Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Pulled out at 3 am this morning.  Really like starting early like that.  No traffic issues at all. Drove to the Petro truck stop in Kingdom City, Missouri.  Did two more loads of wash when I got here.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Went back over to the Port of Savannah and picked up my trailer.

Left there and had a good day on the road.  Just a few small "hick-ups".  The first one was on I-75 between Forsyth and  Atlanta.  There was a high speed chase that terminated on the south bound side of I-75.  Our side, the north bound side, was backed up from all the "rubber neckers".

Here is the "bad guy".

After that, had a couple road construction slow downs.  Stopped for the night at the Pilot truck stop, actually I'm next to it in a dirt lot, in Monteagle, Tennessee.  The Pilot was full, as usual.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Went into Springfield, GA first thing this morning and delivered the Material Handler.  Then went over to the Port of Savannah and loaded a Caterpillar 745 Articulating Dump Truck that is going to Aurora, Colorado.  I'll have pictures tomorrow.  I didn't have enough hours left today to go anywhere so I left the trailer at the Port and went to the TA truck stop in Richmond Hill, GA.  I'll go get it in the morning.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Left this morning to time my arrival at the Tennessee / Georgia state line for a half hour after sunrise.  Very nice day on the road.  Traffic was light and no problems going through Atlanta.  Stopped for the night at the Pilot truck stop in Port Wentworth, Georgia.  I deliver about 20 miles from here in the morning.

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Left a half hour before sunrise this morning.  Nothing exciting today.  Stopped for the night at the Pilot truck stop in Monteagle, Tennessee.  Actually a dirt lot next to the Pilot.  The Pilot was full.  Gee, what a surprise!!

Friday, May 18, 2018

Good day on the road.  Drove to the TA truck stop in Bloomington, Illinois.  Lots of detours in Illinois. Have a long one tomorrow morning, that's why I stopped here for the night.  Also doing 2 loads of laundry while I'm here.  I almost forgot, here is my scale ticket.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Drove about 40 miles north to Deerbrook, Wisconsin first thing this morning to load a Caterpillar MH3037 Material Handler that is going to Springfield, Georgia. Got there at about 6:15 CDT.  Had to teach myself how to operate it.  Loaded it on the trailer by raising the machine with the outriggers and, using the boom arm on the machine, pushed the trailer under it.  That took a while.  Secured it to the trailer.  Fortunately they had a truck scale on site.  I went over and scaled.  It was almost right on the money, but it was too high.  

Called the "home office" in Carlisle and explained the problem.  They sent me a diagram showing how it should be loaded.  It didn't tell me how to do it, just showed me what it should look like.  That was a huge help.  So I did what the diagram showed but it messed up the weight so I had to move the machine.  Had to move the machine a total of four times before I got it as close to right as it's gonna get.  It took all day to do this.

This thing is a lot bigger and heavier than it looks.  I'll get a Cat Scale weight tomorrow. When I finally left there at 2:30 CDT I was totally exhausted.  I went back to the truck stop that I was at last night, took a very l-o-n-g hot shower, and had dinner.  I ache all over, especially my back.  Can hardly walk.  Going to sleep. Good night.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Left this morning a half hour before sunrise.  Drove up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and delivered the wheel loader.  I load tomorrow morning in Deerbrook, Wisconsin.  I headed in that direction.  Stopped for the night at a nice little truck stop in Whittenberg, WI.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Had a good day on the road today except I had to wait almost two hours for my Illinois permit.  Even so, I still drove 503 miles today.  Stopped for the night at the Petro truck stop in Effingham, Illinois.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Went over to the Port of Savannah, GA first thing this morning and loaded a Caterpillar 980M Wheel Loader that is going up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Took forever to load.  Had a hard time getting it centered on the trailer.  Not as easy as it sounds!!!  Also helped another Daily driver load his machine.  He had not loaded a large machine before and needed assistance.  He had only had his trailer for about a week.

 Left there and drove to the TA truck stop in Cartersville, Georgia for the night.  I'm exhausted!!!! Good night.

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Left this morning and drove up to the TA truck stop in Richmond Hill, Georgia.  Stopped on the way and had routine maintenance done on the truck and trailer.  Load in the morning at the Port of Savannah.

Friday, May 11, 2018

Went in to the Port of Jacksonville on Blount Island this morning and delivered the dump truck.  Then went over to the Daily yard and dropped my trailer there.  Then I went to the tire shop and got two new front tires.  After that went back to the yard and parked the truck.  Then got in my pick up truck and ran a bunch of errands.  My next load is Monday up in Savannah, GA.  I'll be here until Sunday.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Hit the road a half hour after sunrise.  Lots of bumper to bumper traffic getting to Atlanta.  Once I got the the beltway traffic got back up to speed again. Just south of Atlanta on I-75 passed a bad crash. Fortunately it was on the other side.  The Interstate was shut down.  Before I got to it 3 ambulances went by heading to the hospital.  All with lights and siren on.  There was stuff scattered all over the highway from the SUV that rolled over multiple times landing upright in the grass off the road. There was another car with damage next to the median guard rail.   There was about six fire trucks, a dozen cops, a roll back wrecker, and lots of people watching.  Glad it was on the other side.  Our side was backed up from all the rubber necking.  The other side was at a stand still for four miles.  Farther down the interstate they had closed the interstate and were diverting traffic off at the exit.  That back up was two miles.  So glad I was going the other way.  Other than that, the rest of the day was uneventful.  Stopped for the night at the Pilot truck stop in Kingsland, Georgia. My Florida pilot escort car will meet me here in the morning.

Just found out more info on the crash I passed.  9 people ejected during the roll over.  7 were kids.  One fatality. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Left this morning a half hour before sunrise.  My pilot escort car was waiting for me at the Illinois / Kentucky state line and fell in behind me as I passed by him.  Good day on the road. This is what I see when I look in the mirror.

Had a small amount of bumper to bumper traffic in Nashville, Tennessee.  When I got to the Tennessee / Georgia state line my escort car dropped off.  I don't need one in Georgia.  I continued on to the TA truck stop in Cartersville, Georgia for the night.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

My next load was in Decatur, Illinois.  Yesterday I drove down there to the Pilot truck stop.  This morning I was at Caterpillar first thing.  Unfortunately it took forever for them to load me. When they did, I got a Caterpillar 772G dump truck that is going on an ocean cruise from the Port of Jacksonville, Florida. I weigh over 130,000 pounds.

Left there and drove to the TA truck stop in Mt. Vernon, Illinois for the night.  Tomorrow I'll meet my pilot escort car at the Illinois / Kentucky state line.  He will be with me until I get to Georgia.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Was over to load at a landfill in Lyons, Illinois first thing this morning. Loaded a Caterpillar 836 Compactor that is going up to another landfill in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.  Got the thing on the trailer  and then they took off the wheels.  While loading it, I think I broke my left thumb.

There was another truck there that was bringing the blade, wheels and some other stuff.  They started to load him as I was pulling out.  Illinois sent me on another "tour" of the Chicago suburbs again.  I was just about a half inch short of 14 feet high and they had me go under an overpass that was marked 14 feet 0 inches. I made it without hitting it.  Continued on up to Monomonee Falls, WI and delivered it.  They wanted to block it up and not put the wheels on it.  That was fine with me since the other truck had not arrived yet.  

The other truck arrived as I was about to leave.  Don't have another load yet so I went back down to the Petro truck stop in Racine, Wisconsin for the night.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Left this morning a half hour before sunrise.  Had a bunch of bumper to bumper traffic in Indianapolis.  Then up to the stupid route the State of Illinois sent me on through the suburbs of Chicago. Here is a map of the route. I can understand some of the routing because the Chicago area has a lot of very low bridges and I am 14 feet high. But this seems a bit weird.  Even on this route I went under a few bridges that were 14 feet, 3 inches high.

The dumbest portion was where I had to do a "U" turn.

Here is a street view of the intersection.

The photo below is the same as the one above.  I have drawn lines showing how I had to round this intersection.  The purple line shows where I first rounded the corner, unable to make it all the way around.  The red-ish line shows where I had to back up.  The green line shows how I finally rounded the corner.  What the photo does NOT show is that there was a LOT of traffic.  I had things pretty clogged up.  It was a lot of fun backing up, through all that traffic, through those intersections.

I made it and continued up to Elmhurst and delivered the excavator.  Next load is tomorrow morning.  I drove back down to the Petro in Monee, Illinois for the night.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Didn't sleep very well last night.  Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.  My escort car was right on time this morning and we left at 5 am.  When we got to the Maryland / West Virginia state line she dropped off and I continued on.  Stopped in Wheeling, West Virginia at the TA truck stop for breakfast, fuel, and a very much needed shower.  After that, continued on.  Good day on the road - I needed that after yesterday!!  Stopped a little bit early today at a truck stop in Cambridge City, Indiana.  It is at the start of a long detour in Indiana.  If I continued on from here I would have run out of hours with no place to park.  I hope to deliver tomorrow. Have a weird route in Illinois too.  Hope to make it there by noon.

Monday, April 30, 2018

Was at the Port of Baltimore in Dundalk, Maryland first thing this morning.  Loaded a Caterpillar 336 Excavator That is going to Elmhurst, Illinois.  I was loaded real fast and was ready to go before 9 am BUT someone in Carlisle forgot to order my permits last Friday so I didn't have any.  Had to wait for my Maryland to come in before I could leave the Port.  Also my pilot escort car was not there yet.  

A little after 10 my Maryland permit came in and my escort car arrived at the same time.  I left the Port and went to the TA to scale up.  Unfortunately I was overweight on my trailer axles.  I am just under 130,000 pounds.  I went around back and undid everything and moved the machine.  Chained it back down again and re-scaled.  I moved it too much!!  So I went back around back and did it again.  This time when I re-scaled it was fine.  Because of that we didn't get out of there until almost 1 pm.  We did good getting around Baltimore.  Made it all the way out to I-68 and then the trailer brakes on the front trailer axle started smoking like crazy!  I pulled over to the side of the road and checked them out.  Not being a mechanic, I didn't see anything out of place or broken, just smoke and they were real hot!  Called the shop and they sent out a road service truck from the TA truck stop in Breezewood, Pennsylvania.  They said they would be about an hour and a half to get here. So here we sat.

2 3/4 hours later the service truck arrived.  He got it working on the side of the road.  We then went 4 miles farther to a small convenience store with truck parking.  He dug into it farther and got it all good again.  I stayed there for the night.

Sunday, April 29, 2018

This morning I moved down to the TA truck stop in Baltimore, Maryland.