Home Sweet Home

I'm home. He is still delivering his backhaul, but he kindly dropped me off so I could go to work today.

We stopped last night at the Petro in Rochelle IL ... so close to home, but he was out of hours for the day and after two really long days, we were both bushed. My eyes flew open this morning at 3:50 a.m. I snoozed for about 45 minutes and then after a quick teeth brushing and we were on the road by 5.

I'm happy to be sitting in my kitchen, two loads of laundry in progress and a shower in my own bathroom completed. Ahhhh. I don't want to leave ever again.

Every time I go with him, I learn something new. And every time I get home, I have a new respect for the job he does.

Here's why.

He started working last Saturday. He's still working now. That's a long week. There truly aren't that many hours off in between. You're up early every day. You're rarely done by 6 p.m. Your clock is all off because you're crossing time zones.

It's a whole lot more physical than you think. You're shoving and moving skids that weigh hundreds of pounds in a dirty, dusty, suffocatingly hot trailer.

Even the driving part -- like a 20 mph cross wind -- takes some muscles. Hell, climbing in and out of the cab where there's steps and handles isn't exactly easy (though I was better at it by the end of the week than I was at the beginning) and don't get me started on "hopping" up into the trailer. It's HARD.

SIDENOTE: Most driver injuries happen during these two climbing sessions. Miss a bottom step and it's concrete in your teeth, baby.

And, of course, there's the stuff that would drive me crazy. I would never have enough patience to deal with other cars/trucks/motorcycles/bicycles that seem to not understand that it's impossible for 80,000 lbs. to stop on a dime or turn around in 40 sq. ft. I couldn't drive all day in that box and then eat and sleep there every day, too. The endless loop of satellite radio (who knew that's all it was ... the same stuff played over and over and over) would drive me batty. And just not having the freedom to do what I wanted when I wanted to do it would prevent me from ever hitting the road.

But I see what he likes about it and why it's good for him. He digs the deadline pressure of seeing if he can beat the clock and get what sounds to be impossible done. Watching the sunrise over 200 different places a year is pretty cool. He'd hate to be chained to a desk.

My favorite part? He always knows where we're going when we rent a car on vacation.

Sure, truck drivers get a bad rap from some. As with any group of people, some within that group deserve it. But many more don't. I have come to admire those that choose this work. It's not easy. It's hard on families. It's often demanding and uncomfortable.

But those that do it make sacrifices so the rest of us have groceries and iPods, clothes and cough syrup, mail and toilet paper.

I think it's cool that he is proud to do what he does. I am proud, too.

We Just Got Passed By a Goat

And I'm not kidding.

I-55N, just south of Divernon and there's an accident up ahead. Right lane closed for emergency vehicles. Traffic backed up for a couple of miles. We're in the middle of it, creeping along. And then on the frontage road to our right, here comes a gray goat. It passed us. And then happily heads on it's merry way to the next farm.

This tickled him to no end. Not every day you get passed by a goat.

Observations

There are a lot of billboards for "Dentures in One Day!", adult bookstores and Jesus in Missouri. And usually the latter two are found in close proximity.

The oil drilling things in the fields of Texas look a lot like those drinking bird things that your grandma or cousin or neighbor had in the mid 70s. You remember them, they'd dunk down, get a drink and pop back up ... over and over again. The only difference is that the oil drilling things look more like TRexes instead of birds.

The shower at the Petro in Joplin MO is the best of the trip, by far.

Yesterday was a lloooooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggggg day. Once we actually stopped for the night and went to get something to eat, I felt like I was still moving. You know that feeling when you've been swimming or boating for a long time and go to bed ... you still feel like you're floating on the waves? Same thing. As I sat there, I had to fight my body's urge to lean forward, if that makes sense.

The Guadalupe Mountains are beautiful.

Much of Texas is ugly. It's a relief to be back in MO and see green and trees instead of dirt and scrubby bushes. Just feels better on your eyes.

I have knots on my head from bumping it so many times as I climb in and out of the truck door and back and forth from the sleeper to the seat.

Truck drivers wave at each other as they go down the road ... both when they're meeting oncoming traffic and as they pass each other on the interstate. It's a club and the rest of us just aren't in it.

I bought John M a present today. He's going to love it.

You should see what qualifies as an "RV Park!" in TX and NM. Literally, it's a gravel parking lot with a chain link fence around it, right next to the interstate. I'm not sure who thinks that's a vacation (Oh boy, let's go sit in the baking sun and watch noisy traffic .... and there isn't a town for hundreds of miles!) Giddy up.

Vocabulary Lesson

You all know a state trooper is called a "bear" and a truck stop diner is called a choke-and-puke because you have all watched Smokey and the Bandit. But here are a few other CB/truckin' terms you might not know.


Places:
Chicken coop = Scale
Cash box = Toll booth
Yard or barn = Your home terminal

Officers of the law:
City kitty = Local cop
Evil Kneevil (sp?) = Motorcycle cop

Types of trucks/trailers:
Skateboard = Flatbed trailer
Parking lot = Car hauler
Thermos bottle = Tanker trailer
Bull rack = Livestock trailer
Wiggle wagon = Tandem trailers
(Any of these can be inserted into this sentence as another truck is passing you and you want to let it know that it's clear to pull back in in front of you, "Skateboard, it's yours if you want it.")
4-wheeler = Car
K-Whopper = Kenworth
Petercar = Peterbuilt
Freightshaker = Freightliner
Binder = International

Misc:
Big road = Interstate highway
Go-go juice = Fuel
Green stamps or driver's award = Ticket (As in, "Yeah, I got one of them driver's awards in Rolla MO)
Lot lizard or commercial company = entreprenural women who hate to be lonely
Chatterbox = CB radio
Seat cover = The person sitting in the passenger front seat of a passing car (As in, "Hey, Parking lot, you got it on? (referring to the CB radio) Check out the seat cover coming up on you.")
Over your shoulder or back door = Behind you
Front door = In front of you

And, every driver sounds like he's 6'5" tall, from the south, 55 years old with a deep voice on the CB. It's amuses me that none of THOSE guys ever seem to stop and get fuel. It's always these 5'8" dudes, some with a nice litlle belly, that get out of the trucks ...

Even he gets a southern accent on the radio. I tease him. OK, he spent considerable time in Missouri during his formative years, but the drawl isn't apparent to me any other time.

Baby Powder at Dawn, Stockyards by 5

We started the day later than the previous two ... got to sleep in until 6 a.m. We were scheduled for a 7 a.m. pick up at Amercian Talc in Van Horn TX.

(Did you know that there are talc "mines?" all across the country? This is the second one I've personally been to, the first being in upstate NY. And, they use a lot of PPE just in case anyone who cares about that kind of thing is reading this. Hard hats, tyvek, disposable masks, safety glasses, steel toes, hairnets ... I could go on.)

On the way there, we cross the Central/Mountain time zone ... which means we're officially an hour early. Thankfully, there are already guys milling around and the ladies in the office pull in just behind us. They'll take us early.

We get 22 2,000-lb. bags of talc, to be delivered in Milwaukee Friday between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. The backhaul load is coordinated through his company dispatcher and a freight broker. The goal of the backhaul is to pay for the fuel and driver to get home, while making as much on top of that as you can. Typically, you'd make less per mile (which is how loads are priced out) than you would on the way out. The outgoing load is the bread and butter. The backhaul is the jam, if you will.

44,000 lbs. of anything presents a bit of a challenge as the maximum weight of the whole rig with us and everything in it can only be 80,000 lbs. The tractor, minus all our stuff, but including a full set of fuel tanks weighs about 35,400 lbs. That means we're at 79,400 without accounting for him, me, my curling iron and books, his microwave and cases of bottled water.

The talc place has a scale and we weigh out on it. We're over the gross 80k by a smidge (forgot to calculate the weight of the pallets), but know their scale could be off, too. Plus, it doesn't take long to burn off fuel weight as we'd fueled up last night. For anyone who cares, diesel weighs 6.6 lbs/gal.

See ... not only do truck drivers have to do paperwork and computer crap, they also get to do MATH!

So gross weight we were OK, but we weren't OK as far as the distribution of that weight. DOT requires that the weight of the whole rig be distributed over the three axles to certain specifications. 12,000 lbs. on the steer axle (very front tires on the truck, for us girls), 34,000 lbs. on the two drive axles or "drives" (the back double set of tires on truck) and 34,000 on the two trailer axles. Depending on how heavy the load is, where it is put on the floor of the trailer, how long the trailer is (most common are 48- and 53-footers), those three axles carry different weights. The driver can distribute that weight by moving the trailer axles forward or backward.

Huh? Trailer tires move? Yes. They can be moved on this pin-and-hole system that to me looks like the pinlock hard hat suspension. You pull the pin manually or push the button on the trailer if you have air assist, hop in the truck, drive forward or backward until you are approximately where you need to be, hop back out and check to make sure, then, if you're OK, unlock the pin or push the button and then drive a smidge forward or backward until the pin falls back into a hole.

By doing this, you change the distribution of the weight on each axle. He does these calculations in his head. I get a headache when he tries to explain it to me. It all sounds like a science experiment. And, for the record, you also move the trailer axles when you are in a city and have to make tight corners. But I barely got through that last explanation, so forgive me for not going into more detail.

We double-checked the weight distribution thing at a CAT scale at a truckstop for good measure and $9. If you get caught being overweight, it's something like $200 plus $/pound for every pound you're over and you can't leave the scale house until you are underweight.

Anyway, we're loaded, legal and on the way home. Looking like Fort Worth/Dallas at evening rush hour. Yay!

My Friend Jose in the Land of Absolutely Nothing

At our stop in Santa Fe, we were supposed to meet up with one of the installers for the storage systems. His name is Jose and I've actually met him once before (when he cut the top of his finger off ... I'll explain that later). Since his company's primary client is said storage systems, he meets up with Jose every time he has to deliver out this way.

We arrive at the specified location 20 minutes early. No Jose. We wait for 30 minutes, no Jose. He calls the home office and Jose gives us a call back. We're at the address on his paperwork, but the 13,000 lbs. of stuff is going to a NEW office just outside of town.

Jose comes and gets us and leads us the rest of the way.

(He has friends like this all over the country. There's Skeet the lobsterman in Maine. Phil the storage system guy in Denver. Tommy the straight truck driver in NYC.)

Thankfully, there is a pallet jack and fork truck on site. The 500 lb. skids are stacked two (sometimes three) hight and he has to use load bars to get them from the top row. Every time I see this operation I think, "Boy ... Doc Rock, my high school physics teacher, would love this real world example of the power of a fulcrum."

13,000 lbs. later, we're on our way to Carlsbad. Roswell lies in between and NOT MUCH ELSE. In fact, it's 270 miles of essentially NOTHING. It would have been a good time to update this blog, but as I mentioned, NOTHING includes no wireless signal.

Before we leave, Jose makes a nice promise of the fact that it will be green chile season "down here." I'm expecting little old ladies selling bags of green chiles along side the highway, just as they sell bunches of roses for $1 a dozen outside of Cuernavaca. He is picturing roadside taco stands.

Both of us are disappointed. No old ladies. No taco stands. And no one here to unload this freaking truck. Wait one more time today.

OK, back to the cut-off finger. I know you're dying to know:
Unloading skids from the truck. One is long and narrow and heavy and the forks have to go in the narrow end. Of course, the skid is HEAVY and the forks are short, so the load is tippy. Jose jumps up on the end of the skid to provide some counterbalance so the forklift driver can get the skid off the truck. Once the skid is clear of the truck, the forklift driver lowers the forks.

Being raised in a "safety environment", I know this is wrong. It looks wrong. It feels wrong. But I'm not going to be some naggy wife reminding people I don't know to follow appropriate forklift procedures. I'm not OSHA.

And just like that it happened. Jose's finger got stuck between two pieces of moving metal as the forks came down. Yeah ... blood spurted in this nice half circle spray pattern for farther than you'd think. First he tried to brush it off. Then he decided it might be best to go to the hospital.

Today he told me I was bad luck. Again. With a smile, of course.

Forget the Corner Office ...

We drove from Tucumcari NM to Santa Fe this morning ... I had to be up in the 5's. Those of you who know me know how much I love that.

Anyway, it's pitch black and we're climbing. As daylight breaks, we can see the mountains and the mesas. The sun is just about fully up, we're at 7200 ft. elevation, on a ribbon of newly paved highway with hardly another car in sight and he says to me,

"How do you like the view from my desk?"

He's got a point.

I'll Never Eat Hamburger Again

Have you ever seen a bona fide feedlot? I mean the kind in Texas ... or Oklahoma or probably Kansas ... where there are THOUSANDS of steers crowded in pens for as far as the eye can see. Those happy cows in California would be appalled.

I think the cows in Wisconsin have it pretty good.

Truck Drivers Have Paperwork, Too

You might think all truck drivers do is drive. But it's not. There's more to it.

I mentioned in an earlier post that he had to get an envelope out of the back of the trailer. Here's what's inside:

• Bills of lading, one for each stop. Once signed by recipient, one copy stays with the driver.
• A "Trip Sheet" which is a list of all stops, in route order, that lists the name/address/phone number of sender and receiver, plus hours of operation for those stops when available. Valuable information when you're trying to figure out how to get someplace or what the latest receiving hours are, etc.
• A ""Route Sheet" which is a suggested path (think Google maps or Mapquest) for your deliveries (also called stops or drops)
• Three forms for the driver to return upon completion of the trip ... one each for trailer condition, tractor condition and load condition (how the stuff was loaded). By providing this feedback, the warehouse knows what to do better next time and the shop knows what to fix.

At the end of the day and after each stop, he makes sure his logbook is updated. He also has to "record" each stop into a computer system that connects this truck with the home office. (Arrive at stop for trip no. XXX, depart from stop for trip no. XXX, etc.) That system has a GPS and allows the dispatcher to know where he is at all times ... his location is sent every 21 minutes.

When he gets back to the yard, the tractor and trailer condition reports get dropped off at the shop and the rest of the envelope goes into the office. In the envelope he also includes toll slips, shower receipts for reimbursement and checks for COD freight charges.

Ready, Set, GO!

On the road again, sing it if you want to. We were 20 minutes early to our first stop. They were 20 minutes late. But it was an easy in/out once everyone was in place. The second stop was in Lawton OK and that wasn't so smurfy. Here's why.

They were getting two skids, each banded and weighing between 400 and 600 lbs. each. The store opened at 9 a.m. and there were people waiting outside the door to get in. Now, this is a little strip mall kind of place on a busy intersection. No dock.

His company requires him to get the load to the back of the trailer. It is the recipient's responsibility to get it the rest of the way. Two ladies working. Neither looked very muscular. Being nice, he wrestled the skids off the back end of the trailer and onto a little four-wheeled dolly, pushed them to the far end of the building where there was a sidewalk ramp and put them at the front door. He needed a signature and we were on our way.

Except the woman in charge wouldn't sign for them b/c they were not IN the store. He couldn't get them through the door without cutting the banding off and taking the skids apart. And remember, he's only supposed to get them to the back end of the trailer.

If he gets hurt moving skids around or if he scratches up the door to the store, he's on his own.
One quick call to her store manager garnered him a signature and off we went. He only sputtered for a little while.

All's well that ends well, I guess. We got done what we needed to get done. (And if you're ever in Woodward OK, do stop in Goin's Home Furnishings. I'm still thinking I screwed up by not buying this enormous picture of a tree.) Now we're sitting outside of Santa Rosa NM in the middle of a thunderstorm. The power went out and they kicked us out of the Flying J until they can get that little problem taken care of. Hope I don't need a ladies room anytime soon.

Hotel Hallelujah!

How is this for cool ... I just signed into Blogger and up popped an ad that said: "Buying a semi truck? Click here." That Google is so amazing, no?

We've found a lovely Comfort Inn for Sunday night. This isn't something he would do without me, but it's a welcome gesture. We're at Exit 137 on I-44 and there's a couple of truckstops, hotels and chain restaurants in the immediate area. I've had all the CB sermonizing I can take for one day. Give me an "Amen!"

A good night sleep tonight is a good idea because tomorrow is going to be a little hectic. Our first stop is about 15 miles from here, two skids of storage system parts. It should be a fast unload. Then we're off to Lawton OK, 80 miles away, to a cell phone store. Then 180 miles to a furniture stop, 80 more miles to Guymon OK. Provided Guymon doesn't close too early, we should be OK. The trick is trying to get to Santa Fe NM for 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. It's doable. But it will be tight. From Santa Fe, we go to Carlsbad NM.

Once he's empty, he calls in to dispatch and they find him a backhaul. With luck, they'll find something quickly and we'll be heading home.

Side note on the stop at the Joplin MO Petro: Chrome, baby! You would not believe what kinds of things you can buy in chrome! From a hitch cover representing the business part of a bull to a little switch cover for your dash, it's all there. This Petro is next to the "Chrome Shop Mafia" place ... Four States something or other. These are the guys that do that "Trick My Truck" show on quasi-reality TV. Other cool idea: 3- or 4-wrung ladders that weld to the side of a flatbed trailer. Flatbed drivers have to tarp and secure their loads and these make climbing up and down a lot easier.

It's still hotter than Hades. 95F in the shade.

Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Truck Stops

10. There's a TV lounge with a big screen for when you don't want to be cooped up in your rig.

9. Big franchises have loyalty cards/programs that allow you to earn points every time you get fuel. (And you call it fuel, not gas, when you're driving an 18-wheeler). When you get enough points (typically a penny/gallon), you can buy dinner in the restaurant, goofy souvineers from the store, or accessories for your truck (from decals to CBs).

8. You pay for fuel with a Fuel Card. It's not a Visa/Mastercard kind of thing ... it's only used for fuel. By using it, the driver doesn't have to carry cash or a regular credit card.

7. Books and movies on DVD are available for rent. The driver can pick it up at the Flying J in Sullivan MO and return it when he's done at a Flying J anyplace.

6. Drivers sit in their trucks and gab on the CB. They poke fun at the guys who can't back into a parking spot in what they deem a fast enough time. They also comment on people/women walking across the parking lot.

5. No one wants to park next to a refrigerated trailer or livestock. The reefer is noisy. And you don't need me to tell you what disadvantages livestock bring.

4. In the driver's lounge you might also find: an ATM, blood pressue checking machine, video/arcade games (like Pac Man or whatever), oodles of free lit (trucking magazines, vehicle "classified" booklets).

3. You can buy clothes. Who knows what might happen, so besides souvineer Tshirts, you can pick up jeans, boots, outerwear, underwear, socks.

2. You can buy 12V DC accessories such as crockpots, coffee pots, hair dryers.

1. Some really friendly people working the cash register who seem to recognize the "regulars."

Big, national truckstops are: Petro, Pilot, Flying J, TA and Love's.

The Truck Stop Shower

Day 2:

Up at 6:45 this morning. Neither one of us slept great. The first couple of times I rode along it was nice to snuggle up on the bottom bunk. Last night we lasted that way for approximately 30 minutes before he said, "This isn't comfortable. I'm moving to the top bunk."

I pretended to be disappointed ... in the dark he couldn't see me smiling when I said, "I packed an extra set of sheets."

The bottom bunk is bigger than a twin bed in both length and width, but twin sheets still fit it. The top bunk is just as long, but narrower by about 6 inches. And a more restful night was had by all.

Up this morning for the first Truck Stop Shower. Think of camping, without the outdoors. This Hook (or Flying J for us non-truckers) offered 15 shower rooms. Each room comes equipped with two well worn, but clean towels, a washcloth, paper bathmat and a liquid soap dispenser mounted on the wall.

To get a shower, you go to the driver-side checkout and ask. Each shower costs $10 (it was $6.50 the last time I went), and he says most other truckstops charge the same. The good news is that his company will reimburse him for one shower a day. Many companies do not. And owner-operators, of course, are on their own dime. The good news is that with the bigger truckstops, if you get 50 gallons of fuel, you qualify for a "free" shower.

The shower room includes a shower, toilet, sink and enough room to turn around. I personally think shower shoes are a must, just in case. The rooms get cleaned after every use. Somewhere in that building is a hell of a janitorial supply closet complete with commercial washer and dryer.

Technology has reached showering, too. To get in the room, you get a code on your receipt. You have to punch the code into the panel outside of the door to get in.

On our way to OK city. We'll stop in Joplin for brunch (just like the country club!) and then be set until dinner later.

P.S. Web Access

Big truckstops have Wifi. Some also have this thing called Idle Air. There are parking spaces with this big yellow tube hanging. You pull in and shove the tube in your window. For $2.20/hour, you get AC or heat, TV connection, web and phone access for 800 numbers ... and you don't have to let your truck run all night. You have to buy the window adapter thing, too ... $15 and it's yours to keep.

In the old days, truck drivers could get an 800 phone number for their house so they could call from payphones for "free." Now everyone just has a cell phone. And they spend a lot of time on the CB comparing plans.

Camping Out

It's 9:25 p.m. and we're settling in for the night. Just finished dinner at the fabu Flying J in Sullivan MO. Saturday is "steak buffet" night for the more adventurous.

It's still hot. Thankfully this truck has an AC unit that runs without running the truck all night.

I'm looking around for driver-supplied ecoutrements that you guys might be interested in: two power inverters (one powering my laptop now), a scanner (to get the latest on weather and road conditions), fancy CB and special antennas, special purple covers for the interior dome lights (now it's a disco truck), bedding of course, spiral-bind road atlas, looseleaf style log book, steel toe boots (kept in truck for when needed), sunglasses (ordered from Gempler's no less), hard hat, leather gloves (one pair for fueling, one pair for unloading), first aid kit, crow bar, hammer, tin snips, crecent wrenches, pliers, safety vest, flashlight and one slightly grumpy wife.

The truck stop has four or five "carrels" for computers ... places to plug in your laptop. All were full on our way past, everyone playing a computer game as far as I could tell. He remarked earlier how cool it would be to have a stand that you could mount in your truck to put a laptop on ... I referred him to AWD.

We'll go back in the truck stop in a while to brush our teeth and take what I hope is the last pee of the evening. Then wake up tomorrow for a shower and get ready to hit it again.

Oklahoma, here we come!

Day 1:

Dropped the dog off at mom and dad's and went to the yard. Loaded my "tons" of stuff in the truck: three pillows, one roller bag, one beach bag, 12-pack of Diet Cherry Coke, purse, computer bag, sunglasses and Dramamine.

His stuff is mostly in the truck and all he transports back and forth is clean work shirts, jean shorts, drawers and socks. Also packed a bag of munchies (fruit snacks and Pop Tarts).

He got dispatched last night, but typically doesn't find out until Sat a.m. We're on our way to OK City, seven stops, ends up in Carlsbad NM.

Hop in truck and go look for trailer. Envelope of paperwork is in the trailer. Grab it and get to work on log book and GPS.

This is a 2010 Kenworth T-660. There's an integrated GPS in dash, so I program in all stops. Sirius radio is also standard equipment, as is the mini-fridge. Microwave and TV are driver-supplied. I throw my junk on the two bunks and settle in for a 370-ish mile ride.

We'll stay in MO tonight; must be in OK City by 7 a.m. Monday. It's two easy days of driving. Legally we can only drive 11 hours in a day with a 10 hour break. This truck maxes out at 69 mph. He keeps an eye on fuel mileage gauge ... there's bonus pay if he makes his fuel quota of 7 mph. A penny extra per mile.

It's hot.