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

It was quite the day. Some days are really excellent and that was one of them. I remember a similar feeling one night early on in my OTR training whereby I was driving through southern Minnesota and I felt like I was back at the Ocean County College planetarium. It seems that I don't often get the chance to see the full spectrum of stars in the sky due to light pollution everywhere. But that particular night I remember coasting east across I-90 in southern Minnesota and I happened to look up at the sky. Every star was out and it was so clear - not a cloud in the sky and no light pollution to mess up the show. It wasn't enough to try and stare up out of the windshield while I drove so I made an excuse to pull into a reststop and take a break. I just stared up in awe. As I was doing so another trucker came out of the restroom and walked near me and looked up to look at what I was staring towards. It seemed like he was about to ask me when he stopped himself and just stood next to me looking up. He looked back at me and said "beautiful, isn't it?". I agreed that it was. It sounds overly simplistic but, for me, I don't really ever see the sky so clear and brilliant. I felt like I was reclined somewhat back in my chair during those school trips looking up at the planetarium's show but I had the added benefit of seeing it all live. It was simple but very dramatic.

You're right about him being a trainer. I think he realized that with me and I honestly think he will be more at peace with himself driving solo.

 

I'm in Alexandria, Louisiana. Temp right now at 9:30 PM is near perfect and there is some kind of country ho down going on down below outside our room involving a white Chevy pickup with the tailgate down, some empty beer cans and a bunch of guys with strong southern accents and wife beaters having a good time.

I'm at the Rodeway Inn across the parking lot from the Leebos truckstop. This is my first time ever in Louisiana and we crossed Mississippi last night. That was a first for me also, two of the last of the 48 I have ever traveled through or visited - the other missing states on my bucket list being Maine and New Hampshire. This truckstop, unlike most of the others I have encountered has some crawfish.

There is only one washing machine and one dryer here and they are both located outside near the lobby. There's a line of truckers waiting to do their dirty clothes and an insolent dryer refusing to do it's job. I'm hoping it finds it in its heart to dry my stuff so I can go to sleep here soon. I won't know for another 34 minutes. HBO has gone AWOL apparently as well but times are good here at the Rodeway and there's a country tailgate party downstairs I wish I could join.

My last mentor dropped me at the Columbus terminal and gave me his reflective vest and a truckstop guide. Nice of him and I can definitely use the truckstop guide. We talked for a little bit the following morning to catch up and see where we were each traveling to. He was heading back out to Denver and I was going down here to Louisiana with a very heavy 45,000 lb. load. This is the heaviest load I have carried and I could feel it immediately. It pushes me down hills and it slows me going up. I hit a 5% grade downhill coming down here and I thought I would be fine with keeping the truck in 8th with the jake brake on. I was wrong. I had to keep brake stabbing on the way down to keep my speed below 65 mph. Lesson learned.

I almost met up with a buddy of mine that I have been keeping in touch with since meeting out at the Lewiston Swift academy. He texted me the other night as I neared the Columbus terminal and said that he would also be hitting that terminal in a few hours. Unfortunately since I was meeting up with my new mentor at 0800 the following morning and siunce I was exhausted from that day with the previous mentor, I couldn't wait around. Sucks to be so close to a happenstance meeting with a buddy I haven't seen since training only to not be able to meet up. Next time as we will all meet again somewhere at some point in the future I'm sure. Another buddy of mine that is about to finish his OTR training told me about a rumor he heard. Funny, because this is the stuff I thought I wouldn't have to deal with since leaving the office environment. Apparently a rumor is floating around that I am resistent to authority. This buddy of mine heard it from another student in training out of my home terminal. The only person that could be causing this drama is my first mentor since he is out of the same terminal we all share. Surprising out of all the things he could say about me to save face that he would say this but whatever. Moving on.

I drove through most of Ohio from Columbus, through Kentucky and part of Tennessee with my new mentor. I've never passed through Cinncinnati before and it looked like a cool place between the setting of the hilly topography and the downtown. Ohio is a pretty nice state and I also enjoyed Kentucky and Tennessee. Times like these remind me how lucky we are to live here in a county with such diversity of geography, people, cities and climate.

My new mentor is pretty awesome. I explained the previous problems with the mentors when he asked. He is laid back but instructive. I'm happy about this and excited to finish up with him. He is an owner operator with a Freightliner Cascadia. I think I'm starting to like these trucks. From my very limited experience between driving the Volvo, the Columbia and the Cascadia, I like this model the best. Another cool thing about my mentor is that, for the first time since having mentors, I have an actual cabinet to put my things instead of piling it all on the top bunk. Pretty cool. Why can't all mentors be this way. We got the hotel room tonight so we wouldn't have to run his gas out overnight and pay for seperate showers at the Leebos truckstop. He is an owner operator so I feel kind of bad needing to have the truck run overnight so I can use my CPAP machine. For the most part we will be running as teams so usually the CPAP usage won't be an issue since the truck will be traveling while doing my sleeping shift in the back. It was nice though to grab a shower and some food here tonight at the hotel.

We are heading out towards L.A. tomorrow with another load. We might try to get it t-called in Phoenix. I should be taking my midterm here pretty soon and I think I have about 70 hours left before I finish.
Looking forward to driving in the morning as my 34 hour reset will be finished.

 

I know, I was definitely a stranger in a strange land. I get a kick out of the diversity of accents and backgrounds here in the U.S. I'm always thankful for it as it would be a boring land if everyone talked the same and was culturally the same.

The Louisiana accent has to be one of my favorites. I wouldn't know how to accurately describe it but it's different than anywhere else I have heard. The guys outside the motel room looked like they were having a good time and I would have rather been hanging with them than going back to my room to watch tv or spend time on the computer.

A gentleman out in the parking lot of Leebos was saying something to me as I was walking back to the truck to get one of my bags. The conversation went something like this...


Guy: "Heyrrr, gabba nat a dado skk"..

Me: "What's that?"

Guy: "Heyrr, dat der herda gad, huh?"

Me: "What's that?"



I had to walk straight up to him and see what he was saying. Apparently he was asking me if I wanted my rims shined as he was shining his own. Asked me if I liked the way his rims looked.

Now to him, my reply sounded like this...



Guy: "My rims look nice huh? You want your rims shined?"

Me: "Ya, godda gedda truck yande doodo da".


So, it was an interesting conversation. I love that accent tho.

I remember that with Gene Hackman and Denzel. It's crazy when you take time to notice it and you are in the right area.

I heard that somewhere in Utah is supposed to be one of the best places for star gazing in the U.S. - I'm gonna have to find that place.

 

T-called in Phoenix and now going to grab an empty here at the Phoenix terminal, head to Goodyear, AZ and drop up in Oakland, CA.

I'm excited to see Oakland as I have never been there before. Closest I got was a day spent in San Fran years ago.


Early this morning somewhere south and east of Phoenix I was going down a slight grade. I was watching the truck in front of me as it weaved over to the right over the rumble strips kicking up dust then weaving back the other way over the other line. I wasn't paying attention to my speed as I was rolling downhill, cruise control on and jake brake engaged, when I felt like I was going too fast. I started to scruff off some speed, looked down at my speedo and saw 70 mph. I checked my "performance" screen on the Qualcomm a few minutes later and I had 9 seconds of overspeed. I told the woman doing my midterm evaluation today as well as my student coordinator back in Sumner, Wa.

Haven't heard if I am in trouble yet but hoping I'm not. The last truck I was on last week was governed at 61.5 mph and this one is not governed as much. So keeping my fingers crossed. Speed limit was 75 mph. but I was against Swift's policy when I inadvertently went over the 62 mph we are required to maintain.

Looking forward to the drive tonight to Oakland. It was a high of 86 degrees here today at the Phoenix terminal.

Finally got my midterm taken care of and bought my Swift hat and t-shirt.