Team Adventure

Sunday, March 17, 2013

You Wanna do What?

So, you want to give us a brand new truck AND pay us more money? Not sure about the truck, having a love affair with mine still, but we will always take more money!

Call me crazy, but our 2006 Kenworth is awesome. It has a big red 550 hp motor, aka a Cummins, and 13 speeds, with a bigger sleeper than the new truck. It also has a 286" wheel-base which makes it ride like a lead sled in the wind and wintry conditions. We had to trade our Oklahoma plates for Montana ones so we could be grand-fathered in to Canada, our truck is normally too big to run Canada. But one of the best features is it doesn't take DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid). DEF is a lovely additive (not!) that the government made mandatory on trucks after 2007. It burns off excessive diesel fuel particles and is supposed to make your exhaust run cleaner...kind of an oxi moron. Unfortunately if ur truck runs DEF, you have to pay for it every time u fuel ur truck, plus there are so many other complications with filters that get clogged and what-not that it just makes things more expensive and more break-down issues. So after 2014, we can't go into the state of California, so what? We don't run there anyway and by then she (Ethel) will have over a million miles on her anyway and it will be time to let her go. I do miss going to Cali, so eventually we will end up with a new truck, but in the mean time, we are going to enjoy every minute in this beast that the company pays for fuel.

We have been running our new rotation going to OKC, Midland and Calgary, which had been fantastic! Nice to see different stretches of road. But after running Denver to OKC for the last eight months, it was so fun to come back to OKC and all of our regular haunts. Calgary is going to be great. Could not have picked a better time of year to pick up that run!

We have been running every single day of the week for the past month and are now being off-loaded in Denver and looking forward to a few days off. The truck needs some TLC and we need some time away from her as well. All in all, life is awesome and getting home every other day is truly something we never thought possible. The Calgary run is Wednesday through Saturday, so we have even more time inbetween runs and it pays even more than we were making before. Life is fantastic right now. Finally a balance between work and home has been established, could not be happier.

Stay tuned as we train a new team we brought aboard from USX that will be running with us.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Birthdays Rock

So...this year for Jeff's birthday I wanted to do something special. Ever since we started this trucking job his birthdays have pretty much sucked. One year we had to put our dog down on his birthday, the following year we were so busy we couldn't even take the time to celebrate his special day. This year was much different.

I booked a suite in Blackhawk, CO for the weekend at Ameristar Casino. No children, grandchildren or dogs were present...just the two of us in a jacuzzi suite, with fireplace and a wet bar. We checked in on Friday night and stayed for two nights. Everyone wanted to know how we did at the tables and what we ended up doing for the weekend....needless to say, we only left our room one time to visit the most awesome rooftop pool and hot tubs ever...other than that, all I can say is my husband arrived back home on Sunday afternoon with a huge smile on his face and told me it wad the best birthday that he has ever had...I did GOOD!

It was a great getaway and would definitely stay at this hotel again.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

We're Back....

Woke up to these pretty flowers

It's been a month since my last post. Both Jeff and I have been sick with the flu and just starting to feel human again. We both lost our voices for several days....pretty quiet truck! As usual, we worked through the holidays, but now that we are home every other day, it didn't seem like we worked through the holidays. The weather has been cold, but not a lot of snow....however we have been off this week and being home in 60+ weather has been fantastic.

So shiny and pretty

Same old same old here. Still running from Denver to Oklahoma City three times a week. We love our company that we work for and are very happy with our truck. We are now going to be rotating with running from Denver to Midland, TX and then the following week Oklahoma City. This will not only give us a change of scenery, but also it will give us more time off in-between runs at home. This is the first holiday that we have worked at a company that was worth working through the holidays for. We didn't miss a beat. We are guaranteed our three runs a week, even if we run empty, .which makes it worth staying out for the holidays.

Home Away from Home

London's new collar

After off-loading in OKC we head for the terminal to fuel and then it is off to home away from home to park the truck and get out and enjoy the day. We don't load again until around 4-5 in the afternoon so we usually have at least 4-6 hours between loads. London loves our route, since we run at night he is usually sleeping through most of the drive and as soon as we are off-loaded he has our routine down. He loves the fabrication yard where home away from home is located. It is fully fenced and he rules the roost. He spends his afternoons chasing bunnies and has befriended Stinker the cat which stays in a room at home away from home. He is now donning a new collar which was made for him by Stinker's daddy Dave H. Waggoner. Dave as taken a shine to London and he can't wait for Dave to get home from work every night. His new collar makes him look like a big dog...he is pretty proud of it. Monogrammed with his name, it's pretty sweet.

It's been pretty quiet and drama-free around here lately....just the way I like it!

Cabovers ready for Recycling

Monday, December 10, 2012

Festive Christmas

We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Level 1... Roadside

Well, there I was...enjoying my morning drive from Garden City, KS into Denver, the coffee was finally kicking in when I come upon Hugo. There was someone standing at the side of the road...waving me over to the shoulder..it was a lovely DOT Officer, from nowhere I might add. Great, a road side inspection.

I pull over and he asks me for my drivers license, medical card and Jeff's license as well, as well as logbooks & all of our permits. Well...I didn't fill out my logbook since I delivered our load in OKC, the day before...bad girl. I handed him everything and just was honest about not having my logs filled out, I knew I was going to get dinged on that one. He proceeded to run his level one inspection, checking under the hood, all of my lights and turn signals, tires, air brake test, then underneath with a dolly to check all of my brakes. Nothing was strange about all of this. I have had three level 1 inspections before, at weigh stations on interstates, just not on the side a US highway.

He went back to his truck and came back with all of the paperwork. Cool guy indeed, everything passed with flying colors, and he told me he wouldn't get me for my log but to do it before I took off...DEAL! He then took off in his truck and I never saw him again. Thanks Mr. DOT Officer, you made my day.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Party's Over

Great Bronco game on Sunday. Too bad Logan didn't make it to the ending...he really tried though, what a trooper! Fun time was had by all..Love being home to watch our Broncos.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Holiday Weekend

What a great weekend off. I was at the house by 9:30 am on Friday and we had all weekend until Monday evening. Football game, BBQ's and some great family time. Starting to not feel so much like a trucker anymore, which means our job doesn't consume our life anymore...been there done that. It's so nice to have that healthy balance back. Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable end of summer weekend.

ABOUT TEAM LINN and OUR ADVENTURE

We started our adventure 4 years ago. Our first trucking job was with Watkins Shepard out of Missoula, MT. Great company to start with. Gave us fantastic training in their 10-day orientation on top of our CDL training we already had. We stayed with them for a year and half and decided we wanted a change.

We went to work for Diversified Transfer and Storage out of Billings, MT. This was no longer a truckload, it was LTL, less than a truckload. We ran reefer and had a terminal in Denver, so we ran 4 weeks and had a week off. That part was great, but the company was not a good fit for us. Loved the LTL, couldn't deal with working for an owner who was a piece of crap. I wont even go into further detail....

Next...we wanted to go back to full truckload reefer so we decided to go with US Xpress. We were very happy with them for the first 5 months. We ran consistent miles from the east to west coast and loved it. Our Fleet Manager Mike Gibbs was the best Fleet Manager we have ever encountered in this business. We became one of the top Teams on the reefer board with US Xpress. We were called by the Fleet Owner, the VP of the Reefer division and the COO of US Xpress to tell us what a great job we were doing and how much they appreciated our service. But then it all fell apart and our miles started to drop and our awesome FM was thinking about transferring out of the division. Jeff and I saw the writing on the wall and we decided we wanted out of this company before things got even worse. I still speak with many Teams that run with US Xpress and they are having horrible issues. This was a driver friendly company, but since Pat Quinan passed away in January of 2012, things changed dramatically. Pat was the compassionate one that knew the company was about the Driver. Unfortunately after his passing things quickly changed to being about numbers on a spreadsheet, our FM moved on and we turned our truck in at the Irving Terminal and never looked back at our decision.

We then wet to The Waggoner's Trucking out of Billings, MT. Yep, can't seem to get away from Montana based companies. We now ran a dedicated run from Denver to Oklahoma City three times a week. We ran a flatbed, split axle trailer...which is only 48' now, instead of the 53" we were used to. We were met in Oklahoma City by the owner of the company David Waggoner to give us our new truck. We were no longer a number, but we were The Linn's again. We pulled into the OKC terminal and everybody knew our name and we knew theirs. We were part of a family again and it was so nice to be back in the surroundings we have missed from working at Watkins Shepard. We were in a Kenworth W900 Long Nose truck. We were home every other day in Denver and have Sunday and Monday off every week to enjoy our house in Denver again. We really debated on a dedicated run, since we love traveling the 48 states, but after almost 3 years, we have been to every state and it was time to get back to some connection to our kids, grandchild and our awesome house in Denver. It was so nice to be home more often. But on the flip side:

We ran this route for a year, yes dedicated was great, home time seemed to turn into one of us sleeping...even though it was in our own bed....however, we both got tired of running the same route and we only ran our route at night. Although the company was great, working 7 days a week was tiring and we decided we wanted to go back to enjoying why we started doing this in the first place...to see the country and meet awesome people so...this brings us to our next job change.

We now are working for Gemini Motor Transport, which is the trucking company that Loves Travel Stops owns and services their truck stops. We are working in the SW Region, which includes, CA, AZ, NM. Plus CO and WY when we come back home. We are hauling a tanker truck now, which is only 42' long...getting shorter, I'm liking that, and we haul DEF (Deisel Exhaust Fluid) only. We are the first husband and wife Team that Love's has ever hired. I am also proud to say that I am the only woman that works in the SW region that drives a truck. We are responsible for 33 stores and growing, along with one other solo driver in the region. Our job is to make sure that no stores ever run out of product in our region. Since teaming is new for Love's we will be sent to other regions as well, as needed, possibly the NW too. Our first week we serviced 11 stores in Southern California (all the way up to Corning), plus New Mexico and Arizona. It has been a big change, but once again, we are up for the challenge. I know I have never been so glad to run on a different road and see new things. There are good things about running a dedicated run, but I am so glad we made this transition and I think we picked a great company. We get a reset every week and we only work 6 day a week now. Plus we are paid by the day, not by the mile. We will also be home for every holiday...paid. This company is hard to get into and I am so glad they picked us. The Vice President of the SW region flew in to DIA twice to meet with us before we decided to take the position. He is our direct boss and an awesome one at that. We could not have made a better decision making the move when we did. The dedicated account would have been much more difficult to do with the new Hours of Service that changed in July 2013. So once again, we made the jump before it took anything away from our adventure.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about trucking in general, teaming or any of the above companies we have worked for. We had to start out just like you and had so many questions, but not a lot of people to answer them. Shoot us an email @ hobotruckers@gmail.com we would love to hear your questions or comments. Thanks for following along in our adventures.