An actual full day off.
Moving time for everyone is coming up soon, I decided to get all of this utility and perks stuff over and done with.
Water department - yes sir, you will have to come down here, provide us a check and give a deposit.  Well, they are only a mile away so I went down there and did that.

I did, of course, spent at least an hour on the phone with Direct TV.  They are paying for it, but it's going in my name.  I got a much better deal because I had accounts with them for years and years - and years......and years...........

But, they weren't offering any internet service, so, off to that website and found a local provider at a good price.  That really didn't take long to set up at all.

Off to the power company site, that took much longer.  Mostly because they don't take payments themselves, they send it off, on the phone, to a 3rd party company.  After setting up the account, I got transferred to this 3rd party. The 3rd party had no clue how much I owed the power company for a deposit.  I hadn't really paid attention, $300 and something.

So, they run me back to the electric company which is when I had had enough. Manager, please and thank you.  The manager was as useless as the rest of these people, but I had an account number so i decided to see if I could set up my account online and just pay it - online.  Sure enough, all done.  So, I got power, water, satellite and internet service set up. The only thing left is gas and I went through their online process.  They sent me an email saying they are "reviewing the history" of whatever. Great, don't spend a week reviewing, somebody contact me, because they didn't even ask for payment.

Meanwhile, cleaning everything in my room.  We're not that far off from the end of the month.  I have to move out of this room and I want the thing spic and span so there's nothing left to do but move my stuff from one end of the house to another.  The guy I'm hiring to clean the house and move everything I will expect to help me move my bed over there as well.

I went food shopping for the truck as well while I was out today.  I have no idea how long I'm going to be out, I asked my manager but she usually doesn't have those details until the end of the day.  However, after scrutinizing my paystub they send in the mail, it became evident that the mileage pay I was promised is not the mileage pay I am getting. It's good, but not as good as .51 cents per mile.  I also contacted her about that. This was clearly promised to me and I am not going to stand for anything different. It was most of the reason I went up to Pennsylvania and endured hell for 2 weeks.  That mileage pay was contingent on being willing to go out of town for a couple of weeks here and there if necessary to help other divisions out.  I'm fine with that, I did that, and I'm getting 6 cents per mile less?

It doesn't sound like much, but in tens of thousands of miles of driving, it is quite the nice chunk of change. I fully expect to be compensated for that.  \

Okay.  I'm headed to Stryker, Ohio tomorrow. It's almost thousand miles.  Tomorrow, I'll load, drive as far as I can - hopefully around 600 miles but it really depends on time at the plant, then drive the rest out on Wednesday.  Likely get to the area early, such as I did last time and spend the night at that same hotel I was at last time. It was cheap, it had direct tv, it had a comfortable bed, there is a nice restaurant across the street.
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That day is gone. Today, is here and almost gone. Sitting at a TA truck stop in Matthews, Missouri.  I prefer Loves but the company is cracking down on the usage of truckstops outside of their preferred list if there is one of their preferred ones available.  I figured I might want to fuel up in the morning before heading out and not have to worry about fuel for the entire day, arrive at a truck stop down the road from the delivery point and spend the night there.  I think I will drop the plan for a hotel tomorrow unless I get there way too early to be sitting around in a truck for 15 plus hours.   But they have me slated for 6 am delivery and the nearest hotel is 20 miles away. This is another nothing out here in the middle of nowhere delivery.  I was shocked last time I was up here that there was a truckstop - literally out in the middle of nowhere. 

Really, it's a decision I'll have to make once I get close tomorrow.

Meanwhile, my friend showed up at his house - my place called home - today and his mother and dad showed up as well.  The mother and dad are sleeping in my new bed tonight.  Naw, I don't mind.  I just want clean sheets when I get home, tho.  I'm going to have to buy a second set of sheets for that bed.  I kinda offered the bedroom for when I"m gone because they have overnight company at times.  If I'm out on the road anyway, it doesn't bother me to let someone stay in there. My dogs will be over at the new place - for the most part anyway - when I"m gone.  If I happen to leave them at the house, well, whoever is staying in there will be in the same room sleeping with a Great Dane and a German Shepherd.  They are both sound sleepers, they don't get up in the middle of the night and start doing irritating stuff that wakes me up. I've had a few dogs like that.

I take that back, sometimes Addler starts licking himself in the middle of the night.  A tongue that big and a mouth with that large a cavity?  Nahhh, it doesn't wake me up, lol, I have ear plugs in that cut that noise out. But I wake up every night regardless and sometimes he's smack dab in the middle of doing that stuff.  It sounds like there is a horse in my bedroom lololol. 

I would have liked to have visited with the whole lot of them, but, work calls. I had 2 short runs in a row, I knew yesterday that i would be getting sent out on a long run today. If I don't take the long runs, I won't make near as much money as I am now.  Oh, and I got word back on my mileage pay.  It seems I signed off on something when I was hired that allocates a percentage of my pay as "per diem", even tho it really isn't, and it isn't taxes.  So, that amount of my paycheck shows up at per diem pay.  And yes, I saw that in there, but at the time I saw it, I had no idea what they were referring to.  It's a way to have a portion of your check non-taxed and per diem isn't taxed at the end of the year either, as far as I remember it, so it's a win situation for me.  My manager had called corporate to sort all of that out.  I'm actually making .53 per mile, which for a company worker is awesome money.

I was thinking about all of this today. In light of the mileage pay, the stop pay, the hourly wage for detention pay, it would seem extremely foolish for me to quit this job anytime soon. I don't like these longer runs and spending 3 nights in a truck, but seriously, if I really get hat sick of it, a hotel isn't out of the question.  I still make a ton of money regardless of the hotel expense and I keep my sanity.  I'm thinking I will take a hotel stay the 3rd/final night out and then cruise back into town the next day.  That should be on Friday, everything going right. 

Okay, the reason I had thought of finding greener pastures is this truck situation.  For now, this truck is working.  The engine light went out and all the other warning lights as well.  I mean, doesn't mean it's fixed but at least it's not affecting my driving, currently.  I was getting a lot of conflicting advice from friends when I was considering taking this job and dumping that last "thing" I had for what, 2 months?  I am SOOOO glad I got the HELL out of that place and over here.  This trip here will pay around $1,300 - for 4 days.  Figure that math up.

Well, there is much more I had in mind for this entry tonight, but I looked at the clock. My 10 hour break is  over around 6 am. I'd like to get up at 6, do my pretrip and get the fuel if I want or just save that for later and get on down the road, get the last 500 miles of this trip going up over with and have the rest of the day to do whatever.  Which is nothing because out there? There is nothing to do, haha. 

Looooooooooong daaaaaaaay.  I'm not a fan of working on Sundays to begin with.  I got up at 5 am, got my shower, got out of here.  Over to the yard, get the truck, over to the plant.  Loaded, headed out. Pretty much settled in myself that I wouldn't be home tonight, even tho, if everything works perfectly, you can actually do this trip in one day.  The first thing was a boo-boo error on my part.  Got to Lufkin, was going to fill up the truck - no go. I left the fuel card at home!

I was at 1/3rd tanks.  I knew I could make it down there so I left the truckstop and kept on driving.  God down there, wasn't dreading it this time.  This is the 2cd time at this port, but I knew what to do this time as far as getting in and I wasn't at all uncomfortable with unloading the truck.  We have 2 sets of trailers: really, reeeeaaaaalllly old one, like over 30 years old and then these new ones. I had a new one today and that thing popped the pressure up to 95 in no time. 

I kept that pressure up, too, even after they opened the plant valve to let the liquid flow into their system. The higher the pressure, the faster you get out of there. Well, you can't let it get too high or the safety relief valve pops off and then  I"m in for an ordeal with the company.  The point is, the trailer has a pressure building coil on it and if you tend to it and if it's working properly, you can keep the pressure up high and it pushes the liquid out of the tank.

Got done with all of that and got out of there, only to look at the available hours left and how much time my GPS said it was going to take to get back to the yard and I thought, well maybe I will make it home today.  But, I didn't hold my breath.  I made one stop: at a small truck stop to pump $40 cash worth of my own money in diesel fuel into the tank. Just enough to get it back to the yard and to a filling station the next time I'm out - there is one a mile away from the plant where we load the trailers.  Lol, I was looking at that GPS a lot. How many minutes left to drive versus how many minutes I had left before my 14 were cashed.

Yes, I did make it back to the yard and this marks the first trip that I have accomplished in a single day.  Considering all that had to be done, I am pretty happy with myself that my level of knowledge about this stuff is starting to grow.  Lots more to learn, I'm sure, but I have the base stuff down at least.  The time spent at the plant was what was going to determine whether I made it home today or not. 

Anyway, it gives me another full day at home unless, out of the blue, Ann calls me in the morning needing help with something.  Tho, I intentionally leave my phone off at night, lol. 

I've been on 2 short trips in a row now, I fully expect to be sent on a 2 to 3 day trip next.  I would prefer a Brownsville trip. 

Tomorrow? I want to take Addler back to the doggy bath place - he is smelling again.  If they have a slot to get him in there, he IS going, lol. In fact, I'll take both dogs if there is room.  I have numerous phone calls to make trying to get some of this move stuff wrapped up.  And right now? I'm really tired, so I'm getting offa here.

My laptop dogged out on me.  The keyboard needs replaced.  I'm going to get a new laptop and get this one repaired, have it cleaned and give it away to a friend that needs one.  After they fix the keyboard, it should work just fine. But it's 3 years old, time to replace it.  Really not much fun in the sleeper of a truck to not at least have the fun of getting on the internet.  Definitely not the same, getting on an Iphone versus getting on a real computer.  I get paid in 2 days, gonna see what that looks like and see if a new laptop is in the works.  I have this new notebook that I bought at Black Friday in November.

The screen is too small and it's not got enough memory nor the capability of increasing the memory. But even if I could, the screen size is unacceptable. Okay, so I got this little thing out of it's storage and am trying it.  I can plug an external keyboard into it, so this one will work until I decide what to buy or even when to buy it. Black Friday is the best time to get the deals, but that's a loooong ways off.
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Okay. I'm in the truck, on the small little thing I bought on Black Friday.  It will suffice until I can find a good laptop that I want at a good price.  At least I can use an external keyboard and mouse with it.  I'm sitting next to the bowling alley again, up in Bartlesville. They don't say anything to me about parking here, it's completely out of the way of anyone needing to park. Or even seeing the truck for that matter. It's kind of hard to get in here tho.  It would be impossible if I got in here at night, the parking lot gets full enough the truck wouldn't be maneuvarable. No, I can't get out either, but it's  10 hour break, the place closes at 10, everyone leaves, the parking lot empties out.
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Well, next day. Friday. Payday.  Healthy paycheck but the 4 day trip I wanted on there isn't there, meaning next payday. So, next payday will be huge. So I can deal with that.  Sitting at the plant in Barnsdall just playing the waiting game.  It takes even longer than it used to now because instead of flaring off the vapor after they unload the truck, they are pumping it back into the system.  They have to build up the pressure in the trailer's tank to push the fluid out of the trailer.  After they are done, a lot of that vapor has to be removed. I could get it done in 5 minutes if they'd let me, lol, just open the manual valve and let it out!

They used to send it to a flare to burn it off, why they changed it I have no idea but now they are pumping it back into their system, making it take much longer to accomplish. Which is fine, I will be getting several hours of detention time here. 

But, I have to say, I want another Brownsville trip. Preferably with at least an overnight wait for a trailer to show up. Those trips with a day plus detention pay are what makes for some awesome paychecks.  I haven't had on in a couple of weeks.  I mean, West Virginia was a 2,000 mile trip, but it takes 3-1/2 days.  I can make as much money in less time going to Brownsville as long as there is a wait for a trailer.   But it's whatever.  I'll take what she gives me, which is a mix of long trips, short trips and usually an in between one. 

Well, the move date is drawing closer.  Still lots of logistics to work out. Going to have a pow wow when I get back and get this stuff nailed down.  I want to get this behind me and get on with my life.  There are things I want to do which cost me time off work but I want to do them anyway, mostly traveling.  My finances are in better condition than they have been in in years.  I also want to pay down debt, as soon as I get this move monkey off my back I'm going to focus on that as well.  I want to dump 3 grand into paying down debt so I can get it down somewhere in the low 20% high teen percentage which will vastly improve my credit score - and reduce the size of my credit card payments. \

As far as money issues go, other things I want to do.  Perhaps sell both the car and the Jeep and get a nice truck.  Well, money towards a nice truck, neither of them are worth much of anything.  I really need to get back to AZ and visit.  It's been too long. And I put my hopes of going over seas on hold when my old job starting going really south with that manager and cutting back all OT hours.  But, meanwhile, I already should be building up vacation hours, I have no idea how to access the company portal to find out.  I have access to another portal, but it's just training.  I'd call them now but I don't feel like it. As it stands I called them this morning to fix Quaalcomm malfunction yesterday. It switched - by itself - to off duty driving.  Meaning I"m driving a commerical vehicle but not for pay, but for personal use. That, I knew, would throw red flags at them and sure enough, the lady I talked to at corporate had already looked at it. 

Well whatever. I'm expecting the to be done unloading this truck soon, I'm getting offa here.

Today - turned out much long of a day than I even expected it to be.  It started before midnight, when I awoke out of a bad dream.  I don't hardly ever have that happen, it was odd. The dream was odd too, I remember, but I can even remember what the dream was about now. I got over that quickly and fell back asleep. Maybe an hour later, loud thunder, woke me up out of a dead sleep. And, that thunder went on for the rest of the night....and no I did not get any sleep.
I have ear plugs and a box fan to drown out noise, but they didn't do anything with that noise. About 3 am I realized I wasn't going to be getting any sleep.  I still tried, doze off and baaam! loud thunder.  4:45 am came around, I got up dreading today. Just absolutely dreading it.  3 hours total - at best - of sleep - coupled with having to drive all day long after spending hours at the plant

I drove to work. It started raining heavily about a mile away.  By the time I got the car unpacked and into the truck and the truck hooked up to the trailer and did my pre trip inspection? I was literally soaking wet. From head to toe.  Embrace the misery, I thought to myself, it likely isn't going to get any better. And it didn't. The air line hose and electrical power line setup the mechanic had fixed on the side of the road? Doesn't work with this old trailer I was hooked to. The lines were literally laying on the catwalk.  But, I was wet and I was running out of time.  They don't like you being late over there.

So I drove over there, confident nothing would happen in that short of a period of time to anything, got all the junk you have to do to get into that plant, get weighed and get to the loading rack and then, the dude kindly offered me some tools to fix the setup. It took 30 minutes of standing out - yet again - in the pouring rain.  Freshly drenched, I got that set up taken care of.

My Monday was today.  I fought sleep for hours.  When I finally got to 6-1/2 hours of driving, I pulled into a rest area, set the alarm and fell directly asleep for 30 minutes.  I couldn't stay there long, the plant eats up your available hours, the only way you're going to get 600 miles in and is to push yourself all day long.  Subsequent days usually are easier.  This particular trip is drop and hook, no layovers just get it done and leave.  So tomorrow will be a rather long day as well, in trying to get as much done as possible.

So, off again. Rain, rain, rain.  Figured out where I was going to stop before my hours ran out and headed that way.  Unfortunately, I somehow missed the exit.  Probably because of driving rain and a bunch of cars hitting their brakes for unknown reasons and distracting me from getting off the highway.  I looked and saw another "truckstop" a few miles up the road.  I have an app. I was running out of time.  At that exit, I had 12 minutes left before I was in violation.  Well, the truckstop was nothing more than a regular gas station with 2 diesel pumps.  There isn't any way on earth a big truck with a 53 foot trailer could pull through there.  I got through because I have a much shorter trailer.  But there was nowhere to park.

No worries, I thought to myself, I'll park in that huge, empty parking lot where I saw another truck parked.  I got to the entrance, "absolutely no truck parking, Big Daddy J's towing" will be there to pull your truck out of there.  Lovely.  9  minutes left on the clock. I put it in on duty mode instead of drive mode, so it would at least show I had time to do a post trip inspection.  Gas station there with a big side lot, truck fit easily in there, out of the way.  But, I went in an asked. Sure, you can stay there a few minutes. But if you stay there too long, the cops will fool with you and make you move.

I was out of time, I hit off duty on the thing a minute before I was in violation.  I didn't want to do this tonight, but I ended up driving across the street, pulling into the Red Roof hotel parking lot and getting a room. The reason I didn't want to do it is because it's just 10 hours.  I mean, I can stay longer and I might just do it.  My 14 hour clock doesn't start until I hit the "on duty" field and hit enter.  Just that I wanted to get this trip over with as quickly as possible. Meaning I was hoping to get it done in 3 days instead of bleeding over into the 4th.

But I'm wasted tired and the only reason I'm on here writing this is because my head is buzzing from all of this sleeplessness. A lifetime of experience with driving like this and this head buzzing? Don't even try to go to sleep until it fades away.  I have to do things that require thought and will eventually make me sleepy.  I guess writing in my blog about my day isn't especially thoughtful, but it engages me at least.

So, I'll probably not get up until 7, when I should be getting up at 5am.  The delivery isn't actually until Tuesday morning, but at this place, they'll take it whenever you show up.  I've got to get some sleep tonight.

Ahh, well, that's that.  I am finally starting to get a bit sleepy.  I've been here about an hour and 15 minutes now.  the other nights I'll have to spend out here will be in the truck.

Oh, I did go and buy stuff for the refrigerator in the truck. Various lunchmeats, a half gallon milk, orange juice, coffee drinks, a gatorade, a couple of waters, cheese and condiments for sandwiches. The fridge is packed.  It's also a very good refrigertor.  I initially turned it all the way up the first time I used it and it froze the leftovers I had in there.  Today, I started it at 3 setting - halfway up. Everything in there is very cold.  Not freezing, but not far from it.  There is a small freezer, now that I understand this thing is chilly, lol, I can actually get a couple of ice cube trays and make ice in there.

The only thing I am not sure about is if I can just leave it on even when the truck is off and I go home.  Cause I would rather leave the stuff  in there than have to unload it every time.  The concern are the batteries. But, the thing stays so cold and with it packed, I don't really think it has to run that much. As it stands, it's going to spend the night in the parking lot without the truck running.  But it's cold out, my version of it anyway, it's 41 degrees and likely going down from there tonight.  So definitely not really going to have to run that much.

Anyway, my focus at the moment is on getting these moves over with.  My room to other side of house, current people to new house, old friends back into house.  It isn't just getting physical items moved - tho that's a big part of it- it's also calling all these different companies to get all of this different stuff turned on, preferably the last day of this month.

And there is the cleaning I want to have done in the house before they come back.  I was intent on getting the flooring refinished in the living room, but that is turning into an ordeal just finding someone to do it that I'm letting that one go for now.  It would have been nice, yes, but just no.  I could do that myself but I have very little free time nowadays and by the time I get to free time, I'm worn our from running around all over the place. This is a 2 thousand mile run.

I haven't actually heard from my manager yet, but it's still early. I'd love Saturday/tomorrow off too, but that may be wishful thinking. There were a lot of trucks sitting in the yard yesterday, perhaps I can sneak past another day off.  Cause right now? I don't feel like doing anything.  I've been out on the road and I'm kinda drained.

Nice to be out of that truck and off the road for a day at least.  I'm not asking my manager if she has anything for me tomorrow. If she does, she'll send it to me, but  otherwise, I'd gladly take the day off and recuperate a bit.  There were lots of trucks parked there with drivers in the yard yesterday, they would all get sent out before me, but I have a feeling I"m either going out tomorrow or Sunday.

Anyway, Donny cut the yard yesterday - both yards actually - and it looks great. I've contacted a cleaning service who is going to come out the week of the move and clean this place from top to bottom.  Start out with a fresh, clean slate they can come back to, what they do with it from there is up to them. He's apparently going straight to truck driver training school, I'm guessing she's going to set up house before she goes out looking for a new job.  I could be wrong tho.  They will be living on borrow money, the sooner they get jobs going the better. They borrowed a large chunk of change for the move and I don't envy them having to pay all of that back.  But, that's how desperate they are to get back home into their own house.

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Okay, day has passed.  I only accomplished getting some laundry done. I'm just totally out of it. Old age, being out on the road too much, I dunno but I had to have today off.  God knows my needs better than I do.  The fantastic part for me is I have tomorrow off as well  which is 2 full days off.  I don't want more than 2 days, though.  That's enough.  I really need to continue to get on down the road and get these bigger paychecks. I think next paycheck is going to suck, basically, because this last 4 days out likely isn't going to make it on there.  But I can deal with it, it just means the paycheck at the end of the month will likely be around 6 grand and I can deal with that.

I'll be headed back to West Virginia again, the same place I went to - was it last week? It's drop and hook.  Take a trailer up, pull an empty back, no unloading. Figure up to 4 days, figure I'm going to splurge at least one night on a hotel.  I did that last time and certainly didn't regret it. It was a decent Super 8, unlike the one that I walked out of and got into an ordeal with the police and such the other night. That is a long story. And, long story short, the property manager of the hotel called me begging for forgiveness for his counter clerk's outrageous behavior towards me and offered my money back and please, if you come through here again (Amarillo), I will give you a free night's stay on me.

Oh, yes, I threatened to sue him, the clerk and Wyndham hotels for that clerk's actions, including asking a very large black man to "deal with him" when he came walking in.  I had the presence of mind to record the entire thing, 25 minutes worth.  She claimed I was cussing her out (never dropped an f bomb or any other cuss word against her), I was "harassing" her, yelling at her, etc etc etc.  I actually started laughing at her after she when into hysterics over a minor situation that she could have easily rectified.

In fact, now that I'm going into this, I was on the phone with Wyndham filing a complaint. I at least wanted my money back.  I was heading out of Amarillo. Phone service cut out, literally a minute later this property manager called me. But, it wasn't Wyndham that had called him about that, it was way too quick and this guy had already reviewed their video surveillance from the night before.  The clerk had already told him about the interaction and lied through her teeth about it. He didn't necessarily believe it tho.  I told him I would be happy to send him copy of the video I took. No, that won't be necessary.  That was all I needed to hear. She was off her rocker, whatever was going on with her that night, I just happened to be on the receiving end of it.

Oh, yes, what started this? I called the front desk. I can put up with a lot of stuff at a cheaper rate, but the bathroom sink had 6 HUGE cracks in it and full of BLACK MOLD.  No thanks. Please give me a different room. That wasn't all that was wrong with that place, but that in and of itself was enough for me to call for a new room. She didn't offer me a new room, she flew off the handle  and said I could come get my money refunded..

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to go buy some stuff  to stock truck refrigerator up with. Milk, cold coffee drinks, sandwich meat, things to eat to take place of the junk food you mostly only get on the road.
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Enjoying my final day of freedom before 4 - well probably 3-1/2 days out, call it 3 nights at least anyway.  If I pushed it really hard, if it doesn't take too long tomorrow to get loaded at the plant, I could get this run done in 3 days.  Oh, and avoid that traffic trap where there is an hour plus of just getting through it.  I'll listen to my phone this time and take the route it's suggesting.  If all doesn't work out, it's fine.  Just means another night and a few hours of driving the next morning.

On such trips, I almost always take a hotel night at least once.  It just depends on how it works out. For example, if I'm on the 3rd day and I run out of driving hours ... and.... it's still early in the day.....I'll get that hotel room.  Because I don't want to drive at night anyway.  Well, not too much driving.  So, you get to your destination at around 4 or 5 pm, stay in the hotel overnight, get up at 5 or 6 am and finish out the trip, you had at least 12 hours in that room, a welcome respite from living in a truck.

However, I am going out in a bit and buying all kinds of stuff to stock that refrigerator with.  Milk, coffee drinks, snacks, sandwich meat, whatever I can find.  It's a fairly good sized refrigerator. It will save me a lot of money buying food on the road.  I can even skip a dinner night somewhere and just eat sandwiches.  It's really tough trying to find a decent place to eat because you are in a truck and many places are not truck friendly. So you can't go parking in the portion of the parking lot behind a restaurant or such that isn't used.  If you take the risk and they come tell you to move, you are screwed.  You just started driving on your mandatory 10 off and that will ding you with the company you are driving for.

However, over time, I will learn the places where I can stop - away from truck stops - and get a decent meal.  Some of the plants I'm going to I'm repeating the drive over and over. This will be the second trip to the plant in West Virginia.  I found a great Super 8 hotel on the trip back.  If it were to work out to stop there again, I would definitely do so.  Someone could probably make a great app for places for trucks to stop that are not truck stops.  I get sick of truck stops. They are cash cows. They over charge for everything because we are basically a captive audience. A small bottle of water is $1.59, just for an example.  The restaurants they have at them are of the Wendy's, McDonald's, Arby's/high fat, high grease, high calorie content.  You can find cups of fruits and such, but you mostly aren't going to find a dinner that is both tasty and calorie conscious.
 Ok, well this post has been days in the making, posting it and starting a new one. 

Lol. I finally get to leave Amarillo this morning.  I mean, they had the trailer done last night but I don't need to drive all night to get back for nothing. No loads available, don't want any anyway.  I've done 4 in a row, a day off is fine by me, tho I didn't ask for it. 

I got 21 miles down the road this morning before stopping for a coffee. Just, in and out.  I need my coffee, I can tell ya that. Life long habit, not getting rid of it.  I made a very wide, sweeping turn to get into the truck parking lot, halfway through it I heard this loud popping noise.  No clue, finished the turn, got out of the truck, didn't find anything right off the bat that was obvious.

Went and got my coffee, got back in the truck and noticed my running lights weren't on on the trailer.  Popping noise came to mind, got out and started more closely inspecting things.  I was looking at the pigtail line, and finally saw that the wires had all pulled out of the connector to the trailer.  More inspection revealed the way they have this truck set up, the trailer nose better be close to the back of the truck cause if not? Well, yeah.

Nothing I could do about it, definitely not my fault.  I should be able to get the truck in an L configuration without the lines pulling out.  I mean, I didn't start driving trucks today, lolol.  So, I called my manager, can you have them send a truck down here to fix this?  And they did, eventually.  Nothing ever happens quickly in the trucking world. The only person that pays for it is the truck driver.  I've never had this happen before. 

The mechanic showed up - with everything beyond necessity.  He's been doing this a while, prepared for any contingency.  I was impressed.  He noticed what I had already seen but said nothing about, was curious if he would come to the same conclusion without my suggesting anything.  There's a rope around the pigtail. Yes, there is, isn't there?

I had seen it before all of this, I just hadn't thought of the potential ramifications.  Obviously, this truck was set up for a trailer that sits much farther forward off the 5th wheel.  It's fine, I just don't take responsibility for it.  I didn't put that thing up there like that, not to mention I just got into that truck, the truck sat at their yard and then at Peterbilt.

Drove it on out after that. Got on a tollway in Dallas - I'll let the company pay for my getting past a bunch of traffic junk that is continuous on their freeways - and got back to the yard. There before my manager should have left, but she was gone. A great sign, means she doesn't need me tomorrow. But, I got in the office to make a copy of this inspection report that I posted about a few days ago and saw a run for Brownsville. I just thought how I would have taken that run without hesitation. 

However, not long after that, Rene sends me pics of my dogs. They both looked pathetic.  I know, I've been gone too long.  And, while I was gone and they took Aspyn to the vet, the vet determined she has heartworms. Lots of heartworms.  Dollar bill signs instantly fill my mind. 

Well it's late.  Addler is all crashed out, so is Aspyn.  I mean, seriously out of it.  Lol

I think I will join them in lala sleep land. 

Barnsdall, Oklahoma

Well, a somewhat eventful trip. It's only like 350 miles or so from origin to destination point.  But, a while after driving down the road, the orange engine light came back on and a notice about some sort of thing associated with cruise control - which did stop working.  I sent a pic of it to my manager, said the truck was working fine, I'm just going to keep driving it. She said fine.

Further up on up the line, about 120 miles, is a weigh station that you come to shortly after entering Oklahoma.  It seems like it's always open and they don't use easy pass system. If you're in a truck, they're pulling you in there to weigh you.  It doesn't appear to be a high truck traffic route such as most Interstates are, so trucks really don't get backed up much. 

Well, there was a State Trooper in there, not something you normally see. I could see they were having a conversation among themselves and this trooper kept looking up at me through the window.  He apparently had decided that he was going to do a full inspection of my truck. I really don't like these things. They usually find something wrong, write you up for it and take up a lot of time doing it.  If everything isn't perfect, you're screwed.

But, it's part of the business, nothing I can do about it, it's implied consent.  If you have a commercial driver's license, you basically give up the right to "probable cause" when it comes to truck inspections. They can pull you over at any time, anywhere just for the purpose alone with no violation having had been observed or committed.  I was ready for him though.  I always check all my documentation before I leave - they have a lot more regulation they dump on hazmat drivers than regular drivers.

You have to have this little book that tells first responders what to do in case of an emergency with the material you're hauling.  It has to be within easy reach of where you're sitting.  You have to have the bill of lading, pressure test sheet, weight ticket, etc also right there.  If it's not within easy reach, they write you up a $200 plus fine.  Of course you have this huge binder full of HaZmat authorties and exemptions and this and that.  Page after page of it. 

I was getting out of the truck, he said to get back in it. Of course, he wanted to see all of that, within reach and that I know exactly where to get it right off the bat.  Then a truck inspection - which wasn't a level I thank God or I would have been there at least an hour if not longer.  He checks the lights, the frame, tires, etc.  Then, it's "get all your paperwork together and then come over to the Tahoe".  I get in the passenger side, hand him a ream of paper and sit there and listen - to rock and roll, lol.  Imagine that, an older cop listening to AC/DC and such.  It took him 30 minutes to input all of that into the computer system. It goes into a personal record on me and for or against the company I am driving for, a system they initiated in 2010 that gives X amount of points against you for the various infractions - lots of them, pages of them in fact - that you can be caught involved with.  Minor to major.

Actually, that whole ordeal took 45 minutes, a level I would have taken at least an hour and a half. I was lucky that this run isn't that long.  I wanted to get to where I wanted to be, park the truck and get with my plan.  Anyway, he prints out a paper, hands it to me to sign, says no infractions, sends me along my merry way. Now, this is really good for me.  Companies absolutely hate when a driver gets pulled over and then gets written up for malfunctioning lights or such.  It goes against the company. If enough of it occurs, they are assessed with a higher score and that company's trucks get pulled over more.  So, this particular inspection was a win-win for me. Cost me time, but the results were worth it.

After that, I drove up to Bartlesville, undecided whether I was going to get a room or not. Definitely decided to park next to the bowling alley where I had parked to spend the night at the hotel next to it twice now, once at my expense the other time at company expense.  There is a fabulous Mexican food restaurant there, which is why I went there to begin with.  I went in there and ate a wonderful meal of Carne Asada with all the fixings and then, got back to the truck and decided not to waste money on a room. The rooms last night were much higher than the last time I was there.  I checked all the hotel deal sites, just no good deals to be had. Why, I have no clue.

Anyway, I just got done eating breakfast at the only restaurant in town in Barnsdall - it's directly across the street from the plant, they have excellent coffee. Decided to spend the rest of the time here in the sleeper. This is one of few plants you go to where they actually allow you to run your truck's engine while you're getting unloaded. That's because they don't have a room for drivers to lounge in here. It's in the 40's, no way am I sitting in a cold truck for endless hours. 

I just realized that today is election day in Texas.  If I get out of here in the next hour or so, I can still make it back in time to vote.  I'm a firm believer in voting, this just caught me by surprise. I follow politics, yes, but the voting day I didn't see until today and it just eluded me. 

In other news, the house has been selected and deposit money made on the house to rent. For my friends that is.  They will be able to afford this place without another renter. Which is a very good deal. They could still get a renter if they want to, that's up to them.  Anyway, I'm just glad we got a place for them out of the way. That was a big one, considering this little town really doesn't have that much rentals going on all the time.  The next thing is to get the utilities and such turned on and then, get them moved in there. 

The unfortunate part of all of this is that tensions have been running high, especially for the lady and she kind of blew up on us a couple days ago.  I started receiving a lot of very negative texts from her- when I wasn't even speaking to her. She also blew up on the other roommate, who was egging it on because he was fed up with it.  They have that kind of relationship where it goes well for a while but then they go head to head with other and it gets ugly.  I didn't respond to any of her texts that night, I wanted no part of it.

And that's it for now.  I'm currently just trying to save up money. I'd like to get 10 grand saved up for emergency expense use and then start saving for other things.  At the rate I'm going, maybe 4 more months and I'll have that ten grand saved in spite of having 10% taken out for retirement, medical insurance, huge taxes now that I'm in a higher tax bracket and of course normal monthly expenditures.  It's been a long time since I've been in this economic situation where I can live my life and still save a lot of money. 

Now that I'm in a decent truck that isn't trashed out on the inside and especially the sleeper, plus has a built in refrigerator, I'm really good with this. 

Whoops, the dude is banging on the connections. That means the truck is unloaded.

I'll have to finish this later in a different post. 

Short trip to El Dorado over and done with. The new truck had the orange engine light come on - but nothing happened. I just stayed on.  I have driven lots of trucks with orange engine lights on that the dealer can't ever figure out what's wrong with it and you eventually just ignore it.  Now, the red engine light, completely different story. That's, shut the truck down right now type of deal.  The interior of that truck is absolutely beautiful . How those people could live in it for almost a million miles and keep it in that great of a condition, well, I know how, it's just amazing to finally find someone that actually cares enough to take care of a rig that doesn't belong to them.

Hitting it again early tomorrow.  Get to the plant by 7 am, get loaded, head up to Barnsdall, Oklahoma, north of Tulsa.  That's also an overnight trip but probably twice as long as this El Dorado one.  I figure to see if the truck does alright, bring it back, tell them it needs to be taken to the shop and find out what the engine light is, but I want that truck. They can dump me back into that automatic pile of junk for a few days while they fix the thing.  Barnsdall is a better run because it's more miles plus it also has a lot of detention time, usually anyway.  But, I have always made it back that night on the second day from that trip.  I usually arrive so early that I'm tempted to get a hotel. 

As it stands, last night I drove to the nearest town, parked in a strip mall parking lot (tractor only, they make you unhook the trailer to unload it), went into Applebee's and had some dinner.  Spent my 10 hour break in the parking lot and then got up at 4 am, got a cup of coffee and headed back to the plant.  That got me home 30 minutes ago, about 9:30 am. 

Now, on the house searching front.  Rene went ballistic yesterday. Just flipped the switch. I wasn't even talking to her and started getting all these outrageous text messages.  She does this from time to time, out of the blue.  Everyone is claiming stress over the move.  Wonderful, go look in a mirror and spew out all that vileness, I don't need it.  Over 20 texts, I didn't reply to a single word of it.  If I had, I probably would have let loose and that would have just made the situation worse. 

Anyway, I put out ads on local Facebook groups - most of them are groups for selling stuff, but they let you put up ads asking for things as well. I got several responses - and a bunch of moochers piling on my ads trying to get the houses being offered to me, but one of them stood out. A 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a huge, fenced in back yard.  $800 per month which is in their range.  Note, this isn't for me, it's for he 2 living here. They have the monthly rent money, there will be $250 after $800 that they already pay, which will mostly cover satellite and wifi.  Somewhere around another $200 to $250 for utilities.  I pledged a flat rate of $200 for watching my dogs - trust me, dog sitting for dogs for as much time as I'm gone would cost far more than that at a kennel or even just a person coming over to take care of them.  They get a huge back yard to play and run around in.

So, I sent the info to Donny - the other roommate here - and informed him if he wants to go for it, he prolly best go looking tonight (last night) cause there are people piling up on my house request ads.  so, he went over there. Somehow he got into the house, took some pics.  Looked like fresh paint, nice hardwood flooring, nice condition.  I dunno how big the bedrooms are, probably not terrible large judging from the size of the house, but this fits their price range and is a decent neighborhood. We are going this afternoon at 1 to meet with the owner and see about getting it..IF we get this house, then that'st most of the battle right there. The rest of it is just getting the utilities turned on, satellite installed and wifi installed.  And moving there, lol.  It's also less than 2 miles away from here, so commuting back on forth will be easy for her. 

So, fingers crossed and prayers up.  I hope to have this phase of this behind me today.  Just too much to deal with these people losing it.  I understand they are in bad health, really don't want to be moving around, etc.  I'm doing what I can to help them, and if they get into it, I'm sure they can just stay there if they decide they want to for as long as they want to.  Donny doesn't care where he lives for the most part as long as it isn't ghetto.  He spends most of his time in his bedroom.  I don't know who is getting what room or how that's working out, I have no input into that and I don't care. Let's just get a house and get this over with.

Now, this new truck I'm in.  I was opening the cabinet doors and was literally shocked upon opening one of them to find a built in refrigerator.  It just looks like a cabinet door like the rest of the interior of the truck from the outside.  I just bought a ac/dc cooler, so I guess I wasted my money on that if I end up keeping this truck - which I'm 99% sure I will. Even at a million miles, it's a far nicer rig than that pile of junk Volvo.  This one has a bunk bed, which is nice for storing clothes and duffel bags.  I has a clothes closet for hanging clothes and a couple other smaller closets for putting your person things. It's completely cleaned out, even the far interiors of the closets, which was impressive.  The only hesitancy is the million mile part. Truck parts don't last forever.  Alternators, fuel pumps, fuel injectors, power steering pumps, electronic sensors. 

Anyway, I have basically a full day home today.  My only goal is to go with Donny and see if we can secure this house.  We can have ourselves a party afterward if it clicks.  Since I have an early load time tomorrow, foregone conclusion I will be up near Barnsdall early afternoon.  I will probably get myself a hotel room.  I didn't last night because I figured I would want Monday night.  I figure to be there no later than 3 pm, which is a 17 hour layover.  The town with the hotels is called Bartlesville. Barnsdall doesn't have any hotels.  It doesn't have much of anything lol. A restaurant and a gas station.  And the plant.  Bartlesville is something like 21 miles away.  Been there done that.  In fact, I think I'll try the hotel sites after this and see what kind of deals there may be.

Well, I think I'll end this one, actually.  Breakfast is almost served. 

Finally got this trip over with this morning. Got up, made a cup of coffee in the hotel room's coffee pot, took a long, hot shower, got out of there and got on down the road.  Didn't stop until I got into Texas and at a Love's maybe 30 miles after getting into the state. I am slowly figuring out how to deal with this job. That includes simply having full - or near full - fuel tanks when I get to the plant. 

They ask you if you need fuel.  Yes. How much? 100 gallons (or whatever at the time).  When I tell them I need fuel, they always cut the gross weight of the truck to within a few hundred pounds of 80k. When I don't tell them that, they cut off up to 10k pounds.  I don't get it.  But I'd rather be lighter and not get pulled into weigh stations so much.  These trucks have PrePasses in them, I get the okay to bypass a lot of stations but not all of them.

Anyway, Ann was at the office so I talked to her for a while. When I pulled into the yard, there were 8 trucks sitting in there. I never see that many trucks.  Turns out, one of them was for me.  Mark the 6th truck I will have been in since joining this company. However, this one wasn't forced. She just presented it to me and said, if you don't want it, I'll let Joe have it.  I looked at it. Beautiful truck.  2016 Peterbilt. Got inside, very nicely taken care of.  I mean, really, nice interior, that I could see anyway. 

Ann said you can have it if you want it.  Well, let me take it out on a run or two first?  The truck I'm in would be used as a backup truck for those that  have trucks that break down.  Nobody wants in that thing, so not putting anyone out.  So, there it is.  There is a serious drawback to this one though. When I fired it up, the odometer came on.  957,000 miles on it. In two years, someone put almost a million miles on this truck? No way. Has to be a team.  Teams do way more driving. They make more money too, but at a cost.  Not worth it to me.  I mean, even if I had a honey driving with me and we had a relationship, that's still a lot of time in a small box.  Nerves can wear thin.

Now, the problem with a truck with that many miles.  Parts wear out.  Inevitable.  But, can it be any worse than the thing I'm in that has broken down 3 times in less than a month and a half?  I suppose it could be, but the thing is soooo nice inside. Just plain beautiful.  A standard transmission.  Certainly worth trying.  That's a lot of miles, but everything is still "new" as far as age goes.  It's hard to tell.  I'm giving her a whirl tomorrow and see what happens.

I have a late load time.  Noon.  The plant I'm going to is the one in El Dorado that takes 6 hours (minimum) to unload.  But, that's 5 hours of detention pay. A short run and I'll be home the next morning, which is Sunday. Then out again Monday morning to Barnsdall, Oklahoma, a place I've been to many times now, also elongated delivery times, but, those are the best.  I'm hoping for a Brownsville run after that and hopefully at least a day's worth of waiting for a trailer.  That is ideal for huge paychecks. 1,200 miles of driving plus X amount of hours times 22.  Plus stop pay, which every trip has at least 4 stops to record. 

I figure, if I stay at this job long enough, I'm going to find the hotels that are cheap but good along the way.  Brownsville, I found one but haven't tried it yet. The company has paid for the hotel stays. But, I figured it out.  I can sit in the truck 24 hours a day and get paid - 24 hours a days. But if i take a company paid hotel, I get 10 hours deducted off that pay. Well, if I take I pay for my own hotel, at around $60, I get a hotel, get paid for the 24 hours and make much more than taking 10 off. There aren't any rules against doing this, it's the best way to go. I mean, if she got me another stay at the Marriot, I'd take the loss just for the fun of staying in a fancy hotel lol.

As it stands. I doubt I will have enough available hours to make it back on Monday's trip.  Meaning a 34 hour layover at a hotel somewhere. Which is fine by me, I don't pay for those layover. They aren't paid an hourly wage, so might as well get whatever the company is willing to get for me. The first trip is to El Dorado. It's 3 hours up and back - at most.  We no longer have to log hours sitting at either the loading plant or unloading plant, so that really takes a lot of hours off the weekly total, leaving more available to do more runs.  But that will bring up me up near 60 hours, then I have Barnsdall, Ok on Monday.  Almost 7 hour drive plus at least 2 hours loading.  It will be cutting it close.  I'll have enough time to get into the plant, shut off the timer and get it unloaded. After that, it's the luck of the draw. There is a town about 20 miles away that has several hotels.  I'm just guessing here, making home is better but I always try to plan for the worst case scenario. 

But then again, making money is not a bad scenario.  I actually don't want to do a 34 hour reset. I would rather get a good long trip after these two short ones and beef up my next paycheck. But, that's not going to be possible. This job makes huge money if you're willing to work basically all the time. Still have some home time here and there, always have a 34 hour reset. But, if you take 3 days off like I did last weekend, it affects the next paycheck.  I needed that time off tho.  I'm not going to feel bad about it, just put the nose to the wheel and get it cranking.  I pushed myself so that I could get back without too much time on the clock for today.  It's not complicated but kind of hard to explain.

You have a 60 hour/6 day clock or a 70 hour/7 day clock. We are on the 70 hour one. It basically allows you to drive up to 70 hours in the last 7 days.  So let's say i drove yesterday and I ended up with 70 hours on the clock. That means I have nothing for today, because I drove all 70 hours out. But let's say that I drove yesterday and ended up with 64 hours. That leaves me 6 hours drive time today.

Now, what factors in are short days like today.  Tomorrow, today takes effect and 7 days ago drops off. Well, 7 days ago i was on the clock almost 14 hours. Today, I was on the clock 3 hours.  So, that 14 drops off and now, I will have and extra 11 hours showing up.  Does that make sense?  There is no requirement to take a 34 hour reset, but most companies do it because it's the best way to just get your clock reset, start at a full 70 or 60 and get down the highway. 

Well anyway, I'd like to say I'm excited about getting into a newer truck tomorrow, but the million miles is rather disconcerting. But who knows? Maybe I'll drive it 100k miles without any troubles. Roll of the dice.

Meanwhile, their hunt for a house to rent goes on.  I found one tonight that I think will fit the bill.  It's a cozy 3 bedroom, 1-1/2 bathroom place that looks decent.  Smaller bedrooms but the monthly price tag on it is much smaller, too.  I"m hoping they can nail something down soon, April 1st isn't getting and further away.

I don't have to be up early tomorrow, don't have to be at the plant until 11 am. meaning leave out of here around 9:30 am.  A later time for these shorter runs is preferrable. I can get up there around 4 or 5 pm, drop the trailer, park the tractor outside their fence, go off duty for 10 hours and then drive back early in the morning. Have yet another half day to be at home. 

But, I'm tired, it's getting my version of late.

G'nite. 

Long day.  Got up at 6:00 am, took off.  435 miles later, was at the plant in Charleston. This was a drop and hook affair.  Drop the trailer I brought up, hook up to empty trailer, pull it out, drop it out of the way, rehook to trailer I brought up and back it into the hole, unhook, then rehook to the empty.  Sounds like a lot but it didn't take 15 minutes to get that done.  But, I was there an hour anyway.  Got out of there, drove another 165 miles and decided to call it a day.  11 plus hours, almost 600 miles.

I wasn't feeling to good today, otherwise I still had an hour and 20 minutes I could have driven.  No regrets tho, I can't make it home tomorrow anyway, even if I had driven the extra miles.  I'll drive ten or 11 hours tomorrow - however long it takes to rack up 600 miles and that will leave me with about 3-1/2 hours of driving on Friday.  That will leave me open to going out on Saturday or Sunday if she has anything for  me.  I had my time off, I need to earn some money.

______________________

Well, it's now Thursday.  I drove 652 miles today.  Just straight through. I would have made near 700 if I hadn't encountered unbelievable construction backup that was so bad, Maps told me to get off the Interstate and take this winding, alternate route.  I should have listened to Maps. I ignored it and paid for it.  The Interstate completely shut down to a standstill, my only saving grace was Maps gave me an alternate way out - much longer than the first route it gave me, but WAY faster than what I was going to go through there. I had an agenda- get at least 600 miles today and sitting in an hour and a half of traffic jam wasn't going to cut it.

What town was I in that all happened .... Little Rock I think. No it wasn't Little Rock it was before that.  I was so wrapped up in that ordeal I don't even remember what town I was in.  Anyway, Maps ended up having me on a small 2 lane highway that runs alongside I-40. We were going 60 mph - on the Interstate they were at various stages of stopped to maybe 30mph. I usually listen to her telling me about alternate routes for closures or backups, not sure why I ignored her today. This went on for miles and miles and miles.  I watched  the stop an go traffic over there and just thought, I'd be going crazy sitting in that nonsense for that long.  Surely the state could figure out something better than almost shutting down the highway like that for that long of a distance.

Well, anyway, I always plan out where I'm going to stop.  I have X amount of hours and minutes, that will get me to wherever.  I usually cut it pretty close, I want to maximize my hours out there and get this over with.  Well, before I entered that town with the traffic jam, I was going clear to a Love's truckstop much further down the road.  I was going to fuel up for tomorrow, get my free shower, spend some quality time in there as it stands, and just hang out in the truck.  But when I realized I wasn't going to make it there, I got out another app that shows ALL the truckstop, both s***holes and mega truckstops alike. I settled on one that is, actually, another 10 or so miles down the road.

Then I thought, why?  I've been on the road 3 full days, why not just get a cheap hotel and get out of that truck?  I was looking at hotels in a town called Arkadelphia, it's in Arkansas. I saw several hotels that were cheap, I chose the Super 8. It had the best ratings on the cheap brands and when I say cheap, this place was going for $37 per night.  I booked it, hoped to high heaven it wasn't a Roach Coach Inn.  Got here, found parking impossible.

In fact, I pulled into the parking lot, realized I couldn't turn around.  I went around back, it was a dead end, sort of.  I saw tire tracks, evident another truck had been through there before. So, I drove through the field beyond the motel, came up to a ditch.  Not a bad one, but geeze.  I saw where the other truck had plowed through it and I thought, naw.  I saw a much lessor deep portion of it, the truck went over that easily, into an open lot.  I parked there, walked back over to the hotel.  Well, I no guarantee nuttin' if you no park on hotel property. I was thinking right off: This is a bad place to stay, the room is going to be hell. But I already paid for it, no choice.  Non refundable deal on Expedia.

The property next door is unoccupied. It was a restaurant, it's just empty now with a huge parking lot.  I decided to pull in there - no signs saying no parking, no trucks, etcetera.  Cool. Held my breath coming into this room. Boy was I surprised!  Nice, fresh smelling carpet. Furniture in perfect condition.  Lovely king sized bed, very comfortable. Quite window ac.  44 inch flat screen tv - haven't checked out channels, really only interested in watching the news anyway.  Refrigerator, microwave, hair dryer, coffee.  I walked into the bathroom. No mold, mildew, perfect condition! For $37!!  It doesn't always work out this way, lol.

This is how I used to think about Motel 6, which basically turned into - well I'll keep those thoughts to myself.  So, I'm just relaxing : )  You get what you pay for - usually. In this case, I lucked out and got much better than what I paid for.  Just didn't feel like sleeping in the truck, but also didn't feel like shelling out big bucks for a guaranteed nice place.

I have less than a 3 hour drive back to the yard in the morning.  I'll have some home time.  Unless she throws a loophole as I drive in there an she has a load that has to go out tomorrow morning.  I'm not going to just hang out at this hotel to avoid that.  I would rather get in there, if there is another run, take it and run with it. If  not, I get a partial day home and probably out Saturday, if not then definitely Sunday.

I sometimes get lost on my blog, don't remember what I have discussed or not discussed because life gets very busy.  So if this repeats, oh well. But I bought all this stuff to fix up that bathroom which I used to be in when I was in the other bedroom. It's a private bathroom, no other entrance than from the bedroom. It also has the ugliest vanity and one of the most disgusting sinks I have ever seen.

_____________

 A few more hours passed.  A very long discussion with my friends in Georgia. They're really great people, very good friends.  But they have a family and they have a household.  They are coming back. I didn't ask her that tho, Taylor that is.  She said, "are you ready for kids".  I thought about that for a while.  Just giving myself an honest evaluation of having toddlers around and the demands they inherently are and the environment it is with them around.  Yeah, I'm good with it. I like the connection with both my friends - late 20's and early 30's and having kids around. I dealt with the screaming when they were there, I can deal with it again. I think the good far outweighs the bad. 

We went off of that and to my idea of having at least 50 acres of land.  100 better.  Pricey? Not that bad out of the city limits. At least some of what I have seen.  A mix of open land and woods would be great. Room for cows, riding ATV's and hunting.  Perhaps fishing if there happens to be a pond or small lake.  She loves the idea. Money the issue. Yes, in my case, credit score.  Get enough down payment and perhaps a different story. But, at the same time, getting around and talking with people can help as well. 

Anyway, that's it for tonight.  I'm going to bed soon. Want to get up early, get the drive over with, get home and spend time with friends and dogs : )

Well, I took a chance. Getting where I'm at that is.

Started out this morning.  Got to the plant at 6:30 am, got checked in a one place, weighed at another, loaded at yet another and back to the scale house.  Where I waited....and waited...and waited.... for hours.  Lots of conversations with other drivers during that time, even with a smart phone, it can get pretty boring. 

After 2-1/2 hours, they finally called me up there.  "Well, they kept doing sample checks, we couldn't let ya go without knowing the samples were going to be good".  I guess they finally figured they are good.  Ate up m clock tho.  I was determined to get in 600 miles.  I fell about 40 miles short of it.  Drove, drove, drove.  Forced to take a 30 minute break which is mostly what kept me from making the full 600. 

Anyway, I gambled.  I looked at a Love's well down the line and figured I had enough time to get there, get off the clock and get parked.  About a 12 minute window, I figured, 12 minutes left on the clock before I absolutely had to get off of it.  And stop the truck.  The gamble wasn't just the time tho. Actually, the time is math, but you never know if an accident or road construction or steep hills or whatever are going to slow you down.  No, nowadays, the gamble is: is there going to be a parking space available when I get there?  Cause' honey, after 6:00 pm, you're taking a big chance that there isn't anything available. 

When I pulled in here, I saw an "empty" spot, but it was between 2 trucks, next to the curb, basically where you drive through.  However, driving through this rather large truck stop, there wasn't a single space available. The Pilot back down the road, I could see from the highway, it was full.  I pulled back around hoping that empty spot between the two trucks was still there and walaah.  I pulled in there, stopped the truck, got off the clock with 3 minutes to spare. 

I saw the driving on the side of me that is - really far out there - and talked to him for a minute. He just laughed, I'm out of hours, I'm not going anywhere - notwithstanding the fact that his truck was in a position to make it very difficult for truck parked across from him to pull out. But, that's not my problem. I'm next to him but I am far enough back that if he moves in the morning before I can, no problem them getting out of there.

I have been sitting here watching dozens and dozens of trucks pulling in here and driving right back out.  The problem with pushing the clock nowadays is the parking situation.  You might have a place in mind, and it might be doable with the time you have available, but if you get there and there isn't any place to park, you're literally screwed.  This is where paper logs saved us.  You could still drive a little while down the road and find a place and simply mark it as if you had driven there. 

I'm 430 miles from my destination.  I was trying to make at least 400, but the plant did that in. Still, not bad, considering.  I figure to get up at 6, do my pretrip, get to the fuel pump, fill it up, head out and hope to hit the plant before I have to take a 30 minute break. I mean, if I have to, I have to.  But that will get me there early afternoon. According to GPS, I"m only 6 hours and 20 minutes away.  It's  never right so add 30 minutes plus 15 minutes to fuel and 15 more minutes for kicks because that's the way it works and I'm arriving at 1:20 pm, call it 1:30.  Delivery is 6:00 am the next morning.  That's a lot of time sitting in the truck.  Not sure if I'll do that or find a cheap hotel. 

I should be home no later than Friday sometime.  I likely will get sent back out somewhere over the weekend. Which is fine, I need to rack up some miles an get some money. I'm hoping for a place to tell me I have to wait.  That's where you rack up the money.  Waiting for pay.  It really adds to any trip if it's over 10 hours.  A whole day even better.  I'll make a heckuva lot more in 24 hours of waiting on detention pay than I can the hours I can legally drive in that same time period.

Anyway, it's time to go to sleep. 

So, I made a huge error that would have really pissed me off  - at me - tomorrow.  I misread the text Ann sent me, I thought I had to load tomorrow.  It turns out she has  me loading Monday morning.  I know this because another driver called me earlier.  "Hi Ben, this is - " whoever, I don't know this dude, he works there but I haven't met more than half the drivers.  She gave him my number, which is cool, but he confused me at first.

"Ann said you have a load on Monday and that you have stuff to get done around the house".  Monday? I thought. "No, that load is going out tomorrow". He was confused then too, but apologetic for calling me about it. No, no, let me look at this again, I replied while switching screens on my phone to take another look. Yea, it's going out tomorrow.  Wait, what is today?  the 24th, he replies.  Ohhhhh wow! I would have gone to the plant tomorrow for nothing!

I thought about it for 2 seconds.  He said, well she said you had stuff to do and maybe you'd give up the load.  He was being really nice about it, but he doesn't live here, he wasn't assigned a load for Monday cause he just got back into town and I can understand him trying.  I've been on the road long enough, 3 straight days off, even if unpaid, sound wonderful to me.  Yes, you can have it!  Not that i want to give up a 736 mile each way run, but I want the time off.  I have a large number of things I still have to get done that Monday would provide for. Tomorrow is Sunday and I actually have some stuff Sunday would allot for as well.

But actually, tomorrow sounds like the perfect day to lounge around and do nothing for an entire day, with no pressure to do anything. Tho, if it hadn't been raining so much, there is yard work I'd love to get done.  In fact, at the very least, I will wash off the entire concrete slab tomorrow.  Okay, sitting around doing nothing isn't going to happen.  I just remembered a bunch of organizational stuff I need to get done before my friends move back here, plus need to drive around the community and see if there are any houses available that aren't listed anywhere and get some stuff from Lowe's . I wouldn't mind getting the truck and bringing it home and taking it to a place down the street on Monday that details cars.  I'm sure they'll do whatever for extra fee.

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Tomorrow is now today and almost over.  I spent a considerable amount of time traveling around looking at bathroom vanities, attempting to decide which would be the best one for the amount of money I wanted to spend.

I mean, you can spent thousands on an entire setup if you really want to.  I didn't really want to, lol. I finally ended up at a Home Depot some 40 miles away and found one of their vanity sets on sale that really looked cool, to me anyway and was at a great price for the cabinet, the top and a mirror.  I saw a faucet set at Lowe's that I will go back to tomorrow to finish the deal. I'm half tempted to try and install it tomorrow. My friends are going to leave tomorrow morning to go over to same said town for doctor visits, I am going to go into that bathroom and see what it would take to remove the existing vanity and install the new one.  If it's more than a day job, I can't do it.  I'll have to pay someone to come over.

Because after tomorrow? I intend on taking whatever runs are dumped on me full the way up until the end of March. No complaining about it, the money is needed.  But it has been nice having some time off, even if not paid time off. My old job, I had weekends off anyway and didn't get paid for them, in my mind, it's really just taking a single day off without pay, which would be tomorrow. It will show, of course, 2 paychecks from now, but the next paycheck should be mighty fine.  So, I'm good with it.

Anyway, I also ended up building a fire in the pit outside - the temps came way down today, visited my friends at Chili's and basically enjoyed my Sunday.  Oh, all 3 of us sat by the fire for several hours chatting.  Social Club in the backyard, lol.

Never had time to finish this one.  Posting anyway.

So. I got home yesterday afternoon, I asked for the day off today. I didn't even hear back about it - I texted my manager - until I found it she had been in an accident.  Everyone is fine, thank God, hydroplaning incident that set her pickup off the road and into a tree.

Off course here: Note to oneself: need ottoman or other such thing to kick feet up on when lounging in front of desktop.  I'm not at an office, I don't need or want to be sitting alert and upright.  This is kickback time. I got this new computer chair and it's very nice,, but my feet are still sitting on the floor. Correction to this problem coming soon : )

I didn't let loose on my manager today, but I did relieve myself a bit. She's really too nice a person to let off steam on too much, I would rather go to her manager if it ever came to that.  She's really cool, trust me, nice lady.  But, she has a job to perform and that means sending us out on endless runs.  Nice and fine,, but I have to have home time. I've been out on 4 back to back runs.  My roomies informed me of that today.  That means, come back, spend a part of a day here and night and then back out the next morning.  That's not home time, that's just coming home to sleep.  Last weekend, I was home a total of 9 hours after being out 9 days. Before that, similar and before that, similar.  \

I asked her for tomorrow off, too.  This is what happens when you bust ass and just do whatever they want you to do. Experienced this all my life.  They want to run you hard.  Endless. Unless you stand up for yourself, they will continue to do so.  Sometimes it's because the don't give a s***  about you, other times it's because they are dumped with more on their plate than they can realistically handle.  She is dictated to by corporate. I understand where she's coming from, but at the same time, I have to have a life outside of a truck.  I make my case, civilly and politely, but I never-the-less make that case.

I'm 54 years old. I still have a lot of stamina, but I see it's not as good as it used to be.  I can still drive all day, but I'm awfully tired that night.  And after a really brutal day, I have a hard time getting up the next morning.  14 hours.  That's a long time being on duty.  It happens 70% of the time, I'm guessing. More often than not, I'll definitively state.

My statement to her in texting was that I have been running for weeks now, I need more off time than this.  These 2 other new guys? Getting a lot more off time than me, I know this from having conversations with them. Not about off time, but they bring it up and I wonder how they get away with it, considering the schedule I've been dealing with.  Okay, I know: whine and complain. It's whatever, I don't like doing that with management. I've put up with a lot of bs in my lifetime, at least in this case it's putting up with bs from a nice person.  Nice, but firm, when it comes time to get the deliveries done, lol.

She left it on hold. If someone shows up by tomorrow morning, I can let you have another day off.  I just want a couple of days off in a row, not one day here and there.  Most other drivers are getting that.  Some get much more than that.  Anyway, I''m bracing myself for a run tomorrow, I"m guessing I'll get dumped with it. It's to El Dorado, I think it's 3 hours or so away, can be a one day run if the loading plant and the unloading plant get it done efficiently. A day plus a ten hour break somewhere on the road, close to home but out of reach because of HOS hours if not plus whatever drive time left.  Probably less than 50 miles.\
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Welp, got called to go out. That was yesterday.  Of course it took over 6 hours for them to unload the truck.  No clue why it takes them so long.  It shouldn't take more than 2 to 2-1/2 hours at most.  They make you unhook the tractor and drive off site while they are doing it. So, I drove the 10 miles to the nearest town with a restaurant. Went into a burger joint, this place had all kinds of seafood, including fresh trout.  Uhh, yes, I'll have the trout please.  Haven't had trout in ages, it was very tasty and reasonably priced. Decided to get a cup of gumbo to go for later on.

On the drive back, my manager calls. We desperately need that trailer for tomorrow morning, are you going to be able to get it back tonight? I dunno, depends on when they are finished. Well, can you start your 10 hour break and get up early?  Didn't really like the question, I know when I get up that early, the day is fairly well ruined for me.  I just drag butt all day long because I am tired.  But, I agreed to do it. So, I got up at 3 am, drove straight back, got home, went back to bed.  I feel a little better after sleeping for 2 more hours but I know my body and mind and how it works.  I likely won't do anything today.  Unless a wave of "fresh" hits me and some energy comes rolling in.

Tomorrow will mark the 4th Sunday in a row that I have had to get up, go to work, get a truck and roll into the plant.  I didn't get my two straight days off.  I'm going to let that go and pretty much tell her that I have to have 3 days off for the move coming up at the beginning of April.  I'm not moving but I am obviously going to help move one household out and another back in.  We'll see how that turns out, but the request is going in Monday, Very well far in advance. 

Anyway, another trip to Illinois.  A different plant, but not that far away from the one I was at this week. 

I gotta say here, I don't foresee myself doing this job forever.  Maybe a couple of years, get my tanker experience with hazmat in and then find something local.  My company has local gigs, if I keep my nose clean and encounter no major self-caused problems, I should be able to transfer.  I don't mind going out for two days, but anything longer than that I just don't like it.  This next trip is 3 days minimum. The pay is awesome, that's the only thing that's kept me up until now. 

But this lie about new trucks doesn't go away. And now, my manager, who is trying really hard to keep all of us but is powerless about new trucks - she doesn't make those decisions - said there is a Mack truck in a shop somewhere, getting fixed that they are bringing up. She wants me to get in it and see if it's something I'd rather be in than this pile of junk I am currently driving. It's not new. I'm not holding my breath, but maybe it will be better than this thing.  When asked about new trucks, she deflected off that to the Mack truck. Obviously, there aren't going to be any new trucks.  This isn't the first time a trucking company has lied about new trucks - but those companies I'm not working for, either. 

I really just want a daycab, local job, home every night or day, probably home during the day and out at night since when you first start you get the night shift. 

I dunno.  Maybe over time these ridiculous time slots I'm being put in and days will be mitigated.  Like, new drivers get the crap that no one else wants.  She gives us the runs to make the money - along with the runs that don't make hardly anything such as this run I just got done doing, but she does that to everyone. The runs, that is, not the time slots and days you have to go out.  Some drivers don't care, I get that.  They live on the road, they don't have a home here near where the plant is.  But that's their choice, I don't live my life under the scope of what other people decide to do with theirs.  For now, I will eat this and get these big paychecks and force myself to be happy with it. 

And, if I stick around awhile, I will give serious thought to getting my own truck and leasing it out to the company.  There are a couple of guys doing it, one of which is very happy with the setup -  but he darn near lives in that truck.  I mean, he almost never goes home.  It works well for him because he has ladies all over the place plus his - wife at home. Note I didn't say I condone such things, that's just what he does.  He find ladies everywhere he goes.  Another driver that was stuck down in Brownsville - who claims to be a preacher - also talked long and loud about his lady liasons he has all over the place, including 2 of them he found down there. 

He is also married.  I don't get that.  I can't really get into that perspective because when I was married, I didn't even think about other women.  It's a commitment that you make to her to love her and stay monogamous.  That 6th sense that women have about such things, I don't wonder if they suspect or even know their men are out there doing such things.

Anyway, I've pretty much wasted the morning.  I am trying to get the motivation up to get over to Lowe's and see about getting a new vanity for the bedroom I will be moving into. The sink in that bathroom is absolutely disgusting.  And also some grass seed for the back yard.  I wish I would have thought of that last week, I could have thrown a big bag of that seed out and by now, it would have started up. It's been raining constantly all the way up until today. 

Looking at the forecast, tho, I could still do it.  It's going to be raining on and off this coming week, which is enough to keep grass seed wet enough to sprout.  That alone may motivate me to spend at least an hour out of here. But the rest of the day? Forget about it.  I'm toast. 

Finally Home

After 4 days, I'm finally home from this trip.
A lot of thoughts going through my head.
About this job, that is.  Politics and current news is another big thing that I focus on.

I was talking with the lady that also went up to Pennsylvania a while back, she was wondering why I don't just get my own truck and lease it out to them?  I have never owned my own truck.  I have heard good and bad about it.  I will think about it for a while, check into it, look at info on the trucker's boards about it and make a decision.

Meanwhile, my company actually pays for breakdown pay.  That's $22 per hour for every hour from the time the truck breaks down until the time you get in it to drive it again.  I didn't know that until yesterday.  That sheds a bit different light on all of these breakdowns.  But I can tell ya, being stuck on the side of the road isn't fun, at all.  And driving a truck that you don't know when it might break down again? Pretty much sucks. I drove that thing all the way back yesterday and today wondering if the thing was going to give up the ghost yet again.

I had given a little thought to owning my own truck after spending an afternoon stuck with another driver from the company at a plant who was in his own truck.  He makes a lot of money - but he's out on the road a lot more than I want to be. But, I have been out on the road as much as anyone there in the last several weeks.  Well, nothing I'm going to jump on.  I'll take my time and look into it.

There are a couple of pressing things, at least for me, tho that I need to deal with.  I can't be eating this road food all the time. It's just ballooning me.  You see fat truck drivers? It's cause they don't get exercise and they are eating the food you get at truckstops. Think Arby's, Wendy's, Carl's Junior, McDonald's, etc.  Subway is the only "good" thing out there.

I can load a refrigerator up with healthier food. Yogurt, zero percent fat milk, lunch meats and bread.  Left overs if I figure out a way to shove a microwave in that truck.  Or even eating cold leftovers never really bothered me.  Especially when it's right there. I dread the instances where I have to choose food from a truckstop. I opt for these bread and meat and cheese pre made sandwiches. At least they aren't laden with fat and grease.  But, yeah, I need a refrigerator in there and since I can't put the kind I want in there, I'm going to have to buy the cooler type.

You know, an ice chest you take on camping trips? Except these have a refrigeration unit. I've been looking at them.  The better ones are kinda pricey, but they keep the food colder and they are iceless.  I'm still on the fence about all of this, but I need to make changes for my health's sake pretty quick. I'd also like a truck version of a coffee maker.  Tho I really don't mind paying for coffee at a truckstop, it's hit and miss. Some places have excellent coffee, some places have really disgusting coffee that is gross. Some places don't change out the coffee if it gets old and even if it was good when it was first made, it turned disgusting over time.

But see, this truck. It keeps breaking down.  Are they going to see the reality of this situation and get me a decent running truck? Or keep me stuck in this thing.  Cause this is kind of a custom deal, you buy stuff that is specific for the truck you want it in.

_________

Okay. I just talked to the only lady driver in our division. Apparently our manager got into a car accident today. It's been raining for days now.  Her pickup hydroplaned, the rear end of it lost traction, spun around, slid of the road and slammed into a tree, replete with kids present in the vehicle.  Luckily, no one was hurt. 

Whatever the case, I'm tired, a bit burnt out, and I have a lot I want to try and get done tomorrow.  Time for sleep on my brand new bed : )

I feel better if nothing else. Went over to Applebee's - walking the pouring rain, I was soaked by the time I got there - and had some dinner.  No particular rush, I figured the shop will call in it's own due time and I am quite certain the plant won't be calling before tomorrow.  Not this late in the day.  I don't really care if they keep me here for a week. $22 x 24 hour a day x however many days. Well, it would be how many hours total but you get the message.
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Okay, that was yesterday - Monday.  Now. we're at Tuesday. I've been out on the road, a lot.  I'd really like to start heading home.  And really like to have at least a full day at home before going back out again.  Actually, I could sit here a few more days and get paid for it, that's not a problem. I just want a day at home, at least, when I get back.  Something tells me that's not going to happen. 

Meanwhile, the wait goes on.  The truck isn't fixed - yet tho according to them it should be no later than the end of the morning.  I need that truck to be here and waiting in the parking lot so that when they call me to go unload that trailer, I can boogie right out the door, fire that thing up and head straight over there.  That is, if that even occurs today.  Kind of thing up in the air here.  But even if they called in the next hour I would still probably wait.  Check out time here is 11:00 am and I really don't think, from what they told me at the plant yesterday, that they are going to be ready to do anything this morning.  I might as well enjoy the hotel room as long as I can.

Just trying to make some plans for today. Cause after 11, go get the truck if it's ready, then I can head over to Walmart and buy some cleaning supplies.  Really need to scrub this thing out.  They are hell bent on me staying in it, its going to look and smell clean inside at the very least. 

Well, that changed quickly.  Just got a call from the plant, come in about an hour to 2 hours from now, the man calibrating the tank wants to do it while the truck is being unloaded.  That changes my whole day, even my entire perspective on the day.   Now, I need to call the shop.  They had the part, they just needed to install it. 

Wringing my hands. Ok.  They are going to be done with the truck by 10 am, they hope. I have to be out of this hotel by 11 am anyway, so I figure to get an Uber ride back to the shop and hope they are just about done by the time I get there, leave here around 9:30 am.  Maybe a little earlier, actually.  I don't want to start the clock too early.  The Hours of Service clock, that is.  The more I have available after I get out of that plant, the more I will have to get a good chunk of driving to get home out of the way today. 

Well that's that.  Maybe, lol.  Nothing is ever set in stone around here until it actually happens. The truck might not be done, the plant may change it's mind, who knows. 

Anyway, I need to get my stuff ready to go. 

Well that was fun. Got up early, go up here to near Chicago, got into the plant, the plant operator walks up and says:  Well, go get a hotel.  Huh? Why?  My mind was filled with "get this thing unloaded, get as many miles back as I can get in with available that's left".  Not, gee, I think I'll sit up here for 2 or 3 days doing nothing.  Well, grin and eat it. I dropped the trailer there - they said they would monitor the pressure on it - started to drive out of the plant and the transmission on the truck started failing.

Yup, third break down in this same truck.  I sat there for a while trying to figure if I was doing something wrong, but after watching a few youtube videos on this particular transmission, I came to the conclusion that I was doing everything perfectly, as I had been since before I got up here.  I finally called my manager, after fooling with it for a while.  I was able to get it to go into manual mode, but only up to 5th gear.  And reverse. So, this dude calls me from wherever from within the company, trying turning the battery switch off for 15 and see what happens.

Tried, no go.  He said he would call a tow truck but had to go pick up another guy with broke down truck somewhere. Uhh, ok.  Off the phone, I tried turn the thing off again and leaving it like that for 30 minutes.  Back on, no go. Tried running it in reverse and forward in the manual mode but nothing. I would go above 5th gear and it wouldn't manually switch gears while it was moving.  So I parked the freaking thing.  Had it in neutral and the parking brake on.  Sitting there playing on the phone, the damned thing went into gear on it's own, in neutral and the whole truck started tilting sideways.  A foul odor came up into the truck, I turned the truck off.  Turned it back on, and then off again, etc. 

Then, magically, after an hour of this, the thing started working normally again. So, I called this dude back up, told him the stupid thing went into gear on it's own.  I end up taking the thing to a shop, A Volvo dealer who didn't want to look at it because they are booked up til Thursday. This guy tells them our company has a contract and they have to at least do a check on it. 

So, the trailer is sitting at a plant until sometime tomorrow - at the earliest they said, there was no guarantee they would even be able to unload it tomorrow - and the truck is sitting at the shop for unknown length of time and unknown issue.  Electrical, sensors, the shifter? No clue. 

My manager got me a hotel room at Holiday Inn.  I drove that truck to the shop, took an uber over here and playing the waiting game now.  Though, I admittedly got into bed and got a long nap.  I'm worn out.  This job is really pushing me to the limits.  Long hours, long days.  The first load - the earliest load of the day - is killer. That forces me to get up at 3:15 to 3:30 am, depending on whether I want to put on coffee or just blow it off and get coffee on the road and be at the plant by 5 am.  The rest of the day after that is a fight to stay awake.

Trucks breaking down like this, though? Really just drains me.  I just hate it.  There is nothing like about a broken down truck except the fact that I am getting break down pay and I am at a hotel for free, and, I am getting paid separately an hourly wage for about 30 hours (minimum) to wait for them to get the plant up and operating again so they can take the delivery.  That literally could be days.  I mean, it could be tomorrow, but I've seen these plants shut down for a week and longer.  I have no idea what my company would do then.  The contract forces the customer to pay for detention pay if the wait is their fault, which in this case, it definitely is.

Well the plant isn't broken down, they just decided that they needed to recalibrate a half million gallon tank that the stuff in my truck goes into.  They have to empty that entire tank and then what they do after that I have no idea.  Apparently it's emptying the tank that is time consuming.  A process I literally know nothing about, I just asked the plant operator a few questions about it, simply because I like to find out about things lol, not because I need to know.

Geeze that nap made me even worse off. I'm sooo tired.  It's a bad idea to take another nap this time of day. I'll just force myself to stay awake until around 9 pm and then I'll crash for the night.  Several decent restaurants within walking distance. 

Well, anyway, that's my current dilemma.