Three live unloads, two trailer swaps, one giant P.I.T.A.

PITA being short for Pain In The Ass, for the uninitiated.

My first live unload happened on schedule, though one of the pallets in back had fallen over the load lock and various goods were strewn about in the back of the trailer. After it was cleaned up and that part of the load was taken off, I made like a tree and split to my second and final PetSmart drop in Arvada, Colorado. The docks were set close to a blind corner on the wrong side of the building from which I came in on so I had to go back around, make a u-turn in the parking lot then go back around to try to dock it. This was my second live unload.

Hours later, the Powers That Be chimed in with one load that I wouldn't have the hours to run, then a different one with a separate local dropoff first. I thought the plan sounded like a bad bet to begin with but I signed off on it and got directions.

This brought me to Commerce City, Colorado to exchange my (now empty) van trailer for a loaded reefer to take south to Fountain, Colorado to be unloaded. After some fun dodging trains and other traffic, I eventually made my way back to the interstate and south to my third live unload.

This was, of course, the Unload From Hell. I mean, it was 14 freaking pallets and it took over four hours! I could have dropkicked all that off the tailgate myself in that amount of time. Finally, the paperwork was ready and it was determined that Kelloggs shorted whoever three boxes of goods. The pain and the misery inflicted on everyone involved over five bucks worth of corn flakes. Sigh.

By then it was mid afternoon and I had to drive 300 miles along state highways to get to Dodge City, Kansas where I dropped off my empty reefer and picked up a full one headed to Chicago. Of course, I was told when I agreed to take the load that it delivered on Friday morning at 0900, but the actual bills say 0600. Plus, the snafu at the last place has put me hours behind so I'll have to see if we can work something out tomorrow as I make my way towards the windy city.


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Ping pong

You know the drill. Omaha to Denver. Denver to Omaha. Now its Omaha back to Denver with another two-drop PetSmart load delivering tomorrow morning.

The drive out was livened up by the dreaded "Park and come inside" electronic sign as I passed through a scale about an hour out of Denver. Seems they wanted to get my registration and IFTA information into their computer. After five minutes inside and a quick underwear change when I returned to the truck, I was on my way.

Oh, a special thanks to the dill hole who designed the parking lot this first PetSmart is in. I just about scraped both sides of my truck trying to get past an incredibly stupidly placed post near the only entrance I could use to get behind the store where the dock is.

No map today. If you don't yet know the Omaha to Denver run by heart as I do there is no hope for you.

Back to Omaha

Yesterday's journey was a familiar one. After dropping off part of my load in Fort Collins, Colorado, then the rest nearby in Greeley, Colorado, I motored up to Cheyenne, Wyoming to pick up a load headed to Chicago for a Monday afternoon delivery. My dispatcher set it up originally as a t-call in Omaha so another driver could take it the rest of the way and I questioned him on this. It didn't look to him like I had enough hours to get it there on time (a rush-rush load going to a UPS facility I have been to before). When I got to Fort Collins the day before yesterday I fired up my laptop to look at my hours and he was kinda right; I would have to have a perfect trip out to Chicago in order to make the deadline.

Stopping in Omaha has an upside: I can get my APU checked over again. The unit itself runs fine but when it goes to AC mode the clutch mechanism really bogs down and half the time the APU quits at that point. Once its running, no problemo, so I'll have the APU folks take a gander at it.

Once I got to the yard yesterday I dropped the load off with dispatch, unhooked then ran over to a nearby hotel. It is nice getting out of the truck for a while.

2008 Alaska Cruise Day 3 Whale Watching

Continuing in the series of posts for my recent cruise to Alaska, here are two more photo albums for you to ignore your pleasure. The first album are shots from the cruise ship itself, including pics like this showing the harbor master's boat plowing through waves:



The bulk of the photos are of wildlife and outdoors shots from the whale watching tour I took. They include scenes of nature at its best with eagles and sea lions, oh my!



Believe it or not, I also got a few pics of actual whales! Some single...



... and some in pairs:



You can view the entire albums here and here.

Fort Collins Fun

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Everything went great on my way from Omaha, Nebraska to Fort Collins, Colorado this morning. I got up early, checked my truck over and filled up with fairly cheap $4.08 fuel at the yard before departing. Traffic was great, the weather was pleasant, the truck running okay, everything.

As time wears on as a truck driver I become more aware earlier when towns I'm entering are going to be a problem. Fort Collins, for instance, is a nice place with wide streets, lots of stone buildings, plenty of trees, manicured lawns, etc. Must cost a few bucks to afford to live here. This also means that buildings tend to be set back from the street, with lots of trees in the way. Few addresses one can see from a truck through the foliage. Plenty of Saturday traffic with people out and about getting their pet food, latte or whatever.

The strip mall where my PetSmart is located has a somewhat artistic flair to the parking lot. It has all the same businesses that any strip mall anyplace else has, but instead of being in one long strip its kind of broken up. Buildings clustered around a cluttered parking lot and no obvious way for a semi to get in. Using my truck driver instincts, I went around a corner towards the rear and found a street that was wide enough to turn into with my truck. Eventually I found the store but the loading dock isn't behind, its on the side along with a number of other doors. I walked in to make certain I had the right one and parked to await unloading at 0300 local time tomorrow morning.

Truck Messaging

Many trucks have messages displayed on the sides, rear or tops but this one is a twofer:



The obvious message is the religious one. The less obvious, but much more important one, is that this driver is unable to park his or her rig.

Now, I will admit I didn't get the message on this truck's grill at first when I read it. If you don't figure it out immediately, say what you see out loud and it will come to you:



Finally, a pic of a cool cloud formation I saw a week or two ago:

Blogger still having problems...

For some reason I have been unable to access this site for hours or days at a time recently. If it doesn't perk up soon I'll have to switch to something that works better.

Today's trip was the exact opposite of yesterday's: Ottawa, Illinois to Omaha, Nebraska. As expected, I got a PetSmart load from the same DC I delivered at yesterday heading to Colorado with two stops at 0300 and 0500 Sunday morning. The load was supposed to be ready by 1000 this morning but when I got there at 0600 it was ready to go so I scooted out of town. The drive to Omaha was uneventful.