Saturday, November 7, 2020

 Left this morning a half-hour before sunrise in a thunderstorm.  Fortunately, it didn't last too long. After a while it cleared up and ended up being a beautiful day.  Another good day on the road.  All along I-10 in Mississippi and I-12 in Louisianna there is still a lot of damage visible from the hurricanes this year.  But it was worst in the Lake Charles area.  Lots of severe damage to the area.  "Blue roofs" are everywhere. Trees snapped in half, debris all over the place, lots of structural damage to homes and businesses.  It wasn't as bad as the damage from Hurricane Andrew in the Miami area, but this was still bad.  I stopped for the night at the Flying J truck stop in Baytown, Texas.  Tomorrow will be a short day.

Friday, November 6, 2020

 Left the Jacksonville yard at 3 am and drove to Thomasville, Georgia.  Gott here a bit early and had to wait for them to open.  Once they opened they loaded a Cleaver-Brooks boiler that is going to Corpus Christi, Texas.  

Had to wait about a half-hour for my permits to come in. Then I left.  Drove to the Flying J truck stop in Gulf Port, Mississippi.  This area is still cleaning up after the hurricane.  There are a lot of signs along I-10 that are still blown over.  There was a section of I-10 that was closed to one lane while they were clearing a lot of downed trees. This truck stop is getting its roof replaced.  All the eves around the building are gone too.  Very tired again tonight.  Going to sleep now.  See ya!!!!

FYI... My Blog readers from the past 7 days.  

Thursday, November 5, 2020

 Left a half-hour after sunrise this morning.  Had several areas of bumper to bumper traffic in the Atlanta area.  Had to wait for about a half-hour for my Florida pilot escort car before entering Florida.  I made good use of the time and got fuel.  When he arrived we continued on to the Port of Jacksonville.  I delivered the chassis.  My trailer had some serious repair issues that needed attention so I went to the Daily yard.  I ended up swapping out of my trailer to another one.  Have a load tomorrow in Thomasville, Georgia.  Will leave real early in the morning.  I'm exhausted!!!!!   Good night.

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Left a half-hour before sunrise this morning.  Had to have an escort car in Kentucky, and two for the first detour just because I am 12 feet, 6 inches wide. Met both at the state line.  After we finished the first detour, which was very short, One of the cars dropped off and the two of us continued on.  Once we passed into Tennessee the other escort car dropped off and I continued on "flying solo".  

On the north side of Nashville, on the Briley Parkway, right at I-65 a semi dump truck crashed spilling his full load of dirt all over the place.  He ended up laying on its side blocking the entire road.  Fortunately for me, it happened on the other side and didn't affect me.

In Georgia, I passed a Swift truck in its natural habitat, crashed off the road.

Stopped at the TA truck stop in Cartersville, Georgia for the night.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

 Left real early this morning and drove to Decatur.  Was first in line except my dispatcher didn't send me the right paperwork. Had to wait till he came to work for him to send it to me.  So instead of being first, I was 7th.  About five and a half hours later they loaded a Caterpillar 789D Dump Truck Chassis on my trailer.  It is going to the port in Jacksonville, Florida.  It will eventually end up in Mumbai, India.

After securing it and scaling, I left.  Drove to the TA truck stop in Mt. Vernon, Illinois for the night.  This is what the truck looks like when it is all put together.

Monday, November 2, 2020

 Nothing all day.  Then late this afternoon I got my next load.  Loads tomorrow in Decatur, Illinois.  I'll go over there in the morning.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

 I left Knoxville a little after midnight.  I got to Illinois a little too soon so I stopped and took a nap until I could go again.  Had to wait until a half-hour before sunrise before I could enter Illinois.  Then I continued on to St. Louis, Missouri to the International Airport.  Delivered the wheel loader there.  It is a new addition to their snow removal fleet.  From there I drove over to the TA truck stop in Troy, Illinois.  Will be here for the rest of the weekend.  Drove 548 miles today.  Will find out Monday where my next adventure starts.

Friday, October 30, 2020

 Went to sleep real early last night.  Woke up at midnight.  Was on the road at 3 am.  Drove to Newberry, South Carolina and loaded a Komatsu WA380 Wheel Loader that is going to Saint Louis, Missouri.  

Got out of there in good time.  Drove to the Petro truck stop in Knoxville, Tennessee for the night.  My truck was due for it's 90 day inspection so I had it done as soon as I got there. Now I'm going to sleep.  I'm tired.  As soon as my 10 hours are up, I'll be back on the road again.  Good night.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

 Left real early this morning and drove to Ring Power in Ocala to load the wondering motorgrader.  As it turns out, this machine is owned by Caterpillar Corporation.  It is decked out with a bunch of fancy stuff.  They send it to different dealers around the country to try out.  I got to drive it around quite a bit this morning after jump starting it.  Then I put it up on the trailer.

Left there at about 8:30 am.  Made really good time in there.  Drove up to the Caterpillar dealer in Macon, Georgia and delivered the machine.  Next load is tomorrow morning in Newberry, South Carolina.  I went over to the Love's truck stop, just down the road from where I delivered, for a much needed shower and sleep.  I'll leave real early tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

 They finally found the motorgrader.  It is over in Ocala.  I'll go over there in the morning to pick it up.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

 This afternoon went over to Ring Power Caterpillar in Saint Augustine to load a Caterpillar 120M Motorgrader (road grader).  They couldn't find it.  I rode in an ATV with the guy all around the property looking for it.  Couldn't find it anywhere.  He dropped me off back at my truck while he went back to his office to try to locate it.  I called our office to have them try from our end too.  After a while, I ended up going back to our yard in Jacksonville because they had no firm idea where it was.  Maybe I'll try again tomorrow if they can find out where it is.

Monday, October 26, 2020

 Left Fort Pierce this morning a half-hour before sunrise and drove down to Miami and delivered the excavator.  Several areas of bumper to bumper traffic on the way.  Wasn't too bad for Miami.  Where I delivered was on the west side of the Miami International Airport.  When that was done I drove back to Jacksonville.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

 Yesterday I drove to the Flying J truck stop in St. Augustine, FL for the night.  Nothing even remotely interesting happened.

Today I left a half-hour before sunrise and drove to the Flying J truck stop in Fort Peirce, FL.  Not the greatest place to spend the night, but pickin's are slim down here.

Friday, October 23, 2020

 I left a little after sunrise this morning to try to time it so I enter Virginia at 9 am when the curfew gets over.  Had several areas of bumper to bumper traffic going around Baltimore and on the north side of Washington DC.  I entered Virginia at 9:08.  Had a few more areas of bumper to bumper traffic between DC and Richmond.  After that traffic remained pretty heavy all day.  Stopped for the night at the Petro in Florence, South Carolina.  

Thought you might be wondering what the difference is with the new "D" rings.  Even if you weren't, here is the difference anyway.  

This is what it looks like securing the machine without the new "D" rings I had installed yesterday.

Here it is using the new ones.  Much better!!

Thursday, October 22, 2020

 I left Baltimore well before sunrise this morning and drove up to Carlisle, PA.  They brought my trailer in right away and started working on it.  The truck shop brought my truck in and started right away too.  They replaced the bad air tank on the trailer.  They also did some welding and added 4 more "D" rings for me.

This afternoon when everything was finished, I drove back to the Daily terminal in Baltimore.  I reloaded the excavator and secured it using my new "D" rings.  I stayed there for the night.  Have to wait a bit in the morning because I can't go into Virginia until after 9 am.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

 Was up at 2 am and on the road at 2:30.  Misty rain and patchy fog, heavy at times, for a good part of the drive down to the Port of Baltimore.  When they opened, I checked in, then went and picked up my machine.  Loaded a Caterpillar 320 Excavator that is going to Miami, Florida.

Everything was going good.  I made great time in the Port.  Then I went to leave.  That's when things took a turn for the worse.  My permit route takes me straight out the gate, straight through the traffic light, then up and over a set of railroad tracks.  They have routed all of us that way for several years.  Well, this time I didn't make it.  I bottomed out and was stuck on the tracks. I called the cops right away.  I also called our maintenance shop and had them send a wrecker.    While they were on the way, I did my best to get unstuck.  I tried several things none of which worked.  I quickly discovered that I also had a mechanical problem with both the truck and trailer.  The trailer was not getting any air and neither was the airbags on the truck.  I also had a leak in one of the air tanks on the trailer.

Lots of cops showed up, four Maryland Transportation Police, one Baltimore County Police, and one Railroad Police.  Two different wrecker companies arrived with a total of four trucks.

When all attempts to get air to the bags didn't work, two of the large wreckers got on either side of me.  Each ran a cable to the trailer.  Then they pulled me in tandem across the tracks and got me unstuck.  Sounds easier than it was.  We then went down the road to a wider area to try to get air to the bags on both the truck and trailer.  There was a huge back up of oversized vehicles waiting to go into the Port and to get out of the Port.  I created quite a mess.  This is the ground clearance I had.

The wrecker guys were able to bypass the air tank to get air to the rest of the trailer in order to raise the trailer airbags.  Meanwhile, I found out that I had a bad switch in the truck that would not put air in the truck airbags.  After switching it on and off about 50 times it finally worked and the bags filled as they should.  Here is the trailer air tank before they bypassed the tank.

Here it is after the bypass.  So simple, but it worked.

Now I had enough ground clearance to get out of there.

I went to the Daily yard in Baltimore.  The folks in Carlisle decided that I should unload the excavator and leave it there.  Then drive up to Carlisle to get everything fixed.  By the time I got the excavator unloaded and parked out of the way, I didn't have enough hours to get to Carlisle today.  I went over to the TA truck stop in Baltimore for the night.  I'll leave early enough in the morning to get there when they get there for work.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

 Got up early this morning to replace a headlight bulb that had gone out. Shortly after that little task was completed my pole car arrived.  He got his car set up while I finished my pre-trip inspection.  We left at sunrise.  Had a very uneventful trip.  I was worried that I was going to miss the fall colors this year but I was very happy to see that I didn't.  Lots of great autumn colors still left to see. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate to give me optimum viewing.  It was very cloudy and heavily overcast all day with rain in New York.  We drove all the way to Syracuse and delivered the wheel loader.  Went from there to the TA truck stop in Binghamton, New York for the night.  Next load is tomorrow morning at the Port of Baltimore.  I'll leave here real early in the morning.

Monday, October 19, 2020

My Virginia permit finally arrived shortly before noon.  I left and drove north.  Had some episodes of bumper to bumper traffic before Washington DC and after.  Considering where I was, it wasn't bad at all.  Drove to the TA truck stop in Greencastle, Pennsylvania.  My pole car will meet me here in the morning.  Have to have one in PA and NY.

Saturday, October 17, 2020

 After looking more closely at my North Carolina permit this morning I saw that I needed an escort car in North Carolina.  OOPPPSSS !!!  Since I was already about halfway through NC I decided that I would chance it and go.  There was only one scale house between where I was and the State line and most scales are closed on the weekends.  So I left at sunrise.  Made it with no problems to the Virginia line.  Stopped at the Love's truck stop is Skippers, Virginia.  I'll wait here until my Virginia permit arrives.  

Friday, October 16, 2020

 I had my last treatment yesterday!!!!

Today I drove up to the Port of Savannah and loaded a Caterpillar 982 Wheel Loader that is going up to Syracuse, New York.

Left there and drove to a crummy truck stop in Wade, North Carolina for the night. I have all my permits EXCEPT Virginia.  Won't be going very far tomorrow.  Feel very good to be moving again !!!!