The New Year Starts At The Wheel

31 December 2008

Back on the road this morning headed for Sacramento for a load of Campbell Soup to Salt Lake City Utah. Once out of the valley fog, Ted takes the first shift to Wells Nevada where I begin my shift. From Wells, it is on to SLT Utah where we drop our Sacramento load and hook a trailer we will take to Pageland South Carolina for a total of 2774 miles. The Trip to Utah was uneventful enough and familiar as I had made the same trek not long ago in the opposite direction. The New Year rung in just as I crossed from Nevada into Utah aside from that it was another dark night at the wheel.

1 January 2009

The real adventure began while in Wyoming. If you have been reading along, you remember the last time I drove in Wyoming I mentioned how the winds can blow a semi tractor trailer over. The photo of a truck taking a dirt nap illustrates the force wind can have on a semi tractor trailer. The passing view is snow covered but the force of the wind is manageable.

2 January 2009

The trek to South Carolina was uneventful and wet. We spent the weekend in South Carolina because the place where we were delivering to is closed on the weekends. The truck stop we parked at the first night was in a very bad part of town and I answered a 2am knock on the tractor door from a lovely lot lizard (truck stop hooker) whom I declined an offer of “Some company Sugar?”. We moved the next night to a better location, dropped our load of pizza topping and headed for North Carolina where we picked up a load bound for Wisconsin. Today after delivering that load we deadheaded from Wisconsin to Minnesota where I am writing this. The weather the past few days has been dreary and dismal. On the last portion of my shift at the wheel in Minnesota, the sun emerged. Drenched in fresh sunlight, I fought the wheel against a southbound wind going west on highway 90 towards St. James. Blowing snow covered the road in portions as I tried to dodge the shiny spots that I suspect were black ice.

7 January 2009

We have just picked up a Conagra load of meat product for a mixing plant in Indianapolis Indiana where we hope to arrive tomorrow night. Here in Minnesota the outside temperatures are in the low teens and with wind chill, well below zero the wind is blowing hard. Please forgive the less than poetic prose as I only have a short access to the internet and want to get this off to you all for your comments and questions. I hope to be Utah bound later this week for my upgrade but we have been pinned down in the east pending more favorable weather and loads.