OK I'm just a tad slow here.... Been too damned busy!
Well here goes...a day in the life of Wildkat :-)
As some of you already know I am an owner/operator for Grimshaw Trucking, part of the Mullen Group out of Edmonton, Alberta. I run north of Edmonton to various points mostly to the Northwest Territories to Yellowknife, the capital city of the NWT. I am what is termed as a line-haul driver, I haul from our main terminal in Edmonton to various terminals in northern Alberta & the NWT. I have been trucking for almost 28 years and have paid my dues many times, so this is retirement for me...pin to pin no touch YAHOO!
My typical day starts at around 10 pm (steady night work here) :-) Usually it is hurry up & wait for trailers to be loaded, then hook up & on my way. I haul extended length, mostly Rocky mountain doubles on some of the most unique roads (?) on the planet.
Here is a typical load for me, my truck & company trailers:
Winters are long, hard, cold and very dark. In the NWT there is virtually no light in winter & summer is hot, dry & light as Yellowknife is in the polar desert there is almost no rain, but alot of snow. There is 22 hours of sunshine in summer & only twighlight for night, that is the most unique thing, even for me being from Edmonton where we get nearly 20 hours of light in summer. It is an awsome sight to watch the sun rise & set in the space of an hour.
The roads in the NWT are narrow & windy as they were built originally by the army in the 40's & have seen very little upgrades & have only been paved (if that's what you call it!) for the last 5 years. The biggest plus is the total lack of traffic, you can literally drive down the road for hours and not see a single vehicle. The only drawback is that the country is extremely isolated, there is no phone, no internet, no nothing. So we maintain our units extremely well, heaven help you if you break down in the middle of the night when it's -48F outside. I recall one time blowing a tire last winter I sat on the side of the road for 6 hours before the first vehicle came along & he stopped at our terminal to let them know I had trouble, some 2 hours later & he passed me on the way back & told me help was on the way. The tire guy showed up 4 hours after that. Normal happenings up there. There are no rest areas, no truck stops, just roadside turnouts, not even an outhouse! :-)
Once in Yellowknife, I break up my train on the outskirts of town & haul trailer #1 to the terminal, back into the dock & collect my running order, have a quick shower, hook up & head back to the outskirts for my pu trailer & head south again.
I carry 300 gallons of fuel on board & the last fuel stop is in High Level, AB which is half-way to Yellowknife, so fuel is there & that will get me back to High Level with about a 1/4 to 1/3 to spare...some 1000 miles round trip. Once back in High Level it's top one tank & head for home...that is unless dispatch calls & says "I need you to do a switch". Switches are done in our terminal in Peace River, where one truck will bring a set from Edmonton for us then we turn around & head back up north again. That's what I did all this week...left home on Monday night & never got south of Peace River until late last night.
A typical week for me adds up to 7000+kms, alot of hard miles to be sure! But I love it just the same[img][/img]
8) 
