May 5 – 7, 2021

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

I thought I had my day planned out really well. I was going to go do laundry, buy groceries, and then work on setting up my new replacement generator on a workbench in one of the shops here.

But one of the dispatchers came out and knocked on my van door at about 8 and asked me if I could drive the manager to the Dodge dealer to pick up a pilot car after lunch. Sure, that will only take a few minutes. No problem.

So I left as planned, did my laundry and shopping, and was back at about 2 PM.

The manager said “let’s take one of the company vans, if you don’t mind” and once we got on the road, I realized why. The Dodge dealer was over 90 minutes away! So once we got there, he paid for the repairs, and we headed back, we were facing rush hour! LOL

I grabbed supper along the way, and got back to my van at about 6 PM, so there was no time left for my project. I was organizing my van when another driver backed up close enough to my van so we could talk from “house to house” so to speak! LOL

By the time he left, it was time for me to get to bed early enough to get some extra sleep. That vacation was not exactly a relaxing one! In fact, I’m looking forward to getting back to work so I can catch up on my sleep! LOL

Thursday, May 6, 2021

I was up at 5:30, got my shower in before the office people started coming in, made breakfast,, and was at the trailer waiting for my driver by 7. Then he called me and said that the lead driver had decided not to leave until 10! This is when I love the couch in my van! The other pilot car had to just sit in his driver seat and wait.

We met up, got the trucks ready, and left at just about 10, with the other truck in front.

It is about 330 miles to this load site near Madison Wisconsin, so it took us a little over 5 hours with no stops. We can run the speed limit when we are empty like this,

even though we are still 12′ wide, 150′ long, and weigh about 100,000 lbs.

We stretched the trailers out to 15′ wide, unhooked from the trailers, and then all went to the truck stop for the night. Since no one had heard of a load time, we decided not to hurry in by the usual 5:30 time, and decided on a casual 7 AM. I cooked turkey burgers with fried onions, peppers, and cheese in my van for supper.

Friday, May 7, 2021

After some of Annalou’s awesome Keto granola for breakfast, I was back at the load site by 7, and a third truck was now with us. All the drivers went in to find out the timing, and were told there was a delay and none of the units were quite ready yet. They will let us know when. . .

The steermen for the other two trucks were both delayed on other loads, so two High Pole cars were used to get the trucks to the load site, and then released. They could do that because we all know there are no turns from the yard to that site that need to be manually steered. HOWEVER, it’s part of the steerman’s job to help his deiver load. So guess who became the steerman for all three trucks! LOL It’s a good thing I love to work!

I steered the first truck in at 9, loaded, steered him out at 10:30. Steered my own truck in at 11, loaded, and was out by 12.

I steered the third truck in at 12:30 and we were out by 1:30. We stopped for a quick lunch, and then put up the wire skids on all three trucks together. The drivers all went up on top of their loads to secure them, and I bounced between all 3, securing the front and backs of all the 3 skidder pipes. For you new folks, they simply drape over the front of the load so that low wires will hit them and be directed up over the load instead of us tearing them down.

We all were exhausted, so drove to a hotel, took showers, and walked across the street to a local restaurant for supper. The lead driver picked up the tab.

Tomorrow we leave at 7 AM, and will have 2 more steermen, 3 High Pole cars, and 2 extra line lifter cars because we are 17′ 4″ tall, and will have a lot of wires to be lifted! Let the fun begin!!

Omaha, here we come!