Back in town for the night...

It's been up and down the last couple days. My load that got me out of sacramento was delayed 6hrs so I sat in my truck and twiddled my thumbs but the run up to portland went smoothly and it was nice to be back on I-5 since I know what's around every turn and I really do enjoy running through the twists and turns of the "canyon" in Dunsmuir,Northern California. I then picked up a 3 drop load that delivered to a costco in Vancouver,WA at 4:30am, a Portland store at 6:30am and a Bend,OR store at 11:30. It was very close and I was about ready to pull my hair out on the way to my last stop. The combonation of RVer's and grannies out for their weekend drive through the woods made the drive quite bad, but it in the end I made it on time. Theres nothing like delivering a load with just minutes to spare... All of a sudden all this weight has been lifted off your shoulders. I refuse to get a service failure, 99% of the time I drop the load a couple days before my delivery day so I can keep moving. Sitting on loads is not fun I found out very quickly. I picked up this load that I'm on right now thats delivering at 2:00am in Tustin,CA South of Los Angeles on monday. Then I move over to the Fontana Gordon Yard to get my truck worked on for a while and hopefully after that I will be heading out east agian... I hope.

Photos will be coming hopefully in the next couple days, Until then keep the shiny side up!

Time to go back out there...

I had a great time being home for these couple of days. Olivia and I went to Monterey to do some shopping and check out the aquarium. That place was so cool! It's been a couple years since I've been there. Anyways, I'm heading out tomorrow morning at 8am. I'm supposed to be heading north... Who know's where exactly but I will update everyone as soon as I can. In the meantime, head on over to my photgraphy website to take a peek at all of our photos. Liv even got hold of the camera for awhile and snapped a whole bunch of photos while driving up and down the coast...

I'm home and I'm very happy. That is all.

Back in Salt lake city...

Wow, what a week. I left salt lake city and ran a load to Mt. Pleasant Iowa which is in the south eastern corner of Iowa. Stayed there for a night and then in the morning I went up the road a bit and picked up a load going to Madison Winsconsin. After getting up there I had to run back down to Pleasant Prairie, Winsconsin and take that to the Walmart Distrobution center here in Salt Lake City. Lots of miles, lots of long days and I was able to go to the Iowa 80 truck stop. I've always wanted to one day get a chance to go there and it was well worth it.



I was sitting here last night in the TA in toole,UT and I saw this swift driver drive by who looked like someone I knew from Classadrivers.com . So I get on the CB and say "Swift, ya got it on?" and he replied yeah. So I ask if he's brian from CAD and he's like yup. It turns out it was my friend and we've been hanging out here all day today. I'm taking a reset and he's waitingh to deliver tonight. So we've just been chattin' and wasting time together... It's nice and it makes the time fly by!





Whoops! I noticed this while hooking up to a trailer. It happend sometime from my drive in Rawling,WY to Salt Lake city. The hub seal blew and shot oil all over my brakes, brake drum, wheel,tires, everywhere. So I limped over to the truck stop here and waited for 6hrs to bring my truck into the shop.



I'd have to say that the Walmart DC in Grantsville, Utah win's the award for the nicest view of any yard.





Here's a perfect example of what not to do in a major city. I was able to shoot this photo because we were stopped for awhile...





The Chicago skyline.




Omaha,Nebraska is home to the Union Pacific museum... I'd love to go and check that out some day...



If I wasn't driving trucks I'd want to drive these. I'm still very interested in trains...



Out in the middle of no where in wyoming about 60 miles from Rawlins is where I decided to pull over for the night. It was extremely quite and very cold but it was a nice change from a truckstop. The gas station has been closed for quite some time it looked like.




It's my road!

Made to iowa...

This morning I'm sitting in a truck stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa which is right on the border of Nebraska and Iowa. I'm way ahead of schedule like I always am which is good but gives me a lot of free time. Anyways, I last talked to you when I was taking my reset and since then I picked up my loaded trailer in the Salt Lake City yard and drove 5hrs to Rawlings, Wyoming where I spent the night. I got up yesterday morning and drove about 10.5 hrs to where I am right now. It was a very interesting drive. I won't go into details but let's just say that there are some real creepy people out here on the road... yuck. Here's my photos from yesterday (click on them to make them larger)





One of those rare giant wyoming coyotes...





It was blowing hard all the way across Wyoming. There were a bunch of signs saying "Caution 45mph wind gusts". This mini dust storm was from a field on the other side of the freeway.



I live off of this stuff. Here I am in Kimball, Nebraska. It said that there was a subway at this exit so I took expecting it to be right off the freeway. Well, it was about a mile inside a tight little town... oops. Well, I parked across the street next to another truck so it all worked out.




We don't have these bosselman travel centers back home so I had some time to kill so I stopped. This place had everything so I spent some good time snooping around all the truck accessories.





I've seen a lot of other people post a photo like this and I never knew where it was from. I noticed something in the distance and it was this. I don't know really what it is, but it was cool to see after miles and miles of nothing...

27 more hours to go...

I delivered to the costco distribution center this morning and then headed over to the Sapp Bro's truck stop right off of 215 in Salt Lake. I cleaned the inside of the truck, windows and wheels/tires. Everything looks squeeky clean except for the trucks exterior. Well, at least the wheels/tires are all nice and shiny. I'm just waiting for the roads to dry here out west then I will take my truck home and give it a real good bath. I also have some inside photos but it's real hard to take since there is not a lot of room. I will get some better photos when I get home and use the fisheye lens which will give you a much better idea of what it's like living in something the size of a bathroom everyday...



The control center.




Behind the drivers seat theres a cabinet for hanging clothes, a "pantry" , a slide out desk and my refridgerator.




The opposite side has two more shelves, a place for my tv and below that a shelf for my inverter, dvd player and clock. Below that is another slide out desk and two more shelves.




One day I hope that I can get alluminum wheels all around instead of the white painted ones. If your truck is clean enough and someone from the company sees it you could the wheels or other chrome. I've seen some gordon trucks with painted front bumpers, chrome exhaust, chrome everything... Looked real nice. All I want is some chrome drive wheels... one day.




Picture some aluminum wheels... mmm

Back and forth then repeat...

Well, I'm back in the same truck stop that I last posted in but I've been running hard since then! I left off here we a load of water going to the Walmart Distribution Center in Grantsville UT. I delivered there and then Went to Burley, Idaho where I spent the night so that I could pick up a load going to Winsconsin. I arrived at the customer to pick up my load and found out someone took my load when they were not supposed to. I was a bit upset that I couldn't do the 1800 mile run out there and then at least 2500miles back to Sacramento for hometime which would of equaled BIG time money, but I gave it up for nice 800 mile run... NOT. I had to run empty from Burley, Idaho to Pocatello,Idaho to pick up 45k pounds of Flour that was to be delivered to Irwindale, CA. YAY! I get to go back the exact same way I came up here and go to Los Angeles. Anyways, I took the load and delivered in LA yesterday and then picked up this load that's delivering at a Costco in Salt Lake City tomorrow morning. So I ran up here, back down to LA and then back up here agian.

What I like about gordon is that while it is "forced dispatch" meaning you can't pick and choose your loads but it is possible to a certain extent. I called them up earlier today and asked if there are any loads heading east so I don't have to go back to LA. I got a pre plan for a load going to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa carrying of all things, Pacific Mountain Bikes, you know those cheapy bikes at department stores. All my mountain bike friends should know all about these wonderful peices of metal... =)

P.S. Anyone want to buy a Nicolai UFO cheap? Message me!



Somewhere in Idaho...




A Frozen lake off the freeway in Idaho




Picking up a load of Flour in Pocatello, Idaho. This warehouse along with all the other ones in the are used to be an old army base that housed all the big guns and equiptment. RIght next store is the FBI Headquaters for the west coast.




On the way to Pocatello the road runs along the Snake river...




Pit stop along I-15 heading towards LA. Nothing like an ice cold Mountain Dew and some Funions... haha




Me, Myself and I

Movin' east

Yup, I finally got out of the California, Oregon, Nevada runs! I'm in Utah about an hour out of Salt Lake City sitting in a truckstop. Tomorrow morning I'm delivering my load of 44,000lbs of Sam Club (walmart) Water Bottles to the Walmart DC in Grantsville,UT. I've had an exciting last couple of days, the most exciting was Delivering at the Lowes DC in Perris,CA. (Photo's below that explain why). I had to cut it SUPER SUPER close to get to las vegas last night but I got here safley and legally so it all worked out. I finally got rid of all the old 3-axle trailers that pull sideways big time and now I have a real nice 2-axle that I didn't even have to rock back and forth to get the tandems to slide. I was happy. Enough, click on the photos below to make them larger!



Heres the situation, whoever designed this parking lot is obviously not a trucker. How they have the back row set up is horrible. Theres not enough room to properly set up and back in to the spot without going over the curb. It turned out to be a blind side back which means for everyone that doesn't know what it is, It's backing up while not being able to see the rear or even the trailer. But this back was different, I was setup so that it would NOT be a blindside but because of how the rear of the trailer swings out it turned into one because I couldn't see. It sucked big time but I did it. It's the hardest back I've done and it beats Blure Heron Paper in Oregon city hands down.




I wasn't going to go over the curb but when I looked up and down the fence I realised that everyone does it. I now know why I saw a bunch of day cabs leaving the place and not one sleeper...




I-15 going north from Las vegas leaves nevada and then enters arizona for a short while the it's into utah. This is entering the canyon in Arizona




Just outside of Nephi, Utah where I am right now.



A nice view and free internet is always nice. I was thinking about the internet so much on the way here that I realized after I pulled in that we don't fuel here (I don't need fuel anyways) but that means no free shower, I have to pay a stinkin' 10 bucks... BOO =)




The famous Las Vegas Sign near where I picked up my load this morning.




Hopefully I didn't lose all my readers when I didn't update for so long but don't worry, I'm going to update all the time now...

Chris

Big trucks go bang

I think I could of stayed at home a bit later than I did. I shut the truck down for the day at 2:15pm. Way to early but I'm kind of screwed if I go any further. I'm on top of the grapevine heading south. I deliver my first drop at 7:30am in Pico Rivera near LA then I deliver my second drop in temecula which is between LA and San Diego fron 9am-1pm. I could go further but trying to find a truckstop in the middle of rush hour traffic in LA wouldn't be fun. It's almost impossible to find a truckstop because I don't even think there are any! So I'm going to get up around 4am and start heading down the road. Even if I get stopped in traffic in LA I'll still have plenty of time to make my appointment time. Flying J's truck stop which is a HUGE nationwide chain has some pretty cheap internet. 5bucks for 12hrs seems good to me. I'm parked here in the front row right by the fuel island. I was editing some photos from today when I hear a loud bang and I look over to see a truck rolled into a truck parked on the island behind him. Almost immediately a handfull of truckers gather around. The driver in the truck sits in his truck for awhile with his hands on his head... DOH! I wouldn't want to be in that situation. I didn't see too much damage other than a few new dents on the front of the truck and the trailer that hit the truck had it's DOT bumper was all bent... ooops....



Over n' out,
Chris

I'm back with an update!!!

I'm back from my first two weeks out alone solo, well almost. I arrived here in sactown a day early so that I could go home for awhile and take a real shower finally. I'm not going to sleep here tonight but rather in my truck so that I can wake up bright and early at 4am and deliver to three costco stores in the sacramento area. Then it's back to the yard and I'll be off for a couple days of hometime. I've experienced so many things in the last two weeks. I have way to many stories to share so I'll just leave the pictures to tell a story. So far I've been to Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Pheonix, Las Vegas, Reno, Fontana, Bend and so many other cities in just two short weeks!

During my first trip alone I recieved a message on my computer to call a person in the Meford Terminal. He's pretty high up in the company I understand and I was extremely nervous to call him but when I did it was to say that he was given this address to my blog from another employee and I was shocked to hear that! He gave me some suggestions to change my blog a bit so I'm going to be trying some new things out.

Sorry about the real lack of updates. When I'm done driving for the day I'm pooped. I usually walk around the truck stop a bit, grab a bite or make a sandwich, watch some tv and I usually pass out even before turning off the lights ( I hate it when that happens) My plan is once I can afford a new laptop I'm going to purchase one along with an internet plan to allow me to be on the web from the side of the road or anywhere I want really. Most truck stops do have the internet but it's pricey.

Anyways, check out the photos and be sure to leave a comment!



My baby, I mean my truck parked a little bit outside of Bend Oregon about 2 weeks ago.


All of my supplies and since this photo I've added so many new things... Trucking is expensive and it's not even my truck!


Heading out of Bend Oregon. Gotta love the red dirt oregon uses on it's snowy roads. Ruined my spotless truck =(


Had a bit of free time so I polished my wheels.


Just south of San Louis Obispo on 101 I had a couple hours to kill so I pulled off the road right on the ocean. It was so pretty and was way better than a truckstop. Nothing like stopping just feet from the ocean waves.


Here I am about 100 feet from my truck. I sat here for almost an hour. I saw a couple seals and right before I left I saw a whale. I didn't really know what it was until it came up for air and the "hump" of the whale... Made my day


I'd like to come back here one day...


This sign conviently placed in a truckstop in Vegas... I sure this sign has sold TONS of burgers...


I took a reset in Las Vegas. I stayed in the Wild Wild West truckstop/hotel/restraunt across the freeway from the Strip. It gave me something to do for 34 hours but resulted in me losing a bunch of money... doh! Lesson learned, The small casinos pay a lot more than the big ones on the strip!


Yesterday morning cruising from Eugene,OR to Portland.


Got Windmills? On I-15 cruising through Southern California on the way to Las Vegas.


Snowing earlier this week heading on 58 through Oregon


Outside of Susanville,CA heading north on 395. Beautiful country out there...


Aways outside of vegas near Area 51.


Pretty much out in the middle of no where in the Nevada desert. I drove for over 200 miles without sealing anyone!


This is what Kingman, AZ looks like at 2:30am...


Pretty much the ultimate Truck/RV out there... droooooooool.


That's it for now... Check back as I will be updating another time before I leave next week...

Over and Out,

Chris