Where Are You Continues, Again.....

I sorta found out Roland was absent when I sent a text to him at 9:30 and got no reply. It wasn't SO hot yet. I texted Crystal and I left SDV loaded at 11am on run #1 280# Hazmat crate going to Manchester. Got here in time to get my paperwork done then sit around for an hour.
The inspector should be out here pretty soon.

 

Did only one more. 980# crate from SDV to Cargolux.

If it gets MUCH slower it'll be cheaper to stay home.

 

you might have to go back to big trucking

 

Lancaster NY....4 a minute...

 

I pretty much destroyed my big truck chances during my time with PAM.

I can't say where. But someone didn't give my DL back. I'm going to the DL office this morning to start the process of getting a replacement..
That should pretty much insure that my license comes back in the mail.
Fortune that my TWIC card works too.

 

Parked at a Walmart someplace off i65 in Alabama. Greenville I think. Feeling too tired to give a #### enough to confirm...

Went inside and supported my parking spot only to come back out and notice the, "No truck parking," sign. I got in here just fine and there's 2 others parked... Confirmed it was a potentially "safe" spot by looking through google maps. There was at least one other truck here.

I sure hope it's an empty sign, but if not then oh well. Not enough time left on my electronic nanny for me to loop back around to any TS nearby... Oh well. It is what it is.

Feels like it's been a long long day. Doesn't help that my dispatcher told me, "how to log" last night. Imagine my great annoyance trying to explain it... I did what was asked of me, made a mental note and then got over it. At least until this morning when I find out that I had far more time than originally implied...

(I changed myself to on duty status to go sign the bills, hook back up to the trailer and pull off the yard to dock. I was told to change it to off duty. Yes, I know that wasn't needed.)

Had she told me that I was doing an emergency run because the driver that had this run was sent to the ER and diagnosed with walking pneumonia, I would've just done it with no lip.

Got 12 hours off before I gotta leave out again and I plan to sleep hard for at least 9 hours of it.

 

I had that same problem at the scales in Limon CO years ago. The "lady" DOT cop was/is a real PITA. Even her fellow officers can't stand her.
When I told her I wanted my license back, one of the other cops there piped up with "She is always doing that, so she can bust you for not carrying your license on you." Considering the look on his face when he said it, he was NOT kidding. She literally threw the license back at me.

That is on a "need to know" basis. Guess you ain't up high enough on the food chain. . . Sometimes these idiots are their own worst enemies. Or is that enemas?

 

So this morning he sent me two runs. I sent that I had told Crystal what I was going to do this morning. Almost immediately I sent never mind I would be at the first one at 8:30.
He sent that he had already gotten Carl on them.
Thank goodness I have a small town License office. Got in and out in a hurry.
He sent do I have a 2" ball. I got sent to Pearland Hospital. Should have said Memorial Pearland Hospital. It was an air compressor.
And the guy needed to use it for about 15 minutes before we hooked it.
Took it to J&T Tool on Inker Street off TC Jester.
Picked up three Wackers and three safety cans of gasoline. Took them to LaPorte High School.
And got three Wackers and three empty safety cans back. Then went to Delta Chemical in Deer Park and got one drum of class 8 stuff that was going down to Hitchcock. My transmission was acting weird and when I pulled the dipstick the fluid was full of air bubbles. So I went to the nearest O'reilly and got two quarts of fluid.
Put one in and it's acting normal.
Boogied all I could to get to J&T Tool to drop the stuff left on my truck. But at 4:45 the place wasc a ghost town. Empty and locked tight.
Told Roland that and he said Ok.
I guess I know where I'm going in the morning.
I had a brake grinding. I just put new pads on the front. The right rear pads were replaced when one pad lost the pad and it went metal to metal. I had the second set in the box so put those on left rear when I got home.
The grinding was apparently something that got between the pad and the disk. It never did it again coming home and oh how I tried.
So braking is ok again.
Man o man you ought see the blowbye that comes out of tube under my truck!
If only I knew where up to a gallon a day of water was going I think the truck might make it to the election.

And on that note Good Night y'all!

 

Survived the chair of torture came home and right to bed. Woke up to this post....well after a little interpretive editing....I can confirm, I am mostly back to normal, with 3 new holes in my head! The gutter is open for business as usual!

 

Ran like a bat out of governed hell today. Hardly a hard run to make, but it seems some drivers have had issues making this run in full lately.

First stop went smooth. Baton Rouge Mall in La, the place off Bluebonnet Blvd. In and out in 45 minutes. Gave me extra time to make stop 2.

Stop two was...interesting. Their docks are shaped funny and give the illusion of having just enough space to make a u-turn and back right into the dock. (Still Baton Rouge, but this time it's the mall off Cortana Place.). Yep. I confirmed it to my dismay. It is in fact an illusion that you can make a u-turn. So I spent all my extra time trying to get outta there!

Thankfully the guys who were doing a dumpster pick up came by and spotted me so I could back out of that mess. Ended up being 15 minutes late to hit the dock, but I got in there and was unloaded in an hour.

High tailed it to the shipper 80 miles away. It was going good until I got a call from dispatch.

"Need you to go inside and help them. A pallet fell over and it's one of the ones you got from the stores. Oh, and if you can, smooth things over. We haven't been doing so well with them lately since other drivers haven't made it."

Went inside to check things out. Yep. A pallet definitely fell over, but I was bored inside the truck. Was a perfect distraction and easy clean up.



After that, I brushed the dust off my silver tongue and talked to the manager of the docks. She wasn't happy at all. Turns out I wasn't the first with this issue, and she considered this time to be, "minor."

When I saw the pictures, I knew what she meant... I was in a rush, so I hadn't pushed everything to the nose like I usually do, but other drivers just had their "dunnage" haphazardly placed everywhere.

All that old pharmacy charm and customer service practice came in handy... By the time I left, she was smiling, happy and laughing. I sent the pictures to dispatch and explained the situation in detail.

I got caught at the previous shipper out of time and had to stay on their service road. Which was quite busy and had me concerned... Had 10 minutes left when I got back in the truck. I pulled outta there faster than a teenage boy that just lost his v-card.

Stopped at someplace I never knew existed... Welcome to Roady's (St. Rose Travel Center) off i310 exit 2 in Saint Ross, la. Just barely scraped in here too...



Loaded down with a bunch of different things. Place looks nice and clean though it's a tad awkward...aside from one Landstar truck, I'm the only person here that looks even remotely close to a mega!

It's a good thing Schneider never got around to taping this truck up with all their decals! Only my dot numbers and the doors to my trailer can give me away.

Going to go inside and see what this place has to offer. ...though I should be going to bed, if only because my curiosity usually gets me into trouble.

Well. Time to go be curious!