Branson Vacation 1st Day

I finally got in on Monday the 3rd. I had wanted in on the 2nd, but they couldn't get me there, so when I got in at 3pm Monday we loaded up and left. I drove all night in order to get to Merna's in Ozark, MO. This is 30 miles north toward Springfield from Branson.

We rested a little on Tuesday morning, visited and got tickets for our first show on Wednesday. Not that active right now since is 3 weeks before Memorial Day, so it was easy to get front row seats for the outdoor drama "Shepherd of the Hills". This show is celebrating its 50th year this year. It is the longest running outdoor drama anywhere and is worth seeing.

We started the afternoon by attending the dinner show on the Shepherd of the Hills grounds at the pavilion. The "Sons of the Pioneers" show was simply great. Growing up watching Roy Rogers (who was one of the original artists when still known by the name of Leonard Slye), this was a real treat. There are 6 members of the group now and they celebrated their 75th anniversary as a group in 2007. We were served dinner at 4:15pm from the chuck wagon in the open pavilion. At 5pm the show began. At intermission I was able to get all of their autographs, finished the show and then we sat outside in the beautiful Missouri weather and waited to catch the jeep drawn tram down to the outside theater.

The show for "Shepherd of the Hills", based on a novel of the same name from 1907, began at 8:30pm. I got VIP seating on the front row and the tram delivered us right to our seats. It was a lot less walking for Pat, the stairs down from the top would have been difficult to say the least. There were up to 80 people involved in the production and plenty of mules, donkeys, horses, sheep and other varmints. Gunfights, socks blown out with a shotgun, cabin on fire to keep your mind going. We all recommend both shows highly.

I have included pictures of the night taken with my Canon digital. Flash photography was not allowed because of frightening the animals, but the settings I used worked well as long as could catch them fairly stationary.

We will rest today and will see the Titanic museum tomorrow and hopefully take in another show.

Home

Well didn't get to go directly home from Pittsburgh. I knew it would happen being Saturday night and no way to get with fleet manager in home terminal to get some help. Weekend dispatch sent me up to Erie, PA to pick up a load at midnight going to Budweiser in Jacksonville, FL. Complained that wasn't headed anywhere near home and got the usual message that it was all he had...not like I could prove he was lying.

Delivered there on Monday afternoon and meanwhile had been on the phone with fleet manager getting some assistance to get home. They gave me a load from Jacksonville to Hattisburg, MS to deliver Tuesday night at midnight at a Sam's Club. They preplanned me on a load from Meridian to New Caney, TX that got me home on Thursday morning.

Did pretty much nothing for 4 days enjoying my living room and my recliner for the most part. I did get out Sunday afternoon and crawl under the house to level the bathroom. It had settled a couple of inches on the outside corner. I had borrowed some jacks from a friend over 6 months ago to get it done. All ways something else coming up, until now. The people we paid to level the house had not done a very good job at that corner. I had to add some blocks to brace it in between the widely spaced blocking. Now you can go in the bathroom without holding down your brake peddle.

Left out again Monday morning and picked up a load of water going to a Sam's Club in Metarie, LA near New Orleans. Will deliver there in the morning. I will only stay out 2 weeks this time and take a vacation the first week of May. Finally getting a chance to go to Branson, MO for a few days. A very special friend just recently moved to the area and we got free lodging. More money for shows.

Short loads

Getting a lot of them the last 2 weeks. I hope this is not a trend that stays. I'm getting loads 250 to 500 miles and that is it. A good week is 2,500 miles and up. This week I only got 1,400 miles on 4 short loads. They eat up your hours because you spend so much time loading and unloading instead of rolling. No rolling, no money. The loading and unloading, breakdowns, etc. are part of the job not something you get paid for. When the "parts of the job you don't get paid for" become a lot more than the "parts of the job you do get paid for" you start to get ticked a bit. It is what is wrong with this job and has always been that way.

The company has you over a barrel. I have topped out in mileage pay here, and their top pay is better than 95% of the other companies, but they hire new drivers and at 11 cents less per mile and they get their mileage most of the month. In order for them to get a raise they have to make 10,300+ miles per month for 3 months running. Dispatch gets them close to that and cuts back their miles so they can't make the raise. On the other hand since I make 11 cents more per mile, they don't give me the good paying mileage loads because it costs them more and they would prefer I just quit so they could hire someone at a lower mileage rate. It's all a game and the driver loses. If I do quit and move on to another company I start at that mileage rate 11 cents lower than I am making now and work my way up again. Stuck...

Not a good profession to be in and you get pretty cynical about it. You never know what loads are on the board to be offered, so you can't complain about it. Everyone complains about unsafe trucks. Fact is that safety rates for trucks and miles traveled has increased for several years now. Trucking has never been safer. The only thing that keeps it from being totally safe is the pay per mileage game where drivers have to drive their lives away to make a decent wage. Companies pushing them to make on time deliveries or they lose their jobs. Doesn't matter that you were held up in traffic because of an accident, weather, or shipper who held you up 7 or 8 hours...still have to make the on time appointment which is normally preset before you even pick up the load. These are the things that make it unsafe. Rookie drivers pushing too hard to get the load there instead of just telling dispatch it ain't possible and they need to reschedule the delivery appointment. They are too worried about their jobs to learn the tricks yet.

I, on the other hand, have to worry about my job because of my high mileage rate cuts into the companies bottom line. I have hit 60 years old now and chances of finding a better job has decreased. Companies want drivers who don't know the ropes yet and can be bullied around, and work scared of losing their jobs. Well really, everyone is scared of losing a job now a days. Back home there are no want ads running much at all. No local jobs to speak of that pays above minimum wage. I'm not quite to that point in my life where I can take that big a pay cut. Nor do I want to move to where I can find a better paying job.

Strange and scary times. Don't think they are going to get better any time soon. The grand kids will never have it so good, they will be taxed on 70% of their earnings to pay for those who do not work. Entitlements only force people down into the government sludge. You can never get out so you keep voting in the idiots that are holding your head under so they will give you a tube to breath with.

I am in Maryland today, I had a heck of a time getting through Baltimore yesterday afternoon. Traffic in the northeast is bad. Too many people up here. Headed over to Pittsburgh to deliver to a grocery warehouse tonight. I was supposed to be home Monday, but surprise, they don't have any loads that are over 250 miles. At this rate it will be May before I make it there.

Spring is Springing

Thank goodness. This has been a long winter with storm after storm blowing through. I have never been in so much snow during the winter. As long as I'm running up north it is not too much of a problem since they have the equipment and know how to keep the roads clean. You can go to bed in a bad blizzard, and if it blows on through over night, they will have the roads pretty well cleaned off by morning. Of course, this many storms in a year really blows their state budget. I'm glad they continue to clean them off even without money. States aren't like the federal government who just prints more paper to pay their bills.

I have been running hard for the last week. The last two weeks I have run out of hours in 6 days and had to shut down to rebuild my hours, that means 12 to 14 hour days every day. Of course the selection of runs don't help. I have had a lot of 200 to 400 mile runs, some of them pick up in the morning and have to be dropped that same day. Short loads eat up your hours burning up an extra hour per day off your logs. Hours you don't get paid for. If your not rolling your not making money. Spending time at each end of the trip making pick up and delivery you have to log, but you don't get paid for it. If you get delayed at shipper/consignee you don't get paid unless it is over a 2 hour wait. Then you get paid a few dollars for it, for the time over 2 hours not the first 2 hours.

You can set 2 hours at the shipper, then 2 hours at the consignee at the end of the trip and get paid nothing. You can only work 14 hours in a day, so that is 4 hours off your driving time. Add in time to stop and fuel, get a bite to eat or go to rest room and you suddenly have lost 100 to 200 miles off your day...less money. Small wonder you go all day long without stopping to eat, just munching, or holding your legs crossed and stopping at a rest area to use the rest room and out in a few minutes. This is getting harder to do with age, and the fact the states are closing all their rest areas.

Then there are more and more regulations coming down from the federal government spurred on by interest groups that want drivers to work less hours in a day. It is not bad enough that we have to stay gone from home 24 to 30 days in a month and only getting 4 days at home each month. Now they want us to stay out here on less pay and spend more time setting in truck stops, which are fewer since they are closing too. The end of my days driving are fast approaching and a lot of drivers feel the same. What will the country do when they regulate all of the drivers so much they force them to quit because they can't balance making a good pay check against justifying being away from home so much.

There is already a shortage of drivers and companies are needing more trucks and can't get them to move their product. How do you as a consumer get you food from Walmart, clothes? Everything else you buy at the store. No drivers to get them there so you can buy them. Learn to grow a garden and sew. The day is coming you will need the skill. All of the necessities will cost more than you make to buy.

Off my soapbox. Made it into Nashville, TN yesterday morning on the way to Atlanta, GA. I will stay here until Monday morning early and run down to deliver. Got to watch the final four basketball tournament last night which was fun. Tennessee is out so Go Butler!!! Break out my "Hoosiers" movie and get excited about them hopefully knocking off Duke tomorrow night.

Pictures for first of 2010

Here are the pictures I have been taking for the first part of the year starting at the end of January. Have some pictures from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and NE New York. All were cold, but Minnesota was coldest with highs below zero. Hearty bunch up there.

Final pictures are of last time home when I finally got the living room finished except for painting the trim and putting up some curtains. Got the furniture in there and out of storage was the main thing. Took 3 years from the time David and Dick helped me tear out the walls and replace the windows until now. Lot under the bridge in that time. Next time home I am going to set in the recliner for 3 days straight. The next time home I will decide what I do next. Maybe take a vacation.

Now back to the Tennessee Vols/Ohio State game....

All right Vols on to the elite 8 for the first time. Way to go.

Back out

Have not updated since going home almost 2 weeks ago. I stayed out long enough last time to get the ok for an extra day off. I was home a total of 5 days and finally managed to finish remodeling my living room that I tore out 3 years ago with the help of David and Dick. Seems like every time I came in there was always something else that I needed to do or take care of and was hard to make the time to just finish it. Little by little I got it though. This time I had my son and grandson corraled to help. Good thing too, my right knee was locked up and I believe I cracked/broke a rib on my left side. Getting old sucks!!

Went back to work last Friday and have been moving 10 to 11 hours every day. Over to Georgia, up to Indiana and back to Arkansas. I deliver to Ft. Smith this afternoon and then will have to shut down to let my hours build back up again. Have some pictures and if I can get a strong enough signal for my computer I will get them loaded up.

Another Long Week

Kinda catches up to me. I had meant to add to this blog more than I have. When I started it freight wasn't all that heavy, but it has picked up some, at least enough to keep me rolling. I have been away from home 31 days now and will be going home on Friday.

I had made my delivery in Dandridge, TN last Monday and they ran me over to Newport 17 miles away to pick up a load at Conagra, used to be Bush's Beans, and the load went up to Tomah, WI to a Walmart DC there. I remember growing up in East Tennessee, that when we would go home to Texas for a visit mom picked up 2 cases of Wolf Brand Chili to bring back to Tennessee. In the 60's they didn't have decent chili in Tennessee.

In 1996 I went into the Bush's plant in Newport, TN and picked up a full load of Wolf Brand Chili and took it to Texas. Times change. Couldn't get Mexican food in Tennessee back then, now you can get it in Canada.

After I dropped my load in Tomah they sent me over to Oshkosh, WI to pick up a load of paper packages going to Kelloggs in Omaha, NE. As I left to go to Oshkosh my signal lights went out on my tractor. So back in the shop again. Found a wire that had been rubbing against the frame and had shorted out.

After delivering in Omaha they sent me downtown Omaha to pick a load of paper bags going to Conagra flour mill in Columbus, OH. Was interesting here because it was supposed to be a drop and hook on Saturday morning. When I got there there were no empty trailers and they were refinishing their floor and couldn't unload the trailer. I got to drop it in their dock and just drive about 2 miles to our terminal in Columbus and picked up an empty trailer there. I went up to Lima, OH and picked up a load at Procter & Gamble going to Walgreens DC near Greenville, SC.

I was supposed to go down to Knoxville, TN and across to Asheville, NC on I-40 and then down to Greenville, but I-40 is closed through the Smoky Mountain Gorge because of a rock slide couple of months ago. The detour is up to I-26 near Kingston, TN and through the mountains to Ashville which is an extra 45 miles. Which I don't get paid for. Doesn't matter if roads are closed or not, they only pay what the rate miles are, and that is all the driver gets.

I delivered the load to Walgreens this afternoon, now I go to Columbia, SC tonight and pick up a load to run over to Target DC in Tifton, GA. Hopefully work my way home from there.