CRETE - A Year in Review

FYI: There's HEAVY inspections going on CA 99 between Stockton and Fresno. We didn't get tagged, but saw quite a few trucks getting them. The CB was buzzing as well.

 

Good Point, I didnt even think of them guys. Thx

 

Sorry Ever, but it wasn't me. I was on I80 during that time. But keep looking! Would be nice to meet you. The last two digits are correct. The first two...32.

I'm in Bowling Green,KY tonight. Starting a reset after running 3316 in 7 days.

BTW, the RED ROOF INN in Bowling Green is EXCELLENT! $38 per night (including taxes) if you have the Check Inn Card.

 

almost looked like where i live there ever, ... but ours was worse than that. we lost power, phones, water last tues day and just got it back at 8 pm today. seven full days and its still nasty here, still have the national guard here and FEMA.

 

Friend of mine was down there too, did you deliver to or close to AB?

 

yea you got that right, it stinkx bad lol. out in our county alone there were 3500 plus houses without electricity and 1500 plus in the city limits without power. i lost i bet close to 40 pine trees from this storm not to mention all the limbs that fell down, sounded like shotguns goin off when the popped and busted to the ground. heck of a mess to be cleaned up.

 

Greetings Gang,

I'm back. It has been one of my worst runs of luck in quite a while. After all my early delivery's a few weeks ago, I managed a whopping 1200 mi week. Nothing went right. As of the 20th of January, I had already put in 5 34 hr restarts. By the end of the month, 8700 miles. I too got caught up in the big winter storm fun. I have been getting many multi-load offers, but mostly 2-300 mile runs, with 2 or 3 days to get it there. Occasionally one with decent miles, but all the time in the world to get it there. I was in Bartlesville, OK. 3 offers, all out of the K/C fiberglass plant. Fairburn, GA...Norfolk,NE or a 2 stop Mt.Vernon/Springfield, IL. I took the 2-stop because it was ok miles, 2 stops, and in a decent area to get a load to home. Well, all was ok, until I finally got to the shipper. Then 7 hours after my load was suppose to be ready, it finally got loaded. By then I'm almost out of my 14, and none of my msgs to dispatch were being answered about the load not getting delivered on time because of the delay. As I was pulling into the K/C yard, the freezing drizzle/snow or, as I heard it called... snizzle, started. Got up the next morning to find out the worst was yet to come, so I figured I would get over to the Peelot over in Mt. Vernon. My customer was directly across the street. I figured if I get there, how hard would it be to deliver... Wrong-o-marrylou... I went to bed with pellets of snizzle hitting my truck. I woke up to an avalanche of snow falling off my roof. Shin deep snow on the step. I couldn't deliver until after 7...So I hurried to shower so I could get going. I waded through the snow plows only pass through the truckstop's lot.(knee deep) There was a daycab that couldn't get up to the fuel island, so he tried to back out...only to jackknife and block 4 fuel pumps...and the fun begins. It took me 3 hours to get out of my parking spot through the fuel island and to the exit. (the only way out). It seems during the wait for drivers to leave, a Celadon got impatient and decided to go out the entrance...and drive his trailer tandems into a 4' snow pile, and got stuck, thus blocking any other way but the fuel island off entirely. With 20k lbs of fiberglass, I didn't have great traction. 5' forward, 3' back. Over and over and over. Then it got fun. The customers dock sits on top of an uphill driveway. After fighting 20 minutes to get near the back lot, it took me another 30 minutes to get backed to the dock. I had to go all the way out into the road, and then back as fast as I could to fight through the snow numerous times. I actually considered chaining up to get out of the Pilot and get across the street and into the customer. I finally got in and got unloaded at stop 1, and headed to stop 2. They couldn't take the load until the next day. Now the load that was suppose to p/u Monday and deliver Tuesday wasn't going to be done until Thursday. Once empty I got the msg...'Nothing to FLA'... But I did receive a load offer fairly quickly. So I took the next load to Omaha...once empty there, low and behold, a load to OH, and before I could respond, a pplaned load to FLA. All with enough time to find a parking spot and watch the referees help the Steelers beat the Cards..Wholly cow, only 4 days after the date I requested for home time, I will be delivering 200 miles from home... hope it's close enough to deadhead.

Oh, the reason I have been MIA. During the wait at the fiberglass plant, I tried to get the weather forecast knowing the weather was going to turn bad soon, then my air-card bailed on me 5 times. It has been acting up, but after all my problems lately, this was the last straw. I chucked the air card as hard as I could at the trashcan...I found what was left of it when I was unloading stuff at home...not much left of it I'm afraid. So I don't know how much I'll be online once I get back on the road.

I haven't been feeling too good about this career lately... It isn't anything that Cretes doing...just the whole downturn lately has me seriously considering getting out for good....after almost 15 years, I don't know how much more of this I can take and still keep both my oars in the water.

Best of luck gang, I got a chance to stop by home en route to my delivery so I got a chance to get online and try to catch up a little. I'll try to get online some more later, but the honey-do list is a mile long.

 

Hey SS! Good to hear from you ! I'm sorry to hear you've had it rough. Hope things start getting better for ya!

Take care!

 

uh... you mean to tell me that after all these years im gonna find out i gotta have both oars ? and in the water too? man oh man im in for it now. lol