The weather was so nice once we got to San Antonio. With temps in the 60’s, we got spring cleaning fever and thought we would spruce up the truck. After a long winter, it was time. It sure beats cleaning that great big house as we can get this little place done in no time. Jorge even found a scorpion – not in the truck but sitting on one of the rugs he’d left outside while cleaning it. I'm just glad he saw it before putting it back in the truck.
As we started our trip from Texas to southern California this week, Big Red was nearing the 500,000 mile mark. That’s a number most owner/operator truck drivers like ourselves hate to see. It means the factory warranty is soon to run out. I even joked it would be a good time to have something major go wrong so we could get new parts free to us. But the truck ran good and we completed our run with no problems at all.
Our company’s dispatchers were wreaking havoc with our schedule and our nice little run that had us going all the way back to Florida next was now changed to Kentucky instead. We thought that gave us time to make a stop in Vegas even though it was a little bit out of the way. The mail was piling up since we’d only gotten it once since Christmas and I needed to get things for the CPA to finish our taxes. So off to Vegas we went. The trip is normally about five hours but we got caught in heavy LA rush hour traffic and it seemed like it was taking forever to get out of town. We were finally on our way and making good time when suddenly out in the middle of the Mohave Desert in the middle of nowhere, the truck started to smoke and choke and there we sat on the side of the road trying to imagine what a tow bill was going to cost from there. We were about halfway between Barstow and Las Vegas and didn’t know which one we would even call or if we had a phone signal out there to call a wrecker. So Jorge decided to see if we could make it to Las Vegas under our own power even though top speed was around 40. Any more than that and we were really creating a cloud of smoke. We got real lucky when the only cop we saw was busy with another customer when we slowly passed him. He would have shut us down for sure. It made an already long trip even longer but by the grace of God, we were able to limp the truck to the shop in Las Vegas in the middle of the night and get it serviced first thing in the morning. Don’t you know the mileage was now just over that magic mark and the $1500 bill for a new EGR valve was all ours! We had a fun time there in spite of it. We’re on our way to Louisville now and will be shuttling a couple trailers back and forth between there and Columbus, Ohio. Then no rest for the weary, we will run over to Pennsylvania, down to Miami, and over to New Orleans by next Sunday. We are making up for last week by really working this week. I feel like a real truck driver right now.
As we started our trip from Texas to southern California this week, Big Red was nearing the 500,000 mile mark. That’s a number most owner/operator truck drivers like ourselves hate to see. It means the factory warranty is soon to run out. I even joked it would be a good time to have something major go wrong so we could get new parts free to us. But the truck ran good and we completed our run with no problems at all.
Our company’s dispatchers were wreaking havoc with our schedule and our nice little run that had us going all the way back to Florida next was now changed to Kentucky instead. We thought that gave us time to make a stop in Vegas even though it was a little bit out of the way. The mail was piling up since we’d only gotten it once since Christmas and I needed to get things for the CPA to finish our taxes. So off to Vegas we went. The trip is normally about five hours but we got caught in heavy LA rush hour traffic and it seemed like it was taking forever to get out of town. We were finally on our way and making good time when suddenly out in the middle of the Mohave Desert in the middle of nowhere, the truck started to smoke and choke and there we sat on the side of the road trying to imagine what a tow bill was going to cost from there. We were about halfway between Barstow and Las Vegas and didn’t know which one we would even call or if we had a phone signal out there to call a wrecker. So Jorge decided to see if we could make it to Las Vegas under our own power even though top speed was around 40. Any more than that and we were really creating a cloud of smoke. We got real lucky when the only cop we saw was busy with another customer when we slowly passed him. He would have shut us down for sure. It made an already long trip even longer but by the grace of God, we were able to limp the truck to the shop in Las Vegas in the middle of the night and get it serviced first thing in the morning. Don’t you know the mileage was now just over that magic mark and the $1500 bill for a new EGR valve was all ours! We had a fun time there in spite of it. We’re on our way to Louisville now and will be shuttling a couple trailers back and forth between there and Columbus, Ohio. Then no rest for the weary, we will run over to Pennsylvania, down to Miami, and over to New Orleans by next Sunday. We are making up for last week by really working this week. I feel like a real truck driver right now.
These two guys have been buddies since they were puppies. But big ol' Charlie - my brother, Steve's dog- has spent the last four years in California and so Rocky hadn't seen him at all during that time. They got a chance to get reacquainted this week in Las Vegas. It was just like old times except both were older and slower.
Small, medium, and large... that's my niece Emma posing between her two favorite dogs, my Rocky and her Charlie. She's a dog lover like her Aunt Rhonda.
This is just south of the Hoover Dam. I like this picture because it shows a rare moment of green, growing desert plants and a glimpse of the Colorado River back in the canyon.