Good Night From II

Made it to a rest area on I-94W 20 mins from my first stop at Menards in St Cloud MN. Have 1 minute left on my 70. Cutting it close. Had planned on sleeping at their dock tonight but chasing down a trailer today killed my recap hours for today. Mac22'd delivery in the morning.

Was as offered a ppln just as I pulled the brakes. 1,100 miles from roughly here to eastern PA. Problem as it didn't p/u till Tuesday and delivered on Friday. I have home time targeted back in Houston starting Sunday. No way I'm getting home in 2 days from PA over a holiday weekend. Refused it asking for anything going in the general direction of TX.

 

At the rest area on the north end of Honey Lake, just south of Susanville, CA on US-395. Great rest area. Quite with clean bathrooms, and we are entertained by about a dozen bats picking off the offerings attracted by the street lights.

Had a good day, with my new student taking us from Lone Pine, Ca up to Reno for a live unload delivery, then picked up a drop and hook and headed to Portland. He's doing well and for the second day behind the wheel I'm impressed with his sense of position in traffic and his respect for hills and curves.

Tomorrow should be a good run over to Shasta and over the Siskiyou's with 31K in the box to show him bigger hill management.

 

I have used a ramp a couple times but was when trip planning blew out of the water finding not 1 but 2 of my planned stops packed with no spots. I have shut down in places with less than 5min left on clocks many times, this morning shut down with 2min left on the 14 and 28 on drive. I went to Valencia then Modesto then over to Conagra, the conagra was a pain since I did not have the number I needed to pu and dispatch and dc couldnt get me the number and they werent going to let me have the load at first even though it was 3 days late picking up since the last person had the same issue but the lady got in trouble on that so got the boss to ok me to just take one of the 2 loads ready and let the dc figure out the fixing but took 45min sitting at the guard shack to get it done along with my ect talking to her when I handed the phone over. This new system the dc's are using has all kinds of issues that need fixing, we also have to have a delivery number to drop it too now.

 

petro in rochelle il. didnt get the approval to deliver today. so am 30 miles from final. got 2 preplans stacked. p/u in morris il at noon tomoorw and delivers in wyoming mi at 2000 tomorrow night. other one p/u in home mi at 11 on the 28th delivering in peoria il at 0930 the 29th. at least get another 400 miles added to this weeks pay period. called dl and said i've gone east as far as i'm going lol. he said chicago area is pretty busy

 

Still around Chambersburg, PA doing Target loads.

Very easy money, considering what they are paying surge drivers.
I always have time to hit a Walmart on the way to delivery if I need to. That has been nice.

I've only averaged about 1 load per day, at around 300-500 miles total. I'm sure that is going to bump me down to Silver one of these days, which will affect my bonus pay. But I know I am making more as a surge driver.

It can last only so long, however. The need at Target will end or I will take my home time in MN, whichever comes first. Then I will be back to the 48 doing what I love most.
I'll enjoy the money for this short time, but I can't wait to get back to my normal operations.
I really don't like being stuck in PA and NJ. It gets really boring.

 

Target will be getting really busy here shortly, I know I got a message on the qc last night saying that candy loads begin this Thursday and Friday and nobody will be allowed to have the day off and there will be a lot of other holiday stuff beginning shortly plus overall this is getting close to the Target busy season. I know I have seen more miles lately on most days.

 

Ya, well, I'll run with it until my next home time. Then it is bye bye.

 

those 2 preplans were short lived lol. first one was cancelled, so lost both. hopefully i get sent back west or south

 

Taking my 10 at Diamond Jo's Casino somewhere in northern Iowa on I-35S. Finished my two stop at Menards in central MN then back to St Cloud for a light Electrolux load to tcall in Edwardsville. Crap!!
And as I expected, based on all I've heard lately, got saddled with a crummy 144 miler after my tcall with a live unload. That'll be a day and a half wasted on that load.

I'm expecting to get shafted with one crap load after another as I inch my way back to Houston for hometime Sunday.

 

Had a beautiful run from Susanville, CA to just south of Portland, OR. Headed up and across US highways to reach I-5 at Shasta, then north up I-5. Very good practice for my trainee's 3rd day behind the wheel. Spent a fair amount of focus today on helping him manage smooth shifting. Seems to me that getting a trainee to float gears really helps them, and makes the double clutching go easier.

Tomorrow we have three live unloads in the Portland area, then drop and hook the empty to get a heavy load to Toledo, OR. Then drop and hook to get another heavy headed to Otay Mesa.

I'll be curious how well Edwardsville plans you after that 144 mile load during the week. Perhaps my bad experience was due to t-calling a load on a Saturday and having to deal with weekend planner(s).