Friday, June 8, 2012

Left Wheeling, WV this morning and drove, pretty much, non stop to Goodfield, Illinois and delivered the excavator this afternoon.  Did good, it wasn't expected there until Monday.  After that I drove to the Iowa 80 truck stop in Walcott, Iowa 
 http://iowa80truckstop.com/ 
for the rest of the weekend.

My next load is in Davenport, IA. Monday morning, not too far from here.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Drove down to the Daily terminal in Baltimore, MD and loaded a John Deere 470G Excavator.  It is going out to Illinois. This one is a bit large, 69,511 pounds.  Had to wait for Maryland to send my permit.  For some reason they are very slow.  The permit was ordered yesterday.

It finally came in, after waiting for over two hours, and I got on the road.  Nice day on the road.  Very slow going through the ups and downs of I-68.  I really don't know why I was routed off the Interstate and sent on US 40 in Pennsylvania. It is like driving a 60 mile roller coaster. 

I am over 112,000 pounds gross and my truck has never worked as hard as it did today. It preformed beautifully.

Some of it was on four lane roads but the majority was 2 lane roads.  Had to drop down to second gear going up some of the hills whizzing along at a whopping 8 MPH.  I had a LOT of real happy motorists behind me.   Took forever to get through there.  Was very happy to see I-70.  Continued to the TA truck stop in Wheeling, West Virginia for the night.



Wednesday, June 6, 2012

What a day!!  Last night my APU gremlin reared it's ugly head again!!  Left Ashland, VA this morning and drove to Carlisle.  As I went over the Potomac River I saw 2 of the 3 helicopters that carry the President flying towards me from the direction of Andrews Air Force Base.  Then they turned and flew up the river toward the Capitol. I thought to myself, "there are only two and there is three when they transport the President.  I'll bet they just dropped him off at Andrews".   I was right.  I looked up towards Andrews and saw Air Force One take off.  It went up very steep and then turned and flew past me parallel to I-95. I could see it very well.  Tried to snap a few photos of it as it went by but couldn't catch it. Continued on up to Carlisle, PA and delivered the piece of junk paver.   After that went over to the "home office" and dropped off my paperwork and filled up the fuel tanks.  Fuel is cheaper at the home office.  Then went over to Thermo King in Carlisle.  They are open until midnight.  Got there at about 4 pm.  It took a while but they finally found the electrical problem and replaced the faulty wiring harness.  Then I went over to the Petro truck stop in Carlisle for the night.  Got in the shower at about 10 pm.  Boy am I tired!!  Good night all!!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

A great day on the road today!!  Made up for yesterday.  Must have driven through a weather front.  Had some rain but then it cleared up nicely.  Going through the scales in North Carolina got pulled in for a Level II inspection.  No problems, passed with flying colors.  Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop in Ashland, Virginia.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Being at home sure was nice but now it's time to go back to work.  Drove down to Orlando this morning to load a paver.  This thing is OLD and was bought by a company in Pennsylvania.  It would not start.  They had to jump start it.  Then the fuel line broke because it had dry rotted.  They replaced the fuel line and cleaned up the mess.  Then it started and he put it up on the trailer.

Tied it down and went to the nearby truck stop and scaled up.  Too heavy on the trailer axles.  My permits are for only 2 axles on the trailer, not three.  Went back and untied it again.  Moved it toward the truck cab a couple feet. Then the rear deck of the machine would not lower. This thing is such a piece of antique crap!!  Finally got it lowered.  Tied it down again and went back and re-weighed.  Was OK this time.  By now It is rush hour in Orlando.  That means I-4 is it's usual parking lot.  Stuck in bumper to bumper traffic from South Orange Blossom Trail all the way up to Altamonte Springs with only a small gap where we could actually move.  Because of all that, I could only make it as far as Kingsland, GA to the Petro for the night and a very badly needed shower!