This morning went to the Port of Jacksonville and loaded a Caterpillar D4 Dozer and Blade that is going to Albany, Georgia.
Got the check engine light fixed yesterday. Today took a large Caterpillar generator from our yard in Jacksonville down to Ring Power Caterpillar in Saint Augustine, Florida. I forgot to take photos of it. Then back to the Daily yard. Have exactly one month of treatments to go. They are starting to take their toll on me. I'll be glad when they are done.
Got another local load today. Went down to Alachua, Florida to a very good customer of Daily's, Sandvik, and loaded a Hyster 360 Forklift that was going 9 miles down the road to a quarry. It weighed 45,000 pounds and was 15 feet high - legal height is 13 feet 6 inches.
Left about 1:30 am and drove back to Jacksonville. Settling in for the rest of the weekend.
Got a nice little local run today. Loaded a Caterpillar 299D Skid Steer going from Jacksonville, FL to Youngstown, Florida.
It has been a very long time since I had driven one of these. Forgot how much fun they are. I delivered the machine a little after lunch. Decided not to go back today. Didn't want to get to Jacksonville at rush hour. I stopped at the TA truck stop in Marianna, Florida. When my 10 hours are up I'll head back. Not as much traffic to deal with then.
A couple of Daily trucks are returning this train back to Walt Disney World. They stopped in the Jacksonville terminal for the night. When transporting stuff like this for Disney, they require that they park in secure facilities for the night. Notice that there are no identifying markings on them. That is not by accident. Disney is very strict about that stuff.
As soon as my 10 hours was up I left. Drove straight home to the Daily yard in Jacksonville, Florida. Will be here for a little while. My treatments start this week. Will be every day for about two months.
Sorry I didn't update over the weekend but things were in a bit of a turmoil. So here are the updates.
I slept most of the rest of the day Friday. I woke up at midnight, Saturday morning, and my headache was gone!! I got started finishing swapping all my crap over to the blue truck. When I finished I took the silver truck to the truck wash and got it cleaned up. When I got back to the Daily yard I drove around the parking lot looking for my trailer. It wasn't there. I peered in the bay windows of the shop and low and behold, there it was. So I was stuck there for the weekend. Since all I did was pile everything into the truck, I couldn't even see my bed. I went and got a hotel for the weekend.
Monday morning came and I checked out and went back to the Daily yard. The shop said that they had a lot of work to do on the trailer and it might be ready late in the afternoon. I settled in for the long wait. While waiting I managed to dig my way down to my bed. Got enough stuff out of the way so that I can use it. I won't be able to get it totally straightened out until I get home and can take some of the stuff out. It's amazing how much stuff accumulates in 3 or 4 years.
At 3 pm they pulled out my trailer. It was done. They had changed all the brakes, replaced several wheel seals, several "S" cams, and several tires. They re-welded a couple cracks. They also did a 90 day inspection, and general servicing to the trailer which includes greasing the chassis.
I hooked up to it and prepared to go. I pulled out of there at 3:30. I wanted to avoid Washington DC because I would get there right at rush hour. I went the back way down I-81. Was going to go through Charlotte but remembered that the Republican Convention was going on there so going through was probably not a good idea. I went the back way to Richmond to I-95. That was a good idea. Had no traffic issues at all. Stopped for the night at the Petro truck stop in Kenly, North Carolina. 470 miles today. Will get home tomorrow.
First thing this morning took the blue truck over to Thermo King. The APU was doing the same thing as the silver truck. Apparently, there was a recall on them for that issue. While waiting for the truck, I developed a headache that continued to get worse. When they finished, I took it back to the Daily yard. By this time I was in no shape to continue swapping my stuff. I laid down and slept. Didn't help much. Needless to say, I didn't get anything done today.
As soon as my 10 hours were up I left and continued the rest of the way to Carlisle. Once I got to the Daily yard in Carlisle I got the keys to the truck I was swapping into and got started moving my stuff into it.
After driving 484 miles today and moving a bunch of stuff into the new truck, I ran out of steam. I'll get up early tomorrow and get started after I've had some sleep.
Last night my APU did the same thing I thought I had fixed. So this morning I went back to Thermo King. He checked it all out again and fixed. I left there and started toward Carlisle, PA. While cruising down the highway my right front tire blew. That was a bit of a pucker factor.
Pulled over and got road service to come out and change it.
After that was finished I went over to the Flying J truck stop in Beaverdam, Ohio for the night.
Drove to Thermo King in Portage, Indiana this morning and got my APU fixed. Then to the Pilot a couple miles away for the night.
Left a half-hour before sunrise this morning. Fortunately had no traffic issues today. They routed us right through the middle of Gary, Indiana. Gary gets worse and worse every time I see it. It looks like a third world country driving through there. Unbelievable. Anyway, continued on into Michigan. In Michigan, permit loads can only go 45 MPH. That is so stupid!!!! Took forever to get to Lansing. Went to a power plant that is being expanded. Got unloaded. Then drove to the TA truck stop in Battle Creek, Michigan for the night. Did four loads of laundry. Really needed to be done.
Left a half hour before sunrise this morning. One of my pilot cars had to go to another job so he dropped off at the Nebraska / Iowa state line and the new one joined us as we continued on. Had a very good day. Made it 587 miles today to the Flying J truck stop in LaSalle, Illinois. Hope to deliver tomorrow afternoon.
Left this morning about sunrise. Very uneventful day on the road. Had no traffic issues anywhere. Here is the way we had to go in Colorado.
Stopped for the night at the Pilot in Grand Island, Nebraska.
We left this morning and drove to a place west of Laramie. Waited there for about an hour and fifteen minutes for our new pilot escort car to arrive. On our construction re-route we passed The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Quite a place with a rich history.
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Stopped for the night at the Flying J truck stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Yesterday I had two great escort cars. One of them had to leave so they sent another to replace him. We left a half-hour before sunrise this morning. Had a good day on the road. Started off on a 2 lane road. Made it tricky being as wide as I am. Really needed those two escort cars. Found out real fast the replacement was not good at all. In fact, he was horrible. Tried to give him some instruction, but none of it worked. We stopped at the Wyoming Port of Entry. There were only 2 of them working and doing the job of 6. Took a half hour to get out of there. Finally made it to the Flying J truck stop in Evanston, Wyoming for the night. There I fired the horrible escort car and sent him on his way. The other escort driver (the good one) called his company and they will have another one sent. Won't need a second car until we get to Laramie. Have a detour there where 2 are required. In spite of that, we got 542 miles under our belt today.
Left this morning at 9 AM PDT with most all my new permits. We made excellent time today. Didn't have to stop and screw with the tarps at all. The only traffic slow downs were going through Las Vegas. Hard to go through and not stop. Anyway, continued on past the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Nellis Air Force Base. Stopped for the night at a Love's truck stop about 20 miles north of Las Vegas. Lots of these flying around here.
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Drove the rest of the way down to Chula Vista early this morning. Loaded a Flange that is going to Lansing, Michigan.
While loading found out that it was wider than we thought. All my permits were ordered with a width of 15 feet. After measuring it found it to be 15 feet 4 inches wide.
With that revelation, had to reorder all my permits. That also meant I couldn't leave until my new California permit came in. Now, this thing is a big round circle. The geniuses at the California permit office wanted me to turn it on the trailer to make it narrower. Obviously, you don't have to pass an IQ test to be a Government worker. My new permits started to come in this afternoon. By that time I only had an hour and twenty-seven minutes left on my clock. Not enough time to go anywhere today. I let my two escort cars know that we weren't going anywhere today. Then dropped my trailer there and bobtailed over to the Pilot truck stop (that was not on my permit route) for dinner, a much-needed shower, and sleep. Will be leaving at nine am when the San Diego curfew is over.
They opened at 6 am PDT and I went in. They were pretty good at getting me unloaded quickly. From there I headed toward Chula Vista, CA where my next load is. Did real good with traffic until I got to Los Angeles. The first area of bumper to bumper traffic was caused by the lookie-loos slowing down to look at this wreck.
After that, there were several more areas of bumper to bumper traffic. Finally made it through L.A. and continued south on I-5. Went past the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant. Right after the tsunami in Japan that wiped out the nuclear power plant there, that was right on the ocean like this one is, it spooked the folks here so they decommissioned this one.
Continued on past Camp Pendelton. They were doing some training as I went past. There was a ship in the ocean and troops on the beach.
Stopped for the night at the southbound rest area at Camp Pendelton on I-5.
