Enjoying North America while earning a living...: October 10, 1991, 2011

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

October 9, 2011

October 10, 1991, 2011

FIRST 5 YEARS:(Thursday-Tulsa, Oklahoma)
I woke up at 7 AM CST and needed to call dispatch. Heck with it!!! I rolled over and went back to sleep. I finally called in just before 9 AM CST to find they had a load assigned to me. I was to go to Kerr Glass in Sand Springs, Oklahoma(sits just west of Tulsa) amd pick up a load going to Cincinnati, Ohio. There was usually a pickup appointment at Kerr Glass but this time I was just to go get it without an appointment.

I took Hwy 412 west to Sand Springs where I was instructed to back up to dock 6 for loading. I walked to the loading docks and watched them load me. Before I got my load's paperwork, I went to my tractor to get my pen. As I walked back to the shipping department, I bumped up against a Heartland trailer with a good sized burr(a piece of mental hanging away from original design) on one of it's rivets; leaving a huge bleeding cut on my left arm(can still see scare today)/ It was deep and I called dispatch. I told dispatch that I was heading into Joplin and would stop at the terminal, which I did.

When I contacted dispatch, I turned in my paperwork and reported my injury. I told them I needed stitches and I was seen by many persons before someone said that I was to take a taxi to the hospital. They--the company--really didnt know what to do. The Taxi came and took me to the hospital where the doctor put in two deep stitches and three shallow ones. He told me to come back in a week to get them out and I told him that I didn't have a clue where I would be in a week and that I could remove them as I was a nursing student that had studied doing that sort of thing. Stitches normally aren't hard to remove...
(Note: The hospital which I went to was heavily damaged--was rebuilt--by the huge tornado in May of 2011).

Got back to the terminal to find that my Cincinnati load was gone. The local dispatcher asked if I would take a load to Chicago that had to get moving and I said. I was hooked up and fueled(38 gallons) just before 3 PM CST and heading northeast On I-44.

I stopped for dinner at Marshfield and filled up on some of the best bar-b-que around the midwest. After dinner it was back on the road. When I got to St. Louis, I took I-55 north toward Chicago and over the Mississippi River. I followed I-55 up to the rest area at Funk's Grove, Illinois(like that name in my logbook) and called it a night. Went to sleep...