Alarm went off at 6 am.  I shut if off and went back to sleep. I was sluggish and didn't want to get up. 45 minutes later my brain said, hey, you wanna get home today?
Get out of bed!
It was a comfortable hotel room bed, the room didn't stink and I could have stayed there sleeping for several more hours.

I took a long, hot shower.  I just couldn't motivate myself this morning.  The hot water felt good.  I was in there at least 20 minutes.  I finally got out of there, got dressed, got all my stuff, headed to the truck.  Then went to try anything they might have that might seem appetizing at their breakfast bar. A couple of sausage links and a bowl of cereal with a cup of coffee.

After I had settled in for the night, last night, a couple of other cars showed up at some of the rooms.  But other than that, the place was still deserted.  If i were the dude that purchased the place, which I'm not, but if so and with that bad of a reputation, I would be all over the trucks with special truck rates. There is nothing there locally, it's a ghost town, it's totally an Interstate driven business and thousands upon thousands of trucks pass it on a daily basis.

I'll do my part.  Several trucking apps that show hotels and their customer ratings.

Anyway, I got out of there, started driving. Dog tired.
I climbed out of that phase, drove 400 miles before stopping again, and that only because I needed fuel. And the need to stop for fuel drove me past the point of being able to stop with a 30 minute rest period. So, I fueled, made lunch out of my refrigerator, threw away garbage, did paperwork, checked the truck and trailer and was out of there. I only had 76 miles to go.

I got back to the yard and spent quality time with my manager. We went out to the trailer and I showed her the various problems with it - the main one being the manual vent valve that wasn't closing fully and letting liquid Ethylene pass through it and - onto the floor of the cabinet where the valves are located. I figured she wouldn't like the pressure - especially leaving it over the weekend, so I opened up the valve and blew off 31 pounds of pressure.  Then she said there was another trailer that needed vented but she couldn't get the valve open. Got that vented off too and then? Home. For the weekend.

I got home, dogs went crazy. Gone 4 days, that's too much for Addler, he can't deal with that. I'm gone overnight or a couple of nights, that's fine, but beyond that he gets grumpy.

After that - lots of talking.  What went on here when I was gone and my buddy and his parents showed up.  Sounded like it all went well, though. The parents slept in my bed, which is fine, but my sheets are " dirty".  Lol, I don't like to sleep on sheets that someone else has slept on.  Just doesn't work for me. I didn't get them washed tonight, so I will be putting other sheets on there over top of them. They don't fit the bed or I would just change it out.  I'm going to go out and buy 2 sets of sheets for that bed because this is going to happen enough while I'm gone after they move back  in that I don't want to have to deal with it.

And then? My manager calls me.  I dreaded that, she told me I could have the weekend off to recuperate.  I'm dead tired. I mean, I am only staying awake long enough to ensure I will either sleep through the night, or if I do wake up, I will be able to go back to sleep. And I fully intend on sleeping in in the morning. But, she has a driver that is coming back on Saturday night. He won't be able to get the trailer loaded because he will still be out of hours.  Could I please load the trailer for him?  Or, if you want the load, you can have it as well. Brownsville. Tempting, but I'm exhausted. I got sick on this trip and I never had time off to get well.  I don't really want to take time off, per se, but that dude can have the Brownsville trip on Sunday and I will hope that she gives me a nice, long run on Tuesday. I had expected a trip on Monday, but that didn't happen.  \

She's out of enough trailers right now, I guess it works out that I haven't been feeling well - but still driving - and taking a couple days off isn't that bad for me.  Trailers are a constant issue. The one I brought back will have to be taken into the facility that built it down in Houston. There are 4 other trailers already out of commission. Remember, these are specialty trailers, there aren't thousands of them floating around.

So if Monday IS off, I will spend it getting other stuff done.  But, then I have 3 days coming up off on the next weekend.  I'm concerned about paychecks is all. After living with pathetic paychecks from 12 year employer, though, I can deal with it. I'm trying to get ahead, is all, even a nominal paycheck at this place is twice and  a half more than I made a the old place.

____________________

Now Saturday morning - late Saturday morning.  I slept in today.  I won't be able to do that tomorrow so I figured to take advantage of it today.  My manager didn't give me anything for Monday, so I'm assuming I won't be at work again until Tuesday.  I reminded her of the 3 days off I need next weekend - Saturday Sunday and Monday.  She had that down.  Just making sure.  I can't now have those days off.  It will not be any fun stuff, at all, excepting to see everyone moving back in again. And a bunch of their friends are going to show up to help them get moved back into the house, so that's a big plus right there.  It means I can focus on getting my old room set up again while they are busy getting their stuff back and and starting to unpack. 

Going to get out there today and offload the stuff that is on my trailer and get that ready to move my friends out of here.  It's only a mile and a half away, so not a long distance move, it's more just getting the stuff onto and off the trailer than it is the time spent traveling.  I'm really not looking forward to any of this, lol. 

Meanwhile, at work.  The other 2 drivers - that have yet to learn how to unload these trailers - are finally going to be thrust into it. Their days of ease are going to be over.  I didn't say anything to anyone about it, but I thought it extremely unfair that I was sent up to PA to battle it out with blizzards and sub zero temps and thrust into this world of unloading cryogenics while all this time, they have had to do none of that.  The point is that they get a lot of the gravy runs because of it. 

Well, one of them is going down to  Cheniere with another driver - tomorrow I think it is - and is going to be forced to learn how to unload this stuff.  It's only fair that they get the junk run along with the good ones.  I'm guessing tenured drivers have been complaining about it.  You get these short runs - they're good for a day's work, I guess, but you have to run hard, all 14 hours, all day long, to get it done and get back.  And then, the next day you don't get another run, so you've lost 2 days on a crappy run, basically.  Cheniere is worth close to $400 when you add up everything, which if you could do it every day of the week, great.  But you can't, the only way any of that is fair is if it's evenly handed out to everyone.  The El Dorado run is another example of a short run that doesn't really pay that much considering it winds up going into 2 days to finish it. 

And then, there's all this fun stuff like 2 days ago having Ethylene blasting out of a tube and haven't a freaking clue what to do about it.  It's not like I was trained on any of this stuff.  Even after calling an experienced driver and figuring out what was happening, he had no clue what to do either. The situation corrected itself. The product is so cold it must have froze up wherever it was escaping through that valve.  At least they did end up putting that trailer out of service.  It's being sent back down to the manufacturer in Houston to address the numerous problems.  The fact that these trailer are less than a year old and already having all of these problems is not a good sign. 

But, I"m getting tanker experience.  I need to stick there at least a year if possible before thinking about moving on to anything else.  I need to have that on my resume - that I have hauled the hazardous materials, the stuff that is extremely flammable, can blow up, freeze you or suffocate you and show that I am competent with it.  I feel like I handled myself pretty well a few days ago considering the gravity of the situation.  Fortunately, in those plants, there is no smoking allowed and sources of ignition are no where present the unloading site.  Well, they do allow smoking, but only in designated areas and nowhere in the vicinity where this product is being handled. 

Anyway, once this other driver is trained - and they will considered him trained after this trip whether he knows everything or not - he will be dumped into this system as well. There are a lot of nuances to learn, as I am finding out on each of these adventures, such as keeping the pressure up on a pump system versus keeping the pressure up on a pressure unload system. Vastly different. No one bothered to tell me that, either.  I guess they've been doing it so long, they don't realize that a brand new person isn't going to know any of this stuff, a lot is taken for granted.  And for all 48 hours of training I went through, literally none of it was hands on training.  None of it taught anything about how to unload the trucks or taught anything about the potential problems you might encounter.  So, I still get a little nervous every time I have to unload just for the problems I have already experienced and what unknowns might occur next. 

I'll tell ya one thing.  All that safety gear they issued me when I first started? I have all of that stuff on, every single time unless it's a drop and hook. Fire proof jump suit, solid leather shoes with steel toes, a hard hat with a plastic shield to protect your face and safety goggles under neath that, Welder style gloves that protection your hands from the freezing cold running through those lines.  I'm now leaving the face shield down the entire time.  I don't trust any of that equipment, if that stuff blows into your face, your face is basically going to come off.  I know various ways to shut off the flow of the Ethylene if there is an emergency. 

It still seems insane to me that this company has people operating equipment like this that they haven't fully trained anyone on.  In fact, I was given a "Class B" card when I started saying I can haul it but not authorized to unload it.  That never changed.  Not that I'm going to take any flak from the safety department over it, that wasn't my doings. When they sent me up to PA, I didn't learn until I got there that I would have to offload the LNG.  I was pretty well shocked, scared and terrified all at the same time when that manager started talking about that.  I flatly told him I have never unloaded any of this stuff.  He just gave me a look. Well I"m sure you'll do just fine.

WTH?!! I'm sure I'll do just fine, what?  Screwing up and dying? Those were thoughts coursing through my mind at the time.  I ate those words and thought, ok, it's come to Jesus time, deal with it Ben, get through it and after it's all over, you'll have learned a lot of stuff that you probably weren't going to learn any other way.  And boy did that prediction come true on that trip.  And ever since then.  It all unloads pretty much the same, all of these cryogenics.  Once you've learned on, you've learned a lot about all of it. There is a product they haul that ignites paper and wood and such on fire if it comes into contact with it - I"m really NOT interested in hauling that stuff.  And now I'm learning from drivers for other companies that hauling acid is a much more lucrative, well paying gig.  And, owning your own truck your profits triple. Not expenses, profits. These are people that have been in the business for decades, I'll take it they know what they're talking about. 

I even brought that up yesterday in the manager's office. Maybe I should just get my own truck.  The Safety Officer immediately chimed in, yes you should!  I don't know why he responded like that, but Ann just looked at me funny. Lol. It's a thought I will entertain for a while, tho not seriously until after I get a good amount of time doing this stuff under my belt.  I'm not really interested in being responsible for the maintenance on a truck just yet.  It costs a lot more of your personal time and tho the money may be awesome - $160 k per year - it's really quite the sacrifice, especially if you end up having problems with it.  And, I can foresee myself driving for another company somewhere down the line because I really cannot get used to this idea of 65 mph.  I'm sitting there with 90%  - actually more than that - of everything other vehicle on the Interstate passing me.  I've driven minimum 70 mph all my trucking life.  I thought by now I would be used to this 65 stuff, but it annoys me.  I could get much farther down the road in the same amount of time.  You drive 10 hours, that's another 50 miles.  There are many occasions where that 50 miles would have made the difference in getting a much nicer place to park or a better hotel room at a better price. 

Oh, forgot to say, I see other tankers cranking on down the road at minimum 70 every day, all day.  The solace I take in 65 mph is that even at that speed, I'm making far more money than a large percentage of other company drivers cranking down the road like that.  They have to go as fast as that truck will let them because those trucking companies put them on impossible time sensitive assignments with appointments that are near impossible to keep on-time.  If one thing goes wrong - accident that holds up traffic, rush hour traffic - whatever - you are not going to make that appointment and you are going to be shuffled to the end of the line and you are likely going to sit there waiting for hours and hours until they get enough free time to get to you. 

Well, I am rambling.  On and on, lol. Just the thoughts going through my head.  I probably ought to get busy.  I have a lot of prep work to do for next weekend, I guess these days off I probably should be happy with. I was just so tired last night, I went to bed - well I fell asleep in my computer chair, woke up a couple hours later, went to bed and then didn't get up to almost 10 this morning. 

Off to the races.

So, fresh story. First off, whatever I got hit with, it wasn't fun. Stopping at rest areas all the way down the line to take care of business.  I was thinking about just calling my manager and telling her these people at this plant are going to have to wait.  I am sick and I don't feel good. But, I thought twice about that - let's get this over with, hell or high water - and get going home. 

So I go up to a truck stop near the place. Actually, I tried to get into a hotel just down the road - I would have rather had a bathroom handy - but there was no place to park the truck, contrary to the manager's belief.  I sure as heck wasn't pulling it into his parking lot and the next nearest parking lot was full of cars.  Back to the truckstop - only a few miles away and spent the night there.  I was supposed to be at the plant at 6 am, but darn if I couldn't get myself up this morning;

That alarm went off and I felt like a ton of bricks had just been dumped on me.  I turned the thing off and went back to sleep for another half hour. So, yes, I was late, but only by 15 minutes and they didn't car.  But ohhh my, was I still feeling it. 

It only got worse.  I got the truck in there, got it backed up, got every thing set up.  We're standing there, opened up the pressure builder and started building pressure in the tank. But we all heard it: a hissing sound. I was like, where is that coming from?  It took awhile, but there is a 3 way valve that feeds the bladders that raise up when you push in a handle on the outside of the trailer.  It's an emergency shut off.  If there is a problem, you push that handle at the rear of the trailer or the handle at the front of the trailer - no, you pull it out - and it shuts off the valves allowing the product to be released from the tank. 

I had NO idea what to do, I am still new to this unloading business.  Most of the places we go to, we don't do any unloading.  Just some of them.  They went back inside, I stood there fooling with things til I figured it out - but had texted my manager about it.  Well, I figured out what to do about keeping air pressure up on that, which really was much more figuring out than it should have had to have been for something that seemingly simple. 

But then...I smelled Ethylene.  I've smelled it before, several times now actually, it has a distinct odor.  Neither pleasant nor bad, just an odor.  I started looking around and here it was, a tube was spilling it out the bottom of it.  I mean, you don't want to see any of this stuff coming out anywhere. In fact, you really don't ever want to see it at all.  It was pouring out that tube.  I shut everything down on my end, all the vales and the emergency shut off - it was still coming out of there at a high rate.  

I ran over and banged on the door to the facility, they needed to shut down there end of it. Not that it was going to affect the truck in any way.  Well, 2 of them come out, one of them starting sh******* his pants and having a literal panic attack.  I just looked at him.  I'm thinking, I can't afford to get panicky, I have to figure out what's going on here and figure out how to get it stopped. By then, my manager and this other driver had already called, but I had missed both calls. I'm not going to say I didn't get scared seeing that stuff coming out of there, but I fell far short of having a panic attack. I forced myself to keep at cool and collected as possible and work through this. 

Well, they left again. Which was fine by me, that dude needed to chill out.  I mean, f*** this and f*** that - every other word was an f  bomb and s*** and this and that and the other thing.  I ain't doing Ethylene.  I had my thoughts, I kept them to myself.  About that time, I called the dude back.  He knows his stuff.  I told him what was going on and he thought about it for a second and said, hold on, let me go back and look, I'm at they yard right now.  He says, well if there's product coming out of that tube, it means the manual blow vent valve isn't seated all the way. 

But, by then, I had already followed this tube's course and figured it out - the product is getting past that vent valve and it shouldn't be opened at all. But, I had already checked that before I even got started with anything. I go through and make sure all 13 valves are completely shut. No surprises, please.  Well, that vent valve was shut, tight.  I wasn't even able to move it when I tried to tighten it down. 

We're discussing this on the phone, and he says, well, try opening it up - quickly and shut it right back off - and see if you can get the valve to reseat.  I sat there with him on speakerphone and put all my might into that thing and couldn't get it to budge.  Now mind you, there is liquid in this system right now, not just vapor, opening that thing up would mean liquid shooting out of the top of the blow stack.  I wasn't really enjoying this experience, at all. It was much to much reminding me of the trip up to PA and all the problems I had had with the trailer they assigned to me while I was up there. Anyway, like magic, the flow stopped.  I figured that it had frozen up and wasn't allowing anything through there. 

But, I kept trying to open that valve and finally got that thing to budge, opened up up and shut it back off immediately, but even that had liquid shooting out the blow stack.  I firmly shut that valve, still nothing coming out of that tube.  There was still vapor coming out of the stack, but we figured that there was fluid on the exit side of the valve and it's going to sit there and boil until it all evaporates. 

I get these people back out there, let's do this.  It ain't leaking, I'll just keep recharging the air system for the bladders to stay up.  Started building pressure again.  They turned on the pump and away we went.  And away I went. Mother Nature wasn't telling me anything but go to the bathroom, and go right now or you are going to have an accident.  I left, just said I've got to go.  Just in time, got there.

Back outside.  Stood there for over 2 hours.  Got higher than a kite, btw.  I didn't know Ethylene willl get you high. I had read somewhere where it will be you feeling dizzy and such, but this was more like smoking pot.  I was standing there, leaning in the cabinet in that pool of Ethylene that was building up on the bottom of it - and immediately vaporizing and I was breathing in.  I didn't even give that a second's worth of thought at the time, was only focused on trying to get it to stop coming out. 

I can't lie here, I actually felt pretty darn good after that stuff hit my system lol.  Nothing I would ever do intentionally, but dang.  I ended up Googling it later on, it isn't extremely harmful to humans (tho there description leaves out the flammable part and the fact it's 125 below zero boiling point), has a list:    Ethylene is of low toxicity to humans and exposure to ethylene is unlikely to have any adverse health effects. However, inhalation of air containing extremely high levels of ethylene may lead to effects including headache, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea,weakness and unconsciousness.  

Okay, when it started wearing off I got a bit of a headache, but nothing serious or stopping  me from doing anything.  

I finally got out of that place hours later.  And I wasn't feeling none to good.  I didn't know what I was going to do. Drive? Or go find a place to park and sleep this crap off. The delivery is made, I can do either.  I decided to drive.  I actually started feeling better a few hours into the drive.  That's when I made my plan to drive at least 500 miles today.  I had already blown at least 4 hours at the plant, plus I knew I would have to stop for fuel and take a 30 minute break, so getting much over 500 probably wasn't going to happen.  \

I stopped driving about 20 minutes before I had to stop anyway.  I did not get my hotel last night, so I got one tonight.  It's a hotel that was just bought out by new management.  The new place is a Travelodge and it is nothing near as bad as the reviews said it was, but that's because the reviews are under the old hotel and it was, apparently, a total dump. They have remodeled the room I am in, fresh, carpet, nice furniture, comfy bed, nice bathroom. $50.  There are cheaper places around here, but not that much cheaper and not with it's own restaurant.  But, it's kind of eerie.  It's deserted. If there is anyone else staying at this motel, you can't tell it. There are no other cars parked anywhere excepting in front of the office and restaurant.  There aren't any people walking around.  The restaurant was empty, the hotel lobby was empty.  Looking at the reviews, this place has a bad reputation.  I am going to help change that.  It's not perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as some of these reviews are claiming - and those reviews may have very well been honest when old owners had this place.

I'm going to go to sleep in about an hour, get up at 6 am, get free breakfast and coffee, get out of here.  GPS tells me I have 6 hours and 54 minutes of drive time.  But it's never right. It's basing it off of you going the speed limit, which my truck can't do. It's set at 65 mph and most of these roads are 70mph. So you add at least 5 minutes per hour.  If you hit any traffic, it goes up.  Not to mention stopping for fuel. And then, if I go over 8 hours, I am forced to take a 30 minute break. So, I'm going to call it 8 and a half hours and I'm thinking that's pretty close to accurate.  I over estimate on my numbers with travel time, so I'm calling it 3 pm and I'll be back at the yard.  Home by 4:30 at the latest. I'm going to have to show the manager the stuff that went wrong, tho they know about it already, still.  I mean, they can't keep using these trailers that are always broken. 

Of course, the problem is the mechanic quit and we're left to fix as much of it as we can, otherwise, you might end up on a trip to Amarillo to get a valve replaced. Which is ridiculous but that' how they do it.  But then, you have both a driver and a trailer out of commission. 

Ugh, anyway. I"m starting to get tired.  It's been a long day. I never thought I would make it as far as I did today. I am happy to be in this hotel room.  I'm thinking I'm going to bed in a few minutes, not an hour, lol. 

A day from hell.  Started out okay, I guess.  Woke up before the alarm went off, saw my hours reset and decided fire up the truck, drive around the parking lot, refuel and head out.  I parked there last night on purpose: get into a place where I can refuel without going anywhere.  Get it done with my pretrip inspection logged the same.  And, not have to stop all day long after leaving.  I thought, anyway.

The day...didn't go as I wanted it.  My stomach started getting queasy. What did I eat? stuff in the fride, it's cold, it's fresh, there is nothing wrong with it ... and .... I hadn't had any since the night before. The only thing I got at truck stop was a hot cup of coffee. Next thing I know?  TMI - too much info.  Got off the Interstate quickly is what I will say, and too late.

After that.  I stopped 4 times to deal with "this".  I was feeling very crappy too,l I figured a bug, not just bad food.

So, I drove 517 miles dealing with all of that.  But that wasn't the supreme deal of this day.  Ohhh, noooooooooooooooooooo. I was driving through Indianapolis on the hazmat required alt route.  I don't remember, it's Interstate designated but it's a loop around it.  I'm driving along, whoopdee do - and suddenly?  The freaking truck starts slowing down - rapidly - as if I had slammed on the brakes. I was in heavy traffic, in the center lane.  My instant thought was get the thing off the highway or I'm going to be stopped in the center lane. I glanced to my right side and saw traffic was far enough behind, I cranked that truck over to the shoulder where it stopped just after I had gotten it over there.

I had an idea what happened, but I had to go back and look. Sure enough. This trailer - is not like any other trailers that are out there.  They put in all these safety mechanisms, but this particular one, I have been afraid of since I started working for this company. The rear of the trailer has a cabinet with doors on it.  There are 2 plungers that the door pushes in when you close it on the left side.  When those plungers are in, the air system is all fired up/full.  When you open those doors? It releases all the air to that system including the brakes.  The brakes lock up.

And sure enough. One of those plungers? The nut that holds the plunger screw into place was loose. They have no jam nut on it to keep it there.  The roads I was on were brutal, rough, extremely bumpy, the road basically knocked that sucker loose. But note: there are ways to prevent this from happening and I'm shocked the manufacturers of this thing didn't see that or implement it.  Especially with something that can just shut the whole damned truck down. I had noted that this setup didn't have any jam nuts on it from the get go, I didn't do anything about it because - I'm the newbie here.  But, these are brand new trailers and a radically different style than their old ones - and when I say old, I"m talking 30 to 50 years old.

Whatever. I get to 9 miles off from my destination.  I am not  going to sit in front of a plant for 11 hours with no access to a bathroom with this stuff going on.  I'm at a small truck stop, I hope it's open all night, cause I might need it - allll night.  Tho my system seems to be at least stopping all of that if nothing else

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think I will join them in lala sleep land. 

Barnsdall, Oklahoma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'nite. 

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

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

______________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_____________

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

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

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