Archive for 2009

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

Well things are picking up again (whew!). I have taken a load of pipe bends to Fort McMurray and then loaded some scrap metal for the ride home. After that I took another load of cell phone towers and equipment to Fort St. John and Fort Nelson. I then loaded some scrap steel bales for the ride home. Once again I messed up and ended up being heavy on my drives and had to wait for scales to close so I could get home to deliver. Wish I’d quit that as one day that mistake is going to cost me dearly. Always trying to get that extra few pounds for more pay. The weather has been just awesome for the past two weeks now. A little moisture in Fort McMurray where I had to load the scrap metal. It was a bit muddy there and I had to get pulled out with a cat. Also ran into a forest fire just outside 70 mile. It looks like it was a bad one as a lot of ground was burned and they were still putting out spot fires as I went by. Apparently the road was closed for a while before I got there. I took some pictures (see below). After unloading the scrap steel bales in the morning, I will be going back to the yard and hooking onto a preloaded trailer full of pipe bends for Christina Lake. Bye for now.

Truck accident outside of Fort St. John

Truck accident outside of Fort St. John

Pine Pass between Chetwynd and Prince George, BC

Pine Pass between Chetwynd and Prince George, BC

Sunset between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, BC

Sunset between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, BC

Vernon Bound

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Spent most of the afternoon yesterday waiting to load a 53′ van with military equipment to be delivered to Vernon for the Netherlands Ministry of Defence. Nothing serious just some pallets. The drive went smooth and I camped out overnight at Kamloops before heading to Vernon first thing in the morning. I got lost trying to find the place of course without the proper directions which is the norm it seems in this business, but got rescued by a sargent who let me in a locked gate to unload. They were pretty quick in unloading me so along with one of the other drivers we headed back towards Kamloops. Along the way we stopped for breakfast at a place called the “Whispering Pines”. The food was awesome. Homemade bread, homemade blueberry jelly, excellent hashbrowns and a great atmosphere! I reccomend this place to anyone travelling on hwy 97 between Kamloops and Vernon. Arrived back in Aldergrove and proceeded to get a room so I can watch my Canucks play hockey tonight! Go Nucks!!! Bye for now.

Back Home Finally

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Well after spending the Easter weekend in Fort St. John because of no back haul, I finally got a load of lumber in Quesnel. Mind you the forklift operator was a bit of an idiot. He loaded me with 2x10s and then the super came and told him they were supposed to be 2×4’s so he had to take them all off and reload the trailer. Even then he couldn’t count and placed the wrong amount of 12′ 2×4’s on the trailer and had to take two bundles of those off. A painful experience to say the least. Oh well I’m back in Aldergrove waiting to load some military stuff to haul to Kelowna on Thursday. bye for now.

Stuck In Fort St. John, BC

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

Wow, my bad.  Haven’t posted here in a long while.  I just took a load of towers and equipment for Bell Mobility to Fort Nelson, BC and because I cannot load my back haul until Monday (long weekend) I have to sit and wait in Fort St. John, BC as that is where I’ll be loading from.  It’s a dirty little town to say the least, but not as bad as Fort Nelson is for sure.  The weather has been nice any ways which is a bonus. 

My truck was running excellent up until I returned from holidays last week when I found out that someone had ran into it while it was parked in the yard.  Of course no one will own up to it.  Not much damage just a bent out bumper and a few scratches in the fiberglass.  But now the alternater is always charging more than it should when I’m up to speed and when it’s idling it is charging really low.  I noticed that my driving lights flicker on and off so I’m hoping that the bent bumper may have caused one of the wires to ground out and draw down the batteries.  Will get it checked out when I return.

Right now I’m building a website for a new client who is hosting on my server and it’s been fun actually.  Hope they like it.  Bye for now.

Scarey Ride

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

Took a load of pipe bends to Foster Creek, Alberta similar to last winter when I was up there.  Along the way the temperatures flucuated from minus 8 to minus 35 degrees celcius.  Took some pictures while driving through Jasper National Park with the crisp air making everything seem so clear (other than my dirty windshield).  Got to Foster Creek and the temp dipped to minus 35 but at least it was sunny.  Unloaded and headed back to Edmonton to load some fertilizer for the trip home.  Ran into a snow storm between Edson and Jasper on the way back.  West of the Fraser River Crossing I came across a serious accident between two four wheelers.  Story is one of them crossed the center line and got hit by an oncoming car.  There was fatalities, but I was allowed through before they shut the road down to do their investigation.  You hate to see this sort of thing, but speed was definately a factor in this accident.  The rest of the drive went without incident until I got to the Coquihalla Hwy between Merritt and Hope.  After stopping at the rest area above the “smasher” hill, I started down the hill in 4th gear taking my time as the road was a sheet of ice.  Using my jake brake and brakes sparingly I found that it didn’t matter much as I started to jack knife a couple of times due to compression from my rear wheels.  I finally decided to put my foot into it and hold on.  Luckily I had moved a lot of my weight onto front wheels for this reason so I was able to turn when I had to.  On the way down I looked over the other side of the road and it was a nightmare.  There was trucks and fourwheelers spun out everywhere on the hill.  It looked like a traffic jam during rush hour traffic in Vancouver.  They were backed up all the way down to the Box Canyon chain up area and tow trucks were constantly pulling rigs up the hill.  Boy was I glad I was heading south instead of heading north for a change.  Bye for now.

jaspernationalpark

jaspernationalpark

jaspernationalpark

jaspernationalpark

fatal accident

tempguage

Winter Woes

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Since my last post I’ve driven through some wicked snow storms that others weren’t so fortunate to make it through.  Most of the time this is due to speed or following too close.  But once in a while you get into a white out with blowing snow and you cannot see 10 feet in front of you.  Two tractors that ended up in the median on the trans Canada hwy in Chilliwack did so because they just drove off the road figuring they were on track when they weren’t.  No fault of theirs, just bad luck.  Luckily they were going dead slow so there was minimal damage or none at all and a tow was all that was needed.  Then outside of Blue River a truck took a corner too fast and laid his trailer on its side.  On my way back from Edmonton I saw a tractor with a load of lumber overturned in Jasper National Park and when queried by another driver over the radio he replied that a gust of wind suddenly blew sand and snow accross the road and he lost visibility for a brief moment and by the time he got it back he was already over the fog line and off of the road.  He managed to keep his truck upright, but the trailer flipped over.  In another incident, I was travelling between Valemount, BC and Blue River, BC when I came accross a 5 truck accident where following too close and speed were the main factors.  By the time I had got there most of the trucks were in the pullout except two and one trailer.  The orange truck had swerved to avoid hitting a lumber truck and went into the ditch.  The other trucks coming the opposite way, rear ended each other trying to stop.  One jack knifed up against the snow bank trying to avoid the mess.  Luckily for me I only had to wait for 45 minutes while they pulled the orange truck back onto the road.  By the time I got to Clearwater, BC it had cleared up and the sun had come out.  Dropping down into Merritt, BC off of the Coquihalla Hwy I took a picture of the fog bank covering Merritt.  I later drove into it which was an erie feeling to say the least.  Bye for now.

Chilliwack Adventure

Chilliwack Adventure

Chilliwack Adventure

Blue River Blues

Lumber Wrap

Lumber Wrap

Blue River Pileup

Blue River Pileup

 foggymerritt

 

Dimsdale Bound

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

Hauled a load of casing to Dimsdale, Alberta and then drove empty to Edmonton after unloading.  The drive was good with road conditions alright.  I decided to take hwy. 40 after hearing on the big radio that it was bare and dry.  However, I found out that there was some slippery sections on some corners that they forgot to tell me about.  At one point I thought I was going to slide off a corner and I was only doing 80 km/hr.  Slept at Grand Cache and then headed out for Grand Prairie in the morning.  Got stuck behind a wide load that could only manage about 20-30 km/hr up most of the hills.  This cost me about 45 minutes but I finally got around him.  Dimsdale is about 20 minutes west of Grand Prairie so it didn’t take long to find it.  After arriving in Edmonton to wait for my next load home I discovered that my turbo seal between the exhaust manifold and the turbo was leaking worse than before I left.  I couldn’t leave the truck running at night.  The temps in Edmonton were plus 4 so it didn’t matter until I got to Valemount, BC on the way home where it was minus 8.  I woke up a little cold but the extra quilt I got from mom for xmas helped immensely.  I have an appointment on Monday to get it fixed so I will be able to breathe a little easier and sleep with heat in the future.  Bye for now.

Windy Times

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Wow, did I ever run into some wind between Edson Alberta and Jasper Alberta.  I was hauling a load of foam back after delivering another load of pipe to Edmonton.  The wind was so strong it shifted my load over to one side about 4 inches.  After cinching it down again I headed for Vancouver to deliver.  Along the way I ran into a snow storm between Blue River, BC  and Clearwater, BC.  It was snowing pretty heavy and the roads weren’t in bad shape considering.  Foam is light so I took my time and passed three super b’s spun out on various hills.  By the time I got to Little Fort for breakfast the snow had changed to rain once again.  The highways were filthy dirty all the way to the rest area on top of the “smasher” hill on the Coquihalla where I convinced a loader operator who was moving snow around to help me straighten my load.  I have a bunch of pictures of accidents from before Xmas till now to upload when I have the time.  Bye for now.

Another New Year

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Happy New Year to all!!  I’ve been a bit lazy in writing to this blog lately, but will try to keep up.  I’ve been hauling pipe steady back and forth from BC to Alberta and back to BC.  That is about all that is available to haul right now with the economy the way it is.  Starting to get tired of dealing with the morons that work at the ports however.  Wouldn’t be proud to say I worked there I tell you.  Bunch of fat, lazy you know whats if you ask me. 

Been a lot of snow to drive through and mud slides as well as snow slides have been closing down some roads.  Everyone is out of money apparently when it comes to clearing off the roads as they are pathetic.  Welcome to the world of privatization. 

Just a month and a half and I’ll have my truck paid off.  Whew!  I’ll be glad when that is over and done with let me tell you.  The truck has been running well (knock wood) and it is starting to burn a little oil but apparently that is normal for an older truck.   Well I’ll talk to you later.