[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. :roll:

[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.