DJ Brian's Trucking Journal
Journal Entries Nov2002-Mar2003 Apr2003 May2003 June2003 July2003 August/Sept2003
October2003 November2003 to April2004 Current
November 2003 through April 2004
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November 26, 2003- BY GRACE OF THE TRUCKING GODS...Through a string of circumstances, I am spending Thanksgiving at home even though I wasn't planning on it. I was in Salt Lake City, Utah when I was dispatched to take a load to Tampa, Florida. After I got loaded I headed on my way east but after only 24 miles into Wyoming, we (the travelers along Interstate 80 ) were hit by a snow storm and there were several vehicles sliding off the road or into the guard rails. At one section of the road, there was a big steep hill that vehicles just could not make it up over the top so the state troopers closed the highway while the "salt-shakers" (the snow plow trucks with road salt and sand) made the area passable. The lights from the cars and trucks stretch for miles against a sea of snow as we sat and sat. Finally after four hours the troopers started to let vehicles attempt the hill so we all crawled at 4-5 mph and it took nearly an hour to go 2 miles to the top of the hill. The whole time I was a nervous wreck because only a week earlier my truck jackknifed across three lanes of traffic at a mountain near Pendleton, Oregon called "Cabbage Patch" and I'll get to that story in a minute. Well after I made it to the top of this hill in Wyoming, my driving hours were almost over so I stopped at a TA travel store just on the other side. Hmmm...is this strategic location planning for the truck stop or what. The next morning I woke up at sunrise and after 50 miles, the warning buzzer on my air gauge that shows the pressure in my brakes started going off and I was losing air pressure fast so I immediately pulled over and watched the air drop to almost nothing which locks up the brakes. I placed my orange triangles along the roadside and called our roadside breakdown department who dispatched a mechanic but would take 1.5 hours to get there and so I sat and waited, the whole time watching my mirror for any vehicles that weren't paying attention because I was carrying nearly 22 tons of hazardous materials in 55 gallons drums. The mechanic finally showed up and replaced the air governor and I was on my way. I got as far as Laramie, Wyoming before it started getting dark and I wasn't about to drive at night during this type of weather so I parked my truck. The temperature dropped to minus 5 degrees below zero but I was snug as a button in my warm truck and I went to sleep. When I woke up the next morning my check-engine light was blinking and I started to worry. My source of heat was about to give out so I called our road-breakdown department and they had me turn off the truck for 15 minutes to see if it reset...which it did. I started on my way
and when I got to Cheyenne, my load was swapped out with another driver so he could get home in Florida, my new load is now going to California and so I now started heading south. When I got to Albuquerque, New Mexico my new load was then swapped out to another driver because I did not have enough weekly driving hours remaining to make the California load on time. My newest load is taking me to Buckeye, Arizona right next to Phoenix. I made it to the consignee, got unloaded and headed to our Phoenix terminal to take the truck into the shop. I was told my truck would not be ready until Friday, the day after Thanksgiving so I am now at home.
Well what happened from my journal entry of October 26th to my November 26th entry. I apologize for the sloppy writing in this next section but it'll bring you up to date. From New Jersey in my October 26th journal, I went to Washington DC then Atlanta, GA, Birmingham, AL, Shreveport, LA and Laredo, TX, From Laredo I headed home for a week. When I finished my hometime, I was loaded to a swap in Winslow, AZ which then took me to Los Angeles, I picked up a new load going to San Francisco then headed bobtail (no trailer) to Merced, Ca where I picked up a load heading to Wenatchee, WA. On the way to Washington, I passed by Mt. Shasta
in California and a logging operation
in Klamath Falls, OR. After unloading in Washington, I was dispatched for a load in Hermiston, Oregon which is going to Salt Lake City. As I was heading south, I ran into trouble in Pendleton, OR on a mountain road called Cabbage-Patch. Actually I was doing fine up to that point but several truck ahead of me had jackknifed on one section of the uphill curves because of black ice so the state troopers closed the road until they could get those trucks moving again. Fortunately everyone had been going slow up hill so there was no damage or injuries to trucks, cars or drivers. The curve in the road in this picture is where everyone was jackinifing>
After 2 hours, it was my turn to move uphill over this area so I went really slow...about 2 mph. Shortly after hitting that spot in the road my tractor started sliding back down the hill and my trailer was turning sideways. When I stopped, my trailer was sideways across all three lanes in the road. At that moment the state trooper came up to my window and said to put my chains on. From that point on, the trooper ordered all vehicles to chain up. Once I got the chains on, I was able to start moving again and drove 10 mph to the first rest area
which at that speed took another hour. For nearly the whole hour, I did not see any vehicles behind me so I wonder if another vehicle jackknifed after me. Well that is my jackknife story, probably not as intense as you were expecting when I first mentioned it at the beginning of my journal entry but I had to leave a cliff-hanger at the beginning of this long entry so you would read it...sly, huh? ...and now that brings my journal up-to-date...yehaw!!
December 14, 2003- I'm currently in Milford Connecticut at a Pilot truck stop and it was snowing like a dickens today
. Yesterday I was driving on Interstate 95 past New York City and was able to get a picture as I crossed over the George Washington Bridge
Tomorrow, I make my delivery to a company in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, I'm carrying 45,000 pounds of beer and when I fueled up yesterday I noticed something dripping from the whole right side of the trailer. I walked up and sure enough it smelled like a brewery so either a pallet must have tipped over or the cans froze and broke open. I dread the moment I open up the back of the trailer tomorrow and envision a tidal wave of beer rushing toward me ( I remember when I was younger and would have thought that was a good thing). Also, I finally took a picture of the new beard I'm sporting
. Its starting to get long enough that I can pull on it. Originally, I was going to do an Amish beard but after I cut it and looked at it I thought people would start calling me Jebediah and asking if it wasn't time for me to go milk the cows when in fact I have no cows to milk so I'm letting just the chin part get really long. I'm thinking about growing it like a ZZ Top beard...hmmmm...well we'll see....
January 09, 2004- Hi all and Happy New Year. I know I haven't been keeping up my journal like I would like but I just haven't had the interest in even turning on my laptop recently. Last month I actually had to go into New York City and that was quite a trip but I was also scared as a wet frightened puppy driving a semi truck there. One of these days I'm just going to take my hometime there so I can enjoy it at a more leisurely pace instead of having to worry about bridge heights and if I'm going to make it around the corner without hitting anything. After my driving experience on Long Island, I did take a week of hometime in Westmoreland county in Virginia during Christmas where my relatives on my dad's side lives and got reacquainted with my cousins who I haven't seen since I was 8 years old and we moved from Virginia to the west coast. Right now I'm In Laredo, TX and took this load from North Carolina to its final destination in Mexico although some other driver will take it across the border into Mexico. I hand the trailer over tomorrow morning. In a week I will have hometime in Phoenix and will be doing something new to my website. Instead of continuing the journal writing (like I've really been doing that recently), I'm going to make a Frequently Ask Question section since I get emails and usually by the time I get connected to the internet I have so many that I cant respond properly and hopefully this will help new people interested in trucking. Also I'm going to list all my trips in a table-format so you can easily see what each trip looks like as far as dates, origin, destination and the mileage for each trip. I'll have this up within the next couple of weeks.
P.S. My beard now looks like a ZZ Top beard and its "just not me" so I'm going back to clean shaven (well ok, a 5 o'clock shadow more or less).
April 30, 2004- Well I have some big news. While on the road during the past seven months, I met someone and left Werner Enterprises today to make the big move to Appleton, Wisconsin to start our lives together. Although I am leaving the trucking industry, the past year has been quite an experience. I have been all over the country and seen places I never thought I would ever see in my lifetime, however the trucking lifestyle was not for me as I missed out on doing other things n my life during that period.
