Times Gone By

Times Gone By

Monday, February 14, 2011

Wednesday morning came round so quickly. First job was to pick an mt TRL up and pick a load of fruit juice up from Kentville NS and take it to Rougemont QC. When I left Kentville it started snowing. It was one of the worse storms I'd driven through, visibility was very poor and the snow lay so thick it was difficult to know where the edge of the highway was (thank god for rumble strips). At one stage I thought I was going to loose traction going up a hill, but fortunately just made it to the top. Moncton was'nt to far away, so that was where I was going to stop for the night. A message came from Clarkes telling all trucks to "find a safe place to park and wait for storm to pass". It was so good to see the lights of the truck stop and to get off the road. The next morning was a lot better going and made it to Rougemont for 430 that afternoon. Once unloaded I was told to take the trl to our terminal in St Laurent then the following morning do 2 trips down to the docks to pick up mt trls and back to St Laurent. Only local work but every mile counts. In the afternoon I headed to St Hyacinthe to pick up a load bound for New Glasgow NS. I stayed that night a truck stop in Riviere du Loup with plans of starting at 6 the next morning and reaching my destination by 3. Nope that did'nt happen, when I did my pre trip I found I'd got a flat on the trl. It took them 2 hours to come out to me so it spoilt my early start. I eventually got to New Glasgow at 630 that night, dropped the trl in the trl park and started to bobtail home, as at that time dispatch had nothing for me. Half way back to Halifax a message came through asking if i wanted to head to Moncton and do some shunting work there Sunday. This would be hourly paid as there would be no miles in it at all. Well it's all work so agreed, but said I'd still head home for the night, oh boy what a mistake. The next morning it was raining in Halifax and there was a lot of flooding, but then when I got the other side of Truro it was snowing again. Not ideal bobtailing weather. The original plan was for me to pick 5 trls up from the Rail Terminal, but with the weather being so bad the train had'nt arrived in with 3 of them. They reckoned it maybe in by 4, so I took the 2 trls that were there to our trl park. The 2 nd part of the shunting work was to drop 3 trls on bays at a distribution centre. Job was a breeze. The train never came in that day in the end, so 8 hours work and an afternoon Skyping. Next morning saw me heading for St George NB to pick up a load of paper bound for Hazleton PA. Nice easy run. I was unloading in Hazleton by 330 Tuesday afternoon. Dispatch sent the reload details through, pick up a load from Mountain Top PA the next morning bound for Terrebonne QC and Moncton NB. Nice one, Mountain Top was only 19 miles away. Wednesday afternoon I was back in Canada. Made the first delivery 8am Thursday morning in Terrebonne QC and then headed off for Moncton. Again a nice steady run. Thursday night in Salisbury Truck Stop then 15 mins down the road the next morning to my 2 nd delivery in Moncton. Dispatch then sent me instructions to take my mt to Parrsboro NB, leave it there then bobtail back to Halifax. Great a Friday night at home. The Saturday I did a local job(520mile round trip) to Nth Sydney. Simple job leave loaded trl at docks then bring an mt back. Sharen came with me because the drive through Cape Bretton is a really beautiful one. Luckily enough it was a beautiful day. I'd booked the truck in on the Monday morning for some still outstanding jobs on it, so had already decided to take the Sunday off. Well I hope to back on the road Tuesday, heading for who knows where. So until next time, stay safe

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