We find our stress level really escalating when we are inside a noise restaurant of anyplace that has a lot of background noise. The truck is most of totally silent going down the road except for the road noise or the sounds of our truck. Even when parked we are most often reading or working on the computer. Our normal sounds are a motor running or a neighbor’s reefer running. When we come home the house is silent and peaceful which is awesome. When it is summer the windows are open and you can hear the sounds of the forest behind the house.
We have found though to be in a large group of people for a long period of time we are exhausted by the end of the day. There is just to much going on around us to keep up with and we quickly become over whelmed. It is kind of funny how the truck controls so many areas of our lives and how much we miss it when we are home for a long period of time….
This billboard the first time I saw it made me about wreck from laughing so hard! For those of you that have seen the Blue Man Group you will see the humor of this billboard. We have been lucky enough to see the Blue Man in Chicago and also in Las Vegas and all of the shows are awesome!
We spent the weekend in Flagstaff AZ and the walking trails in that town are awesome! The temperature this time of year is perfect for getting out of the truck and seeing the sites. When the sun goes down so does the temperature and first thing in the morning I was wishing for a jacket but as soon as the sun peaked out it was perfect. I was able to walk 8 miles and I still had more trails to explore.
If you stay at Little America and head north on the sidewalks you can go along old route 66 and wander on down to "Old Flagstaff" which is very pretty or you can follow the sidewalk to the left and head out into some of the newer areas and get to the nature walks with well maintained trails. After finding all of these trails I know I will be pushing to layover in Flagstaff anytime we get near the area.
Amazing you can be in Flagstaff in the 80's and head to Phoenix 125 miles away and have temperatures above 100 degrees.
Flagstaff Arizona and finally in the mountains! It is really cool and nice here with lots of awesome pine trees! We had enough time to eat dinner at Black Barts Steakhouse Saloon and Musical Revue. http://www.blackbartssteakhouse.com/ We do not get here very often or have the time to visit this place which is OK as it is a little pricey as with your dinner you get to watch the servers entertain you with singing and skits. Black Barts is located right across the street from Little America in the RV Park within easy walking distance. We have stopped in here from time to time for the past 20 years and it stays about the same except that the servers keep getting younger! If you get a chance to stop in the place is a lot of fun and they serve pretty good steaks!
There are a lot of sounds that can make you cringe but when the truck acts sick and sounds sick you know it is not going to be a very good day. Our M2 Class 7 Freightliner has 640,000 miles on our CAT motor and we listen pretty carefully when it makes an odd sound or a hiccup! Bob takes awesome care of our truck but sometimes that just is not enough. The truck has been acting a little funny when the water temperature would get up to about 150 degrees but then it would drive out of it. Well we put on for us what was a heavy load over 8000lbs and truck really let us know it did not appreciate that at all. So we delivered our load and we started looking for a Caterpiller shop and lo and behold there was one near us in Edinburgh TX. I cringe when ever we have to have the truck worked on as the shops will not let you stay with the truck. Some shops have a policy dogs cannot go into the waiting room, some shops have such a filthy waiting room you think dogs have lived in it, and others are very nice. When we arrived at the shop our first impression was very favorable as we were met with professionalism and told they would get our truck in right away. Next we were shown the waiting room and this place was nice and Molly was allowed in! There went a lot of my stress as I could drag in all of my entertainment for the next several hours including my book, my IPOD and my computer! We were told about an hour before quitting time you have two injectors at this point not working and we can either start on your truck now and you can go to a hotel or you can stay in your truck and we will start on truck in the morning. We chose the hotel and the shop immediately started and by the time they finished the next day we had 5 new injectors (the 6th had just been replaced in December) and the overhead had been run. Keeping a maintenance fund always helps in this situation as you do not have to worry about how you will pay the bill. I transferred money over to our debit card, Bob went to pay the bill and the card was promptly declined and our keys were pulled out of the truck! So I made a quick phone call to the bank and found out about a new policy if you try to use your card for over $500.00 you must call and get the lock removed! Good policy but I sure wish I would not have put Bob through watching our card get declined. We paid our bill and with our truck sounding much more healthy we where back on the board waiting for a load.
I wish all shops could be like this one where you are treated with respect, your truck is treated with respect and they get right on your problem and get you out the door.
This is the name of the shop were at: Holt Cat Shop Truck Engine Service Shipping Address: 1320 South 25th St.... Read More Edinburg, TX 78539-7205
Phone: (956)-289-7600 USA Toll Free: (800) 683-2285 Fax: (956) 383-6819
We got lucky! We called our friend Miguel Soetaert, Group Leader Component Optimization for Detroit Diesel and asked if we could stop by for a visit at his Detroit Diesel office. He was able to secure us a plant tour with Pam Esshaki, Assembly Quality Coordinator - Plant Tours as a last minute request. I was thrilled that a women would be giving us our tour and as soon as she realized I wasn't your typical girly girl she stepped up the tour and we had a blast! She had more knowledge in her little finger about the history of the motors, what has changed over the years, and how everything inside the plant works then most people would learn in a life time. She started us at the point where the block meets with a robotic cart that it will stay with through out the assembly. Just watching how the carts work was pretty interesting and I had lots of questions on what drives what motor needs to be produced. The customer has spoken and now the motors are made on demand to mesh with the truck frame that is also being made. No more waiting till one type of motor is finished being produced then everything retooled to create another motor. Now with the robotics you can have any type of motor in the line and each motor has its own micro chip that will tell the robot what needs to be done. We met with several of the people working on the line and watched them interacting with the motors and it sure was not what I pictured a assembly line work to look like. These people all had lots of experience and lots of accountability as what they did was also encoded on the micro chip and if any part was to fail they can trace it as far down as to who installed the part and where the part was manufactured. It was interesting the accountability was drilled down so far into the manufacturing and when something goes wrong there is recourse so that you are able to execute the change that needs to be made. Each day at the end of a shift there is a group meeting on what went right, what went wrong and what is going to be done for corrections and when the corrections would be made. There is no slacking in this place or slackers allowed.
Pam explained many new innovations to the engine including what has been done to make the engine quiet. I called it waffling that had been incorporated into the block and also other pieces but the technical term is webbing and this has strengthened the block and also is used as a noise reducer. Pam also took us back to the testing rooms and even though there is no way I would have the patience to work in the testing area it was awesome. Pam had some funny stories of experiences that have happened during testing. One thing about this area is it has many chambers with a lot going on in each one. The motors run behind very thick glass as some of the procedures they go through could cause them to throw a rod or something else just as fun!
We also watched the area where the robots did all of the precision machine work and it was interesting that they do the drilling dry. They found that the water used to cool the tool bit was actually contaminating the metal so now they use high pressure air.
We hope to go back as we were really on overload through the whole tour with all the information Pam had and with what we were seeing. Pam also shared with us her background at the plant and that she has been there 30 years. As most of us women could guess her climb has not been an easy one. The neatest part about Pam is there is no doubt she is a women and that while working and raising a family she was able to obtain her masters degree in mechanical engineering. Between her and Miguel we have learned a lot about how the DD motors are manufactured and we have a great resource to ask many questions of in the future as we progress to purchasing our own Cascadia with the DD13 motor.
Molly has company stop by to say Hi! while we are in Arkansas.
Molly has a pretty large following of friends and acquaintances. She has been to many truck shows and events and as always when we are not in the truck she is in the front seat watching. The difference with Molly is she really enjoys it when people stop by and say Hi! I have stood back and watched her interaction with visitors to truck shows that stop to look at our truck or at Molly. She has had her picture taken I believe more times then our truck has. She for some reason always poses for a camera if she see's one. She does not know any enemy's and all people are potential friends. She does not lick, bark or jump on people which is a nice bonus. She really appreciates kids as she has figured out they drop food. Molly came to live with us January 1st 1996 and fit in with our family since the the very beginning.
I have found that many people know Molly and will say Hi! to her and then turn around and with a question in their voice say "You must be Linder?" This always brings a smile to my face as I know they are readers of ExpeditersOnlinehttp://www.expeditersonline.com as Molly is my avatar and most people know me by Linder on that site. "Long Story on how I received that nickname"
Molly watched the girls grow up and go through their high school years by attending many ballgames, track meets, parades, and county fairs. She has always enjoyed the travel getting to the events and then sitting in the stands watching the girls. In different places she has made friends and when they hear she will be in the area bring treats to work for her. Molly really enjoys carrots so that is the number one treats she enjoys.
Molly will turn 14 in November and she is starting to slow down and very seldom breaks out of her meandering walk. Her eyesight is going but as long as she is on her leash she is very confident that we will take care of her. Her hearing is really bad and if the sound is not high pitched she does not hear you. We know our time is growing short with Molly and every day is precious that we have with her.
Hey we have a rough life but someone has to do it! We learned a new game last time we were at home called Bocce Ball. We added the game to the many other unnecessary items I carry on the truck but at least this one does not weigh much. The object of the game is to place your color ball the closest to the white ball that has been previously throw. One of the nice things about the game is it is easy to play, not easy to win, and very easy to pick up and throw back in the truck when you get a load. The other nice thing about the game is it gets you out of the truck and doing something!
We were at a Flying J truck stop south of Cincinnati this past week with another FedEx Custom Critical couple and decided to get the game out. We quickly found out the men where much better at this game then Lisa and I were. We did not stop trying and then had to laugh over some of the places we threw our ball. We had a lot of fun playing and look forward to getting the game out and trying again. I really need a lot of practice as I have a tendency to throw the darn ball way to far as I do not think I have grasped the concept of this game. Now if this was one of the million or so card games I know I would have no problem!
Over Stimulation is what happens to me when I am in a huge group of people anymore. When I used to work in the" Normal" world I dealt everyday with a broad range of people and personalities all day long and thought nothing of it. Now in the truck where I can control my environment which usually means talking on the phone, listening to books on my IPOD, or listening to Podcasts I can control my environment and noise level. I will admit that the Freightliner M2 has a lot of background noise as this truck is not quiet but I have learned to tune the road noise out. I have found that even going into a very loud resturant can be very trying on my nerves and I often leave unsettled.
When we go to an event like the Expedite Expo or to the FedEx Custom Critical offices in Green where I am able to talk face to face with many people that I normally just email with I find that I have a lot to say and listen to that can not be shared in an email. There are so many people you want to see and only so many hours in the day so everything is crammed into a few hours. The lack of time can become very frustrating as you know it could be a year before you get to see most of these people again. You at least get to scratch the surface of what you want to say to your friends and the new friends you meet and then you all go your seperate ways.
I look forward to the truck shows, our time spent at the FedEx Custom Critical offices, and the different trucking activies we are involved in but I have found that when I get back into the peace of the truck it takes me a few days to recover. After you have crammed in as much networking as possible in a few hours getting back into your truck is like crawling into a protective cacoon of solitude. Both worlds are awesome and we as drivers can enjoy the best of both worlds. We can step into the corporate world or the truck show world and then step back out to our controled enviroment to regroup for the next exciting event.
We are getting the truck cleaned up so we can be in the line up in front of the Roberts Center in Wilmington OH. Once the truck is all shined and the tires lettered it rains! We end up wiping the truck down once again before we go inside to clean up for the reception. This year marks the 10 year anniversary of http://www.expeditersonline.com/ and was the brainchild of Lawrence and Debbie McCord. EO has been instrumental in getting many expediters into the business and then spreading the knowledge to keep their businesses afloat. This was our 6th year of attending the Expo and this one was one of our favorites with a lot of firsts. We had many impromptu meetings of forum members and below is pictured Dynamite 1, 1/2 of Team Caffee, Terry of TerryandRene', Jeannie, Piper1 who are all contributors to the forums.
This year I was the host of a workshop on Networking that lasted two hours. I had lots of help from other forum members and moderators and really felt as if we reached a lot of people. Our attendees included drivers who have been driving for many years to people just starting to research a career move. All seemed to enjoy the workshop with very few taking the time to leave their chair without hurrying back. I was also interviewed live on the Dave Nemo show on Friday morning. When I found out this was really going to happen I almost had a stroke and then went into general panic mode. Between the support of Bob and Henry Albert who got stuck practicing with me over and over again I made it through the interview and actually had a very good time. I have no clue what I said or what questions were asked but I know the time just flew by and I was not done talking! Good grief I think I have become a chatterbox.
I would really like to thank Henry Albert for all of his patience and the awesome job he did showing his Cascadia to the Expedite Crowd. If you have not read his blog here is the link: http://sliceoftruckerlife.com/blogs/henry-albert/ Eric of ebsprintin also was really instrumental in keeping me on track of what I wanted to get across in the workshop. This Expo was the best one I have been to and the time just flew by. I know by the time we had our "liftgate" bbq the last night I was totally exhausted and brain dead! Cannot wait till next year so we can do it all over again.
I have a workshop coming up at the Expedite Expo and the topic is networking.The more I think of this subject the more circles I draw all intersecting the nucleus which is me.When I came up with this topic for the workshop I thought wow how simple we network every day without even trying.I listen to different trucking shows on the trucking channel 171 on XM such as Kevin Rutherford show which keeps me in the loop of upcoming industry changes.We belong to various professional trucking groups such as the 20 Group http://www.cdlofit20group.org//portal.phpwhich is a group to share ideas on different arenas of trucking. I talk to other drivers within our company, often discussing rates, good and bad parts of the country for freight and upcoming freight trends for the months ahead.I talk with our contacts within the company we are leased to, to stay abreast of upcoming changes with policies and to stay informed of current events such as the upcoming equipment on board recorder (EOBR).I talk to other expediters on ways to make life on the road more interesting, ideas to manage our possessions in the sleeper such as using expandable curtain rods in our freezer to hold food in place, easier ways to cook and eat healthy on the road, and ways to make each day even better then the last.We talk to drivers from other areas of trucking on how the economy is affecting them and how they are staying ahead of the game.One idea that has really made me stop and think was our personal appearance and how we portray ourselves to our customer and even other drivers. We attend truck shows to get the chance to see new and innovative products and also to interact with other drivers.We have learned better and safer ways to secure our freight which in the Expedite world is a huge concern. At one show a neighbor had a telescoping ladder that was awesome as it took up so little room for storage and this new item was soon added to our supplies.I am also involved with various trucking sites sometimes as a lurker, sometimes as a poster, and in others as a moderator. Expediters Online http://www.expeditersonline.com/forum/ started us in the Expedite world and is one site I spend a part of each day reading. We have found in some networks we are the student trying to learn everything discussed and in other networks we are the teacher sharing what we have learned.In all instances we are still the benefactor of each network we are a member of.
Hang Glider ride with my Zack and Jen Long legs belong to Zack, white tennis shoes are Jen who had a hard time keeping them clean as there was a lot of mud I wore my mud boots and had great fun sloshing right through the middle of the mud puddles
Tractor Pulls where loud and awesome to watch!
Demolition Derby was great fun on Friday night with lots of cars
Mule Jumping was the highlight of the fair and this mule jumped 58" from a standstill to win the event!
I did not think it was possible to get any more spoiled but here it is! Just go out the laundry room door and load the truck. You just have to enjoy country living. We go a couple extra days over the 4th before we pick up our next load going to the west coast so we went home. Worked in the yard, stained the back porch, went fishing, went to a horse training clinic, and was even able to get a sunburn. Boy did it rain and rain though on the 4th the little creeks were amazing to see. After we get done unloading the truck we can take a break on the porch and just listen to the frogs croaking, chickens crowing, and the 4-wheelers out running around. In our part of the woods people run over to see their neighbors horseback, or on driven mules or on their 4-wheelers and the cops just seem to turn a blind eye to all.
The QC rules our life when we are out here on the road and we have grown accustomed to the exigencies that are thrust upon us by the obnoxious BEEP. When you hear the beep your first thought is it a fleet message? a safety message or just maybe a load?
This year the beep has more often not been a load which is very disappointing after you have sat very long. When there is load offer on the QC you can go from agony to giddy in 1/2 a second. First item on the QC is date of pickup and delivery and if they are a few days apart you start thinking awesome long load. Next is pickup city and state and delivery city and state and that can get your heart racing when the load is going to a place you enjoy driving. Next is miles and pay and that is the crucial part of the message. If the load pays well there is no decision we reply with yes we want it, if the load is mediocre we have to discuss and that is where the delivery city and state comes into play how bad do you really want to go there? If the load pay is bad the reply is a no and then on comment lines will be how much we can run the load for. Sometimes we get what we want by more often we do not.
When you get out of the truck you put yourself on the phone meaning if a load comes to the truck the message is redirected to your phone and you can listen to the details and then respond appropriately. Before we go to bed we put ourselves on the phone so the message will wake us up and first thing in the morning I put us back on the QC as it is much easier to read a screen then listen to a message.
The QC been can take you from being totally down in the dumps to ecstatic in about 2 minutes if you get the load you want. You can be bickering and picking at each other out of boredom to being the best of friend once again by that darn beep. In your dreams you will hear the beep and get up to look even knowing the darn thing is asleep.
When talking to guys at our company before the QC and having to stop and use the payphone and sit inside and wait for the payphone to ring we will take the QC any day of the week. It is nice when you can go home and take the collar off that the QC tethers you to the truck with.
We have had one day at home since the first of May and we are getting ready to go home for several days in July and the days are moving slowly! We have many adventures planned for this home time and anticipation is running high. We are very lucky our daughter shares our house with us so we do not have to worry about all the mundane duties to much. Bob does have a few honey do items but they will be short and painless to fix. The Lincoln County fair is happening, I plan on going fishing at a neighbors pond, hopefully lots of horseback riding and my sister will be arriving at the house so I hope to have some family time with her.
After our home time we will be attending the Expedite Expo which is held in Wilmington OH at the Roberts center and promises once again to be the highlight of the year. Lots of old friends to see and new friends to make. We are always exhausted after the Expo from all the talking we do!
How would we survive out here without Mentors? We tried being drivers once without mentors and found out how disheartening that can be. The second time around we did our homework and we formed a network of support from fellow drivers and from the company we are leased to. As time has progressed our mentors have changed and to some we have become mentors. We are very careful of who we listen to and who we let influence our lives. It only takes one rotten apple to start eroding your confidence and your attitude. We have found that in this downturn of the economy we have needed influence from others outside of expediting to keep us from getting a prima donna attitude on what we consider expectable load pay. Our mentors keep me going back to my books and looking at my figures and seeing how we can trim our expenses and keep making a profit. Without our mentors giving us attitude adjustments we just might not have such a great outlook on life.
To those that have helped keep us grounded I only have the highest panegyric praise, without them in our corner who knows where we would be. So to Vince, Henry, and Terry you guys are the best at dealing with the two of us out here running around in ½ a truck.
We had a busy day socializing yesterday in Cincinnati and in Kentucky! We had enough time to get to our pickup we were able to stop in Cincinnati to meet with Lawrence at the expediteonline.com office and then go enjoy an awesome Thai lunch, then we were off to Kentucky to a Wal-Mart to meet with other driving friends. Now the last time we saw this couple we were down in Naples FL and the time before that was in Alabama and who knows on the time before that. We were able to go have a nice supper and then since their truck has a nice table and bench seating we were able to sit and enjoy the rest of the evening and get caught up face to face instead of our normal email correspondence.
One of the neatest aspects of our way of life is that the United States becomes a very small area to traverse and meet up with fellow drivers. We have met one truck in Tampa Florida and enjoyed Busch Gardens and all the awesome roller coasters then the next summer we met up with them in Gilroy CA. We all rented a car and spent the day at Fisherman's Wharf and then the next day touring the Winchester Mansion. Now it has been almost two years and we can not catch up to them.
You just never know when you get up in the morning how the day will unfold. Of course most often as a team driver the first think I think of when I get up is where am I and which way is the building with the restroom!
Had an interesting Friday afternoon and a phone call just about made me lose my cool. Accepted a pre assignment on Thursday picking up Friday afternoon going to Louisiana for a Monday delivery. Short load but this would leave us free on the weekend to see a movie, eat out, clean the truck and in general be untethered from our house on wheels and in the expedite world this is a great stress reliever. Get a phone call Friday afternoon after dead heading 53 miles to get load "Oh by the way I think I forgot to mention..." This weekend load we have done a few times before for this customer now has new requirements one of which you must ALWAYS be with the truck till you deliver. I said "Do What?" then mad set in and I knew it was time to get off the phone, take a chill pill as it sure is not a dispatchers fault the rules have changed. After the attitude adjustment took place I made another phone call a little higher up the food chain to give voice to my displeasure and why this load is a burden. I must admit I handled this with more decorum then normal and found out the cause for the change in the load and was told if we wanted off the load it would happen. At this point we had invested 53 miles and pretty much put ourselves out of contention for another load. So we said yet we will run the load but this will be the last for this customer anywhere in the United States. They are one of our largest discount customers and they are flexing their muscle. After getting "my big girl panties on" we made the best of it and thinking it over we saved a lot of money as I cooked in the truck and no movies and popcorn! Will we do this again NO as it is way to frustrating to tie up your weekend for what this customer pays and if there is no changes to pay or requirements we would much rather be available for dispatch.
While talking to another driver who drives a "big" truck we compared weight that is hauled during the year. Last year the total weight we hauled was 376,679 with most loads less then 5000 pounds. Now for some reason this truck him funny and when he quit laughing he informed me that in less then two months his flat bed hauls that much or more. Just goes to show we share many things with our cousins the big trucks but in many ways we are a world apart. He hauls his loads steady and we sit much more then he does but when we run we run hard with no stops for breaks. Often on loads we cannot stop for more then two hours without a phone call asking "Is there a problem?"
Even though we are in somewhat different worlds as our big cousin we have many of the same hardships. We have to follow the same logging rules, we haul less weight but we still have to be legal on each axle, we have to have the same drug tests, the same maintenance records, and we have to drive the same rough roads, fight the same traffic and the list goes on. We have a lot of things much easier as can always find a place to park without to much hassle often just because we usually run all night and park in the day.
So for now we will keep our "little truck" and haul our sailboat fuel and keep making a decent living while enjoying each day we have out here!
The awesome view once you're moving. When riding bareback you actually sit behind the camel hump with a rolled up type blanket that you rest your butt against. Camels do not smell as good as horses do.
A discussion on Facebook made me thing about another "ride" and how much fun this was! I have always rode horses and let me tell you riding a camel is not the same thing. They do not move like a horse and you sure do not sit on them like a horse and you dang sure do not get on them like a horse. Ok and I hate to admit this I think the camel is smarter then a horse. Oh and the camel is much noisier then a horse and they are very quick to let you know they are displeased or they do not want to do something. Sort of reminds me of trying to load a pig in a trailer wow can that get loud. We were able to take a trip so see Bob's brother Dan and his wife in Oman and they were kind enough to let me choose an outing. After I made my choice to take a camel ride and spend a night in the desert at a Bedouin camp I think maybe a few were regretting letting me pick. Bob was so sore the next few days he could barely walk. To me it was just awesome! We slept in a grass type hut, had a meal with a Bedouin family with local entertainment, had a Bedouin supper and breakfast, one concession we had was a modern bathroom which might have been modern to their standards but to us... At least it did not have a squatty potty...
We were lucky enough to ride bareback on the camels so we were lucky to feel the power they have when rising and laying down for ease of getting on and off. While walking they have a very loose undignified gait but it was not unpleasant. I started discussing a week long trek in the desert on camels but I believe I would have been on my own. The experience was awesome and one I will never forget for different reasons then Bob will never forget.
I named my camel Sheba as she was a very nice dignified camel and she did not mind a goofy person from Arizona giving her lots of hugs.
We had the worst luck trying to get a load yesterday! First load offer was to Michigan and after we accepted the load and received the notes we found out we carry to much freight moving equipment and they would not load us. So we lost that load. Next load came in needing 22 foot of floor space for 12 skids and 8500lbs. We accepted that load then had to call in and ask if two skids could be stacked as we would not have room for our pallet jack. Customer said nope cannot be stacked so we have to take you off the load. We call in and say can this load be decked as we have the ability to create a deck in our truck and set skids up there as long as they are not to tall. The load can be decked so we move most of our equipment to get to our plywood so when we get to the customer we are prepared to load the freight. We get to the shipper and they have nine skids as they have all ready stacked and shrink wrapped the freight and the best part the load only ways about 4500lbs! Talk about awesome and so much easier to load. Glad we were prepared with the plywood out but even more pleased we did not need to use it! Now if we could just get unloaded this morning....
We sometimes have to use a hotel room but 99% of the time it is not our choice. We have to do this when we are at a base and they do not have a "Safe Haven" for explosive trucks. The Safe Havens are within a fenced area often with lightening rods and wires running across the top. We are placed in the Safe Haven and usually parked in a numbered slot and then locked in. As other trucks come in throughout the night they are then parked in the Safe Haven with care being given to what kinds of explosives we are all hauling. Some explosives are not compatible with each other so they try to keep us apart! Throughout the night a security guard will drive by checking on all of us. When this is not available we have to park the truck in a locked remote area of the base and get a cab to a hotel. Sometimes this hotel might only be used for 3 hours till we have to be back at the base to unload. Very frustrating to pack up a few things leave our comfortable bed, coffee maker, supplies for breakfast to go into town and get into an uncomfortable bed with bad pillows to get an hours sleep. It just doesn’t happen! Even if we have the whole night to spend in a hotel it just does not compare to our truck which is set up for us to live in. Even on vacation I dread the hotel experience and have found one hotel in the United States that I really enjoy going to and that is the Cambria Suites in Akron OH and that hotel is just awesome from the time you walk in the door till you check out. Staff is very nice, rooms are awesome and the amenities are over the top. Heck I even volunteer to stay there and they have a small area for truck parking. The one down side is Molly has to stay in the truck as no dogs allowed which after you see the interior of the place I can respect that.
We have stayed at the Ritz, the Atlantis in the Bahamas, the Venetian, Excalibur, Treasure Island in Las Vegas, and various others and I still put this hotel above all of them. This is a picture of the work area and the sleeping quarters are behind the partition.
Class in over and we are re certified for Hazmat and Radioactive for three years. FedEx Custom Critical has an awesome instructor who lives and breaths Hazmat and is under the impression everyone should love the details! Melissa is a great teacher as she actually can convey how cool some of this stuff really is and why hauling radioactive loads is one of the safest HazMat loads you can haul. We covered proper shipping names, shipping classes, what is compatible and not and where to find the the information. We were in a class that was all re certifying so that sped the class up some on the basics and we could get more into the intricacies of when you need to press your panic button, how to handle being pulled over by the police or DOT and what to do if an officer or custom agent wants to try and cut the government seal. Now we will need to look into getting another card as it looks as if the TWIC card will replace our CAC card showing we have had a background check. We carry a few cards like this we have had a back ground check to go into Canada with our FAST card, we have had a background check to haul government loads, we have had a background check for our drivers licenses, we have had a background check to carry our CAC card, we have had a background check for our passport, and now another background check to go into ports and haul sensitive loads. It would be awesome if we could combine some of these background checks and only have to write one check but NOPE we get to pay for basically the same background check several times with varying fees!
I like every season as they all have really great qualities and I do not really care for the alternative of not getting to see the seasons.
Baby animals are another great sign of spring. Now what could be cuter then the above picture? I will admit that there are VERY few baby animals that are not just adorable but I have seen VERY few cute human babies. When someone has a cute baby animal I just cannot wait to get my hands on it but as for a human baby I cannot get far enough away from it. Odd I know but a yapping puppy is so much cuter then a screaming baby.
Being our here on the road and watching spring happen all over the country is very uplifting to me. One day you see a shadow of a leaf on a tree and the next time you come by you cannot even see the branches of the tree. While going down highway 152 in California on the way to Gilroy there are several pastures that have the coolest twisty turny branches on those trees. They are very interesting to see in the winter and then in the spring when they get their leaves they are just amazing. Nope do not know what kind of trees they are.
When I am out walking sometimes the breeze will come with the scent of flowers in bloom and all you can do is stop and smell the flowers! Sometimes other breezes come by and you just need to speed up a little to get out of that area.
One of the great things about spring is the rain and thunderstorms. Now I know some areas have to much rain but it is so cool to be in the truck when a great thunderstorm rolls through. The cracking of the lightening and the rolls of thunder are just awesome. The roof of the sleeper is just perfect for letting the noise come through. If I could have it perfect I would have a glass top sleeper just to be able to watch the light show! Maybe someday....
PrePass can be a truckers dream or worst nightmare! What in the world is PrePass you ask?
PrePass is one of our transponders we have on our windshield. We have all kinds of gadgets on the windshield such as E-ZPass that allows us to go through approved toll booths and the toll is taken from our online account we save money and time with this one. We have Norpass that works similar to PrePass but works in different areas of the country. We also have our Lane Departure Warning System I have blogged about earlier. In the corner of the windshield is our antenna for our panic button also.
The following map shows you how many places in the United States that having a PrePass System can help you to keep from being weighed:
As a woman I hate to stand on a scale but as a truck driver I often get this privilege daily with a bunch of DOT officials checking my weight! As you can imagine I don’t much care for this and nor do I care to have to slow down and pull into a scale to get this privilege. One way to stay legal and keep this from happening is to have a PrePass and a NorPass transponder in the truck. The PrePass system works in many ways to keep you from getting in line and lets you comply electronically with state weight, safety and credential requirements. I do not know how many of you non truckers have noticed the scale houses located in every state and they are often placed near the entry or exit to a state. About a mile before the scales that use Pre Pass a reader and a scale are built into the highway that you cross as a car and do not notice. As a truck you take the scale house ahead signs very serious. When you see the reader and the highway scales you want to be running at the legal posted speed or below and you want to cross the scales squarely without turning your tires at all. This will give the reader a correct reading of your weight. When you cross the in-pavement scale, the computer reads your PrePass transponder which immediately identifies the owner, the truck number, who you are leased to, checks your safety rating and credentials and also if you are a legal weight (axle, gross and bridge formula!). Who you are leased to and their safety rating is very important as if you are leased to a company with a poor safety rating you more often will get a red light so the DOT officers can give your truck a visual inspection. When you get the green light on your PrePass or Norpass you are good to go and by pass the scale. Sometimes no matter how careful you are you get a red light and you get to be weighed – this is called a random inspection just to be sure every truck get reviewed once in a while. This at times is very stressful to us as we just do not have the time to have a level one inspection which can happen. You hear the dreaded words or you read the overhead screen driver pull around to the back and bring in your paperwork. When this happens you gather up your BOL and your truck paperwork and take them in. I do not bring in my log book unless it is requested. If you only have one copy of your HazMat paper work you also cannot bring that as legally it must be left in the door pocket or on the front seat. Once inside you show your paperwork, your license, your truck registration and insurance. Once all of this passes inspection the officer can tell you to have a good day or tell you another officer will meet you at the truck. The level one inspection can take over an hour if the officer is gabby or if he continues looking until he or she finds something wrong. Most officers though are easy to work with and professional and if it was just not for the time factor we would not dread this so much. When we are empty it is no big deal at all to have an inspection. So every time we all trucks in right lane scale house ahead we start watching our PrePass to find out how are day is going to proceed!
Brandy and her camper last year with her palm tree for shade this year she has REAL shade trees for her camper!
Best job ever! We were really lucky once again and were able to unload in California and head for Las Vegas to see our daughter who is stationed at Nellis AFB. Just to prove how lucky we really are we were pre dispatched on a load picking up on Friday so we had two free evenings. Our timing was impeccable is a couple ways as she has just taken her camping trailer out of storage and was getting it set up in Fam Camp. She has an awesome 5th wheel she calls home when she is not deployed. We were able to help get her belongings straightened out and Bob was able to help her with her connections and to apply a reflective paint to the roof of the camper. This year she has SHADE TREES located next to her area so the camper should stay cooler than last year. One of the great things about having a straight truck is we are often welcomed at campgrounds and we were able to park our truck in the overflow area in Fam Camp. That is always handy as we constantly have to run back to the truck for something we have forgotten we need.
Brandy had a social event to attend and families were invited but I believe we were the only parents in attendance. The event was being held at the Silverton Casino just across the street from the south Las Vegas TA. This Casino is pretty large with a huge Bass Pro Shop inside. Brandy had warned us that this event was really special but we were still overwhelmed. The owner of the Casino has a soft spot for the 820th RED HORSE Squadron stationed at Nellis AFB. He closed the Mexican Restaurant for a private party. We were welcomed with drinks and an awesome buffet line including fajitas, tamales, homemade guacamole, shrimp cocktail, and many choices of desserts and an open bar. He also had rooms available for the RED HORSE Squadron at a much reduced rate. There were over 200 Airmen and their families in attendance. She introduced us to many of her friends that she had been deployed with and through her letters and conversations we felt like we all ready knew. We were in awe of the man that would sponsor such a huge event. No money changed hands and you were not even permitted to tip the staff as they promptly told you that they were being compensated.
The Silverton also sponsored an Adopt an Airman program before the 820th RED HORSE squadron deployed that linked Airman with families in the Las Vegas area to receive emails, letters and care packages while deployed. This party included the Airman and their families and the local area families with buffet lines, drinks and entertainment.
Through Brandy we are amazed often at how much support our troops get that is never talked about. Often when in uniform and they are eating out someone will pick up their check and never say a word not expecting any thanks. School children write letters and send drawings. One of the first things Brandy did when she arrived back on the USA soil was give a talk at a school that had sent her many letters. This event at the Silverton is also another huge reminder of how far people will go to tell these guys thanks for what you do.
I am by no means an interior decorator and go with colors that make me happy. We basically live in our truck and pretty much treat the house as a vacation get away. I now deocrate the truck with my winter warm colors and my summer cool colors. I really like the dark reds in the winter for the warmth they portray and the reds go good with the gray. I really enjoy Christmas so I often get a little carried away with decorating the truck but once again I enjoy that festive feeling of jingle bells and cold! I also as you can see in the picture really like the candle lights people have in their houses and I found this one at a Home Depotthat has a light sensor. Looks really neat at night. In the summer I like to change to to the lighter colors and I think the blue goes well with the GRAY! Molly of course looks good laying on either color which she spends a lot of time doing. In the summer time the lighter colors just make the truck feel cooler even if it is a figment of my imagination. The dark oak floors and the lighter wood of the cabinets I think really make our sleeper look like a home instead of a cave like many sleepers. After my mom passed away we squired her black Cocker Spaniel Boots who was in her own right OLD and she insisted on sleeping with her head on my pillow. I like dogs but I do not like hair and my pillow was always full of little black Cocker Spaniel hair so I fooled her and started using pillow shams. Now Boots has passed away and I still like the pillow shams. I like to make the bed up to look like a day bed and it also seems to give the sleeper the look of more room. Bob took out the upper bunk and installed these cabinets for more storage and they are awesome! You can not tell they were not put in here originally. The way he installed them gives me more room for books, movies and safe place for my computer and printer. Over all I think we have a very comfortable sleeper and it has served us well.
I just thought this was to cute not to share. Bob and Molly like to sleep in. I usually set my computer on the steering wheel in the morning and have my coffee and my morning dose of the computer. When I leave for my walk I just set my computer in the back and Molly took advantage of the situation. Pretty darn good looking dog for 13!
After you leave the toll booths (hard to imagine you have to PAY for the pleasure of this traffic) all of the lanes merge down into three lanes. This is pretty intimidating to us rural type people as the rule of thumb seems to be if I do not see you, you are not there. As you can guess being polite in not a virtue in this mess and so you just have to keep inching your way forward till the other guys gives up and lets you by! Believe it or not there are very few accidents that anyone stops for on this bridge. Often mirrors rub and often mirrors or broke on the bridge but it would take hours to get the police here so everyone just goes on to their destination while waving at the offending vehicle with usually one finger accompanied by honking and screams of who his mama is out the window.
This where you really start jockeying for you space on the road and once you the car is behind your vision it is not there and you continue on with your drive.
Once you have reached this point you are free to go until you get across the bridge and there is one overpass after another and you feel as if you are in a long tunnel! Very dark and very crowded and lots of mirrors get bumped in that area.
Our friend Randy calls me a wimp for letting this intimidate me but he is from Philly and that is enough said! This is just a day in the park for him and he can eat a sandwich, be on the phone and drive a truck through all this and be as happy as a bug in a rug! What a guy! It is funny though narrow dark two lane roads out in the country in the middle of no where bother him. I think I will take the lonely country roads any day of the week.
As Expediters we seem to either run our butts off or sit and sit and then sit a little more. When we are parked Bob is often out shining the truck. He can spend as little time as an hour or he has spent up to two full days shining the truck. He uses his ladder and he also has a little rolly stool. I enjoy the heck out of the rolly stool as I can be watching in the mirrors and he will go to scoot and the wheels catch and throw him to the ground! It really is a funny site and I admit I usually laugh out loud. When Bob is in cleaning mode when I need to step out of the truck I have to watch as he often takes the steps off the truck
so he can shine the fuel tanks. He has a lot of cleaning products, shining products, buffers and
many other products he uses on the truck. He also keeps our tires lettered in Purple and Blue colors. He is not thrilled if I slide one of the tires along the curb. After lettering the tires both of us are very aware of how close we get to a curb. People ask us how much it costs to buy tires custom made to match our truck! One of the good things about Bob constantly shining our truck he will quickly pick up on any odd wear on the underside of the truck. He is constantly going over our truck with a fine tooth comb to make sure all is well. He gets a lot of great comments on how good our "new" truck looks. Most are amazed when he tells them we have over 600,000 miles on it. This has been a awesome truck and a huge confidence builder for me as Bob all ready did well in heavy traffic.
While Bob is cleaning the outside I work on the inside. We have a oak floor that looks just awesome when polished and has really worn well since Bob and Terry installed it. I also have curtains in the windows so the truck is really our home away from home. I spend way to much time on my addiction of this darn computer but when I can tear my self away I work on several projects. One of the ladies at the office gave me this blanket to make for her as she started it and got lost on the project. I was rather amazed at how much fun I had making this blanket which is crocheted. I usually like to cross stitch and have lots of animals and forest scenes I have done for the house. For some reason I just cannot get away from liking to cross stitch pictures of animals. Nicki and I have opposite tastes so she decorates downstairs at the house and I get the upstairs and the basement! For some reason my picture of a camel with a scarf on her head is something Nicki said I have to keep in the basement! I think she is cute.
This where you really start jockeying for you space on the road and once you the car is behind your vision it is not there and you continue on with your drive.
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