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

Well Walmart never worked out. I deadheaded 100 miles down and when I got there the Walmart guy was about to start my orientation. He was checking for loads and he didn't have any. It was possible there might be one that night he said. Go take a 10 and we will get something for you tonight. I had just woke up about 2 hours before and it was 10 am. I was wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep even if I wanted to, which I didn't. I told him I would check with my DM and let him know. My DM was off and my old one, after I explained the situation took me off and gave me another load picking up back north of Dallas. I dead headed 200 miles back in the other direction from where i came. As much as I wanted to give this Walmart thing a shot I'm here to run miles and loads. If a Walmart dedicated comes up again I'll give it a shot but if they aren't going to run me then I'll pass. From the little bit of info I did ascertain it didn't sound that appealing as variety is the spice in this job.

I picked up the load coming down here to Houston. By the time all was said and done, I had to stop short of Houston last night due to my 14 running out. I ran the final 120 miles this morning. I showed up for my noon appointment 15 minutes early and they told me I would have to wait 1-2 hours. 5 hours later I was told I could dock. It was muggy and I was aggravated. And then I noticed that one of my drive tires lost the top strip of rubber. The tires are only a couple of months old and were installed new. They weren't retreads from what I know. The guy from Loves that came out to change it at the consignee location said it didn't make sense. Must have happened on the way down to the consignee but I didn't notice it until I was docked. Sucks because I could have had it changed out while I sat for 5 hours waiting to dock. Instead I waited for the repair after getting unloaded.

The original plan when I got the load after Walmart was to keep me running through the weekend. That's what I asked for and they gave me the load from north of Dallas down to Houston and then a second load picking up in Houston going to the border in Nogales. I was pretty excited to have miles and to have the opportunity to run for a few days. I went to pick up the second load from Budweiser solidly within the window and when I arrived they told me it wouldn't be ready for a couple of days. I had just enough time to find parking here at a Walmart in Houston. Sounds like now there is no freight for tomorrow. So here I sit. There better be some detention time involved. Just an aggravating day. And its muggy.

 

New truck!

I have my (old) truck down here in the shop at the Memphis terminal.

I told my DM that I am about finished with my old truck after these last issues. I just had it in the shop about a week or so ago out in SLC. I'm done with it but kind of sad to say goodbye to it. Weird. I guess this was my first truck ever, not just with Swift, but my first rig. It's the one I started with from going solo and I've been living in it pretty steady for the better part of 15 months.

I was given a choice of a 2014 Prostar or a Freightliner. I went out and checked out both and decided I'm going to stick with the Prostar. It looks just like my truck but upgraded. I figured I'm already used to my Prostar so I might as well stick with it. Plus it has the ISX Cummings motor and not that other motor with problems. I really haven't checked it out too much so I don't know all the details on it. I still have to do a more thorough inspection but, from what I could tell in a preliminary inspection, it looks like it's in good shape. I didn't see any damage on the initial inspection. Looks clean both in and out. As it should be with such a new truck. I think the mileage is about 25000-30000, based on what my DM said. It doesn't have the fog lights like mine and it has the grey-colored underside. I noticed that the map lights inside as well as some of the storage compartments are different. It has the bonus of some small windows in the upper bunk area - something conspicuously missing on my old Prostar. It also takes DEF so this will be my first real experience with that since I got out of training.

When I picked up my Prostar, my original and only truck with Swift, 14.5 months ago it was more of a mess. There was a large gouge in the passenger side underbody as if the previous driver drove up over a curb or boulder. It had cracks throughout the bumper, a bent fin in the back and a dent/gouge on the driver side body. The rubber running under the steps was mostly gone. It looked beat before I even drove it. Of course I logged all of the issues and I took pics with my cellphone back then.

This truck is nice. Everything looks in place and the A/C works! Fantastic.

I'm waiting to get my old truck out of the shop so I can start the process of moving 14+ months of crap from my old truck into the new one. I'm not looking forward to that part but I guess it gives me the chance to start over. A while back I bought a roll of vehicle carpeting that I never installed in my old truck. It just sat there tucked between the passenger seat and passenger door unused and waiting. That's going in the new truck. The toughest part is going to be getting that pillow-top mattress out of the old truck and into the new. When I bought that mattress it was hellish to get into my truck and my Qualcomm and everything else in New Mattress Beast's path was devastated. This is going to be quite the endeavor moving everything out and returning my old truck to unlived in condition.


Lost a load, gained a truck...

I was taking a load to t-call up to Columbus. Air conditioning stopped working last night. Again, for about the 6th time in this truck. Then my Qualcomm keyboard quit and it decided it no longer wanted to hang on to the mount. My Qualcomm has been barely hanging on there for a long time. Usually I Crazy Glue the ball and socket set up so it stays somewhat upright. I usually tuck my old truck stop guide underneath the QC to keep it somewhat erect. But this time it had enough and face down it fell freeing itself from the mounting post. Not sure why my A/C stopped working again but it did the same thing that it did in the past. - blow cold for a little while then it comes out steaming hot.

I was stopped at a Walmart in Grenada, MS. Although the overall temp wasn't that high, the humidity was unbearable. I tried just using my fan and opening every window and it still didn't help. I couldn't sleep. I got permission to get a hotel room and I called around. The hotels were located directly down the hill and across the street but they were across the interstate. I locked the truck up, packed a bag with some valuables and headed down the hill across the interstate. It was 0400 and checkout was 1200 noon so I had limited time to spend there. Sleep was brief. I pushed sleep all the way to the point of 12 noon eviction, checking out at 11:57 am - just to maximize my sleep time. The walk/run back across the freeway was reminiscent of human Frogger as there was no crosswalk, the light I crossed on was unusually short and left me 3/4 of the way across the road when the opposing side turned green. Not a good place to cross an interstate, even with a traffic light. I'm guessing the obvious absence of a crosswalk was an indication that I wasn't supposed to be crossing there.


A beast in a motel...shocking housekeeping and embarrassing myself is my forte...

I should have put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. Since I checked in at 0400 and I had to check out at noon, I didn't have much time to get sleep, get showered and check out. I was exhausted by the time I checked in as my 10 had started hours earlier and I ran my 14 out yesterday.

At some point this morning, probably around 1000 am I would estimate, I heard a knock on my motel room door quickly followed by a key unlocking it. The individual outside may have said something to the effect of "housekeeping!" but I don't remember. I was exhausted, my head was foggy and I was nearly naked. I didn't even bring a change of clothes with me to the hotel room as I had just grabbed my electronics, a toothbrush/toothpaste and my CPAP. I needed to get out of the clothes I had been suffering through the humidity in and I was basically sleeping naked except for this CPAP contraption hooked up to my face. Now anyone who knows what a CPAP looks like (see the movie "Hall Pass" for an example) it is not a very subtle device by any means. It looks like mobile life support with plugged in black box with lighted buttons, a long hose connecting the user to the machine and a face mask with straps all over the head. Looks like a more medically-oriented Hannibal Lecter...

So I heard a knock, might have heard someone announce themselves, then heard the key enter the lock and the door was attempted to be opened. Although the door only opened as wide as a few inches due to the security chain slider thing, it opened just to that point and stopped its progression with a loud bang.

At this point my upper body shot bolt upright, apparently naked to the "intruder", eyes could barely be opened, hair going every which way and my CPAP securely covering my nose, strapped to my head, straps wrapping around the sides and top and a 6' clear hose connecting it and draped across the bed.

"Hello Clarise, it's good to see you...".

I heard what sounded like a startled noise or part of a sentence from the intruder. I think somewhere in between when the door had opened I yelled, barely even awake, "I'm still sleeping!!". I'm sure it sounded kind of nasal as the face contraption was still shooting air up my nose. The door slammed shut and I fell quickly back asleep. The same thing happened about an hour later, same process - a knock, key in door, door opens as far as security device would allow, I yell something about still sleeping and door closes again. This second time, although I didn't open my eyes, I'm thinking she might have been showing the monster in room 117 off to another cleaning lady or possibly to tourists she charged an admission price to -

"Step right up, step right up....come see the snarling beast of room 117 supported by face machines that keep him alive and barely sedated....step right up folks!!.....".

Not sure but whoever said a CPAP machine isn't sexy is probably correct. Not long after I realized it was probably time go get showered, get up and get out.

Not sure where I'm going next as I have to move all that stuff from one truck to the new one tonight. And I have to clean my truck up and then get with the fleet manager here in Memphis again tomorrow morning.

 

It was a tremendous headache. I used the truck switcher yellow platform at the terminal to move from truck to truck. Worked well. It took me from about 0800 to 2200 to move and clean the old truck. I sweated all day in the Memphis humidity.

A couple of things that I haven't figured out. The cb has all the connections but no power outlet to plug it in behind the cb enclosure. Gotta run my cord down in front. And my truck is supposed to be a 10 speed but 6th gear has not been found so I skip to 7th. Weird.