Life on the road: August 2006

Going to be a great two weeks!

Well, I've been slacking, sorry guys. I left home on the 18th and headed to Iowa with a load of doors and picked up a load going back west to Salt Lake City. From there I went back to Reno,NV with a 3 drop load which means I had to deliver at three seperate locations before I was fully unloaded. I delivered to the Home Depot's in Reno, Spanish Springs and Carson city before heading south 15 miles from carson to Minden,NV. I picked up this load at the starbucks factory... That whole place smelled so good and when you walk behind my trailer the coffee smell seeps out. I have a lot of coffee, 43k lbs to be exact. I've known about this load from Minden,NV to Tennesee since I started here at gordon and things just clicked and I was put on it!!! I will be home a bit late (my choice) but I couldn't turn down this load after just having another high mile run to iowa. I don't have a set delivery time for getting to TN but I don't want to take too long. After I deliver this I head up to Kentucky to picked up a load of those Duraflame fake fireplace logs and deliver that in Winsconsin across the border from Minnesota. After that, who knows but it will be something back west and eventually I'll get home!!!!

Latley I've been running nights, usually waking up around 1-2am and driving till the early afternoon. It's weird shutting down for the day at noon and already racked up 700 miles!!! I'm trying to get off that schedule so I'm going to get up around 4am tomorrow (oh wow, big difference) and drive the west of the way through Wyoming (oh yeah, I'm 3 miles into WY right now) and hopefully getting to at least Grand Island,NE , home of one of my favorite truck stops, the Bosselmanns Pilot. That place is 2 stories tall, huge chrome shop, movies, store, a big restraunt and a subway even!!!! Anyways, enough, heres the pictures from the last week or so...

This is what your printer paper looks like before it's cut down and sent to stores... Theres 7 of those in the trailer and the load was around 45klbs. Those are load locks which prevents the load from shifting, although nothing is going to stop a couple thousand pound roll from moving... That strap pulls the wall together so that when I put the load locks in they don't fall out when I drive...

Stay out of the NO ZONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice weather makes for an easy and beautiful drive through wyoming...

And then it turned nasty. The clouds were so low that it looked like I was going to run right through them...

Whoops, DOH! I thought I had more... I wil update agian shortly..... I PROMISE!!!!!!!!

Almost to Seattle, WA

I've been running hard the last couple days and after leaving Boise,ID I ran down to Winniemuca,NV and back to Boise,ID and west to Oregon then up Idaho then west to Washington and here I am, about 120 miles from Seattle and Gordons Main terminal. I'll be dropping my trailer in the yard since it's heading to British Columbia and then I'll be heading home possibly even a day early!!!

Driving along the Columbia river in Oregon.

Heading north on 95 climbing up the hill. That's Lewiston, Idaho below.

Absolutely nothing for 150 miles along 26 through Washington...

What did I tell ya?

I'm off of Interstate 5 and in Idaho and guess what that means? I have INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!! It's been so long since I've updated my blog, I've been getting emails and phone calls, well, just one call from tracy, but still! I am here now so don't freak out...

I picked up my load at S.C. Johnson in Woodland,CA loaded with OFF Bug Spray and ant pesticides ( wow, how exciting!) which I will be delivering to the Albertsons Grocery Distribution center here in Meridian, ID right outside of Boise. Supposedly I'm picking up a load of Sugar (HEAVY!!!!) and taking it San Francisco but that will be another blog entry. Not much to say but I do have a lot of photos to post so enjoy!

A couple weeks ago Olivia came with me for a two day trip down to Los Angeles. It was her first time in the truck and hopefully not the last! This wonderful photo was taken by Olivia traveling along 5 just south of Stockton.

Heres olivia tired of seeing endless crop fields haha

Our reflection in Buena Vista,CA.

Some girl trying to get into my truck...

After going home for hometime and dropping olivia at home I headed out to Flagstaff, AZ. Along I-40 theres this house that looks like a space ship.

Heading east on I-40 towards Arizona.

Going westbound from an eastbound turn around.

I picked up a load of Nestle-Purina Dogfood from Flagstaff in a reefer trailer. All of gordons reefer trailers are Air ride which makes for one nice and smooth ride. The trailer doesn't throw the truck around over the bumps like a normal spring suspension trailer does.

This is the front of a reefer trailer which cools the inside. It can keep ice cream frozen for a cross country trip or keep certain products that can't get warm inside a dry trailer stay cool like camera film etc.