"I'M LOVIN IT"

Me and Ole Blue, My Trainers Truck

Merry Christmas every one.
Ok, now where did I leave off... Oh Yeah!, I was headed to New York!
This turned out to be a great start. We turned ole Blue north and went a bit out of our way thru Oklahoma City. We did this for a couple of reasons. We have five days to make this 2 1/2 day trip, so we decided to slip by the house and surprise our wives with a visit. The other reason is I can go up to 75 mph on the Oklahoma Turnpike :), and get that visit a bit sooner. We slide into Joplin Friday night and my bride was there waiting on me. (I had called her while on the "Pike" and let her know I was coming in.) She was all dolled up, smelling good, and looking fine when I got there. We took a 34 hour reset since we had the time to reset our clock and enjoyed a day or so with our wives.

Jerry my Trainer and Me ready to leave for New York

Sunday about noon I met Jerry at the old Hoods Truckstop on I-44, kissed my wife goodbye and left out for NewYork City. This trip took me thru St. Louis MO, Effingham IL(Where I actually typed up the past weeks update), Indianapolis IN, Columbus OH, across Pennsylvania, thru New Jersy, and into New York. Ohio... Trucks 55 mph... OMG this was pure torture. PA was just gorgous, drove right thru the Poconos. New Jersy started to pick up with the traffic. We were sitting on the New Jersy turn pike since it was a good place to stage our trip into New York City. This took us just a few miles south of where we needed to enter the city, but there are very very few places you can park a big rig once you leave PA headed east. The turnpike service plaza was very convenient. We were sitting there Tuesday morning about 9:30AM ready to cross over the GW Bridge and go thru the city to get to Long Island. I called our consignee and asked first if he could take us early since we had a Wendsday appointment. I was told that the chances were slim. I then asked if it was possible to park there over night and got a good reply of "We have plenty of parking" and will attempt to off load you this afternoon. So off we went... Crossed the George Washington Bridge and you are immediatly in the Bronx!

George Washington Bridge, New York

All this was pretty interesting for an old country boy. I had driven up to the point of the service plaza on the NJTP, but Jerry said he would take us into the city so that I could look around as we went thru. He told me I would get plenty of experiance since I would be bringing us back out when we left. I snapped a couple of pictures to share with you all. Anyway, long story short, I did not see anything that would scare me away from driving the rig thru the Big Apple. Sure it's crazy, lots of traffic, lots of lanes to pick from as you work the rig around and thru the city, but I still love every minute of it.
We sat at the receiver up untill about 3 PM and was told it would be in the morning before we get unloaded.

Next morning, I finally get a dock assigned and go to back her in. These docks are inside the building. All 42 of them! The only proplem that I see is they were built for trucks that use a day cab and pull 38 or 40 foot trailers. I'm in here with an OTR condo cab tractor and 53 foot trailer! After many attempts and pull ups, it's finally getting close to where it needs to be. The dock forman is getting impatient and Jerry says he'll finish getting it into position just to please the customer. This dock is so tight that we drop the trailer and take the tractor back outside while they unload it so that other trucks can squeak by the front of the trailer to use the other docks.

We leave there with a new load assignment for W. Haven CT. I drive us out of Long Island and about a hundred miles north to our new location. I'm still loving every minute of piloting the rig, even in New York City. The new location was a small company that had a three door dock. Again, they were built for backing a wagon in using horses I think. This was just off of a small two lane street that had a wall oppisite of the docks. I end up pulling up on the sidewalk on the same side of the street as the docks and sort of make a backwards u-turn into the docks. Of course I have the traffic blocked on both lanes of the street and make several pull ups to wiggle ole blue into the docks. Just as soon as I get one lane clear on the street, the cars start pulling around the rig to get on there merry little way. I just continue to watch the traffic and slip my rig on back into the dock. Made a perfect touch down and have the trailer nice and squre to the dock. I sit there and wait on my new load for about and hour when the MobileMax goes off and tells me that this load has been canceled. I walk into the warehouse and he said he just didn't have enough product to fill a trailer yet. So off I go to seek out a truck stop to sit and wait for more orders. Just as I get back on the highway, the MobileMax goes off again with a new load assignment. Jerry won't tell me what it says and only says to find a place to stop the rig and he'll let me figure it out. He then tells me, He does not think we can get there from here. LOL
After I get down to the next truck stop just inside CT, I look and our assignment is to pick up at Lakewood NY. Now this is in what is called "upstate" New York and I have two options to get there. I can either go northeast a bit and then turn back west or I can go south back into the edge of New York and go west. We choose the south route that takes us to state Hwy 17. Now this is the Future I-86 and is pretty good road. It takes me thru the Catskills and Alleganys all the way across the state of New York. I end up actually South of Buffalo down near the PA state line. We pick up a load headed for Calexico CA. If not for takeing some time off for Christmas this would have been a great run. We just take it to Joplin MO so that it can be relayed by another driver.

When we arrive in Joplin I have 8242 miles under my belt and have now qualified to be assigned my own truck. No more chaparone for me. :)
I am assigned a 2005 KenWorth T-600 with C-15 twin turbo Cat engine and 13 speed Tranny. She is a beautifull truck with only 153,000 miles on her. Looks to me like she's just broke in and ready to take care of me as I travel the rest of these United States. After a very through inspection I find a few minor things that I want took care of by our shop as I take my days off. I'm going home for Christmas and Paco and I will be back to accept our new assignment Tuesday morning. Stay tuned.

Living the Dream