New start at Superior Carriers

So much for getting unloaded early. Not only can't they unload early, they said it wouldn't be until 6 pm or so to start. We talked to the customer rep and he told us that they needed to use up 10,000 lbs of wax to make room for our load. He didn't know what their production rate was but it could be anywhere from 200 - 1200 lbs per hour. If it's on the lower end we may be here for a while. After hearing this we decided to drop the trailer at the receiver and off duty drive down to the Petrol for some breakfast and a truck wash. I'm now sitting at the Holiday Inn Express near Loves Park while my trainer went back to the receiver in case they would need the trailer moved plus after 1:00 pm he starts getting paid detention. If we sit here all night he'll make a pretty nice paycheck for this load. I've learned one thing very quickly about this business, and that's not to make any plans beyond the current load. I still love it though.

 

I'll see if we can swing that when we get out of here. It's always nice to have someone show you these places instead of wandering around looking for them. I'd also like to see the Markham terminal as well but that may be pushing it depending on what time we get out of here.

 

It's been a few days since I last posted so here's an update. We finally got the wax unloaded Tuesday around noon and we stopped by the Markham terminal on our way out of Chicago. I'm glad I got to see how to get in there. We spent about 45 minutes there and my trainer showed me around and introduced me to some of the people there. I also got some practice backing our trailer into different holes. We then got back on the road headed for home. We had to stop in Perrysburg Ohio for the night and finished up the trip on Wednesday dropping off the empty trailer at the Qualawash in Parker, Pa. Our terminal wanted us to bring a clean trailer from there back to the terminal so I got to play "in search of" looking for this trailer. There were a ton of trailers parked here and it took me a while to find it. My trainer made me do it without his help and I think I caught him laughing at me as I passed by our trailer a few times and never saw it. I eventually spotted it and got it hooked up no problem and before long we were headed back to the terminal. We got in around 2 pm and finished up our paperwork and I was told to go home and be back the next morning at 8 to spend the day doing training modules on the computer.

When I got home it was sunny and in the low 30's which felt springlike after the cold weather we had been experiencing. I decided that it would be a great time to do some trail riding on my quad so I put my helmet on and off I went for a short ride around my property. I have this short hill climb about 25 feet high that I've gone up and down too many times to count. I usually go up it first at this time of the year as snow can drift off the top making the top part of the hill go beyond vertical which I'd be able to tell while looking at it from the bottom . Well, for whatever reason, I chose not to do that and decided to just drop down the hill without first checking it out. Big mistake! As soon as my front tires dropped over the crest I knew I was in trouble as the snow had drifted out a few feet and the hill was near vertical. The next thing I knew, I was flying over the handlebars falling about 15 feet on to my right shoulder. I knew the quad was coming next so I instinctively went fetal trying to protect my head and neck from getting crushed. The bike landed on my left thigh and fortunately didn't pin me to the ground. I felt what felt like a jolt of electricity going through my hips and I knew something broke. So now I'm laying there in the snow and I'm in so much pain that I'm nauseous. I couldn't move my right arm and had a hard time getting myself up on my knees. There was enough adrenaline going through me that I was able to flip the quad upright with just my left arm and I got myself back on it and limped back to the house. My wife had to call an ambulance as there was no way she could have gotten me into a car. After getting x rays and a CT scan I found out that I had a broken shoulder and pelvis. The good news is that none of these require surgery or even a cast and I'll make a full recovery, it'll just take some time. I'll be off my feet for about a month so hopefully Superior won't terminate me for stupidity.

Oh, and by the way, my quad never received a scratch. Go Yamaha!

 

I went to Sage in New Stanton. I took tanker, hazmat, doubles and triples.