Happy Thanksgiving
Hey everybody, I’m back in Cedar Rapids after just a week since it’s time for Thanksgiving and dispatch was nice enough to give us a few days home. So if anyone wants to hang out give me a call. I’ll be here until Friday afternoon. But for now, I post for your enjoyment and my own amusement. My daily trucker diary for my first week on the road. So enjoy and see you all later.
Day 1: November 12.
Cedar Rapids CRST to Des Moines. Fuel in Altoona. Arrived 7pm shut down for night.
I drove zero miles as we left after dark. Relayed trailer from CRST terminal in Cedar
Rapids to warehouse in Des Moines. First official load in truck but drove zero miles
first day.
Day 2: November 13.
Des Moines to Cedar Rapids empty. Dropped off trailer for repair work.
Bobtailed to Marshalltown, IA for pickup at Lennox. Load to go to West Palm Beach, FL.
Waited at Lennox for three to four hours for load. I drove the whole day on day 2. I
drove from Des Moines to Cedar Rapids with the empty trailer. And then I drove bobtail
from Cedar Rapids to Marshalltown. And then I drove loaded from Marshalltown to
Springfield, Ill. Including my first stop at a scale which was just over the river
in Illinois. I got a green arrow through so I did not have to stop since the weight
was not even close to limit. Had a car lock up its brakes right beside me for unknown
reasons. He then caught back up to me and cut me off and barely made his exit.
No idea what his malfunction was. Drove down I-55 in Springfield where Ben had his
wreck. Kinda funny that my very first official trip in a semi, was on the same route
of Ben’s final trip. Changed drivers south of Springfield and I went to sleep.
Day 3: November 14.
Woke up in Georgia. Found out the load would have to be dropped in Atlanta to be
relayed by someone else since they never gave us a drop time at Lennox in West Palm Beach. So the co-driver dropped the trailer and then we stopped for a bit to wait for instructions and had some lunch (in truck). Then I had to bobtail once again from Atlanta to a small town 60 miles outside of Atlanta to pick up an empty trailer at a Sony warehouse to take back to Atlanta to drop off at JC Penny warehouse. I dropped that empty off and traded it for a full one full of clothes. This load is scheduled to deliver in Washington state. All the way kitty-cornered across the country. I drove loaded from Atlanta, Georgia to Paducah, Kentucky and we fueled in Paducah. Then switched drivers once again.
Of note on this trip was my first mountain crossing which just happened to be at night
in the wind and the rain and some fog with the co-driver asleep in his bunk. Talk
about trial by fire. And to make it more interesting, at Chattanooga, Tennessee there
was a severe thunderstorm with local flooding, high winds, and a few tornadoes that I
drove right through. As I was driving I was passed by a police car and a few miles
down the road he was stopped so I slowed way down. Come to be a huge tree in the road
several cars flung about and two tractor trailers on their sides in the ditch. Had I
come through a little sooner, it would have been me. Good thing JC Penny took forever.
Of course it put me driving through Atlanta in rush hour which I didn’t like either.
But hey, it builds that experience stuff they talk about needing. Told there may be
a chance I might make it home for thanksgiving just for the day. Crossing the fingers.
Day 4: November 15.
Technically began driving through Kentucky since I didn’t stop in Paducah for fuel and
driver change until 1 am. Woke up in Missouri at a truck stop where I had my first truck
stop shower (nice) and hot meal (Wendys) and back in the truck I went. We swapped drivers back to me outside of Saint Joseph, MO and I drove from there straight up I-29 to I-90. The route follows the Missouri River most of the way from Missouri into Iowa and then into South Dakota. And then in South Dakota I followed I-90 all the way to Rapid City, SD.
We stopped for fuel and driver change there at around midnight bringing my total miles for day 4 to 666. Which I understand since driving down I-90 all the way accross South Dakota in the dark really sucks and takes forever. Just the road ahead and darkness all around. Thank God the truck has a satellite radio since there are only like two radio stations once you get into the badlands area. Man I wish I could have seen some of the scenery.
Anywho, the saga of the cross-country JC Penny load continues on day 5.
Day 5: November 16.
Woke up and began driving in Montana a couple hundred miles east of the Idaho border.
Drove through Montana, and Idaho which was beautiful btw. And on into and through
Washington until we hit Seattle and we finally were able to drop off the load at JC Penny.
Now we are hooked up with an air freight load to Denver, CO with a drop time of 5am on
Sunday morning. We should get there much earlier than that. Other than that, beautiful day today. Little bit of rain through the mountain passes but no snow. Hopefully next
time I’ll get to see Seattle in the daylight. We are driving through the mountain pass
outside of Seattle on I-90 right now, it would be so much cooler if it wasn’t dark outside.
So lets see. Since Monday I’ve driven in Iowa, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Missouri, Iowa(again), South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. The only state
the truck was in that I did not drive was Wyoming. So, yeah, 5 days and 10 states. wOOt!
Saw buffalo in Montana as well as a bald eagle plucking a fish out of the river right next
to the road. I love Montana. Plus the mountain passes are breathtaking out there. Saw
Nordstrom’s headquarters as well as the Boeing factory in Seattle. Plus in Washington
I had my first teenager hang out the car window and do the whole “blow your air horns” arm signal. It’s really cool being on this side of that exchange.
Day 6: November 17.
Woke up in Oregon but didn’t begin driving until we were at Mountain Home, Idaho. Went by a lot of Potato trucks and even the giant OreIda french fry plant. Beautiful scenery once again today. Started off with a little rain but once I was driving it was dry for the remainder with highs in the 50’s so still no snow. Seen one lonely motorcycle tooling around, and of course it was a BMW 1150GS. Got to drive in a lot of Idaho this time as last time I just went across I-90 which is something like 70 miles in Idaho. This time I followed I-84 east. Once across Idaho I hit Utah which is another new state for me. followed I-84 until it bypassed Salt Lake City and hit I-80 east. There I got my first
port of entry station where I had to go talk to the dot and give them my paperwork.
Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, took all of one minute. And from there on there
were no stops until Laramie, Wyoming. So yeah, I drove almost all the way across Wyoming in the dark. Would have been awesome to see the scenery but I can’t wait until morning since the load has to be in Denver by 5am. Hit some hard winds on I-80 up by Elk Mountain but made it okay. Stopped in Laramie for fuel where the truck stop cashier was named “Doc” and he thanked me profusely for being patient and speaking english. As I type this the lead driver is heading into Colorado so in a few hours we should be there. No word on what the next load will be but the fear is since it’s Sunday, we’ll have to wait until Monday for a load. But we are pretty short on hours anyway so we can use the downtime to build hours back up and get some showers and hot meals. So Day 6 brings my states driven in number to 12 with Utah and Wyoming. I can’t count Idaho as I already drove there but I can now add Wyoming even though I was in it, I was asleep until todays cross state stint. Now the only state I’ve been in and not driven is Oregon and soon to be Colorado but maybe I’ll drive out of Denver when we get a load. Time will tell.
Day 7: November 18.
Day began with me driving in Wyoming in 50mph wind gusts as I didn’t get fuel until after midnight. Woke up in Denver. Co-driver delivered the Saia load and had picked up an empty and headed to another place to drop off the empty for them to fill. They had no full loads going out so we had to bobtail to Aurora to a DHL facility for another empty trailer. Found a necklace on the floor of the trailer when I swept it out. Cheapo made in China shit though. Let the co-driver have it to give to one of his kids. So that’s where I started driving again was at DHL in Aurora. We drove to the T/A truck stop in town for a quick shower and a bite to eat. Though the bite to eat got cut out of the plan as we got a load message on the computer and we had to leave ASAP to make it on time. At least we got a shower in. Took long enough just to find a place to park in that jungle. Saw a group of crotch rocket riders doing wheelies on I-70. Then I saw the Denver Broncos team go through with a police escort. Anyway, our load was a Denver pickup so it was only ten miles or so from the T/A. Headed over there (USF) and backed up to a dock. Then we had to wait two hours for them to load us and we were on the road again. This load is going to Dallas, Texas to another USF location. So I headed east on I-70 and made it as far as Colby, Kansas which has a really nice truck stop. We got fuel and made a driver swap. I cut my driving time short tonight so I don’t go over my hours. You can only run 70 hours in a 8 day rotating cycle and I’m close to running out of hours. I only have 9 hours available to drive tomorrow and then I’m done until my hours roll back around again. So by noon we should be unloaded in Dallas and waiting for our next assignment. Hopefully it will be back to Cedar Rapids or something cause I’m close to over my hours and it’s almost Thanksgiving anyway. And so Day 7 brings me two new states for a total of 14 states driven in with only one state I’ve been in and not driven in (Oregon). Which of course todays states are Colorado and Kansas. By the time I wake up I’ll have been in two more, Oklahoma and Texas. With any luck, we’ll get a load back north and I’ll drive through them tomorrow.
Day 8: November 19th.
I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. Woke up in Oklahoma almost to the border of Texas along I-35. Headed into Dallas to drop off the USF load and once the load was backed up to the dock, it was my turn to drive. We had no empty trailer so we had to deadhead to the CRST approved drop yard in Dallas to pick one up. Dallas sucks to drive semi in. That’s all I know. I’ve been driving for a week and Dallas is the worst city so far.
So anyway, I hauled the empty up to Vallient, Oklahoma to a paper mill. Once there I had to wait in the office while the boys loaded my truck with giant rolls of paper. Once
loaded I had on the heaviest load I’ve hauled yet. We had to move the tandems around to make it legal. You can really feel it pull and it pushes a little when you try to stop.
It’s about 45,500 pounds total and there are only ten rolls of paper on board. Anyway,
once we got the truck loaded and legal I drove from Oklahoma, to just inside the Arkansas border. Bringing my states driven in number up three from yesterday for a new total of 17 states. So now I’ve driven in Iowa, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa again, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Idaho again, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. And still the only state I was in that I didn’t drive in was Oregon. But I’ll be back. And this load from Oklahoma is scheduled to be delivered at noon tomorrow in Waterloo, Iowa which means I will be in the mother land once again just in time for Thanksgiving. It’s gonna be close though, my lead driver is on his last shift and he’s out of hours and I only have an hour and a half available to drive today. So hopefully we won’t have to shut down so close to home but we should make it. So with any luck I’ll be back home by the end of day 9 if not by day 10. Oh, and of course since it has been a week since I’ve started driving, I decided to tally up the miles put on the truck since we started. 5,500 miles. One hell of a week I’d say.
Day 9: November 20th.
Woke up in Missouri somewhere. Got fuel in Des Moines. Delivered to Waterloo. Then
I drove with empty trailer back to cr in the cold and mist. I have finally run out of
hours for the week and so did my co-driver so we would have had to shut down anyway. But now since it’s coming up on Thanksgiving, we get to take a break. I’ll have to load next Friday night late in Davenport at John Deere and head to Oregon. Should be pretty bad since I will more than likely run into snow. But gotta drive in it eventually so why not now right? So until then, I’m gonna enjoy a few days off.