My Truck, My Choice, Out of Denver, Colorado

Time flies when you're busy. This past week has been fairly smooth. I got to my delivery at the Menard's warehouse in Terre Haute, IN for my drop/hook that turned into a live unload. That's nothing new. I got that done and got up the road toward my next pickup and parked for the night. I was just inside the IL border and when I woke the next morning there was several inches of snow on the ground. Nice. It took two hours to get the last 50 miles to my shipper in Gibson City, IL. When I got there I found the place was closed. OK, no problem, this is a drop/hook, maybe there is a mail box with the BOLs in it or maybe the BOLs are in the permit box of one of our trailers there. Nope. Nothing. There were several SNI trailers there, but they were sealed with bolt seals and no papers anywhere. I went all over that place looking, in the snow. It gets better. I have Tmobile and it was no surprise that I had no signal to make any phone calls. I know being over 20 miles from a major interstate means Tmobile won't work, but I was a bit disappointed.

I ended up spending a hour sending messages back and forth via the Qualcomm and was finally told that customer service couldn't get anyone on the phone at the shipper and that I would get VNU pay. Well, duh, I told them there was no one there. Whatever. I kept my planned loads because even with the 284 miles of deadhead going to the next shipper, it was still going to pay $1.95 per mile for all miles all the way to Harrisburg, PA. I was a little upset about missing out on my short load to get me over into Ohio, but whatever. I got to the next shipper that evening and was told I could get in a dock and I would be loaded first thing in the morning. Cool! I needed to chain up to get into the dock. UNCOOL! The shipper didn't plow and their docks were on a steep slope. I was spinning out and sliding sideways. So, I got wet and messy throwing iron in OHIO! I have been chaining up in Colorado for years, but I never expected to need to do so in Ohio.

I got loaded and out of Cincinnati by 9am the next morning and the roads were in decent condition for my drive East. I stopped near Greensburg, PA for the evening and spent the night with family. I got rolling again the next morning and got to the customer, Sygma Harrisburg, by 2pm. They had an empty SNI trailer and the yard hostler told me to check with the office and I might be able to Drop/Hook. Nope, that would be too easy and make too much sense. I was told that I was scheduled for a live unload and I could get a dock at 9pm. Whatever. I got unloaded and parked in the corner of their lot by 11pm. I hate food warehouses.

I got rolling the next morning towards my next pickup in Front Royal, VA. I got to the shipper by 7am and was loaded and lout of there by 8am. Not bad. I drove through to the IN border and stopped for the night. The next day I delivered in Indianapolis at 10am. Again, and hour later I was rolling south to pickup a load going to Garland, TX. I got my load, an easy D/H and got down close to Memphis for the night.

Today I just drove straight through and stopped about an hour from my delivery tomorrow. My delivery should be off by 1pm and my next load is supposed to be ready by 5pm about 10 miles away. If all that works out, I should be on my way home to Denver for a Sunday morning D/H and then drop the trailer at King Soopers grocery and then to the house. I am concerned about the 8 inches of snow and more on the way that Denver is getting about now. Bobtailing 10 miles to the house in that and then trying to get the tractor parked beside my house will not be fun, but I'll be HOME!

 

OK, back to Denver yesterday. Did my drop and I'm at the house for about 9 days. The ice/snow storm that blew through Dallas Metro on Friday was a real show stopper. Texas doesn't treat the roads and it got really dumb in a hurry. I did my delivery and had about 12 miles to my next shipper. That little drive took 4 hours. Totally crazy. I got the load and headed north and the roads were just a sheet of ice. I was spinning out on even the gentle hills. It was like this all the way up through Kansas. It cleared about 30 miles south of I70. I didn't take the US287 because if they can't keep an interstate clear, my confidence in them keeping a US highway clear wasn't high. I got up to I70 and hammered down and made up some of the time I spend rolling at 20 mph for hundreds of miles. I'm really looking forward to Spring!

Oh, an additional joy. I needed to chain up and throw a ton of rock salt on my property to get parked at my house. This is only the second time I have managed to get my tractor stuck at home. The first time was in December 2006. That time a guy with a front end loader pulled me to a safe place and scraped my driveway. This time there was only about 8 inched of snow on the ground, compared to the first time when we had about 20 inches. The truck is parked. It will move again in a little over a week. I have a load to MN from Golden that leaves next Tuesday.