HOME IS WHERE THE TRUCK IS: August 2018

Friday, August 31, 2018

All in a days work.

Hey, today is Friday. Although I quickly learned that Friday and weekend do not mean much at all in this industry! It's nonstop moving, unless its not. Huh?

Mark is allowed to be on duty 70 hours to work every 8 days. The days are broken down into 11 hours of drive time, 3 hours of on-duty not driving before he must take a 10 hour break.

Got it?

He has to manage his time so that he does not run out of those hours, in those 8 days. If he runs out of hours he has to do one of two things A) a 34 hour reset or B) wait until 9th day and then start running recap hours. Recap hours are based on the hours that he ran 7 days prior.

Confused yet?

Anytime we are at a delivery or pick up waiting to be loaded or unloaded, that is using his 14 hours . The first 2 hours and 45 minutes are his on duty not driving hours (the 1st 15 minutes are used in the morning doing his pre-trip inspection). Anytime we sit and wait to be loaded or unloaded and it takes longer than that 2h and 45m, it eats into his on duty driving time. That is no bueno.

Each day he plans to drive more than 8 hours, he has to take a 30 minute break (off duty) within that first 8 hours in order to legally drive the remainder of his 11 hours of drive time.

Ohhh, ok. That makes sense now. Let me know if you get it or not...I still need it explained to me! :)

Now I leave you with some random photos from the week,

LSU Stadium

Nashville (I think)

Tennessee Titans Stadium

I may or may not have thrown a small fit that we could not go here.

Airplane and a ton of cars in a field in Gary, Indiana

Corn for days

The plane! The Plane!

Chicago O'Hare Airport

Submit your nominations for the Hair Hall of Fame to me

Monday, August 27, 2018

I've been enlightened.

In the middle of my fourth week out here on the road and my eyes have been opened to a lot of things. Things I took for granted, things I never thought about and things about being a truck driver that I don't think most people think about.

Here are a select few:

Showering without shoes. This is something I took for granted. It's just weird showering with flip flops on. Also, being able to use the potty whenever you want to.
Giving yourself an insulin injection while stationary. REALLY took this one for granted. I have never had more injection site bruises than I have had from the last month!
It's harder to find post cards than one might think.
There are SO MANY COWS in the US.
Cooking in a full size kitchen, totally took that one for granted
Why do so many people live at the bottom of a mountain where " Watch for rock slides" are so prevalent?
People really just cannot drive. On a daily basis we literally see at least one " four wheeler" trying to take out another one, or an 18 wheeler.
Truck driving is really hard work. My old boss used to constantly refer to over the road truck drivers as " steering wheel holders". Nothing could be further from the truth. I really had no idea how mentally and physically demanding this job is.
Truck driving is really lonely. The couple of times we have eaten in restaurants, it makes me sad to see so many drivers sitting all by themselves. I cannot imagine eating, working, living all day every day by myself.
Truck driving is really stressful. Dealing with other vehicles, finding a place to park when your hours of service are up, getting loads delivered on time, getting loads picked up on time, etc. It's a never ending circle of stress.

I am really enjoying it out here and love seeing so many different things everyday, as well as spending time with Mark, Not all days pass by with sunshine and roses, some are a lot harder than others but as I have said before there is no where I would rather be. Even on the cruddy days.

As a side note, Mark and I just wasted two hours watching "Mother". What a sorry piece of garbage that was.

And please keep praying that Sam Sayers if found. #findsamsayers

Here are some pics from TX and LA from today.