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

Some of the things done baffle me. Was your t-call load delivering too far ahead in the future that they wanted you to t-call in Edwardsville? That's the only thing I could think of.

 

Hometime in Sumner...


What a week...

I'm at the Sumner terminal on an early hometime. Although I recently got off hometime in Virginia, I put a new time off request in for Washington for 8/26 so I could start getting my vaccinations done and head back to Virginia to tie up some last minute things.

A few days back I started to get a sore throat. Within a couple of days I could barely swallow and couldn't eat. I was popping throat lozenges like crazy and spraying that throat stuff all day long.

I had a delivery from Flagstaff coming up here to Kent, WA near the terminal. At the time I was a few days out from Kent and asked my DM if I could take my hometime early since I would be right there, since I was on recap hours and, most importantly, so I could see a doctor regarding my throat. He gave me the permission.

My delivery was originally set to be in Kent on 8/21 at 0800. But the trailer I picked up in Flagstaff was damaged. The trailer brakes were sticking and the passenger/front marker light was completely missing. I was tired as could be that day from being up early so I decided that it was safer to get the repairs done in the morning. Repairs took up most of the day and I ended up leaving later because of it. They moved my delivery back 1 full day to 8/22 at 0800. It was a paper towel load and it took forever to get the live unload done. I arrived for the delivery at 0720, checked in with the security booth, sat for a little while and then was called to a door. Then I just sat. And sat. And sat some more... I think I didn't leave until after 1600. I had almost reached the maximum detention messages.

That was yesterday. I've been busy since. I hustled back to the terminal last night to get some things done and to see my bike. I wouldn't make the doctor in time because I would undoubtedly get stuck in I-5 traffic trying to get there. So I figured I would wait to do that this morning. I made it to my storage unit only to realize that the boots I had in there were more beat up than I had remembered. Not sure why I kept them with all the holes and tears in them. Garbage now.

Looked at some gear for the trip at Cycle Gear and then went back to the terminal to sleep in my truck.

Today I got everything done. Started at the urgent care clinic. My throat had stopped hurting about a day ago but I still went to get my vaccinations. About 6 shots later I was done and on my way across the street to a different Cycle Gear to check for some gear I need for this trip. No finds but I did pick up a $12 security chain. After hitting Five Guys for a burger I went to renew my tabs on this bike here in WA. Done. On the way back to the terminal I stopped at a motorcycle store and found myself some nice Klim Dakar overpants, some new Gaerne boots to replace the old ones now in the garbage. Also found a pair of Klim Dakar gloves. I think I now have all the gear that I need for this trip. It was an expensive day for sure but at least now I know I can ride more comfortably down there and my feet and ankles will be safe in these boots.

So today was very productive and everything I set out to do out here is done. Mission accomplished.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to spend the day just riding my love of my life. I'm thinking either heading up to Mt. Rainier or, possibly, a longer ride up Windy Ridge on Mt. St. Helens. I know that tomorrow will be the last time I see my girl out here until after I come back from my leave of absence/quitting-rehiring. So I want to get her some exercise and spend some time out in those places I used to love to ride.
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Maybe spending time at a terminal isn't all that bad...


I'm think I'm starting to not hate being at terminals, at least this weekend at this terminal here in Sumner.

My loathing of terminal started pretty early in my career here at Swift. I'm not sure when but it was early. My 3rd mentor during OTR training, The Angry One, hated terminals so much that he wouldn't even go inside one. As a matter of fact, when I had to complete some testing or something at a terminal during my training I can remember him dropping me off in the parking lot at Swift's New Boston terminal and telling me to hurry up and get my things done. He would wait out in the parking lot, truck running ready to make a quick getaway. That day, while I was at the window inside at the New Boston terminal, no longer than 10 minutes had passed when my 3rd mentor was calling me up on my cellphone telling me to "forget it, we're leaving". I had to abort my mission and he had the truck pulled up to that gate near the building, ready to go. I never found out why he hated terminals so much but maybe that's where my dislike of Swift terminals began. Who knows but I disliked them early.

Typically I don't like terminals because they make me a little anxious. In a general sense, drivers are milling about, talking about truck stories or bad mouthing Swift. Regardless of why these other drivers are at the terminal, it somehow reminds me of failure, even if the reason the driver is present due to something completely harmless such as coming off home time, etc. We drive trucks. That's how we make money. If we're not out on the road we're not making money. If we're in the terminal, we're not making money (although this isn't always true - training, breakdown pay, etc.). But, generally speaking, being at a terminal made me annoyed and anxious. Right or wrong, I didn't like them for whatever reason it was.

But this weekend has been ok. It's actually been kind of "nice". I didn't have to pay for a hotel. I'm done with those days, at least out here in Washington. I had access to a shower whenever I wanted and it was free. I ordered food, I did laundry twice so far and now I have free WiFi. But more importantly, I was comfortable here this weekend.

Yesterday I picked up some motorcycle shine spray and spent the better part of 2 hours last night just cleaning and waxing my bike here at terminal. I felt "normal". I was in my own world doing something I used to love to do. Granted, the venue was different this time but the same feeling was still there. On my free days, throughout my life from my late teens through adulthood, I've always loved to clean my motorcycle or my car (when I had one). It was therapy. It was my private time with that object that I loved. When you clean your vehicle you get to know it. You feel all the curves and angles, locating something loose or something that might need replacement and you get to know its condition because you are touching it. I think you gain a greater appreciation for it and recognize its value. This is especially true if you are a motorhead or lover of machines, such as I am. And, as an added benefit, you are outside with it in the weather getting yourself a little exercise.

I sat there on the pavement next to my bike moving around it, slowly cleaning and touching it all. It felt like the old days, those Saturday afternoons just me and my machine. That feeling was there. I was parked in the motorcycle section close to the exit gate and my bike was in the company of all the other loved bikes and I relaxed.

I came back this evening after getting all my "chores" done and shopping finished. I killed the motor as I backed my bike back into the same spot where I always park her. I unloaded the stuff I bought and then I sat down on the curb next to my bike. I began to change into my new boots and started to speak to a driver I recognized around the terminal from the past. He was a rider back in the day and we talked about riding and the riding life. I continued to sit as the sun felt nice and I fiddled with my new boots and messed with the new chain lock. A dog I recognized from past visits to my home terminal here at Sumner ran up to me yapping and yipping hello. I pet her as her mom owner walked up. I recognized the dog's owner too but generally I remember the dogs more. Another small dog came up to us, excited to see the dog I had been petting. About 20 feet behind me in the smoking pavilion familiar faces were chatting. They had pulled up some extra chairs under the smoking pavilion and it was like a party out there. I could overhear a conversation about Carol Burnett and that cast of her show. Country music was playing and people were laughing. This carried on long after I had gotten up to bring my stuff to my truck as the same group was still there enjoying each other's company when I returned to sit next to my bike and take in the best weather Washington State has to offer during the year.

It got me thinking that this wasn't half bad for some time off. I have everything I needed here. Faces are now more familiar when I come back to Sumner. It almost, dare I say, feels like "home" at times. There's familiarity and a certain degree of feeling of belonging. I didn't feel that old feeling of loathing to be at a terminal. Nothing like it. Maybe part of it is that Sumner has a lot of regulars that return here every night due to it being focused on short run, heavy haul Costco loads. There's more familiar faces there regularly. They start early, do their runs and then return. Same faces, same people most days.

I think it will be another 4 months approximately before I return. Some might say that I could possibly miss it and I probably won't argue that. There are worse places than this.

 

A new trucker's love life and some changes...


Well, it's done. This past week I excused myself from the relationship I was in with the girl from Virginia. Not sure exactly why I did it but it didn't feel right any longer. We had been acquainted for a little over a month. She had picked me up from that truck stop in Virginia Beach on our first date and a few weeks later she was accompanying me to my little brother's wedding. We had a good time.

I can't put my finger on it exactly but the feeling came on pretty quick. One day everything was great and the same as usual and then a couple of days later it wasn't great. She had been posting on my Facebook lately more and more and I was under the impression that she was marking her territory. I felt like she was doing this to let everyone know that I was "taken". That's fine but something about it started to bother me. But that was pretty minor. There was an instance where she got mad and hung up on me. I don't remember for what. There was some innuendo regarding my honesty. I've always been honest with her and I didn't like it being questioned. I don't know what it was. But over the past week she just seemed to be getting more severe and slightly erratic. I don't know what happened but it happened quick. It seemed like over the course of 4 days and on the final day I had enough. I felt like something had chipped away at the security we had known and it was all starting to dissolve whether I knew it or whether I could admit it. It was happening. The last day I was accused of scheduling a home time out here to see my ex. Not the ex wife but my ex-fiancé/ex-girlfriend. Seeing the ex wasn't even something I considered. I was out here to do things that needed to get done. The last day I realized that it was enough. My heart was no longer in this and it wouldn't be right or fair to continue.

After texting her that we needed to talk later in the day, she called me up right away. I told her on the phone that I did not want to continue the relationship. She didn't really understand where I was coming from and was obviously hurt. Hurt turned to anger. Anger turned to near rage. She continued to direct her anger towards me and after letting it out on me she went quiet and that was the last of it. Haven't heard anything since.

So, I'm not sure what to make of it all. I'm fine. I'm happy. I'm over it. I just didn't feel the same in the end. It happened quick and was over even quicker. I sensed a weird combination of insecurity and possessiveness and I didn't like it. I think, after just being divorced officially, back in May that it was too early in any new relationship to get those signs. I can't explain it but something didn't feel right and I had to do something. She will be ok too. She has her family, friends and social life out there in Virginia. She can find someone else that's not going to be on the road so much and that will be home more often. As it is now, that is not me.


If irony and serendipity made a baby...

The day I told this girl in Virginia that it was quits was the morning I was getting the trailer repaired down in Flagstaff, right before I came up here to deliver this load. So, a few days ago.

When one door closes, a window opens. A while back I had some emotional turmoil when a girl from North Carolina I had been talking to just seemed to disappear. I had felt something for her from the start, before we even ever talked. Then it seemed like her interest trailed off and ultimately it just went away completely. No explanation. Nothing. It was just gone and I posted here that I was kind of hurt. At the time I felt like she maybe just lost interest. Not long after this I started to talk to this girl out in Virginia. Then it went sour and flat. Well, now out of no where I get a text from Miss North Carolina. She asked how I had been. We conversed via text message and she explained what had happened to her. She went off to Maryland and became scared of how things were moving. Considering the fact that she is going through a separation and considering that she started to have feelings for some strange trucker guy that she had just met, she ran off and just let things between us dissipate. So now she was back and we texted and then she calls me and we talk. Since then we talk everyday, either by text, phone or Skype and it is all back again. This time she says she won't run. So once again, living for the day and every day that I can talk to her is a happy one. It is exciting that she is back.

"Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common sense" - Helen Rowland.

Never was something more true. I remember reading something a long time ago about fools and love. To paraphrase, "whomever has not been a fool for love, has not truly loved". Or something to that effect. I never did locate that full quote or found out who wrote it. I am, without so much as a doubt, a fool. But that's ok. So I'm off again on a new love adventure.

 

The upcoming trip...


I was just checking my calendar and in exactly 5 weeks I should be on a fully packed bike rolling down the road towards Mexico, Guatemala and Belize!

I recently reworked the mileage and the total, from door to door, is estimated at 9,500 miles.


Next stop is a home time out in Virginia. I got my Hepatitis A and B shots today, along with the other standard shots. Six shots total today. I need to get another Hepatitis (B?) shot about two weeks prior to leaving. I need to go to a traveler vaccination place out in Virginia and get my Malaria shot. Then I have to meet with this guy that has traveled the world on his bike. He is going to run me through some scenarios and over the road troubleshooting and repairs. He's going to give me an idea of what other tools I need to bring. This should take a full day.


I have to acquire my Mexico vehicle insurance. I have to change the oil in my bike and find out if I should replace the battery. Then that should be it.

If I have 5 weeks left before I depart then either I'm going to have to work from this point forward all the way until I put in my (temporary) resignation with Swift. In that case I will have to get back a few days earlier to get those things I listed above done. It would be right before I hit the road. Or, option 2, I run for about 3 weeks, take those couple of days off in Virginia and then get back on the road for about 2 more weeks before resigning.

I still need to talk to my DM about all of this. Most likely that will be Monday morning.

5 weeks and counting down...

 

That is definitely something to keep in mind about Edwardsville. I wasn't aware of that. That kind of stuff makes me crazy.

 

You are right. Marking the territory is what it was. It wasn't just that but that was a small part of it. It just seemed like maybe it was a sign of things to come. And part of it was that she was "waiting" for me to get off the road and I didn't feel right about that. Just something with the chemistry just sizzled away a little over the last few days.

Here's what happened with Miss N. Carolina. Back when I was reporting on that whole thing she had gone up to Maryland with her husband (she is separated - it's complicated) and she didn't feel right about dragging me into her whole situation. So, as I had felt at the time, she let things just trickle away. I took it as the sign and went away. That's when I started talking to this girl from Virginia that I dated for that month or so. Well, Miss N. Carolina texted me out of the blue one day and said she missed me. She explained what had happened and why.

Since then we have talked every single day, texted, on the phone and Skype'd a couple of times as well. She actually occupied most of my time off this past weekend in Washington, which was pretty awesome. It's crazy but I'm getting to know so much more about her and her situation and the more I learn the harder I'm falling for her. She is nothing shy of absolutely incredible. She's a once-in-a-lifetime for sure. She is basically in a loveless situation with her estranged husband but they have twins together. She isn't talking to anyone else and hasn't been with anyone, dating or whatever since her husband.

Man, I can't explain it, but she has done something to me that no one has ever done and she did it from the start. And now I'm in bad. We should be on Skype here tonight soon.

I'm going to meet with her on my way down to Mexico in about a month. I can't wait.