Getting back on the big road.

[Custom Hearse]

Good luck my friend! I hope and pray everything works out great for you!

[highway]

Thanks guys, and things are going well. I went to fill out paperwork and my DOT drug test yesterday and will be starting next Tuesday! I'm going to be driving for a small local company not too far from my temporary home here with my brother in Beech Bottom, WV, which is about halfway between Wheeling and Weirton, that is based out of Hopedale, OH. The company is Mark R. Lewis Trucking and like I said, they are just a small company that both Jon and my brother Garry have worked for and didn't do badly with in their time there, and they one have about 15 or 20 trucks and everyone I met yesterday seem to be nice and easy going. I even got to road test in the truck they said most likely will be mine, and it's a nice driving truck. I didn't get the year or find out what power it has yet, but it's an International 9900i with a standup casket bunk that is surprisingly roomy. Here's a pic I took while the driver giving me my road test was dropping the loaded trailer he needed a tire changed on.

[Custom Hearse]

Cool! Glad to see you're out and about again! Nice looking truck too. I love that color of blue!!!

[Q tip]

good luck and be carful, don't want you dangling off the back of my hook. I run the wreckers across from the petro at exit 357 in fremont Indiana. stop by sometime,the coffee is always free!

[highway]

Cool! Glad to see you're out and about again! Nice looking truck too. I love that color of blue!!!

Thanks Marshall and if I get out to your neck of the woods I'll be in touch, and I'm just happy it isn't Werner blue!!

good luck and be carful, don't want you dangling off the back of my hook. I run the wreckers across from the petro at exit 357 in fremont Indiana. stop by sometime,the coffee is always free!

Small world, John, I spent a few years running big wreckers myself! I've been in that area and know exactly where you're located, and whenever I do get in that area I'll be in for that free coffee!

[1320wayne]

Hey Matt it's good to hear that things may be going in the right direction. For me, twelve times was a charm, with the Pete breaking down. I just came home from 5 weeks out and probably 2 of those 5 weeks was spent in numerous shops trying to get my truck fixed so it would last. Including a 7 day ordeal in a hotel in San Antonio so the local Pete/Rush Truck Center could jerk me around day after day at getting the truck fixed. And then when it was all done they still didn't fix it because it broke down again 2 days after I got it back. I then ended up at the Werner home base in Omaha and spent another 2 days there while they supposedly fixed the problem and a week after leaving there I ended up being towed to a Pete shop in Davenport, Ia. After 2 days there I contacted my FM and told him enough is enough, get me another truck.

Finally he got me a rental car, I cleaned out the Pete, and headed off to Fulton, MO to pick up my new truck. It's a 2013 Cascadia and other than having to get the Gra-Gar guys to shut off the optimized idle that wouldn't work it seems to run pretty good. And it's much more comfortable inside. The only major issue is that this truck is only governed for 62 and that sucks.

But anyway, I hope everything works out good for you with the new company.

Edited September 4, 2013 by 1320wayne

[Truck parts]

Matthew, Hope all goes well. Be safe out there..Keep us posted .

[Custom Hearse]

Thanks Marshall and if I get out to your neck of the woods I'll be in touch, and I'm just happy it isn't Werner blue!!

Looking forward to meeting you! Be safe out there.

[Custom Hearse]

Finally he got me a rental car, I cleaned out the Pete, and headed off to Fulton, MO to pick up my new truck. It's a 2013 Cascadia and other than having to get the Gra-Gar guys to shut off the optimized idle that wouldn't work it seems to run pretty good. And it's much more comfortable inside. The only major issue is that this truck is only governed for 62 and that sucks.

Ahhh... Fulton Mo. I picked up a Freightliner Cascadia from there...

I just hope you don't have as many problems as I did with yours Wayne.

[Gramps2u]

What else would you expect from a Freightliner?

[Kostas Parchas]

Hi Matt,

Nice to hear from you, I wish to you all the best in your personal and professional life.

Kostas.

[highway]

Hey Matt it's good to hear that things may be going in the right direction. For me, twelve times was a charm, with the Pete breaking down. I just came home from 5 weeks out and probably 2 of those 5 weeks was spent in numerous shops trying to get my truck fixed so it would last. Including a 7 day ordeal in a hotel in San Antonio so the local Pete/Rush Truck Center could jerk me around day after day at getting the truck fixed. And then when it was all done they still didn't fix it because it broke down again 2 days after I got it back. I then ended up at the Werner home base in Omaha and spent another 2 days there while they supposedly fixed the problem and a week after leaving there I ended up being towed to a Pete shop in Davenport, Ia. After 2 days there I contacted my FM and told him enough is enough, get me another truck.

Finally he got me a rental car, I cleaned out the Pete, and headed off to Fulton, MO to pick up my new truck. It's a 2013 Cascadia and other than having to get the Gra-Gar guys to shut off the optimized idle that wouldn't work it seems to run pretty good. And it's much more comfortable inside. The only major issue is that this truck is only governed for 62 and that sucks.

But anyway, I hope everything works out good for you with the new company.

Nice truck for a Cascadia, Wayne, the little bit I spent in the one they gave me I wasn't very impressed, and I'm a diehard Freightshaker man! I made sure I took note of the number, I'll be looking out for you as I pass those slow Wenie Wagons!!

As for me, I did get the Intertrashional I posted the pic of, and she is a pretty good runner for being an old girl. She's an 07 with a 465 HP twin turbo Cat shaking her, and 10 speed. She has at this time from the Petro parking lot in Jackson, MS I'm sitting in 682,740 miles on the clock. I do think that she's not putting all the power to the ground she could, she dogs out on hills if I don't keep the rubber bands wound up tight, and she's governed at 68 MPH. I'm going to see if she can be turned up and at least get some more speed, since some of our trucks are wide open. At least I'm getting to run the truck the way I like and I don't have big brother watching me every second of the day. (Sorry Marshall and Wayne! )

I have had to adjust to keeping a log book (or two ) again, but at least (and again sorry guys) I don't have a computer telling me when to run and when I can't. I'm not saying I'm running illegal, I keep everything legal most of the time and when my body says that's it, that's the time I shut down. I just like the fact that if the body will allow me to get up at 7AM and not quit running until 1 or 2 AM, a little "creative writing" lets me run the miles I want, not what a computer tells me. Anyway, that's all for now, and Wayne, if you're through Jackson before tomorrow (Sept 28) afternoon, stop by the Petro and look me up! I don't have to reload in Pine Bluff AR until after 5:00 PM, then I'm heading to New Philadelphia, OH.

[1320wayne]

Hey Matt, it's funny that you sent this message when you did and where you were at because on the 28th I was leaving the drop yard in West Memphis and heading across to Corinth, MS to pick up a load that was leading me home to Florida. I'm home now, for a few days.

Shortly after I got the Cascadia I was able to bring it to the Fontana, CA terminal for some attention to the Opti-idle system and while they had it I got the approval to increase the speed from 62 to 65, as it was embarrassing to not be able to pass any Schneider or Swift drivers all of a sudden. The tech. didn't set the governed speed correctly because I can now get it up to 66 before the throttle stop kicks in.

[Thatswhatshesaid]

You seem pretty pleased with yourself for running illegal Matthew. Your 'creative writing' is illegal anyway you put it. The rules are in place for a reason. Its renegade truckers like you that give good truckers a bad name. I just hope we never cross paths on the interstate.

[Custom Hearse]

You seem pretty pleased with yourself for running illegal Matthew. Your 'creative writing' is illegal anyway you put it. The rules are in place for a reason. Its renegade truckers like you that give good truckers a bad name. I just hope we never cross paths on the interstate.

Wow... People with attitudes such as yours give the trucking industry a bad name. You have no right to tell people how to drive. And the way you worded the last sentence sounds like a threat. In the fifteen years I drove, I know a lot of times I did not drive completely legal all the time, but I guarantee that I NEVER treated other drivers with such disrespect. You need to look in the mirror sometime and think about how you are part of the career that keeps the world going, and that you are no better than anyone else...

[Thatswhatshesaid]

It wasn't a threat. I just don't want to be on the interstate with a guy running over his hours. I certainly wouldn't come on here and brag about it either.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Thatswhatshesaid

[highway]

Hey Matt, it's funny that you sent this message when you did and where you were at because on the 28th I was leaving the drop yard in West Memphis and heading across to Corinth, MS to pick up a load that was leading me home to Florida. I'm home now, for a few days.

Shortly after I got the Cascadia I was able to bring it to the Fontana, CA terminal for some attention to the Opti-idle system and while they had it I got the approval to increase the speed from 62 to 65, as it was embarrassing to not be able to pass any Schneider or Swift drivers all of a sudden. The tech. didn't set the governed speed correctly because I can now get it up to 66 before the throttle stop kicks in.

That would be embarrassing Wayne, but you forgot JB!! I need to see if I can get mine turned up some too, especially on the power side, because I don't think the old girl is giving me everything she can. I have a twin turbo 465 Cat and I've driven 470 and 500 Detroits that would outpull this thing! I'm usually loaded with over 40,000 lbs and unless I keep the rubber bands tight, she won't pull a hill for nothing. Some more speed would be nice too, some of the trucks are wide open and this could be a triple digit truck if it wanted to be, but even 70 or 75 would suit me fine. Even at 68, I still have enough to pass them slow Werner trucks!!

Also, on the ironic side, tonight's internet break comes from the Petro in Reddick, FL! I was just in your neck of the woods at a little drop yard we have in Palm Coast, and then they sent me over here to pick up a load that cancelled after I was almost here. So now I'm just hanging out until morning for them to find me something to head me back to the OH yard and get the truck in the shop for some repairs and service.

[highway]

You seem pretty pleased with yourself for running illegal Matthew. Your 'creative writing' is illegal anyway you put it. The rules are in place for a reason. Its renegade truckers like you that give good truckers a bad name. I just hope we never cross paths on the interstate.

Awww, sounds like little Jakey woke up on the wrong side of the sleeper that morning!! I think in my whole 15 1/2 years I've spent driving a truck, this might be the first time that I have ever been called a renegade trucker. I guess that's the price I pay for having chicken lights and chrome! I guess that means all renegade truckers have over a million accident free miles (100,000 safe driving award from Werner Enterprise during my time there), obey the posted speed limits, haven't had a ticket of any sort in any type of vehicle for going on 10 or 12 years now, and have NEVER had a log book violation or any other DOT violation through their career. I was joking with Wayne and Marshall because we have all worked for Werner Enterprises, the originator of electronic logs! I just don't have their stupid Qualcomm looking over my shoulder anymore, and it's nice to have no one telling me how to drive my truck. If taking time wasted at a shipper or receiver out to add a little time I know I can still make driving and making it another 100 or so miles down the road for the day is so wrong in your eyes, then so be it, but any "creative writing" I may do is because I know I can do it, not to benefit the company and put anyone, including myself, in danger. I'm tired, I stop, simple as that. I don't keep pushing myself beyond my limit. There just might be times my limit and the 14 hr clock have different ending times.

Wow... People with attitudes such as yours give the trucking industry a bad name. You have no right to tell people how to drive. And the way you worded the last sentence sounds like a threat. In the fifteen years I drove, I know a lot of times I did not drive completely legal all the time, but I guarantee that I NEVER treated other drivers with such disrespect. You need to look in the mirror sometime and think about how you are part of the career that keeps the world going, and that you are no better than anyone else...

Thanks, Marshall, and just as it says in my signature line, "If you bought it, a truck brought it" and "Without trucks, America stops"! I'm from the old school, if I see a driver needing help sliding tandems, I offer. The new breed of driver nowadays sometimes makes me embarrassed to say I'm a trucker, because a very large number don't even have the courtesy to flash their lights or say on the CB "bring it over, you missed me" or even move over for a broke down four wheeler or big truck on the shoulder. When I started driving in 98, it was fun out here, but now it's just a job divided between the old school driver that is disappearing and the new school that just out for themselves. Oh well.....

[highway]

Well, so much for keeping me moving, I'm enjoying (yeah right!) some down time in Florida. I have had an air leak for a few days but it has been one of those "Where the BLEEP is it coming from!?!?" deals and was going to baby it back to the shop since it was not causing any big deals on the road, just losing air parked while the truck was off at night. Well, I got to our "dropyard" here in FL and the owner of the company met me there and we looked everything over. Well, he tracked it down, a hole rusted in the tank itself!

We then came up with a plan to temporarily patch the tank and pick up a load in Ocala, but as I said the other night, that load got cancelled. Sooooooo, the next morning, since my dispatcher couldn't find a load coming back close to the home terminal, the owner (which splits time living in OH and FL) decided he'd have me come back to the FL dropyard and leave my truck there and use his truck that he was going to deliver the load to Miami with Monday so he can get a new air tank on my truck and I can deliver the load. So I had to leave my baby behind and have his truck (and mine is better ) and dispatch said get a motel room for last night and tonight before delivering in the morning. At least I did meet the owner finally, he's a really nice guy and even was telling me how to get to the beach if I wanted to spend a little bit of time there while I'm here! Hopefully by the time the I deliver in the morning and probably reload something back to the north, the boss will have my baby done and ready for me to head home.

[Custom Hearse]

Thanks, Marshall, and just as it says in my signature line, "If you bought it, a truck brought it" and "Without trucks, America stops"! I'm from the old school, if I see a driver needing help sliding tandems, I offer. The new breed of driver nowadays sometimes makes me embarrassed to say I'm a trucker, because a very large number don't even have the courtesy to flash their lights or say on the CB "bring it over, you missed me" or even move over for a broke down four wheeler or big truck on the shoulder. When I started driving in 98, it was fun out here, but now it's just a job divided between the old school driver that is disappearing and the new school that just out for themselves. Oh well.....

You're welcome Matt. I started in '96, and I've seen a lot of changes that make me wonder what happened to proffesional courtesy. I would only turn my C.B. on long enough to find out information on interstate and highway backups. Other than that, I would just listen to the stereo...

Hope you got your truck back okay, and if you are ever running through here, give me a call.

[charlie8575]

Good to see you back in the saddle, Matt. I miss our occasional conversations in chat.

Be safe out there, and if you should find yourself heading towards New England, try to give me a head's-up and I'll see what I can do to meet up for lunch, coffee, dinner, whatever.

Charlie Larkin

[highway]

You're welcome Matt. I started in '96, and I've seen a lot of changes that make me wonder what happened to proffesional courtesy. I would only turn my C.B. on long enough to find out information on interstate and highway backups. Other than that, I would just listen to the stereo...

Hope you got your truck back okay, and if you are ever running through here, give me a call.

Yep, me too! A few weeks ago I was in a T/A in Perrysburg, Oh and found even old timers have seemed to throw professional courtesy out the window! A driver was in front of the shop and appeared as if he may have been waiting in line for a bay, and I was just trying to find the exit (first time I was ever in that particular T/A) when the next thing I know I have a trailer sitting in front of me, he was backing up! The reason I didn't know he was backing up was that he didn't bother with turning on his four ways before backing up. I said "I guess the courtesy of turning on your four ways to warn other drivers you are backing up has gone out the window" to him on the CB and he starts accusing me of flying through the parking lot at over 25 miles an hour. I said "Funny, I guess 10 mph is flying in the parking lot now huh?? I don't ever go over 10 mph in a truck stop parking lot." Then he said, "Well I guess I should have turned on my four ways before backing up, but you know, I just don't really care". That's the whole problem with the industry today, too many steering wheel holders who don't care!

Anyway, enough of that and time to get off the soap box, I did get my baby back, just to have her break down again a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it was another air issue too! The air dryer decided to go out, and the stupid roadservice mechanic that looked at it wouldn't listen to our mechanic and just bypass the dryer and get me on the road, but instead first put a new high pressure pop off valve and governor on the compressor, and after that didn't work, he said it needed a new compressor! Our mechanic back at the shop sent the fifth wheel wrecker out to get my truck and bring me another truck (which I ended up breaking too! ) and towed mine back to our shop. When I finally talked to him a couple days later, he said all he did to fix the problem was bypass the air dryer and it was fine, I could have been on the road in 30 minutes! Now my baby has a new air dryer and two new (to it anyway ) air tanks that are not rusting through! I still have a little leak though, our mechanic accidentally hooked the leaking drain lanyard back up to the one tank, but it isn't a major problem driving down the road, just sitting overnight it will lose most of the air.

And I still have your number, if I get that way, you'll know!

Good to see you back in the saddle, Matt. I miss our occasional conversations in chat.

Be safe out there, and if you should find yourself heading towards New England, try to give me a head's-up and I'll see what I can do to meet up for lunch, coffee, dinner, whatever.

Charlie Larkin

Thanks Charlie, and PM me your number, I get up that way from time to time. If I remember correctly, Marlborough is outside Boston, right?? I haven't gone that way yet, but we do have a regular customer in New Hampshire I have picked up at couple times already.

Edited November 17, 2013 by highway

[highway]

Oh, almost forgot everyone, other than being out this weekend, everything is going good with job and home! I went to just being out during the week and home every weekend, but obviously someone (and not the dispatcher either) forgot that and sent me on a run to Florida for a Friday delivery! Anyway, I'm stuck in Florida for the weekend and they got me a motel, so I have some internet this weekend until I have to pick up the other half of my load that should have been loaded today if it wasn't for the load broker goofing up the times and the place being closed when the broker said it was open.

Other than that, I have been on the fast track thanks to some of the best paychecks I have ever gotten driving a truck to getting my life back to normal finally! I have operating wheels again thanks to none other than my dispatcher who I'm buying his 1983 Chrysler New Yorker off of (yes I still have my dually, it's still sitting in the same driveway it has been in for almost 2 years!) and me and my girlfriend Jennifer have been spending the past couple weekends moving into our new apartment (half a duplex actually), which just happens to be right across the street from where I was staying. i don't think that I have mentioned Jen before, but we have been dating since mid July and she is just a complete sweetheart, and she has been through some very rough relationships in the past that I'm not going to go into detail about, but one cost her custody of her 9 year old daughter. The plus side with not only us being together and living across the street from where I was staying, my friend Jon that is like a dad to me and his wife are also her daughter's grandparents and guardians and they live across the street too! We are getting to see more and more of her daughter and when we were shopping a few weeks ago, I found models at one of our local Walmarts and she wanted one! She picked out a Revell snap tite Mack firetruck and when I get home, we are going to spend some "daddy-daughter" time working on it together. Jen is also interested in working on models with me too, so hopefully one day we will all be a happy model building family!

Oh, and speaking of that, being the great woman to me that she is, Jen is letting me have the entire basement of our new place for my model room! The only place not mine is the area where the washer, dryer, furnace, and hot water heater occupies, but every other square inch is mine!! Now I just have to get time to actually figure out where to put everything and then I'll be back to building on the weekends when I'm home.

[Custom Hearse]

Ya lucky so and so! My ex wife wouldn't let me work on a model anywhere! Glad to hear you're still going strong and the job is working out! You just need to stop drag racing those little ol' ladies... you're wearing out the trucks!

I know what you mean about courtesy among drivers. It's a lost art. Mr. McGillicutty has a lot to learn about courtesy and that no'one is better than anyone else... We all have our faults and specialties.

The "daddy/daughter" buiding time sounds like an awesome idea!!! You two will have a lot of fun building models together.

As for me I'm doing good. The doctors have discovered that I have a touch of emphysema, but it's not bad. I have to use inhalers now, but it could be worse. And my heart is still ticking on, so the defibrillator hasn't shocked me into submission yet...

If you get a chance, stop in and I'll buy ya a cup of coffee(or hot chocolate, or Pepsi...). Be safe, and have an awesome Thanksgiving!!!

[Thatswhatshesaid]

I know what you mean about courtesy among drivers. It's a lost art. Mr. McGillicutty has a lot to learn about courtesy and that no'one is better than anyone else... We all have our faults and specialties.

Excuse me? I have a lot to learn about courtesy? Just because I don't run illegal and don't appreciate those who do? Especially someone who comes on here and openly brags about it?

Why don't you get your facts straight before you run your mouth, pal.