Oh Deer!

Well after a quick 4 days home we are back on the road and rolling across America. Home time was pleasant and we once again enjoyed family and friends. My parents traveled from New York to stay for a few days so that our time was just a little more special. We also were able to get out and exercise our right to vote, and I was able to spend some much needed time in a tree stand which was long overdue. The good Lord and Mother Nature combined to make my hunt one of the most memorable ones yet with me harvesting my 2^nd largest buck ever. I would like to thank a very good friend (David) for his hospitality during my time in the outdoors. I can’t wait to finish up deer season at Christmas time!

The funny thing about this job is you never know where the road is going to take you next. As I mentioned before my parents had visited while we were on home time. The day we headed back on the road we were sent from Charlotte to Kansas City…then KC to Silver Springs, NY, and then onto Rochester, NY where we picked up a load heading to Texas. I noticed we would be traveling right past Mom and Dad’s and I knew they had arrived home the night before from their trip to NC so Irene and I stopped in for a quick shower and snack…haven’t seen them in over a year and now its twice in a week…LOL

Another funny thing about this job is you never know what you are going to see next. While traveling up through Tennessee a few nights back we witnessed a scene where a woman apparently committed suicide and jumped from an overpass onto I-40 and was struck by several vehicles. It was a horrible scene and I cannot imagine what the drivers of those vehicles are going through. I also cannot imagine what drove that woman to the point where she felt that this was her only alternative.

Well I opened with a deer story and I will close with one. After all it is deer season…LOL

For the past couple weeks I have witnessed the rut (whitetail breeding season) while traveling in several states. I have pointed out to Irene some Bucks chasing Does along the road, across fields, and everywhere else in between trying to get their chance at a little tail. Sounds typical…right guys…LOL.  Anyway with Irene driving one half of the night and myself the other, I constantly remind her to be cautious and keep her eyes open for deer running into the highway. Well the other night while traveling through Kansas we had dodged a few monster bucks that had thought of crossing in our path, but at the last second stopped…lucky for us. Well the night before last, after falling asleep for a few hours, I woke up to Irene asking me if I want the good news or the bad news. So of course, I tell her that I want the good news first.  “The good news is that we did not crash”, she said. She continued with “the bad news is that we have killed a deer”. You mean you hit a deer right? “No” Irene said, “The deer ran into us. I maintained my lane and avoided us crashing, but the deer ran out and bounced off the side of the truck”. Did you stop and see if there was any damage Irene? “Nooo…it’s too dark outside”. Was it a buck or doe Irene? “Doe”, Irene answered. Well I’m going back to sleep; wake me up when we get to the next truck stop Irene. The Doe had hit the side skirting that covers our fuel tank and took a chunk out of it about the size of a golf ball…minimal damage.  Our people said the next time we make it into our main terminal they will repair it.  They told Irene that this is not her fault and they would rather have the driver hit the deer instead of swerving and possibly crashing.  As I questioned Irene again about the incident I got the feeling that she was maybe jealous of my deer that I harvested while at home and all the attention I received from it. Maybe…just maybe, she needed her own deer story to tell when the gangs all together. Hey, I have offered to take her hunting all of our married life…if she chooses to use the truck instead of bow or gun…so be it. Who am I to judge…LOL

A few days I would like to forget…

I am not really sure where to exactly begin on this post.  We have been through so much this past week.  But before I begin with my story I need to bring you up to date with what Irene and I have been working on. 

I have to admit that as of late, I have been very negative.  For some reason I just assume the worst is going to happen.  So Irene has decided that I need a big dose of “positive thinking”.  She felt that if I start looking at things in a positive way, then we would have a better outcome at the end.  So I thought, why not, anything is worth a try.  So the following paragraphs to follow are the results of my “Positive Thinking”.   

So now for our past few days…we were running a load from Lyon Station, PA down to Laredo, TX.  We then received a message on our Qualcomm to drop that load in Lancaster, TX at our terminal and then pick up a trailer at our freight terminal in Dallas that would be headed to Blythe, CA. No big deal really until we found out that it was a dedicated route and we had to cover it for 3 trips… that was problem #1.  So it was out to California, back to Dallas, then back to California, back to Dallas then back to California…boring!  We like to see different country everyday…not the same old same old.  Problem #2, on our last run out of Dallas we took a stone chip to the windshield that made about a 6” crack. I called our road service department and they advised us to bring the truck to Joplin (our main terminal) for repair ASAP.  Dispatch would work on routing us to Joplin. The entire time I am thinking “positive thinking”, I need to practice “positive thinking”. Problem #3, when we arrived in Blythe, California to drop our final loaded trailer we found out that there were no empty trailers available. Dispatch advised us to bobtail to Los Angeles to pick up an empty trailer and then head to Oakland, California for our next load. Problem #4, that’s 580 miles, our windshield is broken and we need to go to Joplin. Dispatch said they were heading us in…yeah, the long way. So off to LA…220 miles later and guess what? Problem #5, no empty trailers there either. So dispatch sends us over to Santa Fe Springs to another one of our yards and finally we have an empty. So off to Oakland we go…and at 5am the next morning we are finally loaded and on our way to Kansas City, KS. This “positive thinking” has to kick in here at any moment now.  As we leave Oakland it is 53 degrees and raining.   Ok, I’m thinking nothing has gone right so far with this “positive thinking” crap Irene, but oh well I will try to focus really really hard on it.  About 30 minutes later and with me behind the wheel we encounter problem #6.  I crest a small hill with a curve on I-80 and 3 cars are spun out with 2 cars against the guardrail and one car in my lane sitting with his 4ways on. I had all I could do to get the truck slowed safely and quickly as possible without crashing us as well. I thought for sure Irene was going to roll out of the bed and be lying on the floor next to my seat with how fast we slowed and weaving to avoid a collision with the other cars. After several deep breaths and a few choice 4 letter words we rolled on…I guess we could have crashed, but we didn’t. ”Positive thinking”, “positive thinking”. 

Ok, so maybe my luck is really changing. NOT! I noticed the temperature was dropping and the radio was saying snow in the mountains but I really didn’t think much of it. As we approached the base of Donner Pass which is an 8000’ summit that you pass over on I-80 we found the road was blocked by DOT. The mandatory chain law was in effect, which is now problem #7. Temps were in the 30’s and it was snowing. Irene and I do not have our winter clothes in the truck yet. After a few more 4 letter words I installed the tire chains and we spent the next 30 miles or so at 25mph heading up and over to the base on the east side where they allowed us to remove our chains. I was soaked from head to toe and as I climbed back into the truck I asked Irene where is the positive side to this problem?  She replied with “it’s heating up in the microwave right now”…chicken noodle soup. It did really hit the spot. So once again we are rolling and back to normal heading into Nevada…where problem #8 arrives…another stone to the windshield. This time it’s a 1” crack…no sense on calling in this one cause we are already headed in. Next stop Utah, where we made it through without any drama but a while later as we were heading through Wyoming I found myself passing another 18 wheeler where problem #9 arrived…a dead mule deer laying on the edge of the passing lane and nowhere for me to go…oh well it’s already dead so it won’t feel anything…sorry mule deer…I only ran over the legs so don’t everyone freak out on me…lol

Onto problem #10…we run an additive in our truck called DEF that we fill whenever we stop for fuel…not all fuel stops have this and we have an info sheet in our truck which tells us who does and does not carry it. So we chose our next stop for fuel and upon arriving there is a sign saying “ NO DEF”…are you kidding me…we fueled with diesel and I told Irene that we would have to stop at the next available place on our sheet to get DEF. When we got there the place had only 3 pumps working and there were about 10 trucks waiting for fuel…a few more 4 letter words and we left knowing that if our next location didn’t have it we were going to be in trouble. I couldn’t help but ask Irene how that positive thinking is working for us now…(she explained I was not using the positive thinking correctly). I didn’t realize it came with directions…lol  I told Irene I was done with the "positive thinking" crap.  Well the next stop had our DEF plus they also had a McDonalds…COFFEE YEAH!  

Well we delivered in KC and I said to Irene that looking back at the past couple of days something needed to change…it seems as though bad luck has hit us at every turn, even though we were trying to stay positive. Well they dispatched us to our next load in KC going to Springfield MO. and then onto Joplin for repair. (Finally)  When we arrived at our pickup they asked us to back up to dock #7…lucky #7…as the warehouse guy was ready to load us he said I will have you loaded in 10 minutes. I timed him and it was 7minutes…lucky #7 again. After receiving our paper work we noticed the weight was 44, 634…pretty heavy and also that we needed to be at our delivery before 3pm or they would not unload us until the next day. I wanted to scale the truck to make sure we were legal but we were short on time…the smart (and right) thing to do was scale it…but hey we have the lucky 7’s working for us. There was only one scale that we would have to cross so I crossed my fingers and when we got there it was closed…and guess what, it was on route 7…that’s right…lucky #7.

Oh yes our luck has changed! Oh the power of "positive thinking" you ask?  I don’t think so…LOL.  I will keep you all posted!      

Date Night

Yesterday we were in New Jersey waiting to deliver our load of 60” LED TVs to the Best Buy Distribution Center in Perth Amboy.   Jersey is a little hard to get around so we were limited on where we could go.  Our load did not deliver until 10:00 am the following morning.  Therefore, Randy and I decided that we would have a date night.

We purchased a movie a couple of weeks ago and have not had a chance to see it.  This was our chance to watch the movie and just kick back.  We parked our truck   at a Service Plaza near our destination.  Randy opened the windows for the cool breeze and proceeded to make pop-corn while I set up the movie.  I asked Randy how he liked my little apartment and he said that it was more like a cubical.

So after the movie ended, Randy and I had an interesting conversation.  It went like this:
     Randy: “Oh this is our first date?”
     Irene:    Really… are you sure this is our first date?
     Randy:  Yes I am sure, why do you ask?
     Irene:    Good, then I don’t owe you anything, thanks for stopping by.
     Randy:  Well can I have a second date?
     Irene:    No, you can’t.
     Randy:  Why?
     Irene:    You did not impress me on our first date.
     Randy:  Hmmm, well to be honest, I don’t want to give you another date either.
     Irene:    Oh, why is that Randy?
     Randy:  You are way too demanding. You constantly tell me "do this" and "do that".

This morning after getting some awesome sleep and rest, we went to Best Buy to drop our load.  We are now on our way to Lyons, PA to pick up another load and then off to Laredo, TX. 

I am looking forward to driving thru Pennsylvania on I-81 heading towards Tennessee and enjoying all the fall colors.  I hope that the wind and rain hasn’t knocked them all to the ground.