Romulus, Michigan: Terminal

After a very poor week I find myself with a half way decent load, that seems to be so trouble prone that I am wondering why I even bothered. It sounded simple, pick up a relay in Romulus, Michigan and take it to Terra Haute, Indiana, of course for some reason they never are that simple. My plan was to drive up here from Toledo, Ohio, at around midnight, grab the trailer and head on to the delivery. Apparently the first truck had mechanical difficulties, so they had to have a second truck recover the load, which got moving out of Toronto, Ontario, at around when it should have been getting here to Romulus. Yes, this load is out of Canada, so that means it also has to clear customs, which can sometimes take a while.

After getting the load from dispatch, my next call from them was about how it might be a bit late, and to call in first to see if it is in Romulus, before I leave Toledo. My first call to dispatch was at 10:30PM last night, the load had just gotten moving and should make it to Romulus somewhere between 1 and 2AM. So I crawled back into bed and tried to get some more sleep. My next call to them was at around 1AM to check on if the truck had made it through Customs yet, it was about thirty minutes away from the border. So I get dressed and load up my car, head to the truck, pack it, and give them another call. This was at about 1:45AM, the truck wasn't through customs, so I tell them to call me once it is through, and fall asleep.

I woke up just before 4AM, first a bit bleary eyed, since I fell asleep with my contacts in, then I made another call to dispatch, the truck had cleared customs at around 3:30AM, thanks for calling me guys. I get to Romulus at 5AM, find the trailer fairly quickly, hook up and am ready to go, right? Wrong, during my pretrip I find a light out, no big deal, and a missing mud flap, around a $100 fine in Michigan. So I check the shop, the one mechanic that is on duty, just got in, and he can't do anything on trucks until he does a yard check. So I call breakdown, after they do some checking, they tell me to wait until the mechanic here can fix me. So now this load that was supposed to deliver at 8AM this morning will now get there sometime this afternoon.

Off to the shop..

Back at GM in Mansfield, now to get unloaded, and then who knows.

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Waterloo, New York: Petro

Yes, I am still here, still no loads, however I do get to finally move. They are letting me head over to our yard near West Middlesex, Pennsylvania. There I can grab a lighter trailer hopefully. Then I might actually get a load. I am fairly certain they are thinking I am happily heading to that hole in a wall they call a terminal to spend the night. Instead I will leave out of here early tomorrow morning to get there around 8ish. So I will use some of my driving hours and start my clock, at this point I could care less about having a full book for a load. At least there I will be 4 hours closer to home.

Waterloo, New York: Petro

It is now day three of sitting here at this truck stop. I am basically going stir crazy sitting here, I have wandered through the various sites I belong to just looking for interesting threads in forums to post to. Other than that, it has been playing games on Facebook, watching movies on Netflix, and staring at the walls. I did have a good conversation with the Roehl driver next to me, and I decided to fill out an application for them yesterday afternoon.

My Sprint connection is starting to drive me a bit nuts, it keeps disconnecting for no apparent reason. my guess is the most recent update added an activity timer, so if I am not actively browsing it cuts out. It just did in the middle of this post.

I sent another fun email to dispatch last night, and talked to my dispatcher this morning. He swears they will find me something today, but I will believe it when I see it. I am guessing it will be another load tonight and deliver tomorrow type load. After all I am on break and can instantly drive my eleven hours no mater when they dispatch me, and I have this nice property in Florida I can sell you for a deal.

Been on and off the phone all morning to both my mortgage broker and my fiance as we try to get the rest of the paperwork off to the underwriter. I just found out from my fiance that the appraiser hasn't gotten his report in yet, which is ridiculous since I paid for it at the beginning of the month and had the contract for repairs and changes in last week. There really is no reason that someone who gets $400 to look at a house and determine its worth can't do it in a timely manner.

Waterloo, New York: Petro

Yes, I am still here. So far today, I have slept in, showered, eaten a leisurely breakfast, and am now slowly getting caught up on entering my receipts into Quicken. Exciting I know, but it does need to get done. I also called dispatch twice and it doesn't sound like they have even found a load for me on Monday. So who knows when I will actually get out of here. The good news is that they have a shop here, so I plan on getting a bunch of things fixed. What the heck else do I have to do this weekend, so might as well try to cost the company as much money as possible. The trailer could use at least two hub oil seals, and there are a couple of minor things on the tractor that could be looked at as well. There is a small exhaust leak that I have been putting off getting looked at, I don't seem to be getting any in the cab from it at least, but since I seem to have the time, I might as well get the clamps replaced or tightened.

One thing I cannot believe is how little they seem to care about getting me moving, it isn't like either of us is making any money. I cannot wait until I close on this house, there has got to be a company out there doing better than this.

Waterloo, New York: Petro

Once again, the load planners failed to surprise me, I have no load right now, and doubt I will for the rest of the weekend. Which means I will be spending my weekend here in Waterloo. I saw an outlet mall a little way away that I could browse through, but definitely can not afford to shop there. At least the internet is coming in well, so I will be able to be entertained.

When I got here, I once again violated my fuel solution, well I didn't have one, but I did fuel without permission. This was so I could get my showers for the next two nights, and get a cash advance. I don't think the five dollars I had in my wallet would have covered me for the weekend. Especially since, if I am here until Monday, I will have to buy at least one shower. When you fuel and put at least fifty gallons in the tank, you get a shower. At a Petro, if you tell them you have a co-driver, they will give you a slip for a second driver. So I have two showers off of one fuel up. Now a shower typically costs $10.00 to purchase, which is just annoying for me, because Falcon currently reimburses for showers.

Dinner tonight will be the steak buffet, it just looks good, and they have plenty of other items to round out my planned lengthy meal. It isn't like I have anything else to do, other than sit here in my booth, eat and use my laptop. Adding to my blog, like I am now, or chatting with friends. I don't think I will go as far as watching some netflix, but who knows, I might.

Well off to start grazing, I mean try out the salad bar.

Douglas, Georgia: Walmart Distribution Center

This is the second Walmart DC that I have been to today, and the first was much more pleasant to deal with. While I am a bit early for my appointment time, They simply expect everyone to know what they are supposed to do, having been here before or not. It doesn't help that the rules seem to be either totally different than the last one, or are just enforced differently.

Either way after I empty out here, it seems likely I will be hunting for a spot to crash for the night in the area, rather than heading back to a real truck stop closer to the main highway. They just don't seem likely to get this empty quickly, even if it is seven pallets.