Trucking

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted some pictures. Mainly because things have been fairly routine and you don’t want to see the scenery of a truck stop. I’m picking up a Pipe Organ in Salem, MA. It’s being moved from Salem, MA to Kent, WA. The church was built in the early 1800’s and the pipe organ was put installed in 1875. I didn’t see a name or any kind of historical plaque, it’s next to the Probate and Family Court in downtown Salem on Federal St.

The pipe organ is huge, with all the parts disassembled takes up the entire trailer. I walked around the block to the Courthouse Deli for a way overpriced sandwich and saw the Witch Museums and a lot of old houses and buildings.

The church itself is being moved about 50 feet. Because of some sort of eminent domain issue, the Baptists were kicked out and a lot is being cleared next to it for its new home and will be used by the court. It would make a nice little courtroom, with the partial balcony it looks like something out of an old movie.

The pictures are mostly from the inside because the outside was really overgrown with weeds and a couple of trees that covered the front.

It’s an all day load, I walk around a little and watch and talk to people about the church. This church was the first church that sent missionarys to the Hawaiian islands.

The Boston area has so much history, but as I was talking to the guy in charge of the organ move, he lives there but they only go sightseeing when family comes out. The traffic around here is absolutely horrendous on a good day. At rush hour you’re allowed to drive on the shoulder to use it as an extra lane. These guys will probably be done at the end of the day, just in time for me to get out into Friday evening rush hour. I love my job! I’ll probably sit here for a few hours right where I’m at. Either take a nap or maybe walk around. Willie can walk on a sidewalk next to me, but only after he’s run around and gotten rid of some pent up energy.

Here’s the link for the Picture page for the Organ move and a few pictures from around the Salem Courthouse.

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I’m trying to not look at the trucking news while I’m sitting here in New Jersey waiting for a load. I’m going to have to move soon because it’s pay to park, but I was trying to stay close to NYC Jersey metro area so I wouldn’t have to drive so far back to the area, but it’s been a few days and I need to start planning on a long, long weekend. The Flying J is about 50 miles away from where I’m at now, which is already 50 miles away from the metro area, but at least at the Flying J I have some restaurant coupons and shower coupons and it’s free to park.

The couple of loads that have come by, haven’t been very much money. The national average for diesel this week is $4.497, my office is saying in Nevada diesel was close to $4.70. At $4.50 a gallon in an average truck getting the average 5.5 mpg it costs $0.82 cents a mile just for fuel. Rates aren’t much higher. The rates I’ve been getting this month have been in the $1.35 ranch. My truck normally get 6.5 mpg that’s $0.69 cents for fuel. So, my rate hasn’t been horrible, but the lack of freight makes up for it. I’m about to start taking some horrible rate just to get back home.

I’m taking the truck to the Volvo dealer and getting it appraised and go from there. Used trucks haven’t been doing too bad because of the overseas market, if they give me an offer to take it and it’s more than what I owe… I’ll have to change the name of this blog.

The trailer payment is almost double and I may be able to lease it to someone or sell it outright, but it’s not as much as the truck payment and by itself, it wouldn’t be so bad and I could take some time to sell it without too much pressure.

What’s bad is that things seem like they are about to turn around. Shippers complain of not having trucks in a certain area or the shipper says they’re desperate, but it’s not bad enough yet for shippers to make them want to pay for the outrageous fuel prices. Maybe in a few more weeks or a few more months enough trucks will be off the road and things will pick up. I’m not sure yet if I want to be one of the ones that are left on the road or even care.

The problem is what to do next. A couple of fields I’ve looked into aren’t doing much better. So, me and Willie are sitting under a thunderstorm in New Jersey, I continue to look at my dispatcher’s email and the Internet Truckstop for loads and working on my websites that are bringing in a little but far from enough right now to make a big difference, but it gives me something to do.

If you’re looking for hosting or a domain name go to Wayne’s Domains to buy your domain names or hosting. The host on that page isn’t the greatest, but in order to be able to get the best deals on domains, I had to offer their hosting. Domains are cheaper than Godaddy with email and all the extras and professional support. I’ve got better hosting available but no page setup for it yet. If you’re interested, just let me know. It’s just like the hosting I have also offers domains, but they’re not as good as the people that I get my domains from. I’ll do another post shortly about the complete package and more.

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’m back to the same routine of getting a load, delivering, then waiting a few days for the next one. Waiting in El Paso, TX isn’t the worst place to wait for a load. I don’t have to idle or even run the generator except for a few hours early in morning.

I took Willie out for a long walk in the desert and let him loose. You would think he would wear himself out after awhile, but I think he stores his energy and runs until he’s completely exhausted, then runs some more. I looked for dog parks close by, but there weren’t any listed on the internet and I’m not going to go driving around.

Or I could take one of those shopping trips across the border, but I can’t think of anything I would get and I wouldn’t leave Willie alone for several hours.

It takes some motivation to work on something productive like taxes. But we have started getting all the numbers and paperwork together.  So, I’m on the internet trying to come up with something to write about trucking, but it’s not only slow for freight, it’s been pretty slow for trucking news too.

I’m back to the same routine of getting a load, delivering, then waiting a few days for the next one. Waiting in El Paso, TX isn’t the worst place to wait for a load. I don’t have to idle or even run the generator except for a few hours early in morning.

I took Willie out for a long walk in the desert and let him loose. You would think he would wear himself out after awhile, but I think he stores his energy and runs until he’s completely exhausted, then runs some more. I looked for dog parks close by, but there weren’t any listed on the internet and I’m not going to go driving around.

Or I could take one of those shopping trips across the border, but I can’t think of anything I would get and I wouldn’t leave Willie alone for several hours.

It takes some motivation to work on something productive like taxes. But we have started getting all the numbers and paperwork together.  So, I’m on the internet trying to come up with something to write about trucking, but it’s not only slow for freight, it’s been pretty slow for trucking news too.

I’m on my way to Michigan and right now, after I drop this off, I have a round trip to Mississippi and back to Michigan. Hopefully, things will stay busy.

I had a little snow through Utah, but nothing since. The truck needs a wash in a bad way, but now I have no time because I have to be empty tomorrow instead of the next day.

It had to happen someday. Enough playing around on the internet and get back to work. I did wait until the heavy wind and rain eased up in California before I left so I missed all of that fun. From Modesto to the Bay area for more fixtures delivering to LA. Picked up in Long Beach and back in Las Vegas.

Tomorrow night I go to the Consumer Electronics Show here in Vegas. Unfortunately not as a tourist. I’ll be picking up some stuff going to Kingman and probably come back as there is a lot of stuff coming out of that show.

At least it’s south!

Yup! After dropping in Houston, I will load some JC Penney fixtures in Fort Worth. They don’t have to be in Modesto, CA till Jan 07th. Home for Christmas and New Years.