Trucking

Ever get passed by an idiot going too fast and acting like a nut and wonder where the cops are when you need them?

Going through West Virginia, the interstate was partially covered with snow. There were a few slick spots, but it wasn’t too bad. Enough to slow down from the 70 mph speed limit, but not horrible.

I was passed by a truck going a lot faster than I was. We had just passed a wreck where a pickup truck was upside down. A little later coming down a hill that ended in a curve, was the same white truck and trailer jackknifed in the median with the driver standing next to a State Trooper.

Thankfully there wasn’t anyone else involved. It looked bad enough that his load is screwed and he’s going to be down for awhile. One less idiot on the road.

I actually did have something planned to send, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for and I couldn’t find an e-card I liked. Being on the road is too much of an excuse, but in reality, I’m such a slug and have no excuses for not even sending a e-card for Valentine’s Day, I hope this makes up for it, if only a little bit. Love you and miss you, baby.

I have to deal with other brokers outside my own company once in awhile and a few of them can be real pinheads. Today, I take a load from a broker, he calls me direct and asks my information. I don’t know who he is used to dealing with, but I wasn’t in the mood for being patronized. Finally I told him, I’m not taking this load. I didn’t even want to try and explain something he wasn’t going to understand anyway, so I just said, I’m not taking it. Yup, you heard me, I’m not taking it, goodbye.

He calls back, apoligizes, I don’t think he really knew what he was apoligizing for. But I told him I didn’t appreciate his attitude and how he was telling me how to drive, from behind his desk. I take the load, I told him upfront,

• Me: I need two hours to clean my trailer. This last load used every pad (150), a full deck that takes time to tear down and stow, and my ramps which I needed to stow underneath.
• Broker: If I can’t make it by 5:00 to let him know.
• Me: I’m letting you know right now, I can’t make it.
• Broker: I’ll make arrangements for someone to stay.

Two hours later, I’m almost done, he calls to check and see if I’ve left.

• Me: Ten more minutes and I’ll be leaving.
• Broker: Customer wants an ETA.
• Me: Same ETA I told you before.
• Broker: I’ll tell the customer.

Broker calls back a few minutes later.

• Broker: Customer says to forget it, they’ll take care of it. I was really screwed.
• Me: Okay, later.

It’s not like I lied to him. He’s the one that probably promised something to the customer and like most of them do, come up with a story about how the driver is late because of whatever.

I hate those pinheads.

Finally out of the snow and extreme cold. I thought I was out of the snow last night, but I woke up this morning with snow on the windshield in West Virginia. After about 20 minutes of driving I came on to a wreck that had both directions shut down for 45 minutes. Rumor had it that a car spun out in front of a UPS freight truck, the truck hit the car or went into the median to avoid it, I don’t remember, but the UPS truck and trailers were on their sides in the median.

After I crossed into South Carolina, the sun came out and it’s still a little chilly, but it great compared to what I was in a few days ago. After being cooped up in the truck for so long, Willie enjoyed his walk around the parking lot. I enjoyed being able to get out of the truck myself without a coat and long underwear.

I not expecting anything out of South Carolina for a few days, it would be nice if I could keep moving, one prospect is too far away and loads the same day I’m unloading. Oh well, back to the same old grind.

I want to take back that last post about it not being so bad up here in North Dakota. From weather.com

Dangerous cold for some locations

An arctic cold front will send an icy blast of frigid air into the northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Saturday. The front will be accompanied by light snow but strong winds can create ground blizzards. The front will sweep on through the Great Lakes area Saturday night.

Temperatures will be as much as 30 degrees below average behind the front. Strong northwest winds, locally gusting over 50 mph, will move the exiting snow around, producing blizzard conditions from North Dakota to Upper Michigan and Wisconsin Saturday and around the Great Lakes Sunday.

Highway travel may become hazardous due to limited visibilities and drifting snow. Airline delays could occur across the region from Minneapolis to Chicago.

Saturday highs will be around zero across North Dakota and northwest Minnesota while they plunge behind the front from the teens and 20s toward zero across the remainder of Minnesota, Wisconsin, western Upper Michigan, northern Illinois, northern Iowa, South Dakota and northern Nebraska.

Sunday morning lows will range from just above zero in Des Moines and Chicago to 20 below zero in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Dangerously low wind chills by early Sunday will range from minus 25 in central Iowa and northern Illinois to near minus 50 in northern Minnesota.

On Sunday, bitterly cold highs will dominate the Midwest, ranging from the 20s and low 30s in the Ohio Valley to 10 below zero just south of the Canadian border over northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Wind chills will range from as low as minus 10 across northern Ohio to minus 45 in northern Wisconsin.

I’m at the truck stop in Beach, ND right on the border of North Dakota and Montana. I’ve got plenty of fuel and don’t have to be in Saint Paul until Monday morning. This is supposed to blow through real fast and be finished by Sunday.

In case your not checking out Life on the Road, you need to see the pictures of the new International Truck the LoneStar.

I-90 out of Seattle isn’t my favorite road during the winter. From Seattle I go east to Minnesota to Ohio to South Carolina. To get there I had to throw chains on once over Snoqualmie pass.

I almost threw chains on over Lookout Pass in Montana, but about half the trucks were and half weren’t. Plus the signs only said, “Chains Advised” not Required. The road had some snow, but no ice, so it wasn’t too bad.

Except for the extreme cold and a few icy spots, I’m enjoying the drive.  There isn’t too much traffic up here. None of the cities in Idaho or Montana have a rush hour and I’ve seen three Bald Eagles flying near the road in the last two days.

I normally don’t go into politics, this is supposed to be about trucking, but I’ve been known to get sidetracked once in awhile.

What in the world is wrong with the Republican party? The American people? The only reason I can see why John McCain is doing so well, is he’s got all the connections and will owe a lot of favors for all those endorsements. Everyone “likes” him because he’s been around forever.

McCain is an angry, arrogant old man. The LA Times or someone did a very detailed bio. Granted - he served his country, but so did a lot of people and that was a long time ago. His current record show how he feels nowadays.

According to the article (which I can’t find right now), he went to the Naval Academy, and finished, but almost finished last of his class. Then he gets into jet fighter training? Only the best get into jets, but his dad was an admiral. He was the youngest commander of a large squadron and his dad was an admiral in the same theater. I’m sure that had nothing to do with it.

And now this from World Net Daily:

How the Clintons will undo McCain
According to T, they reveal that McCain had made an “accommodation” with his captors, and in exchange, T’s father saw that he was provided with an apartment in Hanoi and the services of two prostitutes. Upon returning to his prison cell, he would say he had been held in solitary confinement. That may be why so many of his fellow prisoners said later they saw so little of him at Hoa Loa.

Read the entire article. It says the CIA has proof from documents they got after the Soviet fall and a certain Clinton has connections in the CIA.

He went from the military to politics, so he’s never had a job in the economy, but he’s for tax cuts now. His temper has been reported by other Senators as being out of control. He’s yelled obscenities at other Senators because they had a different opinion than he had.

With all the talk about change and people being sick and tired of the political system and the people go for the same old political games. McCain is the expert at political games because he’s been playing for years. Look at his campaign, kind of like Clinton, if you say something loud enough and often enough, people will think it’s true.

We get a good, family man, scandal free, tough, smart, intelligent business man and what do we do? I just don’t get it. A lot of people say Romney is too polished. For God’s sake! After complaining that Bush was a “dummy” in front of the microphone you think this would be a good thing? He was a CEO and they have to be smart, articulate and be good with facts and numbers. And people are complaining about that? I just don’t get it.

If nothing else, has everyone forgotten McCain-Kennedy? And after they tried to sneak the Dream Act through in the middle of the night behind our backs and you believe a politician when he says he “heard the American people”??? I don’t get it. I said that. I’m still saying it. I’ll probably be saying it awhile longer too.

And Huckabee? Don’t get me started. That backstabbing, game playing, lying, prisoner releasing, pro-open border, politician. But he’s pastor, Governor from Arkansas? That’s what this country needs? ‘cuse me while I throw-up. I don’t get it.

Good thing I’m learning Spanish. I’m building another site to document my progress and keep some notes about the products and how I’m learning. Standby for that.

I don’t understand why California hates trucks so much? I made it to Reno on Sunday, plenty of time to go 150 miles to deliver on Monday morning. Except I-80 was closed going over Donner Pass, but only to westbound trucks. Eastbound trucks were saying the road was fine, no chains, a little snow, but fine. Westbound cars were allowed to go, but not trucks.

At 9pm they open the interstate going west for trucks. By that time the storm hit and chains were required. I went to bed. I already told the customer I wasn’t going to be there first thing in the morning, so there was no rush. I wasn’t going to put chains on in the mud for “no-rush”, especially since the weather was supposed to clear later that night.

Boogity Boogity Boogity!

7am, chain law lifted, I head west along with hundreds of other trucks that were waiting for the green flag. Everyone was in a hurry but me. The truck is covered in mud, I get to the other side, traffic is picking up, it’s way past rush hour, but there is still a lot of traffic. I’m in the right lane, three cars are merging with plenty of room, it’s really tight because everyone wants in front of the trucks. The third car squeezes in front of me and flips me off! Like I’m suppose to let him in when there are cars on my left. I’m pretty sure cars getting onto the highways are supposed to yield, but it is California, so I may be wrong.

I was a little bad, because my load was very light I can accelerate a lot quicker than most trucks and I’m sure it surprised the guy when I stayed on his tail when traffic was clear after he speeded up to the car speed limit. He then goes all the way in the left lane and speeds off.

California Hates Trucks

It sucks to be a truck in California. Split speeds are only a part of it. Fifty three foot trailers are restricted from certain roads. Which meant I had to go out of the way to get to this town 40 miles north of Sacramento. And then I have this guy flip me off because I didn’t go out of my way to let him in front of me? Maybe he was flipping off the cars in front of him for not going fast enough. Because people in California should be grateful ANY trucks even come to this friggin’ state of hate toward trucks.

• Split speed limits
• Now strict idle laws
• Restrictive truck routes
• Shutting down the interstate because it’s Sunday and cars need to get back to California before trucks? There was no other reason for that crap.
• Higher fuel prices than the rest of the country.
• Crowded interstates
• Rude drivers.
• If it weren’t for the split speed limits they would be complaining trucks were going to fast, which is probably what happened.
• Lane restrictions. Trucks are restricted to the far right two lanes, no matter how many lanes are on the highway.
• Some places trucks are restricted to ONE lane, but not too many pay attention to those signs, me included.
• Nowhere to park in the cities where we have to deliver their stupid crap.
• Huge fines for small violations

There’s probably more, but that’s all I can think of right now.

But not in Vegas. Oh well. I’m supposed to deliver near Sacramento in the morning, but I-80 in Nevada has chains required over several passes. I’m not thrilled about chaining, but since I-80 is completely closed in the California mountains, why go through that trouble to get a little closer.

I’ve got Internet, kind of. I’m borrowing a wifi signal from a nearby hotel because my Verizon card isn’t getting a good signal at all.

Even with snow on the ground and the roads messed up, it sounds like it was better than going all the way south to I-40 and getting snowed on in Oklahoma and Texas. At least if it snows up north, they are more prepared and able to clear the roads quicker then Oklahoma, who I think has one snow plow in the entire state.

I’ve called the store, the broker and my dispatcher and gave them the news. It’s supposed to snow all day today and even when it clears up, it’s going to be worse than rush hour on a Friday night in LA with everyone trying to leave at once.