Good Night From II

Just finished my shift driving from Denver to St. George, UT. Smooth sailing the entire way, bare and dry roads and warm temperatures.

Yesterday during my night shift somewhere in the middle of Missouri on I-70 westbound I had an "episode" that stuck with me. I was cruising along at 62 mph in the right lane, when a "chop-choo" train of trucks was slowly overtaking me in the passing lane, with a 4 wheeler leading the way.

The 4 wheeler signaled and got in front of me, too close, and I backed off a notch on my speed to allow following distance to start building.

Just as the first truck in the choo-choo train was almost getting even with me I saw a rolled up mattress in the passing lane, toward the left side of the lane.

There wasn't much time to react. I saw the mattress first in the car's headlights as it passed it, and realized the truck on my left side would either have to run over the mattress or take evasive action in my direction.

I immediately flashed my high beams and moved over to the right onto the wide, paved shoulder.

The truck that was on my left slowed and pulled over to straddle the lanes, taking space I vacated. I watched in my rear view as the trucks in the choo-choo train all took the same action.

As the lead truck caught up to me and passed me I rolled down my window and gave him a wave. He had his interior lights on and gave me a big thumbs up.

Moral:

Look out for the wellbeing of everyone around you.

 

Truck out of shop, and my preplan for 1800 miles by Wednesday was removed. Did not know until returned to the truck. Now with a holiday weekend, doubt that see a load until Monday so sitting at the Flying J. Was not going to spend the weekend at the terminal. Kinda like good coffee.

 

forgot to mention. other day while driving north on hwy 93, some oversize trucks going south had nv trooper escorting them. was making people pull off hwy to make room. looked like mining vehicles. took most of road.

 

wells nv. stopped here as i needed fuel. sent a message saying so and they wanted me to go to wendover nv. 58 miles east and i'm headed south on 93 lol. called pheonix since mira loma haas been a busy signal since yesterday. told them and they said its because its cheaper lol. so you want me to drive 120 miles too save how much?? he gave me 50 gallons here at flying j.

 

Got a pplan, and to make up for the lost 1800 mile load, I get a 630 mile one for 2230 on Monday back in the Dallas area. Guess that I will be taking some $$ from my mad money to make up for the truck payment. Lousy weather coming in now. Thunderstorms with possible hail and flash floods. Just when I was getting ready to walk in and get something to eat. Had a taste for pizza. Even the phone was going off with severe weather alerts.

 

I never understood how the system chooses fuel routes sometimes, I get the same fuel stops for the most part daily but it does not seem to be dependent on prices for me, sometimes it chooses the higher prices one on my route. I have the luxury of calling the office and getting fuel opened when I want and where I want though which I have been doing a little more often so I can get more fuel ups at loves plus avoid the truck stops I dont care for much.

 

I often skip fuel stops if I don't want to fuel there and have enough to get by. And it's never a problem to get fuel when I call.
I skipped my last one because I simply didn't have enough time to fuel and get to my delivery on time.

So now I'm in Monroe, OH at a hole-in-the-wall truck stop, trying to stay awake a few more hours.
I delivered my last load at 2200, but my next load isn't until 2200 tomorrow night. And I'll have to run all night for a morning delivery.
I need to stay awake long enough so I can wake up late enough to do an all-nighter.

And then I'll be running on recap, so the system will be trying to get me to start my day at 0200 everyday.
At least, until I get a load with enough time so I can adjust it back to daytime driving again.

I really hate the night shift.

 

I skip fuel stops often too, sometimes I get a fill up when I have 6/8 of a tank and only going 120 miles so I just skip, normally I get a fuel stop every single dispatch and sometimes I will take 2-3 loads before I actually use a fuel stop. I rather not stop multiple times a day to get fuel, the fleet policy is to always use the fuel stop before coming back to the dc or you get wrote up not leaving plenty of fuel for the next guy but since I dont slip seat the site manager excludes me in that rule, I only made sure to do it a couple weeks ago when he asked if I would leave it unlocked for another driver to take it to the terminal for a b-service while I was on my days off so I didnt have to sit at the terminal and waste time.

 

Ah... The PUMP price might be less in Wells but with the fuel discounts that I bet they get (With Central some if not all was passed along to the drivers. ) Wendover is less.