Friday, February 8, 2011

Drove into Gainesville, GA and delivered one of the Bobcats there.  Then drove down to Lake City, GA and delivered two more there.  Then drive home for the weekend.  Deliver the last two Bobcats Monday in Tampa.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Got on the road and beat Indianapolis rush hour traffic but I didn't beat Louisville's rush hour.  Had some bumper to bumper there.  Another uneventful day on the road.  Passed a fatal truck crash.  Don't know any details.  They had everything cleaned up except the trailer.

Stopped for the night in Cartersville, Georgia at the TA truck stop. Deliver the first stop in Gainesville, Georgia in the morning.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Left Rogers, MN early this morning. Wanted to get past the "Twin Cities" before rush hour, which I did.  The day was very uneventful.  After yesterday I needed that.  My back is still , well, shall we say, uncomfortable. Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop in Whitestown, Indiana.  That's just outside of Indianapolis.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Got on the road early.  Was about a 2 hour drive to Fullerton, ND where I was delivering.  Made good time.  About 4 miles from delivery I turned down the road that the place was on.  Got about a quarter mile down the road and drove through a snow drift.  Then after that there was a dry patch and then the whole road was gone.  It was not plowed ahead for as far as I could see.  I stopped and decided to back out, there was no place to turn around.  Did fine till I hit the snow drift and then I got stuck.  I dug for 2 hours and also tried to put on the chains.  Non of that worked.  Finally called a wrecker.  No other choice.  $340.50 later I was unstuck and backing the rest of the way out.  Took another way to get to the delivery.  By this time I was soaking wet, exhausted, and really pissed!!!!   Delivered the steel coils and went over to Gwinner, ND to the factory where they make Bobcats.  They loaded 5 of them on and after securing them to the trailer I was off again. By this time I could hardly move.  My back hurt so much it was difficult to get in the truck.

Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop in Rogers, MN just west of Minneapolis.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

High wind warning today.  They were not kidding!!  For part of the day I had a real nice tail wind.  That was great!!  But then it changed to a heavy cross wind.  I was being blown all over the road.  Just after I entered North Dakota I saw this sign:

See??  There really is a home in the range!!  And all this time you thought it was just a song.

Stopped for the night and a reset at a truck stop in Mandan, North Dakota.  It is still really windy.  The truck is really rocking!!   The canopy over the fuel pumps is rocking and twisting in the wind too!!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Drove on up to Columbia Falls, MT.  130 miles north of I-90 in the middle of nowhere.  Beautiful 2 lane road to get there.When I arrived at the place to deliver, they were closed!!  Fortunately there was a friend of the owner there doing some electrical work for him.  He was nice enough to unload the two coils so I wouldn't have to sleep in the parking lot all weekend.  After re-tarping again got back on the road.  Went back to I-90.  Here are a couple photos from that road.

Stopped for the night in Rocker, MT.  That is just outside Butte, Montana.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Went over and got loaded this morning.  5 steel coils.  Two of them are going to Columbia Falls, Montana and the other three are going to Fullerton, North Dakota.  After I got them all chained and strapped down and then tarped I went to the scale. 

I was WAY overweight on my drive axles (rear truck tires) and overweight on the gross by 400+ pounds.  So I returned to the place I got the load.  Untarped, unstrapped and unchained, and rearranged the load.  Then re-chained, re-strapped, and re-tarped.  Went back to the scale.  The axle weights were fine but still overweight on the gross.  No big deal.  I could burn off that weight in fuel.  Took a bypass road around the first scale and all the rest were closed.  I did good.  Stopped at a TA truck stop and replaced both front tires.  They were pretty bad.  When that was done I drove some more.  Stopped for the night Spokane, Washington.