Driving from coast-to-coast?

IMO --- Runnin' coast to coast shouldn't be something feared.
NopE.
But rather looked forward to.

It's a beautiful Country out thar.
May as well be paid to see some of it.
Even places tourists fear to tread.

Remember --- Y'all's WORST experience out thar OTR, -----
Become y'all's BEST
Star*Spangled Road Stories.

Tell me I'm wrong.

I mean, ....... who listens to those Dream-Load :smt051 stories?

 

I think the best load I ever got was one that had a pickup in miami a pickup in la ca and then delivered in ga...

 

SidE BaR ----- digression.
Wasn't it CF who started building Freightliner Big trucks?

Imagine THAT!

Have y'all ever seen a 1950's era Road Atlas?
There ain't many lines contained therein.
And not many straight through.
If ANY.

Turn 1 mile before the dead-end ---
The street y'all are lookin' for is right where
that old oak tree used to be.
Cain't miss it.
It's been gone fer years.

What's "G.P.S."?
General Population Suggestions ?

L O S T ---- SOMEwhere betwixt
Shippin' & Receivin'.
Call it ...............
WiLL CaLL?
If you will.

 

When I ran teams we used to run coast to coast constantly. I loved it.

It's the little runs that keep you between In and Jersey or Pa or Va that tend to get old.

Give me coast to coast all day long.

 

I like taking the backroads rather then the interstates, about 5 hours on the same interstate and I'm ready for a #### nap. Gets old fast.

My life as a team was spent on 80 60% of the time, thank god I didn't own the truck or I'd own part of Walcott.

The other 40% was split between 40, 20, 70, and 55. God the last 2 weeks at Werner we spent so much time running between Green Bay to Grover OH I really was thinking they had gotten us confused with a solo drive on a dedicated route that lived in the area.

 

My first long load was team driving in a Cracker Box Jimmie, 1967. We took a load of straight-truck platforms and side racks from Sedalia to Corpus Christi. After sightseeing in New Orleans, we continued deadheading to Elba, AL where we loaded a new Dorsey onto our old flatbed. We dropped the new Dorsey in Russelville, AR, and loaded lumber back to Sedalia. A few weeks later, I bobtailed to Russelville for load of lumber on the new flatbed.

 

The longest load with my own tractor was a load of frozen strawberries imported from Mexico. I picked up at a bonded warehouse in Laredo and delivered in Windsor, 1635 miles.

I also hauled frozen pies from Traverse City to several stops in Florida including the student union, Florida State U., Tallahassee. I returned to Livonia with frozen juice concentrate.

I hauled frozen vegetables from an underground cold storage at Secaucus to several stops in Alabama. Someone at the shipper had substituted frozen corn for blueberries within one pallet. I marked the BL "short on blueberries, over on corn" and the consignee signed it.

All of these loads for Refrigerated Transport during the recession of 1974-75 were run with cash, no credit cards, no com-check, no cell phones, no GPS, no nothing. Refrigerated was operating under Chapter 11 at the time. I got a double hernia on that job.

 

I do quite a bit of coast to coast. Not as much this time of year. But from spring to fall one of the most common loads I do is grass seeds out of Oregon going to Pennsylvania.

I like coast to coast the best because:

--I sleep when I want to. No getting up early for appointments, until delivery.
--Pick and choose where I want to stop, eat, shower.
--Easier to find parking when you can plan ahead
--3,000 miles without a lot of hassle (no unloading/loading/drop and hooking)

 

I did Seattle to DC more than one time, good running!

 

The real sad part to coast to coast RUNNING is it actually paid very well YEARS BACK..Now they think they are doing you a favor by giving you the ''MILES'' so they deduct your mileage pay accordingly and actually still think there doing you a favor...UNREAL ANYMORE.

1996 - 2001 I ran popcorn from Boston to L.A. FOR 2.30 MILE.When i got to cali i had ramps under my 53 foot trailer with 200 pads and straps.I would spend 3 days picking up household and i used ''day labor'' employees to help load my wagon..usually 1 house and 2 apts and at times a car inside a 53 ft van..I would build my wagon with a 3 stop to NJ AND NY.It paid $18,000 back to the east coast..at times i actually got 2 houses and 1 apt on,that paid more. I would Deliver that and go get my popcorn and do it all over again...Did this run in a total of 9-10 days including loading time.I did this trip 2 times a month sometimes 3.I could not take the popcorn over the high altitude so they even payed me to go way down south (out of route) and run the bottom to san diago and then run up to L.A.Had to run it that way or the popcorn would explode in the wagon...lol,lol.Even paid me for out of route miles. that was ....niceeeeeee

The day's of an ole ''bed bugger''...Party row, good money, good times,good living,fun woman and fun truckers roaring coast to coast.We all new each other and ran hard and were actually somewhat of a team.It was good honest hard work..

Been replaced by No more party row,crap money,no more fun,and a lot of lazy people.Not to mention the ''new breed'' hiding behind the word ''saftey'' to justify there laziness and incompetence.... LOL,LOL

Them were the days of great money....It just kept getting under bid till it was slashed to nothing.I watched it all go to hell year after year.It was sickening.

I looked on the board yesterday and low and behold.O/O'S taking freight to cali for .80 cents a mile....and 7 days to do it,one way.

It's all about ''cheap labor'' anymore....Just the way it is i guess.