Hmmmm...what to do?

We have now been home for two weeks and don't take off for Phoenix until Saturday. We have never been home this long before since we started trucking. To be honest, its kind of wierd. We have re-vamped the pond, set up the pool, enjoyed the hot tub, planted flowers and just plain relaxed! London has been having an awesome time, but I think he is ready to get back in the truck and be on the road, its all he has ever known. He loves being at the house and now that we are kidless, he is enjoying his yard and all of his toys and lounging time.

All the work is done and now the rest of the week is playtime, we have to remember how to do that again. Next week starts our new adventure with Love's and we are both looking forward to Phoenix and running in Cali again.

Hope everybody had a great holiday weekend. It was nice that it meant something this year.

A Truckers Definitions of Trucking Terms

Trucker talk. I used to think it was a foreign language, now it just makes me chuckle. These are just a few of the many slang terms truckers use when talking to each other, or over the CB radio.

Owner Operator -
A person (s) that makes payments on the truck monthly, pays for their own fuel, responsible for all repair costs and normally still uses paper logs. Basically your own business on wheels. You can be an owner Operator and work for a company, which means your independent company is leasing the truck to the bigger company you drive for. It comes with dispatcher for load assignments, a fuel surcharge rate when fueling, or you can be an independent and find your own loads under your own authority and work for yourself.
Contractor -
Your driving in a truck that someone else owns (see owner operator above) you have no authority to make decisions about the truck without the owners consent and are normally working under a contract, but not directly for the company written on the side of your truck. All the benefits of an owner op, with no monetary risks involved.
Company Driver -
Attend orientation, placed in a truck (you have no say or choice in the matter usually) and are dispatched by the company you work for...normally forced dispatch, which means you can't turn down any load if you have hours to drive on your log.
Lease Driver -
Usually a company driver that is purchasing their truck from the company they run with. Kind of like putting your eggs all in one basket since the trucking company dictates how many miles you receive.
Reefer-
refrigerated trailer or van.
Chicken Coop -
scale house or weigh station.
Mayo & mustard -
The yellow and white lines that make up your lane on the highway. Fondly quoted as "keep it between the mayo and the mustard"
Skirt Wagon -
curtain side flatbed trailer
Clothing Shower -
not having time to stop for a shower, you put on a fresh set of clothes and feel like a new person.
Gator -
a piece of tire in the road from a previous blow out
Bobtail -
just driving the truck with no trailer attached
big truck -
18- wheeler
Brake check -
traffic is all coming to a stop ahead of you on the highway.
Cash register -
toll booth
4-wheelers -
cars
County Mountie -
Sheriff
Deadhead -
Empty miles...usually to pick up a load you have an empty trailer and have to get to your load point.
Full grown bear -
state trooper or hwy patrol.
Hammer down -
Throttle to the floor.
Hammer lane -
fast lane on highway
Lot lizzard -
prostitute at a truck stop
Pickle park -
a rest area with prostitutes
Pigtail -
the wiring that connects your tractor to your trailer plugs into a pigtail to run power to your trailer.
Skateboard -
Flatbed trailer
Thermos bottle -
tanker trailer

And so many more...pretty funny.

First Team in the Nation

We just finished confirming the details and we are proud to announce the The Linn's will be the first Team ever hired by Loves Travel Stops hauling DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) to stores in the western region.

We both enjoyed our run with Waggoners and the flatbed experience, but wont miss seeing the same roads for just about a year now. We have made new friends all the way from Denver to OKC and we were starting to bond with Midland, but we finally had to take the offer with Loves.

We both miss going to California, never thought I would say that before running dedicated...I missed seeing flowers in January and waking up in our truck on a PCH Beach last year on my birthday watching schools of dolphins play in the ocean. The color green.

Our last day at Waggoners will be May 19 th and we then are taking 2 FULL weeks off, then start our new adventure with Loves on Monday, June 3. Fly to Phoenix, with London, and  train for a couple of days with local drivers, then pick up our truck, in Phoenix, and we will be ready to roll.

This is such a great opportunity to get in to an awesome company with great benefits and so many places to grow...even if we don't want to drive a truck anymore. The main  attraction to this job for me is...every Thursday we receive our loads for the week. We can look them over, put them in a different order if it makes more sense and then we decide where we are going to go and when we arrive. We can actually "plan" our week. Since we are the first Team we will have the chance to set the rythym and possibly train other teams that come aboard.

Lots of change coming...but its all good. London will enjoy the Cascadia, but is a bit resistant to change.

Two Weeks Notice

Well...we weren't looking for a new job, but after 3 months of going back and forth, we have been made an offer we cannot resist.

Another new adventure is about to begin. We still have some details to hammer out, so Im not announcing the big news just yet. We gave our notice and our last day at Waggoners will be May 19. We are then taking a week or two off before starting our new gig.

Stay tuned and more to follow. This is such a cool opportunity. We are both really excited for the change.

A Bit Hungover...

What a great weekend. Having not seen both Zach and Ashley since our Watkin Shepard days, we picked up right where we left off. It's been almost 3 years since we have seen eachother, but we didn't skip a beat. They left Watkins about the same time we did and made the move to North Dakota when we decided to run LTL reefer with DTS.

They left both of the girls (their puppy dogs) at home this trip, Yang and Jezebel, which we missed seeing again, but we ate and drank and caught up with eachother til the wee hours of the morning last night. I had forgotten what great people they are and how much we have in common...even though we are miles apart, it was like we had just seen eachother at the terminal in Santa Fe Springs on Friday night. It was a weekly event, one which I know Jeff and I always looked forward to.

Less liquor was consumed this trip, a testament that we are all getting older and becoming light weights, but as they drove away this afternoon, I got that warm fuzzy felling that there still are good people in this world that "get us".

It is now our turn next time to go to North Dakota and see their new life that they have created in the oil fields. We will make sure to make it a visit in the Fall. After the stories that we heard, I don't want to see anything up there in the winter! They can have that.

Cheers you two and thanks for an awesome weekend. I think we all really needed that. As promised, it will not be as long between our visits next time.

P.S. Sorry the Avs couldn't pull it out for you on Friday night...but on a good note, the Rockies won their home opener.

I am Woman

Hear me ROAR! I feel as if I have graduated to another level in the flatbedding world. I recently received a gift of my very own, a cheater bar, from Jeff. Helping him figure out how to load the truck, throwing straps and stepping on the deck to belly-wrap pipe or product has been great...but with another cheater bar (that's the bar that you use to tighten all of the straps in the buckles) I'm thinking I am going to have to step up my game. I might even risk breaking a nail....or even worse...building upper body strength. Let's face it, women aren't normally built with biceps. I have never had great upper body strength, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Besides, by the time we are finished loading, I'm not looking or feeling like a pretty Rose. This is hard, long, sweaty and dirty work. But it is rewarding work. After taking a pile of pipe, motors, smart-tools, satellite boxes, 40 foot baskets and what-nots (that's some female talk thrown in there) it is pretty cool to stand back from a load, that is worth multi-millions of dollars in drilling equipment, and know that together we have figured out a way to stack it on our deck and strap it to where nothing moves and drive down our not-so-smooth roads we call highways.

We take pride in our job. It isn't for everyone, that's for sure. But it takes team work to accomplish this. If we didn't have the bond that Jeff and I have, this job would be a lot harder. I love my 6'4" man and wouldn't trade him for the world!

Welcome to Waggoner's Trucking

I would like to welcome Pal & Jo to Waggoner's. We met them through friends that read this blog, Robert & Regina Lopez, who worked with us at another trucking company. Big shout out to them for hooking us up. Both Pal & Jo only had a year's experience driving, but after many lengthy phone conversations they decided that they wanted to give flat-bedding a try and chose to go with Waggoner's. Normally Waggoner's requires two years of experience before they will even consider talking to you. However, Pal is very persuasive and they turned in their truck in Irving, TX on a Friday and drove across town and started orientation with our company the following Monday. After orientation they headed to OKC and we helped train them on how to load the deck and how to strap the loads for the entire week we ran to OKC. They also rode with our city drivers in OKC for a week to get even more experience. I am proud to say that they took their first run to Canada last week and did an awesome job. They will now be running with us on our dedicated account from Denver to OKC.  They are now flatbedders! Both are great people and we are so proud to have them on our Team.

Secondly, we would like to welcome old friends of ours, Ken & Deb Olsen. They have come from our first company that we ever worked for, Watkins and Shepard. They are both million miler drivers...score! They completed their orientation in OKC where we got to have dinner with them one night while we were in town. It was brief, but always good to catch up with them and share grandbaby pics. They are also expecting a new addition to their grandbaby clan and are very excited for the new arrival. Ken & Deb live in Boulder, MT. They will be running from Houston to Canada on a weekly basis. What a great addition to Waggoner's. I know they will make us proud. The bonus is now we will get to see them more often.

Why...you ask? We will now be running strictly from Denver to Midland, TX for the same dedicated customer that we have been going to OKC with for the last 9 months. We tried the rotation of the runs, but with our HOS (hours of service) aka logbooks, it just didn't work and we started running out of hours for the driving week. We got to pick our run and chose
Midland, just for the change of scenery. We will miss going to OKC and home away from home and all of the new friends we have made, but this should give us a lot more home time in Denver on this run.

I believe that all things happen for a reason and we are looking forward to our new route and routine.