Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

Pushed myself to stay awake last night. I hate it when I do that but I don't ever miss an appointment. I've got one late on my record for "rescuing" a load that another DM mapped for me! What a joke and learning experience that was. I haven't accepted a saved load in forever. They wait way too long to try to give them to responsible drivers. Now I'm guzzling caffeine to stay awake and be back on days tomorrow. Looks like my first normal month was April. So, as an unprepared genius (yeah I said it), with a preventable and way too much home time, it took me about 5 months to start trudging in a forward direction. Take out the 25 days off and I would have done much better! Maybe I should go ahead and let my girl get a girlfriend then I only have to be there for the big stuff?! Lol. Hope everybody is doing alright. It's freakin cold in NE!

 

Don't fudge up! JK, lol. What Wicked said...

 

i never once said it was somebody's fault. this set up just isnt for me. and 2 days a month is not very much. i have small children and i miss them. i dont see the point of working so hard for something you will never own. if i were working for my own truck that would be a different story. and the no escape clause sucks. i like having a back door out.

 

i worked local oilfield. the work started to get slow.....then slower.....then companies shut down.....then the next one followed suit.....forget the oilfield crap.
love the work. WAAAAYYYY too unstable.

 

Well, FINALLY i'm starting my Central Class May 27th. I have been back and forth for a couple of years now about starting with Central, always questioning being gone for so long, not wanting to be away from my Family ect. But i've finally decided this is where my life is taking me and couldn't be more excited! I think my Wife is even more excited than I am and even thinking about teaming with me once i get a feel for it! I've been following this and other threads for a few days now and got loads of great advice and pointers. I simply wanted to say thank you to everyone here who, although inadvertently helped me with this choice.

 

Hope everyone is staying safe. I'm shut down at the Loves in Fargo, ND. Like a true rookie, I wrote myself a note on the window (with dry erase) to remind myself I need to get back on the 94 east in the morning, and not head down the 29 south! lol. Heading to New Berlin, WI for a delivery on Tuesday. I'm going to bug for a drop or an appt time change as I'll be there tomorrow, so we will see how that goes.

I have never been this far north before, and Western Montana was far more beautiful than I imagined it ever being. Same for the small part of Idaho I went through. I am sure its a different story in the winter haha.

I feel like I am really starting to hit my stride, as everything is far less intimidating than it was just 12 days ago when I began my solo adventure. If I can't get another load I'll be at close to 2400 est miles this week. Not as good as last week, but in terms of a payday, its still nearly 3x what I was making unloading trucks for the words largest retailer!

Bottom line is I am enjoying myself immensely out here. Life is good, and even putting the new paydays aside, this is by far one of the best decisions I have ever made.

 

Glad to know, unloader. Keep up this attitude and you may end up making a career out of this thing. Just remember to ignore the super trucker telling you what for and nonsense. When in doubt, go slow. Even with winter passing, you can only go down a mountain grade too fast once. No such thing as too slow. Good luck to you.

 

So, I've been 180 miles from my 99 since last night and it's due tomorrow at 0100. It's been a while since I've been stuck on an awful load so not complaining. I'm going to detail my truck this morning, get a workout, and take a nap. Then it's off to the races again!! I heard about a bad wreck last night involving two big trucks. You know how CB chatter is, the stories varied from "a driver fell asleep and rear ended a parked truck" to "some driver hit a guy with a flashlight and them hit the truck!" I don't really know what happened but there's a totaled 18 wheeler right next to my exit. Everybody stay safe and off the shoulders if you can possibly avoid it. I've seen people try to flag traffic with a flashlight before and it's absolutely stupid. They require triangles for a reason. I for one hate putting them out, but it's better than standing there with a flashlight hoping these idiots see you!! Stay safe y'all!

 

Awesome attitude unloader and AF. Keep it up and like Wicked said keep it slow. I was in WVC today and was expecting to replace 2 tires and ended up with 8 new bridgstones ($3575). I think they saw sucker stamped on my forehead and came up with some story about not being able to put tires on with more than a 4/32 variance between tires or something like that. I said "ok I'm heading to Portland I'll run into the ta there they have a deal 8 roadpros and a 3 axle alignment for $2575." Know what they said? "You can't put those tires on a Central truck." Just another note that even if your leasing it, it's not your truck. I got them to throw in an alignment, but now my steering feels sloppy. The guy said I was a little toed in but was surprisingly straight with over 230k and driving in ca as much as I do.
I'm not feeling wvc mechanics about a month ago I had my starter replaced and got stuck at a rest area because the guy forgot to tighten a bolt. Luckily I was able to get it "tight enough" to start and get to the ta. Then they tried to charge me for the ta work!?!?!?! But they reversed the charge when I threw a hissy. Too bad they chose to do shotty work then tried to charge me for the fix.

Sorry rant over but my butt is still sore from the tires.

On a side note anyone try those ceramic balancer things?

 

I have them on my steers, but they've been on since I got the truck, so I can't compare.

I'm headed in to crswvc myself for service, and not looking forward to it. The only silver lining is that its better than crsco. BTW, I'm sitting in Ripon, CA, and probably spending tomorrow night in Lodi, if you're headed this way. (empty 70 syndrome)