Is it summer yet?????

Today was amazing... Not amazing as in a nice summer drive through some beautiful part of the country. Instead it was an amazing day of fighting 40mph sidewinds, blowing snow, negative temps, and idiot drivers for over 600 miles... It's amazing how cold it is outside (-19) and people still drive around as if it was normal temps out. People still cut me off, people don't drive with their lights on, people still take their sweet ass time passing me and people still don't use their blinkers... HELLO!!!???? If it was nice and sunny out with dry roads I could stop pretty quick compared to now if you did something stupid in front of me... Now, I'm just going to plow into your family and jack knife for something that wasn't my fault. It amazes me how people can be so stupid... Anyways, heres some photos:

This was shot 10 minutes ago and it's still coming down... It's a blizzard now and my truck is shaking back and forth as if it was a earthquake...



This was taking about 30min ago... Now as I look out the window, the black asphalt is now covered completely by at least 3" of fresh snow.



This what it felt like for 600 miles today... My truck was leaning to the right from a easterly wind. Im used to the truck leaning from all my trips across nebraska, but today I actually twice thought I was going to roll. My super light load (11k) and really strong winds played games with me all day.




Check the flag...



Woohoo!!! Blowing snow whiteout!!! not.



Deep Concentration trying to avoid soccer moms heading to starbucks.




Now wouldn't you think to yourself that it's icy out, snowing, and the trucks must be driving 35mph for a reason? Not this guy, along with countless other dumbass's who decided to pass us and then end up in the ditch... hahahaha - Taken in Iowa two weeks ago.


I-70 eastbound over loveland pass in Vail, CO yesterday.




I-70 eastbound through the Colorado River Canyon which is one of my favorite insterstate sections in the whole country...




Who would of thought that two days ago is was driving through nice weather in Utah... Absolutely beautiful.







Welcome to my office.



Climbing loveland pass with the diff's locked and keeping the RPM's up so that I don't spin out.

I know, I know, I know, I'm a slacker with these updates...

But I have a good excuse, I've never ran so hard over the past few months as I have here at Schneider. For the past month I've had 4000+ mile weeks which is damn good considering all the restrictions put on a trucker these days. I've been running so hard that it's slowly catching up with me but it's the busy season right before christmas and I want to make as much $$$ as I can... Freight slows down big time after Christmas so I'll be taking 2 days off for Xmas then I'll be home in January for a week or so of much needed time off. Until then, It's all about running hard. For example, 3 days ago I left Laredo texas and drove 1800 miles up here to Carlisle,PA. Tomorrow I'll be getting loaded with beauty products heading to Ohio then it's time to pick up a preloaded trailer bound for Mc Donough,GA (atlanta) then it's back down to Laredo Texas for the 4th time in 3 weeks. Another 4000 mile week coming right up! Bring it on!


Heavy snow and freezing rain last week in Michigan and Ohio turned my nice clean truck into a disaster then I picked up a load in this Powder like dusty yard in Louisana last Saturday and it made it even worse...



That's all dust... more like powder...



This is only a portion of the brand new cars and trucks at the Laredo, TX Border Control HQ



I dropped my truck off at 4 State Trucks, Home of the Chrome Shop Mafia and the TV Show on CMT Called "Trick my Truck" to get a custom stereo installed... Now I can cruise in style with the music turned way up and vibrating everything... I love it.




I should buy a house here cause I roll through there almost on a weekly basis. Dallas, TX.



Running north along the Oregon Coast near Newport, OR.



As soon as I turned east and away from the Beaches I hit some fog through the Tree's heading towards Salem, OR.



South of US93 towards Winnemucca, NV one afternoon with a load of Sugar from Boise, ID.



While it may not be much, this is the first snow I hit in my truck since purchasing it. October 31st - Montana.



More snow in Walcott, IA at Iowa 80. The Worlds Largest Truck Stop.



Try spending two hours searching for an empty trailer in one of the west coast's largest intermodal (rail) yard. I have promised myself and my dispatcher that I will NEVER NEVER NEVER go back to the Los Angeles rail yard. NEVER!!!!



Climbing Ashland grade coming into Medford, OR.


Eric and I hanging out in Missouri a couple weeks ago...



A Sunset in Nevada on US93



Jerod (He drives locally for Schneider out of the Fontana (LA) Terminal. I met up with him for the day and we went to the truck that I posted earlier...

Truck Show, Trains and views from the drivers seat

I delivered my load of used cardboard box bales to a paper recycling plant out in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico earlier this week. When i was empty I drove out to the side road and parked next to the train tracks in hopes that I would see a train... Little did I know that every 5-10 minutes a train would be coming by... I was having a blast watching the trains pass me...



On my way to the paper plant...



Getting closer...



A BNSF Dash 9 heading east from the Ports on the west coast.




Chugging up the hill heading west with a load of empty containers.




Now this amazes me... 1 truck has a hard enough time pulling ONE of these 44,000lb containers. This train has 100 cars and 2 containers on each car... It's to crazy to think about how much weight these engines are pulling...wow.



In between trains this huge air force plane came zipping over the mountains and made a sharp turn and flew at low elevation through the canyon...




Say hello to me. Las Cruces, NM.





Hot air balloons in Albuquerque, NM




Heading west on I-70 through Colorado towards Denver.



4 out of 5 lanes blocked due to a couple of idiots crashing in the Phoenix, AZ tunnel last night...



I had a friend meet me here at the Fontana, CA terminal this morning and we drove over to Pomona to check out the truck show they had going on... Here's some of my favorites from this show.

Check out this sweet Kenworth W900




A REAL nice Peterbilt 379




This was my favorite truck from the show. The detail on this truck was spectacular.










I really love old retro classics like this nicely kept up Kenworth.




Last night I noticed my truck was casting a nice reflection on the trailer next to me... So I took some cool silhouette photos of me...




I like to sit down pretty low and lean my seat back to get comfortable so this is all you will see of me when you pass me...



Last monday I had to head over to the Chicago rail yard to pick up an emtpy... This is how they load and unload the trailers on the trains.



I like having trucking friends because sooner or later you are bound to run into them going the opposite way. I was heading through Missouri when my phone rang. It was eric and he wanted to know where I was... Well, I was going west and he was going east... So about 45 minutes later I meet him at the truck stop and we were able to hang out for an hour or so before we had to roll... He drives for Werner and has a pretty nice black Kenworth W900 company truck.

I've been busy

Since signing on to SNI 4 months ago I have been running around this country like a chicken with it's head cut off. I have never run so hard as I have here at SNI and I'm loving it. I was so used to shutting down for the night and taking 12hrs or more off (10hrs is required) because I was never in a rush. Lately with the exception of a few days, I've been leaving as soon as my 10hrs is up and running full 11hrs a day with only stopping once to fuel. Theres many days I do 750 miles a day and if it wasn't for the regulations that say I can't drive more than 11 hours, I would keep going. I get in those moods while listening to a CD cranked all the way up, the windows down and a clear road in front of me. If I could choose to drive all night long all the time I would. I've seen most of this country now and it's real beautiful and everything, but nothing beats the wide open road at night, all alone in the middle of nowhere. No 4 wheelers cutting me off or hiding in my blind spot. No stopping in traffic and usually the weight stations are closed. I enjoy staring at the trucks going the opposite way littered in LED lights on the truck and trailer, or the team drivers cruising on down the road with their bunk light on and a TV. I love my job and I don't ever want to do anything else. This is my home, the open road.


Pulled off along I-17 North in Flagstaff, AZ a couple weeks ago after getting my truck washed at the famous Danny's Truck Spa in Phoenix, AZ.







My dash all lit up at night.



I picked up a 2900 mile load from Otay Mesa (San Diego, the drop point for all Northbound loads from Mexico to California) and while heading to New Jersey, I stopped in Indianapolis for the night to meet up with Pat. He's the whole reason I came to Schneider and the reason I bought my Peterbilt 386. He has the same truck except green and his is all done up in chrome and special touches like pinstriping and new vinyl decals.









Another day comes to a close...



Anyone that knows me well, knows that I really like Trains. Well, I was sent to American freight car in Roanoke, VA a couple days ago and it was awesome. It is Norfolk Southerns repair facility and factory where they build new rail cars. It was loud with bells, sirens, horns and the sound of tools going off. Huge cranes were lifting up new hopper cars and moving them around the factory. I was fascinated by everything around me. I really wish I could of walked around to check things out...












An upside down hopper car frame fresh out of the paint shop...



A rainy ride of a twisty road in West Virginia, I think...






While unloading the rail parts I had picked up the day before, I was in St. Joeseph, MO at Herzog while these two choppers flew over. They sounded damn cool...



The leaves are changing in New Hampshire a couple weeks ago...




The rain stopped and the sun came out for just long enough to blind me... haha


I've come around this turn on Donner Pass 100's of times in my pickup and a lot in a big rig... Just never as fast as this...





To keep you happy until I update again, go on over to Bernies blog @ http://ihasablog.blogspot.com/ . He's back on the road running for TransX. He lives in Canada and runs down to USA and back up north. His updates are HUGE and very funny... Check it out!

Chris