Thanks To All Here

thanks for this ben. I'll add it to the list. big lake is about 75 miles south of us. we'll head that way next week. thanks again!

 

I'm excited! Garden City is where I want to be! If you can't PM just email me at cooley@mtnhome.com. Thanks a million Jon.

 

Update:

The more we drive around the more we want to focus on the Garden City area. Sure, there are still several other good places in the area. Midland, Odessa, etc. still hiring. For us we'll try to land jobs in Garden City, Big Spring, Stanton, even Snyder. Here's the surprises to date:

1. Hiring Activity - Seems many of the crews went home for the holidays. After running around for several days and a few hundred miles in the area we can say we saw many yards with trucks in them. The RV park we live in is filled mostly with long-term oil field workers. The park is full of RVs with nobody home. Many of the man-camp type places also quiet. Several people have told us that this year many oil field workers did take over two weeks off. Seems things will not pick back up again until Monday, Jan. 6. Across the road from us is a water pickup station. Trucks have been coming and going. And we have seen many water, sand, and crude trucks on the roads. So not all is dead. Some have said that companies do their hiring at the start of the new year and not in December. Don't know how true that is, but no reason to doubt it at this point.

2. The Weather - Not very cold but gets cold enough at night to freeze RV water lines. We've been taking in the water hose every night. Got frustrated with that so priced out the cost of heat tapes and related materials to head both the hydrant and the hose. Turns out that an actual heated RV hose would cost only $20 more, so that is what we did. 30 foot heated hose was $110. Also had to heat-tape the hydrant. Don't want to trickle a faucet for several reasons so this is all we could do. We're not used to the constant wind, but will get used to it eventually. Good for H2S conditions though.

3. Job Hunt - Have spent quite a bit of time going to loading and unloading points to get company names and numbers off trucks. Also use laptop to look at classified ads in several area newspapers. Not many ads right now. Not seeing very many banners saying "CDL Drivers Needed". Stopped in a few places, doors locked, nobody there. Must be the holiday thing. At some places people were there, but not those who do the hiring. Secretaries gave us cell phone numbers, we'd call, no answers, left messages, no call-backs. Hopefully all of this will change next week.

4. The Flu - Been seeing in the papers stories about 6 people in Texas dying of the flu this month. Man next door has daughter in hospital with it. And we got it now. Very frustrating as we don't want to take road tests when this sick. We both have driven with the flu and it sucks. Our eyes look like we just blew a big doobie - not a great way to creative a good first impression.

5. No Relatives Hired - What few contacts we have made all told us, "Policy does not allow us to hire husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, etc." We wondered about this. Strange to us since we drove team, as do so many other husbands and wives we know. Apparently they worry about fights, jealousies, etc. Apparently has been a problem in the past? We really don't mind working at separate companies, but it will limit us as we both need to live in the same RV.

6. Lifestyle - Seems the best Walmart and other shopping is in Midland. When driving OTR we got into Walmarts all across America, in many states. The Big Spring Walmart does not have many of the items found in most other Walmarts we have been in. I've never been in a HEB until now and I really liked it. Also enjoying Harris Hardware in Big Spring. Nice to find an old-fashioned hardware store!

7. Thanks Again - Two people reading this thread PMed jobs that we followed up on. Thanks! Still have not heard back, guess it is the Holiday thing. Also thanks to all who also gave us other ideas.

8. Housing - We have seen what appear to be several man-camp type facilities. Most also have RV spots too. They are all modular housing - on pavement which is nice here. However, rentals remain a challenge, especially in Midland-Odessa. We have seen three new RV parks being built - One in Colorado City off I-20 behind the Stripes, another in Big Spring off I-20, and another one near Coahoma off I-20.

9. Big Lake - We have heard from several good sources, one a relative who has a water hauling company using only owner-operators, that Big Lake is about to start a lot of drilling.

10. Snyder - Not sure here. We drove all around Snyder. Apparenlty only about 6 active rigs. Apparently drillers there are trying to decide if that huge but deep Cline is worth going after or not. We were there on New Years day and saw quite a few trucks on the road, but many more in the yards.

All for now, will post again in about a week.