hard time getting home and other adventures

well the last time we visited i was doing a 34 hr restart at the petro in Joplin,mo. it has been quite the adventure to get home and as i type this I'm just north of Detroit,mi waiting to load in the morning....but i digress. as i said last i was in Joplin,mo, they, being my dispatchers, brought me to the yard in okc and dropped my load then i did the bob-tail thing up to get my next load in Edmond,Ok going to Des Moines,Ia for the next day. mad my delivery and reloaded right in the same door going to Eagle Pass,Tex for Wednesday morning, the was to lay over till the pm and load back to okc for Thursday then home Thursday night, that however, didn't work.

they switched me up in Gainesville, Tex and sent me to Dallas, Tex supposedly to pick up a load to Lawton, Ok for asap. well, when i got to Dallas the Lawton load magically disappeared and i was on my way to aurora co for the next day by noon. managed to get to aurora by 945 and was empty by 1030 and was sitting waiting on a load when my dispatcher called and asked why i hadn't picked up the load he sent me and he found out my truck was turned off (to save fuel)and i hadn't received it yet. well he gave me the info and i was off n running to Denver to get stop 1 of 2 going to Dallas(the second being in Amarillo, Tex). got that loaded and was 35 miles east of Denver when things changed again.

same dispatcher called me and sent me back towards Denver and south on i-25 where i stopped at a small t/s in Colorado Springs to wait on another driver with a sick motor to bring me his load out of Denver going to.....wanna guess? remember i live south of Oklahoma City,Ok and have a Dr. apt. at 930 Friday morning and this is now Wednesday and i am in Colorado Springs,Co. can ya guess yet? okc right? WRONG!! I'm now going to Prewitt,Nm for Thursday morning, Prewitt is 100 miles west of Albuquerque,Nm. the only saving thing if there is one, is that i had a reload right out if the same place i unloaded. i was told that i would relay this load with another driver in Amarillo,Tex as soon as i could get there. can ya guess what happened next.....come on..i know ya can.

if you guessed that i wasn't gonna swap in Amarillo you win the prize....don't know what that would be yet but......i ended up taking that load all the way down to the drop yard in Dallas that this all basically started at in,Dallas,Tex. i got to the drop lot at 3am on Friday morning, dropped and did the bob-tail thing again up to Roanoke,Tex to pick up the load that FINALLY got me home at 6am on Friday morning. i fell into bed for 3 hours and my daughter picked me up for the Dr. after all was said and done and all the driving was finished it was a 3790 mile trip to get home from Joplin,Mo.

after the Dr. visit her and i went out fer breakfast, then she took me to the second hand sports store and bought the both of us a used set of golf clubs, 2 bags, and i bought 20 used good golf balls and we were off to the golf course, for the very first round of hopefully lots more of golf. we naturally SUCKED as it was our very first round after all. she shot a 69 and i shot a 64......for 9 holes. the clubs and the golf course fees were my fathers day present from her. thank you VERY VERY much my daughter. the rest of the weekend was real nice and relaxing. the wife and i went to the Winstar casino for dinner Saturday and we had a real good dinner then we went and donated, i mean lost 20 bucks total on the slots then as we were headed out, we topped at the box office to check prices on some tickets for upcoming shows and ended up wit a pair of tix for the august 7 show for Journey. that was my fathers day present from the BETTER HALF. steak at home on the grill on Sunday, with homemade double baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and homemade apple pie on Sunday and home made pizza on Monday, then back after it on Tuesday morning, up to the yard to spend all day in the shop getting my under dash water leak fixed and a new fuel sending unit installed, then up to Pontiac,Mi to where i am now.

well, that's enough for this time, I've bored you sufficiently this time. as always, ya ll be safe out yonder, mike

stuck in joplin again

that would be joplin,mo for the rest of ya. been here since yesterday and wont leave till tomorrow(sunday)morning headed to oklahoma city for a monday delivery,but, i will be dropping this in our yard there in okc bout noon thirty.

its been an interesting couple days since i was last here. last we spoke i was layed over in memphis tn for the weekend. well i delivered that in memphis on monday then went less than a mile to reload for okc. for the next morning. had enough time and ran hard enough to get there so i stopped at the casino for a few hours. went in with 50 and came out with 10. not a profitable night.

after delivery i went to the yard and was in and out in 30 mins headed to catoosa(tulsa)ok to reload 2 pickups headed to savannah,ga for thursday at 6am edt. made the 2 drops in savannah by 7:30 and headed to the pilot t/s and went ta bed. dispatcher called at 9:30 with a load out of louisville,2 picks and frankfort,ky,1 pick for a friday loading to deliver monday. yold him i would leave after i woke up, which i did around 1pm cent. time, had some food at the waffel house next door, got fuel and rolle out around 3:30pm. you know the rest so far from the first paragraph.

DONT FORGET FATHERS DAY IS SUNDAY,JUNE 21. dads just as important as mom is. after all, WITHOUT him, you wouldnt be here at all. dont forget dad, take him to breakfast, wash his car, treat him to a round of golf(if he plays)or mini golf if he dont, just DONT give him another tie! ugh!! my kids never(thank you)gave me a tie. they did give me great grand kids, though.

well, thats all for now....oh....also...dont forget SCHOOLS OUT, which means lots of families out on a summer vacation, kids out playing, and maybe sometimes not payinfg full attention, so be extra careful when driving those cars n big trucks through those small towns n big cities.

yall be safe out yonder...big mike

if its sat/sun, its gotta be Memphis

yea, its layover time again. did the whole layover in Miami thing and my fearless travel agent aka my dispatcher took what ever he could just to get me out of there. that was a load from ft.lauderdale that loaded on friday but couldnt deliver till monday inMemphis, so here i sit in the truck stop just south of memphis. been here since yesterday afternoon and will deliver tomorrow mornin at 0900. then its off to.....well i guess i will find that out in the mornin.

i would like to welcome(possibly) a new friend to the blog page. her name is ashley(see the rule above) and she lives somewhere in pensylvania. she is a new friend (i hope) that i met tonight while playing pool on yahoo games. she is a good player and beat me a couple of times.

it was an uneventful ride up from miami to here. ran up with don. the same one i ran part way down with. he got a load to muskogee,ok for monday too. it was a fun ride up with him. the eye candy at the mall he and i went to and then i went to to eat at was exceptional. the food was too expensive but was faily good though. we stopped for the night and fuel in lee,fl then ran all day saturday to get up here.

thats all for now.....yall be safe out yonder, mike

if its thursday, it must be miami(again)?

well here i am, again, layed over in miami,fl. yeeeeeha! cant ya tell how happy i am to be here?!?! this time i didnt go to that ratty truckstop i was at last time i was here. naw, im stayin in the parkinlot of the customer i delivered to. no pay to park, no one ta bother me, but the bad side is no bathroom. oh, and no food near by. i ran part of the way down here with a new friend, his name is don(not his real name) and he works here for the same outfit as i do. he has a load for in the morning, but i get to lay over till sometime tomorrow(friday) till they find me a load.got my 50 layover pay though. not near enough, but better than a kick in the shin.

had a fun ride back down from kent,wa. no real problems or dumb stuff on the way down if you dont count the load they tried to give me, at 537 miles out of the yard. they wanted me to finish the run to the yard and drop n hook to another trailer n keep going on to ft. smith,ar for 0800 the next am. needless to say, i didnt take it. no possible way to do it.

had a death in the family this past wed. my kids' aunt passed away from a heart attack quite unexpectidly. the funeral will be on monday, but i dont think i will be able to make it there, as we probably wont have any freight going that way. my deepest and most sincere condolences to my kids mom, and her other brother and sister.

well thats all for now. yall be safe out yonder....mike