Sorry late getting this out there, but the last couple days have been very busy.  By the time I was done driving I just wanted bed.  This post will cover what has happened and what is planned for the rest of this trip.

My last load delivered to the Food Lion Warehouse in Disputanta, VA.  I got there and it was like everyother grocery warehouse, hurry up and wait.  I got there 1 hour before delivery time.  If you are late you will have to wait till everyone else has been finished before they will take care of you.  I had a 12:30 appt. and I was there at 11:30.  However they did not even start unloading me until about 2:00.  They even took another Con-way driver who showed up at 12:00 before they got around to me.  I was the next to last person they unloaded.  They finished with me at about 4:45pm.

My next load was just 15 min away in Colonial Heights, VA.  It is a good load.  It goes from Colonial Heights, VA to Otay Mesa, CA (2649 paid miles).  This is my first load over 600 miles in 2 weeks.  I was excited to see it.

While waiting to get loaded I had shut my truck off.  When it came time to move up in the line to get loaded I could not get my truck to start.  Another Con-way driver tried to jump start it and we still could not get it going.  You may remember that I have been having problems getting it started for about the last 6 months, but the batteries, starter, and alternator all test good every time.  Well this time even though the starter tested good the mechanic told me that it was what my problem was.  Con-way told him to pull start me and told me not to shut the truck off till I got to a Kenworth shop to get it replaced (still under warrenty).  Finally somebody found the problem.

I had arrived at the Shipper at 5:15pm, then the truck problem while waiting.  Then I waited some more.  Then I waited some mooore.  Then I waited some mooooooorrrrrreeeee!  They did not finish with me until 1:30 am the next day.  They still had one more truck to load after me.  On day 1 I drove 3 3/4 hours and waited to be loaded & unloaded for 9 1/2 hours.  That was the end of day one of this load.

On Thursday 7/2/09 I got up fueled and started driving from Colonial Heights, VA to Nashville, TN.  That is where I stopped at the Kenworth shop to get my truck starter replaced and also my fuel filters changed.  After they were done I did not have any time left so I just parked for the night at the shell station close by.  This shell station also had about 7 truck parking spots.  It also had a Dunkin Donuts which I had not had in about 20 years so that was breakfast the next day.  I was too tired to do anything other than heat up my dinner, eat, and go to bed.

Today was day 3 on this load.  I got up in Nashville, TN, drove to West Memphis, AR.  While in West Memphis I fueled at our terminal and went to the Wal-Mart and did my grocery shopping.  After grocery shopping I got back on the road and went to our Lancaster, TX Terminal (a suburb of Dallas, TX).  While here at our terminal I ordered dinner out, Chinese.  I also did my laundry.  Lastly I aslo updated the blog.  First time along this trip that I was not too tired.

Tomorrow will be day 4.  Also it is the 4th of July, Indendence Day here in the United States!  Plans for tomorrow are to drive from Lancaster, TX to Las Cruces, NM.  I should have a the shortest day on this load on the 4th other than the day I deliver.

On July 5th I plan to make it the rest of the way to Otay Mesa, CA.  I will then deliver first thing on the 6th day, Monday July 6.

This trip will have been 2649 paid miles.  Paid miles for the week 3633.  For the previous 3 weeks working from last week to the previous 2 weeks:  2539, 2551, 3094.  Average weekly miles for 2009:  2422.

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Good Evening and Welcome to “On The Road”.  I started today at 6:45 am.  I was at the T/A in Lamar, PA.  Once I got on the road at 7:15 am I only needed about 2 1/4 hours of driving time to get to Sears DC in Gouldsboro, PA where I did my delivery a drop & hook .

Then I went to the new Truck stop which is only about 4 min. away.  It did not take long for me to get my next assignment, but there was some confusion on it.  I tried to get it straightend out.  They said it was an appointment on both ends.  The only problem was it was to p/u at 10pm and deliver tomorrow at 12:30pm.  Which for the non-drivers, this would have caused legal problems for me.  We have 14 hours in which we can drive our 11 hours.  The 14 hours start when you do any work (usually your pre-trip) and continue until you take a 10 hour break.  Well that would have been 15 hours including my 30 min trip to pick up the load.  How was the problem resolved you might be asking? maybe?  Well when they looked further into it they found it was supposed to be a pre-loaded trailer that I could pick up any time.  Well all this took 4 hours to straighten up.  Now I am short those 4 hours during my 14 hour day and can not get them back.  I am just glad they were able to resolve the problem.

This load was to pick up in Old Forge, PA and is to deliver in Disputanta, VA.  I showed up at 2:45 pm to pick up my “pre-loaded trailer” to find out that it had not been loaded yet.  Second time this happened this week.  They finished loading me at 4:30 pm and I was back on the road.

That brings me up to where I am now, and in the morning I will get back on the road at a decent hour to make my delivery in Disputanta, VA.  I am about 4 hours away.

Good Evening and welcome back to On The Road.  I started my day today in Bellefontaine, OH where I ended on Saturday.  I got up and made my delivery which did not take real long, only about 1 hour.  I then went back to the rest area and waited for my next assignment.  It took about 2 1/4 hours to get the next assignment.  It is taking me back to a load that I did last week.

I picked up the load in Clyde, OH and it is due by midnight tomorrow.  I’ll have it there by 10am, probably earlier if I get up when I want to.  I fueled at the Pilot in Upper Sandusky, OH.  I got 156 Gal. of fuel, and had driven 1001 miles for 6.42 Actual MPG.  I say actual MPG because our company figures MPG based on paid miles and not actual.

I had a good dinner tonight, not my normal microwave meal.  A lot of the T/A restaurants now offer all you can eat for the entire menu.  The one I stopped at tonight is one of those.  I ordered the cajun chicken sandwich.  It was good, and so was the second one.

Saturday I bought a new LCD Flat Screen TV with a built in DVD player.  It is made by Emerson.  I got it from Wal-Mart.  So far it seems to work ok.  Only problem I have had is actually a problem with how the truck is designed.  The TV sits up on a shelf above you, and because it is LCD the image is dark.  I had to stick cardboard under the back of the stand in order to tilt it enough to see the picture from my bunk.  The TV does have an HDMI hookup that I use to connect my computer to.  With that and my wireless mouse and keyboard I can use my computer from my bunk without having to go thru the trouble on unstrapping the computer and moving it, and then restrapping it in in the morning.

Today has been extra busy with a lot of delays added in.  I worked on 3 different loads today.  The first was just driving 45 min from Carlisle, PA to Starbucks in York, PA for a live unload.  I was there for 45 min. getting unloaded.  Before I even got there I rec. my next assignment.

My next load was going to take me to Greencastle, PA to pick up a load from Con-way freight to their yard in Newark,  NJ.  308 miles.  Con-way freight loads are on a tight sched. and this one was running at least 30 min. late, so I was given an extra 15 min back to make the del.  I got there just in time.  I had about 10 min. to spare.

Now my next load assignment also came in before I made it to the delivery in Newark, NJ.  This one I was to pick up a pre-loaded trailer (about 3 hours preloaded) in Jersey City, NJ and del. Monday morning in Bellefontain, Oh.  Well I got to the pick up to find that it had not been loaded yet and I was going to have to wait for it.  That normally would not be a problem, but remember this is now my 3rd load for the day and I only had 1 1/2 hours left before I was not allowed to drive any more today.  Needless to say, they did not finish on time and that left me in a bad place.  Now I am writing this from the side of the street outside the shipper.  I have to stay the night there because I can not drive anywhere and there is no place close by to park other than the street.

Good thing is that tomorrow I get to drive on my sched. since this load is not due until Monday morning and it is only 597 miles.

This weeks miles: 2539.  Not bad for a week full of short runs that started on Tuesday instead of Sunday.  Previous weeks miles starting last week and working back: 2551, 3094, 3062.

Well the day is now coming to a close.  I started the day in Mocksville, NC.  I then headed off to Mooresville, NC to pick up my load which I am taking to York, PA.  It is a light load only weighing 14k lbs.  I drove 8 hours today, 472 miles to Carlisle, PA where I will stay the night.  Tomorrow I have about another 45 min of driving to get to my del. which will be a live unload.  Which means I will back the trailer up to there dock and wait for them to unload it.  This can be completed as quickly as about 30 min to as long as 4+ hours.  At this place they usually finish in about 1 hour.

Good Morning Everyone and welcome back to On The Road.  Yesterday was an interesting day.  I got up and got ready to get on the road and while cleaning out the trailer my next assignment came in.  I needed to head to Topton, PA to pick up a load of batteries (43k lbs) and take them to Winston-Salem, NC.

The load was not due until this morning, but they said if I could get them there by 8pm they would take them early. Well I did get it in early 7pm.

A funny story from the trip.  Well shortly after I left from my pickup in Topton I could not find my wallet.  I go back to the shipper, they have not seen it.  I look around the parking lot, and I do not find it.  Finally I look thru the truck again and what do you know, I had somehow got it under my bed covers when I made my bed.  Kinda funny, but a waste of my time.

Now todays assignment is to Pickup in Mooresville, NC at 11am then del. tomorrow in York, PA at 10:30am.

Here are some pics from inside my tuck.

The passenger side of my Truck.

My bunk are from the front of the truck.

My bunk area taken from my bunk

Today was a busy day.  I got up and went to make my first delivery by 7:30 am Eastern.  Got to Dow Chemical in Findlay, OH about 30 min. early.  I had to wait about 5 min. for them to open.  While I was there getting unloaded I received my next assignment.  I needed to pick up a pre-loaded trailer from Whirlpool (It was ready yesterday) in Clyde, OH and deliver it tonight to Sears DC in Gouldsboro, PA.  Driving from Findlay to Clyde I made a wrong turn down a county road with no way to turn back.  That gave me a little bit of a drive through the country side.  Luckly it did not add much to my out of route.

Findlay, OH to Clyde, OH to Gouldsboro, PA

It took my whole 14 hours from start to finish.  Made for a busy day which is good.  I like that a lot better than sitting around.

Today I spent the whole day working on uploading images with a slow connection to create my Gallery page.  I also worked on the blog site itself some.  Got my wife to help pick out the theme of the site, and at least for now have gone with her suggestion.  I could use some feedback regarding the look of the site as well as the gallery.

I did not go anywhere today, but tomorrow morning I will make my delivery and hopefully get another load assigned quickly.  I need the miles (for those who do not know most trucking companies pay their drivers by the mile).

I have been having problems with my trucks batteries dieing after just a few hours of sitting.  The other day they said they found 1 of the 4 batteries was bad and replaced it with a more powerful one.  Well, it happened again last night.  When I went back out to my truck from spending time in the terminal I had to get a jump start.  I sure wish they could find the problem and fix it.

Today,  I got up at about 8am and took it easy for a couple hours.  I left West Memphis at about 10:30 am and drove to Findlay, OH with only 2 stops.  It took 11 hours of driving to go the 645 miles.  I did get slowed down a bit in Kentucky where they had a bridge on I-65 cut down to 1 open lane becuase of construction.  It had a 7 mile back up.  Overall not a bad day.

Tomorrow I plan on working on my site some more and playing SWG with my wife if I can keep a good enough internet conection to play.

But for now, it is dinner time then some tv and bed.

Everyone stay safe and God Bless,

Terry

I have spent the day setting up and updating my blog site (http://www.stewnet.com/).  I still have not finished it, but it is now up and running. My next load is not due to deliver until Tuesday 6/23/09.  It is a heavy load (44,700 lbs).  It is a relay that I am picking up from our yard in West Memphis, AR (That is where I am right now) and del. Tue in Findlay, OH.

Map of route from West Memphis, AR to Findlay, OH.