Home Again

Haven't been able to post lately, been a while since I was in a hotel or anywhere close to a Wi-Fi connection. I switched mentors for my remaining 2 weeks of training and immediately started driving coast to coast. This was the training I was looking for as it is what I planned on doing in the long run. We started off by going down to Georgia with a stop in MD on the way. A bit of ironic foreshadowing came with the first dispatch while I was in the truck, Portland OR. Finally, a chance to go to the city I've been researching for the past 5 years. There was a bit of a layover in Kansas along the way, a few deliveries in Nebraska, and a detour through Montana due to bad weather shutting down I-80. I exhausted my driving time going from Billings MT to Washington, which gave me the opportunity to pay full attention to the Columbia River Gorge.

Although I had already been up quite a while, my first trip into Portland had a 5 year old on Christmas morning effect on my ability to sleep. The drive was 90 minutes of heaven, and by the time we got to Troutdale I had already made my final decision to move, the sooner the better. We dropped off our load and I did a bit of visiting with Nick the Tool (sorry man, nicknames just don't go away when you leave the Pyle) a former co-worker on the Youghiogheny.

Nick took me over to Camas, where I has planned to relocate to. You can find out a lot about a place on the net, you can even see everything on Google Earth, but you just can't smell the paper mill until you go to a place. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of smelling a pulping operation, imagine drinking a gallon of sour milk, then vomiting said milk onto a tire fire. There is nothing quite like the mix of chemical and biological stank of the paper mill, and unfortunately Camas is just downwind. This is nothing against the town, actually I found the place quite to my liking, and I'm sure after time you get used to the odor. However I will be there infrequently and will not have a chance to get used to the pungent aroma of the area. Fortunately Vancouver is 5 miles to the west, and a bit closer to the bridge to Portland.

I got up much earlier than I would have liked and went up to St. Helens OR to get a new load heading to New Jersey. As if I didn't already have enough of that state delivering to Target. We made short work of the mileage averaging around 1200 mi. a day and arrived at our destination 4 days early. Luckily someone came in on the weekend to pick up something they forgot, and unloaded our truck. Whoever it was wasn't even a dock worker, and for his efforts I offer eternal gratitude.

My training was coming to an end and after a quick loop of Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky it was time to head back to the terminal. I got to drive my old routes from back when I drove straight truck. Things have changed quite a bit in WV (has it really been almost 15 years)? While the rolling Appalachian hills of the mountain state are scenic, they can be less enjoyable when you have 35,000 pounds behind you. Oh well, when you're stuck at 35 MPH from Cheat Lake to Coopers Rock you have more time to enjoy the view. I got to drive the big truck over the Yough (Wheee!) and across my twice a week Keysers Ridge to Cumberland route, then back to Jonestown.

After a battery of tests and classes I was deemed ready to drive for Swift, except they had no truck available for me at the time. So it was another happy Greyhound ride back to Pittsburgh for some home time. Hopefully there will be one of those nice 07' Volvo's waiting for me later this week. Until then, I really need to get out for some time in the trees.