Great start - bad finish

I am currently on my way to Colorado for an early delivery Monday morning. I have two drops, but they are only 4 miles apart. Once unloaded, I will more than likely be heading to the meat patch. We call it meat patch because we pick up either in Holcomb, Dodge City, or Liberal, KS and it’s at a meat packing facility. There is a lot of meat going out of there daily!!! They are usually heavy loads as well.

I did end up getting the load from Salinas, CA going to Cleburne, TX. Was a nice run and, believe it or not, I actually had to turn on my heater to knock off the chill when I got up in Salinas! It was 50-52 degrees with a west wind. Was rather nice, because when I delivered load in TX, it was 102! Once I got unloaded, that is when the “fun” began. I got unloaded, received paperwork back from customer, cleared gate guard, and was sitting outside their facility waiting for my next load assignment. I got a message from our OS&D (Overage, Shortage, and Damage) department, telling me to take the refused product to another location in Fort Worth. I thought they had the wrong truck, so I called them and told them I was empty and had already checked out and sent in my empty call. That I was currently waiting for my next load assignment. They said they got an email from customer stating they were going to refuse 165 cases because of the “sell by date”. That I was going to have to go back in and get loaded back and deliver them to another location. Needless to say, I was not happy as I was “done” with that particular trip. They sent me a message stating that everything was taking care of and that I was released for next load. I get a load assignment and head out to next shipper. I get to Fort Worth and OS&D sent another message stating that corporate emailed and said we had to pick up the refused product and take to another location. I had to turn around, pick up product, and deliver it the next morning. I was able to keep my next load, which is the one I am on. It was a very frustrating day and was glad when I was able to shut down and relax.

Onto a lighter note. People watching can be rather interesting. I was in Moriarty, NM at the TA Truck Stop doing laundry. I usually play games or check up on Facebook on my phone during this time. However, this day, it was more fun watching people. When you come into the TA from truck parking area, there is a sign hanging from ceiling pointing to laundry room (left) and showers, bathroom (right). If you were coming from the store side it would be just the opposite. Now, when you look down the hall, you see showers and where the hallway opens up at the end indicating more of the hallway. People were coming down and when they turned to go down hallway, they would stop and look around. Walk back out and look up at sign and look back down hallway. Some would continue down and find bathroom, while others would simply walk back to store. I guess they were asking for directions or figured, I really don’t have to go that bad. I watched this for over an hour and found it rather amusing how easily people either got confused, didn’t understand arrow, or didn’t have the confidence to find the bathroom. Maybe the TA should have a person there to hold their hand and lead them to the bathroom. Better yet, print a map!

Until next time

God Bless and Safe Travels

Got paper towels?

Well, I am back. Now that I am able to connect via laptop, it is much easier to update the blog. So, I do apologize for the absence and look forward to posting more in the near future. However, Mikey has done a pretty good job holding the fort down.

There is a funny story for the title and I will use it to get back into the swing of things. Last night (7/22/11) I stopped in Deming, NM for the night. After my meal, I went into the convenient store portion of the truck stop/travel plaza. After looking on their shelves for paper towels and find none, I processed to the cashier. I asked him if they possibly had any paper towels. He asked back, “which bathroom was out?” I informed him that I was looking for the paper towels that come on a cardboard roll, white, and wrapped in plastic that I can buy, I ran out earlier that day. He stated he didn’t know and that I should ask the maintenance guy. I’m thinking, maintenance guy? Whatever, so I found the maintenance guy and when he turned around, I knew I was not going to get anywhere. But, I had to ask. I asked him the same question, and believe it or not, got the same answer about which bathroom. Do they run out a lot or something!? I describe what I was looking for once and he then tells me the kitchen may have that. THE KITCHEN! What in the world is the kitchen doing selling paper towels!!?? I looked on menu earlier and didn’t see any paper towels. I just told both of them not to worry about it, I will check at my next stop. I am now wondering if there is another name for paper towels.

My current travels are taking me to Stockton, CA for a Monday morning delivery. I am currently pre-planned on a load picking up in Salinas, CA heading to Cleburne, TX and I hope they don’t pull it off of me. It should be a good trip.

Please send any feedback on these blogs. It helps to know that real people are actually reading them and gives us an idea of which way to go with it. Look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time,

God Bless and Safe Travels
John

Back on the Left Coast

When I got to the shipper in Illinois to pick up this load I found out that it in fact didn't load until 4:00 in the afternoon rather than at 5am so I had to sit all day waiting for it to get ready.  That messed up my entire trip plan and I ended up having to run as hard as I could to get it there on time but it all worked out and I made my delivery.  Running that hard was definitely tiring and alot of my driving was done at night which gets especially hard around 4am!
I made my delivery in the wee hours of the morning and they didn't have any empty trailers so I am sitting waiting for them to empty some out and then its off to Bakersfield, CA to pick up going to Iowa.

One of the things I like about taking time off is that when I go back out on the road I usually get to take some pretty good eats with me.  This time I got to take some pork chops from Mom's and had those for dinner for a couple nights with some rice pilaf or long grain rice.  They are long since gone and I am back to that wonderful microwave cuisine that I am so fond of!

I got my new phone while off and the jury is still out on whether I like it or not.  I got the new Thunderbolt from HTC and it is 4G capable but that market is pretty slim right now.  The screen is extremely touchy unlike my Blackberry Storm that you had to actually push on the screen for it to do what you wanted.  That push on the screen thing isn't such a bad thing when you are driving down the road and your finger is bouncing while trying to push a button on the phone!  I'm having a couple issues with this new phone that I am trying to get resolved.  The phone restarts without notice and the bluetooth won't stay connected.  Verizon gave me a couple things to try and if they don't work they will replace the phone for me.  I tried one of the things and it didn't work so I am doing the second one now and we will see.

The trip out here was pretty uneventful, partly because most of it was at night but it was extremely hot in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona topping 100 in all 3 places and had some pretty strong t-storms in Arizona but no haboob to watch cover the city of Phoenix.  As a matter of fact, as I drove thru Phoenix I was not able to see any evidence of that dust storm then hit there just a few days ago!  I was surprised.

John is going home this coming week and plans on bringing his laptop out with him on this next trip.  He is still complaining about writing in the blog using his phone.  Something about sore thumbs!  Maybe once he has his laptop out here we will be treated to some of his wonderful insights into the world of trucking.  Until next time...

Happy Trails
Mike

Busy, Busy, Busy

It has been about a month since I last wrote on here and it has been a very busy month.  I decided to see if I could make a difference in the amount of miles I was getting as well as how much I was sitting between loads by developing relationships with the planners at work and contacting them directly for my loads.  It has worked out quite well and I was able to keep my miles at a consistent level.  There are a few areas of this new strategy that I need to tweak to make it work even better yet but in time I will have it down to a science.

Last week I had my lovely wife ride with me for the week.  This was her first time riding in a truck for any length of time and when it was over, she was very sore but said she enjoyed it.  We ran pretty hard when she was with me so we didn't get to have much free time to see sights or do extra things while out there on the road.  I had planned on stopping at a couple places up thru Oklahoma and Missouri but those plans went out the window when our loads didn't take us anywhere near those areas.  We ended our trip in Elkhart, IN at my mothers house where we had a 4th of July party with my sisters and their families.  It was a great time and we spent a bunch of money on fireworks and put on a pretty good show for the whole neighborhood.  We had our party on July 3rd cuz my daughter Jenn and her boyfriend had to leave on the 4th to drive back to Florida.  We did go to Richard and Pam's house on the 4th for their party and had a great time and enjoyed another fireworks show there.  I think I've had my share of fireworks for this year!!

My mother and I drove to Chicago yesterday to take Lisa to the airport so she could fly back to Florida and on the way back stopped at White Castle and bought 50 Sliders to eat for dinner (some were for my sisters too) and we devoured those when we got back to mom's house.

I expected to leave today but when I called in for my load I found that the freight in this area was running light so I had to wait.  I got a call early this afternoon letting me know they had a load for me but it doesn't pick up until 0500 tomorrow.  I will be heading to California for a Monday delivery.

I will update from out on the road but for now I need to get ready to take off so until then.

Happy Trails
Mike