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

For now, I’m staying local. Since I don’t have restrictions on how long I can work and where (tidewater area), we will see if the checks get better. I’ll make a decision early next year.

 

Finished my 34 at the flying j in aurora Oregon. Get a load assignment deadheading to LA Pine Oregon off US 97 to pick up a cooler going to Hill Phoenix. Get there and store manager said it was taken to a warehouse in Portland by the contractors and they apparently emailed Hill Phoenix but still somebody messed up. I was 30 min away from Portland this morning when I started, lol! Then load assignment gets more weird. After getting the cooler tomorrow morning I gotta go to Tacoma pick up 8 pallets of stuff but it don't pick up til Friday morning so Im putting in for layover. Guess they trying to cover the cost of all the deadhead miles due to screw up. Supposed to drop in RVA but Im dropping in WM and getting my services done there on my truck.

 

Pu in Blitzburg heading for a drop at target in Va.

I'm back in that new load everyday circle.

 

Down in Des Allemands, LA, at a little gas station with truck parking. Gas station backs right up to the bayou and has a boat dock about 30 feet from where I'm sitting. No food here aside from candy bars so I dropped the trailer and bobtailed down the road about a mile where me and my daughter had real-deal Cajun food for dinner.

Nothing like coming back home.

 

Oh, I miss Cajun food!!!! And What-A-Burger!!! Hmmmm.......

 

So, I didn’t make it back to work yet. Just can’t seem to gather myself to do so. Imagine my surprise when this showed up at my house today. If any of y’all had a hand in this, thank you. It means a lot to me.

 

Tonight's Tennessee trucker fare...

 

Getting ready to leave RVA with my coolers going to Tacoma, my new ‘21 Volvo, and minus one trainee. I took a trainee out last Sunday with the orders to see exactly what he was missing to start his new career at 52 years old. Missing? Let say this, the dude could drive, night, day, 11 hour shifts, maneuver through truck stops, great customer interaction. But the one tangible that could make him a great driver? Couldn’t back the truck up to save his life. Couldn’t even put it in between 2 white lines in a rest area. Actually, couldn’t hit the ocean if he was backing in off the beach.

So, the consensus amongst the people in charge was to send him out with one of our local drivers for a few days to get some sort of learning about backing.

This is where I have an issue with any training department. Don’t call me up after I’ve told you he needs to learn how to back, then give me a team load that needs to be in Mebane NC 48 hours after pick up in Colton CA and tell me to practice with him. We didn’t have time to shower, or wipe out ###-es. And by the way, when I was called up and offered the job of finisher, it was their guarantee that I wouldn't train, I was just a reporter back to the company of what a new driver can do, cannot do, more training, or shown the front door.

He’ll make it, I did my job, and now I’m going to the PNW and get lost for a few days, alone.