My Maverick Experience

Quick picture I took this morning.

 

They do not have driver's side mirrors on the hoods. I was told that the second mirror was optional when ordering and that they choose not to order it. I suppose it probably saves them a couple hundred bucks on each truck this way. I do miss is since my last truck at SNI was a Cascadia and it did have the second mirror. I'm doing just fine without it though. There's nothing extra you can see with it that you can't see by just turning your head. I used it mostly for watching my trailer tires come around curves without having to look sideways. Now I just have to use the spot mirror on the bottom of the driver's door mirror.

For the most part though, it isn't that big of a deal. It's just another thing I'm getting used to.

I am liking the auto trans much better now. It's nice to be able to just tap the paddle to downshift on ramps to keep the RPM up for the engine brake. Then it will just keep doing it's thing once I'm back going straight again.

 

Another day completed. Covered 630 miles today in just over 10 hours of driving. Made it to Oklahoma. Tomorrow I'll head for Houston. Tomorrow is going to be another 600 or so miles to get to delivery. I'm probably going to spend the night there so I can deliver first thing Friday morning and get moving again hopefully.

Couple more pics of the load I took in better lighting today:

 

Drove through a bit of heavy snow in Kansas just south of Wichita. Once I hit the state line though it turned to a rain snow mix. Mostly rain though. I'm 10 miles south of the state line at the Oklahoma Welcome Center for the night and it's pretty much stopped for now.

I'm just working on paperwork and scanning all my receipts for the day. Going to be in a little bit.

 

The route I got from my mac31 sent me down every state and local highway between Iowa and Texas. Pretty much drop straight down the center of Missouri until I-30 in AR. I really didn't want to spend 3 days doing 40mph avg and be late doing that.

I didn't even see US69. Going out through Wichita added another 40 miles onto what you said. I have always spent most of my driving time east of Chicago. I'll admit that I'm not all that familiar with the roads out in the central part of the country. This looked to be the fastest route when I was planning it. I'll remember that way next time I'm headed down through here.

I took I80 over to Des Moines and hopped on I35. From there I'm just taking it straight south.

After looking at the Customer on Google Maps I've decided that there's no way I'm parking there for the night. They don't have any room. They are in a residential area with barely enough room for their employees cars in the lot. There's a loves, Pilot, and some other truck stop within 8 miles though so I'm going to try to find a space to squeeze in there.

 

Made it to Houston for the night. Only got 550 miles today. I'm staying at the big Loves on I-45 just inside the I-610 Loop. It's about 15-20 miles to get to delivery tomorrow morning. I'll leave around 0800 or so and should be there well before my 0900 appointment. It's just on the other side of the city so I'll probably just take I-45 right through downtown.

Got to spend 30 minutes going 10 miles because all the 4 wheelers on I-45 had to look at the lights on the frontage road where I car ran down and electrical pole. The closest cop/firefighter was 50 feet from the interstate and we still came to a complete stop for it. You'd think these people have never seen a flashing light or something before.

Found that one of the ropes on my tarp had ripped so it was flopping around on the back end of the A-Frames. Luckily the glass is in wooden crates so nothing got broken. The rope wasn't broken when I stopped for fuel at the Flying J on the north side of town. Spent about 30 minutes redoing all the rope on the back end to make sure it would stay put until I got to delivery tomorrow. I'm glad the guy at the plant in Dewitt told me to take a couple hundred feet of rope. Otherwise I would've had to buy some here. I still might buy a spool next time I go home so I'll have it.

It's about 75 degrees out tonight. Last night I had the heat on full blast while the entire outside of my truck was coated in ice from the storm that I just barely missed. Tonight I have the A/C on full. I love that I can drive from one season to another in a single day. I also like that I have Auxiliary Heat/AC that doesn't require the engine to run. It's s much niver than my last truck to be able to be comfortable without having to idle.