Enjoying North America while earning a living...: July 26, 1990,2010

About this blog's layout...BLOG UPDATED ONCE PER DAY...

I follow my journal daily by writing under the daily title, "FIRST 5 YEARS:" The first five years will strictly follow my 5 year journal. If I find the day I am writing about to be boring, I will either write about thoughts I remember(placed under the title of "SECOND 5 YEARS"), write a trucker tale(placed under "A Trucker's Tale"), give a helpful trucker hint, ask a "student driver" question or do something.....When a location appears after the day of the week after "FIRST 5 YEARS:", it is where I am at the start of that day((IE: FIRST 5 YEARS: (Sunday-Kansas City, Missouri))..... I would encourage those that find themselves enjoying North America to follow me day by day.....REMEMBER: THIS IS A BLOG ABOUT WHAT LIFE IS LIKE FOR A TRUCKER THAT DOES NOT HAVE A DAILY ROUTINE ROUTE(called a "dedicated" route). THERE WILL BE MANY TIMES WHEN THE ROUTING, SCENERY AND DAY'S ACTIVITIES WILL BE SIMILAR(boring???) TO PREVIOUS DAYS; THAT'S TRUCKING! THERE WILL BE DAYS WHEN THE ROUTING, SCENERY AND DAY'S ACTIVITIES WILL BE TOTALLY NEW; THAT'S TRUCKING. Frustrations? I mention the frustrations I had as a driver. I loved my job while earning a living and realized that all jobs have frustrations; truck driving is, and was, no different..... Many pictures on this blog can be left-clicked and made larger.....Questions?...Please E-mail PT at fabalt2000@centurylink.net

July 26, 2010

July 26, 1990,2010

FIRST 5 YEARS:(Thursday-Lorain, Ohio)
Sleeping nicely and BANG, BANG, BANG on the side of my sleeper at around 6 AM EST. The auto plant was ready to unload me. I docked the trailer and walked to the dock to watch the unloading. By the time I got around to the back, they were a good half done. I was out of that plant totally by 6:45 AM EST. I drove around for a short time to find a place to park the truck(note: some drivers will drive many miles to go to an official truckstop-I won't) and finally found one-a parking spot in a cul-de-sac about 300 feet from a convenience store with a phone-

I got parked OK and walked to the phone. I made my check call and was told to call back every hour; something I really didn't want to hear. I was really bored all morning and into the afternoon. At the 2:30 PM EST check call, I had a load. I was to deadhead to the "Big Ball" truckstop in Youngstown, Ohio for a relay to Southgate, Michigan. Sure sounds like what I had done a short time before. Well, I got on I-80 and took it to Youngstown where I went to the assigned truckstop and called in. I was told this load I was waiting for was "HOT" and that it had not even been loaded in New Jersey yet. WAS I HAPPY???? NO!!! I wanted to earn money.
Anyway, I was there for the night it looked.

I spent time in the truckstop and noticed alot of drivers playing a game I liked: try & "grab" the prize you want. I played it for awhile and ended up with seven stuffed animals for about $10 worth of quarters. Not bad!!!

Side Note:
A couple days ago I wrote about a friend of mine being killed and it wasn't his fault. I thought this morning of another friend I had that was killed. I hadn't seen him or his wife-lived in Southaven, Mississippi-in about 9 months. I saw her finally and I asked what my friend was doing. She said that he had been killed in a traffic accident. I asked what happened and she said he had avoided hitting a bunch of stopped cars in a construction zone. Instead of hitting the cars, he went through a couple concrete barriers-big truck can often do that-and died when his rig burst into flames. I felt sorry for her and kept my mouth shut. She made it sound like he sacrificed himself for the cars. I kept my mouth shut because-to me- it sure sounded like he was going too fast for the circumstances and paid for that moment of bad judgment(we all have them) with his life.