Comments in a bar...

Dancing Days by Led Zep is playing and a middle aged lady tells the bartender, "I had the world by the tail on a downhill drag when this album came out." 

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Closing out the day in style...

I drove 400+ miles today and made 5 deliveries today. I deserve a beer. Thankfully the last Kmart I delivered to today has a bar next to it and I am sampling a tasty local IPA. I was going to try and squeeze one more delivery in but hell with it.

The drive was nice today. I-84 follows the Columbia river for a long stretch with Mt Hood off in the distance sitting like an ice cream cone on the horizon. It was almost 60 degrees today and it's still Feb. I also learned that Mt Hood is home to 5 ski slopes I think it was, and one of them has a run open all summer because there are permanent glaciers on the top of the mountain. Portland just moved up on my places to live list.

I'm going to chill and enjoy a NBA game. I almost feel like a normal person right now...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Sleeping in another parking lot...

'Twas a long but worthwhile day. My morning drive really was spectacular. I took US-287 out of Dubois and up a 9k ft mountain pass. The road was slightly snow covered, only two lanes and rather narrow. There were turnouts every few miles and most of them had pickups with trailers for snowmobiles. That seems to be the activity of choice for a Saturday morn up in the mountains of WY.

The picture is from further along on the other side of the pass. The tallest mountain in that pic is Grand Teton Peak, the second highest mountain in WY at just over 13,700 ft. 

The delivery in Jackson went fine and I spent about two hours walking around the town trying to find a shop for a decent souvenir t-shirt. I was also kicking myself for not taking my ski jacket and pants in the truck with me. I'm positive I could have a begged a day from my boss to ski Jackson Hole ski resort. The manager even told me I could park my rig all weekend in the store lot if I wanted. It's ok, I need to be saving money right now. I have to come back anyway. Couldn't find a decent t-shirt.

After my delivery I drove about 420 miles to get to my stopping point for the night; a Kmart parking lot in Ontario, OR. I made a dellivery here too and now I'm typing away in a little coffee shop. I have 7 stops tomorrow. I better get some sleep.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Brief update

Ended up spending the night in Dubois, WY at a little motel. Couldn't quite make it to Jackson. Beautiful drive coming up. Here is a pic of Mt. Elko. More later.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Another day...

A rather pretty western NE sunset greets me as I finish my day of driving. I didn't end up making it to IA yesterday. Shut it down at La Salle, IL 77 miles from the line after 672 miles of driving. I drove 729 miles today in 12 hrs and 15 min to get to Ogalla, NE. My truck only goes 65 mph. You do the math, that's a lot of driving.

Oddly enough, I feel pretty good. I got some phone calls made to my deliveries tomorrow and had two wonderful conversations with my mother and best friend. When I'm out on the plains the milles seem to come easy, and when I'm headed west they come even easier. I always feel light as a feather when headed west and like Atlas holding the world up when I come back east.

My dinner consisted of a cup of chili at Wendy's. The body doesn't need that much nourishment when one sits and drives all day. Some drivers forget this and that's why you see so many fat drivers. Relax mom, I ate more than just chili today. 

Bleh, I feel like making some more weighty ruminations but it will have to wait for when I can sit down with my laptop. I love making posts with my Pre, but this little key board is less than ideal for lengthy thoughts. Goodnight!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Bath time!

Just got my truck washed at a Blue Beacon near Toledo, OH. One of the worker guys tried to stop me from taking a pic but I snapped it before he got to me. My boss likes me to keep the truck as clean as possible. I could probably wash it every two weeks but I don't really see the point. I like having a clean truck but if I'm going to drive around the midwest and northeast in the winter...you get the idea.

Currently waiting for my food at the J restaurant. This is my first stop in 330 miles, I'm a little hungry. The goal is to make it to IA tonight.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Ho hum...

Not much to report. Stopped at a travel plaza on the PA turnpike in Taylor, PA. Slept, now I'm eating a breakfast sandwich from B-king. I kept my break to the minimum of 10 hrs so I can start moving ASAP. The sooner I get out west the better.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Hurry up and wait...

My customer contact told me to be here at 10am. So I'm here and there appears to be about 4 trucks in front of me. Awesome.

I don't really care. I checked out my other delivery in WY and it's in Riverton which is over 100 miles from I-80. I'll have to take US-287 out of Rawlins all the way up there and then continue on 287 to get to Jackson before I finally grab US-26 to get back to the interstate system. I can't wait. Someday I will go back there to fully explore that area. Yellowstone Nat park will only be a few miles away. But for now it's enough to visit.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Angry thoughts and happy times.

"Cuz I'm praying for rain
And I'm praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way
I wanna watch it all go down." - Tool's ænima

I always get very angry while driving along the I-95 corridor. The sheer amount off people and traffic enrages me. The whole north east coast needs a really solid natural disaster or a modern bubonic plague. Cull the population by about half. Yah, half as many people. That would be just about right. I just sat in a massive traffic jam around DC and another massive traffic jam around Baltimore. The one around Baltimore really erks me. It was 8pm on a rainy cold Monday night. GO THE FUCK HOME PEOPLE! I'm not really a misanthrope, I just feel like one sometimes.

The day was fairly irritating too. After making my morning delivery dispatch had me make a quick pickup out of the Richmond convention center bound for our warehouse south of Baltimore. Well, it was supposed to be a quick pickup. The directions I had were not the best and short on detail and the streets were like capillaries. I ended up wondering around downtown Richmond for a while trying not to knock down any telephone poles. Came within inches a couple times. All for three lousy crates that I was only taking about 100 miles. Bah!

I'm actually in a good mood now that I'm off the road. I pick up freight tomorrow outside of Philly bound for Kmarts in WY and OR. It will be great to head out west again. I haven't spent enough time on the left side of the Mississippi this winter. The WY deliveries make me particularly happy. I always like to pick up or deliver in middle of no where states and WY was one I thought I'd never get a chance to do.

There is also the prospect of heading "out in the woods", trucker parlance for using US and state routes. At least one of the towns I'm delivering to, Jackson, is far from any interstates. I'd love to get some time in that town and check out Jackson's Hole, a well known ski resort out there. Hopefully a blizzard doesn't ruin my fun. The weather can get holy shit scary in WY in the winter. There is a reason it is the least populous state.

Spending the night in southern Jersey at a J. Time for a shower and some sleep.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Sometimes I have fun...

So I basically had all of today to kill and I decided to have some fun. I carry my golf clubs around in the truck so I dropped my trailer behind the store I was delivering to tomorrow morn and bobtailed over to a golf course to get in 18 holes. It was ridiculously nice for a Feb day in VA, about 65 and sunny.

I played with two black guys from DC and they beat me up in the woods and took my money...just kidding! Not those kind of black guys from DC. Their names were James and Wayne and they were brothers. James was an architect and Wayne worked in stock analysis. We had a good time and they asked me a few questions about my job as most people do.

I even played fairly well for not having swung a club in 5 months. Broke 100 and had two pars. Plenty of good shots too.

Now I am seated at an Outback Steakhouse nursing a tall, frosty, dark beer waiting for my steak. I think I'm going to see a movie tonight at the cinema next door. If the Cavs had beat the Magic this would have been a perfect day. But I'm not complaining.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Sleep schedule fixed.

I feel fairly normal now. Well, as normal as I get. I got a good nights sleep and had a rather large Bob Evans breakfast. I still can't seem to shake my runny nose but I feel healthy. I think I'm going to have to go running tomorrow morn despite my nasal situation. I'm headed down to Colonial Heights, VA south of Richmond if you are keeping track at home.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Exhausted...

Well I survived my night drive. Just before 5am I stopped for an hour and a half nap in PA. I was frightfully exhausted and my head was bobbing all over the place. I didn't want to resort to caffeine because I'm fully aware what it does to my digestive tract. Driving while tired sucks. Driving with explosive diarrhea is worse. I've spent the rest of the day in and out of wakefulness. I didn't really wanna get a good sleep cause I want to sleep tonight. My next load is headed back down to VA and it doesn't deliver until Monday morn. So I do have plenty of time to fix my sleep schedule.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Confession time...

Alright, I have a confession to make. I haven't showered in a week. I just haven't been in a good situation to do so. The only place I can shower for free is at Flying J truck stops. Other places I have to shell out 10 bucks and that crap adds up. Most of the time if I have a choice between a shower or more sleep I choose sleep. The good news is that I will be showered in a couple hours. 

I was done making my Kmart deliveries by 11am this morn but dispatch didn't give me anything until after 4pm. They want me to take my empty trailer to Columbus, OH and have it there by late morning. Great, wish they could have told me this in the morning. Now I have to take a 10 hr break during the day and drive 600 miles all night on only a few hours sleep. Awesome. Hope I don't die.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Old friends...

One off the things I love about my job is the chance to see old friends who have moved around the country. I just got to have dinner with a buddy who moved out to Norfolk, VA. His perspective on things always cheers me up and I've been needing that recently. I need to come back to Norfolk when I have more time and it's not so damn cold. Time to go to sleep in a parking lot!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

It ain't the ritz...

My home for the night is the parking lot of a SuperK near Norfolk, VA. I need to deliver at 5am tomorrow morn. It's not the first time I've spent the night in the parking lot of a shopping center. It's probably not the 20th time either.

It actually isn't the worst place in the world to spend the night. The Kmart behind me is 24hr so I have a bathroom all night, there is a good selection of food to choose from and it's quieter than a truckstop. What more could you want? 

Yesterday I made a boo-boo up in CT on I-95. I was being a bit too much of a badass and running the left lane to pass people now and then. Or course that's illegal and a cop busted me. Really nice guy though. Just gave me a failure to signal lane change ticket for 75 bucks instead of the left lane tick for 240 with 2 points on my license. I figure as many times as I've run the left lane I deserve a ticket by now.

I'm gonna nap and then find some food. Not working very hard today.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

People people everywhere...

The trailer I grabbed from our Jersey yard last night is headed down to VA to 4 Kmart stores. I'm delivering store fixtures to them. Fixtures are basically the racks and shelves that the product is displayed on. I don't really like these loads because I'm required to help unload the trailer. I'm not really the biggest guy in the world and I'm likely to hurt myself while moving heavy things around.

I spent last night at a J in Northeast, MD. Getting parked was a little dicey. There are mountains of snow all over the parking lot and they effectively eliminate a lot of the parking spots. Luckily another truck pulled out of a fairly easy spot right in front of me. I need to call all the Kmart stores and let them know I'm coming as well as figure out what order to go to them.

The east coast is not my favorite place to be with a big truck. There are just faaaar too many people and waaay too few truckstops. I have to drive through Baltimore and DC today and I'm already frazzled from getting through NY yesterday. You might think I'd be used to all the traffic being a truck driver but, to be honest, most of the time I'm on a lonely highway with no one around me and that's just the way I like it.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Lonely truckers

Bathroom messages like this are quite common in truck stops. Just finished eating at a little truckstop in RI. Actually it's pretty much the only truckstop in RI. I'm headed back to our drop yard in Jersey. For what purpose I'm not really sure yet.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Delivery!

This is what the back of a furniture store looks like! Big surprise. Just finished making my delivery and waiting for new marching orders from dispatch. It is snowy and cold in Mass and my nose is still stuffy from my cold so no jogging for me.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Attempting to post a pic

If this goes through, it is me standing at the top of Snowmass in Aspen, CO. Still learning all the features of this blogging stuff.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Predictably I'm headed to Jersey. Thankfully it's just to our yard to grab a loaded trailer and then up to a customer that I've been to before outside of Boston. If I have to be on the east coast I prefer to go to familiar places. Stopping to eat outside Harrisburg, PA.

Another charming factoid abour being a trucker is that people can wake me up when ever they please. I was woken by a pounding on my door at about 2am last night. Apparently I wasn't supposed to be in the dock. Another driver needed to drop a trailer there so I had to move. I am now up and waiting for the dock to clear so I can get unloaded.

Ok, it seems I can't send pics via text message. How sad. I'll have to wait on that.

Let's see how pictures post to this thing. This is me at the top of Snowmass in Aspen.

Wow, texted entries are incredibly unreadable. Unless it's something short I'm going to make entries directly to the site from now on. 

(3 of 3) morn. Ahh, the life of a trucker! Tomorrow I get to find out where I'm headed next. I'm praying it's not Jersey.

(2 of 3) food. I have fruit and granola bars but that's it. Sometimes I feel like a monk or a hippy. I also have no bathroom until the store opens tomorrow

(1 of 3) I am now sitting in the dock behind the store and getting ready to go to sleep. I got here just after the store closed so I wasn't able to buy some

(2 of 4) roads that are waaay to small for me, and to top it all off, there was some snow on the roads. I was headed to a Giant Eagle grocery store for my

(4 of 4) road to the correct store.

(3 of 4) delivery in the morn. I found a Giant Eagle, but it was the wrong one. Fortunately they were still open and the young lady inside directed me down the

(1 of 4) Today I drove about 500 miles out to the middle of nowhere PA. It was quite the experience getting my 70 ft rig out here. Stoplight after stoplight,

(4 of 4) J in Lake Station, IN just outside of Gary.

(3 of 4) yards. It was from a customer in Rochester, MN and needed to be delivered to a place out in BFN PA. After grabbing the trailer I spent the night at the

(2 of 4) get my truck and bobtailed (drove without a trailer) up to Chicago area to get my load. My load was waiting for me in a trailer at one of our drop

(1 of 4) I just got back from a week long ski trip in Aspen, CO. Yes, I am a trucker who skis. I drove down to Columbus, OH from my parent's place in Akron to

(4 of 4) feel free to ask them. I'm sure this blogging thingamajig has that as an option.

(3 of 4) what's it like, who am I, blah blah blah. I would rather start midstream and if you keep reading your questions may be answered. If they are not then

(2 of 4) such a pain to keep whipping out my laptop to make updates. I don't particularly feel like posting some big summary about how I got into into trucking,

(1 of 4) Hi! I'm a long haul trucker. I've wanted to start writing down my travels but it's so damn hard. I don't have a lot of time on my hands and I feel it's

I now seem to be blogging.