Coming to orientation Aug 13th...

Update.
Yep, Im still here. Been running hard lately, so by the time I shut down for the night, im flat beat and just want to relax before going to sleep. Taking a 34 right now in someplace I had never heard of in South Carolina. Decent internet connection, food/showers/laundry all available, so...what else do i need? lol.

Some people have heard that I slid off the highway last week and needed a tow truck to get out of the snow.
Yeah.... I did... Winter driving is DANGEROUS..... I was driving through that NASTY winter storm in Montana last weekend. Heading south from great falls to helena on 15. I was rolling around 35 to 40mph, with an empty trailer, and no chains. Other than a REALLY high "pucker factor", I was doing just fine. Now I understand that hunting is fun... but, what thought process leads someone to think its a good idea to park on a highway, in the middle of a blizzard to go hunting? That pick up parked there wasnt the problem for me. What was a problem was the idiot in the car in front of me who lost it trying to drive around the pick-up. I was in the fast lane (I think, couldnt see road markings) and had been setting up to go around the car, so i was a lot closer to it that I otherwise should have been given conditions. Maybe 30 yards back from the car, it lost control and I had to hit the brakes.
I INSTANTLY felt the trailer loose traction and start to swing out to my right. Judgment call that I had some space to work with, so off the brakes and on the throttle to try and pull the trailer back into line. The car had recovered enough to not be a factor anymore. Just as the trailer started to come back, I felt the wind gust slam into me and that was it. The trailer tandoms went off the side of the road. IF the parked pickup had been further away, I think i could have jumped on the throttle and pulled out of it. But at this point, I was down to less than 50 yards away from it, and decided to just let the truck/trailer come to a stop, instead of risking playing baseball with the pickup.
So. My tractor was sitting in the slow lane now, with the trailer canted out at a 30 degree angle, the tandems sitting less than 5 feet from the road. I put chains on all 4 drives, but still could not get enough traction to pull the trailer back onto the road. Heck, i couldnt even get it to twitch. There was just enough of a downslope, that combined with the snow/ice, I simply didnt have the traction needed. I fought with it for about an hour before giving up and qualcomming for help. (there was no cell phone service). 4 hours later... it took the tow truck less than 5 minutes to hook up a rope to my tow eye, and with our combined traction/power pull me out.
Thankfully there was no damage to anything but my pride.

2 days.... less than 300 miles... winter driving sucks. I honestly think that next time conditions get that bad, Im going to park it and wait. Seriously... 9 hours to get from Helena to Billings?!?!?!
And then the ice on 90 eastbound from Billings... Geeeeeze.... Do we get hazard pay for driving in conditions like that? lol...

Anyway. Lessons learned for next time. Gaining experience can be hard on the nerves sometimes.
And the hardest thing? rolling at 30mph, feeling the ice on the road, being scared with a death grip on the wheel........and watching the cattle haulers blow by at 60+
The hardest thing is admitting to yourself that you are NOT as good as they are, so don't even try....

 

update.......
Ya, i was waiting to pass the parked pickup before passing the car. the problem was I was already setting up to pass the car, when The parked truck came into view. So... i was much closer to the car than I was comfortable with. I did hold off on completing the passing maneuver, which turned out to be the right move, because if i had gone ahead with it, the car would have hit me when it lost control.

I will forever consider myself a "rookie", because that way I wont ever get overconfident.

Hmmm....
Just saw the qualcomm that had a note about someone hitting a deer last week... anyone want to take a guess as to "who" that was? Yeah... me... Running 65 in the slow lane, had my eyes down to the right due to oncoming cars with their high beams on... Deer popped out of the center divide running flat out across my path. I had just enough time to angle to take the hit on my right bumper/fender instead of dead center.
mashed my bumper back onto my steer tire, put a few cracks in my hood, and scratched my headlight...
Took me 30 minutes to pull the bumper away from the tire enough to get moving again. Tractor is still drivable, but Im gonna have to get that fixed sooner or later.... The deer got launched into the trees on the side of the road..

::sigh:: im not having much luck this month. Had a trailer break the same freaking part twice in one week.
The glad hand connection on the trailer snapped leaving me stuck once, then busted AGAIN a week later.
Thankfully that jinked trailer is now someone elses concern. (yes, it was fixed before I dropped it)

This month sucks for miles. The month is almost over, and im stuck around 8600 for this month.
The last 2 trips have just hammered my average. I was given 5 days...... to do 800 miles...
and then 2 days to do 280.... Was nice to have a bit of time off, but I dont want to park... i want to run!!!
There is a reason I have not been on home time since Oct 1st, and am not set to get more till Dec 20th... and thats because I want to make money.... Sitting around at truck stops is not my idea of a good time.
And Im never going to be able to save enough for a down payment on my own truck with these short trips.

Anyway. had to vent there, sorry guys...

Time to go grab some form of unidentifiable quasi edible truck stop sustenance while I wait for the next qualcomm telling me where to go next... hopefully somewhere FAR away....

 

im just guessing, but i think given the 800 mile load was brokered, and the day before thanksgiving, that they had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for a load to get me outta Mason city IA. an this last 280 miler I Think was just to reposition me closer to conover NC, instead of dead heading me....but yeah... this big of a dent in my paycheck this close to Christmas sucks...

 

Update....
Well.... 9500miles this month... and that looks like all im going to get...

This month has NOT been kind, and now my truck seams to be falling apart... Drivers window stuck in the up position (thankfully not down)... mirror heat failed, so now my mirrors fog if you so much as look at them... APU died this morning and wont start. ( I kinda need it since the emergency power system shuts everything in the truck off less than an hour after I turn off the main engine, so my APU is always on "stand-by", otherwise im not sure I will have enough power to start my truck).....ect....ect....ect...
Add in getting low miles so Im not making all that much money, and it really does make one wonder why Im bothering to go 3 months without seeing my family..

On a positive note, My fiance told me I got a letter from the company stating my probationary period has ended and im now part of the "normal" fleet...
Happy about that, depressed about my pay... Kinda evens out I guess.

Hmmm... Well... I have tried the "short" 3 weeks out before home time, and now I have tried the 3 months out.... guess which one I wont be doing again? I had hoped they would take note of the length of time I was out, and make sure to keep me busy, but instead Im getting screwed. So, I think from now on I will be taking home time every month. I get almost 1/3rd more miles when I stay towards the west coast.

And the ultimate irony? Im typing this... and just got an assignment... well kinda... I got told where to drop my empty to hook a loaded one... and I got told where to go with the full one... but.... no info on WHEN, or even WHAT im supposed to be doing with the full one.... Im going to a railyard with the loaded one.....but.....What the $%#@ do i do when I get there?????? Its not even a trip assignment type qualcomm.... its an open form... ;-/
oh...... and its 350 mile route...
Great..... another 2 days wasted for a $50/day paycheck.
WHY do I love this job so much??????
::sigh:: time to get some sleep so i can take off early AM and get this newest "trip" done before lunch.