New photos

I'm going to just get down to the good stuff right away this time...


Here I am blocking a busy road in Laurium, Michigan for over an hour while I was getting some Coors beer unloaded.




Texas has these damn Lovebugs flying around right now... My truck has been destroyed by these stupid bugs... They don't come off very easy either...



Last week I had a whole bunch of things installed on my truck including the CAT Messenger Computer on the dash (below the guages). It shows a variety of engine read outs including fuel mileage... I really like it.




Parked next to one of the original Schneider Trucks.



Sitting for the day at my friend Curtis's house in Albany, OR. In my opinion Gordon has the best looking company trucks in the country. When I drove for Gordon and I was on the Target fleet, I was at his house parked just like this every other day... I miss those days.




I don't EVER stop in rest area's. I don't like them and they don't have a place to eat and normally the restrooms are pretty nasty, not to mention the creeps that hang around them too. Well, theres this one rest area that we stopped at when my mom and I were traveling across the country in our RV about 12 years ago that I stop at each and every time I travel across I-70 eastbound in Utah. If you were following my blog when I drove for gordon, you will remember me posting photos of this place back then. Well, I was lucky enough to run through there a couple weeks ago and I had to stop. It's one of the most beautiful rest area's in the country. It overlooks a huge valley and you can walk right up to the hundred foot cliff and look over the ledge. I was there around sunset and it was awesome. Check these photos out.

























Lake Shasta looks a bit low this year...




Need a Container Trailer? The Port of Long Beach has just a couple for you...




This reminds me of my Chip Truck hauling days... I wonder what was inside that Schneider trailer that is being dumped out???



Traveling along I-70 Eastbound in Utah.




Parked at Curtis's house in Albany, OR.



-Chris

I need some idea's...

What would you like to see more of on my blog? I'm currently working on taking photos of my loads although sometimes the trailer is already loaded and sealed so I can't open the door to snap a shot and other times I'm not allowed to take a photo of it on a customers property. I think it would be interesting to take requests from you guys, the readers. Do you have any questions for me? Any photos you want more of? Anything? I'm in need of some new idea's because the same old photos of me going down the road is getting a bit old for me and probably you as well... So send me an email: truckerchris@gmail.com or leave a comment here.



The I-10 Corridor is awesome. I really enjoy driving in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on 10. Usually besides the bigger cites theres hardly anyone out there except for trucks and it's not one big race. You can actually hang out in the right lane for awhile before having to pass somebody... I like that.




I haven't had a white knuckle ride like last night for a loooooong time. I was about 50 miles east of El Paso, TX last night and I could see a big storm in the distance lighting up the sky with lightning bolts. It looked to be a bit to the north of El Paso and I was hoping I could beat it since I'm running real light and didn't want to have to fight the wind. Well, I made it to El Paso just as soon as the sun was going down and I realized the storm was right in the middle of the interstate between Las Cruces, NM and El Paso, TX. The section is notorious for having strong winds during perfect weather and now I was going to head into it at night in a thunderstorm! Just as I had thought I hit it and I hit it HARD! The wind started first from a couple gusts that moved me around a little bit. Now understand this. I'm Driving in a 80 foot long sailboat. When a gust of wind hits me I have to fight it hard by steering into it. Then comes the rain and then more rain and then a monsoon. The Billboards along the road with the bright lights and the car going east with their lights on (DON'T DRIVE WITH YOUR HIGH BEAMS ON PEOPLE!!!!!!) made it near impossible to see with the windshield wipers that wouldn't keep up. Right now I'm hauling a load of Whirlpool fridges and I must not have very many of them as I'm really light. I haven't ever thought about pulling off the road because of a storm but this one I sure did. But what was I supposed to do? Pull over and get hit from a car or truck behind me? Pull over and get blown over because of the wind? I had no choice other than to keep going. Well, I eventually made it out and just as quick as it started it was behind me. Thank god. The lightning show in my rearview mirrors were awesome. I continued down the road, turned up the music and opened an ice cold soda. This is trucking, and I love it.



A smaller cloud opening up in Texas.



Running on two lane roads through the back country is one of my favorite things to do. I'm really into those abandoned buildings that scatter the roads from times when the road was the main route across the country. Now, the interstates have come along and wiped these places out. I like reading the graffiti, looking through what people have left and just wondering what it was like when these places were bustling with people. Here I am parked along US90 in Texas, real close to the Mexico Border.



A buzzard circling above me while on the side of the road. It was 110 outside, maybe he was waiting for me to pass out from the heat?





A border control lock on a gate in the middle of nowhere.





Along U90 and other United States/Mexico border roads theres a fire road that runs along side the road. It's usually perfectly smooth as the border patrol grades and smooths it out constantly. I found out it's so smooth because when they come and inspect it daily the are looking for footprints!




Trucks and Trains, my two favorite things.

It's time to go home...

Yeah, I'm missing home right now and I couldn't be in a worse place. I'm in Mount Pocono, PA just about as far east as you can get from Sacramento... I think it's the fact that it's 49 degrees outside and I actually had to turn my bunk heater on for a little bit. It's August, what's up with this rainy and cold weather?

Anyways, I ended up taking a reset here at a motel in Mt. Pocono. The hotel was pretty run down but it turned out to be real nice staying there. I ended up meeting some people who are renting a room out for awhile at the motel and spent saturday night hanging out with them on the patio while consuming some adult beverages...haha. It was nice to get out of the truck and actually talk to some people. The hotel was built in the early 50's and the current owners are trying to fix it up but it's in a great location. Theres about 20 rooms and over 50 acres of nice green grass looking over above the trees. Their porch overlooked New Jersey in the distance. It was a nice night and it was warm, at about 75 degrees. When I woke up the next morning it was nasty and rainy but it was interesting sitting outside watching the clouds roll in and the lightning and thunder in the distance....


The Costco DC in Morris, IL gives you this transponder that goes off when they are done unloading you. It's exactly like what they give you when you go to a restruant back at home... Pretty cool.



A Tunnel on I-77 (I think)



This is exactly where I'm parked right now except now it's pouring down rain...




The Ameristar casino in Kansas City, MO... It's right around the corner from the SNI yard. It's HUGE inside and reminds me of Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas.




Backed up inside a building and getting loaded near Chicago, IL. I almost took my mirror off on the building... doh




Picking up an empty trailer at the Nissan Factory in Mississippi.




Another Nissan photo



Lookin' good in Kansas



Ever seen the Show on CMT called "Trick My truck"? This is where it used to be filmed at. The Home of the Chrome Shop Mafia but too bad they were closed... I was sad.




The "Mob Sled" displayed as their sign right across from the Joplin Petro in Joplin, MO exit 4 off of I-44




A Wrecked and a Burned down Schneider company trucks at the Dallas, TX Terminal.

Photo blow out!!!

Well, for some reason over the last few months I haven't been taking any photos. That all seemed to change yesterday as I shot over 150 of them!!! So after editing them and picking the ones I liked best, I'm now going to post my fav's below... Let me know what you think!. By the way, I will take more interior shots in the future after I have the inside all done. It's cluttered right now because I don't have my fridge put in yet (It will go in next time I'm home) and I'm using an old coleman cooler that sits on the floor taking up valuable floorspace...


This is my dash. 12 Guages (more will be added in the future!) and 16 switches... You can never have too many!




Rockwood stuff is great...



The blue thing is the prepass (weigh station bypass) and ezpass (toll road transponder). Theres a clock/date/temp computer on top of the dash, XM radio below that, rockwood cell phone holder, and Garmin GPS...



The best part of all is my RCI 2950. I traded my Cobra 200 to a friend for this... I love it!




I had these hub/lug nut covers on the gordon truck...




100,000 miles in 1 month? I'm getting the miles that's for sure!!! haha



This is my bedroom. The upper bunk folds up halfway to create a shelf, theres my flat screen tv, I'm going to get a microwave for the top shelf and an inverter soon. Those are little storage holes around the roofline above the bunk... Can't figure out what to put up there yet... Under the TV theres 6 pull out trays and containers... Theres a HUGE empty spot under the bed where I'm going to be putting two 12" subwoofers in the future... I can't wait!



These are my sleeper controls. Theres a built in alarm clock that is worthless, APU Thermostat controls, a switch to turn my non existent fridge on and off and AC controls which are pretty much useless because of the APU... haha




My truckers!!!!



Coming down Cabbage in Oregon.




Still going down...




Yup, still going down.....





That's a walmart truck coming down the hill behind me...




That's a Coca Cola trucking heading east up the mountain... He must of been empty as he was hauling A$$!!!




Coming down Snoqualmie in Washington, east of Seattle.





Theres a real nice Ford GT150 heading down the hill next to me... That car costs more than my truck!




All those white dots are trucks winding their way up the mountain on I90 through Washington.




Chris

7/19/08

Just a few clarifications for those of you who left comments. For those of you who don't leave any feedback, please do! I like reading your thoughts, good and bad.

1. I am LEASING my truck to Schneider, not leasing from Schneider. It's an open contract. I can take my truck and lease it on to another company any time I feel like it and same goes for schneider. They can terminate my lease whenever they please.

2. The reason why I chose Schneider was because of a friend of mine who is around my age and also has been contracted to SNI for the past few years. He's in the same financial situations that I am in and he's doing really good. I don't own a house, I don't have kids, I don't have a car payment and I live at home. My only expenses besides truck related bills are a cell phone bill, food costs, a small dirt bike payment and that's it. I have enough money saved up to make truck payments for quite sometime if something doesn't work out right.

3. I am using SNI as a stepping stone into the O/O side of trucking. I want to eventually in a couple years find a specialized carrier of some sort to run for and make more money. I realize that SNI doesn't pay the best compared too other carriers but their fuel surcharge works for me. The people I've dealt with so far have been nicer than anyone in the trucking industry that I've ever spoken too and it's great to have not one, but three awesome dispatchers. I don't ever really have to call them up, but when I do I'm greeted real nice and they ask how I'm doing and basically "What's up?". That is definently a change from others I've had in the past where I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle them.

4. I appreciate everyone's comments about my decision to become and O/O and lease to SNI, but if you want to be rude all I ask is that you email me instead of posting under anonymous and hiding behind the screen like those CB rambo's on the road. I do have family that reads this blog and would expect the comments to be clean. You don't need to agree with me with everything I say, but please don't swear. Thanks.



This was taken earlier today while running north on 491 around the New Mexico / Colorado border.



Another one from the same area



Yup, another one...



Heres one of those tiny Mercedes Hybrid? Car behind a fuel guzzling motorhome... Yup, he's blocking the fuel island...




Picture this... A young guy and girl around 18 or so are driving in this beat up 4 wheel drive. The doors are cut low like those jeep rock crawlers have them and they teens look a bit hickish. The girl is spitting her chew out the side of the truck every 10 seconds and she spits one time and it goes all over the trucks door. She looks down at it and then starts laughing and does it again. That's about as redneck
as you can get for Auburn, Washington!



Chris

I moved on...

It's been almost a month since my last post and I've been up to a whole lot! For starters, I cleaned out my CFI truck 2 weeks ago in West Memphis, AR. CFI just didn't work out for me. I'm not going to bad mouth because I have spoken to quite a few current cfi drivers who are getting great miles and have no complaints but for me it wasn't so. I never hit it off with my driver manager and that was probably the biggest reason for me turning the truck in. I'm happy I drove for CFI and I don't regret it but it a shame it didn't work out.

Anyways, I have some HUUUUUUUUUUGE news. Many of you already know, but for those of you who don't....

I'm now driving for Schneider National. Yes, I am pulling an orange trailer behind me and I'm still running 48 states but theres a bit more to the story. I decided that after driving for GTI and CFI, that being told what to do and how to do and not having any control over anything was not for me. When you're a company driver, all you do is drive the truck and draw lines in your logbook. Usually you don't have any control of where you're going and how many miles you are getting weekly.

I made the jump that every single trucker has thought about and while many have done what I did, many have not. I am now an Owner Operator who is leasing my services (and truck) to Schneider National based out of Green Bay, WI. Schneider is the biggest Company in the United states with over 14,000 trucks and 40,000+ trailers. No matter where I am, whether it be a walmart Distribution center or a super small shipper, theres a bunch of orange Schneider trailers sitting there. That means they have one of the largest freight bases in all of trucking. More Customers = More Freight = Less sitting = Me being happy!!!

I purchased a 2007 Peterbilt 386 with 90,128 miles. Not a lot by truck standards as you can generally average 120,000+ miles each year. It's very clean and practically brand new inside. It's powered by a 475hp / 1650ft lbs tq Caterpillar engine mated to a Eaton 13spd transmission with 3.36 gears and 22.5LP tires. This truck SCREAMS!!! Although to run smart is to run slow. The faster I drive the more money I blow out my exhaust stack (wasted fuel). Anyways, there will be more talk later, but here's what everyone has been waiting for, the PHOTO'S!!!!!






This photo show's the color a lot better. It's called "Radiant Red" which is a Dark Red Metallic.



All the white lettering will be coming off and replaced with new different colored decals...



This is the best part of the whole truck. When you idle the engine for heating/AC/Power you waste a Gallon of fuel an hour. Since fuel prices are so high many people are specing their new trucks and adding these things to their older ones. It's an "APU" Auxiliary Power Unit which provides, heating, cooling and power at as little as 1/10th of a gallon an hour which is a savings of almost 50 bucks a night (10 hours). It runs off the trucks fuel tanks and coolant. It heats the coolant in the engine to make for nice starts of cold weather nights. It also has a thermostat controller in the sleeper that you can set the temp to your liking.



Sitting next to the river (photo below) off of US90 in Texas.







Coming into Moab, UT.




All alone heading into a Storm in New Mexico



Another late afternoon Summertime thunderstorm in the Mountains above Salt Lake City yesterday.



Time for bed, I have to get up at 2am to make my delivery in Auburn, WA by 7am. Since last saturday (8 days) I have ran 5196 miles... I'm really impressed with Schneider. They like to keep you running!!! I'm happy.

Chris

Update...

Yeah, sorry about the lack of updates. I haven't taken ONE photo since last time I updated the blog, but that's all about to change.... in a couple weeks. BIG, BIG, BIIIIIG news coming in the next couple weeks and I'm really excited about what I have in the works. I'm not going to say anything until I know for sure, but in the mean time, check out this short trucking video.