Merry Chris...uh, Im too late for that!

By two days, Im too late to wish all of you guys a Merry Christmas.  It was a beautiful Christmas in the Ozarks, but it is now time to get back to the grind.  We are sitting at the dock of our pickup in The Rock, Georgia at Quad Graphics.  Gonna head out West to California with this load.  Gonna be the only one for this pay period, so its gonna be tight this week with very little money.  But, I'll survive.  I always do.

This is a short one, but I did want to post something.  So, HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

More later!

waiting...waiting...waiting - Deland Florida

As fate would have it, I got a great paying load out of Miami that picked up today and was going to Memphis, Tn.  Floral load and it was HOT.  Well, as fate would also have it, as I was pulling into the shipper to park overnight last night, my Qualcomm goes off and danged if this load didn't get cancelled.  Got another load right away, though, this one picking up today in Deland, Florida.  Pays about half as much as the cancelled floral load, but what ya gonna do, right?  So, instead of being able to get a good night sleep last night, I had to deadhead 240 miles to this pick up in Deland.  This is where the story gets good.

Pickup time here at the 90 is 1:00pm this afternoon.  Of course, I'm here at 3am as I drove from Miami last night.  Get here and the person here says they will come and get me when they are ready for me, which means to me I can sleep till the little Cuban man comes and knocks on my door telling me to pull in a door somewhere.  So, that is what I do.  

Get to sleep and around 9am, I hear this banging on my drivers door.  GREAT, I think...I'm getting loaded early...awesome.  He tells me to back into door 3, which is really door 4 but with a big red 3 painted on it.  He says it is a system they have.  Too early for me to actually think about it so I just ask him to point at the right spot and Ill hit it.

I get backed in and settle down with the computer to read some of my favorite blogs (You remember, the ones to the right over there --------------------> in that link box?).  10am rolls around and I feel the trailer start to shake and shimmy and know that the load is on its way into my trailer.  Ill be outta here really soon.  Um, NO!

11:00am gets here and the trailer has moved maybe 4 times with them putting the load in.  This is going SLOW!  I'm wondering if they are having to make the product before they load it.  12, 1, 2, 3, now 3:15pm and I'm still sitting here as I watch other trucks come in, get loaded and go.  I finally got a bit upset about it and went and asked the little Cuban guy to "Vomanos".  He didn't like me after that.   It seems like I went and messed up his siesta and he actually had to load the trailer.  He told me they only had "quatro" more pallets to load and it would be about an hour more.  An HOUR?  for FOUR pallets?  

So, here I sit.  Waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  Ive cleaned the windows on the truck.  Even Windex the lights all the way around.  Read all my blogs and favorite sites on the Internet, even read some of those books you get at the truck stops that advertise all the jobs you can get in there.  I'm STILL bored.  

Been here for almost 12 hours now and I'm getting a little hungry and stir crazy.  There is only so much hunger that potato chips and Chef-Boy-Ardee ravioli is gonna relieve.  I need SUBSTANCE.  

I cant WAIT to leave here and get a Sub.

Be safe out there!

Miami, Florida

Well, got a load out of Mass. pretty quickly the other night.  Head to Haverhill and pick up a load to take to Murfreesboro, Tn.  Pretty uneventful trip other than the snow in the Northern part of the country that I had to deal with.  No big deal though, got right through it and on to Tennessee.  Dropped that load and before I could get unhooked good, the Qualcomm goes off and sends me to the one place in the country that is harder to get loaded out of - Miami!

Now, don't get me wrong.  I like Miami.  I like Florida.  I just don't like coming here in a truck.  You simply will take forever to get loaded out of here.  It doesn't matter though, because I know my fleet manager will get me something eventually.  I just hope it is before they find the truck with a set of bones sitting in the drivers seat.

Anyway, not much happening right now.  Ill post more later!

Methuen, Mass...

Get this - Massachusetts in December and it is 60 degrees.  SIXTY degrees.  The deep South and Midwest are getting pounded with snow, ice, and freezing temps, but it's a nice balmy 60 here in good ol' Mass.  Weird weather, I tell ya! I'm HUNTING the snow and it seems like it comes behind us or in front of us, but never on top of us.  Don't get me wrong, I do NOT want to get into ice, but snow...the little fluffy kind that you can catch on your tongue like Linus from the Peanuts...that kind of snow.  That is what I want to see, and plenty of it.  Don't think its gonna happen this trip.

Anyway, we are backed into our dock in Methuen, Mass getting unloaded.  Pretty uneventful trip from Kansas City.  We did get to stop in the Pittston, Pa terminal that we have.  Dropped this trailer at the yard there and finished my Christmas shopping. This is the first year ever, that I have not been scrambling on Christmas Eve to try and find gifts.  THIS Christmas eve, I'm gonna kick back and watch football and eat turkey!

I hope we get a decent load outta here.  Getting a load out of Mass is akin to getting a load out of Florida...they are non existent.  It usually takes a day or more to get a load out of Mass and with the way the economy is right now, we could be stuck here for a while.  

Hey, guys, do yourself a favor and check out the blogs I read.  These are some good blogs and I think if you enjoy this one, you will really enjoy those as well.  Go on, they are in a link box right over there -------------------->

Check em out!  And leave comments!  Tell em PRIMEtime sent ya!

More later guys...be safe out there!

Delays, followers, and pee on the ear buds...

Well, it has been a sad few weeks with no Internet service on the truck.  It seems Sprint really was serious about getting that money every month.  They don't think its too funny when you snub their phone calls and not call them back.  So, I had to cough up the money to get that paid so I could be back online and posting on this new blog  I have.

It seems I have some followers to the blog as when I signed on tonight to post this it said I had four bloggers that are watching this blog for updates.  Felt kinda weird at first as I haven't posted much here due to the recent death of my Internet account.  Sorry you guys for not posting much.  I promise to do better :).

Now, on to the meat of this post...Yesterday, we got our load and headed to Kansas City, Mo. to pick it up.  Our load instructions had us down for an appointment time between 0800 and 2300 central time.  this pretty much means we can pick this load up anytime yesterday  between those hours, but there is a drop dead time of 11:00pm.  Now, this drop dead time is for both us and the shipper so they have to have me loaded and on my merry little way by 2300.  Well, it didn't quite work out that way.  

I arrived at the ship;per at around noon yesterday figuring I may get lucky and get loaded pretty fast.  Well, they turned me around and told me to go park out on the street and wait for them to call me on my cell phone.  So, we went out to the street and waited...and waited...and waited.  NINE hours later, my cell phone rings and I am to back into door number 3.

I did as I was told and waited.  And waited...and waited.  FINALLY around 7:40 this morning, I get a little man banging on my door to hand me my paperwork and seal so I can leave.  This coming  mere 19 hours and 45 minutes after I arrived.  I think they thought it was funny.  Let's see how funny they think it is when Prime, on my behalf, bills them for detention at $1.00 per  MINUTE for every minute past 11:00 I sat there.  Gonna be fun times at that shipper when they get THAT invoice.

Of course, us being that late GETTING the load, means we are gonna be late delivering it.  It is always fun showing up late to a appointment.  NOT.  They talk to me like it was MY fault we were late.  They don't want to hear my story of turmoil that I had at the shipper.  They don't care, I don't think.  All they want is the 36000 pounds of cured ham I'm bringing to them.  It appears some people need to eat.  Oh, well...

While waiting yesterday, I have a funny little story to tell you...I went to the bathroom as we are ALL sometimes inclined to do from time to time and was listening to my iPod on the way.  I had stopped to talk to one of the dock workers to see if they knew when I would get a door and took the left ear bud out of my ear so I could hear this guy tell me in Spanish that he had no clue.  I was deep in thought and didn't think much about the ear bud dangling there.  After I was finished my business, I dropped the iPhone and it fell next to the toilet.  As I bent to pick it up, that left ear bud that was just dangling there, made its way into the toilet bowl...yep, got pee on the ear buds.  Soaked them to be exact.  Needless to say that one wasn't working any longer.  Trashed them right then and there.  Gonna cost me 50 bucks for new ones.  I cant wait to spend that money!

More later guys...be safe!

The Waiting Game

Well, now we sit.  Got into the WalMart DC this morning around 1:30 for my 3:15 appointment.  Surprisingly, they let me go in and actually had a door for me.  I docked her in door 220 and took my paperwork in and came back to the truck and went to sleep.  Not sure what woke me up at 0630, but I looked out and we had a green light.  I woke up Lady Primetime because she starts her shift at 4:00, so it was on her to get the load finalized and pull out.  

Once we got out of there, we drove the 10-12 miles down US 35 to the TA and parked.  Went in, took showers and ate a great breakfast. Let me tell you, if you are ever here at the TA in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, and it is breakfast time, get the pancakes.  They were out of this world!

So, now we wait.  Almost 1:00 and no load yet.  One sure way to get a load, though, is let me start to play World of Warcraft on the computer.  As soon as I sign on, the Qualcom will beep and Ill have to shut it off and get to the pickup.  It never fails.  World of Warcraft=load assignment for me.  LOL.

So, Im off to start the game and get my next load.  More later, guys!

Be safe out there!

Oklahoma City, OK

We stopped last night in Oklahoma City because we had the appointment for our load pushed back till tonight at 3:30 am o we have plenty of time to get there.  Righ now, we have about 500 miles left to get to Washington Courthouse, Ohio.  Kinda weird passing by Prime and not stopping in for a steak.

Speaking of food, last night before we parked, we topped at this little place in OK City called the "County Line BBQ".  Let me tell you, if you are ever on 44 in OK City and see the sign fr this place, GO!  It was absolutely awesome.  The ribs were tremendous.  Large, meaty, and smoked to perfection.  It is definitely on our "must do" list every time we pass through OK City.

MNore later, guys...be SAFE out there!

Gotta start SOMETIME

I figure now is as good a time as any to start this thing.  First of all, a little intro.  I am Prime Time...a professional Truck Driver from Missouri.  You can probably figure out what company I work for just by reading my name.  Anyway, I am out on the road running a team operation with the woman in my life.  Nothing could be better, in my opinion.  Im gonna be chronicling my life on the road in this blog.  Check back often as I plan to update this about once per day.  Let's see if we can get some readers.  LOL.