I don't tend to write too often when there isn't much to write about and at the moment, that's still pretty much true.

I'm back in Brownsville, the same as last writing lol.  No trailers here today, I didn't expect any because of the Holiday.  The dispatcher can't understand why they can't keep up with empties, after her being our new dispatcher for several months and people endlessly explaining this to her, you'd think she would get a clue.

But she doesn't and oh well, she isn't going to change their mentality down here, they do as they please and they pay enough money for that privilege.  She said the "customer isn't always right".  When they're handing our company millions of dollars per year in transportation payments, I would take exception to that statement.  And anyway, most of us don't care about waiting, we get paid for it and so does our company.  

We get these new dispatchers and it takes quite a while for them to catch on - and then they get fired or leave on their own.  It gets old having to deal with these people - she's nice tho, I just got off the phone we had a nice conversation that went well off the trucking topic.  I've explained to her several times that most drivers like the wait time pay and therefore don't mind waiting.  She doesn't understand that either.  What's there not to understand? We sit around playing on the internet or doing nothing, taking naps, seeing local sights, going to restaurants, get paid for it and make as much as a full day's worth of driving....and you can't understand that?  

So it is.  She is trying to reinvent the wheel down here - literally trying to force this company to get on a schedule and stay on it, but the dude that runs the transportation portion of the company we haul the product for has a completely different mindset and when he doesn't have an answer or just plain doesn't want to answer, he just doesn't respond to her lmao.  I've been around Mexicans a good part of my life, I know how they think. I'm not saying it's inferior or anything like that, it's just different.  If you set an event to start at 2:00 pm, you're really setting it to start at 4:00. If you can't deal with that, you are going to be a very frustrated person lol.

I have done nothing at the property and I am running up against a deadline.  The angle of the one side has to be redone to angle the opposite direction and then re-mark all of those trees.  I still haven't done the other side. Most of the perimeter is done tho, at least.  I have been over there, but just for walks. Took the boys 3 times during their 2 week vacation from school.  I didn't feel like doing anything during the holidays, that's on me I guess.  I'll ask for a day off if I have to, I really don't know when this dude is coming. He said the 7th or the 17th.  Okkkkk, lol, I'm going to ask him to hold off until the 17th.  I dunno if I'll get home today - it's still early enough but there is a chance that no empties are going to come.  I need at least a full day off to get that done. I'll just go out there and stay out there until everything is marked.  I just wouldn't be happy if I didn't keep at least a few trees up per lot.  

Per the loan. I really dislike this guy that's handling the loan and paperwork. He has very little customer service skills and it gets old.  He initially told me that short list of things he sent me that I had to sent back for proof of this and that was it, there would be no more. Since then, of course, it's been a constant stream of it and I'm just about done with it.  I thought I actually was  done with it, but no, more and more.  Now they want a foundation certification and said there should be one with my original loan since it's FHA and a manufactured home, it's required.  

Then, he said he has a person that will do it for $300.  The next day, he came back and said they'd do it for $450.  I flatly responded to him that I had already shelled out $500 for the appraisal and that I wasn't interested in spending any more money on this deal, I would call the current mortgage company and see if I can get it from them - for free.  I made it crystal clear that I wasn't paying anything else for any of this, if they want to spend the money and get some stake in the game, feel free.

I didn't get a response from him on the texting, instead I got another "we have more things for you to do", an email that I didn't bother to open. If they want to ask me for something, they can call me or text me, I'm through with the email games as well. My mortgage company told me on Friday they had the cert and would send it by the end of business day - which they did not. And they weren't opened yesterday because of the New Year, so I will call them tomorrow (it's Sunday) and ask them to please send it right away.  I DO want the loan, but I'm very much tired of the paperwork stuff and it needs to end.  I can't even imagine trying to get an SBA loan, that would be far more complicated and far more info they want to qualify for one.  

Right now? No thanks. Maybe down the line after I get the business up and running, I can apply for one and do some major upgrades to the park.  But, I have received another large sum of money - free - from "someone", not going to mention the person or the relationship on here, that has substantially altered the situation for me. I could put all the infrastructure in now plus by one of those portable buildings and not have to get a loan at all. I was not in that position before that money was given to me. Yes, I would still need the house cash-out to do other stuff, but the park would be usable at least.  

But I don't want bare bones minimum, I have discussed this in other posts.  The quality of reviews you get directly corresponds to the amenities you give and other major factors, such as angled lots, pull through lots and level lots.  I've read numerous - and I mean lots - of people that will go to an RV park's website, look for the park map and see how it's set up. If the lots aren't angled they won't look at anything else, they go looking for somewhere else to park.  And then the kicker where the guy said "and they should be driver's side angled". I really had to kick myself for not thinking of that.  When I go to park in a truck stop, I always back in the driver's side, blind side backing into a lot is difficult at best and tho I've done it, I don't like to do it. You really have to get out of the vehicle multiple times to ensure you aren't about to smash the truck on your passenger side. 

As I said, this operation is going to take awhile to get up and running.  I'm okay with it, but I feel the need to get it going as fast as possible so the word can get out and I can start establishing a review history.  Tu Simple - it's a company that is working very hard to get fully automated trucks on the road and probably further ahead than any of the other companies trying to do the same thing - did a test in Arizona with no human at the wheel at all.  They had to get permission from the state's DOT and apparently had lots of state troopers and personnel attending the truck.

I don't know if they alerted the public to this nonsense, I would want to know if there is a truck driving itself down the road, where it's going to be, it's intended route, the day, time etc.  I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it. The article stated it "interacted" with the motoring public. Did the motoring public know it was interacting with them?  You can tell those trucks easily - they have camera equipment mounted all over the thing.  The point is - these things are coming and they are going to take over the entire industry once they are allowed. Major companies will start converting all of their trucks over to fully automated and they will get rid of human drivers.  Our usefulness in the trucking industry is going to come to an end and I want to be fully operational before that happens. Yes, it is a concern to me, not a minor concern either.  

Just about guaranteed all major trucking companies will want to switch over. I dunno about our company, I would like to think that hazmat would be on a "wait" list to see how all of this pans out, but I'm sure our company will want a piece of that automated pie as well.  I think the nation's highways are not going to be safer, at all.  Perhaps there will be fewer truck related accidents, but the thought of being run into by something that has no human at the wheel gives a chilling effect.  The software doesn't know or care about getting hurt or killed or whether it hurts or kills anyone else. It's only as good as the people that designed it.  In other words, it's still humans that are at the heart of it and humans are fallible.  I can't stop this automated nonsense from happening, but I can definitely voice my opinion.  I'm decidedly of the thinking these trucks should be limited to Interstate highways and an extra lane each direction, sealed off with rebar-reinforced concrete dividers keeping them separated from the motoring public.  I've seen no-one else saying this, but I just about guarantee you that once these things start populating the highways all over the country, people are going to start thinking about the hazards these rigs produce and what should be done to mitigate the hazards. 

And with this defund the police garbage going on, thieves will see this as a golden opportunity to hijack entire truck loads of merchandise with nothing to stop them.  Software bandits will try to figure out a way to take over the truck's navigation systems.  Thieves will just try to crash the truck or otherwise stop it somehow and take everything that's in the truck.  Insurance companies will jack up their prices and I have to wonder the net result economically to these companies that use them, if there is any gain or if it even ends up costing more.  

I'll get off my soapbox, this particular subject gets me going.  I'm not angry about it, per se, it's just that I believe there will need to be some forced restrictions on these things coming from Congress that dictates where and how these trucks are going to operate.  And I'm preparing myself for this inevitability by starting my own business. And if this RV park venture doesn't work, I have a plan B and a plan C for that matter. Plan B would work, tho, there isn't much housing available for rent in the region.  That would be to simply install mobile homes and rent them out.  With lots at 40 feet wide, I have room to put in single wide mobiles.  

Plan C would be something of a combination of mobiles and RV lots.  There are some of those around the area as well. In fact, I talked to a waitress at Applebee's the other day, she was discussing the park she lives in has a mix of mobiles, houses and RV's.  Yup, you can do that in that county, they really don't get involved in dictating too much about what you can and cannot do.  It's a major plus and gives me alternatives if I need to go there.  I'm pretty confident this park is going to work out, tho.  There is also the option of building small houses - but that would cost substantially more money and even if I could get a loan for it, I'm really not that interested in it. I do want to do some glamping stuff tho.  That's costly as well but the nightly rates are much higher.  That would be after I get full time into it an out of trucking altogether.  I would be in earthly heaven if I could just go to work at "my" park every day and spend the days working on it - improving it, cleaning it up, etc.  

Dreams and goals. 

Meanwhile, real life. I have never seen so many trucks parked at this place.  One just pulled straight in and blocked me in here, lol.  Not that I'm going anywhere, I've heard nothing from the other driver or dispatch.  There is literally no place to park trucks and now this dude is moving his truck and blocked the entire back entrance off, lol.  Their management needs to get in here and do - something - lol.  OH, I see now, he's attempting to back out of this mess, good luck!  If they don't bring me an empty today, I'm definitely going to a hotel.  Not counting my chickens on that one, there could be empties coming up from Alta Mira and the dude from that company just not telling dispatch, that's just the way he is lol.

I'd actually like to make it home tonight and have tomorrow off - but it's not looking that way.

Anyway, I'm getting offa here and watch a movie. 

G'day.