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

I remember one of my trainers, the Angry One to be exact, telling me we get paid sometimes for excessively dirty trailer cleaning but I never tried to get paid for something like that.

I never got a road ready tool box with the crow bar. I did get a basic One with the hammer, pliers etc.

 

At the Pilot in Little Rock waiting to pick up a nearby load going up to Iowa. Then I have another load going from Iowa out to Flagstaff.

I am happy. No more cranky Doc Wats. What a difference running consistently and getting mileage makes. In adding up my last 7 days before today my mileage is at 2509 and that includes 3 slow days that averaged 164 miles Per day. Not bad.

I was still delivering my load yesterday when they sent me the next 2 plans. I accepted both quickly. I'm happy to be running again and I'm heading out west.

I called today about taking that 6-8 week time off. My DM is out sick but I spoke to my old DM. She said that anything over 30 days time off I need to voluntarily resign and then reapply. That sucks. She said I won't have to go back thru training but I will need to attend a 2 day orientation again. She mentioned something about a $700 sign on bonus tho. That is good. I have to get more details as time is slowly running out. If I leave early on my trip I'm looking at 6 weeks until I clean my truck out for vacation.

 

Most deFinitely better. I hope it is what she said. A sign on bonus following vacation would be fantastic.

 

Regarding the tool box, when I received mine I got it for free. I thought we had to pay for it but the woman at the terminal (New Boston?) said "here ya go" and said "no charge". I didn't question it. Happy I got it because at the time I was just debating getting some tools from Harbor Freight instead.

Still haven't gotten a crow bar yet...

 

Wooooo hoooooo...not counting today, in the past 7 days I'm at 3069 miles! That's what I'm talking about!! If I could do this every week I would be ecstatic.

What a change from a few weeks ago. Other than today's short hours, I have great hours coming back starting tomorrow with about 10+ hours. Average hours coming back the next 7 days is about 8 hours each day. Looks good to me.

And to boot, I'm out west. I'm sitting at the Albuquerque Flying J. It was a real short day. I only had a little over 4 hours left on my 70 so I went west from Tucumcari (where I stayed at the Love's last night). I hit the Walmart in Edgewood, NM on the way west this morning (great parking, easy access and right off I-40) got some supplies (Piranha DD and food) and hit this J. I was going to go to the Route 66 Casino just a little west of here since I have about 1 hour left on my 70 but I wanted to try the J first and see if I could find a close parking space and get some decent WiFi. I did.

Lately, probably the last 3 times, I have been getting crap WiFi at either the Loves (yesterday) or the Pilots. Drives me nuts. So I figured I would try this J here first and if I couldn't find a parking spot or good Wifi I would just continue a few miles down the road to the Route 66 casino. Lot looked full as I pulled in. It is Sunday and I realized that a lot of these truckstops in metropolitan areas fill up on Sunday from guys sitting over the weekend or coming back to work for the week. Thankfully I found a pull in spot, tight as can be, but squeezed in and I'm right up front by the building and the wifi towers. Fantastic.

I have a hometime coming up scheduled for 9/26 out in Washington. I haven't been out there or started my bike since some time in April. Hoping that thing starts. Also I didn't put any fuel saver in it last time so I'm kind of worried about that. I may try to change my oil and change my plugs when I'm out there. I'm counting on a real short home time, relative to the length of time I usually take off, hopefully about a 2 day turnaround. I'm going to see about getting some of my innoculations done out there and check some riding gear in my storage unit for my upcoming trip. I hope my boots still fit and my riding over pants will work. If so it will save me some expense down the road.

 

I'm so happy to say that she is back. I'll leave it at that...