CRETE - A Year in Review

Just wondering, is Wilmer ok? I saw on the news that Lancaster got hit, that's the next town west of the yard. A driver here at my delivery said he thought the truck terminal on the national news was a Schneider yard. The video I saw was to grainy and dark to tell what color trailers were getting sucked up in the air

 

I'm not sure on wilmer but i know it was a pumpkin yard that got hit in Texas. Watched the video 10 minutes after it happened. Those trailers had to be a 100 feet up in the air.. maybe a little less. Scary to think that is what happens.. makes me even more gun shy of thunderstorms. I hope I'm never caught in a tornado.. give me snow, sleet, straight wind, hurricane.. just no tornado..

 

Ya Wilmer is fine. Well actually the inside does look like a tornado hit it. They are remodeling the inside. They chopped the big TV room in half, took out that stupid phone room, and adding offices downstairs. I was at that flying j two hours before it hit. Had a pickup at nestle water, they forced everyone in the bathrooms for about two hours while that went on. Drove by the Schneider yard next morning wow just a pile of trailer skeletons.

 

2 hours in a flying j bathroom....holy crap...so now you've done your time in purgatory... The driver I had talked to said some parts of the punkin patch yard also flooded, so some of the trucks and trailers had water damage as well. Not a good day for Schneiders insurance... But I guess the good news in all of this is I haven't heard about any fatalities out of this storm... Been a rough couple years for tornados....

 

I ended up getting a load to Ottawa, KS out of Mt Juliet, TN. But, since the previous load emptied out by around midnite Thursday, that meant a 700 mile day. I ended up delivering in Ottawa at 2345 on Friday nite then rushing up to the Loves in Ottawa to scan it in. I didn't make it before midnite, if I had, it would have made it a 3400 mile week. Now my e-logbook is paying off a bit. I managed to have hours left on my 70 after that kind of a week, but it still doesn't make me like that electronic leash. Since I've burned up a lot of hours, I'm on a Spring Hill KS to the Minn/St. Paul area for 6 am Monday, so if the late scan of Fridays load didn't make it, it'll end up being an 11-1200 mi weekend with the carryover miles

 

I have heard form those who did it, that there is about a 2hr window on transflo...let us know if your transflo made it. I wish there was a RELIABLE method to submitting paperwork, beside that phone thing, which is hit and miss.

 

They always say have it in by 2345 central time. But one of my failed attempt with phonescan went in later than that but still got paid... I am hoping, but even if it didn't I can accept a 2700 and carry over the rest.

 

If you have a laptop and a data plan with your cell phone carrier, buy a printer/scanner for $40 and send in everything from the comfort of your truck.

 

I was having Wizard of Oz flashbacks....a tornado dropping a trailer on Miss T in the Wilmer Yard......

 

I was the 2nd driver to sign up for that when they started the testing of that option years ago. It actually takes me longer to dig out everything and boot the computer than taking it to a truck stop. I will only have that option for another month, I am terminating my air-card account when it reaches it's contract completion date and I'm on Verizon so tethering to your phone takes a special app(no longer available in the app market) that masks it so they don't know you're doing it.(Verizon charges extra to tether, and it limits your phone's data plan, right now I am still on the unlimited data plan until I upgrade my equipment). Since I use between 8 and 10 gig of data...not in any hurry to upgrade even though I hate the piece of crap Thunderbolt I have.