Christmas on the road, Stereotypes

Such is the life of a trucker. I decided (willingly) to be on the road for Christmas. I did so in order to allow other drivers with spouses and kids to be home for that day, and so hopefully, I could have New Year's off to spend with my brother.

Alas, I'm stuck on the Kansas side of Kansas City, as my truck broke down. Ultimately, it's a simple fix, but one for which they didn't have the part necessary to repair. Which means I'm stuck here, until the part comes in. I'm hoping I can hit the road tomorrow, and possibly still make it home for the holiday.

As I've gotten older, Christmas has lost much of it's meaning for me. It felt like just another day to me, with the exception of less traffic on the road and an easier time to find parking at truck stops. It did also allow the chance for me to have a more-or-less proper Christmas dinner, which consisted of ham, turkey, roast beef, and all the trimmings, served from a buffet. Not bad, all things considered, since it was all-you-can-eat, and I can eat a large amount of ham & mashed potatoes.

Of course, this meant that I had no idea where I'd wake up on Christmas morning. I found myself in West Virginia, of all places. In my mind, I expected to see a nativity set up, with the three "wise men" (Bill O'Reilly, George "Dubya" Bush, and Dale Earnhart) surrounding the baby Jesus. But I saw none.

This made me think of some of the pre-conceived notions I had about other states going into this job. Not having traveled much outside of the western U.S. prior to taking this job, I didn't really know what to expect. Here are some of my thoughts:

West Virginia Full of backwoods hillbillies. Didn't really turn out to be true. However, I was surprised to find that they had TV there now. But I wasn't too surprised to find that they only have two channels: Fox News and wrasslin'.

Kansas Flat & boring as hell This one turned out to be true. Honestly, I don't understand why anyone would live here. The place sucks. The only thing the state has going for it is "The Wizard of Oz," and that was released nearly a century ago. I don't get why Dorothy wanted to get back here so bad; if I were surrounded by midgets and flying monkeys, I'd have a hard time leaving.

But I do now understand why Wyatt Earp left Dodge City for Tombstone. He was bored out of his mind.

Texas Everything's bigger in Texas More or less true. I saw some football scoreboards at high schools that were massive. The Big Texan Challenge offers a free 72oz steak. But the one thing I don't get is "The Lone Star State." I've seen the stars at night (big and bright), deep in the heart of Texas, and one thing's for sure: that claim is B.S. There's way more than one star in the sky.

Wyoming Well, as anyone who's driven I-80 across Wyoming knows, it's a barren wasteland. So is I-80 through Nevada, for that matter.

For now, that's enough...I suppose. I have more but will save them for a later time. My laundry's done, and I just bought the new "True Grit" on DVD and am looking forward to watching it, during a rare down time for me.

Wish I would've stayed in bed

Ever have one of those days, where nothing goes right? I've had several in a row. It all started when I got dispatched to Denver. As I was crossing I-80, it started to snow. East of Laramie, WY, the roads got icy. Really icy, and windy. That sent my stress levels up.

I finally shut down for the night in Cheyenne, when the snow started hitting hard, and was falling sideways. I was glad to be off the road, but I knew I still had to get to Denver the next morning, and I was secretly hoping the freeway would shut down so I could sleep in.

Sadly, it did not. I got up around 3am, did my pre-trip, and hit the road. What would normally take me 1 1/2 hours to drive took 3. The roads were a mess, and it seemed that every time I looked up, there was another car slid off the road, up against the median barrier. Honestly, Denver drivers are terrible. I thought Utah drivers were bad, but Denver drivers are crazy.

After I delivered, I went to a truck stop, and informed dispatch that I wasn't hitting the road until the snow cleared. Fortunately, they didn't fight me. Later that day, after the snow stopped, I got another load, this one headed to Jackson's Hole, WY, and Nampa, ID.

I made it as far as Johnstown, CO that night, and I stayed at a truck stop there. On a side note, if you're ever in the area, I highly recommend you stop for dinner. The restaurant there is really quite good. Anyway, got up the next day and headed to Rock Springs. This was probably the best day I've had in a while. Short drive, weather was good, listened to books on CD.

I had the hours to go past Rock Springs, but there's nowhere to park a truck between there and Idaho Falls, so I was stuck for the night. This meant a very early morning for me, and I got up at just after 1am. This is when things really started to suck.

As I headed north towards Jackson's Hole, the weather started getting pretty bad. Snow covered roads, wind, actually just what I expected in Wyoming this time of year. A 2 1/2 hour drive turned into six. I was driving less than 20mph at some spots. About halfway there, I just about hit a bear that was wandering along the road. It was a fairly large bear, and probably would've done some serious damage to my rig. Missed it by inches.

When I finally got to Jackson, I looked at the temperature on my phone. -14. Damn, that sucks. Spent three hours there, waiting to get unloaded, then finally headed out.

As I approached Twin Falls, ID, my truck started losing electrical power. Not good. I was able to nurse it into a Freightliner dealership, and fortunately they were able to fix the problem in no time. However, I had to disconnect from my trailer to put the truck in the shop, which meant setting the trailer brakes. That's a very bad idea this time of year, but I had no choice.

While I was there, I called my aunt who lives in town, and asked if I could drop by. She was very glad to hear from me, and sent my uncle to pick me up. I spent a wonderful evening with their family, and I really enjoyed myself.

Remember how I said setting the trailer brakes was bad? That's because they can freeze up, locking the axles. When I returned to the truck the next morning to get to my destination, that's exactly what happened. One of the axles was locked, which I didn't realize until about half a block later. By that point, two of the tires were shredded. So, I had to get those replaced before I could leave town.

Fast forward to today. Early this morning I got a message on my Qualcomm from my boss, yelling at me for not being at my delivery by 10am. I had an open delivery time up until 8pm, and wasn't even close to late. I responded that I wasn't in danger of being late, but I don't think she was very happy, for whatever reason. Then, dispatch sent me two trips they wanted me to run, neither of which I could've done as I am low on hours.

To top all that off, I'm in Oregon. Oregon has the speed limit set for trucks at 55 mph. As I normally can go 62 on the interstate, this slows me down at least 7 mph, which essentially means I have to take a $2/hour pay cut to drive here. Thanks Oregon!

I guess when it rains, it pours. Often in this job, things are rather uneventful. You wake up, hit the road for 10 hours and shut down. No big deal. Sometimes it feels like the world is out to screw you, and that's been the case over the last few days for me. Such is life. Of course, this isn't limited to the trucking industry; this happens to everyone.

But one thing I've learned is that you have to have a good sense of humor about things, and try to laugh it all off. Especially in this job, if you can't do that, you'll burn out in no time. As I write this, I'm sitting at a rest stop just west of The Dalles, OR, headed to Spokane. Got another early day tomorrow, and who knows where I'll end up after that? To be fair, that's one thing I really like about this job. When I wake up in the morning, I never know where I'll end up at the end of the day.