Heading For Little Rock! Maverick

Got up at 0300 this morning to get home. Now that I have had a nap I have been able to analyze things that were said today. We were either almost home or we were waiting at the truck stop for his wife to come pick him up. He makes the statement to me " Maverick seems like a really good company. If things do not work out, maybe I can come back" I told him that I would recommend that he call in and talk to them and explain why he was leaving if he wanted to leave on good terms. He said he was going to call Jenny on Monday. I met his wife and she makes the statement to me." Well, you are never going to know if you like something, until you try it"
1. If the reason you are leaving is because your wife misses you so much, what is going to change if you decide to come back out on the road?
2. You do not know if you will like something........pertains to him not her.

So I think he just did not like it and I believe he realized as I did, that he was going to have a very hard time keeping up with the pace that is required once I started having him to most than all of the work.

He was a supper nice guy and we got along great. He was a Realtor as I was, he liked Rock and Roll and he was not a Liberal.
But he was severely out of shape and was going to struggle.

But life goes on. I got to see what it was like to train and I will tell you this, it is much more work than I ever thought it would be. You also have a very helpless feeling sitting over in the right seat with no control. I think the trainer trucks should have a fender mirror on the driver side, so the trainer can see what is going on on that side of the truck. By the time you see anything, it is way to late.

Came up with a new term...White Line Fever....it is when your trailer wheels go over the white line. It just got easier to say that than your on the line again....lol....It goes well to the song Cat Scratch Fever by Ted Nugdent (sp)

After spending a week with another person in my truck, I definitely like being in the truck by myself. We will see how the next one goes to determine if I am going to do this long term. I personally do not think the extra .06 is worth it....and like I said, I got along great with him. But I did not really do this for the money....so we shall see!..lol

 

Yes he was

 

Here is the recap for the past week. I set up a hotel room for my student and asked him to call me on Sunday when he got in. He called me about 16:00 and I told him I would pick him up around 0630. Drove down 10 miles and backed in front of the Holiday Inn Express. He was ready when I was walking up to the door. Got him all stowed away in the truck. Unlike some trainers, I gave him the cabinet above where the tv goes, plus the small one above the glove box, and the glove box. I wanted him to feel like this was his truck and home as well as mine.
I then gave him my expectations list which I copied from Sarge....Great Expectations. It states what I expect from him and what he can expect from me. I then went over with him the five week lesson plan which shows how we were going to progress from where we were today to when he runs the truck all by himself.
After we went through that, I then put us on the board.
About 10:00 est we got a load to pick up in butler Indiana at SDI. I had him look at the map and figure out how he thought we should go. I then showed him how I came up with my routing on each load. He understood that he was going to be observing today only.
We made it up to SDI and showed him the process of checking in. I told him that since it was raining, he could help me inside to get the tarp on it so we would not be holding up the line. He ended up staying on the ground while I was up on the deck doing the securements and then tightened the binders. It stopped raining enough to do the tarping outside and after I had them rolled out, he helped bungee it down.
We made it up to one of the service plaza's going east on I80 in ohio. This load was going to Ryerson Processing just NE of Pittsburgh PA.
We made it to the receiver the next day and there was not much of a wait. We got unloaded pretty quick. On the way into the Port, the local police were pulling trucks over and doing inspections on them. I was going to let him drive when we left. I asked him if he wanted to drive or let me do it since we could get pulled over on the way out. He told me I could drive.
We got a load to pick up at Follansbee WV, two coils going to All Metals in Spartanburg SC. Identical to the load we just dropped off.
When we got there I had to blind side back into a dock. I had him get out and direct me. We got in and out of there pretty quick.. He assisted on the securement and tarping.
I let him drive out of there. He had driven from the first day with the other trainer, so I was a bit more comfortable than I would have been with a student driving for the first time. My plan was to let him drive MT the first time.
We made it down to the Welcome center in VA. He got to drive over I77 on the WV turnpike. He did pretty good. I had to constantly be telling him to get the trailer wheels off of the white line on the right. I told him everyone does it from time to time, but if you do it when you are in the center or left lane, you are taking the chance of hitting someone in that right lane. Finally started calling it white line fever.
He got to go down fancy gap the next morning and he did better staying in the lane.
We got checked in and right after we pulled in they went to lunch. So we were able to get it un secured and then have lunch ourselves.
I told him the day before, that this was a nice run but there was one bad thing about it. I explained that it put us near Charlotte Pipe and a load of pipe going to NY.
We got our load assignment and it was pick up in Charoltte going to the Bronx. So he got to experience the joys of a trailer swap.
I let him drive over there ...
He missed the exit going I77 south because two cars came on just before the exit and he moved over a lane instead of slowing down so he could let them over and then make the exit. He was surprised when I told him he missed the exit. So we got off at the next exit and assumed we could go back down either 81 0r 85...can not remember, and I am not going to look it up...lol. Well we were in the left lane, but there was a sign of 77 s in the right lane. We could not get over so we went down the same interstate, but could not get to 77. So we got off at the next exit that looked like we could get right back on north and then get to 77. Well it was not as simple as you would think. That exit was designed for going east on the road and not getting back on the expressway. So I told him to just pull up to the light and wait until it was safe to make the turn. There were no signs that said you could not do it. As we made the turn, there was a cop sitting there which made him concerned, but there were no issues. Made it into Charlotte pipe and lucked out and got another brand new trailer. I let him drop the trailer and hook up to the new one.
(I forgot to mention that on the way down, when we stopped for fuel in Blacksburg SC, we went into the parking area and let him practice backing for a bit )
I drove out of Charlotte since I was tired of sitting there doing nothing, and he had driven for 8 hours and done a good job.
We made it up to Brintle's and spent the night there.
We headed out in the morning and he got to go up fancy gap. I choose to go I81 to 78 because I did not want to deal with the traffic going up 95.
We made it Clinton NJ by 1500 and drive past the Pilot. They say it was a large, but I believe that was wishful thinking...lol. I was not going to stay there, but that is the way I went the last time when I found the Clinton Truck Stop. There was a electric sign at the pilot that said...LOT FULL. We drove down a half mile or so and there it was. It was pretty full but we found a spot. All the regulars were in there eating and it thinned out later. I went into the diner and spoke with the local drivers. They told me that I should get over the George Washington Bridge by 0430 to avoid the back up. They said they were doing construction and sometimes shutting down all but one lane.
So we ended up getting up at about 0215 even though the alarm was set for 0230.
We got over the bridge no problem and were able to park in front of the receiver by 0430. It was very interesting to say the least watching the city come alive.
The big event of the day was at 0800 the street cleaner was coming and you could not be parked there. They had us double park so that they could get around us. After they did our side, it parked and everyone moved their cars over to our side so they could do the other side.
All of the shop owners swept their trash into the street for the street sweeper to pick it up. It did pick up some, but most of it got blown back up to the side walk or out into the middle of the street.
I also saw more u turns in a street than I had ever seen before.
Getting in was easy, but getting out was a bit harder as we could not figure it out completely and did not want to trust the gps.
The guy that unloaded us told us it was easy. It turned out to be so, but It was not as easy to figure it out when you first make the turn to figure out how to get on the 895 north.
The day before, I sent a message to my fm and told them that if I did not have a preplan by the time I was unloaded, that I was just going to head across the bridge and find a place to stop at one of the service plazas.
We got across the gw with no problems and did not even try to stop at the Vince Lombardi. Tried to stop at the next one, but it was still full.
So by the time we got to the next one, we had driven 40 miles and got a work order to pick up Shingles at Tamko in Fredrick MA. A nice 200 mile plus dead head. I was going to let him drive, but he said he was really feeling the effects of getting up so early, so I just decided to drive down to tamko. We did not have to back into the dock, but right next to the building. We got out and secured along the left side of the entrance and tarped it and were out of hours.
So we spent the night. It was then that he told me that it did not look good and he was going to quit.
I called Jenny and left her a voice mail. She then sent me a qualcom message saying that she had received it.
I told hm that since he was quitting, I was going to drive home. He looked at me kind of strange and said that he could still drive. I said, no I like to drive and I will do it.
Got home by 11 and his wife was there by 11:30. I got introduced and we said our good bye's! Prior to that I had him approve his logs and log off of the qualcom. After he left, I sent a message on the qualcom stating that my student was leaving and not coming back. That I had logged him off of the system and that Jenny and Morgan had been notified yesterday.
Got a message back saying thank you!
Flipped the upper bunk up and I do not have to worry about hitting my head again until the next student.
I will spend the night in the truck tonight so I can leave early and my wife can sleep in. Can unload as early as 0730 in Twinsburg Ohio....so that is when I will be there. Hope everyone has a great day!

 

Made.my delivery this morning.and the got a.load of super sacks of.asphalt going to Jarratt va. Had to make 4 trips.to.the cab to melt ice cubes on my head. My ex student would.have died. Made it to the welcome.center.on i 81 in west va.

 

The whole trip is a pain. Walking on top of the sacks UNrolling the lumber tarps....then having the dust.burn your skin.when it hits you when you remove yor straps..:..then the 13'3in.load of fiber board.....then when you add 90.deg heat with high humidity...it is.a.real.fun experience...lol