Snow Snow and more Snow

Hay people

So what’s going on? Well Monday came and my truck finally turned up at 10pm. Im sick of getting my truck back late at night and expected to get in it and go. 10pm was bad enough but the truck had to go through the workshop first, so it could have been midnight, so I rang dispatch and told them I was not bringing my babies out of bed at that time of night and I would be in at 6am. After getting my trailer scaled and balanced, it was off to Loudon, Tennessee again, same place as a couple of weeks ago that kept me waiting all morning before they got round to off loading me. It was great to actually leave the yard first thing in the morning instead of at night. It took two and half days to get there. Again they left me at least three hours before even getting round to me. I must have watched four episodes of Leverage before they got round to me. Then it was off to Rogersville, Tennessee for my reload. They only gave me seven pallets which was less than quarter of the trailer full, so I informed Joe, so they got me an extra load I could pick up on my way the following day in Charleston, West Virginia. I took both loads to our yard in Montreal, but before crossing the border I had been meaning to call at Walmart to pick up a chest freezer we have been needing for a while. We never had one before with not really having the room in the house when we lived in the UK, but here our house is four times the size of our old one in the UK so we have plenty of room for one. I could have got one in Canada, but it is so much cheaper to buy everything in the States and bring it across the border. that’s why when im at home we always cross into the states to fuel the car and get our weekly shopping etc. It saves us a lot of money. One of the advantages of living next to the border. The same chest freezer in Canada would have cost me an extra $80. Luckily our tractor units are massive inside, so I managed to get the chest freezer through the passenger door and up onto the top bunk where I strapped it in with the built in cargo net. Once at the Montreal yard, I switched for a load I needed to take back to Woodstock. On the way the following morning I called at one of the closed DOT Scales to check my weights. I knew my tractor was under weight because it has a digital gauge on the dash telling me so. Its only a guide though. They have been fitting analogue gauges to our trailers to give us an idea of the weight on the trailer wheels too but this one didn’t have one. If the trailer is loaded even and the trailer wheels are in the right place and one end is good, the other should be good to, so I was shocked to find my trailer was well over. So I went round the building to move my trailer wheels back a little to shift some of the weight forward. it’s a great feature to balance our load weight even across the truck without touching the load. Plus a lot of loading docks like you to move the wheels right to the rear of the trailer while backed onto a dock. It reduces the bounce of the trailer when the fork lifts drive on and off the back. Once adjusted, I went back round to re weigh finding still over, but this time, I had problems adjusting more. Only four pins hold the wheels in place and one of the rods that pull the pins in snapped, so I was stuffed, but while im scratching my head wondering how im going to hold the pin in and pull the truck forward at the same time. Toby, another British driver came and saved the day (thanks mate) and off we went chatting on the CB all the way back.

Toby

When I got back to Woodstock, Emma came to collect the freezer but it was too big for the car, so I had to borrow the workshop pickup to take it home. Once my truck was out of the shop and ready to go again. My reload was going Moncton NB, for a 4am delivery, then a second drop in St John NB then reload in Utopia NB for Philadelphia docks, Pennsylvania.

I had a little moan at dispatch for that. Which fell on deaf ears. I still had five days to fill before I was due home for my time off and going to Moncton, St John, Philadelphia, then back to Montreal then back to Woodstock, was only three and half days, so instead of messing about doing a short run to fill the time, I decided to come home early. Im glad I did really as yesterday we had a ridicules amount of snow fall in just a few hours. Im so glad we have a 4x4. Its fun driving in the thick snow when im in no rush to go anywhere in particular, but it’s a pain when in the truck with an urgent load. I was in Walmart for about twenty minutes. There was a few inches of snow covering the car when I came out. that’s how fast it was coming down. Luckily I had brought a brush to clean the car off before I could set off. The winter in North America as been a bad one this year. The only State in America not to have snow yet is Florida. The lower States that don’t normally have snow, got a little messed up when it snowed as they are not equipped for it same as the UK. Everywhere else cope really easy, like this morning here in Woodstock, after yesterdays bad storm, all the roads was cleared in no time, so everyone can get round as normal. Me and the kids was out in the snow on the sledges. The kids love it.

Luckily our friend came round to clear most of our drive with his pickup

with a plow on the front or i would have been all day clearing it.

I still had to do this bit though

and this

It was my youngest sons birthday party today. We had it at our local leisure centre. That was another reason why I needed to be back this weekend. I had to miss it last year, so I made sure I didn’t this year. The kids had a great time.

Well I have one more day off before its back on the road, hopefully going somewhere warm, yea right  so till my next internet connection, have a great dayyyy.

Wytheville, West Virginia

You can't see them all but there was six plows staggered on the other side clearing the highway in one go

Thats how its done here

Just to give you an idea on what the showers are like in a typical big chain truck stop in the States

We have our own private bathroom with everything you need.

We get them free each time we fuel with 50 gal or more

plus they are cleaned after each person as used them too

Truck stops really do look after us here