Trips 80 through 82 and COLD!

Just finished 3 trips in the coldest weather I've experienced yet in driveaway work, including going to Duluth in January.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

I figured I needed to do a trip this week since I would be going with friends to Florida next week for golf and the Busch race and would probably take the following week off. So, even though my wife and I had seen each other a total of about 2 hours in the past 2 weeks since I had been on a long trip the previous week, and she had been to a teacher workshop and family get-togethers last week, I decided to head out.

It was brutally cold for VA on Tuesday morning. I was to pick up a truck at Altec Daleville, VA for delivery to Blairstown, NJ. My wife took me by the plant on her way to work, and agreed to drive me around the rather large lot of trucks they now have to help find the truck. View the picture and you'll see that Altec has a sea of trucks (blue shading provided by my crappy camera) from which you have to find yours. We were in to the second circle of the lot when we found it. It was an IHC 4300 automatic, started OK, so she headed on and I proceeded to do the quickest pre-trip in the 6 degree weather that I've done so far.

The trip to Blairstown up I-81 and across I-78 bouncing through PA was relatively uneventful. In this weather, I have the constant worry of diesel jelling, but no problems on this trip. I arrived in the area around 4:30 PM, but dispatch was having problems figuring out how to get me out of there and to my next truck in Lancaster, PA. They finally settled on having another driver, a nice fellow from AL, take me the 120+ miles in his tow car.

We arrived in Lancaster about 8:00 PM where I was able to find my next truck at the Lancaster Resort. In checking around the place, I could see there was no use in my asking about their room prices, so I again did a very quick (non-existent) pre-trip in the cold and headed about .5 miles up the road to the Super8. The other driver and I then had a nice meal at the nearby Friendly's.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

It snowed about an inch over night and every flake stuck, so the roads were slick. Even though it was cold, I did do a fairly good pre-trip before heading out about 8:00 AM. This truck was an IHC 4300 with chipper/boom body and was headed to Scottdale, PA, close to Pittsburg, to the Penn Line company. I saw lots of wrecks on the way, but did OK myself and arrived there about 1:00 PM.

The people at Penn Line were some of the nicest, if not the nicest, that I have delivered to. They obviously have a wonderful corporate culture, were having a good time, and treated me like royalty - not a common occurance as a driver.

I had told dispatch that I needed to get on back home rather than stay out to Friday like I had originally indicated. It had snowed 4-5 inches at home and my wife was less than pleased to be there by herself and having to plow out the driveway and get her car unstuck by herself. So dispatch put me in a rental car from the Latrobe, PA airport to Richmond, VA where I would pick one up from Glen Allen to Forest, VA, a trip I've made several times.

This worked out well for me, even though it was a lot of deadheading, because I could visit my daughters who live in Richmond, plus bum a ride from the airport to Glen Allen. I arrived Richmond, after driving the 320 miles at around 8:00 PM.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Only one of my daughters was available, Caitie, but she picked me up, we had a nice breakfast at Aunt Sarah's Pancake House, and she took me to Glen Allen. I picked up a GMC 7500 with chipper/boom body. As I headed out about 11:00 AM, I noticed it was jumping out of 6th gear each time I let off the gas. I figured I'd be able to handle that for the 140 miles to Forest, but did let dispatch know about it. They told me to head back to Glen Allen and talk to them before bringing the truck on. I knew they wouldn't work on it, but I did go back, and by that time it had stopped jumping out of gear. So I told the mechanic what was going on, he shrugged his shoulders as I figured he'd do, and I headed on to Forest.

Nice sunny day to drive and I arrived there about 2:00 PM. My wife was called into duty again since she was off from school, even though she did go in to work anyway, and she came later to pick me up. She was rewarded, as was I, with a nice late lunch/early dinner at the Ruby Tuesdays restaurant in Bedford, and then I was home from a very cold trip.

I had decided while I was out that I really didn't need to be dealing with this cold of weather and icy conditions and promised myself to just stay in in the future when it's like that. I'm heading with friends to warmer climate next week to do some golfing and race watching in Florida. That should keep me out of driveaway for at least two weeks. Besides, my wife says she really wants me around more, and I'm hoping it's more than for cooking and doing the dishes and vacuuming.