After 25 years of marriage you would think that you know your spouse pretty well.  Well, do I have news for you! You want to really get to know your spouse just quit your jobs, learn to drive an 18 wheeler and head out on the road for weeks at a time.  Then, and only then, will you really get to know the person that you are married to.  And if you are thinking you might have an idea, I am going to tell you that – no, you really don’t.  I am also going to tell you that if you do such a crazy thing, prepare for worst battle of your life, or the best thing you could do for the marriage, or both.

To summarize, I believe that I am a very lucky man …

… more later

We made our drop in Laredo and promptly hooked on to our next load and pointed ourselves north!  I am not very fond of the Laredo area and am quite happy when it grows small in my mirrors.  However, I am quite amazed in how much freight comes in and out of the area.  The Mexican economy is growing by leaps and bounds.  The border patrol is more active than the last time we were here.  And there was a rumor of flesh eating jack rabbits but the person who started that rumor is quite insane.

We are headed to the east coast and just like the last time we left Laredo headed east, we had a squall about an hour into our trip – how strange!  It poured cats and dogs for about 30 minutes and then a lightning show and intermittent rain for a couple hours afterwards.  I wanted to stop the truck and grab my washing gear and wash the truck but it was in the bunk area where my wife was sleeping.  I am not certain which is crazier, washing a truck in the rain or imagining a sea of bunnies ...

I have relocated the cellular antenna to the rear of the main cabin so that it extends above everything.  The height of the tip is at around 14’.  The reception has been exceptional as we very seldom lose a signal over the routes we have taken so far.

I have added a new inverter and have attached it directly to the battery.  This eliminates the problem of the inverter needing to be reset every time it lost power on the 12 volt side (the ignition system cuts the power to the accessories when it transfers the power to the starter).  I have discovered that a majority of the inverters behave in the same manner.  Anyway, we have good power to our electronics and we are beyond that problem (I hope).

I have replaced the KR1 router with a Top Global router to eliminate the network reset on loss.  This router seems to be working well and does not reset on loss of the WAN connection.  However, I am noticing an occasional drop on the Wi-Fi side but have not spent any time finding out why.  I am so happy that my network is staying up that a drop once or twice a day is nothing (I am sure it will start to annoy me at some point).  The KR1 was resetting 15-20 times a day!

I have changed the error handling routine for the client side of the trip mapper.  It seems to be working much better and recovers on its own most of the time.  I have some more work to do but the “Live View” should be current now unless we do not have a network connection.

We lost the weather station console and logger.  The weather data is joined with the GPS data to provide the records for the trip mapper.  Currently, the mapper requires the weather data in order to display the GPS data.  I am considering a change to the client to place dummy records in the table if the data has not yet been collected or it is not available.  I will need to do something as I will not get a replacement for several weeks.

Anyway, now that things are finally under control, I hope to journal daily again.  We shall see …

Well I was right, there is a lot of new things to learn and that leaves little time for pondering or researching.  The tracking system is working better than I thought it would for a rough draft.  However, it’s hard to trouble shoot when your network drops out whenever you lose the cell connection.  I need to find a better solution before the tracking system will be reliable.  I guess I know what I will be working on the next time we are at home.

The installation into the new truck went very well.  I will take some pictures and post them when I get some free time.  I think I might have found a cheap solution to my problem.  I need my own battery between the 12 volt outlet and the inverter.  I am thinking about using a battery jumpstart device and just keep it constantly charged.  I haven’t checked out the specs but it seems like an inexpensive solution.  The only other solution that I can think of is an mini-RV type solution but I haven’t had a chance to look into that yet.

I have a feeling a good portion of my time will be spent keeping on top of our first “team scheduled" delivery.  The last time I calculated our delivery time we might make it on time.  However, we got stuck in traffic so I will most likely have to send in new estimate on delivery.  This is going to be interesting …

The technology is working as planned with a couple exceptions; the power system and the network.

The power system has a problem that I have not figured out how to solve.  There are 3 12 volt outlets in the truck and since we are not allowed to put a large inverter in the truck I have decided to use 3 small inverters. The problem occurs when you turn the ignition to the on position (there is a momentary loss of power).  There is something else that happens because the inverters brown out and squeal.  All other times there is uninterrupted power to the outlets (ignition on or off).

The wireless router that we are using resets when there is a loss of signal on the WAN port.  This brings our network down and most of the connections to the network resources are lost.  This is a very poor design and has me looking for a different solution.  I have notified the people that I purchased the device from and they are working with the company to find a solution.

My ankle is almost back to normal.  This seemed like as good time to see how easy it was to float those gears <grin>.  Just kidding, good Schneider drivers never float gears …

Well I have most of the electronics setup in the truck.  I have wires strung all over the place.  I am kind of glad that we got this older truck to start with.  Since I knew it was temporary, I minimized the setup and this has allowed me to get some ideas of how I will do it when we get in the new truck.  Keeping in mind the new truck is still temporary because I have to be able to remove the stuff in less than 4 hours (or that is my goal).

I twisted my clutch foot today.  I was just walking and didn’t notice a ledge in the asphalt.  I took 1000 mg of ibuprofen and am icing it now.  I guess I didn’t want our first adventure to be too easy.  Lets sprain an ankle to add some excitement.

Well I need to catch a couple hours before we take off again so I am signing off.

Today we learned that the shortest route isn’t necessarily the best route.  In addition to the length of the road you must also consider the elevation.  Changes in elevation usually mean a mountain range and mountain ranges usually mean curves and a grade either up, down or both.  If time is a factor, make sure you check the elevation of your route.

Trailers, Trailers, Trailers … so much fuss over a trailer!  I have always thought that it was all about the Tractor.  Really it’s all about the trailer. 

Most shippers/customers that we deal with have large trailer lots next to their facility.  If you have been sent to pick up a trailer, the shipper expects you to bring one with you to replace it.  In fact, some customers will not let you take the trailer they have loaded and ready to go unless you have an empty one to give them.  Each customer has a pool of trailers that they keep on their premises at all times.

The tractors just move trailers from one place to another, it’s all about the trailers …

Today we got confirmation that our route home is complete (well we still need to find a trailer).  Home time appears to be a bit more complicated than I thought it might be.  It gets more complicated if you need to make it home by a specific day and time.  Ideally, they would like you be under a load when you come home.  Coming home with an empty trailer (deadheading) is another option but is seldom used because there is no money in moving an empty trailer.  Likewise, coming home without a trailer is even less likely to happen.

When we first started thinking about driving we were not concerned too much about home time.  In fact, we thought it would be nice if we could provide them with 4-5 different locations where we could spend “home time”.  However, I am thinking they might not have the flexibility in the system to allow this.  The automation system that dispatches load assignments is smart enough to route a driver to their home time location (theoretically).  I don’t think the logic exists to deal with multiple home time locations (I would bet it doesn’t).  I am now hoping they have the ability to change a home time location without changing the home operating center but I won’t hold my breath on that one either.

It will be several months before will target our breaks away from home and we should know more about how flexible the system is by then.

I am a bit surprised in how much road construction we find while on the road.  It is common practice to close one side of the freeway and route traffic to the other side.  This converts a four lane divided freeway into a two lane one divided with concrete barriers.  This makes for a narrow road and if the road or the barriers are not straight it becomes more challenging.  Oh and you are usually dealing with a cross wind of some sort.  Speaking of cross winds, I got hit by a gust so hard today that I thought I hit something.

One of the decisions that we will need to make before we head out on our own is how long we would like to be gone at a time.  I am thinking that 2-3 weeks is the most we should be out to start with.  We are about 3-4 days from home now and we are really looking forward to coming back to Oregon.  We know it will be a little different when we get our own truck and there is only the two of us.  Three people in a truck is a bit much when the lifestyles vary so much.

Quality of life in the truck is very important and everyone has their own idea of how this should be.  My wife and I place a higher value on the quality of life in the truck than our TE.  His truck resembles a bachelor’s apartment on wheels in every sense that you can imagine.  If we weren’t in the truck he would drive all day without stopping.  He eats very little during the day and has is main meal at the end of his day.   His “motto” while he is out on the road is he is working.  His “life” is at home not out on the road.  It’s all about getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible for 2 weeks and then going home for 2-3 days.  We don’t have anything to compare this with but expect that it might be the same for most solo drivers?

Our TE is a very kind hearted man who cares a great deal for his students and is very accommodating to our needs.  We are just too different to have this work for more than a week or two.  I am quite certain he is looking forward to getting back on the road without students.  The poor guy has had students in his truck for almost six weeks and the last two groups have been doubles.  He normally just has one student for 1-2 weeks per month.

Every day out here I feel just a little bit more comfortable with my driving.  When you first start driving you feel like you should be going faster.  It is the worst when you have cars behind you and you are making a turn.  You also feel obligated to use all of the gears in the truck.  The opposite is true in both of these cases. 

Your tractor is pulling a 53’ trailer that has a CGVW of 80,000 pounds, you need to take it easy with those corners and curves.  You will go slower going up those hills and you need to make sure you do not go too fast down hill.  Still you have this urge to be courteous to those behind you by going as fast as they are.

When you first start playing golf you usually need only 3-4 clubs.  Eventually, when you learn have mastered those clubs you can add more to your game.  It’s the same with truck driving.  You don’t want to use every gear shifting up or down. 

Typically, you start out in 2^nd, skip ship to 4^th and then to 6^th.  The only exceptions are if you are heavily loaded or if you are highway driving.  On the highway you will go up and/or down a gear at a time depending upon the grade. 

Coming to a stop at a stop sign or signal, you will brake until stopped.  If you are in too high of a gear and you will lug your engine before you are stopped so you can do a single downshift before you stop.  This is called a “bump and run”.  This is especially important when you are approaching a signal because it could change and traffic could unfold and you could be caught in the wrong gear. 

To master this slowing down and then possibly resuming, I just targeted one gear to begin with rather than trying to use all of them.  For example, I would try to anticipate the light turning green and the cars unfolding.  I would then time my approach so that I was going about 25 mph which is the “bump and run” speed for 5^th gear.  When I got successful with this I added different speeds for different gears.

While I am not a master of finding all of the gears when ever I like, I can find most of them now whenever I like …

We couldn’t pickup our load until very late in the day so we spent most of the morning working on our homework assignment.  The questions are the same ones that we had on our final in school and they are the same as the review questions in the book.  Now we must answer them again only this time we must put the book and the page number of where the answer is.  We also have a trip plan that will be very interesting to build.  It starts of in Lexington, NC and ends in Dorval, QC.

We spent most of the rest of the day at the facility waiting on our load.  We decided to go for a walk around the facility since there was a road.  On the opposite side of the building were some railroad tracks and several docks for the rail cars.  At two docks were newer refrigerated cars.  At the end of the tracks was a huge door that looked like it opened to let rails cars.  I looked in one of the cars and it looked like the cars were bringing in big crates of tomatoes.

I was not impressed with the operation of this facility.  I am not sure what was wrong but their inefficiencies cost many drivers and carriers lots of time and money.  I hope this was not their standard method of operation and that they get it fixed soon.

We made our delivery of John Deere tractor parts.  We had to set the tandems back to the last hole.  I assume it is because of the weight of the forklift & load going off the end of the trailer.  Our back was pretty tight so we got into the hole first and then moved the tandems back.  My wife did a beautiful job backing in.  I think I mentioned this once but it is worth mentioning it again. 

The warehouse was very interesting.  Tractor parts stored from the floor to the ceiling in huge racks build to hold complete pallets.  In between the racks are the roadways for the forklifts that scurry from place to place moving parts.  Each forklift comes with a tablet computer mounted slightly above eye-level on the right hand side.  The drivers move parts from one location to the other based upon the routing that the computer gives them.  After they complete each move, they use their stylus and mark it complete and their next move is placed on the screen.  Our load was simply placed in a staging area next to the dock.  When the load hits the automation system, the forklifts will come and move them to the racks like worker bees in a hive.  As I walked out the door I saw trucks hauling flatbed trailers and on those trailers were brand new tractors.

We deadheaded (empty trailer) to our next pickup location where we will spend the night.

I hit a curb today.  We are on the freeway so much now that when we come into town it is easy to forget about all the town driving we did before.  A cheap lesson for me, from now on when we come off the freeway I will put my “in town” hat on.  Oh, and for the record, I didn’t forget about my tandems, I just misjudged the corner <smile>.

I learned a little more about entering my check calls (macro 18) today.  The “hours usage” fields “2 days ago” and “Yesterday” are the only fields that need to reflect your hours and are used to calculate your 70 hours.  The other fields are there for you to forecast your hours in order for the computer to dispatch your work assignments.  I learned this is school but it makes a lot more sense when you are working a real trip plan.  We are wondering how this works for teams and will find out with the “new” macro 18 training that was announced today.

Another thing that we are learning when we are planning trips is the importance of a “regular start time” and a “stop no later than time”.  We can really feel the difference in our energy levels when we make sure we are in bed at a certain time and start at a certain time.  We are told that this isn’t always possible and understand why. 

The other thing that we are noticing is stopping every 2-3 hours for 10-15 minutes to stretch our legs and take a short walk.  This really helps with energy levels and mental clarity.

I am sure looking forward to the day we get our own truck! Don’t get the wrong idea; our TE keeps a decent truck.  He keeps it supplied with food and he cares about his students and their comfort.  It is just a hassle to have to pack everything up at the end of the day and haul it to the motel.  I can definitely see the advantage of a well outfitted truck.  When it is time for a rest, just find a place to park the truck and shut things down.  No motel hunt and no packing bags.

We have a long day tomorrow, good nite …

Today we learned a little bit about shipments coming into the US from Mexico.  All the freight coming from Mexico into Laredo comes across a bridge called the “World Trade Bridge”.  This bridge is used exclusively for trucks, no 4 wheelers allowed.  We were told that there are over 1 million trucks coming into Laredo each year.

I have never seen so many Schneider trucks heading the opposite direction on the highway as the trip from Dallas to Laredo.  I have never seen so many freight companies, trucks, buildings and depots as I saw in Laredo (well Fontana was close).

And you don’t want to come to Laredo if you air conditioner is not working! It’s hot down here and we are happy to be heading north again …