The start of my first year with Swift.

The guy who loaded you asked for food money? Never had that happen to me. Kind of strange. About that TA in Ontario I agree the service in the restaurant is great. in fact that is my favourite truck stop ever. The only draw back is the $20 parking fee but for it you get a lot patrolled by security so no peddlers or prostitutes bothering you.

 

Big discussion in the "experienced drivers" forum on ABS if your intersted...

 

Interesting about that shipper needing lunch money. Just sounds odd. I would have given him something also just out of the fact of it being weird if anything else. I would think he was really down on this luck to ask people for money or he has quite the hustle going on. Maybe you will bump into him again later and the situation will be more clear.

Good info about the TAs. I had no idea they charged you to park at some of them. That's surprising.

One thing I get from the recent posts is that you definitely need to be flexible and know that things don't nearly go as planned. At all it seems. Good to hear that it is going well overall. Sounds like you are getting decent runs overall.

What is your weekly mileage like currently?

 

Oh, hey, I forgot to ask you. Who was your favorite instructor in Lewiston?

We are finishing our first week up tomorrow. I guess they have some kind of videos planned from what I hear. We have a shorter day tomorrow as we start at 6 AM like normal but we are skipping the 1/2 hour lunch and just going to work thru 4 PM instead of 5:30 PM.

Is it just me or does everyone smoke there? Did everyone smoke in your class in Lewiston? I'm an ex-smoker but I am one of 3 or 4 people out of 11 in my class that doesn't smoke or dip. The other class a week ahead of us is almost full of all smokers. Doesn't bother me but I found it surprising. It's been really tough for me being around it as I quit a little under a month ago after smoking for almost 30 years. I struggle through it everyday and probably not a day goes by that I feel some envy wishing I was hanging out being social with the smokers and enjoying myself. As it is, I stay away from the fire barrel that has been a smoker congregation lately.

My favorite trainer so far is probably Brent. He has, what sounds like, a Louisiana accent. Sometimes I wish he had his own closed captioning running underneath him as you can't alway understand what he is saying with that accent. Regardless, I like him the best probably. Very cool guy and down to earth. We talk about his family and different things daily. Everyone else is cool.

Sounds like us Washington (or "WaRshingtin" as Brent would say) guys will be driven over to Pasco to take our CDL test when that time comes. No 3rd party tester for us at the range.

The weather here is better than Tacoma. It may be cold but the snow is nice and I actually see sun sometimes. Weird as I almost forgot what that was for a while in Tacoma. During the down time when I'm bored on the range waiting for a truck I look west up to the surrounding hills on the Lewiston grade and watch the cows as they climb up the sides of the steep hills. There is a beagle that runs loose every morning towards the same direction every day. He is smart enough to not cut through the training range and heads out towards that dock area. At the end of the day he comes back towards where he originally came. He repeats the process daily. It's as if he is putting in a full day of work somewhere. Just one of the other things I observe during the slow times. I also keep smelling the pulp mill smell often and also the cow crap stink from the place up on the hill. Its cool to see the weather come in as it manifests itself up on the Lewiston grade. Sometimes I can see it snowing up on top while we are dry down below. I like it here overall and I have my own hotel room so added bonus. I think the Cedars Inn is pretty nice. No complaints from me and we have a free continental breakfast I take advantage of every morning. The pranks have begun and I spent about 1/2 hour today with my switcher in the up position (unknown to me) while I was doing straight line backing. So instead of starting out in low gear I was starting in 5th everytime. No wonder I was going so fast and fast in reverse also. Pranksters. Good times.

 

Hey Sheriff how things going? In Albuquerque trminal with my mentor. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it was cold here this morning. Hope we head back east where it's a bit warmer and closer to home.

 

There are many people that hang out where trucks go, asking for money.

try no to make eye contact! Lol

 

you could always give them Swift recruiting brochures...lol you're giving them something! tell them if they get hired on you get a bonus..its a win win! that will leave them stumped..