The day to day of driving-A few questions?

Good luck with that. We used to say, "Trucking is not a job. It is only a way to get from city to city where all the action is." In reality though, that quote was a description of the life style of a few party animals who spent their off-duty time in bars. It used to be quite a race into Detroit every night to make last call. Drivers would drop their trailers at the terminal and bobtail to their favorite watering hole. The ambiance of those places was less than upscale, for sure. I am reminded of one well-known racing mechanic who states in his book that his life style involved working to 10 or 11 p.m. before walking across the road to the bar where he would coax some middle aged divorcee to return to the garage. Let's face it. We live and work on the wrong side of town.

I have always enjoyed Chinese food. One day, my lead driver stopped at a Chinese restaurant, woke me up and said, "Here you are." Well, I had a fine meal, but did not actually enjoy it. He stayed in the truck. I ate, and then went back into the bunk. I appreciated his thoughtfulness, however.

Most truckers do not operate the way we did years ago when the companies paid for hotel rooms in major cities.

 

Its not out of the question, but I will say don't count on it.

Depending on where you are picking up, dropping off, or where you are sleeping it's gonna be tough. Most of the time you will find these things rolling through. I was staying at a Pilot north of Ft. Worth Tx on I-35 aliance gateway freeway, They were running at the Nascar Track up the road so all the Nascar promotion trucks were at there. Not only that, there happened to be a Cabela's across the street from the Pilot. I went over and did some shopping for awhile. It worked out good. But this is rare. Normally it will be a group of truckstops on an exit with nothing else around.

One other good thing is, if you find a Walmart or other superstore; usually they are in complexes that have decent places to eat or places to shop.
A good example of this was going across 70 in Kansas. We needed a Wamart to restock some things. Come to find out, it was one of the super centers so it had a grocery dpt. We got stocked up and went back to the truck. As we were leaving we saw a Golden Corrall buffet. We swung the truck back into the Walmart lot and walked over to the restaraunt. It worked out pretty good. Again, this is not normal, it just happend to work out this time.

As far as being able to go to bars and clubs....Good luck.

 

Hey World welcome to the trucking world. Some walmarts will let you stay all night some won't even let you in the parking lot. The walmart in
Lexington Nebraska totally caters to us with great parking.Others put a big yellow bar at 8 feet so we can't go in. My advice would be to keep your eyes open for places you can get in or see other trucks parked at and make a note for the next time you are in that area. Most malls will accomadate but be wary especially of Ontario Mills in ontario calif by the two t/a's They are posted no bobtails and you will be towed.

 

Yes be wary of Ontario Mills. A cop friend says that there three main areas that get the priority calls

1. The trailer park on Riverside and Vineyard
2. the apartment complexes in Creekside...and
3. Ontario Mills

Besides being a little unfriendly (DOT) to drivers, the Mills draws gang-bangers from the region to include the Mexican gangs. So be careful. Yeah the Mills look innocuous but so does a coral snake before it bites you.

 

Hey ron love the quote by twain you have there. Kinda applies to some dispatchers I've had

 

Bobtailing is the answer to getting into many of these places you want to go. The problem is where to drop your trailer without some towing company hooking onto it and dragging it away while you are gone.

Just about every truck stop I have been to says "no drop trailers without prior approval from truckstop management." Who is to say they will actually remember you asked for permision to drop after your trailer is towed?

Unless you are at a customers location or company terminal I would wait to go to applebees or the Outback Steakhouse.

 

do not park your truck in ontario Ca. at all!!!! Large trucks cannot park on city streets at all!!!! If you want to go to the "Mills" park at the t.a. and cab it or walk (half a mile). Its not worth getting your truck towed.