Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

Is this in NJ? I don't think I've heard of some of these places. Either way sounds like a good job to have....

 

I know what you mean about staying in the area but when I accepted the load from WY to NJ I didn't have a home time request in yet and I was reluctant to refuse that load based on a time off request that wasn't even submitted. I couldn't submit the time off request at the time I was in WY because the system wouldn't allow it yet.

I usually wouldn't request time off on the opposite coast unless I was a couple of weeks out or more but this was a different situation than normal. I think I requested the time off with about 8 days to get back west. That didn't help.
My home time turn around this time is almost exactly 3 weeks which is pretty short for me. I usually stay out longer on the road. My map i update is barely marked up this time. I have photocopies of a U.S. map that I constantly update with routes and trips. Its just a snapshot of where I travel with dots indicating where I spent the night and each route highlited in a different color. Something I want to look back on later. This last "tour" had my route roughly starting in Richmond, running out west as far as Montana doubling back to NYC and then coming back west again. I start a new map after every hometime.

A lot of it has to do with where they have the heavy freight flowing. And it doesn't help getting stuck near NYC as once you are there it seems they like to keep you in that corner of the country. They only got me moving faster today with back to back loads because the terminal manager got involved. I was told that Swift had a meeting with all the driver managers and that they are going to focus more on getting us home on time.

 

He got the message it seems lol.

I think if men could grow breasts we would get a lot less work done. I know I wouldn't get #### done due to distracting myself, at least for a while.

 

Oh lol. I can't imagine going down that thing high. It was hard enough, nearly impossible, to not get skinned up straight. I didn't know all that about Action Park. I remember bits and pieces, especially the bits and pieces that hurt - getting skinned on the luge, belly flopping on that cliff dive, rope burns on that rope swing etc. I remember there was a little monorail or cable thing that took you to the other side of the park. Great place.

I spent more time at Great Adventure eventually working there with a lot of my family, everyone in different jobs. But G.A. was safer and more "sanitized" and corporate.

 

I just ordered Dragon Ball Chinese here at the Sumner terminal. I arrived with just about 18 minutes left on my 70. I didn't think I was going to make it when I was crawling up those grades on hwy 18 west towards the terminal at a painful 18 m.p.h. There was only two lanes and I was stuck behind another Swifty whom was stuck behind some other truck. That was the first time I had to hit the splitter to a lower gear, what I call 4th, to climb a grade. I think the last time I had to go in that low of a gear was probably 6 months ago. But I made it and now I'm waiting on some pot stickers and Combination #2 Pork Fried Rice and Sweet and Sour Chicken.

When I arrived at the terminal I asked if I could t-call the load as it doesn't deliver until tomorrow morning. I knew what the response would be but I figured would give it a shot anyway. I'll be delivering it tomorrow morning at 0700 somewhere very close by. Live unload. I guess at least this way I get my 2 and only load locks back once I deliver. Usually whenever I get new loadlocks, as these are, I lose them immediately to a t-call. Once I lost new load locks to a repower.


Eastern Colorado and high winds...

I was taking a very, very light load out to Colorado from somewhere back east. The load was just over 5,000 lbs. I got into Colorado and there were some very high winds. I slowed down to around 45 mph and the wind was still whipping me around. I would look back in my mirrors and see the trailer doing it's own thing as it got pushed out to the side. Up until the winds I was loving my light load as I was making excellent time out to Colorado. But when those winds picked up in Eastern Colorado I got nervous. I'm not sure what happened but a very strong gust was pushing on my trailer and it just felt lighter. The trailer was one of those with the sails on the bottom sides. I got the distinct impression that part of my trailer was actually lifting up. It just felt like it, not sure how else to explain it. I was dividing my attention between keeping the truck going straight and in my lane, watching my mirrors to make sure the trailer wasn't drifting too far out of the lane and I was watching the traffic behind me. At this one particular time my trailer was blowing I was looking forward and when I looked back in my driver's side mirror the traffic behind me just stopped. Not dead stopped but where they once were catching me and about to pass, they had now backed off and hung back. That told me something had happened. I would swear one side of my trailer had lifted, from what it felt like, but I didn't see it. Not sure if that's even possible without losing complete control. But it felt like it. Scared the #### out of me completely and I slowed down even more. The whole time was a pucker factor of 8.9. I just wanted to get out of there and get to where the winds stopped blowing. It was miserable. Not fun at all.

I dropped my load northeast of Denver proper. I swept my trailer and headed west to Golden to pick up my load of beer. Trailer passed inspection, I found my trailer and moved the tandems. Again, out of the last 4 trailers I have had, 3 of them have given me quite a bit of trouble when it comes to moving the tandems. Again out comes the WD-40, locking pliers and hammer. Rocking, banging, spraying and repeat. The tandems were all the way back on my beer load. I broke the seal and saw that they loaded the beer towards the front. I hooked up my load locks ensuring that I install the top load lock first so I would be assured to get slammed in the head as it fell on me when I installed the lower one second. Curses. Made the same mistake again. Gotta remember, bottom load lock first then top.

I took out the other seal in the back that I was to use to reseal the load and moved my tandems forward. My very general rule is that when I have a load like this, it is heavy and loaded towards the front that I move the tandems to about the 5th-7th holes from the front and see how it scales. Coors has a scale on site, certified, and I got the weights nearly perfect within about 500 lbs of each other. Total gross was just under 78,000. I felt like the tandem, scaling master! Not really but I was happy that I got the weights right on the first shot. When I picked up the phone at the scale and heard "your weights are good, come up to the window to get your bills" I was happy as could be.

I grabbed the load and made it to the Walmart north of Ft. Collins off I-25 on the east side of the highway. I think the town was called Tinsdale or something similar. It's a newer Walmart and there is a designated truck parking area at the end of the lot. Easy access and I scooped up one of the last legitimate spaces. Outside the legit spaces trucks were parking all over the place. It was packed with trucks and I was kind of surprised to see that trucks took over most of the parking lot on the far end.

The next day, not long after I got over the Wyoming state border I hit some cold weather and snow was blowing across the interstate and freezing on the roadway. It was a little sketchy for a while and was odd to hit that kind of weather in almost May. I know it happens but it's just weird to see. The way it was blowing reminded me of snow storms in the dead of winter up there. Weird. Slowed down and it wasn't an issue. I stayed that night at a Walmart just near the Utah border. I wasn't killing myself with hauling ### because I knew that I probably couldn't t-call the load and that I was stuck with it until deliver in the am on 5/1. So I paced myself spreading out the miles. The total miles were just that if I didn't have all the weight and grades I could run it in a couple of full shifts plus a little. But I took my time.


Repairs needed...

It was a good trip out overall but my truck is suffering. Not sure what to put it into the shop for just yet as I hate putting my truck in the shop at all. I haven't figured out which of the two antennas off the side view mirrors are for the cb. I replaced one but the drivers side is missing a piece so I can't install one. My jake brake is making weird squealing noises when I'm going downhill. It almost sounds like it's screaming to quit. My passenger steer sounds like it wants to come off sometimes when I hit bumps. Something is loose under there but I can't find it. I need to get that rear fairing piece reinstalled that came off at the truck wash in Amarillo a couple of months ago. There's probably a couple of things I'm not remembering. I know I need cab shocks in a bad way but I'm not even going to try and get that done at this point. I'll find out tomorrow after my delivery what they want to fix.



Cagers are embiciles sometimes...

I already got one thing done and out of the way on this home time. When I got here I scanned my paperwork, left the positive DOT inspection from S. Dakota with my DM and I hopped on my bike to go to my storage unit. Once again my baby did not let me down and started right up after sitting for months. I love that bike. It's reliable and predictable. I hopped onto 167 and within minutes I already had some ####### almost run me down. Unbelievable. I was getting off 167 to a ramp when I look out my passenger mirror and see this guy not only riding up my ### but he's pretty much in the shoulder trying to make the same right turn I'm making but trying to do it before me. Now when I ride I don't ride slow but I don't ride fast. I was probably doing 67 in a 60 which is about the pace of traffic. I give this guy a quick turn of my head and look at him to let him know, "hey, back off". I know sometimes people forget when they are in a cage that they are riding up on us motorcyclists so closely. So that was warning #1. I took the exit, got into traffic and started to get off another exit and there he is again just barely a couple of feet off my rear tire. That was it. Unfortunate for him the light we pulled up to off the exit was red. He pulled up to my left and I pulled my bike right up next to his passenger side. I let him have it and he didn't seem to care. My attitude is that if you don't care about giving me the opportunity to survive a fall or to back off my rear tire at speed then I won't care about you. Without saying more I'll leave it at that.


Bike trip and home time loose ends...

I made it to my storage unit, grabbed my birth certificate for my passport application, and headed back to the terminal without further issues with the cagers. I'm going to try and make this time off a quick turn around and get back on the road. I don't think I'm even going to stay at a hotel this time. Its just not really worth the expense it seems. I'm not sure. I may just stay here at the terminal and sleep in my truck at night. Get done what I need to and come back here. I'm starting to think of expenses in terms of this upcoming trip. If a room here costs me about $60 for the night that is the equivalent of about 4 nights (at least) of cheap lodging in Mexico or Guatemala. Puts thing in perspective for me. I've been checking out cheap tents for my trip and I think I found one for around $30. It's green camo, which is a prerequisite for stealth camping. I don't plan on camping much down there but I want to have the option to do so if I need to. This tent got good reviews from those buying it and it sets up easily. It's basic, cheap and camo. Perfect. Going to order that within the next month I think. I'm also trying to decide on what I could use to hide the big old BMW if I stealth camp. I also want a cover to put over the bike in the rare circumstance where I don't have eyes on it directly. So I'm looking for a camo bike cover that will fit this beast as well. I was debating getting a camo tarp for cheap from Harbor Freight but it's probably not going to function as the best overall bike cover. I may still go that route and get some locks to keep it from blowing off. The thing about stealth camping down there in Mexico or Central America is that I don't want to get caught. I don't want to give someone the excuse to make me feel compelled to bribe them to keep the authorities away. So the plan roughly, if I do have to stealth camp, is to find somewhere off and away from the main road, use a camo tent, cover the bike with some camo, and be packed up and on my way early in the morning. I'm not going to invest much money or too much thought into the whole thing as camping will only be a backup plan. I'm going to avoid it as much as I can. I'm looking forward to getting back out to Virginia where I have some books, guides, maps and other goodies waiting for me.

 

Yes they were all the way forward or pretty much so.

Good idea. Next time I'm going to move them back for sure.