Starting in Trenton 8/22

Sitting in Syracuse at the final taking a 10. First week and a half out hasn't been hateful. Ran to Independence Ky, up to Richfield, over to Cleveland, down to North Wilkesboro, Over to Eden, Up to Jersey, Picked up in Jersey, back down to Eden, and now in Syracuse. First full week out should end with 2300 miles, unless I get something tomorrow I can drop in Trenton and will end with more than that. Truck is running smooth outside had to get a jump start in Jersey. No clue what happened but the batteries where drained. Other than that no problems so far.

 

Picked up a MT from the fedex down there and dropped it in Trenton, guess we ran something to them.

 

Sitting in Richfield doing my 10. Have been running running running since I came back after Christmas. Have mainly been on 80, haven't seen much south outside of St. Louis and a trip to C-ville. 80 is a boring boring stretch of road but when you go Wis. to Penn. its 900ish miles so the miles have been good. Have just missed 3000 the past two weeks and this week I should be at about 3200ish.

Sadly my luck ran out and I finally had to drive in snow. Just slowed down and stopped when I didn't feel comfortable driving anymore. I do need to say though there is a difference between slowing down for safety and slowing down and now being more hazardous to other drivers than the snow. I got to see a truck on 80 jack knife because the car in front of him was doing about 20 when everyone else was doing 45ish. Granted he should have slowed down sooner but the car should never have been doing 20 on a highway, he should have pulled off he passed a service plaza so there was no excuse.

Also got to go down a 9% grade on 322 in PA. Was a fun exp.

 

Not I with the beard, I did however drop cups off to bill at one point and told the class they need to know how to read a sign.

Came off hometime on the 28th of Jan. that week consisted of Trenton to Bud in Virginia, to Chicago, over to Plano, to Findlay Oh, down to Eden. A heads up to all the new trainees, running from Trenton to Eden or anywhere in Virginia sucks. There is no good way to get there, and it will kill you clock. Everyone has a way to get there from Trenton so just ask around.

Also if you are thinking of getting a Rand McNally GPS, don't follow it blindly to Eden. You will get a ticket for being on Friendly Road when you aren't allowed to. The Fuel Book has the Directions for Eden, learn them. Its not a GPS problem, as much as its we aren't considered to be a local delivery, because our terminal is two feet into VA.

This week started in Eden, ran up to Indy, over to Lapel, Up to West Allis, down to Atlanta ( crappy crappy city ), on my way up to Richfield from Columbus GA now. Gonna kick back and watch my Pats win another title tomorrow hopefully.Will have something like 2800 miles on the week. At some point will add up my miles since I have been out and give a weekly and monthly breakdown to give an idea what to expect.

Overall I know I have been getting an avg. of 2500 a week, some weeks have been higher and some lower. As a perfect example, The week before hometime I had 3400, the week of hometime I had 500. This was because I put hometime in for Thurs.-Tues. but got home early Wens. so it was a free day at home. Just remember it all avg. out in the end.

 

As do I, I haven't gotten a ticket but figured I would give everyone a warning, the GPS isn't perfect but it is nice to have. Always double check the QC directions, the GPS will have you get off at the first exit that you can get to the dest. from, where as typically the QC someone has been on that route and you know its good or should be. Always check and recheck as you are the one who pays the ticket no matter where you get directions from.

Also if you come out of WI as an example with a load to say Carilise PA, it will route you on the PA. turn pike, which the part from Ohio to New Stanton we can't run with out permission. Also Chicago Beverage it will route you diff. than the QC, anyone want to try that out and let me know how it goes?

But lane assist, being able to set your stops with truck stops, and Street level viewing is a nice feature to have. Just remember its a tool not perfect. Also if ever in doubt after all else ask another driver or Call the DOT or Highway patrol/Local P.D., I have a few times and had no trouble.

P.S. Big props to Chicago P.D. for helping me out of a bad spot due to a Clearance sign being wrong. He backed up traffic so I could back up the street and make a turn to get back to the highway.