Superior Carriers 2012

You can still log sleeper berth while loading and unloading if the customer is doing the work.

 

1/31-2/1

Well I am back at home while my truck gets the clutch worked on. It went out on me while I was scaling the first compartment of that load I had to Sparta NC. This was after being at that plant for 6 hours. I was able to drop the trailer at the plant and limp the truck to the same shop that put the ERG valve in. I then went back in an old Mack 5 speed day cab to finish loading the load and bring it to the yard. That took another 5 hours.

Meanwhile the bosses decided the best thing to do was have me limp the truck back to High Point with an empty trailer and I was taken off that load. They are supposed to have my truck ready by Friday and dispatch promised me "something long" to make up lack of miles these past couple of weeks.

 

Worked out real well. My truck will be ready this afternoon at 4:30 and I have a 600 mile coal mine snot load waiting for me at the yard that delivers tomorrow by 3. Heading out with it in a couple of hours. Did my taxes this morning and was able to restock my cooler with leftovers from home.

That explains why I got it in the first place. They didn't want to put that load on one of their terminals drivers. Funny thing is I will be back under Cincinnatti dispatch tomorrow. My truck would probably have not been ready had I stayed in Cincinnati. They didn't even know if they could look at it yesterday at Bob and Harrys.

 

2/2-2/4

I did a split break Thursday night to be able to make it to the Wild Bore coal mine on time. This one was crazy to get to. The gravel road you took to the plant was used by those huge coal mine dumptrucks with tires bigger than my cab. They had a bunch of them constantly running up and down it. I actually called the contact person on the bills to make sure I was supposed to be on it. They used 3 different CB channels for different parts of the mine. After I pulled on it I hear my contact come on the CB warning the dump trucks that I was out there. The road was real rough and they could run a lot faster than I could. The unload point was easier than most and the product came off perfect for my time line allowing me to log 2 hours sleeper during the 3 hour unload.

I was tank washed back to Cincinnati. I don't know if it's coincidence or not but I was given a 2200 mile load out to Moses Lake Wa. It loads Sunday giving me exactly 35 hours to reset at the company hotel. I complained about a couple of bad weeks in a row money wise when I got back to High Point Wednesday but they have no control over what Cincinnati does. It could be that all the Cincinnati drivers wanted to be home for the Super Bowl. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate at least for the ride out there.

 

2/9-2/11

Pretty good week. I really enjoyed my first trip across I-90. Beautiful scenery. I like the fact that the road follows rivers for much of the route. There are only a few grades and they are not near as severe as those across I-80.

Of course I only made it as far as MM179 in Washington. The chain required grades are farther west.

It was an uneventful trip. I got lucky with the weather. It was actually 35-50F west of the continental divide for much of my trip. I did have a day with Winter Weather Advisories on the way back, and it snowed steady from Bozemann Mt to Gillette Wy. The plows were able to keep up though so I was able to run 60+ through pretty much blowing snow.

I am now camped out at the Days Inn in Sioux City SD. Heading to Markham on Monday.

Below are a few pics.

Clarks Fork river from the rest area and Lookout Pass snow amounts on the way west. It was 3F at Clarks Fork river near Drummond Mt.

 

Couple more pics

The second one is of the top of a trash can. Its solid snow above the can. That is not a snow blower pile. I walked around on it. 4+ feet of snow solid.