THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

$2300*9 mo = $20,700 take home spent on expenses + $19,600 deposited in savings = roughly 40k in 9 months

 

Well after twenty-two (22!) hours at the shipper I FINALLY got out of there. I would have ran from it earlier but, good luck finding another load on the weekend going somewhere halfway decent. So, I sat there, and got paid some detention time if nothing else. Customer was Black and Decker, in Charlotte, NC.

I could write a entire book about my experiences tonight trying to cruise at 65 MPH. I don't do it often, but sometimes, especially after sitting for a long time, I just want to run a little faster than 60. After sitting in this shippers yard for 22 hours, today was one of those days I didn't want to putt-putt along.

I won't go into it too much (ok yeah I will) but my God WHAT THE **** IS WRONG WITH SOME OF YOU DRIVERS. I'm cruising at 65 MPH. Get passed by another truck. Ok no problem. Driver hits a 2% grade in front of me and starts slowing down. Ok, whatever, I back off the cruise a couple MPH and let him front of me. Crest the hill, he speeds up, I speed back up. Back to flat ground. Back to 65MPH. Now I'm catching up to him again. Drop cruise a couple MPH. Still catching up. Drop cruise to 60MPH. Still catching up. Ok, **** this, gonna pass him back. Nope, get the nose of my truck to his tandems, he speeds up again. No one behind me, its late, so I just cruise in the left lane for a bit. I start gaining on him a little bit, yep enough of this, foot meet floor and just curbstomp his piece of **** Volvo into the ground. BUH BYE.

Ok, around the Winchester area now. Cruising at 65 again. 4 wheeler passes me doing at least 75 on the left. Gets in front of me. Half a mile down the road, I'm gaining on him at 65 MPH. I go to pass him. I get my drives even with him and he speeds up. I speed up to 70. He stays even. I speed up to 75. He stays even. I back off, get back behind him. He slows down again. You ****ing piece of ****ing ****. Ok, screw it, whatever, I drop down to 60. I'm STILL gaining on him. He keeps his car 3 seconds in front of me, no matter what I do. Finally, I've had enough. Due to his complete lack of situation awareness he does not see the other 4 wheeler in front of him in the right lane going slow. But I do. Wait until the perfect moment and put the hammer down again. I start to pass him. He tries to speed up. To late *** wipe. He catches up with the slow 4 wheeler in front of him. I continue on hammer down for a good 4 miles. Never saw him again after that.

Volvo shows back up somewhere past Winchester, passes me. Goes on his way. Think that was the last time I saw him.

So, start getting near Carlisle. My delivery is 70 miles north of Carlisle and I still have several hours left on the clock. Hmm... do I push it and deliver tonight? Well, lets see, I've hauled *** up here, if I'm gonna burn that extra fuel to go a bit faster, might as well make it worth it and get this load off me tonight so I can just have my pickup to worry about back in Carlise tomorrow. And, lets compare 1am traffic on Monday morning vs 2PM Sunday traffic on 81 in this general area. Yeah, gonna deliver tonight.

So off I go. 20 miles out from the delivery. Get passed by a bobtail tractor doing about 70. I'm back at 65. 1 mile ahead I'm catching up to the bobtail tractor at a few MPH. I don't care, no one is behind me, so I go to pass him, slowly, too lazy to bump the cruise up. Get my nose to the rear of his truck. He speeds up. I speed back up to 65. He speeds up to 65. Then just holds speed. Whatever man, no one is behind me so I just ride in the left lane for a good 4 miles, with him in the right lane about 2 tractor lengths in front of me, keeping his distance, but not gaining any. If I get back behind him I'd be right up his *** end, not gonna do that.

He randomly puts his foot on the floor and accelerates to about 75 MPH, then backs off again in a real short timespan. WTF dude do you really thing I am going to play? You are bobtail and I've got a loaded trailer. No, tonight is not the time.

2fast2furious and I continue on for a while longer, until I see a 4 wheeler going slower in front of him. Time to make my move. Hammer down again, pass him, continue on for several miles. Finally hit the BIG hill on 81, I gear down until I'm doing about 55. He eventually passes me back, but goes on his way.

Get to the delivery at Lowes in Minersville, PA. Try to slide the tandems. Tandems won't slide, pin is stuck or something. At this point I just don't give a flying ****. It is 32* out with a gusting wind that I was NOT about to stand out there and rip out pins in. They never asked me to slide them back. Inside I see something about putting them to the 41' mark. Mine are slid up to about the 5th hole. CLOSE ENOUGH? YEAH I THINK SO. Drop that thing dvir bad and message about the tandems need fixing.

Grab empty and leave for Carlisle, now about 2:30am. Pretty tired. Take wrong entrance ramp and get on 81 N instead of S. Great. 5 miles up the road until I can get turned around. Finally do, finally roll into Carlisle about 3:30am.

I'm done with today. However, I did manage to pound out a $1139 paying load in <10 hours of driving, so I can't complain too much.