I've put more than 60,000 miles (96,500 Kilometres) on the truck now, in a little under five and a half months. More on that later in the post.
When I finished my time at home, I was supposed to head north, to one of our customers in North Dakota, to take a load to Pennsylvania. Whilst I prefer not to head East, I was somewhat looking forward to it, as I haven't been to Pennsylvania before.
As I was in Walmart in Rapid City, stocking up for the truck I recieved a phone call. Asking if I would drop that load, and instead take another load from the same customer to Cheshire, Connecticut. Not sure of the details, but apparently the change was at the request of the customer.
It was a two drop load, with the first stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After that, I would need help finding parking. Having previously checked with dispatch, they assured me that the oracle had not been to where I was going. I called anyway. On the other end of the phone I could hear the russling of pages. The oracle had delivered there last November and informed me of two parking places at the destination. As well as planning my stopping place for the night between Grand Rapids and Cheshire.
We are short on direct customers out of the East coast, so rely mostly on brokered loads. I was pre booked on one from Pennsylvania, however there wasn't enough time to pick it up after delivery, so it had to be returned to the broker rather than failling to meet deadlines. So after delivery I holed up in a gravel yard nearby. The next day came and went, with no freight paying it's way. The following day dispatch told me to start heading toward Cleveland, Ohio and they would be looking in front of me for loads. I stopped short of Cleveland by around 40 miles and went to bed.
In the morning, they found a short load from the other side of Ohio, still heading west, going to the Chicago area. Which is where they wanted to get me, as we are back into freight area there. From there it was just a short hop into Kenosha, Wisconsin, for a load back into the starting area for this trip. North Dakota.
It is the middle of Labor weekend here and there is another one or two loads pre planned when I drop this one off in the morning.
I think the highlight of going out east for me was crossing the Hudson River in New York.
The only photo's I got was of a New York rest area.
Except for the last photo, which is a little grass area on the side of the road next to where I delivered in Cheshire.
Back to the miles I have done in the truck thus far. In a little under five and a half months I have been in 27 of the 48 contiguos states.
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Minnesota
Michigan
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New York
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Dakota
Texas
Utah
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming
