Flatbed Variety

Picked up a load of drywall in north Texas today. I didn't take a picture of the load, but I did sneak a couple of shots of the well I had to back into, one of the tightest places to get into that I've encountered. Is this the place you were thinking of, Old School?

That's it Bud! The very place. I had it in my mind that it was Southern Oklahoma just above the border, but I'm sure that is it. Brings back some really good memories of backing into those loading bays. Whoever thinks those flat-bedders don't have to do some challenging backs have never been to some of the places we go to. Gotta love those sheetrock plants!

That's in Acme, Texas. Acme doesn't really exist any more, just the drywall plant and some abandoned buildings. One of the guys who works there said the town dried up when they built the bypass there

Today we picked up a load of alfalfa hay in Kansas for delivery in South Carolina tomorrow. My trainee got some action shots while I was on the load spreading out the tarps - nothing as exciting as Old School tarping in the snow, though. This is a very high center of gravity load so we're taking it easy on corners and ramps!

Nice !!! Glad to see they had a spot indoors for you to work.

Hey Bud, I'll bet your tarps smell like hay for at least a week after that!

Nothing wrong with that, hay and manure piles always smelled like money to me!

This is a fairly typical "back haul" load for me. I picked this up at the SAPA plant in Cressona, Pennsylvania this week after making my usual "gravy" run from Delhi, Louisiana to Farmington, Connecticut. This dedicated job is keeping me consistently at or above 3,000 miles on a steady weekly basis. It takes some of the fun and adventure out of the job, but not completely, and it puts into it some consistency which most over the road jobs don't always have built into them.

Small load for today, only 55k on the deck

Delivered these air conditioners today to Wisconsin from Texas.

Steel tube from Chicago to North Carolina. Waiting for our next load, hoping for some Caterpillar parts to somewhere way west of here.

Steel tube from Chicago to North Carolina. Waiting for our next load, hoping for some Caterpillar parts to somewhere way west of here.

Yeah, come play in the snow!

Yeah, come play in the snow!

Just got a load to Brooklyn. First load I've ever declined. My dispatcher isn't very happy with me right now. He talked about the snow out west as a reason to take it. It'll be melted by the time we get there. I'd rather sit a day than go to NYC.

And just a little update on the money as a lease op. Right now I'm making slightly less than I would have as a company driver, year to date. A lot of that is because I don't run Northeast, or should I say certain parts of the Northeast (like NYC). But to me, being able to turn down a load as a lease op is worth making less money than the stress of forced dispatch to NYC. I'll take snow in Wyoming over NYC any day of the week. My hat is off to all you drivers who run that area! Someone needs to do it, just not me.