THE ADVENTURES MK III - Still doing it my way

I'll see how it goes without them. One thing I didn't realize is that since the cab is much skinnier on this truck you can see a lot more that is going on around you since you sit closer to the middle and there isn't a wide hood blocking your view. I'll have to watch 4 wheelers coming up on my passenger side, if it's possible to completely lose sight of them I will be putting them on.

 

So it is official now, I am an owner operator leased to Schneider. My truck has a number, insurance, some new stickers on the side of it and a shiny new Qualcomm to squawk at me.

I did my annual check ride/return to work today with one of the instructors that is now an OSR at Charlotte. He was my instructor that I did all the yard training and "classroom driving" with. My trainer is now an OSR too and amidst all the joking that went on between us they both told me how great it was to see me having succeeded and gotten this far with my trucking career. Without people like that I know I would not be where I am today and I really can't thank them enough. You all know how I feel about some of the "desk jockeys" at the Charlotte OC, but the instructors and OSRs are top notch. I got a chance to meet my ICA while I was there too, she's great and it's nice to put a face to the name of the people that I deal with on the phones or through email all the time.

After having not been behind the wheel of a truck with a trailer for over a month an a half I was nervous as **** when it came time to hit the road with the OSR, but honestly it all just came back to me as soon as I left the gate. As far as I can tell I won't need hood mirrors on this truck, I paid extra attention to vehicles that came up on my passenger side and I can see them the whole way through thanks to the narrow cab and stubby hood of the T600.

Backing was... very different. This thing turns no where near as sharp as my Cascadia did and coupled with the long wheelbase makes it pretty much impossible to really jackknife the trailer and then turn out of it when backing into a hole, the only option is to just pull up a little to get out of it. Wasn't as bad as I thought though. We'll see if I still feel the same way after messing around in some of the tight lots in the customers.

I couldn't find a load down south out of Charlotte, and the only ones that were leaving today or early tomorrow were headed north into the cold. My bunk heater's exhaust hose had rotted out and was exhausting under the cab, and I didn't feel comfortable sleeping with it on. I decided to head back home and pick up a new exhaust hose from ThermoKing along the way. It was a nasty PITA to put on, because the heater is located conveniently above a u-join so everything is splattered in grease that gets slung off. I now have waterproof hair. I also needed to pick up some stuff I forgot and left behind, like my cooler fridge/freezer, my coveralls, a few tools, etc. Gonna look and see what the load board has to offer now, hopefully I don't have to sit through the weekend, I really wanted to get a few loads in.

Glad to have all that stuff out of the way and just get back to the usual DFO routine of cruising around in my big truck... I mean working.

 

Just checked my settlement and my maintenance account finally paid out. THANK GOD. I was so worried something would be horribly wrong with the Cascadia I turned in and they would use the entire balance in my maintenance account to fix it and I wouldn't see a penny. Looks like I took good care of that truck and they used very little to "recondition" it to the next guy. I will give credit to SFI there, they didn't screw me like they could have there. Week turned out pretty darn good... truck passed with no problems, I passed my road test with no problems, I got almost all of my maintenance account that I had built up a lot in back... I don't drink much but since I'm at home I think it's time to crack open a cold one.