Take a deep breath and smile.

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Anne Leonard

This is definitely one of those times that you just need to breath! I won’t say it is not stressful but it is part of trucking. We have had some issues since getting the truck and most of them revolve around the DPF system. Now that that is fixed I am hoping we have smooth sailing from here on out. I would love to run a month without having a breakdown issue. That is my hope so we can get our coffers filled and have a little breathing room. Every time something happens it seems we just got half a step ahead and then it takes us back behind. But it is all a learning process and know we made the right decision. Please trucking God just keep us rolling and I will be forever in your debt. We really do love our truck and our life. This is one of those times you just have to go with the flow.  Take a deep breath and smile.

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The Mobile Money Pit Keeps Rolling

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Craig

The good news is that we are making enough to keep paying for the repairs.  Kinda.

We have had an eventful few weeks.  Planning on the move to Chattanooga and running hard.  We picked up a pretty cool load in Birmingham Alabama, it was a full trailer load of lighting for Logitec for their exhibit at the PAX Expo in Seattle.  Whole load weighed 7000 pounds. (we love that)  We get to the shipper and as I am backing into the loading dock, alarms start going off.  Low air pressure, my brake buttons pop out and the truck stops.  I have to hold the buttons in with one hand while I finish backing in.  I figured I must have been resting my foot on the brake pedal or something.  I rev up the engine to build air pressure and the needles do not move.  I call the Volvo dealer in Seattle since they just fixed two air leaks and ask what I should look at, he tells me to crawl under the truck and check just behind the transmission.  I do not make it that far.  As I crawl under the truck I find a black cylinder attached to the frame with a hose going in coming from up near the engine and a hose going out to the air tanks.  There is air spitting out a hole in the bottom.  I do not know what this thing is but I guess (correctly) it is the air dryer.  I know we have one but I have never seen one before.  I call the dealer back and tell him what I found and he tells me that is what it is and it is definitely broken.  I do not have a spare air dryer (of course) so I ask the mechanic if I can bypass the air dryer by connecting the two hoses, he says yes but they are different sizes.  I certainly do not have the parts. Luckily, the shipper tells us they are not ready to load us and it will be a couple of hours.  They have no idea we cannot pull out of the loading dock.  We know a great mechanic in Heflin Alabama about 150 miles away.  I call Matt and ask if he knows anyone in Birmingham.  He gives me two numbers to try.  The first one I call is awesome.  They have mobile road service and they understand what I need.  From the time I make the call, we are (temporarily) fixed in less than an hour and the guy even replaces a tail light on the trailer that just died for free.  The whole repair cost $105.  That is freakishly cheap for a semi.

We get loaded and we roll to the Convention Center in Seattle.  We make it to Seattle (the North Bend TA) by noon on Sunday and cannot deliver until Monday morning so we get the truck washed and my parents come down and we go out to dinner at an awesome restaurant in North Bend called, oddly enough, the North Bend Bar & Grill.  Again, this is one of the reasons we love this job.  We get to the convention center in downtown Seattle and it is a pretty cool delivery.  I would love to meet the engineer who figured out how to put the loading docks on the 4th floor and get trucks in and out. It was a bit of a challenge which I love.   We got out and ran down to Fife to pick up our load to Arkansas and booked a load from Arkansas back to Denver so we could be home for Labor Day, CJ’s Football game and to pack up and move.

The first two were fun.

We had a very good time at the CU – CSU football game.  I saw a bunch of old friends tailgating and even though the bad guys won, we had a blast.  We headed up to storage early on Monday to load up our 10×20 storage unit.  CJ and Lizzy came up and helped and we got it done in about four hours but it beat the crap out of us.  Temps in the mid 90’s and Anne and I both hurt ourselves.  We took the truck and trailer home and decided to do the rest in the morning.  We had started out thinking we would fill about half the trailer and we could book a partial load to pay the fuel costs for the move HAHAHAHAHAHA.  We packed this baby to the very back.  CJ had school and practice and meetings so he was not available so I called Labor Ready and hired a couple of guys for four hours to help us load.  Let’s just say that Anne and Shelby were stronger than the two old guys they sent.  They were very nice and polite but not real hustlers.  I guess I do not blame them since I found out that they only get $7.75 an hour of the $25 an hour I was paying.  So with the doors closed, we took showers and got rolling to the Southeast.  Shelby driving the pickup and I drove the semi.

We arrived in Chattanooga on Wednesday night and checked into Jason and Anna’s awesome bed and breakfast (not really a bed and breakfast, they are just amazing hosts and we get to hang out with our awesome grandkids) and took the truck to Cummins Thursday morning for a service appointment.  We are finally going to get this dang regen issue figured out…….we hope.  So with the truck being looked at we go out home shopping.  Our issue is finding a home close to town with the room for our furniture.  This should go well.

What we want and what we want to spend are two different things.  The exact place I would want would cost about $2,000 a month and that is not in the plan.  Our long term goal is still to buy a boat and put it on Lake Union in downtown Seattle for a summer home.  If we go broke on housing in Chattanooga we will never get the boat in Seattle.  We found an awesome two bedroom loft exactly where we wanted on the Southside for a bit more than we wanted to spend.  Walking distance to everything.  Two negatives, parking was across the street and the bedroom walls did not go to the ceiling.  The walls are fine for a couple but not too awesome when your daughter lives with you.  We also got a call from Cummins while we were out looking, the new dpf filter that was installed by the Volvo dealer is cracked.  The part alone is $2,500.  gulp.  So now, while are still looking, I am panicking about prices.  Anne, of course, is working to calm me down but I am a bit stressed.  I find an apartment way out of town.  It is out by the lake and although the apartment itself is pretty awesome, three bedrooms, 1500+ square feet, a pool and a great kitchen.  The location is not at all what we were looking for.  Why are we here?  Price.  Anne calms me down again and we head to a location I had seen apartments near the North Shore and we find a pretty cool place.  All of the features of the last place but three minutes to town.  We have filled out the application but are still looking.  We would rather have a house.

So, we went Friday afternoon and picked up the truck.  Just LOVED paying the $3,500 bill.  Thank God we had the money.  Then we drove over to the Volvo dealer and met with the GM.  I explained that the dpf filter was cracked because his mechanic had not calibrated it (the truck computer confirms this)  and I asked for help on the bill.  I stayed calm and Anne worked her magic and he was pretty awesome.  He said he would investigate and get back to us on Monday.  We know they will pay something and maybe the whole bill.  We will see.  Whether or not we stay homeless kind of depends on this 🙂

We are sitting here this morning looking for a load.  We kinda need to make some money.

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Semi Interior Video Page

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Craig

So, I have created a single page on this blog with links to the interior videos of all four of the trucks we have driven.  There is a link at the top of the home page but here it is directly also.  We get more questions about what it is like to live in a semi so I hope this helps.  Feel free to ask any questions.

https://anneandcraigleonard.wordpress.com/?page_id=2260&preview=true

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Geez, starting to feel like a trucker again

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Craig

I hope I am not jinxing us.

So we got the truck out of the shop.  I want to say everything is fixed but I can’t.  They found two air leaks and fixed them, found the fuel injector for the aftertreatment system was clogged and said that fixed the regen issue (it didn’t) and there was an issue with an oil bypass filter that was causing the oil pressure to spike down and that is what was causing the engine shut-off.  So no transmission issue and that problem was fixed.  No idea what we are going to do about the regen thing but we just need to run and make money.  We were VERY happy with the dealer in Seattle so we will be going back there again I am sure.

The fact is, we had to get back to work.  My tan is getting embarrassing.

We picked up a load with four drops heading to South Carolina.  It is a full trailer full of Yamaha outboard engines.  US Xpress would have definitely designated this a “high value” load as the retail value of an outboard is about $100 per horsepower.  That means a 200 hp motor is worth $20,000 and we had a bunch of them.  We are really loving having Shelby and Bella with us but it is getting a bit cramped in this truck.  Taking her to Chattanooga so she can check it out before she moves there.

We headed out Thursday evening and Anne got us a couple hundred miles and I took over.  We rolled into the big town of Three Forks Montana at about 11:00 AM for fuel….both for the truck and for us.  Wheat Montana Bakery & Deli is in Three Forks and we love this place.  They grow the grain, make the flour and bake the bread.  It does not get any better than this.  They also make a kick ass pancake mix.  In my post-trip inspection (you check out the whole tractor and trailer before and after your shift) I found we had a trailer tire that had lost most of it’s tread and we also had a tail light on the trailer that was out.  It was now Anne’s turn to drive so as soon as we got to someplace bigger she would stop and have the tire replaced and the light fixed.  I go to sleep as we head towards Billings.  This also means it was Anne’s turn to break the truck.  She has to go to three places in Billings to find the correct light but she gets it done.  We stop for fuel in Hardin MT and she notices a florescent green fluid spraying out at the bottom of the front grill.  It is a tiny leak.  She decides she needs to wake me up.  Something had hit the bug shield behind the grill hard enough to push it back and put a hole in the air conditioner condenser.  A rock or a bird, we will never know.  The condenser looks like a smaller radiator in front of the actual radiator.  When the leaking stops, we are going to lose a/c. Not good when you are heading to South Carolina in August.  It is only about 70 degrees so we can shut off the a/c for now but we going to have to get this fixed.

I drive through South Dakota that night and we roll through Sturgis about midnight on Friday in the middle of the motorcycle rally.  Did not really see anything from the freeway except the many spotlights and searchlights from the main stage where Toby Keith had just finished his concert (or maybe it was Kid Rock)  Shelby was disappointed I did not wake her up to see….nothing.   About 9:00 AM we get to Sioux Falls and head South on I-29.  I call the TA in Council Bluffs and they tell me they do not have the condenser and the nearest dealer is in Omaha.  Dealers are only open until noon on Saturdays.  So I call the dealer in Chattanooga since we will be going through there and they tell me they have the part.  I call Bill, owner of Farm2Fleet and he goes by the dealer and gets the part for me.  Have I mentioned how much we love these guys?  I can get the condenser installed easy at any number of places.  Right after I get the text from Bill “Got it”  We pass a Volvo dealer right next to the freeway in Sioux City.  It is only 10:30 here so I call the dealer and yes, they have the part in stock.  I take the next exit and head back.  It cost me $100 more here but the Sapp Brothers Truck Stop in Percival Iowa has no line and we can get right in.  We get to Percival, check the truck in, take showers, have lunch and the truck is fixed.  Another $850 “invested” in this truck.  The important thing is, WE HAVE A/C!  Wow, does this thing blow cold now.  We obviously needed a new condenser anyway.

We get to Chattanooga early Sunday morning, call Jason and he picks us up.  We are 400 miles from our first drop and that will be at 5 AM Monday.  So we get to spend the day in Chattanooga.  Played with the grandkids and headed to Champy’s for some awesome fried chicken.  Bill and Lauren met us there and so did Tom, our new VP of Operations.  I asked the Hoods if they would “babysit” Shelby and Bella while Anne and I ran down to SC to make our deliveries.  What a stupid idea this was.  it was like giving Lauren the keys to the Lamborghini and saying “drive slow”.  I am sure our daughter (who is having a blast) will never be the same.

We made our four drops in SC, where it was 98 degrees with very high humidity (but 65 and a bit chilly inside the truck, yea), and then booked a load heading back to Atlanta.  We are at the Costco distribution center now where they are unloading the 7000 pounds of gold toe socks.  We are then picking up here in Atlanta and heading back to Seattle.  Picking Shelby up on the way if we can get her away from the Hoods.  Will drop Shelby back in Colorado where she can start packing for the move in a month.

A cute note.  Our Daughter-in-Law Anna took Shelby out yesterday shopping for houses and apartments.  She started the day looking at $700 places and the last one she called Anne about was $1250.  So typical.  lol

So we are booked out since we will be delivering in Seattle on Saturday morning and already have a load out heading back to the Southeast.  Going to actually feel good to just keep moving for a few weeks.

Two full weeks of loads, back to back.  Kinda like having a job.

Oh, this is kinda cool.  My son CJ plays Quarterback for Colorado State University.  They hooked a GoPro camera to his helmet in practice a couple of days ago.  Three minutes long and pretty interesting.

https://vimeo.com/72165937

 

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Totally disappointed in Canadian fans.

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Anne Leonard

This post doesn’t have anything to do with trucking but since our truck is in the shop in Seattle. We decided to go to a Mariners game. I have wanted to go to a Mariners game for years and sit in Kings Court. For those of you that don’t know what that is. Every game that Felix Hernandez pitches they have sections of the stadium where you get a yellow shirt and a big K for strike outs. When he has two strikes the whole sections stand up and chant K. And then he strikes them out. Well in a perfect world he does. Last night we finally got to go. Craig, Aleena, Shelby, Scott Kuna and I went last night to root our Mariners on. It was not a good night for the Mariners. Felix’s first pitch was a homerun. UGH. But hey thats the way sports goes. Especially baseball. You never know what is going to happen.
Anyway back to my story. The Toronto Blue Jays played well but their fans were atrocious. I have never seen so many rude people in my life. The weren’t gracious in the least and were flipping people off and chanting. This was from the very start of the game. I get supporting your team. But do it with some decorum. I would be embarrassed if my fans acted like that. It wasn’t just me that thought this. The Mariners staff said they have never seen anything like this. I was really disappointed and had so been looking forward to being in Kings Court. I guess a lot of the Blue Jays fans thought the same thing. They got seats in Kings Court section and tried to disrupt the fun. I wish it had been a different outcome on the score but hey 4 errors in a game you know it isn’t your night.
I can tell you this. I will never ever root for the Blue Jays.

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LOVE Seattle!

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Craig

I have lived in Fort Collins Colorado for 13 years and I love it. We are looking for a place in Chattanooga and I love it. I have lived in Los Angeles and I…well….I worked. So it was not fun in the sun, it was just hot. Seattle, however, is HOME. Anne loves it here also but LA is still home to her. I think I have mentioned it on here before but our plan is to buy a 40′ boat and moor it in downtown Seattle on Lake Union. After living for almost three years in a truck a boat is gonna seem huge.

So we are in Seattle for SeaFair Weekend and a Semi-Family reunion. Dustin and Jill, my Nephew and his Wife who are Air Force Officers, are in town to show off my latest Great Nephew. Very much looking forward to meeting Brantley tomorrow. My youngest sister is in town with her two boys from Wisconsin and we brought Shelby, our youngest (ALMOST 21) with us. We swung through Colorado on our way from Georgia to Snohomish WA and had dinner with my son and his girlfriend and Shelby. Packed Shelby and her dog Bella into the truck and continued on to Washington. We will be here a bit. Why???

The dang truck is in the shop again! and again!

So, after we finished the “tiger load” as everyone at Farm2Fleet calls it, we booked a load from Oklahoma City to Dallas GA. A little town NW of Atlanta. We are having a new problem with the truck and we still have not found anyone who can fix the old problem. The constant “regen” issue is still happening but as we rolled out of the wild animal sanctuary in Maine all of a sudden the engine dies. Anne is driving, she pulls over to the side of the road and we are panicking. We have a load of live, dangerous, animals and we NEED to keep rolling. The trucks starts right up again and we are off, A few miles down the road it happens again….and again. I am thinking we have an electrical problem. It happens a few more times while Anne is driving. Then it is my turn. When it happens to me, I figure out it is something in the transmission. It is happening when the engine is trying to shift under heavy acceleration. Even though we have an automatic transmission in this truck, it also has a clutch pedal. I figure out that if we have any speed to work with, I can depress the clutch and let it back out once the engine completely dies and compression start the engine. So on we roll. We NEED to deliver these animals on time. And we do, we get to Oklahoma and I am sure Anne wants to do a wrap up on the trip so I will leave it there. We are, however, exhausted. The stress of the live animals and the truck problems have taken their toll.

We decide we are going to get the damn truck fixed. A friend of ours and fellow F2F driver recommends his mechanic in Heflin Alabama. A wide spot on the road. We have lots of time on this load so we stop to see Matt. He is awesome and gets us right in but he does not have the parts or the computer software we need. He tries a couple of things but decides to send us to the Volvo dealer in Atlanta. We go to deliver the load and it turns out the shipper had loaded the wrong product. It is the product listed on the Bill of Lading (so not our fault) but it is not what the consignee ordered and they refuse to unload it. I call the broker and he says, “let me get authorization for you to take it back to Oklahoma” NOPE, I say, “that is not going to happen” I booked a not very well paying load out of Oklahoma to get to a good freight location and I am not going to take a low paying load back to a crappy freight location to start the process over again. So we sit at the dock for almost four hours while they try to figure out what to do. They finally agree to off load the cargo and have another truck pick it up later. It is now late Thursday afternoon. We head to the Petro truck stop on the West side of Atlanta. Anne calls her friend Leslie and she picks us up and we go out to dinner. Leslie then drops us off at Katies house and we settle in. Friday morning I take the truck to the Atlanta Volvo dealer and we wait, (OK, and play. We are, after all, hanging with Katie). On Monday I call the service manager and he says they have not figured the problem out yet. I call again on Tuesday morning and I get the same answer. I ask him what they know so far and he tells me they have not even pulled it in yet. WHAT? I said “when will you get to it” and his response “tonight or maybe tomorrow” I tell him not to touch the truck, we are coming to get it. I go online and book a load to Seattle leaving that afternoon. I have Anne drop me off at the dealer and I go to pick up the load while she packs us back up. I get loaded (the truck I mean) and head to the Petro where Katie drops Anne off with our stuff and we are off.

So, why is Shelby in the truck? She hated her job and was feeling pretty alone in Colorado. She has been planning to move back to California but it is just so freaking expensive to live there. We have not been home to Colorado since March. Why? No freight originates in Denver. It is very hard to make any money going to or from Denver. Anne talked to Shelby about maybe Seattle for a new home. Shelby said “why not Chattanooga?” SWEET! We have been talking about moving our home base to Chattanooga since we are always there. This does not replace Seattle but as a second home. So we are looking for a place in Chattanooga that we can share with her. To that end, we are taking Shelby with us to Chattanooga so she can check it out. We will then drop her back in Colorado on the next round trip and she can start to prepare to move.

We struggled all the way across the country with this stupid transmission issue but we got to stop for lunch in Three Forks at the Wheat Montana Bakery and Deli, a place we love and then again Anne got to show off her favorite gift shop in Haugan Montana and Lincoln’s 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar. We always stop there also

So we are settled in until the dang truck is fixed this time. Truck is at the Volvo dealer South of Seattle and they are working on it. I have received a couple of calls from the mechanic and progress is being made. We hope to get out with a bill under $2,000. Fingers are crossed. It costs us more than that in lost revenue just not running every time we are down. We NEED to get this stuff fixed. We are just going to really enjoy family for a few days and not worry about it. Then we are going to run our socks off.

So I am hanging with all of the wonderful women in my life, my wife, two daughters and my mom (and my dad is doing great). Life is pretty dang good.

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The Video Interview with the Zookeeper

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Craig

As we neared the end of the trip, I decided we needed to hear Danny’s side of the story. 

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Our FIRST Guest Blogger!!!

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Craig

So here it is, we asked Danny, the Zookeeper who traveled round trip to Maine with us, to write a blog post for us.  Here you go.  We love this kid and had a great time traveling with him.  I did promise not to edit it……Craig

Danny’s  blog………..

I’m not much of a blogger…but when Craig and Anne asked me to write one I was excited to share our great time together. Lets start out by introducing myself, my name is Danny.  I’ve worked at gw zoo for five years now and have enjoyed every day caring for such animals like lions, leopards, tigers, monkey’s and bears as well as many other amazing animals.

Now since I’ve worked there I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to go out and rescue big cats and see first hand what animals go through before they come to our park.  So of course when the opportunity came by to go to Maine and rescue a bunch of animals I jumped on the chance…now they said I would be traveling with two others in a semi cab. Not knowing the two crazy people which I found out they really were, I was worried….after packing I came out on the park to meet up with this mysterious couple…I introduced myself and showed them around…wondering what my first impression was. Well it was o boy this is going to be an interesting five day trip. After showing them around I asked if they wanted to go and play with some baby tigers. U should of seen Anne’s face it was so priceless. We walk in the house and baby tigers were walking around,,now we came in at a good time because they were able to feed these beautiful babies a bottle. As I watched they both looked like two kids on Christmas morning. Now after the babies we began to get ready to hit the road.

The first day or so we were all trying to figure each other out, kinda awkward. Now skipping ahead, we get to Maine we rest for the night at a walmart parking lot. The next morning were staving so we look for a place to eat some lobster. We find a place walk in and being confused as we were, we ask for a lobster, apparently you can choose small medium or large, felt like I was at McDonald’s. We get a medium, place the order and find our seat. Now me, since I’ve never have eaten seafood ever especially lobster, now imagining what it would taste like in my mind disgusting. But since they both kept insisting I thought I’d try one.  Now the lobsters come out and I’m thinking gross.  I put put on a bib as Anne is teaching me how to get the most meat out I take a bite and I’m like yumm actually tasted lot better than I thought. We eat through our meal while we tear literally into these lobsters. Now personally I don’t think I’ll ever try lobsters again.  But worth the experience. Now we take off  and head out.

Now the next day Craig looks for a place to eat and finds a place called “Martha’s diner” now looking from the outside I never would of eaten there but since Craig insisted we go ..I go in and grab a seat while both are changing in the cab. They come in we order coffee and of course Anne does not like half and half creamer so she gets the real stuff. We meet our server. Forgot her name but she was fun. She has this Brooklyn like accent. I try to copy the accent but totally killed it. So anyway Craig asks about going to the bar harbor island, she tells us to meet this free bus at this gas station which would take us. We hop on and eventually hop off which was apparently too early thanks Craig, Haha. We get to this beautiful place, we get to the harbor stop at this bar grab some good food. Me chicken fingers Craig and Anne some lobster roll which looked nasty but they seemed to enjoy it. We finish and head out to go shopping. Now don’t ever leave Anne alone shopping, she crazy shops haha. We eventually catch a cab to get back to the truck to head to the rescue.

We get to the park and find these poor animals in terrible conditions. Poor lion and tigers. Anne actually helped us out she was called nurse Anne which was pretty funny..we get the animals loaded six hours later. Hop in the truck and head back to the park from Maine to South Oklahoma.

Now on the way back was more of a blast with this funny, very sarcastic couple. You just never know when they are serious. At moments I thought they were going like kick one another out of the truck, as in Anne kicking Craig out ..but they are such great people that these can never stay mad for more then two minutes at each other. All and all we drop the animals off. The trip was a great and successful one..riding with this couple taught me never stay mad, always be positive. If something goes wrong don’t get mad just be just disappointed instead that it didn’t go out the way u wanted and move on….I swear this couple needs seriously a tv show with them…america would so love to meet these two fun sometimes crazy people. I travel and meet thousands of people a day or so and I never met a couple quite like these two. I love them both and am so glad I got to experience my first big cat rescue with these two awesome people..o by the way Anne is such a worry wart.

Lol lmao haha tehehe rotflmao
Love you guys u two were amazing

Danny

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Nurse Anne’s update

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Anne Leonard

WOW!!! This has been an amazing few days. I can’t even tell you how exhausted I am. USZA is an awesome group. Check out Joe Exotic.com This man is an inspiration. I watch him and his team in action and it was impressive. These animals are so incredible up close. Yes I did cheat and touch the tigers face and I am in love with the lion. They are truly majestic animals who deserve a new life in a wonderful environment.
Now I need to boast a bit about Danny. Danny is the zookeeper who drove up to Maine and back in the truck. Over 4000 miles and I will admit I was a little nervous. He has turned out to be one of the hardest workers I have ever known. I think he was a little nervous too about driving with us but I think he enjoyed his time with us. At least I hope he did. He tried lobster for the first time and not sure he really liked it but he was a good sport. I am impressed with his work ethic and GW ZOO is lucky to have him on their team. Danny also learned first hand about what fun Craig and I have on the road. We found a great place for lobster, did some shopping at walmart, did some exploring in Bar Harbor and just had a good time.
This trip has really been a once in a lifetime experience for us. For Team USZA it’s a pretty common occurrence. What goes into a rescue is mind boggling. But they do it often and I hope we can do some fundraising for them. If you would like to donate to their effort please go to http://www.usza.us they need all the help they can get in taking care of these beautiful animals and rescuing the others!! We nearing the end of our journey and will have a post later today or tomorrow to show the end result.

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Uh Stewardess..may I have some more water?

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Craig

Stopping every four hours to water and check on our passengers.  The trip is going very well.

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