Snow, gadgets, street lights, people.

So today was a full punch of highway driving for both of us.  We cruised from Madison to Toledo.  When we got up this morning this is what we saw, a dusting by Wisconsin standards.  After parking it here in Ohio the same thing is going down.  There's a band of flurries following us all the way back east. 

Passing through Gary again I proceeded to do a bitchin' 45° back like a BOSS.  Today rocked for that reason enough.

I spent a bit of down time messing with John's laptop, relieving of its memory hogging factory programs courtesy of Sony.  Of course with 1 gig of ram, a 1.7 gig Intel and Vista SP1, I'm good but I'm not a magician.  While I was btw I offered my phone as entertainment, John had a blast with my Youtube app watching Blue Collar Comedy and cursing his BlackBerry Bold that sat lonely on the dashboard.  After cuing up my phone through the aux jack he was further impressed by my old school rock obsession.

I'm excited about this gig but like I imagined early on, I can't help but feel like a fish out of water when mingling with other drivers.  Most everybody is friendly but just a little retracted on the outside so its tough to break in.  It might be a long time before I'm really comfortable being myself around the crowd.  I can honestly say I haven't met anybody I didn't like yet, which helps a lot.  Even the mannerisms of other drivers are eons ahead of what most would expect. 

I just hope this streak keeps up.

Top Gear: No Overdrive

These things are fast when they're empty, but 17 tons hanging on your tail makes a hell of a drag.  I got nearly all interstate time today, which was nice because hilly or not thats my forte.  I clocked about 7 hours today, and at 65 that covers a lot more ground than PA state roads.

I still need work on my backing, though thats no surprise.  I've only been able to try once though, because every place we've been has been a bitch even for John to tackle while I spotted for him.  Hopefully tomorrow will present another opportunity to try, with any luck it won't include a time limit.  At least today I felt accomplished doing something I've been good at for years.

Another milestone occurred today, my first visit to another company terminal, which included a whole bunch of free services, most  importantly a shower.  I was skeptical on how presentable this was going to be, but lets just say I prefer Roehl facilities over Villanova University's  South Campus.  Though I can't speak for the lodging here because its another night in the truck.  All my gear is already up here anyway plus we have an early start tomorrow to make our appointment, but to get my 10 hours off I need to be the one to sleep in.  :)

Maybe I'll finally find a postcard with cows and a barn on it like I didn't last time I was up that way.  We'll see.

Day 2: still tired from the move

Well, it doesn't get much more real than this.  2 full days in and I've seen more episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Bones, and Supernatural than I have in the last year.  I need to start watching TV again.

Oh wait, this is a trucking blog. My bad.

Who would have thought my start would be on the most beautiful and scenic highways in America, the New Jersey Turnpike.  Mr. Keyboard Sarcasm Machine GO!

Though I can't call specifics, suffice it to say I helped move stuff that was made in America to a few small businesses.  Though we had to tailgate unload 53 feet of things  significantly heavier than my pre-work screening of 40 pounds, it still felt good that we helped make a piece of the local economy move forward.  Nice and all, but now I'm in bed and feel beat to hell.

Though that was easier said than done.  Most of my 6 BTW hours yesterday were on some mean state highways in the mountainous western PA.  Most of which were in the dark.  I was told I handled them LIKE A BOSS.  If he doesn't mind I'll say more about John next time, but also suffice it to say we're a 2 pair born about 20 years apart.  Convienently I always say I was born 20 years too late so its perfect.  I was sitting there driving in my first hour yesterday and I hear "Eastbound and down,loaded up and truckin'..."  Looking down at John's phone blinking I'm all, "Seriously man?  Omg this gets better and better".  I've learned a lot I could never have seen in a classroom and there's plenty more to go.

Even after 2 days we still haven't gone too far from Jersey yet but we're going on a pretty long hike tomorow on a certain highway I've seen a lot of in the last year near a place I was fairly recently. 

Well, off to SB time for me, stay frosty.

Life gets Roehl (part 2)

Also the first post from the Blogger Android app.  Thats right, I ended up going with the Samsung Galaxy II.  Aside from surrendering my physical keyboard, this is most definitely the start of a beautiful relationship :-)

Anyway, I was in the middle of an edge-of-seat scream out loud intense CoD SpecOps game with Kyle when I got the call from my trainer, John.  Tomorrow is the day.  I go out on an active company truck and learn the ways of the road, as hands-on as hands-on gets.  I've had the clothes packed since Thursday, but finally now I can get my day-to-day things in order.  As we did before my trip to RDTC, we celebrated at the Texas Roadhouse tonight, in a similar atmosphere but with a different state of mind.  This time I felt a bit more accomplished, needless to say.

The 1 week gap had one advantage, this is the part where I say thanks to Nana for my birthday present.  I had a blast seeing Jerry Seinfeld at Foxwoods on Friday night, I just wish I had a full weekend (and paycheck) to make it last longer.  It was good seeing the family again after all this time.  I really feel like I've been down here forever.

Tomorrow I'm gone though, and although I'm not on my own yet- it'll be a hell of a lot better than spending 7 straight hours unlocking all the achievements for Halo Anniversary...  Okay maybe not quite as cool as yesterday but still better than SpecOps.

I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems.

Is this the real life?

Sunday in Milesburg, PA

RDTC is done, and I am a proud holder of a Wisconsin Class A license.   I'll write more on how awesome it was in my next post.

The ride home was pretty uneventful, less for my first wine tasting event at my wonderful Cleveland stopover.  Another fact about myself I learned is that I much prefer driving the expanse of I-40 in New Mexico rather than I-80 in Pennsylvania.  At least in NM you can see more than 300 feet in any direction, even if all you can see contains nothing.

This was true last night, when I wasn't sure if the whole thing had been a dream and I woke up at the house in NJ I'd seen way too much of in the last 2 months.

Today reality was confirmed, when I went to the MVC office to transfer my license to a NJ CDL.  Did you guess it was going to be a pain after this 2 month headache?  I sure did.

I hate it when I'm right.  After 30 minutes of cross-checking SOP's and making a few phone calls the agents came to the conclusion that they don't have an exact procedure in place for my unique situation.  They made copies of everything I had in my master folder and the testing department head needs to verify all my papers and presumably to make sure I'm not a threat to homeland security.  Unfortunately as luck would have it he wasn't there but will be in the office tomorrow and will call me with an answer.

I expected them to ask me why the hell I went to get my CDL in Wisconsin.  They didn't.  What they DID ask out of curiosity is why did I take until 12/5 to apply for a license when my NJ CDL permit was issued on 9/26?  Why did I take 70 days you ask?

Funny story about that...

This Was A Triumph

I'm making a note here; HUGE SUCCESS.

 

Its rather funny how this song fits the occasion, in more ways than just the first 2 lines.  We came, we saw, we all drove and did our tests in the snow, and came out on top.  More on everything later- got to get packing because we're out of the hotel at 0600

I would say its great to be finished, but as a good man once said "No; I think we're just getting started."