I'm baaaaaack!!!!!!!!

To the half dozen of you who remember me from my legendary but brief "Back at Dart" thread from about a year ago--hello again.
To the rest of you--hello.

I was taken out of circulation by a sudden and catastrophic illness that was visited upon my person with nearly fatal results. Hence the sudden disappearance from the forum. I have been back on the road for a little while now, although no longer at Dart (more on THAT later). I look forward to getting to know some of you and maybe getting reaquainted with a few folks I left behind at my old thread.

I really enjoyed writing the old thread, but since it has been so long I decided to start a new one rather than pick up the old one. For the five or six of you who might remember me, you may still be holding a grudge about a typo when I tried to provide a phone number and ended up connecting you to some lady who was no doubt wondering how she suddenly got so popular with strange truckers. If you're still upset about that, I recommend therapy. Or maybe one of you made a Love Connection. In which case I take full credit for your happiness. For the rest of you, "Back At Dart" can still be seen, although the info is way out of date. I'll be updating my profile soon, but if you feel like visiting it the info is mostly correct.

I'm with Celadon right now, although I may be making a change soon. Not because Celadon is treating me badly, mind you. More on that later, too.

Sorry I can't go into too much detail right now but time is an issue tonight. For now, I'm just poking my head back into the POSITIVE community (I have no time or patience for negativity and do not suffer fools gladly) to reintroduce myself. I look forward to making somenew friends and maybe reconnecting with some old ones.

I'll be posting to this thread when I can--pull up a chair and we'll chat. I'm a former sales trainer/coach and former driver trainer, so if you're new to this I'm happy to share what little wisdom I can.

I am CaptainZoom.
I have spoken.

 

I don't have the hat any more and will be changing my icon soon.

 

Har, de har har har. Actually I can understand how some folks would feel that way about Celadon. Although they can occasionally be maddening, my experience has not been negative overall. I have a good dispatcher who is a real pro (a couple of times more so than myself). That can make all the difference in the universe.

 

At a little truck stop in Hendersonville NC. Tried to do a couple loads of laundry. There is a laundromat half a block from the truck stop, but nooooooooooo, I gotta save us the walk (wife is with me) and use the ancient machines at the truck stop. Problem is the dryer here has decided to combat global warming by refusing to generate enough heat to bring the clothes past "spin dry" levels of dampness. After nearly four hours we brought the still wet load back to the truck. I'm writing this in a sleeper surrounded by underwear hanging off of hangers dangling from every hookable surface in the bunk. The wife is mad at me and I don't blame her. If I hadn't been lazy and in a hurry we would have been asleep by now. Like, an hour ago. A quick word about my wife:her handle is The Hot Chick. She rides with me full time. And she looks like this (see pic). I sometimes wonder what she's doing with a big galoot like me. Frankly, sometimes, she does too. But I'm glad she's with me. My job isn't dragging Celadon trailers around the country. My job is taking care of this little gift from God. Right now pulling for Celadon is how I do my job. They're the right fit for us at this time.

I am Captain Zoom.
I have spoken.

 

Sitting at Alcoa plant in Tennessee. I've never been here before so all the hoops you have to jump through to unload came as a surprise. Pull into lot. Call gate. Wait for call back. Go to second gate. Give papers to security. Pull to scale. Call security. Clear scale. Major U-turn and double back past scales. Back to gate. Sacrifice a goat. Across complex to staging area. Slide tandem. Drop trailer. Put bills in bill box. Bobtail to secondary staging area. Perform ancient Navajo eggbeater dance. Wait for spotter to take then return your trailer. Hook trailer. Slide tandem. Back to cleanout platform. Sweep trailer. Back to scales. Call security. Recite Psalm 119 in entirety. Clear scale. Major U-turn and double back to gate. Return PPE. Scram.

This load was relayed to the yard by a lease operator who dropped it because he didn't have a goat.

 

My little knit wit. She did the sweater in the other pic I posted. Now she's working on a new EGR cooler because this truck has a Cummins ISX.

 

Pick up in Danville KY tomorrow morning headed to Farmville NC Tuesday morning. Could get a 34 but there is a little truck stop 1/2 mile from pickup so gonna do the 185 miles to wait there. But first it's time for a shower! I envy those guys with the 38' sleepers with shower, toilet, hot and cold running water, full kitchen, Jacuzzi, putting green, Japanese rock garden, bowling alley, helipad, and finished basement.