It's Official

I had my first official run as a full time truck driver this week. We took a load of lumber down to Salinas, CA and then brought some insulated panels back from Vacaville. I didn't quite see it through - the insulated panels delivered in Seattle this morning without me. (I have a couple doctors appointments this afternoon and then the Family and I are going to scatter Dad's ashes tomorrow.)



Valley Pallet in Salinas, CA

It was a trip that had a little bit of a lot of things: night driving in the Siskiyou mountains; my first inspection at a scale crossing in Vallejo CA (passed, hooray!); heavy traffic on the I-80 and 680 going around SF Bay; hanging out in a truck stop waiting until it was time to go get our reload; an unexpected roadside stop when a strap fell off the trailer (those bumpy CA roads!) and when it went under the tires, it shredded the little ladder the strap had wrapped around; daytime driving in the Siskiyous; trying to be organized and conduct business in a very limited space...

Oh yeah, and lots and lots of driving.



The driving by itself isn't that hard - I still need to work on downshifting - and I quite like it. There's a lot to deal with that will take more getting used to. Scale crossings, road construction, truck stops and parking in them. 

A Real Piece of Work!

I am amazed at how fast truckers drive in truck stops. The picture at left is testimony of genius at work at a truck stop in Gilroy, CA.  The driver was coming in so fast, looking for a parking space instead of paying attention to what his trailer was doing, that the back on his trailer ran completely over a giant cement bollard! Then without checking, he backed up, so that it took a tow truck to lift his trailer so he could get off of it.

He damaged the brake lines and it took hours to fix them, plus his bumper will need to be pounded out. All of this, and all kinds of trucks flying in and out the while...

I thought I would be able to slow down as a driver. While this is very true while I'm actually driving, I can see I will have to work at it a little more while in truck stops.
Anyway, it was a good 3 days.

Buddy on the Truck

Not sure if Buddy would agree. He is always so tired when he gets home. I hope he can adjust to life on the truck. I think I can, but I worry about him getting what he needs to be happy - I don't really think he gets what is going on, yet.

Well, off to the allergist.