Well...I haven't gotten to post the last few days as I was stuck without Internet service, but it has been interesting. After being stuck in Florida for what seemed like forever we finally loaded a partial in Lake Wales, Fl and then headed to Georgia for the weekend. Monday, we went and loaded at Anniston Army Depot and they wouldn't let Austin go in with us so I had to sit in the check in area for 3 hours while Mark got 5 pallets of dummy ammo. Why on earth does it take so long to get stuff done?
Mark drove to Shreveport and ran out of hours so I drove all night for a 4 am appointment. 6 hours later and a ton of bull crap we were finally unloaded at Dyess Airforce base. In the end it took 8 guys, 2 girls and the major to unload 5 pallets....did I mention that we only had 5 pallets...crazy!!!
Then we went to Bethany, OK t the and unloaded our 2 forklifts off our truck then got a reload at El Reno federal prison to reload heading to PA. Couldn't get loaded until the following morning so Austin and I got to spend our morning sitting in the visitor's area of a federal prison. OH what fun!!!
After we were loaded Mark drove until 9 pm and I took over...had to be in New Cumberland, PA by 8 am the next morning...wasn't gonna happen! I drove all night and then Mark took over...we got there at noon...got unloaded and off to the Petro in Carlisle, PA.
We got an overnight break. Our next load don't pick up until 2 pm in Burwick, PA. It is a drop and hook (love those) and delivers in Georgia Monday morning.
So I guess that's the short version of my weekend...gotta go get loaded now...will post more later!
Ya'll stay posted for more adventures of girl on the move!!
Oh...by the way...haven't started my walking yet...all I have been doing is driving and sleeping...but I am going to if it kills me!!!
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Is This Day Over Yet?
My goodness...what a long day. Don't you just hate sitting around with nothing to do? Well, me to! Glad it's Sunday. Hopefully we will get another partial and get out of here tomorrow and head toward Okey City. 6 days of sitting is gonna cause seat sores on my back side.
It's been a rainy miserable day here in Lake Park, GA. Stuck in this truck really stinks so I have spent the entire day on the computer. I have to tell you, my brother Robert got me hooked on Candy Crush. I think I need to go to rehab for Candy Crush addiction...I just can't quit playing it. When I run out of lives its like I'm going through withdraws trying to get someone to send me another one. It's insane...damn Candy Crush anyway!!!
Husband got bored and put in the CB and hooked up plug ins for all of our gadgets...only took him 2 weeks. And the bug man played 18 wheels of steel all day. He was hauling loads for $18,000...I think I need his agent..LOL ...oh what a life.
Husband and child is gonna brave the weather and go in for Arby's...so healthy and nutritious...but hey...gotta eat! So I suppose its ham and cheddar melts and curly fries for dinner.
Thinking that I'm going to try to get healthy out here since I have all of the abilities to cook on the road. Don't like walking at a truck stop...guy's are crude and the comments make me want to smack their teeth down their throats, so husband said we will start parking at rest areas so I can walk. Driving truck is really hard on a persons heath. I have gained about 40 lbs since being out here...and I'm fixing to take them off.
Watched a video today on CDL Life about a female truck driver that had weight loss surgery...that's not for me...I would never want to go thru what she went thru just to be thin. The exhaustion, the throwing up, the sickness...don't sound like any fun to me...heck with that. I will do it the old fashion way. My niece lost over 100 lbs with hard work and determination so I know it can be done. Great job Heather...you look amazing!!!
But any how...I will quit rambling now and get off here...think I will watch a movie and hit the sac.
Tomorrow's post will hopefully be much more interesting as by the grace of God we won't be sitting in Georgia.
Ya'll have a good night...and stay tuned for more mis-adventures of girl on the move!!!
It's been a rainy miserable day here in Lake Park, GA. Stuck in this truck really stinks so I have spent the entire day on the computer. I have to tell you, my brother Robert got me hooked on Candy Crush. I think I need to go to rehab for Candy Crush addiction...I just can't quit playing it. When I run out of lives its like I'm going through withdraws trying to get someone to send me another one. It's insane...damn Candy Crush anyway!!!
Husband got bored and put in the CB and hooked up plug ins for all of our gadgets...only took him 2 weeks. And the bug man played 18 wheels of steel all day. He was hauling loads for $18,000...I think I need his agent..LOL ...oh what a life.
Husband and child is gonna brave the weather and go in for Arby's...so healthy and nutritious...but hey...gotta eat! So I suppose its ham and cheddar melts and curly fries for dinner.
Thinking that I'm going to try to get healthy out here since I have all of the abilities to cook on the road. Don't like walking at a truck stop...guy's are crude and the comments make me want to smack their teeth down their throats, so husband said we will start parking at rest areas so I can walk. Driving truck is really hard on a persons heath. I have gained about 40 lbs since being out here...and I'm fixing to take them off.
Watched a video today on CDL Life about a female truck driver that had weight loss surgery...that's not for me...I would never want to go thru what she went thru just to be thin. The exhaustion, the throwing up, the sickness...don't sound like any fun to me...heck with that. I will do it the old fashion way. My niece lost over 100 lbs with hard work and determination so I know it can be done. Great job Heather...you look amazing!!!
But any how...I will quit rambling now and get off here...think I will watch a movie and hit the sac.
Tomorrow's post will hopefully be much more interesting as by the grace of God we won't be sitting in Georgia.
Ya'll have a good night...and stay tuned for more mis-adventures of girl on the move!!!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Traded it all in for a whole other world
Well...where to start...Guess I should have started this a year ago when it all began. So I guess I will summarize the last year...just to catch you up...than give you daily insights into my life on the road in a big rig. I'm from West Virginia and the job market there...like everywhere else is horrible and I was working for just above minimum wage as a truck stop cashier (husband is a truck driver). Husband says "Why don't you just get your CDL's and drive truck since the kid's are about grown. (Elizabeth was almost 18) For some unknown reason I said OK...LOL, so the journey began.
I got enrolled in a tech school that offered the CDL course. I learned how to drive a school bus first and then came the big rig...WOO HOO. It was interesting to say the least...but in the end I got my license with all my endorsements on June 29, 2012.
Well, it took 4 months for me to decide what I was going to do with it. I spoke with my brother and husband and decided that Knight Transportation was a good place to start...called them on Friday and was on a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis, IN on Sunday for Monday orientation. 4 days later I was on a bus back home because they didn't have a trainer for me. I wanted one that smoked and bathed..would never have thought that it would be so difficult to find someone that smoked and bathed but this is trucking after all. After 3 weeks at home they called and said they found a trainer out of Tulsa, OK and she would meet me on Thursday in West Virginia at the Pilot truck stop...and so the journey was really beginning. I knew right from the start that Windy (my trainer) would be wonderful. She was patient, funny, kind and had my strange sense of humor...perfect...we had to be stuck in a truck for 4 weeks together so I was worried. We got along great and she is now my closest friend.
After I tested out of her truck and got my own I got to experience alot by working for Knight...they were very good to me and a wonderful company to work for. It helped that I had a great driver manager (Mike), and he let me spread my wings. I traveled all over the US and have seen beautiful places. Wyoming and Idaho in the winter are breathtaking. The northeast, not so fun.
But on July 28, 2013 that all changed. I lost my brother suddenly and got the call while in Tully, NY. Mike got me home for his service and I spent a week at home with my family. My father is 71 and was still driving truck and said that he was gonna retire (life's to short kinda thing) and wanted to know if I wanted to buy his truck. I wasn't so sure that was a good idea so I went back on the road with Knight...after about 2 weeks of discussions with my father about his truck he finally talked me into it...again I was in Tully, NY. My final load took me back to Columbus, OH where I took a leave of absence and cleaned out my truck and headed home to start a new adventure (Owner Operator).
I had decided to lease my new old truck on with the same company that my husband was leased to (Universal Am-Can). It took 4 long weeks to get leased on because I was 3 months shy of having a year over the road, but in the end I finally got leased on. Once I got leased on I decided that my husband should drive team with me and that we would make more money (HAHAHA) so he heads home...parks his truck and we prepare to go on the road. We put in a refrigerator, microwave and bought an electric skillet, toaster, waffle maker, coffee pot and some food. I really don't like eating at truck stops. We are finally ready to leave on August 9th.
We loaded in Clarksburg, WV heading to Pearland, TX. Load didn't deliver until Monday the 12th so I didn't have to drive...just sat in the passenger seat and enjoyed the view from the other side. We got to where we were delivering and pulled into a pipe yard...man couldn't speak English...so communication was very very limited but he pointed to where we could park for the night. The next morning when the business we were delivering to was supposed to open...low and behold...not open. Husband saw someone pulling out of connecting driveway and stopped him to ask how to get unloaded and he enlightened us that they had a death in the family and was unaware that we were coming. He was very nice and called his brothers in to unload us...they turned out to be great people.
Husband spoke to agents and got us a load to Lakeland, FL because we had to go pick up my 10 year old step-son that had spent the summer there. I had it all planned out so that husband would have to drive clear to Florida but that didn't work the way I planned it and I ended up driving the last 50 miles into the receiver and delivered. After we were unloaded we went to the 301 Truck stop in Tampa to wait for Austin and his mother. We had been in many discussions about who would care for him while he was in school and we were on the road and in the end everyone thought it would be a wonderful idea if he went to virtual school and rode in the truck with us with me overseeing his education (start of journey 2).
We couldn't find a load on Wednesday, or Thursday so husband decided on Friday we would take a partial to get out of Florida and would go up into Georgia and wait till Monday to find another partial and head to Oklahoma City for Wednesday delivery...not sure it's gonna happen but we'll see...so here I sit in Lake Park, GA at the TA truck stop.
So, Its 10 year old, husband, and myself in this truck (never knew so much junk would fit) and we are going to school and trucking up and down the road. The journey has had a rough start and I am hoping that it only gets better from here. I will keep everyone posted on where we are at...what we are doing, how we are doing and our adventures or mis-adventures along the way. Hope you all enjoy the ride.
I got enrolled in a tech school that offered the CDL course. I learned how to drive a school bus first and then came the big rig...WOO HOO. It was interesting to say the least...but in the end I got my license with all my endorsements on June 29, 2012.
Well, it took 4 months for me to decide what I was going to do with it. I spoke with my brother and husband and decided that Knight Transportation was a good place to start...called them on Friday and was on a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis, IN on Sunday for Monday orientation. 4 days later I was on a bus back home because they didn't have a trainer for me. I wanted one that smoked and bathed..would never have thought that it would be so difficult to find someone that smoked and bathed but this is trucking after all. After 3 weeks at home they called and said they found a trainer out of Tulsa, OK and she would meet me on Thursday in West Virginia at the Pilot truck stop...and so the journey was really beginning. I knew right from the start that Windy (my trainer) would be wonderful. She was patient, funny, kind and had my strange sense of humor...perfect...we had to be stuck in a truck for 4 weeks together so I was worried. We got along great and she is now my closest friend.
After I tested out of her truck and got my own I got to experience alot by working for Knight...they were very good to me and a wonderful company to work for. It helped that I had a great driver manager (Mike), and he let me spread my wings. I traveled all over the US and have seen beautiful places. Wyoming and Idaho in the winter are breathtaking. The northeast, not so fun.
But on July 28, 2013 that all changed. I lost my brother suddenly and got the call while in Tully, NY. Mike got me home for his service and I spent a week at home with my family. My father is 71 and was still driving truck and said that he was gonna retire (life's to short kinda thing) and wanted to know if I wanted to buy his truck. I wasn't so sure that was a good idea so I went back on the road with Knight...after about 2 weeks of discussions with my father about his truck he finally talked me into it...again I was in Tully, NY. My final load took me back to Columbus, OH where I took a leave of absence and cleaned out my truck and headed home to start a new adventure (Owner Operator).
I had decided to lease my new old truck on with the same company that my husband was leased to (Universal Am-Can). It took 4 long weeks to get leased on because I was 3 months shy of having a year over the road, but in the end I finally got leased on. Once I got leased on I decided that my husband should drive team with me and that we would make more money (HAHAHA) so he heads home...parks his truck and we prepare to go on the road. We put in a refrigerator, microwave and bought an electric skillet, toaster, waffle maker, coffee pot and some food. I really don't like eating at truck stops. We are finally ready to leave on August 9th.
We loaded in Clarksburg, WV heading to Pearland, TX. Load didn't deliver until Monday the 12th so I didn't have to drive...just sat in the passenger seat and enjoyed the view from the other side. We got to where we were delivering and pulled into a pipe yard...man couldn't speak English...so communication was very very limited but he pointed to where we could park for the night. The next morning when the business we were delivering to was supposed to open...low and behold...not open. Husband saw someone pulling out of connecting driveway and stopped him to ask how to get unloaded and he enlightened us that they had a death in the family and was unaware that we were coming. He was very nice and called his brothers in to unload us...they turned out to be great people.
Husband spoke to agents and got us a load to Lakeland, FL because we had to go pick up my 10 year old step-son that had spent the summer there. I had it all planned out so that husband would have to drive clear to Florida but that didn't work the way I planned it and I ended up driving the last 50 miles into the receiver and delivered. After we were unloaded we went to the 301 Truck stop in Tampa to wait for Austin and his mother. We had been in many discussions about who would care for him while he was in school and we were on the road and in the end everyone thought it would be a wonderful idea if he went to virtual school and rode in the truck with us with me overseeing his education (start of journey 2).
We couldn't find a load on Wednesday, or Thursday so husband decided on Friday we would take a partial to get out of Florida and would go up into Georgia and wait till Monday to find another partial and head to Oklahoma City for Wednesday delivery...not sure it's gonna happen but we'll see...so here I sit in Lake Park, GA at the TA truck stop.
So, Its 10 year old, husband, and myself in this truck (never knew so much junk would fit) and we are going to school and trucking up and down the road. The journey has had a rough start and I am hoping that it only gets better from here. I will keep everyone posted on where we are at...what we are doing, how we are doing and our adventures or mis-adventures along the way. Hope you all enjoy the ride.
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