Got loaded out last night from Commerce, CA....8 mi from downtown LA.....47,040 lbs of shingles, headed for Lawton, OK. I'm at about max weight, with only half full fuel tanks, I'm at 79,420 lbs....so I am getting 75 gallons each time I need fuel. Makes for a long trip. But it is a beautiful day for driving. No clouds in AZ, 96 degrees (just a mite bit warm)....and as usual for AZ....a healthy wind!
If everything goes well, I'll be in Lawton tomorrow afternoon. Then I have to start figuring out about getting tires for the trailer and the tractor....should prove interesting. Anyway, lunch break is over, time to roll up some asphalt and get closer to OK. :)
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Headed in to CA
Well, stopped in Sparks, NV to shower & wash clothes....guess what I ended up spending the afternoon doing?!?! That's right.....washed clothes, showered AND watched a few hours of football! Sooooo, I'm about to head into CA under the cover of darkness! My 10 hr break was done 30 min ago...have 1 qtr of football then roll on roll on!
Friday, September 13, 2013
Just a little catch up while on break :)
Once again I am in Salt Lake City, UT pulling a 34 hour restart...SLC is becoming my second home! I seem to end up here at least twice a month, actually seems to be more often that that!
And I'm amazed that it has only been just over a week since I last posted....I am getting a little better at this! LOL I believe that I was in Livingston, CA on another 34 restart killing time! Since that time I have been to ...... Los Angeles, CA to Salt Lake City, UT (see what I mean).. :)..hauled a coil of steel (44,000 pounds).
Then I went 120 miles south of SLC to a little town named Lynndyl, UT and picked up 45,000 pounds of old railroad rails... and what a mess!! The pick spot is on the side of the railhead and there had been so many loads out that the dirt was down to the consistency of talcum powder....it was windy, dirty, rainy, you name it....
by the time I was loaded, I looked like Al Jolson about to do his rendition of "Mammy"!! Plus, to scale out had to drive 15 miles one way to a feed store in Delta, UT....first trip I was 2,400 lbs over gross, so....back we went to take a few rails off and then back to Delta.
Those rails were delivered to downtown Joplin, MO. And I do mean downtown. And the dirt there was just as bad as in UT, but much less windy and so just my feet and shins got filthy!! Nice change.
From Joplin, I went to Pricher, OK...look up Pricher on Wikipedia....it has a very interesting story to it's death! It is listed as a ghost town now.....13 years ago it had a population of 1,600+...but due to a 100 year old mining operation, the town (what's left that has not been leveled) has a population of 20 and a huge "SuperFund" operation going on that is trying to clean up the mine mess. Interesting.
All along these last couple of loads the weather has been interesting....from sunny to rainy to highly windy to pea soup fog! I was running along thru NE and WY during the time that CO areas received up to 7 inches of rain in 12 hours....those poor folks have a real mess on their hands. And it hasn't been much better in UT...the SLC area had heavy rains and because of the fires last year in the surrounding mountains, they had mudslides the past several days. On the news here last night they spoke with a man that was still shoveling mud out of his swimming pool - two days after the rains....and they are just hoping that the rains will stay away long enough for it to dry up...but it was raining here this morning when I woke up. So I'll see what the news has to say tonight.
One thing about being on the road,I really do see a lot of gorgeous countryside!This was the view I had my last run out of UT with the rails at the rest area I stopped at for one night. The little panarama pic doesnt' really do it justice, but it was beautiful!
And, of course, for all of us that love to watch storms, I got to run thru, around or inbetween several of them in the past week!
Love to see storm clouds...just wish I could have caught some of the lightening that was going on with them....it was fabulous!
Also get to see what type of autos are being moved around the country, or changing hands of ownership! Nice little old Bronco!
And of course....as some try to be more "eco-friendly", I almost missed getting a pic of this cell phone tower!! Looks like a real tree! Right!! LOL
So, this brings me up current to where I am again....parked at the TA in Toole, UT (just west of SLC) on a break again! Tomorrow starts another chapter in the life of a flatbedder!! So, more to come, soon!!
And I'm amazed that it has only been just over a week since I last posted....I am getting a little better at this! LOL I believe that I was in Livingston, CA on another 34 restart killing time! Since that time I have been to ...... Los Angeles, CA to Salt Lake City, UT (see what I mean).. :)..hauled a coil of steel (44,000 pounds).
Then I went 120 miles south of SLC to a little town named Lynndyl, UT and picked up 45,000 pounds of old railroad rails... and what a mess!! The pick spot is on the side of the railhead and there had been so many loads out that the dirt was down to the consistency of talcum powder....it was windy, dirty, rainy, you name it....
From Joplin, I went to Pricher, OK...look up Pricher on Wikipedia....it has a very interesting story to it's death! It is listed as a ghost town now.....13 years ago it had a population of 1,600+...but due to a 100 year old mining operation, the town (what's left that has not been leveled) has a population of 20 and a huge "SuperFund" operation going on that is trying to clean up the mine mess. Interesting.
All along these last couple of loads the weather has been interesting....from sunny to rainy to highly windy to pea soup fog! I was running along thru NE and WY during the time that CO areas received up to 7 inches of rain in 12 hours....those poor folks have a real mess on their hands. And it hasn't been much better in UT...the SLC area had heavy rains and because of the fires last year in the surrounding mountains, they had mudslides the past several days. On the news here last night they spoke with a man that was still shoveling mud out of his swimming pool - two days after the rains....and they are just hoping that the rains will stay away long enough for it to dry up...but it was raining here this morning when I woke up. So I'll see what the news has to say tonight.
One thing about being on the road,I really do see a lot of gorgeous countryside!This was the view I had my last run out of UT with the rails at the rest area I stopped at for one night. The little panarama pic doesnt' really do it justice, but it was beautiful!
Also get to see what type of autos are being moved around the country, or changing hands of ownership! Nice little old Bronco!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Extinction....Species and/or Culture??
I have been cleaning up my room and doing laundry and watching one of the PBS stations out here today, and there have been several interesting programs on. They have covered everything from what used to be in Los Angeles and are no longer there to where we have gotten most of our medicines (from plants and animals), music from all over and how it is disappearing.
But there was one statement made by one of the makers of the program about the disappearance of cultural music that has hit a chord with me.....he make the statement that, yes, we are loosing species to extinction .... but there is also another "extinction" that is taking place that we seem to just be allowing to take place without anyone making much noise about....and that is the extinction of "cultures".....and the more I think about that statement the more I agree with it. He was in another country, and the musicians and instrument makers were dieing out and their musical culture was being lost.
I see the same thing happening here, with out "cultures" on a daily basis....all the diversity of our different backgrounds is being swallowed up by "current society" and "the old ways" are being lost...which is a crime! Just how did we get to where we are....by living and building upon the past....and if we forget the past, we are destined to have a collapse.
I guess that is why I keep talking about the fact that I am about to start the "Have You Seen America Lately??" blog. I keep passing through small towns/hamlets on the roads out here that you can tell have stories to tell, have had a past that was the backbone of our country, and yet, they are dieing out and being paved over or left to nature to cover up and do away with. We are loosing our "group" identity....and there were a bunch of groups here at one time....but today the "masses" are being herded to a point that there really are no individual personalities...and I see this happening everywhere.
You have a few different types of truck drivers, but the different groups are being herded into groups that have no patience with each other. There are several different groups of 4-wheeler drivers, but when you really get to looking at them, the only real difference is the amount of money that they are able to invest in the vehicle. But they all have the same urgency to get wherever it is and then get back....don't get in the way!!
But I ramble!! I am trying to get my thoughts and pictures lined up, and adding pics each week as I can, and getting ready to start my other blog back up...or another one that will be just for what we are loosing. Or perhaps I should say "have lost already"!
But there was one statement made by one of the makers of the program about the disappearance of cultural music that has hit a chord with me.....he make the statement that, yes, we are loosing species to extinction .... but there is also another "extinction" that is taking place that we seem to just be allowing to take place without anyone making much noise about....and that is the extinction of "cultures".....and the more I think about that statement the more I agree with it. He was in another country, and the musicians and instrument makers were dieing out and their musical culture was being lost.
I see the same thing happening here, with out "cultures" on a daily basis....all the diversity of our different backgrounds is being swallowed up by "current society" and "the old ways" are being lost...which is a crime! Just how did we get to where we are....by living and building upon the past....and if we forget the past, we are destined to have a collapse.
I guess that is why I keep talking about the fact that I am about to start the "Have You Seen America Lately??" blog. I keep passing through small towns/hamlets on the roads out here that you can tell have stories to tell, have had a past that was the backbone of our country, and yet, they are dieing out and being paved over or left to nature to cover up and do away with. We are loosing our "group" identity....and there were a bunch of groups here at one time....but today the "masses" are being herded to a point that there really are no individual personalities...and I see this happening everywhere.
You have a few different types of truck drivers, but the different groups are being herded into groups that have no patience with each other. There are several different groups of 4-wheeler drivers, but when you really get to looking at them, the only real difference is the amount of money that they are able to invest in the vehicle. But they all have the same urgency to get wherever it is and then get back....don't get in the way!!
But I ramble!! I am trying to get my thoughts and pictures lined up, and adding pics each week as I can, and getting ready to start my other blog back up...or another one that will be just for what we are loosing. Or perhaps I should say "have lost already"!
About Time I Get Caught Up!!
I guess that it is about time that I get caught up a little on my past travels of the last month or so. I'm in Buttonwillow, CA at the TA Truckstop for a couple of days. It is Labor Day weekend??, I think, and I don't deliver to Huron, CA until Tuesday morning. I am taking a set of what I believe are "anchor cable templates" to a solar farm outside of Huron. BIG load....almost 4,200 pounds!! LOL It was like running empty over here from Salt Lake City. I took my time getting over here, and will take my time getting things done tomorrow.I will be taking the time tomorrow to wash clothes, finish setting up/cleaning up my room. I have thinned out things and gotten rid of things that I don't use or need out here on the road to the point that I almost do have everything in a place and the floor and seats practically clear most of the time. Abbie can actually run around and play during the day while we are traveling. She is getting along real well in the truck and on the road...she has even recovered nicely from her spaying! She was pretty pathetic the afternoon that I picked her up from the vet's office...LOL! She was quite miserable and I think she was really surprised that I came back for her from the way that she reacted!!
I was able to be off the road for my birthday anniversary and was at Tiffany's. It was a pleasant weekend and pretty restful...and CAKE!! ;)
And like I keep saying,being out on the road you never know for sure each day what you will run into. Joshua had told me about the VW Synchro vans (4 wheel drive) and I have looked at videos on YouTube of them,but I had never stumbled across one on the road. Well, a few weeks ago,coming out of CA on a run, I spotted this one in a rest area where I had stopped to take a break.
And I keep seeing pickup truck campers that make more and more sense. The one above was in Nevada headed for the mountains. It is not very tall, until you raise the roof, like a poptop camper. This one had a kitchen area, dinette, and also a SMALL bathroom in it. I am a little over this size camper...but in my younger days it would have been great!
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