Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

Update:

This is the first time I have had internet access since starting this last phase of training. Here is (hopefully will be) an update since I first went out with my mentor this past Tuesday.

Tuesday 2/12
My mentor drove us up to our pickup spot, trailer in tow. We drove from Sumner, WA to Snoqualmie, WA to pick up our load. I had my first interaction with a shipper/client. They were cool, sent me to my door to be loaded and we docked. I didn't dock the trailer. Pallets were heard being loaded almost immediately and before we knew it a client rep was outside having me close the trailer doors and he sealed it. I locked it. I got into the driver seat and we were on our way. My first "real" driving experience was underway.

I should back up a tiny bit for a second.

My mentor's truck is a 2008 Freightliner Columbia with about a half a million miles on it. I drove this same type of truck endless times on the range going straight and directly back, more times than I care to remember. Transmission shifts a little differently than the Volvo I used for my Swift road test and CDL road test. This truck is an 8 speed with a granny low (so 9 speed I guess?). Our truck is white and says "Swift" along the side.

I began driving east on I-90 across the Cascades. It was clear, no snow on the roadway. Everything went well. A little bit of grinding gears but nothing major. Roads weren't anything to worry about.

We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in western Montana for the night. I slept well.


Wed. 2/13

Woke up in a reststop near Drummond, MT. Brushed my teeth outside the truck, did a 1/2 hour pretrip, wiped down the mirrors and windshield and we were off. I drove through the never ending state of Montana just barely making it over the state line before stopping for the night in Belle Fourche, South Dakota at a Pilot truck stop. It was 22:30 and I was beat from all that Montana driving.

To rewind a little, I don't remember all the mountain passes I drove up and down through Idaho and Montana but it seemed never ending. I do remember the name Fourth of July pass but not much else. The roads were sketchy here and there along the way that day. There were times where I had to putt down the passes slowly and there seemed to be a lot of night time driving. I was the slowest person on the road by far. Everyone passed me but that's ok.

So, I'm not sure of all the big rig driving etiquette but I'm trying. When a rig goes to pass me whether it be on the lane to my left (lane travel of the same direction) or over the broken dotted line, I try to get off the gas some and slow a little to make passing easier. I know for a while I had two rigs stuck behind me as I crawled along in some slushy conditions up and down the mountains. I can say that I won't lose my license to accomodate someone else but I will do my best to get out of the way. Wasn't sure if I should move to the shoulder a little bit when getting passed by another rig that has passed over the broken line but I heard I shouldn't so I don't. But I do slow down some when getting passed. Hate to hold people up but there's not much I can do safely and legally at times.


Thurs. 2/14 - Valentine's Day and I'm single

So, we were at the Pilot in Bella Fourche, South Dakota. I woke up after feeling like my mentor was driving somewhere. He wasn't. Apparently strong winds will make the truck feel like it's moving even when it is not. I got my shower bag together and went inside the Pilot. $10 later I had ordered a shower. No wait. Shower was surprisingly pleasant. Much bigger, cleaner and newer than the ones at the terminals I have found. When I went into the Pilot to shower it was freezing cold but relatively clear skies. When I got out of the shower and went down to the register to pay for a breakfast sandwich and some smokes it was near whiteout conditions outside. Snow was blowing at some ungodly speed and visibility was near 0. Weird. I went in and it was sunny and came out shortly thereafter and it was these weird whiteout conditions. I went outside to just stand there on the windless side of the building and watch the world go by. Within minutes it was sunny again and the storm system had passed. Minutes later another whiteout condition quickly blew in again and then disappeared.

South Dakota is strange.

I headed out on the road. I was either at the Pilot in Bella Fourche or Rapid City, according to my Qualcomm. The roads were somewhat poor as snow was blowing sideways across the pavement gathering on the shoulders of the tire tracks I was following. Nothing deep but it just kept blowing. I did notice some highway restricting arms that must be lowered across the roadway in the worst conditions, closing it off. The road was still open for us so I carried on at about 40-45 mph. Wasn't getting passed too much. Break in Murdo, SD and then back on the road again.

At some point in SD I approached a bridge following a river. There were snow plows out, two of them. They were salting or sanding and they were in a staggered pattern in the right and left lanes. I went around them, over a bridge over a river and then approached a slight incline. There was a rig going very slowly up this hill on the right. He was probably doing about 20 mph. We were closing in on him so I was told to move to the left to go around. No sooner did I realize that this hill was almost a sheet of ice and was told to go around this slow truck did I begin to slip. As I moved to the lane to the left of him my trailer kicked out a little and lost traction. Definitely a "oh ####e" moment but I regained control quickly. I began passing him to his left. It was 3 lanes and I decided to take the middle lane but so as not to be too close to him in these conditions I took over part of the left lane as well so I had distance between us. It was slick as hell and I couldn't go much slower for fear of more sliding and possibly sliding backwards so I kept my speed maintained and headed up the hill. Of course a woman in a little Honda SUV felt it necessary to pass me on my left as I'm going up this hill causing more stress. Unbelievable. Made it up the hill ok and that was the only real fear of most of the trip. Almost had to change the drawers for a moment but I kept the undergarments streak free thankfully.

I did pass the exit for the famous Wall Drug but couldn't see it from the road. Also passed that corn palace or whatever but couldn't see it from the highway. I did see a sign for the Spam Museum but unfortunately we couldn't stop for that either.

Snow continued to blow sideways across the highway throughout the duration.

It was Valentine's Day and since I'm single it didn't play any part in my day. That's a good thing. Never liked that holiday anyway and when I was with my wife we never celebrated it. That was one thing I will give to her in her favor, that we could agree it was a stupid holiday.

We stopped for the night in a rest area in St. Charles, MN.


Friday, 2/15

Something I noticed the night before while driving through MN. There was an unbelievable amount of star visible. I waxed philosophical for a long while during a break, just staring up at nature's planetarium before me. As always, when looking up at stars on a clear night, I felt so very small and things in my life seemed just as insignificant. Such a great feeling to just look up and realize that our lives as well as those around us are not such a big deal in the overall scheme of things. For some reason it seemed like I could see more stars than ever and the constellations I could remember were more visible than usual. Maybe it's the never ending overcase skies of W. Washington or maybe it's the light pollution from the Seattle/Tacoma metro area but I was absolutely amazed looking up here on a cold night in Minnesota. Awestruck completely.

So I woke up in La Crescent, MN just across the state line from La Crosse, Wisconsin. Ahhhh, finally some traffic to make things interesting. Traffic, relatively speaking of course. Montana must be the longest state and one of the lonliest I have ever driven across. I was happy now to see some cars and some billboards for cheese. Drove through Wisconsin seeing signs for the "House on the Rock". I remember that place from a roadtrip years ago. Built by some eccentric nutjob that carried his own materials up the "mountain" to build his dreamhome. Now we pay a hefty admission fee to see his madness. No stopping for us for cheese or crazy houses as we met more traffic closing in on Chicago. State of Illnois passed uneventfully enough and a long ways outside and approaching Chicago we hit a lot of traffic. I think it started somewhere near Schaumburg, IL and just got worse and worse. Since I lived in Chicago for a few years back in the late '90s the traffic immediately brought me back to my memories. The cars buzzed around in front of me like little scurrying rodents as I crawled along relaxed...2nd gear, 3rd gear, back to 2nd gear, down to 1st. I had the radio on some classic rock station and was enjoying myself immensely. I saw my old stomping grounds as I passed the Jackson St. exit on I-90 and snuck a few quick glimses of the skyline I love so much.

I gotta say, as a native NY'r I do love the Chicago skyline. I would say almost as much, if not more so. I would argue the same about the food. My first experience years ago living in Chicago was being asked whether I wanted my brat on a bun "dipped" or "not dipped". Me, not knowing what the hell this guy was talking about opted for the adventurous route and requested "dipped". First time I realized that something already pretty fattening could be made more fattening by dipping it into grease, bun and all. Glorious, delicious and positively satisfying.

Traffic continued to creep and jolt along until I was way south of downtown. It broke up after some tolls where the highway headed towards northern Indiana.

Something I noticed about Chicago tolls. There are an inordinate number of people that get in the wrong lane or otherwise find the need to backup once they are positioned in front of the toll's arm. Not sure why this was but it happened at a few tolls although luckily didn't affect me or the lane I was going into.

I also noticed that weigh stations are all different, or at least to me. Some have different systems and procedures. I'm trying to get used to them as quickly as possible.

Our load was relatively light at 17,000 lbs. so weigh stations were not an issue. We were never stopped for any inspections and it was mostly a carefree experience.

We were originally heading to Ithaca, NY to drop our load but we decided it would be better to T-call it instead. We were given the green light to T-Call it in Gary, Indiana (given the green light somewhere back in Wisconsin) so we headed that way.

Trailer was dropped in Gary, ID (technically E. Chicago) and we parked there for the night. I was a little disappointed (well, maybe a lot disappointed) that the Gary terminal did not have wifi. I took my first terminal shower and I would say it wasn't terrible but I prefer the pilot. But it was better than nothing so I don't want to complain. The terminal was smaller than the one back in Washington and had the usual array of vending machines. I've been eating out of these vending machines ever since, mostly either the Sausage, Egg and Cheese on a muffin or the large cheeseburger for $2.50. We spent that night watching the Game Show Network with a few other truckers yelling out answers to contestants on tv that were apparently ignoring our knowledge of trivia. I never knew Jerry Springer was back in action hosting his own game show.

Saturday 2/16, Sunday 2/17
Still waiting on a load. More tv watching and no internet. I wasn't planning on being here at the terminal so long without a load and ran out of smokes and cold medicine. I got a small cold the other night from air blowing out of the vent in the top bunk I think. My only option was to walk into Gary, ID to get some smokes and some Dayquil/Nightquil. And some milk because I miss it.

The closest and easiest gas station was 2.6 miles away in Gary. I headed out past the Gary International Airport. As I walked I noticed chunks of coal on the ground along the way as I walked along in the grass near the shoulder, away from the occasional passing traffic. I was thinking this must be coal that dropped off of trucks back in the day when the steel mills were still open in Gary, before the city went under. Back in its glory days I would imagine. I continued on over some railroad tracks and past a housing project until I reached the gas station. The gas station clerk behind the plexiglass seemed surprised to see me with my milk in hand ready to purchase. I got my one shot packs of Dayquil and Nightquil, my milk and smokes and headed back to the terminal. It was 17 degrees F and was a cold journey there and back.

We are waiting for a load tomorrow morning. There was some kind of screw up from when we t-called the trailer on Friday.

Tonight I am at the Gary, Indiana Pilot. Oddly enough there is a security guard standing guard inside. $5 bucks for internet for the night, no complaints as I miss my web access.