Saturday, April 22, 2017

Left a half hour before sunrise this morning.  Drove to Wingate, Texas and delivered the hub.  Next load is Monday in Victoria, Texas.  I headed that way.  Stopped for the rest of the weekend at the Flying J truck stop in San Antonio, Texas.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Left this morning just before sunrise.  Good day on the road.  Very uneventful.  Got some pretty good news this afternoon from the "home office" in Carlisle, PA.  I'll tell you about it in the days to come. Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop in Terrell, Texas.  That's about 30 miles east of Dallas.  

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Left early this morning and drove to Pensacola, Florida and loaded a GE Wind Energy Hub that is going to Wingate, Texas.

Left there and drove to the Love's truck stop in Loxley, Alabama for the rest of the day.  Couldn't go any farther today because my Mississippi permit does not start until tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Made a minor repair to the truck and trailer this morning.  After that, drove to the TA truck stop in Marianna, Florida for the night.  Tomorrow I'll go to Pensacola and hopefully load my next load.  It isn't scheduled to load until Friday, but I'm hoping they will do it tomorrow.  We will see

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Left this morning and drove down to Lutz Florida and delivered the excavator.  Next load is Friday in Pensacola.  I drove back to the Daily yard in Jacksonville.  Traffic going back was horrible!!  Took forever to get back.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Friday, April 14, 2017

Left at sunrise this morning.  Heavy traffic in both directions on I-95.  Stopped for the holiday weekend at the Daily yard in Jacksonville, Florida.  Will deliver on Tuesday.  

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Left at sunrise this morning and drove the rest of the way to the quarry in Kittrell, NC and delivered the metal thing.  Next load was in Kernersville, NC so I drove back over to there.   Loaded a Hitachi 210LC Excavator that is going to Lutz, Florida.

Left there and drove down to the Pilot truck stop in Salisbury, North Carolina for the night.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Had to wait until the Louisville, KY curfew was over in order to start.  While waiting, fixed a light on the trailer and the APU.  Then got on the road.  

Had a good and uneventful day on the road.  Only bad spot was going through the gorge on I-40 through the Great Smokey Mountains.  Construction had it down to one lane.  Took an hour and a half to go fifteen miles.  Stopped for the night at a Love's truck stop in Marion, North Carolina.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

As soon as my 10 hours was up I left and drove down to the Daily yard in Lannon (Milwaukee), Wisconsin.  I left my trailer there and hooked up to a trailer there that was already loaded with a bug metal thing.  It is going to a quarry in Kittrell, North Carolina.

Left there and drove to the Flying J truck stop in Franklin, Indiana for the night.  My APU quit working this morning so I'll have to idle the truck all night.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Left a half hour before sunrise this morning.  Drove all the way up to Eau Claire, Wisconsin and delivered the dump truck late this afternoon.  Next load is waiting for me at the Daily yard in Milwaukee. Started to head that way but ran out of hours.  Stopped for the night at the Flying J truck stop in Black River Falls, Wisconsin.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

VERY windy here all day.  This truck has been rockin' all day, especially with this big "wind catcher" on the back!!

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Nothing exciting or interesting today, just a nice day on the road.   Left Wheeling, WV at sunrise this morning and drove to a truck stop in Oakwood, Illinois.  Will be here until Monday morning.

Friday, April 7, 2017

First thing this morning went over to the Port of Baltimore and loaded a Caterpillar 745C Dump Truck that is going to Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

I'm a bit heavy.  Here is my scale ticket.

To put that in some perspective for those of you that do not drive a truck, I weigh more than TWO fully loaded semi trucks.

Had to have an escort car in Maryland.  He was waiting for me just outside the Port gates, and off we went.

Western Maryland is still in winter.  Snowing hard out there.  2 inches on the ground but not sticking to the roads. It stuck to the parking lot, not the roads.

At the Maryland / West Virginia state line my escort dropped off as I continued on.  Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Left at sunrise this morning and drove up to Frederick, Maryland and delivered the excavator.  Next load is tomorrow morning at the Port of Baltimore.  Drove over to the TA truck stop in Baltimore for the night.

Wednesday, April, 5, 2017

As soon as my 10 hours was up I was back on the road.  Made it down to Columbia, South Carolina and loaded a Doosan 300 Excavator that is going to Frederick, Maryland.

My "maiden voyage" in my new (to me) truck.

Left there and drove to the Love's truck stop in Lambsburg, Virginia for the night.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Got up real early this morning to get a good start going down to Columbia, South Carolina.  Went to the Daily yard to get my trailer but it was not there.  I dropped my trailer there about a week ago and told them it needed servicing.  It sat there all that time.  Now the day I was going to go with it, they decide to pull it into the shop to work on it.  They worked on it all day!!!!  At about 2:30 this afternoon the finally finished it.  I got it and left. Now I'm going to be late loading tomorrow. Drove to the Pilot truck stop in Raphine, Virginia for the night.  I'll start in the morning as soon as my 10 hours is up.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Went back over to Daily this morning and got things switched over in their computers and some other "admin" stuff.  My truck was finished in the shop a little while later and I finished (sort of) getting moved into it.  Then went and filled up the fuel tanks.  The CB antenna were both missing, so I went to the truck stop and got a couple of them and put them on. Did  a few more things around Daily then back to the hotel for one more night.

My load Wednesday morning has changed a bit.  Someone got the pick up location and the destination switched.  They are going to pay me to go down to Columbia, SC and load Wednesday morning.  I'll be delivering in Frederick, MD on Thursday.  So, tomorrow morning I will drive down there.  I'll go to bed early and leave here whenever I get up.  Actually this works out better.  I'l get a little driving time empty with this truck to get a better "feel" for it before putting a 70,000 pound (31,751 kg) machine on it.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Sad news:

Please join me in remembering yet another great icon of the entertainment community.  The Pillsbury Dough Boy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes to the belly.  He was 71.  He is survived by his wife Play Dough, and his three children, John Dough, Jane Dough, and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven.  Services were held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

We had a Daily car for the weekend so this morning we decided to do some "tourist" stuff.  We drove over to Strasburg, PA to the Rail Road Museum of Pennsylvania.  It was very interesting and a lot of fun. Here are some photos of it.

Then we rode the coal burning steam train that boarded across the street at the Strasburg Rail Road Company.  

We got the best seat on the train in the President's Car.  

After that we went to the National Toy Train Museum.  It was OK, but nothing special.  I have seen a lot better layouts.

Right next door to that was a motel unlike anything I have seen anywhere.  All the rooms were real train cabooses.  It's called The Red Caboose Motel.  

After that we were done for the day.  Went back to the hotel.