Trucking

We made it back home after delivering in San Diego and Riverside. Things have slowed down a bit, but since we’re home, we don’t mind waiting for something worthwhile to get back on the road. There are a couple of shows and a couple of other plans in the works, we’ll see. For only working 20 days last month and a lot of sitting around in Florida (not a bad gig if you can get it!) we did pretty good overall.

Our last dropoff in Riverside had one of those docks that sloped down into a pit. Even with the blocks we use to raise the trailer to normal dock height, the trailer still wasn’t high enough. We used our blocks and also the blocks the warehouse had on hand to raise the trailer even higher. Lots of fun.

How about that new paint job on the trailer. Good thing we found this out about our neighborhood before we parked the new one out there. It’s a back street so there’s not much traffic. The management said (after this happened) they get gangs that tag the brick walls along the street once in a while. Great! This was one reason we moved into this neighborhood was I had always parked back there before when visiting my mom with no problems. Nice neighborhood, I didn’t realize it was part of the ‘hood. It’s a nice area so I’m sure it’s just kids passing through looking for a target. Oh well.

Blue Angel Statue,
originally uploaded by Adventures In Trucking.

We unloaded for one show on Wed another on Thursday. Spent the night in a really crappy hotel, but the only one we could find that advertised truck parking in Orlando. There are a couple of possibilities to get us out of here and so we wait for a phone call.

Florida does have the best rest areas along the interstate in the country. Decent truck parking, clean and with security. Several of the rest areas have plane statues of some sort.

I uploaded all my older pictures from 2004 and before. Some of the California fire near I-15, from our Grand Canyon train ride and various other pictures including my dog (that I don’t have anymore), my visit to Ground Zero and hot air balloons in New Mexico. Follow the flickr badge on the right or this link here.

We nicknamed this last trip the Cannonball Run, but it’s not really a race and we drive the speed limit. But like the Cannonball Run, we are one big happy family and we have a good time. We see some of the same faces from the last trip. There were about 27 trucks this time and we see each other on the highway passing and being passed by others. This time we had to be in San Diego at 4am on the 18th, things were really slow getting loaded in Orlando for everyone. We didn’t leave the dock until noon EST on the 16th and arrived in San Diego at 2:00 am PST on the 18th. We drove 2450 miles, you do the math, I’m too tired. We stopped only for fuel and bathroom and both were done as quickly as possible and we ate our meals while the other drove. Good thing we were going west, as we gained three hours to help out. I spoke to the coordinator (who remembered us from last time) and he was really impressed and thanked all the drivers for coming through even with the difficulties in Orlando this time. Thanks to the last trip and this trip we are going to be getting more trade show loads from this agent.

After we unloaded, we paid a visit with Cindy’s sister that lives in San Diego. Tonight we got a room in Oceanside to recover and rest. Tomorrow afternoon, we pick up in LA, then to Vegas to pick up some more (shhhh! no one is supposed to know about bonu$ freight!), then back to Orlando! Then maybe back to Vegas, we’re not sure yet. We love staying south in the winter!

We found out today we are in line for a trade show load from Vegas to Orlando and back. This customer wants to pay for a room for everyone while we wait for the return trip. This happens in February sometime.

One trip two loads,
originally uploaded by Adventures In Trucking.

Decking helped turn a decent trip into a great trip.

The CES Trade show. This is usually how I see tradeshows. This came from my phone, it’s a little bigger than I usually post. But I’m still experimenting.

Home. We arrived in Vegas on Christmas day and we don’t load again till the 9th. We’re getting a little restless, but there are a ton of errands to do that keep us busy. We got moved into our new home the 29th. We both hate to move, we do it professionally (sometimes), but we were not looking forward to moving our own stuff down a long flight of stairs and a long walk out to the parking lot. I got some boxes the night before but we didn’t pack anything till that morning. The crew we hired arrived about the time we were finishing the last of the packing. We used our truck, trailer, pads and dollies to move across town and with an experienced four man crew, it took three hours to load the truck, drive and unload the truck. We didn’t have that much, but I didn’t want to spend the day lugging boxes down those stairs. I wanted it done and over with.

When we  move other people, it always amazes us the stuff that’s not packed in a box, that could have fit and only caused another trip back and forth from the truck. This was probably our best move either of us had done because of the preparation and the packing. We didn’t start packing till (very early) that morning, but most everything went into a box.

Since it was the end of the month several U-Hauls were in the apartment complex. One customer we moved last summer explained that by the time you add up moving with a U-haul, getting a trailer for your car, gas and insurance for the U-haul, meals, lodging and worry about breaking down and everything else, it was cheaper to use Movex or one of the other "You Pack, We Drive" services. Which is great for us, we’d rather do more driving instead of loading any day. Our company will do the same thing these others do. Plus, cut out the middle man and use quality air-ride equipment.

That’s what we did before we had to Hurry up and Wait for a company called Reindeer. Cars can be easy but, this time it was more interesting because we had to put one up on the deck. Usually the ramps are used to move stuff to the ground. This time they were used to drive the car up on the deck. And because the car was longer than the deck, the ramps stayed in place under the car. You’ll notice it’s a little close to the wall on the right. That’s so I have enough room to get my fat butt out of the car once I drive it in. We had three cars in the trailer. Picked up and dropped off at three different locations. At each one, a flatbed wrecker was used to get the car from the ground, up to the trailer. I then drove the car from the flatbed into the trailer and tied things down. Backing up in the trailer and onto the flatbed is even more fun! I should have gotten a picture of the ‘72 Chevy pickup with only a couple of inches on each side, I had to climb out the window NASCAR style!

I know this is about trucking, but it’s also about our personal adventure. This is some of that  personal time. Our wedding was last week and I’m getting bugged requests about getting some pictures uploaded to share with family. I’ve uploaded a few. I’ve uploaded ALL of them at the Kodak Easy Share gallery. If you want to see them all, email me and I’ll send you the directions on how to see them. I’d also like it if other family that was there would either send their pictures to us or use this Kodak Gallery to upload them and share with everyone.

It was a small wedding of 50 at a country club in Minnesota. We had the ceremony and a lunch afterwards in the same room. Everything went well. The Judge was really nice and used this web site to get to know us and mentioned a few things that were here. Everyone had a good time and everything went really well. Nothing to send in to America’s Funniest Videos! Here’s the photo album with the rest of the pictures.

We went straight back to work the following Monday. We thought about a honeymoon later, but have decided we couldn’t top our Alaska trip this summer. So, we had the honeymoon before the wedding, sort of.

UPDATE: I’ve also been experimenting with flickr.com. Family and friends can email me for a link.

is a normal part of trucking. I forget that sometimes. When someone tells us hurry up, we’re ready to ship and it’s really important, we usually hurry up and get there. Today is Monday. Friday we were in Virginia, this afternoon we’re in Oakland, CA, after delivering to Sacramento and Modesto. That’s a lot of driving, we’re getting better. Cindy’s able to drive more at one time and I’m finally able to sleep in the truck while it’s bouncing down the interstate.

We didn’t have to be here that soon to deliver a couple of cars, we hurried because our steady customer from San Jose to Austin said they were ready and they want to get two more trips in before Christmas. Now, one of the machines isn’t working and they have to fix it before they load it. The broker says he’ll pay for a room, but we’re still at the same place we delivered today. Can’t find a hotel with truck parking close by, it’s rush hour, we’re tired, we decided to camp here tonight. If you have Google Earth installed, click on the link and choose “open” to check out where we’re at. Download current_location.kmz