Saturday, May 14, 2011, and broke down at the Pilot, Exit 257, Pacific, MO!

Good morning from Exit 19, off of I-55, in Hayti, MO, the poorest county in the state of Missouri per the local ole boys here at McDonalds.  We had a long day and I took some AWESOME pictures at 65 miles an hour in the driver’s seat.

Our trip to Canada was cancelled as we are to drop our load in Indianapolis at the terminal.  While there, I will see about getting a new mattress as my current setup is leaving me with two restless nights.  And since we could not run this morning (rained cat and dogs all night), enjoy a long breakfast, meet me at the truck in one hour for our pre-trip inspection (I am in log violation for not sending that dang macro last night, but later than never is better than never! ) and we will hit the road.

Ohhh!  Grab your rain gear!  Oh Lorene!  Is it than or then?  LOL

FYI – the blog is down for maintenance and will be up soon so I can update you!

Saturday, May 14, 2011, and broke down at the Pilot, Exit 257, Pacific, MO!

Well, after my pick up in Plainfield, IL yesterday and spending the night just outside of Effingham, I finally  found out why I kept feeling light drops of water while driving at night during a storm.  Driving towards St. Louis, I hit a rain storm and felt that same light drop of water.  Looking around my front window, a small fountain of water was erupting from the bottom of the window, right dab in the middle and looking like a perking coffee pot without the glass spout!  The water was running into the defrost vents and spraying over the dash. 

I pulled over and contacted Breakdown and my fleet manager.  I then continued on my way while waiting for a response.

Of course, they finally contacted me as I was crawling over the Mississippi Bridge into St. Lois.  I contacted the vendor provided and he told me that this leak could cause a potential fire because of wiring behind the dash and to park the rig. Bad news, no shops open until Monday and breakdown pay is worse than my student pay.   Good news, I restocked supplies this morning, have a new blanket, have access to the internet, will be able to catch up on my favorite shows and all tucked away in a beautiful mountain canyon.  You know me, I can make do in any situation!

So now I am enjoying lunch waiting on what is expected of me next and if I might have to give this load to someone else. 

It is nearly three hours later, one restroom break and one lil nap.  Oh, I forgot to tell you about seeing my first LOT LIZARD!  Now if you are under the age of 18, cover your eye and slowly back away from your computer!

It was Thursday afternoon and I was pulling into a crowded rest stop which only offered parallel parking and there was a beat up ole car taking up a truck spot on the left hand side.  As I slowly passed, I looked into my mirror to give the offender an evil glare when my eyes saw this….here is the visual I gave my family.  Imagine two 20 pounds balls of raw pizza dough just plopped over a steering wheel, with NO topping!  OMG, sssppphhhhhlllssst, gagggggg, ewwwww, oh heck no!  Someone toss me the soap to wash out my eyes!  The lot lizard or in this case, rest stop lizard, was too lazy to knock on doors of trucks, so she just let it ALL hang out and was kneading her own dough!  Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Flooding everywhere!

Someone wasn't paying attention!

The built in shower that has me stuck broke down for the moment!

My view of the Arch while crawling over the bridge.

A slight turn to the right and we will be going swimming!

My first 24 hours on the open road......ALONE!

We are officially truckers my dear friends!  After I finally got the truck all fixed, I had a shag (short pick up and drop off) received my bonus pay and now off Exit 386 on I35 E just east of Dallas.  This is a long trip as we are going to Toronto, Canada.  Due to the fact that I don’t have a clue how to get there, I spent part of my bonus on a Trucker GPS to save us time and hopefully, headaches.

It has been a long day, traveled through another crazy thunderstorm outside of Austin and with still 2.5 hours left on my 14, I decided to call it a night.  Now off to bed with you as we will be up at 7 AM for a run before we stop for fuel and a quick shower in Dallas.  Good night!

Good morning virtual truckers!  We have 45 minutes left in our 10 hour rest and guess what; there is a McDs right where I parked last night so I am enjoying my senior coffee and sausage burrito.  I was up at 7 AM for my first morning run in weeks and then a nice cool shower (which I had to pay for as I don’t have fuel credits established yet).  But that will happen quickly with this trip.  I do have to trip plan a little better as my fuel stop is only 45 minutes away but hey, we are new at this!

Enjoy your break as we have a long day ahead of us……11 hours of driving.  See you on the road!

Good evening from Laredo….again!

Dear virtual truckers, please give me the patience to NOT kill something!  My first day as real TRUCK DRIVER never happened.  Thank you Vern and Stan for the constant drilling of the pre-trip inspection as my truck failed.  I was doing my leak down test (for the air brakes) and the warning light did come on at 60 PSI but the tractor protection valve (parking brake) did not pop out at 40 PSI but slowly moved out at 0 PSI.  Then, while waiting for that to get fixed, I tried to enter my information on the truck computer and it is not working.  Needless to say, the rust bucket is in the shop for the night.

Maybe we will become truckers tomorrow……good night!

I am not a happy camper :(

I found my truck, the second to the oldest one available at this terminal and it is not pretty!  Safety got me all excited telling me about this 2006 Freightliner Classic stating it had been refurbished and new paint……NOT!

I don’t mind getting an older rig but what bothers me is I can’t bring my black lab with me while on this truck.  It is one of the MAIN reasons I signed up with this company.  More and more states are forbidding trucks to idle as well as clients.  This old steel beast does not have an APU (generator) or a Climacab (battery) for running heat and air conditioning.  Not only do clients insist on no idle, but no pets on the property.  So, if I am stuck at a dock waiting for a load or unload, my lab has to wait inside.  If it is 90 degrees outside, you can just imagine the temperature in that tractor! 

I am to arrive at the terminal first thing in the morning for a pre trip inspection and if I find ANYTHING, and I do mean anything wrong, I will refuse the truck.  See pictures below!

This is original paint.....and flat as a pancake!

Nice broken grill........we are to pull, not push!

Both gladhands are covered in rust......

Reminds me of the truck at driving school that was not allowed on the road!

It has seen better days!

I got lucky! Now where is MY truck?

Good afternoon from the Laredo Terminal.  I tested out, my paperwork is in process and I will be assigned a truck within an hour!  Poor Lori, had issues as soon as she woke up this morning.  Her SDM would not release her from her trainer's truck so she could not test out here.  Last I spoke to her; she was on her way with her trainer to the Dallas compound.  We all know how I feel about the compound!  I got my fingers crossed for you Lori.

I did finally have that telephone conference with Omaha.  It appears that Cancer decided to raise a little heck with me after signing off my paperwork with top grades.  He turned in paperwork stating all types of misbehavior/professional conduct issues that I will not go into here.  Thirty minutes later, that paperwork was refused and the charges dropped.  Man…..that man really needs to retire as there will be a student who will put him down someday!

I did a walk around the mechanic’s shop to check out what few trucks that is available and it is not pretty.  There is a 2006 Peterbilt that is a little beat up but doable compared to the older clunkers next to it.  And……it is fairly clean and free of cigarette smoke!  I am hoping there are other options but if not, I better grab that Peter and run!

I am not sure if I am on the road today or tomorrow.  I have the room for one more night and need most of the supplies that I mentioned earlier.  I will keep you updated and share a picture soon of my new home on wheels arrives!