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

Yeah, pretty much. I have the top bunk in the truck. I basically put my big duffel bag at the head of the bunk and put my CPAP machine on top of it at night. There is an inverter down below where I plug it in. I set it up like a tiny bedroom for me.

I have use of one of the storage cabinets which I can reach either standing from the floor or reaching over from the top bunk. It has two shelves. Top shelf is for my bookbag whereby I keep my laptop for ease of access. Bottom shelf is for bottles of water and a soda along with my hats and sweatshirt to place at night. In the morning when I wake up I just reach over, open the cabinet door and toss my hat and sweatshirt on. For ease of changing I just sleep with whatever I'm wearing during the day. Not really what I like but that will change once I go solo. I'll be more comfortable then.

I've already lost my nice little insulated Thinsulate waterproof work gloves from Harbor Freight. They were pretty cheap but #### it I liked them. I keep some things in the driver door pocket and apparently, one at a time, my gloves jumped ship.

My mentor hooked up his satellite radio and I love it. Can't wait to get one in my truck. I would recommend it to anyone. I gotta say my favorite stations are the Z100 out of NYC since I used to listen to it daily back home. I also love the old '60s and '70s music stations as well as the "Foxxhole" (Jamie Foxx's station) and the all comedy channel. Satellite radio is awesome and helps to pass the time so much.

I'm trying to have a system for everything in the truck. I have just the standard mattress there and use my sleeping bag as bedding and covers. I have just enough room, slightly scrunched, with my duffel bag at the head of the bunk. The cool thing about the Columbia truck is that there is a window at the foot of my bed and at the head. It has a cool little screen window and a pop out bottom window. Tons of ventilation up there if I need it.

For my OWN truck...
- Satellite Radio definitely. Did I mention 2 different Howard Stern radio stations and a salsa music station?
- Slow cooker
- mini Fridge
- inverters (300w I think?)
- CB possibly
- Go Pro 3 Black camera to mount on the dash when I'm driving and on my helmet when I ride.
- my laptop
- not sure about getting a small flatscreen tv to watch movies or maybe upgrade my laptop to a 17" (currently the 15.4")
- PS3 to play bluerays or another XBOX360
- lots of things to organize everything else and be anal
- cleaning supplies (something currently lacking)

My mentor's truck only has a broken cb and the satellite radio due to room restrictions.

Every day is fun. Enjoying it despite the speed bumps.

Thanks Zasshu. Not sure how to answer that here....hmmm....

That makes sense then. I always thought that Gary's demise was due to the steel mill shutting down. Maybe it was from the Jackson 5 leaving town...

Interesting. I did not know that. As night time came there were two security guards chatting inside and their vehicle was parked out front. People working there were friendly as can be.

I went in there at night to buy something and I noticed a clerk throwing out some corndogs. She was getting ready to throw out 4 cheeseburgers when I asked her if they were going to mark them down as an end of day discount, kind of half joking. She said "go ahead and take them 'sugar'". I jumped at the opportunity and scored 3 regular cheeseburgers and a double bacon cheeseburger for FREE. I ate them over the next two days resulting in a not so happy stomach.

I've never heard that about Chattanooga. Something to keep in mind. I have heard about Flint though. I think it is taking the homocide title from Gary recently. I think I drove by Dayton a few days ago on the way up to this place in Michigan.

What is a yard dog? I'm thinking this isn't an actual canine? I miss my dogs so much that I give tons of love to all dogs I come across lately on the road. However if this 'yard dog' is an old bearded gentleman, he won't be getting any love from me.

Yar, me thinks he sounds like a pirate.

Got a Love's and a Pilot/TA card now. I didn't realize that the Pilot and TA were linked together so I got one from each place although they were both linked. I didn't realize it right away.

I already earned and used one shower and I think I earned another the other day.

I love the idea of getting store credit with the card as well. It's come in handy and every little bit helps.

Just realized that. I had to get rid of one of my cards since it was becoming redundant and confusing with two different, yet the same cards. Now I just have the one plus the Love's card. No credits on my Love's card yet.

 

Good idea about saving the points. I'm also going to try and get as many as I can get my hands on. I know Swift uses certain places to fuel most of the time. It seems like Loves and Pilot are the two big players. I'll get the other cards tho just in case.

 

Monday 2/18 - 2/21....finally a load going somewhere warm.

A possible fatality, a possible tornado and the highest interchange imaginable.....



THE LOAD:
We finally got a load and a good one....well, as things go, it didn't really work out perfectly at first.

Initially we were scheduled to pick up a trailer in Michigan, south of Detroit and bring it to Denver. Sounded good to me. Plenty of miles and no more Gary, ID. No offense to Gary but I was tired of sitting there waiting.

We went to the shipper somewhere just south of Detroit. This was one of my first shipper visits. We parked in the bullpen and I was handed the paperwork by my mentor and walked over to the security booth to check in. I try to be somewhat chipper, not necessarily my nature, but I try anyway when it comes to interactions such as these. It didn't work. My upbeat "Good morning!" was met with a "hurumppp" by the security guard checking drivers in. No big deal as I had a job like that once and thoroughly hated my job checking in/out trucks as well. I understand but #### you anyway as I wouldn't normally be this chipper anyway. I was pointed to a phone on the wall and instructed to wait with my truck in the bullpen until called on my cellphone to report to a certain dock.

As I walked back to my truck another company driver waved me over. I thought she was going to ask me a general question about the check in process or maybe something about Swift but that was not her intentions. She immediately asked me quite seriously whether I was the mentor. I stated that I was not, I was simply the trainee. She had an issue with my mentor and based on his actions had thought I was the mentor. She was surprised to learn I was not. Things went south from there, although not involving me. Let's just leave it at that.

A long, long time later we were called to a certain dock. I moved the truck and docked it pretty successfully. There was plenty of room so no major issues after a few G.O.A.L's and some pulling up adjustments.

Six hours later we were loaded up.


LOAD CANCELED BUT NOT ALL IS LOST:
We went to the local Pilot south of us and parked for the night. I went to sleep after eating and playing with Facebook on my phone. At some point during the night my mentor received the Qualcomm message that our Denver run was cancelled. Not sure why but it was. We were offered a few more short runs and he refused them. At some point we were offered a load down here to Laredo, TX and my mentor took it.

I am currently here using the Laredo, TX terminal's free wifi. Nice. Oh, and I should mention that I'm wearing shorts, it is not raining and the temperature is absolutely perfect.

So, to rewind a little....


BAD WEATHER AND A POSSIBLE FATALITY.....
We left Michigan and immediately it was snowing pretty bad. I would say it was probably the worst snow I have seen thus far. I thought Montana and South Dakota were kind of tough with the snow but I think Michigan was sligtly worse, with the exception of the MT/ID mountain passes of course. It was tough driving to say the least.

Here is what I observed as I cut through Michigan, Northern Indiana and part of Illinois - all in the course of one night:
- passed one rig on the other side of the hwy. facing the wrong way. Cops present.
- passed a rig jack knifed in the median. Looked like it slid quite a ways before ending up like that.
- passed another rig on my side of the hwy. that ran into the ditch. No cops present and looked like it must have occured hours earlier.
- passed at least 2 cars in different locations that spun out. One was facing the wrong way on the other side of the hwy in the shoulder.

Finally I had my "oh ####" moment of my own in respect to the foul weather. Somewhere south of Chicago in Illinois I was traveling in heavy, fast moving traffic. Most likely everyone rushing in the poor conditions to get to work. At this point in the highway my side of traffic alone was 6 lanes across as the right 3 lanes split to I80 and the left 3 lanes went to another highway (don't remember which but I should). I noticed some kind of commotion in the traffic ahead of me but couldn't immediately tell what was going on. I always keep a pretty safe distance and this day it paid off. Just as soon as I notice this weird commotion I see a highway tow truck activate its oeverhead yellow flashing lights and being to slow down quickly. I am in lane 3 of the 6 lanes if you are counting lane one to my far left. Tow truck is in lane 2 to my immediate left. As the tow truck slows down it comes to a complete stop in traffic traveling over 60 mph. I had already started to scrub off speed when I first noticed something was going on. As I closed in on the tow truck to my left I could foresee the car immediately behind him not slow down and it is heading towards the rear of the tow truck as full speed. I will guess they were texting or putting on makeup or something else but I am only guessing as they were not reacting and it was obvious. Just as I am approaching the now stopped tow truck to my left this car behind it cuts immediately in front of me just barely getting squished. I was already looking for an "out" but I had thick traffic on both sides of my rig. The only option was to slow down as much as possible without locking it up. That car barely made it out in front of me and the car behind that one was also looking for a quick out as it was coming up on the tow truck now dead stopped in this heavy, fast traffic. I could see his head movements looking to move into my lane and luckily he decided not to cut in front of me because he would have undoubtedly been crushed or at least smashed by me. At that point I was only traveling at maybe 25 mph but it would have still caused some significant damage to his car and would have made my day miserable. He didn't and I was thankful. I moved past the tow truck and discovered why he had come to such a sudden halt in the middle of this highway. There was a smaller car facing the wrong way in the #2 lane with the front end completely crushed in. I was paying more attention to getting myself out of the situation but what I could tell was that there was someone in the front seat up against the airbag and steering wheel and I'm guessing either they were severely hurt or dead. Judging by the condition of the car and the fact that it appeared all the airbags had been deployed, I'm thinking they were a fatality. Up ahead, slightly, were cars pulled off to the side of the road and a few people were getting out and moving back towards the smashed car. This was going on as the mass of traffic was trying to make it's way safely around this accident that obviously just occured moments before. I moved off to the right pretty quickly as the traffic on that side behind me was pretty much stopped or going very slowly. I pulled behind a rig that had parked in the little area of shoulder between the two seperating highways. I put my 4 ways on, took a deep sigh of relief and lit a cigarette. I sat there for a minute before I realized that I wasn't in the best place. I found a hole in the traffic and pulled out and went on my way. All this time my mentor slept soundly in the sleeper.

I don't remember the rest of the night traveling south but I know it was a rough night overall. Road conditions were pretty bad and it was a long night. My mentor took over in the morning as I have been habitually driving only at night. I remember him taking over somewhere just shy of St. Louis and past Springfield, IL.

I drove again last night taking over somewhere in Oklahoma. I experienced heavy fog and miles of continuous road construction whereby the concrete Jersey barriers made the two lanes of travel intense when sharing the road with other rigs in such a narrow space. There was frequent downpours and it rained for about 4 hours of my tour.


THE BIG 5 INTERCHANGE?
Passing south through Dallas the height of the "mousetrap", those elevated overpasses was almost unnerving. It was out of place to the point of seeming totally alien. I think it is called "The High Five Interchange". Unreal. Almost scared me to think of driving up there at those Jetsons heights. Its just one of those things you need to see yourself. Truly odd and just plain strange.

Traffic in Austin was rough as I was heading south and approaching the city somewhere after 5 AM. I guess Austin has grown up in the past couple of decades. It is much bigger than I had thought and there were some skyscrapers that were evidently newer and much taller than I expected. Traffic coming north into the city looked even worse, stretching for miles as they creeped their way into work.

My little bro is in the army at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio. I gave him a little pull of the air horn as I passed way out on Hwy 410 east of downtown San Antonio. I didn't get a good look at the downtown "skyline" although I could see that observation tower thing they have. I'm a city and town skyline nut so I have a weird fettish with seeing the core of towns and cities as well as their makeup.


MAYBE A TORNADO? WHAT DO I KNOW....
Oddly, as I got off of 410 in San Antonio onto Hwy 35 South, I took a tight hairpin turn onto Hwy 35 and immediately saw what appeared to be a mini tornado to my right. Now, remember being a Jersey native, I really don't know what I'm talking about. But I will tell you this: I have seen dust devils before and this did not look like the same. To my right was a dirt lot. The dirt and some other blowing stuff was violently swirling very fast in a large diameter circle. The diameter was huge and it was like I was looking at the base of a tornado. Looking like a circular dust storm, visibility was terrible. This swirling carried over onto the highway and my truck was rocking unbelievably. The hairpin turn was only a 25mph turn so I was taking it about 20 mph and entered onto hwy 35 at about that speed. At the same time that I saw this tornado type thing there was an incredibly dark cloud right above. There was no hail, no lightening or anything like I saw in the movie Twister, which is my only tornado point of reference. No cows flying either but still.... Not sure what this was. I yelled my mentor's name during this same moment, three times without response. He was still sleeping as I felt like our truck was about to be swept up. Granted, when scaled (my first scale experience ever) my truck was barely under 80,000 lbs. on this trip. No response from the sleeper so I just gunned it as fast as an incredibly loaded and slow truck will gun and I was out of it moments later. Looking in my rearview mirror and scanning the dark clouds out on the horizon to my east I couldn't see any twisters. Not sure what this was but it was my tornado experience, even if it was not that. Crazy.

Our load we picked up back in Michigan is ultimately headed to Mexico. The process was that we needed to bring the trailer to the terminal here first to have it inspected by some Swift individuals. They ensure that the trailer is up to specs to go over the Mexican border. After it was given the green light we drove the trailer to some place about 1/2 mile from the border where it will wait to be picked up and brought to it's new Mexican home. This is the only terminal that does such a thing from what I understand.

Something I noticed as an outsider here: There are tons of border patrol up and down the highway going into Laredo. I expected some but not such a presence as we witnessed. I saw the SUVs, the pickups and even a Dodge Charger immigration car. They were everywhere and I spotted one particular one watching a slow moving freight train as it passed. Crazy border stuff but apparently Laredo has its reputation.

So, now I sit here at the Laredo terminal. To my left here in the lounge is an old school, big screen tv. Maybe a 60" with the huge speaker base but the color is off and orange-tinted. They are watching a Miami and Chicago basketball game and there is Spanish chatter coming from 3 different tables of drivers. It's kind of comforting to me as the only time I used to hear this much Spanish in one place was when I lived back in Jersey City and the Puerto Ricans and Domincans would speak their own, somewhat sloppier but distinct to them, version of Spanish. Interesting. I know enough Spanish to pick up some of the conversations and I am eavesdropping since I am a harmless blancito.

Something distinct about this Swift Laredo terminal is that there is a hallway past the showers and laundry room. As you approach the hallway you are warned by signs to keep the noise down. As I learned, down that hallway there are seperate rooms whereby drivers can sleep on a bed. Sort of like a little mini motel room without the bathroom, bedding or housekeeping. Unique. I haven't had a chance to look inside them.

Also the showers here are a little more developed than the ones I have seen at the Sumner, Wa or Gary, ID terminals. Unlike those terminals, these shower stalls are a little nicer and have a bathroom sink and mirror inside. Pretty cool stuff. Hot water worked well.

I did some laundry and the facilities are in rough shape. I would say out of 8 dryers, 4 work. The 4 broken ones are indicated as such with signage. Out of 8 washers, 3 work with the broken ones with corresponding signage. One of the working dryers I chose to use made a sound like there was a bodyless head bouncing around inside. Something was seriously not right with this machine and the sound reminded me of the scene in that John Cusack movie "Identity" when they discover that laundry was not making the loud thumping noise inside the dryer. I went back to check on my laundry in this dryer and found that someone took the liberty of opening the door and stopping the drying progress. I'm guessing it was the only guy that was sitting at the table in that room and guessing the noise annoyed him more than he thought it necessary for my clothes to dry. #######. The only food I could dig up was one of the last triple cheeseburgers out of the vending machine. Literally there was no other food available in the machine other than about 3 of these cheeseburgers.

Weather here was perfect and I am wearing short and a t-shirt comfortably. Sunset was beautiful and full of those orange and yellows you would expect but never cease to amaze.

Heading to Phoenix sometime tomorrow due to be there by Saturday morning. Again, I will be driving tomorrow night. Not sure how I'm going to work my sleep tonight and tomorrow afternoon as I will start driving sometime early evening. Gotta figure this out.
Either way, I will be seeing the Swift corporate headquarters and main terminal on Saturday. Hoping to eat some decent food at their cafeteria and might even pick up a Swift polo.

 

Lol, that is so funny that you said that. When I first got to the terminal that Taco truck was parked out front just like you said. It was gone after my shower. Booooo. And yes, the pizza guy came in and you are right, they are still $10. My mentor bought one. Pizza guy also had wings (or so I thought). I asked if he had the boneless ones and he laughed and said he never heard of them. Maybe he said ribs but I was thinking boneless chicken. Then he said I must have meant something like a McRib. I don't know what I meant, I'm tired. I just didn't feel like picking off the bone tonight so I passed. Nice guy though. He came in twice with pizzas and ribs.

A couple of guys asked if we wanted to take the shuttle into town. There was some BBQ place or something. After that vending machine cheeseburger I'm thinking I should have gone for the BBQ back in town.