Another repower

Man, I have repowered my last 4 loads. Repower, for all of the nontruckers, means to swaps loads with another driver, usually to help get him home or closer to home. Fortunately all of my recent repowers have worked to my advantage. I swapped my Rialto load with a driver from LA and I didnt have to deliver the load in Rialto yesterday morning. He and I just swapped and I brought his load up here to Brigham City, Utah (just north of Salt Lake City, almost to Idaho). So now, tomorrow morning I deliver this load to a high school nearby and then probably sit all weekend here. I must admit, there are worse places to be sitting. There is some beautiful scenery around here and I actually have a very nice view from this Flying J. And of course, the most important thing, a full laptop signal, with 3G!!!!! If I am ever sitting for the weekend somewhere and I dont have a good laptop signal, man that bites. A lot of times I will head closer to the nearest city in hopes of finding a good signal.

Ok, I'm out...just an update
Jimmy

Ontario, Cali...always a cluster f

Well I just made it out here to Ontario, Cali. I took my time coming across from Tulsa. I dont deliver until thursday am. So I have plenty of time to do laundry and chill with Jaedck, maybe make a video or 2. I actually stopped in Winslow, Az and shot a new video which I just posted to YouTube. I expect only about half of those that watch it will understand it. Overall it was a really nice trip out here. I dont really like coming out here to Cali but the trip out here is always so relaxing and really just a good break from the east coast. Back east if you pull a load of any decent length you are guaranteed to run through 1 or 2 major cities, maybe more. I just drove Tulsa to LA (1400 miles) and did not hit any bad traffic. I hit a few rain storms though. I love rain storms out here, you can see them across the desert for 100 miles sometimes, really cool.

So here I sit, at the TA in Ontario Cali, chillin in the bunk on the laptop. Its a nice day, a nice breeze blowing through the opened windows, very relaxing.....wait.....what was that?....oh Gawd....brb.....ok, I'm back....Let me rephrase....it is very relaxing until one of the many lot lizards feels like being a nuisance. I bet her momma is so proud of her.

I'm out!

Change of plans

Well, I was headed to Laredo for monday but my friend Scott (TrukinTyme on YouTube and Twitter) needs a load to get him home so I am going to swap loads with him tonight and take his Cali load to Rialto, Cali. The bad part is that it isnt due in Cali until thursday. My fleet manager was halfway confident he could get my appt moved up to at least Wednesday. That would be good. One good thing is that I can now film a video that I have been waiting to film for months, a video that will be filmed in Winslow, Az on my way out to Cali. If you know classic rock music then you can maybe guess the idea behind the video.

So I sit at the Flying J in Tulsa waiting for Scott to get here with the load. He is strapping it down in St Joseph, Mo as I type and will be here tonight. I will leave tomorrow morning.

Be safe everyone on this holiday weekend
Jimmy

Leaving Tulsa, Back to Tulsa

I got a load out of Tulsa delivering in Philly. It was a good load, 2 industrial AC units, 4300 lbs total weight and no tarp. However, somewhere around Columbus, Oh I got a call from my fleet manager asking if I would repower that load in Canton, Oh so that another driver could get home to Philly, no problem. Actually it worked out great, I got a load from Minster, Oh to Laredo, Tx. 1400 miles due monday. 5 coils weighing around 8000 lbs each, tarped. I'll be there sometime this weekend depending on how hard I feel like driving it. I am going to route through Tulsa to get my TWIC card application started. TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential)is a money thing that "they" are requiring truckers to get in order to pull loads in and out of ports. It cost 130.00 bucks. Plus I am going to start my passport procedures because as of June 1st, a birth certificate wont get you into Canada, it will require a passport. Soooo, tomorrow morning I will roll into the Tulsa terminal around 8am or so, do all of that, and probably sleep there tomorrow night and get up saturday and start towards Laredo.

I know yall are dying to know....Yes, the bluetooth works marvelously

Blueteeth are so frustrating

Well I made it to Tulsa with no problems or complications. I made it here yesterday afternoon and quickly dropped my trailer at the yard so that I could bobtail a few exits down to Best Buy. Best Buy is the anti Christ. I swear, I have a built in sense that detects a Best Buy better than any GPS. As a matter of fact, my GPS directions to Best Buy were incorrect and as I was following the GPS directions, which told me that it was about 2 miles further, I noticed that I was in an area that a Best Buy can usually be found. Low and behold, one glance to the left and there she was. I promise, you give me a Home Depot, a Target, and a Buffalo Wild Wings, and I'll show you a nearby Best Buy. What was I in search of at Best Buy you ask? A fuhreakin bluetooth that I can fuhreakin hear with. Dadgumit those things frustrate me to no end. I promise you, I have 4 of these things, yes 4...Well, 5 now....The bluetooth makers must be worried about a lawsuit from damaging peoples hearing because I have yet to find one that I can hear what the heck people are saying. UNTIL NOW!!! Hahaaaaaa! .....Introducing, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Motorola Motorokr T505. What is this mastermind of bluetooth technology you ask? This bad boy links to my phone just as a regular bluetooth, clips to my visor, and is also linked through my stereo in the truck which broadcasts the person on the other end through the speakers in the truck. Hahaaaaa!!!! I cant hear you? Welllll, just let me turn the volume up on the truck stereo. I love this thing, I just sit and talk. Nothing hanging around my ear, its just as if you are right next to me. Finally after wasting hundreds of dollars on blueteeth, I found a winner.

I am delivering this load here in Tulsa tomorrow morning to a KMart that is having roofing work done. Then I will come back to the terminal, go through the inspection bay, clear safety, clear logging, and finally meet my fleet manager with whom I have developed a very good working relationship with, I look forward to that.

I never should have had that chocolate pie after my steak and eggs at Waffle House, uuugghhh.

Lets go truckin"!!!

Well the next journey in the life of this Auburn crazed truck driver has officially begun. I will pick up not far from here in Scottsboro, Ala in just a couple hours. I have just enough time to throw a few more things in the truck and stop for a Hardees biscuit n gravy before I head out. This load goes to Tulsa, Okla which doesnt thrill me but its a decent load. Our main terminal and offices are in Tulsa so I will have to go through the same process in Tulsa as I did in Laredo. Goodbye Huntsville, Alabama, until another day

The Last Day

I wish I could explain the feeling I always get the day before I go back on the road. It is definitely an anxious feeling and when I say anxious I mean that as a form of the word anxiety. Dont get me wrong, I love the road and I look forward to getting back out there. Its just that, I take trucking so seriously and I become so focused on trucking while I am on the road, maybe culture shock is a good way to describe it. Life on the road is not only a physical change but very much a mental and emotional change from being at home. Whatever it is, I look forward to getting back out there but, at the same time, cant get the thought of a month or more of 24/7 hardcore trucking out of my mind. Often I spend my last day home, alone and in kind of a daze, packing and mentally gearing up for the road.

My sister and I were sharing a nice house that our other sister owns, but Robin recently moved out, as I will do probably do during my next hometime. Robin owned the washer and dryer so I had to go to a laundrymat yesterday. While in the laundrymat, a local YouTuber that I have chatted with once or twice, approached me out of the blue and said "hey man, I love your videos". I was shocked because I didnt recognize him. Of everything that I did while at home, that was probably the most exciting, lol. Sad huh? Randy, aka Blue, is a really cool guy and I hope we can hang sometime. We exchanged numbers and went our seperate ways.

Overall, it was a good and productive hometime for me. I got just about everything done that was on my Jimmydo list. Ok, I cant lie, I got about half of it done. As usual, I made a list that I definitely WOULD be doing, and by day 2 started checking off things that could wait, lol. Like cleaning out the truck. I can do that on the road, right?

Well lets go eat....theres a good Mexican restaurant on South Parkway that has great white cheese, Mmmmmmm

Talk soon
Jimmy

Home!!!!

I am home!!!!! Nine weeks on the road and I am home! I have to say that I am mildly surprised that I made it home tonight. Three things had to happen in order for me to make it home and all three took place very nicely. I awoke yesterday morning in Beaumont, Tx and had to swap loads in Miss, pick up another in Mobile, swap it in Birmingham, and come home. All three went down without a hitch.

I accumulated 9 days off (1 day for every week I was on the road) but I told my company to expect me back Thursday morning, 5 days. I have a lot to do but as usual, I wont get it all done and will start missing the road sometime around Monday. I sit here now in an empty house, the TV is on, Jack is running about, I bought a few groceries. I look forward to breakfast with my friend Allen, lunch with my friend Starla, lunch later this week with my friend Sean, spending time with my family.....and getting back on the road.

Ahhh, we have a plan

As I sit here in Rayne, La at Frog City (great Cajun food even though I wont be indulging today) I was just informed of the plan to get me home. This load delivers Monday in Miss. I am taking it to another driver that lives about 40 miles from the delivery. He is on hometime now there closeby. After handing off this load to him, I will take his empty trailer to pick up in Mobile tomorrow morning. That load is going to Connecticut and I was tempted to jump on those good miles but I really need to get home for a few days. So instead of taking that load to Ct, I will be dropping that load at our Birmingham terminal for another driver to take to Ct, and then I will take an empty trailer from the terminal and go home to Huntsville. They owe me 9 days home but I doubt I will take more than 4, maybe 5. If all goes as planned, I should be home tomorrow night. Wow!!!! Home!!!

Beaumont

Every driver is very familiar with the feeling of getting sleepy. That first sign of fatigue is a sign of a possible very long night. I first felt that feeling tonight somewhere between San Antonio and Houston so my last couple hundred miles were not as enjoyable as the first couple hundred. I made it to Beaumont, Tx, a 425 mile effort. This load isnt due for days and my relay with another driver isnt officially even set up yet so I decided to just pull her off the road and get some sleep.

I will say that I enjoyed, very much, driving tonight in my new drivers seat and 10 new tires made the ride even that much more comfortable. Nice ride tonight, enjoyed

Driving all night

Just got strapped and tarped. Fun fun in 100+ temps. Showered and ready to drive all night. This load goes to Purvis, Ms due monday but i am relaying it to another driver that is on hometime in SoMiss. Laredo to Slidell is 690 miles so i doubt I make it that far by morning but I hope to get close. May get sleepy, I've been up since 6am, but thats truckin' right?

Laredo...going home!

Well maybe there is something to this blogging thing. Ten minutes after I posted my first blog, I got a load to Mississippi that will get me home. Wow, going home. Nine weeks on the road and I am going home. What a feeling, wow!

Laredo...going home?

Well this is my first attempt at blogging and am not sure that I will go through with it and maintain it. I have been sitting here at our Laredo terminal since Sunday night. There is a lenghty process that one must endure when pulling a load to Laredo with my company. You must first bring all loads to our terminal and go through the inspection bay. You must then report inside and they will determine whether you will be delivering the load wherever in Laredo which will then determine when you can complete the Laredo "process". Once in a blue moon we get lucky and are able to just drop the load at our terminal and they then have our local driver deliver the load at a later time. Just my luck, I had to deliver this load about a mile from our terminal on Monday. I came back, from making my delivery, and then had to put my truck into our shop for many minor as well as semi major repairs. Hmmm, lets keep it at minor, unless you would call tires and a new seat major. Actually the seat was major, or at least it took them major time. Once placing my truck on shop status I then had to go back in and clear the logging department and safety. Safety is no big deal but if you are one to "outlaw" the comic book then the logging department can be a major hassle. Actually, these days, you WILL NOT outlaw the logbook with my company and if you do, it will result in a suspension if you are lucky. My outlawing days are long behind me and my time sitting at the desk of our logbook checker was a pleasant and brief one. Around 9pm monday, all of the repairs on my truck were complete. Two steer tires, 8 drive tires, a brand new drivers seat, and a fixed electrical problem in the bunk that had previously left me with no bunk lights and no bunk AC. No it was not a fuse.

If you dont know me, then you dont know that I travel with a miniature schnauzer named Jack. Jack is my boy and the perfect truck dog and far more popular on YouTube than I will ever be. Mini Schnauzers are a shedless breed so I dont have to deal with dog hair in the truck. One thing I do have to deal with, and this is the only drawback of traveling with Jack, is what to do with Jack while the truck is in the shop. Fortunately our terminal has a nicely maintained lawn and some shade trees that I can tie Jack up to. It actually works fine but it has been around 100 degrees this week in Laredo so I had to keep an eye on his water.

Tuesday I chilled out around the terminal that is complete with a TV room, kitchen, a work out room with nautilus machines. Dont get any ideas, I basically laid on my arse online in the bunk all day. I made John (YouTube.com/18wheelsoffaith) a few clips that he used in a video. The video turned out very well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL0j8csj_fA

Today, more of the same. I went over to the Blue Beacon and had my truck washed. The washbay here at the terminal leaves soap spots badly and we cant have soap spots, no no.

So I sit, waiting for a load that will head me home. I havent been home in over 2 months. If I were willing to take just any load, I would be under a load already but I have to put my foot down at some point. I need to get home.

Well this is my first blog. I rambled much more than I had previously planned and am more amped about blogging than I was 20 minutes ago

Have a great day
Jimmy