My new career with Superior Carriers begins!

Keep calling them and bugging them. They will get tired of it and have you come in for a road test. Good luck. Hope you can get on. They are a good company.

 

Well after 5 days of sitting in Salt Lake City, the customer finally got me unloaded Tuesday evening, 1/7/14. Got out of there around 5:30pm just in time for rush hour traffic. Drove about an hour south of the city and called it quits because it was dark and I had been up all day. I did not want to get on the night shift so I just got a fresh start Wednesday morning.

Got a tank wash to Pasadena terminal. I was originally tank washed to Markham but log ops told me they had an overload of drivers stuck up there due to the weather and I would just be at the bottom of the pile to get out of there once I arrived. I had no problem with that because I wanted to see more of Utah anyway so I cut down through the southern portion of the state where I was able to see some beautiful scenery.

My trip also took me through a portion of Colorado where I got pulled into the scale house for some reason. I am assuming it was because I was placarded and they wanted to see my Colorado hazmat permit. This is where I really think Superior ranks high in having it together. All our tractors have permit books with every single piece of information you will ever need to show the DOT. The book is neatly organized and every page is tabbed and labeled so you can quickly find what you are looking for. Someone has put a lot of work into these books. The DOT officer seemed to be impressed with it as it only took me a minute to find what he was wanting to see. I was in and out and on my way.

Cut on down into New Mexico and some awesome scenery there as well. Stopped and took pictures along the way. I thought if I keep doing this I will never make it to Pasadena. Made it to about an hour east of Albuquerque NM and parked for the night on Wednesday. Finished driving through NM Thursday morning and on in to Texas. Love Texas. Seems like such a great state. Made my way on over to Amarillo and did my 30 minute break there. Jumped on U.S. 287 and boogied on down towards Ft. Worth/Dallas. Got to the edge of Ft. Worth and ran into some seriously heavy fog. I still had 2.5 hours to drive and wanted to get south of Dallas on I-45 but the fog was so bad I could not even see exit signs for get off ramps so I said to heck with it and found a safe place to get off the highway and parked it for the night.

Woke up to rain Friday morning and figured traffic would be a nightmare. Piddled around and left Ft. Worth around 9am. Managed to make it through the cities without too much delay and jumped on I-45 headed for Houston/Pasadena. Got about half way and decided to get my truck washed. It was looking nasty from all the road salt. Got her looking pretty again. Finally made it to Pasadena TX/terminal around 4pm. This is the first time I have been to the Pasadena terminal and let me tell you it is nice!

Twicebit and I have talked quite a bit on here and on the phone. I called him to let him know I was dispatched down there. So we finally got to meet. Great to finally meet you in person Twicebit. And thanks again for the dinner. Much appreciated.

Laying over for the weekend and picking up a load on Monday heading to Evansdale IL for a Wednesday delivery. Once I pick up the load I am going to send a message to route me back home after delivery. I will have been out 3 weeks by the end of the week and I am ready to go home for a few days. Actually starting to get a little home sick. Go figure.

 

I don't know if the area I was in made a difference or not as to Colorado's chain law but I just clipped the lower southwest corner of the state when passing through. It was pretty flat running down there and no mountains to cross. I have two tool boxes on my truck so maybe they figured I had chains in the boxes. Or maybe I just got lucky

At any rate, they did not ask and I did not offer more information than they asked for.

 

Well after traveling around the entire country for 20 days, I finally made it to the house today. Made it back to Winder around 13:30. I was a little disappointed in the load they gave me coming back. I was wanting 3 full days off after being out so long. They gave me a load out of Chicago going to Opelika AL for a Monday 8:00 am delivery. Had me take the load back to the Winder terminal and sit on it until early Monday morning then take off out of there to deliver.

I did not say anything. I just took the load and went. Had another injector go out on the way back down to Georgia so I called the terminal when I got back and told them the truck needs to go to the shop. They are having me swing by our Morrow terminal Monday a.m. to swap trucks on my way to Alabama. I will have to get up at the crack of dawn to go down there, swap trucks, then on to my delivery. Not looking forward to that.

 

I guess I will spare myself some misery and head on down to Opelika this evening. That way I won't have to get up at 3am. I can deliver first thing in the morning then head back. I am sure I will be home tomorrow night as my truck will be in the shop getting injectors and an over due pm. Since I have to swap trucks I am traveling light so I will have to come back to the house.

Should be getting into the Pro Star sometime next week anyway so no need in piling a bunch of stuff back into the old truck.

 

Got my delivery off without a hitch yesterday morning. Loved that place in Opelika. Easy as pie. Hope I get to go back there soon. Took the dirty tank back to Morrow to drop and say my truck had not moved from where I left it Sunday night. Shop said they were swamped and did not have time to take it to Cummins yet.

The Pro Star I borrowed had a bad tire on the front causing some pretty bad shaking. I figured I was going to be in it for at least a week so I had them put two new tires on the front. It needs new shocks as well. I will have the shop replace them next time I am back. Since I figured it would be at least a week I will be in this particular Pro Star, I went ahead and moved most my stuff over into it.

I told the terminal manager what the deal was and he said he might just keep me in that one instead of having to move my stuff all over again into the one I was originally going to get. He told me to drive it and see how it does. It had just came out of the dealership for some major work. So hopefully it has got all the bugs worked out of it. We shall see. Enjoying the smoother ride for sure.