I need a hat, a chain for my wallet & a can of snuff.

In the process of heading home for the weekend after delivering in Edmonton. Weather hasn’t really been an issue so far. Currently I’m in Alexandria, MN. I’ve got time in my favor for getting around both Saint Paul, MN & Chicago, IL outside of their rush hours. Plan to stop in Fremont, IN this afternoon for the evening before getting home tomorrow. Problem is the snow is to hit my Friday route. Thought I was in the clear but I guess not.

Lots to do over the weekend finishing some projects at home before heading back out next Tuesday. I’ll be on the road until Easter weekend that next time out. Last of the long stints until next Fall & Winter months.
 
Knocking some things off the list while I’m home. Started remodeling the master bathroom about 6 weeks ago. I put down a new tile floor, new bathroom vanity, new vanity top, new anti fogging led vanity mirror, all new plumbing fixtures and all new wall hardware. Currently working on the bathroom closet. Making a new shelf system and small section for hanging clothes. Also on tap for this weekend a new ceiling fan/light.
 
You are busy, Dude. Logging a lot of miles in home renovations and repairs. Kept Momma happy and makes me wish I had one of the anti-fogging vanity mirrors. Never heard of them until the above post. See? Even an old dog learns new tricks! 😁
 
Whizzer said:
You are busy, Dude. Logging a lot of miles in home renovations and repairs. Kept Momma happy and makes me wish I had one of the anti-fogging vanity mirrors. Never heard of them until the above post. See? Even an old dog learns new tricks! 😁
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Yeah, the mirror is cool. It detects raised humidity and turns on the defrost.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Knocking some things off the list while I’m home. Started remodeling the master bathroom about 6 weeks ago. I put down a new tile floor, new bathroom vanity, new vanity top, new anti fogging led vanity mirror, all new plumbing fixtures and all new wall hardware. Currently working on the bathroom closet. Making a new shelf system and small section for hanging clothes. Also on tap for this weekend a new ceiling fan/light.
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You are going to need to go back to work so you can get some rest. 😃
 
On the road again…..

Checked off some To-Do List items over the weekend and am back rolling again. New customer today. Usually I’m hauling only lubricants. This time it’s waste water. I used to haul waste water a lot when I drove for the last company I worked for. Just about everything manufactured produces waste. The place I’m loading produces both toothpaste and dish soap. No worries, that’s two different locations within the same plant. I’m picking up waste liquids that are produced in the manufacture of dish soap today. I’ll be taking this load from southeastern Ohio to its delivery point in Maryland where I am to deliver this afternoon.
 
The road I had to travel on for yesterdays delivery. Not exactly trucker friendly. Single lane where I had to call ahead to make sure nobody was exiting as I was advancing to deliver.

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dpkimmel2001 said:
The road I had to travel on for yesterdays delivery. Not exactly trucker friendly. Single lane where I had to call ahead to make sure nobody was exiting as I was advancing to deliver.

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That reminds me of the road that I had to take going to Maple Grove raceway in PA once every year. It was a 2 lane, but it had some pretty sharp turns, and it is out in the middle of nowhere in Amish horse and buggy country.
 
Waiting in line at the truck wash in the middle of the night. The truck got nasty on the Tuesday delivery. Muddy roads. Currently in Carlisle,PA on my way to Windsor, ON where I deliver tomorrow. Have to cross the Ambassador Bridge by Detroit. Probably the busiest crossing into Canada and the bridge is currently restricted to a single lane due to ongoing construction. It’s said that over 10,000 trucks and 4000 cars cross the bridge each day. Guessing it’s going to be a long wait.
 
I used to stop at a truck wash near Carlisle, PA, when we had the motorhome and I didn't have time to wash it before leaving home. They charged $1.00 per foot for a wash at that time. Lucky my unit was only 38 ft.!
 
Finished up in Windsor, ON yesterday morning and headed to Chicago. Picked up a clean, empty trailer there that needs to be taken to Swedesboro, NJ. I’ll be there early this afternoon. From there I’ll be picking up a preloaded trailer that I’ll be taking to Kansas City. I don’t deliver until Tuesday but I should be there Monday morning sometime.

Crossing the Ambassador Bridge in both directions ended up not being much of an issue. Seems most of the truckers have switched to crossing in Sarina, further north.

The weathers been getting better but I’ve still hit some snow squalls that have slowed travel. That should become less in short order except for those trips further north and west to western Canada. Can’t wait till all that weather is in the rear view.
 
Whizzer said:
I used to stop at a truck wash near Carlisle, PA, when we had the motorhome and I didn't have time to wash it before leaving home. They charged $1.00 per foot for a wash at that time. Lucky my unit was only 38 ft.!
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Blue Beacon?
 
Waiting to pull into this hole to offload. Just a steering wheel holder this time. They’re going to do all the dirty work.

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So, when I’m in the situation where I’m sitting in the cab while they offload my trailer, this is the gauge I watch. Under a fully loaded trailer, stopped on level ground, it reads just over 70 psi on my suspension load. An empty trailer will take that gauge down to around 10 psi.

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Arrived at my delivery point about 20 minutes before my appointment. First time at this location so I didn’t know what to expect. Told them it was my first time here. They walked me through the process step by step. Another truck arrived right after I did. They pulled us on the scales side by side. The guy said that we both had to offload in the same spot but that the other truck was to have been here yesterday. Pays to arrive on time and I’m never late. Not in these last four years anyhow.
 
Whizzer said:
Looking down that narrow stretch and I'm wondering, can you drive on through once you have off loaded? Or must you back out? Looks pretty narrow to me. 😳
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Just enough room. Not by much though. Yes, had to drive through there. Other tankers were waiting behind me for their turn to offload.

On my way to Chicago now.
 
Decided to show up at my delivery point an hour early just in case they could take delivery sooner. Not gonna happen. There’s another truck in front of me loading some of their finished products. I’ve got a load of automatic transmission fluid today. This location produces transmissions for the GM line.

I delivered here once before. They are limited on capacity. They can only take about 1500 gallons of product at a time. This is an air off offload. When I get the chance to back in, I’ll first hook up to their air connection. Because of all the empty space in my tanker, it’ll take extra time to build up pressure. The tanker is only about 20% full of product. It takes a lot of air to build up pressure on that remaining 80% of empty space. You’d think that less product would offload faster but that’s not the case. When the tanker is full, there’s usually a few inches of space on top of the product. Takes far less time to build up pressure above the product with so little empty space. You can begin offloading much quicker in that situation.

After this delivery I’m taking my truck to the local terminal for some minor maintenance, fuel filters, wipers, and other miscellaneous things.

Later in the afternoon I’ll pick up a preloaded trailer and drive over to Toledo Ohio for tomorrow’s delivery. It’s about 4 1/2 hours from Chicago. Today, in rush hour traffic leaving Chicago, I can add another hour to that time.
 
Well….. son of a ‘b’

Every four years in Pennsylvania you have to renew your drivers license. Mine was up for renewal the middle of this past January. Prior to that day, the PA Department of Transportation sends you a letter to remind you that you must take the Hazmat Endorsements Test in order to retain that endorsement on your drivers license. Prior to covid it was a very quick process. A few weeks from testing to the completion of your approval. That has since turned into a possible 6 month process. I took and passed the test last October. In turn they issue you a paper authorizing finger prints to be taken and submitted for a background investigation. You then go to an authorized fingerprinting location to have them taken and submitted for investigative purposes. Of course there’s a fee for each of these processes.

Jump to early December….. Getting closer to license renewal I went back to the DMV to check the status of the endorsement. I was told that the investigation was not complete. They told me that I could get my new license early if I wanted but the endorsement wouldn’t be on my license which would prevent me from hauling hazmat loads. I told them I’d wait. At the end of December I went back again to check the status. Again, I was told it’s wasn’t completed. Since I was going to go over the road for the month of January, I decided to renew my license. They assured me that once the investigation was completed I’d receive a new license in the mail at no additional cost.

Jump to last Thursday….. Still waiting in this new license, I called the PA Department of Transportation. After more than an hour on hold I finally talk to a guy that informs me that the investigation was cancelled at the end of January. No explanation as to why. They only knew that it was cancelled. The guy wrote up some kind of statement to his supervisor and told me I’d get a call within 24 hrs. Never happened. Well, it happens today. Turns out that the fingerprinting location never turned my prints in for the investigation. After 90 days from the time of the test, if the fingerprints aren’t received, the investigation is cancelled. It would have been awesome had there been some kind of communication that would have let me know that they were waiting in this information, allowing me time to take it up with the fingerprinting location. As it is, I’m probably going to have to start the entire process over again at the additional cost. It just sucks as I did absolutely everything that I was to do to complete the process.

When I do get back, I plan on going back in to the DMV armed with receipts and the like but I imagine I’ll be taking the test again. I guess it’s time to start studying….. again.
 
I feel your pain. It was 99 bucks to get fingerprinted when I tried to get my Haz Mat renewed. They sent me a letter and said they sent my prints to the FBI and they couldn't read them. So I did it again, no charge at least, and the same thing happened. Tried the third time and the fingerprint office said their finger print machine was broken...I just gave up and didn't haul any Haz-mat, switched companies etc. Sounds like all these years later and not much has changed.
 
@ the DMV trying to get this taken care of. My initial guess is I’ve got to go through the entire process again. Sitting here waiting for their response. Told it would only take a few minutes but hey, it’s the DMV.
 
I read an article a few years back in which a survey was taken of the five things people hated the most in their daily life. One of the five was the wait at DMV locations no matter what state. Seems to be an epidemic when it comes to wait times and quite possibly a national training program by state employees, of if run by private agencies for the state, everyone must attend classes on how to piss off people that need to deal with that particular agency.
Our son had a hard time when he relocated to North Carolina just to get his driver license changed from NJ to NC. It was right at the beginning of Covid and he was given a four month appointment time at DMV to make the change. Problem was, his NJ license expired within three months. Tough nuggies, according to NCDMV, four months is best we can do. So he asked if there was a DMV where he could get an appointment sooner and the nearest one was at a DMV location on the coast, a four hour drive from where he was and, it was on the the last day of the year, December 31st. So............. he drove the four and one-half hours so he would be a legal driver. To add insult to injury, by accepting that appointment he would not be able to keep the CDL on his license. Something about that agency did not provide testing or whatever the hoopla was the state required so he could retain his CDL. He really didn't need his CDL at that point but did want to keep it for practical reasons. C'est la vie.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
On the road again…..

Checked off some To-Do List items over the weekend and am back rolling again. New customer today. Usually I’m hauling only lubricants. This time it’s waste water. I used to haul waste water a lot when I drove for the last company I worked for. Just about everything manufactured produces waste. The place I’m loading produces both toothpaste and dish soap. No worries, that’s two different locations within the same plant. I’m picking up waste liquids that are produced in the manufacture of dish soap today. I’ll be taking this load from southeastern Ohio to its delivery point in Maryland where I am to deliver this afternoon.
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Always find your travel-log to be an interesting read and found the post concerning your haul of wastewater to be most interesting.

I'm retired from the Chicago area publicly owned wastewater treatment works (MWRDGC) where our group monitored wastewater discharges from industrial sites as part of the enforcement of local ordinances to ensure that nothing "nasty" gets to the sewerage treatment plants.

Knowing that numerous Chicago area toothpaste and soap manufacturers are able to discharge their wastewater to the local sanitary sewer system, I thought it strange that the southeastern Ohio facility went to the expense of having their wastewater hauled out of state. Must have more strict ordinances in that part of the country.

Anyway, best wishes to you and Happy Motoring !
 
pjmolo said:
Always find your travel-log to be an interesting read and found the post concerning your haul of wastewater to be most interesting.

I'm retired from the Chicago area publicly owned wastewater treatment works (MWRDGC) where our group monitored wastewater discharges from industrial sites as part of the enforcement of local ordinances to ensure that nothing "nasty" gets to the sewerage treatment plants.

Knowing that numerous Chicago area toothpaste and soap manufacturers are able to discharge their wastewater to the local sanitary sewer system, I thought it strange that the southeastern Ohio facility went to the expense of having their wastewater hauled out of state. Must have more strict ordinances in that part of the country.

Anyway, best wishes to you and Happy Motoring !
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Yeah, I don’t have a clue why it goes where it goes. I only hope that wherever the product goes, it puts a lot of miles behind me.

I offloaded that product into other storage tanks. Across the road was a huge sand mound type leach bed. I can only guess that perhaps that waste water was filtered somehow and pumped into that sand mound.
 
Got more done with the master bath renovation over the weekend. Finished trimming it out. Next up is to make a door for the closet and I’ll finish by making a new bathroom entry door. Been a while since I made doors for other areas in the house so I need practice by constructing the closet door first.

This string states with a delivery in Wabash, IN. Motor oil. Drive here yesterday afternoon. Offloading now. They do everything here. I just wait until they’re done. I’m guessing that they’ll be sending me to Chicago after I’m done here.
 
Well, I was wrong about Chicago. I was sent back to Pittsburgh, PA with the empty trailer where I then hooked to a clean, four compartment trailer. I’m going to load this trailer in River Rouge, MI. Just outside Detroit later this afternoon. This load is to be delivered in Laramie, WY on Friday morning. Plenty of time to cover that distance. I’ll probably get there Thursday morning.

This load consists of four different products. As the driver, I choose how much I want loaded into each compartment. The main thing that I try to do is keep the trailer balanced from front to back the best I can. It doesn’t always work out that way but it’s always the goal. Most every time all of the products ordered can be loaded into the trailer. The limitations are always the capacity of the compartments. You’d probably think that they’re all equal in size but that’s never the case. Todays load is to be three products at 1500 gallons each and one product at 2000 gallons. My compartments, 1-4, have a capacity of 2500, 1300, 1700 & 3000 respectively. Obviously, one of those products of 1500 gallons is not going to fit. I’ll let the shipper determine which product is going to be cut short. I’m just going to tell them how much I want in each compartment. Many shippers will stop about 100 gallons shy of capacity if you’re cutting a product short. Some will go 50 gallons shy. I’m assuming 100 in this case. I’m going to have them load 2000, 1200, 1500 & 1500. I tend to use sticky notes that I attach to my clipboard for every load. They contain the basic information that I need to load/deliver the product. I don’t have the delivery time yet so I left that off of my note. The load time is open ended starting at 3pm today. First come, first serve. I’ve got all day so I’m going to get there about 1 1/2 hours early, check in and wait my turn. I’m going to hang out there until somewhere around midnight before I head west to Wyoming.

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I understand wanting to distribute weight per holding area but wonder why choose the load distributed the way you did for a specific purpose. Also curious were delivering in Laramie. Is there some sort of production plant there? Seems like it is pretty remote for a major manufacturing facility.
Safe trip out west. Always liking to read your exploits as you travel the U.S. of A.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Got more done with the master bath renovation over the weekend. Finished trimming it out. Next up is to make a door for the closet and I’ll finish by making a new bathroom entry door. Been a while since I made doors for other areas in the house so I need practice by constructing the closet door first.

This string states with a delivery in Wabash, IN. Motor oil. Drive here yesterday afternoon. Offloading now. They do everything here. I just wait until they’re done. I’m guessing that they’ll be sending me to Chicago after I’m done here.
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How did your trip to the DMV turnout?
 
Whizzer said:
I understand wanting to distribute weight per holding area but wonder why choose the load distributed the way you did for a specific purpose. Also curious were delivering in Laramie. Is there some sort of production plant there? Seems like it is pretty remote for a major manufacturing facility.
Safe trip out west. Always liking to read your exploits as you travel the U.S. of A.
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No purpose other than trying to even out the load. It’s not a full load at those numbers. A little heavy on the drive axels is fine.
 
Nitro Dude said:
How did your trip to the DMV turnout?
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The DMV is still an ongoing issue. I went there both Friday and Saturday. They are trying to find out where the process went wrong. I did everything that I was supposed to do on my end. Waiting to find out if they’re going to restart the process or at least allow me to retake the test and get fingerprinted without additional cost to me. At this point it’s the principle of the point too me. I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t think I should have to pay for and retake the test or pay for the fingerprinting again. I’m waiting on a call that probably won’t come. If I don’t hear anything by Easter weekend, I’ll have to go take the test again I guess.
 
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