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.
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.
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!
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