STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21180: Albuquerque Agglomeration

July 8, 2005 on 8:01 pm | In On The Road | No Comments

On the 5th, I left Lamar, PA (where I actually ended up last night after leaving Clearfield) and drove to the 1st Shipper in Montgomery. I arriver there at 0800, the scheduled pick- up time, checked in with the shipping clerk, and immediately got a dock assignment. It took less than 15 minutes to load me because their portion of this load consisted of only 3 pallets. After doing the paperwork, and walking the MMM, I left there at 0930 and drove to the 2nd Shipper in Mechanicsburg. I arrived at 1130 and immediately checked in with the shipping clerk. He said that I was early for my 1400 appointment. I said that I was unaware of a scheduled appointment (the Dispatch on the QualCom had no specific time). He said that I would have to wait until another truck was out of Door 13 and then I could have that door. An hour and a half later, he was finally loaded, left the door and I backed in. An hour and a half after that, I was finally loaded. I left there at 1500 and drove to Buckeye Lake, OH where I stopped for the night because I ran out of hours. . I worked 12.5 hours and drove 465 miles in 8.75 hours.
On the 6th, I left Buckeye Lake at 0700 and drove the 35 miles to our Terminal in Columbus, OH. Here, I fueled and walked the MMM. This terminal too has a nice grassy area for the MMM to explore off-leash. I left Columbus at 0815 and drove to Effingham, IL. I had lunch here and left at 1445. I drove to East St. Louis, IL. I stopped here for about 15 minutes mainly for logging purposes because of the Speed Limit change between Illinois and Missouri. I drove from here to Boonville, MO where I stopped for the night because I was almost out of driving hours. I worked 11 hours and drove 580 miles in 10.5 hours.
On the 7th, I left Boonville at 0615 and drove to our Terminal in Edwardsville (Kansas City), KS. I fueled and walked the MMM. I left at 0900 and drove to Salina, KS. Here I stopped at a Bosselman’s Truck Stop. I had lunch here (3 boneless pork chops, hash-brown potatoes and cooked carrots for $9.99 plus tax, tip and drink). A really good meal at a good price (for a Truckstop at least). From Salina I drove to Oakley, KS. I stopped here because I was leaving I-70 and heading out “cross-country’ on State and US highways. I left at 1500 and drove to Pueblo, CO where I dropped my trailer at the Consignee and then drove to our Terminal a half mile away and called it a day because I was out of hours. I set my PTA for 0800 in the AM. I worked 11.5 hours and drove 669 miles in 10.75 hours.
Today, the 8th, the MMM roused me at 0600. While I was watching the MMM during their morning walk, I noticed this lonely Sunflower.

At 0815, the Planners offered me a load that picked up in Antonita, CO and delivers in Orange, CA on Monday (147 miles empty and 945 miles loaded). I took I-25 south to Walsenburg then US-160 west to Alamosa, then US-285 south to Antonita. Between Walsenburg and Alamosa, I took these photographs.

Antonita is on US-285 about 5 miles from the CO/NM border. I arrived at the Shipper at Noon. I was surprised to learn that it was a drop/hook facility. Usually, Customers this remote are ‘live load’. I departed at 1245 and drove down US-285 south to US-84 east to I-25 south into Albuquerque, NM. I arrived at 1530, fueled, then decided that since there is no urgency on this load that I would just call it a day. I have until Monday AM to deliver this load, and the Consignee is not open on the weekend, so there is no way to deliver early. I’ll just mosey my way along for the next 2 days. No sense hurrying to get nowhere. I’ll drive to Kingman, AZ tomorrow, then drive to the Consignee in Orange, CA on Sunday. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find a parking place close to the Customer to spend the night. I worked 6.25 hours and drove 326 miles in 5.5 hours.

Life Day 21176 Independance Day

July 4, 2005 on 6:34 pm | In On The Road | No Comments

On the 3rd, I played on the computer until late afternoon to bring everything up to date. I was way behind on this BLOG. At 1730, I left Gibson and drove directly to the Consignee in Woodland. I arrived at 2100, did the drop/hook and then drove about 4 miles to a Sapp Brothers Truckstop in Clearfield, PA where I stopped for the night. There will probably be no freight tonight or tomorrow because of the holiday, so I “settled in for the long haul”. I worked a whopping 4.25 hours and drove 208 miles in 3.75 hours.
Today, the 4th, I’ve been copying CD’s into my hard-drive like a frenzied fiend. I was right about the freight situation. About 1300, the Planner offered me a load which picks up tomorrow AM at 0800 in Montgomery, PA and delivers in Pueblo, CO anytime on the 7th (95 miles empty and 1687 miles loaded). It also has an additional pick-up in Mechanicsburg, PA. I accepted it, and will probably drive to somewhere near Montgomery this evening to get an early start if possible. The closest Truckstop to the Shipper is in Milton, about 85 miles east of here and about 10 miles from the Customer.

Life Day 21174 Pennsylvania Punditry

July 2, 2005 on 7:28 pm | In On The Road | No Comments

FRUSTRATION: This is the 1st time in 10 days that I have been able to get a WiFi connection reliable enough to work on my BLOG or send e-mails. My most recent attempt on the 29th was particularly frustrating. Despite changing locations within the truckstop 5 times, verifying the parameters on my computer, and even calling the tech-rep for the ISP to see if the site was experiencing problems, I couldn’t get a good connection. It would connect, but EXTREMELY slowly, then when I began working, it would suddenly, for no reason, dis-connect. The tech-rep said that all was well with their equipment, so I was thinking that I had come down with another Virus or that my Wireless Card was bad. This time, x my fingers, the connection seems to be holding.
On the 23rd, still in Vegas, I spent the day trying to decide what to do with the day. I spent most of it at the TA Truckstop copying CD’s to my computer. At about 1900, I went out for something to eat and to check my mail. Since my mail-box is on Flamingo road just east of the Las Vegas Strip, I had innumerable choices, but in keeping with the rest of the day, couldn’t make a decision. I finally ended up at the Rio for the World Buffet. It was good as usual, but I came away thinking that I didn’t eat $22.95 worth of food. I went to bed about 2200.
On the 24th, the MMM (million mile mutts, a new term of endearment for the doggies) woke me up at 0600. I had a leisurely breakfast at the Wild, Wild West. The Planner offered me a load from Las Vegas to Grapevine, TX (12 miles empty and 1212 miles loaded). I accepted it, and since it didn’t pick-up until 1400, went to do a little more work in my storage unit to kill some time. I arrived at the Shipper at 1330. Off to the west between Las Vegas and Parumph on NV-160 around Mt. Charleston and Red Rocks State Park is a raging Forest Fire. They had to close down the highway yesterday because the flames were jumping across.The whole Valley is “smokey”. I snapped these photos from the Shipper while walking the MMM one more time before leaving.

I picked up the load and left Vegas at about 1500. I drove to Kingman, AZ. I took an hour break there for fuel and a MMM walk, and left for Flagstaff at 1830. At 2130, I left Flagstaff and drove to Lupton, AZ (on the AZ/NM state line). I arrived at midnight and went to bed. I worked 8 hours and drove 434 miles in 7.25 hours.
On the 25th, I awoke at about 0700. After taking the MMM for their morning constitutional and doing my AM toilette, I still had about 2 1/2 hours before I could “legally” leave. I took the following photographs of the Rest Area.

I left at 1015, (10 hours off + 15 minutes for the Daily Safety Inspection) and drove to Albuquerque, NM. I took a long break here and departed for Amarillo at 1430. I arrived in Amarillo at 1900 and decided, for no reason other than laziness, to stop here for the night. My delivery appointment on this load isn’t until the 29th, so I need to confer with my DM in the AM to make arrangements for a T-Call at our Terminal in Lancaster (Dallas), TX. This will probably entail my doing another “local” delivery for them to off-set the “local” delivery that I’ll be dropping. I worked 7.25 hours and drove 444 miles in 7 hours.
Sunday, the 26th, the MMM woke me right at sunrise. As they were out on their ‘morning rounds’ the birds expressed their discontent with their presence.

I left Amarillo after a hearty breakfast at 0845 and drove directly to the Lancaster Terminal. I arrived at 1500. I T-Called the load immediately upon arrival, but unfortunately, it being Sunday, there was no freight available. I went to the Flying J for the night. I had WiFi woes here. The connection was sporatic at best and I couldn’t rely on it, so I just uploaded some music into my computer and went to bed about 2030. I worked 6.5 hours and drove 365 miles in 6.25 hours.
On Monday, the 27th, I was available and ready to roll at 0500 (0600 local time). The Planner offered me a load that picked up in Tyler, TX and delivered in Charlotte, NC (97 miles empty and 930 miles loaded). I accepted it even though there was no set appointment time for it yet. All the Plan said was that it delivered on the 30th. I then went out to find an empty trailer, as this load is a ‘live’ load’. The Lancaster Terminal is on about 50 acres, and I scoured most of it on foot seeking a useable empty, but to no avail. A good thing about this Terminal is that amidst its vast acerage are a couple of nice ‘grassy’ areas for the MMM to explore off-leash. Anyway, I had no luck finding an empty, so I went inside to talk to the “window people’ (the people manning the Driver Service Window) to let them know my predicament. They are not “Planners”, but will act as a laison between the Driver and Planner in these situations. The solution to this problem was to Plan me on a load (basically local) that was in the Terminal and delivered in Tyler, TX later in the day (o miles empty and 97 miles loaded). This satisfied two goals. the first was to get me an empty trailer and the second was to get a “local” delivery delivered. Good for me; Good for them. It also changed the ‘empty’ miles in the original plan to “0″. This also meant that I will recieve an extra $18.92 because of the pay differential between loaded and empty miles. I’m paid 19.5 cents per mile less for all empty miles. At any rate, by the time all this transpired and I was hooked to the Tyler load, it was 1530. I drove to the Consignee in Tyler. I arrived at 1700 did the drop/hook and drove to the Shipper in Tyler. I arrived there at 1800 and was in a dock at 1815. There I sat for 3 3/4 hours. At 2200, I was finally loaded. I drove to Greenwood (Shreveport), LA and stopped for the night. I worked 8 hours and drove 186 miles in 3.25 hours.
The 28th was a fairly routine day. I left Greenwood at 1015 and drove to Russell, MS. After a nice long break there for a shower, a meal, and a couple of MMM walks (one as soon as I arrived and another just before departure), I left at 1730. I drove to Temple, GA (about 30 miles west of Atlanta) and stopped for the night. There is still no “firm” delivery appointment for this load, so I wanted to stop ’short’ of our Decatur, GA Terminal and/or our Terminal in Greer, SC (both directly enroute to Charlotte, NC) in case there is a problem with getting an appointment for the 30th, in which case this will become another T-Call situation. I worked 9.5 hours and drove 567 miles in 9.25 hours.
The 29th, I called my DM at 0800 although I was awake long before that. She doesn’t arrive until 0800 and works until 1800. I asked her if this load delivered on the 30th at midnight, or if there was still no firm appointment. {on the QualCom screen, loads without an appointment are designated with the date (the 30th in this case) and a time of 0000}. If a load delivers at midnight, it is usually either designated with a time of 0001 or 2359 on the day before. I was, of course being whimsical when I asked this question, my way of letting her know to call the CSR to get a firm appointment. About a half hour later, the load was re-dispatched with a firm appointment time of 0730 on the 30th. I departed Temple at 1030 and drove to Greer, SC (the Terminal with the cheapest fuel price for the day). I took a short break here to top-off my fuel and walk the MMM. I left at 1430 and drove to Blacksburg, SC (about 40 miles from Charlotte) and stopped for the day. I was in hopes of going on-line and catching up w/ my BLOG and e-mails, but alas, it was not to be (ref: Frustration above). I worked 4.5 hours and drove 237 miles in 4 hours. I went to bed at 2100.
On the 30th, I left Blacksburg at 0630 and drove the 40 miles to the Consignee. I arrived at 0715 and was in the dock at 0730. It only took 1/2 hour to unload. While I was being unloaded, the Planner gave me a load that picked up in Charlotte and delivered in Wilton, NY (0 miles empty and 769 miles loaded). The load was a ‘live load’ that was supposed to pick-up at 0700. That would be difficult since my delivery appointment wasn’t until 0730, but I accepted it anyway. After I was finished unloading and waiting for the Pre-Plan to be dispatched so that I could access the load for directions, I left at 0830. I arrived at the Shipper at 0845, immediately got assigned a dock door and was ready to be loaded at 0900. Four (4) hours later, I was finally loaded. They had to wait for some product to be manufactured, plus they were trying to do an inventory. It was a mess. I left Charlotte at 1330 and drove to Troutville, VA. {Let me take a minute to differentiate between Swift routing and ‘real world’ routing. Swift had me routed on I-85N out of Charlotte to I-95N through Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; through southeast Philadelphia, the New Jersey Turnpike to I-287 N which does go around the heaviest traffic of northeast New Jersey into New York and the New York Throughway (Turnpike) to I-87N through Albany and on to Wilton. If I ran this way, I would have about $50.00 out of pocket expense for Tolls, plus all of the traffic conjestion of the above mentioned Megalopolii, compounded by the impending Independance Day week-end. Real World routing took me on I-77N out of Charlotte into Virginia where I connected with I-81N. At Binghamton, NY, I connect with 1-88E to Schenectady (”I can spell Tacoma, and even Casa Loma, but I can’t spell Schenectady”, unless I have my Rand McNalley) :>} to I-90E to Albany, where I connect with I-87N to Wilton. Using the Swift routing parameters, Microsoft Streets and Trips calculated the trip to be 802 actual miles. Using the same program with my “Real World” Routing, it calculated the trip to be 818 actual miles. Now, which route would you take: 802 miles of dense traffic and ‘big city’ driving with Toll Roads in Maryland, Deleware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York or 818 miles of serene motoring through lush forests and picturesque farmland with no Toll Roads and with Harrisburg, PA and Albany, NY the only areas that could even remotely be considered “big city” driving }. I left Troutville at 1745 and drove to Tom’s Brook, VA where I stopped for the night. It was the last place where I could park my truck before I exceeded my ‘14 hour’ window. I worked 11.25 hours and drove 375 miles in 6.5 hours.
On July 1st, I left Tom’s Brook at 0615, the earliest time that I could ‘legally’ drive. I drove to our Terminal in Martinsburg, WV for fuel and a MMM walk. At 0745 I left there and drove to Harrisburg, PA. I stopped here for a shower, a meal and another MMM walk. I left Harrisburg at 1130. I did encounter heavy traffic through a road construction area at the junction of I-81 and I-78, but it wasn’t too bad. Traffic was heavier than normal due to “get away” day for the 4th of July week-end, but it was expected and didn’t really frustrate me nor seriously impede my progress. I drove straight through to Wilton from here and arrived at 1700. After I did my drop/hook, I went to our Mini-Terminal located about 150 feet from the Target Distribution Center (DC) where I had just delivered. With less than 1 hour remaining in my ‘14 hour’ window, I decided to call it a night and re-set my PTA for 0600. There is no fuel avalilable here, but there is a Shop and Office Personnel here to serve the needs of the 30 or so Target Dedicated Swift Drivers that work out of this DC.

The MMM enjoyed a nice untethered ‘romp’ here in the ’sandbox’ and the lawn area at the back of the Terminal.

The photo (lower left) is taken from the back part of our Terminal. The building in the background is actually the rear portion of the Target DC building. The photo (lower center) indicates that the Terminal is prepared for the copious amounts of SNOW they recieve each winter. The photo (lower right) is a Truckstop right at the Freeway Interchange. To give you an indication of its proximity to our Terminal, I took this photo from the same basic location as the doggie and snow plow photos. It has a good restaurant, but the food is a bit ‘pricy’ for what you get. I ate there 3 times during my stay this time.
What I do like about the restaurant is that it ISN’T standard Truckstop fare. I had Cod with Mac & Cheese for my 1st meal there, but it didn’t come with a vegetable, roll or a soup/salad option. I had to order my soup (beef barley) al a carte. I also had Apple Crisp for desert. My meal came to about $15.00. I next had breakfast there. I ordered a waffle, 2 eggs and sausage patties. Again, the 2 eggs and the sausage were al a carte. I could have ordered a standard sausage and eggs breakfast with the potatoes and toast, plus the waffle, but it would have cost more and been too much for me. Breakfast with my hot tea cost almost $11.00. My 3rd meal here was for dinner on my way back from Plattsburgh (see below). I had beef stew. This time it did come with a couple of dinner rolls, but again, no soup or salad. I had to order my soup al a carte. I also had some more of that delicious Apple Crisp. This meal cost just under $14.00. I worked 9 hours and drove 478 miles in 8.25 hours.
Today, the 2nd, the Planner offered me a load that picked up in Plattsburgh, NY and delivers in Woodland, PA (115 miles empty and 465 miles loaded. I left for Plattsburgh at 0845. This will take me right through the Adirondack Mountains and Adirondack State Park. I arrived at 1045. It was a drop/hook Customer, so all went smoothly and I left at Noon. On the drive back to Wilton where I plan to stop for lunch/dinner, I took the following photographs. Most were taken out of my drivers window as I was driving because the Rest Areas are all carved out of mountains themselves and don’t offer any good panoramic vistas of the Adirondacks as I had hoped. I did the best I could considering my limited access because of my size limitations.

The lake barely visible in the center of the upper left photograph is Lake Schroon.
One thing I have noticed in my travels is that whether one is going through the Adirondacks in New York, the Poconos in Pennsylvania, the Appalachins in Virginia and West Virginia, the Blue Ridge Mountains in Kentucky, or the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, you are seeing basically the same mountains. They all have an average height of about 2200 feet and have the same sort of flora and fauna. Not that all aren’t beautiful in their own right, they just seem the same if you can’t stop and visit. Anyway, I arrived back in Wilton for dinner at 1400. I left there at 1515 and drove to Gibson, PA where I decided to call it a day. I arrived at 1830. I worked 7.75 hours and drove 431 miles.