Orlando Load Cancelled and Reassigned for Saturday Morning

Our load to Orlando was to be ready at about 0500 on Friday morning. Dispatch sent a message at about 0230 and said the load had canceled and that they had nothing else to offer. I typed a "Thank you for the heads up" message back and, though aggravated about being stuck in Jersey for another day, drifted back to sleep.

The phone rang at about 1130 on Friday and it was dispatch again. They had an offer of Orlando, Atlanta, Or Columbus OH. While we would rather have taken the Columbus OH load, because it is easier to get another load out of there, we were forced to take the Orlando load so that we could pick up our new registration for the truck. The reason we don't like going to Orlando between our time off requests is that we inevitably wind up getting stuck there for 2-3 days.

Again, the load was to be ready at about 0500. We decided to go to bed early, get a good nights sleep, and be ready to go when the trailer was loaded and ready. The message came at about 0215 that the trailer was loaded and ready to go.

After I got cleaned up and ready to go, I headed to the office to pick up our paperwork and went to find our trailer. After getting the trailer hooked up I pulled it away from the door and performed the required pre-trip inspection, closed, sealed and lock the trailer doors, caught our log books up and we were off to sunny Orlando.

We were sad to leave our squatted sanctuary in Newark. No really, it's fantastic. The fresh aroma of the Garden state, that aroma is apparently organic fertilizer...if you know what I mean, the amazing demeanor of the locals, the feeling of such security with a prison just down the road. Oh, and lest we forget the beautiful view of a fresh water stream meandering though the area.









We traveled straight down I-95, through Baltimore, the D.C. area and right on down into Florida. We had to stop for a splash of fuel in Latta, SC. Tina drove from there, the rest of the way into Orlando.

We arrived Orlando at about 2130 Saturday evening. Our company, the company to which we are leased, moved to a new facility in Orlando. Man they bragged about this facility. More room, easier access, etc. Well, it may be better, but only for everyone other than the contractors. This place is horrible to get to, there is only room for 7 trucks to park in assigned areas, there is less room for backing into the doors. I suppose there are more doors for trailers to be docked, but there is nowhere for empty trailers to be stored. In short, this was, in my humble opinion, a poor...no a very poor acquisition, but I digress.

Upon arrival, and seeing the lack of space for waiting trucks, I called dispatch to see if we would be able to get back out of there on Saturday evening/Sunday morning. We were told that it would be Sunday evening before we received a dispatch out of Orlando so we decided to go to the house, 63 miles to the West, to sleep comfortably, have a personal parking place for the truck, facilities to perform maintenance on the truck, laundry facilities, etc. While we were at home, I was able to do a lube and bypass filter change on the truck. I also installed a water pump to be used to wash the truck while we are sitting.

I knew when we went to the house that they would leave us sit but it at least we would be sitting at home. They would have done the same had we been sitting, in the truck, in Orlando.

Finally, after much griping, moaning, and airing my feelings about what was happening, we were dispatched on a load out of Orlando on Monday evening going to Atlanta. Not a lot better but we would be out of Florida and away from our terminal of domicile. The load, reportedly, would be ready about 2300.

After dinner, and after putting the truck back together, we headed over to Orlando to get some rest before the load was ready. We got there at about 2045 and got a call at about 2140 that the load was ready to go. Again, we hooked to the loaded trailer, pre-tripped, and headed for Atalanta.

We traveled up the Florida Turnpike to I-75 the straight north into Atlanta. I stopped in Reddick Florida for a bit of fuel and moved on with little delay. We arrived in Atlanta this morning at our customer location at about 0600, bumped the dock and were empty and back to our Atlanta terminal by about 0730.

We were dispatched on a load going to Dallas tonight. The load should be ready by about 2300. We will have to stop outside of Atlanta for a little fuel and then on to Dallas. We will travel across I-20 all the way into the Dallas area TX114 up to the DFW Airport area. We shall see what happens from there.

We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.



In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

In Newark Now, Waiting for Load to Orlando

After I left off yesterday, I slept a bit longer and then took over driving from Tina at about 2030 in Hurricane Mills, TN.

We had a fairly uneventful trip until the mirror insert on the driver's mirror came loose and went flying behind me. Now, this is the 2nd time this has happened to the mirror on the driver's side and we have also lost two from the passenger's side. Obviously and inherent problem with the mirror design.

I have learned to carry an extra mirror insert in the truck, but at 0300 on the side of the road it is a bit difficult to find and install. It too though, is very difficult to drive, safely, with a missing driver's side mirror.

I decided to stop at the next truck stop and buy a mirror and some tape and tape a temporary mirror in place to use until we arrived in Newark. I bought a "West Coast" style mirror like would be used on a Pete or Kenworth W900L and 12 yards of "Gorilla Tape" and below are the results of my hurried efforts to regain side and rear view vision.









Between this and the traffic accident just East of Dallas after we left yesterday, we were late for our arrival in Newark by about 15 minutes or so. The accident involved a big truck and a hazmat spill on the interstate and that always involves closing the roadway until the hazmat team arrives for cleanup.

We finally got here, Newark, at about 1315, dropped the trailer and went to find a parking place, which can sometimes be a challenge in this facility. We were lucky today and there was plenty of space left for us to park.

I started looking for the mirror insert that I knew I had. I found it in the toolbox, on the back of the truck, still in the original and ready for install.

I decided this time, since time did permit, I would not only install the new insert but also devise a plan to keep from losing it the next time it comes loose, and it will come loose again. I decided to make a tether out of a tie wrap and a short length of wire and loosely attach the mirror to the mirror housing.








The real problem with this insert is the method they used to attach the insert to the motor adjusting assembly. They us a locking ring that rotates after insert installation, upward. By rotating the ring upward and not providing a good lock mechanism onto the lock ring to keep it from rotation back to the unlocked or down position, they have allowed vibration to rattle the lock ring loose and failure occurs after enough vibration to release the lock ring.







After installing the home made tether, I installed the new insert. I also placed a tie wrap around the lock ring lever to try and keep the ring from unlocking while we are driving down the road. This is a problem Paccar really needs to deal with, in my humble opinion. These inserts are about $110.00 to $130.00, depending on which dealer you by it from. Below is a picture of the finished product. You can't see the retention method I used but it is there and should last this time.

Dispatch sent a load, via Qualcomm, at about 0730 and it seems they would like us to travel south to Orlando tomorrow. That is a good thing considering our new registration is at the Orlando terminal awaiting our arrival and retrieval.

We will be traveling straight down I-95 into Florida and the I-4 into Orlando. We are going to Orlando at a good time of the week actually. They always have a Vegas run out of there on Friday night Saturday morning. That would be a great start to next week if I can talk them into giving us that one. We shall see.


We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.



In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Off to the East Coast Today

Okay, but what happened to the last 9 days? Well, let's get caught up.

We sat in Phoenix until about 1500 on the 13th. We actually enjoyed the down time. Didn't really do much other than just sit around and watch television, napped, talked with other drivers etc.

Dispatch called at about 1400 on the 13th and asked if we could hook to an empty trailer, run it over to Los Angeles, and then load from there to go to Atlanta GA on the morning of the 14th. That sounded pretty good to us, we would head over to L.A., get another good nights sleep and leave for Atlanta the next morning. After fueling, and emptying the waste tank. we headed to the Phoenix terminal, found an empty trailer, performed the required pre-trip inspection, and headed to L.a.. While we were emptying the waste tank a local drove up pulling a portable toilet trailer that he rents out for weddings and other events. This wasn't a porta pot like you see sitting in construction sites but rather a high end trailer configuration. Anyway, I sparked a conversation with the guy, which considering the conversation piece isn't hard to do, and we talked for a bit about the country, the 912 Project and the local groups with which he could get involved. After a brief encounter he signed the truck and we were off. we headed to the Phoenix terminal, found an empty trailer, performed the required pre-trip inspection, and headed to L.a..

We arrived in L.A. at about 2300 that evening and went promptly to bed, knowing that our load was to be ready at 0600.

true to form, the L.a. terminal ran late and the load wasn't ready until about 0930. That was alright though, the sleep was good. Nice and cool outside, not much noise, pretty darned good sleeping.

We received our "load Ready" message at about 0930. We had already been up for about 45 minutes or so, had some coffee, a breakfast sandwich and had already gotten cleaned up for the day. I headed to the office to retrieve our paperwork and then off to find the trailer. After hooking the trailer, I again, performed the pre-trip inspection and took towards the exit of the yard. Our illustrious security officer stopped me, interrogated me( which they are told to do) for about 3 minutes or so, and then checked the seal on the trailer and released me to the free world.

Because we are on I-40 so much of the time, and we get a bit tired of the same old grind, we decided to run across I-10 into Texas and then I-20 the rest of the way to Atlanta. That is neither the shortest nor the fastest route but it is the cheapest route. While it is about 70 miles or so further, I can and do make the case that fuel is cheaper on I-10 and I-20 than it is on I-40 plus the roads are better on that southern route and there are less hard pulls(hills, mountains) on the southern route so we use less fuel going that way. Not to mention, the personal preference of I-10/I-20 over I-40.

So we got as far as Eloy AZ and we had a steer tire starting to fail. The tire on the right had an internal steel belt slipping and causing a pretty bad shimmy in the steering wheel. Now, I knew I needed steer tires, not that they were worn out bad enough to be a safety concern, but I was aware that we would have to put a set on in May when we would be taking some down time at home. Now, with one of the tires failing internally, we would have to move that date forward a bit. I started making calls trying to find the tires I wanted to no avail. Because we are extremely heavy on the steer axle, we are forced, in some states to have wider tires than normal. Of course, however, no-one carries the tires I like in stock. I usually run the Micheline XZA2 315 80 R22.5 tire that is rated at 9090# per tire in a single tire position. Again, no-one stocks that tire because it is so rarely used.

I ended up settling on a Bridgestone M860 315 80 R22.5. While this wasn't the tire I wanted, for several reasons, I had little choice at this point. While the guys were installing the tires an elderly lady came from the inside and was reading the side of the truck. I could see she was interested in the purpose and reason behind what was there. I spoke with her for a few minutes, explained the 912 Project and why we are participating in the project in this manner. I explained the poem on the side of the truck and she got teary eyed. She said "Oh my Gosh, yes, I know who Pastor Niemoller was, this just gives me chills", she continued, "you see, we came from Germany in 1952, when I was just a young lady, and I remember what had happened there and sometimes it seems as though some of the same things are going on here". She cried a bit, read some more and out of the blue turned to me with a tear in her eyes, grabbed and hugged me and turned and walked inside just shaking her head.

It is times like this that makes the tough times worthwhile. Times like this make the naysayers of our mission moot. Times like this restore my faith in the human race and keeps me plodding forward. You see, I don't think anything happens by chance. I think my tire was meant to fail when it did, we were led to that tire facility, and that our meeting with that lady was as blatant of a push forward as anyone could ever have. I was humbled that day, I was moved to plow on. Times like this happen often, though not usually as profound as this. While awakening many or at least letting them know they aren't alone in their feeling, I believe God knows we need encouragement and gives it when needed.

After the tires were installed we moved on towards Atlanta. We arrived there at about 0100 on the 16th and they had a load, a short one going to Raleigh NC with a return empty to Charlotte NC., and a promise of a load back to Los Angeles from there. After a long traffic delay due to a truck fire on I-81 in South Carolina, we made it to Raleigh at about 0900. We took a brief nap, got up, showered and got ourselves ready for the day and headed to Charlotte with an empty trailer. Since there wasn't a need tot be in Charlotte until 0600 the next day, the 17th, we took our time and stopped for some lunch. After lunch we moved on to Charlotte and got there at about 1800.

The load for Los Angeles was to be ready at about 0600, so after a little television we went to bed for a good nights sleep. The load was ready pretty early. Actually at about 0245 is when we were notified and we were hooked to the load and on our way by about 0330. A fight with a very stubborn, bent trailer door was to blame for the delay. It took a pry bar and a hammer to get the latch pushed into place before I could close the other door.

This routing was a bit tricky because they still have I-40 closed at the TN/NC state line due to a major rock slide several months ago. We decided to head for Atlanta on I-85 and then run I-20 to Birmingham and U.S,78 into Memphis where we would access I-40 west and run that all the way to CA. Again, I know there are much shorter ways but why beat the heck out of the truck on mountainous back roads when time permits otherwise? Again, time, fuel, terrain, etc all play a part in our decisions about which routes we run. It isn't always "the shortest is the best" mentality.

Again, on our way to L.A. we were inspired by some passers by giving us the thumbs up and taking pictures of the truck.

We finally got to L.A. at about 2100 on the 18th. We were pretty sure we'd be there all night so we parked, got a good nights sleep after a long run, and got up in the morning and took a walk. Now we never hear from west coast dispatch until about 1600 or so for our load assignment out of LAX so when my phone rang at 1030 while we were walking, I didn't even think about it being them. Kyle from Sacramento dispatch was on the other end wanting to know if we wanted to take a load to San Diego. I really don't like running up and down the coast of California. It is hard enough getting in and out of L.A. unscathed by law enforcement without tempting fate by running up and down the coast. I told Kyle I'd have to call him back but that I really didn't want to do it if he could find someone else. By the time we got back to the truck, about 20 minutes or so, he had found someone else to make the run and we were off the hook.

I spent the day tearing apart the light bars on the rear of the truck and repairing wiring inside the bars. I had 1 light working on the right side and 2 on the left. No need to give D.O.T. unnecessary cause for a roadside check, so I had better fix the lights while we are down. This mandated grinding out the pop rivets holding the lights into the light bar and repairing the wiring, installing tubing around all the wires inside the light bar to alleviate the wire rubbing on the steel and then re-riveting the lights into the bar.

Five hours later, due partially, okay probably mostly, to my anally retentive nature, I had the lights repaired and back in place. Now I could take Tina for a bite to eat.

There is a little burger joint in the area to which we can walk, about 3/4 mile or so away, and they have really good food and great service. The name of the place is Columbia Burger. We really like this place. Just a hole in the wall so don't get excited about "atmosphere" but the food can't be beat for a quick meal and great service.

After sitting all day we found out that we would be headed to Dallas out of LAX. The load would be ready at about 0600 and should deliver in Dallas by about 0900 on Wednesday the 21st. The load was actually ready at about 0630, we were up, ready to go, hooked and inspected and on the road by about 0730. We traveled across I-40 to Amarillo and down 287 into the Dallas Fort Worth area. We went this way, across I-40 this time, because there is a rest area in Iowa Park TX with an RV dump station and we knew it was time to dump our waste tank.

On the way to Dallas, when we were in New Mexico, dispatch wanted to know if we wanted to pull a load to Newark NJ that would be ready when we got to Dallas. We accepted the load, though not overly happily. We arrived in Dallas at about 0730, dropped the LAX load, retrieved the paperwork for the Newark NJ load and took out to find the trailer. After hooking, inspecting and checking out with the guard on duty, we were off to Newark. We decided to travel across I-30 to Little Rock and the I-40 to I-81 to I-76 into Joysey. We'll miss D.C. traffic on I-95 that way and while it may be a few miles longer will probably save an hour or so in traffic. Not to mention I won't be subject4d to the slime in D.C. and take a chance on it rubbing off onto me or the truck. Incidentally, by "slime" I mean the politicians, not the regular citizens. They are mostly great folks in that area.

We are currently in the West Memphis area, Tina is driving and traffic is pretty bad. We expect to be in Newark by about noon or so tomorrow and then hopefully get to Orlando. Our new registration is sitting there and the old one expires at the end of this month.

We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.



In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

04/12/10 Arrived Phoenix Last Night

Our load was ready about 1730 Friday evening out of Columbus. We were to go to Kansas City and take a load that would be waiting there to Phoenix. Before we were able to make it to Kansas City, we received a message asking if we would be willing to go to Eagan MN, South Minneapolis area with an empty trailer and pull a load right back to Kansas City.

I suppose it was about an hour and a half later, we pulled into the Kansas City terminal and dropped and secured our trailer, deposited the paperwork in the night depository, and located an empty trailer to pull to Eagan MN. We hooked the empty, performed the pre-trip and headed for Eagan MN.

We made it to Eagan at about 1330, dropped the empty, hooked to the loaded trailer and headed back to Kansas City, MO. We arrived back in Kansas City at about 2115. I handed the paperwork off to the driver that would be pulling the load the rest of the way to Dallas, unhooked and re-hooked to our Phoenix load.

After performing our pre-trip inspection on the Phoenix trailer, We went to the fuel stop up the road, filled up with fuel, checked the truck and trailer over again, and headed for Phoenix.

We traveled U.S. 54 to Tucumcari, NM where we jumped onto I-40 west and ran that all the way to Flagstaff AZ and accessed I-17 south right into Phoenix. We made it to Phoenix at about 1930, dropped the trailer and went to bed, directly to bed, we did not pass go nor did we collect $200.00.

It was actually a bit warm in phoenix last night so we started the generator and turned the A/c on. Just about 2 hours or so into a great nap, the generator decided to quit running. I thought I could sleep without the a/c so I just went back to bed and tried to forget it. No such luck. The longer I lay there, the hotter it got.

I was able to get the generator running in about 30 minutes or so. It was overheating because of road grime built up on the radiator. I cleaned the radiator off a bit, and left the door open on the front for more air flow, and it seemed to be okay. Man was that good. I was tired and wanted to go back to bed. Which I did.

Tina got up this morning and turned on the water heater for a shower and then took off for a walk. I stay in bed a bit longer, until the generator quit running again, that is. It seems that the water heater being turned on had loaded the generator a bit more, causing the engine to run a bit warmer and the radiator fan couldn't move enough air to keep it cool. I knew what I had to do. I got my lazy rear end out of bed, got cleaned up, dressed and off to work. You see, driving isn't the only job you have when you are a truck owner/driver. You have to be a mechanic as well.

When I got outside I found the door for the front of the generator hanging, broken loose from its mounts. I removed the door and then the cover for the generator and set it aside. After removing all the pieces from around the radiator that would come off, I proceeded to spray the radiator down with a degreaser and let it soak for a bit. I decided as long as I was working on the generator, I might as well do a service as well. I removed the K&N Air Filter sprayed on the special cleaning agent and let it set for a bit too. I changed the oil and fuel filters and topped off the oil level. I also sprayed the rest of the generator down with degreaser and sprayed the area off with water. I repeated the degreasing of the radiator to be sure it was good and clean.

After a thorough cleaning and inspection of all wear parts and topping off the coolant reservoir I started work on reattaching the door to the cover. I had to drill out the broken rivets and install new rivets in their place. As Murphy's Law commands, "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." Both batteries for my cordless drill were dead. I keep them plugged in for emergency use but it seems that they have overcharged and are bad now. I was able to get enough juice out of them to drill 9 rivets out but that is all. They are completely dead now. Good ole Black and Decker junk.

I re-riveted the door to the cover and re-installed it to the generator. All is well now it seems.

I also changed the FS 2500 bypass oil filter on the truck engine. I love this filter. It only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish to change and keeps the oil amazingly clean. I run oil samples with every filter change to make sure the oil is still good and clean.

After completing the work on the truck, we headed over to the truck wash in the area. They also make a killer burger. I had them wash the truck while we had dinner and now, here we sit, watching television.

We don't know at this point to where we will be headed but I'm sure that after we get to sleep real good the phone will ring with our orders. We shall see.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Sittin' Back in Columbus Now

we got back to the Columbus terminal at about 1215 this afternoon. After we dropped the trailer, and Tina ran the paperwork inside, I fueled the truck and Tina went inside to get some laundry done.

We received a message from dispatch asking that we pull a load to Kansas City MO. We accepted the load and it is to leave here at about 1700. I though that I would pump the fuel right way so that we didn't delay the load by fueling after it was ready.

We will leave here and run across I-70 all the way to Kansas City.

As I sit writing this post, dispatch called again and asked if we had any idea what we wanted to do when we get to Kansas City. My reply was, hmmmm, hadn't thought about it, we aren't loaded in Columbus yet. HE asked if we would be willing to pull a load to Phoenix and then on to Vegas. We accepted the load, so I suppose we are set for the weekend now.

We should, if the Kansas City load is ready on time, leave here at about 1700, be in Kansas City at about 0430 and then get a short nap there. The load from there to Phoenix is actually coming from Chicago by another truck. That load is to be there by 1100 tomorrow morning.

Again, if the load is there on time, we should be in Phoenix by about 0900 on Sunday. I have no idea yet what time we will leave Phoenix and therefor don't know what time we will be in Vegas. I will update here when I know though.

From Kansas City we will travel I-35 south to U.S. 54 west to I-40 west to I-17 south into Phoenix. We will fuel in Kansas City MO when we get there and shouldn't have to fuel again before we get to Phoenix. That means a non stop trip except for driver switches and stop signs or lights. Sounds like a busy weekend, huh?

We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.



In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Headed Back to Columbus

Just before we got to Rock Tavern last night, at about 2230 or so, I received a text message from the driver with whom we were to switch trailers and he had just left Boston MA. He was about 3.5-4 hours away.

We decided we would take advantage of the down time and catch a short nap. The wrap on the door came, from the other driver, at about 0200. He was already unhooked from the trailer and was waiting for me to unhook from mine.

I jumped up, got dressed and hurriedly unhooked, re-hooked performed my pre-trip inspection. I caught up my logbook and we were headed for Columbus, OH. We are currently in western Pennsylvania on I-80 and it is snowing, raining, sleeting nasty combination of weather. Again, every time we come this way, the weather is nasty. Granted, it isn't sticking to the roads but man, what's the deal. It was 70 degrees here yesterday, on the way up and now it is just about 35 degrees or so.

We should be back in Columbus OH by about 1230 or so. I have no idea where they will want us to go next but we readily await their dispatch.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

04/08/10 Off to Rock Tavern (Newburgh) NY

Well, we finally made it to Dallas about 0530 on Wednesday morning. We had received notice that our load back to Columbus was ready, even before we arrived in Dallas. That notice came at ab out 0440.

We dropped the loaded trailer, fueled the truck and hooked to the trailer going back to Columbus. After a pre-trip inspection of the truck and trailer, as required by D.O.T., we were off and running. We left Dallas at about 0615.

We, rather uneventfully, arrived back in Columbus OH this morning at about 0030, dropped the trailer and went to bed. A 38 hour turn from Columbus OH to Dallas and back to Columbus, with a 2 hour flat tire delay, is a pretty quick turn by any standards. I know there are plenty of folks who'll say no big deal, and it isn't, it's just a pretty quick turn, but anyway...

We got up this morning and headed to our favorite greasy spoon restaurant, just down the street from the terminal, only to find out it had been closed up, out of business. What the??? Oh well. We decided on Wafflay Hoosay, that's frenchy french for Waffle House for those of you who aren't quite refined as I. So while we were having breakfast, Frank called and said he didn't have much out of Columbus today but here's what I do have, he said," Philly, I said not looking for a cheese steak He said Portland, OR, I said too liberal for us there, he said Rock Tavern NY and right back to Columbus, that's all I got. We took Rock Tavern.

After breakfast, we headed over to the local big box grocery store and done some shopping for groceries and Tina's craft supplies. We then headed back to the terminal for some R&R before the load was to be ready about 1500. We no sooner got back there and the message came that the load was ready and needed to leave right away.

We just went through Youngstown and we are about 360 miles or so South East f Rock Tavern. We are supposed to meet another driver there, with a load from Boston, that is to go back to Columbus and he will take ours on to Boston.

This is beautiful country up here but the weather seems to always be nasty. It seems that every time we come up this way it is either raining or snowing.

I guess we are about 6 hours or so from our Rock Tavern destination. We just got a message from dispatch telling us that the other driver would be there about 2 hours or so later than us. Looks like we'll get another nap before returning.


In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
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Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Update on Trip to DFW, 04/06/10

Just as I was getting the last post ready to publish, and I was looking forward to a nice hot shower, Tina, who was driving, yelled and said that we had a tire going down on the tractor. How did she know that? Well, well, well, now. When I purchased this truck, I decided to install a Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Monitoring System.Man was that a good choice. This system,took all of about an hour to install and calibrate and I believe anyone with knowledge enough to install an add on XM radio could do the install themselves.

The system monitors the tire pressure in each tire and displays it upon command. When a tire starts losing pressure, at a given rate and down to a certain point below your "set point", an alarm sounds and continues to sound until the problem is alleviated. This monitor has saved me from replacing 2 tires now. Two of the wide based super single tires that run about $850.00 each. Thank God for technology and for our capitalist society. Without both, this technology would never exist. What a money saver.

We jumped off the interstate at the next exit, I aired the tire back up to a suitable level and found a bolt seal, removed from another trailer and left laying in the terminal yard, that had punctured the tire. Tina was on the phone calling around trying to find someone with a road service truck that would come out and repair the tire. Not only would they not come and repair the tire, but we were told that we were out of their service area and that they didn't carry that size tire anyway.

After a computer search, a couple more phone calls to our shop in Columbus, and a short 16 mile trip down the road we found a place that could, would, and did fix the tire.

Qfix Truck Service in Pendleton KY. What an amazing bunch of folks. These people know what service is all about. Not only could they patch the tire, but if it was bad enough that it couldn't b e patched, they had a replacement tire. After the initial hour of trying to find someone and driving 16 miles to their shop, they had us in and out, tire repaired and on the road in 1 hour. Not only did it only take an hour, but we didn't get raped, pillaged and plundered like many of the shops might have done. $46.98 later they had removed the tire, dismounted it, plugged and patched it, and remounted and re-installed it onto the truck.

This place is at exit 28 on I-71 on the East side of the highway in the Pilot truck stop parking lot. If you are in the area and need any kind of repair and or service work, give these folks the opportunity to show you their professionalism and determination to please. They do about all kinds of work including air conditioning and oil changes as well.

Qfix has 5 locations. They are; Pendleton KY 502-743-0349, Lebanon Junction KY 502-833-4100, Memphis TN 812-294-4581, Corbin KY 606-523-1219, and Evansville IN 812-768-6681. They also have a website at www.qfixtrucks.com. They also have 24 hour emergency and emergency road service.

Finally, I would just like to say thanks to Larry Goodlett, Managaer and to Josh, the tire repair tech who made the repairs on our truck and to the rest of the staff for their kind and helpful attitudes.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

DFW to ATL to RDU to CMH to DFW and back to CMH Tomorrow

We did get out of Dallas on time. The load was ready at 2300 and we were hooked to the loaded trailer, had the pre-trip inspection performed, and out the gate by 2330. We traveled out tx114 to I-30 to U.S. 80 and on to I-20.

We had to make a quick stop in Terrell TX for a splash of fuel and then again in Greenwood LA to fill up with fuel. We arrived, uneventfully, in Atlanta at about 1300 and figured that since it was Easter Sunday, we would likely be there all day.

We were enjoying the Rick Warren special from Angel Stadium in Anaheim CA when the phone rang and it was dispatch. They had some short runs that they didn’t have enough solo trucks to cover and asked if we would take a load to Raleigh NC and then run empty back to Charlotte NC. Again, we accepted the load.

The load was actually ready when they called so we hurriedly headed to dispatch for our manifest and hooked to our loaded trailer. I performed the pre-trip inspection and again, we were off and running.

The load wasn’t scheduled to deliver until 0500 on Monday so we decided to find a place for dinner. We stopped in Commerce GA at a T/A truck stop. Now that was a mistake. The service was pretty good, but they had very little food. The restaurant manager had apparently forgotten to plan for Easter Sunday and they were out of many entrées and even condiments on the salad bar.

We had dinner and relaxed for about an hour and we were off again for Raleigh. We arrived at our terminal at about 2230 or so and I unhooked from the trailer so that I could install a kingpin lock and go find a parking place to go to bed. Not so fast, they had plenty of king pin locks but there were no keys available to install them. I had to stay hooked to the trailer until someone from the warehouse arrived to keep watch of the freight.

The warehouse supervisor arrived about 0130, woke me up so that I could pull away from the dock and open the trailer doors and bump the dock again and then I dropped the trailer and went to bed for the rest of the evening.

We were supposed to go to Charlotte with an empty but that plan changed as well. We were asked to stay put and they’d let us know in a bit where we would be going.

In the mean time, I decided to make contact with an internet friend, Karen Allen, the amazingly talented young lady who done the header for this blog site and is also the purveyor of Annieoakley.org. Karen told us if we were ever in the area, she and her kids would love to see the truck. We made arrangements, I gave her directions to where we were parked and she and her wonderful kids came and visited, signed the truck, and took some pictures.

Just before Karen and family arrived, dispatch called and asked us to hook to an empty trailer and go to Reynoldsburg OH (North Columbus area). After our visit, we did as they asked and were headed for our next load by about 1445. Again, the load we were going to pull from Reynoldsburg wasn’t going to be ready until about 1000 the next morning, Tuesday.

We stopped in Wytheville VA for dinner and to kill some time. About an hour and a half later we were gone again. We traveled up I-77 to U.S. 33 and arrived in Reynoldsburg about 0100. Went to bed and this morning, before we could hook to the loaded trailer, dispatch called and asked if we would pull a load to Dallas rather than the Miami that we had been assigned to earlier. That was a great call.

It seems that every time we go into Florida, we get stuck there for 2-3 days and we just really didn’t want to be there at this point. We headed back to the terminal in Columbus, about 18 miles or so south and dropped our empty, filled up with fuel, and hooked to the loaded trailer. We were hooked, fueled and rolling by about 0945.

We are now south of Cincinnati OH between there and Louisville KY. We will be traveling I-71 to I-65 south, to Nashville TN. In Nashville we will access I-40 west and run that to Little Rock AR. From there we will exit to I-30 west and run that the rest of the way into Dallas.

As I sit writing this entry, dispatch just called and asked, when we get to Dallas, whether we might want to turn around back to Columbus OH. Since we aren’t out here for our health, but rather to make money, we accepted the load. Our trip back should be ready when we arrive in Dallas, so it should be a pretty quick turn. I’m guessing that we should be back in Columbus by about midnight Wednesday night. We shall see.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Update to 03/03/10 DFW to Columbus.

Dispatch called at 1700 to tell us that yet another load, our load to Columbus OH had canceled, and therefore we wouldn't be going to Eagan MN as planned either.

They called back at about 1710 and asked if we would take a load to Atlanta GA tonight. We have accepted the load and are scheduled to leave here at about 2300 this evening.

Assuming the load leaves on time, or even leaves at all, we should be in Atlanta by about 1300-1400 tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, we wait.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Waiting in Dallas for Load Going to Columbus, OH

We were on vacation, well, actually just some time off for doctors appointments, the week of the 20th of March. We had some good off time. We attended a rally on the 20th for a Congressional candidate in our district in Florida. His name is Jason Sager and seems to be quite the win for conservative voters.

On the 27th we went to Orlando to Glenn Beck's "American Revival" event at the UCF Arena. What an amazing event. Glenn really went all out to get the best speakers, the most knowledgeable individuals and to provide the best literature sources source available. I cannot speak highly enough about the quality of information in this event. Truly, if you love America, want to get the Real America back, and care to learn how the experts say to do that, please attend his next event in Phoenix, AZ on the 10th of April at the Jobing Arena. Really, it is in Glendale, AZ but close enough.

The rest of the week was spent going to different doctors offices, rescheduling canceled appointments, having some rather unpleasant tests performed and working on the truck. I had to replace the no lube 5th wheel anti friction plates. I had to replac3e the radiator, stemming from a couple months ago when the fan clutch failed, and then the normal bypass filter and oil filter replacements. Cummins has a new extended drain oil filter out and I wanted to get the latest technology available for the best protection. The new oil filter is the LF9080 and replaces the LF9001. The exterior looks about the same but the inside of the filter is supposed to be a better material and made to last for longer durations and heavier soot produced by the new engines, and make extending oil and filter changes safer for those of us who care to use a bypass filter.

Now that we are back to work, and have been for a week, we are focused on the job at hand. Waking Up America!!! We took a call on Monday afternoon, the 29th of March, from dispatch and received a dispatch to Los Angeles that was to be ready at about 0500 on Tuesday. What a great way to start a new week after a week off. A good long run, in nice weather, on a very familiar road, that we really like to run. WRONG...At about 0200, dispatch called again, and the load to LAX had canceled but not to worry, we have a great load to Newark NJ. Oh well, we needed to get moving, so we accepted the change, without too much moaning. I just despise the east coast, north of Richmond VA but I digress. The load was ready at about 0315 and we spent the next 4 days, did I say four days, on the east coast, north of Richmond VA. Did I mention that I despise the East Coast anywhere north of Richmond VA? I'm just sayin'.

Two canceled loads later, a whole lot of griping, to Tina, and many traffic delays, we made it to Columbus OH, then to Houston TX. We had a dispatch to Orlando last night, it too canceled and now we're sitting in DFW waiting for a load to Columbus OH. We really didn't want to go to Orlando anyway. It seems that when they get us to Florida, we sit an extended period of time. We try to only go there when it is time to go to the house for time off.

We had some great visits with folks looking at the truck in Columbus, and the3n coming south on I-71 towards Cincinnati. Ohio still seems to hold the candle for the rest of conservative America. I've added some Pictures to the photobucket page so be sure to have a look. There are a couple of folks at our Columbus OH terminal and the amazing Angela (twitter ID @dimplesang) that we met in Tallahassee on our way home. She and her two boys(twins) came to the truck stop to see and sign the truck. We also encountered another driver at the truck stop and he wanted to sign the truck as well. His name was James Boyd form Tallahassee.

The movement seems to be growing across America and seems to be increasing in vigor. America, Real America, the "flyover" portion of America that seems to be ignored, has truly come to life. I told my father 12 years ago that America was about to revolt then, I told my wife 10 years ago the same thing. They have finally pushed us into the corner tight enough that we are coming out fighting. We have awakened and now they think that they can re-administer the sleeping against...Money, Credit, and any other entitlement program they can use as a detraction. Not this time. I will scream at the top of my lungs until we extract all the dirt bag miscreants from D.C..

Thanks for Reading
In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW