Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

My paperwork for tomorrow wasn't out yet. Trainer Frank said they don't want any of us in KY before noon, so he and Sunday Driver plan to pull out 8:30-ish tomorrow. Told me not to bother before 9 am. They'd at least like to get a start on unloading before I get out there. Might be late back and then need a good 10 in before Sunday.

Wayne, you may just have to leave ahead of me on Sunday...

Hey!! You didn't wait last time either!!


//But your directions were good. Does that Western Star have a name, like a nickname? Or do you just call her 'truck'?

 

Takes about 8/8-1/2 hours drive time to KY (I think company shows it at 482 miles plus fuel at Pilot) and back and up to 3 (so far) to unload. You said you got unloaded really fast the other day, in an hour. Wouldn't expect that tomorrow if they don't want any trucks before noon--of course, is that our time or their time? Leave tomorrow at 9 am, arrive 1 pm (Eastern), unloaded by 4 pm, arrive back Bloomington 8 pm-ish or so. Have 10 in by 6:30 am.

To leave by 8 am Sunday, or 7 am, should not be a problem depending on unload time.


//Trip detail wasn't in my cubby yet but pay voucher for direct deposit was. Gross last week for 3 KY runs and $145 to Indy and back came to $793.81, net $627.47. 3-1/2 day week. (Truck driver days... )

Looks like rain all day tomorrow and real winter cold setting in Sunday night and staying for a while. May have to make some adjustments for chickens. Dogs will definitely be inside.

 

Most people name their boats, not sure about bowling balls... some names of planes have become etched in history, Enola Gay, named after pilot Paul Tibbets Mom, Enola Gay Tibbets...

3 nameless roosters share my front porch tonight with my two pooches, Tika and Freddy, who know their names. Had a '46 Chevy milk truck, looked like a Keystone Cops truck, called her Rozinante, Rozy for short...

Drove it Grand Rapids, MN to Minneapolis, then after a girlfriend and I canoed the Mississippi River, from Minneapolis to Denver, from Denver up to Estes Park for the winter (in the Spring camped in Rocky Mountain National Park until it opened and they started to enforce two-week camping limit, had six inches or more snow some mornings), then from Estes across the highest highway in the US to Leadville and on to LA... had 7:50x20 tires.

Arrived in Estes Park with holes in one tire you could stick a finger in and rub the inner tube... owner of gas station let me park at his business, would bang on side of my truck in the morning and I'd get up, go in and get washed up.

Um-m-m, hot water!! Good!! Sounds like I've got a mouse tonight trying to steal a trap. Haven't had a mouse here for a while.

Ah, poor little guy. Deer mouse, tripped one trap, missed him and ran right into 2nd that came down on his back leg and hip. Out on back deck rail now. Too injured to survive, I think...

 

Hi Bright One! Think that section actually said no carrier shall schedule a run that doesn't conform to speed limits, might have to go back and look at it. Some of my keystroking might not be right on either, the regulation numbers, etc. I thought that since a good portion of the members who look at the thread have their first orientation ahead of them, it would be worthwhile to them to provide a heads up on the process and ground that's covered.

I kinda recall an afterthought in that section about 11 hours providing some additional miles. There has to be a responsibility placed on the carrier to schedule runs within the law and for a driver to push back where tasked to do something that can't be done legally.

Gordon was really good in that respect. "Don't have the HOS," was a concrete defense against a bad dispatch. Those usually came at night out of Green Bay, trying to clean up leftovers, rather than from my DM (Driver Manager). Had to look at those PrePlans very, very carefully.

Some were HOS traps if you accepted... can't assume--don't assume--dispatch has calculated or cares whether you have the HOS. Can remember many times when I resisted pressure across the QualComm to accept a PrePlan and then found what had would have resulted in a Failed Load, a big no-no.

Would have been on me...

And it's interesting that how fast/slow my KY run unloads affects my Sunday start. Not a problem, I think, but they rub up against each other some. Nice that PeopleNet alerts you to wait to go On-Duty if your 10 aren't up yet, too.

Easy to do without thinking.

In which case you could easily end up with a ticket for 3 hours over...

Another thing every Gordon truck has/had (I assume still has) was a lane detection/intrusion system that kinda irritated drivers. Glad I had it now. This company, after the experience of a horrific accident in September that took multiple lives would do well to evaluate the same and consider incorporate it into the ongoing driver safety evaluation (Compliance Improvement Process).

If you went out of your lane in a Gordon truck without your turn signal on, whoa!! Seems really proactive in hindsight.

Another good thing. Just got up to pee. Slept straight through, 10:30 pm to 2:30 pm, back to normal. Nice! And my weight wasn't up as much yesterday morning as it was mid-week. Probably pee-d off a bunch!!

Now back to sleep and 'perchance to dream'... if you're dreaming, remembering dreams, a good sign of sleep health, because you don't reach REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep where dreams occur if apneas result in frequent/constant wake ups during the night.

If you don't dream, should look into it... for your health.

 

Week-Long Cold Front on Way...

Had I checked the weather probably would not have taken the St. Louis run for tomorrow (Sunday). Could have used that time better to build something more substantial on the porch for the roosters. As it looks, I may be working and building out there in really cold weather or even bring the roosters in with the dogs. Well, I've seen carpenters swing from raw framing a couple stories up in severely cold weather. It can be done. And I'll be standing on the porch deck...

Thinking about other named aircraft like the Spirit of St. Louis, of course, that Lindbergh flew first around the country and then to France, first transatlantic air crossing. Saw the first shuttle, Columbia, land at Edwards AFB in 1981, a watershed event for me. Pretty much lost my country during and after the Viet Nam era and the shuttle brought it back.

It was not only a heroic moment in and of itself, the military handled it well despite that many of us left the road, went off-roading toward the strip. They did have a line that became clear they would enforce, but they let us charge into the desert up to that point, not far really from the shuttle. I saw the big bad bird come in, silently, the opposite of an airliner with flaps down and engines roaring. No, this was a big, high-tech glider with butt down like a Canadian goose dropping onto a lake with head and wings poised upwards.

Silently.

What happened was that so many had come out that there was a traffic jam on the road to get to the official viewing area for the public. We could see the strip; it ran parallel to the road.

We weren't moving or getting any closer on the road.

Suddenly, with the proverbial hoot and holler, off-road we went and hundreds of others with us. Got a better, closer, more exciting view than would have been from the 'official' viewing area anyway.

Landing strip was left of the road; public viewing area way, way up ahead with bleachers and parking was to the right of the road.

Columbia dropped down right in front of us.