Blue Men

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!

Walking Walking Walking

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.

Black Barts

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!

In the Shop

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

Assembly Line for the DD Motors

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.

Visitor

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 ExpeditersOnline http://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.