Merry Christmas!

It's -ummm - 5:15 AM Christmas Day, had my Christmas yesterday cause' today? I'll be driving all day long getting down to Brownsville.

My manager actually wanted to send me out yesterday, the next day after getting back from PA lmao.  I had to laugh. Dude, I have like 45 MINUTES left on my 70 hour clock. I was sweating getting back without a 34 hour reset.  

Allegedly everyone that didn't ask for time off is working today. Figures, these plants don't care if you have to work on major, national holidays.  

__________________________

Started that post - several days ago and got distracted.

Driving down to Brownsville wasn't without problems, the rubber came off of a retread on the trailer and of course destroyed the fender.  They didn't used to use retreads and they have been paying the price ever since in huge bills having both tire repair trucks coming out and mechanics to fix the damage.  Or piece together the damage, I should say, they certainly don't just carry fenders like that around with them.;  

That took 3-1/2 hours and I ended up using a 16 hour extension, which adds 2 hours to your 14 hour clock, to get to the yard down there and have exactly zero minutes left when I got to the gate.  I had to do my post trip on the street and then go in the yard on personal conveyance.  

No empty trailers for once.  The next day, they brought one in around noon.  The driver was going to drop it in the middle of the yard, as is their want, to let me hook up to it and leave. Versus backing it into a spot. Well, I watched him back the trailer up, crank down the landing gear which is when I got out - and saw the back of our trailer smashed into the front of another trailer.  

After a long ordeal of them taking it off and trying to fix the damage, I hooked up to the trailer and then - heard air hissing.  A large hole in a brake airline, they had brought it in that way.  Those drivers don't care about stuff like that, they are driving the trucks into Mexico and back, Mexico doesn't care about stuff like that, either. The only stop gap is if the truck is inspected at the border.  They would have put that trailer out of service for a problem like that.  

Another several hour wait and the ordeal was finally over.  Odd trip, all of those problems.  

Got back yesterday, leaving the yard, my manager of course asks me if I'll take someone else's load because they are stuck in Brownsville.  That driver is getting 2 days down there.  Doesn't matter, I guess, with all the breakdown pay and overnight detention pay I'll still be making more than he will for 2 days of sitting - but I"d far rather sit around down there getting paid for doing nothing than driving all over the place.

But, this trip isn't so bad, it's just up to Oklahoma and back, and overnight trip that should have me back tomorrow morning sometime.  

My package finally showed up after 11 days to my mom.  I'll never use USPS again if it's for an important delivery that you want to a destination by a specific time. It's not like that package was free to send, it cost $44 and I'm not real happy about the fact that USPS took so long to deliver it.  My letter to my son - I sent on the 15th - is still lost somewhere.  A toy I bought for one of the kids, same thing and a book I bought for Taylor - tracking says it's sitting in Brooklyn - yes, since the 15th.  It's now the 28th.  

Rumor has it that a lot of postal workers are out sick with Covid, I don't know, I haven't seen any news about it and I certainly haven't received any apologies from them concerning items shipped with guarantees to be at destinations by X date.  

Well enough of that.  My deeds still haven't shown up, lol.  I've found several properties that fit the bill for an RV park.  I have to make a decision on the Prudential retirement 401k. It's sitting at 66k, I'd lose 20% hit for cashing it out, I think, so that would erase over 13 grand right off the bat but there would still be plenty left to use as up front money for a loan to get the property, get a septic system install, run the water and power lines from the road, put up one of those portable buildings for an office, have a driveway and pads done.  One property is huge, it could house the RV park and have a lot of land left over for personal use.  Just out in the county, the ad says it's only a few minutes away from the Interstate. That would make it a near perfect location, people can both live in their RV's and travelers can pull in overnight.  Just have to check the road/s going in and out to see if they are good enough.

Well, my time is up, gotta get moving. 

G'day.  

Ok, well I guess I have posts that I started the last few days and didn't finish. 

I got back from PA, was talking with my manager, he had called me 25 minutes before I got back asking me - when was I getting back? Odd, really, he can look at the system and see where I'm at - I told him 25 minutes and he said fine, we'll talk when you get here. 

Ohh? I thought, what are we talking about?  I haven't gotten into any "trouble" so that statement was a bit disconcerting.  What he wanted to inform me of was that I was being sent out "tomorrow" and then another run directly after that.  I thought it humorous that he doesn't check anything that he can easily access.  I had to inform him that I was done to 45 minutes on my 70 hour clock, I can't go anywhere.  

OHHHHH, that's right! You just got back from Enery.  And a Brownsville run before that, all of that driving consumed my entire clock.  

It was somewhere around noon. Taylor and I met at Chili's after I left the yard, I was ready for some conversation in-person with people I actually know and like.  I really didn't do much of anything the rest of that day.  But the next day?  Sitting in a truck for 8 days?  Yeah, it's time to get some physical activity in.

The entire front lawn was covered with leaves from the oak tree - again.  I figured it would take 3 times with the lawn mower to deal with that tree dropping leaves, it's huge tree.    I got the lawn mower out, after getting laundry in the washer and went to work. I wanted it looking good, but really, I just needed the exercise pushing the mower back and forth and back and forth and walking.  

I was getting close to done and - zoning out, just doing the job and not really paying attention to my surroundings - James walks up to me. But totally freaked me out, lol, I just happened to look up and there he was.  Taylor wanted him to come join her at Chili's - she's working there now, to give some context, she gets a free meal every day - and he was getting the boys fed and dressed so they could come outside.  

Sure thing. Day before Christmas, pent up anxieties, the little ones needed to blow off some energy/steam and get it out of their system.   It took me longer to finish than I expected, but that was because I was also dealing with the neighbor's portion of lawn covered with their tree's junk dumping leaves and then, the rain or wind comes and blows it onto our driveway and then, of course, into our yard.  

But finally done? I did not go inside, the boys wanted to play and I was content to let them. It was a gorgeous, beautiful day, clear blue skies, the front yard completely cleaned up - at least temporarily lol - and I was happy to have gotten 3 hours of some physical activity in.  I actually would have started on the back yard - a total disaster and nightmare, but I was out of steam.  People think truck driving is easy.  You think so, huh?  You come spend the day with me that I just had and the 8 days worth of running I had before that and get back to me.  

And anyway, I had lots of laundry to do, it was time to go inside. The boys were happy to, actually, after all that time outside.  I spent ample amounts of time petting Addler out front as well after getting done with the yard work.  He wasn't just craving attention, he was demanding it lol.  Pet him for a few minutes, stop, and he would turn around, jam his giant head into my body and one of my hands - you will pet me and you will pet me now! lol

Umm, anyway, I put the boys down for a nap - they get really cranky if they don't get an afternoon nap - and got working on the laundry. They came back after that, I got out the rib roast, dressed it up and put it in the oven. As much as I wanted to smoke it, I just didn't have the time or the energy.  I finally got a chance to sit down and chat.  

See, the idea of cashing out that 401k and getting that business going just amped way up after I found several properties that would do the trick. One of them just outside of town, 1 minute off the interstate - that's a perfect scenario, but still have water and electric.  Sewage would have to be a septic system.  Kind of expecting that once you get outside of city limits.  The next door neighbor is the head of 2 banks, I'm going to ask him about what I need to do to approach a lender about getting a business loan. How much up front money do I need to get X amount of money loaned?

Why did I just throw that in there? Because I"m tired of working for corporate America.  Especially this company, who doesn't care if you have to work on holidays and all weekends and really whether you have a life outside of their company or not.  

Alright, well, today.  Loading was a breeze, getting out of the plant easy.  I got 460 miles down the road, 138 miles away from Brownsville - and a trailer tire blew out.  It trashed the fender in the process. My first thought? How many hours do I have left to get down there? Not, call the repair numbers first lol.  Cause' this is Christmas Day and it was highly likely that there wouldn't be any empty trailers down here.  

3-1/2 hours later, both service calls done. One to fix the tire, the other to jerry rig the fender, I had nothing in the truck to be able to do that or I would have done that part myself.  The clock? I was sweating that one.  Looked like a toss.  Get here in time to stop the clock and get in off-duty mode. I wasn't wrong, either.  I didn't even get into the yard before I had to deal with that  - but - I did legally make it down here with - no time left at the gate lol.

I was pleading for no empty trailers in here.  Sure enough, there wasn't a single empty in here.  So glad. Finally get some sit and wait pay and if it's too late tomorrow before they bring empties, I'll get out of the Oklahoma run that is scheduled for Sunday morning load.  

Well as much as I"d like to write more, fatigue has overtaken me. It was literally a 16 hour day.  And I'm ready to go to bed. 

Merry Christmas!

 Drove to just outside of Jackson, Mississippi, looking at traffic conditions in Jackson.  I've gotten stuck many, many times in ridiculous traffic jams in that town, losing over an hour of drive time on several occasions.

Same thing - long red line followed by orange line. Probably another accident, that's what it usually is.  I pulled into a truck stop and waited for half an hour, nothing changed, I gave up and quit for the day.  

Up early, traffic good, drove straight through there, all the way back to the yard, only stopping for fuel. My manager called on the way back, my bluetooth not working well, I was going to put it on speakerphone but he said don't worry about it, we'll talk when you get back.  

Get back? I've got your going out tomorrow, sorry bud, but everyone is working on Christmas.  I thought, tomorrow isn't Christmas and I don't have any hours left. I was literally down to 45 minutes on the 70 hour clock.  So I had to smile. Dude, I am literally out of hours. I just spent the last 8 days on the road.  He looked at me funny and shook his and said, wow, what was I thinking? I thought you were on another run, you were doing Enery (I found out that's another name for the company I went to, never heard that one before).  

He is way too overworked and it shows.  I don't say who I work for on here or anywhere on the internet, I don't want the cancel culture coming after me, my boss, other drivers, anyone.  My old work is on my Facebook, I don't care about that and I don't change it on purpose. People can call that company all they want, I will never be going back there, even if I become unemployed I wouldn't even think of going back to that lame @$$ company.  

Anyway, he told me a story about a truck that was in a peterbilt shop somewhere and how he sent a driver in a rental car to go get it after the shop called and said it was done.  The driver got there - well over 1,000 miles away - to find out it isn't done.  He drover back. Days later, done again. Driver goes - not done again.  3rd time?  My manager gave them an earful. Let me tell you something, this isn't a small company, we don't have 1 truck, we have 20,000 tractors and we aren't going to tolerate you toying with us like this - going on and on like that.

Peterbilt? Called my company and complained about him! Like what?  I won't repeat the rest of it here, but there were numerous expletives and a lot of things I just won't repeat.  Just no need to.

So, we both left - he went to get lunch, I went home, I knew from that that I would be working soon and I want as much home time as possible.  Sure enough, I didn't even make it home and I got sent not one, but 2 runs.  First one is Friday - yes folks, Christmas morning, I'll be up, out of here and over to the plant to load the truck.  To Brownsville.  After returning from that?  Straight back out to Oklahoma.  Can't really catch a break here.  Getting tired of this lifestyle, I've said the recently, going to keep saying it;.

To the point that other ideas are floating through my mind.  Get the land and get the RV park built and get it going.  How? Cash out my Ferguson 401k.  Use it as collateral for a loan to buy the property, get the permits, get the legal work done, install the utilities, a small portable building to start with, get the driveways and pads built and get this thing going.  I have 2 people already willing to help run this affair while I continue to - drive trucks.  

Risky? Of course.  Everything is risky in life. I could lose that retirement money and regret it. Or, I could start getting a decent income and replace it eventually with net profits.  I'd still have my other 401k, not as big as the ferguson one but it will get there within the next year or so.  I've been having a lot taken out every paycheck and at least for now, the stock market has been mostly favorable.  

I haven't, of course, even come close to making any decision about it, but it's a course of action that would get this thing rolling and not take - years - to actually launch the business. 

_____________

Dinner at a nice taco place with the family.  I can actually stand being alone for long periods of time, but there is a limit and then, I need to connect with people I know. It's ok talking with strangers all the time - to a point.  I'm going to let the kettle brew on thinking about my next steps on a business venture - but it won't be without action.  I can at least find out county requirements and if there are any restricted areas where they wouldn't allow such a thing.  I can start studying Texas law about people that pay, park and then don't leave - and don't pay.  Not sure how that works in such a venue.  Lots of things I need to do that don't cost money, just time.  

But after 8 days on the road? It's probably time to watch re-runs of star trek next generations or something : )

 I've been staying at hotels all of my life, even when I was a little boy my parents would parade around the country on random, last minute trips and stay at places such as the what-was-once the glorious Holiday Inns - they were really a fine affair and much fun to stay at. Obviously, a lot of people have been staying at hotels all of their lives - but in the last few years with this job I have I have been afforded on occasion to stay at what I would consider "finer" places - Marriotts to be specific about it - and medium caliber properties as well. 

They don't really put you up in low budget places, plus my company has corporate contracts with a lot of the chains and get reduced rates.  I know because I have seen how much it costs them and it's a pretty penny less than what you and I ordinary Janes and Joes would pay.  Having said all of that and having spent a good deal of time staying at Motel 6's in the past - when they were cheap - I can say that often times, even when it's on my dime, the idea of paying a bit extra for a better place to spend the night is usually well worth it. Now, I only spent $70 on this place, I am still in great wonder how well they take care of this place and the attention to detail they give and still giving lower rates than anything else around, yet being comparable to higher end hotel properties.  

Oh, I woke up early, btw, hence a bit of extra time, I went to bed early as well.  Anyway, I saw a Motel 6 yesterday advertising rooms for $59.95 and had to laugh, really laugh.  Those are bottom of the barrel brands.  They used to take care of them better than they do now and back in the day, I was only staying at them on vacation. In other words, they weren't a destination per se, they were just a place to hang your hat for the night and then get up the next day and move on with the agenda.  They weren't great, but they weren't terrible either.  Now, IMO, they're just terrible.  They used to be the cheapest thing around.  Like a 1/3rd to half less price than most anything else around, which again, back then, was quite appealing working with limited vacation budgets that I had to work on for months trying to get the cheapest everything for - everything.  Disneyland visits were Motel 6 - but then a place called Alpine Inn - and buying a portion of bulk tickets on Craigislist, using however many days of them up and then giving them back to the owner so they could sell the rest of the time off to someone else. 

It really saved a lot of money, including eating at least some meals out of the back of the car or going off Disneyland property to eat lunch somewhere cheaper.  I wouldn't do that now - at least currently - simply because of the money I am making, worrying about finances hasn't been a thing for quite a long time actually. That's a nice feeling.  It's given me the option to save more money and start investing.  A little late in life I guess to start investing, but now better than never.  

It just amazes me that the price of everything has gone up, yet in many cases, the quality or quantity of everything has gone way down.  I call that corporate greed in many instances and it's appalling to me to see what they can get away with.  Hotels are definitely no different.  As with Motel 6, the prices have gone way up but the quality has definitely gone down.  I wouldn't stay at one now unless it was somehow a last resort. I'd honestly rather stay in my truck overnight than in one of those s***holes.  

Alright, enough of that. In about 25 minutes I'm leaving here, heading to the plant where I will be for several hours.  The goal today is at least 400 miles of driving. The minimum to make it back on Wednesday is 200 miles.  That's if I have enough hours left on my 70 clock to make it back. It's going to be very tight, that I can assure you of.  I'm still not convinced I will make it back before Christmas, just really won't know for sure until the last day of driving and seeing what I've got left in hours versus miles to drive.  And that, only if I don't have a mechanical break down, tho I can go into off duty mode and save my 70, if it's bad, well, it will be days in the shop. Take a truck to Peterbilt and you aren't getting out of there the same or even the next day.  Just doesn't work that way.  

As it stands, the truck has been idling for 20 hours so I need to get down there and do a regen on the DEF system - they get clogged up or something after idling too long and it has to idle up the engine, create a lot of heat and burn it out of there.  Othewise? You won't be going anywhere very fast.  

Anyway, I best get this show on the road. A regen usually takes at least 10 minutes and I want to get this day started.  

G'day. 

 Arrived Allentown, PA, a few hours ago. They wouldn't let me into the hotel I picked until 1:00 pm - courtesy for they normally don't allow in until 3:00 pm.  They wanted a $50 fee to get in early and I balked at that.  Maybe $20, but $50? No. Can I wait out in  your parking lot? Sure, I have no problem with that.  

Just so happens there is a sports grill 300 feet away, I ordered wings in advance and walked over there to pick them up.  We got into a long conversation about this particular state and how the governor's covid decrees are destroying people's lives.  This sports bar/grill has been forced into the depths of carryout only.  Apparently no restaurants are allowed to have dine-in anything.  The employees are getting 2 days a week - where they were getting a full 40 hours.  A recall petition has been started on the governor hear- hadn't heard about this one gonna have to look it up- but if the government is going to simply destroy people's lives even after the businesses jump through the hoops of gearing up their properties to comply with covid restrictions, they can all go piss off.  

It's the service industries that have been getting hit harder than anyone.  I left a nice tip for the gal who said "you must be Ben" when I walked through the door before I had said anything. Well yes, yes I am, how did you know that?  I could just tell.  Lol, okayyyy.  I don't have my name plastered on my forehead, it was a bit odd but I went with it.  

My sitting time in the parking lot over, 1:00 pm finally showed up, but I spent a lot of the wait time talking to mom on the phone.  I text her all the time, hadn't talked to her on the phone recently, figured it was time.  She's debating whether she should go to the Christmas party that is allegedly only 5 people. My brother, his wife and the wife's daughter and mate.  She is really trying to keep herself distant from people in person.  I can't blame her, in her 80's, she has to take whatever precautions she can.

But she lamented how my brother's wife is in a retail service industry and the daughter is also and they are exposed to lots of people.  I couldn't give her any advice. Go - and risk it. Don't go - and be lonely.  I think take the risk.  Get a plastic face shield.  Do whatever you have to but maybe being with family and anyone, really, is important to your mental health.  But I didn't tell her to take the risk, that really needs to be up to her. I'm not going to be responsible for suggesting she goes and then find out she contracted Covid and then - who knows what.  My goals in life do not include inadvertently killing my mother, thank you.  And having to live with that, thank you again.  

Anyway, I've got 8 luxurious hours to do nothing.  In this rather nice hotel. Was surprised how nice it is for the price.  I wasn't going to go to the Holiday Inn again - they have nothing to offer. No food and terrible service - and nothing within walking distance to get something to eat - and for all of that nothingness, over priced at over $100 per night. 

 I found this place up the road a piece, called them and asked if they have any truck parking and they said yes. That was all it took. I saw the place I got my food from on the map, that was the other plus. Yes I brought food with me, no I don't want to be confined to it, I've been eating that food for 2 plus days now.  Not even breakfast have I had eating out.  That's why I come prepared.  You don't know if you're going to find anywhere to eat that has anything you want to eat. I'm on keto and I'm not flinching from it. I gained fat back on my extended time off from it and now I'm determined to get it back off.

So here it is, in the room with very nice carpeting, not smelly, nice quiet heating/ac unit, 44 inch flat screen tv with a very impressive list of tv channels, a mini fridge.  No microwave but they have one out where the ice machine is. I'll be heating up some food later, I ate wings from the restaurant but that was enough eating out, still plenty of food in the truck. I left it running. It's cold and I don't want to have problems starting it. This hotel was paid for by me - Christmas treat - and they would have had to pay for the fuel for it to run with me in it anyway.  

The 70 hour clock is down to 27 hours and 10 minutes.  Lol.  I still have 30 minutes to get to the plant in the morning before I'm started the trip home.  Right now, every last one of those minutes counts.  It's almost 1,400 miles back.  I'm lol because I don't know if that's possible in a truck that only goes 67 miles per hour, where I have to be on-duty for pre and post trips and for fueling.  Once I get to the plant tomorrow, it's going in off duty mode the entire time. I don't unload the truck, I don't have to be on duty.  I will, however, be freezing my butt off because they don't let you run the truck and I can't go wait in their office.  And it usually takes a minimum 3 hours to off load.  After 30 minutes, that truck will be cold lol.  

Other things. Mother couldn't understand the value of owning a divided interest in a property. Well how do you build on it? I don't intend on building on it. It's hunting property, 12 acres of it, out in the country, there will be deer and hogs on it, tho I'm only interested in deer.  I mean, if  someone built something on it (can't tell cause' it's literally covered with pine trees, from satellite view), but if they did it would have taken the permission of everyone else.  Let's put this in perspective. A deer lease costs at least $500 per year, most of them twice that price and even much more than that.  That's where you pay a set price to use someone else's land to hunt on it.  

At $1,100, I got a piece of a property that I will only have to pay property taxes on every year, less than $200.  I only need to converse with everyone else about the use of the property, but they certainly aren't going to stop me from using it.  Put up a deer stand and get out there and learn the art of hunting. I got a taste of it from a friend in Phoenix and going out with him on hunting ventures, but I only observed. A good thing for the beginning, but I'm ready to get with the program.  I'll have to go back down to the truck and get my papers, I can't remember how much the property taxes were, I'm just sure it was not that much money.  

The rest of the properties - will be in limbo for a while.  I have been looking to just get a loan on some property and buy it without all this tax lien auction stuff. But the prices are so incredibly high! 5 to 10 k per acre? Just incredible.  Minimum acreage for an RV park is 4 acres.  

 Yesterday - the beginning of this trip

The loading plant.

I get there, a lady comes running out waving her hands.  Okaaaaayyyy..... plant is shut down, you can't come in, park over there.  Must have happened after I passed the entrance to the operation - there is a red flashing light out there that comes on indicating a plant shut down.  So, I'm at the front of the line - and yes there was a line after it was all said and done.  Truck after truck after truck. This lady would wait until they drove all the way up to her and then she would tell them to go back.  By the time it was over, there were trucks backing up hundreds of feet to get to the next available parking space.  You know, versus her stopping them at the area where they would need to park?  

Getting into the plant, the scale is closed, they are doing construction and they are repaving the entire entrance and exit to the scale (about time, giant potholes everywhere).  So, going to the other scale, of course there was a line.  I got to the loading rack to find that the first load - ahead of me - had just started loading.  I went into my sleeper and fell asleep.  

After getting loaded?  Back to the scale house where it's all shut down and trying to find a parking space. Their temporary parking was full.  Going into the scalehouse, there were a dozen other drivers in there.  Another hour and a half wait. I lost 4 hours and 15 minutes in there yesterday.  When I finally got on the road, I drove almost 8 hours straight without stopping.  Yup, not even to go pee, I just huffed and puffed down the Interstates and tried to get some miles in.  Finally stopped to get fuel.  

It wasn't over after that.  Fueling was easy, took my 30 minute break there and got out of there, but I used my 16 hour exception - that adds 2 hours to the 14 hour on-duty clock. You can do it once per 70 hours.  I drove on down Interstate 40 and got a notice from GPS.  An accident on the shoulder, you are still on the fastest route.  Oh, well that shouldn't be a big deal, I erroneously thought.  

I got up to the traffic jam.  It was 3 -1/2 MILES to the accident site according to GPS.  That far at 0 to 5 miles per hour.  I lost over an hour and a half.  There were no exits in that area, I couldn't get off and just save my clock. See, I was looking at my 70 hour clock. It dawned on me that the Brownsville trip ate up some hours, I started this trip down 23 hours on the 70 clock.  At 70 hours? I either have to take  a 34 hour reset or if I"m lucky there will be hours available from 7 days prior.  I could be 20 miles from the yard and have to do that reset.  It's really going to be close.  I can't really say whether I'll be home for Christmas or not.  It's too close to call. Anything can happen to eat up time.  The only thing I can do is go off duty for everything but driving, excepting a few things I have to show time for.  Fueling and pre-and post trips.  

If it isn't any of those? I put that thing into off duty immediately, for off duty obviously doesn't count against your 70 hour clock.  I got up to the accident. Another destroyed semi truck. This was horrific looking. The entire cab of the truck was twisted.  It was leaning about 60 degrees off the driver's side of the frame.  The drivers seat area - the door was stuck open, the seat was partially hanging out the door, the entire area where the driver sits was twisted and caved in, the seat at an angle.  I don't know what happened, but the load on the truck had come off, it was 1-1/2 inch diameter steel pipe. I know this from 12 years of working at a pipe yard, lol, I can tell you the diameter of most pipe simply by looking at it.  They were loading that all onto trucks that had been brought in to haul it off.

After 16 hours I only got 547 miles in yesterday.  Today, no problems.  Lots of traffic but no real slow downs. 655 miles and I'm in some small town in Virginia not terribly far from the Maryland state line on Interstate 81.  I'm 185 miles from the area I will stop at tomorrow - I will definitely get a hotel.  I mean, I will be there at 10 am or earlier, probably going to have to hang out somewhere to get into a hotel, they don't usually let you in before noon or so.  I haven't decided which one, I just know that I don't want to stay in that Holiday Inn I stayed in last time up here on this run.  

Still, you have to find truck friendly places, ie: parking. I find that out by looking at satellite view of any property I am interested in staying it - you can clearly see if there's actual truck designated parking or if the property is big enough for a truck to pull into and park at.  \

I thought about spending Christmas on the road - if it comes down to that, I remember that I agreed to it to have Thanksgiving off.  I'm going to take the Mississippi/Louisiana route back along I-20 - if I'm only short 30 to 40 minutes - that's what I'm guessing this may turn into - I can stop at the truck stop in my town, park there, get a room and get a ride home.  Why get a room? Because my company will pay for it and it has a swimming pool lmao.  It's right next to the truck stop.  Anything can happen, I'm hoping for the best outcome. But I will suck it up and deal with it if I am stuck out here somewhere.  

My new fish tank has became the focal point of the house lol.  Everyone is interested in the thing, everyone wants to feed the fish, we're now talking about putting in fish tank specific fish in there along with the Koi goldfish.  It's okay as long as any exotics get along with my koi, especially. Goldfish are cheap, Koi are definitely not.  I may just wait until spring to put up my new pond setup.  It's gotten cold.  Speaking of cold it's getting into the 20's where I'm parking tonight.

But, I have plenty of cold winter gear. 

Well enough of this, time to go to bed.

 Friday morning.

Quick note.

Leave today - if the plant gets me out of there, one of our drivers was there until 9:15 pm last night and that's been happening a lot lately - get 650 or more miles down the road, do the same tomorrow, then arrive near my destination Sunday morning.  Get a hotel, spend the day lounging around, get up early Monday morning, get it unloaded - it takes hours at that plant - and then head back.

That's the plan.  We'll see. The truck is freshly out of the shop, there are no warning or engine lights, so hopefully I'm good to go.  

Again,we'll see, lol.

At least I got my Christmas shopping done and sent off!

Merry Christmas!

 Okay, well run to Brownsville was down and up. Got to the yard down there and found 3 empty trailers. Seems like the days of detention pay are over. I hear some getting it occasionally, but nothing like the glory days of padding your checks with sitting around and getting paid for doing nothing on most runs going down there.  Just means more drive - a lot more of it - to get the paychecks.  

Whatever. Jaxon had the stomach flu before I left so I was not surprised at the feeling of need to throw up on the Beltway 8 loop in Houston coming back today.  But then, I thought, perhaps it's that place I stop at and sometimes get queasy stomach?  It's a quick in and out, get food and go.  I'm going to have to reconsider that place, I've gotten a very upset stomach from there several times now.  Just habit, pull in, go in, leave, eat while driving.  

The feeling went away after an hour or so.  The manager called during that period, I completely missed that, I was busy feeling sick to my stomach, literally.  I didn't have the ringer on lol.  He then sent me a trip sheet and requesting to know what trailer I'm bringing back.  He could just check my Quaalcomm, I always update it with current trailer.  

So tomorrow, I'm headed to PA.  Didn't want that run, didn't know it was coming up, can't turn it down.  I probably have more hours than anyone else and hence I get that little lovely.  It's less than 1,400 miles, so I will be up there early Sunday, getting a room and spending the entire day waiting for Monday morning to show up so I can deliver and get out of there and headed back.  I don't have to get a room, obviously, but I have no desire sitting in a truck some 24 hours waiting in a truck.

That's the other concern, that wild storm going through there, but hopefully it's gone by the time I get up there and the aftermath on the highways is dealt with.  Because right now? It looks pretty wicked and PA has a ton of highways shut down to trucks right now.  But again, I won't make it up there for a couple of days.  

Well it looks like the weather is fairly clear until Sunday, lol.  I'll be getting up there Sunday. I have to look it up, but I know the hotel I want to go to. Decent, cheap enough, nothing fancy, but good enough.  The truck can sit out there and idle if it's too cold to allow it to be shut off.  I don't need problems turning it on Monday morning.  

Coming home today? Weird.  The boys were put to bed at their normal time, but shortly after I arrived, Taylor headed to her bedroom, James followed her and I heard nothing from them since then.  I dunno, I get different signals from them sometimes and I sit and wonder if my time here is over, should I be finding a new place to live, or is it just them being them, or what.  Oh well, I'll be gone 6 days - at least, they can have the place without me.  Kind of cast a cloud over my holidays tho.  James came out to the kitchen apparently to shut off lights the same time I was heading out there to check my food cooling down. He walked off quickly, said nothing and disappeared into his room.  

As I said, that was kind of weird.  This isn't exactly a normal household, I could be reading more into it than is actually there.   But I'll not try to text them for several days and let them have their space? I guess lol.  I've made a few friends arounds town, but if I were to leave here, I'm not sure I would want to stick around here excepting that I have gotten myself involved in real estate and would have to figure out some way to get rid of it to get out of here.  

Whatever.  I'll just go with the flow and see what happens.  

Well, it's time to go to bed for early rise and a bunch of grueling days of driving - with a reprieve in the middle of it.

G'nite.  

Yea I know, haven't posted since I got back. 

I was exhausted and I spent two days vegetating and sleeping and doing much of nothing.  

Today, tho, was much different. It's get Christmas shopping done and sent out - or don't bother because it's going to be too late.

Oh, the trip back from Toledo? Just a normal trip, at high speeds, spent the night midway back in Sikeston, MO at a Holiday Inn Express, decent hotel, good night's sleep, but still - exhausted.  I just can't do that many days in a row, 12-14 hour days, anymore without it wearing me out.  Well geeze, even younge age that kind of schedule will take it's toll on you.

Today, yes.  I sent mom her present a week ago, but this year I decided to do something different.  Go to the Ollie's store, buy normal stuff most people wouldn't think of buying for anyone for Christmas.  Plug in smelly stuff.  Fancy paper plates. Fancy napkins.  Smelly candles.  Kroger's gift card.  And more.  Filled up a large box with it - everything individually wrapped in various different Christmas themed wrapping paper.  

This is what she has been doing for decades for others, I am not doing it out of spite, I'm seeing if she would like to get such a package given back to her.  

Uhh, running out of time, bedtime looms. My son responded to my text this morning about what you want for Christmas, uhh, nothing really.  So, after Ollie's, wrapping gifts I went to the post office, dropped off mom's present, a check for my son and a card for a friend. Oh, that was after I spent a few hours on the internet buying presents for various other people.  

Well. Brownsville in the morning. I had 3 days off, not gonna complain.  Feeling better anyway.

That's it, lol.

 I contacted my manager twice yesterday about today.  Today? I haven't contacted him at all. I literally don't feel like doing anything. 8 grueling days have taken their toll on me, I need to rest.  I know that's not going to happen but I'm dragging it out until check out time anyway.  Which isn't far off I guess, it's already past 10:00 am.  

So I guess in a half hour from now I'm going to text him: I only have to return the truck to the yard 7 miles away. After that I need to either get routed home or go somewhere else.  

Gag, changed that.  I thought it was noon checkout, it's actually 11, so I had to text him.  I didn't ask what's next tho, lol, I just said "I only have to drop truck off 7 miles away. Checkout time at this hotel is 11 am which is 45 minutes from now".  

There. Not asking for another assignment before going home, but not going to turn it down either. I just need some motivation I guess - and probably some sleep and rest.  I'd actually like to fly home. I doubt that's going to happen, but that's how I'm feeling right now. Like, I got this over with, 2 separate assignments, can we be done with this? Or give me a day's rest at least.  Just go to Walmart, buy another bag for my stuff that doesn't fit in the first bag, get to the airport and leave here : )

________________

So what happened? My manager finally calls me and tells me "I hope you like your last rental car because you are going to have to drive it all the way to Longview!".  Umm, dude, that car is 210 miles away, turned in, I don't have a rental car now.  So he got me another one, and yet another hour and a half ordeal to get to the airport - far away - get the thing, drive it back to the yard and get my stuff out of the truck.

While getting my stuff out of the 4th truck and loading it into the Jeep, the head mechanic comes over.  Do you have the keys to all of these trucks? No, I left them in the ignition.  The conversation was changed to the horrid interior condition of the trucks. Yes, I agreed with him, they are horrible. One of them has a smell that I couldn't even define, it was horrid and foul.  He gave his explanation what I won't repeat here, he instantly jumped on my statement about that truck, he knew which one it was, gross, doesn't even halfway define the smell in that thing, Even with the windows open...  I said all of those trucks need detailed by professionals, if they think drivers are going to come and just move into this disgusting garbage, they have another thing coming.  

I was glad at least that someone actually got into all of them and were looking at the condition of them.  I simply couldn't believe that anyone could actually have done OTR in them.  How did they stand their own vileness?  I'm not overexaggerating this, these trucks were awful.  They have their work cut out for them if they want drivers to actually drive those things.  I would quit.  I would literally quit before being forced into that trash.  

I spend too much time in my truck, it's got to be clean. It can get a little messy, but nothing even remotely close to the landfillishness of these aberrations.  I have an actual garbage can and carry the 4 gallon plastic trash bags. I have various cleaners and paper towels.  I take out the carpet and the bedding frequently enough and machine wash them.  I have air fresheners in both the cab and the sleeper vents. I carry 2 bottles of spray to eliminate any odors.  I do occasionally spill food in the cab onto the flooring - which is rubberish type material and I always clean it up right away.  

Anyway, I got on the road, got 564 miles and had already predetermined I would stop here.  That by texting my manager - I need a hotel.  Sikeston, Missouri.  It's more than half way and I wasn't about to drive 1,036 miles straight through. I could have if I wanted to - but I didn't want to.  I'm burnt out from working so many long days in a row.  And there isn't any real need or rush to get home. I want to be there, yes, but not at the expense of my sanity or sleep.  Another free night's hotel stay, finally had the hot meal I've been desiring, I'm filled and content.  Sleep 7 hours, get up and drive out the rest of this trip and be done with it.  

So there it is. I had half hoped for more work, tbh, just needing a bit of time off.  Instead, I'll be home tomorrow early afternoon and I'm sure my doggies will be happy to see me : ) 

G'nite. 

 This day and the 4 round trips are finally over.  I'm still looking for that hot meal.

But, it took corporate an hour and a half to set up a car rental.  Driving down there, the manager at the other end said go ahead and go over to the rental place, I'll meet you there  "in a few minutes".  So I took one of the rental cars back and waited there 40 minutes for him to show up.  Between getting the rental and waiting for the manager trying to turn it back in? That cost me any chance of going to Texas Road House or wherever and enjoying a good, hot meal.  

I'm not feeling sorry for myself, I just want to sit down and have a full course dinner instead of piece mealing meals together.  Well, I'm at the hotel, pulled that rotisserie chicken out of the refrigerator and reheated it.  

I informed my manager this morning via text that I was going to be done with this assignment tomorrow morning when I take the truck to the yard, what am I going to be doing next?

No reply. Didn't really expect one.  Later on, when I was in Newell, WV, I texted him that all rental cars had been returned, I'm on the road and will be in Toledo tonight and will wait at the hotel until I hear whatever's going to happen next.  Again, no reply.

Why? Because it's not his call. It's higher up managers that are making these decisions about wasting a lot of money to move trucks around.  I just wanted to get the info to him early - I'm going to be done.  That means, start talking to them about what's next. Home? Vermont? What? 

Just moving these trucks has costed them thousands of dollars.  The rental car today alone cost them $445.  Why so much for only 210 mile trip? Cause that was the last car they had at the airport rental place - I have wiped them out with taking cars and not bringing any back.  They can and do charge extra for one way. Sometimes a LOT more, especially if they have to send people all over the place to get some cars for their location to be able to rent out.  The Newell location? Doing a booming business.  They had rented out the 2 cars I brought back yesterday and several more.  It's just one person running the operation plus a person doing the cleaning.  

Oh, and tomorrow, I'll probably need yet another rental car.  Wherever that's going, it's also going to be one way. It's that or they're flying me wherever.  Again, I could stand a day off.  This schedule has been grueling. I have had to listen to loud music or listen to interesting documentaries - anything to keep me alert - once I"m driving back from West Virginia. It works, my mind becomes quite alert, but still, I need a break.  

Not going to ask for one tho.  They have some place for me to go tomorrow? I"m going.  If it's home, it's only 1,025 miles from here, driving that would take a day and a partial.  I like flying, but if it's over with too soon, I don't make as much money.  Now, if I got stuck in Dallas again, I wouldn't call my friends, I'd just take the hotel and get paid by the hour for waiting for the next plane to Longview.  That would pay as much as driving.  

Now what. Well I have presents to buy, a 5 year old wants an Optimus Prime toy and I have yet to get one.  Just been too busy and once I'm done with the day, I don't want to do anything but sit here and phase out.  I don't see typing on a keyboard as a bother for writing these posts, but clicking on endless links looking for a toy?  Not today.  Oh and my normal present to my oldest brother and his wife, I need to get on that. Again - not tonight lol.  Mom's present is there. My son I have no idea what he wants, guess I best call him.

My friend running the house in Phoenix called today.  He thinks he's going to get a bunch of money for this mesh they put in for his problem he had 5 years ago. They put it in there, it failed and they had to take it back out. He was in extreme pain and spent days and days in the hospital. He went with a law firm that is doing a collective claim for as many clients as they can get against the manufacturer.  But it's been dragging out for a couple of years now.  The lawyers say Covid has put a lot of these types of lawsuits on the back burner.  I dont doubt that, but this situation has been going on so long, what was the hold up before Covid?  Mark - he's a good guy but he isn't savvy to lawyers and their double speak.  

Oh, the reason he called? Some gas company person decided they were going to come into the back yard today with out ringing the doorbell or attempting to contact anyone first. He undid the gate lock - have to reach through the gate to do that and just let himself in. Mark - happened to walk out back and saw him out there. What the h*** are you doing here? Who are you?  The dude says he works for the gas company and is checking meters.  Well my house doesn't use gas, it's all electric so that was a lie.  Whatever he was checking, I would have checked him, right into the damn wall.  And then called the police.  Mark cussed him out the entire - escort - out. He walked this dude out of there and said get the f*** off the property and don't come back here again.

Okay, Mark got mad.  I would have too, but I would have found out who he really is - or what he was really trying to do. If he was from the gas company, he would have known we don't have an account with them, we don't use gas.  

The neighborhood is distressed because a family that has been living there forever is moving out. They were choked on medical bills and can't afford the house payment anymore. I can say that even tho I sometimes complain about work conditions, I am working and that is better than a lot of people I know, including even one person I live with.  

Well enough. Going to bed, not setting the alarm. Get up when I feel like it or if I get a text or phone call from the manager.  

G'nite. 

 I always get amused when I see the amount of taxes being taken out of my paychecks.  

Getting angry, frustrated and violent wouldn't really do much good, so yea.  I mean, I just see the amount of the deduction, I didn't go into it looking at everything. Probably near $350 of it is retirement deposit into 401k, and something like $79 is for health insurance but the rest of it?  That's all federal taxes baby.  And to think that Biden wants to raise everyone's taxes.

Oh yes, I know he says it's only going to affect those making over 400k, but numerous analysts have said it will hit the middle class as well. Of course it will, the middle class always takes a big hit in any tax s*** they do.  This is one reason I don't want Biden or any democrat in a position of power. Biden is also pro choice, the Catholic church has been railing on him about that.  He's surrounding himself with far left progressives. Get the picture? Bernie Sanders got socialism popular, now they're ready to start taking the next steps.  

Let me ask you something.  When they come for your AR-15's - that's Harris proposition and her disgust with semi auto weapons - and if you have one, are you going to give it up? They are pitching a "mandatory buyback".  Sorry, I don't buy my firearms from the government, there is nothing for them to buy back. I don't have an AR but a really want one.  Any time an anti-gun person gets into a position of power such as the presidency or in this case the VP, gun sales and ammo sales go off the hook.  And now people all over the place are seriously starting to talk about an insurrection.  

And I've got to tell you this situation with the Presidency right now is baffling.  Trump is stating the election was stolen, Biden is moving forward with his plans to enter office, states are now ramping up a lawsuit and/or attempting to overturn state election outcomes. Where is this all going to end? I know none of y'all have a crystal ball, the most likely scenario is Biden is the next president and we have at least 4 years of taxation and outrageous legislation. No one can predict the outcome of the Georgia senate runoff races, however and the future of America and our Republic is at stake as far as I'm concerned.  

Will the Supreme Court take up Texas' lawsuit? 

Oh, well it's almost 9:00 am Eastern time, at exactly 9:00 am I will be texting my manager that I need another rental car.  It will be 8:00 am there and I try not to bother him as much as possible after hours, tho I've had to do that several times lately to get a hotel room.  Yes, I ask for one before he gets off work, yes he says he gets it done, and no, you get to the hotel and they don't know what you're talking about.  So now? He booked this room for 2 nights, the amount of time I'm expected to stay here.  Last night and tonight coming up - and then hopefully I'm out of here.  I've had enough of this rental car business at either end, it consumes too much time and eats up the day.  

Yup, 6 minutes off from 9:00 am.  Yesterday we at least got 2 of those cars turned in, there will be 2 more today and I informed the manager down there that I won't be able to leave tomorrow (now today) once I get there until I get those other 2 cars returned for I don't expect to be coming back.  There are no more trucks to move after today and I have no desire to do any more of this. If they want to move me on to doing something else, sure thing.  But these 210 mile trips and dealing with everything on either end is getting very old.  

I hear very little from home so I dont' know what's going there, but I noted that Taylor was at a business well outside of town for several hours yesterday, I'm curious if she found a new job.  She's been looking.  The last job she just couldn't deal with - was only there a short time before quitting.  

Missed opportunities in the stock market.  Now I know at least to start looking at stock of things that are related to any news. Moderna went way up from what it was in January. I was looking at that in the news today but also a guy was talking about it a few months ago.  He had investing in several of the companies making the vaccine.  You literally could have gotten rich off of Moderna.  Well not rich if you don't have a lot to invest, but a 5 grand investment, for example would have you at around a 35k return on your money.  Rich would be investing a hundred grand and getting back over 700k.  I could retire off of that and not have to do this daily grind of trucking.  

But like everyone else, I'm in that rut. There is a way out of it, at least that's my aspiration, but so far it's remained elusive.  The other thing I could kick myself for is my GE stock. I had thought about buying more of it at a low price and now it's up over 5 bucks per share.  

Well, I'm just wading into the stock market on my own, it would be foolish for me to dump thousands of dollars into any risky proposition with no clear outcome.  I got into GE because hedge fund managers were buying it up cheap.  I'm sure they're glad they did as well. GE is a "favorite" with these hedge fund managers, that I read anyway.  I wish I knew what info these people get for day trading or even just for long term investing.  I have no idea how they figure out what to invest in.  

Alright well text in, rental car being reserved, best get out of here.

 Another very long day. You'd think a mere 420 miles of driving wouldn't be a big deal.  Nope, the driving part isn't.  In fact, a good portion of it is on I-80, a turnpike, everyone is speeding and you get on down the highway in quick fashion.

It's the waiting on a rental car info, then getting a ride to the airport - 30 minutes away - getting the car at the airport - getting back to the yard, loading my stuff into the car out of the truck - and THEN you get on the Interstate.

At the other end, today anyway, was pleading with them to get some of these rental cars back to Enterprise!  I had 3 of them there!  Finally, the manager was there and he helped me get two of them back, the third is the one I drove in there today. 

So tomorrow, I will get - another rental car - and go back there, drop off both cars, drive another tractor back and be done  with this ordeal.  

You see, I didn't expect any of this. I was told two trips from Amarillo to Pennsylvania, there wasn't any mention of shuttling 4 tractors from point A to point B.  Or all of the hassle it involves.  If they were long trips, it would be worth it, but it's only 210 miles each way.  If I didn't have to deal with rental cars, I'd be done with this by now.  Oh well, one more day of this stuff and it's over. Whether they have something else for me to do - I will find out Friday morning.  

That has been the other ordeal. Getting a room. At the same hotel. Every night.  These people running this place had never heard of a crew fax before and they were totally clueless.  They said it didn't even exist at first, but after the fax shows up, now they have to deal with it.  Mostly by making phone calls.  Again, I have been all over the eastern half of this country with this company, they do crew faxes all the time.  It's not new, it's not unknown, it's just this place that doesn't know about it. Like, have they never had a truck driver in here before?  It's not just limited to truck drivers, but trucking companies use it a lot.

But maybe not. You can't bring a tractor-trailer rig in here, that's impossible.  It simply isn't set up for trucks, it wouldn't be able to make any of the turns.  But a tractor only? I can take one of those just about anywhere a car can go.  

Well the hotel ordeal is over.  My manager said today he had gotten me a room for the next 4 nights - but forgot to tell me about it last night, hence I checked out this morning.  So, he's gotten me this room until Friday morning, when I intend on getting out of Dodge.  High tail it out of here. He can send me somewhere else, Friday will only mark a week out here on the road.  I promised two weeks and I"m down for two weeks. Just not this kind of two weeks!  

I'm only 676 miles from Burlington, they could send me over there for a week or two and finish this off there and then, yes, please fly me home.  Okay, I'd like to be home or near there for Christmas. Like if I'm not home on Christmas day, be home the next day or the day after.  Really, tho, they were asking for people in Vermont, I'd go there for a week and a half or so and help out there, I'm sure people are wanting vacation time and needing drivers to fill in.  

But, I'm only going to say I"m down for whatever when I call him Friday - assuming this IS done on Friday. I've gotten lucky that these 3 trucks that have been sitting forever didn't break down on the way up here.  I've got that last one, but someone just brought that in from somewhere else, so I have relative assurance it will make it another 210 miles and after that? I don't care lol.  

And what AM I missing?  A hot meal, thanks.  I get done with the day and everything is closed or closing by the time I get here. Great restaurants in walking distance, they all close early. Must be a covid thing.  

OHH and the shop foreman today!  It's the yard where I'm taking these trucks.  I come walking in through the back door the shop  - it's the only way to get to the office from the yard - and he comes jumping out of a truck he's working on - you can't walk through here without a mask on!!!!!!!!!!

Notwithstanding the fact that neither he or his 2 employees are wearing masks.  I had to hold back the laughter at his sheer hypocrisy or making - comments lmao - and I just put it on and kept walking through there.  He's an authoritarian, I saw that from the get go 2 days ago.  He thinks he owns the place.  I tend to ignore such people unless they get in my face. It instantly seemed to me to be a better choice to just put on the mask than point out the fact that none of them are wearing one. He would just complain to whoever about it and I would look like the villain. He didn't want to hear about the issues with the first truck I brought in there - it was just an FYI statement, not a demand to fix it, I'm not going to be driving it so it's not my problem.  He gave me a look, that will be on the BOTTOM of my priority list!  

I said nothing further to him after that and haven't had any issues with anyone else at either end of this ordeal, at least.  

But yes, I want my hot meal. A nice, thick, juicy steak would be great.  I did score a rotisserie chicken at the Kroger's down the street. It was good, but not the same as a full meal.  

Did I say I'm missing a hot meal?  Oh, I guess I did. lol

Well I'm tired. Time to go to sleep. 

 I'm not getting homesick, but I am starting to get tired. This is day 6 of relentless driving and dealing with "stuff" all day long.  This 4 truck assignment is no piece of cake.  There are issues at both ends that make it seem a lot more hassle than it's worth.  Yes, I'm making good money, but this isn't exactly heaven here.

For example.  I get over to the yard in Newell, WV to get the second truck.  But before that, I go into the office to ask about taking at least one of these rental vehicles back.  I've got two of them parked there and tomorrow there will be 3.  And the next day, there will be 4.  Well, the lady running the place said yesterday that it was too late, she said today that she was the only one there and couldn't leave.  I mean, it's whatever to me. I may have created this problem by bringing them in there, I did not create this assignment and all that it entails.

After that, the truck wouldn't start. There was no mechanic there, they had hooked up a battery charger but it wouldn't even attempt at trying to crank over the engine.  So i went and got Subway dinner, keto friendly version - yes I fired up the diet again and so far I"ve been able to adhere to it.  In fact, I went to Kroger's tonight and bought some low carb frozen dinners. Literally everything for restaurants have been shut down here by the time I get to the hotel.  The mechanic showed up later, but by then the batteries were charged enough to start the truck.

However.  

Trucks sitting for long periods can create problems, including sticking brakes. I couldn't tell which one when I went to pull it out of the hole it was in but definitely at least one of them wasn't letting go.  An engine light was on. I couldn't find an EZ pass device - get me through the toll booths without having to pay anything. 

But the worst part? Horrid, awful smell.  The outside of the truck, spotless, clean, nice paint. The inside?  A hog's dream land.  Dirt, rocks, trash, filth and smell.  That is why I refuse to sleep in those trucks. They are absolutely filthy and smell so bad, there is no way I could sleep with that kind of horrid stench assaulting my nostrils all night long.  

Anyway, I pulled the truck up to the mechanic shop and the dude took it in there and got the brakes released and then adjusted all of the brakes on the truck.  Really good guy, he had another truck idling before I left that I am going to pick up tomorrow.  Drove the truck over here - to Toledo - got the same hotel as last night - with the same eternal problem in getting the reservation taken care of.

I contacted my manager 3-1/2 hours before getting here, he contacted me back a while later that reservation was made.  When I got here? Same thing as last night. It wasn't in the system, sorry charley, have a nice night.  So I sat there 20 minutes or so and finally the crew fax showed up, the dude working the desk got everything taken care of and now I'm in my room, kicking back, getting road wash out of my head and thinking about going to sleep soon. 

If this stuff goes as it has been, I should be done with this 4 tractor move Thursday night.  After that, I have no clue. More moves or go home?  I'd be down for a bit more- but with a day off.  

Ok I'm toast, time to go to sleep.  

 Long, long day.  

If I had known what was going to happen at the drop off location, I would have stayed in the hotel for a couple of more hours versus trying to get over there at 8:00 am.  The first thing that threw me off was that the drop off point was not owned or operated by our company. A competing company's yard, I was thinking, they must have given me the wrong address. But I verified it and sure enough, our company has an operation running out of there.  But it took hours from the time I talked to the manager there until the time I was in a rental vehicle, had my stuff out of the truck and headed out of there.  

I was pleasantly surprised that they gave me a 2020 Chevrolet Camero for a rental.  I have never driven one - well I drove old school 70's version muscle car style wayyyyy back when. It wasn't my car but I did get to drive it.  This car had some get up and go, it was also a convertible.  Too cold to open it up, I have never driven in a convertible with the roof down.  Oh well. It was in the 30's I wasn't going to risk getting some kind of respiratory infection/ailment driving down the road with the roof down.  Especially since at one point, I drove through around 40 miles of snow falling.  

Anyway, I got to - what is the name of that town - I drove through all of these little town and winding 2 lane highways with mountains and quaint houses and businesses. It was rather surreal.  You don't see stuff like that in the South.  I also got to drive straight through the heart of Pittsburgh! I hadn't been there since I was 10 years old!  My child hood memory of the place? I'd say it was half of what I perceived today.  Houses strewn out all over mountain sides and just no rhyme or reason to it. Kind of junky looking to be honest.  The incline still there, that thing has been there forever.  

The name of the town is Newell, in West Virginia.  And the lady at the office had no clue about any of it, of course.  It took quite a while to sort that out, then find a mechanic at another facility down the road where the trucks were parked.  These trucks had also been "sitting awhile".  To the tune of having to run 2 battery chargers to get the thing to fire up.  After that? Paperwork. The only thing in there was the cab card - registration. All the other paperwork was missing. Back to the office - the lady was gone.  Back to the mechanics shop, maybe they had something in there. Sure enough, stapled copies of the entire set of paperwork needed, including insurance.  Then I had to go find a fire extinguisher - mandatory in commercial vehicles.  

This truck had no mattress, no way I was sleeping in there tonight.  Did I mention that they are directly across the street from a giant Shell motor oil refinery plant?  And that the lady told me well if you need work, I can keep you busy hauling motor oil? ALL over the United States, as far away as California!  Yea, no thanks. I want nothing to do with Cali, especially with the hypocrite Governor Newsom and his outrageous shutdown decrees.  Still was intriguing. The little towns are really nostaligic and interesting to me, but I"m not sure I want to live in PA. Well, I"m 99% sure I don't want to live there and if I did, it wouldn't be my home town of Pittsburgh.  

Anyway, after a lengthy ordeal - and bewilderment that no one knew I was coming and therefore they hadn't prepared any of these trucks to move, I got out of there.  Drove across a draw bridge that had a sign "weight limit 10 tons".  It said nothing about no trucks, so I just drove on across. At the other end, an old man was shaking his head at me.  10 tons!  Yup, this truck weighs around 18,000 pounds, it's under 10 tens.  10 tons! again.  Sir, this truck doesn't weigh 10 tons.  You shouldn't be here! Sir? There is no sign saying no trucks, it just says a 10 ton weight limit.  He wasn't going to win, there was no 'no trucks' sign.  I wasn't over 10 tons, if he wanted to call state troopers to bring portable scales, let him!  

This dude wouldn't budge so I just said, well I'm not from around here. Which I'm not.  He smiled and waved me on lmao.  I was hoping that I would end up on Interstate - no desire to drive 210 miles on back roads, that would take forever.  Sure enough, I was on a state highway shortly and then onto Interstate after that and it was Interstate the rest of the way.  I only drove 550 miles today, but I feel like I drove a thousand.

It didn't help that when I got to the hotel here, the dude started arguing about CLC authorization.  There is a card that is issued for - usually employees of companies - to use when a company sends an authorization to use it.  But, there is also a crew fax, where the company authorizes an employee to go through the CLC system, but the company sends a fax instead of the employee having a card.  This dude - attempted to tell me there is no such thing as a crew fax.  I about busted out laughing. The entire 3 years I've been with this company, I've been going through crew fax.  

It got annoying fast tho.  This guy was totally unprofessional. I was/am tired, didn't want to deal with it.  I just stood my ground. You really need to go make a call to someone to find out how this works.  And? He finally did.  He came back and said, okay, you are right but the fax never came through.  Ok, fine, I'll deal with that.  My manager called them and they sent the fax over - eventually.  Instead of offering to allow me in the room - as every other hotel I've been to has done when this has happened  and waiting on the fax - he offered nothing.  Here is yet another hotel that is going to get a review that the chain probably won't care for and I don't care. I was never rude to him, I didn't raise my voice, didn't call him names, just stood my ground.  

Anyway, it's been an incredibly long day and I"m really beat.  Too much, actually, to try and go to bed yet.  Gotta relax a bit and get more into sleep mode.  

Nothing new on the home front. Still waiting on the insurance adjuster to send someone out. Apparently he is going on another vacation.  He was just on a 2 week vacation and already going again?  Without anyone to cover for him while he's gone?  Whatever. I'm glad I"m not there atm.  I don't need to be breathing in air that is contaminated with mold/black mold crap.  

I"ve got truck number one up here - well I have to take it to the yard in the morning. Then, allegedly, 3 more to go.  And after that I suspect I'll be sent home.  But, that's 1,600 plus miles of driving back and forth with tractors.  I doubt it will be more than one per day for the problem of getting a rental car at one end and getting rid of it at the other.  The camaro is sitting in their yard, the lady told me we could deal with getting it back to the Enterprise when I get back.  Lol, well I'll be coming back with another rental car lmao.  

Well enough of this.

Going to sleep.  

 3 rather long, grueling days are completed, I am in Bethlehem, PA and as luck would have it, there is no way to get a rental car tonight so I am forced to hunker down in a Holiday Inn Express (I like the regular Holiday Inns much better, but these aren't too terribly bad). I restarted the diet today - I've been off of it quite a while and have gained a good deal of fat back - and as luck would also have it, Waffle House is next door to the hotel.

No waffles for me, just meat, eggs and tomato slices.  A salad earlier today with a couple of hamburger patties, nothing else.  I'm not really sure I can do this diet on the road without having anything with me as I usually do, but I'm going to try.  

Oh, that horrid hotel.  The one I stayed in last night.  Quality Inn in Greenfield, Indiana.  I couldn't believe how filthy and smelly that place was.  I'm going to write up some reviews on TripAdvisor and other outlets about that place.  The carpet in the main areas of the hotel, the steps going up to the second floor from the balcony (kind of like a grand stairway setup) and the carpet in the hallway on the second floor were completely filthy. The walls were dirty and scuffed up.  Going into my room? A horrid smell came into my nostrils.  Putting my toiletry bag down in the bathroom? A cockroach came crawling out of the cracks!  I've had other such experiences at Quality Inns before, if they try to give me one again, I'm going to politely ask for something else.  

Tomorrow, everything going the way I see it going - as in, get to the yard at around 8:00 am, get into a rental vehicle, get my stuff out of the truck and into the vehicle and take off, I am thinking of attempting to make St Louis tomorrow night. That will be 872 miles of driving, a little more than halfway back.  That will get me back to Amarillo in 2 day, driving like crazy. But.  I have to find out if we are getting paid by the mile or paid hourly wage for driving a car back. That question was brought up today and I had no answer for it. I know if I drive my own personal vehicle to a company function, I get paid by the mile.  

Dunno, want to get that answered.  Because I have less motivation to get back there in 2 days if we are paid by the hour.  I can drive 2 and a half days and that would be totally legitimate per the miles driven per day but get paid a bit more.  In other words, go a bit slower than the speed limit and not try to cover mega miles in a single day. I'm out here to make money, I already knew I'd be gone up to 2 weeks, I'm going to make the best of this.  

Oh, I take that back. 48 hours on the road, paid by the hour is more money than driving. So who cares, get back in 2 days, get into the other truck and go right back over here - and then head home.   I really don't think I'm going to be out here 14 days, more like 10 or 11.  Actually be time for a third trip if they'd let me.  Yes, I know, a glutton for punishment, the entire time out here is going to be driving a lot of miles every single day, there will be no breaks from it and it will get old.  But I get to make up for lost revenues sitting around doing nothing and making nothing.  

Alright. Well it looks likely I'll have to drive back with that other dude that didn't quite come off so well on the first meet.  But, he called me today - I dunno who gave him my phone number - and we chatted for quite a while.  He didn't sound quite so abrasive as the first meet where he was demanding I wait for him to leave at 3:00 am - when it was 3:00 pm, plenty of daylight hours left.  So, it won't be so bad going back and even if we do have to drive together, I'm either going to be at the steering wheel cranking down the road or laying in the back seat sleeping.  I'd rather be sleeping, but I'll drive the wheels off the vehicle to get this 11 or 12 days over with, behind me, a couple of good paychecks and move one.

And with that, I'm burnt out and ready to go to bed.

G'nite.  

  

 Woke up at desired hour this morning via help from alarm - and went back to sleep.  Long days taking their toll, no rush, I thought, nothing I can do when I get there today anyway.  I'll have to wait until 8:00 am tomorrow morning to get a rental car and get out of there.  

So I'm a bit behind my time.  And I don't care.  No relevance placed on this truck ATM, it's going to sit until it's needed. BUT, when they need it, they need it right now.  It needs more work as it stands. It sat so long the front tires aren't round and creating a nice vibration.  Check engine light on.  Filthy, it needs detailed.  The best be finding a short person, too, there is literally no room in that thing and it's not high enough inside of it either the sleeper or the cab to stand up, I have hunched over.  I would hate to have to drive that thing full time.  

But, if they get those things worked out it will be a good truck for emergency use, ie: nothing else available.  It's just old school, the way they used to make trucks.  

Anyway, about to head out there and fire it up and get this day going.

Dreary, overcast day tho.  Not sure how far down the line that goes or if there's rain ahead.  And at 30 degrees, it's cold outside as well. It went down into the 20's overnight.  Of course that poses ice risks on the highway, but, we're gonna go and get this thing over with.

With that?

Happy Sunday.  

 Day 2 is over.  Almost 700 miles. This truck is so small.  My legs are cramped all day long. I could never drive this truck permanently.  It's like being crammed into a commercial jetliner where your legs are smashed up against the seat in front of you.  My knees are hurting from driving like this.  One more day, 600 more miles and I am out of that thing.  You put the seat in the furthest back position and it's nowhere near enough space for my legs.  The mechanic warned me about it at the shop, but what choice did I have?  

And the sleeper! There is NO room in that thing.  The bed takes the whole sleeper up besides maybe 10 inches of floor space.  It is, as I stated yesterday, a half sleeper.  There is no where to put anything excepting a miniature closet that won't even hold a duffle bag. It's big enough to hold maybe 1/3rd of my duffle bag.  

Complaining? Yes a little, my legs were talking to me today.  Keep my eye on the prize - a couple of extremely healthy paychecks will be coming up.  And tomorrow evening I will be in a hotel, out of that thing and - well yes I'll have to drive it to the yard Monday morning but that should only be a few miles.  Get a rental car, move my stuff out of that truck and into the car and drive back - hopefully anyway - to Amarillo for the second truck.  They didn't have this truck ready to go, so I don't know about any other truck that may be there.  

But, my manager gave me the truck number, so I'm guessing the thing is sitting there somewhere.  It'll be about 10-1/2 hours by the time I'm done tomorrow and then I can relax a bit.  There won't be any car rental places open on a Sunday evening, I can't go there, dump the truck and turn around an leave - as much as I will want to.  So it will be 8:00 am Monday I'll be waiting at the gate to get in and get the process of going back to Amarillo going.  And hopefully drive 800 miles at least, get halfway back the first day.  

My real concern is getting there and getting out of there before that other dude makes it.  I don't want to drive with him back.  Just don't.  That's another reason I pushed it today.  He cannot make it there tomorrow night. If he did any amount of driving, he's likely 300 - 400 miles behind me.  Guess but probably fairly accurate. So, he'll stop tomorrow after however many miles and he'll still have at least 5 hours if not more to go on Monday. Guy just came off wrong, I don't want to spend 1,632 miles of "quality time" with him. If I am forced to, I will sit in the back seat when he's driving and just sleep. I'm sorry, but I was around him about 30 minutes and that was enough to tell me that he isn't my cup of tea.  And my manager informed me to "do your own thing, don't wait for that guy if you don't want to".

Speaking of my manager, I texted him earlier about a hotel for tonight.  He texted back: I'm in a deer stand, I can't talk, please - do this that and the other thing and get a room.  Turns out he was with friends, he had already bagged a deer earlier in the day, didn't want another one - said he didn't want to clean another deer today lol.  I probably should have stopped in Indianapolis instead of where I am now. They have higher rated hotel names here  in this town I came to, but for whatever reason, they aren't on the list my company will allow.  

Which is strange, because I have stayed at all of those brands with this company in the past.  Must be a price limit thing? or some parameter that stops them from paying for those better hotels. I'm at a Quality Inn, and I must say it's not much better than a Motel 6, Days Inn and other brands of that "quality".  Well, it's not the end of the world at least the carpet isn't torn up and stained and the beds look - ok. I got some Chinese food - still haven't restarted my diet and not sure if I am or not on this trip. I don't have any food with me, everything is eating out - which is going to get really old, really quick. 

I came here because it's east of Indianapolis, I wanted X amount of miles done so I can be sure that I can make it to PA tomorrow - sans any breakdowns or blown out tires.  

Well, I could start at around 5:00 am. But I think I'll sleep a bit longer.  There is no difference as far as the company is concerned whether I make it at 4: 00 pm or 6:00 pm tomorrow.  It's not a loaded trailer with a plant operating 24 hours a day waiting on it.  It's likely the truck won't even be used until it starts getting really cold and the demand for LNG goes way up.  

______________________

And just like that, this pile of junk computer decides to shut itself off and do an update.  I timed it this time. 25 minutes from start to finish.  That's a lot of time to update a computer, as waste of my personal time and now it's time to go to bed.  

G'nite

 That's a long day.

Left the house in the rental pickup at 6:00 am, arrived in Amarillo around 2:00 pm.  My truck wasn't ready, they told me, they just went to Peterbilt to get it.

I hadn't been informed that the truck I was taking wasn't ready to go or that it had issues.........lol

Well, I've been to the Amarillo terminal many times now, I headed straight for the driver's lounge, where there was no one else, shut the lights off and went to sleep.  I mean, I drove 526 miles with a "rest break", of which I am accustomed to stopping between 300 and 400 miles and taking a 30 to 40 minute snooze, get up and finish out the run. 

I had it in my head to go ahead and run another 100-200 miles in the truck and get a start on the trip.  So some other driver came looking for the keys to my rental truck. Huh?  Yup, I'm taking it to the hotel tonight.  Well you aren't taking it now, I have all my stuff in there and I have to unload it unto the truck whenever it gets here.  

Must have slept longer than I realized, the truck was there, it was in the shop and a mechanic then came looking for me.  Come with me, I have something to show you.  That isn't exactly a good sign coming from a mechanic.  But it's whatever to me, I'm on the road, if the truck is broken, I'm getting paid to wait.  

The truck had been fixed at the Peterbilt shop only to have it code (engine light) after they left with it.  Mechanic tells me "I tried to get it to shut off, but it wouldn't".. yes, please tell me what's the deal? I've driven lots of trucks with engine lights on, is this serious or what?  Well, it's (some sort of valve I've never heard of before) and it's sticking.  But it (should) work.  

Another dude, a manager, says: Well you can just drive it, if it fails you'll have to deal with it somewhere.  Meaning have it towed or limp it in to a Peterbilt shop.  It's whatever again to me.  They're sending me out in a truck that has a known issue and they don't exactly know if it will make it to PA. I'm fine with that, this came from them, they know about it, I'll run with it.  If it fails? I'll be stuck somewhere for however many days and I will get paid for every single hour the truck is broken down.  

This trip is really a make up trip for all the lost hours not only this week - 5 days off - but also before my last run where I was also off for several days - unwanted days off.  I'm going with the flow here.  Drag this thing out.  I have until Christmas, I don't care if I go home at the moment. That will change, of course, after being on the road a long time and doing mega miles every day.  But, I'm going to get back what I've lost in time off - I'll be running minimum 600 miles a day, every day, car and truck, that's going to be a couple of very nice paychecks.  

Anyway, this dude - other driver - for some reason wants me to run with him.  But, he's out of hours, he drove a truck into the yard, I drove a pickup truck.  I had full hours, I don't have to log hours in a passenger vehicle.  He's really pushing it, I have no idea why, but then he said, are you okay with getting up at 3am?  I thought, no, why the heck would I want to do that? It's 3:00 pm, I can get some good miles in before I finally cave into one of the longest driving days I have had since my dad died and going to see him, I can sleep all night, wake up the next morning, feel good and go about my day.  

I didn't say that, I just played this out.  I finally said, well let me text Brandon and see what he wants us to do.  I'm thinking, if he says go with this dude, then fine, I'll deal with it. There is a host of reasons I do not want to have to be hooked with another truck going to the same place, but it would take too much time and writing, so I will just say it really causes problems. Brandon calls me 10 minutes later, dude, you just do your thing, however you want to do it, don't worry about this other guy.  This other guy also is under Brandon - but a different division so I had no idea who he was.  

He said that and I said C'yall later, I'm outta here.  Truck nasty.  Smoker truck. Not sleeping in it, my manager says he'll get me a hotel.  I'm all down for that. He says back, yea but don't throw this on me last minute, let me know well ahead of where you intend on stopping.  Of course!  Which I had no idea where I was stopping at that point, I didn't know what driving mood I had left and figured I could deal with that on the road. 

Leaving there, as I was driving I started thinking, well, I need to get enough miles done so I can get there by Sunday night, drop the truck off Monday morning and get a ride to the car rental place.  It's just my truck driver thinking, get this stuff over with as fast as possible.  And have some off time while I'm at it, they won't show up til 8:00 am Monday, the sooner I get there, the sooner I can relax in a hotel and bask in the glory of doing nothing after a long day of driving.  

I ended up in Tulsa, some 370 miles later.  I'm 3 miles short of having had driven 900 miles today.  My eyes are bloodshot, I'm not tired, I could have driven another 300 miles, but hey.  The company isn't going to complain about that many miles legally driven in one day.  I fully intend on driving back from PA in 2 days.  It amounts to about 850 miles per day.  

My manager got me a very nice hotel. It's the Holiday Inn Suites.  A 6 story affair, this room has a separate living room, kitchen and bedroom.  I was amazed he got me something so nice.  I don't ask for anything specific, I just hope for the best.  

Tomorrow I'll try to hit Indianapolis or further.  If Indianapolis, I might look up an old friend.  He's apparently unhappy about the divorce with Valerie and hasn't spoken to me in a long time.  Relationships in this modern age seem to be meaningless values with no set parameters.  I've known him since the mid 80's.  Good guy. Don't know if I'll look him up or not.  I'll think about it tomorrow.  

Otherwise, I'll try to make it to Spiceland, Indiana.  Not because it's anything special, but because it's the miles I'd really like to get in tomorrow and leave less for Sunday.  I always plan, plan, plan my routes once I know my starting point.  

With that, I think I"ll take my bloodshot eyes to the bed and sleep for a while. 

G'nite. 

 Well here we go.

First off, my tractor is at the Peterbilt shop. That's why I haven't been working.  I had no idea they had taken it to a shop, it must still be under warranty.  Would have been nice to know that so I could at least think "gee, I'm not working but I understand now why".  

So my manager calls me a few minutes ago, actually,  letting me know about the tractor and said I'm not going to have you sitting around any longer.  Cool, what are we doing?  I have equipment moves I need you to make across country.  From Amarillo, TX to the northeast.  Back and forth, you're going to be out a few weeks.  Yesss.  I don't care about that, it's alot of driving but that's my job.  I'm getting a rental car today, driving up to Amarillo, leaving in the morning and then getting a rental car at the destination - I have no idea where these trucks are going - get a rental car there and drive back to Amarillo and doing that for at least 2 weeks.  I'll take 3 since the work is available.

They wanted me to do over a month's worth, but my manager said no, he's a "local driver' and I can't have him staying out that long, he's not used to that.  Well, okay, I don't like it, but it means making some serious money and that's what matters to me.  Plus half the driving is going to be in rental cars, I can boogey at the speed limit - well I usually push speed limits at least 5mph - and get the return trips done much faster.  ALL of our trucks are set at either 68mph for OTR or 65 for local.  

Anyway, that will be constant driving.  I won't run out of the 70 hours since the drive back will give me a reset every time - however many times "every" time is.  It's what I guessed tho,  They need trucks up in the eastern seaboard to run LNG for the winter months.  This is a huge waste of money to the company, but they make bank off of the product hauled.  Now, what condition these trucks are in is unknown.  I'll be taking paper towels, spray cleaner and aerosol spray with me to "counter" whatever nasty conditions may be inside of those trucks.  That's gotta be a 3 day drive to the northeast from Amarillo. 

Yes, I figured it out, it will be $4,520 for 10 to 11 days work, maybe 12 if there are delays between trucks. My manager just contacted me saying I would be moving two of them.  He figures that's 2 weeks work - well not quite and I will ask for a 3rd trip if I can get it.  Take the work while I can get it.  As it stands, I just asked for 40 hours of vacation time added to next week's work - I've been off 5 days now.  

Ah yes, tomorrow's paycheck will suck. Next week's will be fully vacation hours. After that will be the small mountain of cash accumulated by all of this projected driving.  I will actually have made more this year for annual earnings than last year. Maybe not by all that much, but it should be close to 90k.  

Well, I have stuff to do now, lol.  I don't have my toiletries bag since it's in the truck and the truck is in a shop over 60 miles from here, so just gonna have to take from the bathroom and go with that.  

Anyway, now it's getting late in the day and I need to get moving.

G'day.