Taking my ten hour break in Lebanon. MO

I certainly had an interesting ride last night.  I had been on the road for an hour or so and was cruising along listening to the radio and then BANG!  A very loud noise rocked the truck.  I looked in my mirrors and saw allot of dust and debre flying along side the truck.  My first thought was.....did I just run over something?  I never felt any bumps or impacts so I ruled that out....my next thought was....I bet  just blew a tire......I turned on my flashers and pulled over to the side of the road.  I had to put on my coat, hat and gloves since it was 22 degrees outside.....I also put on my safety vest so other vehicles could see me while i was checking on the truck....   was traveling south on I-35 going from Des Moines to Kansas City.....this is a very busy highway.... I wanted to make sure that I was going to be seen at 11:00 PM at night!  I took a flash light and my tire thumper  ( a heavy metal stick to hit the tires with to see that they are still inflated.  you listen to the sound of the impact of the thumper on the tire).  I thought that maybe I had blown a trailer tire.  I was wrong.  It turned out to be a passenger side drive tire....  So my next step was to call my driver manager in Moberly.....she passed me along to the mechanics in the shop.....they took down some information and said that they would get back to me......I got to get back into the truck which was nice and warm while I waited.  The mechanics called me back to let me know that a roadside repair service was on its way to my location and that they would be there within an hour.........It is amazing that the repair guy showed up exactly one hour later.....the repair guy told me that there was a rest area two miles down the road and that it would be better if I drove there to have the repair completed.  That is exactly what we did.  He followed me to the rest area, took off the blown tire and put on my spare tire.  (here is another difference between big trucks and cars......big trucks care spare tires only.  they aren't on a rim and are not inflated. the repair person has to take the blown tire off of the truck,  then take the bad tire off of the rim.  They then put the spare on the rim and inflate it.  very different than carrying a spare tire already on a rim and inflated like in an automobile).  the repair took around an hour to complete.  So i was only down for a little over two hours....not too bad, all things considered.

I finished my run down to Springfield, MO.  I get there a half an hour before I was scheduled to deliver.  I am told that Kraft usually has the next load ready to go when the drivers get there.....well today that didn't happen.  I got there and dropped off my load and was told that the load I was to bring back up to Moberly wasn't ready.  It seems that they didn't have an empty trailer to load into.  They told me to wait while they got the load ready.  I called my driver manager and they got involved in the situation.   After waiting around for three hours....my driver manager told me to just "bobtail" back to Moberly.  I got as far as Lebanon, MO before I ran out of hours.  So here I sit waiting for my clock to reset.  I had a good sleep earlier and just got up and ate some lunch.  I will be ready to move again around 7:45 PM.  It will take me around three hours to drove back to Moberly.  I won't get there until almost 11:00 this eve3ning.  I am hoping I get a load.  I might not because I won't have my full 14 hours available.  Time will tell.  That's all for now.... I will write more later.....Tom

Sunrise in Iowa

Here comes the sun!

Taking my break in Des Moines

Good afternoon,
I am taking my break in a Pilot truck stop in Des Moines, IA.  I drove all night until 8:30 AM and parked in this truck stop.  Not too bad.  Pretty quiet for the most part.  I slept for a couple of hours, woke up....had some lunch and decided to post on the blog.

One of the nice things about driving at night verses driving during the day, is that the traffic is so much lighter.  The make up of the traffic is very different also.  Most of the people on the highways that drive through the night are Big Trucks.  It is usually more comforting to be around big trucks that it is being around automobiles.  The cars are so much more mobile and can move so quickly.  I never know what a car is going to do.  They make me nervous.  Big trucks on the other had are pretty predictable.  Since I work for Swift and our trucks are governed to not go faster than 62 miles per hour, most of the other trucks on the road are faster than me.  I just wave at them when they go past.  Most times the other drivers wave back, but not all the time.  Different trucking companies have their trucks governed at different speeds.  There are a few other companies that have their trucks governed at 62 mph.  There is one that i can think of that is governed at 60 mph!  Some aren't governed at all.  You don't see many like that anymore.  The trucking industry used to be wide open.  It wasn't regulated all that much in the past.  Those days are gone.  This is probably the most regulated industry I have been a part of.  OK, I almost got up on my soapbox there for a minute....enough of that!  The other thing I like about working nights is that it is much easier to get unloaded at the stores in the middle of the night.  I can get in and out of the stores faster at night.  The loads also don't weigh as much at night.  The loads that are delivered in the evenings are the frozen foods, dairy goods and Deli food.  The loads delivered in the very early morning hours are the meat and produce loads.  Meat and produce weighs less than frozen foods.

One of the best things about driving through the night are the sunrises I get to see.  I have included a picture of one from this morning.  I was driving south on highway 35 heading towards Des Moines.  I pulled over and tried to catch the colors, but the camera on the cell phone just didn't capture what I was seeing. 
The nice thing is that I get to witness a new one everyday when I am driving through the night.

OK, from here I will be headed to Springfield, MO to drop off the load in the caves.  There has been a change to my itinerary, in that i was supposed to pick up an empty trailer and now I will be be picking up a loaded trailer going to Moberly.  I will start driving again at around 8:00 PM and hopefully will finish in Moberly, sometime before 10:00 tomorrow morning.

I will write more later.......Tom

I had a wonderful break!

It is Monday the 28th of November and I am back up in the WalMart DC in Moberly, MO. I was able to get home for not only Thanksgiving day but for the entire weekend for the most part. It was a good thing because I ended up being sick for most of the weekend. It was good to see everyone and talk with the majority of my family on Thanksgiving.

I am going to make a renewed effort to keep this blog updated.
I did have a very big technical issue recently. I lost my cell phone in one of the stores I delivered to. Luckily it was returned to me and I should be posting on a more regular basis in the future.

I posted some pictures. The first picture is of a good friend, Duane Swacker. Duane lives in Warrenton, MO and i was able to meet up with him for dinner the other evening in Marthasville, MO. Great food in a little tavern along side of highway 47. I hope to do it again soon. The next set of pictures were taken on Thanksgiving day. I cooked a 17lb turkey on our Webber grill. This is the same grill that Sandy and JC gave to us when we graduated from college. It doesn't get used all that much anymore, but can still cook a bird to perfection. The pictures of the bird are when I first put it on the grill. Then after one hour of being on the grill. Another picture was taken after two hours on the grill and the final picture was taken after two and one half hours on the grill. The bird tasted as good as it looked.

I just got my pre-plan for my next load. I will be picking up the load around 10:00 this evening. My first delivery will be in Knoxville, IA at 12:45 AM tomorrow morning. The next stop will be in Des Moines at 2:45 AM, followed by another stop in West Des Moines at 4:45 AM. The final delivery will be in Ankeny, IA at 6:00 AM. Now here comes the interesting part.... I am scheduled to then pick up a "back load" in Mason City, IA at 5:00 AM! The timing doesn't work! But it shouldn't take me two hours in between the stops in and around Des Moines, so I should be OK to make to Mason City by 5:00 AM. I then take my 10 hour required by law break before I can drive that load down to the underground storage facility in Springfield, MO. As soon as I deliver that load, i will pick up an empty trailer there and drive it back to Moberly, MO. It is a little over 1000 miles. That is what I would call a "good Load".

I will endeavor to post on a more regular basis..... Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving...I know I did.....Tom

Turkey

Turkey

TURKEY ON THE WEBBER

Looks good enough to eat!

Here is Duane also known as "Oye "

Duane along side of my truck

Wednesday morning

I have 15 minutes until my ten hour break is over and I get to do it all again!  Monday night I ended up spending the night in Carthage, MO.  I picked up a backload in the underground storage facility otherwise referred to as "the caves".  I have been to other facilities like this before, but never had to drive down into them in order to pick up the load.  I attached some pictures. It is pretty strange to drive down into them. I ran out of hours while I was being loaded so I had to spend the night there. Tuesday I got up and drove back to Moberly. 

As soon as I got there I was given another load going back don highway 63 south to Rolla and Saint Roberts, MO.  On my way down to Rolla, I ran into a traffic jam that had me stopped on the highway for 45 minutes. This usually means some type of bad traffic accident.  This one turned out to be a car full of teen-ager kids drinking and driving.  They lost control of their vehicle. Easy to do on this highway. Very curvey and hilly two lane highway. They ended up crossing the center line of the highway and ran into a big truck traveling in the opposite direction.  The car lost!  The big truck ended up off the highway.  Another trucker stopped to give assistance and said the car smelled like a brewry on the inside.  I never heard if anyone lost their life or not.  I would be surprised if some one didn't.    While I was waiting in line, I took a picture or the fall color on the trees. Then I took a couple of pictures of the accident.  I didn't get a shot of the car.....there wasn't much left of it.   So remember....be careful out there.....the best thing to do in inclement weather is to slow down!  Have a safe day.....Tom

Tuesday afternoon

From the beautiful to very ugly

Carthage Underground

Underground storage in caves!

MONDAY MORNING

I had a great weekend.  I was able to spend Friday night at home. Drove my truck back to Moberly On Saturday. Sunday morning Diane drove up to Moberly and picked me up. We drove over to KC to watch Logan's team play in the GLVC championship game. Unfortunately they lost in the second overtime 2-1. It was great game all the way up until they lost. Diane took me over to our terminal in Edwardsville, KS where I picked up the Kia. Diane followed me to Columbia where we ate dinner at a Crackle Barrel. Diane drove home and I drove back to Moberly.

I can't remember if I mentioned that I was offered a full time position driving for the Walmart dedicated fleet or not.  I accepted the job, so I will be able to get home on a regular basis. Today I got my preplan for the day.  I will be delivering to stores in Washington, Rolla and Osage Beach, MO. Then I get to.drive down to Carthage, MO to be reloaded live at 10:00pm this evening. I will spend the night in Carthage and drive back to Moberly tomorrow to deliver the backhaul load.

Have a great week out there and be careful on the roads.....lots of deer running around this time of year.....keep an eye out for them.  The males are chasing the females.....it is the rut season.......

Its is beautiful cool and blustery day

When I left you last, I was on my way to the Saint Louis area to make four deliveries.with the goal of completing them all by 10:00pm.  I didn't even come close!  I.got to my first stop in good time......then it took the store personnel one and one half hours to unload the truck!  This process normally takes anywhere from fifteen minutes to forty five minutes at the most.  Not last night.  When i got to the store there was a truck already in the only available loading dock and two other trucks waiting in line.  I had to sit and wait my turn.  Usually i get preferential treatment since i am hauling perishable goods. Not at this store. They operate on a.first come first serve basis. The guys unloading me did about half of what needed to be done and then disappeared.  They were gone for more than twenty minutes, when I finally got tired of waiting.  I.asked someone else to.call a manager for me.  It turns out the the original guys were told.to go.to.lunch, so.that is what they did!
Even though the rest of the evening went pretty smoothly, I didn't make my delivery times.  I communicated the situation to my dispatcher and they understood.  That is a good thing.  Drivers can be fired for failing to deliver on time.  If it is the drivers fault for being late.....they can be in trouble.with.the.company if they make a.habit if doing so. 
I ended up delivering to my last stop.at 11:0pm and headed back to Moberly.  I got in around 2:00 this morning.  Long day....
Today I woke up to bright cool windy day.  It should make driving interesting. The trailer acts like a big sail and catches any wind in the area. It makes it fun and challenging to deal with the wind gusts. I have my marching orders for the day.  My load is going down to south central MO. My first stop is in Salem, MO, which is only about twenty minutes from where I go trout fishing. Then I get to go further south to Houston, MO and then back to Moberly.  So only two stops this evening.  That's all for now.....Tom