New Past-time

All winter long, my friends in the curling league kept bugging me that I needed something to do in the summer leisure hours. Of course to them that meant golf. My thoughts were that golf was just about on par as watching 'paint dry'. It is just something that had never interested me in my whole life.

Along came spring and those glorious days of early summer. James convinced me that I should at least take 'a walk-a-bout' of the golf course and give it a whirl. After a lot of convincing on James part, I finally relented and said that I would give it a try.

James and I are both left handed golfers, so I was able to borrow his clubs. The long and short of it was that he 'kicked my ass' on the course, but he did plant the seed that this might be something that I might like. Craig came out of the city and once again convinced me to give it a try out on the links. Once again, Craig also is a left shot, so we were good to go and we headed out and gave it another go. Once again I got my assed kicked as I was such a horrible new golfer. However, I do believe the seed was planted and I really did enjoy 'walking about' on the course and just generally being outside.

After numerous outings (many, many, by myself), I now feel a bit more comfortable out on the course. Of course Tiger Woods definitely has nothing to worry about from me, but at least I'm not making a fool of myself.

This past weekend, I headed out on the course with James and then tonite I was out again with Craig. I'm satisfied that I at least made my goal for the year in that I surpassed both of my 'teachers' in a round.




Now granted both James and Craig probably had a 'crappy day/game' on the day of these rounds, but to me the important thing is that I didn't have to hang my head after I got my ass kicked one more time. We all have bad games, but for both of these games/rounds at least I had a better score than my teachers.

I'm sure James or Craig will have a better score than me in the future rounds, but at least in my mind I know I can hold my own. As I said above, I know Tiger et al have nothing to fear from me, but I at least have nothing to be ashamed about when I hit the links with my family and/or friends.

With that being said, yesterday (September 16th), Craig and I took Shar-Lee out for a round of golf. Like myself, Shar-Lee had never golfed in her life and was a bit apprehensive of 'giving it a try'. Being that this is only my first year, I certainly knew her feeling well and attempted to alleviate her apprehensions. On her first go at the course, Shar-Lee had an 82. Certainly not a course record, but I personally know people that are higher than that and have been golfing for many years. As we went around the holes, I could see that Shar-Lee was getting better and better with her strokes. She has great form and with a bit of practice I know she'll be able to have some respectable scores and give Craig, James or I a run for our money.

The nice part of living in a small town is that our golf course is not crowded and there is not a lot of pressure from oncoming golfers to 'get on with it'. You can take your time and try to ensure you are ready to hit the ball to the best of your ability. For a grand total of $5.00 a round or $45.00 for the year, there just is no better place to learn the game of golf. Sure we don't have grass greens, but at least you can learn the basics and when you do get a bit more experience you can then attempt the more ambitious courses that the cities have.

However, for a beginner, there just is nothing better than a small town course in my estimation. . .

Trucker No More

Well it is official now. James has hung up his 18 wheel steering wheel for the time being. He is now going to see if he can climb towers without falling off. Just prior to starting the recent job hauling super B trailers around he had applied to 'Your Link' to work on their tower crew. This is the same company that 'Uncle Ron' works for.

James went in for an interview last Thursday and he found out on Friday that he had gotten the job. That meant that he had to hand in the keys for the Kenworth and dig out his woollies to keep warm on the new job.

I guess he has to go in to the office on Wednesday and fill out some papers and then he's onto tower climbing. He's been told to pack a bag when he reports on Wednesday so he will likely be working out out town for a couple of days.

The nice part of the job is that it is essentially Monday to Friday and weekends off. The pay isn't bad either and there are benefits. Definitely sounds better than jambing gears back and forth. But then it can get a bit cool out there in the winter time. Especially if you are a hundred or so feet off the ground.

Worth a try for sure and the best of luck to James in his new endeavour.

Wish Came True

It appears that someone has gotten their wish to come true for them. James made it back to the Saskatoon area last Thursday and then spent the day in the city on Friday the 26th. He then had the weekend off to do as he wished.

The only problem was that the boss never called to get him back to work after the weekend. Finally James made his own way in to the city and found out his truck was going out, but he as sitting at home. A little deja vu floated to the surface as far as I could tell. As per Another Day, No More Dollars It seems that one of the senior drivers needed a truck as his clutch went out on his own truck.

The next thing James knew he was advised to clear his gear out of his truck. This was from the senior driver and it appeared to be a 'sacking in progress' from my point of view. James tried calling the boss/owner to find out his status, but as of today there has been no returned calls from Roger.

Of course he doesn't know what the heck is going on, but it could very well be that he did get his wish to have more time back home in Hanley. The only problem is that he won't be out on the road in the near future. Without actually having spoken to the owner of the company, it is hard to figure out just where he sits though.

From my point of view, it seems that the 'parting of the ways' has been coming for the last month or so. James didn't seem to be happy with what was happening by being out on the road all of the time as a long haul trucker and the boss was getting a bit unhappy with the amount of downtime required in Hanley.

Too bad, but that is the way things go every now and then. Hopefully it will all get settled out in the next bit and all can get on with their respective goals in life.

Trip to Calgary

James departed Hanley yesterday afternoon enroute to deliver his load to Calgary. At about 8:15 p.m. last night he called to advise that just outside of Hanna, Alberta he smoked a deer. There was damage to his bumper and driver's side fender but other than that no problems with the truck and he was continuing on with his trip.

One interesting thing was that James called 911 to report his accident. In Saskatchewan we don't report accidents with wildlife as long as there are no injuries, the animal is deceased and the vehicle can be driven away from the scene. Mind you hundreds of folks do still call and attempt to report the accidents every day. The folks down in Regina have it down pat answering that 'no if there is no injuries, deer is dead and your vehicle is drivable, you do not have to report to the RCMP. You just report to SGI and they take it from there. There are just too many deer accidents everyday to have the police respond to these type of accidents that end up essentially being SGI reports. I wasn't aware that Alberta did not have the same policy, but I guess not.


Of course the operators in Regina have to ensure that the deer is off the road and not a traffic hazard. If not they advise the caller to remove it to the side of the road. The operators can then advise the Department of Highways of a deer along the side of the road for pickup. However, from my travels into the city I would say the Department of Highways leave the carcasses for the most part to the coyotes and ravens to clean up. Mind you these animals may be from the result of accidents that happen and are not actually called into the Regina Communication Center RCMP.

Anyhow when James called 911 from his cell phone to report the accident. After he hung up he tried to call someone else and his cell phone would not work. He got a notice that his phone was 'restricted to emergency calling' (or something similar). What he had to do was actually power down his phone and then power it back up and the phone would be back in business. Now I'm not sure if this is a phone specific thing or all cell phones that call 911 are restricted in the same way.

It's funny, but I have never had to call 911 in my life. I've answered thousands of the calls, but I've never actually had to call one in myself. In actual fact most people have probably never had to call 911 in their lives. Then there are some people that seem to have the number on speed dial as they use it 4-5 times (or more) a day. When I was working we used to call these folks the 'frequent flyer' callers. They misuse the 911 system for everything from minor thefts that occurred weeks (years ago) to stupid calls such as 'their 10 year old kid won't go to bed' and wanting immediate police action.

Of course all calls have to be answered and dealt with as you don't know what the call is going to be until you have actually spoken to the complainant.

Out of the States

James is steaming northbound attempting to get out of the US prior to the next big storm coming through. I spoke to him at 10:40 a.m. this morning and he was just entering North Dakota. According to NOAA, there is a large snow storm moving into South Dakota today however, James will be long out of that area prior to the storm hitting. Mind you, the majority of his trucking time is down into that part of the country, but for this trip he has safely traversed the ice and snow.

If all goes according to the plan, James should be up in this neck of the woods by about 5:30 to 6:00 pm tonight. It depends on whether he is going to take his unit right into the city and let it sit there until Monday or stop here in Hanley for a day or so and then carry on. The load is destined for Calgary and James was scheduled to take it all the way for delivery early Monday. Of course plans change.

The idea would be that he would take the load up to Calgary, pick up something else and make it back to Saskatoon for Thursday. He would then get a few days off at home rather than sitting in a foreign place such as Houston. Mind you as he sits, his mileage stays at zero which means less dollars. But I don't really think that the monetary reward is where his thoughts are at this stage of the game.

And He Is Off

I had received a call from James this morning and he was still sitting waiting for the go ahead to depart. It would appear that there were a few more hoops to jump through prior to his permits being in order.

The bad part was that even with the permits the weather in north Texas is horrible. Ice storms are coating the highways and snow was in the forecast. From what James had heard from other truckers, the highways north towards Dallas were being closed down due to the unsafe driving conditions. The talk was that the roads were going to stay closed until about Saturday.

James was seriously thinking of just walking away from the truck and catching a flight back to Canada. Just sitting doing nothing is wearing heavily on him. The boss advised him that he would reimburse him somewhat for sitting last weekend, but with the weather being an act of God, it is unlikely there would be any payment for lost miles since Monday. So once again just sitting making no miles strikes at James pocketbook.

At about 1:15 pm James called back to say he was finally on the move and heading northbound. He has no idea how far he can travel before the road conditions shut him down, but at least he is moving a bit. I did do a search for road conditions in Texas and Oklahoma and it definitely does not look very promising. The rain falling is freezing and coating everything a couple inches thick. That does not bode well for the roadways themselves. The temperatures are right around freezing at around 30F so the ice is not likely to melt right away. I'm not sure if they actually use salt on the roadways or just use sand. If it is just sand then of course it won't be helping with the melting.

I'm just hoping James doesn't get stuck out in the middle of nowhere or worse yet parks in a ditch. Sometimes a little patience goes a long way to getting to your destination.

Another Day - No More Dollars

It would seem that in Texas trucking is handled a bit different than the other States. The State allows everyone to enter, however, to load up and depart the State requires extra steps that the other States do not require.

In James case, he is overweight and possibly over height. In the other States you get a permit and pay your money and away you go within the limitations of the permit you acquired. In Texas you can't just pick up a permit and pay your dollars for the right to drive, you must get a broker and then still jump through a bunch of hoops. The end result is that James is sitting in Texas for another day. He is hopeful that maybe tomorrow he can leave, but there is no guarantee.

As he sits in the parking lot he noticed that there were 6 trucks with Saskatchewan plates parked there. On speaking to a few of the other drivers he certainly found out it is not worth the hassle of being overweight or height. The hassles are just so complicated. The other drivers are loading up with their legal loads and departing back to the Great White North.

So James gets to sit another day and of course seeing as he is sitting and not making any miles, he is not making any money. On a normal day a trucker can drive for 11 hours. If the speed limit is maintained the trucker would be making somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1100 kilometers or 687 miles. At 41 cents a mile that works out to be about $282.00.

In James case he as been sitting since bright and early Friday morning, so for 4 days. That works out to lost revenue of about $1130.00. Mind you if he takes his weekend off (even though it was not at home), then he only has lost 2 days or $564.00. That is still a chunk of change. I don't believe anyone would like to just loose $564 off their paycheck for the week. However, that is the life of a long haul truck driver. If you have to wait for a load or whatever then usually the boss pays you some down time, but it no way adds up to your lost revenue.

Seeing how James was away from home for the weekend, he wants to take a few days off when he gets back to Canada. That may be during the week, so he will again loose a couple days pay when he takes those days off due to not driving. Whether the boss will put another driver in the truck and try and recoup some of the lost income from the truck is another matter. After a few times of replacing the driver with a replacement, maybe the replacement driver gets to take the loads and the original driver gets to sit waiting for an opening in the driver's seat.

I'm hoping this doesn't happen to James, but from the track record of the company he works for nothing would surprise me.

Stuck in the South

When I got home from curling I had a message waiting from James. He wanted me to give him a call when I could, so I returned the call. He did get loaded, however, now he is over weight and needs permits. He is now sitting on the north edge of Houston.

The boss was trying to line up some permits for him to start trucking again and hopefully would have them today. It was interesting that the boss suggested that maybe James would be able to leave this evening sometime. That gets me to thinking... permits and evenings.

To my thinking, most of the scales are closed in the evenings. So if he is wanting James to travel in the evening/night, then maybe the permits are not actually there, and he wants James to bypass a few scales. That doesn't sound too cricket to me.

James did comment that he was tired of driving at night and wanted to do some driving during the daylight hours. Some truckers like driving at night, and others prefer the daylight hours. I know that James was looking at another job where he would be just driving within a 2 hour limit of home (or so). As well it would be just a Monday to Friday driving job.

It would appear that he is comparing the two jobs and leaning more to the one around home (if it actually materializes). He wouldn't get to see as much country, but hopefully there would be some stability in his life.

My thoughts are you don't throw away something without first having a heck of a good replacement first. Hopefully it all plans out for him.

Houston, We Have A Problem !

The problem is that there is one extra long haul truck driver parked just outside Houston in the small community of Brookshire (just west of Houston) with nothing to do. Yup, it is James and he has been sitting in Brookshire since early Friday.

Originally James was to get loaded Saturday morning and then head for home, however, the company needs a crane to load the trailer and there were no cranes available until Monday at the earliest. With no real other choice, James gets to sit and bide his time until Monday morning. The sitting idle has not pleased James too much, but then he can't really zip home for the weekend and then back again for Monday morning as it is nearly 3000 kms to Houston from Saskatoon.

James has amused himself by watching a bit of TV, a couple dvd movies and he even went for a long walk. While he was out walking yesterday it started to rain. However, he was able to make it back to the truck prior to the real downpour. He got a bit damp, but nothing too serious.

I talked to James Saturday night and he was pretty bored with the whole situation. He was able to find another truck stop that sold cheaper wobbly pops though than the one he was parked at. If I remember correctly what he said, he could buy 6 king cans of Keystone Lite for about $4.80. He had picked up a movie, some Chinese food for eats and 6 king cans and was settling in for the evening.

He still has all day Sunday to go, so you could fairly well say he has had about enough of south Texas. I took a quick peak at the temperature in Houston just prior to starting up this blog and the temperature was sitting at +22C. Then I looked at my temperature gauge and it is showing -29C. Let's see, where would I rather be?

The one good thing about sitting in Houston for the weekend is that most of the ice storms that are going through the north of Texas and into Oklahoma should have moved on prior to James travelling northbound. From the weather reports from the south, the ice was snapping off telephone poles as it coated everything and then the wind was so strong. From the weather reports, most of the storms should have dissipated by late Sunday. There may be the odd icy section on the highways, but nothing like what it was like late Friday, early Saturday.

As of yesterday, James was not certain where he would be heading when he leaves Texas. He thought the load was destined for Calgary and was hoping he could take it all the way there to unload. With another quick run to the States (down to Iowa or Missouri) and home and he should have enough miles for the month that he could maybe get a couple days off back in Hanley.

The boss may have different ideas though so we'll have to wait and see what transpires.

Down in the Banana Belt

I spoke to James just prior to 6 pm tonite and he had cleared Victoria, Texas and was enroute to Houston to pick up his next load. The bad part was that he would be arriving in Houston tonite however, he can't get loaded until Saturday. So he will get a whole day in Houston with nothing to do. I told him to play tourist and just bum around. Afterall, it is not every day you get to visit Houston.

The weather down in Texas is in the mid 50's, however, the locals are finding it cold. James was walking around in a tee shirt and was sweating a bit. I filled him in on our weather and told him to enjoy what he had. He could have been up here driving (or should I say parked in the ditch) in freezing temps.

It is unknown when James will be back into Canada, however, if he loads on Saturday, he could probably be back early Monday. It all depends where his load has to be delivered to.

Travelling Southbound

I spoke to James at 5 pm and he was just going through Newton, Kansas. This is just a bit north of Wichita. So far the roads are great, but he has run into some wind today.

Actually the wind was so strong that it broke his driver's mirror in half as he was driving so he had to stop and get another one installed so he could see out the back. It's a good thing he isn't travelling up in the Saskatoon area as he wouldn't need a mirror at all. He just wouldn't be able to see out the front, to the rear or to the sides with all the wind and blowing snow we are presently facing.

James is hoping to make it to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma tonite before he parks. The distance from Newton to Oklahoma City is about 300 kms, so he is going to have to boogie before his 11 hours of driving time is up. But he is travelling on I35 which is a 70 mph road, so he should make it okay.

Where's the Trucker?

As of this past Sunday James headed back to work. He had to drive through the horrible weather and road conditions on his way to Edmonton to pick up a load. He was back in Hanley this morning at about 7:00 a.m. and departed at about 7:30 a.m. heading south bound.

James called at 8:00 p.m. tonight to advise that he was approaching Jamestown, North Dakota, but he had a few more hours of driving to go before the day was done. He is enroute to Rhome, Texas (just north of Dallas/Fort Worth) and is supposed to be there by noon on Thursday. In Rhome he gets to drop part of his load and then continue on to Victoria, Texas. There supposedly is a load to be picked up in the area and then he gets to head back north. Mind you, I doubt whether he'll make it back up this way until probably Monday or Tuesday.

Hoping James will have blue skies and clean highways on his travels.

Where O Where Is He?

The lonesome driver checked in again today with a comment that I hadn't put too much information on the blog about his whereabouts. Yah, like I was a bit tied up trying to get those 2 darn computers up and going so the folks could have them for the weekend. Of course if I'm working on other computers, then I don't have access to my own computer as I usually use my monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc to work on the computers. Both computers are done, but then that is a different story..

When James was speaking to me, he had just passed through Garner, Iowa and was enroute to Sioux Falls, South Dakota on a secondary highway (55 mph). He was going to overnite at Sioux Falls and then finish loading his trailer tomorrow morning and then north bound back to Canada.

Trusty 'Streets and Trips' shows that from Sioux Falls, SD to North Portal is about 970 kilometers. James can presently drive 11 hours when he is in the States (this goes into effect in Canada in January 2007), so he should have lots of time to load and still make it to the border. From there he only has a short 445 kilometers and he will be back at home.

Mind you, I believe he wants to drop the truck off in Saskatoon at the company yard so it is not sitting out on the street etc. Still there should be lots of time to do that and still be under his hours.

Of course on Friday night is the company supper. There is no Christmas party as such, the company is just taking the 'boys' out for supper. I enquired if that meant A & W or Burger King for the evening? Hopefully they will be going somewhere a bit better than that.

You don't want to spoil the 'boys' too much though or they might get to like it. :-)

The Trucker

James is back down south again picking up another new trailer. He believes he should be back near the weekend. At least he thinks so as the company has a Christmas party lined up. Funny thing though is that the boss hasn't mentioned anything to him about the party, however, the other drivers have enquired whether he was going or not.

Maybe James is in someones bad books :-)

On the way south, James tried to do some 4 wheeling in North Dakota. Seeing he was going south for a new trailer, he was bob tailing. Of course semis are not the nicest to drive when they don't have a trailer to add some weight in the back. James hit some ice and before he knew it he was in the ditch. Thank goodness the ditch was fairly level with little snow so he was able to continue on and then pulled up out of the ditch okay. At this time he wasn't really driving too fast which also probably helped.

A driver behind James also hit the ditch but he wasn't as lucky as James as he ended up out in the farmer's field. Mind you he was pulling a trailer so couldn't turn quite as sharp as James could.

The nice part was that there was no damage done to James truck which is good. It is hard to make any money when you have to pay for damages...

Here He Comes


Well it looks like the plan came together for James today. He got his plate for his trailer and finally got fully loaded. So now he is enroute back to Canada.

I was speaking to him around 5 p.m. and he was northbound hoping to reach Minneapolis, Minnesota tonite. The I spoke to him at about 8:30 p.m. and he was making better time than he thought. He was planning on stopping overnite at Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Sauk Centre is about 90 minutes northwest of Minnepolis.

James is hoping that he will be somewhere in our neck of the woods sometime on Friday. Mind you there are quite a few miles between here and there so there may be the unexpected happening.

Let's hope not though. I think he has enough crap for one week.

In The Banana Belt

I haven't had too much to say about James of late. It is just that he isn't doing much other than sitting and waiting. The one nice thing is that he is presently in the southern part of Iowa and the weather is a bit nicer than we presently have in Saskatchewan. Not that our weather is too bad at present. Heck, compared to a couple weeks ago, this is balmy weather, however, James is presenlty able to go around in a tee shirt and a summer jacket. That is much better than what we had today here in the Hanley.

Of late James is doing that old military thing again. 'Hurray Up and Wait'. He had to tear down to St Joseph, Missouri to pick up a brand new trailer. Then he was off to Iowa to start to pick up his load. But then things started to go sour for him. First the trailer wasn't quite right and needed some fixing. As well on the way south the clutch started to act up again. Now is this a driver thing or the way the boss installed the clutch a month or so? I'm not sure. All I know is that James says it is not working properly once again.

So James managed to get the truck looked at this morning. To manage this, he had to wait overnite just outside Waterloo, Iowa so the mechanic could look at the truck first thing this morning. Once he got the truck out of the shop he found out that two of his loads won't be ready until tomorrow (Wednesday). I guess one of them needs a crane to lift the load onto the trailer and it was scheduled for Wednesday. From about noon onwards today he got to sit around and do nothing but sit. You sure don't make any money doing that.

As I was mentioning above, James picked up a brand new trailer. The only problem was that the boss didn't think to get a licence plate for the darn thing. So of course James is driving around without a plate on this unit. Once he starts north after he is loaded he will be going through scales. At the scales, they are certainly going to question why there is no plate on the trailer. If not the scales, then the at the border he is going to get questioned big time. So James called the boss who was going to courier a plate down to James where he is to load tomorrow morning.

Now the way James luck goes, the courier will miss him by a couple miles or be in the wrong state or some other stupid thing. James will end up sitting once again waiting to have the courier catch him or something like that so he can start northward once again.

You sit and you don't make any money as you get paid by the mile. Of course the bills don't give a hoot whether you make money or not, they still come pouring in!

The saga continues. . .

On The Road Again


The trucker is back on the road again as his trusty truck got discharged on Tuesday. As it turns out the problem was a faulty camshaft sensor. Go figure! The doctor's bill wasn't too bad (somewhere in the neighbourhood of $130.00). Mind you the tow bill to get the unit into Regina from Moosomin was around $650.00 or so.

James caught a ride down to Regina with one of the other drivers last night and picked up the truck. He then had to bob-tail back to Saskatoon and then out to Swanson to pick up a couple of tractors. I guess one of the other drivers picked up the trailer out in Moosomin and delivered the load to Edmonton. Gee I wonder if it was the guy from Regina who took out the alternator to James :) a couple days ago. Sure would be justice if you ask me.

So now James is heading south through Regina and onto the Port of Regway enroute to Circle, Montana. He should make it there about midnite or so and then gets to sit until the morning to get unloaded. From there he has to travel to Billings, Montana to pick up another load. We are not sure where this load will be heading. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

At least the truck is back in operation and the fault certainly couldn't be placed as a driver's fault so it won't cost James any money. Other than he hasn't put any miles on in the last couple of days of course. Hopefully he can get in a few good mileage days in the next week or so, otherwise the mid month pay is going to be a bit low.

Keep on truckin' James . . .

Broke Down Update

I just received quite a surprise. The phone rang and it was James and he was presently sitting in Hanley. He had called a relative who drove out to Moosomin and picked him up and brought him to Hanley arriving at about 7:30 this morning. It sounds like he got quite a chill from his ordeal working on the truck as he is still shivering.

Now the strange part of this whole deal is that his truck would not start so they had it towed to Regina to go to the doctor tomorrow. Who knows what will be the recovery time. That will be a fairly hefty tow bill I would say. The trailer is still sitting out in the boonies by Moosomin and of course the driver is 4 1/2 hours away from the trailer. The strangest part of this whole deal is that the driver that bob-tailed out to assist James wouldn't hook onto the trailer and pull it back into Regina even though that is where he resides (just outside Regina). At least then the tractor and trailer would be together and the driver would only be separated by a 2 hour drive.

This doesn't make any sense at all to me. I would say that the boss/owner of the company has some management decisions to make. Right now it sure sounds like a total cluster screw up and definitely no way to run a company and attempt to make any money from the operation.

Broke Down

James was en route back to Saskatoon from Grand Forks, North Dakota today. He had left the south country bright and early in the morning. It appeared that a storm cell was travelling with him from the south though as he had high winds and snow all day.

Other than the winds and snow everything was fine until James just got into Saskatchewan. Just outside the town of Moosomin the truck just quit. There appeared to be lots of juice in the batteries, but the truck just would not restart. He called a tow truck and they tried to boost the truck for almost 90 minutes with no success.

After calling the boss it was decided that another truck out of Regina would be sent out with a new alternator (as that is what the boss thinks is the problem). At the very least the Regina truck will be able to hook onto the trailer that James was hauling and continue on with it. Of course they will try the new alternator to see if that does help. James doesn't really hold out much hope for this though as it sure doesn't sound like an alternator problem. The truck just had it's safety check a couple weeks ago, so it should have been in fairly decent shape. Mind you old mother nature can be so darn hard on vehicles especially with the temperatures and wind James had been facing today. Possibly something is just frozen up and needs thawing out. Finding that 'something' can be a problem though.

With the temperatures the way they are at present and with James being unable to start the truck for heat, James had no options other than to hitch a ride into Moosomin and get a hotel room for the night. If they can't get his truck restarted, they'll have to get a tow truck to pull it into town and to a garage. The only problem with this is like most typical small towns, garages don't normally open for mechanical work on the weekends.

That means James will likely be spending his time in Moosomin until Monday sometime. That doesn't please him one little bit as he was hoping to be back in Hanley tonight. However, that is one of the breaks of being a long haul truck diver. You never know when you are going to break down, get stuck waiting for a load or when you are going to be back home for certain. Trying to keep appointments is not the easiest thing to do at the best of times. The truck could have broken down out in the middle of nowhere, so it could have been a whole lot worse scenario than it is.

Some days you just have to 'go with the flow' and do what you can do.

The Trucker's Travels

James headed out yesterday enroute to Lethbridge, Alberta. He was hoping that from there he would be able to head south to Kansas City. I talked to him this morning and sadly the trip south is not going to happen at this point in time. If he in fact headed south, he would end up sitting all weekend as this is the Thanksgiving weekend in the States. He might as well do some trucking in Canada and make a few miles rather than sitting idle doing nothing.

James arrived in Lethbridge last night and then had to sit over night to await to get unloaded. After unloading he had to continue to sit in Lethbridge for about another 3 hours waiting for the boss to find another load. He is now finally heading up to Vulcan, Alberta for another load. From there he is not sure which way he will be heading. There is a possibility that he may pick up a load of telephone poles in the Calgary area and then onto Regina, but at this point in time James just doesn't know.

Actually poor James is getting a bit frustrated with the current boss/company. Having to sit and wait in the middle of nowhere is not great at the best of times. Of course when you are sitting and parked, James makes no dollars as he get paid 'by the mile'. Then to have your pay cheque marked "NSF" is just about the end of the line for an employee. Hopefully, the company is just going through a phase and 'Roger' will get it together and get things back on track.

I'm sure James and the other drivers would definitely appreciate it.