Saturday, April 25, 2020

Left a half hour before sunrise this morning.  Drove to the staging area in Powhattan, Kansas.  It is a small truck stop at the Sac and Fox Casino.  No food here.  Have to go get it.  There are a lot of trucks here already waiting to unload.  3 tower sections, 2 nacelles, and 3 more hubs. Talked to the guy that is responsible for getting us unloaded. He said I might not get unloaded until Thursday. Another reason I hate hubs!!!  Oh well.  The guy that is responsible for unloading us is having a cook out for us here tonight.  That will be nice.  

Friday, April 24, 2020

In Enid, Oklahoma GE has a huge yard with hundreds of wind energy blades, nacelles, and hubs. I was there at 7 am CDT to load.  They had me position next to the crane.  And there I sat.

Just before 11 am CDT they came back and started to load the hub on my trailer.

After it was on my trailer and chained down came the "fun" part, tarping the thing.

When that was done I left with my Oklahoma escort car.  To make a long (a very long) story short we had to stop 12 times to add more bungie cords to keep the damn thing from flapping.  And that still didn't work.  When I got to Kansas my escort car dropped off and I continued on.  Had to stop again on the north side of Wichita because the entire back half of the tarp flung all the bungies off and was flapping like a huge flag.  Re-secured the damn thing again.  Continued on to a truck stop in Newell, Kansas.  My back is so sore tonight it is hard to walk.  Took a long hot shower and that didn't help.  Sleeping on my heating pad again.  Good night.  By the way, this thing is going to a wind farm project in Goff, Kansas.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

As soon as my 10 hours was up I left.  Drove the rest of the way to Enid, Oklahoma.  Stopped for the rest of the day and night at a convenience store with truck parking in Enid.  Load just a few miles from here Friday morning.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Left a half hour before sunrise this morning.  Had to stop and wait for 2 hours at the Texas / New Mexico state line for my pilot escort car to arrive.  When he arrived we were on our way.  Made it way back off the road in an oil well field outside of Jal, New Mexico.  There were hundreds, if not thousands, of oil wells in there.  It was like the Saudi Arabia of America in there.  Once the crane was set up they unloaded me.

Left there and started off for my next load in Enid, Oklahoma.  Stopped for the night at a convenience store with truck parking in Brownfield, Texas.

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Went back to the Caterpillar dealer this morning and got my trailer.  A Caterpillar Genset going to Jal, New Mexico.

Left at 8:45 CDT to time it so that I arrived at the curfew area at 9 AM when the curfew ended.  Was doing real good until I heard a trailer tire blow out.  For a change I actually heard it this time.  Looked in the mirror and saw the rubber flinging everywhere.  Pulled over to the shoulder and went back and checked it out.  Decided that I could drive to a safe place to stop.  On the shoulder my load was sticking out into the travel lane.  Not safe.  I drove slowly about 4 miles to a place that was wide enough for me to stop safely and also safe for the guy that was coming to fix it.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the guy showed up and changed the tire.

Got back on the road again.  Obviously I didn't get as far as I wanted today.  Stopped at the TA truck stop in Big Spring, Texas for the night.  I'll still deliver tomorrow, just not as early as I wanted to.

Monday, April 20, 2020

This morning I drove to the Caterpillar dealer in Irving, TX to load.  Had to wait for the crane to get there.  It arrived sometime after 1 pm CDT.  After they got all set up they loaded a Caterpillar Genset on my trailer.  By the time they finished, and I got the thing secured in the trailer, it was too late to go anywhere.  Fort Worth has a curfew from 4 to 6 pm.  I dropped my trailer there for the night and bobtailed to the TA truck stop on the south side of Dallas for the night.

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Left early this morning in the misty rain.  Didn't even get out of OKC when I was cut off. 

Oh well, that is normal.  Happens all the time.  But if he had hit me, they would try to blame the truck.  Drove to the TA in Denton, Texas. I load tomorrow afternoon in Irving, TX.