Saturday, August 18, 2012

Left El Paso at sun up this morning.  Passed a real bad car crash, actually there were several car crashes, along a stretch of I-10 in El Paso.  The worst was about 5 or 6 cars crashed all over the east bound lanes.  Looked like they were doing a fatality investigation.  A little further down there was a cop car crashed along with a few more cars.  They had the whole east bound side closed and diverting all traffic off the interstate onto the frontage road.  Glad I was going the other way!!

From San Antonio to El Paso the speed limit was 80 MPH.  Need more of that in this country!!  FYI... where all the crashes were in El Paso the speed limit was 55.  So I don't want to hear from anyone whining that "its not safe to go that fast!"  Bull S*^# !!!!  That argument doesn't wash with me.  

I ran out of hours by the time I reached Eloy, Arizona so I stopped and got the truck washed then parked at the TA truck stop for the rest of the weekend.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Went back over to pick up my trailer, hopefully my loaded trailer this morning.  When I got there my load was still not ready so, once again, I had to wait. I took a nap.  Several hours later the load was ready.  They put it on the trailer and I chained it down.  It is over width, over height, and over weight.  It is a chiller and it is going to the port in Rancho Dominguez, California (basically Los Angeles). Not sure where it's going from there.

Got on the road and drove straight through to El Paso, Texas to the Petro truck stop for the night.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Got on the road real early and drove into the Port of Houston to deliver this piece of crap.  Arrived at 7 am (local time) and, after waiting in line, found out that I didn't have all the paperwork.  SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!  Finally got all the paperwork and went in.  The guy in there said to unload it and he would be back to tell me where to park it.  I unloaded it and then had to wait for them to come back from lunch!!  I finally got out of there at 1:45 pm (local time).

Next load is in San Antonio, Texas.  I headed down there.  On the way I passed this truck.  Look at how badly this guy secured his load!!  What would happen if he had to stop fast?  DOT would not like that either.  WOW!!

When I arrived this evening my load was not ready.  They asked if I would drop my trailer there and they would load it tonight if they could get it ready.  I dropped my trailer and went over to the Petro truck stop for a very badly needed shower and dinner then a good nights sleep.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Took the 15 minute drive into Dewey, TX to load my next load.  It is a piece of crap, beat up, old 1994 Kenworth T600 that was bought by someone, at auction, who is sending it to Zambia.  

Loaded it up and tied it down.  Now back to Houston.  Last night my APU belt was squealing way too much so I stopped at Thermo King in Tulsa and had the belt replaced, the motor mounts replaced, and routine maintenance done.  Then drove down to Dew, Texas to a small truck stop for the night.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Drove on into Wichita, Kansas and delivered the grader.  Next load in down in Dewey, Oklahoma.  Drove down to a very small truck stop in Copan, Oklahoma for the night.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Got on the road real early and drove down to Houston.  Got to the port before they opened and was second in line.  Waited about an hour or so to get unloaded. Finally got empty and headed for Galveston for my next load.  Looking forward to this one.  Got to the port and loaded a Caterpillar 120 Road Grader that is going to Wichita, Kansas.  I have never driven a grader before so I was anxious to do it.  When I got in the thing I was a bit surprised, there was no steering wheel.  Didn't expect that. I figured out how everything worked and brought it over to the trailer and loaded it.  That was really fun!!  I just love playing with "big boy toys!!!"  Then tied it down.

Got on the road and drove up to the TA truck stop on the south side of Dallas for the night.