Good Night From II

If I am more than 40 or 60 ahead I quit.
That day was the most I have ever won in a single day, and it's happened only a couple times before.
My sister has won bigger and more often than me. She also places larger bets and comes with more money, so she is also in the hole more often.

Not too long ago I was sitting next to a guy that hit that same jackpot of 11 of 12. Those sure don't happen very often.

In the past year, overall, I think I may have lost around $300. But we go gambling once or twice a week.
Go out for a nice drive, do some gambling and go home. It is our main form of entertainment.
One casino is 10 miles away, Treasure Island is 45 miles, and the other two are about 100 miles.
The one going south into IA is a nice drive and they have very good food, but we seldom win there.

My strategy is simple.
Walk in with around $60, $20 each for a few machines at the minimum bet.
Hit or miss quick, and then out the door.

My reasoning is also simple.
Many machines will give some kind of payout shortly after you start playing just to keep you playing, unless they are in a suck-it-in mode.
That machine I won on won't be played by me for several months.

But you also need to play the machines enough to learn how they actually work. The ones I play can give 2-4 bonus rounds within a very short time, some with meager payouts and other big ones. Then they will start just taking it all back in again. All just chance on where you are in the cycle.
The payout I got was not in a bonus round, just a normal spin.

I worked in casino's for a few years in Las Vegas and Reno and watched how things worked. I watch now as well.
I'll see people get some big payouts only to try for ever more, feeding the same machine until everything is sucked back in.

Trying to get your money back almost never works, so I don't go in with much to start with.
My sister and I are addicted to gambling. The fun of the chase, beating the odds and all that.
But addiction does not have to mean being dumb about it.

 

I work to hard for my money to give it to a casino.

 

pilot in castaic ca.
still doingvthe i-5 calufornia runs. swift calls this division i5 south.
was on phone standby for jury duty last week, so stayed local everyday.
glad i didnt get called in.
picked load up in colton friday morning and tcalled it at lathrop terminal.
sent a meesage to planners saturday morning for a load and he said pretty dead.
few hrs later they deadheaded me down to shafter area, then stacked a load that picks up monday morning in torrance ca.
delivers tuesday morning in french gulch(sp?).
so doing a 34 reset here since i got lucky and found a parking spot

 

Just got on the Johnstown Walmart account, really like it, best money I’ve made with Swift so far, sad to leave the Syracuse terminal though, solid team, great driver leaders (not gonna miss the showers at the terminal tho lol). Never thought I’d be happy to have a job that routinely has me drive into Jersey and Long Island, but I’m doing all night driving so I rarely ever hit traffic, those potholes on 295 are murder though.

 

I live near Syracuse. Have been thinking about going back to driving full time. Currently working full time in a different field and driving part time for a local company doing local work to keep my current experience fresh. What type of driving did you do out of Syracuse before this Walmart dedicated?

 

I did OTR and Regional, but truth be told, I was in pretty much the same region for both (Syracuse likes to keep you east of the Mississippi because it’s hard to get you back once your out there lol) 99% of the time though, I would be as far north as Syracuse, as far West as Columbus, and as far South as Richmond. I would get sent out to Memphis and down to Florida on occasion, but the majority of the time it was Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Upstate NY

 

My previous OTR experience was with Millis Transfer and same territory. They operated primarily east of the Mississippi with an occasional load to/from Colorado and something in California.

How was your hometime on OTR and how is it with the new account? I assume the new one is a 34 hrs reset or do you get a full 2 days?

 

It’s just my 34, but you can take two days off every 2 weeks on, I do a month on, and 4 days off (I usually only take two so I can get more miles)

 

It's nice to hear from someone that is happy at Swift, and from what it sounds it is pretty much all of your time with them.

 

yessir, I’ve had a good experience with them, I think a lot of younger guys (I’m 28, started last year) come in with unrealistic expectations (I did, if you told me I would be making the money I am now 6 months ago I would’ve told your your insane lol) and don’t acclimate well to the lifestyle. I also think Swift struggles with retention because they tell guys “oh yeah you can make 1000 a week and go home every other weekend!” When the reality of the freight market is that you just won’t, and dispatch can’t/wont give you the best loads if you aren’t out there grinding as hard as you can, at least when your starting out. I remember, when I first got the recruiting call I said “yeah I’m willing to go out, a month at a time, go home for 2 days and come back” and the lady on the phone was like “well that’s not gonna be necessary! We don’t want you to get burned out!”. And like I said earlier, my Driver Leader (and really everyone at my terminal) is a saint, and I really don’t think I would have had as positive experience as I have had if it wasn’t for them. And to be clear for anyone else reading, who was in the same position I was when I was starting out a little over a year ago, and is lurking and searching forums to find out if Swift is a good company to start out with (like I did), it IS hard work, it’s long long long days and weeks and months, but A. I love driving, and I’ve acclimated very well to the lifestyle, B. I don’t have a wife or kids and C. I’m honestly willing to put up with a lot of ####, and I have a very high tolerance for BS and strife