Anne & Craigs Great Adventure

OK, just to prove that everything evens out eventually.  It looks like Anne has a trainer and will be heading out tomorrow if everything works out.  Meanwhile, back on the home front.  My trainer lost his wallet last week (it is a crazy story and I am pretty sure there was a stipper involved)…..ANYWAY…he went in to the DMV on Tuesday with his birth certificate and was told that since he had been licensed in Colorado for less than a year he needed a release from Missouri to prove his identity.  He called Missouri and they faxed him the release, he took it into the DMV and they told him it had to be signed and notarized.  The only problem is that he needs photo ID to get it notarized.  “No Problem” says the DMV, they will give him an Photo ID card that he can take to the notary to bring back the form so that they will know who he is and can give him a replacement license.  Only a government employee could possibly think this makes any sense.  So we are waiting until next week for Mike to get his ID card and then his license.  By the time this is done, Anne should have caught up with me in training.  I am home for a week.

Looks like I MAY have a trainer at last. I hope to find out later today but am sure I will have one by the end of the week. I want to get started so I’m not too far behind Craig. I am hoping to be able to catch up. I spent a week with Jason, Anna and Jack which was really an awesome time. It gave me a chance to spend time with them and get to know them better. I must say I married into an amazing family and am truly blessed. I have spent the last 4 days in Atlanta visiting with Katie which has been a blast. For those of you who don’t know Katie. She is one of my best friends since college.  She has helped me organize my things and am sending some home. Realize I don’t need as much as I brought. Good thing she does this for a living because she is really good at it. On the sad note I realize I won’t see Shelby for another 5 weeks most likely. That was a little depressing for me but I’m sure she is happy with it. I do miss home I have to say. I miss my husband, my daughter and my dogs. Looking forward to getting started with my training though and keep thinking about the big picture.

Sat home most of the week due to snow.  We had gotten in late on Sunday, I guess early Monday is more accurate.  Mike said he would do the deliveries on his own so I got home time.  The truck got stuck in the snow a number of times at the stores and it took days to make the deliveries, so I waited until Friday to head back to Denver to meet up with him.  So we headed out about noon, about 4 miles to a truck stop to fuel the truck, then we had to head to Coors in Golden (West, the opposite direction from Oklahoma) to check the brakes on a USX trailer that had the brakes fixed in the yard.  Why us I will never know since while I was hooking up to the trailer to check it another USX truck drove in to drop a trailer.  They could have easily checked this one.  ???  Anyway, then we headed East.  Due to the snow delay, we did not go to Texas this trip, just Duncan Oklahoma and then back to Denver.  I got about 9.5 driving hours Friday, 11 on Saturday and 10 on Sunday and then about 4 today.  I think I am right at 50 hours (need to check my log book) so that puts me at 1/3 of the way through training.  Today was all city diving and backing on Colfax, Wadsworth and other fun streets.  We had 4 stops today, 2500 pieces, starting at 6 AM.  We had just finished loading 734 boxes into our third stop, got in the truck and grabbed the packet to put store #4 in the GPS……….THAT is when we figured out we had just delivered to the wrong store.  We did not notice, the manager of the store did not notice and the two employees putting the boxes away did not notice the wrong store number on every box!  We had to re-load everything and then deliver to what should have been our third stop and then come back to the actual 4th stop and deliver their load.  So the 2500 pieces became almost 4000.  Supposed to have been done about 3:00 PM and I got home at 8:00 PM.  Very tired and beat up.  I have tomorrow off and then head out Wednesday for Oklahoma and Texas.

On the other end of the continent, Anne still does not have a trainer.   My trainer has said that finding someone who will take a woman and is a non-smoker is pretty hard and said it should take a couple of weeks to get her lined up. Two weeks is this Wednesday so fingers are crossed.  She is having a great time, spent a few days with Jack, our grandson….oh, and his parents 🙂  I am so thankful she had the opportunity to spend time with Jason and Anna.  I sure wish I could have joined them.  She then headed down to Atlanta to hang out with her best friend from college.  It sounds like she is really having fun but wants to get moving forward.  Once I finish training they will send me out solo until Anne gets done.  I am missing her very badly and the clock will not even start towards me seeing her until she has a trainer.  Prayers in this regard would be much appreciated.

I am in Chattanooga waiting on a trainer. After a 20 hour bus ride I landed safely, then Chattanooga got hit by a major snow storm. I am still waiting. Today was the first day my training coordinator made it to the office. He tells me to be patient and I am a high priority…. but I’m not feeling like a priority. I guess I should be grateful I am not sitting in a bus terminal stranded somewhere or worse stuck in the cab of a very small truck with someone I barely know. I guess I should be grateful and I am trying but I just want to get started!!!! Okay now I’m done feeling sorry for myself. On a positive note I am getting to spend time with Jason, Anna and Jack which has been a treat!!!!

So, my trainer Mike is a great guy and we get along very well.  He has a dedicated run between Denver and Houston for Family Dollar stores.  The VERY sweet part is this means I will get home for a day or two each week during training, I am told this never happens (and it made me a little unpopular with my wife).  Very cool.  He picked me up at the Terminal in Irving Texas and I drove about 2 1/2 hours to a little town South East of Dallas.  We parked at the first drop and went to sleep.  We had 2400 boxes to unload at five stops on Saturday all by hand.  I actually really enjoyed the workout.  At the end of the day we headed to a truck stop where we refueled and had dinner while I got to watch the amazing fourth quarter of my Seahawks win over the Saints.  Who woulda thought?  It was then time for a shower and I drove about 4 hours into Oklahoma  before we pulled into a rest stop near Bowie and went to sleep.  Up in the morning and Mike drove to the Family Dollar distribution center in Duncan OK.  Dropped our trailer and hooked up to a full one going to Denver.  Mike continued to drive North as we headed toward Kansas and home.  South of Oklahoma City I pulled up the weather radar and we saw that Kansas was getting hammered with snow so Mike decided we were headed West on I-40 to Amarillo and then North through Eastern Colorado to Limon on I-70 before turning West towards Denver.  I figure we skipped about 6 hours of snow driving.  When we were about nine hours from Denver, I took over driving.  Max hours a driver is allowed to drive in a day is eleven hours so this should allow me to make it all the way even in the snow.  That was the plan anyway.  About halfway between the Colorado border and Limon, it started to snow.  It was cold so the snow was mostly blowing off the road……for a while.  The road got pretty bad but we were thinking that once we got to I-70, the road would be plowed and in better shape.  We were wrong, I-70 was a mess.  A number of wrecks and pretty windy with very heavy snow.  The only good news was very light traffic between the storm and it being late Sunday night.  The truck handled very well and I kept it between 35 and 45 miles an hour all the way to Denver.  We got to the first stop for Monday at about 2:00 AM as the computer hit 10:57 minutes on the clock for my drive time.  Shelby picked me up in the Explorer (4 wheel drive) and we were home at about 3:15 AM.  Mike stayed in the truck and had to get it towed the next morning as it was snowed in.  I meet him Wednesday morning to run back to Oklahoma and then to Texas.

We just need Anne to get a trainer so we finish near the same time.

My turn for an update. Craig is off with his trainer having a blast. Me on the other hand spent the last day and half on a greyhound bus. Again. LOL. I hope I never have to ride another bus again unless I want to. 20 hours sitting up is just way too much. My trip to Chattanooga was interesting to say the least. I started off waiting 5 hours in Dallas terminal which might I say is a very scary place. Luckily one of our co workers missed his bus and waited with me. The rest of the trip wasn’t as colorful as our first trip through Amarillo. We did have the Sheriff board the bus looking for someone. There were some interesting characters but no one bothered me this trip. I am now curled up on Jason and Anna’s couch playing on the computer and watching football still in my pj’s. We are expecting snow tonight and keeping my fingers crossed that they find me a trainer!!! Chattanooga is US Xpress headquarters which means more drivers passing through. At least I hope that is the case. Craig will be heading home for a bit the lucky dog. He really has lucked out!!  Really want to get started I hate this waiting game.

OK, we both passed through orientation and we were hired by US Xpress.  HUGE relief and a paycheck on the way.  We are now waiting for our training drivers.  The next step is to drive 150 hours with me behind the wheel.  The first 75 hours, my trainer is not allowed to drive and just sits in the passenger seat and observes.  The second half we can operate as a team and he can sleep while I drive.  This usually takes about three weeks to complete.  Then we will be sent to Chattanooga for our upgrade test to a First Seat Driver.  This consists of a road test and a written test.  I have already been assigned my trainer  and will be picked up tonight here in Dallas.  Anne’s training coordinator is trying to get her out so we finish at (about) the same time.  We have a plan!  If they do not find her a trainer today, she is going to take the bus to Chattanooga instead of home.  USX is based in Chattanooga and a ton of freight goes through there, she should be able to get out quickly and she can stay with Jason and Anna (and see Jackson).  I got so freaking lucky, my trainer is on a dedicated run for Family Dollar Stores from Denver to Houston.  I will get two days off a week at home during training.  Pretty unheard of.  Going to sit in the drivers lounge and watch Eastern Washington University win the national FCS championship tonight and then start driving.  Pretty excited.

Day one of orientation was great. Anne is all done with the paperwork and drive test. I held the door open at the Medical Clinic for everyone and so was last in line (big mistake and the last time I will be nice), a couple of hours later my DOT physical and Drug Screen were completed while Anne was back at USX getting her drive test completed. I will get mine tomorrow.  Instructor is awesome and pretty funny.   Pretty impressed so far and we are feeling very confident that we have made the right choice.  We met Anna who had contacted us on a message board about US Xpress.  She has worked as a driver for USX since April and is at the Irving Terminal getting some repairs done on her truck.  She actually drove us to get our drug tests and physicals.  Very nice person.

After we got back to the hotel, we went out to dinner with a bunch of our new (almost) coworkers.  We went to a great little Mexican Restaurant, Taqueria Arandero and the food was excellent.  Anne and I split a large burrito that was very tasty and two steak tacos.  Huge dinner for two for ten dollars, pretty sweet.  One of the people with us, Connie, had maybe the worlds most perfect dinner.  I quote from the menu “Alambres – Fajitas marinated with bacon, bell peppers and onions served with rice, re-fried beans, guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes and tortillas”

Yes, that is right……. MARINATED WITH BACON……  It cannot be improved!

I do love the cheetohs in the background. She offered to sell them for $10 and my sister in law told me they sell for $5.99. Good thing we didn’t buy them. It was really an interesting trip. We are both exhausted but I think once we get some sleep we will laugh about the people we met and the places we stopped. At one of the stops (which happened to be a truck stop) the driver warned us not to venture too deep or we may never make it out. I did not find it very comforting but didn’t share that we were going to be spending a lot of time in places like that. All in all I am happy to be at our hotel watching the Seahawks beat the Rams, at least I hope they do. The big adventure begins at the ungodly hour of 6am but they feed us breakfast and pick us up in the lobby. Keep us in your prayers that our day goes amazing!!!!!

So, we arrived in Dallas today after 20 hours on a Greyhound bus.  Now all we have to do is earn a job.  We do not actually get hired by US Xpress until we complete orientation,  This includes a DOT physical, physical skills capability test, complete background/employment verification (they are VERY picky about this) and passing a road driving test.  Most of this happens on Monday, then if you make it through that, it is learning company stuff and watching videos for two more days.  If everything works out, we get hired and get sent out with our respective trainers on Thursday for approx. 3 weeks driving.  Then we come back, take an “upgrade” test and get our own truck and start driving together.

We are very tired after the, very interesting, bus trip.  We are checked into the Ramada Inn and Anne is taking a nap while I watch football.  Going to be a very lazy and early evening.  Breakfast at 6:00 AM and shuttle bus to orientation at 6:40 AM.

Living the good life!!!