It's a nice relaxing weekend for us and today we are slowly moving west to the bay area of California. We are in search of a laundromat and Jorge is planning some more 'home improvements' when we finally do park. We'll be staying near Reno for the next couple days before we deliver Tuesday morning.
We hear it’s been a pretty warm August in the southern parts of the country and we are grateful that we’ve been able to spend most of our time with the new company up in the northwest. We have seen our share of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Utah in the past week. One night was spent in the northern regions of the California Sierras and we woke up to a temp of 35 degrees! We have delivered huge a/c units, several empty shipping containers from one military base to another, and are now hauling a load of insulation from Salt Lake City back to central California. None of it has been difficult yet although we’ve learned there is an art to strapping insulation so that it’s snug enough so as not to fall off the trailer but not so tight that the straps crush the product. This is definitely a learning process. With a tip of the hat to the old seasoned truckers who are more than willing to share their expertise with us rookies- we are slowly learning the ropes of this new variety of truck driving we have chosen to do now. We used to go to all the major downtown areas and navigate those narrow streets. This job is the complete opposite. We have already been on some backroads we had never before been on. That’s always fun for us. But this week something happened that has never before happened in all our years of driving…. We ran out of road! We made one delivery that was literally out in the middle of the Nevada desert. There sat a little guard shack with one soldier inside and another waiting for us to arrive with the containers. After we were finished with the delivery, our next pickup was about 50 miles to the south over a mountain range. According to our map, it seemed like a thru road and Jorge asked one of the guys if it was a good road for us to take. He said it was but warned we should be careful of a couple tight curves in the mountain passes. So there we were cruising right along and we did go thru a few S curves as he had told us. Right after that, Jorge came to a screeching halt. That was the end of the road – no more pavement! It continued ahead as a dirt road that went further into the mountains. Maybe the wagon trains of days past went thru there but we weren’t about to try it. We sat there for a minute trying to figure out how we were going to get out of this dilemma. We couldn’t back up because we’d just come thru those S curves so that wasn’t an option. Going straight was definitely not an option either. I thought we were going to have to set off a few road flares and pray some military helicopter would come and airlift us out of there. Jorge decided to do the only thing that seemed somewhat possible. There was a very small area just off the road that he was going to attempt to turn around. Keep in mind our truck and trailer is 75 feet long and it’s not an easy feat to turn this around anywhere. I just knew we were going to bury it up to its axles in the sand just from the weight – 40,000 lbs worth. By the grace of God and the wings of angels, Jorge was able to somehow flip it around and we drove all the way back around the mountain on the main road to finally make it to our destination. Lesson learned! It's a nice relaxing weekend for us and today we are slowly moving west to the bay area of California. We are in search of a laundromat and Jorge is planning some more 'home improvements' when we finally do park. We'll be staying near Reno for the next couple days before we deliver Tuesday morning.
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Our two days of orientation turned into over three days last week in Louisville. I was never more happy to get back to work than when we’d finished jumping thru all the necessary hoops and were finally heading out the gates of Mercer Transportation – the new company we leased our truck onto. It all went well but it was such a busy time running here and there getting things done. Such things as a mandatory drug test, a couple minor repairs their mechanics found on the truck, a trip to the TWIC office for a background check (that will let us into the ports and onto the military bases), a little class on load securement, and a lot of safety videos to watch. Everyone there was very nice to us, including our own personal dispatcher, Tom. It’s his job to find loads that will be suitable for our truck to carry. Because the truck is so big to begin with and then add the weight of the trailer, we are slightly restricted with the weight of the freight we can carry. That’s fine with us though - the lighter the load, the better the fuel mileage. We finished up with everything on Thursday morning and by Thursday afternoon, Tom had found us a load that picked up right there in Louisville. We were there bright and early the next morning and picked up three great big air-conditioning units which took up most of the trailer. Then we had to run down to Clarksville, Tennessee and get a couple loaded on there. We left there Friday afternoon and today we are delivering them at a couple locations in Oregon. Tomorrow morning we’ll drop off the last bunch at a job site near Portland. Thankfully our first load went pretty smooth. We’ll find out tomorrow after we’re completely finished when and where the next load goes. We think we’re going to like working for this company. We made our final trip hauling Broadway shows this week. We ended up in Portland, Oregon. It’s the first time we’ve been up that way in a long time and I just want to mention that this is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful states in the country. The mountains, lakes, and pine trees of every variety, make this a place I’d come back to just to vacation. It’s on the list… No time for vacation this week though… we delivered the load, said goodbye to our dear friends, and hit the road to Louisville, Kentucky – headquarters of our new company Mercer Transportation. We had a plan to make stops along the way – gathering everything we would need for the job. First stop was Salt Lake City. There we picked up all kinds of equipment – things like chains and straps and lots of stuff that I don’t even know the name of yet. I have a feeling I will soon be learning what all of it is though. Next stop was Kansas City. That’s where we are today buying our brand new step-deck trailer. We are excited about our new opportunities and the change of pace ahead of us. Later today we’ll be in St. Louis getting the tarps needed to cover some loads. So things are shaping up well for our two days of orientation next week. I’ll update you when we’re finished in Louisville and on the road with our first Mercer load. Meanwhile, enjoy some of the many pictures we took this week in the scenic western portion of the country. |