Over the road ~G

D and I have decided that we’re not cut out for this whole trucking thing, and have settled back home to try different ventures.  For the past couple months we’ve been convincing each other to get up for work every day through cajoling, threats and bribes and this last trip home in April, we couldn’t think of anymore reasons that outweighed the cons of going back to work.  So, we quit.

Since then, we’ve been recouping.  Both D and I are very out of shape, emotionally and physically drained, and just bone weary.  I almost immediately found a job doing massage at a local chiropractor’s office, and D is looking into some “in the meantime” work before he focuses on college in a year or so.  We’re both enjoying hanging out with friends and family again and getting back to having time for the things we love to do.

I will say that  sometimes I miss the quiet hours on the road where I could collect my thoughts and think through ideas.  But that’s all I can think of that I miss…and I can make time for that.

For both our sanity’s sake, I think this was the best choice we could have made.  I learned a lot from trucking and I will always hold those lessons dear because it showed me what I was really capable of and how much of a badass I am.  I’m not sure what will become of this blog now considering it’s kind of hard to do a trucking blog when you’re not a trucker anymore.  This may be it or we may find some other use for it, but we’ll just have to see.

But one thing I can tell you is: We are SO over the road.
~G

Oh Hi!

So it’s been a good minute since we posted.  Not much out of the norm has happened.  Just driving.  Lots and lots of driving. 
I want to apologize to you guys for not posting in two months.  It seems you need silly things like working internet, working phones, and free time to keep a blog going.  Who knew? 

With this fabulous run we have, there really isn’t much time to do anything except drive. Starting in Hebron, KY, we have two days to get to Carson, CA.  It’s about 2,100 miles all told. Then we get there, we turn around and go back again in two days.   We’ve been doing it for a month now.  So needless to say, there’s not much room for dilly or dally.

I’m not complaining at all either.  I just feel bad for letting this bad boy drop by the way side.  At the end of 10 or 11 hours of driving you just don’t make many coherent thoughts.  I tried to post once or twice, but I ended up deleting what I wrote.  A page full of Zs isn’t exactly riveting writing.

I wanted to get on here, though, and tell you guys about something new I’m trying.  It isn’t up yet, but I want to try and do a podcast mixed in with the blog posts. That way if I’m not up to doing one I can do the other.  I’ll post up here and on the facebook page when I have something.  It should be fun.

I’ll poke D into doing one with me sometime, maybe!
Talk to you soon!
G

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin! ~G

We got back on the road again on the 9th after the truck was fixed. Turns out there was a pretty bad coolant leak that was causing the engine to overheat every time we went up a steep hill and shut off. No bueno.
Since then we’ve been on the move constantly, it seems. On the 10th we took large sheets of glass from Oklahoma City, Ok to Laredo, Tx. From the 11th to the 13th we took engines from Laredo to Taylor, MI. From Taylor we scuttled on down to Fremont, Ohio to pick up a bunch of different things and we’re almost to our delivery in Albequerque, NM.
New Mexico is beautiful but only from inside the cab where the wind can’t get you. I haven’t been able to get all the sand out of my ears just from walking to the truck stop. Everything is dry; even the snow. There’s hardly any green around except for stout, frumpy looking conifers, skeleton trees and spiny yucca plants and their stalks covered in empty potato like seed pods. Other than that it’s a carpet of dead yellow grass and rocks up to the foot of the mountains.
In the mountains the highway somtimes was cut straight through the rock so you can see the different layers of stone. Rich red dirt covers everything, lcollecting around trees and the sides of the road, as if the mountains bled it when they made the highway. It makes me wish we had time to go rock climbing.
Sammy, our dog, has no interest in any of it. She’s still acclimating to truck living. She spends most of her days buried under the comforter on our bed in the back of the cab trying the “if I can’t see you, you can’t see me” method to hide from the monster she seems to think we wake up every time we turn the truck on. She ruts around and shakes out her fur under the blankets. I’ll put up pictures sometime. time to deliver!
~G

OK ~G

It’s been quite an adventure since D and I started off in the same truck together.  We’ve had several runs and we’re having a great time just wandering around the country keeping it going.  Our truck, however, hasn’t been doing so well.

As soon as I was 100 miles or so down the road the check engine light came on and has stayed on since.  Every once in a while it’d do this thing where it would stall in the middle of the highway and you’d have to really yank on the wheel to get it over to the shoulder before it shut off.  It would start right back up after a few second cool down, but obviously this was a bit worrisome. When I opened up the hood for my inspection on Friday, there was oil all over the engine block, a no oil on the engine oil dipstick.  Not good at all.

We told our driver manager that we thought some maintenance wouldn’t be out of the question if he could manage it.  Nothing really came of that conversation.

So, Thursday we get a call from our Driver manager.  He asks us if we would be interested in doing a dedicated run from Kentucky to California.  A dedicated run is where you pick up from location A; drive to, drop off, and pick up at location B, and drive back to location A and do this until the almighty tallest tell you to stop.  This particular dedicated run would result in 4o00 miles a round trip every time we do it and we would do it 2 or 3 times a week.

*Que happy dance*

We said yes, obviously.  We were finishing up a run to Oklahoma City at the time so it gave us time to think.  We weren’t going to be able to do this high pressure run with a truck that’s always shutting down under the gun.  When it needs to get there on time, that just won’t do.  So instead of taking a run over the weekend, we told our driver manager that we would be going in for maintenance.

They didn’t really tell us much of what was going on with the truck, only that the part that they needed wouldn’t be there until Monday.  Oh darn.  I guess we’ll have to go to a hotel for the weekend.  Rats.

Needless to say, we’ve been enjoying creature comforts on terra firma.  We’ve slept in a squishy unrattling bed, went to the bathroom whenever we bloody well felt like it, and ate delicious food that wasn’t fast food.  Hopefully we’ll get a call tomorrow saying that the truck is fixed and we’ll be on our way to bigger and better things, but today more tv and pizza.

Score.

~G

Woosh boom straight to the moo-atlanta-D

Well, G and I are finally in a truck together. We started back in what….october? With the cdl classes, and here we are, full truck drivers!

Our first load is to atlanta, the yard that I dropped that guy at (I don’t remember if I blogged that or not) and we have stopped in kentucky, about 6 miles from tenessee for much needed showers.

And something awesome happened!! We tried to use Gs saved up showers (you get one each time you fuel) but after a little while they drop off if unused. So we were about to pay for showers, when some truck driver we don’t know came up and goes ‘you guys need showers? I got it.’ And used some of his points to get us showers! So. Thank you mysterious helpful trucker guy!

-D

D acquired, homeward bound ~G

So I ended up hanging out at the N. Jackson lot hotel for another night and then took a leisurely pace getting up.  I meandered around walmart for a while, because I knew that if I rushed over there to wait for D, I’d get whiplash from turning my head everytime someone came through the door.

I got a book of puzzles and headed over around 1:30.  I was so jittery and excited!  I tried to focus on the crosswords to keep myself occupied, and then one of the drivers put on kick ass and that helped a bit.  D called when he was 2 miles out and I met him outside. I’ll spare you the details, but there was running, some generic romantic music going, lots of wonderful gross stuff.

We got the truck signed off for repairs, got some Arby’s and Starbucks and then headed out for home around 4.  At the moment, we are about an hour and a half away from home! I can’t wait to see my cats and dog, my roommates, my family and I’m super stoked about sleeping in my own bed tonight!

*happysplosion*
~G

Bad Ass Mother Trucker ~G

Ladies and Gentlemen, I…am a fully upgraded, gainfully employed, front seat driver!!! I passed my driver test. All my paperwork is in. I am good to go!

So now I get to wait one more day here. D is being routed through the yard here tomorrow to get our truck fixed (it has a bad starter), so I will be bringing him home with me then. Or at least that is the plan as it stands at the moment.

I’m going to go veg out at the hotel now. I’ll keep you informed!

~G