STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22530: Sumner Saga

March 19, 2009 on 6:53 pm | In On The Road |

What a difference in the weather. When I left Las Vegas, the weather was almost perfect, mid-70’s and lots of sunshine. Dank is the adjective I would choose to describe the weather here in Sumner, WA today. It has been raining most of the day, and although the temperature has been in the mid-50’s, it seems much colder.
I will now sum up this trip to Sumner.

Monday, March 16th: The PrePlan that I received over the weekend was scheduled for pick up at 1500 in Henderson. I thought that I was going to be T-calling the load in Salt Lake City, but instead, I’ll be taking the load all the way to the consignee in Bellingham, WA. The class I was scheduled to take in SLC was re-scheduled, and I’ll now take it at our terminal in Sumner, WA on Thursday.
I left Vegas about 1400, and arrived at the shipper about 15 minutes early. They weren’t expecting me for another hour, so my load wasn’t ready yet. I dropped my empty trailer in their yard, then hooked up to the trailer that they were to load. About 2 hours later, it was ready and I was on my way. I drove to Nephi, UT where exhaustion set in and I went to bed. I had been up early (0700) with the MMM. I arrived in Nephi a little before midnight, having stopped once in Beaver, UT to walk the guys. I drove 367 miles in 6.25 driving hours. I used a little over 9 hours of my 14-hours.

Tuesday: I left Nephi at about 1000. I drove to Twin falls, ID and took a quick break. I then drove to Ontario, OR. I stopped here for another quick break for the MMM. I finish my day by driving to Stanfield, OR where I ran out of hours (11-hour rule). All of my meals were snacks from the truck. I drove 652 miles, utilizing all of my 11-hours. I used 11.75 hours of my 14-hours, so I was pushing it really hard today.

Wednesday: I left Stanfield at 0700. I drove to a Rest Area on I-90 in Washington at mm-89. I took a 15-minute break here for the MMM. I then drove to the consignee in Bellingham. It was a ‘live’ unload, and it took about 1½ hours. I next drove to the terminal in Sumner where I finished my day. I drove 464 miles in 8.5 hours, and used 11 of my 14-hours.

Today, Thursday, March 19th: Today was grueling. The class that I took today, Close Quarter Training, started at 0530. YUK!! Basically, I drove around with a “local” driver in his truck doing local deliveries. I was in a 3-axle “heavy haul” truck, making deliveries with 3 and 4 axle “heavy-haul” trailers. The purpose was to practice backing into “tight” parking docks. I was apprehensive at first because I was in unfamiliar equipment, but I soon got comfortable with what I was doing. It was a useful learning experience. We finished about 1330. Having arose ‘before the rooster’, and worked 8 hours, I just decided to take the rest of the day off. I’ll hopefully get a load out of here in the morning.