Poorly Girl

Okay lets go back a little ways and explain the suspended tow. The trip started with a simple load at Bedford NS and delivering to LaSalle PQ the next morning. They then gave me a trl from our St Laurent terminal to Vaughan ON. This one was booked in at a Sobeys (it’s a superstore over here) distribution center 5 am the next morning. I cringed, a bloody RDC, memories of Tesco came flooding back. I arrived at Sobeys and was amazed a the size of the place. The place was fully automated, as soon as a plt is taken off a bar code is slapped on it then a 2^nd flt sticks on the conveyer belt and within seconds is whisked off and put in the appropiate racking in the warehouse by the automated system. Apparently 150 people are employed in the warehouse, where as without the automated system it would be moe like a 1000. It was amazing watching it. From backing on the door (and there was no wait for it) to leaving through the security gate took 20 minutes. 36 skids of mixed fruit juice, not bad. The next job they gave me was to take my mt up to our terminal in Concord (just down the road) and pick up a loaded trl for Fairfield, Iowa. Cool another new area to travel through. Previously the furthest west state was Michigan. Now I’d started to get some vibration on the driveline, nothing to bad and it seemed to come and go. Now the roads through Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa are mainly paved in concrete so vibration of some sort was always present, plus the rough patches where they had construction. Michigan as I’ve said before Michigan en’t that special to travel through, but when you get out to Illinois and Iowa the scenery changes. It’s farming country. By christ you want to see the size of the equipment they use in the fields. Seen pictures before but to see this giant machines for real it’s amazing. Carl if you read this tell Brian they “back scuttle” big style here. It was a pleasant trip to Fairfield and arrived at the customer at 10 30 or as I thought, forgot I’d crossed another time line and now I was 2 hrs behind Atlantic Time. Most of the goods where hand ball so it took them a couple of hours to unload. Meanwhile they had sent me my preplan for my reload, a short 52 mile trip down the road to Burlington for a load bound back to Ontario. Easy booking time 8am Saturday morning(it was Thursday lunch time at the time). Reloaded at Burlington I headed for a truckstop in Illinois for the night. My plan was start of early, cross into Canada by lunch time and be parked up in Milton ON for mid afternoon. Then a short trip to the customer Saturday morning. Well that WAS the plan. The journey started off okay Friday morning, but as I got into Michigan the vibration on the driveline came back with vengence. I knew I had to get it shorted, but I wanted to choose where, but “my girl” had other ideas. The vibration was bad so I pulled over onto the paved shoulder, as I got onto the shoulder the vibration went. The reason it went? She’d thrown the driveline off. I called Penske roadside, explained the situation and told them she’d need a suspended tow. So 45 mins later a guy comes out in a pick up truck, takes a look and says he can’t fix it on the road she’ll need towing in.. der hadn’t I said that? Hour later the wrecker comes out and towed me into the shop. The guys there were fantastic, they rang round and soon located the parts required. Now the thing that really p’d me off was that “my girl” had been in for a service 10 days before and they’d fitted a new UJ, but not correctly, as this was the problem. They fitted a new yolk and UJ and I was on my way. Well 7hrs wasn’t too bad, plus I got paid for it. Wade told me the load was rebooked for first thing Monday morning, so we agreed I was going to get back into Ontario Saturday and reset my hours. That way I could keep moving the following week. Again that was the plan. I rang dispatch on the Saturday morning and Wade was off and Carla was on. She told me to take the load to our Terminal in Concord, pick up an mt and then pick up a load in Whitby ON then bring it back to the Maritimes. Okay I was cool with that. Reloaded Whitby and started to make my way back. Now the load was bound for Newfoundland, so I needed to know which drop yard I needed to leave the load so I rang dispatch on Sunday morning. Wade was back on and couldn’t believe Carla had changed the plan. As he’d booked me on a load back to the US from Ontario… Never mind shit happens. I stopped at Aulac on the Sunday night (after quickly doing them a favour in Moncton, got paid 7hrs for an hours work, sorted), dropped the trl at Truro and bobtailed home for a reset.. The one good thing that came out of this is the truck is better than she was before. There’s always been a vibration and Penske have always said “it’s a Freightliner thing”. Well those guys in Sodus, Michigan got rid of that “Freightliner thing”.
Are well that’s the story behind the pictures. I’ll try and get up dated. Sat unloading furniture in St John NB at the moment so had a little time. Once mt here off to who knows where, no pre plan through yet. Anyway you all stay safe and I’ll catch you again soon…. Got to dig that picture of Malc in that TK yet……

And Malcolm need'nt think I 've forgetten him. Got some photo's somewhere of a skinny chap driving a Bedford TK in Nth Ireland........

Hair today......

God this seems like another life time... Thanks Mick for digging them up..... i'll get you back

Lazy

At least Sharen has something to run round in, in the winter

Hi everyone promised I'd tell you what happened to "my girl". I'm working on it promise. As you can see we try and make the most of the time off and the nice weather. So when I'm at home it's wash "my girl", cut the lawn, then go out and enjoy ourselves with our friends. Winter will soon be up on us so I'll have plenty of time to keep the blog up to date then. Will try and bring it up to date before, I'll try. Just going out, swimming in the sea, sea fishing,bbq'ing on a small island, spending time with good friends, great home cooked meals and generally having fun takes residence at the moment. Getting to slip into the Canadian way "work hard, play even harder"... Did I tell you we have a car know (Sharen keeps telling me it's an SUV).

Take care and I promise to get you up to date soon

Taking a long weekend off with some friends. Life's hell here, but someone has to do it....

Mmm this story yet to come

Bought our first motor this weekend

Now this is the way to holiday. This is a private vehicle. Talked to Sharen about it and the retirement plans are being made already

Part 2

Well I left Newport early Tuesday morning as planned. Thing was the day before it was so hot I broke out the old shorts, and planned on wearing them the next day. Problem is it was chucking it down, so shorts put away and jeans back out of the wardrobe. The joourney was going okay till I cleared Brewer ME and was just getting towards the "Airline". Someone had knocked a Skunk over and it lay in the middle of the carraigeway. So I aimed the truck so the wheels passed either side of it, did'nt want to squash it and get smeely skunk on the truck. It was still the wrong thing to do. The heater sucked in all the smeel as I passed over the top. Oh boy what a stink, never smelt anything so bad. Took ages to get that horrible bloody smell from the cab. Air freshner spraying, even shut the windows and smoked a cigar to get rid of the stink. Let me tell you if you've never smelt a Skunk, let me tell you, you don't want to. Anyway besides that the trip up to Bridgewater went well. Dispatch had asked what my plans were when I was back and I'd told them home for the night then straight back out on the Wednesday morning. Trl dropped at Mitchelin, hooked up to a loaded one, dropped that back into Halifax, then home. All be it for one night, but home just the same. The following morning I went into dispatch at 8 and Chris gave me a job, down to Lake Eutpia NB to pick up a load of paper then onwards to Schenectady in New York State. Easy run as it was'nt booked in till the Friday morning. But on the way to pick the load up Chris sent a message asking if i could be there for 1345 the next day. This was no problem as Schenectady is'nt that far and it was still going to be an easy run. So loaded, crossed the border and headed for Newport again for the night. On the way down the next day the Qualcom went off with my reload instructions. Could'nt believe my luck, I was reloading at the same place as I was delivering. Again easy run back up to Quebec with 2 deliveries the next day. So with the 2nd delivery off by lunch time on the Friday my next pre-plan was sent through. Into our terminal in Saint Laurent for the poolcar that night. Nice one home for Saturday night, Sunday off and back out Monday. Heck must have needed the sleep more than I thought because I missed the knock on the cab door and did'nt wake up till 3am. Never mind there were 3 trls to choose from and took the light one bound for Dartmouth. Still be home for 5 that night. It was a good run back, dropped the trl at Armour in Dartmouth and bobtailed home. Bath and down the "Tavern " for a drink. Sunday was spent chilling (after washing the truck of coarse) on the deck. It's unbelievable where we live it's so peaceful and relaxing. Well catch you again soon with the next instalment, but for now got to get another cold beer out of the fridge and chill some more... It's a hard life...