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

He really didn't say anything about the tcall scale ticket. I really couldn't believe that the weights were that far off. My drives, as I crossed the scale, were something like 400+ lbs. over. However, the tcall scale ticket stated 32000+ on the drives. It was a bad mistake on my part to assume I would be ok. I'm guessing that the tcall was picked up by a day cab for that much difference in the drive weights. The crazy thing is I had room to move the tandems forward and offset the weight overage. But I didn't.

 

Oakland, OR at the Pilot.

Spent the night last night at the Costco in north Portland (138th?). Got up a little early and found out that it was just a drop and not a live unload. Bonus. I had to go to Troutdale to pick up an empty as they only had heavy haul trailers available at Costco. As I went the couple of blocks north to run that road that shoulders the Columbia River, I made a right and started to head east.

I came across a cool little neighborhood that is build out on the Columbia River. It was almost like a houseboat community but these weren't like a traditional houseboat. They were full size, larger houses built out into the river and each separate community shared a common walkway between them. Some of the houses had boats docked next to them, an odd juxtaposition of transport when compared to regular land-based houses with their car sitting in the driveway. Interesting place.


The lush, green Pacific NorthWET...

It's been raining out here a lot. A wet, misty Pacific Northwest wetness. I love it most of the time but ask me around February, at least when I used to live here full time, and I might have a different story to tell. But for a while, it's quite wonderful. Just like the Inuits up north have all those different words for snow, I think the same can be said for the various forms of precipitation out here. It can be misty, drizzle, spattering, foggy, just damp, rainy, sleet (rare), pouring (even more rare) and once in a blue moon snowy. When we do get the occasional snow the snowflakes are heavy and "wet", thick and well formed. Snowflakes like I haven't seen anywhere else. The wetness makes everything feel clean, like it's all getting washed constantly. The trees seem bigger out here, thicker and healthier. And when those trees eventually fall dead in the forest new growth is already taking over with moss and ferns taking root almost immediately. Where there is death in the forest there is growth to take the place.

The drive out from Portland/Troutdale to Dayton out near the coast was beautiful. Although it was overcast and there was varying degrees of precipitation, it was scenic and reminded me why there is no place like the Pacific Northwest. Holiday traffic backed up before I even got to 101 but it was ok. I didn't mind it. Lincoln City was buzzing with activity and it continued all the way until I started east on Hwy 20 through Newport towards Toledo. The road to Toledo was windy, hilly and sometimes slow and it was even more interesting on the way back with 43,100 lbs of paper in the trailer.

Pickup was effortless and I got it to scale accurately at Georgia Pacific. They know how to load those trailers and keep them California legal. One of the drivers was telling me that he came in off of 34 or 20 from the east. The security guard overheard this and reminded him that it was a restricted route. I remembered this from the last time I was here a while back and I made sure that Swift routed me back west then north then back east towards Salem so that I would get the proper mileage. There was another Swift driver there that was scaling his load but didn't scale each axle separately. I didn't know if he was new but I didn't want him to have to come back to get the load reworked later, as the nearest CAT scale is far away on I-5 and a very long drive. I asked him, after seeing him drive the whole truck up on the scale without scaling each axle separately, if he was going to scale the axles. I didn't want to be nosey but I also thought maybe he could be a newer driver that didn't know how to scale the axles independently. He stated that as long as his gross was under 80,000 that he would be ok. I kind of told him that he might want to make sure he's not over on his axles but he insisted he knew what he was doing. No big deal, just wanted to help out. Hopefully it works out for him.

I made my way back through Newport and north on 101 passing through Depoe Bay. Signs announced the world's smallest marina and the world's shortest river (The "D River"). The fog hugged the tops of the mountains ahead to the right and the Pacific drew off into the distance blending in with low hanging clouds. The occasional glimpse of mountains meeting ocean made me wish I was on my bike instead of all of this truck so I could stop and take it in a little more. Traffic was easier now and I made my way back to I-5 eventually.


An old buddy Tony from 'down the shore' calls and talks truck...

A while back an old friend from my youth had posted on my Facebook that he was going to give me a call regarding my upcoming trip. I haven't talked to him in about 25 years or more. He is probably one of the strongest influences in my never ending love of all things motor. Some of my fondest memories of him when I was young was of him pulling me on a snow saucer behind his quad ATV in the snow while I barely hung on precariously towed by a rope attached to the rear of his quad, swinging and sliding wildly around icy, snowy corners hoping that I wouldn't slam into the curb as he made the turn. He called me yesterday morning and although the conversation started with some warnings about traveling down in Mexico, the talk soon turned to trucking and the trucking life.

As I've found from various friends over the past 1.5 years, people are interested in what we do. It's funny because people approach the subject somewhat sheepishly, shy to ask questions at first but soon after breaching the subject, the questions come fast. Tony was the same way.

People have a natural curiousity about what we do and I now serve as the vehicle to get them those answers. I find it kind of interesting. I only have one other friend, more of an acquaintance, that drives a truck. Other than those that I went to Swift school with, I know of no one else that drives a truck for a living. And with a lot of my friends, recent and childhood friends, I'm the answer man that quenches their curiosity. Most don't have the faintest idea how or why we bounce around the lower 48, the logistics of freight moving. They are surprised to find that I have an oven, albeit a small lunchbox shaped oven, or that I have an electric cooler almost like a refrigerator. Almost. Their ignorance is completely understandable and I like that they ask. They have genuine interest in our lifestyle. I reiterate that this is unlike any other job and that it is more lifestyle than 9-5.

Tony asked about it, interested it seemed in possibly pursuing it himself. At least until I explained how hard it is on a newlywed such as himself. A relationship has to be strong to withstand an absent partner. It made him think it over. But he was interested.

The conversation terminated with a promise to visit him soon up in Jersey. He's a good guy and I'm glad that his curiosity drove him to contact me after all these years.

 

"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out" (Alfred Hitchcock)

or more directly...

"I'm better than dating a trucker" (Miss Virginia)


Today I received a somewhat angry text from the girl I was dating out in Virginia for that month. The conversation started like this...

"Good luck in your new relationship lol".


She is obviously hurt and angry and accused me of double speak, stating that I said I didn't want a relationship but here I was "involved" with a married woman. It was a dig as there is a great difference between a married woman and one that is legally separated. She knows this but her focus was on the married part.

She thinks and stated that she was replaced by Miss North Carolina (she doesn't refer to her as Miss North Carolina, only me) and assured me that I was replaced just as quickly with a new and improved non-trucker companion. In her words, "I'm better than dating a trucker".

To give fair context, she went on to say that she needs "someone here...not 1000 miles away" and that she prefers "kissing someone quite often in person and actually touching them all the time".

Understood. She knew I was a trucker from the start, never seemed to have a problem with it until I left her. I apologized again for everything and explained I only wanted the best for her. I do. She's a good person and treated me well. That was never an issue. It was only an issue of chemistry, attraction that fizzled like that Mentos dropped into the 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke. We started the relationship with it kind of bubbling over, the basic chemistry experiment of Mentos and Diet Coke, it was successful at first. However, by that last day it was nothing more than a 6th grade science fair project gone flat like the spilled and sticky soda that now lie on the floor. That is all. It happens, it's called dating.

I explained to her that I didn't know Miss North Carolina was going to step back into the picture. I had known Miss Carolina before this Virginia girl and that I couldn't pass up the opportunity when Miss Carolina came back into the picture. This was true but it wasn't the whole truth. The relationship went flat when she started questioning what I did. When that little head of possessiveness came poking out. It's natural and it's even sometimes flattering but it depends on the circumstances, timing and context. The wrong combination of these and someone showing premature possessiveness results in failure.

Before Miss Carolina came back I was almost done although I didn't exactly know it. There were some signs of what I thought might come so I got out. And there was the marking the territory issue. It's understandable and I can accept a certain degree of it depending on how much, by whom and when it is timed. This wasn't working for me. The accusation that I was taking time off in Washington last weekend to see my ex (not exwife) made me even more confident in my decision as Miss Washington was never a factor.

I'm a pretty average guy with a not so average career and lifestyle. I'm far from perfect and I'm still not sure what I want or how to get it. My life took an unexpected turn a few years ago when I realized that the person whom I married and planned on spending the rest of my life with dropped the bomb. That's life and yet sometimes unforeseen and unfortunate events leave us in a refreshingly better situation. That is what happened here.

I'm glad I had the experience with Miss Virginia, even if it didn't work out in the end. It helped teach me again what I want and what I do not want. It taught me that the sure thing, although easier and guaranteed, is not always what we need. I like risk to an extent, not for the sake of risk, but risk for when the payoff is great. Miss North Carolina is about as high of a risk as there is. She is recently separated. She lives in a state whereby I have no real association, no knowledge or direct experience other than a happenstance passing through one night leading to our introduction. I do not have a plan just yet on how to live my life fulfilled in my career yet be close enough to her to satisfy her want (and my want) of our steady company. I don't have the answers.

I'll reluctantly say that this thing we have together right now will most likely end up in my own heartbreak and disaster. It's not what I aspire and I'll do whatever I can to avoid it but in all likelihood, I won't be around enough to keep her interest in the long run. I know this yet I go ahead with it. I don't have the answers. Miss North Carolina is a very high risk emotional gamble but she is more than worth it. With each passing day I care for her more. She is humble in all her qualities and unlike anyone I have ever met. She moves me unlike anyone else ever has, including my exwife or any prior loves. And, as I'm older now, I'm more sure of this fact.

Without any doubt, love must be one of the most powerful emotions. It makes us do things that make absolutely no sense. It is unexplainable, mysterious, conflicts with the rest of our emotions at times and it is more formidable than we care to admit. It bullies and pushes common sense aside and leads us by a leash down a path with no foreseeable destination. We are foolish yet we go. That is power.

And after all this, the romantic tragedy of it all and the part that I constantly and quietly curse is why I couldn't have met her under different circumstances. Why couldn't I have met her as someone that lived close by, met her before she was married or met her when I wasn't doing a job that I absolutely love that involves constant travel. I don't want this to be just two stars that cross at one point in the universe for just a few moments, feel a bond, intimacy and attraction that is unequaled only to slowly start drifting off in opposite directions moving further away into the blackness of space to never cross by each other again.

As it is, I would rather live without regret than live the remainder of my life with those "what if's" that leave us perpetually questioning what we could have done differently. I'm going to go with this, let it take me where it may, knowing the consequences. It's risk and it's life.

 

Trip planning continued...


I'm still trying to get my departure date down.

The plan is to be in the Copper Canyon of Mexico for a rally on the weekend of the October 3/4/5.

When I decided that I would try and meet up with the rally goers I figured I would leave on or about Sunday 9/28 with wheels rolling. That would give me 5 days to be at that location in Northern Mexico by the weekend of the rally. 1900 miles to the Mexican border and another 306 miles to the rally location. At 600 miles a day to get to the US/Mexico border that number of days should be fine. However, I want to meet up with Miss North Carolina on the way down. Due to her schedule she only a day on a weekend to see me. So I'll have to plan that to be Saturday 9/26.

I will have to have those wheels rolling early morning on 9/26. So I guess that's the date which leaves me...

27 days to go!

Going to try and secure my Mexican vehicle insurance this coming week. I also need to hammer down a date with this guy that is giving me some travel and bike maintenance guidance. If he decides he can meet me on that Friday 9/26 then my last day with Swift, at least for now, will be around Wednesday 9/24. Not much time left.

 

Haha that's some funny stuff right there. I didn't think of it that way.

Hopefully Miss VA doesn't read this

 

Update to my trip planning.

This guy organizing this rally down in Mexico messaged me back stating that it would be OK for me to go on a ride with the group in the Copper Canyon without having to pay the full registration fee of $280. The cost was too high in my opinion and I wasn't looking to spend 3 days on a rally. Just wanted to go on a group ride down there.

I think my last day with Swift will be 9/23 until I return from my trip.