[Scout]

Sooo... I get to work (my truck) and send off a message that I am ready for dispatch, and start to clean house. I get a message telling me to go to Avilla and get a load going to Utica, NY. It picks up tomorrow (tuesday) and delivers wednesday. Then he says it's ready today. Sure, whatever, I go get it, and head out. I stop in Erie PA for the afternoon/night, watch tv and surf the web. (I can get online anywhere I can get a phone signal) I screw around the next morning and head on in to Utica. I stop for the night again just outside of town and again boot up the laptop. This is pretty cool! Wednesday morning I go inside and get some food from BK. I eat and don't feel so good. After a bit I barfed in a plastic bag. And again. I take my two bags of puke and go back inside for some juice, throwing out the barf on my way before going into town.
I deliver my load, but not before I hit a stupid tree branch and screw up the top of my truck. Fortunately it's not very noticable, and not going to leak. As I'm sitting there getting unloaded, I get sick again. I now have barf bag number three in my hand, and notice a small hole in the side... I put it in my trash can behind the passenger seat. Now the trash can is almost full, and this makes it a little top heavy... (surely you can see where this is headed...) Ok, now I'm feeling better, and I leave the receiver. On my way out of town I make a right turn... the trash falls over... the the bag leaks... I have a river of orange puke running up between the seats. I can't reach it, I can't stop... yes I can. I upright the can and put the bag back in and get back on the toll road headed for the nearest service plaza.

I sent another message to my dispatcher telling him to send me home, I'm sick, but instead I get a message sending me to Rochester, NY then delivering to Henderson KY, just south of Evansville, IN. I go. It's a lot closer to home than Utica is.

I get to Rochester about 6:30 p. My laod info says that I can load until 8p, so I go in and there's no one there. Forget it, I'm tired, I'm going to bed. That didn't last long. Jerk comes out and bangs on the side of my truck, tells me to back to a dock so he can load me. You can't just wake up a truck driver in the middle of a 10 hour break, it's a federal law. I ignore him, but he won't go away. Forget it, I'll get loaded. After I get loaded I get on down the road and what happens next? My truck starts making a bad sound. It frickin breaks down!!! Some week this is turning out to be. I stop at a truck stop and check it out, it's the belt tensioner. I call Breakdown and he tells me to go to Buffalo and fix it. I get there around 4a, get inside, and sleep. At 7:30 they knock on my door again and tell me they don't have the part, they have to send someone to Rochester to get it, it'll be 3 or 4 hours... With laptop in hand I head for the lounge. I set it up, and can't get a good enough signal to stay connected. At least they have cable, and Spongebob is on.

I'm out of there by noon, and straight into a snowstorm. Whiteout conditions, cars sliding off the road, trucks jacknifing, traffic stopped, etc...

[Mr. Ford95]

And we love this job why?? The fun world of driving a truck, never a dull moment. Take care dawg and hope ya feel better, sounds like you got a case of food poisioning.

[Phantom433a]

Dang Bro, sounds like my last week.
Some info first .38 cents loaded, .25 cents empty. All Arizona

Monday-Unload Dewey deadhead back 289 miles, pickup Springerville 451 miles

Tuesday-Unload Springerville deadhead 451 back. Get message "Snowflake canceled, what do you want to do?" Since my truck was WAY over service time "lay me over in Vegas and get service in morning", "no can do, co. dosen't service on Wed." New message "swap trucks, into 1233 so they can replace windshield" I had tried to get this done 3 weeks ago BEFORE the 72 hour DOT. Swap trucks and pickup Safford 497 miles.

Wednsday-Unload Safford, deadhead 497 miles. Get message "only 18 loads for Az. for Thursday/Friday, any drivers want to lay over, let me know", "Phan, you have another Dewey". Blow exhaust out of turbo in Kingman. Get off at Petro, Send message at 10:30 pm "blew exhaust out of turbo, at Petro repair". Get message "sending towtruck". Tow shows up at 2:30 am, I get back to the yard at 6:00 am.

Thursday- Swap trucks AGAIN, tell dispatch that after I unload in Dewey, I'm going home for the rest of the week (live 30 minutes north of Dewey), will come up on Sunday and swap back to my truck and get load for Monday. My dispatcher tells me he will check and see if there are any loads added and let me know. Get to Dewey and find out there is no one around to unload, pull straps and get ready (the yard is open and I know they will be back). Send message, I'm here, where am I going Monday"? "No northern Az. loads for Monday, will see you that afternoon". Sit in yard for an hour before anyone shows up to unload.

Thank god I ran 4200 miles last week, because I only got (barely) 3000 this week and half of those were empty.