DJ Brian's Trucking Journal
Journal Entries Nov2002-Mar2003 Apr2003 May2003 June2003 July2003 August/Sept2003
October 2003 November2003 thru April2004 Current
June2003
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June 5, 2003- Today's driving was an absolute pleasure. I started
out in Phoenix yesterday morning with a load heading to Billings,
Montana. Yesterday afternoon I was driving through Marysvale,
Utah along US89 and had to stop in the road as several cowboys were
doing a cattle drive across the road from one field to a field on the
other side. I didn't think about taking a picture until I started
going again because I was too busy watching...sorry. This morning I was
driving through Salt Lake City and if you look at the picture you can
kinda see a thin blue strip of the Great Salt Lake
. By the early evening I was in Idaho with the
Grand Tetons still capped in snow to the east of me and then drove
through the west end of Yellowstone National Park. The day was
picture perfect (if only I could take perfect pictures). The sky
was dark blue with fluffy white clouds, the sunshine was sharp and the
air was cool and crisp, the trees and the grass was as green as green
can be
.
June 6, 2003- Its cold and raining today
. I'm in Billings, MT and had to actually get my
jacket out. I'm glad I still have it with
me. 8:00pm-I wonder if it is ok to throw
rocks at dispatchers....I was supposed to swap loads with another truck
and so I got to my swap location at 8am which was the time we were
suppose to swaq. but the other truck relayed they would be late and
arrive around 6pm. 6pm rolled around and somehow dispatch messed
up the swap and cancelled it so now I am stuck with my current load
here in Billings until Monday morning. I am like totaly
frustrated with dispatch because now I sit all weekend without making
any money.
June 8, 2003- Since, I was sitting all weekend, I decided to pull out my Damrons Gay Guide and find a place to go here in Billings and ended up at The Loft, Billings only gay bar, last night and met some really nice people.
June 9, 2003- Alright, I'm really ready to start throwing rocks at our
dispatchers. After making me sit all weekend, after I made my
deliver this morning, they assigned a trip to me aned by the time I got
to that shipper, they cancelled that one and re-assigned a new trip to
me so I went to the new shipper and then that one was cancelled and I
got assigned a third trip. The third trip was a good one though
and has me going from Colony, WY to N. Brunswick, NJ . I arrived
at the shipper in Wyoming around 8pm and saw some antelope next to the
road
. One thing I want to mention
is I was on the outskirts of a small village in SW Montana driving on
US212, I saw a cowboy on his horse come up over a small hill on the
other side of the road. It would have made a great picture.
The guy was dressed in all black, with a black cowboy hat and a long
black leather coat, with his dog tagging beside him and his
horse. I got a good look at him and he was about 20 years old and
the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen in my whole entire life...yum
June 10, 2003- Its been a very pleasant drive the past 2 days, I spent the
night at a rest area just outside of Sturgis, SD (and of course I had
to buy a Harley Davidson t-shirt). Around 3pm I stopped at
another rest area and made lunch...here I am in the back of my cab
making P&J sandwiches.
Its been "open highway" the
whole way and I've been listening to everything from dance music to
bluegrass on my satellite radio.
.
June 13, 2003- I'm right across from New York city on the Jersey side
getting loaded at an international freight yard
and then I head for Indianapolis. Its been
raining and foggy the whole time so I haven't been able to see much.
plus it doesn't make for good picture taking.
June 19, 2003- I've been busy as a bee the last week and haven't been able
to get caught up on my journal because as soon as I finish driving for
the day, I am dog tired. I made it to Indianapolis and delivered my
load early in the week and then got another load to Carlisle, Pa but
just as I hit the PA state line, I ran out of driving hours and the
load had to be there early in the morning so my dispatcher had me
switch trailers with another driver. So we met at a rest area along the
interstate at 3am and unhooked then hooked up to each others' trailer
and he took off. I had to stay put for my required 8 hour rest
break and headed back to Indianapolis with my new load. Now
normally I get assigned a load as soon as I deliver my previous load
but I have been actually getting assigned new loads before I even
finish the current one so I'm not getting a "relax" time. I
dropped that trailer off and made a new pickup but the company wasn't
ready until 2am so I slept for a few hours in their parking lot and the
forklift driver just came knocking on my truck when they were ready. I
got loaded and finish my 8 hour rest break there in their parking lot
and took off when the sun came up. This load is going to
Brookhaven, Mississippi. Spent the night in a rest area along
interstate 55 in MS. The night was stormy with tall thunderclouds and
lightning. A neat thing I saw though was many lightning bugs
glowing off and on through the mist in the tress. I made that
deliver this morning
(pic is from the other day heading south in MS) and
got assigned another load for pickup in Southaven, just south of
Memphis and now I am headed to Baltimore, MD then a stop in
Williamsport,PA and my final destination is Lyons Falls, New
York....whew. I'm camped at a truck stop half way between Memphis
and Nashville right now and I'm ready for bed. Here's a picture of a
barge heading up the Mississippi river as I crossed it.
June 21, 2003- Happy first day of summer...or is it tomorrow. Anyway, I'm in Wilkes-Barre,PA...its drizzling and cold enough that I can see my breath outside. I never made it to Baltimore because yesterday, that load got swapped out to another driver needed hometime so I met the other driver at the TA truck stop in Wytheville, VA and switched trailers...now I'm going to Maine. That'll be nice. New England is the only part of the lower 48 states that I never have been to as a kid. When I was a youngin', my family used to take road trips all over the country but the northeast never made it in our itinerary. Pennsylvania is really pretty but I hate driving in it...Its all up and down, up and down, up and down. I'm chugging up each hill doing 35 and braking and hitting the jake brake(engine brake) on the other side and can't keep a constant speed. Oh that reminds me...while driving here along Interstate 81 today, I came to a section that was really bumpy and I had to raise the steering wheel because every time I hit a bump, my lap kept hitting the bottom of the steering wheel. I wish I hadnt drank all that soda cuz it was getting shaken up in my stomach and I had to keep burping and then I realized....Oh My God... I almost forgot what I was carrying....22 tons of canned Beer. So if any of you in Maine get a can of beer and it squirts you when you open it..chances are it was in the back of my trailer.
June 24, 2003- I'm in Woodland, Maine which is on the border of New
Brunswick, Canada in the northeast section of the state. After
dropping off my load yesterday in Waterville, I got assigned a new load
and I headed for my new stop. Traveling along Route 9, I
spent last night at a rest stop between Bangor
(pic is a section of Bangor) and Woodland. Lat
night the temperature was cool but somewhat clammy. I have
screens for my windows but had to close all the windows because no
matter what I tried, mosquitoes managed to find ways in. Even
after I closed all the windows, I found myself swatting them every once
in a while. I got up around 4am and headed to Woodland . It
was foggy and as I topped a hill
, I could see the valley ahead with the fog hugging
the ground. I stopped off at Irvings Truck stop in Woodland and had a
huge breakfast and was served by a really nice older lady who kind of
sounded like 'ma' on the "Golden Girls". After breakfast I headed
of to my stop and it looks like a paper mill
but I got loaded
with Hazardous Materials and
had to put Chemical placards on the sides of my truck. In the
picture, you can see all the logs in the background with big yellow
cranes that pick them up and on the other side, trucks would pull in
with wood chips and they would unhook the trailer from the truck and
tilt the trailer almost vertically to dump everything into a
hopper.
June 27, 2003- Happy pride weekend and today I was really hit with the
loneliness. I've been listening to OutQ since the Supreme Court
ruling (I actually listen to it all the time tho') and hearing how
everyone is getting ready to celebrate and party with their partners
and friends but I haven't really been around people in such a long
time...I've probably have only spoken about 60 words in the last week
and a half. If it wasn't for singing to music as I drive along
the open highway, I'd probably forget how to use my vocal chords.
I almost quit 2 days ago because of various frustrations I'm
experiencing such getting lost with a truck and 53 foot trailer is no
fun task because you can't just pull into a Taco Bell parking lot to
look at a map and flip a U turn. Anyways...today I headed south
through Amish country...here is a pic of an Amish horse and buggy
crossing the bridge in front of me
and right after I took this picture, I looked to my
right and there was a young Amish man working the fields with a team of
horses. I continued south through Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio. Now, I'm just outside of Nashville
heading to Greenville Texas just outside of
Dallas. I'm taking a week off in Nashville in a couple of weeks
for the Gay Trucker Jamboree and I'm really looking forward to it and
meeting other gay truckers. I'm in one of the truckstops right
now wearing my gay rainbow Pride baseball cap...I wonder if anyone
notices....hmmmmm.
June 30, 2003- Yesterday I drove through Shreveport, LA
and headed into Mobile,AL
. Here I am crossing the bay again
(see my April
26th 2003 entry for the same picture on a sunny day). My
final destination is Ocala, Florida tomorrow. Its been raining
like there is no end and the clouds went from gray to almost black with
white fingers coming out of the bottom...I was really concerned about
driving right underneath that area and kept an eye out for tornados.
I guess I should explain my "almost quitting" thing. I was up in the northeast and except for Maine, I did not like driving up there. I like driving long distances but in the Northeast, I was constantly having to go from one highway to another...stopping for tolls...switching lanes...then switch highways again...and then stop for even more tolls and the whole day was like driving in the city... no fun at all. Add that to some lack of confidence I sometimes experience while when I have to back up especially and I get really frustrated. Today's entries, I'll list some thing I like about trucking and some things I hate. Things I like: the independence, seeing the country, alone time. Now for the things I hate: You're only allowed to drive 10 hours a day but you may drive to a consignee (where the product is going to be unloaded) and will sit there for hours and then drive to a shipper and sit for another few hours..so if you add all that to your 10 hours of driving you might have a 4am to 12midnight day, the other thing I dont like is the "alone time" is not really your own time. I'll get unloaded after running for days and days and hope to have some down time but right away it seems like I get a load and so I dont get to just sit back, relax and read a book. Another thing is since I'm always going to a new city, occasionally I might get lost and its a real bitch to get turned around. I'll go down a street looking for a place to turn around and the street keeps getting smaller and smaller...thats when I really start stressing. The other major thing I dont like about trucking is how much I'm by myself. I do like being alone at times..maybe even quite a bit...but sometimes I just want to talk to someone and there is no one to talk to. I'm just not much of a go-up-to-a-stranger and start a conversation type of person since I'm a bit shy. I really love music and I've listened to more music in the past month or so that you can imagine...thank you sirius satellite radio...and I do enjoy just driving down the road and singin' along.. I've been exploring the various stations on my satellite radio and there are so many genres of music to match any type of mood I'm in. Its been raining all day and I'm been singing along to lounge type music all day.."feelings..whoa..whoa..whoa..feelings"...or "you light up my life". It was funny this morning, I got up around 5 and started singing but my voice is kind of cracking at that time of the morning and I would try to carry a long note and then I would hit a bump in the road and that would prematurely expel all the air out of my lungs and I just found myself laughing at that. Well..back to the quitting thing...my dispatcher talked me out of it plus it would really disappoint my 6 year old nephew as well. When I started trucking, my mom bought my nephew a big map of the US and everywhere I go, I send him a postcard from the area and then when he gets it, he places a marker on the map...so he's getting a good idea of what the country looks like without even leaving home. My brother says he gets totally thrilled everytime he get a postcard from me. Speaking of kids...another thing that really puts a smile on my face is when a car pulls up next to me and a little kid is motioning me to blow the horn. I remember a few weeks ago a family of four pulled up next to me with the mom in the front passenger seat and two little girls (around ages 5-7) in the back seat. The mom was showing the girls how to signal me to blow the horn and they started moving their arms up and down and so I blew the air horn... then as they drove in front of me, the little girls started clapping and turned around and waved to me..I waved back and that kept a smile on my face all day. there are so many "stop and smell the roses" sights that I see now that I may have missed in the passed. Just a few days ago while sitting in my truck eating lunch at a Rest Area, I saw a grandmother and her 2-3 year old grandson play tag around and flower bed or families just enjoying the day and scenery eating lunch at one of the picnic tables. It reminds me of when my family used to travel when I was a young boy, we would stop at rest areas and my mom would set up the picnic table with a table cloth and we would eat lunch. Needless to say, despite all the loneliness ( I'm not doing any worse than the last 10 years hanging out in gay bars), I've decided to stick it out with trucking and take the bad with the good.