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6-9-17 Friday: Last night we stayed at nice Pilot in Wildwood FL. I had no signal there, so I couldn't get on line. We started today at 05:00. We got to our delivery in Tampa about 07:00, we just bumped tje dock at 09:45. This load was due yesterday at 08:00. Due to being overweight at the shipper , we lost a day of driving. When I went on duty this morning I had just over 10 hours left on my 70. We are running recaps and hoping we won't have to take a 34. As of today, I have 4000 miles left to drive on my training miles. I should finish those miles by the end of this comimg week. We are hoping to get back to Joplin on the 21st, so I can upgrade. We'll see what kind of load we get today.

6-11-17 Sunday: Friday, late afternoon we got our next load. Deadhead to Miami for a drop/hook and take it to Illinois for delivery Tuesday at 16:00. Since we had to drop/hook at 21:00 we had to leave quickly and my 10 hour break ended at 17:00. My trainer had to start the trip. When my 10 finished we pulled over and switched, so I could drive the rest of the way. We got there and did our drop/hook in a little rain. We got to the truck stop we were going to sleep at and shut down a little after midnight. To get a jump on the trip so we could do our 34, we left at 06:00. My trainer drove the first few hours while I slept in the passenger seat. After 10:00 my 10 hour break was complete and we pulled over, switched and I drove the rest of the way to our next truck stop to sleep. That was on the other side of Atlanta. While going around Atl, the Atlanta ATV gang invaded the interstate and slowed traffic to a crawl. There must have been over 100 of them on ATVs and dirt bikes. They were zig zagging between vehicles and doing wheelies down the road. Today we started as as my 10 hour break ended just after 06:00. We stopped at a Walmart in Kentucky, to get some supplies and take our 30. Now we are shut down at a Pilot in Troy Illinois. That's about all for now.

Fantastic blog; please keep it coming. I love hearing about how you're managing your miles and clock during training. Regarding the ATVs, that's nerve racking as a car driver, I can't imagine (yet) what's it like in a semi.

6-13-17 Tuesday: Quick update. We are at our delivery and have a preplan to pick up down the street from this reciever. It's 16:21 and our pickup is scheduled for 19:30. We can call them to see if they can take us early. The next one goes from here in Illinois to West Columbia SC. The 34 hour reset was kind of boreing. I did relax. If I had money I could have gone to eat at a restaurant or two. Maybe next time. I get paid on the 16th and that will pay bills first. The check after that won't be as good because of our 34. That's trucking. That's about all for now.

6-15-17 Thursday: Drove my first overnight on that last load. Then we started out 19:00 yesterday to deliver at 00:01. We were able to get there early as it was a D/H at a DC. Then we had to dead head 71 miles to our next pick up in Hartsville SC. Pick up time 04:00. We got here 02:30 and bumbed the dock at 06:01. We'll get detention pay on this. This load is due in Allentown PA at 16:00 tomorrow. I don't think we can make it. My 14 hour clock for today is running low. We may have to spend the night here, at the shipper. The milage pay on my first full check will be just over $1000.00. We have a two week pay cycle. There is some other pay in addition to that, stop and Notheast pay. Adds a few dollars to that. That's about all for now.

6-15-17 Thursday: Part 2: So, my 14 hour clock ran out while waiting for them to finish loading us. My trainer had a couple of hours left on his clock so he got us to a J. If I was solo, I would have had to drive across the street to where they allowed parking and taken my 10 hour break there. We were able to get here and shower. Now I've filled my belly and I'm ready sleep. However, I have to do some trip planning. Then I'll go to sleep. Oh and it's 13:20. Another night of driving is in front of me. I don't know if I mentioned here yet, we got a message that we are highlighted back to Joplin, so I can upgrade. That's about all for now.

6-16-17 Friday: Today I drove from SC to PA. We got to our final with less than one hour on my 11 hour clock. We got a pre plan to deadhead to a drop/hook about 80 miles away. My trainer had to drive that since I was out of hours. The trailer we picked up had lights not working. We got to the J where we had reserved a spot and called for road service. Someone is here now working on it. My trainer wentto take his shower and I'm going to bed. We have to hit the road early to get this to Joplin by Sunday. For anyone who forgot, Joplin is the HQ for CFI. I will have my upgrade test on Monday. Woo Hoooo. That's about all for now. Good night.

6-18-17 Sunday: We'll be hitting the road at 05:00. We'll be in cental time somtime today. We should get to Joplin between 16:00 and 17:00. A little over 500 miles left to drive. I have right around 8,000 miles at this point. I have my upgrade test scheduled for tomorrow. There's a written test, road test, pretrip inspection, obstacle course and backing. Tonight, we'll sleep in a hotel. If I get hives, I'll know it's something in the hotel. I'll be going home on the dog to pick up my actual CDL. I only have my permit on me now. We didn't have time to stop in NC and pick it up. I'll be home for a couple of days. That's about all for now.

6-19-17 Monday: Got to Joplin about 15:00 Central time. Dropped the trailer, parked the bobtail , grabbed some things and waited for the shuttle to the hotel. I treated myself to a nice dinner at the Chicago Pizza place attached to the hotel. It was good and way to much money. Today is my upgrade test. Wish me luck. That's about all for now.

Good luck, Big Scott. Hopefully that nice dinner took your mind off things... wait a minute... how are you in Joplin at 1500 hrs (Central) today, Monday, when I'm reading this at 1008 hours (Eastern) Monday morning? Did you mean you arrived yesterday?