Recent Pictures

All pictures taken with my Cell Phone. Hopefully soon I will get a good camera!



Just a cool reflection of the truck


Some Mountains


Cool sign I saw!


A Rest Area


Another Rest Area View


A Mountain


A cool dusk time picture from the truck stop


Another angle of the truck stop at dusk


A road runner in New Mexico! MEEP MEEP


Colorado Rockies


Colorado Rockies


Monarch Mountain


Monarch Mountain


Monarch Mountain


Monarch Mountain


Monarch Mountain


A Mountain


A mountain at a Rest Area


Same Rest Area


My truck in front of mountain at Rest Area


Some More Mountains


A cool looking Mountain


More Mountains


Monument Valley


Another cool looking Mountain

The Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Truckin'

As I was walking back to my truck after going into the truck stop to go to the bathroom, get a soda, and a snack, I had a flashback of sorts back to the days when I was in trucking school. The flashback was triggered by a truck pulling out of the fuel island with his fan going in combination with the time of day. Back when I was in truck school, the day started at 5am in the morning while it was still dark. I remember how in awe I was to the sound the engine in the rigs, all of the lights on them, the smell of diesel and rubber, the smell of the asphalt, the sheer size of the rigs. I remember how I thought to myself, "My God, these things are so big, and so powerful, how could I ever control one of these things, how special is the person that does?", and for a brief moment I was brought back to this mind frame. At the time things like the economy, crappy freight rates, fuel costs, and the overall life on the road as it is for real, was far from my mind. I was enthralled with sheer amazement at these machines.

Over time the smells just blend in, and you don't even notice it, the sight of the lights seem to diminish, the sounds of the engine, and the sound of air escaping from the brakes seem to fade into the background. The rig no longer seems so big, and in fact everything else just seems super small. Controlling it is no harder then driving your car, and in fact driving a car is much more uncomfortable because it is so small. The truck never seems to have enough power when you are climbing that hill at 40 miles an hour. Your thoughts are about hoping the next load has a descent rate, that the fuel prices will drop or be cheaper at the next fuel stop, hoping that when you get to the consignee that there will be a load to get you somewhere else because the economy is so shot. You always look for the next best thing to make living life on the road easier.

This little flashback has given me a nice refreshing mind state and a reminder to try to look at truckin' like I did when I first started!

Taking the Scenic Route

First off I want to apologize for not posting in a while! I was quite busy the last few days and I spent a lot of time in bad cell reception areas.

After I loaded in Grand Prairie I took off for Pueblo, CO. I had to sit there for the weekend but that was Ok, plenty of shopping to be done there so I managed to spend my paycheck on a few needed and un-needed things :). Now Monday morning is when things got interesting!

Monday when I got to the construction site I was delivering too, it was a nice big open dirt lot, and at first they told me to park it right there by where I came in, COOL easy in and out... WRONG! Then they asked me to back up onto a hill so they could unload it right near where they had to install it. So I backed up onto the hill. Now the construction guy was SUPPOSED to be spotting me, but he didn't do a very good job because he got me stuck in a soft patch of dirt on a small drop off! We unloaded it where it was however. So after getting unloaded it was time to figure out how to get unstuck. Now on top of this, one of my drives went flat in the process! On top of that the company complained about the locking pins missing from my crane arm, and called my company and complained! So here I was stuck in soft dirt, a flat drive, and the company telling me I can't get a load until I get the crane pins fixed!

Well after getting some pallets of cinder blocks moved, and running over some plastic electrical piping I managed to back the truck out of it's little hole it was in. I then had to drive about 12 miles up the road to get the tire patched.

I still had my final stop to do yet over in Battlement Mesa, CO as well. So I headed on over there on US 50 across the mountains! It was definitely quite a beautiful scenic ride to say the least. Comparing Us 50 to I70 however, I would say I70 would be a better choice because it has an overall faster speed limit. US 50 cuts through a lot of towns and is mostly a 2 lane road with a lot of curves. Not a bad road though!

Tuesday morning I delivered my final in Battlement Mesa, and headed over to Grand Junction, CO to get my crane pins repaired. I had to sit until Wednesday to get a load, but I got one!

So Wednesday I picked up a load of piping insulation, it was only on 4 pallets and weighted less then 1,000 pounds. That load had to go to Cochise, AZ. Now there aren't too many easy ways to get from Western Colorado down to Arizona. So after a quick look at the map, the best choice was to take 70 over into Utah, and catch 191 down to 163, then jump on 160 over to I40, then I17 down to I10.

I tell you this, that ride on 191/163/160 is now my most favorite road(s) in all of America! The scenery is almost magical and mystical, with the most beautiful landscape that one could ever imagine! From the famous arches, to Valley of the Gods, to Monument Valley and through the painted desert. A lot of western movies have been shot through these areas, and it is surely something you HAVE to see in person.

I delivered my load over in Cochise, AZ which is right near where the shoot out at the OK Corral took place! Delivered to a coal power plant over there. I have to pickup a load in Phoenix today, so yesterday I headed back towards Phoenix and stopped in Eloy for the night. Just sitting and waiting on a fellow driver on a forum I am on called called ClasssADrivers.com so that we can roll together over towards Phoenix. Just found out I am picking up a load of Diapers! Going to Austin, TX.

I have a LOT of pictures that I took, and I promise I will post some up soon!

Gettin' Around

Monday I loaded up in Phoenix, my trailer stuffed to the rims with milk jugs headed for a bottling plant in Austin, TX. That run was 1100 miles, I did 970 of them straight! First time in my life I drove for so long, 16 hours. I don't know how I managed to stay awake and alert, but I did! The load had to be delivered by 8am Wednesday morning, and I had no time on Monday to do but 120 miles, so I had to hammer down all day Tuesday and well into the morning.

Waited on a load all day yesterday, and didn't get one. This morning though they informed me that there was a load ready for me to pick up tomorrow in Grand Prairie. So I deadheaded up to Dallas to wait for tomorrow morning. Now I have two places I love to drive through in America, the first is the desert, and I got that done earlier this week, and the second is across the rocky mountains on I-70. This load has two stops, first on Pueblo, CO, and the second just outside of Grand Junction, CO, which means I have to go across the Rockies!

Although I don't have any chains! Technically this time of year you are supposed to have them to go across them mountains, but that is OK, I will get across there. I just hope the weather cooperates. I probably won't get to go over the mountains until probably Monday though. More then likely the first delivery will be on Monday, which means I have the entire weekend to get to Pueblo. So I will have some sitting time, which is OK because I could use some time to work on my laptop and some of my side projects.

One of the cool things I saw in New Mexico, was a road runner! I never saw a real one before, and I caught out of the corner of my eye something running around the parking lot, I took a look and low and behold, it was a road runner running around! He didn't go meep meep though.

I have been thinking of doing a truckers website, but I am not sure exactly what I would do with it. I know a lot of my readers are drivers, so if you think a website would be nice, leave some comments with what you would like to see in a website for drivers. I know some of the ideas I have been thinking of are trucking news, articles on anything related to the industry, classifieds, load board, maybe a forum, truck stop guide, interesting places to go and see that are truck friendly or easily accessible, tools to help drivers keep connected with their families, maybe an online c-store, other tools to help make driving a little easier, etc. If you got any suggestions for what sorts of features you would like to see in a truckers website, go ahead and voice your idea! If I get a good enough feed back I will go ahead and start working on the project.

Things Are Going Good

The last few days have been good ones. We haven't been sitting much at all. The load I am under now we picked up in Louisville, KY. We dropped the first stop off in Indianapolis, IN then boogied down to Dallas, TX. Dropped my co-driver off there for a couple of weeks home time. I then drove here to Phoenix, AZ. I love driving through the dessert.

Yesterday I bought a laptop! Found it on craigslist, and managed to get it for less then half what it is worth! It is not brand new, and has a few cosmetic issues to the bottom side of the casing, but the screen is in perfect condition, and everything works great. For those computer geeks out there it is a Dell Lattitude D820, it has an Intel Core Duo T7200 processor (That's 2x 2Ghz), 2GB DDR2 ram, an 80GB SATA 7200RPM HD, Built in Wifi, Built in BT, EC and PC Ports, Firewire Port, DVD +-R/W, "15.4 wide screen aspect ratio monitor. She is a quick laptop for sure, and not very old at all. This is by far the most powerful system I have ever personally owned.

So now I have a laptop of my own, I can get back into some of my programming projects I had to sideline for a while! Also I am really wanting to do a truckers website, but I have not put any real planning into it yet. It is just an idea I have been wanting to do.

Long Weekend in Charlotte

Sorry I haven't posted in 4 days, but it has been a long weekend in Charlotte, NC. We got there Thursday night, and had to sit until Sunday night! It wasn't all that bad, as I got paid early and was able to kill the weekend time by shopping and playing with my new phone I got on Saturday!

My new phone, the Samsung Rant

Ok, enough of my ranting... no pun intended, on my new phone. The laptop died the other day! This is going to make it tough for me to keep up on the forums I am on, as well as post my blog as often as I want. Until we get a new laptop, I will just have to keep my posts fairly short as I will do them on the phone, and when I get access to a computer I will do more detailed posts; such as this one.

It hasn't been all fun and games however! We left Charlotte Sunday night to come over to Asherville, NC where we deliver... that was a bad idea. We decided to roll shortly after the bad snow storm started raging. Only 20 some miles from Charlotte, my co-driver decided to stop at a truck stop to get some air in one of the drives, REALLY bad idea. As we entered onto the exit ramp, we quickly noticed about 5 cars spun out all over it. Halfway up, a white car was stuck right in the middle of the ramp, in our way! The ramp itself was sloped upward and curved, with ditches on either side. We where forced to stop and wait for the car to get unstuck. As a result of our stopping, WE got stuck too. A man with a Jeep managed to pull all of the stuck cars out after about 6 hours, but unfortunately, we weren't so lucky to be able to be pulled out. We tried all we could to get out on our own, but to no avail. During this 6 hour time frame, countless cars spun out all around us, as well as a truck that jack knifed on the opposite side of us. Eventually a wrecker came and pulled him out, then pulled us out.

We sat there at the truck stop where we got unstuck, and headed out towards our delivery point this morning. The roads where still quite nasty, and it was a slow 80 mile drive. We got to our delivery site, but the construction company decided to take a snow day, so now we have to wait until tomorrow morning to unload.

Yes I have pics of all of this!

Us stuck on the ramp

Cars spun out and stuck behind us


So at this point, we are again sitting, and waiting. But at least this time we are only sitting until early tomorrow morning. We deliver then head for Birmingham, AL to deliver for tomorrow morning, from there I do not know yet.