Merry Christmas everyone

A nice winter picture of our house

So I finally got in a truck again on the Friday night. Again I lost count of the trucks they was going to put me in. I don't see the point in going in a truck for just 24hrs which is what a lot of trucks just come in for. Part of the Canadian truck driving laws means that after 14 days driving you have to have 24hrs off. So Joe tries to get the trucks back to the yard so us spare drivers can take it out for the 24hrs so the truck is always on the job. Then once the assigned driver has had his 24hr off or longer. He then goes back out. I always ask to be put in a truck that I can have for as long as poss. Hence the reason for them lining me up for several trucks then changing their minds as better choices are comeing in.

So I had the truck for 5 days going to sunny South Carolina. There was another truck going the same place so we set off together. We only drove for a couple of hours the first night as we set off late and Mark did not like driving at night. The following day, most of the east coast had a really bad snow storm. Dropping up to 26 inch of snow. That was more in one night than what they had the whole of last year. I lost Mark in the storm. We was both going really slow in a line of traffic and all I could see was brake lights for no reason all the time as everybody was just driving too close to each other, and brake lights are not what you want to see in slippy conditions, so I pulled out in the unclear lane and went up to the front where no one could be silly in front of me, passing Mark on the way. There was a truck stop down the road. I'm guessing Mark pulled into there as I did not see him after that. I did not want to stop there as I would have never got back home by the 23rd like I needed to. So I drove for a couple of hours longer, which allowed me the hours the following day to go the rest of the way.

Luckily by the time I had set off again, the roads was starting to get cleared and dry, so I could get a move on again. But all I could see was car after car and trucks in the ditch or stuck causing jams everywhere. I took pictures of most. But after taking about 50 pic's I gave up.

Its not good when the Snow Plow ends up in the ditch too

I off loaded the Monday morning, and collected my reload a few miles down the road going back to Quebec. It only took two days to get there as I drove for nearly 11 hours solid again on the second day without stopping. Like I said before, its easy to do in these trucks. All you have to worry about is lasting that long without needing to go to the bathroom lol. My reload was just round the corner again but was not ready till 3am the following morning. I just sat in the yard asleep and when my trailer was ready, the shunter driver came to wake me up. It was funny. He asked me if I was Jason Statham's brother. It had just started to snow when I went to sleep so by the time the trailer was ready. Everywhere was covered again. Both New Brunswick and Quebec had loads of snow, so I had to drive on un-cleared 95% of the time.

All the time it was snowing hard. By the time I got back to Woodstock. We had two feet of snow on the drive so Emma just drove through it to come and collect me. When I got back the first thing I did was clear the drive a little. I did not stop snowing till late last night though so it was covered again. You can tell when it stops as it gets so clear looking across the river to Woodstock. Then this morning, one of our friends from across the road at the other house he had brought his tractor down and cleared our drive for us. It was really kind of him. Who needs a snow blower when you have friends like that.

Well today is Christmas eve, and I have not got dressed all day. Lazy day. So I'm back on the road on boxing day till the new year, going to North Carolina to start with. So I will taking this opportunity to wish all our family, friends and followers of the blog, a very merry christmas and a wonderful new year, from Me, Emma and the kids in Canada. Hope you all have a great time. Till the next time, Happy Holidays.

This is what you call a snow plow. The two trailers on the back have a blade on each so they can do more than one lane at a time.

Cars are in there somewhere

Must be heading to Florida lol

South Carolina

Slip seating

surprise.... twice in the same month. Ain't you the lucky ones.... well reason I'm here again so soon is the slip seating business. Its great to be able to see the family more. The down side is we can not arrange things or know what I'm doing from one day to the next. I get into a truck kind of knowing when I'm getting out of it, but that can change at any time. Least when I had my own truck I decided when I was going home and when I wanted to go back on the road. With slip seating. You have to wait till the drivers decide when they want to go home and how long you get to spend in the truck depends on the time they want off.



So they kicked me out of 833 on the Saturday. It was Wednesday night before I was in another truck. 871.

Meet 871 a 2007 International Eagle 9900. looks like a 1957 truck, and has done one and half million KM's on it. About ready for trading in.

The main problem with the old eagles is the size of the hood (bonnet) in this picture you can see im sat at some traffic lights. What you cant see from my eye line is there is a car in front of me. One big blind spot.

It should have been the Monday i got in the truck, but the driver came back on the Sunday night and parked the truck at the truck stop, went home then expected to go out again on the Monday. Joe was not a happy bunny. So he went out again till the Wednesday getting back really late. They did line me up for other trucks but every time one came in, Joe wanted a team in it.By the time the truck had been through the shop, it was midnight so I had to set off then. I parked up about 4am. My load was going to Oxford, Pennsylvania. Which is the very south of PA. I got there the following night about 11pm, just as they was going home for the night. So I backed up to the bay ready and went to sleep. They woke me up in the morning as they was driving on and off the trailer with the fork lift. Then I got my reload which was still in PA but 3 hours drive north. Got that collected and off I went. The load was going to Nova Scotia. But they wanted me to take it to Woodstock. I got back to Woodstock 72 hours after leaving, which was not too bad to say I had covered over 1600 miles in that time. My new reload was going to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. I had to drop my trailer. Drive 100yds up the road for my reload, which I was bringing back to Woodstock, stopping off at Moncton for them to take some things off and add more on. It was a team load but I was just bringing it to Woodstock to meet another truck that was taking it to be delivered in Quebec. Like a tag team, so it would get there just as fast as a team would take. I got back the early hours again so stayed in the truck as getting Emma up and the kids just to fetch me in the night would be a pain. That morning when I was ready to go, I went in to dispatch to let them know I was ready to go, which is where I was told I was getting out of the truck as the assigned driver wanted to go back out again, three days premature. There was another truck just got in which I said I could take. but to share the work a driver that had been at home a couple of days had to take that instead. So im sat at home waiting for another truck which is on its way back. Prob the morning before I get into it though. That's if Joe does not want a team out in it again, like a couple of other truck I have been lined up for. At the moment Ayr are running twice as many teams than we normally do, as we have gained a lot of extra team work. That's why I was chucked out of 833 in the first place to put the team in. One reason is we are doing a really good job. The second is the rail was on strike, so all loads are having to go by road creating more work. We just need more trucks to cope with the demand now. With Ayr I have always noticed that while you are in a truck, you are flat out, not getting round fast enough. But when you are not... its hard to get into a truck. Hopefully I will get my own truck soon, as I already cant stand this slip seating business not knowing from one day to the next whats happening, but I can not see it at the mo with Joe mainly wanting teams out in spare trucks. We will just have to wait and see.

One good thing that came out of getting out of the truck yesterday, was been able to see my oldest Kirk at his school Christmas concert, which was held in the high school to fit all the families in to watch, then it was off back to his school for a little party in the class room.

The snow is very much here to stay now. It has not stopped today at all. Emma does a good job shoveling the drive though ...lol maybe next year I will save up to buy her a snow blower. :-) or when we finally get the lawn done, I will get a ride on mower with the plow attachment on. So summer she can cut the grass and winter plow the drive.



Anyway here are some more pics for you to take a look at.

This was taken last week.

This one today. The river is starting to be totally covered in snow.

The river starts at the grass line that sticks up

This was on the way to PA

This was just an hour further down the road. Just shows you how different the weather can be.

One of the tunnels though a mountain in PA

Nice place to live

British Columbia Trip

Well I know what you all are thinking, its about time I got more on here so here I am while I finally get the chance. I have so much to tell, you better get comfortable.


Doing the miles we do, I just find it hard to keep up. Anyways after moving in, I went straight back out on the road. We just stayed in Canada for the three weeks, but we finally got to go to Vancouver, British Columbia in the second week. My first time in the mountains. Before we got into BC, it was Bernie's turn to drive so I went to sleep. 3 hours later, he is waking me up and got me to belt up in the front. I was so tired I just stayed in my sleeping bag wrapped up in the front seat. The snow was that bad over the top of the mountains, you could not tell where the road was, other than a little bump of snow on each side. No tire tracks or anything, so we was driving on top of packed down snow. It was the middle of the night, so the snowplows had not come out to play yet. It does not slow the Canadian drivers down though. He was still scooting along at 55mph. I tried to stay awake but next thing I know, I'm waking up and all the roads was clear so I just got back in bed and went back to sleep. When I got up, it was my turn to drive. I drove down into Vancouver. I thought I was in china. It was spot the non Asian. It was raining non stop too for 24hrs. Vancouver has the same weather as the UK except the summer can be a lot warmer, but still lots of rain and hardly any snow. When we was first interested in moving to Canada, before Ayr Motor approached me, Vancouver was where we thought about moving to with the weather been the same as UK, not that cold, but just as wet. It was the price of property that put us off. Not cheap at all.

Our collection was just round the corner from our drop. I drove back out of Vancouver again. It was midnight, so by the time I had reached the mountains, it was early hours. Bernie said if it was raining by the time I got to Chilliwack, I would be better going through the valley, which is winding, tiny mountain roads which take about an hour longer than going the main highway. It was raining and the matrix signs said the main highway was slushy and slippery and the valley had dense fog so I went the valley. The mountain roads where not like I expected at all. I expected roads like a roller coaster, but the main highways that Bernie brought us in was not that steep at all, just long winding hills really. The Valley was steeper though. Bernie was well impressed with my driving through the valley though, he never woke up once, and this guy wakes up if I as much as slow down sometimes.

At the end of the three weeks. Bernie was going on vacation. So I dropped him at his sisters in Toronto before I did a couple more trips before getting one back to Woodstock then home I went.

While at home. On the Friday, we took the kids to Moncton, which is two and half hours drive away. It does not seem that far as you only go on one road, all the way. We went to a indoor kids Adventure Park. Had some great fun. We bought a family ticket for $57 which meant we could go on all the rides as many times as we wanted. We had some great fun. Across the road was a large shopping Mall too, so we spent the morning in there before going to the Adventure Park. Emma loved Moncton. If we had not already got our new house. She would have wanted to move there for sure. Moncton I would say is the largest city in New Brunswick. It has all the shopping malls like Fredericton, but with the extra Adventure Parks and cheap housing, Emma was sold on it, so watch this space. Later down the line that is.

Our New Tradition, A real Christmas Tree. I got it the day i went back on the road

I then went out on the road on the Saturday by myself, as Bernie was still on vacation. My first load was going to Wisconsin. There was four trucks going to the same place. One was Keith my old team mate. The other two had set off before us as Keith went into town before we set off together. It was a three days drive. Two in Canada before we crossed over the border for the third in the US. We stuck together all the way chatting on the CB as we went along. We had to go through a lot of snow Canada side. We got to Wisconsin the night before delivery and was the first out of the four trucks to arrive. Much nicer weather down there though. Our reloads was also been picked up in the same place, 20mins down the road, both been dropped in Toronto. So off we went. This time round the bottom through Chicago back up through Michigan. If it was left to Keith, he would have gone back the way we came, which was 100km more, but like I said before. He would go well out of his way just to avoid places like Chicago. We managed to cross the border before getting our head down. The next morning, I was up early. Keith could not get his ass out of bed so I went off on my own. I expected to collect Bernie when at Brampton, but nope no sign. I then collected a load going Miramichi, NB again plenty of Snow but nice snow with no ice. So I scooted along just like Bernie does. My reload was 1 hour further north which I took back to Montreal. Where I then collected a trailer going to Moncton, but I was only taking it to Woodstock. Two hours before I get there, I get a message, im going home and a team is taking the truck. Turns out they have not heard from Bernie and need teams for the usual loads me and Bernie normally do. So thats why I got kicked out of the truck. Its not the first time Bernie as done this so im told, and I kind of expected it but was not sure. I have enjoyed it on my own, and looks like that's what I will be doing now. Lets hope I get my own single truck soon. Till then I now have to slip seat. Hopefully I'm not out of a truck much. I had a fantastic week this week doing over 4000 miles, which is the norm for a good driver for Ayr, with his own truck, if you are willing to work hard that is. Bernie kept saying that was the miles he was doing single. Did not know I could manage it too. My New GPS did help though. The 7” screen does take over the windshield at night though. Its a Cobra. New on the market in October. I'm sure its made by the same company of the truck GPS I had in the UK, as it has the same software but under another name. The PCMiler was pants so sold it to a Canadian driver. He thinks its great. Well compared to others here it is.



That now brings me up to date. So take a look at just a few pics out of the Hundreds I took till next time when I let you know how things are going.

Remember to Click on the pictures to super size them for the detail

Some of the mountains

They have to blast through the rock just to build the highways

Just some of the snow removal methods

My new GPS

Look at why i took this pic

Vancouver Olympics 2010