So I had a good time off last time, well if you can call it that, if im not in the truck working im at home working. While I was trying to cut the four foot grass down. One of my neighbours is a truck driver. Him and his wife drive team. They have a nice house at the end of our road, and he came passed and stopped to introduce him self. They are on the road for between three to six weeks at a time, so I had never met him, but he knew I worked for Ayr. He did too when he first came over five years ago. They are both German, but he has really lost his accent. He had bought a sickle bar mower, (hedge trimmer on wheels) a couple of days before, as he has a lot of land round his house plus another plot elsewhere and wanted to trim it down. He seen the state of my garden so offered to lend me the mower. It was great, what would have took me weeks to do, only took about five hours. I could have done with it another hour, but was dark by then, but it was really great to finally see some kind of lawn forming. Still a lot to do, but im getting there. Its not easy though in temperatures in the thirties. We may get cold winters, but the summers really do make up for it. Temps have been between 26-33 degrees on a daily basis. 20 degrees over night, and 26 here feels a lot warmer then 26 in the UK. We don’t get much rain except in spring. When it does its not cold, as its not normally windy like you get in the UK. The nights have started to cool a little now with rain over night some nights, but still nice and warm in the day.
The day before I went back on the road, we went down to the beach with the kids. It’s a provincial park with a massive lake and beach.
I then went on the road on the Saturday. Because a team had been in my truck while I was off. They got in early hours, so I expected to be able to get in my truck nice and early for a change after it had been though the shop. After the usual few phone calls to keep me up to date to when the truck will be ready to go. I turn up to find, they are still having problems getting it sorted. Time was ticking so to save Emma keep taking me to and from the yard, I stayed with the truck and took it to the dealer down the road for some warranty work. I finally got on the road at 730pm which is such a pain as that means I end up driving half the night again to get to my deliveries on time. I was taking a load with two drops in South Carolina. I got them both delivered on the Monday. My reload had three pickups to make the one load which I had never had to do multi pickups before. I arrived at my first in South Carolina at 6pm Local time to find the last two dudes getting in their pickups and going home. So that had been a short day for me as I had not set off till late morning. I got attacked by fire ants on my feet, as this time of year I permanently only wear shorts and flip flops. The following morning, when they got in. I find out they don’t have all my pallets I needed. One was on another truck coming in, so by the time I had got loaded and got to my other two pickups in North Carolina, my last one had to wait for me. I then ended up driving into the night again. One so I didn’t loose out on pay, and two to get my delivery done on time just south of Montreal, Quebec.
My reload from Montreal, was going to the states, but I just needed to get it to our yard in Toronto. I then picked up a load going back to Woodstock. Once back, because the truck still had warning lights coming on, I was in the shop for another six hours, again setting off in the evening with a load going to North Carolina, but I could only go for another three hours as US law only allows for a 14hr working day. What was worst, was the route I had to take. When ever I go that way, I normally avoid all the cities and go Via Scranton, Pennsylvania. Its about 40 miles longer, but is a couple of hours faster than the short route which I had to take. Plus so much cheaper in tolls. The way I had to go, you hit traffic at Connecticut, and it stays with you all the way through New York, Manhattan, and New Jersey. You then get a break before hitting it again in Baltimore and Washington DC. Its just like been on the M25 on permanent rush hour, round Washington DC.
Just to top things off, my reload was near Richmond, Virginia, going to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, but they wanted me to take it to Woodstock, which meant going right back the way I came, nightmare. By the time I was loaded, my 14hrs was up again, so I decided to set off early hours in the morning to try and avoid the traffic at Washington DC. I don’t mind so much driving at night in the states, because there are always people on the road, and lights too. Setting off early didn’t work though. 5am at Washington DC I hit a traffic jam. 
Deer in the back garden
Remember I mentioned how expensive in tolls going the short route is. Well going down and back up, avoiding some of the tolls it cost me $251.00 if I had gone my way avoiding all the cities, It would have only cost me $46, But my way was not practical this time as I would have had to do over 200 miles longer round trip
Im due back on the road on Sunday, so till next time. Here are a few more pics of my travels.
Spotted this black cab in Manhattan
with the New York licence plate under the UK one
These removal dudes always have massive condos on the tractor
I see this sometimes, cars towing Two trailers
These where just some pic's of the Parade that went through
Woodstock the other week
Even Golf carts here are like sports cars.
This was the Fair we went to after the Parade
Mud racers
1 comment:
nice to see a picture of you and your bride. I've been reading your entire blog. Thanks for all the info. I'm considering getting a trucking gig. I'm in the states, so I'm sure my experience would be very different than yours. Lot less snow and more southern states.
Again, Thanks.
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