Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

Sitting in a parking lot waiting for some guy to come deliver the rest of his load at a K-Mart so we can swap trailers is killing me. I got here at about quarter to three in the afternoon. I'm in my home town, literally less than 3 miles away from my house. But I can't leave and go home because the load I'm waiting to relay with this guy is high value and I can't risk leaving it alone in "this" neighborhood. I love my town but it has some rough areas and of course this is very very close to being on of the worst. It's a high traffic area but most of the people are just passing through and not paying attention to anything going on on either side of the road. So if I left, no one would probably notice until too late that my truck or trailer had become a victim of theft. So here I sit... babysitting... wasting precious hours. At 18:15 my 14 hour day runs out... and if he's not here and done unloading by then... I'm screwed. When he pulls onto t...

Life has been quite the whirlwind for me since my last blog. I finally made it home for some much appreciated R & R. My sweetie and I hopped in our new pick-up truck and took her for her first long trip. We headed west to visit some great friends of ours in Manchester, OH. We met their brand new precious baby girl, their 4 yr. old son (that we've heard all about but hadn't met before as we don't see these friends very frequently) and crashed out in their basement for the night. The next morning my sweetums and I snuck out of the house in search of some down home grubbage . We found a greasy spoon in the area and enjoyed a fairly decent breakfast. Then we headed back to our friends' house to get ready to hit the road for Cincy . It was a beautiful day for a drive and we followed out friends along the scenic by-way of US-52 into Cincy . There we headed straight to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal to see " BODIES the exhibit ". It was interest...

I got the call just before noon from the shop to tell me my truck was done. I packed up my crap at the hotel and headed back to the terminal to check it all out and get ready to start a working day. I arrive to find my truck is in fact back out on the main lot where the rest of the "healthy" trucks park. I got in, released the brake long enough to let the truck roll back a little from a railing and then set the brake and got out. I unlatched the hood and opened Trucky up to see what had been done. A couple of hoses going here and there to and from the turbo were replaced, and I noticed that I had a new fuel/water separator. Mostly satisfied, I headed over to the actual shop to have the shop manager sign off on my log book entries where I noted the things wrong with Trucky . I also had them tell me exactly what was done. Turns out they replaced not only the hoses and fuel/water separator, but they also replaced an EGR valve and some other valve that is called a delta-somethi...

Well... Trucky is finally getting somewhere. Yesterday morning we woke up and got on the road headed northeast. Our hope was to get to Akron. And we probably could've made it. But my frustration at Trucky's condition was made pointedly clear to the Sunday support shift crew with frequent stops and Qualcomm messages. And after only traveling about 100 miles at 45 miles per hour, they made the call to relay the load with another available driver just south of Cincinatti. They then sent me bob-tailed to our Indianapolis terminal. I arrived here yeserday evening around 4pm and went straight to the shop. They took a look at it to get an idea of what's going on with it. Apparently it's not as bad as I thought in respect to the turbo... but sadly, there were a whole host of other problems. ....also enroute to the terminal bob-tailed, the black smoke took turns with a blue/white smoke. I dunno what that means, but the mechanic didn't seem to like the sound of it. So now, my...

Today my truck fell very ill. He has been feeling a little off for the past few days. He has had a slight cough and a little sputter here and there since about Wednesday. He seemed okay for the most part, but occasionally he'd hack a little and cough out some black smoke. I took him by a shop to see if they could tell me anything. They just said it was probably dirty filters and sent me on my way. Trucky is due to have PM, Preventative Maintenance, performed on him between the 14 th and the 24 th of this month. The shop told me that they wouldn't do it early and that he would be just fine until then. Ha! Shows that they knows! Little hiccups here and there for a couple of days apparently took it's toll on Trucky . And yesterday he started coughing and hacking a little more frequently. I wish I'd known more, but I could only go by what the shop told me and I assumed all would be okay. Today Trucky took a turn for the worse. We did okay this morning, he didn...

Something exciting and challenging did happen recently. I was headed to a drop location in Winchester, VA. I'd been there several times but always came in from the north. This time I came in from the south. My directions told me to exit the interstate and at the end of the exit ramp, turn right. So I did.... and ended up noticing too little too late that it was the wrong way. I should've gone left. So now, to try to find a place to safely and legally turn around. I passed a small shopping plaza but it had "no truck" signs all over the place. So I just kept going. Until I got into nearly downtown Winchester. I saw a road that looked like if I turned left on to it, it would lead me to another road I could turn left on to and etc until I was back where I needed to be. This was NOT so. Here is where I ended up... stuck. I was certainly at a crossroads, but not one I could take my big truck on in any direction. Not this way... Or that... The only way out was the w...

...you see a sign that says,"Liquor, Live Bait, and Ammo". Seriously... to me that just sounds like a really bad combination.... or maybe a really fun night. Either way... definitely a southern thang . I survived 106 degree weather in Arkansas the past two days... that was a miracle. I thought for sure I'd die any moment. The heat is still stifling even up here just north of St. Louis, MO. But they say after the storms that are gonna roll through tonight that relief will finally come. Of course, just in time for me to head north into Wisconsin. I haven't had any real challenges the past few days other than just coping with the heat. I don't do well in extreme heat... add in 100% humidity and I'm sorely miserable. But I managed. yay . I also had a nice stop over at our West Memphis, AR terminal where while I was there I had the pleasure of visiting a dentist for a proper cleaning and check-up, which was grossly over due. My company has contracted with American...