STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22538: Loquacious in Lathrop

Not much to say despite the use of the word loquacious in the alliterative title (hey, author’s prerogative). My last post was only 2 days ago on Wednesday, so there is little about which to write. I’ll see if I can’t stretch this out a bit anyway so as to make the title more apt. See, I’m doing it already.
Today is a beautiful day, sunny with a slight breeze. It is currently 71º at noon. I took the MMM out for their mid-day constitutional a while ago.  There is a vacant field (drainage pond) next to where I am parked at the terminal. I let them ’sneak’ under the fence and romp untethered for a while.


Above: Walter (for reasons known only to himself) likes to run in the tall grass. Meanwhile, Wolfie is off doing some ‘exploring’ of his own. They enjoyed it very much. Spring has definitely sprung.
It is about time to chronicle my day yesterday, and appraise you of my situation so far today.

Thursday, March 26th:  I left the terminal in Fontana at 0930 and drove to the shipper in San Bernardino. It was a live load and took about 1½ hours. I left the customer a little before noon and headed out across the desert to Bakersfield via Palmdale and Mojave. I had lunch at Zingos. Zingo’s is near to where I grew up, and we ate there on occasion. Today, I had the Meatloaf, and wasn’t impressed. Usually the food here is very good.  Maybe it was just an “off day”. After lunch, I drove to the consignee in Stockton. It was a drop delivery. When I finished, I stopped by the Wally World in Manteca, CA to re-stock my consumables. I then finished my day by driving to the terminal in Lathrop and called it a day.

Today, Friday, the 27th:  I originally set my PTA for noon today. I wanted to get my D.O.T. Physical done in the morning. I thought it expired on the 30th.  When I re-read my card this morning (with my glasses on), I discovered that I had mis-read the date. It doesn’t expire until May 30th, so I still have a couple of months before I have to worry about it. OH WELL!! I set my PTA for the present and settled in to wait. I am currently 17th in line for a load. I may even get a load out today. Although freight is still sparse, it is much better here than in Fontana a couple of days ago.

Life Day 22536: Fontana Flapdoodle

Freight continues to be abysmal. After the Sumner Saga, I was in hopes of an improvement, but no such luck. I have been empty since Monday afternoon. As of this morning, Fontana was only 15% booked (569 trucks and only 84 loads). The story is the same for the entire western region, although not as bad as here. El Paso is 22% booked, Laredo is 22% booked, etc, etc.
Now for the rather short details of my excursion to Fontana.

Friday, March 20th: No load today. I sat around and ‘geeked’ all day. There is nowhere else to hang out anywhere close, so I just stayed at the terminal. I depleted much of my ‘food stash’, so I had to eat a couple of meals off of the lunch wagon. It wasn’t too awfully bad, but I wouldn’t have been my first choice, if I had a choice.

Saturday: I finally received a PrePlan. It picked up in Newberg, OR and delivered in Anaheim, CA. I left Sumner about 1030 and arrived in Newberg at 1400. Along the way, I was stopped at the State Scale in Washington where they performed a Level 3 inspection (credentials check). Since I was empty, and had been sitting for 3 days, I passed with ease. This was a drop/hook load, but naturally I had problems. This was a heavy load (45000 lbs) of rolled newsprint paper. I was overweight on my drive axles by about 600lbs. I went around to the shipping docks so they could re-work the load. I was lucky. Instead of adjusting the load and having me re-weigh, they just pulled one roll off and sent me on my way. That made the weight much more manageable and I was well within limits when I re-weighed. I finally left the shipper about 1630. Since it had been a long day, I stopped at a truck stop 10 miles away and had a sit down dinner. I was finally back on the road about 1830. I drove to a Rest Area about 110 miles south of Medford, OR and went to bed. My 14-hour window was about to expire. I drove 450 miles in 8.5 hours.

Sunday: I left the Rest Area at 0930. I drove to Corning, CA where I stopped for lunch. Then, I drove to Lathrop, CA where I took a short break for fuel and the MMM. I finished my day by driving to Buttonwillow, CA. I drove 559 miles in 11 hours.

Monday: I left Buttonwillow at 0800 and drove directly to the consignee in Anaheim, arriving about 1100. It was a Zoo. I was 5th in line. It was a small lot, and there was little room. I managed to find a place in line out of the way, but I was blocking a driveway until a truck left the dock. There was room for only 1 truck at a time in the docks, so I slowly inched my way forward until it was my turn in the dock. I had to ‘blind side’ back into the dock. It took about 45 minutes to unload me. There is nowhere to park a ‘big truck’ anywhere near Anaheim, so after I was unloaded, I drove to our terminal in Fontana, CA. I drove 189 miles in 3.75 hours. That was it for the day.

Tuesday:  No load today. I ‘geeked’ on the computer all day. It was breezy, if not altogether windy, for most of the day, but the temperature was about 75º, so it wasn’t too bad.

Today, Wednesday, the 25th: More of the same today. I received a PrePlan this morning, but it doesn’t pick up until tomorrow morning in San Bernardino, CA. It delivers in Stockton anytime before midnight tomorrow night. It’s only 388 miles so that shouldn’t be a problem. The weather is beautiful. The breeze/wind is gone and it is 86º as I am typing this post.

Life Day 22530: Sumner Saga

What a difference in the weather. When I left Las Vegas, the weather was almost perfect, mid-70’s and lots of sunshine. Dank is the adjective I would choose to describe the weather here in Sumner, WA today. It has been raining most of the day, and although the temperature has been in the mid-50’s, it seems much colder.
I will now sum up this trip to Sumner.

Monday, March 16th: The PrePlan that I received over the weekend was scheduled for pick up at 1500 in Henderson. I thought that I was going to be T-calling the load in Salt Lake City, but instead, I’ll be taking the load all the way to the consignee in Bellingham, WA. The class I was scheduled to take in SLC was re-scheduled, and I’ll now take it at our terminal in Sumner, WA on Thursday.
I left Vegas about 1400, and arrived at the shipper about 15 minutes early. They weren’t expecting me for another hour, so my load wasn’t ready yet. I dropped my empty trailer in their yard, then hooked up to the trailer that they were to load. About 2 hours later, it was ready and I was on my way. I drove to Nephi, UT where exhaustion set in and I went to bed. I had been up early (0700) with the MMM. I arrived in Nephi a little before midnight, having stopped once in Beaver, UT to walk the guys. I drove 367 miles in 6.25 driving hours. I used a little over 9 hours of my 14-hours.

Tuesday: I left Nephi at about 1000. I drove to Twin falls, ID and took a quick break. I then drove to Ontario, OR. I stopped here for another quick break for the MMM. I finish my day by driving to Stanfield, OR where I ran out of hours (11-hour rule). All of my meals were snacks from the truck. I drove 652 miles, utilizing all of my 11-hours. I used 11.75 hours of my 14-hours, so I was pushing it really hard today.

Wednesday: I left Stanfield at 0700. I drove to a Rest Area on I-90 in Washington at mm-89. I took a 15-minute break here for the MMM. I then drove to the consignee in Bellingham. It was a ‘live’ unload, and it took about 1½ hours. I next drove to the terminal in Sumner where I finished my day. I drove 464 miles in 8.5 hours, and used 11 of my 14-hours.

Today, Thursday, March 19th: Today was grueling. The class that I took today, Close Quarter Training, started at 0530. YUK!! Basically, I drove around with a “local” driver in his truck doing local deliveries. I was in a 3-axle “heavy haul” truck, making deliveries with 3 and 4 axle “heavy-haul” trailers. The purpose was to practice backing into “tight” parking docks. I was apprehensive at first because I was in unfamiliar equipment, but I soon got comfortable with what I was doing. It was a useful learning experience. We finished about 1330. Having arose ‘before the rooster’, and worked 8 hours, I just decided to take the rest of the day off. I’ll hopefully get a load out of here in the morning. 

Life Day 22526: Hanging Around Home

This has been a boring stay at home. I’ve mostly been geeking on the computer. The weather has been nice, in the mid 70’s during the day and in the low 50’s at night. Great for sleeping.
The chronicles will be just as boring. I believe I was in Otay Mesa when I did my last post.

Wednesday, March 11th:  I received a PrePlan just after I woke up at 0730. It was destined for El Paso, TX. The Plan said that it was a ‘live’ load in San Diego. However, when I drove to our mini-terminal here in Otay Mesa to find an empty trailer, low and behold, the load was Pre-loaded and sitting in the yard. YEAH TEAM!!  Chalk one up for the “good guys”. I left Otay Mesa right at noon. I drove to the Rest Area in California, on I-8, about 10 miles west of Winterhaven, CA. I exercised the MMM, then had a few PBJ sandwiches for lunch. From here, I drove to Tucson, AZ where I fueled and again gave the MMM a break. I finished the day by driving to Deming, NM where my 11-hours ended. I drove 638 miles in 11 driving hours, but using only 12.75 hours of my 14. Not a bad day.

Thursday: I left Deming at 1000, the earliest I could legally begin driving. I drove to the consignee in El Paso, TX and did the drop delivery. I then drove to Fuddrucker’s for lunch. I like Fuddrucker’s, but they are “a bit too proud” of their food. The burger and fries I had was good at any rate. I then drove to our terminal, fueled, and settled in to wait for another load. After about an hour, I received  PrePlan which, again, picked up right at the terminal and scheduled for delivery on Monday in Las Vegas. The only hitch was that it hadn’t arrived from Mexico yet. About 1900, the load arrived. I did the pre-trip inspection, then left El Paso about 1930. I drove to Willcox, AZ where I stopped for the night. My 14-hours was about to expire. I only managed to drive 366 miles in 6 hours today because of all the waiting.

Friday: I left Willcox about 1030 and drove to our terminal in Phoenix to top off my fuel. Fuel is much more expensive in Las Vegas, so I always like to arrive here as full as possible so that I don’t have to take on any expensive fuel when I leave. On the way to Phoenix, I was contacted via QualCom by the CSR notifying me that the delivery time had been changed to tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 0800. Anyway, I left Phoenix at 1430 and drove directly to the consignee in Las Vegas, making only one quick stop in Kingman to walk the MMM. I camped out here for the night. I drove 515 miles in 8.5 hours.

Saturday: I awoke about 0700, and was waiting for the receivers when they arrived at 0800. The unload took a little more than an hour. I then drove here to the WWW and began my time off at home. About 1400, I received and accepted a PrePlan which picks up on Monday in Henderson, NV. I’ll T-call it in Salt Lake City, UT because I have to take a class there on Tuesday. The miles and hours I drove today are not even worth mentioning.

Today, Sunday: Today was a day mostly spent ‘geeking’ on the computer. I did go to my mail box and pick up my mail around noon.  That’s about the extent of my excitement for today.

Life Day 22521: Obsequious in Otay Mesa, CA

Not much new to add since my last post from Lathrop. In case you were inclined to doubt my veracity about the onset of Spring about which I mused in my last post, I proffer the following photographic evidence.

There are blossoms on the trees, and the normally brown hills are getting greener.

If you are still not convinced maybe you’ll believe “San Joaquin Sam” (Punxsutawney Phil’s distant cousin). He says: “That moron, Punx, always gets it wrong”.
Enough levity; I’ll get on with the chronicles now.

Sunday, March 8th: After “leaping forward” all of my clocks (it was an arduous task), I decided to stay in Ripon for the night.   I drove to Stockton this morning and picked up my load to Otay Mesa (San Diego), arriving at about 1030. It was a drop/hook pick-up so it went well. I caught up my ubiquitous paperwork, and departed Stockton at about noon. As you can see above, I wasn’t in too big a hurry. I stopped a couple of times between Stockton and Coalinga to take the pictures above. I stopped again in Coalinga and had a late lunch at Harris Ranch. I naturally had the Chicken Fried Steak. I then took these pictures as even further evidence of Spring, although their grounds are always impeccable anyway.



I love the wide variety of flowers they maintain on their grounds.
I left here at 1700 and drove to Wheeler Ridge. I took a short break here for the MMM, then finished my drive to Otay Mesa, arriving right at midnight.

Monday:  What a boring day. It started off well enough. I delivered my load ahead of time. It was a ‘live unload’, but it took only about ½ an hour. I then drove to the new Pilot truck stop here. It is a real God send. There was nothing here before it was built and no place to park while you were waiting for your next load. After waiting for most of the day, I received a PrePlan which picked up in San Diego and delivered in Chino, CA. Not much of a load (only a little over 100 miles), but I accepted it anyway. It was scheduled to pick up at 2100 and deliver at 0930 this morning. A tight schedule because I would have to take a 10 hour break after arriving in Chino before delivering, but doable if everything went smoothly. Naturally, it didn’t. I arrived 15 minutes early, only to be told that I would have to wait for a loading dock. About an hour after my appointment time, I finally backed into my door. I then waited 3 more hours to be loaded. By this time, there was no way I was going to be able to make the 0930 delivery in Chino on time (legally). I still had to weigh the load to make sure it was legal before I could proceed. There are no scales in San Diego that are open at this time of night, so I had to drive back to Otay Mesa and weigh the load there. After I weighed and was legal, I went to bed. The Planner decided to T-call the load there, and have a local driver deliver it.

Today, Tuesday:  The local driver woke me up at 0500 to get the trailer, and went on his way. I went back to bed. I awoke again about 1000. I re-set my PTA for the current time, and have been waiting for a load ever since. It seems like I’m going backward. Yesterday, I was empty here in Otay Mesa with an empty trailer. Now, I’m empty here with no trailer.