The continuing saga of Cruzncoyote:
Week #2
November 18, 2007, Sunday
I got in my truck and went to Houston and stayed at the Love's truck stop.
November 19, 2007, Monday
I got to North American Stainless before it opened. It was an easy unload.
Maverick did not send me a work assignment right away. They did send a message saying they were trying to get me a load home for Thanksgiving. I went back to the Love's Truck stop and fueled up, ate, and washed my truck over at the Blue Beacon truck wash (we can do this every 2 weeks). At 4:30pm, I finally got a load. I had to go to Pineland, Texas to pick up lumber. I drove there and slept at a picnic area off the road.
November 20, 2007, Tuesday
Inland Lumber Company (shipper) opened at 7:00am. I was there at 6:15am and there were at least 20 trucks in line to get in! It took a while but once I was loaded and scaled, I pulled outside the plant and tarpped my first lumber tarp load by myself. It looked pretty good when I was done. I drove home to Dallas for Thanksgiving.
November 21, 2007, Wednesday
Line 1 :Off duty.
November 22, 2007, Thursday
Line 1 :Off duty.
November 23, 2007, Friday
Line 1 :Off duty.
Week #3
November 24, 2007, Saturday
I took off for Albert Lea, Minnesota with my load of 10 & 14-foot 2x6's. I slept in Joplin, Missouri at the Love's Truckstop.
November 25, 2007, Sunday
I made it to another Love's in Albert Lea, Minnesota and stayed for the night.
November 26, 2007, Monday
I delivered the lumber this morning and headed north to Harris, Minnesota north of Minneapolis/Saint Paul and picked up a load of cultured stone. This was a tough load. The stone was in boxes and it was stacked on 3 different levels. It was very difficult to secure because the straps could not be tightened down too much without crushing the boxes. I used all 12-4” straps and 2-2” straps. My trailer was a 96” wide and the wooden pallets hung over the trailer sides 1-2” so the straps had to be hooked on the outside of the rub rail. The shipper kicked me out because they were closing and I had to tarp with a flashlight on the side of a busy road in the dark. It was freezing and the tarps were a bear to work with. I used all 100+ bungee cords that I had on the truck and could have used another 50. The tarps ballooned and flapped as I drove down the road. It was not a pretty sight. I slept at a rest area off the interstate in Iowa.
November 27, 2007, Tuesday
Whoa, was it cold this morning. Temperature was 3 degree's and the wind chill was -11 degree's. Good thing I didn't have to load and tarp in this kind of weather. Made last night seem like a vacation. I headed on down the road and made it to Mullinville, Kansas for the night.
November 28, 2007, Wednesday
I drove on into El Paso, Texas for the night after stopping several times to try and redo my bungee's. The tarps were looking like crap by the time I got there.
November 29, 2007, Thursday
The cultured stone went to a big construction job going on at Fort Bliss. I was sure glad to get this load off the trailer.
My next load came a few hours later and it was a load of steel T-posts for fencing. This was an easy load to secure and I did not have to tarp it. I headed for the house (Dallas) for the weekend.
November 30, 2007, Friday
I got into Dallas after lunch and enjoyed the evening with my wife.
One good thing, in my opinion about flat bedding. You get to do physical work (keeps the gut down). When I trailer trucked reefers 10 years ago, I always wanted to lump my own loads in order to get paid for it and get some exercise. Most of the time I was not allowed to do it by the consignee’s dumb rules, i.e. no drivers allowed on the warehouse floor, etc. (probably he got a kick back from the lumpers). Now, ha ha, I get to do physical work to secure loads and get paid $20 bucks to tarp. This is so right up my ally. I love it.
Oh, yea. One other awesome fact. These flat beds don’t go into nasty (read: nostril burning) meat packing plants to sit for hours and hours to get a load of beef. I pray I never have to do that again. I might stop eating steaks if I did (and I like my steak bloody red rare in the center).
Ok, that’s enough. I need to go pay attention to Momma. See ya later. Drive safe.
