Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

I had just gotten my day started. After waking up to sunshine in Maryville, KS... a welcome change from the snow I woke up to in Denver the night before, I was happily on my way east bound on US-36. I'd not been moving along very long, half hour to forty five minutes at best when I passed a full grown rolling west bound. I was be-bopping along enjoying the mornings' glory when, as I scanned my mirrors, I saw the cop doing a flip-flop in the median behind me. I didn't really think too much of it at first. I kept driving, 5 mph below the posted speed limit thanks to Trucky's governor, minding my own business. I scanned my mirrors once again and saw that the cop was tailing me pretty close. "Hmm... what's up with that?!" I thought to myself. But kept driving, keeping it between the lines and shiny side up when all of a sudden the disco lights caught my attention in my side mirror. Damn. I signaled and pulled onto the shoulder, the officer following sui...

OMG After sitting for a day in Delano, CA recovering and recouping some hours I finally got rolling again. I was told to bob tail 120 miles or so south to pick up an empty trailer that would get me prepared should a load become available. I was off like a prom dress and thankful that my ear wasn't hurting too badly any longer. I didn't make it to a pharmacy to get the script for the antibiotic filled because I just couldn't bring myself to step inside the only thing available in the area (Wal-Mart). So I've just hoped that I'd heal naturally and so far so good. If I find a pharmacy like a Walgreen's or Rite Aid or something in the next day or two that I can park close enough to to get it filled, then I shall. Otherwise, I'm waiting till I get home. So back to the story. I hit the road bound for a town called Lancaster to pick up the empty trailer. I crossed back through the mountains where the painful pop in my ear originally occurred, thankful that the...

Okay, so after an annoyingly extended period of about 5 hours I finally had a new tire and was on my way the other morning. Turned out that the people the our emergency maintenance crew called had no intention of actually showing up to do the work after all. I was asked to limp 7 miles down the road to another truck stop that had a tire shop on site to get the replacement taken care of. So I did... Finally westward bound once more I enjoyed the trip across I-40 in fair weather. I snapped a ton of foto's which I will upload sometime in the future when I have a faster Internet connection. I think it'll be worth the wait. So I made it within about 50 miles of my delivery point that day and shut down for the night. I slept well, despite the southern California heat, and woke up refreshed and ready to go. After making sure I didn't have any more flat tires, grabbing a hot shower and then a fresh cup of coffee, I finally headed out for the last leg of my journey. I found t...

I finally got the big miles load I'd been waiting for! I was waiting for my next work assignment after delivering a load in Arkansas, wondering where I would be headed next. Turns out... California. The sunny southern portion to boot! I was thrilled, until I started to work up a proper trip plan. I am having to run a very tight, very tough schedule in order to make on time delivery in the Redlands area of So. Cal. But so far I've been managing quite well. Until today. It's about 1am pacific time and I'm still sitting still, when I should be rolling. Why? Shitty parking lots with sharp objects just lying about. I've been so careful the whole trip to make sure my rig is in tip-top shape that I have even been performing full post trip inspections to make sure things are holding up along the way. Last night, everything was peachy keen. So I ate a quick meal and then went to sleep way before the sun did. But after hitting the snooze bar three or four times thi...

Well I've not been a big celebrator of Easter in recent years for my own personal reasons, but for those of you celebrating today... Happy Easter and may the Easter Bunny not leave any thing resembling chocolate covered raisins on your front steps! ;o) I'm not even going to bother looking at my last blog to see where I was or what I was doing the last time I blogged. I usually do that to kinda pick up where I left off or whatever, but I don't really feel like it. So there. ha! I would, however, like to tell you about the miracle that happened to me yesterday at a P & G in Iowa. To begin, I delivered the day before at a P & G over in Iowa City after 8 and a half hours of driving, with no problems. I found the place easy enough, was checked in, made my drop, grabbed my empty and was checked out in less than 30 minutes. Piece of cake! While I was with the guard checking the empty to make sure it was indeed empty before leaving the premises, I heard the beeps begin...

I had a couple questions come in about the company I work for and their current hiring status. They are still hiring, but not en masse. From what they have told us, they are only hiring experienced drivers and are really looking more for owner operators (aka independent contractors) or so it seems. They are not currently hiring any inexperienced drivers, which I believe falls at 6 months or less OTR experience equals inexperienced. If you are an experienced driver, looking into this company as a serious career move, let me know and I can direct you to a recruiter that can answer any of your questions. :o)

So I had a new experience when it comes to a load assignment yesterday. I was dispatched to pick up a load in Philly and was told it was going 1080 miles west to some place in Iowa. I was a little miffed at first because the load would put me late getting home for my time off by a day or two. But I was willing to make the sacrifice for the good miles. So I headed to the shipper and was hopeful that things would work out for the best. After a series of semi-unfortunate and temporarily re-routed events I finally made it to the shipper and was docked and being loaded. While I waited, I made a few phone calls, caught up my log book, did a little trip planning and waited to be called in to sign the paperwork. That's when it got weird. Apparently the shipper hadn't really consigned the load to anyone in Iowa, they just used a city in IA as a sort of "base command" location so that they could get the loads in the system, picked up by drivers and thus out of their way. ...