Saturday, June 29, 2013

This morning drove up to the "home office" in  Carlisle, PA and dropped off my trailer.  It needs some major repairs done to it that will take a few days.  In the mean time I swapped into a 3 axle, stretch step deck trailer.  

Of course, there was a problem with the lights so I had to have them fixed before I could go.  When they finally finished, I went down the road to the Petro truck stop and took a shower.   Load Monday in Lancaster, PA, so I drove back to the diner in Lancaster where I will be for the rest of the weekend.

Friday, June 28, 2013

We left the diner this morning and made fantastic time in to Philadelphia.  So good, in fact, we were too early and had to pull off the road and wait for curfew to be over at 9 am.  When we were able to move again we drove to the Walt Whitman bridge and stopped in the "Permit Load Waiting Area" and waited for the cops to arrive to take us across the bridge.   Once he arrived we were on the move again.  He blocked traffic and we had the east bound side of the bridge all to ourselves as we crossed.  On the NJ side he dropped off and we were back on our own.  As we followed the assigned route to the port we came across a bit of an error.  Do you see the problem?

  

If you thought the overpass was too low, you were correct.  Fortunately I was at this port last week and knew a way around this.  Arrived at the port and unloaded the machine with only a minor (to us) glitch.  The crane that they were going to use to unload me was struck by lightening last night.  They didn't know that until they started it up and started to move it.  It bucked and bounced a bit and then stopped working all together.  It was a bit unnerving to be right under a monster crane as it bucks and bounces.  I was able to get a photo of the crane from Google Maps.

We ended up moving down the dock to another crane just like that one.  Once empty I drove over to the TA truck stop in Paulsboro, NJ.  Arrived there just before noon. First thing went over and got a pizza for lunch!!  After that, shower and get in bed.  My back aches a lot!!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Easy day today!!  After the fog lifted enough to drive, we drove down to a little diner on the east side of Lancaster, PA.  Will wait here until tomorrow morning.  Then we can get through Philadelphia after curfew.  Have to have a police escort over the Walt Whitman Bridge going across into NJ.  That is scheduled for tomorrow morning too.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Went back to load again at 8:30 am.  They were working on my machine.  This is what it looked like.

They finally finished and then they shrink wrapped it.

After that was done it was finally time to load it on my trailer.

After that the tarps had to go on top.  Then pull it outside to finish securing everything.  Finally got everything done.

My escorts were there all day waiting with me.

Pulled out of there at 2:30 pm.  This is the route we have to take.

Had two escorts in Ohio.  Only one (the grey pick up truck) for the rest of the trip.  In Pennsylvania we had to take back roads off the interstate.  The first half of that semi circle south from I-80 and back up to I-80 was not too bad.  From Butler back up to I-80 was really something!!  Narrow, winding, two lane roads that go up and down A LOT and through the middle of small towns.  This load is 14 feet, 8 inches wide and my gross weight is about 100,000 pounds.  Was a lot of fun!!  Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop in Milesburg, PA.  That is at I-80, exit 158, for those of you keeping score.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Got my next load.  It is over in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.  That is over near Cleveland.  My load appointment was for 2 pm today.  I drove over there and got there early.  Arrived at 12:30.  The thing I am getting was not ready yet.  It is called a vibrating screen and it is going over to the port in Gloucester City, NJ. (Yup, just left there last week)  There are several of them going, six I think.  From there they are all going to China.  They had just finished loading the truck that arrived yesterday.  I will be loading sometime tomorrow morning.  This is not going to be a fun load.  After assisting the other driver in securing his load, I dropped my trailer in the back parking lot and drove down the road to a shopping center that is half empty.  Parked around back for the night.  

Monday, June 24, 2013

Went in to Cranberry, PA first thing this morning and delivered the machine.  Don't have another load yet, so I went back to the Pilot truck stop in Portersville, PA to wait.  Was back there before 8 am. Nothing today.  Hopefully something tomorrow.