Starting a new chapter

We picked up the load for Lancaster, Ca about 6hrs early and no change in delivery so we had some extra time. That was nice. We stopped about 4 hrs the first nite enroute in our drop yard in Pocahontas, Ill, then about 6hrs 2nd nite in Santa Rosa, NM. We also stopped occasionally at a rest area, or truck stop to eat. We THOUGHT we had some extra time at California when we got pre-planned to pick up at Lancaster and go to Salt Lake to relay it with another team headed back to Hazelton,Pa. Well, in typical ruin your plans fashion, we got notified Friday morning to change destination to Chino, Ca. Great, now we get to go into L
os Angeles at 6pm Fri evening, THEN back out to Lancaster for our scheduled pick up. Do you know what it is like getting out of Los Angeles on a Friday nite? UGH, sloooooow.
We got back to pick up at 10pm instead of the planned 6pm. We had a scheduled delivery time in Salt Lake of 3:30pm Sat afternoon. We ran as far as we could, then shut down for a couple of hrs sleep in Parowan, Ut. Made it to the Salt Lake Conway yard for our relay about noon Sat. The relay team was waiting on us, so they got a few extra hrs.
Now we are off from noon Sat till Tues morn. We have a scheduled pick up of 10am to start our dedicated run.
This will be nice for us I think. We will cook up some stuff to take with us, take some burgers, braats, etc and a little portable grill I think. We will have 10hrs or so at Gary, In and can cook our meal there. We emptied the truck of stuff we don't use alot or need during our week out, so it makes room for some stuff we'd like to have.
I really was hoping to get some riding in during our extra time off here this weekend, but NOOOOOO, Mother nature decided to throw some white anti-motorcycling crap at us. (snow), so maybe next weekend. It's kinda nice to know we'll be around to do that sometimes.
Well, thats the update, we are home for a few days getting ready to start the dedicated run on Tues morn. We'll let you know how it goes!
Till next time, keep it safe out there!

more changes comin

We didn't wait in Butte, for an assignment anyway. We rec'd a pre-plan while we were enroute to go to Elko, Nv for a relay the next day at 1900hrs. When we got to Butte, we put ourselves to bed for a few hrs then headed for Elko. This was another leg with plenty of time. We got there about 3:30pm local and got a schedule update that the relay would not happen till 9pm local instead of 7. We took the chance to go next door from our relay site to a chinese buffet for dinner, then back to take a nap. About 7pm I heard a truck pull up, and sure enough, it was the relay. We exchanged trailers and we were on our way to Rantoul, Il. This run is NOT a Conway. The first non-Conway we have had in,,,,well, I don't remember. :) It is a load for Jeld-Wen windows, but is only molding, etc, no glass.
The down side is it has 3 deliveries, 1 in Rantoul, next to Mt Vernon, OH, and last to Ringtown, PA. It gets progessively worse with side roads to the communities. Ringtown is about 30mi off the interstate on back country Pennsylvania roads. Sure made it interesting. At both places (Mt. Vernon and Ringtown, we got there about 5pm and had a delivery of 7am the next mornning. The plants had no second shift, so the places were dead. We just backed up to dock, and watched a little tv, and got a good nite sleep both nites.
After our delivery in Ringtown this morning, we got dispatched to Hazelton, Pa for a Michaels distibution center run to Lancaster, Ca. Hazelton was only about 15mi away and we had a 4pm pick-up time. After getting un-loaded at 7:30, we headed on over to Hazelton and was told the load would actually be ready in an hour. YA! just hope they don't change the delivery time on us, and we will grab some extra time on this run.
We are good, got dispatched with the orig delivery time, so we gained about 6hrs!
OK, now for the changes.
During our run to Butte, we were going thru Salt Lake City but really didn't take a chance to stop and get our mail. It was Fri before the Easter holiday weekend, and if we stopped it would be rush hour getting thru and out of town. I-15 turns into a parking lot between Salt Lake and Ogden at that time. Soooo, it was kinda frustrating. We got to talking about it, and admitted we have not been as happy with this as we had hoped, so what can we do to change?
We had been told there was a dedicated route from Salt Lake to Chicago to Gary, In, and back to Salt Lake. Originally we turned it down because I can't see doing the I-80 run twice a week during winter.
We changed our mind, and decided it would help us get on our feet with this job, or show that we just don't want to do it. We will be able to have a day home each week so we can cook up some stuff to take with us. We also don't have to take all of our clothes, and be prepared for months on the road. We will have some time on the run between Chicago, (actually Aurora, IL) and Gary, Indiana, and a day to a day and a half home each week to take care of stuff, see friends, get some motorcycle riding in, etc. This should make alot of difference for us.
We are also contemplating moving to the Casa Grande, Az area in Oct/Nov. We plan on getting our house ready and either selling or renting it thru a property mgr, get our motorhome from Joplin, and move south when winter hits. If we run this dedicated route good and prove ourselves, maybe we can swap for one out of that area at that time.
Till next time, keep it safe out there!

Like a yo-yo

Pics are from Canyon near Glenwood Springs, Colo, and an overlook in the southern Utah area.

When we are running good miles, it gets difficult to update the blog. I will have to try to get better at this, I keep getting yelled at! :)

From Phoenix we deadheaded to Sante Fe Springs, Ca, right in the middle of LA! Got there nice and early (4:30pm or so) and fixed dinner. Had abit of a suprise there as well. We dropped our empty trailer and went over to the bobtail parking area for the night. I backed into the slot, and looked over at the truck next to us. All the CFI/Conway trucks have a number and it is listed on the front bumper area. The truck next to us was 23242,,,,hmmm that number sounded familiar,,,WAIT, that was my training truck, and the truck Kim and I spent the first month in! WOW, was kinda cool to run into it. There was a team driving it now, to Ladies, one a little older with some experience, and one younger apparently pretty new. Hope they enjoy it!

About midnite we got a "load cancelled" notice. We were to go to Aurora, Ill. Got back on the board, and at 4am got a deadhead to Fontana, CA for a pick-up for Henderson, Co (Denver). Rushed our butts the hour drive over there to find out the load was not ready for another hour, even tho we were told it had a 4am pick-up. No problem, we waited, and got the dispatch to Denver. This day just seemed out of whack for us.. Guess it was because of all the changes. Had a good trip to Denver, nice weather,, no problems going over Vail and Eisenhower passes on I-70. That area can a booger-bear in the winter.

We got a pre-plan on the way to go to Richfield, UT for a relay. Meet a solo driver, and bring the trlr back to Henderson. Then the next morning we had another dispatch from Henderson to Fontana, Ca. HMMM , I think I know the way! We feel abit like the yo-yo, bouncing back and forth from Fontana, to Denver, half way back to Ca, then Denver, back to Cali! At least the weather has held out and it has been a gorgeous drive along I-70.

Got into Fontana last nite about 8pm local and had a 4am pick-up this morning for Butte, Montana. Dispatch told us to check in about 2:45 if we wanted to try to leave early. We did, and got out of there about 3:30. Should be in Butte about 10pm local tonite. These have all been ConWay runs, from terminal to terminal. Sounds like the Butte terminal is not very big, and we mite be stuck there for a little while. Will let you know the next chapter when it happens!

Keep it safe out there

Frustrated at the shop

We got to Belle without any major problems. Stopped in Joplin for fuel on the way and had to put the tractor in the shop for a little while. When you arrive at the terminal, you must go thru an inspection bay and mechanics check over the tractor and trailer. If anything is found, you get to stay awhile. We had a hub on the drive wheel leaking that I knew of, and they found the transmission leaking some. We have time to get a shower while the tractor is being looked at. After about a 2hr delay, we were on our way after refueling. Still made it with about an hour and a half to spare. The guys at Belle had us dock the trailer, then park the bobtail in back row, and said they'd wake us when the next was ready. OH,we got preplanned with a load from there to Phoenix. About 3:30am we got woke up by the guy pounding on the side of the truck. "Hook up to dock 107, but don't pull out yet, we're still finishing loading the last."
This is another weekend pull with alot of extra time. Not due in till 5:30am on Monday. We have all day Fri, Sat, Sun, and will plan on delivering about 3:30-4am monday. This is designed like the dedicated route we filled on, time enough to reset our 70hr clock for the logbooks.
We stopped again at Joplin to fill up Friday nite about 7pm. Just planned on a "splash and go", but nooooooo. Inspection bay says there is a transmission leak, go to shop. "NO!!! That was just taken care yesterday morning, here, look at the work order and notes." Go to inspection bay, still looks like its leaking. DAMMM. OK.
I explain to the service manager what the story is, and he said he'd get it in soon, and have the mechanic check it. About 45min later we were told to pull it in the bay. After a look at the situation, he told us the transmission rear seal was bad and needed replaced. No longer than 2hrs. Ok, guess it's time for another shower!
After the seal was replaced and we were released, we had been up nearly 24hrs, and having a hard time figuring out the arrival times, adjusting for the delay, etc. We had wanted to get to Casa Grande, Az Saturday afternoon for the weekend and spend some downtime with Kim's Aunt and Uncle. We both knew we were too tired to travel if we didn't really have to, so we just parked it at the Joplin terminal and slept till Sat morn.
It will now be midnite or so when we get to the Casa Grande area, but we'll have all day Sunday to visit. We will just have to do what is called a rolling reset for our time. That means one driver is off duty the last 10hrs while the other drives. Then the truck is parked for at least 24hrs. That gives the first driver his/her 34hr reset. The second driver has the 24hrs down then is off the first 10hrs while driver one drives. That gives him 34hrs off duty.
With this dispatch to Phoenix, we will have about 5300mi this week. Not a bad week, and got to visit Dad last Sunday, and Kim's Aunt and Uncle this Sunday. That's what we wanted out of this job, see the country and be able to see family more.
Till next time, keep it safe out there!

Criss-Crossing the Country

We made our delivery to Conway Abilene about 11pm last nite. We had been pre-planned to pick-up a load there at 0330 for Henderson, Co, but it was canx on us about 6pm last nite before we got to Abilene, so we stopped at a Flying J about 7:30. It was only about 15mi from the terminal and we didn't have to deliver till 1159pm. We had a dinner, and took a 2hr nap, then went and delivered. Picked up an empty trailer, and went back about 5mi to a WalMart/gas station that had some truck parking and slept. We had gone on the board when we delivered, but nothing was sent back, so we decided to sleep until they woke us. About 5am I got a phone call from Joplin asking us about the load we were to pick up at 3:30, if we had a trailer, etc. Something got totally lost in the computer, and they screwed up. We headed back to the Conway yard and picked up a load headed to Blythe, Ca.
This load is actually the first HazMat load we have hauled. We couldn't get a load of flammables, or poisons, etc. Nope, they give a load of explosives for our first one. UGH, this will be interesting. We will be a little extra careful on following distances, etc. This means that we also have to stop at all weigh stations/port of entry's instead of being able to bypass most of them like we have in the past. CFI has a EZ Pass, the electronic transponder for the auto weigh, and allows trucks from companies to bypass most of the time. Once in a while you get pulled for a random check of your company's trucks, but not very often.
We also got a pre-plan for Blythe to Belle, West Virginia. This run to Ca is 1034mi dispatch, and the WV trip is 2169mi. That gives us about 3200 for the week so far. Hopefull Friday morning we can get a good dispatch from there and kick us back up to the 5000 range. The last dispatch last week actually ran us 2 days into the payperiod this week (Sun/Mon), so we are on a short week for new trips.
If you see a big red racer out there with Roadie and Wingz on the door, criss-crossing the country, give a wave!
Till next time, keep it safe out there.

Runnin the southwest

Pics are from the Great Southwest area, (arizona or New Mex). This has been a really scenic drive, until we get to great Mojave desert,,lol. Even that is scenic in its own way.

Wow, can't believe its been almost a week since my last update. This run between Dallas, Kettleman City, Ca, and back to Abilene has actually been pretty good. We did the run twice, the last one (we are on it now) was basically a weekend run. Picked up Friday noon in Dallas and headed out. It had some extra time due to the weekend, it didn't have to be in Ca till Monday at 1pm. But,,,(there is always a but,,lol) we had a load to pick up there on Sat nite or Sun morning (again, we got to work with it some because of the weekend time schedule at the Conway yards) and be back in Abilene by midnite Monday. We got the load to Ca. about 7pm Sat nite, and got a good nite sleep, then left about 6am. This run gives us the choice of running US58 across Ca to I-40, to Santa Rosa, NM, then down to Abilene, or go thru LA, and across on I-10/I-20 for a more southern route. The mileage is really close either way. Going west last time, we took the I-40 route, and now headed back east, we decided on the southern route due to weather expected in northern Az and NM. This also allowed us the opportunity to drop down thru Yuma, and spend a few hours with my Dad. He cooked us a nice steak for dinner, (MUCH better than truckstop food), and we restocked our supplies from a local grocery store. As usual, the visit was much too short, but nice to see him and my mom's sis, and cousins.
After leaving Yuma, we headed on east deciding we wanted to get thru Tucson at nite, and shut down about 50mi east of there at a rest area (I told you we had alot of extra time on this run!) Got a good 6hrs sleep there, and now headed to Abilene, gps gives us an ETA of 8pm right now and we have a delivery time of NLT 1159pm.
OK, that's the update on travels. Now for some other ramblings of trucking life.

This last week (Mon-Mon), we covered 6477mi. Thats a good week, AND some good $, esp if we can keep running somewhere around that every week.

We recently upgraded our cooler. The large 12v (40qt) we had just did not seem to cool much more than room temp, so we really couldn't keep any milk etc in it. We got a 110V small refridgerator (1.7cu) and it keeps the stuff really nice and cold without a large power draw on our inverter. It even has a small freezer drawer in it, so we mite have to get a couple ice cream bars and see how that works out. It's a small thing, but sure makes it alot nicer for us.

I think we will get a smaller 12V cooler that will fit between the seats to keep a few cans of soda and juice cold for the driver when the other is in the bunk. The smaller coolers seem to work fine.
I mentioned our GPS. We consider it a real comfort to have it. It always gives us an eta for our destination, as long as we are within 24hrs of it. Knowing that, we can manage our time (sleep breaks, langer stops at rest areas for meals, etc) without worrying about how much time we take, and not real sure of when we will get to the destination.
I guess we are getting more and more accustomed to the travel as we go. This last run from Dallas to Ca, we got a little behind the power curve on our rest at the start. We actually felt like we got caught up and back with it while enroute. That is something we have not been able to do previously until after a run with down time.

Thats about it for now, keep it safe out there!

Another "easy" trip

We had the trip from hell from Joplin to Dallas Monday nite. What should have been an easy 7hr run turned into over 11hrs.
It all started when we got assigned the load, we had to wait till the local driver brought it up from Neosho, and should be about 1:30. We finally were call for the load about 4pm AND told the trailer was in the shop, but should be about done. Hmmmm, this isn't sounding so good. I called the shop and was told to come on over and get it. From there , we fueled and got a truck wash on the way out. It was now just past 5pm and we were due in Lancaster by midnite. Time already is not looking good. Weather is also not on our side. As we head hwy 69, it's raining and snowing some. Temp is about 34, so no real problems, yet.
As we get closer to Texas, the snow really starts flying. So much so, I am having problems seeng the road at times. 20 to 30 miles of this, and I decide its time to shut down. There is about 4in on the ground, the plows haven't made it here yet, and the road is packed with snow and visibility is well, not so good. At the Texas border, I pull into a rest area, and shut down, notifying CFI by Qualcomm and calling in. I get told no problem, the load is ok timewise, and to let them know when we roll. We park and sleep a couple of hours, then take a look. The weather front has made it thru, snow has quit, the plows have been thru, and the ground is warm enought to keep the roads wet. Looks good. Well, at least for the time being. We get about 30 min down the road and find the highway shut down. Apparently 2 trucks got together, and jacknifed. We sat another 2hrs waiting for that to clear.
We FINALLY roll into Lancaster about 4am. I don't think we got a late charge because we were shut down for weather and also the accident. We dropped the trailer, picked up an empty and headed over to ConWay Dallas.
ConWay Dallas is close to downtown, luckily it was 5am so not much traffic yet. We checked in, and picked up our next assigned trailer. It was not a hazmat load.
This trip was not bad at all. It had some extra time on it, not due in till 2pm in Kettleman City, Ca. After we were rolling for awhile, GPS had us in at 6am local if we didn't stop. We rolled until I just too tired near Phoenix, and parked in a rest area for a 2hr nap. I really didn't want to because that puts us going thru LA at 6am instead of 4am, but there was no choice.
LA was the zoo I expected going thru during the morning rush time. We have to wonder why people CHOOSE to do that on a daily basis. Oh well, we were not up against the clock, so we just took our time. We followed I-10 in till we took Cali 57 north a few miles to hook up with I-210. That took us across the north side of LA till we hooked up with I-5, and came north to Kettleman City. We stopped at a Pilot about 30mi from our destination, fueled, showered, and finished the trip.
When we arrived at the Conway yard here, it was dead. The security guard checked us in, we dropped the trailer, and parked and slept a couple of hours. Our next load is not to pick up till 4am so we are relaxing a little.
Next load has us going from here back to Abilene, Tx which is about a 1450mi run. The last was 1580mi., plux the 366mi from Joplin to Lancaster, so we are putting 'em down now some.
I think this time we'll take I-40 out to Santa Rosa, NM, then cut down thru Lubbock to Abilene. Only concern is going thru Flagstaff Az and Albuquerque, NM and the weather. It is great here now, and looks like it should clear out there as we head that way.
Time for some more sleep till our 3am wake up call. Till next time, keep it safe out there!

Safety and Anniv. Weekend

We had a great visit with family and friends in SLC, then went on the board Tuesday morning. We were parked at Sage (our driving school) and just hung around and visited all day. About 1pm we finally got notified of a load to pick up at the local ConWay yard about 5 mi away. The only thing about it was it did not have a pick up time until 10am the next morning. That evening we decided to go over and fuel up and just sleep at the Conway yard till morning. I checked in about 7:30 and the load was ready. We were headed to the Chicago area(Aurora). It was a fairly uneventful run tho we were a little tired during the overnite portion. We got used to sleeping again real fast!
From Aurora, we were sent to Indianpolis to pick up a load headed for Dallas. We were beginning to think we weren't going to make it to Joplin for the weekend. We dropped that load, got an empty and started to head over to the Lancaster yard, when the Qualcomm chirped. We had a load to pick up at the place we JUST delivered to, and head to Joplin for a relay. This load and the last from Indy to Dallas was John Deere equipment. We turned around and headed back, loaded up, and headed for Joplin.
Got in to HQ about 9:30pm Friday nite and had a good rest. During the 3 days out (Wed-Fri) we covered a little over 3000mi. The loads were back to back, so we didn't get much chance to rest with the truck parked.
Saturday morning we attended the monthly safety meeting. We ran into my trainer, Jim (Fist of Five) and sat thru some discussions on the new 07 engines and the way they burn off the particles that a new filter traps, keeping the exhaust clean. Kinda like a self cleaning oven, the system just gets real hot, and has a tail pipe temp in the 900degree range while it cleans itself. This will be down the road for us, we have an 06 engine, and they are running 350,000mi before trade in now. We have about 24000 on ours.
They awarded a group of new million mile drivers and the drivers/teams of the month also then had some drawings. I won a $40 gift card to Chile's/Macaroni Grill resturaunts.
That afternoon we took the shuttle to the mall and just hung out for awhile, kinda nice. Then we went back to the Holiday Inn and got a room for the weekend. It's our 15yr anniversary on Thurs, so we are enjoying this weekend since we will probably be running our tails off after we leave here. The weekend included a nice dinner at the Outback.
Back to work this morning. We had to get new ConWay ID cards and a new access card for me. (lost my orig). Took the shuttle to Wal-Mart, stocked up on food, and back on the board.
We are now waiting on a local driver bringing a load from La-Z-Boy in Neosho for us to take to Lancaster (Dallas), then we are pre-planned a load to go to Kettleman City, Ca. It looks like it will be a hazmat load. That will be a first for us, so we'll have see how this goes. They do pay us a little more to drive a hazardous materials (hazmat) load.
During our time at the terminal here, we did have a chance to meet with Ed (Gadabout) from our forum (cfidrivers.com). Kinda nice to meet and put a face to people we get to know over the road.
Till next time, keep it safe out there.