I left at about midnight 15 this morning and drove to New Castle, Delaware. Got there before anyone was there. Once the guy arrived and opened the gate I went in and delivered the stuff. My next load was back at the Port of Baltimore. Drove there and loaded a Caterpillar 320 Excavator that is going to Murrysville, Pennsylvania.
Left there and drove to the Pilot truck stop in Haggerstown, Maryland for the night. Ran out of hours after driving 522 miles today.
Left Davenport at about 1:30 AM EDT. Very nice uneventful day on the road 637 miles today. Stopped for my 10 hours at the TA truck stop in Wheeling, West Virginia.
I was a little "under the weather" yesterday so I stayed in bed and slept a lot. Felt a lot better today. Drove to Maquoketa, Iowa, and delivered the first tractor. Then drove to Dyersville and delivered the second tractor. My next load had two pick-up stops. The first one was in Dubuque, Iowa. Haven't been there in years!! Loaded a John Deere 317G Skid Steer.
Then drove down to Davenport and loaded a John Deere 524 Wheel loader with forks and a bucket. All of them are going to New Castle, Delaware.
I left at about midnight 45 this morning. drove 412 miles to the world famous Iowa 80 truck stop in Walcott, Iowa. Now it's time to sleep.
I left at about 3 AM EDT. Nice day on the road. The most impatient driver of the day award goes to...
I got a few hours of sleep then went back to work and finished swapping into this truck. Was completed by 3:30 AM. My electronic logbook was not working so I had to wait until the office crew came in at 8 AM. I went back to bed to get a few more hours of sleep. When they got there they talked about it, played with their computers, and finally decided to replace the ELD unit. I didn't get out of there until 12:30. Drove back to the Port of Baltimore and loaded a couple of John Deere tractors. One is going to Maquoketa, Iowa and the other is going to Dyersville, Iowa.
Exhausted, I drove to the TA truck stop in Baltimore for the night. My back is really hurting tonight. Can hardly get into the truck. Good nights sleep will do wonders.
Left at 2 AM this morning and drove the rest of the way to the Port of Baltimore and delivered the stuff. When I started the truck at the Port, it happened again...
I was supposed to reload at the Port. I notified the Daily shop and after several discussions they decided to have me not reload but go instead up to the "home office" and get a new truck. They want to take this one back to International (where they bought it from) so they can deal with it. I drove up to Carlisle and started to swap into the new truck. In the middle of that, the shop manager wanted to try something that we had discussed. Re-ducting the APU air conditioning to try to get better performance out of it. It was actually my idea and he liked it. When that work was done, I continued swapping over into the new truck. I stopped for the night when I just couldn't go on any longer. Only about half way finished. After much needed sleep, I'll continue. I know, the outside is dirty.
As soon as my ten hours were up I left. Very good day on the road. Overcast all day with occasional rain showers. No traffic issues. 611 miles today. Stopped at a truck stop in Grantsville, Maryland for the night.
As soon as my 10 hours were up I left. I didn't do as good as I usually do. Had to stop three times for a nap because I got sleepy. Oh well. I made it to East Peoria, Illinois, and delivered the engines. Next load is in Decatur, Illinois. Drove over there and loaded a bunch of parts for a Caterpillar mining dump truck going to the Port of Baltimore.
Left there and went over to the Love's truck stop in Decatur, IL for my 10 hours.
Drove over to Griffin, GA this morning and loaded four Caterpillar engines that are going to the Caterpillar plant in East Peoria, Illinois.
Drove to the TA in Jackson, Georgia. My trailer brake lights quit working, so I got them fixed at the TA shop when I got there. It's always something!!!!
The guy that was supposed to be here this morning decided to go to another job and didn't bother telling Daily that they weren't coming. Daily got pissed and told them to go (I'll be nice) pound sand. Daily got someone else. After getting it all set up, they said that they don't work on my type of trailer. So Daily got someone else. At noon no one had shown up. Daily tried getting in touch with the guy but he was not answering the phone and not returning phone calls or emails. SO, Daily started to try to find someone else. At 3:15 this afternoon the guy finally got here!!
Here is the blown air bag.
And here is the new one.
Once all that was done I went over to the Petro truck stop in Atlanta for the night.
Left at about 4 AM this morning and drove to the Port of Savannah and loaded a Caterpillar 966M Wheel Loader that is going to Austell, Georgia.
I made great time this morning. Was out of the Port before 8:30 AM. Drove to Austell and delivered the wheel loader. As I was delivering an airbag on the trailer blew. Had to wait at Caterpillar in Austell for road service to come and fix the trailer. I knew things were going too smoothly today. Just before 6 PM I got a call from Daily. The service truck that was coming to me had his radiator go out on him. He said he will be to me first thing in the morning. I settled in here at Caterpillar for the night. Grub Hub is on the way with dinner, although it might take a while to get here. This is what Atlanta looks like right now. I am at the little blue dot near Six Flags Over Georgia, off I-20, west of Atlanta.
I left the Jacksonville yard at midnight. Drove to Hialeah and delivered the excavator just as they opened for the day. My next load is up in Savannah, Georgia at the Port. I started off in that direction. Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop on the south side of Jacksonville when I ran out of hours. Had 15 minutes left on my clock. 680 miles today.
Went back to International first thing this morning. They didn't touch the truck until almost 11:30. The guy got in it and drove it around the parking lot several times and parked it again. At 12:30 They still couldn't find anything wrong. I took the truck back to the daily yard. After that, ran a bunch of errands. Then settled in for the night. Have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. Then I'm outta here!!
When my 10 hours were up, I wanted to leave. Started the truck and got this...
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I shut the truck off, sent an email to the shop, and went back to bed. Once everyone in Carlisle got to work they decided to have the truck towed to International in Jacksonville for repairs.
At 1:45 this afternoon they came and said they couldn't find anything wrong. No fault codes, nothing. I showed them the photos of what it did and then emailed the photos to them. They went back and discussed it with a bunch of other people. Glad I photograph everything!! They rechecked the plugs and test drove it over some real bumpy roads and still nothing. Everything worked as it should. Than figures!! So, after several phone calls and discussions it was decided to leave the truck there and try to recreate the conditions that caused the malfunction. So I left the truck there with the APU running as it was last night. I left instructions to keep the APU running and how to restart it if the shut it off, otherwise the truck batteries will go dead. We will see Monday morning when I go back.
Was on time for my unloading appointment in Savannah, GA this morning and for unloaded. Then drove about 3 miles down the road to Pooler, GA to load a Link-Belt 130 Excavator that is going to Hialeah, Florida. The machine was not ready to go. They also had a paperwork problem. So I sat there and waited for several hours while everything got straightened out.
Didn't get out of there until almost 1 PM!!!! From there I drove down to the Daily yard in Jacksonville for my 10 hours off.
As soon as my 10 hours were up I left. That was at about midnight-30. In Kentucky it started to rain so I switched on the windshield wipers. They swept across the windshield about 3 times when the drivers side wiper flew off!! Of course, it is always the driver's side! Had to stop and get a new wiper. Continued on. Had a great day on the road. 621 miles today. Stopped for the night at the Flying J truck stop in St. George, South Carolina. My delivery appointment in at 7:30 in the morning. I'm only a little over an hour away.
I did get to Lafayette earlier than my 12:30 loading appointment time. Loaded a Caterpillar 3512 Genset and a bunch of parts that go with it. They are going to Savannah, Georgia.
The guy loading next to me had to tarp his load. He was unsure how to do it, so I helped him tarp his load. When that was done, I left. I drove to the same truck stop I was in last night, the TA in Seymour, Indiana. I'll do my 10 hours and get back moving again.
40 more days until Gator Season!!
Drove over to Dalton first thing this morning and loaded a "furnace elbow" that is going to Nucor in Ghent, Kentucky. 20,000 pounds.
Left there and drove down to Ghent and unloaded it. My next load is up in Lafayette, Indiana. Started off that way. Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop in Seymour, Indiana. 448 miles today. My loading appointment isn't until 12:30 tomorrow so I'll take my time getting up there. Even so, I'll still be there early in hopes of getting loaded early.
