Driver Dave Trucking in Canada: 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.