Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ghost in the machine

I mentioned in an earlier post that the driver's side mirror isn't working, and this morning I found out that isn't exactly correct. It turns out that the selector switchs that goes from right side, left side and "nothing" activate themselves randomly when the truck starts. So, for instance, when I started it up this morning I could adjust the driver mirror. Later I could adjust neither mirror, and still later I could adjust the right-side mirror again. Volvo's and electrical bugs -- my mom could go on and on.

Anyway, I did indeed get up early-early to pick up a load of soft drinks headed to Kansas City. I was moving out of the Chicago area by 0500 or so and I'm sure glad I wasn't headed the other direction. I had a couple short slow ups but nothing to worry about, and an hour later I was full steam headed west. Well, as much as 55 mph is "full steam" of course.

I stopped off for a shower and a bite to eat as soon as I crossed into Iowa and when I got back to my truck I asked my dispatcher if it would be possible to "T-call" the load in Kansas City. That is trucker talk for transferring the load to another unit, in this case a local driver. See, I would arrive around 1500 today and the load doesn't deliver until tomorrow morning. Shortly thereafter I got approval to drop the trailer at our yard in KC then not one but two pre-plans show up over the satellite unit.

There was some disagreement over when I was going to do what to whom and where but eventually it got sorted out. I picked up a load at every truck driver's favorite underground storage facility in Independence, Missouri which I visited once before when I worked at CFI (details here). The test of my driving skills didn't disappoint, but I managed to get in and out without a scratch.

The ominous entrance, this time from inside my wide-cab Volvo 780:

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There are seemingly endless corridors with stone pillars as you can see here through which we (very carefully) maneuver our big rigs:




Finally, I got it backed into a dock and here is the beauty pic:



Here is today's run. Tomorrow's I'll get to tomorrow.


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