Columbus to Denver and Beyond.

We arrived in Columbus OH at about 1600 on Wednesday afternoon and took a dispatch for Denver CO to be ready at about 1800. Tina had some laundry to take care of and I had some light maintenance work to do on the truck and then had to fuel the truck as well. I hadn’t bought fuel since Milan NM, 1590 miles. I love this fuel mileage.

The load was actually ready at about 1900 and after hooking the loaded trailer and performing a pretrip inspection; we were off to Denver CO.

The weather was pretty stormy from Indianapolis IN all the way to about Columbia MO. I suppose that was the same storm that produced tornadoes in Arkansas. After crossing into Kansas, the wind started picking up pretty heavily. It had been windy all the way across but not like it was in Kansas. The wind in Kansas and actually all the way to Denver was very strong and out of the north. I despise the wind, but a cross wind in a big truck is very bad. The side of the trailer acts like a large sail on a sailboat. Besides being dangerous, it killed any chance of decent fuel mileage. I used 73 gallons more fuel in 1280 miles than I had used in 1590 miles the previous day.

We arrived in Denver at about 1630 on Thursday. Before arriving we received a call from dispatch and were asked to take a load from Denver to Salt Lake City UT and then turn right back out of SLC to Columbus OH. The load in Denver was to be ready at 2330. We agreed to take the assignment and should be back in Columbus on Saturday afternoon.

After arriving in Denver, I dropped the loaded trailer we had, at the terminal, and headed out to the local truck stop about 3 miles east to dump our waste tank, fuel up for the upcoming load to SLC and for a bite to eat.

We had a pleasant surprise we got to the truck stop. It seems that the Flying J has made a deal with Denny’s Restaurants to place Denney’s in some of the truck stops in place of the Flying J branded restaurants. We had a great meal. Not that I’m a big fan of Denny’s but as opposed to Flying J food, well really there is no comparison.

After dinner, Tina and I headed back to the terminal for a nap before the load was ready. Trent, from 912 Project Fan Site, called while we were napping. I remember answering the phone and telling him to call me tomorrow, but I don’t remember anything else. I may have come off somewhat rude and if so, to him, I apologize. I assume he’ll contact me today. I awoke at about 0130 and still had no notification from the Denver terminal that our load was ready. I decided I had better call dispatch and check on the load. Come to find out, the truck from Kansas City had been delayed and they had some freight that was to be moved to SLC. We went back to sleep until 0245, when the message came, via Qualcomm that the load was ready.

Up and at it, I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, dressed and hurried to the office for my paperwork. After retrieving the Bills of Lading, I hooked the loaded trailer, performed the pretrip inspection, and we were off to Salt Lake City.

The wind was very bad north on 25 and west on 80 until we got to about Rawlins WY. It seems to have laid a bit now but we’ll see how it is on the way back through here this evening.

We are now at about the 130 mile post on I-80 west. We should be in Salt Lake City by about noon and be headed back to Columbus OH by about 1245EDT. We will travel I-80 all the way to Davenport IA where we will access I-74 and run that to Indianapolis IN. In Indianapolis we will run I-465 around town and get onto I-70 on the east side of town. We will then run I-70 into Columbus OH. We should, if all goes well, arrive in Columbus OH by about 1900 on Saturday evening. Hopefully, after a 7770 mile week, we will get to lay over in Columbus until Sunday evening. I’m sure we can if we say we want to, however, the ever illusive dollar is very enticing. We shall see.

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

Off To Dallas This Morining

We left Miami, the night of the 29th and into the morning of the 30th, and went to Orlando. We arrived in Orlando at about 0330 and decided that rather than sit there for the day we'd go home and check on the house, make some small repairs on the truck and just basically, relax...away from work for a bit. We got home at about 0530 and I had to have a short nap.

I got up at about 0800 and went outside to my shop to do some work on the truck. I had to replace a mud flap and an anti sail bar, then I had to repair the pigtail that hook to the trailer. We had some work done at a shop a few weeks ago, on the ABS system and they took the pigtail apart and didn't put it back together correctly. After that I had 3 slight air leaks that needed attention , my water tank was loose on it's cradle mounted to the side of the truck and I had to check and adjust the air pressure in the tires for winter driving. When the air gets cold it gets more dense and the tire pressure drops, I had to add about 10 pounds to each tire.

I piddled around in the shop working on the truck the biggest part of the day, busted my knuckles up pretty bad, ruined another pair of britches, man that makes Tina mad, truly enjoyed the day, alone, in my shop.

I had called dispatch early and found out that they were going to send us to Dallas out of Orlando and that the load would be ready at about 0500. I just wanted to make sure the truck was ready to go and will get us through the next 17 days. Yes, 17 days and counting. Out of the truck for at least 3 weeks and maybe longer. WooHoo. Oops, sorry, I tend to get a bit excited about impending vacations.

We headed back to the terminal at about 2000 last night and got there at 2200. I had to repair a tail lite problem that was discovered and reported to me by a motorist with some very colorful descriptions about our truck not having any tail lights. I found that I had inadvertently grounded a power lead by mistake. Boy, was I mad at me.

I got cleaned up and went to bed at about 2300. We got our load ready message at about 0500 and off we went. I got up made myself presentable to the world, retrieved my paperwork from the office and went to hook to the loaded trailer. I looked for the trailer and the number on our manifest didn't match any of the trailers in the dock doors. Back inside I went and found out that they had the wrong trailer number and the wrong dock number on the paperwork.

After getting the correct information, I hooked to the load, shut the doors and sealed the trailer, performed my pre-trip inspection, caught up my log book and we were off. We stopped in Reddick Florida for fuel at the Petro Stopping center and that will be our last stop, except driver changes, until we get to Dallas.

We will be traveling I75 N to I-10 west and run that to I-65N in Mobile. We will run that about 5 miles to U.S. 98 and go west to Hattiesburg MS and access MS49 North. We will run that up to Jackson MS where we will get onto I-20 west. That will take us to Terrell TX and we will go north west on 80 to I-30 and the TX 183/114 to our terminal in Irving. We should be in Irving at about 0130 I would guess. Map Below.

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