The journey begins - purchased a truck.

Police turned up at 0700 and knocked on the door. I yelled out from the sleeper that I was busy taking a dump, and besides, he didn't need to inspect nuffin 'cos it's a Peterbilt, and it's perfect. I added he needed to go grab me a breakfast sammich and make it snappy.

That out of the way, the 2 state troopers turned up and I proceeded to tell these chumps that I've been steppin and fetching, grabbing gears and mashing on it since they were twinkles in their daddies eyes. They were captivated by many of the hour long stories I told them of huge top secret government loads I'd hauled and how many waitresses I'd bedded.

So, about 11am, I tell them how the cow ate the cabbage and that 100 mph was the minimum speed we'd be rolling at. We set off, and I promptly jacked my hoof up on the dash, shut the pesky radio off, put my favorite jams on the Eye Toons, and put the screws to the ol' girl.

Traffic cleared the road like it was Christmas morning. I smashed as many mailboxes as I could, ran 27 grannies into the ditch and finished the day in record time.

Then I actually woke up at 0500 . . . and the day really began . . .

 

So seriously now . . .

CVE (Commercial Vehicle Enforcement) Mr. Lee turned up about 0645 and performed a Level 2. I also get to pay MSHP for his time from troop HQ to inspection back to HQ. He was fairly nice. Walk around inspection, kick tires, lights, blinkers, DL, BOL. All good.

Sgts Mueller and Green arrive 0710. Green is in a F-250, older guy, good attitude. Mueller was a bit too cool for the room. Neither had CB's. Mr. Lee did, which is worth noting people . . .

@Old Man - I read your message too late, and didn't have time to set one up. However - one escort had a complete set up like you described. Green is going to be in the rear, so we decide to mount it on his. No Go - F-250 is ALUMINUM body. So Mr Dry as a popcorn fart gets it on his Dodge car. Nice radio too - with good Stryker A-10 antenna.

We have a little Pow Wow at this stage - civilian leads, Mueller close to my front door, me, civilian, Green on the tail. Set out at 0730. I can't see NOTHING but the load behind. Mr. Lee sticks around and leads the pack to help on his way back to HQ. First leg is 2 lane - no shoulder steep drop. Luckily there's no semi's, and I suddenly realize - red and blues get a LOT of attention. The red seas part, for the most part.

On to 65N and 60E - check with traffic behind to make sure we're not holding things up. Stop at Cabool 1 mile east out of route to fuel cars - one civilian had 250 range, and the gas F-250 was a guzzler. Checked with Mueller and Green on how they're feeling about the move - they're all happy. Check securements, pee, resume breathing, head off again. US63N 2 lane with good shoulder and passing lanes. Traffic keeping right in passing lanes, we're blocking in our passing lanes, short 2-lane stretches in between. Hit Rolla before we knew it - squeaked by a couple of signs on entrance to I44 that I was concerned about and had contacted Rolla City works about. Pretty close.

It got hairy north of Rolla until Columbia. Narrow 2 lane, curves, hills, twists. Lead did well calling out oncoming. Oncoming traffic 95% compliant at shouldering, stopping. Only real ignorants were - CR England (understood), handicap plates (sigh), younger women (and a few young lads), a couple of white Volvos, . . . really not as bad as expected. Sometimes you'd have to time swinging left for signs close to the edge of the road, and right to avoid the odd one that wasn't watching - slow down in blind positions in anticipation of stopping.

North of Columbia, to Macon,MO - smooth sailing 4 lane. Early on some grades were slowing me down so keyed up to Mueller, who radioed Green, to run 45mph on the shoulder and cleared the backup. Ran 70mph to east of Macon, parked at the MSHP CDL facility test site for the afternoon. Troopers are paid from home to home - they should be back within the 12 hour window requested.

I remembered the 'Heads Up Display" when I started driving - not sure why I'd forgotten it. It's that field of vision that you see ahead of you that imagines the width of the load and where you need to be. If any a-hole hawking products from time to time here wants to get real serious, they could make one of THOSE headsets.

Note - on your regular MO permit - it'll list curfews and travel times. On a SL permit - all those are gone - and replaced with "MSHP will determine times of travel" - which means, "we all got **** to do, and we're the boss, let's go". Which is great. Permit for MO was $265 alone.

I didn't ask the "How fast we gonna run question" at the start, so I just started pushing it a little bit as we went. When we stopped at Cabool, Green was happy if we travelled speed limit or above to prevent backups. On US60 we clearly had a quarter mile behind us, but couldn't let them go safely. So I just mashed it a bit more when we resumed. Even town speed limits were exceeded as we went. Safely, obviously, but I grew to realize they just wanted the move to happen efficiently and safely - and, as @wore out would say - "What are they gonna do - take your birthday away?"

So that's about the long and short of the first day on my first 'superload' - lots learned, and a ton of information for those that might want to try it.

I'm still trying to guess the costs - and what I'll be left with, but won't until the MSHP invoice hits. 2 cars @ 12 hrs @$65/hr average and 550 miles @.55 cpm times 2 cars. Plus the CVE inspector Lee 3 hours @$65/hr plus 50 miles @.55cpm. I'm not too concerned, I think the agent guessed it pretty good.

Also to note, shipper convo - they got 3 quotes. One came in @ $10k (seriously) - another @ $50k (he thought that was a bit much) - we estimated @27k - he took it. His first time trying us - so hopefully it'll lead to a few more.

Been watching guys and gals take their CDL practical test at this testing facility, surrounded by great looking corn crops, and it took me back about 18 years to where it all started . . . .

 

Hearty to all !

 

You need to delve into the numbers @Opus - .55cpm per car, $65/hour average, 1 hour visit at WAFFLE HOUSE (not it's trashy sister restaurant) - I'll eat my Chef Boyardee in the truck (after kindly offering them some), and be $$ ahead.