tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78039066284156906512024-03-13T21:13:44.483-05:00Rambling OnThe musings and adventures of a truck-driving writer.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-84246239970638711022012-11-23T03:47:00.000-06:002012-11-23T03:52:48.197-06:00We've Become the Turkeys.A co-worker of mine has a second job working at Walmart. According to her report, there were three fistfights over goods yesterday evening. When did Thanksgiving dinner turn into fuel for the mad shopping rush? Shouldn't it be about re-connecting with family? Reminding ourselves of all of the blessings we have in our lives? Stuffing ourselves with good food, watching a football game, and passing out in a turkey induced coma? When did thankfulness fall by the wayside in favor of a frantic free-for-all in pursuit of accumulating more stuff?<br />
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I haven't been able to make it home for many holidays over the last ten years. My job keeps me on the road, and every year my husband and I have to make the painful choice: do we take off for Thanksgiving, or Christmas? Do we spend it in Kansas, or Alabama, or Indiana, or with some other branch of our far-flung family? This time of year is a stark reminder to us of all the family that we so rarely get to see. For my family especially, a huge, close-knit clan, this Thanksgiving was especially poignant - my Grandma Peebles passed away earlier this year. As one of my cousins described the family gathering this year:<br />
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"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">I so love my family. It was a little bit of an emotional day though, the first Thanksgiving without Grandma or Grandpa. I think you could feel the emotion in everyone today. What a great feeling to be part of a group where you know everyone there knows exactly what you are feeling even without saying anything!! I have been so blessed to be part of this amazing group called the Peebles family!!"</span></blockquote>
I honestly don't understand how we, as a nation, have let huge retail stores hijack our holidays. We should be disgusted by the blatant commercialization of such special days, not bloodthirsty participants in the destruction of our own culture. If you are reading this, I urge you - stay home this Friday and spend time with your family. Don't be a turkey plucked for the table of big business. Remember, instead, what is really important in life, and if you aren't sure what that is I'll give you a hint: it doesn't involve waiting in line at the mall.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-89202776278870016162011-06-27T18:22:00.001-05:002011-06-27T18:22:45.166-05:00Cyberpunk Now<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-WcRoNWO0_J8/TgkQwPOVHqI/AAAAAAAAAhU/Xap0hxdff8M/s1600-h/jorge-lizama-cybermedios-imagen-cyberpunk-2-lugar%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="jorge-lizama-cybermedios-imagen-cyberpunk-2-lugar" border="0" alt="jorge-lizama-cybermedios-imagen-cyberpunk-2-lugar" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-fCDHo3C5xlo/TgkQwzqOkxI/AAAAAAAAAhY/1IKAGRkj3lc/jorge-lizama-cybermedios-imagen-cyberpunk-2-lugar_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="218" /></a> </p> <p>I know I haven’t updated this page in ages, and this is quite a topic shift from the norm, but this hit me so hard I had to share. Not a big thing, just a profound realization of the paradigm shift the world has already undergone, a shift that has incrementally snuck up on us.</p> <p>Back when I was in college I unwisely spent a large portion of my time playing role-playing games, to the detriment of my grades. One of the games I used to play was a GURPS based game called Cyberpunk. Set in a dystopic, techno-noir future, and inspired by the works of authors such as Philip K. Dick and William Gibson, it was fun to play a cyber-augmented street mercenary, or wise cracking hacker with the net plugged right into my brain. My friends and I battled crime syndicates and heartless mega-corporations for fun and profit every Friday night.</p> <p>This was back in the early 1990’s, before smartphones, when people were only just starting to realize the potential of the internet. This was pre-Google, even. We loved the gadgets – like the pocket secretary, which was like a cell phone - only it could get online and could store information and play music, and even run programs (sound familiar?).</p> <p>Ok, so there I was, standing in a run-down, under-ventilated Otis elevator in my hotel, holding my swipe card room key, my debit card that I had just swiped at the vending machine to get two cokes, the old-fashioned ice bucket, and reading an article about LulzSec Hactivists on my smartphone with the sound of a news report about a flood endangered nuclear power plant in Nebraska floating down the hall as the doors pinged open – and I realized that I was there. I was in the future. That moment, in the hallway of a run down hotel with swirly carpet designed to mess with the heads of drunks and tired businessmen, so totally noir, and peppered with techno gadgets that were considered science fiction only 15 years ago – I felt like I’d fallen into a William Gibson novel.</p> <p>Ok, so maybe we don’t have black market cybernetic upgrades, and the mega corporations don’t <em>quite</em> rule the world (yet), and you can’t plug the internet directly into your brain (yet), but we do have ‘pocket secretaries’, and transparent multi-touch interactive connected devices, and electronic money, and Anonymous hacker collectives fighting <em>the man</em>. </p> <p>I don’t really have a point here, I just had to share my slightly disorienting and totally awesome moment of realization (I wouldn’t call it an epiphany, nowhere near that profound).</p> <p> </p> <p>Now, I’m going to go listen to my Billy Idol “Cyberpunk” album – on my cellphone. Maybe I’ll download <u>Nuromancer</u> to my Kindle app and re-read it, too.</p> Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-21679233087725495532010-08-29T08:04:00.001-05:002010-08-29T08:04:59.785-05:00Bad Road ahead<p> </p> <p>Oklahoma has got some of the worst roads in the country. My eyeballs try to vibrate out of my head every time we cross that state, and it doesn’t mater which highway we are taking. There are some smooth spots, and I’m hoping once all the construction is done there will be more smooth spots. But, with the economy in the state its in, I don’t have high hopes for continued road maintenance. </p> <p>In fact, I expect most of the roads in the country to get quite a bit bumpier. And I mean that in both the literal sense and the figurative. They say we are in a recovery, but I don’t see how when every month’s numbers are worse than the month before. If people don’t have jobs, they aren’t going to buy stuff, if businesses aren’t selling stuff they have to lay people off, or go out of business altogether. That means less people have money, and the cycle repeats. The less money people and businesses make, the less tax revenue the government gets to pay for things like unemployment benefits or road repairs. </p> <p>The most optimistic news reports and blogs are calling for a stalled recovery, or a double dip recession. The most pessimistic for a Greatest Depression, or even complete economic collapse. If those are our options, I’d say we’re in for a rough ride over the next few years.</p> <p>Or, maybe I’ve just been reading too many gloom and doom reports lately. </p> <p>Maybe things will get better.</p> <p>But I’m pretty sure they will get worse first. </p> <p> </p> <p>On a lighter note, Mike had his hernia surgery and has recovered nicely. The three week break from driving was nice, too. But we’re back out and rolling as usual. </p> <p>We got a few days off to visit with my folks down in Alabama, and that was fun.</p> Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-4769856593410054732010-04-21T09:43:00.001-05:002010-04-21T09:52:09.109-05:00Rolling on...Good Morning, America, how are ya?<br />
We're rolling through Omaha, NE this morning in the pouring rain. Traffic is thick, nearly standing still. It's morning rush hour, and I don't understand why they call it that when no one is getting anywhere fast.<br />
Kinda like the poor stranded airline passengers in Europe. I was glad to hear that things were going to start moving over there this morning, for both the people who were stuck, and for the sake of the world economy. It kind of drives home just how fragile our modern transportation and supply system is, though. This eruption is a baby eruption on the scale of volcanic activity, yet it has caused havoc for so many.<br />
Mike and I have talked many times about how easily transportation in this country could be disrupted, and the serious consequences of such a disruption. So many businesses work on a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_(business)">Just-in-time</a> system that a three day interruption of transport in this country could empty grocery store shelves, and bring manufacturing to a halt. Imagine going to a grocery store and finding the shelves empty, or a gas station that has no gas to pump. It's kinda scary to think about - almost enough to make you want to buy a survival cabin in Montana.<br />
We live in a technological house of cards that could tumble with the slightest disruption. (Diesel shortages, volcanic eruptions, massive power failures caused by solar storms, category 5 hurricanes, oh my...)<br />
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Now, for most folks the solution isn't too difficult. Keep your pantry full of non-perishable foods, make sure you've got an alternate way to heat your home and cook if the power fails, plant a garden, etc... There are hundreds of books dedicated to survival in just such a situation. And even if you don't anticipate the collapse of civilization as we know it, it's smart to be prepared for local emergencies like tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and such.<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=sanctuary09-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1933392452&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=sanctuary09-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0452295831&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=sanctuary09-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0761563679&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
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But what do you do if you're stuck on the road a thousand miles from home when disaster strikes? Do you just hang out and hope it gets sorted out soon by the Powers That Be? Considering how our government handled things in New Orleans after Katrina I don't have much confidence in them being able to handle a nation wide catastrophe. I'm sure there are perfectly competent individuals in FEMA and the other disaster response agencies, but the monstrous bureaucratic system ties their hands in too many ways for them to be effective. No, I have the feeling that we'd be pretty much on our own.<br />
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But hey, I always try to look at the bright side. A cross country hike or bicycle ride on lean rations would be just what I need to take the extra weight off.<br />
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On an unrelated side note - I want to know who it was who thought stainless steel toilets in Nevada rest areas was a good idea. Northern Nevada gets cold. When you first walk into the rest area the heater is turned up to about 90 degrees and it feels like your're walking into a sauna. Then you find out why. Those metal toilets. Feels like frostbite on your nether-regions. And they get even colder when they auto-flush while you're still sitting on them.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-46264008796321271932010-04-06T12:19:00.000-05:002010-04-06T12:19:31.387-05:00Blah...Sigh... So much for New Year's Resolutions. The diet has fallen by the wayside, my blog languishes - dusty and un-updated, I've barely even picked up my camera this year. I've fallen into a routine, stuck in a mind-numbing rut of same-ole-same-ole day in day out. Sleep, Drive, Check Facebook, Sleep again. Broke it briefly on my birthday with a trip to Hollywood - that was lots of fun. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56160&id=1286375030">The photos are posted on my Facebook account if anyone is interested</a>. <div><br />
</div><div>We're at home right now. Got home Friday evening, a full weekend earlier than we'd planned on, and we're not due back out on the road till next Friday. Mike is putting the finishing touches on the upstairs bathroom, and I'm avoiding the next thing on my to-do list by updating my blog instead. Then I might go outside. It's a beautiful day, 75 degrees, breezy - very nice. Too nice to be stuck indoors cleaning out closets and deciding what to send off to Goodwill (worthy a task as that is). Ah, spring cleaning. </div><div><br />
</div><div>For some reason I have an overwhelming urge to start a garden this year, but there's no point if I won't be here to tend it. </div><div><br />
</div><div> I did do one thing on my resolution list - I finally got around to making a Zazzle store to sell my photos on merchandise. Only have a few items in it so far, but you can check them out from the widget at the bottom of the page.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Oh, and I owe <a href="http://zazagallery.com/">ZaZa Gallery</a> a review. They sent me a free 8x10 print on canvas, one of the shots I took of two of the grandkids near a waterfall, and I <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #e06666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">love</span></span> it. High quality workmanship, great color. This is a great way to turn your photos into works of art. I plan to order more - at least one of each of the grandkids, as soon as I can free up a little wiggle room in the budget (and get off my butt and actually do it). Their prices are very reasonable - they start at $25 for an 8x10.</div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-9939315566868974802010-01-10T12:39:00.000-06:002010-01-10T12:39:15.814-06:00Ok, Ok, I know. I've neglected this blog for nearly two months now. Bad, Michelle, Bad! No cookie!<br />
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We're sitting in Pennsylvania this weekend. The cold weather and snow followed us across the country from California, made us late on our delivery Friday, and threw off our whole schedule. But, we didn't end up in a ditch, which is more than I can say for quite a few unlucky drivers whose rigs we passed on our trip east.<br />
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December was pretty busy for us, we ran back to back loads from Omaha to Orlando and back again almost all month. My diet got derailed due to the hard schedule we had to keep, but I'm back on it now, and have lost another 3 lbs for a total loss of 18 lbs since late October.<br />
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I'll try to keep up with my updates on a more regular basis this year.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-82207890932750491782009-11-25T14:34:00.000-06:002009-11-25T14:34:19.799-06:00So You Want to Drive a Truck...With the economy in a slump and jobs scarce as hen's teeth you may be considering a career change. If trucking looks good to you, there are some things you need to know before you jump in.<br />
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First off, trucking is not for everyone. You have to be able to handle long hours (up to 11 hours at a time behind the wheel), some heavy lifting (you may be required to help load and unload your trailer, and put in load locks), physical effort (you must be able to climb in and out of a trailer that is about four feet off the ground, and sweep it out occasionally - all 53 ft of it), stress (late loads, crazy/stupid drivers, pressure from dispatchers, bad weather - sometimes all of these at once), and paperwork (logs, trip paperwork, map reading, etc.) You must be good at handling challenges without panicking, a cool head is essential in this business. Good people skills help, too.<br />
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Training is expensive and can take weeks to complete, so don't think you will be able to jump right in and start earning right away. You will need to go to school first. Don't go to a CDL Mill! I can't stress this enough - DON'T GO TO A CDL MILL! Check out your local Vo-Tech and community colleges. The course will be cheaper, the training will be better, and you may even be able to get a Pell grant to help pay for it. A community college or Vo-Tech course will cost you around $3,000 and take about 8 weeks to complete - a CDL Mill will cost about $6,000 and take about 3 weeks.<br />
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Check out trucking companies before you start. Even though the ads in the paper say they are hiring, many are not right now. In fact many companies are downsizing. In many cases those ads in the paper are from CDL Mills that want your money - not from the the trucking companies themselves. Make sure the companies you are interested in are actually hiring.<br />
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After your schooling you will have to go to a company with a training program. Companies such as Swift, Stevens Transport, J.B. Hunt, Werner, Crete, U.S. Express, and a few others have special programs in place to further train student drivers. You will not learn everything you need to know in school - you must get hands-on on-the-job-training, usually 6 months worth. Trucking is NOT unskilled labor - no matter how the powers that be classify it.<br />
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Before you choose a company go to <a href="http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/">The Trucker's Report</a> and check out their <i>Trucking Company DAC Reports</i> and the <i>Good/Bad Trucking Company </i>forum.<br />
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Also Desiree's <a href="http://www.askthetrucker.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-lady-trucker/#comments">A Day in the Life of a Lady Trucker</a> is a must read. Not to scare you away from trucking, but because you should be aware of the problems that do exist out there. What she chronicles in her story is real, I have heard first hand accounts of the awful things that can happen to student drivers in an uncaring system. I was very lucky in that I got a great trainer (he was such a great trainer I eventually married him, but that's another story), and there are other great trainers out there who really do care about teaching. But, as with all walks of life, there are predators and scum mixed in, too, and you need to be prepared. Odds are good you will get matched up to drive with someone who, at the very least, has poor hygiene or an annoying personality, if not the outright horrors depicted in Desiree's story.<br />
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Trucking can be a very lucrative, very rewarding career, but it it also very hard to get started, and there will be many obstacles in your way. Student drivers don't get paid much - less now than ever, and are often jerked around by uncaring companies and taken advantage of by power hungry dispatchers. Be ready to stand up for yourself, be prepared to put up with a lot of crap. Look at your first year like a sort of Boot Camp - it sucks, but things get easier from there, and you will emerge a stronger person for it.<br />
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Once you have a couple of years accident free experience under your belt that CDL can be as good as gold. Don't think you will be stuck driving for the same monster uber-comany that you start with. With experience behind the wheel you can eventually move on to a smaller company that is more likely to treat you better, pay better, and get you home more often. You may even decide to become an Owner-Operator and really be your own boss.<br />
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I'm not writing this to scare anyone away from becoming a truck driver, but right now the CDL Mills are being especially predatory trying to take advantage of so many people who are out of work. I hope anyone who is considering doing this for a living will do their research, make their choices carefully, and not jump in blindly.<br />
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If you would like more step-by-step info on how to get your CDL, check out my article on eHow: <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_4661444_become-long-haul-trucker.html">How to Become a Long Haul Trucker</a>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-31531475558496188442009-11-20T16:38:00.001-06:002009-11-22T08:32:13.647-06:00<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvf9jl-rsqcqulCGbuXkkrGI6ZIBgkwGOhcsnvFrHyf88-NXR5iRlMQVpgosViuZhpzHC2o66_Heey63pJeGC5w7PgxZ8dns0xmtknkChN5yEQmAOpQ0DoF2B5QUbR0I_F5xzN13EnBdHj/s1600/DSC_0043.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvf9jl-rsqcqulCGbuXkkrGI6ZIBgkwGOhcsnvFrHyf88-NXR5iRlMQVpgosViuZhpzHC2o66_Heey63pJeGC5w7PgxZ8dns0xmtknkChN5yEQmAOpQ0DoF2B5QUbR0I_F5xzN13EnBdHj/s320/DSC_0043.JPG" /></a> <br />
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Well, we delivered in Houma, and now we are on our way to pick up our next load which will take us to Florida. We're traveling across I-10 south of New Orleans right now, and I'm enjoying the scenery. Now, I'm sure most people think of swamps as murky, stark, depressing places, wasted space, eyesores... but I find them hauntingly beautiful. Perhaps it's because of where I grew up. Southern Baldwin County, Alabama has its fair share of swamps, marshes, estuaries, and bayous. They are "In Between" places - halfway land, halfway water, not fully either; mysterious, teeming with life and color, delicately balanced. Home to egrets and herons, crabs, snails, gators, ospreys, and fish of all kinds, Spanish moss, Cyprus trees, vivid neon green and red algae, wildflowers of all colors, palmetto, and sawgrass.<br />
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Perhaps I find them so intriguing not because of the wildlife, but because of the mystery. In between places have a kind of magic to them. Legend says that fairies have power in the in betweens. Stories of spirits and rougarous, will-o-the-whisps, hoodoos, Swamp Thing, and Marie Leveau all capture my imagination.<br />
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There's also something about Cajun culture that I love - Zydeco, joie de vivre, good food ... mmm, that Cajun food - jambalya, crawfish pie, file gumbo...<br />
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No more boudan for me though. It has rice in it. Dang it, I love boudan.<br />
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Which brings me around to my diet. Latest update - I've lost 15 lbs so far. As I expected, my weight loss is slowing down. I expect to lose about 2 lbs a week or so.<br />
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Sticking to the primal diet has gotten harder, but not for the usual reason. I'm not hungry all the time, even though I'm taking in fewer calories than I used to (between 1000 and 1200 a day as opposed to the 1600 to 1800 that I used to eat) - in fact, some days I have to make myself eat enough to stay above the starvation level. What's making it hard is monotony. It's hard to get primal foods at truckstops, so I find I'm limited to just a few choices - those being hard boiled eggs, beef jerky, and cheese sticks. Even those aren't good choices because the beef jerky has sugar added, and in a lot of cases MSG, and the cheese has lots of preservatives and chemicals. I can broaden my choices with fast food salads, but even that isn't a great choice because they use so many preservatives and who knows what in their meats and dressings.<br />
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We have stopped at grocery stores a couple of times, but there aren't that many who allow big rigs in their lots. Even when we can stop, there isn't much room in the little fridge we got for the truck, so I can't buy much at a time. Here's what I've been eating:<br />
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Tuna packets - these come in flavors now, so it's not as monotonous.<br />
nuts - pecans, walnuts, almonds, macadamias<br />
fruit - apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, melon<br />
beef jerky - trying to cut down on this one because of the added sugar and MSG.<br />
hard boiled eggs<br />
salads - whenever I can.<br />
stuff cooked on the truck.<br />
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Now, my husband and I drive as a team, which means we are always moving. We very rarely sit, and when we do we often don't know how long we'll be sitting still, and it's never on any predictable schedule. This makes it difficult to cook in the truck.<br />
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It's hard to prepare food when bumping down the road. I can't often stay awake for the two hours or so it takes for our lunch-box oven to cook most things when we are on a hard run, which is most of the time - I need to be either sleeping, keeping up with paperwork, making phone calls, and planning our trips when I'm not driving. (This is one of the reasons my posts here are so haphazard as well.) Now, at the moment we are waiting to get loaded, and I have a buffalo steak marinading in the fridge. I don't know whether or not I will have time to cook it this afternoon. I try, though. I like to cook, and I like home cooked food.<br />
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Here's what I've been cooking when I get the chance:<br />
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Chop up 1/2 a zucchini, 1/2 a yellow squash, 1/2 a small onion, a couple of baby portobello mushrooms, some sweet bell peper.<br />
Put in a tin loaf pan (the size that fits so nicely in a lunchbox cooker) along with some beef tips or other meat of your choice. Top with 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes (I like the ones with cilantro and lime), season to taste (pepper and garlic powder for me.) and cook for about 1 1/2 hours. Optionally, you can substitute the diced tomatoes with marinara sauce and when it's almost done you can add a layer of mozzarella cheese to the top.<br />
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Kabobs - pretty much the same ingredients - zucchini, squash, portobello mushroom, sweet bell pepper, meat of your choice. Load onto bamboo skewers, brush with oil, sprinkle with black pepper, and put them in a Forman-style grill. These are great because I can get them ready before hand, cook them while we're moving, and hand one to my husband while he's driving so he can eat with minimal distraction and mess, and we don't have to stop rolling.<br />
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I tried eggplant pizza (using slices of eggplant instead of grain-based crust) but that didn't work out so well. I couldn't close the Forman grill on the toppings, and I got tired of trying to hold it almost closed to melt the cheese - so my toppings never got hot and the eggplant wasn't done all the way through.<br />
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I plan to pick up our mini-crock pot when we are home over Thanksgiving so I can try soups and stews, and I'm going to make up a couple of no-noodle lasagnas and beanless meat chili to freeze in those little loaf pans and bring out with us so all I have to do is pop them in the cooker to heat. I also plan to use some of my time at home to find more recipe ideas and make lists of ingredients I can carry on the truck to make them. What I want to be able to do is buy only a few ingredients at a time, but be able to make several different meals from the same ingredients (that way I can use them all up before they go bad, since most things come in such large packages these days and I usually have plenty left over after only one meal - hence the two recipes above.)<br />
<br />
I'll keep you updated, dear reader.<br />
<br />
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</div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-25527018107447522022009-11-19T16:12:00.003-06:002009-11-19T16:53:21.822-06:00Breakdown Blues<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1c5FWEVMUJnUXitrOc20f3m2GnN0HPipHkjCLv4aYK9tsLpzxefQCJjlNnz3ywiYalSych7bcS7Fsd8JCj8cTGz15z7uu5zyNMiyCZAzJHtIun42SVTGKOb9rxult0Cr2JjONV2D8vM1/s1600/DSC_1491.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1c5FWEVMUJnUXitrOc20f3m2GnN0HPipHkjCLv4aYK9tsLpzxefQCJjlNnz3ywiYalSych7bcS7Fsd8JCj8cTGz15z7uu5zyNMiyCZAzJHtIun42SVTGKOb9rxult0Cr2JjONV2D8vM1/s320/DSC_1491.JPG" style="clear: both; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> We've been having all kinds of problems with our truck lately. The odometer rolled over 200,000 miles, and everything started falling apart. It started with needing new steer tires - seems we ran the rubber right off the old ones.<br />
<br />
Then we started having problems with our batteries going dead. We couldn't leave the truck turned off for more than an hour without having to jump start it. Most states have anti-idle laws, so that put us in quite a pickle. We could either leave it running and risk a ticket, or turn it off and have to get a jump start to get moving again.<br />
<br />
We took it to a TA in Maryland, but they couldn't find anything wrong with it. Breakdown told us to take it to the Freightliner dealer in Baltimore. On the way there our blower motor quit working - no heat, no AC. They found several other things wrong with it, too, but the biggie was a problem with the alternator. Our company was hot for us to pick up a load and keep moving because they were overbooked for freight in that area - they didn't have enough trucks to pick up all the loads. We ended up being laid over for two days waiting for a new alternator to come in. The company wouldn't let the mechanics there fix all the other problems because they wanted us to get back on the road as soon as possible.<br />
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<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/USH12i-IN4FaV7bOHpuSQA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mNNzFsp0w8s/SwXGp3YKnuI/AAAAAAAAAVs/Qytiz2DIbXs/s288/IMG_0127.JPG" /></a><br />
<br />
Mike and I used our time to brave the Baltimore public bus system and we went to the <a href="http://www.artbma.org/">Baltimore Museum of Art</a>, right next to Johns Hopkins University. My hubby isn't much of an art guy, but he kind of enjoyed it. They had a special exhibit on the art inspired by Edgar Allen Poe that I really enjoyed. I think Mike mostly enjoyed learning that big city public transit isn't as scary as he thought it would be - kind of opens up a whole new world of things to do and see when we are laid over in a bigger city. We ate at a cool little place called <a href="http://thedizzbaltimore.com/">The Dizz</a>, which was right next door to <a href="http://www.charmcitycakes.com/">Charm City Cakes</a> (of <i>Ace of Cakes</i> fame).<br />
<br />
Well, when our truck was out of the shop dispatch tried to give us a load going to Oregon, but we said, "No Way, Jose!" No blower motor means no defroster. No way we were going to head into snow with no defroster. So they got us a load back to the yard. A load with 4 pick-ups - Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Surprisingly, it went very smoothly and we were able to get back out of the dreaded North East pretty easily.<br />
<br />
We got to the yard on Saturday morning, and our truck went straight in the shop. We got laundry done, and took care of some other stuff on the yard, then we went to see a movie. I'm afraid I can't recommend <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1258670544310">"</a><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/">The Men Who Stare at Goats</a></i>". Save your money. I wish we had. Then we spend some time walking around the mall, ate at Outback (mmmm....good...), slept in a hotel (one more might off the truck, very refreshing).<br />
We got moving again Sunday night (fixed blower motor, annual maintenance, and they installed a spare tire rack) and delivered our load in Dallas - 2 delivery stops.<br />
<br />
From there we got a load out to Riverside, CA, and from there we reloaded to Mt. Sterling, IL. When we were alomost to Mt. Sterling the truck started making a funny noise. The noise kept getting worse, and we had to nurse the truck and pray the last 20 miles or so. We got the load delivered, unhooked from the trailer while it was in the dock door, and called breakdown, again.<br />
<br />
Turns out the alternator they installed in Baltimore had bad bearings. Once it cooled down it froze up completely and we had to be towed to the Freightliner shop in Quincy, IL, about 30 miles away. I got to ride in the truck while it was being towed because there wasn't room for both of us in the cab of the tow truck, which was kind of cool being towed backwards. The tow truck driver had the truck jacked up a little high, and we almost hit a low bridge, but he stopped just in time and had to lower the truck a little.<br />
<br />
This was on a Friday, and they couldn't get a new alternator in till Monday, so we got to spend another weekend in a hotel. Luckily the hotel was just a short walk from a movie theater, and we got to see "<i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/">2012</a></i>". That one was worth the money. Sweet, juicy eye candy. The plot was a little lacking, and there where physics errors big enough to drive our rig through, but it was fun.<br />
<br />
Sunday we rented a car and drove to Hannibal, MO, about 25 miles south of Quincy. We got to tour the Mark Twain cave, which is the cave used as the model for the cave in "<i>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer</i>". I'm going to have to go back and re-read that now that I know what the cave looks like. It was very narrow and twisty, and really does have bats.<br />
<br />
After the cave we went to the Mark Twain boyhood home and museum, which was pretty cool. And we ate at the most wonderful little restaurant called the Abby Rose. It was filled with beautiful Victorian decor, the food was excellent, and on Sundays they serve it "home style", which means they bring the food out in bowls and you scoop what you want onto your plate. If you are ever in Hannibal, I highly recommend the place. The prices are reasonable, too.<br />
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<br />
Monday we got back on the road, and right now we are heading for Houma, LA. The clutch is starting to give us problems, but we are scheduled for time off for Thanksgiving, so we don't want to say anything to breakdown about it cause we don't want to be stuck in another hotel room when we should be home enjoying turkey and trimmings. We're just going to keep our fingers crossed and take care of it after Thanksgiving.<br />
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</div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-30394649774142201442009-10-19T12:00:00.000-05:002009-10-19T12:00:18.818-05:00The company gave us a load of plastic bags with "RUSH" stamped all over the bills, told us the reciver needed it ASAP, and that they recieved 24 hrs a day, 7 day s a week. We called the broker and assured them we could have it in Columbia City, Oregon by early Sunday morning, then we pushed hard to get it there. Just as we were crossing onto Oregon, we got a call - don't bother hurrying. They won't be open on sunday .<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqC2_ZqjjHj9EBl-jegPabqFDdnuLZY__iY8fQ2CS8At9h_2NtZXDCNYE2TSqwYibSIxfFpNDMilINlvEJ0avJDo4YhOvt2l557RTxdCSx6Et-PenG8HHpMO7IVOI7Swe7SbSEpRK0-hb/s1600-h/Oregon1026.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqC2_ZqjjHj9EBl-jegPabqFDdnuLZY__iY8fQ2CS8At9h_2NtZXDCNYE2TSqwYibSIxfFpNDMilINlvEJ0avJDo4YhOvt2l557RTxdCSx6Et-PenG8HHpMO7IVOI7Swe7SbSEpRK0-hb/s320/Oregon1026.JPG" style="clear: both; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a> It turns out the plant had some sort of technical problem and had to shut down. So, we ended up sitting at the TA in Troutdale, OR for 24 hours.<br />
<br />
On the plus side, I did get in my first session of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). The way it works is this: You run all out for 30 seconds, then jog (or in my case walk) for an interval, then run again. Since I'm just starting out, I started with a 3 minute warm up, then 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 90 seconds of walking, then 30 seconds of sprinting again - rinse and repeat. I had planned on 6 intervals (6 high intensity, and 6 low intensity), but I only managed to make 3 1/2 of the sprints, and just walked the rest of it. I'll work my way up to being able to do the full 6, then work on pushing it to 12 intervals, then I'll start shortening the low intensity intervals till it's 30 seconds high and 30 secs low.<br />
I downloaded an app for my iPhone that lets me time my intervals - it plays a sound when it's time to change from high to low and back again, and it'll even play over my music. Works great.<br />
<br />
I've lost 11 lbs so far, and have lots more energy than I used to.<br />
<br />
Anyway, we delivered our load this morning. We had to drive right inside the building at the receiver, as they didn't have a dock, and two guys unloaded us with a pallet jack and a fork lift. Now we're back in Troutdale at the TA waiting for another load.<br />
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</div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-46981747025386514892009-10-16T10:20:00.034-05:002009-10-16T10:45:24.528-05:00Mike and I got to see our grandson play flag football yesterday. He's only in first grade, but I think he's headed for a Heiseman<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtN4huAzAf1S15IaPendteGdbYMVHPydtbJXFQU6OpsxvDhO4KkxekIUI3MksOFasTJTnb6oZ7RBSE_ey9UIL0yEsWiFOqHnzGD8oBeTZM6bAAZVSEPLCqxMWU-k5TtvjQ6GASsnqAwKlt/s1600-h/brandon-football-cropped.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtN4huAzAf1S15IaPendteGdbYMVHPydtbJXFQU6OpsxvDhO4KkxekIUI3MksOFasTJTnb6oZ7RBSE_ey9UIL0yEsWiFOqHnzGD8oBeTZM6bAAZVSEPLCqxMWU-k5TtvjQ6GASsnqAwKlt/s320/brandon-football-cropped.jpg" style="clear: both; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a> Trophy. The kid is good. The local Pop Warner team already wants him as soon as he's old enough. His big sister makes me so proud, too. She's decided she wants to be a CSI when she grows up, and she's only 10. I think I'm gonna get her a kids crime scene kit for Christmas.<br />
<br />
It was good to have a little time at home, even if it was so busy it barely counted as a break. We got home around 11 am on Thursday, and we parked in the municipal truck lot. Mike walked over to the DMV to renew his haz-mat endorsement, and he came storming back only a few minutes later. They keep changing the rules. He got his license renewd last month, but they told him he had to renew his TSA background check before he could get his haz-mat endorsement renewed. So we finally got his letter back from the TSA, took a day off, and he went to take his test, only to be told that they had to see a copy of his birth certificate - which they never even mentioned last month when he went in.<br />
<br />
So, I was in the middle of sorting through all the various and sundry junk we have in the truck, and I had the bed stripped so we could wash the linens, and the truck was a disorganized mess - and Mike, already in a bad mood, had to dig through it all to find his birth certificate. I just stayed out of his way - the wisest course of action when he's pissed off. But he did find it, and he passed his test and got his endorsement renewd. The Surgeon General ought to put a warning on the front door of the DMV - "Caution: Entering this building may cause an unhealthy rise in blood pressure."<br />
<br />
We dropped the trailer in the Municipal truck lot and bobtailed to the house. We ran around most of the day running errands. Then I cooked dinner - primal style.<br />
<br />
I'm loving this new diet I'm on. One week, and I've lost 8lbs, and I don't feel hungry or deprived at all. I had plenty of energy for everything we had to do yesterday, even with many trips up and down the stairs lugging heavy stuff (which actually counts as a primal workout - bonus!).<br />
<br />
Dinner was:<br />
Sirloin steak marinated in a lime chipotle marinade of my own invention. (extra virgin olive oil, juice of two limes, crushed fresh garlic, black pepper, chipotle chili seasoning, and a dash of Tabasco for kick.)<br />
Steamed broccoli with homemade Hollandaise sauce (which is completely primal: 4 egg yolks, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a pinch of salt.)<br />
Pico de Gallo on the side.<br />
The only un-primal thing about the meal was the garlic bread my husband insisted on. I admit, I cheated just a little and had a small piece, but after only just a week my taste buds are getting accustomed to my new way of eating, and it just didn't taste as good as it used to. Which is good, cause it means I'm going to be a lot less likely to slip in the future.<br />
<br />
The meal was a hit, and I loved the chance to get back into the kitchen and work some magic. It's been so long since I did much cooking - it's been so long since I had the energy to make anything that didn't involve boxed mixes and microwaves. And it was great to get some real food after so long with just truck stop fare.<br />
Oh, and I fixed beef fillets wrapped in bacon, and scrambled eggs with the left over Pico de Gallo for breakfast.<br />
<br />
But all good things must end, alas. We got a call from dispatch and had to roll this morning, so we only got one night at home. But we accomplished everything on our to-do list, and I have a pork tenderloin waiting in the cooler for dinner this evening (I'm going to try to cook it in the lunch box stove we have in the truck).<br />
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</div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-85921497512577022662009-10-12T11:40:00.001-05:002009-10-12T11:45:32.211-05:00Kaizen<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BfMf4MF7S5coSN91e2m83HL49XSAgr7IuHGA-RqDdAzruUX-LkmbXSOwrnV-tA5JOMoOf3QKjbrOgkUQuLmATW6ZTsJJvTNcsek5PigfZ4geP_bTNzyJlV1dZaB14imjrqJeDYOgeRfg/s1600-h/DSC_0074.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BfMf4MF7S5coSN91e2m83HL49XSAgr7IuHGA-RqDdAzruUX-LkmbXSOwrnV-tA5JOMoOf3QKjbrOgkUQuLmATW6ZTsJJvTNcsek5PigfZ4geP_bTNzyJlV1dZaB14imjrqJeDYOgeRfg/s320/DSC_0074.JPG" style="clear: both; float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px;" /></a> I've been reading and learning a lot over the past few days. Some of the things I have learned are pretty scary. Did you know that 70% of what is on the supermarket shelves isn't really food? It's chemicals created in labs to resemble food. It's hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, added plant starch, unpronounceable preservatives, and artificial colors and flavors added to make psuedo-food look and taste more like the real thing. I've learned that we are killing ourselves with what we eat.<br />
<br />
We've been falling for the industry pushed line that what we get packaged on the shelves is healthy, but all it really is is cheap. How much of the food you buy today would have been recognizeable to your great grandparents?<br />
<br />
I've been looking - really looking - at the lables on the food I've been buying and I now understand why I've had so much trouble with my weight over the years. I'm not going to go into detail about why all those chemicals and sugars are bad - the wonderful authors of the blogs listed over to the right have done a much better job than I ever could. I mean, hey, they convinced me.<br />
<br />
Something else I've learned about is the Japanese principal of <i>Kaizen</i> - change through baby steps. I want to change the way I eat and live. I want to get healthy, I want to have the energy to do more, I want to be able to be proud of my body - but if I look at everything I need to change all at once it seems overwhelming. So I'm going to apply <i>Kaizen</i>. My first little change is what I've already started doing: cutting out grains and starches and sugar.<br />
<br />
I'm going to post updates on my progress here as well as my usual cool stories about life on the road. This job presents unique obstacles to living and eating healthy, and maybe through my trial and error, discoveries and progress I can help other truck drivers who want to get healthy out here on the road, or anybody who wants to get healthy.<br />
<br />
So, as I sit here in Mira Loma, CA, four days into a new way of eating, I'm making this resolution - I AM GOING TO GET HEALTHY!!<br />
<br />
Here's my before picture:<br />
267 lbs, smoking a pack a day, no energy, eating anything I feel like, depressed, hormones imbalanced (the doctor says its Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), but when they say "syndrome" instead of "disease" that means they don't know what causes it or how to fix it. Maybe it's from the hormones in the meat and dairy I've been eating all my life.) Because of the PCOS (or whatever is causing my hormone imbalance) I've got acne, oily skin, dandruff, and other problems.<br />
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<br />
Here's my plan: Stay with the carb reduction for now - no grains, no pasta, no refined sugar. Once this has become a fully ingrained (ha) habit - say 30 to 60 days, and I'm not as tempted to grab for sweets and pastries, I'll move to step 2. Step 2 will be the hard one - Quit Smoking. After that I'll work on ways to move from processed, industrialized foods to natural, organic foods. Through the whole process I'll be moving every chance I get, adding exercise Primal Blueprint style.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to set a timeline, I'm not going to get depressed and give up if I slip, I'm not going to set myself up for failure. I'm going to take baby steps.<br />
<br />
My progress so far:<br />
I haven't had any bread, pasta, pastries, potatoes, corn, or candy for four days now.<br />
I've mostly been eating salads, nuts, veggies, cottage cheese, a little fruit, and beef jerky.<br />
I have gotten out of the truck three days out of the four and walked for at least half an hour.<br />
I have been drinking only water and, once a day, a cup of coffee with half-&-half and no sugar.<br />
I've lost 6 lbs already!! And I know that I'm not going to keep losing at this rate. I'm hoping for about 2lbs a week on average.<br />
<br />
The thing is, I think this diet is going to work. There are a lot of meats and cheeses I like to eat. Since I stopped eating sugary foods, fruit tastes decadently sweet to me now so I don't think I'm going to miss the sugar much. I don't feel hungry, and I have more energy now than I've had in a long time. And this is only four days in!! I can't wait to see how I'm doing in a year.<br />
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</div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-89716906990597964562009-10-10T09:32:00.002-05:002009-10-10T10:06:58.458-05:00Eating Healthy In Truck Stop Hell<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Roq1TxANs3157wjEwIR_4J3hUdRZCfieumP2-akOfNgFy4T1k5ffg4UHdsYwjWAhCUd4cyBRI7kChaw975Wpan6ilh9lPoMajwzXzl6QbMxKdji3k7iPPZlyp1oorBn1Q-cwjWIbO8Js/s1600-h/DSC_1495.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Roq1TxANs3157wjEwIR_4J3hUdRZCfieumP2-akOfNgFy4T1k5ffg4UHdsYwjWAhCUd4cyBRI7kChaw975Wpan6ilh9lPoMajwzXzl6QbMxKdji3k7iPPZlyp1oorBn1Q-cwjWIbO8Js/s320/DSC_1495.JPG" style="clear: both; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a> When I came back out on the road in September of 2008, I weighed a little under 200lbs. After one year back in the truck I'm up by nearly 70lbs. I've tried watching calories, burned myself out on salads, given up and gorged myself on junk food in bouts of depression, resolved to exercise every day and never find the time to do it, alternately been determined to lose the weight and resigned to my fate as a fat trucker slob.<br />
<br />
At the moment I'm on a new track - I've discovered the idea of living (and eating) primally. The whole idea is to look back at the diet and lifestyle of our caveman ancestors because that was the life and diet our body evolved to handle best. That means a diet low in carbs, high in meat and veggies, and moving whenever possible rather than set and repetitive workout routines. The basic premises are:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Eat lots of animals and plants.</li>
<li>Move around a lot at a slow pace.</li>
<li>Lift heavy things.</li>
<li>Run really fast every once in a while.</li>
<li>Get lots of sleep.</li>
<li>Play.</li>
<li>Get some sunlight every day.</li>
<li>Avoid trauma.</li>
<li>Avoid poisonous things.</li>
<li>Use your mind.</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
Check out the Primal Blueprint at Mark Sisson's blog - <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/">http://www.marksdailyapple.com/</a><br />
<br />
My biggest problem is the fare available at truckstops. Every truckstop is full of the usual convinience store fare of junk food, candy and sodas. Most truck stops also offer selections of fast food - delectable tempations garounteed to pack on the pounds. They don't carry much in the way of veggies.<br />
My strategy so far:<br />
<br />
<i>Sunflower Seeds</i> - most truck stops carry these, and they are full of protein and good fats.<br />
<i>Hard Boiled Eggs</i> - some truck stops carry these. Flying J usually has them.<br />
<i>Subway Salads</i> - I can still have the Subway sandwiches I enjoy, I just have to ditch the bread and order them as a salad instead.<br />
<i>Beef Jerky</i> - something else I can find in almost any truck stop.<br />
<br />
Not a whole lot of variety here, but I'm looking for more options so I don't burn out on this diet. Hopefully we'll find time for a sit-down restaurant meal soon so I can order myself a nice big steak.<br />
<br />
My biggest problem so far is that without bread in my diet it's hard to find meals I can eat while driving - no sandwiches, no burritos.<br />
<br />
It's been two days now since I've cut out the carbs. I even got out of the truck and went for a forty minute walk yesterday - and instead of pushing myself to walk hard and fast and ending up with my legs cramping up five minutes into the walk and giving up, I did it primal style and just walked at a normal pace, not worried about getting my heart rate up or pushing myself. I just enjoyed the great outdoors, watched the dragon flies and butterflies and enjoyed the lush, jungle-like foliage of central Florida. I even walked on the grass on the side of the road instead of on the road itself - to make my feet and legs have to flex and work more naturally. I have to figure out how to work in strength training, though, but I'm going to step into this gently and slowly by changing my diet first, and just trying to move more. I'll update as I go. I'm pretty excited about the whole idea of Primal Living because it's not just a diet, but a lifestyle.<br />
<br />
It's not going to be easy, though. Truck stops are not designed with health and fitness or natural living of any kind in mind.<br />
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</div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-51950377737914242252009-09-17T10:11:00.004-05:002009-10-10T10:00:42.418-05:00A Trip to the Zoo and Other Exciting ThingsSo, we finally did get that lettus off the trailer, but it took us two more days after the truck was fixed. We ended up taking part of it to the Food Bank, but they only needed ten pallets, which left us with 32 pallets. We sat and waited for instructions for the rest of it, and we sat, and sat, and eventually made a few calls of our own. The only place we could find that was interested was the zoo. It took a couple more hours to get permission to actually take it to the zoo, but eventually we got it there. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication between the person we talked to and the person who approved the donation - they were only expecting 32 cases of lettus, not the half-truckload we showed up with.<div>Apparently, too much lettus gives elephants the runs. They couldn't use it. They took 2 pallets, but we still had a lot of lettus to get rid of.</div><div>We sat on the load for another night, and most of another day before the powers-that-be at SRT arrainged for the load to go to a dump - in Kentucky. We made another round of phone calls getting directions and instructions, and we were about to start moving that way when they told us to stop, pass the lettuss off to another driver, and swap for a load heading west.</div><div>We finally got out from under the lettus. I feel sorry for the poor guy who got it though. It was raining hard that day, and we'd been told that the road to the dump was very muddy. I hope he didn't get stuck.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most exciting thing that happened to us this past week: We got to see the Space Shuttle land at Edwards AFB out in California. We didn't plan it that way, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and mike had the radio on and heard on the news that it was going to be landing at Edwards. We were on CA-58, which runs along the northern edge of Edwards. Mike pulled off on the shoulder, and we could see the crowds of people along the fence lined up with cameras and binoculars waiting for it to land. </div><div>There was a double BOOM BOOM as the shuttle broke the sound barrier entering the atmosphere. Then it curved around and glided to a landing. It was only a couple of minutes, but it was a very cool couple of minutes. I've always wanted to see the space shuttle in action, and with NASA retireing the shuttle fleet next year I was afraid I would never get to see it. I still want to see a launch, but this was almost as good.</div><div><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4IWb5RlVcatd9D580bMGz5Bp37KwJBw5LbLce8TXS5rDMyHxW-KRrFJ3cchGN2PmlFbKDEOE9VcGEidurG9vNACOTU4X1iQaR_LXCZKNSFLeSHR8bAeqE0VfwWOS2FxaUVZ8HuwZQ8KN3/s1600-h/DSC_1809-1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 290px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4IWb5RlVcatd9D580bMGz5Bp37KwJBw5LbLce8TXS5rDMyHxW-KRrFJ3cchGN2PmlFbKDEOE9VcGEidurG9vNACOTU4X1iQaR_LXCZKNSFLeSHR8bAeqE0VfwWOS2FxaUVZ8HuwZQ8KN3/s400/DSC_1809-1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382461233689011730" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiww4acy7AAemppol47oiuj1BTAq9UTrlrptoPJu7UafxB51BgOcjoWjnBDyVlZ_S5hAMNrqx7IaLfCaPnbMp6T-gY4eYxRluGdBRtzbElBQ3O0F7EH5cV4LJj4w0XMDmG6NLauwKa0obyQ/s1600-h/DSC_1818-1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 349px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiww4acy7AAemppol47oiuj1BTAq9UTrlrptoPJu7UafxB51BgOcjoWjnBDyVlZ_S5hAMNrqx7IaLfCaPnbMp6T-gY4eYxRluGdBRtzbElBQ3O0F7EH5cV4LJj4w0XMDmG6NLauwKa0obyQ/s400/DSC_1818-1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382461238472809154" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkNdQKjzdp4zqzvjSwybJ-7HzcRRLHo-GHPTWTPSt6ieoOAFwiA_Nnoem6LRqxBqEuEIOOV3Nnsqw9MISivA2FuU7YWEeRDOtjU_Vffkng0mlBHAY0b3q7-QWwO5Z5bTbvCkZgT088fi_/s1600-h/DSC_1823-1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkNdQKjzdp4zqzvjSwybJ-7HzcRRLHo-GHPTWTPSt6ieoOAFwiA_Nnoem6LRqxBqEuEIOOV3Nnsqw9MISivA2FuU7YWEeRDOtjU_Vffkng0mlBHAY0b3q7-QWwO5Z5bTbvCkZgT088fi_/s400/DSC_1823-1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382461248721394354" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVDi1o4D_4uDkg6XQ91aIi6bE-DwEtEwnVsX19XRFqIzS4xbIhKN_kyUwGGKCE8DpwhsK58QpQd0P7dlKAGTSd7ZvbNrr5jVj4hvs-gOFQV6kRmqORsiqjpTo2pNtdWDadyHMyo3tqJWq1/s1600-h/DSC_1830-1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 281px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVDi1o4D_4uDkg6XQ91aIi6bE-DwEtEwnVsX19XRFqIzS4xbIhKN_kyUwGGKCE8DpwhsK58QpQd0P7dlKAGTSd7ZvbNrr5jVj4hvs-gOFQV6kRmqORsiqjpTo2pNtdWDadyHMyo3tqJWq1/s400/DSC_1830-1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382461250025704578" /></a>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-75061655236882377822009-09-01T17:04:00.003-05:002009-10-10T10:00:42.418-05:00The Load that Would Not EndLast Wednesday after delivering a load in Phoenix, we got the load from hell. We were told to go to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Kingman</span>, Arizona, about three hours away, to meet another truck from a different company. Our dispatcher gave us a phone number for the broker who was handling the load. A call to the broker, and we learned that the other truck was broken down and the broker had <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">arraigned</span> with a local warehouse in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Kingman</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">crossdock</span> the load from that driver's trailer onto ours. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">OK</span>, sounds easy enough so far. We called the little warehouse and got directions. The guy we spoke to at the warehouse wasn't sure how the other driver was supposed to get his trailer there if he was broke down, so we called the broker back. This is where things start getting <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">squirly</span>. <div><br /></div><div>The broker calls the other driver to find out where his trailer is and to find out if he's going to have to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">arraigned</span> for a third truck to move that trailer, or if we would have to go get it. He finds out that the trailer is in Needles, California, about 50 miles west of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Kingman</span>. So the broker starts making calls trying to set up a place for the transfer in Needles. Meanwhile, Mike and I are already on our way to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Kingman</span>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Two hours later the broker calls us and tells us all this, and tells us that we will have to go to Needles for the transfer. So, we now have to call the new warehouse for directions, then we have to call dispatch to make sure they know about the change so we can get paid for the extra miles. Annoying, but so far not too bad.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then we get to Needles and find the little, tiny, warehouse on a narrow back street where we've got to back in across a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">busy</span> road to get into <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">their</span> dock. Then we have to wait for the other driver to back his truck in next to ours. Then, we find out that we will be carrying <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">lettus</span>. The dock we are at is not temperature controlled, it is open to the outside, and it's 112 degrees outside. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Lettus</span> is just about the most delicate type of produce one can carry, it's very temperature sensitive. It took them a little over an hour to transfer the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">lettus</span> onto our truck, that whole time the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">lettus</span> temperature is going up, and up, and up...</div><div><br /></div><div>Try taking a head of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">lettus</span> out of your <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">refrigerator</span> and putting it in your oven, set at 112 degrees, for one hour and see how that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">lettus</span> looks. Now, stick it back in your fridge, and pull it out two days later. Not pretty. But dispatch told us to run the load anyway, so we did. Two days later we delivered in Nashville. Or, we tried to deliver. They didn't want it.</div><div><br /></div><div>What's that? The other guy's truck? Yeah, he was still in Needles. It turns out his problem was that his Jake brake was stuck on, and he had to get his truck to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Kingman</span> to get it fixed, but he was never in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Kingman</span>... that was all just a big miscommunication.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">OK</span>, so we finally get our load assignment as we're leaving the place in Needles, and it's got our delivery time listed as 7:01 am. We've figured out that when they put an "01" on the time, that means there's no appointment set and they'll update it later. Now, we were looking at arriving in Nashville around 2 in the morning, so we called the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">receiver</span> to see how early we could deliver. We were told that they don't start <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">receiving</span> until noon on Fridays, so we sent that info to dispatch. The next morning, Thursday, we got our updated load assignment with a delivery time of 7:00am, and I called dispatch to make sure that was right. We were told that they would <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">receive</span> our load at 7, so we pushed it on through, stopped for about 4 hours just outside Nashville to sleep, and got there at 6:30am Friday morning - only to be told that they wouldn't start <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">receiving</span> till noon. So we sat and waited. </div><div><br /></div><div>They put us in a dock at noon-thirty, and we sat in the dock until 4:30 pm. Then the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">receiver</span> came out and told us that they were rejecting the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">lettus</span>. It took them 4 hours to decide they didn't want it. But wait! It gets better.</div><div><br /></div><div>We called dispatch. They made out a report on the load and told us to call the broker to see what he wanted us to do with the load. We played phone tag for the next three hours. Eventually we were told to stay there at the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">receiver</span> and wait for the USDA inspector to come and look at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">lettus</span>. The <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">inspector</span> wasn't expected until 1PM the next day. And no, we couldn't drop the trailer and bob-tail to a hotel. We had to stay with the load just to make sure the reefer didn't stop and ruin the load. Ha. (To be fair - <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">SRT</span> wasn't liable for the load because it was the broker's goof up, and they were afraid that a reefer unit breakdown would allow the broker to shift the liability. So, no hotel for us. Yet.)</div><div><br /></div><div>So, we waited over night. The closest place to eat was about 1/2 a mile away, so I walked and got us dinner. If you ever have a chance to get Philly Cheese Steaks at Fat Mo's in Smyrna, TN go for it, I highly <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">recommend</span> them.</div><div><br /></div><div>*deep breath*</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">OK</span>, so we sat on that load until the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">inspector</span> got there. I finished an entire three novel series with all that free time ( I love my Kindle app on my iPhone. And if you like sword and sorcery stuff, I <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">recommend</span> the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">Assassin's</span> Apprentice series by Robin <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">Hobb</span> - good stuff.)</div><div><br /></div><div>They rejected it - again.</div><div><br /></div><div>We played phone tag - again. </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, around 6pm they told us we could take the load and go to a truck stop while they tried to figure out what to do with 32,000 lbs of slightly wilted <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">lettus</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then the truck broke down.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whee!!</div><div><br /></div><div>So, we were at the truck stop just long enough to get showers and eat dinner, and we had to get a tow to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Freightliner</span> service center in Nashville. We got to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Freightliner</span> at midnight Saturday night, followed by a trailer full of unwanted <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">lettus</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our truck needs a new thermostat, and there's a problem with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">regen</span> system. Now, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">regen</span> system is a new thing to make the trucks meet the new <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">emissions</span> standards. It's basically an exhaust particulate filter, and every once in a while it had to be heated to something like a bazillion degrees to burn off the particles. Ours wasn't getting up to the right temperature because of the thermostat. Hopefully, they can just replace the thermostat then run a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">regen</span> cycle and it will all be <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">OK</span>, and we can get back on the road, but I don't have high hopes for it. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is our third night in a hotel. It's Tuesday, and our truck still isn't fixed. They only just got the right part in this afternoon, and at 4pm, when we left the service center, they still hadn't pulled the truck into the service bay yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">lettus</span> is still in the trailer.<br /><div><br /></div><div>To be continued....</div></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-37811497152378428632009-08-11T09:32:00.002-05:002009-10-10T10:00:42.418-05:00Ok, I'm back :)Sorry about the long break from posting. I was kind of burnt out on trying to keep up with a blog, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, selling photos and writing articles for eHow, and still getting enough sleep so I can drive this truck. So, I took a break from the web for a while, but I'm back now.<div><br /></div><div>It has been a pretty eventful summer. Not long after my last post, Mike's mother passed away. We took a week off in Evansville, IN for her funeral. About two weeks later we got a load to Chicago and were able to take a weekend off, so Mike got to visit with an uncle of his that he hadn't seen in 40 years. He also got to visit with another cousin in Arkansas. We just got back on the road from spending a few days in Alabama with my family. We've done a lot of catching up and re-connecting this year.</div><div><br /></div><div>We've also had a few exciting moments out here on the road. We got buzzed by a B-1 Stealth Bomber out in West Texas. It was flying sow low I could just about see the grin on the pilots face. I drove through a dust storm in New Mexico, nearly got blown off the road. We had a driver for another company try to claim we hit his truck up in New Jersey, it was obvious that the damage on his bright orange truck was from him jack-knifing into his own trailer. He was just looking for someone else to blame it on. We had to call out the police to get that all sorted out.</div><div><br /></div><div>We've seen a lot of accidents, including a car that ran off the road and rolled right in front of us (the driver was unhurt), and been stuck in a lot of backups. Construction is pretty thick out here this year, it seems like there are orange barrels everywhere you look. We've also seen a lot more hitch-hikers and people stranded begging for gas money, and a lot of cars loaded with belongings where people are moving in search of work. </div><div><br /></div><div>Right now we are on our frist load after taking four days off, and it has been a pain so far. We got to the shipper half an hour late, so we had to wait almost 8 hours to get loaded because they bumped us to the end of the line. Once we were loaded we went and weighed and were over gross (we can only weigh a total of 80,000lbs, but we were at 80,160) so we had to go back to the shipper to have some freight taken off. We ended up sitting for another 5 hours waiting for that, so now the load is going to be late getting up to Rhode Island. The northwest isn't fun under the best of curcumstances. </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I've got to get some sleep so we can push this load through. I'llo try to keep this blog updated a little more regularly.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-6558267124035947582009-03-30T12:38:00.004-05:002009-10-10T10:00:42.419-05:00What a Week!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><div style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; width: auto; font: normal normal normal 100%/normal Georgia, serif; text-align: left; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><div style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; width: auto; font: normal normal normal 100%/normal Georgia, serif; text-align: left; ">We were on our way to York, Pensylvania on March 18th with a load when it all started. We got a message from our dispatcher that we needed to stop in Breezewood, PA and swap loads with another driver who was moving too "Sloooooowwww" (our dispatcher's exact wording). That load had to be out in Reno, NV by 6 am on the 20th and there was no way we could get it there on time. We pushed it straight through, though, and ran ourselves right out of hours. We got the load there only a couple of hours late. Our dispatcher knew that I was out of hours, and Mike only had 4 hours left out of his 70 for the week, but we would both be picking up hours after midnight. She pre-planned us on a load with a lot of time on it so we could get a break, and we were looking forward to the break. But alas, it was not to be.<div><br /></div><div>There was a driver shut down out in Fernley, NV with a load that had to be in Atlanta, GA, and there was no way he could make it, but we figured out, after some furious calculating, there was just enough time left on the load that we could ease it across the country and still get some hours back. Would have worked out perfectly, but the trailer we were pulling had different ideas. We grabbed the load and moved it 150 miles east before we were completely out of hours and had to shut down until after midnight. </div><div><br /></div><div>The next day we pushed it a little further, and we made it to Big Spring, NE before we ran out of hours again and had to shut down for the night. We stopped a little longer than we actually had to and got a good night's sleep, setting out again around 6am that next morning. We made it about 5 hours, almost to Lincoln, NE before the problems really started. A car passed us, the lady inside honking and waving franticaly at Mike. She was mouthing the word, "Fire!" and pointing to the rear of our trailer. Checking the rearview mirror, we could see smoke pouring from the trailer tires on the right side. Mike eased it off onto the shoulder, and I dived into the storage compartment under the bed to find the fire extinguisher. </div><div><br /></div><div>The extinguisher was in the side box, like it was supposed to be, but it was burried beneath coils of jumper cables and extention cords. I was frantically pulling at what seemed like an endless tangle of cords when Mike brushed me aside and took over. I got out of the way and grabbed the phone and climbed out of the truck to go look at our furiously smoking tires. There were no flames visible, just lots of smoke as I waited on hold for our breakdown department to answer their phone. Mike handed me the fire extinguisher as he walked past me to set out our warning triangles, then he passed me again going the other way, muttering under his breath. He came back by me a third time with the broken triangle and a roll of duct tape. The triangles looked brand new, but they wouldn't stay clipped together the way they were supposed to. While he fiddled with them, breakdown finally answered the phone. Almost as soon as I started talking to them I realized that the axle hub was actually on fire - the flames were inside the hub, and we couldn't see them until the plastic hub melted enough to develop a hole in it. So the first thing breakdown heard was me telling Mike "Hey, this thing is on fire, should I spray it?" and Mike is yelling "Stick it in the hole and spray!" </div><div><br /></div><div>I nearly dropped the phone as I pulled the pin on the fire extinguisher and got it aimed at the fire. One good burst of dry chemichal fire retardent was all it took to put out the flames, which was a good thing because one good burst was all that was left in the extinguisher. Oil was pouring out of the ruptured hub, and the inside rear trailer tire was worn almost completely bald, even though it had looked almost new we we'd done our pre-trip inspection that morning. Mike diagnosed the problem right away - one of our axle bearings had seized up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dispatch got a hold of a mechanic who did roadside service, and he promised that he would be there as soon as he got changed out of his church clothes. We owe this guy a huge thannk you because he stayed up until almost 5 am the next morning trying to get us rolling again after giving up most of his Sunday. (So Tom Elliott, if you are reading this - THANK YOU, SIR!) And for everyone else, if you are broke down in a big rig in the Lincoln, NE area, give this guy some buisness, he's good at what he does. (Tom's Truck Service)</div><div><br /></div><div>The reason it took 18 hours to get rolling again is bcause that trailer had an oddly sized axle and Mr. Elliott couldn't get ahold of the oddly sized spindle nut that was needed to put it all beck to gether again. He called every parts supply house in the area looking for one. He eventually had to drive all the way to Omaha to get one. But he got us back together and rolling.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we spent 18 hours sitting on the shoulder of I-80. Luckily we still had a few packages of the freeze dried hicking food that we'd bought at Cabela's a few months back, so we didn't go hungry. Mike split his Zero bar with me, and I boiled some water and made re-hydrated Huevos Rancheros and mashed potatoes for our dinner.</div><div><br /></div><div>Trying to sleep with a busy highway only inches away wasn't easy, though. Turn your TV on to a Nascar race and try sleeping with your head next to the speakers and you will have an idea of what it's like. Only we also had the worry that someone might stray out of their lane and hit us. The truck rocked with every vehicle that flew past, and there were thousands of them. That is a very busy stretch of highway. Parking on the shoulder is never a safe thing to do, but we had no choice, the trailer was fully loaded and heavy and couldn't be moved without risking much more damage to it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once we got moving again that load was no longer an easy run, but a hard push to get it there on time because all of our extra time had been used up on the side of the highway. We got it to Atlanta barely half an hour before our delivery time.</div><div><br /></div><div>We had a few hours to relax before we had to pick up our next load at one o'clock that afternoon. But the load we were picking up was a flat out burn to Ft. Worth with no extra time on it. It was due at 6 am the next morning. We made that one no problem, and headed down to Waco, TX to pick up our next load. </div><div><br /></div><div>There was a delay getting loaded on that one because the product for the load wasn't ready yet, and even though we arrived at 10 am, we didn't leave Waco till almost 9pm. That load was bound for Orlando, FL, and even though we had plenty of time on it - we could have actually stopped and got a nights sleep sitting still for a change, our dispatcher asked us to hurry because she had a load coming out in Atlanta that was going to be hot and had to have a team on it. So we hustled to get the load to the Orlando drop yard. </div><div><br /></div><div>Our routing had us taking a back road to cut some distance off between I-35 and I-20, but the weather was turning pretty rough so we decided to stick to the interstate and went up through Dallas instead. And it's a good thing we did. Mike drove the first leg, and when I got up he told me about the two tornados we'd barely avoided by changing our route. The radio announced a tornado in one of the little Texas towns that we would have gone right through if we had followed the route we were supposed to take, then later, on the Louisiana/Texas state line, Mike stopped at a truck stop just as the store staff was coimg out of the cooler where they had taken shelter. We had just missed a tornado that crossed the road just west of that truck stop accompanied by grapefruit sized hail, and if we had taken the shortcut we would have been right there when it happened. </div><div><br /></div><div>We swapped and I drove for a while, fighting wind and heavy rain the whole way over to Jackson, MS. At Jackson, we fueled, and Mike took the wheel back and we went down US-49 to US-98 - right through the town of McGee, MS in the aftermath of the tornado there. There were power lines down. Not just down, but twisted and tangled, the poles splintered and smashed like they had been stomped by a giant three year old in the midst of a temper tantrum. A warehouse next to the road was half torn away, gaping open like a studio set missing it's fourth wall. In the foggy morning daylight we could see the track the tornado had followed through the trees. There were tree limbs, stripped of branches and bark, impaled in the grass of the median like javelins. We heard later that a 100 year old church had been destroyed, but there had been only 2 injuries and no deaths in the little town.</div><div><br /></div><div>We got the load there on Thursday evening around 11pm, where we dropped it off for the local driver to deliver. And here's where the night from hell starts. Most of the empty trailers on the drop yard had out-of-service tags on them for one reason or another. The only useable trailer had one of the marker lights burnt out, and another one missing altogether. You could see where the trailer had been scraped against something, knocking the light off and leaving bare wires exposed. </div><div><br /></div><div>We didn't have any other choice but to take that trailer so we called breakdown to see about getting it fixed. Now, we had been told by our dispatcher that we had to be in Atlanta by Friday morning, but she didn't know exactly what time the load would be ready. We were supposed to just grab an empty trailer and deadhead on up to Atlanta. We wanted to hurry and get there, hoping we could get a couple of hours of downtime before we had to pick up our hot load, but things didn't work out that way at all. </div><div><br /></div><div>This was the night that the freak blizzard was going full force across Colorado, Wyoming, Western Kansas, and Nothern Texas. The whole center of the country was shut down, and the night dispathers and breakdown had thier hands full. We couldn't get through to breakdown on the phone, so we sent them a message on the qualcomm and took off to Wildwood, FL at the other end of the Florida Turnpike. The Pilot there was our fuel stop, and there was a TA with a shop where we could get the light fixed. It was also as far as we could go without getting it fixed - there's a DOT scale just north of there on I-75 and we couldn't risk pushing on and getting stopped at the scale and put out of service. The problem - we still couldn't get through to breakdown, and they still hadn't gotten back with us, and we can't get any work done on the truck or trailer without approval from breakdown. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then it got worse. As we were pulling off the fuel island after fueling up, we hit a bump and every light on the trailer went out. The bare wires from the broken light must have touched each other, and shorted out the whole trailer. One broken light we might have been able to get away with - but the whole trailer? No way!</div><div><br /></div><div>About this time we got a message from night dispatch that there was a driver sitting in Lake City, FL whose load was due in Atlanta at 5 in the morning and could we please repower it or it was going to be late because that driver wasn't moving. All we could do was tell dispatch we would try and let them know about our lighting problem, again. We moved across the street to the TA and settled in waiting for breakdown to tell us something. I stayed on hold for over half an hour and no-one answered. I can only imagine the chaos that the breakdown depatment must have been trying to handle with trucks probably freezing up in the 19 degree temperatures in Colorado, trucks sliding into ditches, and whatever other dramas the blizzard and severe thunderstorms and high winds in the southeast must have been stirring up. Whatever was going on, all I knew for sure was that breakdown wasn't answering the phone and we were out of luck.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mike went to talk to the guys at the TA shop to see what it would cost for us to get the trailer fixed ourselves, and it turned out that breakdown had already called them and they were expecting us - its just no one had bothered to contact us and let us know. It took them about three hours to get the wiring working right and our lights back on.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the time we were rolling again it was 2am, and the load we were supposed to repower was supposed to deliver to its first stop at 5am. Dispatch told us to go ahead and get it and do the best we could. </div><div><br /></div><div>We got to Lake City, FL around 4:30 and found that the load we were supposed to repower was parked in a dollar store parking lot on a narrow side street in a bad neighborhood and the driver was nowhere to be found. We called dispatch to find out what was up.</div><div><br /></div><div>It turned out that the driver was sick and had gone to the hospital. But apparently, before he'd gone to the hospital he'd been quite a pain in the rear for dispatch and the broker who was handling that load. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mike had to get into the guy's truck to disconnect it from the trailer and he said the inside of the guys truck was a horror show of trash and stink. Then we discovered that the seal on the trailer had been broken so we had to call dispatch again and talk to safety/security to find out if we needed to call the police. When we looked in the trailer it was only half full. </div><div><br /></div><div>After over an hour of being transfered back and forth on the phone we finally established that all the freight was there and were told to re-seal the trailer and run with it. Mike went to sleep and I took the first leg of the trip. About halfway to Atlanta I got a message on the qualcomm that we needed to call the broker for the load ASAP. I pulled off at the next rest area and made the call. The broker put me on a three way confrence call with the shipper and they asked me when we would be at our first delivery. There were 4 drops on the load, and all of them were late. I told them that we would be at our first drop around 11:30 am, which didn't make them happy because the first stop was supposed to have been at 5am. They got my cellphone number and called me back once an hour for updates. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mike and I swapped just south of Atlanta so he could drive while I navigated. We turned on the traffic report on our Sirius radio and found that the entire I-285 loop around Atlanta was shut down due to an accident with big-rig going through a center divider. Now I had to find an alternate route on back roads, we had to deal with surface streets, city traffic, near blinding downpours, and a nervous broker. Luckily all of the places we were delivering to were off of I-20 West of the city proper, so we didn't actually have to go downtown or anything.</div><div><br /></div><div>To sum it all up, we got it all delivered. The recivers were hard to find, and three out of four of them were actually closed when we got there - we only got unloaded because the broker and the shipper made a bunch of phone calls and got them to take us late. The broker was impressed with us, and said he's be glad to work with us anytime - he even offered us a reload, but we already had one scheduled. We really pulled that load out of the fire for SRT. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thus ending one of our most exciting weeks so far.</div></div></span></div></span>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-74715493825591095232009-03-13T13:58:00.001-05:002009-10-10T10:00:42.419-05:00A Safe Place for Us...<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Drivers are facing a serious problem out here on the road. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">On March 5, 2009 Jason Rivenburg was shot twice in the head and killed. He was a truck driver. He was parked at an abandoned gas station near Interstate 26 in South Carolina waiting to deliver his load, because the load's receiver wouldn't allow him to wait on their property. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">On March 13, 2009 a driver was shot and injured in North Memphis when he stopped on an exit ramp to switch places with his co-driver. There are no truck stops or rest areas on that stretch of Interstate 240.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">On February 22, 2008 truck driver Robert Earl Lee was fatally shot and robbed while trying to sleep in his truck. He had arrived early for his delivery in Tampa, FL and was told by the gate guard that he couldn't enter the property until 8:00 am. He had no choice but to park on the street. <a href="http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/02/truck-driver-sh.html">http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/02/truck-driver-sh.html</a> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">On October 12, 1986 truck driver Robert Campbell was shot and robbed of $6 as he was taking his rest break at a rest area along Interstate 95. <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DF123AF931A25753C1A960948260">http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DF123AF931A25753C1A960948260</a> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Drivers are forced to park along streets, on highway ramps, and in empty lots due to a shortage of safe parking. At the same time several states are closing down their rest areas – most notably Virginia, but Vermont, New Hampshire, Arizona and California all have plans to close rest areas that provide valuable parking space for tired truckers. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Truckstops are filled to capacity and overflowing, forcing drivers to waste time circling the lot hoping for a space, then drive on down the road while tired to find a place to park.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Many shippers and receivers won't allow drivers to arrive early for appointments and require them to leave immediately after delivering – even if they are out of hours and can't legally drive. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">The federal government, through the Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFTEA-LU), provides $6.25 million for states to provide rest areas and safe parking for commercial vehicles. This drop in the bucket has to be shared out between all 50 states, and is woefully inadequate. To give you an idea of where truck driver safety rates on the federal priority scale – the 2009 Omnibus spending bill included $6.6 million dollars for termite research. Apparently we rate just behind bugs. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Jason Rivenburg's family is working to raise awareness of this issue and they have built a website and started a petition asking lawmakers to work to improve the parking situation for truckers. Please visit their site and sign the petition for Jason's Law: <a href="http://www.jhlrivenburg.com/">http://www.jhlrivenburg.com/</a> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Please write to your representatives in your state and the federal government and ask them to increase the funding for safe rest areas and to pass laws providing for safe places for truck drivers to rest while we are taking the breaks that federal law requires us to take.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /></p>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-17761678174311495302009-02-15T05:39:00.002-06:002009-10-10T10:01:28.114-05:00Et in Arcadia EgoSitting in the eerie fog in Arcadia, Florida this morning. Mike and I got a couple of days of R&R at home, then it was back to running again. And here we are, back in Florida, which I love - except for the traffic. And parking? In Florida? <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Faggedaboutit</span>! As far as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">that</span> goes it really is the sixth b<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">urough</span> of New York City. <div><br /></div><div>Last time we were down here we had to drive forever to find a place to park to wait for our next load. Well, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">OK</span>, most of the driving was to get a trailer wash out. Some shippers, especially if they are shipping food products, are very picky about how clean your trailer is (and with good reason, so I'm not complaining, just venting a little :) ). The only truck wash in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Lakeland</span> area - the old <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Haines</span> City truck wash - shut down last year, which means that the only place to get a trailer wash-out is in Tampa, which means a 60 mile round trip and lots of Snow-Bird traffic. </div><div><br /></div><div>But despite all the traffic I still love Florida. There's just something about this state. Or maybe I've just listened to to much Jimmy Buffet and read too many Carl <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Hiaasen</span> novels. But then, having lived in Florida in my childhood (<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">albeit</span> the slightly saner northern part of the state) I can attest to the fact that tropical heat does make folks a little crazy. That's part of the charm of the place I guess. I just feel more alive down here, and I love seeing the moonlight reflected off the water, the moss draped oaks and palm trees, the chance that if I watch close enough I might catch a glimpse of an <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">alligator</span>, or maybe a manatee in the water, or a Miami Vice style high speed boat chase. Yeah, I've <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">definitely</span> been reading too much Carl <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Hiaasen</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our next load takes us out to California, but first we get to go play in Orlando traffic. Joy. I just hope this fog lifts.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-11567631136140508872009-01-29T08:13:00.010-06:002009-10-10T10:00:42.420-05:00Frozen Okies and other Winter Fun<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYrsvehhSj1vzkj4ARkGooHD6VT2d8g33XGfUUvIdlf0kQlA06yLbDqsbDzF5l5Ol9mhOPTwAXt1Wa5Ms4IB5WJS9gvVxgen4NSjpipC4Vlyx2Ao2KhNrnBJwJ2-aS7PS306ZwXU9tY-I/s1600-h/winter+08-09+102.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYrsvehhSj1vzkj4ARkGooHD6VT2d8g33XGfUUvIdlf0kQlA06yLbDqsbDzF5l5Ol9mhOPTwAXt1Wa5Ms4IB5WJS9gvVxgen4NSjpipC4Vlyx2Ao2KhNrnBJwJ2-aS7PS306ZwXU9tY-I/s400/winter+08-09+102.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298212483580431922" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> This Weekend Only</span></span> - <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">Big Trucks on Ice!</span></span><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; "> Get your tickets now!</span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Last week we repowered a load that was running late. We met the other truck just south of Nashville, and had to get the load to Calumet City, Il (just south of Chicago) by morning - no stopping. It was a critical load for an important customer, and it couldn't be late. It wasn't long after we crossed the line into Kentucky that the rain started. With temperatures below freezing we soon had a glaze of ice on the road and on the truck. Now the Parkways in Kentucky were originally toll roads, but the tolls have since been removed, and they don't get the kind of upkeep they used to. They are rough rides in the best of weather, but with ice... well, we must have looked like a pig on ice-skates. Mike was driving, and we slowed it down to a safer speed (not that any speed is really safe on ice), but we couldn't afford to shut down. By the time we got out of the freezing rain somewhere in Southern Indiana our truck was coated with 3/4 of an inch of ice. The rain had turned to snow, and the snow was sticking to the ice on our truck. By the time we got to Illinois we looked like the abominable snow truck. We made the delivery about an hour late, but we got it there. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was overcast and a little snowy in Chicago, and after we unloaded we had to head north through the city to pick up a load just across the Wisconsin sate line. Traffic wasn't too bad, and we don't go through Chicago very often (we avoid it whenever possible) so I got to do a little sightseeing - the Sears Tower, St Mary of the Angels Church, etc... Whatever I could catch a glimpse of from the freeway. I'd love to get up there some time when we have time to stop, Chicago is a city I'd love to visit. I want to visit the Field Museum and see Tyrannosaurus Sue especially. I was born just north of Chicago at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center base hospital, and I've always been curious about the Second City. It has a fascinating history - fires, the mob, The Manhattan Project, mysterious tunnel systems, Blago and Obama, and so on. And it just looks like a neat place to visit.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once we got our load picked up and got out of The Big Windy we had to head to Ft. Worth, TX. But the big ice storm was only getting started. We ran back into snow just south of Chicago, and I was driving at that point. At first it wasn't bad, but it didn't take too long for the roads to start getting covered. The radio had reports of ice and accidents all over Missouri and Oklahoma, and our company sent out a message that they had issued a mandatory shutdown of all company trucks on I-44 through most of Missouri and Oklahoma. About 30 miles from St. Louis, as the snow picked up and the roads were so covered I was having trouble telling where the lanes were, I decided that the weather was too nasty and I found a spot to park at a rest area. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, the load we were on was for the same important customer as the load we saved the night before, and it didn't have much time on it. Shutting down was sure to make us late, but our route took us across I-44, which was under a mandatory shutdown anyway. Of course it didn't matter that we would have had to have stopped on the other side of St. Louis - not two hours after I shut down we started getting messages from dispatch wanting to know why we weren't moving. Yeah, I could have eased it on through St. Louis, but then I would have been in the ice on the other side looking for a place to park with all the other trucks that were ordered to shut down. Seemed smarter to me to stop where there was parking available. The last thing I wanted to do was to end up parked in a ditch like some of the other trucks we passed jackknifed or on their sides.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, we were only stopped about three and a half hours before Mike finished his ten hour break and was legal to drive again, so he got us moving. I'm much more cautious than he is, but then he's had more experience than me. We cruised on through St. Louis just as the morning traffic was starting to put in an appearance. The roads were slick and snow-covered and there was no way to tell where the lanes were because the lines were hidden by the snow. Watching the four wheelers (trucker slang for cars) slip and slide in and out around the big trucks was like watching a suspense thriller - you know something dreadful is about to happen, you're just not sure who's gonna go first or which direction it's gonna come from.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwFOtztPGrLHxiaFJYTa1Kef4NYz-GPFMQfkaeQWR0OKrjQU6mTILs67cVdPAho_6tSU7sXJEWTC1nfPB52B99gEJK9ZuqCShwibtV8H1GtwUdJ-lPA6eybpvhEpJvnC_lSkTeTBYmczJ/s1600-h/winter+08-09+140.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwFOtztPGrLHxiaFJYTa1Kef4NYz-GPFMQfkaeQWR0OKrjQU6mTILs67cVdPAho_6tSU7sXJEWTC1nfPB52B99gEJK9ZuqCShwibtV8H1GtwUdJ-lPA6eybpvhEpJvnC_lSkTeTBYmczJ/s400/winter+08-09+140.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298215873980538786" /></a><br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Once we were safely out of St. Louis I went back to sleep and didn't wake up again till we were in Oklahoma. Now Oklahoma got some of the worst of it. The interstate was clear by the time I got up, the plow and salt trucks had been out working hard, but we had to get off the interstate and head south on US-69.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once I woke up, Mike had some stories for me about his adventures that night, including how he had pulled into a Pilot Truck Stop just south of St. Louis. That truck stop was new, and it had been built on a hill with a steep slope leading from the entrance down to the fuel islands. Going into that pilot you have to make a left turn and go down the hill to the 6 fuel islands. Mike made his way to the last fuel island, and he felt his trailer slide a little as he turned down that slick slope, but he let off the brakes and accelerated a little to get his truck back in front of his trailer and threaded right on between the diesel pumps to a safe stop. There were two other trucks behind him, and the next truck in line made his turn, only when his trailer slid he hit the brakes, and as his tractor stopped his trailer kept going swinging him around sideways and blocking all of the other fuel lanes. Amid a lot of ribbing and helpful suggestions over the CB, the unlucky trucker tried to back his rig up and get it angled to pull through the island, but the hill was too slick and his trailer too heavy. Every time he started to make progress his trailer would slide down the hill again. Eventually he ended up pointing up the hill with his trailer toward the pumps. Somebody suggested he just back between the pumps, and that's what he did, with the store manager standing there watching with a snow shovel tossed over his shoulder and an amused and long-suffering look on his face. A lot of work just for a cup of coffee. Most of a week later and Mike is still laughing every time he thinks about it. I wish I'd been awake to see it.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was awake to see the truck that had been cut in half by a bridge abutment. It was I-44 in Oklahoma just before we got off at Big Cabin. The truck looked like it had been heading East and had lost control on the ice. His trailer came around and slammed into the bridge pillar, breaking clean in two and scattering huge rolls of paper across the highway. One of those rolls was all the way over on our side of the road. And that wasn't the only truck wreck we saw, though it was the most memorable. There were plenty of other rigs that had gone off the road and were in the median or in the ditch.</div><div><br /></div><div>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhI-AC38gr2-__HGxfWp1KSDTiDw6AunaiS1sMj1cUnfr8m3iTdPEGiFx4bsKKHsO6DSonVfKPf5sg_lEKGwn-sgNmUaV-RO3-tuTu5V5TxrwO-6k-WZ4R4uqs1a1PCkG2_KAsFKoB0gU_/s1600-h/winter+08-09+120.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhI-AC38gr2-__HGxfWp1KSDTiDw6AunaiS1sMj1cUnfr8m3iTdPEGiFx4bsKKHsO6DSonVfKPf5sg_lEKGwn-sgNmUaV-RO3-tuTu5V5TxrwO-6k-WZ4R4uqs1a1PCkG2_KAsFKoB0gU_/s400/winter+08-09+120.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298213700043473426" /></a>.</div><div>US-69 runs down through the Muskogee Indian reservation, and it's usually a pretty drive, and a good road, but the folks down there just don't get enough snow to justify having a large fleet of plows. The few plows they have just couldn't keep up with the snow and ice, and the roads were in pretty bad shape. The right lane in each direction had ruts made by all the big trucks that had passed through, so the going wasn't too bad for us, but those ruts are too widely spaced for cars, so the four wheelers where having a tough time of it. The left lane was loose snow and ice, and every time a truck got impatient and passed in that lane it kicked up a flurry of snow and slush that made it nearly impossible to see. Mike and I were making bets over whether or not any given speed demon would actually make it around the line of slow moving traffic, but they all did amazingly enough. All we could do was take it slow and easy. The landscape was covered by a thick coat of ice that glittered in the sun like the whole world had been remade in glass. Foot-long icicles hung from the roadsigns and power lines. It was a beautiful sight to see even if it was scary to drive in. </div><div><br /></div><div>But we made it to Ft. Worth in one piece, and got our load delivered. After we delivered we had to head over toward Sulphur Springs, TX to pick up our next load, and we ran into freezing fog. The fog was slowly coating everything in white frosting, and it made the trees look like a confectioner's whimsy - or one of those impossibly pretty scenes from a Christmas Card. But the fog didn't last long. Our load got changed and we ended up having to go up to DeQueen, Arkansas to pick up a load of frozen chicken from the Pilgrim's Pride plant there. </div><div><br /></div><div>On the way north we stopped at SRT's yard in Texarkana to fuel up and get a new battery put in the reefer unit on the trailer we were hauling. The yard was full of trucks and trailers, and most of them were waiting to get into the shop. Now, trucks and trailers that are on a load are supposed to have priority, and we didn't have much time to get to DeQueen to get our load on time, but a battery should have been a ten minute job, tops. We ended up sitting on the yard for two hours while Mike went 10 rounds with dispatch and the shop foreman trying to get that simple job done. He wrote up the trailer and dropped the form off with the shop. He told them we were under a load and didn't have a lot of time, and was told in return that they would "get to it eventually". So he went over to dispatch and told our dispatcher what the trouble was, and she called over to the shop and told them to move us to the top of the list. They told her that our trailer was due for a regular maintenance, and that they didn't have time for it because there were too many other trucks that needed work. But none of those other trucks were on a load, and we couldn't just swap for another trailer because every single empty reefer trailer on the yard was in line to get work done on it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Our dispatcher told Mike that she had told the shop to drop what they were doing and get us moving so we could get our load on time, and told Mike who to talk to at the shop. So Mike went back to the shop... and well, it went on like this for a while before they finally got the work done and got us out of there. By the time it was all said and done, Mike was ready to chew up horseshoes and spit out nails. And after all that hurry and frustration we got to DeQueen only to find out that the plant had been shut down by the ice storm the day before and our load was going to be 6 hours late because they were still trying to get caught up. </div><div><br /></div><div>So we finally got to sit still for a couple of hours and get caught up on sleep - though the smell that permeates the air around a chicken processing plant is not conducive to pleasant dreams - yuk!</div><div><br /></div><div>And once again, we were on a load that had no time for goofing around. They wanted it in Nashville at 6am that next morning, but because the plant was running late we didn't get it delivered until nearly 11am. From there we repowered yet another late load and got it back down to Ft. Worth, then repowered another load headed for Florida. This one had two stops on it, the first stop was just outside Jacksonville, Florida on Sunday morning, the second one was south of Tampa, on Monday morning. So we spent Sunday, after our first delivery, driving past Tampa - on Sunday... Superbowl Sunday! Traffic was pretty thick, but it wasn't the nightmare we thought it would be. We stopped at a rest area to sleep for the night, and woke up to pouring rain on Monday morning, but that's OK... I'll take a tropical downpour over ice and snow anyday!!</div><div><br /></div><div>So we're due for some home time and R&R next week, and looking forward to it. </div><br /></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-71407310552208832012009-01-12T12:54:00.001-06:002009-01-14T16:04:45.691-06:00Signs of the TimesSo here we sit in Othello, Washinton, waiting to pick up a load when we are supposed to be at home. Our hometime was supposed to start today. But we're trying to look on the bright side. We could be out of a job. Thousands of truckers are finding themselves out of work across the country as one trucking company after another closes its doors. Our company has even started cutting costs by cutting out its training program among other things. We're keeping our fingers crossed that SRT will make it through these hard times and we'll still be driving when the economy turns around.<br />Less buying means less product is being shipped which means fewer loads for us. Mike and I have been pretty lucky so far. We are a strong team with a reputation for saving late loads and doing things right, so we've been getting plenty of miles, but even so we've still been sitting still a little more than we are used to. Some of our major accounts, like Firestone and Pilgrims Pride have shut down plants or cut back production, which means our company is having to stretch to find freight.<br />So we aren't complaining too much about being late for our hometime. At least we have a job.<br />We gave up going home over Christmas to stay out and take advantage of the Christmas freight. We were running loads of steak out of Omaha, Nebraska, and dealing with -7 degree temperatures - not fun. But the past couple of weeks, until today anyway, we've been down south - Atlanta, Dallas, Nogales, Phoenix, LA. That was a nice break from the cold. We rescued a late load from a solo driver and delivered in Portland, OR this morning.<br />We've also recovered two trucks that were abandoned by quitting drivers. The lack of freight, and the way the company is cutting back on things, is maming a lot of drivers go looking for other work. When we recover a truck it means that Mike and I have to split and drive solo for a day or two. He delivers the load we are on, I get the recovered truck back to the yard in Texarkana, then he gets back to the yard to pick me up. It's weird driving without him in the truck. Every time I made a potty stop I keep expecting him to pop his head out of the sleeper wanting to know where we are and why I'm stopping. It's too quiet in the truck without him. And he says he doesn't like not having anyone to talk to. But it's extra money in our pockets.<br />I'll try not to go so long between updates, but no promises.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-66746825156270989232008-12-11T20:29:00.002-06:002008-12-11T21:02:12.916-06:00Smoke and Snow and on the GoLots of excitement this past month or so. We were out in LA during the big fires. We could see the smoke from the Yorba Linda fire for miles before we got into town, and as we got closer we could see the hellish ruddy glow from the flames reflected from the billowing clouds. We had to hurry to get our load delivered before the fire shut down the highways we needed to take. When we got to Long Beach to drop our trailer, there was ash drifting down on us. It made me think of the volcano disaster movies I've seen. We never got close enough to see the actual fires, but the smoke covered almost all of LA, and breathing was difficult. By the time we got out of town and up into the mountains on I-15 my eyes were burning and I felt like I had a hangover or a case of the flu. Mike laughed at me for tying a wet bandana over my mouth and nose. He said I looked like a bandit, but it really did help.<br /><br />Over Thanksgiving, we had a load going to Long Island, NY. It had two stops on it, and we had rescued it from a solo driver who was out of hours and way out of route. We never did get the story on how he ended up so far from where he should have been, but the load was late and we didn't make our first stop in Pennsylvania on time. They had to squeeze us in, and it was the day before Thanksgiving and they all wanted to get finished and go home. Needless to say, no one was happy, and it only got worse for us. Because it took so long to get unloaded at our first stop, it became impossible to make it to our second stop. The deliveries had been scheduled rediculously close together to start with. The reciver for our second stop was closing at 1:00 in the afternoon. We had 200 miles, and the George Washington Bridge to cross before we could get to them. We called them to see if they would stay open long enough to deliver, because this was an important account we were hauling for and it needed to be delivered. (It was chicken, and it turned out it was for the Catholic Archdioses in New York.) They wouldn't stay open, but our dispatcher kept telling us we HAD to deliver it. That would mean sitting at a closed, deserted warehouse until Monday. Not fun. After several phonecalls, we were told to just take it anyway, so we started heading that way. We got to within 3 miles of the GW Bridge before our dispatcher told us to turn around and take it back to a drop yard in Pennsylvania. Whew, that was too close. The GW is like a suspended perpetual traffic jam, and New York City is no place for a big truck.<br /><br />We ended up taking the load to a drop yard, and we got dispatched to Vermont to pick up a load on Friday morning. That meant we got to spend Thanksgiving day leaisurely making our way upstate through some of the prettiest mountain country on the East Cost - the Adriondaks. Unfortunately, there are very few truckstops up there, and what few there are were mostly closed, so Thanksgicing dinner ended up being turkey sandwiches, cranberry juice, and a slice of pumpkin bread from a convienience store.<br /><br />We ran as usual for the next week or so, and had planned to take some time off in mid December. Then we got the offer we couldn't refuse. Non-stop, run them hard, drop them and deadhead back as-fast-as-you-can-get-there loads until Christmas. We put off our hometime, and we're running them now.<br /><br />Today, for the first time since I started driving, we got called into a scale and pulled around back for a random inspection. I was driving, and I was nervous. But it all went ok. The DOT officer checked our truck and trailer, and looked at our paperwork. The only thing he found wrong was an id light on the trailer that was out, and I swear it was working when I pre-tripped this morning. And it was wroking when I got to the TA down the road, too. But we still had to take it to the shop because a mechanic had to sign off that it was fixed. It was working fine when the mechanic signed off on it. Either there was a loose connection in it, or the DOT officer was trying too hard to find something wrong.<br /><br />Right now, I should be sleeping, but I can't so I thought I'd write. Mike is driving, and we are just East of Nashville, TN on I-24 driving through the first very thick snow we've run into this year. We're inching along in thick traffic, moving about 25 MPH. Its very pretty, but i hope we get out of it soon. I've already seen three cars in the ditch, and visibility is pretty bad.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-57737194761055808902008-11-08T11:53:00.004-06:002008-12-01T08:31:00.243-06:00Ok, so this is turning into more of a once a month thing, but I'm trying. I like quiet stillness when I'm writing, and life on the road is anything but quiet and still.<br />Mike and I got home for a few days at the beginning of November. We missed out on trick-or-treating with the grandkids, but I did get to sit up with Lillian on November fourth and watch the election results come in. Lilly fell asleep before the news broke, but I'm glad I got to sit up and watch a little history in the making. I just hope Obama can live up to his promises.<br /><br />We got moving again on the 6th, headed out to Denver and delivered a load, then picked up a load of bread going to Satsuma, Florida. Heading back east on I-70 we ran into a heck of a wind storm. Bread is pretty light, and we were blown around pretty bad. We eased across the Plains, having to detour off an exit and back on around a big truck that had been blown over in it's side, and a second truck that had been blown off into the median, but was still upright. Emergency services were already there, and the drivers were ok. As light as we were, we were pretty nervous about the same happening to us.<br /><br />Not long after we crossed back into Kansas, we made a stop at one of our favorite truck stops. It's a favorite because it's one of the few truck stops with a Starbuck's (Venti Rasberry Mocha Latte with whipped cream - Yum!). We didn't really get to enjoy our treats, though. We took our caffinated goodies back out to the truck, and when Mike pressed down the clutch we heard an ominous *Sproing!* sound. We looked at one another and said, in unison, "That can't be good." It wasn't - it was the clutch spring. There was a repair shop at that truck stop, but this repair was beyond them, so our breakdown department asked us to nurse the truck 200 miles to Salina, KS to a Freightliner dealer to get it fixed. It is possible to shift without using the clutch, the technique is called "floating". I can float the higher gears, but I'm not so good at floating the lower ones (our truck has 10). Luckily, Mike's very good at the trick, and we were able to get to Salina - though it was a little hairy when we had to stop at intersections. Once the truck came to a stop, it had to be turned off, put in a low gear, and started while in gear... as soon as it was started it was surging forward.<br /><br />We were laid over for two days waiting for the parts to come in, but there was plenty of time on the load, so we eventually made it to Satsuma, and got the load delivered on time. And the company put us up in a hotel while the truck was in the shop. If we hadn't just come back from home time, it would have been a nice break, but, since we were already well rested, we were chomping at the bit to get back on the road.<br /><br />I love delivering in Florida, though. Especially in the winter time. But then, I've always had a thing for the tropics. Folks up north can keep their snow, give me a tropical breeze and a white sand beach any day. The traffic sucks though, bumper to bumper all day long on I-95 or I-4 if you get too close to Orlando or Miami.<br /><br />***Editor's Note*** Oops, looks like I left this one sitting in my draft box and forgot to click "publish". Sorry, ya'll.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-14446621591641193302008-10-20T11:30:00.005-05:002008-11-03T20:21:34.288-06:00Something Visual<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4fy-RHuE93LUytGtHEH7bO587Gi6yB_9tNrRtK69iTzxzJjvkOMFK9oSS0aBHPufG0hI9FYtTScSgfmY1t3exxTNRz8YnLoY5TJF0mtxn0Nm3R22PsxPIZMygXJDrqc-m4AAd2UHclqU/s1600-h/120.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4fy-RHuE93LUytGtHEH7bO587Gi6yB_9tNrRtK69iTzxzJjvkOMFK9oSS0aBHPufG0hI9FYtTScSgfmY1t3exxTNRz8YnLoY5TJF0mtxn0Nm3R22PsxPIZMygXJDrqc-m4AAd2UHclqU/s400/120.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264611973808536866" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Wisconsin Farm<br /><br /></span>Sorry, I haven't had a chance to update lately. We've been running hard, mostly back and forth from Virginia to Texas, but we also managed to get a load out to Portland, and out through New Mexico and Arizona. It has been hard to find a few free minutes to get my thoughts together and do some writing. I did manage to pick up my camera a few times though. Enjoy... <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3uGaHHI1b4I9Ew4RBhQlMXTrlfwCBQKBPrx4vpXehLydStgRzrkjYbYetFgFwZgQDgVH2hcSwG0Q3TRUQU3lPJFjEppk9BRVJ8p6sBKeNwco-WyHkukEyEK5yPrzs6LucqSXW_IU6qCFi/s1600-h/070.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3uGaHHI1b4I9Ew4RBhQlMXTrlfwCBQKBPrx4vpXehLydStgRzrkjYbYetFgFwZgQDgVH2hcSwG0Q3TRUQU3lPJFjEppk9BRVJ8p6sBKeNwco-WyHkukEyEK5yPrzs6LucqSXW_IU6qCFi/s400/070.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264611969212638290" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">"This Way" - An actual street name in a small town in East Texas.</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghY2Tpwn5N_pXYdhy3aSmwgz0DIdqNFtDITZY5lWkvVKibSbNpD0X7HOHCsSgwa9gxvIRuSJWdwXs8ZJbO2yKKGTiOm52v1_tuVWwdttBZ96AA5ndMPCQ9kjLOEktAq8ViUEgRDQ5ofdXZ/s1600-h/054.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghY2Tpwn5N_pXYdhy3aSmwgz0DIdqNFtDITZY5lWkvVKibSbNpD0X7HOHCsSgwa9gxvIRuSJWdwXs8ZJbO2yKKGTiOm52v1_tuVWwdttBZ96AA5ndMPCQ9kjLOEktAq8ViUEgRDQ5ofdXZ/s400/054.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264611966841812642" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Desert flowers in New Mexico.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlRyqsyqrcDZmgAG4zDThMEFHjqLT7daWSmt4O-cXLHQuqPT1WLlPyhjF8M1kWOOLUfS8czP1fbxLoqSmFQASSAa4-mV64vmCvFBiijtt_TExtmhxu12S37f9HOTrn7vqBR3Xy7L4JyYS/s1600-h/October+08+093.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlRyqsyqrcDZmgAG4zDThMEFHjqLT7daWSmt4O-cXLHQuqPT1WLlPyhjF8M1kWOOLUfS8czP1fbxLoqSmFQASSAa4-mV64vmCvFBiijtt_TExtmhxu12S37f9HOTrn7vqBR3Xy7L4JyYS/s400/October+08+093.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264611958587987058" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Multinomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzegRRX0lefr4ywgP9GwGGGqjlbpk5HHOpnE4F5bE4srMmCO4U-0p1yQbUKJwZzppKkiC79D0gUs87VpwX1W50YN5oJAsB0-vN4lb-YWOBVhcTnQL_eiKVVydWNyrEBR-10ACDwmVNerXs/s1600-h/October+08+052.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzegRRX0lefr4ywgP9GwGGGqjlbpk5HHOpnE4F5bE4srMmCO4U-0p1yQbUKJwZzppKkiC79D0gUs87VpwX1W50YN5oJAsB0-vN4lb-YWOBVhcTnQL_eiKVVydWNyrEBR-10ACDwmVNerXs/s400/October+08+052.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264588288203604418" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Mt. Shasta, Northern California.<br /><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5QL8giKiw1Gphkb8OR4i4b9cF_EEhvjjpBgfxHdaD2w1QY5aNen_457Mn1HKUlOOnyLuOJmasG1T-mnC70GJkiSsSkbGmRf2YGnC3hjuBrzkuiemzAKgFBTu4ggu_UO1jHvalktcpdzX/s1600-h/October+08+042.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5QL8giKiw1Gphkb8OR4i4b9cF_EEhvjjpBgfxHdaD2w1QY5aNen_457Mn1HKUlOOnyLuOJmasG1T-mnC70GJkiSsSkbGmRf2YGnC3hjuBrzkuiemzAKgFBTu4ggu_UO1jHvalktcpdzX/s400/October+08+042.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264588278998527714" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">A firefighter works to put out a roadside blaze.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5d52MBtd5DtrfYH5HqBqV8-bDeKiaB4BV0ReJuZZ1VkEbEYVSMOngyNFNbCwT9D89bIpOChj8U1z3XBp1f-AVhp1eGdoOCRvX2KAcW86xRo_ymR4RNxALpM5NwZJQTueuvJJd5ry2PD0/s1600-h/October+08+015.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5d52MBtd5DtrfYH5HqBqV8-bDeKiaB4BV0ReJuZZ1VkEbEYVSMOngyNFNbCwT9D89bIpOChj8U1z3XBp1f-AVhp1eGdoOCRvX2KAcW86xRo_ymR4RNxALpM5NwZJQTueuvJJd5ry2PD0/s400/October+08+015.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264588272014204146" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwymRrqpzCxxTIt2c4bWDxHBkLfPTQzzlPcJsIt_JpvMgGrqN-xpjFiIfCutnQir7AABg1I5xwSPj-LbehrJ1-eQ-IOpish667rbMNIcTaGFMWrENmdnUhSUgCK9N1EW2CWxdFq9DWlU-/s1600-h/October+08+012.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwymRrqpzCxxTIt2c4bWDxHBkLfPTQzzlPcJsIt_JpvMgGrqN-xpjFiIfCutnQir7AABg1I5xwSPj-LbehrJ1-eQ-IOpish667rbMNIcTaGFMWrENmdnUhSUgCK9N1EW2CWxdFq9DWlU-/s400/October+08+012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264588263558958578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Flowers beside a river in Illinois.</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvE5r72t4VEEZqVDQVr79oLBRdW9jY4IBLAGvhb1no8ijEDGUtdHe5hlIPOOv88YxpfS4_EyLUW3YoQjECAqd3bq018fNVZ4griFDuQm3PqgAeyh26BnBrliDdl5y8fl_0-zI0joscBZ5o/s1600-h/September+08+046.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvE5r72t4VEEZqVDQVr79oLBRdW9jY4IBLAGvhb1no8ijEDGUtdHe5hlIPOOv88YxpfS4_EyLUW3YoQjECAqd3bq018fNVZ4griFDuQm3PqgAeyh26BnBrliDdl5y8fl_0-zI0joscBZ5o/s400/September+08+046.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264588246848281042" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Our home terminal by moonlight.</span> SRT, Texarkana, Arkansas.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803906628415690651.post-63233316059189582012008-10-05T14:36:00.003-05:002008-10-05T18:50:10.553-05:00¿Tu Habla?I've realized that I may use some terms and slang that my audience may not be familiar with, so I thought I'd make this week's blog into an introduction to the culture and language of trucking, and maybe give <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">ya'll</span> an insight into what all we have to do out here. It's not all just driving and sightseeing, not by a long shot.<br /><br />Let's start with a day in the life of a trucker. Let's make this a very bad day, so I can work in some of the things that can, and have, gone wrong out here on the road.<br /><br />Our guy is a solo driver, he works for Imaginary Refrigerated Trucking, Inc.<br /><br />3AM, Arrive at drop yard in LA, so far so good, traffic was light, but now his eleven hours of driving is up, so he's got to get some rest time. He takes 15 minutes to unhook the loaded trailer he's dropping, then fills out his log before he hits the sack. A log, or logbook, or "swindle sheet" is a document that we are required by law to fill out and keep current.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.newbiedriver.com/articles/Logbook/blank_log2.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.newbiedriver.com/articles/Logbook/blank_log2.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />We have to record what we are doing for every hour of the day on the grid by drawing a line to indicate whether we are 'On Duty, Not Driving', 'Driving', in the 'Sleeper Berth', or 'Off Duty'. The rules that govern this are called the Hours of Service rules, and they state that we can only work for 14 hours, then we must take a ten hour break before we can drive again. Within that 14 hours, only eleven hours can be driving, then you have to take that ten hour break before you can drive again. Then, you can't work more than 70 hours in any eight day period, once you hit the 70 hour mark you have to stop and sit until after midnight and hope you get some hours back, or you can go off duty for 34 hours and get all 70 back. Confused? You aren't the only one. Keeping that logbook legal can take a while to learn. But it's all in the interest of keeping sleepy drivers off the road.<br />So, our sleepy trucker gets his paperwork filled out and settles in for a 10 hour break. He shows arriving at the drop yard at 3am, then 15 minutes on duty to drop his trailer, so he's now got to go into the sleeper berth, or go off duty until 1:15 PM. (assuming he's running it legal and not keeping two sets of logs.)<br /><br />1:15 PM - Our driver gets up and checks his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Qualcomm</span>. The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Qualcomm</span> (which is actually a brand name for the main company that provides them, but it has become the common name for them as well) is a keyboard with a little screen at the top that lets the driver and his dispatcher communicate. He's got a new load assignment. He has to pick up a load of produce with four picks. That means he's gonna have to go to four different warehouses to get his full load. He's gonna need a clean, working reefer trailer (a trailer with a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">refrigeration</span> unit), and that means he's got to walk around the yard looking at all the trailers to find one that's empty, clean, and functional. He's also gonna need a set of load locks, cause the one's he had are bracing the load in the trailer he dropped earlier. He can't get them out because the load is sealed. (Load locks are long bars with rubber bumpers on each end that extend with a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">ratchet</span> mechanism so you can stretch them tight from one wall of the trailer to the other and lock them in place to keep the load from shifting.)<br /><br />The first trailer he checks has a flat tire, so he moves on the the next (if he's a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">responsible</span> driver he'll make note of the trailer number and pass it along to his companies <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">maintenance</span> section so it can be fixed.) The next trailer stinks to high heaven when he opens the doors because the driver who dropped it had a load of meat and didn't get it washed out afterward. It even has dead rats in it, and the chute is torn. The cute is a long piece of canvas that runs along the roof of the trailer to funnel the cold air from the reefer unit at the nose to the back of the trailer. If it's torn, the cold air won't circulate properly, and the load will get too hot at the tail end of the trailer. That one's no good. The next trailer looks promising, it's clean, no flats, chute's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">ok</span>, the tank is even full of fuel, so he turns on the reefer unit so it can start to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">pre</span>-cool while he goes to get his tractor. He starts up the automatic <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">pre</span>-trip check and walks away. By the time he's got his tractor over and is ready to hook up the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">pre</span>-trip is done and the unit shows four or five alarm codes, and has shut down. By now, he's cursing. Alarm codes mean there is something mechanically wrong with the unit. The only other empty on the yard has had it's fuel tank run dry, and he's been through that nightmare before. Once a reefer looses it's prime it can take hours of pumping on the little primer pump to get it started again. He goes back to the one with the flat tire, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">pre</span>-trips the reefer and it comes up functional. It's the best he's gonna get. He calls breakdown (that's the department in his company <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">responsible</span> for keeping the equipment up and running) and, after sitting on hold for half an hour, he tells them he's gonna need a tire change. He also tells them about the problems on all the other trailers, just so some other poor driver doesn't get stuck with them.<br /><br />2:30 PM - He's hooked up to the gimpy trailer and has pulled it to the repair shop ten miles down the road. (luckily, with four tires per axle, and two axles, that means he's still got three good tires on that side, and it will still roll.) He has to wait for another hour and a half for his tire to be replaced and it's getting closer and closer to his pickup time, (not to mention his 14 hour HOS clock is ticking because he had to log 15 minutes of driving time, and more on duty time while dealing with the repair shop - cause as long as he's imaginary, we may as well imagine him doing things legally.) So now it's getting close to rush hour, and he's still in LA with 140 miles to drive to get to his first pick-up. And he still needs load locks.<br /><br />5:15 PM - he <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">finally</span> makes it out of LA traffic, which was bumper to bumper and moving at a crawl thanks to an accident on the I-5, and his dispatcher wants to know why he's running so late. He's only got 10 hours left on his 14 hour clock, and he's still got four docks to bump. He stops at a Pilot Truck Stop, pulls across the fuel island and out the other side and shuts his truck off so he can run in and buy a couple <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">of</span> load locks. He's out of his truck for a grand total of five minutes and the trucker behind him is already complaining about him parking on the fuel island, even as they are both standing in line to pay for their purchases.<br /><br />7:45PM - he <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">finally</span> makes it to his first stop, only 45 minutes late. The other pickups have been rescheduled for in the morning because, even though he was late, and the shipper complained, it <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">didn't</span> matter anyway because they were still waiting for some of the produce, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">strawberries</span>, to come in from the field. Our poor driver just can't win. They tell him which dock to back into and tell him they will wake him when they are ready to start loading him. His company policy says he's got to be on the dock to make sure the right <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">amount</span> of freight is loaded, and he has to pulp the produce. Pulping means he has to have a pulp thermometer and he has to measure the temperature of the produce. If it's loaded too warm then his trailer won't cool to the right temperature and it could cause the whole load to be ruined. He backs his trailer into the tight space, opens the doors, and bumps the dock. Screw logging it legal, it took him thirty minutes to get backed in to the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">ridiculously</span> tight space, but he only logs it as 15 minutes. He turns off his truck and rolls down the windows (it's illegal to idle for more than five minutes in Cali, no matter how hot it gets inside the cab) and climbs into the sleeper. He only just woke up six and a half hours ago, so he's not really tired enough to sleep, even though his log will show him resting. He settles in with a movie on his laptop and a bag of beef jerky for dinner and waits for the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">lumpers</span> (that's the guys who load and unload trailers) to knock on his door. He finally falls asleep sometime around 11PM.<br /><br />2:30AM *<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Bam</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Bam</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Bam</span>!* A knock on the driver side door jolts him from a sound sleep. They are ready to load him, and he has to be on the dock. He's only been in the sleeper for six hours, not enough time to re-set his 14 hour clock. If he logs this as on duty, he won't be able to drive to his next pick up, so he's gonna have to fudge his books a little. He may not like it, and it's illegal to do, but sometimes there's no getting around a little creative logging if you are gonna get the job done. He crawls out of the sleeper, pulls on his shoes, and goes inside to the dock. He watches as they load him, pulps one pallet (34°, perfect), and signs the bills. He puts his load locks in place to keep the load from shifting. All this for four pallets of strawberries. He pulls out of the dock, shuts his doors and pulls off to one side of the lot until he's legal to drive again, at 6:15 in the morning. His logbook will show that he was in the sleeper the whole time so he has the hours to drive, even though he was supposed to log the time on the dock as on duty.<br /><br />6:15 AM - He's ready to throw the Screaming Meanie (a very LOUD alarm clock sold in truck stops, it's very annoying, but it does the job) through the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">windshield</span> when it goes off. He's only had about four hours of sleep, and there's no coffee to be had. But he gets up, does a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">pre</span>-trip inspection on his rig, and heads off to his next stop, 20 miles up the coast. This one goes much more smoothly, except that the guys on the dock barely speak any English, and he barely knows any Spanish so it's a comedy of misunderstandings as he tries to get his five pallets of grapefruit. Thank goodness the USDA inspector came in and helped to translate. He's in and out in about an hour, and off to pick number three.<br /><br />8:30 AM - another ten miles, and another dock bumped. His reefer is set to 34°, but at this stop he's picking up 9 pallets of peaches, and the lady on the dock tells him he's got to set his reefer to 38°. "Don't you freeze my peaches," she keeps telling him, and she seems to be deaf as he tries to explain that if he doesn't keep it at 34° the strawberries will go bad before he can deliver them. She won't listen. He calls his dispatcher to find out how the company wants him to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">handle</span> this. The dispatcher tells him to go ahead and set the reefer at 38° until after he's loaded, then set it back down to 34° once he's away from the shipper. He does as he's told, but he asks the dispatcher to send him those instruction over the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">qualcomm</span> just so it's in writing and he won't get in trouble if something goes wrong. The peaches are loaded, and he's got a little time before his last appointment, so he pulls into a little Mom-N-Pop <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">truckstop</span>/<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">restaurant</span> for breakfast. He'd like to order something off the menu, but he doesn't have time, so he pays for the overpriced buffet and makes due with greasy eggs and sausage that's been under a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">heatlamp</span> too long. He promises himself he'll eat something healthy for lunch.<br /><br />11:00AM - Last stop. He's supposed to pick up five pallets of Bell peppers, but he's only got room on the trailer for four pallets, any more, even though they will fit, would make him overweight on the trailer because of the California bridge law (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">ok</span>, a semi can't gross over 80,000lbs without special permits, but we also can't be over 12,000 lbs on our drive tires, or 34,000lbs on our drives or our trailer axles. Those weights can be adjusted by sliding the trailer axle forward or backward to balance out the load, but in Cali, and some other states, the trailer axle can't be more than 40' back from the kingpin of the trailer. That's the bridge law, and it can make getting a 53' trailer loaded <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">legally</span> into a headache.). He makes a mental note to choke the load planner when he gets back to his company's yard. Then he goes into the shipping office to do battle with the shipper over why their load has to be shorted. The shipper asks him to go over their scales so they can see if they can load that last pallet. Sure enough, with his axles set to California legal, his trailer axle (called his 'tandems' in trucker lingo) has 33,950lbs on them. But his gross weight is only 78,000lbs, so the shipper tries to argue that that last pallet can go on anyway, cause it won't put him over 80,000lbs. After twenty minutes of arguing the shipper, after calling the customer, says that that last pallet has to be loaded, and they can get it on there if they rearrange the trailer. They pull everything off, and re-load with the grapefruit at the nose of the trailer because it's the heaviest, then the peaches, then the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">strawberries</span>, and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">finally</span> the Bell Peppers, this moves most of the weight forward, and frees up just enough weight on the tandems to squeeze that last pallet on. Our poor hero has now been sitting in that dock for five hours. Now his gross weight is 79,000lbs, but his axle weights are legal, and the shipper is happy. He pulls out and heads for I-5 and his first fuel stop at the Pilot. By the time he gets to the Pilot, he's smacking himself upside the head for being stupid. He should have fueled before he got loaded, because now, if he fills up his tanks, he will be overweight. 200 gallons of diesel, at 8lbs <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">per gallon</span>, weighs 1,600lbs. He's got less than a quarter tank and he's already at 79,000lbs, not to mention, the reefer tank is only half full, which means he'll need another 25 gallons in it. That's gonna be 200lbs more. He's gonna be running through the desert in high summer, so he can't skimp on the reefer fuel. After some furious calculating he realizes that he can only fill his tanks halfway and still be legal. That means he'll have to stop and fuel every 500 miles, instead of the usual 1,000 miles between <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">fillups</span>. Maybe he'll get lucky and dispatch will let him swap this load off to some unsuspecting team.<br />After all the time he spent sitting at that last shipper, he's now only got two more hours that he can drive before his 14 hour clock runs out. He's starting to hate this job. He only gets paid for the miles he rolls. All the time he spent sitting in the dock waiting was unpaid time. He could stop here at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">truckstop</span> with all it's amenities, but he needs to get some miles under him so the day isn't a complete waste. He heads north on I-5, through <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Sacramento</span>, then heads east on I-80. He knows it's going to take extra time to climb the hill to Donner Pass, so he wants to make up some time while he's on flat land. He fires up his CB and calls for a bear report. Bear, or Smokey Bear, is trucker slang for a State Trooper, or any police really. County <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Sheriffs</span> are called County Mounties, local police are Local Yokels or City Kitties, and motorcycle cops are Evil <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Knievels</span>. He gets a list of speed traps from the drivers headed in the other direction, "Hey, Eastbound, you got a Bear in the woods just past the 63 yardstick, and there's another one taking pictures at the 81. He's got a couple of buddies collecting autographs, too."<br /><br />Another driver comes back with, "Got Bubblegum Machine rolling eastbound, guess someone won the jackpot."<br /><br />"<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Thanks</span> man. You're clear back to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">Sacramento</span>. There was a City Kitty with a captive four wheeler on the southbound five," he replies. Now he knows that there is a speed trap at mile marker 63, and there is another one with an officer using a radar gun and two more giving tickets at mile marker 81. There's also a cop chasing someone east with his lights going.<br /><br /> Because he's so heavy, he climbs Donner Pass at a crawl, 10 MPH with the hammer down. Traffic whizzes past him. His time runs out while he's still climbing the hill, but there's nowhere to stop until he gets to the top. He'll have to fudge his logs again.<br /><br />8:45 PM - Parked at the rest area at the top of the mountain, his stomach rumbling because he forgot to grab some extra food while he was at the truck stop, he compresses his miles a little and shows on his logs that he arrived at the the rest area about 30 minutes before he actually got there. All the regular parking spaces were full, so he had to park on the shoulder of the rest area's exit ramp, but he's out of hours so he will have to make do. As his stomach growls again, he remembers how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Pass">Donner Pass</a> got it's name. He crawls into the sleeper, exhausted, for his ten hour break, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">which</span> will be up at 6:15 in the morning.<br /><br />5:45AM - *<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Bam</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">Bam</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">Bam</span>* Someone is knocking on his door. He opens the bunk curtains to peer out, bleary eyed, and groans as he sees the unmistakable Smokey Bear hat of a State Trooper. "Can you step out of the vehicle, please, sir." Looks like this day isn't going to be any better than yesterday. But he gets lucky. The officer just takes a look at his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">CDL</span>, his medical card, and a quick glance at his logs and bills. "You can't be parking on the exit ramps. I'm gonna let you go this time, because I see you were out of hours, but don't let me catch you doing it again. I'm sure you don't want the $300 fine. Drive safely." Whew, that was a close one. He heads for the bathroom real quick to run a toothbrush over his teeth and stuff. As soon as the clock hits 6:15 he starts rolling.<br /><br />Only a few miles down the road he pulls into the Agriculture Inspection Station. The officer asks him for his bills and he hands them over. The officer looks at them and says, "Please pull off to the side and open your doors, sir." Oh, crap, now what?<br /><br />He pulls over, but he doesn't open the doors. He waits for the officer and the Agricultural Inspector to come over to him, "I can't break the seal, officer, you'll have to break it and sign the bills that you did so." But there was no problem, that was pretty routine. The real problem was what the Ag Inspector wanted.<br /><br />"You don't have a USDA certificate for the grapefruit you are hauling. I'll need to inspect them."<br /><br />That means the driver has to crawl carefully over all the pallets in front of the grapefruit in the 34° trailer, all the way to the nose of the trailer, to pull out one or two grapefruit for the inspector to look at. Fun, fun. He has to move cases of bell pepper slightly so he can fit without tearing the chute and worm his way back to the grapefruit. He grabs two and scoots his way back out. He pauses to snag a couple of strawberries on the way, since he still hasn't had any breakfast.<br /><br />A quick slice to cut the fruit in half, and the inspector is satisfied. He tosses the first one in the trash, but, when the driver's stomach rumbles loud enough to turn heads, the inspector has mercy and gives the second one back, already sliced in half and ready to eat. Munching on his grapefruit half, which isn't so good without sugar, but he ain't complaining at this point, the driver heads on his way, down the hill and into Nevada. Now that he's rolling on the open road, he remembers why he loves this job.<br /><br /><br />********************<br /><br />Lucky for us, we haven't had all these things go wrong on one single load, but all of them have happened to us at one time or another. As a team, we don't have to worry so much about our hours because one of us can drive while the other gets a ten hour break in the sleeper, but things are a lot tougher for a solo driver.<br /><br />I really wish that the people who make the laws, who design the rest stops with so few truck spaces, who load the trucks, and who decide that they don't want "dirty truck stops" in <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">their</span> towns would take the time to walk (or drive) the proverbial mile in a trucker's shoes. This isn't an easy job, or an easy way of life. I hope I've given ya'll some insight into what it's like to be a trucker. When you are a trucker, you aren't a trucker from 9 to 5, you are on the road for weeks, or even months at a time. You work around the clock. There's a lot more to it, it's a whole 'nother way of life, and it's a great big country out here.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01376916761047694240noreply@blogger.com0