dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Done for the day. Parked south of Barstow, CA. Deliver tomorrow morning at 6am and then headed back east.
I can't think of any good places to park south of Barstow unless you are in Victorville or Hesperia unless you are at one of the 4 truck stops or Little Sisters Truck Wash at the Lenwood exit which I consider Barstow.Done for the day. Parked south of Barstow, CA. Deliver tomorrow morning at 6am and then headed back east.
Yep.I can't think of any good places to park south of Barstow unless you are in Victorville or Hesperia unless you are at one of the 4 truck stops or Little Sisters Truck Wash at the Lenwood exit which I consider Barstow.
Do you bring anything back on the return trip? Sounds as if all went well. I follow your journey on my book of state maps and find many of the places you mention are places my Bride and I traveled through when we were motor homing in the late eighties and all through the nineties.Done for the day. Parked south of Barstow, CA. Deliver tomorrow morning at 6am and then headed back east.
Got to this customer 1/2 hour early, basically on time. Still waiting on them to do anything. Meanwhile pre-tripping the router home. I'm going to head from here up to Salina, UT for the night. That is, if these guys get moving. My clock may not allow for me to get there unless they start soon.Do you bring anything back on the return trip? Sounds as if all went well. I follow your journey on my book of state maps and find many of the places you mention are places my Bride and I traveled through when we were motor homing in the late eighties and all through the nineties.
Here's hoping you get a fast unload and back on the road and safe home.
Is there much difference concerning hazmat?Side note on hauling Lubricants vs chemicals. When I did chemical hauling, trailers had to be so clean in between loads that you could eat out of then. Oils on the other hand..... The trailer simply needs to be 'diesel flushed', err rinsed with diesel fluid between products. The diesel breaks down the oil leaving the inside of the tanker with a little diesel residue. That's considered clean for an oil tanker.
No, not really. You just have to make sure you have all of your paperwork in order and within reach should you get stopped. You also need to have you emergency response guide handy in case of a spill. The ERG manual is used by everyone that would respond to the scene of an accident that would involve a hazmat load. Hauling a hazmat load is somewhat of a magnet when it comes to DOT inspections. I've been stopped a few times but everything has always been in order.Is there much difference concerning hazmat?
Just got parked for the day. 4038.1 miles since this past Monday early in the AM. A new record for me. Likely one I won't beat. Not do I want to. Time for a reset and some football.HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! 4000 miles in one week!! My a$$ is sore just thinking about driving that total distance in one week.
So..... Change of plans. Rather than heading home, I'm now heading to Chicago. Stopped in Salina, UT for the evening. Going to have two 700+ mile days ahead of me to get to Chicago. I think I'm going to come up just short but I'm up for the challenge. After I call it a day tomorrow afternoon I've got to get in a 34hr reset/restart before I can continue driving. Fortunately a Sunday full of NFL games falls within that time. Resets suck but I guess they're necessary. By the time I shut down tomorrow I will have driven a little over 4000 miles this week. That'll be the most I've ever driven in a weeks time.
Going to be there long enough to get in my 10hr break. Since it's your home town, do you know what channel is the ABC affiliate in Chicago? I want to watch the Steelers / bears game tonight. It should be on ABC since I'll be in Chicago. Thanks.Although it sounds like you won't be in town long enough for much more than a couple cups of coffee . . . .
welcome to my home town.
Going to be there long enough to get in my 10hr break. Since it's your home town, do you know what channel is the ABC affiliate in Chicago? I want to watch the Steelers / bears game tonight. It should be on ABC since I'll be in Chicago. Thanks.
Picked up a preloaded trailer last night in Chicago. Drove to Syracuse, NY early this morning for a delivery tomorrow morning.
Life's too short to get worked up about every little thing. I've got it pretty freaking awesome compared to a lot of people out there. I don't take that for granted.Always entertained reading about your road trips. Times like this I am amazed at how calm you can be with what gets thrown at you.
The truck is another Pete just like mine..... Ready to be retired. A buddy of mine was in the seat of this truck a month or so ago while his was being serviced. It's got 500,000+ miles on it and has it's share of character.DAMN! Deadheading 600 plus miles is a workout on its own!! Wondering now what kind of truck they'll give you to complete the job. Hopefully it won't be a yard truck that has been driven hard and put away dirty. I guess if the home comfort things like heat, a working refrigerator, and no major drafts or loud wind noises streaming through a porous cab will all be a plus.
I know whatcha mean about Chicago. In the early '90's my Bride and I took our motorhome to a suburb to help our daughter and her husband move to North Carolina. We were driving through Chicago around 2 in the afternoon and traffic was nearly at a standstill. I got on the cb radio try to find out what was going on and the guy who answered said, "It's rush hour traffic."
"What!?? Rush hour traffic? It's 2 in the afternoon. What time does it start?"
He replied, "...starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 1 a.m. Everything in between is rush hour traffic."
HA! And I thought driving around Atlanta was bad!! Although, while relating driving experiences, I think the worse drivers are in Massachusetts. But that is another story.
Safe trip DPK. Hope things start looking up and you return safely, no issues, and no more problems!!
Who thought tricking was that difficult? I know I didn't.
The tankers that I'm currently hauling are loaded from the bottom. I'm hauling mostly lubricants, motor oils and the like. When I was hauling chemicals, they were loaded through the dome.I am genuinely surprised to learn the tankers are loaded from the bottom upward. I really appreciate your info on the different aspects of driving a tractor/trailer, the nuances of stopping, pulling a tanker with zero compartments versus one with multiple compartments, mixing and equalizing the different loads. It certainly isn't as easy as you might expect.
Had coffee yesterday with a chap who hauled nationwide for several years, until the company he worked for was bought out and over-the-road transport within the corporation was done away with.
He ended up hauling auto parts from the U.S. to Canada and was commenting about the benefits of his job once he made that move. Apparently the teamsters union made sure the drivers were well paid and got numerous benefits.
I told him of your adventures and he was commenting on how things have changed since he retired about ten years ago. Crossing into Canada was anywhere from fifteen minutes to a one hour wait but only because of traffic volume.
Keep the stories and knowledge coming. Safe travels!!
We had a couple guys that did preloads out of this particular terminal. One was fired because he was always late for his load times. So..... When we've been starting our stints, we normally load a couple preloads. This time it's three. I'd rather be driving.Do all driver have to do multiple pre-loads for other delivery drivers?
It sounds like you are keeping busy. Stay safe... there isn't a load that can't be rescheduled.Checked a bunch of things of the Todo List while home but I'm back in the seat again. Scheduled to run through the evening of the 23rd.
Starting off with preloading 3 trailers. 2am was the first appt with a single bore. 6300 gal of motor oil. Finished that load and dropped it off at the local yard for someone else to deliver.
My 2nd appointment was at 6am. Same location as the first. They said I could come in early which is what I did. Getting loaded now. A four compartment trailer with two different products. I split the first product between the first two compartments and the 2nd product between the final two compartments. This trailer will also go back to the yard for someone else to deliver.
My 3rd preload of the day will be another four compartment trailer only with three products to be divided between compartments. I don't know the trailer configuration yet so I can't do the math until I see the trailer. It's scheduled for 10am but I hope for then to take it early. Same location as the first two.
This location has seven bays in which you can be loaded. Bays #1 and #2 are particularly hard to back in. All are extremely tight especially when you have a truck on either side or both sides. You could say that I hate this place.
After I finish my 3rd preload this morning, there's a loaded trailer waiting for me to be delivered northeast of Montreal on Wednesday morning. That ain't gonna happen. I can't make it there by the scheduled time and they know that. It's being rescheduled once I start heading in that direction.
Got word that my truck, sitting on Fargo, has been repaired. They are to get me routed in that direction at some point so I can get back on my ride. The sooner the better. This thing smells like an ashtray. My guess is I'll get routed from the Montreal area down to New Jersey. I hope to get a load from there to western Canada which would take me trough Fargo where I could swap rides.