I'll Get You My Pretty...and You're Little Dog Too!

Funnel Cloud of a Brief Tornado in Shelby, OH

Amazing weather yesterday and this morning. Luckily I did manage to miss most of it. Saw some heavy rain for a short bit as I headed for Chicago from Louisville. I stopped to shut my eyes for about a half and hour and when I got up it was gone. But I got to see a hellacious light show before hand. It was so beautiful...flashes of lightening every 2 seconds. Most of them just in the clouds but a few were earthbound too. Now they had a little more excitement back home. A small town, Shelby, close to my home of Mansfield experienced a brief funnel cloud but it did not fully form thank goodness. Shelby is probably about 20 miles from my house. It was scary for me since I wasn't home but my daughter and all the furbabies were. I'm so glad that no damage was seen there. I worry that something will happen at home while I'm out on the road. But I am thankful that I didn't run into any of that bad weather. I heard it got pretty nasty north of where I was.

Tonight I'm parked at a teeny, tiny Pilot truck stop with only about 15 parking spots...maybe not even that many. But of course you know there's more than that parked here. They are parked around the edges, next to the scales, and in the striped no parking areas. Got one guy parked right in front of another truck that's in a parking spot (he'll be getting woke up to move his out of the way I'm sure). From what I'm seeing out my window I think there's another parked cross-ways across several trucks that are in parking spots. But hell...I bet they don't have much choice. When you're out of hours you're out of hours. And there's not a lot of choices around this area for parking. I was lucky (or unlucky considering I was out of hours) that I got in early and had no problem getting into a spot. There were about 4 open when I got here. Now if someone parks in front of me...no problem. I'm stuck here until tomorrow afternoon. If I leave in the morning I'll be bumping my 70 hour clock before I can even get to the receiver. But the delivery time isn't even till 8:30 pm anyway and I'm 4 hours away so if I wait until afternoon to leave I won't have to worry about the 70 hr clock. Hopefully it won't take them long to unload me so I can get on to the 2nd receiver (another 5 hour drive) so I can get unloaded and parked for the rest of the night before my hours run out.

So let me mention here that the tool I use to make sure my hours are all straight is Driver's Daily Log. It's not pretty to look at but it does the job and it does it very well. It's already got the new HOS rules in it all I have to do is switch over to them come July 1st. It really helps me keep  my paper logs in proper order and I never have any mistakes on them.

I'll be working this weekend...3rd week straight...but by choice. I could go home every weekend if I want to. But I need the extra miles (money) right now. I will go home next weekend though. I'm gonna need a break by then. Going to tell them I need three days...that's one day for each week I've been on the road...I think that's fair. Need some downtime OUTSIDE my truck. :-)

While I don't have to get up early I am getting tired. I got up and on the road at 2 am so yea...I think it gives me good cause to get my ass in the bunk and snooze! Night y'all!

The Incredible, Edible Egg

Today's message brought to you by the letter E. I picked up a full load of eggs from Croton, OH this morning. Talk about tight parking! Holy cow! They don't give you much room to get just three trucks into the bays. Plus they have empties sitting around to avoid. While I was sitting there waiting for them to finish loading the eggs I played around with phone camera and found the panorama option! Of course by the time I played around with it the parking area had been cleared out of all the trailers parked on the opposite side. LOL

As you can see I was in BFO (bum fuck ohio). Miles and miles of...well...not much of anything. I then carried all that precious cargo to London, KY to the Wal-mart Distribution Center located there. 


Then I got sent over to Bowling Green, KY for a drop & hook...that wasn't actually a drop & hook. Apparently at one time they had a trailer there for doing those, but some bobtail went in one day, took it and another was never put back in. So that quick drop & hook turned into a 3 1/2 hour loading time. Oops...out of hours! Argh! And no place there to park for the night of course. 

Drove about 22 miles to get to a truck stop in Somerset, KY. It's one of the no-names (not one of the big names) but has pretty good size parking lot so even at 9pm (central) there were still actually spots open! Not a lot but at least 7 that I could count and that's something you usually don't see at one of the big name truck stops. Unfortunately I'm often wary about trying to go to one of the no-names listed in the gps because the last three turned out to be shut down. 

A lot of people have no idea how hard it can be for a semi to find a safe place to park. I know I harp on that...but it's a huge issue. The recent debate regarding the ban on trucks in Coon Rapids, MN continues on and yes...they are getting lambasted by the truckers for this ruling. One thing I find unsettling in the debate is the statement that "truckers are lowlifes". Of course there are some truckers who are...but not all of them. There are "lowlifes" in EVERY profession. Not all "lowlifes" dress in ragged clothes and drink beer as a hobby. Some are clean and polished and blend into society. Unfortunately it's the actions of the few that make the rest get blamed and stereotyped.

Anyway...time for a snooze. Stay safe and remember...trucker's deserve to be thought of as more than lowlifes. They are hard working friends, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters and brother's. 

Day Oh, Day Oh, Daylight Come and We Wanna Go Home

Can you guess what I was delivering today? Lots and lots of bananas to Meijer distribution centers. Open those doors and my GOD it smelled so good! Now something that just tickled my funny bone was in the last one they sent me back to this guy half way back through the warehouse to let him know I was docked. What does this guy do? His sole purpose is to inspect the quality of the bananas being received. Holy cow! Obviously he is a banana connoisseur. 

Now at this same facility you have to park out in their "bullpen" to wait your turn to go in and be unloaded. They actually had a bathroom available for the drivers (which some places do not). It's a unisex bathroom which really doesn't bother me. What does bother me is that it was absolutely NASTY! I'd rather use a port-a-potty. There was rust everywhere, a nasty little bar of soap to wash your hands, no paper towels to dry them (the towel holder was broken) and the toilet looked like it got a cursory scrub in the bowl every once in a while. I felt nasty just going in there. Isn't it wonderful the kind of facilities that many shippers/receivers provide their truck drivers?

 

Anyway...gonna lay back down for a just a bit. Been relaxing all afternoon due a shortage of hours. I can't leave until 10pm tonight to head for Detroit to do a drop & hook which I then take down to Fairborn, OH...then Springfield, OH...then Piketon, OH. We'll see how the hours play out. I know I can get the first and second load in by playing with the sleeper berth split but not sure about the third drop. We shall just have to wait and see.

So later tater! Hope you are sleeping well while I'm driving all night. :-( 

Hey There Mr. Blue / Trucker Ban

Was good to see blue skies again today after driving in rain for the past few days. And wouldn't you know it...Mr Blue Sky came on the radio today! How fitting. 

Not going to be much of a post tonight. I have an early morning and much to do tomorrow. 

I do want to throw this out there though...Coon Rapids in Minnesota has deemed semi's as an eyesore. And I almost pity them because word spreads fast amongst the trucking community. They will be finding less truckers willing to deliver their goods because of their ban. A similar case has already occurred in a small town in Georgia. Truckers let the town know that if they ban them from their town...that the military base next to it will no longer get their deliveries since they didn't even want a truck to DRIVE through their town. That town had a change of heart. Coon Rapids better do the same...or they will find themselves in a similar situation. One of their citizens was kind enough to let a fellow trucker know how their citizens feel about about semi's in their town by leaving a nasty note taped to the trucks windshield. What is your opinion on the whole situation?

(click the pic to get a closer look)

Welcome to Joyzee

Last night and today I made the trip across PA to get to New Jersey. Goddamn there's a lot of hills in Pennsylvania! And tolls sure aren't cheap. Thank goodness I can get a Comcheck to get money for the tolls in advance or I'd be following all those little ass two lanes roads over or driving way out of the way to stay on a non-toll interstate. Heading in this morning wasn't too terribly bad...but heading out this afternoon SUCKED! Pouring rain and idiots all over the place. I've said for a long time that the rain and snow brings them all out on the roads...they can't help themselves. Major slow down at one point. Why? Because too many cars wanted to get off at one exit. And you have the ones that are in the middle lane who decide at the last minute they want to get off at that exit too...so they tie up the traffic behind them so they can get over to that exit! Oy vey!

So anyway...this morning I dropped a load of ice cream. And of course I had to be carrying my favorite flavor...double chocolate brownie. Mmmmm! Drool! Delivered it to some company called Jack & Jill Ice Cream (never heard of them before). As usual with these little company's...they don't have a lot of room for getting backed into the dock. Argh! Got some help from another Continental driver who happened to be there at the same times as me.

Then this afternoon...headed over to the Chiquita distribution warehouse. Yes...I have a truckload of bananas. And I could smell them as I was shutting the doors. I love anything flavored banana. So twice today I had loads of some of my favorite foods.

I gotta say...New Jersey must want people to stay in New Jersey. You can drive into Jersey across the bridge for free...but they charge you to leave. I had to pay almost $40 to get out of there!

And now I'm stopped at a Petro for the night. Which just so happens to be right next to the Love's truck stop I parked in last night on way to New Jersey.   There is a LOT more parking over here at the Petro. Will have to stop at the Love's in the morning though to fill up the reefer fuel (and might as well top off my tanks while I'm at it). Then cash the Comcheck for the toll money since I'll be hitting the toll road first thing in the morning.  I'm pretty much out of my own personal funds now since most of them went to tolls as well. Well...time for me to spend a little time doing some web development that has been waiting for me to get done. I need to earn some money to hold me through till I get a paycheck!

Aloha!

Can I See Your Admission Ticket Please?

Apparently I'm parked in a very popular truck stop. Well maybe not popular...it's in a good location off 70 in PA. Unfortunately...their parking is not large enough to accommodate the amount of traffic through here. It was pretty much full already at 6:30 and thank goodness I was already parked in a spot before then. I've watched I don't know how many trucks pass through since then looking for parking and there is none to be found. The small one next to this one is full as well. The picture doesn't even show the whole picture. It's slammed packed in here. It is a well known fact that our nation has a severe shortage of available SAFE parking for semis. Unfortunately it's been a huge fight to with the government to do something about this lack. Rest areas are being shut down which of course makes the situation even worse.

Now to move on to good news...Lisa Kelly will be back on Ice Road Truckers. LOL...I know...silly thing to celebrate right? But hell...that gal is my hero. For a little thing like her she's got some serious balls. 

Anyway...enough for tonight. I'm pooped...and I gotta get up early. Stay safe out there!

State to State to State

This will be a short one tonight. Spent last night in WI for a drop & hook this morning. Now I'm sitting in Ohio again. Delivering in Trotwood in the morning. Picking up a trailer there and taking it over to PA.

I did forget to mention that this last Friday as I came into Ohio from Indiana I got bombarded by the locusts. Indeed they are back this year. It sounded like pellets hitting my windshield over and over again. Got to a truck stop to clean up the windshield and one of those buggers was stuck in my wiper so I know it was definitely a locust. They make a huge mess when they hit your window! 

So anyway...I'll be heading to bed in a few minutes. So let me leave you with this image which I gotta say...it just tickles my funny bone. Sorry...but Swift drivers just make it so damned easy to pick on them.