Oct 26, 2009

      if its not one thing its 20 others

      trying to get going early so we have some extra time never-ever  happens.

      after we left the hotel (aww the hotel) 

we went to the swift yard in lathrop where of course they agreed there were no empty trailers. so they sent us to madera. one of the dispatchers told us there were 2 trailers at sealed air. about 1 1/2 hours later we are parked in front of sealed air's locked gate. they dont work on sunday. no personnal vehicles, no guard shack that sometimes they let you in even if a place is closed. and on top of that we drive around the whole complex and see only one trailer and it is backed up to a dock.                              

                                     no emptys.

       i sent a qualcomm message. and this time i called john in lathrop.  he was so surprised at our news. so he sent us to central freight yard in fresno to grab an empty, he even gave us a trailer number. wow, cool beans, maybe he is on the ball. another 60 miles down the road and we are driving into the central freight yard find the trailer he assigned to us and....the trailer has been in an accident. the wheels and tires on the right side are not drivable

. but the one next to it is fine. we send john a message to please hook us to that trailer explaining the problem with the other one.  and please send us the pick up number we need for fedex. they cant send that info until we are hooked in the computer to an empty trailer.~ or thats their story 

anyway~finally, now it is just around the block to fedex, (really it is they share the same chain link fence) but it takes 45 minutes to receive that info. whatever, we got the information we are golden , lets get our pre-loaded trailer and hit the road for spokane.

      not so fast......this load actually has an amount of hazmat that needs to be placard. usually the total weight is under 1001 pounds of hazmat. this time we have 2300 ponds of paint drums. the trailer is not placard. the shipper is suppose to do that. ok we can turn the signs ourselves except that the trailer only has signs on two sides. hazmat signs need to be placed one on every side.  we called the hazmat hotline and they told us to go to a truck stop and buy the ones we needed. or we could wait until fedex comes in monday at 6am. we stoped at every store the might be a truck stop or truck repair shop,  between fresno and madera, finally finding the one we needed. bought it and headed back. put the placards on the trailer, mark the hazmat book on the right page of what to do if something happens book. and we are off like a heard of turtles.

      instead of picking up the load 14 hours early we got started 9 hours early.

      we deliver our trailer to fed ex at 5:05 pm, monday and here it is 9:30 and swift has not sent us our south bound reload.

      will is not a happy camper, and neither is his bunk mate

      i love and miss you all more and more every day.

      have a safe halloween everyone.

      Oct 25, 2009

      saturday in lathrop

      here we sit in lathrop, (stockton)

      fresno is about 2 hrs south of lathrop, but the swift yard is in lathrop.

      we arrived saturday morning, and to our surprise there is not a single empty trailer to be found. the swift powers that be told us we didnt really need an empty until sunday, so just wait and keep looking. i told them we were going to wait at a hotel. so we could watch the beavers ~trojans play

      the last saturday we were in lathrop and i wanted to watch the beavers game. they were watching one of the james bond movies, after that it was lethal weapon #118 i think.  im telling you there is something  abhorrently wrong when a room full of guys and the only woman is the only one that wants to watch college football.

      even thou the beavers lost it was a good game. a few missed opportunity's, of cause as always a few bad calls by the ref's, but oh so close to upsetting the trjoans at their home.   next time beavs, next time.

      we had been on a dedicated run from fresno to kent  to fresno.  fedex up and target load   south. but the last 3 trips have been fresno to spokane to fresno. still fedex load up, but paper rolls south. yuck. heavy, usually at least 45,000 lbs. that makes my shifting harder, and makes us slower. there is usually 6 or 8 rolls in the trailer.  it makes the trailer top heavy too.  not sure why we were bumped off the kent run, but the rumor is the owner/operators got wind of  this dedicated run and took it. they have to pay their own fuel so of course they would not opt for the fresno to spokane run because the return trip is so heavy. 

       dedicated runs are hard to get and if we can keep this one we'll be fine. its still a good deal. there is no waiting for dock time. there is no loading or unloading. there is no waiting to get loaded, ready at 4am usually sooner. and on the monday 4 am runs we can usually pick up sunday afternoon or evening and that gives up even more time to get there. a much nicer drive. the trip time given to us is 24 hours. and we have been doing it in 18 or 19 hours. however it is SO FRUSTRATING when we deliver and put in our empty call, we dont get our reload until 11 am or noon. that is 7 hours we could have been driving.

      it doesnt seem that hard to give us our reload, its always the same. we know that, just give us the pick up number so we can go get it and head south. UGH!!

      its just about time to check out. time to head back to the swift yard. time to play swift equivalent of wheres waldo, and start looking for an empty trailer,(they all look the same until you open the back and see if they are loaded or empty) when after a few hours everyone will agree there is no empty trailer anywhere in lathrop or stockton. and they will send us to fresno to continue our search. 

time to return to tuff guy tv. time to return to our 3 sq ft living space. time to return to our small twin beds.  time to return to mixed fruit cups, peanutbutter sandwiches, and hot water for tea from truckstop bathrooms. aww life is good.

      i love and miss you all,

      drive careful

      Oct 15, 2009

      california rain

      the first rain in california may be a welcome sight to the firefighters, but nobody  knows how to drive in the rain.  what a mess.  we spent 2 1/2 hours driving 12 miles  of I5 thru sacramento trying to head north to kent.  a south bound semi skidded over the jersey  barrier. the cab was  north bound, but the trailer was stuck on the barrier. 

      there were car skids too but i didnt get pictures of that.  then just past  sacramento out of city limits there was a semi (south bound) that a big gust of wind   pushed him across the grassy -and muddy- medium finally stopping just a few feet  short of the north bound side. he kept it up-right thou. good driving.

      it was awfully windy and rainy when  i was driving. and i dont mean to complain to the  universe about my job, because i really need this job, but, this sucks!!

      .............................DRIVE CAREFUL EVERYONE........................

 i continue to improve my shifting going up hill.  depending on the weight of the load,  i dont always have to turn the jake brakes off to make my shift.

      our south bound loads look like they are going to be from a target distribution center  in sumner. the trailer 's finale destination is phoenix, but we take it to fresno, another team completes to run.  we heard through the grape vine, that  swift took the contract for fedex from intersate. also heard that instead of fresno  pickup it will be changing to kettleman city, about 70 miles south. but we will  see if the rumors come true. i dont know why we cant get a south bound fedex, im sure  they have stuff going south. but im sure that would make too much since.

      anyway, gotta go to bed.

      love and miss you all,

Oct 9, 2009

      offically dedicated

      well it looks official, we have a dedicated  fedex north bound run  from fresno to kent (seattle) sometimes  to spokane. its the south bound load that is always a mystery.  its hurry up to washington and they will   give us extra time on our southbound run.  but we just drop the trailer, and have to   pick up an empty one to take to fedex. that is where we are wasting 3 and 4  hours

      looking for a stinking empty trailer. they'll send us to  stockton, sears has one,  send us to patterson, khols has three. dont take any from costco.

      one time we could not find an empty everywhere they sent us. so they said they had a driver that was sitting over in their yard  with an empty and he would hold it for us. ok so over there we go,  he's gone but we got the trailer and went to hook up to it and the lights  didnt work, and no shop to fix it, luckily we found another empty there.

      last time we found an empty with a flat, tried to get the shop to fix it and

      2  hours later he still never got around to it. so we left without an empty.

      i told will we should have hooked up to it, drove down the block, then called   for road service. but he didnt think that would work. how do you know if you dont try. its not just us. every time we drop at the lathrop yard there is a line of drivers  at the window asking for empty trailer locations.

      last time i thought will was going to have a stroke. he's there at the window with  several  other drivers asking for empty's and one of the local drivers ( the guy that works 8-5) says, oh you need empty's, i made three deliveries today i guess i should have  brought back empty's with me. but i wanted something to do later today.

      omg, i could hear the vein in his neck start throbbing. he just  shook his head and left. if they can figure out what to do about the lack of empty trailers things might work out better.

      its funny how men and women see the same thing and associate it a different way.

      ...for instance...... we are delivering our fedex load in kent washington, and looking for a  place to park for the night.  we turn the corner and  there are two buildings one big blue with yellow letters and right across the street is a  smaller building,  same shade of blue with yellow letters. so i say, 'thats weird, i wonder why they have two ikea stores across from each other' will says ikea, i was thinking that was the biggest  napa ive ever seen'  (ikea was the big building, napa was the little one)

      sally is right oregon needs an in and out burger.  they really are nothing special,  you can  a hamburger or a cheese burger, or you can get a double hamburger or a double  cheese burger. with fries. thats it. the burger is a good size one too. the onions are a full round slice. and its fast. but california  needs a burgerville. i miss the walla-walla onion rings, and sweet potato fries.

       i did grab a couple of books last time i was home.  How the irish saved civilization. the  untold story of history between the fall of rome and the raise of  medieval Europe and In my own words, the autobiography of the Dalai Lama.  will really needs to   read that one, either that or i need to steal some of kenny's pills.  he is just so  intense about things.  everything is like the last straw.  we have to hurry there is no time on this load.  we have to hurry

      we dont want to get stuck in rush hour traffic. hurry up go around this guy before we get to the hill. hurry, the sooner we get there the sooner i can get some sleep.  and on and on. he is always so pessimistic about things.  i told him a glass half full,   will still quench your thirst. he says wtf does that mean.   

 i keep telling him i cant afford to keep giving him my karma points. 'earn your own' that attitude probably cost me some points

love and miss you all     

Oct 6, 2009

      its fall

      boy what a difference a couple of days make, and a couple hundred miles. while down in fresno and futher south in LA it is air conditioner time 

i cant sleep  even at night i think its too hot. but drive towards oregon and the weather turns to a more suitable tempature.  a light dusting of snow in shasta, some snow left over in the shadows  of the trees that the sun doesnt melt. deer are everywhere. some are sleeping on the road side and others are waiting to cross. 

                                                         this is how milk shakes are made

when we got fuel in chemult, oregon the tempature was 18.

      this trip was from fresno to spokane. our next run is fresno to kent. the fedex run is really a sweet deal. its light. its ready on time. we dont have to wait for it to be loaded or unloaded, and when there is hazmat we make $70 extra. even if we dont have to placard. as long as fedex puts in 1 pound of hazmat we make extra $$, .  we picked up this heavy load for our return trip. its paper rolls, it weighs 44,000. and the trailer has an airleak. will thinks its in the air canister. it drains the air in about 5 minutes. so he stopped to check it out. he didnt hear any air in the glad hands, but when we are stopped for too long the air pressure goes down. hes going to keep an eye on it and see if it gets better as the weather headed south warms up. we dont want to wait for repair to come.

      love and miss you all,