After the possitive feedback “nianiamh” got for his diary earlier in the week I thought it about time I pulled my finger out and finally got round to doing one for a trip I did coast to coast during late August/early September this year. I litterally took thousands of photos so its very hard decided which ones to include and there are some days where I took none at all due to lack of anything interest, weather etc
Basically my trip consisted of collecting a pre-loaded trailer in our yard in Woodstock, New Brunswick on the Atlantic coast of Canada that had been loaded in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with parcel shelves for the boots (or should I say trunk?) of Subaru cars. Aftering tipping in Portland, Oregon on the Pacific coast of the US I was out of hours so took a 36 hour reset and used that time to hire a car and go exploring down the coast, which I have to say has been one of the most worth while and memorable experiences of my truck driving life. After that I loaded in Portland going up to Kelowna, British Colmbia, this time it was a load of collapsable plastic trays for a fruit and veg packing company. My next reload was also in Kelowna and consisted of 26 pallets (I think?!) of wood shavings from a saw mill going all the way down to Wichita Falls and Jacksboro in Texas. A long way for wood shavings! Finally I back tracked up through Texas to Amarillo where I collected a full load of fibreglass string coming back to Fredericton, New Brunswick. In total I was out for 18 days and covered 14320km.
Day 3. Princeton, Illinois to Big Springs, Nebraska. 1142km . Today is spent entirely driving across the boring flat plains of the American mid-west. The boredom was relieved somewhat by a visit to the Iowa 80 truckstop in Walcott, Iowa. Its supposedely the largest truckstop in the world with parking for 800 trucks and has land available to allow for expanding much further.
Great pics, I did C2C earlier this year on a bicycle! 4000mile VA - OR.I did enjoy the odd truckstop, chatting to a few drivers who thought I was mad! The Americans are so freindly and generous.We could learn a lot in EU, from them. Thanks
Day 5. Malta, Idaho to Portland, Oregon. 1044km. The final leg of my outward bound journey today and some of the most breathtaking scenery as well. The photos really dont do it justice.
After finally making it to Portland and running to the limit each day, I found that they dont accept deliveries in the afternoon anyway and to come back at 8am the next morning. The traffic was terrible getting to the place so I just parked in their yard for the night.
Day 6. Portland. Got unloaded “off card” and headed a few miles down the road to the huge Jubbitz truckstop, got on the phone and hired a car. I’ve always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean and had no intention of sitting 70 miles inland at Portland and missing the opertunity when I had the day off. The total cost for 24 hours was something like $60 which is absoltely FA.
Day 7. Portland to Blaine, Washington (US/Canadian border) 404km. I got rudely awakened (I exhagerate!) the next morning in my hotel room with a phone call from the office telling me that they’ve found a load right in Portland going to British Columbia and could I load immidiately? Well no, I’m two hours away from Portland with a hire car, which has to be de-hired and then a hefty taxi ride back to the truckstop. I told them I’d be as quick as I could and hit the road. I had intended on exploring the Washington coast today, nevermind, I’d rather get loaded and earn money than sit in Portland until monday, as today was Friday and if this load fell through, the chances of another before the weekend were very slim.
I got back to the truck and belted it round to the re-load point to be confronted with a small warehouse with the most tiny yard, reminiscent of something back in the UK. After a few hours there I hit the road heading north for the border.
Arriving at the border, I was politely informed that my customs paperwork was not in the system. This was down to the fact that I’d faxed it to the customs broker at about 5:10pm local time and they go home at 5pm. Another broker at the border tried in vain to reach somebody on numerous after hours numbers at my broker but failed to do so, and told me that I couldn’t park in the customs yard as I’d be kicked out before long. Being dark and in a place I’d never been before I decided to chance my arm and go to bed and try again the next morning. No such luck, two hours later Canadian customs were hammering on my door and shining a spot light in to my face while barking orders at me for my immidiate removal back to the US. Thank God we dont have tachos here and I’m not on an electronic log or my movement back to the other side of the border would have really screwed me up!
Day 8. Blaine, Washington to Kelowna, British Columbia to Post Falls, Idaho. 851km. I awoke this morning to find that my customs paperwork was still not in the system. As I was still very close to the border I could use my Canadian internet dongle to check my customs status. A few hours later I got the green light and headed back to the border. This time all was well and I entered British Columbia properly for the first time. Four and a half hours later I arrived in Kelowna after driving up and down in the Canadian Rockies and got tipped in about half an hour and rushed straight round to my reload on the other side of town.
I soon got loaded in Kelowna and headed for the border, this time some serious cross country drivning on single carriage way roads in the mountains to a small border crossing. One thing is for sure, I dont want to be on those roads in winter! Unfortunetely I’d forgotten to charge my battery so there are no photos until tomorrow.
Day 9. Post Falls, Idaho to Billings, Montana. 851km. Most of the day was spent driving through Montana which seemed to go on forever. It was some very nice scenery but for much of the day I just wasn’t in the mood for photos so only have a few from this part of the trip.
Day 10. Billings, Montana to Pueblo, Colorado. 1062km. After a relatively short day yesterday for milleage due to a late start as a consequence of parking up after midnight the day before, I tried to make some proper progress today. Scenery was much the same and the highlight was probably the passing close by of the battle site of the Little Big Horn. I did consider having a look but chickened out in the end due to concerns about access for a 70ft long truck so like so many things we see th signs for, I had to keep on trucking right on by. In Colorado I got beckened in to a scale and told to come inside with my paperwork. To my suprise the DOT officer (their version of Vosa, though they’re usually state police officers) was originally from Whitby in Yorkshire and moved to America as a child. Upon hearing my accent, pleasantries were exchanged and I was on my way!
Day 11. Pueblo, Colorado to Wichita Falls, Texas. 894km. Today I took a slightly longer route to Texas as it would take me through the top corner of New Mexico. My ambition is to get all lower 48 US states in the truck and while I have been to New Mexico as a 17yr old tourist, I had yet to go there in the wagon. After stopping for a late breakfast in Des Moines, New Mexico, a town that was founded by French settlers, hence its name, I pushed on to Texas and the endlessly boring flat scrubland that makes up much of its area. I like Texans to talk to but they’re terrible drivers and there are probably more rattle snakes in most places than there are people.
I parked up in a rest area just a few miles from my delivery point and called it a day.
Day 12. Wichita Falls, TX to Jacksboro, TX to Amarillo, TX. 806km. No photos today. I normally take photos of the loading/unloadnig process but today I was doing it myself by hand with an old worn out pump truck with a chunk out of one of its wheels so it was less than amusing. The first drop was to a very small farm that was nothing more than a country house with a few sheds around the back. Needless to say the address was wrong, google earth proved to be of no help and I ended up stuck down the end of a dead end road/track infront of a house with about 10 angry dogs snarling at me. Two miles of reversing down the track and over an intersection yileded results when a man on a quad appeared from nowhere and told me he was expecting me. Any thoughts that that would be the end of my problems were soon put to rest when I saw the gate he wanted me to turn in to. The trailer wouldn’t go through so I had to reverse back out on to the road, holding up a lot of gun totting Texans in their pick up trucks and then slide my trailer axles as far forward as they’d go and only then could I make the turn. Once unloaded there I had to take the remainder of the load to his friend who happened to be a teacher in a high school some 60 or so miles away and was greeted by the teacher and several of his students around the back of the sports stadium, all of whom proved useless in aiding in unloading so it was down to me to break my back again with that stupid pump truck that the farmer from drop one had left on for his friend to use at drop two.
After finally getting unloaded I was told to head back up towards Amarillo for a reload the next day going right back to New Brunswick in Canada.
Day 13. Amarillo, Texas to Joplin, Missouri. 789km. I arrived at 8am sharp at the Owens Corning factory just outside of Amarillo to collect my load of fibreglass string and was loaded with minimal fuss in about an hour. Before leaving Amarillo I scaled the load (think back to how obsessed they are here to gross and axle weights) and started my homeward journey. I wasn’t going to make Canada within my rolling 70hrs in 8 days very easily and bearing in mind there was no rush on the load, I decided to see the day out and then stop for a 36 hour reset. I crossed Oklahoma and parked at the Flying J truckstop in Joplin, just inside of Missouri. This town and indeed that truckstop made national news a year or so earlier when the town was devastated by tornadoes and the truckstop was leveled to the ground.
Day 15. Joplin, Missouri to Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1055km. Not much of interest today apart from driving through St. Louis and seeing the huge archway there. I’m sure most of you can understand that when you’ve been out for a while and you’re heading back all you can think about is getting home and enthusiasm for the job goes down the drain!
Day 16. Fort Wayne, Indiana to Napanee, Ontario (back in Canada) 920km. No photos today. Same boring nonsense in this part of Canada as the outward trip so didn’t bother. Parked up after only 920km as the 401 highways towards Toronto was closed for a few hours due to a motorbike crash and the air ambulance attending and then met a mate in the 5th wheel truckstop in Milton for an hour of so before cracking on.
Day 17. Napanee, Ontario to Woodstock, New Brunwick. 1058km. The final day of my coast to coast trip. Having got home on a Monday afternoon and not wanting time off mid-week I asked them for a short trip down to Pennsylvania to fill the week in until Thursday so the trip did continue but there is very little of interest on the eastern seaboard outside of chronic traffic and idotic car drivers so I’ll spare you all the misery of a part 7!
Cracking write up and photo’s there Driver, good trip you had there too
Texas bound for me tomorrow after the ft of snow yesterday we had here the southern sunshine will be more than welcome
nianiamh:
Cracking write up and photo’s there Driver, good trip you had there too
Texas bound for me tomorrow after the ft of snow yesterday we had here the southern sunshine will be more than welcome
Many thanks, likewise with your diary!
Thats definetely one of the big benefits of driving long haul, being able to get away from the snow and cold in the winter from time to time. While it was snowing this week in NB I was down in Georgia enjoying clear blue skies with +20’c temps. I’m delivering a tractor tomorrow near Grimsby, ON and another on the eastern side of Toronto and the rest of them are heading back to Woodstock, NB. After that, who knows?!
is it a ■■■■■■■ under the hood? or a merc engine.