Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

So, I'm up in Gary, IN now. The load I brought up from Fayetteville, NC was a Goodyear load. I really did want to get it there on time even though I told support shift that my trip plan said I couldn't. So, I got up at 4am yesterday (the previous night I made it to a Loves outside of Indianapolis on I-70W). I decided to fuel there and avoid going through Gary so I wouldn't chance getting hung up on anything (btw, thanks for the PM 91B20H8!) and headed off for Delkalb, IL.

Now, mind you, I had been thinking about what I was going to do after this load - I knew I would only have a few hours left on my 70, and only regaining a little over two the following day, so I would probably need to take a restart. So, I wanted to try to get into Gary, IN for a restart since I could get a couple things checked out on my truck and get a hotel room. I needed a little break from the truck. But, one thing crossed my mind - Dekalb was somewhat near Chicago, and Chicago was kind of on the way back to Gary. I had read horror stories about a driver who had to go to a paper company in the middle of Chicago. What if they send me there to pick up a relay? Maybe I should just find a hotel near the Goodyear in Dekalb and take a restart there. NAHHHH MAN you're just getting worked up over nothing. It won't happen. More on that later, lol.

So, my first time driving at night with the new truck. What an improvement over the Century! I could actually see where I was going on the road with the headlights. Made me feel much better. Then it started raining, and the lane markers in the construction zones around Indianapolis got all washed out, and I remembered why I hated night driving. Rain didn't last too long, and I got around Indianapolis and headed north towards Gary. It rained on and off almost the whole way there then finally cleared up as I got near Gary.

After reaching Gary, I headed west towards Dekalb. Traffic wasn't too bad all things considered and I arrived at the Goodyear 2 hours EARLY. Wow, I made good time on this sure. Sure wore myself out and knocked the overspeed back up though, LOL. So, dropped my load, looked for an empty, no empties, oh well. I had pushed my NAT out so I wouldn't get a preassignment so I could call my DBL and try to get help getting into Gary. At first she freaked out and was literally about to yell at me because she thought I was showing 70 hours available for the next day. Then I explained that I was showing pushed out for a 34 and the hours would be available after a restart. She quickly calmed down... lol. Anyway, she put me on hold and then got back with me shortly afterward and said a planner was working on something for me.

So, I sat around for 4 HOURS while the planner got this thing worked out, at 1330 the preassignment finally showed up. At this point my 14 is ticking away and I have about 4 hours left.

So, I check out the preassignment. Go pick up and empty from a location in a town outside of Chicago.

Then..

NOOOOO

IT CAN'T BE???

Go pick up a load at a paper company IN Chicago.

CRAP.

So, quickly get on my phone and look up the address on Google Maps. Maybe its kinda on the outskirts of Chicago? NOPE.

Oh man, I should have just took my 34 in Dekalb.

Well, too late to do anything now, so its now or never. Flew off to go pick up the empty. Got there and grabbed a trailer another driving was dropping. Then, headed right into Chicago. This was the first load that I have delivered in the middle of a big city. I realized though, as I got closer, I wasn't really nervous as I normally would have been. I would be OK. If bad stuff happened, bad stuff happened, it wouldn't be the end of the world. If I get lost and get stopped by a low bridge ahead, I can call the police for help. As long as I'm looking, I won't ram the truck 15 feet under the bridge before the trailer finally wedges itself in. I'll take my turns extremely wide and slow. Cars will just have to deal with me. It'll be OK.

And it was. I got off of 90/94 on 18th street. Blocked off all the lanes on my side of the intersection to make a very tight left turn so I wouldn't have to drive my trailer over the hood of the cars in the left lane. Some tried to squeeze by, I slowed, but they quickly realized that in the battle with my 53' trailer going around the corner, they would lose. Then, get to my right turn about a 2 blocks down. Low bridge sign across the street warns of a 11' bridge a 14 mile ahead. No chances to not make this right turn. Set up for it, taking up the right + straight and left turns on my side. Do my best to keep my trailer blocking the right lane, but I know I still have to keep it out wide. Car squeezes in, I pull up a foot to get my tractor turned more to get him to BACK OFF. He stops at my tandems.

Another truck makes a right turn from the lanes left of me. Super tight for him too. Finally, light goes green, slowly make the right, using all my space and the tires of the trailer merely kiss the curb and don't ride up on it. Nice. Ok, one more left to go. Went almost all the way past it so I could see down the angled street, thankfully no traffic coming, so I was able to make that turn easily. Then, waited for the train crossing for a few minutes, and then slowly proceeded down the road until I saw the shipper. I pulled off to the side the best I could, shipper clerk saw me and came out and yelled at me to go down 2 stop signs, make a u-turn in another companies lot, then come back up and drop my trailer by the side of the road.

So, slowly went down, found the spot to turn around, got back and dropped my trailer. He hooked up the yard dog and squeezed my trailer into the spot, then guided my tractor in to couple to it at an angle.

Phew. Done. So, got loaded up with my paper bales by the supertrucker version of the forklift operator, who was doing his best to show off slamming the forklift between forward and reverse and getting airborne every time he drove up the dock ramp. If I was an O/O and that was my personal trailer I would have told him to slow the **** down or get the heck out of my trailer. Anyway, got loaded, got my paperwork, and squeezed my way back out. On the way out I had to go around Werner that had his tractor sitting two lanes out into the middle of the road. Guess it could have been worse for me. Finally got headed towards the on ramp, knew I had to take a very wide turn to get up the ramp, couldn't really use my trailer to block traffic due to the way the lanes were set up and the intersections right before the ramp. Had my signal on for left from the outer lane, but of course the cars try to squeeze by, so I just slowly start moving towards the lane until one gets nervous and a little gap develops, then I take it with my trailer, swing back out wide, and get on the ramp, and FINALLY... INTERSTATE!

50 minutes left on my 14 to get from Chicago to Gary. Its 1615 and traffic is getting bad. Oh well, if I run out, I run out, I'm making it to Gary.

With 16 minutes left on my 14 I pulled into Gary. I didn't have time to scale the load, I felt really bad because I know what a pain that is for the next driver. I left the paperwork and 5 bucks with a note apologizing to the driver that has to pick it up explaining that I was out of hours and to enjoy lunch on me.

Dropped that trailer, showed my post trip with 2 minutes remaining on the 14, and logged off. I made it!

Headed over to the shop to get them to fix my bumper. Pulled through express, showed him my fairing and the bumper, he looks over stuff, gets his buddy to look over stuff, they say "the bumper will have to wait for your PM, its legal to run as long as the middle part is there. They said they couldn't fix the fairing either. Come on, I don't want to go driving around looking like someone that ripped his bumper off. So, I just tell them to give me the bumper piece back and I'll fix it myself. Head through the truck wash, then park. I opened my hood and got a closer look at the bumper piece. I found two christmas-tree fasteners (like you see used on automotive door panels) that I pulled out, put the bumper piece on, then put the fasteners back in. Held pretty well. I think when I get home I will drill a small hole on the bottom and attach a small zip tie, and maybe the same on the top towards the wheel well. That should hold it fine.

The fairing I will have to look more into, not sure if that can be fixed or not.

I really wish the shop would have just looked at it. I fixed it in 5 minutes. I guess they were just lazy. I just like to have a nice looking truck because not only does it represent my company, it represents me.

I go in to get some food, come back out, park in bobtail parking. Not 5 minutes later visibility literally goes to about 5 feet as rain and dust get picked up from the lot and splattered ALL OVER my just washed truck. Its so bad, I can't see the shop from the bobtail parking lane. Almost wondered if I was in the middle of a tornado.

Finally it dies down and I go into wait for the shuttle. Power is out in the OC... yep not hanging around here.

Shuttle shows up and I get to the hotel. Decided that I will stay here for 2 nights... not exactly cheap, but completely worth it...

View attachment 49524

So, my restart will probably be complete about 2am tomorrow, but I'll have to catch the later-morning shuttle since the earlier ones are for the students. So, I pushed my NAT out to 1200 and will just call in when I arrive back at the OC.

Woke up at 6am today... WIDE AWAKE. I was planning to sleep in, I guess my body is just too used to getting up early.

Who knows where I'm headed next?

Until next time...

 

Yes, if you would read my post you would see "I felt really bad because I know what a pain that is for the next driver." I've been there before. I _always_ scale relays even though 70% of the time when I pick one up, the previous driver hasn't scaled it for me. No, its not an excuse. Never did I say it was. Its not something I wanted to do by any means, and had I had more time, I would have made every attempt to do it. But, I've dealt with that situation before, trying to scale loads in the late afternoon at the Gary truckstops. Read back more posts in my thread and you can see what I mean. Last time, I had the police kick me out of the area next to the scale while I was trying to work out an issue with an overweight Walmart load that I was relaying. There was no where to park otherwise, all the fuel islands were stacked two trucks deep and the entrance blocked. Faced with the choice between attempting to scale it and running out of hours and not being able to park, having to drive illegally back to the Gary OC, vs. getting the load there that night so it could get moving, its just the call I made. I watched them load the entire trailer, was 99% sure it would not be over gross or unbalanced. Do not make it out that I was trying to be a lazy driver with more "precious" time than others.

Anyway, Montgomery, the attachment was a picture I took from the cab of my truck looking towards the shop at the Gary OC when the storm first blew in... you couldn't even see the shop through all the rain and dust blowing sideways. I'm not sure why it didn't upload though, it was showing up earlier as far as I can remember.

 

Hmm, maybe it will show up now?