An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

The way the load instructions were worded, both Kathy and I thought that I was getting 1 42.5 foot piece...and some smaller pieces. So we figured a conestoga wouldn't be able to be side loaded with that length. Turns out, I got 6 smaller pieces double stacked that equaled 42.5 feet, so a conestoga would've worked just fine. However, what I picked up wasn't what I was expecting. I was thinking crated airplane parts. This is what they loaded






And, it took me extra time because the tarps that Toledo put on my trailer were supposed to be 'decent', if these are decent, I would hate to see what he considered bad



















By the time I got all the holes temporarily patched with gorilla tape and then got the tarps tied down it was pushing 11. I managed to make it into IL. Even after that, I will still make delivery tomorrow instead of Friday morning. Not bad, 1026 paid miles in around 26 hours...

 

I recognize those pieces, I’ve never picked up there before but I’ve seen that kind of stuff in the Toledo yard before.

 

The shipper is one of those places that doesn't allow drivers on the deck of the trailer without fall protection. So you check in, back down a hill and down a driveway to where they load, secure the load, then drive back up to the shipping office, get your paperwork and then if you want to tarp on their property you have to pull out the exit gate and pull back in the same entrance gate you checked in at(their property is so narrow that it's one way around the buildings). Then you drive past the tarping station and back in to it. The tarp station has a driveway thru it to pull thru, but the way they have it built, many trucks have messed up their mirrors because it is so narrow. The problem is, the height of the walkway where you tarp makes it so you can't tie down your tarps completely. You can get the ends of each tarp tight, and roll the excess under, but you have to pull out of the tarp station to put your bungies on. Nice enough people, but just a tight arse location.

 

Have you been there before? I remember someone describing a location like that. Thankfully (i guess) it seems like most of our customers don’t require the use of tarping stations.

 

Naw, this was my 1st time visiting them

 

Got empty this afternoon, now headed to Park City, KS to pick up a load going back out to SoCal for Tuesday. So I'll get to annoy the Rancho gang again. Been a busy 7 days...and a busy 30 days

 

Busy man! I’m only at 12,200 for my 30 day. That’s about the minimum I like doing per month if I’m out the whole month.

I had this pop up, not today satan, not today!

I’m on my longest deadhead of my career central Alberta to central texas, 1976 miles. That beats my previous record of 15xx Quebec City, qc to Spring Hill, Kansas when I worked at maverick. (We didn’t ever pick up back hauls. Everything was out and back empty.)

 

cross yourself with a chicken, and say your prayers...

That's what I liked about hauling glass. The only time we back hauled anything out of Canada it was either floor racks or Moore's rolling racks in the vans, other than that we came back empty. Never delivered in Quebec City, but St. Augustin and Rivière-du-Loup, QC, were regular stops.

 

Our contracts were super goofy with agc. The dedicated trucks (me and a few others) would occasionally have to haul a load to church hill, tn (the customers other factory for those following along at home). It was almost always a drop and hook grab an empty back to Spring Hill. The next week a church hill dedicated driver would bring our trailer back loaded and grab the empty we brought to Spring Hill and take it back Empty. That empty trailer never got loaded. *head slap*