Really appreciate them, good group, will miss them, but looking forward to going back and visiting them with our truck when we start driving.
We spent Wed nite in a truck stop in Ogallala, Neb, and Thurs went on to Beatrice. Picked up Aunt Willie about 11am, and got to Jenks about 6:15pm.
I checked gas mileage this time for the first time really with this motorhome. We were only running about 65-70mph and got 7.9mpg. I guess thats really good for this Detroit 6V92 engine, with the trailer and 2 bikes as well. Of course the fuel prices had to take a jump this week.