DOT Inspection and more

Things just seem to go from bad to worse. We start out the morning with getting loaded at the shipper and got that done pretty easily. We go to weigh the load and adjust it and we are on our way back to Illinois. We have to pull into a weigh station and we are sure the weight is fine but we get a red light and that means we have to pull over. Josh takes the paperwork inside and our weight is fine but they wanted to do an inspection. Great. They pull two more trucks into the area for inspection also. Josh had never had done this before so we got to enjoy our first inspection together. The guy came out and went through everything, being very detailed. While doing our inspection a hazard waste truck was being inspected and he was out of there in about 10 minutes, by the time our inspection was over it was about 45 minutes. Josh comes back to the truck with the final report and they found three violations. Two of them were basically the same about the load not being properly secured and the other was there was a scuff mark on the break lines. Once agaiin we are on our way.

We make it to our destination and it is a fun time trying to back into dock. I swear some of these places like to see how talented you are in manuvering you way around. This is the first time Josh had me get out and help him back into the dock without hitting anything, it was tight. We have had trouble with the truck not wanting to start on occasion and this time it was even worse. They needed us to move forward about 3 inches and it took forever for the truck to start.. The trailer is unloaded and we try to start the truck and there is nothing. After multiple tries without even getting a sound that it was going to try to start we call McLeod, which is only a few miles away, to come and get us started since we are still sitting in the dock and I am sure they needed us to move soon. We wait for the rescue truck and what seemed like a long time they come and figure out that we have a short to the starter. Thankfully they don't leave us but stay in front of us on the way back to the McLeod yard because not too far away the road we needed had a train on the tracks and if the truck idles longer than 5 minutes it automatically turns off. Quickly the repair man runs back and tells us to follow him to a different way around so the truck won't turn off. We make it there and immediately he starts working on the starter. We also let him know that our bunker a/c isn't working still and told him about the break line that we got violations for from the inspection. I was impressed that even though it was time for this guy to go home he stayed and fixed everything except the break line as he says it is only a scuff mark on the line and there is nothing wrong. I hope he is right about that as I don't want to go through another inspection and see that we didn't get that fixed.

Earlier in the day we received our next load information and we didn't think we would be taking that load since we used up the drive clock with getting repairs done, plus we were supposed to have home time on Thursday and the run was going to Pennsylvania. We wouldn't know til morning when the dispatchers come into the office.

Early in the morning we went inside and took showers. I was looking forward to it but there was no water pressure, the water wasn't hot, and the water must of been very soft as it felt like I couldn't get rinsed, but I am always happy to be clean. Josh went and talked with the dispatcher and told him to go ahead and take that load and said we might get some home time this weekend. I am so loving that word "might", it instills such confidence. The town we are going to is called Bethlahem, so all morning I have had the song Oh little town of Bethlahem stuck in my head.

I can tell that riding in the truck is getting to me in ways I didn't expect. I am still constipated and lately my hands and feet are swelling. I am sure the swelling has to do with the combination of sitting, eating salty food, and the vibration of the truck. I don't know why vibrations make me swell but it always does. I can weedeat the yard and my hands are always numb and swollen by the time I am done. I guess I am just too delicate! ha ha!

I almost forgot, after parking for the night we were feeling a bit down and agrivated about things that had happened during the day and then suddenly a dove landed on the mirror in the front of the truck. I told Josh it was there to give us good luck but for me it was much more. It made me reflect that no matter how frustrating our day was we were safe, alive and together. God is watching over us and I am so thankful for his protection, and I believe he sent that dove to say "hey, quit your complaining and start thanking" so Thank You God!

 not my pic

An accident we saw this morning,it didn't look too serious.