Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

I was at a Wegman's DC once and a driver beside me was out cold, snoring in the driver's seat within 10 mins of bumping the dock. An hour later he was still asleep when I left.

I wanna be like that guy.

 

I have done several drop and hooks there.

 

See, that's why it takes you longer everywhere else. You got unloaded quickly at a WalMart, so the universe has to balance the scales someplace else.

First time I ever went there, the trailer was indeed pre-loaded. Dropped my empty, hooked the pre-loaded trailer, and moseyed on down the road.

That was apparently just to lull me into a false sense of security. Every time since, it's been a total clownshow.

 

I have picked up several loads from there while on my "local" job duties. Always feel sorry for whoever gets them as they are loaded to the gills and when I scale it, it's almost always maxing out with my Volvo on 1/4 tanks of fuel and def.

 

Came back OTR as of Friday for a bit. My mother was back in hospital for 12 days and is now again in a rehab unit. Back to square one with the foot. Bad bad bad infection. I'm not sure if I even posted about it because things have been so crazy. Long story short, she now has MRSA, is on IV antibiotics until mid to late October, had to have a blood transfusion, and surgery to remove all hardware from her foot. So, since she's not home, I can go out.

Get up to the yard Friday and they hatched this great plan where I would bt up to pennsauken nj and collect mty trls used for FEMA loads. First load-went up 301 since it was Friday afternoon/evening. It was shut down near upper marlboro (not sure why?) and was routed onto skinny roads. So glad i didn't have a trl at this point. Felt sorry for the 2 trucks ahead of me. Took 45 minutes to get back to 301. Dark as all get out back there! Then get to the last turn to get onto Pettys Island and road is shut down. Another detour. Not too bad though.

Get back to the yard and do it all over again today, but ... now the utility work has the entire entrance to the island cut off. So off to Baltimore to amazon to get an mty and bring back here. Did 95 today both ways. Not too bad. Roughly 1100 miles all mty. Kind of glad they aren't sending me back tomorrow, but I do get to do my favorite road {much sarcasm}-the WV tpk tomorrow to Berea KY.

I can say that I did not miss having to get dressed, get all my stuff together and walk into a store to take a shower, or the sound of the truck running while I'm trying to sleep.

 

You're the one grabbing all the loaded trailers and leaving all the live loads for us mugs!.

 

Nah. Been there maybe 4 times in 3 months. That place is the pits!

 

Went to Canada for the first time this weekend. Wasn't bad except that I had to drive overnight (my least favorite thing about driving a truck) to make the delivery on time.

I rolled into the Richmond yard Thursday night with a glowing check engine light and my odometer telling me it was time for a PM besides. So I dropped a ticket into the window circa 9:00pm and went home for the night to sleep in my own bed.

Around 8:00am, I get a call from my DM. He wants to know if I have a passport. I respond in the affirmative. I got my little passport card prior to signing on with Abilene, and I've been waiting to use it ever since.

Problem, though: All the repair bays were occupied with other trucks when I dropped off my shop ticket the night before, and there were three tickets ahead of mine. So I figured I'd be lucky if it was ready by noon. DM informed me that wouldn't be a problem. Just stay on top of the truck's status and roll out as soon as I could.

The hours went by, I called the shop a few times, was told that it was still being worked on. It'll be ready in a couple hours. Oh wait, no, it'll be ready early this afternoon. Oh wait, no, it'll be ready by 5:00.

I didn't know how much time I had on the load, so I called my DM just in case he wanted to give it to someone else. Explained the situation to him. He called me back 10 minutes later and said he'd spoken to the shop and they would definitely have it ready by 5:30pm.

I rolled in at 6:00pm, and sure enough, it was still in the repair bay. They finally rolled it out around 6:30, and I was on the road by 6:45.

My GPS said it was gonna take 10 hrs 38 min to get to the shipper, and it was due at 9:00am. So, joy, I get to drive all night. Stopped at the Pilot on 104 to get 24 oz of their hi-test coffee and then settled in for a long drive.

Talked to @JohnBoy for a while to get all the info I needed to make my first trip across the border go as smoothly as possible. Talked to my girlfriend for a while. Talked to my other girlfriend for a while. And while I was talking to her, I came around a curve on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to see a semi lying on its driver's side.

Guess he took the curve too fast. It was a pretty sharp curve, and on a downhill slope to boot. The signage was marked 50mph on that particular curve.

Couldn't see much in the dark, as it was around 12:30am. Looked like one of those end dump/side dump bulk haulers, the kind that haul potatoes or something. No emergency vehicles of any kind, and a four-wheeler had just pulled off to the side, so I got the impression that the accident had just happened within the past 5-10 minutes. His blinkers were on, so I figured he was at least conscious.

Called 911, reported the accident. Apparently I was the first one to call 911 about it, further leading me to believe that it'd happened minutes before I drove past. Gave them as much info as I could. Hope the dude is alright.

Called up @460/580 after that and we spent a couple hours chatting on the phone like we were old friends instead of two dudes who've never met each other in person.

Took my 30 north of Pittsburgh somewhere. Brewed another cup of coffee with my spiffy new coffee maker. Cleaned the bug guts off my windshield while it was brewing.

Finally hit the border with 1hr 32min on my drive clock. Made my way through the tortuous maze of toll booths and customs booths at Fort Erie. Guy that was manning the truck booth was pleasant, but the lady that inspected my truck and did the background check wasn't.

The truck inspection and background check went off without a hitch, because I am a fine upstanding citizen. Once I cleared the customs facility and hit the QEW proper, I turned on the radio. First song I hear? "Spirit of Radio" by Rush. Yep, I'm in Canada.

Made it to the receiver at 7:00am for a 9:00am delivery time. This was a retail location, so no early unloading. I found a place to park and pulled out my tablet to surf the web for a while.

At which point I discovered that I didn't have signal. Tablet and phone were both out of service. Guess I don't get the automatic roaming.

At 9:00am, I pulled up behind the retail location and they offloaded me with one of those mobile ramp thingies. The dude that was doing the unloading was driving that forklift like he was Richard Petty. I wish all my warehouses had guys like him to unload me. 30 minutes later, he was done.

I got a deadhead assignment to roll my empty all the way back to Richmond and drop it off at Hewlitt-Packard. By that point, I had an hour of drive time left in Canada, but I was out of hours in the US. So if I hit the road, I would've had to park for a 10-hour reset immediately upon crossing back into the US. So instead I found a nearby truck stop and parked there for 10 hours.

Flirted with the waitresses, had breakfast, had lunch (figured I had to try the poutine since I was in Canada), and rolled out around 5:30pm. Crossed the border an hour later at Lewiston and it went smooth like butter. Lady there was pleasant and polite and I was back on the road in less than 2 minutes.

Started blacking out from lack of sleep around 8:30, so spent the night north of Pittsburgh (at the same truckstop where I'd spent my 30 the night before). Dropped the empty trailer off earlier today. And now I'm at the Quarles Truck Stop in Opal, VA, hauling two cooler units to a grocery store in Cleveland.

So all in all, pretty neat trip. Glad I went. Totally worth the extra $25.

 

That ever happens while I'm on the road I'm considering the truck a severence gift.

Three words for ya: Haverty's to Memphis.

 

Just did that havertys run last week and it went off without a hitch. I do recall another nightmare dry van gig though. That glass place in SC. 10 and 8 hour delays, but reefer still holds the record.