Freezing Rain

Hay you guys..I think its about time I updated you again. I want to do it more often, but internet connection and spare time is very limited, especially having both at the same time.

Well what an eventful couple of weeks we have had. Emma got back late Friday night. I had a real great time off with the kids. I was due to go back on the road Saturday. Ayr rang me Friday morning to tell me my truck was in and to see what time Emma was landing, and with her getting in late they sent my truck to Montreal and back. I thought great, he will be back by lunch on Saturday as its only 14hr round trip. Yea right… 1030pm I got back in the truck. I was not happy, but I did get to spend some time with Emma before departing, so was not all bad. I did have a couple of hours sleep too so I could drive through the night. Scott was not with me as his family arrived in the country the same time as Emma got back, so was not expecting him back with me till later in the week, so he could get them settled in. He also took his test the same day his family arrived and failed. He did not even get to do the drive. It was a bit sus really, as the examiner, would not stop chatting away to him, putting him off, plus she took a personal call chatting away while he was doing his test. Not professional at all. The normal examiner is on medical leave so she is just a stand in. Heads need to roll I think. The test here is a couple of hours long. You have to un hook the trailer, hook back up. Then you have a pre-trip inspection. That should take 20mins checking everything on the tracker and trailer, including the engine, brakes, fittings etc and not just tyres, lights etc like you do in the UK. Once that is done, you check the brake system works correctly by doing what they call a Fan Down. The truck and trailer is chocked so you can release the brakes. Then you have to pump the brakes to cause the alarms to go off at the right time and make the safety valves operate, things like that. If you pass all them, then you go out on your actual drive. Scott failed on the Fan Down, so was unable to go on the drive. These trucks don’t have handbrakes like European trucks do. They have a Trailer Air Supply valve and a Parking Brake valve. Once they are released, it takes a couple of seconds for the brakes to release, hence the reason why you cant use them as an handbrake and only use them when the truck is parked up. What Scott failed on was what any other person would normally do. When you are going to release the brakes you just put your foot on the brake to stop the truck rolling off when you release the valves. That there is an instant fail as you are compounding the brakes. (so they say, well you would if you kept pressing the brake pedal, but not just one gentle push) I expected him to pass his test and spend a few days with his family, while I take a load down the States, then back to Toronto, then back to Woodstock to pick him up and take him on his US training crossing the borders etc. but because he failed, they was going to try and get him another test the following week. So they was going to keep me local for a couple of days, then pick him up on the Monday for a few more days training. That meant he only spent two days with his family before going back on the road. I just went to Nova Scotia and back, then to Moncton and back covering 1200 miles in two days, then I picked Scott up. They could not get him another test till the 23rd so we did a load to Montreal, then switched for one to Winnipeg. Before we got to Winnipeg, we get a message from Joe’s son asking if Scott had his passport with him as they needed me to take an urgent load into the States. With Scott still been on a learners permit. He is not allowed to drive in the States, so I had to do all the driving. I was so pleased to be back in the States. Its much better driving down there. Less boring, much more to see and driving at night is loads better. The roads are better, lit up more, and lots more going on to take your focus off just what you can see in your headlights. To give you an idea. The other night I was driving across Canada. In six hours I seen six cars pass me and that’s it. I cant even remember passing any towns. I was board out my brains, and that really makes you tired quicker. Anyway we took an empty trailer across the border to load in Perham, Minnesota. Then that load needed to be taken to Montreal. The down side was, the quickest way was 600 miles on a secondary highway going through town after town to the Border crossing at Sault St Marie, Ontario. That was the longest distance I had ever driven on none major highway in one go. I managed to make the border within my hours. On the way through Michigan I had to drive through an area where there was plenty of snow.

Then all of a sudden, within 3miles you could not tell it had snowed.

That’s how fast the weather can change.
Once back in Canada, Scott could take over again. He was bored not been able to drive.

From Montreal, we went to Toronto, then back to Woodstock, then Niagara Falls where we arrived 5hr to early in the night. Off loaded then took the empty trailer to one of our customers in Toronto. Our reload came through which was for a collection in 10hrs time. I throw fits at dispatch over the satellite for wanting to make us wait all that time. It so messes our sleep up. So straight away, they send a message to pickup a load and take it to Kingston, Ontario and switch with another truck, taking his load back to Toronto in time for our original load going to Calgary, Alberta. One the way, sometime after Winnipeg, I was really tired and did not want to get Scott up just yet so I pulled into a truck stop for a power nap. That was not enough, so I got Scott up to take over and I crawled into bed and was out like a light. Just over one hour later, Scott was repeatedly shouting my name in a panic, so I jumped up and quickly, opened the curtains to find us just coming to a stop in the passing lane behind a car and another truck, plus a truck in the slow lane pulling two 53 foot trailers travelling at about 2mph in the snow, up this slight incline. I asked what was up and he said he was not stopping. He said one minute it was raining, then the next it was snowing. He seen the truck pulling the two trailers appeared to be stopped in the slow lane, and the truck and car behind them pulled out to pass, so Scott tried to slow down so he didn’t catch them up and he said nothing happened. The truck just carried on going no matter what he tried. Luckily we did come to a stop. The trailer did slide to the side a little, but that was due to the way they lay the roads. They slope slightly from the middle to the side to allow drainage. Some places slope way to much. The left hand bends are the best. I feel like im on a motorbike leaning into the corner It does not feel the same going round a right hand bend though. As I looked into the mirror to check the trailer was ok, I notices half inch of clear ice on the back of the mirrors. What Scott didn’t realise as he had never come across it before, was the rain he was driving in, was called freezing rain. What happens is, the rain starts falling in warm air, then is passes through a thin layer of cold air, super cooling the droplets, but not long enough to turn them solid. Then when the droplets hit a cold object, it immediately turns to ice making conditions very dangerous. It can cause a lot of damage to property or anything really, if it rains long enough, as the ice just gets thicker and heavier every second. Things like power lines, trees etc just collapse under the weight of the ice.

As you can see, even the grass becomes thick ice. Anyway, we tried to set off again, but because we was going up hill the truck just spun on the spot with the roads been like glass. We could not roll back as that would have put the trailer in the median with it facing that way. So forward was the only way to go. I said "don’t worry least I get to show you how to put snow chains on". They had put me some chains back on the truck a few weeks ago when they fitted my new tyres.

We got chained up which got us moving again. When it levelled out , we took them off and carried on. These guys was not so lucky.

A couple of hours later, it was light and out of the snow and back to dry roads. We arrived 10hrs early and just dropped the trailer, our reload was back to Winnipeg, where again they give us another load to the States. Again urgent, needing to be in Spencer, Iowa by 7am. Because I was not expecting to go into the States again with Scott not been able to drive down there, when we switched on the way back to Winnipeg. I did not go to sleep straight away, as I planned us to stop a couple of hours down the road to get a shower. So I stayed up a little watching some TV. When we arrived at the truck stop. Our fuel card would not swipe in the machine so decided to fuel another hour down the road just outside Winnipeg instead, which meant I stayed up a little more, as that was the point we learned of the US load, so I needed to stay up to work out all my hours to make sure I could get there in the morning plus make it to the reload in Owatonna, Minnesota, within my 11hrs driving. By the time I had done all that, it was fuel, shower time. Then off to the Winnipeg yard to switch for the US load which had problems with its weights. It was at its max weight for the States but not balanced out, so we had to mess moving axels and fifth wheel etc. Luckily we had only put enough fuel in to get us to the Flying J in Sioux Fall, South Dakota. Had we filled the tanks, we would have been over weight. Fuel is loads cheaper in the States, so when im on my own, going to the states all the time, I tend to fuel in the States enough so I can go through Canada and back into the states without needing to fuel in Canada. Saving loads of money. Because of my hours I could not set off from the border till after midnight, but by the time I had sorted everything out with the trailer etc. I only had time for 4hrs sleep before getting back in the seat to drive the 11hrs to deliver and reload and get back to a truckstop down the road from the collection. (the joys of having the responsibility of training and making sure everything is legal on each load) Because I had gone out a couple of days before Scott. I was going to be on my 14th day while in the States, which meant, before I could get back across the Canadian border, I had to take 24hrs off, so it was either stay at the truck stop an extra 14hrs or set off after 10hrs off and get to the border. Then Scott would have to drive the seventeen plus hours from the border we crossed, back to Woodstock, including the two trailer switches we had on route, plus have an 8hr break within that time. So in the end, we would more or less get back to Woodstock about the same time, so seeing as the US truck stops are better than the Canadian ones, we decided to stay where we where, watch some TV, get a great nights sleep then have a massive meal in the restaurant before me driving the 11hrs to the border. Normally when im driving, I have a box of goodies at the side of me plus the sandwiches I make before I start to drive, so im nibbling all the time. After that massive meal, I was stuffed and never went in my box for six hours maybe that $10 meal was cheaper than nibbling on my goodies all day
Over the thirteen days Scott was with me, even though we had the odd delay like getting to places too early, having to wait till they open, or having to wait for pickup times, and only me able to drive while in the States both times, we still managed to cover 11600 miles, so was not bad, but could have been better had Scott been able to drive in the States. Anyway I should have been back on the road Thursday, but the truck is too far away to get back for then, so looks like been Friday now. So till next time, have a nice dayyyyyy

Just across the water is Canada. We normally pass this lake on the Canadian side

One of the towns in the States we went to