I've been a trucker for the last ten years but now I am back home at "Camp Chaos" and I will be working at the Fontana terminal as a safety specialist. I hope now that I'm home I'll have a lot more time for blogging!


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Wednesday March 30, 2005, 3:45 pm, I’m sitting in the jump seat, my student is at the wheel. We are driving across Tennessee. A gorgeous day… 83 degrees… everything is turning green after all the rain they’ve had back here. It’s easy to type on the laptop through Tennessee, the roads are very good. That’s more than can be said for lots of other states! I will upload this to the blog when we get to Nashville TN this evening.

We have the bible on CD, read by Alexander Scourby. We started Genesis last week and are now in Judges. My student and I are enjoying listening. It is sooo much easier than reading yourself, and I can blog while I’m listening.

Our trip to Boston was pretty uneventful, Sunday night, we dropped our load of bamboo cutting boards, picked up an empty trailer that originally we were told was to be taken somewhere to pick up a load going back to North Las Vegas NV. Well we waited all day Monday, sitting in a Target parking lot because there are no truck stops in the entire Boston area. Finally, Tuesday morning we are told to take our empty trailer to North Bergen New Jersey to get loaded.

The roads in NJ were made for horse and buggies, not semi’s, 75 feet long. My student had a grand time dodging 4-wheelers, barely missing telephone poles that for some reason they sunk in the sidewalk right at the edge, on a curve, so we have to take up the whole street just so our trailer will clear it. The 4-wheelers(cars, in case anyone is wondering what a 4-wheeler is…you call us 18 wheelers we call you 4 wheelers).

So we finally find our shipper in North Bergen. (if anyone wants to find N. Bergen on the map, just find New York, look across the water to the west, you’ll see Jersey City, Union City, West New York, North Bergen. As is usual we had two sets of directions, both of them wrong. Fortunately I’ve been there before so we got there. My student decided it would be OK with him if they never send him to NJ at all. I think he said he is going to run just the 11 western states.

We dropped our empty trailer and hooked to a full trailer loaded with 1200 cartons of ?? The bills don’t say what’s inside… just 1200 ctn. We could be hauling anything. It is going to TJ Maxx/Marshalls so I don’t think we have anything unusual, probably cartons of French perfumes or underwear. The load weighs 27000 lbs, a perfect load. Heavy enough so the wind doesn’t bother us, light enough so the weigh stations ignore us. In fact we have a little gizmo, a little black box, glued to our windshield called a transponder. They weigh us at highway speed our little transponder sends who we are and the computer checks us to see if we are wanted felons and if everything checks out they give us a green light and we go flying by… best thing ever invented! Its called Pre-Pass, almost all the states have it now… we love it.

That’s all for now, I’m going to do a blog on what truck drivers eat…next blog

________________________________________

What Truck Drivers Eat:

Too much!

Almost all the truck stop restaurants have buffets. They are great because not only do they have a good variety, a person can get a great meal and not have to wait for it to be cooked. That’s important when we have to be on the road in half an hour. Only problem with buffets… even though I don’t eat buffets everyday or even every other day, usually maybe twice a week I’ll do buffet. You get fat on buffets!!! I’m over 170 lbs now after starting out around 140 lbs 10 years ago. All because of buffets!!

So I decided to do something else. I would start cooking my own meals. Right in the truck.

I have a stove and a griddle, they run on little propane bottles, a 12 volt crock pot, a 12 volt cooler, and I take advantage of the fact that all truck stops have microwaves available to drivers.

So, take yesterday for example:

I bought a package of cut up chicken thighs from a Wal-Mart Supercenter

About 4:00 pm I put the chicken in the pot. I dusted the thighs with a package of dry Hidden Valley Dressing and seasoning mix and plugged the crock pot into the cigarette lighter.

At about 6:00 we stopped at a truck stop for dinner. I set up the little propane stove carefully on my bed, it comes in its own carrier so it is safe to set on any surface, opened a window to let in oxygen, and cut up an onion. Chopped it into little pieces. Then with a little olive oil in the frying pan I sautéed the onion. When the onion was tender I cut up two zucchini’s, also from Wal-Mart (88 cents a lb!) and added them to the onions. I poured a half cup of water on the mix and put the lid on and let it simmer for awhile. Oh I forgot to mention, I also dumped a little garlic powder into the mix.

Just as the zucchini was getting tender, though still a little crunchy, I drained off the excess water, then I sprinkled shredded jack and Colby cheese over the whole thing to melt.

It was a perfect dinner, chicken and zucchini. Better than any buffet and low carb!

I enjoy cooking for my students. I want them to know there are alternatives to greasy truck stop food.

Sometimes I’ll make cheese burgers on my propane griddle. I make pancakes too. That’s after cooking a few sausage patties and three eggs, over easy.

I eat good… maybe it’s the cab cooking that is why I’m gaining some weight. I don’t know.

I bought a jump rope. That sounded like a good way to get some exercise. Only problem, can you imagine me standing in front of my truck with 100 other drivers watching me, jumping rope? I’ve had the jump rope for a year now and I’ve jumped rope twice with it. So that’s not working.

A couple of weeks ago my wife, Brenda, and I were at South Coast Plaza and I saw the perfect solution to my lack of exercise. Sharper Image had a stair stepper that was only about 8 inches square. Perfect for the truck. I will have to get it!

That’s all for now,
Tom
posted by Tom at 4:09 PM

 


Who is BJ?

I noticed a few of you commented; “who is B J” when you saw the 1st graders drawings and thank-you notes.  My daughter-in-law answered the question in her comment but I’m not sure everybody saw that and besides there is a story behind “B J”.

There is a national association called the “Trucker Buddy Assoc”. (I think that is what it is called) See truckerbuddy.org. Their whole objective is to match willing truck drivers with elementary school teachers who want a truck driver to bring their truck to the school and show the kids.  Believe it or not there are many more teachers waiting for a truck driver to come to their school than there are willing truck drivers!  Usually a truck driver does this for the benefit of his kid or grandkid, but there are also drivers who love kids but don’t have any of their own so they are willing to go to schools etc… hence the “Trucker Buddy” program. 

My company,  Werner Enterprises, supports this program.  They sent a “Trucker Buddy” package to my granddaughter’s class.  It included a “Trucker Buddy” coffee mug,  a calendar, yoyo’s shaped like dual truck tires, and a T shirt for the teacher.  My daughter made up a bunch of “Tom Trucker” buttons (she can make you buttons, T shirts anything you want… check out my store and you can see for yourself).

Usually when a driver takes his truck to a school, he brings along a mascot.  My wife and daughter-in-law picked out this huge teddy bear.  We didn’t know what to name him so we asked the kids to name him.  There were lots of suggestions but “Billy” got most of the votes, then one kid said he wanted  to name the bear “Jack”… again we held a vote.  Jack received the same number of votes as Billy.  The teacher wisely suggested we call him “B J” for short.  Everyone was happy, so “B J” it is. 

I’m sure you can imagine my crowded truck… all my stuff… all my students stuff… stuffed into the cab of a truck.  True my truck is what they call a “Condo”;  Freightliner’s idea of a spacious ‘All-in-one-Motor Home-Freight-Hauling’ big rig.  Add ‘B J” and we are truly an "Overstuffed-Student-Behind-the-Wheel-Truck-Driving-Condo!”  

Last weekend I was out in my yard working on getting the ground ready to plant some tomatoes when my wife said ‘B J’ needs to get out of the truck too. Thus the pictures of ‘B J’ helping with the yardwork!

We are in Albuquerque, New Mexico… still have load of bamboo cutting boards going to Boston, MASS

post post:

Just an update regarding the blog about bamboo cutting boards... thanks Marilyn for your great comment!  I really appreciate comments. I'm not sure Marshalls are in California... I'll try to find out.  I will get to reading your blogs as soon as I can. 

Check out Totally Bamboo's website:   totallybamboo.com. 

I'm in Wytheville, VA  pronounced 'With-vul'... its Sunday morning, I've got to get on the road
 
Thanks everyone.. you are making this blogging thing a lot of fun!  :)
posted by Tom at 8:21 PM

 
When you pick up a product from the shelf at your local market or dept store, I wonder if people ever stop to think what it took to get that product from a raw material to something useful and then transported to the shelf for someone to buy.

This is a story about a bamboo cutting board. It just happens I’m carrying a load of bamboo cutting boards, bamboo bowls, and bamboo serving utensils to a Marshalls Dept store distribution center in a suburb of Boston, MASS.

We picked up this load in North Hollywood California. I asked the lady what we were carrying. She handed me a catalog. Totally Bamboo is the name of the company. This is their story from the back of the catalog:

In a nook in ‘NoHo’ Arts district of North Hollywood, CA, Tom and Joanne Sullivan own and operate a small design and manufacturing studio, focusing on luxury customized director chairs for the movie industry. In their quest for a lighter chair, they experimented with bamboo, long known for its strength vs. weight ratio. The resulting chair was not only lighter but much stronger than the oak they had previously used. Intrigued with using such a renewable ecologically friendly material they set out to design various houseware products using their “engineered bamboo” and in doing so developed the world’s first bamboo cutting board.

Bamboo, they discovered, is 16% harder than maple, making it perfect for a cutting surface. From cutting boards to salad bowls and plates they plan to change the way the world uses bamboo, as a viable alternative to our precious hardwood trees.

The bamboo used for these products is ‘Moso’ timber bamboo. It is not a food source, or a habitat for the Giant Panda.

I found this story fascinating… we have used bamboo rice paddles since I can remember.

Tom and Joanne Sullivan found a manufacturing plant in China and now they import the finished product to their business in North Hollywood. At first they took their new products to swap meets and craft shows where they sold very well. Then they attended a wholesale show in Chicago where the big orders started coming in. Marshalls and T J Maxx “MarMaxx” are just one of their regular buyers.

So next time you’re in a dept store and see some bamboo cutting boards and utensils you know where they came from.

Also… I never know from one day to the next what I’ll be carrying in my trailer. Keeps this job interesting.

Right now I have a student with me. Roland is a recent graduate from a truck driving school in Tampa Florida. Roland is 48 years old and finding that driving a 10 speed semi is not as easy as it looks. Of course my truck has what is called a ‘Super 10’ transmission and even though it is an easy transmission to shift, it always gives my students fits the first week or so. A ‘Super 10’ transmission is just a glorified 5 speed transmission like you would find in any car or pickup except each gear has a ‘high’ and a ‘low’ setting. Normally we start out in 3rd gear (1st and 2nd are granny low gears) which is straight up like 1st gear would be in a stick shift. 3rd gear is the ‘low’ setting for this position. Flip the switch (we call it the splitter) to ‘high’ setting, let off the throttle and the transmission shifts to 4th gear. Flip the switch again to ‘low’ setting, double clutch, and shift lever down to what would be 2nd gear in a stick shift. You are now in 5th gear. Again flip switch to ‘high’ setting, let off throttle and transmission shifts to 6th gear. Repeat procedure for the 3rd stick shift position and you have 7th and 8th gears. Double clutch and move shift lever to 4th stick shift position and you have 9th and 10th gears. Sounds easy, well maybe I have totally confused you… oh well it is easy… once you have learned it. Some students have it all figured out in a day or so. I had one student on the truck for 6 weeks and he never figured it out! He insisted my transmission was broke! It works fine for me.

We are arriving in Barstow CA so I am going to upload this to the blog. We have to be in Boston MA by Monday March 28th
posted by Tom at 3:18 PM

 
Surprise!! I finally have a wireless modem for my laptop. Now I don't have any excuse for not updating my blog on a regular basis... hopefully ... maybe ... 'daily'? ... we will see.

Ha! I'm online!

I'm in West Memphis Arkansas, we just got our wireless modem working and sent our first picture to my students wife. Thanks to my daughter, everything worked good. We are on our way to North Carolina and then back to Las Vegas NV by next tuesday.

Here is my last blog from a week ago:


A beautiful day in Laredo Texas… 74 degrees… blue skies, March 9, 2005. There are a few reasons I really like Laredo in March. Mostly its because I remember Laredo in July… 95 degrees at midnight, 115 degrees the rest of the time. Today they tell me I have a load to Southern California.. Home.. I Like that. It seems I can always get a load to So Cal. That is more than I can say for a lot of the rest of the country.

This morning though, wasn’t destined to be referred to as a ‘good’ morning. I brought this load of metal castings here to be transferred to a Mexican driver who will take the load to some metal plant in Mexico. My company employs a broker to expedite the transfer process so I take my trailer to InterAmerican, a big warehouse with lots of docks along one wall.

The man in the guard shack asks me to open the trailer door so I open the right door and start to open the other door. “NO NO.. just one door” he growls at me, “now take this trailer and put it in dock #27.” (it seems strange to me to put a trailer in a dock with only one door open but whatever the man wants).

I drive down to the other end of the dock area and begin looking for dock #27. There are no numbers visible anywhere so I ask another driver whose truck and trailer are already in a dock. He says he didn’t know either and had to ask. They told him he is in #25 so I figure two docks down will be my dock. Before I can back into the dock a man pulls up in what we call a ‘Donkey’ (a small tractor used to move trailers around the yard). He yells at me to put my trailer in between two other trailers at the other end of the yard. As I start to move he yells at me again and gets out of his truck and walks toward the end of my trailer.

I stop and get out to see what he wants. He looks at me like I’m stupid and says “You have to open the other door!” I tell him the guard told me to only open one door. “No, you have to open both doors” OK.. make up your mind I mutter under my breath.

So I put my trailer in a dock which ends up being four docks from the end of the other end of the building. Still no numbers anywhere… I walk back to the Receiving office to turn in my paperwork and the first thing the clerk asks me is “What dock did you put your trailer in?” I tell him I have no idea what the number is, I just put the trailer where the ‘Donkey’ driver said to put it. So the clerk instructs a fork lift driver to drive his fork lift out to see where I put my trailer. He glares at me like I’m really wasting his time and he drives out and comes back to announce that my trailer is in dock #6. Obviously they use a numbering system way beyond my comprehension level. Maybe the heat does something to your brain.. I don’t know.

What I do know is I’m heading west now and I guess that’s enough to be thankful for being sent to Laredo Texas.
posted by Tom at 5:39 PM

 
Here are some note's Amber's first grade class sent to Dad at Christmas. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to upload them. I tried to type the notes exactly as they were written but some parts were a bit tricky to read. Enjoy!


Tom haf a ho-ho merry christmas. Tooting the horn.
Alec


Dear Tom, win are you cumen to my house? I wus happy wen you cam to my clrasrom.
Amber


Dear Tom, Thank you for coming to my school and showing our class your 18 wheeler truck. I really liked tooting the truck horn! Thank you, Merry Christmas!
Alissa


Dear Mr. Tom: Have a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you for coming to our clss room.
Love, Alice


Dear Tom: Merry Christmas and Happy Now Year. I like BJ. Thank you for coming Tom. I like going in the18 wheeler Tom.


Dear grandpa Tom. How are you doing and how is BJ? Have a merry Christmas. Are you going to decorating your truck? It was fun time meding you. How was the trip to choclit or (can't read this part) Thank you for coming to our classroom.
Love, Aaron.


Dear Mr. Tom. Thank you for coming. Thanks for letting us in the truck. Have a merry christmas.
From Jimmy


How are you? Thank you for coming. I like the truck. I really liked going in the back. Merry Christmas!
Love, Bryant


Dear Grandpa Tom, thank you for coming to our class room.
From Natasha


War are you goweing? Are you going to have a merry Chrismas? Tom I like tooting the horn. Thank you for coming. From Thorne


Dear Grandpoo Tom, How is it going? i loved the 18 wheeler. How is B.J.? woot doos the hrtse fatry u.s. Merry Christmis!!!


Dear Grandpa Tom. Thank you for coming. I like the truck.
Kayla


Happy New Year Uncle Tom. Than you. I liked going in the front of the truck.
From Bailey.


Happy New Year. Thank you for coming to are clasrom. and leding us see the 18 wilr.


Dear grandpa Tom, thank you for coming. I hope you have a merr Christmas.


Dear Merry Christmas Happy Now Year. Thank you for letting us sit in the drivers seat. Thank you Grandpa Tom and B.J. for coming. Thank you.


Dear tom. thank you for showing us bj. it was fun and have a merry christmas. I wish you can come agen.
Love. Stephanie.


How are you? I'm good. We'v been very exsided for the post cared. thanks for coming to our clasroom.
from christopher.


Thank you for sending us The post card. it is awesome!!!!!!!!! Have a meery christmas.
from michael.
posted by SAJ at 7:25 PM