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

New Video...

Well, I just installed a copy of Adobe Premiere CS3 on my laptop. I noticed earlier that my Video camera stopped working for some reason so I did some research and ordered a new Canon HD camera. Next time I go home I will pick it up and start making some videos for all of you... Until then, I got antsy and just wanted to make something, so I threw together this photo slideshow. Some of the photos you have seen, others you have not. Take a look and let me know!

Sitting in Slohio... get it.... SLOW + OHIO = SLOHIO... haha

This is where I unloaded this afternoon... Another heavy paper load for Green Bay Packaging (located in Ohio, not Wisconsin)



This is called a Dock Lock. It locks the truck/trailer to the customers building. It's meant to keep a truck from pulling away with a forklift in it. It's damn annoying when they forget to unlock you and you try to leave...grrr




I was up in Green Bay... again. That was the 3rd time in two weeks for warranty work for my truck... I once again after a week of sweating it out I now have Air Conditioning!!!! I'm stoked. Anyways, I was driving around Green bay, I went to the Packers stadium (BORING!!!) Yeah, I'm not really into sports... but I came across the Wisconsin Railroad Museum and had to stop. It was great. It's nothing compared to the Sacramento Railroad museum but it still had a ton of locomotives and cars that you could go in. In Sac, you can go in a couple but for the most part you just look in the windows. Not so at this place, you could walk through them, on them and under them. It was great.








This SNI trailer on a rail car is what made me notice this place. Even if the museum wasn't good, all I really wanted to see was this. I was surprised after seeing this how big of a place this was.








Schneider donated this trailer... It's a bit weird how a donated trailer has better tires than then trailer I'm pulling around now...




Out back they had a tower that rose above the trees. In the distance I spotted the Packer stadium...




Theres my truck!




Check out how big the "BIG BOY" Steam locomotive is compared to the guy down below. This thing was HUGE! I bet it was just awesome to be inside while rolling down the rails. I've said it before, if I wasn't a steering wheel holder, I'd be sitting in a train...




I wonder what that knob does...




They also had a really nice HO layout...




It rained the whole weekend in Green Bay so there were a lot of mud puddles in the yard... This driver who's hooking up to a trailer didn't want to get the interior of his truck dirt so he put his feet in plastic bags... hahahahahahaha




See Ya
Chris

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