Leaving for Orientation 10-13-12 in Tulsa,Ok

two weeks ago was about a 1000 miles , last week was 1500 , its starting to pick up some .
I get approached by a lot of people that worked for melton in the past - its pretty strange , last guy said he was fired for hauling mexicans across state lines( he got caught ),he just walked up and told me at a shipper I was blown away . Most guys tell me it was an issue surrounding taking some extended time off and many talk about possibly going back. I always ask the question when I remember " name a better flatbed company to work for " not as a challenge but for pure informational purposes and when you weigh it all out they can't , I have had a few good conversations with some guys about it and usually we end up saying Melton is better but so and so has this that they like better and that does it for them, it may sound petty but I like knowing where my company stands in the industry.
OH I GOT NEW TARPS and they let me keep my old middle on so now I have 2 middles and 2 ends, and because they have rings on all 4 sides they are almost the perfect set of universals I think this is going to be a lot easier now on loads that are not full heighth or length which is many and way way faster than rolling up 8 foot sides 53' long . Spent a night in the Dallas terminal and that was cool got some stuff from the shop and then 4 days in Tulsa , which wasn't bad at all. I can't wait to get back to driving 5-600 miles a day 6-7 days a week I have entirely too much time on my hands , on a side note I am a expert on netflix movies and how to get good truck stop internet so yeah. fyi favorite series so far was Breaking Bad.

 

last sat thru wednesday ( a week ago now ), got some bad news though I was at a shipper today and when I was pulling out of a slightly challenging driveway I hit a fencepost with my tire. bent it over about 15-20 degrees . I am kinda disgusted with myself right now. I am far from perfect and hoping to be great one day but this was all my fault I was just too relaxed and thought I had it and bumped it. I can only imagine how much its going to cost prob between 2 and 8 hundred bucks to fix unless a contracter type fence repairman go's crazy , still it was my fault really sucked. Ironically I went and picked up at ohio castings later today and had to manuever MUCH tighter turns driving my truck and trailer between the poles in the building , you don't believe it will fit til you try it. Just figures I hit something easy to avoid and can miss all the hard stuff.

 

I saw my tire hitting it and backed up and got around it and went in and told them right away, it was kinda funny I was standing there waiting for someone ( whom I had just told I hit the fencepost ) to be availible to look at it and a forklift driver ran in and went all whistleblower , it was kinda funny - he was kinda out of breath most likely from running in - " one of these truck drivers hit a fence post and its bent " ( there were like 5 trucks there ), then the guy I told informed him I had hit it and it was under control, lol. I am over it now and just wish it didnt happen but I guess its kinda dumb to think I can go the places I go without anything ever going wrong ever, so now I am glad it was this and not something much worse.Still wish I didnt hit it though.

Thats funny about tulsa , I will bump into you one of these days I am sure, hopefully not with my tire.

 

well I did about 1700 miles this week but the tarp pay will bump it up some since we tarp everything lol. love it ! 2 Loads , both pretty good runs so I am happy to be getting the miles I am right now. Spent about 3 and a half days sitting with nothing to do so I am kinda netflixxed out atm. Recccomendation for the week is Arn, its weird I know but its interesting enough reading subtitles and staying engaged, I really liked it , watched trollhunters a while back and liked that a ton but you have to be in the right mood to stay watching it - sitting for days puts me in that mood usually . Ready for some Crazy - I am starting to like tarping, My typical load time takes 1.5 hours securing and tarping , if I just Secure it goes so fast it kinda feels weird like I forgot to do something , at least when I tarp it I see everything over and over and really get a feel for whats up with the load. And then I don't see it again til I unload. Of course it might also be because I am not worried at all about getting another load anytime soon so it can take as long as it needs, won't really affect the week any.I have a feeling this will change dramatically in the summer when its hot and nasty but at least the winter hasn't been bad.

 

pfft you spent the money on them cause your smart. Rolling up and extra 7' of sides 53' long over and over gets old. Although I wouldnt buy steel tarps I would just get 1 maybe 2 more centers from the " new " 3 piece tarps and that would work perfect for me . Hopefully they will find their way to my truck at some point. I actually dont mind the lumbers at all when the load is 6' or taller , its just when you use them on 1' tall loads that you feel like a dork - however I don't have that problem anymore on loads less than 45' in length !!!! ( 2 centers )anyways glad your getting a few miles. Of course you can keep the western loads and the texas loads in general I prefer to run around the country instead of getting stuck zig zagging across that state for weeks.