Hitch Up Your Wagon and Ride!

Ah...Home! It feels good! However, it's short lived. I have to take off tonight to take my son back to upstate NY. It's been a rough week but I am determined that the next one will be better. I ended up spending last night in the parking lot of a mall (after closing of course) in a suburb of Detroit. Can you say...OH SHIT THAT WAS NERVE-WRACKING! But survived the night without anyone messing with me or my truck. And hit up the receiver first thing this morning. Went back to Toledo...picked up (and it was a tarped load...poor hand says OUCH!) and took to Massillon, OH. Then to the yard and swapped trailers. I've got a Conestoga trailer now...just cause I figured I'd give it a try. It should be interesting. Driving it home I noticed it's a little wider than the other trailers I've hauled. 

Tonight's post is gonna be short. I need to take a nap before we go to take off for NY! Laterz!

The Wheels on the Truck Went Not So Round, Not So Round...Not So Round

That's right folks...I was driving north on I-75 tooling along nice and steady and then the ride got rough. Thought it was just a rough patch in the road...God knows there are plenty of them. Then I saw something fly to the side...it was black...though it was a black bird. Then I saw more black things flying and realized it was chunks of rubber coming off one of my tires. Damn! Pulled over to the side of the road to check on it. It was the tire that was just replaced in March! State boy pulled in behind me and I explained to him the situation and told him I was going to drive slowly up the shoulder to the next exit. He said okay...good luck. 

So now I'm sitting on the side of exit 140 twiddling my thumbs. Just now got a call that said that roadside service should be here within the hour. Oh Goodie! And guess what? My legal driving hours just ended about 10 minutes ago. So this will put me way behind on getting to my receiver in the morning. I had already lost some time stopping to adjust one of the brakes on my steer tires. I wouldn't say this is one of my best days in the truck...although I can't say it's one of my worst either (Highlands, NC was probably THE worst so far). 

Are we having fun yet? Not so much! Think I might take me a nap while I'm waiting. Might as well!

Back on the Skateboard

After delivering my load this afternoon, the company had me go in. Of course my first thought when they said to come in was "Oh shit...what did I do now?" LOL. They just had me switch trailers. I'm back on the flatbed again! He asked me if I could handle strapping. I told him well like I told you last Friday...I can strap...I just can't lift the tarp right now. So it's all good! I gotta say though...I definitely found myself backing the van truck better after driving a split axle than I did before I drove it.

So they told me I could home for the night and head out in the morning to pick up in Rittman, OH.

That's all the excitement for today. :-)

Let me throw out a little endorsement. The Real Women Truckers Network has a weekly phone conference which is really helpful especially for those women who are new to the trucking industry. You can find the information for this conference at Women Truckers Network.

G'nite y'all!

Someone Opened the Bear Cage at the Zoo

So back on the road since yesterday. Things worked out just right that I got to sleep at home last night. Yay! And I had a very special passenger yesterday...my baby boy Zack. It just amazes me how much he has grown in height in just 2 years. He decided he would prefer to sleep in this morning so he opted out of going with me today. That's okay though. He's getting to spend time with everyone who loves him and that's what's most important.

Any way...the latest on the hand is that it still aches quite a bit. Had to grab some ibuprofen tonight when I got stopped. I am at this tiny "hole in the wall" truck stop called 99 Truck Stop. They have a restaurant named "Charlie Brown's Restaurant". LOL! Not a whole lot to look at here. Their "store" is smaller than my bedroom at home. But it's a place to stop for the night and it's the closest one to my morning pick-up in Piqua, OH. I initially stopped at the Wal-mart in Piqua, but alas...they had signs posted all over the place "no semi parking". Well fine...I was gonna go in and spend a little money but obviously I as a truck driver am not a wanted customer there. I will not spend my money at any Wal-mart that turns away truck drivers. Too many rely on places like that to park when there is no other place to go. Which ironically...the place I dropped off at in Marysville was a Wal-mart. Would have stayed there but I wanted to go ahead and get close to my shipper for the morning.

This morning I left home and headed for Cleveland for the receiver of my load (same load I'm picking up and delivering tomorrow). Lo and behold...I went from beautiful skies at home to SNOW in Cleveland. Yuck! But it did stop before I got to the receiver. So today I went from Mansfield, to Cleveland, to Shreve, to Marysville and then Piqua. Taking the long tour of Ohio. :-)




Now...the reason for the title of this post...yesterday and today the highways have been crawling with cops. At one point yesterday I saw 5 in a space of 2 miles. Someone seriously let the bears loose on society this week! So watch your rear ends this week friends...a bear might take a bite out of it.

I'll leave you with this amazing visual of my drive from Marysville to Piqua on Hwy 36. It was just gorgeous out today (aside from the snow in Columbus and the really cold wind)!  Night y'all!

 

Living in a Box

Have you ever noticed I like to use song titles for my post's subject? LOL! If you're not familiar with the song here ya go.




Anyway...the subject line comes from my newest tidbit for this evening. I got my trailer and a load scheduled for Monday morning. The box title? I picked up a dry van instead of a flat bed. It's a temporary thing while my hand heals a little more as right now tarping is going to be very difficult for me. There's no way I could lift the tarp onto the top of the load right now. So I get a box! Been a while since I hauled a box trailer, but it's all good.

Chilling

Howdy friends! Small update. Sitting in the company's yard! They are working on finding me a load for Monday so I'll be hooking up to a trailer soon.

My baby boy will be coming down from N.Y. this weekend for his spring break. Will probably take him on the road with me for a couple of days and leave him to visit with his sister a couple. Can't wait to see him again!

Preparing

I'm working preparing the truck to hit the road again! Yay! Took some stuff back over to it today that I had taken home for the time I was stuck at home. My mom gave me a little microwave so I took it over to the truck to see if it would fit in one of the cubbies. And it did! Top shelf of course, but I'm gonna grab some bungee cords to hold it in. That will definitely help reduce some of my food expenses on the road.

The hand is much better than it was a couple of weeks ago but I still have to be careful how much pressure I put on it. It's aching today from lifting the microwave up into the truck (thank goodness for 800mg ibuprofen). For the time being, I'll definitely need to utilize the brace I'm getting for strapping loads. I probably won't be able to take tarp loads immediately since there is no way I can lift the tarps one handed and I can't yet put that much pressure on that hand. Strapping won't be a big issue. I can do it without putting a lot of pressure on that hand. I tend to use my whole body on top of the bar anyway to get it super tight.

So took the time today to also change the windshield wiper blades, clean windows, check the oil and power steering. Going to need to get some of the last two. Need to pull out the electric cooler and clean it out. Never knew that Mayonnaise could make such a mess after it's been frozen. It leaked out of the bottle all over the bottom of the cooler. Yuck!

I'm definitely ready to get back on the road. Being lazy for a little while is nice, but not for long-term. I need to get moving again. Need to get to earning that money again too!