Well, here I am again at the same diner/truckstop I was at a few nights ago. Like for New Year's Eve.  they have some great food here.  But, when I came here New Year's Eve, there were hardly any trucks in here at all. Tonight? I drove around in here twice looking for a spot and finally just parked, partially blocking a lane. Went inside, had some great food and conversation.  Cool place.  I sat in there for an hour and came back out and just sat in the driver's seat, hoping someone would leave.

Would rather not stay in the "lane", tho this truckstop is a dive. Not a branded name truckstop, at all lol.  The "Travel Center" is half the size of any convenience store you might find and nothing is marked for parking lanes.  Just find a spot . Anyway, a truck came whizzing out of the hole it was in and I went whizzing right back into it haha.

So what's new?  I'm just biding my time, getting through this one day at a time.  A couple days before 2 weeks is up, I'm definitely telling them it will be time to go home.

_________________________________

That was last night. Got too tired to do anything but go to sleep.
Now, I'm back in Canaan, NY at a Love's Travel Stop.
I pulled in here thinking I was going to find a place to park - not.  I found a "space" that had had snow piled up but maybe, perhaps I could get the trailer backed in there. Well after a couple of pull ups, I had the thing lined out to get back into that space - but - I hit the unpacked snow and started losing traction.  Yeah, I said the hell with that. 

I pulled around front to leave and low and behold, a place where trucks prolly aren't supposed to park but other trucks there, I pulled in the last remaining spot.  I've been here for several hours and no one has said a word to me, so I'm here for the night.

I got the thing shut down, got the APU fired up and got the heater going in the sleeper and then went into the store - I need a shower.  I have several free showers on my Love's card.  I don't have to pay for them but I literally haven't had a chance to take a shower in 3 full days - yup, disgusting.  I got into the shower room - it's quite large just for a shower.  I mean, considering being stuck in a truck, it's rather "luxurious". I got into that hot shower and just stood there for 30 minutes.  It felt so good to just get away from all this fiasco that has been going on with this ordeal coming up here. 

I mean, on top of everything else, I found out a blizzard is coming through here tonight or tomorrow morning.

How did I find out?  I'm sitting in the driver's seat, waiting for the truck front heater to heat everything down so I can turn on the APU - it takes a while between the two - and here comes this SUV buzzing up, parks right next to me, gets out and goes up to the dude that is offloading his tanker full of diesel into the underground fuel tanks. The SUV didn't have anything written on the side so I just thought they were friends.  But, they didn't talk long and then the came directly over to me, this one dude with a huge video camera in his hands.  They knock on the door, so out of sheer curiosity I opened the window. What's up?

Hey, we're with whatever news agency, I wish I remembered what they said, can we do an interview of you?  Well I guess, what's up?  How do you feel about the blizzard coming in?  What blizzard?  I heard there was going to be some snow but just light.  Nah bro, up to 16 inches of snow.  I looked on my Iphone on the weather app and it shows anywhere from 4 to 18 inches depending on what part of this area you are in, PLUS, 35 degrees below zero wind chill factor coming into tonight or tomorrow morning.  WTH. 

I didn't sign up for this.  I haven't been in this kind of cold in years.  I really can't even remember the last time I was in zero degree weather, nothing recent that's for sure.  I started cutting it up with them. Yup, I had both of them in stitches.  What's to fear? They got me, the got the front of the truck, the side of it and the rear of it on film. Albany news station. Whether any of it makes it on there, unknown. Maybe a 2 second blurb, who knows.  Maybe not at all. They take 30 minutes of video and put 5 seconds on lol.  Whatever the case, umm, were they exaggerating? According to the newscast I just watched, not really.  Not to where I'm going anyway. \

I just got off the phone with a lady truck driver who also was sent up here from the location I'm out of.  She was disgusted.  They originally told us freezing babies and senior citizens, we get up here and find out it's - a university.  Well send the kids home and shut the place down, it's a holiday week anyway, there aren't any classes being held.  Not that simple, obviously, even if you send people home, you can't shut the heat off to everything and you can't shut all that stuff down without a major, time consuming ordeal to fire it back up. 

I'm just curious as to what I"m going to wake up to in the morning.  Nothing? 8 inches of snow? The alleged 35 below with wind chill factor? Who knows. I intend on getting up earlier than I need to to get to the place on time if possible.  Like I need to be there by 9 am.  It's almost 11 pm now.  I figured get up at 6:30 am, see what's going on, get the fuel filled up and get up there. It's 67 miles from here, just over an hour's drive - under normal conditions.

Well, I would go on but I really need to get to sleep. I've been on the phone and texting people literally for hours now.

Happy New Year's!

Well, sitting for the night at a Pilot truck stop somewhere along I-90 in New York.  Not New York city, btw, have absolutely zero desire to drive anywhere in that place. Not too far from Boston at the moment.  Oh heck, I just looked, I haven't written a post in a while now.

I haven't had time. You see, on Saturday, coming back from Oklahoma, our manager started sending out text messages to everyone.  We have a situation in Pennsylvania and we need a driver to go up there and help out. I knew I would be "targeted" for any such things cause I'm the newbie, but she actually asked everyone.  Just that a lot of the old time drivers are reluctant to do much of anything beyond what they normally do.  They want to be home all the time - which I fully understand, but there aren't any runs that have you home the same night.

She asked for replies by noon, so I replied.  We talked back and forth and I finally, reluctantly, agreed.  I mean, I knew Pennsylvania was cold, I grew up there, but I didn't remember how cold this entire region can get.  I woke up to -4 this morning.  Anyway, she said she would find out if they could use a person that doesn't have any experience with LNG - Liquid Natural Gas.  I didn't hear back from her.  Until maybe 3 hours later. And there she was, sending out mass texts again.  I didn't reply with anything - but how bad that sounds, the situation.  I was told that people would be without heat in some community somewhere if she couldn't find drivers to go up there.

I simply agreed to do it.  Okay, brace yourself, Ben, this is two weeks of being away from home in frigid winter conditions.  That was Saturday evening that decision was made, Sunday afternoon I was on an airplane to Philadelphia.  Philly has no great draw on me, I had an aunt that lived here long ago, she died, long ago.  I think I had some other relatives that lived there but they left the area.  It's all the same to me anymore. No matter where you go, there is going to be something "wrong" with the place.  Too hot, too humid, too cold, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes - you get the point.  

I asked a lot of questions, I was given very little info.  The info I was given, I found out, was completely wrong.  

I mean, the problems started at the airport. The plane landed we taxiied off the run way and then we - stopped. And we sat and sat until the pilot come on and said: "sorry folks, there is a plane stopped in front of us.  It isn't communicating with anyone and we don't know why it's stopped. It's in the way of getting to the gate we need to go to so we are going to have to wait until it moves".  45 minutes - 45 MINUTES  later, that plane finally moved.  

Anyway, the manager had come down to pick me up, he wasn't ecstatic about the wait but he could have just stayed home until I told him the luggage was beginning to get tossed out onto the conveyor.  

Long story short - for the first day anyway - I didn't get to bed until 1 am.  We - another driver from somewhere else - were given a crash course on nothing, because as it turns out, this dude really didn't give us much of any useful information at all except this is your truck, tomorrow morning you are going to hook up to a trailer and go up to a plant to load and then over to UMASS. Both of us drivers just looked at him and then each other.  We have no clue how to do this stuff.  Considering that type of product it is, would be nice for some kind of training.  

I was getting pretty uneasy about this.  So the next morning, the manager sent down a driver that knows his stuff.  He gave us a crash course.  Connect the two hoses here, open this and that valve, open that valve over there to build up pressure.  I asked a lot of questions since he was willing to answer.  At least I had some kind of knowledge about what I would be doing.

Fast forward, we get to the loading plant and another driver showed up with us.  He was knowledgeable enough.  He showed us how to do the paperwork - something the manager didn't do - and then said the manager was going to have him meet us at the LNG plant.  Ok. I drover over to UMASS - I had no idea I was going to a University, I was informed it was a community and that old people and babies alike would be freezing to death if we didn't get this product there.  

Well I got there late last night and the experienced driver told me about a truck stop near the delivery site.  So I went there and there is this old fashioned diner at the truck stop. Like walking into the 60's.  It was very cool, actually, excepting for the screaming teenagers at a table.  Unsupervised, definitely not even 18 and making a lot of noise.  

This morning, I find out the experienced driver's truck broke down and he won't be making it to help us unload. Great. I have a bit of head knowledge about what I'm supposed to do, I have no hands on training whatsoever.  So I get there, do everything I was supposed to and then the plant tech opened up the valves and let'er rip.  Only to have this almost 300 below zero cryogenic start to pop out of the vent stack.  Shut it down, shut it down, he was saying, so I closed the valves, this stuff pouring onto my jump suit.  I was like, what the heck?  So I get the valves shut closed and then this guy didn't know what to do.  

So, I got on the phone and called the experienced driver, who didn't know what was going on and directed me to another driver that does know what's going on.  He asked a few questions.  Well are all the valves shut?  Yes.  What about the bleeders?  I dunno, I'll go out and check. And sure enough, one of the bleeder valves was just barely opened - trust me I didn't open it, I wasn't doing anything with that stuff that I wasn't told to - and it was venting through the vent system.  

This has really been the day I have been dreading with the Ethylene that I haul, having to unload.  Welp, I got my feet wet now.  I don't care anymore, I'll unload whenever, if I mess it up, tough.  Today's mess up only cost a bit of time, nothing else.  

Alright.  Well I'm stuck here two weeks and that is the extent of it, for I will forcefully ask for a flight back home after that time period is up if it isn't offered.  

Oh, and yes, this place is the University of Massachusetts.  It's huge.  It's like a city within itself, replete with high rises  including 4 dorms that look like high rise apartment buildings.  I guess cause that's what they really are.  They have their own water treatment plant, electric substation and this huge plant that uses the LNG to heat everything.  And there was the problem. It is an unusually cold winter, the LNG is getting used up in massive quantities, the plant that normally feeds it through a pipeline is shut down and it's only us trucks that are the gap between either keeping the place heated - or not.  I doubt there are dying old people or freeing babies there, but it was a nice story to get people up there. 

The problem - the drivers that do this run have been going at it so long, they haven't had time off in over a month.  Some of them had to be on their 34 hour reset.  UMASS was basically saying get wit the program, we NEED this LNG.  So, the company has put out requests to all 10 other of the divisions to send any available drivers.  

I'm getting sleepy. I know it's early but I haven't gotten much sleep in the last two nights and I didnt actually mind the manager calling me saying that they won't be there to load me tonight, find a place to park, get on your 10 hour break, get up at 3 am and get over there as fast as you can.  At the plant today, I overheard the conversation: we have at least enough to last us through tomorrow morning.  WTH.  4 truckloads of this stuff delivered there today and it's only enough to make it until tomorrow afternoon?  How much money do they spend on this stuff every year?  I just don't believe them. 4 trucks delivered today is 40,000 gallons, give or take a couple thousand.  But, who am I.  I'ts definitely cold out here - around zero degrees.  

Oh well.  Anyway, I went into the Pilot a while ago and finally found what I had been looking for: a freaking pillow.  $6.99 for a small "travel pillow" but I'll take it over the nothing I had last night. I brought my sheets with me cause I figured there wouldn't be any, but there was no room to take a large pillow. Or even a small one.  My bags were cram packed with bare minimum I figured I would need to survive in the cold, have enough clean clothes to last at least a week and all the other stuff I would need.  1 large suitcase and a duffel bag cram packed.  

Belated Merry Christmas!

My Christmas Post - didn't post.  Oh well.
Starting a new one.
Well Merry late Christmas!!
So, well Christmas was great.  We had a smoked Rib Roast, some potatoes, salad and chocolate cream pie.  Great day, really.

But, I had to get up early to be at the yard early to get to the plant - early - to - drive all day long.  Story of my life.  562 miles one way, 562 miles back. Add onto it the trip to get food after I got to Brownsville. That is a drop and hook thing, you take a loaded trailer down there, you pick up an empty.  This time, there were 2 empties there. One of our other drivers - no idea who- was backed into a corner in the tractor only, not hooked up to either trailer.  Guessing those trailers came in after that person went to bed. 

I was actually kinda let down when I saw those empties there. I was really looking forward to another one of those deals like the trip I made to South Carolina where I had to wait overnight and got a hotel room.  I can justify a hotel room if I'm making $500 just waiting there for a trailer.  Oh yes, I can and will.  But, I got up at 7:00 am after 10 hour mandatory break, got on the road and got back here.

However.  I was informed that I needed to be on the scale at 7:30 am.  I have no qualms with my new manager, but obviously she is taking advantage of the "new guy".  I can say that because that isn't happening with anyone else except the other new drivers.  They get at least a day off in  between loads, unless there are hot loads that have to be taken and us newbies aren't available. 

Well I'm supposed to be in bed by now, but, I can't just come home, eat, say hi and go to sleep an hour later.  I guess I could, but after being out on the road, I want to relax, get on the computer,  check things out inside of a bedroom, not the inside of a sleeper. 

It doesn't matter, really. Tomorrow is a shorter run. It's less than 6 hour drive and doesn't have to be at the plant until Thursday morning. If I get tired while driving, I have ample time to pull over, take a half hour nap and move on.  I sometimes do that, too, if time permits.  The place I"m going to tomorrow is notorious for taking it's sweet old time unloading. Like 6 hours minimum.  I'm hoping to make it home Thursday night, but if they take too long, it will be moved to Friday morning. I"d like at least a day off after this next trip, but, I won't refuse whatever they/Ann asks me to do.  You don't make points by telling them no. 

I found out after getting there last time that the plant I am going to tomorrow has a restaurant right across the street from the entrance and yes, they encourage you to go over there and eat. This particular plant also doesn't make you get out of your truck.  Meaning if you are tired, you can just sleep. I can get out my computer and do my thing.  I can leave the property altogether and do whatever - within walking distance.

Lol, small town. Barnsdall, Oklahoma.  I believe it's on or near Indian reservation.  Whatever the case, obviously this plant is the town's livelihood.  It makes wax products and the stuff I haul is an intricate part of wax making.  I'm prepared for the long wait now that I know about it - nice if they at least told us newbies about stuff like this in advance.  I am hoping it doesn't take more than 6  hours or it will be another night sleeping on the road somewhere on the way back. Not the end of the world, I suppose, but home time is precious to me.  Vacations - another story. Then I don't want to be home, but driving for a living is not a vacation. 

Anyway, I'll get there early tomorrow. I'd come home several hours but I can't bring the trailer home and now way in hell am I leaving a trailer with that stuff anywhere but perhaps at the yard. 

Well, the tired buzz is catching up to me.  I could go on other topics but, not today. 

Merry Christmas Eve!

I'll tell ya what.  I was sweating it on a trailer showing up from Mexico on a holiday weekend, especially Christmas. Yes, folks, Mexicans celebrate Christmas, too, and they want to be home with their families for the occasion much as anyone else that loves this particular holiday. But, there's money to be made. I mean, I am going to get 15 hours of detention pay for it, so not the end of the world and frankly, I wouldn't care if they weren't going to show up for days.  Except on Christmas. perhaps a few other special days too, but particularly Christmas.

Oh, BTW, it's 1 AM. I'm "never" up this late.  Oh, yes I am after I quit the 12 year job. That job after it was brutal in terms of late night runs that had me up til the wee hours of the morning or had me getting out of bed at midnite, 2am, etc.  I'm so glad I didn't stick with that place.  Screw that junk. 

I had my choice, not given by the company, they don't care how I do it.  But I could have driven straight through today and get this over with, or stopped somewhere, take the 10 hour break and get back Saturday around - noonish I'm guessing.  I figured I would decide once it got late (for me) and dark - which is not my favorite driving time. If it's dark, I don't want to be driving.  But the closer I got to home, the more awake I became, at least tonight.  So, I drove on through, got to the yard, dropped the trailer and this time, drove the tractor home.  I don't need my car, I have my Jeep here and it work perfectly fine. It's not summer and hot - the AC doesn't work on it, I will get that fixed eventually, in fact, I will likely use the Jeep as a trade in on a pickup at some point, or, give it away to someone that needs reliable transportation. It still needs some work, but after I fix all of that, I may offer it to my son.  He may or may not want the thing, I dunno, but I will likely offer it to him first. 

I drove the tractor home because I am going to vacuum the thing out. And save the money on fuel going to and from the yard.  They company doesn't care, I asked.  It's a nice looking rig, too : )  Not some eyesore like the last company haha. 

Well, I got home at midnight and had already determined I would likely be staying up to 2 am, that's the way it's going to roll for me.  I don't just go straight to bed, almost never, unless I am exhausted. The unfortunate problem I'm having right now is that I'm wide awake.

Anyway, this morning, getting up and seeing no trailer for us sitting there, I found a dude that had come in to check pressures on the tankers.  It's a transition yard from Mexico to the US.  Much of the stuff has to be checked at regular intervals.  I was glad to catch him while he was there, cause' he wasn't there long.  Hi there, do you know if any Ethylene trailers are coming up today? Why yes, he said.  What time do you think it will arrive here? Umm, about noon to 1.  Okay, thanks!

So what did I do? Went to Denny's to drink some coffee and eat a light breakfast.  After that, I went to an ATT store to get a charging cord. Admittedly, I had replacing my phone on my mind, the thing has been screwed up ever since I took it in to have the screen replaced the first time and I was getting tired of it.  So, upon entering an empty store - everyone was at the mall I later found out - I asked for a charging cord. I stood there after looking at that cord. SOOO sick of the issues with this phone.  And totally regretting that I didn't buy the insurance.

Unnm yeah, I was there, I had time, I just did it. Got an Iphone 8, replaced the Iphone 6 and wow, this phone is very nice!  Love it.  No huge operation changes, took a little to figure out a few things, but it works! And I am paying the monthly insurance fee.  I learned my lesson on the last phone, pay the insurance. If you got to an ATT store with a messed up phone, the first thing they are going to do is look up in their system as to whether there is insurance on it, because if there is, you don't have to wait to send the phone into the repair facility, they'll just hand you over a new phone. 

Then, after we got through with the first phone, I was informed that ATT was having a 2 for one deal.  Buy the second phone "almost free".  Well, it's just pay the monthly payment on it for 3 months and then ATT pays it off after that, on a monthly basis.  So I opted to go for it for giving it to Mark and Lynnette.  I bought them an I phone 4S a while back,  which they are still in love with. Apparently the junk phone they had before - government paid for - was a piece of shit. 

Long story short: got a new phone, had to drive over to the local mall to get the 2cd phone, which was a total mess. The entire parking lot was brimming full - Christmas shopping. I got in and out of there in a hurry. When I got back from all of that, the drivers from Mexico had arrived and had just unhooked.  Got there perfect timing.

Ohhh! And when I arrived last night, this beautiful doggy greeted me after getting into the yard. I mean, let me pet her and yes- it was scraggly looking so I gave her some of my chicken dinner.  In fact, I gave her half of it.  And the biscuit.  She scarfed all that stuff up.  It was dark - so I didn't see her teats hanging down. I bid her a good night after petting her a while and got back into the truck to get on the internet.  A few hours later, I got out to do some business, haha.  Well, she showed up out of the blue, with two pups trailing her.  Yup, that;'s when I looked much closed to see her obvious state of post-natal condition lol.

The little puppies came right up to me, scratching on my jeans and wanting attention - or food - I didn't know which so I gave them attention since I had given all the food to mama. 

Anyway, I now have the hiccups and I'm getting seriously tired 

I will get rid of the hiccups and go to sleep. 

Well, here I am, in Brownsville, Texas. 
I drove straight down here after getting the truck loaded. Only stopped 15 minutes for fuel and 30 minutes for required HOS/Hours of Service break. I got lucky in Houston - it was well before rush hour and I only hit a snag going out for about 5 miles.  Last two times weren't snags. They were hellacious, bumper-to-bumper traffic for 30 miles, at least. 

I didn't know if other drivers were coming down here or not, but last time I was down here, there weren't any trailers available and you can't leave until one is brought up from Mexico.  I figured I'd get here as fast as possible and snag one if there was one here, guaranteeing my trip home in time for Christmas.

Well, it turns out, the dude that was getting loaded in front of me when I arrived at the plant this morning was also being sent down here.  Well he was 2 hours ahead of me, because that  is - at the very minimum - how long it takes to load one of these tankers. We me in the parking lot as I was dropping the trailer.  He beat me here, he had seen me waiting and must have asked the manager if I was also coming down here, he hightailed it here.  He has a friend that I saw driving back up from Mexico.  That dude informed him I was on the run down there, best get there for the only empty trailer that was available when I left.

So, he got the empty - and I am stuck here for unknown length of time. There could be an empty here before I wake up in the morning - or it could be days. Or, as the other driver feared, it's the weekend and the verge of Christmas, may not be one here until next week, after Christmas. I know it's only Friday night and Christmas is 3 days from now, but I have heard of drivers since I came to work here having to wait here for days for a trailer to show up. 

Any other time of the year, I really could care less. For the money paid in detention time, which basically just means you are getting paid by the hour for waiting, it's worth waiting.  For as much money as it is, I will probably make getting a hotel room a habit on any occasion where I have to wait more than the 10 hour break, unless it's only by a couple of hours.  I'd do it tonight, but I have no idea about when one might arrive.  Definitely spend the night in the sleeper and hope beyond hope that there is a trailer sitting here in the morning or whoever shows up that runs the place has good news that one is on the way up.

Ugh, I have to go set up my inverter, computer battery almost dead. And I may have a LOT of time here, lol.  Jeopardy music begin....Okay. Done. I bought an inverter not realizing it has battery clamp hookups.  Well it didn't show it on the package. I bought the smallest one they had, which was still pretty high at 750 watts. I'm just powering a computer. Anyway, I have to go hook the thing up to the truck's batteries outside and run a cord into the truck. Not a big deal, really, but a permanent truck wil have one permanently installed.  I'm just hanging out until 90 days are up and see whether I make their cut. Their safety department is pretty anal about everything they want.  They can't track me right now, which is probably driving them crazy.  This is a rental truck, if they want a satellite link, they have to install one. They aren't going go dump that kind of money into a rental unless it's a long term situation, which it apparently is not.

Tho by now, by their statements, I should have already been in a company truck. No worries for me, this thing hauls @$$, has lots of power and is huge.  I have this truck parked in the back of the empty trailer parking lot, perched with a view of the entire place. If an empty shows up, I will see it come in, or if I miss it while sleeping, Ill see it in the morning.  Oh, and I have scrubbed this thing out, for the most part. Still some hidden areas left to go. Still a faint smoke smell, but nothing as atrocious as when I first stepping into this thing.

Okay, well, my main concern is getting home and when that will happen. I am on detention pay right now. As soon as I get here, if there isn't a trailer available, it's detention pay until one shows up.  That's guaranteed 10 hours right off the bat.  I could wait all day tomorrow and not bat an eye. Well I would just get out of here and do something, not sit in this truck.  The trailer is dropped, waiting for drivers to come up and haul down into Mexico. There has to be drivers on their way, they don't have us hauling this stuff to sit in a lot.  The other driver from our company is backed under the trailer that could have been mine if there had been any way to beat him here. But a 2 hour head start is impossible to beat unless the driver likes to stop a lot. 

I'm just going to hold out hope, A lot of trailers are brought filled up with Ethylene on a consistent basis down here. 

It's getting late, I'm tired.  Time for bed.

Wait, I wrote out 3 paragraphs and they disappeared.  Like, that hasn't happened to me in a long time on here.

Oh well. Let's see here.  Well, I spent Wednesday driving about  6 hours and then the rest of the day in a hotel.  It's not hindsight, but I would have preferred a bit "better" hotel room.  I just couldn't find a place that had truck parking besides this place. I mean, the room was clean - sort of - but their version of remodeling was to overlap paint, overlap texturing and generally have a room that smelled bad for some reason.

I slept though. I turned the fan setting on on the window unit and put in my ear plugs and fell into deep sleep. Something woke me up around 3:00 am, but I managed to get back to sleep yet again after that.  So, I found a Panera Bread company place in the huge mall behind me this morning - I needed coffee and this cheap hotel wasn't giving any either in the rooms or the office.  I got my nice cuppa and headed back to the plant.  I was told to go through a back gate, that had another gate and another gate, all 3 of which would have to be unlocked.

Okayyyyy.........Well whatever.  I got back there and some dude was standing afar off, next to the giant Ethylene tank, that sucker went at least 80 feet up in the air - but the dude that escorted me in gave me hand motions.  Pull up there, back in there.  Then,. 2 guys from Airgas showed up in a pickup truck.  I was slowly backing around this stuff to get into the hole. The dude walks up - you need to get your rear trailer tire slid up next to where that guy over there has his shoe.  Okay.  Didn't bat an eye. The other drivers have been coming in here forever, they apparently wanted to test the new driver.  This new driver has been testing his backing skills for decades - for the fun of the challenge.  I've backed trucks up for literally miles. And into places they didn't think it could get in there.

And I can honestly said I nailed it. Right next to his shoe, stopped just short of running over it. Got out, all the PPE garb on, hiya gents, how we doing today?  But, they had it wrong.  Their hose wouldn't reach the drain tube on the truck. I almost laughed at them, but thought better of it.  Be nice, Ben, even if they're playing bs games with you, I thought.  Me making fun of them would likely get back to the company, so I seriously bit my tongue, got in the truck, pulled up about 40 feet to get it into position and there is this dude with his foot again. Pointing down at it.

Rednecks. I got that sucker right there, yet again. I got out, yet again and then, these 2 guys that know everything couldn't figure out how to get the air driven float valve to raise up.  I can't say that I knew either, I'm new to this, these guys have been doing this for years. . After I sat there and watched them fooling around with everything, I got in the tractor, called Ann, asked her to give me the phone number of someone that knows how to operate this thing. Well, Gary is right here. Gary - does know everything about this stuff.  I dunno how long he's been doing it, but if you need to know something, call Gary.  Gary gets on there - there are two valves on the trailer.  One on the back right side and one on the front left side. You have to open both of them to allow those floats to rise up.

Floats don't rise? You ain't emptying the trailer.  So, I got out, pulled them open and walaah.

These 2 dudes were good ole boys.  Not bad people,  in any way shape or form, but definitely rednecks and definitely of the "good ole' boy club" nature.  I'll give them credit, besides not knowing how to operate the truck trailer, they knew what the hell they were doing on the plant side of it. I asked a lot of questions, cause' that was one thing they seemed to enjoy doing.

I got much more of an understanding on how to operate that truck today than I have anywhere else.  I don't necessarily have to know how to operate the plant side of it, I'm finding out.  In fact, contrary to claims, the guys said the drivers have never operated the plant side of the operation. How long did it take you to learn all of this? I asked. 3 years.

It doesn't take 3 years to learn that stuff.  There isn't that much to it. I admit I don't understand all of it yet, but no-one is training me.  I'm just trying to learn off the cuff.  But there are X number of valves and there is only so much that needs to be done. There is more waiting than anything.

We were starting to wind this operation down when Ann called. I "missed" the call, cell phones not allowed in the plant, but was obvious people were doing that in their vehicles.  I went inside the truck.  "Are you finished unloading yet?  Did you leave the plant?".  No, we are getting close to done but not sure how long before I get out of here.  "Oh, well I'm trying to figure out driver resources here.  I have a load going down to Brownsville. I told them after we hired new drivers that I wanted all the Brownsville runs they have."

This wasn't bad news to me, I mean, I am not getting a day or two off, but I need to get some cash flowing here.  And not only that, I thought, if I take this run, I should be setting myself up to be home on Christmas.  I hate to see Renee home alone on Christmas.  I don't want to be somewhere out on the road on Christmas, either.  But I knew that was a real possibility when I signed up for this job and I'm the newbie. It's likely she couldn't find other drivers because they are taking time off.

I didn't agree right away tho. I was concerned about my hours as was she.  Is there enough time to get back there, get the required 10 hour break and get to the plant by the prescribed time?  What's the latest I can get there? 7:30 am. See, when these orders are placed, they are placed on contingent of the driver being at the plant at X time.  There is a time factor. These particular plants don't run without Ethylene. They seem to have reserves, but they don't want to use them.  Yet, they rely on rail to bring this product to them.  But, when the rail doesn't show up - they are on their own time and can take up to a month to deliver - they have to have it hauled in via truck. Which is usually next day service.

After I thought about it for -- a short period of time -- she intoned that she has 10 minutes to give them an answer, if she can't do it, they go to someone else - I said yes, I should be able to get this done.

And here I am.  I have to get up int 7-1/2 hours to get to the yard, hook up to a trailer and get to the plant. I'm supposed to be there an hour early, but I already told her after she said the latest was 7:30 am - when I'm actually supposed to be there - that I wouldn't make it until 7:30. Good!

I was going to drive the tractor home tonight to save on fuel costs.  But, my car drives a lot faster and I wanted to get home, lol. And, it's time to go to bed : )

This particular trip's saga moves on.  I was informed, after driving another 7 hours today to get here, that they weren't fixing to unload me until 7:30 am.  What?  It was 1:15 pm this afternoon.  I'm going to sit in a truck for 18 hours.  I don't think so.  She said, yup, we don't unload excepting early in the morning.  Look, sweetie, I know ALL the drivers from your company.  Her to me, that is, I wouldn't talk to a security guard like that, if they don't like it, they gonna get pissed and you are going to be on their "list".  I wasn't starting trouble, lol, just offering the info that was given me.  Okay, honey, I'll be back tomorrow at 7:30 am : )

That's about the time I decided to get a hotel room. Nothing fancy, but clean, a shower, a bed and free wifi, some TV to watch the news and basically some room to not make me feel like I'm in a little box.  I can spend 10 hours in there mostly sleeping, but not 18.  Screw that.  I kept trying to call and text my manager, tho, before I did that.  Like, some specific instructions? Some strings she might try to pull to get it unloaded?  But she wasn't answering. I could get her into so much trouble for that, lol.  This company wants a manager available 24 hours a day, regardless. No, I won't do that, hahah, just brought back the memory in Amarillo at orientation.

One of the drivers said he couldn't get a hold of her and I said the same thing - but we had NO idea how that was going to play out or that that was even an issue.  I'm used to having a manager you can't get a hold of.  Her boss went livid.  I mean, they blew this up into a huge ordeal.  I was like, wow! No, please let's just calm down! That wasn't intended to get her into some kind of trouble! That's the only reason I said that, no way I would turn her in. In fact, there is a lot of stuff going on that corporate has policies against, but hey, that isn't my issue. Some of the stuff these companies want you to do is really some serious control issues.  I'm not going into details here, however, not worth it.  Not that many reading this blog but it is public, not private.

Anyway, she did finally call back. Well, I just wanted to let you know I'm stuck here until tomorrow morning. Okay, thank you.  You are getting paid for the time you have to wait. Oh really?!!!!

After that call, I figured it up: 18 hours of detention pay.  That's almost $400 for sitting around doing nothing.  Hotel justified, Im at an Econolodge.  Got it on one of the hotel sites for $46.  Not bad, not great. Get what you pay for, but there are no whores in the parking lot and there are no roaches running around. Whether there are bed bugs or not remains to be seen. The flooring is brand new, 46 inch flat screen tv, nice bathroom, working heating/cooling. Microwave and fridge.  Not bad for that kind of money. I mean, there are better hotels here, but none of them had a place to park a truck that size.  This trailer I'm pulling is a monster. MUCH larger than the other trailers in the yard. Apparently my manager has a problem finding people that are comfortable with that thing. The tandems are at the very back of it, meaning very wide turns, having to swing way out to not take out curbs, lights and people.

Speaking of trailers, need to go check the pressure. This ordeal is keeping me from home, but the pay negates that.  And being in a hotel room further alleviates that.  If they don't keep me more than 3-1/2 hours in there tomorrow, I can get home tomorrow night. Otherwise I will be sleeping out on the road somewhere in Louisiana.  Anyway, that's what's going on. A 2 day trip turning into potentially 4 days, but it's enough money with detention that it all pans out.

Now, my oldest brother and his wife sent me a Pepperidge farm gift pack!  That is absolutely amazing considering the tensions going on between us earlier this year after dad died.  And his sickening statement that really, really pissed me off. I'm not really trying to mend anything with my middle brother, he has written my mom off and that is inexcusable. I don't want to say may he rot in hell, but I'm definitely in the arena of go jump in an icy cold lake, and that is putting it much more nicely than the thoughts that actually come with it.

How do you write your parents off?  Mom is sweet, loving, gentle, kind.  Just an overall wonderful person.  There isn't anything in her at this point in her life that anyone would find offensive.  Yet,  my asshole middle brother has decided to go the same route with her that he went with my dad.  Nope, I want nothing to do with him. I don't want to talk to him, I don't want to see him online - anywhere, nothing.  I'm not even doing this again.  I don't get it and now, I don't care if I don't get it.  He can stew in his own juices. He won't be there for Christmas at my oldest bro's house, I have been invited but I doubt I will be able to go. I wish I could, tho. Even just fly in the night before, go and fly back that same day.

Whatever. Life goes on.  Just trying to think when I might just ask for 3 days in a row off. I've gotten 2 without asking 3 times now.  Certain things I don't want to do, and one of which is make myself look like I don't want to work just coming into a job. 

Welp, I'm going to fix myself to get to thinking about heading to bed.  I don't have to be there until 7:30 am, it's only 15 minutes away from here.  I was looking around when I drove into this town.  Where can I park a truck if I need to? Once  you've been to a place, you know where you can and can't park.  Until then, it's just guess work. Helps if you get there daytime so you can see around.  This hotel stuck out because a truck was already parked there.  Not a single other hotel in this town - and there are a lot of them - that I saw anyway-  had truck parking.  Not that that is surprising, I've had my issues trying to find parking places as it stands.  Some hotels are truck friendly, many are not.

I dunno what else.  I mean, I'm just waiting to see what I'm going to be getting for paychecks after all the orientation and traveling stuff isn't showing up on checks, and this next one, coming Friday, will be that.  I dunno how good that one will be, but the next one after that? At the rate I'm going, it will be fatter than any check I've had in a long, long time.  Again, I could kick myself for staying at Ferguson so long.  I get loyal to a company and I invent excuses not to leave.  It will get better, I keep thinking, but it didn't. It just kept getting worse.  That manager can literally go screw himself, what a total a-hole. 

At the home front, Donny is heading to Dallas to spend Christmas with his uncle.  Rene is staying home and I hope to be there Christmas Day, for it would really suck for both of us if the house were empty.  I am definitely not guaranteed Christmas Day off. .The only thing I am given is $140 for the day whether I work or not. If I work, that's on top of it, if not, that's what I get.  For as much money as they are paying us here, one would think they would give a bit more for a holiday, but I'm not going to complain about it.  I don't want to be on the road on Christmas Day is all I can say about that.  If they have me out before or after, fine, I can deal with it.

Rene made her wonderful fruitcake- it really is, I despise fruitcake but this stuff is good - and gave me 6 loaves of it to take to work and a plastic container full of home made cookies.  The loaves aren't that big, lol, it's just that it looks like a miniature loaf of break. It's soft, tender and the fruit in it is totally drunk with rum, also soft, not hard and very tasty. 

She is now home alone.  But, she has 3 dogs to keep her company and numerous firearms to protect herself.  Firearms courtesy of me, 2 of the dogs my courtesy as well.  Addler does, however, get very cranky after I"ve been gone too long.  That's the report I hear.  He would have expect me back today, certainly tomorrow. 

I dunno what else. There's more, but I'm getting sleepy.  Bedtime. Not the longest day today, but I woke up foggy this morning and it hung with me half the day.  I could have slept for a couple more hours.  I thought I had to get her ASAP, as the paperwork states. Obviously, they didn't need it as bad as the paperwork says they needed it. I was really getting cranky - why have to wait around here for a day and a half because of someone else's bs? ...until I found out I get paid for it. That took alllllll of that away.  I have been hanging out in the hotel all day long, only left to get something to eat and go check the trailer a couple of times.  Pressures have to be recorded on a graph.  Every 5 hours. But I have been checking this load more frequently because of the issues at the plant.  If that pressure relief valve goes on the trailer, that's it.  It just keeps going from what I'm told.  High dollar mount of product vented into the air and a trailer that will need serviced because of it.

Not that that would have been my fault if it did occur. But not one is going to tell me I didn't do due diligence to go out and check the thing frequently.  I'll have to get up in the middle of the night to go out and check it again.  Which I don't like, but I wake up every night anyway, so not that big of a deal.

Okay, I'm getting off of here. 

It's - uhhh - Tuesday night.  I'm at a truckstop in a very small town named Calhoun, in Louisiana.  This truckstop is rather obscure, I only found it because I was hungry one day on my former job and decided to get off the highway and see what's here. Turns out, a large truck parking lot, a convenience store, diesel fuel aisles for trucks and a restaurant that puts up some pretty good food.  It's a go to place if having to stop in this area that I know there will be room for another truck, which at 7 pm on any given night, is not necessarily true at any of the big truckstops.  It's very much likely that they are already completely full and  good luck finding a place if you are almost out of hours.

This is why you see trucks parked on off and on ramps or wherever they can find, really  Drivers want to drive out their full hours and only leave enough time for the post trip inspection and to find a place to park, which means half an hour at the end of the day at most.  I've chiseled it down to 15 minutes at times.\

I didn't make it very far today.  I got the call for this run last night, be on the scales at 6:30 am.  Okay. I was there and I got to the rack where the truck is loaded, got the truck loaded up and then.....everything went south.  This dude comes walking in with the key to my truck - they take them away from you when you park the truck now. Undoubtedly, some idiot/s came along (truck drivers) and took off with the hoses still hooked up to the truck, causing untold amounts of damage and putting the entire plant at risk of explosion.  This is the world we live in today.  If one person screws up, everyone pays for it. I suppose it's always been that way, but I really don't believe to the degree we see it today. 

Well I got sidetracked but worth noting.  He didn't give me the key and he went to the back office where the manager is.  This office is a 40 foot long, explosion proof cargo container.  Anyway, they talked for 20 minutes and then he came back in, sat down on a chair.  Ummm, can you back that big long thing in front of that rail car over there? Gesturing to a near impossible backing maneuver that I agreed to without hesitation instantly - I love a challenge. 

But it wasn't really that hard and I didn't even have to do a pull-up to correct the angle.  And there it was, parked in front of this rail car. The rail car is full of the same chemical we are hauling and also was rejected by the plant it was sent too - too hot.  Not exactly sure yet all of this terminology, but it means that it is getting too warm because it was in the car too long and is now heating up, causing too much vapor and therefore causing too much pressure. It was the pressure they didn't like and they had no way to cool it back down.  Send it back to the plant. 

It was explained to me that there is a "travel time life" for this chemical. It is down to the hour.  One trailer might say 1,771 hours and another less than 1,000. It depends on the trailer and the insulation used - but now they have jackets of space between the inner tube and the outer shell. They draw the vacuum down and that insulates it.  I'm no expert, just explaining it how it was explained to me.  Anyway, those hours mentioned are how long this stuff can travel before it begins to heat up.  And once it does that, it starts turning to vapor and the vapor causes pressure and yes, there are pressure limitations to any of these truck trailers or even the rail cars. 

What they decided to do was pump the stuff into my trailer and see if it would cool down - which it didn't do. The pressure went WAY up high.  Like, no thanks, I'm not hauling that high, though I never had to say that, they determined that before I even knew what was going on.  You can assume that I am asking a LOT of questions to anyone that knows anything about this stuff and how it is handled. 

The day went to hell after that.  I mean, I can handle waiting, but for 10 hours? I was going stir crazy.  They were waiting on another specific truck to show up to pump half my trailer's worth of ethylene into and then pump plant made ethylene into the rest of it to see if that would work. They wanted to deal with this rather than burn it.  Oh yes, they have those giant burners you see at some plants standing way up in the sky.  Well it turns out, that truck never showed up and the dude started making phone calls, first to Groendyke (100% sure if you have spent any time on an Interstate you have seen their trucks). The lady said no, that's not on our list. Then to my manager. I was sitting there listening to all of this.

The guy said, well, do you have a trailer to be loaded for Baker for the 19th? No, she said, but she started looking. Nope, I have one for today, the 20th, but I didn't have one for the 19th.  Well, the problem with that is that today IS the 19th, not the 20th, she had her days messed up and I can only imagine the mess she must have had to clean up with that one, besides what happened here today. Anyway, she found a truck to come get loaded. Well I dunno what that driver was doing, but it doesn't take 2 and a half freaking hours to get to that plant. 

The workers eventually gave up on it and hooked the rail car up to my tanker through their rather elaborate system of pipes and it...took...forever. Hour after hour.  Driver after driver coming in, getting loaded on the regular rack.  I was getting tired of talking. I mean, I like to talk, but these drivers would get in, sit down and start it up. This went on for 10 solid hours.  I was dead. I didn't sleep that well last night, it happens often enough and I don't even care anymore except making for a long day and likely not wanting to talk to 10 different people for that length of time. But, I didn't want to be rude and we are in this confined space. You are not allowed to walk around the facility unless you are using a port-a-potty or going to the designated smoking area.

Whatever. They finally called it good to go. Are you sure? Cause' I sure has heck don't want problems on the road. Yup, the pressure is holding steady.  I was a bit nervous about that, but I left that area, went to their scales, weight out at 77,940 pounds, parked to go get my paperwork from inside but instead went to the back of the trailer, opened up the doors and looked at the gauges. 33 inches and 22 pounds of pressure.  The pressure is what I'm interested in, I don't care about the inches.  I don't know if I should be, but that's just the liquid level.  Nobody cares about that, it's the vapor pressure that is the concern. Cause' honey, if it gets to a certain level, the release valve will open and it won't stop. Not only do you lose a huge amount of money into the thin blue air, the trailer has to be put out of service, sent into a shop and a large bill attached to repairing it. I'm looking to avoid that at all costs. They would rather you find a place away from civilization or at least any people and vent it.  It's highly flammable, explosive I am told and a cigarette butte thrown out a car window can ignite it. 

Moving on.  I have a little while left. I was trying to figure out where to connect my new inverter, couldn't find anything, couldn't find anything on the internet besides a bunch of people that want to make videos to assert how much they know but impart zero knowledge to you and then decided to just hook it up to the main batteries so I can run my computer.  Turns out the computer's power cord reaches that far.  I couldn't fire this laptop up. It was at full charge when I shut it down so I'm a bit perplexed how it got to zero power. 

Anyway, I did end up visiting my friend in Atlanta on Saturday night, on the way back from a plant. It worked out well for my hours of service.  I didn't have to be back by any particular time and I knew I wouldn't be back before Sunday evening, so what the heck. The toddler remembered me after about 5 minutes.  We hadn't seen each other since they left - which has been over a year now.  It was very cool to hang out with them, I took them out to a steak house and we had a great time for a couple of hours.

The problem, however, was the places she said I could park a truck? No truck parking signs everywhere.  These were within a stone's throw of her townhouse.  Uhh I didn't say I was there on texting, I just started driving around, looking for a place.  It was Saturday night, surely there must be some business, somewhere, that is shut down for the weekend. I struck gold when I turned into an industrial park - the entrance directly across the street from 6 Flags delivery entrance.  I drove through there once and found a huge place for trailers, but no trucks in there and green lights flashing at dock bays. Meaning to me I couldn't park here.

My second run through, I saw a "truck entrance" at a Christian day school center. Huh? I drove in there. A bunch of trailers in the back, but the entire place was deserted.  I had found my parking spot.  It was cold enough outside - 34 degrees - the entire trailer iced over. This stuff is 130 degrees below zero, it is going to greet outside cold weather with open arms. Taylor, can you come pick me up? She was there in 2 minutes. I had found a place only a quarter mile from her house. 

I got to their place, greeted everyone, and then we went out to eat. It was about a 3 hour visit. Much too short, but I couldn't spend the night, I needed to stay with the truck.  You have to check the pressures every 5 hours, and anyway, I was leaving early.  6 am. She wouldn't have wanted to get up to take me back there, she has a routine with those kids and I wanted to respect that. 

It was a great visit, it was so good to see them, I can only wish they can come back sometime soon. It will be a whole different lifestyle than what I have now, but that is the lifestyle I was living with before they left. 

Okay.  I"m running out of steam and so much I want to write. But, the next shocker for me: my brother actually texted me, thanking me for the Omaha Steaks! I just can't go into all of that right now, but I will say that he went into the fact that he is a juror on a case about a man that left his 2 year old son in a car in Phoenix in the hot summer for 2-1/2 hours. The kid died.  My bro would only give me info that the news has already reported, as such as he is bound to do so.  Didn't try to pry him for more info, I thought cool, he's actually talking to me.  I might expand on all of that on a future post, but it's past my bedtime now, which isn't a big deal.  I can go to bed an hour late and be fine the next day.

There's more, much more actually, but this fatigue has suddenly caught up with me. I learned long ago, when you get hit with that? You have a window of opportunity to go to sleep. Maybe half an hour or so. If you stay up beyond that, you are likely not going to have a very good night's sleep. It's taking me time to get used to the feel of sleeping with a truck engine on, but I am not going to turn the truck off either when it's hot, warm or cold. Right now, it's muggy and warm outside, which is amazing being we are in December.

Well, Merry Christmas to whoever reads this and I will post again soon.

I've been short on time for posting. I could have earlier today, but I was busy getting stuff done. As it stands, I was called at 9am - after getting home from a 3 plus day run - to go to a run to Illinois. I would have taken that run, too, but I had stuff going on at that moment I was trying to get rectified. I didn't refuse the load, just the manager said she had someone else that might could take it when she called me.

I said, cool, if he can't do it, I'll take it.  She texted me 10 minutes later: he took the run.  Good, because I spent the day getting stuff done and in a little over 7 hours from now, I have to get up and get off to the plant to get loaded and take it to a place in Alabama. From my estimation, it's a 2 day run. And at the rate I'm going, I can see where 80k plus per year is easily obtainable. I'm ready for a permanent truck, tho.  Well, I'm ready to get through the 90 day probation period first.

If they find me acceptable, then I want my own, brand new truck and put in a refrigerator, microwave and a coffee pot. Or at least a refrigerator and a coffee pot. I don't have to have a microwave but it would be nice for reheating leftovers that I could take with me and store in the refrigerator. I would be taking the truck home at that point. I might bring the current one home anyway, I didn't do it this time, either because I wanted to - get home. My car goes much faster than that truck, lol.

And, tomorrow, I will be in anticipation of the new ELD - Electronic Logging Device - rule, of which my rental truck doesn't have.  I can be cited for not having one.  I can do nothing about that.  Well, I could go buy my own, but I think the company should fork out the money for a "temporary" device that would deal with the issue.  Just have to make sure my log book is in order, which I'm going over tonight.  

Well wait just a minute.  They actually have a smart phone app for it.  No kidding.  I am downloading one now as I type this.  If this works, it's better than having just a paper log.  And there it is. An electronic log on my smart phone. Should have figured. Not telling the company, no need to. They should have dealt with this. The rental company should also have something on board to deal with this nonsense.  

But if I get pulled over and checked, there it is, magic. If they don't accept it, see ya in court.  Tho supposedly they are going to give leeway until April. We'll see about that, DOT officials act like gods.  They think they can dictate the world to truck drivers. Which is why so many are opting out of trucking, this shit here will do away with a lot of drivers. Yes, you can bend the rules. Nobody cares. If you are wide awake, alert and focused, nobody gives a damn about government regulations. They lord themselves over us because they can. And because one truck driver somewhere had a horrific accident, so the entire industry should pay for it.

Whatever. It's just driving. How many of you can get pulled over and have your vehicle put out of service because of bs?  Or get ticketed because something in your paperwork isn't right? This shit was nonexistent in the 80's. Even the 90's not so much.  I'm tired of it, but it's my line of work and I have nothing else.  So I have to deal with it.  

Oh well. Much more I want to write about, I simply don't have time. I need to look over my log book and make sure everything is good, fill out paperwork for tomorrow's run and go to bed.  

Sunday night.
A bit after 10 pm
I don't have an ultra early start tomorrow, so I am staying up a bit later than I normally would on such a night.
I have a run to some small town in South Carolina, I expect this to be a 3 day trip minimum.

The cool part of this trip...well there's a couple cool parts. This trip is a fortune in terms of pay.  A grand minimum for 3 days out, maybe a portion of a 4th day.  The second is it goes right through Atlanta. The owners of this house and my friends live on this side of Atlanta near the amusement park. 6 Flags, that is.  I"ve already talked to the misses.  It's almost guaranteed that I am stopping in there for a 10 hour - legitimate btw - break  on the way back. Just works out that waay. 

And it doesn't matter on the way back anyway.  It's getting there. This is an ASAP load, meaning get it there as fast as possible.  This stuff apparently just comes up on Ann's screen and she puts the next available driver on it. Or so it seems. I'm really out of the loop on that for now.  I'll figure it out as time goes on.  I do know that I don't waste time getting anywhere and I normally don't waste time coming back. But stopping in Atlanta is a must.  There are no pressures to get back quickly, I would have 2 days off or a day and a half at least from my limited experience with this place.

I can tell ya, this place and this job is starting to grow on me. . I never expected this kind of time off in between trips. The way it was spoken about left it up in the air.  Had no idea, just knew that I wasn't staying at the Mississippi job and needed to move on.  This hazmat stuff i can deal with, the loads are a bit much in terms of weight. They are filling these trailers up to the point your truck is just below 80k weight. That's legal, getting the axles to 34k, 34k and 12k can be a different storry. 

Anyway, if I really end up staying here - not on my part, I'm staying, but on corporate part and the 90 day probation period - I'm going to stack the truck out with a regrigerator, microwave, coffee pot and possibly a 22 inch flat screen tv with satellite. The tv stuff is negligible, but I do like watching movies.  And we already have all the movie channels on Direct Tv and a fairly decent package at my house in Phoenix on Dish Network. I could hook up to either but Direct TV would take preference since it already has all the movie channels.

These are thoughts crossing my mind, not counting chickens before the eggs are hatched.  Refrigerator and coffee pot bare minimum, coffee pot coming soon. In fact, if I had thought about it before just now, I would have gotten one on this two days off I've had.  I guess it doesn't matter. I figured to buy a large inverter at Love's going through Shreveport and I can get a coffee pot specifically designed for trucks there tol.

Ugh. So much I wanted to write about but the day grows long.  I need to go to bed. Going to get up much earlier than I have to but still, it's a late start at work so i can afford to do that. I would rather get up early than stay up late. 

Merry Christmas!
Just thought I'd throw that in there.
Just got home.  2 day adventure to Brownsville, Texas.

It's quite the drive down there, about 600 miles one way.  I can't say that I've been to Brownsville since I was on the mission field in the mid 80s to early 90's.  It was an entry point we'd take to get into certain parts of Mexico.

Anyway, the worst part of this particular trip was driving through Houston.  I hadn't been through there in a long time, either, but I already knew it was going to be hell going south because I was going to hit rush hour traffic about the time I got there.  And sure enough, I did.  I think it was an hour and a half to get through that city.  Coming back earlier today was even worse.  I hit it right at rush hour and it was dreadful.

But whatever.  I was actually lucky on Monday that the trailer I hooked to had half of the running lights out.  Okay, I didn't care for that at all, but it set in motion the length of time it took to get the mechanic out of bed, to the yard, discuss the more important things in life, namely: ATV's (he had a brand spanking new one sitting on the trailer he pulled into the yard when he arrived) and then get down to attempting to figure out what was wrong with the damned trailer.

He didn't have a replacement pigtail, so I went to Eastman, got the thing loaded with that wonderful chemical and came back to the yard to get the part installed and get out of there. But, a very well experienced driver was there and told me allllll the details of doing the Brownsville run, including the best place to stop and get a burrito.  He likes food. We probably all like food, but he really  likes food.  It's like his go-to subject as far as I can tell for the several times I have encountered him now.  Anyway, the information was invaluable.

For example, no one bothered to tell me that if there wasn't an empty trailer at the yard at Brownsville?  You are to wait until one arrives.  We take them to Brownsville, drivers from Mexico come up and take them into Mexico to a plant in the interior.  I don't know why we just don't drive them to the plant.  Ummm, well, I don't know if the faint of heart could handle that kind of driving. Well, when I got there, dropped the loaded trailer and went hunting, there were none of our trailers on the property. The man running the yard said there was one coming up - it would be a while. I contacted Ann. You get paid for waiting. I didn't ask her that, she invoked it.  I assume I'm going to get paid for waiting for an empty trailer that has nothing to do with the loaded run I just made.


I took the tractor out of the yard and searched out a place to eat.  Shaved and brushed my teeth while I was at it, stopped a Dollar General for cleaning supplies and went back to that yard.  The truck I am driving is just a giant ashtray. Whoever drove it before me must have been in it a while, it's a rental truck. There are ash and congealed ash deposits literally everywhere.  I'm considering charging the price back to the company, I shouldn't have to deal with this shit.  The friggin' truck is a giant ashtray and it's disgusting. I have been cleaning it here and there, today I spent much more time just cleaning out the numerous drink holders that were filled with congealed, dried out ash shit.  It's just freaking disgusting.  And smells like hell. Well I don't know what hell smells like and I don't want to find out, but they should add this smell to it for good effect.

A few hours later and this dude from Mexico drives the truck into the lot, stop in front of me (I'm in the tractor, backed into a hole, view of everything, waiting for the trailer to arrive) and he's waving his hands at me. Well drop the thing, let's get with it, what's the problem here? So he did. Big ole', giant fresh ding in the side of the trailer. I mean, I don't know that that happened on this particular trip down there, but I'm not getting blame for someone else's bs.  So I snapped a photo and sent to manager: not my doings, thanks.

_______________________________

Alright, next day.  Texted Ann. When am I going out again? Friday.  Ugh.  I thought didn't say.  Okay, do you know where?  Nope, I'm just in the queue for Friday.  A short run could get me back Saturday night and able to possibly get down to the ride on Sunday.  A day's worth would be fine.  Not counting chickens before they hatch, but one can be hopeful.  Otherwise, I think I just need to load the thing up and go to the nearest riding place and see if the thing is actually going to work and/or if it needs more repairs.  I'm considering doing that tomorrow since I have the day off.  Considering being the operative word. More fun to go riding with other people than alone, tho alone does have it's virtues. If there were mountains around here I would definitely love to go alone, get up in the woods far away from civilization and just meditate on things.  But, the same may possibly be had around here, who knows.

I won't however, drive clear to where the group will be on an alone trip. It's 83 miles one way and that isn't worth it for me to do the alone thing.  What I really need is 2 more ATV's and then the other 2 here can go and we can have day or even half day trips out of this house - they really need to get out more.

Forgot to post this. Will finish up in another post. 

So I just found out I am not working again until Monday morning.  Mixed feelings. Love weekends off, but right now? Would love it more to be making some money to catch up.  Ann sent me the text with the information and that's when I saw it.  I decided to zip my lip.  Said thank you, haven't been to Brownsville in ages, sounds good.  I'm really not going to complain about a weekend off when that's what I really want.  If I do that, then it may send the signal of not caring about that stuff, and yes, I do care.  I won't say anything because the company requires willingness to work weekends.

I had this wild hair to go to La Quinta down the road and bask in the glory of a nice hotel room and take Adler with me since La Quinta allows pets.  And if you don't believe me, google La Quinta pet policy. Not only do they allow pets, one of the pics at the bottom of the page is of a Great Dane lolol.

But no, not tonight anyway.  Well  it's only 5:30, but just not tonight.  It's a waste of money, maybe, but at the same time, just hanging out at a cool place with an awesome room. And my big ole' doggie with me on his own bed. Yup, it's a room with 2 Queen beds in it.

Speaking of dogs, I called a vet this morning. Do you have any openings today?  Why sure, we have one at 9:30, but then she backtracked since that was less than an hour away. I said, no no that's fine, I can be there.  So, my previous experience at 2 vets is not so great with him. They are afraid of him and he senses it and gets rambunctious.  Anyway, I needed to get his rabies shots renewed, his license and get him a fresh shot for heartworm.

Remember that the dog, when I got him, tested negative for heartworms and put him on the shots. And then a year later, tested positive for them.  With the plan that the dog be put on an almost 2 grand treatment program.

____________________________


That was yesterday. I spent today getting stuff done. And after all of that, built a fire in the pit and sat around with the other 2 here and we talked for quite a while. I'm pretty sure I would hate to live alone. With all the bs that sometimes occurs with having people living with you, it's still better than being alone.  Dogs are great, but they don't hold conversations lol.

_____________________________________

Well having trouble getting through an entry. Now Sunday evening. 3 full days off of work.  The only complaint I have is that I have to be up and out of bed to start the day in the morning at around 4:00 am.  That's not really all that much fun, and then drive all day to get down or close to Brownsville, Texas.  I spent a good portion of the day attempting to finish that 4 wheeler.  I just had to bolt plastic back up, but the bolts and nuts in question are long gone.  I suspect one of the dogs got a hold of the box all of that was in. 

So, I went and spent a literal hour at Lowe's attempting to find the right bolts to deal with this.  Back home and got most of it back together. 

But before I did any of that, I filled the gas tank back up and spent quite a while trying to get the thing fired up. It ran great for about 20 minutes, including having the cooling fan come on at the intervals it was supposed to - that was what I was really checking.  That thing has been a headache, I hoped after sitting for a while I wasn't going to have further issues with it. 

Well just posting this, time for bed.

Wednesday
Got back from Oklahoma last night.
Got a run - early - to do tomorrow, but it's really a short run. It's only 128 miles from the plant.  Not exactly a high paying run, but if I can get it done in one day, that's a nice day's work.  Well I can get it done in 24 hours, I'm talking about getting loaded, getting up there and getting back in the same day.  It's really all up dependent on how long it takes to load and how long it takes to unload. Talking 6 hours for all of it, minimum.  It's 2 hours and 13 minute up and back.  We'll call it 11 hours total on a 14 hours time clock.

But, when I said that to my manager, she replied "sometimes" as to getting it done in a day.  So, I'm guessing this plant it's going to takes their sweet old time.  I guess that's fine, that means more detention pay.  But on such a short trip, I'd rather just get it over with the same day and be back to get another run somewhere.

Anyway, it got our version of cold here while I was out, so I've been burning a nice pit fire all day long.  I guess I should run up to the store and get some more granola bars - that's pretty much what I eat during the day and then end it with a good meal.  Try to keep eating costs on the road down as much as possible.  Anyway, this is really not a good run, at least not if I were to talk to other drivers.  Too few miles t make it a good payout.  I needed something more like at least 500 miles away and spend a couple or 3 days out.  I'm going to have to get a good run that goes through the weekend, unfortunately, or get a couple more short runs, which would be fine if they are available.

I'm not going to complain, not yet.  She - the manager/Ann - has enough drivers in her face. I just want to get two full weeks of driving in and see what a paycheck looks like after that. This next paycheck - Friday - will not have that on it so I'm not counting that is a reflection of a normal pay period. I am only guessing what I might be getting Friday.

Well I was going to write more, but got distracted and now it's getting late.  Okay it's not that late, but I have to get up really early for this run. 

Near Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Using my new computer. Actually, it's probably more of a notebook. Much smaller than my other laptop and much easier to carry around.  I'll probably get a remote keyboard for it and just keep it in the truck.  Maybe.  I mean, I think I can get used to this job, but I'm on probation for 90 days I think it is.  I don't know of any trucking companies that don't have a probation period.  Basically, if you screw up, you are toast.

Anyway, I just got "here".  Here, being a QuikTrip convenience store. I was looking on the map, the destination is 28 miles from here and is literally out in the middle of nowhere.  I was afraid that if I drove there, there wouldn't be any place to park.  I asked a local truck driver that was parked here as well if he knew of any places up there, he said not at all.  There aren't any.  Well I'm stuck here til 7:00 am and it's only 7:00 PM right now.  So, I'm well out of the way at this convenience store, off to the side of it, at an entrance that not a single car has used since I parked here, out of view of the front of the store, hopefully they won't mind this giant tanker truck sitting here with 10000 gallons of cryogenics that is highly volatile parked here lololol.

Well I don't know exactly how many gallons, but this truck is loaded right at 80,000 pounds. The company mandates that you fill it up to the maximum. That's nice, but we don't load the trucks so I don't worry about that.  However.  I pulled into a weigh station today.  They told me to pull over and bring in my paperwork.  I brought in half of it, forgetting the other half.  The half I brought in was the hazmat stuff.  I completely spaced the registration and related stuff.  So, back out to the truck, pull out 3 packets and back in there. I have never seen so much paperwork for one truck in my entire life until I entered this world of hazmat.  I'm not complaining, per se, but I haven't been doing this long and it's easy to overlook a piece of paper that you need.  I really have to think about all of this - for now. If I'm with this for any length of time, it will become second nature.

I'm really just getting my mind into this place being "the" place for a while.  It's a 2 year old truck - tho they won't have us in these things too long, they don't want to pay the rental contract.  Much cheaper and the trucks are set up the way they want them to be to have their own.  I am not holding my breath on that, tho, not after everything else. And also not after seeing how long it took for corporate to get us trucks at Ferguson.  6 to 8 months.  I don't really care now.  I have a new mattress in here and the cigarette smell is all but gone. Still a bit, but I but 2 more of the smelly trees in here and it's pretty nice now.  Just was so disgusting sleeping on that other mattress.  Gross, actually. I would literally feel more comfortable sleeping on the ground outside than sleeping on that nasty thing.

Okay, I don't have a power inverter yet so I want to finish this entry and post it before this computer runs out of power.  I keep getting distracted with people texting me lol.  Anyway, the wind is absolutely howling out here.  Truck is getting rocked back and forth. Kinda glad I'm not driving in this, this just started a while ago after I got here.  I'll be spending a while getting used to the nuances and dangers of driving loaded tanker trailers. I'll tell ya one thing, if I'm on an exit ramp that is like a cloverleaf and it says 20 mph, I'm going 15 mph or less.  I'm terrified of rolling over a tanker. I've seen it happen far too many times.  The outcome is never good.

well I need to get stuff done here, gonna end this one short.

Home.  Midnight. 
I knew this morning when I started I wouldn't be home til' late.  It takes that plant that I have been to twice now 4 hours to unload the truck. They're not in any hurry.  It's whatever to me, I get paid to stand there and watch them, or go sit in the truck and go snooze, or read or whatever.  Between the load plant and the unload plant I have 8 hours of detention pay, plus 4 stop pays, plus mileage.  That trip was worth at least $750 for a day and a half work. 

Well, when I finally got out of that place, I decided to push myself to get home tonight.  I wanted to have a full day off before going out again Monday.  But, I ran into fuel card trouble again. I hate Petro truck stops. Just because of the issues I've always had with trying to use fuel cards at them.  But that is the company they want us to use. Well, after running into that today, the first Love's I saw after that? I stopped there and walaah. No problems at all.  Excepting the company has a dollar limit on how much fuel you can put in because apparently there were theft problems. 

I need to stop for a minute and think. My mind is all over the place.  Money, Christmas, mom, the house, here, dogs, this that and the other thing.  Oh yeah! A Christmas tree!  Need to get one tomorrow if I"m not out of it.  I won't be going to bed until around 1:30 or 2:00 am, I just can't come home and go straight to sleep. Doesn't work that way for me. I have to wind down, let everything settle, get back into the groove of being home and then, fatigue will hit me and I will fall right asleep.  I'm tempted to put the dogs out for a few minutes so they aren't waking me up early to go out.  Good idea!

Okay, well, not much new going on in my life.  Besides this new job, of course. Which is good because this job is really taxing me.  I know if I stick with it I will eventually get this all down, but the amount of "stuff" that has to be done on any given trip is amazing.  Far more paperwork and minutia than any other job I've had.  If the pay weren't so good, it definitely wouldn't be worth it.  I'm just going with the flow here.  Learning how to use the truck's coils to turn liquid into vapor to pressurize the tank should be interesting. In fact, learning how to unload the truck period should be interesting. 

I have been asking a lot of questions, the dude at the plant where the ethylene is loaded into the truck knows more than anyone I talk to and he is way too willing to impart that knowledge, so my 2 times there so far have been filled with endless questions.  I can tell ya, if I were the dude that was running that orientation? All this time wasted on junk that has zero relevance to the position would be scaled way back and actual knowledge of how to do your job, including the literal nuts and bolts of it, would actually be taught. 

Well today I finally found out what those coils under the the trailer do. If you are unloading instead of a plant unloading, you have to pressurize the trailer's tank to force the liquid out of the tube into the plant.  Well, this stuff will turn to vapor at 120 below zero.  Vapor creates pressure.  You open a valve, the liquid goes through the coils, which heats it up and causes the liquid to turn into vapor, which pressurizes the tank, which forces the liquid out of the tubes.  Well, the chambers I guess.

Yes, I freely admit to these people at these plants that I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. I had to have the dude at the loading plant show me the valve to turn on in case the pressure gets too high while driving down the road.  I've been warned 6 ways from Sunday not to allow the pressure relief valves to open while driving down the road. I mean, from at least 5 people.  Yet they wouldn't give me the time of day to go show how that is done. Instead, this dude at the Eastman plant showed me the valve to open and how much pressure to vent out and yes, get away from people. Get away from everything.  Why? Because a cigarette thrown out of a car window could ignite the stuff and send me to eternity. 

I'll tell ya now, I'm more concerned about rollovers than blowups and ice ages.  This tanker business is freaky to me. It always has been, yet at the same time, I've always wanted to do it.

Anyway, it's really late. The business of driving trucks that is not confined to a "local" run type of thing is pretty interesting. 

So, I got stuck in another ex-smoker's truck.  Unbelievable.  I mean, this is worse than the last truck.  The bed mattress is filthy and it has cigarette burns in it! Lots of them.  This rental company didn't bother to clean the thing out, they just turned it around and let us have it.  I would have waited for them to clean the unit out, regardless of how long it took.  Seriously, I would have. How could they send it back out with a mattress looking like that?  I can tell ya: they didn't bother to look.

Anyway.  I called Ann - my manager - this morning asking several questions.  We got into a discussion about the fuel card - that the company could never get working.  She said that they told her today that they had fixed the problem. Turns out all 3 of us new drivers had the exact same problem - fuel card not working, eventually had to have an electronic check sent to the truckstop to put fuel in the trucks. 

She tells me she has loads for me to take out, but wants to make sure that the fuel card works before anything else happens. Agreed.  So, I drove in today on my own dime.  Took the truck to a local fuel station, card worked!  Got back to the shop, showed her all the paperwork. Is this right? And this?  A couple of things I didn't have right, not bad in my mind considering the volume of paperwork for each trip. 

After that, out to ask the mechanic about one of those brand new mattresses sitting there.  I'll have to call the rental company first before you can take one of those, he replied.  Back to the office, dealing with more paperwork, back out to the mechanic, did you get a reply? He went straight to his office, called them. They'll order one but it won't be today.  Okay, you can take one of those then until they bring one.  I dragged that mattress out of that truck and once in fresh air, figured out why that truck stinks so badly and why the truck in last company stunk so bad: the mattress literally smelled like an ashtray.  I was very happy to get a brand new mattress in there. I left the truck with the windows wide open and the vents open. \

However, while i was in the shop getting a mattress, the 2cd most tenured driver walked through the shop.  Hey, I have a question for you. I was asking since this guy is on the list of people I can call if I need help.  Do you weigh the axles somewhere other than that scale at the plant?  He explains in very muddy terms that I didn't understand.  I understood fully after his second explanation and him shaking his head at me, as if I'm new to trucking altogether: YOU don't get it. I have been doing this for so long, I KNOW when it's right or not.

Shrugged it off. Don't figure to call him with questions, I thought.  Well, after I got the new mattress in the truck, I remembered something else I needed to ask the manager.  I walked in on him bitching at her about us new people getting paid more than he is even though he's been there for umpteen years.  I listened to this for 45 minutes, waiting my turn in a room away from them but the door was open and I could hear everything they were saying. 

He may have had a valid complaint, but the way he was going about it proved he's just an ass.  He's pissed because he didn't get the safety position.  But I heard him going off a few times back that i was there.  He doesn't do the internet, he didn't know it was available for openings because he doesn't want to do that "shit".  Whatever dude.  Grumpy old man. Retire, go find something fun to do. If you've been doing this job that long, you should have some money saved up. In a perfect world anyway.  Oh yeah, I listen.  I listen to people a lot.  They may not even know I'm listening. By his own words, he is 4 to 5 years off from retiring. 

Anyway.  I have another run to the same place I was at 1st run. This is a gravy run - sans the fuel card fiasco - sans means without btw.

Oh, yes, I also volunteered for Canada runs. She wasn't asking, she just said something about Canada.  Oh yea? I have a passport, love to put it to use some day.  Turns out this company goes all over the US, including California.  I wouldn't mind an occasional run long distance.  Great money, see some sights I haven't seen in decades, getting more used to the road, something I didn't think would ever happen after working local all those years.  No, I don't want to be on the road all the time, I need home time, but the negative aspects are becoming a bit less of a fuss for me.

Oh, and this rental trucks? Beautiful Peterbilt, 2015 model, thought it was 2016 at first. It's got 300k miles on it,  but the exterior is in perfect condition.  I'll have to take a few pics of it. Just the interior that has been abused.  I don't get truck drivers not take caring of the inside of a vehicle that they spend so much time in. If I actually get a brand new truck as they say I am getting - versus a more tenured driver taking one - it will be the first time in my life.  I always get old trucks. But, old in this fleet means a few years, more than good enough for me if it comes to someone else getting a new truck and me going into their "old" one.

It got colder here, so upon arriving home, I built a fire in the pit.  Lovely new red oak burns great.  Sat out there for several hours. 

Tomorrow's mission: get some sheets for the truck. I bought same sized sheets for the previous truck, but when I quit, I couldn't take them. I had my suitcase stuffed  I also left behind my pillows. They were cheap, very cheap.  I didn't know if I was going to stay there at the time and I'm glad I didn't dump a bunch of money into stuff that I couldn't take back with me. 

Anyway, that's enough for now. 

 Yesterday morning. 5:00 am. Up, shower, dogs out, coffee, etc etc. 
Get on the road, get to work.  Lots of new questions formed in my mind.
I get there, unload my car into the truck, back the truck under the trailer,
check out everything, get out of there. Late tho.  I should have arrived there earlier.

I get to the plant, watch the video, take the test, take the sheet out front with the answers on it.
And then?  An alarm goes off, Just like one of the alarms in the 15 minute video they make
everyone watch.  They shut down the plant, I can't go in, neither can anyone else.  A chemical
spill of some sort. 

After that was over, go weigh the truck.  Then off to the part of the plant where the truck is actually loaded. Well, they were way behind.  The plant shut down and the fact that the first driver was there late caused me to sit and wait. Not that I cared about that, but even with my late arrival, it was meaningless.  I got introduced to the world of Ethylene by Lance, the dude that fills the trucks up with it.  It was a interesting and elongated conversation, for I had many questions for him about what the places we go to actually do with this stuff. Many use it to cool other chemicals, such as LNG when it is loaded onto ships. 

I found it amazing that the volatile properties of the chemical isn't really used, it's the fact that is stands at 120 to 140 below - depending on who you talk to - that is of interest to these manufacturers. 

Well, the dreaded moment finally came.  I have never pulled a tanker trailer in my life.  I have never pulled a tanker trailer full of volatile, explosive content. I have never pulled a trailer that has content that can make you the Ice Man in a matter of seconds.  I was obsessed, yesterday, with these thoughts.  You ever see a tanker trailer going abysmally slow in a sharp turn?  Irritating to everyone stuck behind it, but there is a reason for it.  High center of gravity and liquid sloshing up the sides of the walls of the tube in the trailer.  Rollover, in other words. I spent the day obsessed with that idea in my mind. 

I mean, like to the point that I wasn't really thinking of anything else.  I have seen far too many tankers rolled off the side of the road and it's usually in sharp turns. 

Welp, I got several calls for my manager.  Where are you now? She was being nice, but the customer was pushing her.  Appears they were almost out of ethylene and they had just restarted this plant.  They had made a call for a load last week but then said no.  And now? They needed it desperately  I mean, they wanted to know the exact time I was going to show up and this, several times over.  I finally just told my manager: I'm driving straight through, no stops.  Okay, she replied, I'll let the customer know. 

Again, she's a really sweet lady, I have no qualms with her, but I can see that customers and corporate place demands on her. 

And drive straight through I did. the last stint I drove just short of 7 hours without stopping before finally arriving at the place - only to take another of endless safety videos and a test.  I broke my reading glasses earlier that day, I was having trouble reading the questions, but I got a pass on the test.

Pull your truck up on the scale and wait for someone to come get you.  Oh, and yet another pass into another plant.  So basically, to work for this company, I am going to have to keep a file of all of these picture ID"s for all of these plants as I go into them. Lol. Someone could have let us know about that and many other things. I probably should document it while going through it so in the future, and if I'm still working there, I will be able to give new people some insight to the things they really need to know. 

Not the first time I've done that. Anyway, a 4 wheeler shows  up, I follow it way back in the back of this plant.  Now, to give you a scope of the size of this place, this plant has fully 4 separate power plants to give it enough electricity to operate. That's right. 4, full sized plants.  Not little things, we are talking huge, full fledged power plants. I stood in awe of this place. How did mankind come up with this knowledge? When I arrived at the delivery site, awestruck again. Just thousands of pipes connected here and there, all kinds of different noises, the sound was deafening. Everyone had to raise their voice to be heard.

They knew what they were doing - I did not.  But the guy running the crew opened up the side box with the valves and connection pipes in it and asked what that giant spring assembly was for?  I had to admit that I had no clue, that is why you all are unloading this truck.  I watched intently at the procedure to unload, tho.  There was way too much noise to ask a bunch of questions, I just took what I could in.  \

The lady in charge walked me clear to the operations room to show me their facilities, I was going to be there a while. 

Back to the truck - I crawled back into the sleeper which is when I noticed the slob that must have occupied this truck before me.  Yes, folks, I got stuck in another person's cigarette smoking hell.  I had the stench of it in my nostrils all day yesterday, but the mattress..... actual cigarette burns in it.  I mean, several of them. The mattress, filthy, disgusting.  I mean, this is the kind of thing where you think of how else you might be able to sleep in this truck besides on this mattress.  I fell asleep eventually and was awakened to the sound of a hammer banging on the pipe fittings to free it. The chemical is so cold, it freezes the fittings and they use a brass hammer to free it.

I got out of there and found a place where trucks park not 5 minutes away.  Again, the smell in that sleeper was so horrific, I ended up opening up the vents in the sleeper - it was cold outside- to let in fresh air. That coupled with the truck running and the vent setting on high blowing air in there, I was afforded some sleep.

Some, I do say.  There is actually much more to this entire story, but it's late and I"m ready to go to bed.  But, I have to put all of this in here.  The fuel card. Truck was down to 1/3rd tanks.  I figured to stop at one of their approved places, Petro, fuel up, take my required 30 minute break - naptime - and get on down the road,

Instead I spent 45 minute attempting to get the fuel card to work.  After trying 4 times and calling my manager, I decided to head on down the road 120 miles to the next Petro. Same story, different town. Waste of almost another hour.  On down the road.  Near Little Rock.  I had received a call with a voice message saying that they had "fixed" the card.  I tried at a TA truckstop, one of 2 approved places.  Nope, card not activated it said, Tried again, same message. Went inside, my card information froze up her computer.

Again contact the manager. This ins't working, either.  She finally gets back to me, what what crap!
I offered to pay for my own fuel - in total I was at 2 hours and 45 minutes wasted on this at that point - if y'all would reimburse me.  No reply.  I was ready to just take off. If it runs out of fuel, oh well. They had 6 hours to deal with this. 

Ugh, anyway, it's late, I'm really tired. I put in a 17 hour day yesterday and dealing with that fuel card today. They never did get the card to work, they sent an E check to the truckstop I was at to pay for some fuel. 

I'll try to type some more tomorrow.