One more noob for the road! The story begins...

So the first load is in the books. From St. Louis to just north of Cincinnati, including a drop and swap in a really tight yard, a late rest area replacement of a power steering hose, sliding tandems, and "ooops! That sign said 'no big trucks;'" and finally parking at the Cincinnati terminal. I'll be stretching my baby legs on a trip to Jersey for Tuesday.

It's been never wracking, it's been hard and harder on my family; but it has proven itself to be the right choice. I'm excited to see where my career goes.

Stay tuned!

 

It's 3:35am, I'm at the Welcome Center in PA off 70 heading east. My second load is a bunch of shoes heading to NJ. There's a lot of time built into this one, as it picked up Sunday night and delivers Tuesday morning. My 30 is halfway done and I'm enjoying the first clear radio station not playing Christmas carols. Seeing as it is Thanksgiving I thought I'd share one of the days that I'll be thankful for in the years to come.

Sunday, @Kev's Sunshine picked up my two young sons and took them to meet Truck, henceforth to be called "Amos, the big blue truck." Those two young men have given up quite a bit in this thus far, as I was an everyday Daddy doing the before and after school transportation and such. I was very excited to surprise them with both being in town and showing them the truck.

I won't go into laborious detail but it was worth it. The four of us had a great time with the truck. After the interrupting trucker knock-knock joke we gave Amos a deep detailing with my girlfriend Febrezeeing everything, me and the boys wiping down every plastic inch of the cab. At one point, Spencer was stretched across the cab on the dash getting the grime down by the windshield. We didn't just clean my truck, we welcomed Amos to the family.

Speaking of family, that's the second part of the story. We took the boys back to my ex and I had to come back to go to work. Sunnie (GF) did the most wonderful thing while I was busy with the QC and my planning. She put up little 3x5's of pictures with her and I and all the kids. So, now I wake up in a bed that smells like home, with all the faces for whom I'm doing this. I hope to remember this day for as long as I have days. I brought my family to my truck and they left a part of themselves in it.

Now, as long as I don't leave a part of my truck on anything... Street signs, light posts, other trucks...

Happy Thanksgiving Week and to those who know the importance of the coming Saturday I say, "Beat M######n!"

 

Well, that safety record was short - lived. I know that #### happens, just had hoped to avoid it. First, it's my fault - I was at the wheel; it's just a defeating experience to have such a stupid incident and so easy to want to blame my dispatcher "team.,". So, the gory details: I was respotting a trailer that needed the doors opened, I guess I missed that detail the first time around.
As I pulled away, I tried to be careful to remember my angle so I could get back with a minimum of effort. That was not the case. I ended up spending almost an hour getting back in without taking my tractor off road as must be the way to do it based on the yard scars. I pulled out to back up and reset from zero. To get it done, I decided to go as close to the trailers as possible. Noticing my door was going to catch the nose of a unit to my right, I started to back up. I was WAAAAY too close, but I thought I could manage it. Ended up scarring the first trailer with the glad hand of one of our spotted units. Hey, at least I kept it in house.

The damage consisted of a 20" long scratch and a mildly mangled emergency glad hand. There was never any question, I had to call it in. The Safety department made a note of it with no need to test or rest, I called Road Rescue to get the repair started and then I was on my way.

Lessons learned: Slow down and then slow some more. I felt pressure being put in such a small right situation. The first time I spotted the trailer I enjoyed the challenge. The 2nd, I was embarrassed from misunderstanding the customer, felt rushed to get to my pick up, and really just tossed in the deep end. Again, my fault.

Backing will come, but today was a hard day. After the Buckeyes, Bengals, and the probable loss of my bunk heater... How much more are the freight gods going to ask of me and Amos, the big blue truck?