My day.....

[Novacane]

I think that I am just gonna write my updates in the same post, so I don't clutter up the board with all my writing everyday(at least the days I have a wifi signal).

Anyway, started my day early this morning, nothing got stolen, so that is a good sign, lol. Uh, lets see, Washington D.C. what can I say, .......... it has the most awful drivers I believe I have ever seen. Whoever said the stretch of 95 between D.C. and Baltimore had the worst drivers was right, for the first time in a long time I was nervous on the interstate. Traffic will go from a flow of 80mph to 30mph several times with no warnings, thankfully, keeping a safe distance from the person in front of me is a pet peeve of mine. That comes from one time when I was driving for the nursery, I was pulling an empty in the rain, and tried to stop at a red light at the bottom of a hill, and it almost wouldn't stop, since then I have been careful about whats in front of me and when I should start braking.

Anyway, I get lost somehow while going through D.C. and wound up on presidential blvd, or something like that. It wasn't a major catastrophe or anything, just nerve racking not knowing where I was. I got through it and Baltimore ok, made a drop for part of my lumber load, and made it to the drop yard in Bensalem. I dropped the trailer I had and tried to find someone in the yard that I could get some equipment off of, but there wasn't anyone there, and I waited for half an hour or so catching up on paperwork and such, and no other driver arrived, so I decided to go on. I picked up a empty trailer and headed for a place about 80 miles away to pick up a load of shingles.

Got the shingles and headed for the consignee about 50 miles away, no problem, found it and actually got unloaded with no problem, and that is rare for me, lol. So I am at the consignee, and send in my qualcom stuff letting them know that I am ready for a new load, and was preparing to wait my normal hour or so before I get any information, but much to my surprise, just a few minutes later, "beep" I am expecting to get the usual, "we hope to have a load for you in the next 60 min" but instead it was a preplan for a trip picking up lumber about 30 miles away heading to Nashville Tn.

Only 70 miles from where I live, whoo hoo, once again Roehl has come through and got me home for the weekend as promised, plus if that's not good enough, I broke the 2k mile mark this week, just barely, but much better than the 1300 I usually get, and I thought this was the slow time of the year! Of course I know that most of you would be angry at ONLY getting 2k but it makes me happy!

Anyway, I got my load tarped and ready to go, but since I was out of hours, I just shut down for the night here in Carlisle PA. and will head home taking 81 all the way into Knoxville, and then 40 all the way home. I just love the days that I can spend the whole day behind the wheel seeing this great nation of ours, man I love this job!

[Slimland]

I think that I am just gonna write my updates in the same post, so I don't clutter up the board with all my writing everyday(at least the days I have a wifi signal).

Anyway, started my day early this morning, nothing got stolen, so that is a good sign, lol. Uh, lets see, Washington D.C. what can I say, .......... it has the most awful drivers I believe I have ever seen. Whoever said the stretch of 95 between D.C. and Baltimore had the worst drivers was right, for the first time in a long time I was nervous on the interstate. Traffic will go from a flow of 80mph to 30mph several times with no warnings, thankfully, keeping a safe distance from the person in front of me is a pet peeve of mine. That comes from one time when I was driving for the nursery, I was pulling an empty in the rain, and tried to stop at a red light at the bottom of a hill, and it almost wouldn't stop, since then I have been careful about whats in front of me and when I should start braking.

Anyway, I get lost somehow while going through D.C. and wound up on presidential blvd, or something like that. It wasn't a major catastrophe or anything, just nerve racking not knowing where I was. I got through it and Baltimore ok, made a drop for part of my lumber load, and made it to the drop yard in Bensalem. I dropped the trailer I had and tried to find someone in the yard that I could get some equipment off of, but there wasn't anyone there, and I waited for half an hour or so catching up on paperwork and such, and no other driver arrived, so I decided to go on. I picked up a empty trailer and headed for a place about 80 miles away to pick up a load of shingles.

Got the shingles and headed for the consignee about 50 miles away, no problem, found it and actually got unloaded with no problem, and that is rare for me, lol. So I am at the consignee, and send in my qualcom stuff letting them know that I am ready for a new load, and was preparing to wait my normal hour or so before I get any information, but much to my surprise, just a few minutes later, "beep" I am expecting to get the usual, "we hope to have a load for you in the next 60 min" but instead it was a preplan for a trip picking up lumber about 30 miles away heading to Nashville Tn.

Only 70 miles from where I live, whoo hoo, once again Roehl has come through and got me home for the weekend as promised, plus if that's not good enough, I broke the 2k mile mark this week, just barely, but much better than the 1300 I usually get, and I thought this was the slow time of the year! Of course I know that most of you would be angry at ONLY getting 2k but it makes me happy!

Anyway, I got my load tarped and ready to go, but since I was out of hours, I just shut down for the night here in Carlisle PA. and will head home taking 81 all the way into Knoxville, and then 40 all the way home. I just love the days that I can spend the whole day behind the wheel seeing this great nation of ours, man I love this job!

I was delivering some mattresses into Colorado Springs one time. I followed the instructions exactly street everything. I ended up right in front of an Air-force base with no where to turn around. Luckily those good men that protect our country helped me move some center road separators to get it turned around.

[Novacane]

I have just been enjoying home time and haven't had time to write until now, but the trip home got off to a bad start. My last night, I noticed that the blower on the heat wasn't working when I got ready to go to bed, but it wasn't that cold(upper 30's) and I was tired, so I figured I would wait till morning to check it out thinking that it was something simple like a fuse or breaker.

I got up the next morning bright and early since I was eager to get home, and went to start the truck so it could warm up in the cab while I was getting dressed and so on. But when I turned the key, nothing, not even the solenoid was clicking, the batteries were dead.

I thought about the blowers not working and that it may have had something to do with it, but the truck was starting even when the blowers weren't working, I just figured if there was enough juice to start the motor, surely it would have enough to turn on a little blower motor.

Anyway, I qualcom in a message letting them know that something was wrong with the truck and that someone needed to get out there and get it fixed. They said they would get someone out there as quickly as possible, but it was going to be a long while, and asked me a bunch of questions about things I should check(which I already had done them all, and more).

Well, I waited an hour, and then 2 and since I was eager to get home, I figured that I would just get a boost and see what happens, depending on how it acts I would be able to figure out the problem better and hopefully speed up the process of getting it fixed.

So I got on the trusty cb and asked if someone could boost me off, and I in just a minute a truck was next to me ready to help(most truckers will help you out when they can, and that's a good feeling,). So we got the batteries connected, and she fired right up. I thanked the driver and got back in the truck to make sure it stayed running since the icon wants to shut it off, and the truck doesn't run good when it's cold anyway.

I manage not to let it die, and let it run for about 15 minutes to see if the alt. would charge the batts. or not. I was watching my voltmeter, and it was charging really good, around 14.4-14.8. So I shut it off and let it sit a minute while I took a multimeter to see if there was a draw on the batteries. I couldn't find anything wrong, so I got back in the truck and it started right up like nothing was wrong.

It really acts like I left the lights on or something and let the battery drain, but I didn't. I checked all the connections at the alt. and batt. and everything was in good shape, then, got back in to watch the voltmeter some more. I wanted to make sure it wasn't over charging and frying my batts.

After a few it was back down to where it usually stays, and didn't fall any further, so I just headed out, and it never acted up again. I haven't tried to start it today, but I will tomorrow, that should tell if it was a mistake on my part or not.

I did nothing different than I normally do, only thing running was the inverter, and that didn't have a load on it, cause the only thing that was plugged in was my cell phone charger and that stays plugged in all the time.

I checked my lights right off the bat, no problem, all connections, condition of the wires(have seen corrosion inside the wires sheathing with no evidence on the outside) and there just wasn't anything wrong. I checked the wiring on the trailer to see if it was the culprit, and couldn't find anything wrong with it either.

The only thing I can think of, and it's a long shot, is that since the truck has been hard to start when cold, maybe the icon kept cranking on the the truck trying to get it to start while I was asleep. I might not have noticed it since I am used to the truck starting with the icon now, and everyone knows how hard the cab rocks when the motor starts, so it just turning over would be tame in contrast.

Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe I did leave my lights on or something, but I checked everything I could think of and couldn't find anything wrong. So I am trying to get them to route me through a terminal to see what gives, and hopefully they will fix the cold starting problem as well.

Oh, and just one more thing, no breakers were flipped and it has no fuses, but after the boost I got, the blowers on the heater started working fine, and I didn't do anything to it to make them work, so I don't know.....

[Ardmore Farms Forever]

Novacane.............there is nothing better than getting up at 5:00 AM and reading "The Adventures of Novacane"...............your writing skills are quite good, and I certainly enjoy reading your contribution to CAD........stay safe out there........Josh

[TruckerChris]

ditto, I like your updates too... Always read them... Keep us updated with your life on the road. Hopefully your truck does not act up on the next run!

[GMAN]

Novacane, it sounds to me as though at least one of your batteries is weak or perhaps a dead cell. That would account for the quick drawdown of current and slow starts. You will usually find out if you have a bad or weak battery with the first cold spell. Heat can also work on a battery. Most big trucks have 3 batteries. I have 4 in mine. I just like the extra backup. A single battery can start the truck but may take some effort. I believe that if you check them you may find the problem. 8)

[TwystdSistah]

I'd check as GMan said. I don't have electricty supplied by grid. I make my own so to speak and have a battery bank. If one battery is bad, going bad it "lugs" the others down with it. I can check my bat's with a volt meter and I check the fluid levels. A bad cell does a number on the battery in short time when it is cold.

73's

[Novacane]

Thanks for all the encouraging words people, means the world to me. I don't know about my writing skills being "quite good" but thanks anyway, I just write down what I would say to someone if they asked me how my day was going, lol.

Anyway, I went ahead and spent the night at home since my consignee was only a hour or so away, bad idea, that California king bed is just too comfy compared to the truck, and I overslept about an hour. So I jump up and dash to get everything ready(thankfully I had packed the night before and loaded the truck) do a quick pti, and pray that my electrical gremlin didn't come back and drain my batt. again causing me to call in for a jump at my home, when I should have been on the road already.

Everything goes perfect, man it has been a wonderful day, it was nice sunny and warm, just couldn't have got better. Then I get in the truck, and it starts like a champ, there wasn't anything wrong, cool. I head to the truck stop to hook to my trailer, and it's almost empty, plenty of room, and not a lot of "lookey Lou's" watching, cool.

I usually have problems with the kingpin lock, but today it pretty much falls off in my hands, cool. Give the trailer a once over, and everything is good, cool. Get on the interstate, gauges are good, trucks running good, trailer is tracking true, hardly any traffic, good music on the xm, and the sun isn't in my eyes, cool.

Make it to the consignee, and what do you know, they don't even open till 8 a.m. and don't accept deliveries till 9:30 a.m. and guess what time it was when I arrived..........9:30 on the dot! But there were trucks that arrived earlier that morning ahead of me, so this was the first thing that didn't go perfect so far. There was no place to park, so I circled the block until the trucks moved up in line. Few minutes later and I have a parking spot, and these guys are getting trucks unloaded like nobodies business, I don't know if they are always like this, or if my good luck this morning was rubbing off on everyone, but in less than a hour, the three trucks in front of me, and myself were unloaded and ready to go.

I send in a empty message, and wait about a half hour(which is short compared to normal) and get a preplan. Now you aren't' gonna believe this, but my morning was going perfect (even though I overslept which was a blessing in disguise, since I would have been sitting waiting to get unloaded burning my 14 hour day up, for 3 hours or more) and it just gets better, I got another ONE THOUSAND MILE TRIP!!! I get to go from here in TN to Lubbock Texas........TEXAS!!

I have always wanted to go to Texas, I went there as a kid and can't remember much, but I have always wanted to go back. When I was thinking about becoming a truck driver, hauling loads to Texas, and going through the desert is what I pictured, I don't know why, that's just what I see in my mind.

So here I am at ameristeel waiting to get a load heading to a place I have wanted to go for a while, AND getting paid really good for it, PLUS it's been a perfect day so far, AND I already have 600 miles under my belt(the trip from PA to home) with a thousand mile trip ahead of me, and it's MONDAY! After this run I will have more miles under my belt by Wednesday than I usually do for the whole week, COOL.

Plus, since I will be that far from home, that means that I will have to come back, so I could potentially get 2600 miles this week, OMG! Of course since I am braggin about it, the load will get relayed or something so I am not getting my hopes up at this point.

I don't know what's going on, but it has to be one of 4 things, 1. I am finally getting a little respect and "seniority" 2. The "slow" season is over 3. It is just a fluke 4. I am just on a good luck streak that will eventually lead me to griping about how much bad luck I am having in the next couple weeks.

So, it looks like they are fixing to get me to pull in, so I will end this little novel I started, and get back with you to see if I made it all the way to Texas or not.

[BluHeeler]

And life was good

[TruckerChris]

novacane, hopefully your luck continues on to texas and then onto another 1000 mile trip... that would be nice. Let us know how everything goes!

[nopolarbears]

aaf is right>>>>great posts and fun to read************

[TwystdSistah]

Novacane best of luck to you!

Your energy is contagious!

[Novacane]

Well, let me start everything off with I love Texas, roads so far are great and clearly marked, all states should be like this. Plus it's just nice in general, the people are pretty cool so far though I have only talked with a handful, and there isn't many hills, so driving is cake, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Well, considering that I am about 50 miles west of Abilene, I think that everyone has figured out that I didn't get relayed which is cool. I have put about 630 miles under my belt today, I didn't get as far as I thought I would, I was hoping to make it all the way and spend the night at the consignee, but hours were beginning to get low, and I have to take highway 84 the rest of the way, and talk over the CB says that the road is eat up with dot and there aren't any good places to park. So since the area is new to me, and Lubbock is about 3 hours away, I decided to shut down and get a early start. I hate starting the day with a 3 hour drive to get to where I am supposed to be, since it will pretty much kill my day tomorrow, I thought it was the right thing to do, plus I was getting tired anyway.

It was a good day, started out this morning and after an hour or so I noticed a tarp waving around, so I stopped and fixed the problem, I had a bungee snap(not hard to do considering they are nothing more than inner tubes with metal hooks on the ends) so it was no big deal. I was getting really low on fuel, and most of the time they want me to run it almost out before I get to my fuel stop, seems like they always give me stops that are out of my driving range, so I sometimes have to stop and get 50 gallons somewhere to make it to where they want me to fill up.

Maybe it's just me, but I hate the gauge getting below an 8th of a tank, and yes I realize that is still a significant amount, but it still makes me uneasy. I have told my dispatcher about it many times, but it doesn't seem to do any good. So today they did the same thing, I told them this morning I will need a fuel stop, and they put me off getting fuel for what I thought was too far.

But, I went ahead and pushed on watching the gauge reach the e mark and even under it, now I am really nervous, but I am only about 15 miles from my fuel stop so I go on. Well, I now know that the needle can get down really low before I run out of fuel, so I know I can run it that low if I have to, but I hope to never see it that low ever again.

So I get my fuel, and decide to go ahead and use my free shower since it was early in the day and it wouldn't eat into my driving time. It had it's good and bad points though, on one hand it felt good to get good and clean(and shave my legs, ladies you know what I mean) but on the other hand it drained my energy, don't get me wrong, it was nothing major, but I think that I will save the showers for shut down time from now on, but the main reason was that all my free showers seem to expire before I can use them, and I didn't know where I would be spending the night.

The only other thing that happened was my laptop crashed, don't know why, but I had to unplug it and even take the battery out to shut it off, but it started right back up and didn't miss a beat. It did have a message saying that the system suffered a major problem and that I should report it, other than that it is ok. Whether it's hurt or not, since I rent I will just take it back when I get home and get a brand new one again. I know everyone is freaking out about the cost of renting, and now that I know I will get good use of one, i think I might go out and just buy one and save some money, I just hope I can take better care of it then I have these rented ones(I drop things, lol).

I just hope the rest of my trip goes as smooth as today, it was really nice, even coming through Dallas wasn't bad, don't know if it's like that all the time or not, maybe I just got lucky, I don't know. But I do like Texas, not quite what I pictured in my mind(thinking of old westerns, lmao) no skulls on the side of the road or cactus, or even a single darn tumbleweed, lol. But it's pretty cool, and I told dispatch anytime they wanted to send me here not to hesitate, but was informed that they have drivers that live in Texas, and they get most of the loads since they can route in hometime for them, so that kinda sucks, but at least I got to go once.

I am anxious to find out what they have planned for me after I deliver this load. I am thinking that they will either have me do some short runs down here with a final load at the end of the day to start heading east, or maybe get me a load straight off heading east. I wouldn't mind hanging out down here and seeing some more of the state, maybe head even further south. But if they are gonna get me home(this is the first time I wondered if they would be able to get me home for the weekend, which I don't care since I am getting good miles) they will have to start getting me toward the east, I didn't realize just how far it was over here. But I hope they give me at least one more load that I can turn in by Friday since I have a good start on miles, but most likely it will be another long run that is split between 2 weeks, but that's cool too, I ain't complaining.

So I am rambling and need to quit, so take it easy everyone, wish me luck in the lone star!

[semma]

Hey congratulations on Roehl working out so well for you. Or at least truck driving in general.

I'm not sure how long you have been driving or if you have considered this - but if you look at your fuel tanks - they usually say on the tank what the capacity is. Lets say you can hold 300 gallons total and your guage is reading empty when you pull into your fuel stop - check the amount of fuel you had to pump after completely topping off - it might be like 280 gallons. So if you get 5 miles per gallon you could have gone another 100 miles before running completely out.

I do this a few times with a truck to figure out how much I REALLY have left when looking at the guage.

Just wanted to help you from being nervous for many miles about running out - but then running out is not fun and is kinda hard to tell your boss about - so maybe being nervous is a good thing?

Well have fun at Roehl - I really liked working for them when I was there. They are a good company which is a rarity nowadays.

[cableman]

I see that you are still just runnin' hard and fast. It seems that you are haviin too much fun. I turned in like 10 applications to the school one of which was Roehl. I hope to hear back from them soon. Have fun, get some sleep, then roll on.

[Nivek]

I love them too. I'm an office worker, but a want to me trucker.

Now don't Y'll laugh...but I cut and pasted these into a word doc, and took it to the reading room....makes the time "go" better.

But now I'm caught up from the first post......

[Novacane]

Been a long day today, and I am glad to have shut down, I was so tired I almost didn't even feel like posting tonight, but after a couple hours of r and r I am in the mood to write a little.

I got a early start this morning since I still had a 3 hour drive ahead of me before I got to the consignee. I got there on time and didn't get unloaded for another 2 hours, but the people there were so nice, I think I could definitely live down here, I really like this state.

Shortly after getting unloaded I got my next load...........a 1400 mile trip back to south Carolina, whoo hoo! Three loads in a row over a thousand miles. But as good as the news was, the delivery date is Monday morning, so I won't have a whopping check next week, but I will start the week off again with as many miles as I am used to getting in a entire week, I am sure that the long loads will end then, I hope not, but I am expecting it, oh well you never know maybe my luck will keep going.

Speaking of luck, had a little incident today, I feel like an idiot, but I have to post it. I stopped at a truck stop to get some lunch on my way back to Fort Worth to pick up my next load(350 miles dead head). After I parked I noticed that there were some cactus growing wild on the property. Now my mother has a thing with cactus, she loves them, and I thought it would be cool to grab her a piece of one as a memento of my trip, and to remind her of home(she grew up in Texas and has always wanted to return).

So I go trotting off to get a piece of it and since I was trying to be careful it took me a while. All of a sudden, I hear a thundering voice, "Ma'am, excuse me what are you doing?" I turn around to see a DOT officer standing there. :shock:

Turns out he was there eating lunch as well, and saw me over getting some of the cactus. Well..........it's against the law to mess with the cactus here, didn't know that, but he was mad, and no matter how much I tried to explain or lighten the mood, he wasn't impressed, and for a brief moment I thought I was in trouble. I was pretty much done by the time he showed up, so he eventually cut me some slack, and told me to go ahead and take it, but not to try it again, that the plant was protected, he was very stern, and I listened to every word.

Now, either my streak of good luck saved me or it was just a fluke(might have been the tight little tank top I was wearing) but I got off with just a warning, and even though I thought he would ask to see my books, he never did, whew!

Well, I got my lunch, and soon was on my way to Cleburn(just outside of Ft. Worth) to pick up a load of "building supplies". I find the place with no problem thanks to the roads being clearly marked. But much to my horror, there were 11 trucks in front of me, 11 :shock:

So now I am running out of hours, I have been up since early morning, and it's going on 4pm. I sit and sit and nothing is happening, so I head to the bunk, lay down and start watching some movies on the laptop waiting to here something. After about 2 hours the cb starts up with the highest pitched voice you have ever heard, it was almost annoying, you would just have to hear it, but it was a woman who was calling in the trucks to be loaded. There were 2 trucks finished, so 2 of the 11 pulled in, and then she started talking to other drivers, telling them that the load they were there to pick up wasn't due to load until the 20th! Then she tells another he can't load till 6am the next morning, and he was the 3rd truck in line(the 2 before him just got called in) so I am pretty sure he had been there a long time. He got mad and took off to park somewhere, I assume anyway.

Well, there were 3 drivers there that she kept telling them that they weren't due to load till the 20th, and all of them told her they would call to see what was going on. Turns out they had UNTIL the 20th to pick up the load, not that it was due to load then, so they had it out and eventually the drivers won, but in the process of them trying to figure it out, I got called in to load. I don't know what the stuff is I am hauling, but the factory smelled, well, how can I put this, really bad. The closest thing that comes to mind is beer vomit, lol.(not that I know that smell or nothing!) but the material looked like something similar to sheetrock.

I got tarped in record time, only 45 minutes(that's quick for me) since I was too close to running out of hours, but I made it, although it took me the full 14 hours to get the day done, that's why I am so pooped, but I feel good, and I am looking forward to heading home so tomorrow should be gravy, at least I hope so. I will miss Texas, and hope I get to come back more often though I doubt I will.

One question I have to the more experienced drivers, I saw a lot of drivers today using a tarp that you could see through, almost like the screen on a screen door. What in the world could this be used for, I can't see it keeping out moisture, and it definitely wouldn't stop anything from poking through, or having anything to do for securement. The thing is that they were hauling the same thing as me, I don't get it, I had to use a heavy lumber tarp to get the job done.

[Rokk]

Very good read Novacane,

souns like them ole' owner operator tarps, lightweight, useless and only for looks.

[rebajosh]

Really enjoy reading your posts Novacane. Keep em commming. I got yelled at for digging up a cactus in AZ a few years back. Fortunately it was just a local resident and not a dot officer cause I don't look to good in a tight tanktop

[Cacille]

Next time anyone wants to get a cactus, while you are in the great state of texas or any cactus town, just go to whatever home improvement store or plant nursery you happen to pass, pick up one there for the people you know. Maybe walmart will have em too.
Few bugs or disease problems, no broken laws, and since cactus are native to them, probably dang cheap too.