Good Night From II

Ukiah, CA.

A boom was used to load my trailer full of wood chips. That'll be fun to clean out.
I shut down at the little truck stop here so I wouldn't have to deal with Friday afternoon traffic in the Bay Area. There is really nowhere else to stop in between.
~400 miles by Monday morning. I sure hope I can make that tight schedule on time.

Wonderful day today, though. With all the rain lately everything is greener than I have seen in years. It's back to like when I grew up near the Bay Area as a kid.

 

That has to be one of the worst Pilots in the country. I still remember making a 'quick' dive in there just for coffee and getting out over an hour later.

I was a bit east of you at a hole in the wall in Kings Mountain last night, delivered in Charlotte in the dark way too early this morning and passed you and another Swift flatbed hauling school bus chassis' about midday on I-85. If you noticed a silver Prostar southbound blink headlights that was me saying howdy.

Frank

 

<<=== Charcoal grey T660 wif a Dynasys APU on the driver side. Makes me easy to spot. =P

 

I would have been through there about that time. Headed to the terminal to drop off student.

I'm easy to spot if know what Im hauling. Or you see my hair.

Think I seen your truck in Montgomery last year. It's an prostar eagle isn't it?

I usually wave if something else dosent have my attention.

 

Shafter, CA at the J.

I have a delivery in the morning at Scott's Miracle Grow. Just wondering if anyone has delivered there.
It seems that I may be expected to unload my trailer full of wood chips using large machinery, with no training provided. I guess there are written directions.
It is probably like unloading potatoes when the trailer is upended and the product is dumped out.

I really don't like the sound of that. If something should go wrong I would hate to be the object of blame, or get hurt in the process.

 

My old Coleman ran nearly three years before the inside fan actually quit. It had been growling off and on for two years. My guess is that it lasted so long because I had a spare in the truck, and was simply too lazy to swap it out. In that time, I had replaced the outside fan 4-5 times. My bet is that it's the dust that kills it.

Last year, I bought an IndelB TB41A, sold by TruckFridge as the TF41. It's not cheap (~$500), but over those three years of using the Coleman, I've probably had that much food go bad. This is an actual refrigerator, which I have set to 23 degrees, and it keeps my frozen food frozen, and drinks on the top will go a few days before they freeze. (A 0.5L water bottle in the bottom freezes solid in about 12-16 hours.) And the kicker is that it uses a LOT less power than the Coleman did...

 

But I don't want to keep things frozen, just cold.
Freezing only degrades quality, and I don't even want frozen food at home. (Well, ice cubes and ice cream...)

Let me know in another 7 years how your freezer is doing, won't you?

Because you spent around $500 on that, when the Coleman is around $120.
If the Coleman lasts 2+ years on average, then yours would have to last at least 8 to be cost effective if you use it like I do to just keep things cold.

 

I'm actually with msjamie on this. A refridgerator is so much better than a cooler, even the Coleman cooler. I had a Coleman, it lasted probably 3 years. Replaced the outside fan, even replaced the cord a couple times. The thing was, it NEVER kept anything COLD. It would keep stuff cool, but I would never consider keeping any food in it that had to stay cold. No leftovers, no lunch meat, nothing. Mostly just used it to keep drinks cool. The truck I have at my new company has a built in fridge and it is great! It actually keeps stuff cold. Now I can look into getting some stuff to cook with and start keeping some food on the truck. You don't have to set it so low that it freezes everything, but so far it is well worth paying $500 for one over a cooler. Before I started here, I was even thinking about a dorm room fridge, but wasn't sure how it would hold up to a beating.

 

I was the second truck in the gate at Scott's Miracle Grow this morning, and the first in line to unload my wood chips. But I let the next driver in line go first so he could show me how things were done. He had experience there.
It was actually fun and quick. Back on to the tipper, chain the landing gear and disconnect from the trailer before moving the truck forward a bit. Then hit the red button to turn it on and move a lever to raise the trailer. Once it stops it is fully empty and the lever goes the other way to lower the trailer. Hook up and go.
Each truck takes about a half hour.
There were 2 other Swift trucks there as well, and they learned the procedure both from the first driver and me.

After a few hours I got a pplan, and I really think they could have sent it earlier. It left very little time on the load once I got it.
It is a Ross load going to San Antonio, TX, delivering Wednesday evening.
Trouble is I needed to get 350 miles today and it didn't happen. By the time I got to the L.A. area rush hour was setting in and I lost a good hour and a half. I was only able to make it as far as Indio, and not to the AZ border like I had planned.
That leaves my with 1230 miles for 2 days of driving. That extra 100 miles would have been nice to get in today.

The Petro in San Antonio is just a few miles from my final, luckily. I guess I should reserve a spot before I get there, just to be sure of a parking spot.

 

Moose, that Petro is an absolute sewer as is the Pilot on the north side of 10 at the same exit. The Knights Inn across the street from the Petro is a festering hole of the worst low life scum there is.

However, the TA and the Flying J at the exit 3 miles east is enough of a walk that there are hardly any scumbags to deal with. There's also the Walmart a few miles south on the 410 loop.

Frank