912 Project Truck

9-12 Truck For Sale or Looking for Sponsors

2010-12-08T14:08:00.014-05:00

Click the link below for the official listing in Truck paper for the 9-12 Truck.
9-12 Truck For Sale
Or contact me at the email or phone below...

Email: timex39n01@ymail.com
Phone: 352-457-3794

On the front page of The 9-12 Project.

Anyone need a 9-12 truck?

Another interesting post that my good friend Trent posted at his website.
www.the-912-project.com

Another plan I'd like to see come to fruition if for some reason the truck doesn't sell:

We are looking for a sponsor or sponsors to help us put together a constitutional museum on wheels. This would be built inside a trailer to pull behind the truck and travel to different venues for showing and teaching about the constitution. We have a plan to put this together in the same way that a modern museums are put together. placing about 10-12 stations within the walk through trailer with recorded information at each station explaining that moment in history that helped to mold America into the most prosperous, generous and most charitable nation on earth.

We believe that there are enough venues in the form of auto shows, truck shows, driver appreciation dinners, county and state fairs and picnics, street fairs, schools etc., to keep the truck moving and to garner enough donations and sales of merchandise to maintain operations after initial start up.

We are in the process of applying for many private grants to get this amazing project started. I am need of a grant writer and/or organization names to write for grants. If you have information that could help or if you would like to sponsor or help to sponsor this project we can be reached at timex39n01@ymail.com. Obviously there is a huge opportunity for advertising on the trailer for the sponsors and or donors involved. Again, should you be interested in helping with this project as a grant writer or sponsor, feel free to contact me at the afore mentioned email address.

Tina would be the driver of the "Constitution in 53 Feet" but I would be traveling with her to set up, talk to visitors, sell books and merchandise, and perform all maintenance on the truck.

Thanks to all who have shown concern for our health and for our future. I am truly humbled by the outpouring of concern and support for us, our mission, and the support shown.

Art Wayland/9-12 Truck

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

When God Closes a Door He Opens a Window

2010-12-05T15:48:00.009-05:00

Most of us have heard this saying at some point in our lives. Many have lived it and others go through life depending on it to be fact and sometimes never have to stand on that faith.

I am living this today. I am standing on the faith that God will see us through our troubles and continue to bless us with the amazing grace He has shown all the prior days of our lives. I guess I'll explain what has happened, what is happening and the outcome, as far as we know it now.

I have never been one to share my personal strife or trials online or in person unless the one with whom I am sharing is a very close family member, IE: Mother, sister, wife. That being said, I am changing my policy because of the support we have received for our mission with the 9-12 Project Truck. The story goes as follows.

On the 17th of October, on our way from Salt Lake City UT to Atlanta GA I was driving through the Smokey Mountains in TN between Chattanooga and Nashville. Mont eagle is the town at the top of the mountain.
View Larger Map

As you descend the mountain headed southeast, the scenery is unbelievable at all times of year but this morning seemed especially gorgeous. It was mid October, the leaves were changing, the sun was just cresting the mountain tops to the East, and it was cold enough that there was a heavy frost on most surfaces. The air was brisk but refreshingly clean with the windows of the truck cracked just enough to feel the cool breeze.

I had the radio on and had, just prior to topping the mountain, been listening to Cowboy Church on XM 13 (Willies Place), now renamed Cowboy Camp Meeting I believe. By the time I started down the hill on the south east side, Bill Mack's Sunday Social had started on that same channel. I was looking out the window in awe of the beauty that morning. The sun was heating up just enough to start to warm the roofs of the few buildings you can see off to the south east. Many of the leaves had already begun to fall off the trees and that made the view of those buildings somewhat better though still a bit obscure. As the sun was warming the roofs the frost had started to melt and a fog or steam from that was rising off the roof of an old, somewhat dilapidated, small metal shed and the song below came on the radio behind Bill Mack's booming, easily recognizable voice. The song is Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me".

I'm not sure how any one man can be so blessed but in that moment, and actually in retrospect all moments, I feel I was and am the most blessed man on earth. Since I started driving I had always wanted to be in the Smokey Mountains at this time of year and under these conditions because I had always heard about the beauty that abounds. Words can do it NO justice. Even pictures cannot capture all the many facets of nature's beauty and God's gracious gifts. I could go on about this five minutes for a lifetime...but I'll not.

We continued down the road and near Atlanta I noticed an SUV riding beside me and reading the side of the truck. The road there, reading, taking pictures and waiving for several miles, probably 10 miles or more in all reality. Finally I decided, in the interest of safety and traffic flow, to pull off the road and talk to the people and let them take some good pictures and learn about the 9-12 Project. I pulled off on an off ramp, exited the truck and gave them some reading materials. They signed the truck and allowed me to take a picture of them and their family. This was a very kind Christian family that was eager to learn about the mission.

Following a brief exchange we all moved on and Tina and I continued on to our Atlanta terminal for a Sunday afternoon delivery.

After arriving at the Atlanta terminal we were asked to run a load into Miami that evening for Monday morning. The load was to be ready at 2100. We received a call at about 1600 that there was an earlier Miami load and asked if we could pull it instead of the later one. We complied and off to Miami we headed.

THE "UNWANTED SOBATICAL" CAUSING EVENT: Just south of Macon, at mile post 133, I pulled off the road due to shoulder, jaw and neck pain, and blurred vision. Any guesses? That's right, I was having a heart attack. Tina called 911 and I was picked up by an ambulance and transported to Medical Center of Central Georgia and into the emergency room. After some tests and preparatory procedures they rushed me to the Heart catheter unit and placed a stent in one of the coronary arteries. The artery was 100% blocked by a clot that had broken loose from another location and moved to the heart causing a blockage.

On the night of the 17th of October, after all was said and done, the attending physician informed Tina and me that I had suffered a significant Heart attack but that most of the damage had seemingly been averted with prompt action by the first responders and my quick recognition of a problem, not to mention the amazing Emergency room team and the team in the heart catheter lab.

I stayed in the hospital until the 22nd and was released to go home. Tina drove and we arrived there late Friday evening. Since that time, the news has gotten somewhat worse.

After much testing and many doctors visits, it has been determined that I have suffered a massive heart attack with substantial heart damage. The damage that I have encountered is bad enough that the F.M.C.S.A. (page 94/95)will not allow my re-certification as a commercial driver. Further, it appears at this point that I will need an I.C.D. device implanted to regulate when necessary and shock when necessary, my heart function.

Moving forward: Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the F.M.C.S.A. will not allow me to be re-certified as a commercial driver with the condition of my heart nor will they permit driving with an icd.

I find it heartbreaking that we will have to sell the 9-12 Project Truck. Many of you know our passion for the 9-12 Project and for the mission at hand of helping to wake up and educate the public on the demise of liberty as granted by God to our country.

That being said, when God closes a door He opens a window. I am faithful in the belief that God will provide the path that we are to follow and will lead us down that very path through fervent prayer and his answers thereof.

Finally, though the 9-12 Truck as you have grown to know it will no longer be on the road, at least not with the same vigor as before we will, in whatever endeavor we partake, be promoting, advertising and continue to espouse the Principles and values of the 9-12 Project, and we will be as loud and boisterous about it, just like before.

I will still, in the future be posting at Stop the Destruction of America about current events and my disgust for our out of control government, local, county, state, and national entities all. Please follow along and find out, when I do, about our next venture.

In closing...May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields and, until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

God Bless you all.

An Abrupt, Unwanted Sabbatical of at Least 2 Months

2010-10-23T14:10:00.006-04:00

While I won't go into full detail, I have been forced, for health reasons, to take a minimum of two months off.

It has come to my attention...again, through an eye opening event, that we cannot and must not continue to treat our God given temples(bodies) like a mere clunker vehicle with which to muddle through life and take us from point to point. We must treat it as a precious piece of equipment, supplied for our use, and it must be taken care of like it is your only worry in life.

I will be posting here from time to time in case you care to continue reading but there will be little news on the issue of the truck travels. I am going to try to arrange with the company to whom we are leased, for me to make the truck available, as well as myself, for appearances at venues and gatherings where we might be invited. If you have a gathering which you would like the 9/12 Truck, myself and or both to attend, please let me know here or at my twitter or Facebook page and I will do what I can to see to it that we are there.

Unfortunately these appearances can no longer go uncompensated. It does cost a lot of money to run the truck up and down the highways but our fees will be as reasonable as can be expected with this administrations energy policies driving up fuel prices and the cost of living.

I hope you will all continue to check back often to see when the 9/12 Truck will be up and running again. Again, thanks for all your continued support. It is truly appreciated.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Denver is Beautiful This TIme of Year

2010-10-15T11:06:00.007-04:00

We left here, Denver(which is beautiful this time of year), last Monday evening at about 1500, well that was the first time. You see, dispatch called, they said they had a load from the airport in Denver to the airport in Dallas. They said it was to load at 2000 supposedly local time. I called the shipper, because that sounded awful late for a load at the airport, and they said that they close at 2000 and we needed to be there prior to their closing.

I went and found an empty trailer, we went out to the airport, and they loaded us with 1 300# pallet, on a 53' trailer. Hmmmmm. I called dispatch before we left to make sure that I had all the freight that we were supposed to get. Both, dispatch and the shipper, said that that was all I was supposed to take to Dallas so we proceeded on to Dallas International airport.

About 45 minutes after we left the airport dispatch called and wanted to know when we were going to go pick up the load. I advised them to hold on for a minute so I could pull off the highway so that when I threw my phone it wouldn't cause glass to blow back into my face. I then exited at the nearest off ramp and continued the conversation with the dispatcher from Sacramento. After exchanging pick up addresses, names, pickup numbers etc. they made another call to the shipper and it was determined that we left without getting all the freight and that we needed to turn around and go back to the shipper for reloading.

We headed back to the shipper and they reloaded us for our trip to DFW. Finally, about 2040 Eastern time we were on our way again and after a brief fuel stop we were off and running. We got to the assigned address about 2 hours earlier than the appointment time. Upon arrival, we were told that we were at the wrong address. They did have the correct information though and we were only a few miles from where we were supposed to deliver.

We made our way to the correct delivery address, they removed the freight from our trailer and we headed to our Dallas terminal. We took a call on the way over there, which was actually only a few miles, and we were asked to pull a load to Orlando out of DFW at about 0100 on Wednesday. We agreed to take the assignment.

We piddled around most of the day in Dallas. Went to get a bite to eat and came back and went to bed pretty early as we were up all night driving to make delivery. Not griping, driving is our job, just stating the facts.

The Qualcomm system woke us up at about 0400 with a message letting us know that our Orlando load had canceled. We drifted back off to sleep and got up at about 0800 and went for breakfast.

We seen a couple of our friends there on our way out so I left one of them a message and woke the other from a sound sleep to go with us to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. After much wrangling, Jose' and Ceci finally got up and met us for breakfast and to catch up on much needed fellowship.

After breakfast we went back to the terminal so that I could do some maintenance on the 9/12 Truck. I changed the FS2500 bypass filter and did a chassis lube. I also had some wires that needed re-tied and a loose fender bracket that I had to tighten.

Joe and J.B., both who are pictured here, Joe is the red and J.b is the blue truck, had gotten their dispatch for the day and I was beginning to wonder if we had been forgotten. I called dispatch in Columbus and sure enough, they had accidentally skipped over us t-on the available power list in Texas. Rich said he'd work something out and call us when he had something. Rich is a stand up guy that always does as he says and can admit a few and far between mistake.

Rich called back just as I was finishing up with the maintenance and asked us to find an empty and head for oak Grove MO. We would meet another driver there and take his load on to Denver. Again, Tina accepted the load assignment and told Rich it would be about an hour before we got moving because I was working on the truck and needed to finish up before leaving.

I finished up, cleaned up, and headed for the fuel island. There were no available empty trailers in the parking lot so I was going to have to go to the office and have them find me one. Just as I pulled onto the fuel island, another driver came in with an empty and I had him drop it so that I could take it to Oak Grove.

We got to Oak Grove at about 0130, went to bed and woke up to the ringing of the telephone at about 0530 with the other driver calling to let us know that he had arrived with our load. After Tina dropped our empty trailer and hooked to the loaded trailer, she performed a pre-trip inspection and headed for Denver. I remained asleep like all good men might do in such a situation.

Tina got to Denver at about 1615 yesterday thinking we might get a dispatch right back out. That didn't happen. We went to bed pretty darned early again and got up this morning and went for breakfast at the local Denny's. We are still awaiting a dispatch. Again, If we have to sit somewhere, there are far worse places this time of year. The weather here is absolutely fantastic right now.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Sitting in Denver now, Leaving for DFW Tonight

2010-10-11T16:58:00.005-04:00

We left Columbus OH on Friday morning and headed back west to Salt Lake City UT. A relatively uneventful trip with the exception of the wind. That is, I suppose, the worst part of going west this time of year. There is almost always a headwind or worse yet a side wind out of the North. They are both fuel mileage killers but the side wind can blow you over, especially as light as our loads normally are, so I personally try to avoid that whenever possible.

We arrived in Slat Lake City on Saturday afternoon and were promptly asked if we could rescue a load in Wendover NV, from a driver stranded who was out of hours. Because we were both exhausted we declined that load. I just didn't think I could go another 50 miles much less another 115 to Wendover then 570 more on to Sacramento.

We made it to dinner and then promptly to bed by 7pm EDT. We awakened fresh and ready to go on Sunday morning. Got up, cleaned up, had breakfast and headed out to do some much needed shopping for groceries, prescription medications, a new phone because the old one only lasted about 30 minutes on a charge, etc.

Dispatch called at about 1230 or so EDT and asked us to run to Denver Sunday evening. We accepted that assignment and were glad to have something to do out of SLC.

We got here, to Denver, this morning at about 0500 EDT and I had some emails I had to send. It seems the company, to whom we are leased, wants to do an article on the 9-12 truck and it's mission in life. Obviously very humbled, yet excited, I answered the questions the writer sent and sent several pictures to him as well. I ended up sending the picture files 3 times in total because the 1st time, he couldn't get to the website I used to send them due to company IT privacy and security issues, the second time, I attached them all in an email attachment, I received an email back from their server that the file was too large for them to receive, and the third time was a charm. Of course, I had to send 7 different emails with a picture or two attached to each, but what the heck, it's only time, right?

Finally, I got to bed at about 0800 and didn't get up until 1330 or so. Man did I need that. We just took a call from dispatch wanting to know if we would pull a load to Dallas tonight. We have to go to the airport both here and in Dallas to pick up and drop the load but we accepted it anyway. You see, we really don't like running customer to customer freight, we've been somewhat spoiled with the terminal to terminal loads but when freight is slow and you need to run, you do what you must to make a living.
View Larger Map

We are to pick up the load this evening at 2000 local time and will deliver in Dallas tomorrow afternoon. We are hoping for a Columbus load or something of that nature out of Dallas tomorrow evening, but we will see when we get there what they have. they usually treat us pretty well out of Dallas. Actually, the entire company treats us pretty darned well, it just appears as if we are going through a "retraining" phase with some newer dispatchers in the Sacramento hub. We'll get them brought around though, all in due time.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Empty to Las Angeles, then Load for Columbus in the Morning

2010-10-05T17:19:00.006-04:00

We will be leaving Las Vegas in about an hour. We will take an empty trailer to Los Angeles and then sit there the rest of the night, get a good nights sleep and head for Columbus OH in the morning with a load.

We will travel down I-15 this evening into California and then I-210 into Los Angeles. In the morning when we leave for Columbus OH, we will travel out I-21o to I-15 north and access I-40 west in Barstow CA. From there it is on to Oklahoma City OK where we will run I-44 into the St Louis Metro area and get onto I-70 east to Columbus OH. From there it is just a short jaunt down to the terminal off I-270.

View Larger Map

We should arrive in Columbus OH way before daylight on Friday morning. Maybe we'll see you along the way. Be sure and wave and then come and tell us here that you seen us out there.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

A Tea Party Stop for the 9/12 Truck

2010-10-05T17:16:00.001-04:00

While we were on vacation last month with friends and family, my sister asked if we could attend a tea Party event that she was hosting in Collinsville IL on the 25th of September. I suspected it was going to be tough to get the time off after just having 3 weeks the month before but we made the request anyway.

The company to whom we are leased and specifically Todd Haerr not only authorized the time off but made a special effort to help us arrive there in time to get the truck ready for the event. Thanks Todd.

We got to the St Louis area on Friday morning, we went to my mother's place south east about 50 miles and spent Friday working on and cleaning the truck to get it ready. I also had a great visit with my mother as Tina did with her family.

Early Saturday morning we got up and headed back north to Collinsville to the American Legion Hall. What a great group of Veterans there is at that hall. The memorial out front of this hall is amazing. I neglected to get pictures but it was and is one of the nicest I have seen.

The event started at about 1400 with some young ladies called the Gateway Girls singing and dancing for the crowd. I actually compiled the following video from many clips shot on that day. They didn't just stand and sing for 12 minutes or so, they would sing, then a speaker would babble on about something and they would sing some more. Here is the video of their songs on that day.

.

After the star Spangled Banner was performed by these amazing young ladies Mike Ortiz, a Tea Party Organizer and 9/12 organizer and conservative blogger from Danville Il, spoke to the crowd about the NRA's recent capitulation on the 1st amendment and then He spoke about what is known as "The National Popular Vote" Mike's speech is below in it's entirety.

We had another speaker who spoke about constitutional law but his was more of a hawk for his personal website than a speech about the constitutionality of what is going on in America so I chose not to include it here, nor will I mention his name or website. I believe he is a hindrance to the conservative movement and certainly to constitutional law. I just don't believe He knows more about the constitution than David Barton of WallBuilders does but he certainly made some disparaging remarks about Mr. Barton who wasn't there to defend himself. It is certainly easy to attack what someone says or their person when they aren't there to defend themselves. Just another shameless, slimy attorney looking to make a name for himself. I will not be a party to furthering his cause, which seems to be Himself.

After my sister spoke for a few more minutes it was my turn. I was asked to speak about activism and activism with honor. My speech, in it's 3 part, 20 minute, entirety follows.

After the singing and dancing, the speaking and babbling was all said and done we mingled and had some great visitation and fellowship. I so love being around folks of like mind and those who are working towards the same goal... that being, Stopping the Destruction of America.

Here are a few pictures of some of the folks who attended and some of those who signed the 9/12 Truck. The first two here are family members of Tina's. The lady in the red top is an avid reader of my pointless ramblings, she is Tina's Aunt Marlene. The second lady here, in the peach colored top, a life long Democrat, is one of Tina's cousins, Janet.

Speaking of attorney's, here is Carment Durso of Durso Law Offices in Belleville IL. Another of St Claire Counties finest and most loyal Dems at a Tea Party. Carmen is a very good friend of mine and my mother's employer. He has been very good to my mother so what could I possibly say that might be bad about a guy like that...Democrat attorney or not.

Below are pictures of Josh, a brother to the Gateway Girl with whom he is pictured. These are some amazing kids. Their parents have obviously spent numerous hours teaching them right from wrong, good from bad, and that hard work will always conquer an apathetic, lethargic attitude.

Finally, a few pictures of the crowd.

Just another quick note here about a lady we met at this rally. her name is Marcia Fish and she is director of an organization called Mission of Moms. This is an amazing organization driven by donations. If you can see your way to helping this organization, Marcia and especially the troops in theater would be most appreciative.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

In Vegas again

2010-10-05T02:04:00.003-04:00

We are currently back in Vegas and I am putting video's together and uploading them of our Tea Party in Collinsville IL on the 25th. I apologize for shirking my duties here but I am trying to get back on the daily post schedule even as we speak.

I pray for your patience and ask that you hang on for a bit longer. I will do my best for you.

Art Wayland

We're in Vegas Today

2010-09-16T23:18:00.003-04:00

We arrived in Las Vegas today. It's been very hot here. Our Generator has quit running so we have no air conditioning while sitting still until I can get parts and get them installed. That is actually on what I have been working rather than writing here or at the other site.

We are leaving here in the morning for Dallas. We should leave about 0500 or so and be in Dallas by about 0400 on Saturday. We will travel I-40 to U.S. 287 in Amarillo and run that into the Dallas area. Maybe we'll see you along the way.

I'll write more from there if I can find parts and get the generator repaired.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Made it to Columbus, Leaving for Irving Tonight.

2010-09-09T16:13:00.009-04:00

I was laying around watching television Tuesday night when I heard some commotion outside the truck. I got up and looked and there were some folks reading and taking pictures.

I got myself together and got out of the truck to talk to them but most of them wondered off. I suppose they wanted to read but didn't want to be bothered. This was the only guy that hung around and talked with me. We talked a few minutes and he wanted to sign the truck, and did so.

After he signed the truck he told me he had seen it in a magazine and drove off to find me a copy. I'm pretty sure it's never been in a magazine but he assured me he had seen it there. He returned in about 45 minutes or so...with no magazine.

We were notified that our load was ready at 2359 EDT. I jumped up, got dressed, hooked and inspected our loaded trailer and after what was supposed to be a quick stop at the nearest Flying J Travel Plaza for fuel, we were off to Columbus OH.

The stop at the Flying J ended up taking a bit longer than expected. I fueled, went inside to get my fuel receipt and when I returned to the truck, there was a crowd around it reading and talking about what was there.

I walked up and introduced myself and asked if they were familiar with the 9/12 project and for what it stands. They had no idea so I proceeded to explain the idea and from where the 9 Principles and 12 Values were derived. They were all very supportive and even asked if they too could sign the truck as a show of support. Their pictures are here as well. I need to apologize to the couple here where the photo is blurred. My camera settings had been bumped and I didn't realize it until it was too late. Obviously, as evidenced here and with photos from the past, I am no photographer.

Finally, I was on my way at about 0100 EDT and decided we should be in Columbus OH by about 0600. The trip was pretty much uneventful. We did have a few thumbs up from passersby but other than that very much a normal ride.

We got to Columbus OH at 0555 this morning, sitting on pins and needles because of a lack of fuel. You see, I fueled, like I said, in Salt Lake City before we left and decided I was going to Columbus without fueling again, much against the beckoning of Tina.

It ended up being 1806 miles and I put in 253.8 gallons. I only have 300 gallons worth of fuel tanks and only 90% of that is useable from the tanks. That simply means that I had less than 17 gallons of fuel left when we arrived at the Columbus terminal. I realize that sounds like a lot, but in the world of a class 8 truck, let's just say, "it ain't much".

I fueled when I got here and we laid down for a short nap. We got up at about 1000 or so and showered and then went for breakfast at the local "greasy spoon" diner called "Port Side Cafe".

We are now sitting back at the terminal awaiting a load going to Memphis TN then on to Irving TX. We will travel I-71 south out of Columbus to I 65 in Louisville KY then I-40 west in Nashville. After a brief stop in Memphis to take some off and put some on we will move on to Irving TX. We should be in Memphis early Friday morning and then Irving Friday afternoon. From there it is anyone's guess.
View Larger Map

One more quick note of some importance. On the 25th of September, Tina and I will have the 912 truck at the Collinsville IL American Legion Post #365. We will be there most of the day and I have been asked to speak on honor and activism with honor. I would sure like some support from some of my driving friends who might be in the area. If you let me know by contacting me via twitter, facebook or email through this blog, we will do our best to see to it that you get a ride from the area truck stops to the rally. The rally will last from about 1400 to 1600.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Looks Like Columbus OH out of Salt Lake City Tonight

2010-09-07T17:33:00.004-04:00

Tina just took a call from dispatch. They asked us, as we expected, to pull a load to Columbus OH tonight out of here and Tina accepted the load, graciously.

We should leave here at about 0200 edt and be in Columbus by about 0800 on Thursday morning. We will travel across I-80 all the way to Moline IL and then access I-74 to Indianapolis and right onto I-70 into Columbus OH.

View Larger Map

Should you see us along the way, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by coming here and commenting on this page.

As a quick programing note here. We have been invited to speak at a Tea Party event in Collinsville IL. at the American Legion Hall. We will be there, with the 912 Truck and it would be great to see some of my truck driving friends and area 9/12er's and Tea party Patriots alike.

I will be speaking on honor and honor in activism. I hope to see some of you there.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

We're Back to Work and now in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-09-07T13:49:00.015-04:00

Wow, what a vacation. Busy, busy, busy but very rewarding. We spent the first week, from the 14th to the 19th or so, catching up on things at home. Collecting the mail, making emergency well repairs, again, and finding someone to mow the unkept mess that we call a lawn.

The second week, at least the first part of the week was spent getting ready for the "Restoring Honor" rally in D.C.. Words are inadequate to make known the true impact of this event. The estimates as seen in the Lame stream media of 87000 to 300,000 are absolutely ludicrous.

Though I have no experience or hidden abilities to count or estimate a crowd size, I can tell you that I think even I can tell the difference between 87000 "normal roamers" on the mall and what is to be believed as well over 600,000 attendees standing around enjoying an onstage event. Never the less, here are some pictures so that you can decide for yourself.

While we were away from home for the rally, we stayed at a lodge type resort in Gordonsville VA, about 90 miles or so south of D.C.. This lodge was amazing. We had with us my sister, her husband and a long time friend and his wife. We rented a 2 bedroom 2 bath log cabin with a hide-a-bed couch at the resort which was called "Shenandoah Crossing". Man, what a beautiful, well kept, scenic, even all inclusive resort.

The top picture is of one of the three pool areas. Obviously, this is one of the outside area, but there also 2 others and they have indoor pool areas as well.

The next photo is the view from our living room area at or near sunset. We had a screened in deck with a barbecue, a full kitchen, all the amenities for which you could ask. The third picture down is a picture of the outside of the cabin we rented. Honestly, this place was phenomenal. We could not have asked for a better place to stay, or for better company with which to spend our week of solitude. An entire week of no truck talk, very little political talk, no work, no worries other than where to go, what to eat, who's historical home site to visit, and where to spend next years time off.

We met some great people in and around Gordonsville VA and Charlottesville VA area while we were there visiting Thomas Jefferson's palatial estate and James Monroe's place as well. It seemed that everywhere we went, we met and spoke to several people that were going to attend the "Restoring Honor" rally in D.C.. Even though we were at least 90 miles from D.C., there was no shortage of God fearing, Bible toting, America loving Patriots ready for an amazing day of "Restoring Honor".

We met Charles F Knight and his wife of Cedar Log Systems who came all the way from Colorado to be at the rally. Again, even 90miles south of D.C., it was as if everyone we visited with came for the rally on Saturday.

The third picture here is a picture in this group of a couple of young ladies we met while touring Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville VA. They are Alyssa on the left and Angie on the right. What a great couple of nice young ladies touring and learning about one of America's great founders and presidents.

On Sunday morning, after the rally on Saturday, it was time for us all to head our separate ways. Head for the house. After breakfast at the lodge restaurant, we, Tina and I, took the other four in our party to the airport in Charlottesville VA and we headed south in our rental van from Enterprise RAC. The other flew into St Louis and then drove the last 50 miles or so from there to their respective houses. Tina and I arrived home on Monday morning at about 0200 and went directly to bed. We needed a day or so to catch up on rest after our time in D.C..

Just like a punch to the jaw, it was back to reality, back to working on the truck, and getting things ready for another four months on the road. As stated in an earlier post, I had a lot of repairs and maintenance to perform on the 912 truck. I designed, built and installed a remote lube system for the rear suspension so that I no longer have to crawl around on the ground to lube the S-cam brackets and the slack adjusters, I had to replace the air drier filter, which turned into a fiasco all it's own. I had to repair the vent hose for the holding tank, repair the generator to run no matter how hot it gets outside, I changed the oil and filters and much, much more, including a hand wash.

I actually finally finished the majority of the work at about 0500 on Thursday morning, the 2nd. Now I could take Friday off, completely and enjoy my time on my own. Well, not exactly.

When we called dispatch on Wednesday to remind them of our would be readiness on Friday, they asked if we would leave early on Friday, empty move up to Jacksonville Fl and pull a load that night back to Orlando before leaving for Las Vegas on Saturday morning. We agreed, so that we could have the Las Vegas load on Saturday morning. We went and had our ritualistic last leisurely set down meal at about noon Friday and then came home and left the house for Jacksonville at about 1400.

The load from there to Orlando was ready at 2100 and off we went to Orlando after our pre-trip inspection. We arrived in Orlando at about midnight and went to bed to rest up for the trip to Vegas. Our load to Vegas was ready at 0500.

We had to make 3 fuel stops on the way to Vegas. We stopped in Reddick FL at the Petro and then Pearl MS and Albuquerque NM at the Flying J travel Plazas.

The heat in Vegas on Monday was borderline oppressive. At the heat of the day the temps topped 110 deg and there just is no shade...not that it would have made any difference. Incidentally, the repairs to the generator to make it run no matter how hot it was outside, completely unsuccessful but I'll keep trying.

We are now sitting in Salt Lake City UT. The weather is far more comfortable here than it was in Vegas. Currently, 1600 est it is about 60 deg. Brrrrr, I might need a jacket.

I have no idea to where we are headed from here. I'm sure we will know soon though. Our west coast dispatch is very much on the ball so they will get us moving soon.

As a quick programing note here. We have been invited to speak at a Tea Party event in Collinsville IL. at the American Legion Hall. We will be there, with the 912 Truck and it would be great to see some of my truck driving friends and area 9/12er's and Tea party Patriots alike.

I will be speaking on honor and honor in activism. I hope to see some of you there.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Working on the 9/12 Truck

2010-08-30T12:48:00.002-04:00

We're back from D.C. and the amazing Restoring Honor rally. I have much to say so check back later this evening or in the morning. I have a lot of work to do on the truck in the next few days so I won't be writing until the evening.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

On Vacation, a Much Needed, Hard Earned Vacation.

2010-08-24T16:50:00.008-04:00

A week ago Friday, on the 13th, Tina and I came home for some time off. We were in Dallas with a pre-assigned load to Orlando when a call came that the load to Orlando had canceled and they wouldn't have anything available until the next evening. That just wasn't going to work so I hooked to an empty trailer and came home empty.

We stopped in Robertsdale Alabama and met the co-chair of the National 9/12 Project, Stephani Scruggs, so that she could see the 912 Truck. We have been talking online for over a year and never had a chance to meet. What an amazing young lady. Just more regular folk, trying to pull our Constitution from the inferno, put it back together from having gone the the "O"shredder and save what is left of our amazing country. She works hard and I hope she is recognized, at some point,for all the work she performs. She is truly one of the hardest working amazing Patriots in America. I don't mean to marginalize any of the work anybody is doing, Stephani is one of many with whom I've met, both online and in person, overr the last 18 months or so and they are ALL amazing folks.

We made our way to the house finally early on Saturday morning. The challenges of absentee home ownership are never ending. I had a well problem that had to be fixed immediately. After much digging, checking, and pressure testing, I found the pressure tank to have failed. I replaced the pressure tank and pressure control switch and all was well. Well, kind of. I still have a major leak underground but I can't seem to locate where the leak is. Short of starting at one end of a 100" water line and digging until I find the leak, I have no solution. The ground is so sandy here that the leak is apparently leaching down into the ground rather than manifesting itself above ground with a show of wet soil. We'll keep an eye on it and see what happens. I am really not up to digging up a 100' line. I mean..I'm just sayin'.

Tina and I are leaving today to go to Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington D.C.. We are going to Gordonsville VA to spend Thursday through Sunday with some friends and family at a lodge there. They are flying in from St Louis Mo on Thursday morning. We will drive up to the rally on Saturday morning and spend the day at the Lincoln Memorial. We also have plans to tour Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home and property on Friday. Past that, we have no plans.

We are very excited about the Rally. I can only hope that it is half as good as all the hype. I believe this is one of the major problems with America. Politicians have no honor and they want us to have none. The slow but steady widening of the "Overton Window" has eroded the values and principles in America to the point of little or no honor.

I will write more upon return from our trip. I hope to have lots of pictures and much to write.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

While We Were in Denver the Other Day...Wait, We're There Again.

2010-08-04T15:10:00.011-04:00

While we were in Denver Co last week and had a pretty big response to the truck. We were parked over at the Flying J Travel Plaza on Airport and had a parking place where everyone that came in and or went out through the fuel island or walking to the restaurant from the parking lot seen the truck. I pulled in the parking place as to show the rear of the truck where the "Bring Home The Politicians" logo is prominently displayed.

While we were sitting, at one point, I looked out the window of the truck and there was a group of about five folks gathered looking at and reading the truck and discussing the message('s) on the truck.

I was also able to get a few video clips of a few of them talking about the idea of an eCongress... The Bring Home the Politicians movement. I sent those clips to Michael Norbury, the founder of the latest BHTP movement, and he made a short video of the clips.

We got loaded at about 2300 Tuesday night and headed for Los Angeles CA. I had to go back out to the Flying J Travel Plaza for fuel before we could take off and while I was there another fellow came over and was reading the messages from the side of the truck. I asked him, Charlie, if he liked the message and his words were, "ain't no way to disagree with that, there ain't nothing wrong with that at all."

I asked Charlie if since he liked and agreed with the message on the truck if he wanted to sign it and he was obliged to proudly profess his support of the 9/12 Project and the messages on the 9/12 Truck with his signature.

From there we headed to LAX traveling West on I-70 then south on I-15. We arrived at our terminal at about 1900 on Wednesday evening and went to bed for a good nights sleep. We were there all day on the 29th and we were given a dispatch to Columbus OH for the wee hours of the morning on the 30th.

We were awakened about 0930 on the 30 and advised that the Columbus load had canceled and that they, dispatch, would be in touch shortly. At 1400 we took a call and we were asked to run an emergency load to San Diego and from there we could have a dispatch to Atlanta GA that evening. Begrudgingly, we accepted the assignment and off to San Diego we headed.

I just despise running up or down the California coast. Partly because the traffic ALWAYS sucks and partly because the more miles you run in California the more likely you are to be accosted by a California CMV enforcement officer looking to bail his state out of debt by landing the 1 lucky inspection of the most unsuspecting driver in the state, but I digress.

As usual we did hit traffic due to a broke down automobile on a tow truck at the side of the road. A full hour delay because these nosy folks had to know every detail, about the tow truck, I guess. Who really knows what goes through the heads of rubberneckers.

As we made our way on to San Diego, our terminal is near the football stadium, we jumped off the freeway at Friars Rd. While we were sitting at the light, at the end of the ramp, waiting to make the left turn onto Friars Rd a car came up beside us and was reading the truck, we get that a lot, and he made the trip to San Diego worth all the grief getting there with a thumbs up sign to report his support of the 9/12 Project and the message. Note to self...even in California, God will provide the strength and drive to move forward even when you least expect the encouragement.

We ran from San Diego to Atlanta, then back to Dallas TX and today, here we are back in Denver CO. While sitting here, parked in approximately the same place we were parked last week, again, the interest in the truck and the message thereon has been amazing. Some folks will talk and others just want to read quietly and leave. Here are a couple of amazing Patriots, Lean and Jake who both are drivers with MBM Corporation, and who chose to talk, and sign the truck to show their support of the 9/12 project.

From here tonight we are supposed to go back to Dallas. We will be traveling back down U.S.287. We should be back in Dallas on Thursday morning and we'll just have to wait and see what happens from there. I can only hope that the oppressive heat has subsided a bit. It was actually 108 Degrees here yesterday...in a shaded area.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

On the" Weary Drivers" Article in the Star Tribune, oh and We are Headed to Columbus OH in the Morning

2010-07-29T18:59:00.010-04:00

I need to make a few remarks about an article I read in the Star Tribune out of Minneapolis MN.

First, it is obvious, even to the most unintelligible among us, that this article was written by someone who has a severe bias against the highway freight transportation industry. Moreover, the author is unbelievably irresponsible with facts and chooses to do little, if any, research before his ramblings go into production. Jim Spencer is the author and is obviously on a one man mission to induce hatred toward the trucking industry.

Mr Spencer needs to understand that facts are funny little things. They hide in many places and seldom float to the top on their own. They do rise though when those of us who care are prompted by the consistent irresponsibility of the LSM...Lame Stream Media.

In the article, entitled "Weary truckers pose a highway threat" and subtitled "Recent crashes renew questions about the hazard of drivers who spend days on the road", the author spews his blatant disregard for facts in many places. I will, here, pontificate on only one or two of his idiotic remarks.

The first fact lacking statement is this;

Since 2005, when the U.S. Department of Transportation reduced driving time and increased hours off between shifts, the number of people killed in big truck crashes nationwide shrank steadily, from 5,240 in 2005 to 4,229 in 2008. In Minnesota, the number of deaths from big truck crashes rose and fell from 2005 to 2009, averaging 73 per year.

While things are headed in the right direction nationally, annual fatalities in big truck wrecks are still the equivalent of a jetliner crashing once a week, said Steve Keppler of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

"If that many plane crashes were happening," Keppler said, "people would be up in arms and the air traffic system would be shut down."

But trucks continue to roll, making tired drivers a concern.

Now the facts. The latest available facts I could find are from 2006 for the trucking industry. I'm quite sure later facts are available, but being the amateur I am, I don't know where they might be found.

In 2006 there were an estimated 2 million class 8 tractor/trailers on U.s highways. Those class 8 trucks drove an approximate 139.3 billion miles and there were approximately 3.5 million class 8 truck drivers. Incidentally, there are a total of approximately 200,000,000 , that's 2 hundred million total licensed drivers in the U.S..

More stubborn facts about ground transportation. There are approximately 200,000,000 total licensed drivers in the United States. Take out the 3.5 million commercial drivers and you have approximately 196.5 million, under-trained, overzealous, incompetent, stressed, irresponsible, late, hurried, angry, distracted, truck hating automobile drivers looking for a fight with anyone they can find.

Now on to the amazingly safe air transportation. 10.2 million flights, 7.3 billion miles, about 37000 planes per day and about 5000 in the sky over the U.S. at any given time on any given day.

Let's see, 7.3 billion miles per year in the air transportation industry compared to 139.3 billion miles with class 8 tractor trailers per year. Increase the miles operated by 19 times and certainly you would increase the number of accidents. Additionally, last I looked, there isn't 100 times the number of under-trained, overzealous, incompetent, stressed, irresponsible, late, hurried, angry, commercial airliner haters in the air at the same time. Again, there are only about 5000 airplanes at any given time on any given day in the air at the same time.

As commercial drivers we endure that count of other vehicles in 30-45 minutes in the large cities many times per day. We also don't kill hundreds in 1 fell swoop.

There are 41-45 thousand fatalities happen on U.S. roadways yearly, less than 20% of those are the fault of the commercial driver and about 4 percent of the 20% are fatigue related. Don't get me wrong, even 1 death is too many, but here again we have government trying to control something that is never 100% controllable, especially with the variable of 196.5 million others that have an indistinguishable effect on the statistics due to the way statistics are kept or at least the way they are stated.

It seems that a "truck related" death is indistinguishable from a "truck caused" death. That, in my mind, is an imperatively distinguishing factor that needs to be had. Why si that so important? Well let's see.

In 1980 M.A.D.D. figured out in quick order that the distinction between "alcohol related" and "alcohol caused" accidents was very important. Armed with this knowledge they set forth to change the facts that were reported. By changing the way accidents were reported they changed the perception of the motoring public about drinking and driving. I AM NOT ADVOCATING DRINKING AND DRIVING!!!!! I quit drinking over 12 years ago due to an addiction. I am, though, advocating honesty in facts and the reporting of those facts.

Anything anyone wants to attack is always attacked by changing the conversation. With M.A.D.D. they figured out they had to change the argument from "alcohol caused" to "alcohol related"

With the Tea Parties and the 9/12er's it is being changed from "Tea Party or 9/12 member violence" to "Tea Party or 9/12 group related violence" to marginalize and demean the movement.

With truck accidents Daphne Izer and her minions at P.A.T.T. have changed the verbiage from "truck caused crashes" or "fatigue caused crashes" to "truck or fatigue related crashes" Personally, I believe these changes are despicable. They can't make their argument on the facts so they change the way the facts are reported.

Government regulations are not going to stop drunk driving, fatigued driving, theft, spitting on the sidewalk, speeding, or any other nasty or dangerous activity. As a matter of fact, the only thing that will stop anything that is illegal or dangerous is back breaking, crippling fines or jail terms with no opportunity for negotiation. That goes for everything from hiring illegal aliens to selling dope.

We have enough laws and regulations on the books but with the compromising lawyers and judges negotiating cases at the bar, over a drink, there is little opportunity to stop most of these activities.

Allow me to add here that I believe M.A.D.D., P.A.T.T., C.R.A.S.H., and all other alphabet soup identified groups all started out with great intentions and amazing goals. I also believe that they have grown some great organizations. Further, though, I believe that in many cases the group has become the cause. What I mean by that is this. When they started they found a great cause, made a run for the goal, and in a few cases that I won't name individually, the groups existence has become dependent upon changing the goals.

I believe there is way too much government funding in these groups and therefore they must keep changing the goals to continue receiving support from the taxpayer. Yes, you the truck driver, are supporting, with your tax dollars much of the fight against you. I don't know if P.A.T.T. is receiving taxpayer money or not, I just don't care enough to look, but there are many groups fighting you that are receiving taxpayer money. You had better get involved in your future or your career will be in the past.

We arrived in La at about 1900 last night. Tired, strung out from the road, we had supper and headed for bed.

We got up early this morning, since we went to bed early, and took a walk for about 2 miles. It was rather cool but a great walk.

We sat around inside the truck the rest of the day, reading, watching mindless television, and visiting with friends on this computer. We made plans to make a visit to an old friend from 15 years or so ago tomorrow but now we will be leaving and won't get to make that visit. Oh well, next time I suppose.

Dispatch called at about 1635 this afternoon and offered us a choice of three loads. Newark NJ, Philadelphia PA, and Columbus OH. We opted for Columbus OH.

We will travel I-15 north to I-40 and run that to Nashville TN. In Nashville we will take I-65 to Louisville KY and then I-71 into Columbus OH. Assuming the load leaves on time, at 0500 tomorrow, we should be in Columbus OH on Saturday evening at about 1900. My guess is that it won't leave on time out of here though, it is almost never ready on time.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Sitting in Denver, Leaving for Los Angeles Tonight

2010-07-27T16:27:00.007-04:00

A lot of time has passed since I last wrote. We have been to about 7 different cities and met talked with many Patriots throughout the country.

We have handed out about 35 pocket Constitutions and several copies of Glenn Beck's "Common Sense".

We are currently in Denver Co and have met many folks here. We Delivered here, in Denver, on Monday morning at British Airways and the truck/912 Message was a big hit there.

We were in Dallas TX on the the 20th and had a little grocery shopping we had to do for the truck. We headed over to the local Wal-Mart to do that shopping. While we were inside a someone had put a couple of business cards on our door. We found the cards upon returning to the truck. His name was Gregory Romeu. He is a former Marine and is currently an "Oath Keeper" and an amazing Patriot. If we ever find ourselves, God forbid, in an armed insurrection I'm going to wherever this guy is and taking him for my team. Gregory is pictured in the picture to the left.

We will be leaving here tonight to head for Los Angeles CA and should be there on Wednesday evening. We will simply travel I-70 west to I-15 south into Los Angeles. I look forward to getting out of Denver, though this is beautiful country.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

We Went to Chicago Last Night

2010-07-19T14:50:00.013-04:00

The phone rang a about 1515 yesterday and it was dispatch. They asked if we would take an empty trailer out of Columbus up to Chicago and then pull a load out of there back to Louisville KY.

We headed out, in search of an empty trailer, hooked and inspected and we were on our way. The load in Chicago, going to Louisville was to be ready at about 0100. We arrived in Chicago at about 2245 and the load was already loaded and ready to go.

After dropping our empty trailer and hooking to the loaded one we performed the required pre-trip inspection, drew a few lines in the log books and we were off to Louisville KY.

We made it to Louisville at about 0500, dropped the loaded trailer and went to bed for a nap. We finally got up at about 1000 when dispatch called and told us to hang in Louisville until this evening and we could pull a load back into the Columbus yard.

The load out of here is to be ready about 2030 this evening and we should be back into Columbus shortly after midnight. At this point, we have no idea to where we will go from there, but i am sure there will be freight to move.

I did see another billboard last night that I thought was rather interesting. This one is located in Indiana on I-70.

Another perk of driving a truck is that we get to see some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the world. Here is another fine example of just that...A beautiful sunset. I believe God shows us things like this from time to time to keep us humble as mere mortals. Who could possible look at this and believe that God doesn't exist. My goodness how the potters hands work is simply amazing.

A good friend of mine happened into the Atlanta yard while we were there the other day. This is Jose'. He and his wife Cece' started with this company at the same time Tina and I started. Yea, I know he dresses funny, like...I don't know...a girl I guess, but he is a pretty decent guy and has a great wife and a beautiful truck. Jose' is a very good fiend of mine and one of those people who just needs to be picked at all the time. He thrives on the constant commotion.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Off to Indianapolis and Back to Atlanta

2010-07-17T18:09:00.011-04:00

What? No not today, that's what happened last night. Dispatch called at about 1915 last night to say that one of their dedicated trucks was broken down and that they needed us to cover a load to Indianapolis and right back to Atlanta. We were to meet another driver in Indianapolis, with a load from Chicago and switch trailers with him.

By the time the other truck got back to our Atlanta yard it was about 1930. We hooked the loaded trailer, performed a pre-trip inspection, made some small talk with the driver and then we were off to Indianapolis.

We traveled up I-75 to Chattanooga TN where we accessed I-24 and ran that to Nashville TN. From Nashville we ran up I-65 into Indianapolis.

We made it to Indy at about 0530, rendezvoused with the other driver, switched paperwork and trailers, performed our pre-trip inspection, caught up on our logbooks, and we were headed back to Atlanta by about 0600.

We traveled the same routes to get back into Atlanta that we traveled out of there. We arrived back at the yard at about 1500 but before we even got back into the Atlanta area we had a dispatch back out. We were asked to run a load up to Columbus oh that would be ready at about 2000 tonight.

The trip up to Indy and back was really uneventful. We hit a few spots of rain was all. I did get 1 great picture of the way someone in Kennesaw GA feels about our illustrious government and those in charge. I believe if you'll click on the image it will enlarge enough that you will be able to read the bumper stickers. More and more, all across America, the pot is beginning to boil. People are fed up, tired and disgusted with our tyrannical, out of control, power thirsty politicians.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

(((Poof))), Now we're in Atlanta GA.

2010-07-16T12:52:00.009-04:00

Wow, that was quick. Dispatch called at about 1345 yesterday and told us to hook to an empty trailer and head to Mexico. WHAT??? Oh, Mexico MO, about 20 miles North East of Columbia MO north of I-70. Well, once we got the country thing straightened out, we done as asked and hooked to an empty trailer, headed out on I-70 east and went to Mexico Mo.

Here is a picture of a billboard seen on the way to Mexico MO. Again, more and more of these billboards are popping up across America. If you can see your way to do so, I believe we should patronize the folks placing these ads, be whomever they may. This ad was placed by Osage Food Products. This company is actually on who mostly sells ingredients to other food service and manufacturing industries so while most of us can't patronize them directly we can patronize those by whom they are used.

Once in Mexico, we dropped our empty trailer and hooked to a pre-loaded one that was waiting there. Once hooked to the loaded trailer, we headed to Atlanta GA for an 0600 delivery this morning.

The trip was relatively uneventful. There was an accident on I-57 north so we did stopped at a rest area just east of St. Louis Mo on I-64 to look at a map and find an acceptable detour and also to reset the generator control unit and there we were approached by another driver wanting to know about the truck and the signatures on the tool box. I explained the 9/12 Project and the idea behind the truck and Edward was very interested in the whole movement. Edward told me he was a 4th generation Mexican American and how he loves God, Family, and Country. He believes, as most of us believe, that this government is on a tirade of a power grab and Liberty usurpation.

I also spoke to Edward about the Bring Home the Politicians idea and he was very interested in that idea as well. I made a video of my conversation with Edward but unfortunately my inexperience and amateur abilities came through when I was too close to the truck with the generator and truck engine both running and that is all that is heard. You can see his mouth moving and engine noise. I have learned a lesson. The next video will be usable.

We arrived in Atlanta at about 0500 at the receiver and of course, they weren't open that early. They finally got to the warehouse at about 0555. Heaven forbid showing up a minute early for work. Anyway, we dropped the loaded trailer, hooked to an empty that was sitting there, and headed back to our terminal about 3 miles to the north.

Upon arrival at the terminal, we dropped the trailer and Tina went for a walk, I went for a nap, straight to bed. I got up at about 1030, Tina made us some breakfast and no, here we sit, at about 1330 waiting for our next dispatch.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Out of Shop, Sittin in Kansas City MO

2010-07-14T20:32:00.006-04:00

We finally left the Kenworth dealer in Dallas last night at about 0045 EDT. We headed over to our terminal to get some sleep just in case a load came available. I made a phone call to dispatch to make sure that they knew we were avail for work. Dispatch, much to my dismay at the time, was working on moving a load from McAllen TX to Dallas. One of our other drivers had failed to show for pickup and they needed a team to take an empty trailer down and pull the loaded one back to Dallas.

Dispatch called back about 30 minutes later and said that the load from McAllen was covered(God is SOOOOOO good), but that they had a load out of the Dallas terminal that was added to the lineup and needed to go to Kansas City MO. The load was to be ready between 0430 and 0500. We accepted the load and drifted off to sleep.

The massage came at about 0345 that the load was ready. I got up, got ready to go, went to the office for the paperwork and headed to the fuel island. After fueling I hooked the loaded trailer, performed the pre trip inspection, caught up my log book and we were off to Kansas City(MCI).

We decided on a different route this time. We normally run 75/69 to I-35 and into Kansas City. This time we opted to run 75/69 to Big Cabin Oklahoma and then go east on I-44 to Joplin Mo where we would access 71 north to Kansas City MO.

Just before we headed north on 71 in Joplin, the "Check Engine" lite came on again. Talk about being sick to your stomach. You spend $7000.00 to fix a problem, drive 325 miles and an indication of the problem reoccurs. Now that'll make you sick.

I stopped the truck on the shoulder and tried to access the fault codes, to no avail. I then shut the truck off and restarted the engine and the light was out. I chose to run on to Kansas City and see what happened. The fault never reoccurred, so when we got here, I checked everything that I can check and opted to let it go as a fluke for now. I will continue to monitor the situation and see what happens.

We arrived in Kansas City today at about 1400 and went straight to bed for a nap. It was a long day and night yesterday so we were both pretty tired. We thought that since we had arrived early enough in the day that we might get a dispatch out of here tonight. That didn't happen. It looks like we'll be here all night unless something strange happens like another truck breaking down of falling off a load for some reason. Either way, it is what it is. I'm sure we'll get out tomorrow evening at the latest.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Update on "Truck still in the Shop"

2010-07-13T21:41:00.005-04:00

At about 1700EDT the tech contacted me and explained that the turbo was bad, the EGR cooler was leaking, and that the DPF must come off to be cleaned out. I authorized the repairs, to the tune of $7600.00, and they were off and running.

At about 1745, the tech called me back to the shop to show me the DPF after it was removed and disassembled. The DPF (diesel particulate filter), he said, should have been totally plugged with this kind of mileage on the engine. That is to say 517000 miles. He said that they are supposed to be removed and cleaned every 200000 miles and that at 517000 he figured it would be so plugged that replacement might be necessary. Kudos to good, regular, timely preventative maintenance and proper driving techniques.

Anyway, the truck is to be ready, new turbo, new EGR cooler and cleaned DPF by about midnight tonight.

I called dispatch earlier, as stated in the last post, and they did decide to give the load to another team. We should get out of Dallas tomorrow, though i have no idea to where we will be headed.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Truck Still in the Shop

2010-07-13T14:04:00.004-04:00

We dropped the truck off at MHC Kenworth in Dallas yesterday. We had a check engine lite coming on and producing a "turbo actuator" code. We were told upon drop off that they would get it in on third shift last night or first thing this morning. Finally, at about 1300 today, we received a call from the tech about our truck.

The call wasn't good news, though it could have been worse. We were told at a minimum that we need a turbo actuator and that the "DPF" (diesel particulate filter) needs to come off the truck and be cleaned out. The tech also said that the EGR cooler was probably leaking coolant and that there were several other "inactive codes". We were also told that the truck would likely not be done by 2100 this evening. OOPS!!!

What is the significance of 2100 today? Well, only that we accepted a load from dispatch earlier going to Columbus and it was to load tonight at 2100. I hate when that happens.

I called dispatch immediately and let them know about the dilemma. We're not real sure yet what they are going to do with the load. They might pull it from us and give it to someone else or they may leave us on the load until more information is available. I am waiting to hear back from dispatch as I write.

More later.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better TOmorrow
ADW

Sitting in Irving

2010-07-12T16:02:00.003-04:00

We arrived in Irving, TX this morning at about 0600. After dropping the trailer we got a much needed and appreciated nap. The phone woke us up at about 1030 or so and it was my mother just checking in to let us know that all was well.

We decided it was time to get up and get ready for the day. At about 1130 or so we headed over to Grapevine Mills to the Cracker Barrel and had a great breakfast. From there it was back to the terminal and wait for impending dispatch. It is rather warm here today, about 98 degrees or so.

The phone finally rang at about 1545 and dispatch said it was pretty darned slow today. They did offer us a load to Orlando but it didn't leave until noon tomorrow and it was a customer load rather than a load from our DFW terminal to or Orlando terminal. We turned the load down and will now head to the nearest Kenworth dealer to get the truck repaired.

It appears that we have a turbo failure happening and certainly have a turbo actuator failure. I will leave that diagnosis to the professionals though.

I will update you as I get new information.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

In Columbus OH Headed to Iriving Texas

2010-07-11T09:59:00.010-04:00

We have had a rather busy three weeks. Between truck repairs and lots of fright, there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging. I know, that is really no excuse but those are the only reason I have. I didn't lose an arm, or my vision, I haven't had a lobotomy, though Tina says I do sometimes act like I have. Just very busy and trying to work hard enough to take most of August off so that we can attend Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in D.C.. We are very excited about the event.

We have had a couple break downs in the last three weeks. We had to have injector "O" rings replaced to repair a coolant leak, which it didn't. We were home yesterday and had a sleeper air bag failure, so I had to replace that air bag. Now, we have either a turbocharger or a turbocharger actuator failing. Oh well, without failures we wouldn't appreciate all the "non-failures". We drive so many miles without failures and just seem to forget those when something does break or fail. We must learn to count our blessing more often.

We are sitting in Columbus Oh today. We arrived here last night and got a good nights rest. On the way here, it seemed to be even more apparent than ever how the awakening of America is taking place. We didn't even got 11 miles from the house and some amazing patriots approached the truck while I was fueling. From there on up to here, it was just 1 car load after another waiving in agreement with the message on the truck.
America is Awakening, and D.C. needs to do the same. We are seeing more and more billboards about the coming house cleaning in D.C., the improprieties of Congress, and the incompetence of our chosen leaders. I am trying to get pictures of those billboards but it proves rather difficult at times while I am driving, well, at least without running other folks off the road.

We are sitting here now, listening to our Cowboy Church and Bill Mack's Sunday Social on XM radio. We are waiting on our load going to Irving Texas. We were actually dispatched to Minneapolis last night for today but then we were asked to take this Iriving Tx load that was added with extra freight. Either way, they seem to be running ab out 4 hours behind right now so the load should be ready about noon.

I have no idea what awaits in Irving but we shall see soon enough. My guess is that we will have a dispatch before we even arrive there. That seems to be the way it has been working in recent days. Either way, I will try to keep this site updated more regularly.

We will be traveling down I-71 to I-65 to Nashville TN then onto I-40 to Little Rock TX and I-30 into the Dallas area. Be sure and wave if you see us along the way and smile for a picture as I will be trying to take one if you are waving. If you are in the Dallas.Ft Worth area and would like to see the truck, send me a message from this site and we'll see what we can do to set up a meeting.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Phoenix AZ, Waiting for Las Vegas Load

2010-06-20T15:31:00.007-04:00

Our load out of Columbus OH was finally ready at about 1745 Friday night. By the time the the paperwork was ready, we got fueled, hooked to the loaded trailer, and performed our pre-trip inspection, it was nearly 1900 when we drove out the gate at the terminal.

We hit some pretty nasty weather around Indianapolis IN. Heavy rain, lightning and high winds mostly. The rain and winds lasted until we got to Effingham IL and then it cleared up pretty nicely.

It was very warm in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, around 100-103 most of the day yesterday. This was a relatively uneventful trip. We did have several folks waiving and taking pictures of the truck but other than that, just a run of the mill drive across America.

We arrived in Phoenix at about 0330 this morning and had a great nights sleep. We got up about 0930 and got ready for the day. We dropped our trailer at the terminal, headed of over to the closest truck stop for some breakfast. After breakfast, I decided it was way too hot for me to wash the truck wo I went across the street and had the fells at Danny Truck Wash perform the dreaded feet. They done a great job washing the truck and making sure it was clean.

We are just sitting around, watching the Nascar race and waiting for another load. It's pretty darned warm here today. The thermometer says 108. We were asked if we could run one up to Vegas out of here. We like going up there so we accepted the load and it should be ready sometime this afternoon.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Back in Columbus OH Now, Going to Phoenix

2010-06-18T13:14:00.008-04:00

We arrived in Rock Tavern NY at about 0345 on Thursday morning and just about the time I got real comfortable in bed, the phone rang and dispatch asked if we could pull a load to Boston. I explained the challenges of Boston in our truck (ie:too high), and turned down the load. Then zzzzzzzzzzzz.

We regained consciousness at about 0900 and got up to get ready for the day. The is a diner just up the road from the terminal that we have been wanting to try, so off we went for breakfast. As we say in the south...good cracker. I would not have guessed that the food would be that good. The service was great as well.

I would just like to take a minute off subject here. I don't know about you, but I know that I tend to associate anyone in New York state to be the same as New York City dwellers. What a mistake. We sat in the diner eating breakfast yesterday and as always inadvertently happens in a crowded room, we heard a lot of conversation from others in the restaurant. I was reminded, through what I overheard, that people, rural, red blooded, God fearing, gun toting American people are the same all over the country. We love our Country, our soldiers and veterans, and our God. Sometimes I forget that people are people and no matter where they, we, live, we all love freedom and the American way. My point here is that people in New York have the same concerns about what the dirt bags in D.C. are doing to our country as do the people in Arizona or Florida, or Illinois, or Montana. Just a little reminder, to me more than anything.

After breakfast we went across the street for a bit of fuel for the generator. While fueling the generator a fella walked up and just stared at the truck. Considering where we were, I wasn't sure whether he liked or hated the theme. See above reminder. Jeffrey Long Sr., after just staring, reading, and shaking his head, asked if I had a marker for him to use to sign the truck. He is a very proud veteran and a patriot of the first degree.

From there we headed back to the terminal to wait for a dispatch. The call came at about 1400. We were asked to take an empty trailer to Buffalo, NY and from there we would pull a load to Columbus OH. We opted to accept the assignment and get moving.

I located a road worthy empty trailer, hooked to it with the tractor, performed the required pre-trip inspection, caught up our log books and began our trek to the north west side of the north east...Buffalo, NY. We traveled what will be when completed I-86(NY17), to I-81 to Syracuse NY and the I-90 to Buffalo. Our terminal is just off I-90 in Buffalo and is very easy to find.

Again, we were given thumbs up, waves, etc on our way to Buffalo. This is the only picture I was able to snap during the trip but is a prime example of how folks, including kids love the 9/12 Truck.

We arrived in Buffalo at about 2030, dropped the empty trailer and went directly to bed for some rest before we had to leave for Columbus OH. That load was to be ready by 2300.

The message came at about 2215 that the load was ready. Before we could get up and ready to go, there was a knock on the door. It was the terminal manager with our paperwork for the load. We took the paperwork, hooked the loaded trailer, Tina performed her pre-trip inspection and her log book and off whe went towards Columbus. She traveled I-90 to Cleveland OH then I-71 south to Columbus. She said it was a very uneventful trip to Columbus. At that time of night there is actually more wildlife than traffic. The wildlife seems, for the most part, to be more well behaved than the traffic as well, but I digress.

Tina got to the yard in Columbus at about 0415, dropped the loaded trailer, and went to bed. We woke up this morning to a Qualcomm message asking us if we wanted to go to Phoenix AZ, Salt Lake City UT, San Diego CA, or Union City CA. We opted for the Phoenix load. The load is to be ready at about 1800 this evening.

After answering the message, we got up, showered and got ourselves ready for the day. The President is in town today just across the street at the Rickenbacker airport. We are literally just across the street. Police everywhere, fire engines, ambulances, emergency vehicles helicopters, etc. Time to leave the area for a bit. We headed over to the Waflay Hoosay(that Frenchy French for Waffle House) for breakfast and a little relaxation out of the truck. I know, it's Waffle House, but it is STILL out of the truck.

After breakfast we came back to the terminal. The excitement across the street seems to have dispersed and all is back to normal. I just can't believe how the Messiah can come to town in the morning and everyone is back to work and the economy is thriving by the afternoon. Oh, wait, you mean we still have unemployment. Oh man, sorry. Hmmm, I suppose he isn't the real Messiah after all. But I already knew that. I woke up a long time ago, how 'bout you?

We will be traveling across I-70 to St Louis and then I-44 to Oklahoma City, OK. From there we will access I-40 and run that to Flagstaff AZ and I-17 south to Phoenix AZ. We will fuel before leaving the terminal here in Columbus OH and then probably again in Oklahoma City or Amarillo TX.

I'll update here as the trip progresses. Check back often and let us know if and when you see us on the road. You can also make comments here if you so desire.

In the mean time...Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Computer Fixed and Back to Work After a Month Off

2010-06-16T13:12:00.010-04:00

WOW! I had no idea how terribly infected my laptop was until Ron, at JR Computer Outlet in Cincinnati, OH, called and told me he needed to replace the hard drive and thought that we might as well replace our current operating system, XP pro, with Windows 7. Well, the new hard drive is great but I must say, so far I despise Windows 7. I imagine though, after I get used to using it, it will be okay. I just really liked the XP operating system. I was told that this would be a far more stable system though so we shall see.

Aside of that, we had planned 2 weeks off from the 14th to the 28th of May. We visited some family and attended a graduation for a nephew in Illinois on the 21st and headed home on the 23rd. We had some routine doctors appointments the week of the 23rd and unfortunately, those appointments led to more appointments into the 1st of June, the 2nd of June and then again on the 10th of June. It doesn't take much for 2 weeks to turn into a month. The good news...We were both, after a treatment or 2, found to be healthy and fit for the road.

The 912 Truck also went through a slight transformation during our time off. I bought and installed a set of rear fenders on the truck. Those fenders were bought from Tony at Talladega County Fiberglass, near Talledega AL.I had the fenders wrapped with the scroll colored vinyl and added the Gadsden Flag to the rear of the fenders. I also added, on the curved edges of the fenders "In God We Trust" and "Home of The FREE Because of the Brave". We also added Vinyl to the toolbox doors on the rear of the truck. On the right door I used a quote from Edmund Burke..."All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing". On the middle door we placed the logo for the Bring home the Politicians website. On the left door is now the New Hampshire official motto "Live Free or Die". New pics will be up soon.

We also attended a couple of political rallies with the truck during our time off. One of the rallies or meet ups was a Candidate Forum for our local U.S. Congressional District FL 5, Republican candidates. This is one of those races where there is a real choice to make. We have an "establishment" candidate, crowned by the outgoing Ginny Brown-Waite. That candidate, Sheriff Nugent of Hernando County, made it very clear that he would bring to the floor, business as usual,the same old good ole boy politics. He made it clear that his having been "connected" for so many years will help him to get things moving in the "right direction".

The other candidate, the only real choice for conservative voters in the 5th District of Florida, the Candidate that will go to Washington D.C. and "take the THE Party message to the Congressional floor" is Jason Sager . This guy understands what his constituents are saying. He understands because he feels the same as do we. He knows that the State has outgrown it place in the Constitution, He understands that government spending is out of control. He believes in States rights, the Second Amendment...as written. He is an IRS abolitionist. HE truly understands his voters, the founders, and the Constitution. Jason Sager is the only logical, meaningful, choice for Restoration of the Constitution in Florida's 5th U.S. Congressional District.

There were a lot of folks there in support of Mr Sager. We had some of them, most of them, sign the truck and were able to get some pictures of those folks as well. Note the "Red Shirts" in the photographs above. They are all part of Jason's Red Shirt Brigade. This event was sponsored by Citrus County's R.E.C.. I will soon post videos of both 10 minute speeches from this forum and you can decide for yourself who should represent the 5th Congressional district in Florida. Jason Sager or Sheriff Rich Nugent.

We also attended a fund raiser for Jason Sager for Congress, in Florida's 5th district, on the evening of the 11th. The fundraiser was held at Deep South family Style BBQ in Brooksvile, FL. Tina and I attended the Fundraiser and we drove the 9/12 Truck. Again, a great meet up and many supporters came out to meet and greet the candidate, Mr Jason Sager. More pictures will be posted soon of the folks signing the truck.

From there, we were off to work. We were offered a load to Las Vegas for Saturday morning leaving from Orlando. The load was to be ready by 0200 but wasn't actually ready until 0615. After hooking to the loaded trailer and performing our pre-trip inspection, we headed North on the Florida Turnpike to I-75 north and ran that to I-10 west and stopped in Midway Fl for a splash of fuel.

After leaving there we ran I-10 to Mobile Al and accessed U.S. 98 to Hattiesburg MS. then ran 49 to Jackson MS where we took I-20 west to Dallas then U.S.287 north to Amarillo TX.. Form there it was I-40 west to Kingman AZ and 93 north to 168 to 95 and back to 93.

Before we arrived in Vegas we were contacted by dispatch and asked to run a short trip to Salt Lake City UT on Monday Morning, then a Columbus OH out of Salt Lake City on Monday night/Tuesday Morning. That brings us to Columbus OH, where we now sit, after getting here early this morning and going to Louisville KY to pick a load up and come back here. We now sit, waiting on a load to Rock Tavern NY. The load is to be ready at about 1600 this afternoon.

I have no idea to where we will go from Rock Tavern but freight seems to be moving and I'm sure that we will get a dispatch to somewhere shrotly after our arrival at the terminal.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Computer Infection

2010-05-06T17:25:00.003-04:00

I apologize for the lack of postings here. My computer is infected with malware at the moment. Ron, from J.R. Computer Outlet 513-683-7999 will have the problems fixed shortly and I will be posting again. If you are having computer problems, give Ron a try. His repairs are done remotely and comparatively inexpensively. Please check back often

Orlando Load Cancelled and Reassigned for Saturday Morning

2010-04-27T14:54:00.007-04:00

Our load to Orlando was to be ready at about 0500 on Friday morning. Dispatch sent a message at about 0230 and said the load had canceled and that they had nothing else to offer. I typed a "Thank you for the heads up" message back and, though aggravated about being stuck in Jersey for another day, drifted back to sleep.

The phone rang at about 1130 on Friday and it was dispatch again. They had an offer of Orlando, Atlanta, Or Columbus OH. While we would rather have taken the Columbus OH load, because it is easier to get another load out of there, we were forced to take the Orlando load so that we could pick up our new registration for the truck. The reason we don't like going to Orlando between our time off requests is that we inevitably wind up getting stuck there for 2-3 days.

Again, the load was to be ready at about 0500. We decided to go to bed early, get a good nights sleep, and be ready to go when the trailer was loaded and ready. The message came at about 0215 that the trailer was loaded and ready to go.

After I got cleaned up and ready to go, I headed to the office to pick up our paperwork and went to find our trailer. After getting the trailer hooked up I pulled it away from the door and performed the required pre-trip inspection, closed, sealed and lock the trailer doors, caught our log books up and we were off to sunny Orlando.

We were sad to leave our squatted sanctuary in Newark. No really, it's fantastic. The fresh aroma of the Garden state, that aroma is apparently organic fertilizer...if you know what I mean, the amazing demeanor of the locals, the feeling of such security with a prison just down the road. Oh, and lest we forget the beautiful view of a fresh water stream meandering though the area.

We traveled straight down I-95, through Baltimore, the D.C. area and right on down into Florida. We had to stop for a splash of fuel in Latta, SC. Tina drove from there, the rest of the way into Orlando.

We arrived Orlando at about 2130 Saturday evening. Our company, the company to which we are leased, moved to a new facility in Orlando. Man they bragged about this facility. More room, easier access, etc. Well, it may be better, but only for everyone other than the contractors. This place is horrible to get to, there is only room for 7 trucks to park in assigned areas, there is less room for backing into the doors. I suppose there are more doors for trailers to be docked, but there is nowhere for empty trailers to be stored. In short, this was, in my humble opinion, a poor...no a very poor acquisition, but I digress.

Upon arrival, and seeing the lack of space for waiting trucks, I called dispatch to see if we would be able to get back out of there on Saturday evening/Sunday morning. We were told that it would be Sunday evening before we received a dispatch out of Orlando so we decided to go to the house, 63 miles to the West, to sleep comfortably, have a personal parking place for the truck, facilities to perform maintenance on the truck, laundry facilities, etc. While we were at home, I was able to do a lube and bypass filter change on the truck. I also installed a water pump to be used to wash the truck while we are sitting.

I knew when we went to the house that they would leave us sit but it at least we would be sitting at home. They would have done the same had we been sitting, in the truck, in Orlando.

Finally, after much griping, moaning, and airing my feelings about what was happening, we were dispatched on a load out of Orlando on Monday evening going to Atlanta. Not a lot better but we would be out of Florida and away from our terminal of domicile. The load, reportedly, would be ready about 2300.

After dinner, and after putting the truck back together, we headed over to Orlando to get some rest before the load was ready. We got there at about 2045 and got a call at about 2140 that the load was ready to go. Again, we hooked to the loaded trailer, pre-tripped, and headed for Atalanta.

We traveled up the Florida Turnpike to I-75 the straight north into Atlanta. I stopped in Reddick Florida for a bit of fuel and moved on with little delay. We arrived in Atlanta this morning at our customer location at about 0600, bumped the dock and were empty and back to our Atlanta terminal by about 0730.

We were dispatched on a load going to Dallas tonight. The load should be ready by about 2300. We will have to stop outside of Atlanta for a little fuel and then on to Dallas. We will travel across I-20 all the way into the Dallas area TX114 up to the DFW Airport area. We shall see what happens from there.

We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

In Newark Now, Waiting for Load to Orlando

2010-04-22T18:51:00.013-04:00

After I left off yesterday, I slept a bit longer and then took over driving from Tina at about 2030 in Hurricane Mills, TN.

We had a fairly uneventful trip until the mirror insert on the driver's mirror came loose and went flying behind me. Now, this is the 2nd time this has happened to the mirror on the driver's side and we have also lost two from the passenger's side. Obviously and inherent problem with the mirror design.

I have learned to carry an extra mirror insert in the truck, but at 0300 on the side of the road it is a bit difficult to find and install. It too though, is very difficult to drive, safely, with a missing driver's side mirror.

I decided to stop at the next truck stop and buy a mirror and some tape and tape a temporary mirror in place to use until we arrived in Newark. I bought a "West Coast" style mirror like would be used on a Pete or Kenworth W900L and 12 yards of "Gorilla Tape" and below are the results of my hurried efforts to regain side and rear view vision.

Between this and the traffic accident just East of Dallas after we left yesterday, we were late for our arrival in Newark by about 15 minutes or so. The accident involved a big truck and a hazmat spill on the interstate and that always involves closing the roadway until the hazmat team arrives for cleanup.

We finally got here, Newark, at about 1315, dropped the trailer and went to find a parking place, which can sometimes be a challenge in this facility. We were lucky today and there was plenty of space left for us to park.

I started looking for the mirror insert that I knew I had. I found it in the toolbox, on the back of the truck, still in the original and ready for install.

I decided this time, since time did permit, I would not only install the new insert but also devise a plan to keep from losing it the next time it comes loose, and it will come loose again. I decided to make a tether out of a tie wrap and a short length of wire and loosely attach the mirror to the mirror housing.

The real problem with this insert is the method they used to attach the insert to the motor adjusting assembly. They us a locking ring that rotates after insert installation, upward. By rotating the ring upward and not providing a good lock mechanism onto the lock ring to keep it from rotation back to the unlocked or down position, they have allowed vibration to rattle the lock ring loose and failure occurs after enough vibration to release the lock ring.

After installing the home made tether, I installed the new insert. I also placed a tie wrap around the lock ring lever to try and keep the ring from unlocking while we are driving down the road. This is a problem Paccar really needs to deal with, in my humble opinion. These inserts are about $110.00 to $130.00, depending on which dealer you by it from. Below is a picture of the finished product. You can't see the retention method I used but it is there and should last this time.

Dispatch sent a load, via Qualcomm, at about 0730 and it seems they would like us to travel south to Orlando tomorrow. That is a good thing considering our new registration is at the Orlando terminal awaiting our arrival and retrieval.

We will be traveling straight down I-95 into Florida and the I-4 into Orlando. We are going to Orlando at a good time of the week actually. They always have a Vegas run out of there on Friday night Saturday morning. That would be a great start to next week if I can talk them into giving us that one. We shall see.

We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Off to the East Coast Today

2010-04-21T16:23:00.006-04:00

Okay, but what happened to the last 9 days? Well, let's get caught up.

We sat in Phoenix until about 1500 on the 13th. We actually enjoyed the down time. Didn't really do much other than just sit around and watch television, napped, talked with other drivers etc.

Dispatch called at about 1400 on the 13th and asked if we could hook to an empty trailer, run it over to Los Angeles, and then load from there to go to Atlanta GA on the morning of the 14th. That sounded pretty good to us, we would head over to L.A., get another good nights sleep and leave for Atlanta the next morning. After fueling, and emptying the waste tank. we headed to the Phoenix terminal, found an empty trailer, performed the required pre-trip inspection, and headed to L.a.. While we were emptying the waste tank a local drove up pulling a portable toilet trailer that he rents out for weddings and other events. This wasn't a porta pot like you see sitting in construction sites but rather a high end trailer configuration. Anyway, I sparked a conversation with the guy, which considering the conversation piece isn't hard to do, and we talked for a bit about the country, the 912 Project and the local groups with which he could get involved. After a brief encounter he signed the truck and we were off. we headed to the Phoenix terminal, found an empty trailer, performed the required pre-trip inspection, and headed to L.a..

We arrived in L.A. at about 2300 that evening and went promptly to bed, knowing that our load was to be ready at 0600.

true to form, the L.a. terminal ran late and the load wasn't ready until about 0930. That was alright though, the sleep was good. Nice and cool outside, not much noise, pretty darned good sleeping.

We received our "load Ready" message at about 0930. We had already been up for about 45 minutes or so, had some coffee, a breakfast sandwich and had already gotten cleaned up for the day. I headed to the office to retrieve our paperwork and then off to find the trailer. After hooking the trailer, I again, performed the pre-trip inspection and took towards the exit of the yard. Our illustrious security officer stopped me, interrogated me( which they are told to do) for about 3 minutes or so, and then checked the seal on the trailer and released me to the free world.

Because we are on I-40 so much of the time, and we get a bit tired of the same old grind, we decided to run across I-10 into Texas and then I-20 the rest of the way to Atlanta. That is neither the shortest nor the fastest route but it is the cheapest route. While it is about 70 miles or so further, I can and do make the case that fuel is cheaper on I-10 and I-20 than it is on I-40 plus the roads are better on that southern route and there are less hard pulls(hills, mountains) on the southern route so we use less fuel going that way. Not to mention, the personal preference of I-10/I-20 over I-40.

So we got as far as Eloy AZ and we had a steer tire starting to fail. The tire on the right had an internal steel belt slipping and causing a pretty bad shimmy in the steering wheel. Now, I knew I needed steer tires, not that they were worn out bad enough to be a safety concern, but I was aware that we would have to put a set on in May when we would be taking some down time at home. Now, with one of the tires failing internally, we would have to move that date forward a bit. I started making calls trying to find the tires I wanted to no avail. Because we are extremely heavy on the steer axle, we are forced, in some states to have wider tires than normal. Of course, however, no-one carries the tires I like in stock. I usually run the Micheline XZA2 315 80 R22.5 tire that is rated at 9090# per tire in a single tire position. Again, no-one stocks that tire because it is so rarely used.

I ended up settling on a Bridgestone M860 315 80 R22.5. While this wasn't the tire I wanted, for several reasons, I had little choice at this point. While the guys were installing the tires an elderly lady came from the inside and was reading the side of the truck. I could see she was interested in the purpose and reason behind what was there. I spoke with her for a few minutes, explained the 912 Project and why we are participating in the project in this manner. I explained the poem on the side of the truck and she got teary eyed. She said "Oh my Gosh, yes, I know who Pastor Niemoller was, this just gives me chills", she continued, "you see, we came from Germany in 1952, when I was just a young lady, and I remember what had happened there and sometimes it seems as though some of the same things are going on here". She cried a bit, read some more and out of the blue turned to me with a tear in her eyes, grabbed and hugged me and turned and walked inside just shaking her head.

It is times like this that makes the tough times worthwhile. Times like this make the naysayers of our mission moot. Times like this restore my faith in the human race and keeps me plodding forward. You see, I don't think anything happens by chance. I think my tire was meant to fail when it did, we were led to that tire facility, and that our meeting with that lady was as blatant of a push forward as anyone could ever have. I was humbled that day, I was moved to plow on. Times like this happen often, though not usually as profound as this. While awakening many or at least letting them know they aren't alone in their feeling, I believe God knows we need encouragement and gives it when needed.

After the tires were installed we moved on towards Atlanta. We arrived there at about 0100 on the 16th and they had a load, a short one going to Raleigh NC with a return empty to Charlotte NC., and a promise of a load back to Los Angeles from there. After a long traffic delay due to a truck fire on I-81 in South Carolina, we made it to Raleigh at about 0900. We took a brief nap, got up, showered and got ourselves ready for the day and headed to Charlotte with an empty trailer. Since there wasn't a need tot be in Charlotte until 0600 the next day, the 17th, we took our time and stopped for some lunch. After lunch we moved on to Charlotte and got there at about 1800.

The load for Los Angeles was to be ready at about 0600, so after a little television we went to bed for a good nights sleep. The load was ready pretty early. Actually at about 0245 is when we were notified and we were hooked to the load and on our way by about 0330. A fight with a very stubborn, bent trailer door was to blame for the delay. It took a pry bar and a hammer to get the latch pushed into place before I could close the other door.

This routing was a bit tricky because they still have I-40 closed at the TN/NC state line due to a major rock slide several months ago. We decided to head for Atlanta on I-85 and then run I-20 to Birmingham and U.S,78 into Memphis where we would access I-40 west and run that all the way to CA. Again, I know there are much shorter ways but why beat the heck out of the truck on mountainous back roads when time permits otherwise? Again, time, fuel, terrain, etc all play a part in our decisions about which routes we run. It isn't always "the shortest is the best" mentality.

Again, on our way to L.A. we were inspired by some passers by giving us the thumbs up and taking pictures of the truck.

We finally got to L.A. at about 2100 on the 18th. We were pretty sure we'd be there all night so we parked, got a good nights sleep after a long run, and got up in the morning and took a walk. Now we never hear from west coast dispatch until about 1600 or so for our load assignment out of LAX so when my phone rang at 1030 while we were walking, I didn't even think about it being them. Kyle from Sacramento dispatch was on the other end wanting to know if we wanted to take a load to San Diego. I really don't like running up and down the coast of California. It is hard enough getting in and out of L.A. unscathed by law enforcement without tempting fate by running up and down the coast. I told Kyle I'd have to call him back but that I really didn't want to do it if he could find someone else. By the time we got back to the truck, about 20 minutes or so, he had found someone else to make the run and we were off the hook.

I spent the day tearing apart the light bars on the rear of the truck and repairing wiring inside the bars. I had 1 light working on the right side and 2 on the left. No need to give D.O.T. unnecessary cause for a roadside check, so I had better fix the lights while we are down. This mandated grinding out the pop rivets holding the lights into the light bar and repairing the wiring, installing tubing around all the wires inside the light bar to alleviate the wire rubbing on the steel and then re-riveting the lights into the bar.

Five hours later, due partially, okay probably mostly, to my anally retentive nature, I had the lights repaired and back in place. Now I could take Tina for a bite to eat.

There is a little burger joint in the area to which we can walk, about 3/4 mile or so away, and they have really good food and great service. The name of the place is Columbia Burger. We really like this place. Just a hole in the wall so don't get excited about "atmosphere" but the food can't be beat for a quick meal and great service.

After sitting all day we found out that we would be headed to Dallas out of LAX. The load would be ready at about 0600 and should deliver in Dallas by about 0900 on Wednesday the 21st. The load was actually ready at about 0630, we were up, ready to go, hooked and inspected and on the road by about 0730. We traveled across I-40 to Amarillo and down 287 into the Dallas Fort Worth area. We went this way, across I-40 this time, because there is a rest area in Iowa Park TX with an RV dump station and we knew it was time to dump our waste tank.

On the way to Dallas, when we were in New Mexico, dispatch wanted to know if we wanted to pull a load to Newark NJ that would be ready when we got to Dallas. We accepted the load, though not overly happily. We arrived in Dallas at about 0730, dropped the LAX load, retrieved the paperwork for the Newark NJ load and took out to find the trailer. After hooking, inspecting and checking out with the guard on duty, we were off to Newark. We decided to travel across I-30 to Little Rock and the I-40 to I-81 to I-76 into Joysey. We'll miss D.C. traffic on I-95 that way and while it may be a few miles longer will probably save an hour or so in traffic. Not to mention I won't be subject4d to the slime in D.C. and take a chance on it rubbing off onto me or the truck. Incidentally, by "slime" I mean the politicians, not the regular citizens. They are mostly great folks in that area.

We are currently in the West Memphis area, Tina is driving and traffic is pretty bad. We expect to be in Newark by about noon or so tomorrow and then hopefully get to Orlando. Our new registration is sitting there and the old one expires at the end of this month.

We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

04/12/10 Arrived Phoenix Last Night

2010-04-12T19:41:00.003-04:00

Our load was ready about 1730 Friday evening out of Columbus. We were to go to Kansas City and take a load that would be waiting there to Phoenix. Before we were able to make it to Kansas City, we received a message asking if we would be willing to go to Eagan MN, South Minneapolis area with an empty trailer and pull a load right back to Kansas City.

I suppose it was about an hour and a half later, we pulled into the Kansas City terminal and dropped and secured our trailer, deposited the paperwork in the night depository, and located an empty trailer to pull to Eagan MN. We hooked the empty, performed the pre-trip and headed for Eagan MN.

We made it to Eagan at about 1330, dropped the empty, hooked to the loaded trailer and headed back to Kansas City, MO. We arrived back in Kansas City at about 2115. I handed the paperwork off to the driver that would be pulling the load the rest of the way to Dallas, unhooked and re-hooked to our Phoenix load.

After performing our pre-trip inspection on the Phoenix trailer, We went to the fuel stop up the road, filled up with fuel, checked the truck and trailer over again, and headed for Phoenix.

We traveled U.S. 54 to Tucumcari, NM where we jumped onto I-40 west and ran that all the way to Flagstaff AZ and accessed I-17 south right into Phoenix. We made it to Phoenix at about 1930, dropped the trailer and went to bed, directly to bed, we did not pass go nor did we collect $200.00.

It was actually a bit warm in phoenix last night so we started the generator and turned the A/c on. Just about 2 hours or so into a great nap, the generator decided to quit running. I thought I could sleep without the a/c so I just went back to bed and tried to forget it. No such luck. The longer I lay there, the hotter it got.

I was able to get the generator running in about 30 minutes or so. It was overheating because of road grime built up on the radiator. I cleaned the radiator off a bit, and left the door open on the front for more air flow, and it seemed to be okay. Man was that good. I was tired and wanted to go back to bed. Which I did.

Tina got up this morning and turned on the water heater for a shower and then took off for a walk. I stay in bed a bit longer, until the generator quit running again, that is. It seems that the water heater being turned on had loaded the generator a bit more, causing the engine to run a bit warmer and the radiator fan couldn't move enough air to keep it cool. I knew what I had to do. I got my lazy rear end out of bed, got cleaned up, dressed and off to work. You see, driving isn't the only job you have when you are a truck owner/driver. You have to be a mechanic as well.

When I got outside I found the door for the front of the generator hanging, broken loose from its mounts. I removed the door and then the cover for the generator and set it aside. After removing all the pieces from around the radiator that would come off, I proceeded to spray the radiator down with a degreaser and let it soak for a bit. I decided as long as I was working on the generator, I might as well do a service as well. I removed the K&N Air Filter sprayed on the special cleaning agent and let it set for a bit too. I changed the oil and fuel filters and topped off the oil level. I also sprayed the rest of the generator down with degreaser and sprayed the area off with water. I repeated the degreasing of the radiator to be sure it was good and clean.

After a thorough cleaning and inspection of all wear parts and topping off the coolant reservoir I started work on reattaching the door to the cover. I had to drill out the broken rivets and install new rivets in their place. As Murphy's Law commands, "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." Both batteries for my cordless drill were dead. I keep them plugged in for emergency use but it seems that they have overcharged and are bad now. I was able to get enough juice out of them to drill 9 rivets out but that is all. They are completely dead now. Good ole Black and Decker junk.

I re-riveted the door to the cover and re-installed it to the generator. All is well now it seems.

I also changed the FS 2500 bypass oil filter on the truck engine. I love this filter. It only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish to change and keeps the oil amazingly clean. I run oil samples with every filter change to make sure the oil is still good and clean.

After completing the work on the truck, we headed over to the truck wash in the area. They also make a killer burger. I had them wash the truck while we had dinner and now, here we sit, watching television.

We don't know at this point to where we will be headed but I'm sure that after we get to sleep real good the phone will ring with our orders. We shall see.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Sittin' Back in Columbus Now

2010-04-09T15:23:00.006-04:00

we got back to the Columbus terminal at about 1215 this afternoon. After we dropped the trailer, and Tina ran the paperwork inside, I fueled the truck and Tina went inside to get some laundry done.

We received a message from dispatch asking that we pull a load to Kansas City MO. We accepted the load and it is to leave here at about 1700. I though that I would pump the fuel right way so that we didn't delay the load by fueling after it was ready.

We will leave here and run across I-70 all the way to Kansas City.

As I sit writing this post, dispatch called again and asked if we had any idea what we wanted to do when we get to Kansas City. My reply was, hmmmm, hadn't thought about it, we aren't loaded in Columbus yet. HE asked if we would be willing to pull a load to Phoenix and then on to Vegas. We accepted the load, so I suppose we are set for the weekend now.

We should, if the Kansas City load is ready on time, leave here at about 1700, be in Kansas City at about 0430 and then get a short nap there. The load from there to Phoenix is actually coming from Chicago by another truck. That load is to be there by 1100 tomorrow morning.

Again, if the load is there on time, we should be in Phoenix by about 0900 on Sunday. I have no idea yet what time we will leave Phoenix and therefor don't know what time we will be in Vegas. I will update here when I know though.

From Kansas City we will travel I-35 south to U.S. 54 west to I-40 west to I-17 south into Phoenix. We will fuel in Kansas City MO when we get there and shouldn't have to fuel again before we get to Phoenix. That means a non stop trip except for driver switches and stop signs or lights. Sounds like a busy weekend, huh?

We hope to see you along the way. Should you see the 912 Truck, be sure and wave and let us know you seen us by commenting here with time and place.

Here is a novel item for the coming election year.
When The Politicians Are On TV, Blowing Hot Air And You Want To Scream, Just Grab Your Doll And Give It A Fling, Let Them Know...Hey, You Work For Me.

A useful, bipartisan doll to give you something to throw while watching the news and listening to the politicians lie with every motion of their lips. Throw your doll and scream while never causing any damage to your television. These dolls now come with a retrieval string for retrieval without moving from your perch on the couch.

All Dolls are bipartisan, Republican on 1 side, Democrat on the other.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Headed Back to Columbus

2010-04-09T08:32:00.002-04:00

Just before we got to Rock Tavern last night, at about 2230 or so, I received a text message from the driver with whom we were to switch trailers and he had just left Boston MA. He was about 3.5-4 hours away.

We decided we would take advantage of the down time and catch a short nap. The wrap on the door came, from the other driver, at about 0200. He was already unhooked from the trailer and was waiting for me to unhook from mine.

I jumped up, got dressed and hurriedly unhooked, re-hooked performed my pre-trip inspection. I caught up my logbook and we were headed for Columbus, OH. We are currently in western Pennsylvania on I-80 and it is snowing, raining, sleeting nasty combination of weather. Again, every time we come this way, the weather is nasty. Granted, it isn't sticking to the roads but man, what's the deal. It was 70 degrees here yesterday, on the way up and now it is just about 35 degrees or so.

We should be back in Columbus OH by about 1230 or so. I have no idea where they will want us to go next but we readily await their dispatch.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

04/08/10 Off to Rock Tavern (Newburgh) NY

2010-04-08T15:57:00.004-04:00

Well, we finally made it to Dallas about 0530 on Wednesday morning. We had received notice that our load back to Columbus was ready, even before we arrived in Dallas. That notice came at ab out 0440.

We dropped the loaded trailer, fueled the truck and hooked to the trailer going back to Columbus. After a pre-trip inspection of the truck and trailer, as required by D.O.T., we were off and running. We left Dallas at about 0615.

We, rather uneventfully, arrived back in Columbus OH this morning at about 0030, dropped the trailer and went to bed. A 38 hour turn from Columbus OH to Dallas and back to Columbus, with a 2 hour flat tire delay, is a pretty quick turn by any standards. I know there are plenty of folks who'll say no big deal, and it isn't, it's just a pretty quick turn, but anyway...

We got up this morning and headed to our favorite greasy spoon restaurant, just down the street from the terminal, only to find out it had been closed up, out of business. What the??? Oh well. We decided on Wafflay Hoosay, that's frenchy french for Waffle House for those of you who aren't quite refined as I. So while we were having breakfast, Frank called and said he didn't have much out of Columbus today but here's what I do have, he said," Philly, I said not looking for a cheese steak He said Portland, OR, I said too liberal for us there, he said Rock Tavern NY and right back to Columbus, that's all I got. We took Rock Tavern.

After breakfast, we headed over to the local big box grocery store and done some shopping for groceries and Tina's craft supplies. We then headed back to the terminal for some R&R before the load was to be ready about 1500. We no sooner got back there and the message came that the load was ready and needed to leave right away.

We just went through Youngstown and we are about 360 miles or so South East f Rock Tavern. We are supposed to meet another driver there, with a load from Boston, that is to go back to Columbus and he will take ours on to Boston.

This is beautiful country up here but the weather seems to always be nasty. It seems that every time we come up this way it is either raining or snowing.

I guess we are about 6 hours or so from our Rock Tavern destination. We just got a message from dispatch telling us that the other driver would be there about 2 hours or so later than us. Looks like we'll get another nap before returning.

In closing, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Update on Trip to DFW, 04/06/10

2010-04-06T17:03:00.005-04:00

Just as I was getting the last post ready to publish, and I was looking forward to a nice hot shower, Tina, who was driving, yelled and said that we had a tire going down on the tractor. How did she know that? Well, well, well, now. When I purchased this truck, I decided to install a Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Monitoring System.Man was that a good choice. This system,took all of about an hour to install and calibrate and I believe anyone with knowledge enough to install an add on XM radio could do the install themselves.

The system monitors the tire pressure in each tire and displays it upon command. When a tire starts losing pressure, at a given rate and down to a certain point below your "set point", an alarm sounds and continues to sound until the problem is alleviated. This monitor has saved me from replacing 2 tires now. Two of the wide based super single tires that run about $850.00 each. Thank God for technology and for our capitalist society. Without both, this technology would never exist. What a money saver.

We jumped off the interstate at the next exit, I aired the tire back up to a suitable level and found a bolt seal, removed from another trailer and left laying in the terminal yard, that had punctured the tire. Tina was on the phone calling around trying to find someone with a road service truck that would come out and repair the tire. Not only would they not come and repair the tire, but we were told that we were out of their service area and that they didn't carry that size tire anyway.

After a computer search, a couple more phone calls to our shop in Columbus, and a short 16 mile trip down the road we found a place that could, would, and did fix the tire.

Qfix Truck Service in Pendleton KY. What an amazing bunch of folks. These people know what service is all about. Not only could they patch the tire, but if it was bad enough that it couldn't b e patched, they had a replacement tire. After the initial hour of trying to find someone and driving 16 miles to their shop, they had us in and out, tire repaired and on the road in 1 hour. Not only did it only take an hour, but we didn't get raped, pillaged and plundered like many of the shops might have done. $46.98 later they had removed the tire, dismounted it, plugged and patched it, and remounted and re-installed it onto the truck.

This place is at exit 28 on I-71 on the East side of the highway in the Pilot truck stop parking lot. If you are in the area and need any kind of repair and or service work, give these folks the opportunity to show you their professionalism and determination to please. They do about all kinds of work including air conditioning and oil changes as well.

Qfix has 5 locations. They are; Pendleton KY 502-743-0349, Lebanon Junction KY 502-833-4100, Memphis TN 812-294-4581, Corbin KY 606-523-1219, and Evansville IN 812-768-6681. They also have a website at www.qfixtrucks.com. They also have 24 hour emergency and emergency road service.

Finally, I would just like to say thanks to Larry Goodlett, Managaer and to Josh, the tire repair tech who made the repairs on our truck and to the rest of the staff for their kind and helpful attitudes.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

DFW to ATL to RDU to CMH to DFW and back to CMH Tomorrow

2010-04-06T16:20:00.006-04:00

We did get out of Dallas on time. The load was ready at 2300 and we were hooked to the loaded trailer, had the pre-trip inspection performed, and out the gate by 2330. We traveled out tx114 to I-30 to U.S. 80 and on to I-20.

We had to make a quick stop in Terrell TX for a splash of fuel and then again in Greenwood LA to fill up with fuel. We arrived, uneventfully, in Atlanta at about 1300 and figured that since it was Easter Sunday, we would likely be there all day.

We were enjoying the Rick Warren special from Angel Stadium in Anaheim CA when the phone rang and it was dispatch. They had some short runs that they didn’t have enough solo trucks to cover and asked if we would take a load to Raleigh NC and then run empty back to Charlotte NC. Again, we accepted the load.

The load was actually ready when they called so we hurriedly headed to dispatch for our manifest and hooked to our loaded trailer. I performed the pre-trip inspection and again, we were off and running.

The load wasn’t scheduled to deliver until 0500 on Monday so we decided to find a place for dinner. We stopped in Commerce GA at a T/A truck stop. Now that was a mistake. The service was pretty good, but they had very little food. The restaurant manager had apparently forgotten to plan for Easter Sunday and they were out of many entrées and even condiments on the salad bar.

We had dinner and relaxed for about an hour and we were off again for Raleigh. We arrived at our terminal at about 2230 or so and I unhooked from the trailer so that I could install a kingpin lock and go find a parking place to go to bed. Not so fast, they had plenty of king pin locks but there were no keys available to install them. I had to stay hooked to the trailer until someone from the warehouse arrived to keep watch of the freight.

The warehouse supervisor arrived about 0130, woke me up so that I could pull away from the dock and open the trailer doors and bump the dock again and then I dropped the trailer and went to bed for the rest of the evening.

We were supposed to go to Charlotte with an empty but that plan changed as well. We were asked to stay put and they’d let us know in a bit where we would be going.

In the mean time, I decided to make contact with an internet friend, Karen Allen, the amazingly talented young lady who done the header for this blog site and is also the purveyor of Annieoakley.org. Karen told us if we were ever in the area, she and her kids would love to see the truck. We made arrangements, I gave her directions to where we were parked and she and her wonderful kids came and visited, signed the truck, and took some pictures.

Just before Karen and family arrived, dispatch called and asked us to hook to an empty trailer and go to Reynoldsburg OH (North Columbus area). After our visit, we did as they asked and were headed for our next load by about 1445. Again, the load we were going to pull from Reynoldsburg wasn’t going to be ready until about 1000 the next morning, Tuesday.

We stopped in Wytheville VA for dinner and to kill some time. About an hour and a half later we were gone again. We traveled up I-77 to U.S. 33 and arrived in Reynoldsburg about 0100. Went to bed and this morning, before we could hook to the loaded trailer, dispatch called and asked if we would pull a load to Dallas rather than the Miami that we had been assigned to earlier. That was a great call.

It seems that every time we go into Florida, we get stuck there for 2-3 days and we just really didn’t want to be there at this point. We headed back to the terminal in Columbus, about 18 miles or so south and dropped our empty, filled up with fuel, and hooked to the loaded trailer. We were hooked, fueled and rolling by about 0945.

We are now south of Cincinnati OH between there and Louisville KY. We will be traveling I-71 to I-65 south, to Nashville TN. In Nashville we will access I-40 west and run that to Little Rock AR. From there we will exit to I-30 west and run that the rest of the way into Dallas.

As I sit writing this entry, dispatch just called and asked, when we get to Dallas, whether we might want to turn around back to Columbus OH. Since we aren’t out here for our health, but rather to make money, we accepted the load. Our trip back should be ready when we arrive in Dallas, so it should be a pretty quick turn. I’m guessing that we should be back in Columbus by about midnight Wednesday night. We shall see.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Update to 03/03/10 DFW to Columbus.

2010-04-03T17:54:00.002-04:00

Dispatch called at 1700 to tell us that yet another load, our load to Columbus OH had canceled, and therefore we wouldn't be going to Eagan MN as planned either.

They called back at about 1710 and asked if we would take a load to Atlanta GA tonight. We have accepted the load and are scheduled to leave here at about 2300 this evening.

Assuming the load leaves on time, or even leaves at all, we should be in Atlanta by about 1300-1400 tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, we wait.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Waiting in Dallas for Load Going to Columbus, OH

2010-04-03T11:47:00.011-04:00

We were on vacation, well, actually just some time off for doctors appointments, the week of the 20th of March. We had some good off time. We attended a rally on the 20th for a Congressional candidate in our district in Florida. His name is Jason Sager and seems to be quite the win for conservative voters.

On the 27th we went to Orlando to Glenn Beck's "American Revival" event at the UCF Arena. What an amazing event. Glenn really went all out to get the best speakers, the most knowledgeable individuals and to provide the best literature sources source available. I cannot speak highly enough about the quality of information in this event. Truly, if you love America, want to get the Real America back, and care to learn how the experts say to do that, please attend his next event in Phoenix, AZ on the 10th of April at the Jobing Arena. Really, it is in Glendale, AZ but close enough.

The rest of the week was spent going to different doctors offices, rescheduling canceled appointments, having some rather unpleasant tests performed and working on the truck. I had to replace the no lube 5th wheel anti friction plates. I had to replac3e the radiator, stemming from a couple months ago when the fan clutch failed, and then the normal bypass filter and oil filter replacements. Cummins has a new extended drain oil filter out and I wanted to get the latest technology available for the best protection. The new oil filter is the LF9080 and replaces the LF9001. The exterior looks about the same but the inside of the filter is supposed to be a better material and made to last for longer durations and heavier soot produced by the new engines, and make extending oil and filter changes safer for those of us who care to use a bypass filter.

Now that we are back to work, and have been for a week, we are focused on the job at hand. Waking Up America!!! We took a call on Monday afternoon, the 29th of March, from dispatch and received a dispatch to Los Angeles that was to be ready at about 0500 on Tuesday. What a great way to start a new week after a week off. A good long run, in nice weather, on a very familiar road, that we really like to run. WRONG...At about 0200, dispatch called again, and the load to LAX had canceled but not to worry, we have a great load to Newark NJ. Oh well, we needed to get moving, so we accepted the change, without too much moaning. I just despise the east coast, north of Richmond VA but I digress. The load was ready at about 0315 and we spent the next 4 days, did I say four days, on the east coast, north of Richmond VA. Did I mention that I despise the East Coast anywhere north of Richmond VA? I'm just sayin'.

Two canceled loads later, a whole lot of griping, to Tina, and many traffic delays, we made it to Columbus OH, then to Houston TX. We had a dispatch to Orlando last night, it too canceled and now we're sitting in DFW waiting for a load to Columbus OH. We really didn't want to go to Orlando anyway. It seems that when they get us to Florida, we sit an extended period of time. We try to only go there when it is time to go to the house for time off.

We had some great visits with folks looking at the truck in Columbus, and the3n coming south on I-71 towards Cincinnati. Ohio still seems to hold the candle for the rest of conservative America. I've added some Pictures to the photobucket page so be sure to have a look. There are a couple of folks at our Columbus OH terminal and the amazing Angela (twitter ID @dimplesang) that we met in Tallahassee on our way home. She and her two boys(twins) came to the truck stop to see and sign the truck. We also encountered another driver at the truck stop and he wanted to sign the truck as well. His name was James Boyd form Tallahassee.

The movement seems to be growing across America and seems to be increasing in vigor. America, Real America, the "flyover" portion of America that seems to be ignored, has truly come to life. I told my father 12 years ago that America was about to revolt then, I told my wife 10 years ago the same thing. They have finally pushed us into the corner tight enough that we are coming out fighting. We have awakened and now they think that they can re-administer the sleeping against...Money, Credit, and any other entitlement program they can use as a detraction. Not this time. I will scream at the top of my lungs until we extract all the dirt bag miscreants from D.C..

Thanks for Reading
In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Got to CMH Now off to Las Vegas

2010-03-14T16:31:00.004-04:00

We arrived in Salt Lake City at about 1200 noon and dropped our trailer, hooked to the load headed for Columbus, performed the pretrip inspection and off we went to Columbus. We had to stop in North Platte, NE for fuel and that would be our last stop.

The weather across I-80 was very windy all the way to Davenport IA. The more wind all the way to Columbus. I'm not sure why but it doesn't matter where we are going, which direction we are traveling, we have a head wind. That is to say, we are always headed into the wind, the wind is at our face rather than a tail wind. That is really bad for fuel mileage. I had pumped an extra 40 gallons in North Platte because Of the wind and man was that a good forethought. We had 17 gallons of fuel left when we got to Columbus.

Before we got to Columbus, we took a call from dispatch asking which load we wanted out of there. We were offered a Miami, to leave immediately upon our arrival to Columbus or they had a Vegas, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, or Kansas City to leave early the next morning(Sunday). We chose the Las Vegas for the length of the trip, the ease of return, and the route and weather.

Anyway, we got there at about 1730 and dropped our trailer, fueled the truck in advance of our trailer readiness this morning and went for dinner at the local greasy spoon restaurant.

After dinner, knowing our load would be ready before daylight, we went to bed as soon as we finished dinner.

The message came at about 0630 this morning that our load was ready. Again, we jumped up, made ourselves ready and presentable for the day and went to dispatch to retrieve our paperwork. After hooking to the load we, as usual and as required, we performed the pretrip inspection and headed for the departure gate where security resides.

I decided to stay up long enough to get my weekly dose of church and tot refill my redemption and faith cups, from Cowboy Church on XM 13. I then promptly headed back to bed.

After review of our log books I seen that if we were to stretch out Tina's driving time and if I stayed out of the seat another 2 hours I could gain a restart on my logbook so we decided we'd stop in Troy Illinois and make my sister buy lunch. I love spending her and her husband's money. Especially if I can make myself and her husband think that it is actually his money and not hers. Anyway, we had a good lunch and a great visit. We had lunch at Red Robin in Glen Carbon IL. A pretty darned good burger I guess. The fact that it was free to me made it even better.

We are now off and running again, I will get my restart and have a full 70 hours available for the next 8 days. We should be in Vegas by about 1945 tomorrow evening. I have no idea what our assignment will be out of Vegas at this point but I do know that we will be starting to work our way towards Orlando for Friday morning.

We are taking next week, from the 19th through the 27th of March, off work for some routine doctors appointments and check ups. We are certainly looking forward to a week of sleeping in a bed that isn't bouncing down the highway at 60+ miles per hour.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Columbus to Denver and Beyond.

2010-03-12T08:53:00.002-05:00

We arrived in Columbus OH at about 1600 on Wednesday afternoon and took a dispatch for Denver CO to be ready at about 1800. Tina had some laundry to take care of and I had some light maintenance work to do on the truck and then had to fuel the truck as well. I hadn’t bought fuel since Milan NM, 1590 miles. I love this fuel mileage.

The load was actually ready at about 1900 and after hooking the loaded trailer and performing a pretrip inspection; we were off to Denver CO.

The weather was pretty stormy from Indianapolis IN all the way to about Columbia MO. I suppose that was the same storm that produced tornadoes in Arkansas. After crossing into Kansas, the wind started picking up pretty heavily. It had been windy all the way across but not like it was in Kansas. The wind in Kansas and actually all the way to Denver was very strong and out of the north. I despise the wind, but a cross wind in a big truck is very bad. The side of the trailer acts like a large sail on a sailboat. Besides being dangerous, it killed any chance of decent fuel mileage. I used 73 gallons more fuel in 1280 miles than I had used in 1590 miles the previous day.

We arrived in Denver at about 1630 on Thursday. Before arriving we received a call from dispatch and were asked to take a load from Denver to Salt Lake City UT and then turn right back out of SLC to Columbus OH. The load in Denver was to be ready at 2330. We agreed to take the assignment and should be back in Columbus on Saturday afternoon.

After arriving in Denver, I dropped the loaded trailer we had, at the terminal, and headed out to the local truck stop about 3 miles east to dump our waste tank, fuel up for the upcoming load to SLC and for a bite to eat.

We had a pleasant surprise we got to the truck stop. It seems that the Flying J has made a deal with Denny’s Restaurants to place Denney’s in some of the truck stops in place of the Flying J branded restaurants. We had a great meal. Not that I’m a big fan of Denny’s but as opposed to Flying J food, well really there is no comparison.

After dinner, Tina and I headed back to the terminal for a nap before the load was ready. Trent, from 912 Project Fan Site, called while we were napping. I remember answering the phone and telling him to call me tomorrow, but I don’t remember anything else. I may have come off somewhat rude and if so, to him, I apologize. I assume he’ll contact me today. I awoke at about 0130 and still had no notification from the Denver terminal that our load was ready. I decided I had better call dispatch and check on the load. Come to find out, the truck from Kansas City had been delayed and they had some freight that was to be moved to SLC. We went back to sleep until 0245, when the message came, via Qualcomm that the load was ready.

Up and at it, I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, dressed and hurried to the office for my paperwork. After retrieving the Bills of Lading, I hooked the loaded trailer, performed the pretrip inspection, and we were off to Salt Lake City.

The wind was very bad north on 25 and west on 80 until we got to about Rawlins WY. It seems to have laid a bit now but we’ll see how it is on the way back through here this evening.

We are now at about the 130 mile post on I-80 west. We should be in Salt Lake City by about noon and be headed back to Columbus OH by about 1245EDT. We will travel I-80 all the way to Davenport IA where we will access I-74 and run that to Indianapolis IN. In Indianapolis we will run I-465 around town and get onto I-70 on the east side of town. We will then run I-70 into Columbus OH. We should, if all goes well, arrive in Columbus OH by about 1900 on Saturday evening. Hopefully, after a 7770 mile week, we will get to lay over in Columbus until Sunday evening. I’m sure we can if we say we want to, however, the ever illusive dollar is very enticing. We shall see.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Yeah, I know, It’s Been a While.

2010-03-09T09:45:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I know, It’s Been a While.

30 Days(7 down days), 21000 miles, 27 cities, 2974 gallons of fuel, Snow, rain, sleet, wind storms and even a little sunshine...very little. Yes it's been a very long time since I've been here. We have been very busy and the company has actually told us that freight volume is back up to 2006 levels. I am just waiting for the next shoe to drop.

As we crisscross the country, we seemingly get more and more remarks, all good, about the truck. We have spoken to folks in about 41 of the 48 continental U.S. and actually from all 50 states + Canada and Mexico. I have yet to find anyone who reads and understands the truck to be negative about the message of the 912 Project.

Tina and I feel blessed beyond our dues to have the opportunity to spread this message in America. We truly enjoy spreading the word that “We The People” are not alone.

We spent the day in Vegas yesterday. We were both very close to being out of hours on our logbooks so we had to have a restart. I spent the day servicing the truck, changed the FS2500 bypass filter, drained the Fuel water separator for the FASS system, I changed the FASS system fuel filter and the secondary fuel filter on the engine. I also lubed the chassis.

Finally, yesterday evening, Tina and I walked to a nearby Mexican food restaurant called “Super Mex”. This is actually one of our favorite places in the country to eat. They have authentic Mexican food, great service, and it is within walking distance of our Vegas terminal.

Dispatch called at about 1300 and we were offered a load to Manteca, CA or a load to Columbus, OH. We chose the Columbus OH load that would leave at about 0300 EDT this morning. The load was actually ready at about 0445. I hooked the loaded trailer, performed my pre-trip inspection, caught up my log book and we were off and running.

We aren’t allowed to cross Hoover Dam(pictures of coming bypass) in a truck and dispatch doesn’t want anyone to run across I-70 during the winter months, when unnecessary, because of possible weather delays, not to mention that a rock slide has I-70 closed near Denver CO. That being said, we routed down 93 south out of Vegas to 95 south. We ran 95 south to 163 and took that to Laughlin where we accessed 68 and right back to 93 south into Kingman and I-40 East. We will make a stop in Albuquerque NM for fuel and then continue east on I-40 all the way to Oklahoma City, OK where we will take 44 east to St Louis, Mo and get on I-70 and run that to Columbus.

My best estimation tells me we should arrive into Columbus OH at about 1600 on Wednesday, barring any delays. At this point we are unsure to where we will be headed from Columbus, but I am quite sure that there will be freight to move.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Never Make Plans for a Day Off

2010-02-09T20:50:00.007-05:00

Shortly after my last post, and making plans to work on and wash the truck, we took a phone call from dispatch asking us to run a load from LAX to Phoenix then on to Albuquerque. From there, Monday evening, we would be moved with an empty trailer to El Paso, Tx and then load to Dallas. Though it wasn't what we had in mind for a load, we accepted it to get moving. The load was to be ready by 1500 EDT.

We got notification that the load was ready at about 1400. We hooked the loaded trailer, performed a pre-trip inspection and we were off to Phoenix.

All was well, we got out of California, into Arizona on I-10 East and we were at the 55 mile post when I noticed the sound of the cooling fan being engaged but no indication the engine was warm enough for that to be the case. I kept a close eye on the temperature and it never raised. The fan continued to stay engaged and yet no sign of excessive engine heat. Without warning, more than already given, there was a swift loud rattling noise, and loud squeal, and it all stopped as quickly as it started. Even the fan quit running. I knew we had thrown a belt off the alternator, which also drives the water pump/fan The voltmeter light, and the check engine lights came on immediately. Before I could get stopped the engine temp light came on and the temp gauge rose to about 220 deg.

After getting stopped, I got out and tilted the hood. Man, was it was way worse than I had actually expected...and I always expect the worse and then anything less is always a blessing, but I digress.

The fan clutch bearings failed. The fan Clutch and hub is that part which with air pressure, controlled by engine temperature, engages the fan to cool then engine and when the engine is a running temperature again, the air pressure shuts off and thus the fan clutch dis-engages. When the bearings in the fan clutch hub failed, the fan sailed, at a very high rate of rotation,into the radiator. That broke nearly every blade off the fan, broke the fan shroud, and made several gouges into the radiator causing at least 2 tubes in the radiator to leak.

Well, this is where trucking get to be fun, well, interesting at least. This was at 2030, that's 8:30 EDT. We called dispatch to tell them we had a breakdown and couldn't make it to phoenix then we called our shop folks in Columbus OH to let them know that we needed a tow to the Kenworth dealer in Phoenix.

Dispatch re-dispatched a truck to our location to rescue our load and take it to phoenix,and the shop called a tow truck out of Phoenix. The rescue truck got to us at about 2145 and hooked our trailer and headed for Phoenix. The tow truck finally got to us at about 2300. An Arizona highway patrol officer also arrived on the scene shortly after the tow truck. The officer walked up and asked what happened and without missing a beat I told the officer I was out of hours and had to be towed the rest of the way to Phoenix. He got a pretty good laugh, thanked me for being a conscientious driver and calling a tow truck when I was out of hours and we continued a great conversation.

The officer walked over and was reading the truck, commented on principle #9 and then the poem on the doors and wanted to know how many shotguns and rifles we had in the truck. I explained I didn't have any, because our company forbids firearms in the truck. They would rather their drivers be assaulted and or killed over a load of freight. We talked for about an hour about how America would be a safer place if everyone who wanted could carry a weapon after proper vetting, we talked about our current political climate, the current administration, and the unsustainable trajectory of our indebtedness to foreign entities.

After much work, some necessary, some not so much, the tow truck driver had us hooked to his tow truck and we were off. We started at the 59.5 mile marker and the tow truck driver had to stop at the rest area somewhere around the 85 mile post. It was a very quick stop and we were off again. This tow truck driver was unbelievable. He did everything but drive the tow truck. The first time we took off he immediately grabbed his phone and started texting. The he made a phone call. This was all being done at, according to the gps system mounted on the dash, 85 mph. After leaving the rest area, he seemed to have a very runny nose. He again began texting, then lit a cigarette, programmed the gps and made a phone call, again all at 80+ mph while driving with his elbows.

Fortunately, for us that is, his tow truck started making a whining noise. HE asked if I could hear the noise and I told him they could hear it in Phoenix and that it sounded like the input shaft bearing in the transmission was going bad. He kept mashing on it, 80+ miles per hour, passing another truck, smoking his cigarette, texting his boss and driving with his elbow. Before he got around the truck he was passing a loud grinding noise ensued and the transmission popped out of gear. He coasted to the side of the road and called his boss. Tina and I removed ourselves from his truck and headed back to ours where we'd be a bit more comfortable.

About 30 minutes later he came back to let us know that he had another tow truck coming for us and a low boy tractor trailer coming for him. So about an hour or so passes and the other 2 tow vehicle arrive. The low boy winches the broke down tow truck onto his trailer and off he goes. The second tow truck driver gets us hooked up to his tow truck at about 0430 and off we go. We were at the 96 mile marker when the second tow truck picked us up so we only had about 40 miles or so to go to the Kenworth dealer in Phoenix. That was a very long 40 miles.

We heard all about his night out drinking before he was called to come get us, we heard about how the other tow truck driver, the first one, made him mad, we heard about an old man that works at the tow company and chases younger women, we watched him text his boss, call his boss and tell us how he is in control of the old man that likes to chase younger women, and finally we heard about how, apparently he is such a "company" and that he gets the best tow truck. He is the only one besides the boss that gets to drive the truck that he normally drives. Amazingly though, that truck too, is in the shop for repairs.

We got to where we were going to park the truck at about 0530 and went to bed until the dealer opened at 0900 EDT. We got up at about 0845, drove the truck about 100 yards to the dealer driveway and got checked into service for repairs. WE were hungry so we went over to the local waffle house for breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the shop and awaited complete diagnosis. While we sere standing around waiting, the leasing manager complimented us on the theme of our truck and we had a fantastic conversation about what is happening in America. I told him about the West Valley Tea Party Patriots and how to find them on the web and he was going to look them up and see about joining the group. Mission accomplished again. It seems that even a breakdown can be a blessing. About an hour later the bad news came. Really though, not any worse than I had figured. Radiator repair, fan shroud repair, new fan, and a new fan hub and clutch assembly.

I also asked them to replace the air filter, the crankcase filter, check fluid levels in the differentials, the transmission and the front hub assemblies, replace the water filter and run the overhead while it was in the shop. We had just had a D.O.T. inspection done on Friday and had to replace a brake chamber on the right front rear axle so I knew anything to do with D.O.T. standards was okay and I do the filter and lubes myself. We should be set for a while when we get the truck back at this point.

It is now Tuesday evening, Tina and I went to Claim Jumper to treat ourselves to a great dinner and now we are resting. The truck is to be ready tomorrow afternoon and though we don't know where we will be headed, we are quite sure we will have a memorable experience. That's just truckin'.

Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; My version of that is this...In all things be thankful. Though sometimes very tough, I try. Sometimes not immediately, but almost always it does happen. I heard a sermon once that you have reached a great level of maturity in the Lord when the first thing that comes to mind when something happens, good or bad, is Praise God or to give thanks in one way or another. I pray to someday reach that level. Tina is certainly a guiding light.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Currently in Los Angeles

2010-02-07T12:39:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Los Angeles(Carson), CA yesterday after having the truck worked on in Phoenix on Friday evening and Saturday morning.

Not sure exactly how long we will be here. We were told to hook to an empty trailer at the Phoenix terminal and bring it to the LAX terminal. We arrived here at about 1830 yesterday, listened to the race on XM radio and will, I suppose get to watch the superbowl this evening.

I will be working on the truck for a bit, will probably even have time to wash it as well.

More later I suppose.

In ATL Now, Headed to Miami Tonight, then Orlando and Finally Vegas

2010-01-21T11:49:00.004-05:00

We arrived here in Atlanta last night about 2200. We were pretty tired so we were glad not to get a dispatch out right away. We went to bed, got a good nights sleep and now we are raring to go.

It was about 0900 when we took a call from dispatch asking if we could pull a load out of the Atlanta airport to the airport in Miami. Neither of us really like going to Miami, so after some discussion, I called dispatch and started cutting deals. We know that there is a load out of Orlando going to Vegas on Saturday morning and we really like Vegas.

After some haggling, the deal was cut and we would load at the Atlanta airport this evening with a customer load going to Miami airport and deliver in the morning. From there, we will pull our empty trailer back north to Orlando, (actually, we'll go to the house about 60 miles from Orlando) and then pick a load up in Orlando on Saturday going to Las Vegas.

Our load from Atlanta should be ready at about 1600 and we will have to go to the airport to get loaded, that will be a live load here and unload in Miami. We are to deliver in Miami by 0900.

The load in Orlando won't be ready until sometime Saturday afternoon. We will go to the house for the rest of the day Friday and Saturday morning.We will then head to Orlando to get the load going to Vegas. We are to deliver in Vegas on Tuesday. We have plenty of time to get there so it will be a pretty easy trip. my guess is that we will get there as quickly a legally possible and see what they have for us to do at that point.

I have included a map of our route from here in Atlanta to Miami then to Orlando and finally to Vegas. The map is below. I will provide updates here with fuel stops as we travel.

View Larger Map

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

01/18/10 Update, In Los Angeles Leaving for Atlanta in the Morning

2010-01-18T16:33:00.005-05:00

We arrived in Los Angeles at about 1445 on Wednesday, the 13th. We didn't have a dispatch yet but it wasn't long before we took a call and we were dispatched to Dallas. The load was to be ready at 0600 and we need to be ready when the trailer is loaded. We decided to eat dinner and go to bead early to get plenty of rest so that we could leave upon notification of the load being ready.

Awakened at about 0445, I jumped up, brushed my teeth, washed my face, slid into a clean shirt and jeans and headed for the dispatch office. Dispatch told me it was a haz-mat load and had to be placarded. I also noticed that it was a pretty darned heavy load compared to what we normally have and what I like to have...32000#.

I signed the paperwork, left the office and had Tina look up the haz-mat information while I was hooking to the loaded trailer. Come to find out, the "haz-mat" part of the load consisted 32 lithium batteries, totaling about 32# and mounted inside a dental instrument. The load did not need placards because the package was placarded and the total haz mat weight was only 32#.

After getting hooked up and performing my pre-trip inspection and updating our logbooks, we were off to DFW. We decided to travel I-10 east to I-20 into Weatherford and then around the 820 loop to 121/114 to the terminal. We could have run I-40 to Amarillo then 287 down into Fort Worth and saved about 9 miles but the fuel is always cheaper and the mountain pulls are far less on I-10. I opted for cheap fuel and less mountains.

We stopped in Phoenix and fueled at the Flying J travel Plaza at about 1130am. From there we traveled on to DFW and arrived at the terminal at about 0545.

Again, with no immediate dispatch looming, it was off to bed for a good nap. We got up at about 0930 and went for breakfast at our favorite local Cracker Barrel. After Breakfast it was back to the terminal and relaxing. I had taken a call at about 0800 and we had a dispatch back to LAX. The load wasn't to be ready until about 0400 though. We had a great day kicking back and just enjoying the company of one another, Not really talking alot, just knowing that each of us were there if we cared to talk.

We thought we'd go to bed at about 2200 after the movie we were watch had ended. I got tired though, and worried that the load might be an hour or so early so we shut the movie off at about 2115 and went to bed. The call came at 2315 that the load was ready and had to move right away. 5 hours early, not good.

Here we go, I got up, cleaned up, hooked up and began truckin' it up. We had to fuel in Tye Texas, so I stopped there at about 0230 and filled up with fuel. We took of again and stopped in Phoenix, AZ for one last top off of fuel. We arrived in LAX at 0200 and took a long leisurely nap. That was one tough trip. I can't go into detail about who drove when and for how long, due to D.O.T. log regulations and rules, but suffice to say, a very tough trip.

We have been here in the LAX terminal since early Sunday morning now and are headed to Atlanta in the morning. We spent yesterday listening to our Cowboy Church on Willies Place, XM channel 13, and Bill Mack's Sunday Social on the same channel, watching it rain and visiting with family and friends via social media sources and telephone. Today it has rained again, all day. We have spent the entire day doing nothing but typing, talking and texting.

Our load for Atlanta is to be ready by about 0800. We will be running across I-10 to I-20 again, right into Atlanta and then 285 down to the terminal near the airport. We'll have to stop for fuel in Phoenix again and then probably in Shreveport LA or Jackson MS, wherever the fuel is least expensive. We should be in Atlanta by about 2100 on Wednesday if the load is ready on time out of LAX.

I will update tomorrow, sometime after our departure.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Back to work, Well, 4 Days Ago I Mean.

2010-01-12T09:08:00.005-05:00

Well, it's a new year, a new beginning, for many things in many of our lives, and Prayerfully, a whole lot of newly awakened Americans, and some who may even remove the liberal chains and blinders placed by the Democrats and many of the left leaning Republicans over the last century or more.

Tina and I had a great vacation. We had planned on taking off on the 19th of December but when we got close to home on the 16th, it was going to be near impossible for dispatch to get us to leave Florida again. We ended up at home on the morning of the 17th and came back to work on the 9th of January.

We left Florida, in the car this time, on the morning of the 19th and headed for Southern Illinois, where most of both our families live. We spent about a week and a half there visiting with, and actually getting some quality time with friends and family. I was able to visit, at length, with a pair of twins, with whom I attended high school. You know you have a true friendship when you can walk into someones house and pick up right where you left off 20 years ago. Though I have talked to these two a couple times since I left Illinois, it can't have been more than 3-4 times in 22 years and nothing has changed...except my hair line and waist size, but I digress.

I was also able to spend some time with another very close friend of mine with whom I used to work and who married, what I would guess, is probably my only other true friend in this world. They are no longer together, but we remain best friends all the same. I would just like to say thanks to all of them for taking time from their busy holiday and work schedules and spending, with me, what time was available.

I was also able to spend some fantastic time with my mother, who is undoubtedly the greatest mother of all time. Though we don't see eye to eye, politically that is, we both understand that we do still live in America and she has the right to be wrong. I spent a few hours with a younger brother at his house and then 1 1/2 days with my fantastic, older, much older, sister. My sister is running for a Precinct Committeeman seat in Illinois, Madison County, Jarvis Precinct #1. To say we had a good visit would be to short change the quality of the time we had together.

Tina was with her family most of the time. Since we are away from our families all year,or most of the year, and we are together all the time we are away from them, suffice to say that separate vacations can be a good thing at times, and yesm that feeling is mutual. HaHa

From there, we arrived back at our water damaged, torn apart for repairs, humble abode, early on the morning of the 31st. We bought a couple of movies and stayed in for to ring in the New Year.

On Saturday it was back to work, well at home anyway. I had a lot of work to do to the truck. I had to replace all 6 shocks, change the oil and filters, do a grease job of the chassis, check and adjust air pressure in the tires, replace a broken link rod for the over-inflate valve on the rear suspension. I had to remove the waste tank and box and install a vent and a flush valve so that the tank would drain and clean out properly, I had to repair a water leak near the water pump for the sink and shower, I repaired several small air leaks, of which 1 still alludes my endeavor. there was a lot of work to do and relatively little time to get it finished. The challenge was there and the mission was accomplished...just in time to go for a great steak before we left the house to head to Orlando and load for Dallas.

We were supposed to load for Las Vegas out of Orlando but the load for Vegas was freight light so we were redirected to the DFW terminal. We left Orlando at about 0400 EDT on the 9th and arrived in Irving at about 2300 the same day. Before we arrived at the DFW terminal, we were asked leave for Chicago at about midnight. We accepted the load and it was ready shortly after we arrived in Irving. After fueling and checking the truck over, we hooked the loaded trailer and performed the required pre-trip inspection and were off for the frozen tundra of Northern Illinois.

We traveled up U.S. 75 to U.s 69 then accessed I-44 east to St Louis where we got onto I-55 north. We had planned to stop in Springfield Illinois for a quick visit with the 912 group there but were asked to hustle to Chicago and take a load to Paw Paw, MI to relay with another truck from Detroit and return to Chicago with his empty trailer. No time to stop. We arrived in Chicago about 1615 EDT on Sunday afternoon and 10 minutes later the load for Paw Paw canceled. Good thing actually though. The water was frozen to the shower and I had a broken water line connector that had to be fixed. The temperature was down to -5 degrees at one point and was only 2 degrees in Chicago when we got there so I understand the freeze.

I used a blow dryer, shshshshshshshsh, don't tell Tina, to thaw the line and had a connector to patch the broken water line. We decided to leave the water dripping overnight so that I could stay warm the next day and not have to be in the cold weather working on frozen water lines.

since the water lines were okay, I decided to be in the cold anyway and took about a 2.25 mile walk, 5 times around the terminal, in the 18 degree weather. I figured we were in a warming faze, I mean really, from -5 to +18, so what the heck, get some exercise. Global warming my butt. I busted my rump, twice, on Al Gore's Glacial thaw.

We were dispatched to Los Angeles from Chicago but the LAX load wasn't to be ready until 0200 on the 12th(today). Our load was actually ready about 0130 and we left about 0200. We were routed down to I-40 west out of Chicago to LAX to keep us out of any real chance of terrible, load delaying weather. We again traveled down I-55 south to St Louis and now we are on I-44 in Missouri. We are currently near Springfield, Mo. We will run I-44 west to Oklahoma City, OK then I-40 to Barstow, CA and I-15 south to the L.A. area. We should be at the LAX terminal by about 1500 EDT on Wednesday. At this point we have no dispatch out of LAX.

Hey, don't forget Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls. Just in time for a new political year and changing of the guard. They are available now at Conservabid.com at the bargain price of $6.95 as an introductory offer and that even includes shipping to the continental United States of America. Check out the video.

For those of you that would rather have something other than a doll, check out our T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. at the links below.We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Still on Vacation

2009-12-29T16:06:00.004-05:00

Just a reminder, I have not quit, I have not gone anywhere. I am still on vacation...a much needed, long overdue vacation I might add, and I should be back soon. Maybe as early as next week but certainly no later than about the 8th of January 2010. We will be going back to work on or about then and look forward to getting back to Waking up America.

I hope you all have had a Merry Christmas, are looking forward to a safe and Happy New Year, and are preparing for the fight of our lives in defense of our Constitution, Our Country, and our Principles and Values.

God Bless and Stay safe during you New Year Celebrations.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Arrived in Carson, Now off to Denver 12/10/09

2009-12-10T09:44:00.001-05:00

We got to Carson yesterday at about 1630. Promptly, upon arrival, we were asked to run a load to San Francisco, one that had been dropped at the LAX yard, and then they would get us a load to Dallas from there. We turned that down. We just didn't want to go to San Francisco.

Our trip here was pretty uneventful, except for the weather and road delays in and around Flagstaff AZ. Here are some pictures.

This is a picture of a government vehicle passing me, on the icy roads, with an amazingly safe, courteous, government employee flipping me the finger, the middle one, while passing. I didn't have my camera out in time to get a picture of his courteous gesture towards me but here is the license plate if anyone has the ability to find out who might have been driving and let them know that their picture is online.

We also, on our way to Carson, ran through a pretty bad wind storm just west of Oklahoma City, OK. There was an beautiful, an somewhat unique, cloud formation just above us as we drove. Here are some pictures of those clouds.

And finally, not that you care to see, but here is a picture of our dash top Christmas tree. I suppose it looks a bit tattered, but this little tree has traveled almost as many miles than most vehicles do in 20 years. That's right, Tina and I have had this tree for over 10 years and have used it in the truck for that loang. We usually put it on the dash just after Thanksgiving and leave it there until December 26th. thats about 22000 miles average in the average year and for 10 years that comes to 220,000 miles. The average driver drives about 12000 miles per year and in 20 years that would be 24000 miles. So, though tattered, it remains a tradition, that if Tina has her way, will continue. My guess is that Tina will get her way. I mean...I'm just sayin'.

Finally, we took a call at about 0300 this morning and we were asked to make a run to Denver, CO. I really didn't want to go to Denver, nor did Tina, but sometimes, you are given an opportunity to do something that will better your lot in life, and though you may not want to di it, you have to be thankful for the opportunity. We agreed to take the load if they would route us across I-40 to Albuquerque Nm then north on I-25 to Denver. The normal route would be about 250 miles shorter but would take us through the south western Rockies on I-70 into Denver. They agreed, we agreed, at first reluctantly and later, very thankfully. Somehow, I must find a way to make it a habit to just be thankful as an immediate response as opposed to reluctantly thankful.

Anyway, below is a map of our route into Denver. We have no idea where to from here, but we are hoping to head in the general direction of Orlando or Tampa. The closer vacation time grows, the harder it gets to go in the opposite direction of home. We, however, will do what is needed and take advantage of the opportunities afforded us to make better our monetary position, regardless how hard.

View Larger Map

Hey, don't forget Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls. Just in time for Christmas. They are available now at Conservabid.com at the bargain price of $6.95 as an introductory offer and that even includes shipping to the continental United States of America. Check out the video.

For those of you that would rather have something other than a doll for Christmas or to give as a gift for Christmas, check out our T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. at the links below.We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

12/07/09, On I-44 West in Missouri

2009-12-08T10:04:00.001-05:00

The load from Chicago to Los Angeles was ready about 2330 last nigh, long before one to Chicago from Milwaukee WI. I checked on the Milwaukee load at about 0001, and they told me it would be about another hour or so, possibly longer.

They finally called us at 0045 and said the load to Chicago was ready. I got up, cleaned up, went to the office for our paperwork, and hooked and inspected the loaded trailer. We were off and running, towards Chicago down I-94, at about 0115.

We got to Chicago at 0235, dropped the trailer and picked up the LAX load. We were out of there by about 0300 and headed south on I-55. About 70 miles south of Chicago, the snow started, and the roads got pretty bad for about 100 miles or so. We finally ran out of the bad weather just north of Springfield.

We stopped in Alorton IL this morning and fueled. We chose that stop because someone in the area had purchased, on conservabid.com, 10 of Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls, and we had made arrangements with the buyer to pick them up there.

We are now headed west out of Saint Louis MO and are about 70 miles west of the city on I-44 West.

Hey, don't forget Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls. Just in time for Christmas. They are available now at Conservabid.com at the bargain price of $6.95 as an introductory offer and that even includes shipping to the continental United States of America. Check out the video.

For those of you that would rather have something other than a doll for Christmas or to give as a gift for Christmas, check out our T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. at the links below.We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

12/7/09, Milwaukee WI Back To Chicago Then to Los Angeles CA

2009-12-07T17:12:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Chicago at about 1215 Sunday afternoon. We took a call on the way into Chicago and they asked to pull a load out of Chicago to Memphis then an empty trailer to St. Louis and a load, on Tuesday morning to Atlanta. We agreed, to get a little further south and somewhat warmer. The load out of Chicago was to be ready about 2330 on Sunday evening.

We went to bed early to get a nap before we had to leave, it was about 1800 or so when we laid down. The phone rang at about 2130 and the load to Memphis had canceled. They asked us to pull a load to Cleveland Oh and I declined that one due to the ability for us to get into that facility so they had us pull a load to Paw Paw Mi, meet another truck, swap trailers with another driver from Detroit MI, and pull his empty back to Chicago. I agreed to make that move.

Our load to Paw Paw was ready about 0001 and we hooked to the loaded trailer, performed our inspection and headed to Paw Paw. We arrived there about 0315 and the other driver arrived about 15 minutes or so later. We made our trailer switch and turned back towards Chicago.

Once again, before we even got out out of Michigan, we were contacted and given a sob story about needing someone to pull a load to Milwaukee WI and an empty right back to Chicago. The load would be ready about 0500, by the time we got back to the Chicago terminal and we could leave right away. Dispatch told me that they had three other trucks accept the load and then give it back. Two of the drivers put their trucks down for maintenance and the third, according to dispatch, said he was out of hours. Again, we accepted the load.

The snow was falling pretty hard by the time we got into Indiana and the roads were getting slick. I was beginning to regret the fact that we had accepted the load, but oh well, we gave our word. By the time we got back to our Chicago terminal there was about 1 1/2"-2" of snow on the street and they were getting feeling pretty greasy. It was about 0630 when we got there and the load wasn't ready. I laid down for a nap and the call came at about 1130 that the load was ready...5 hours late.

We hooked the loaded trailer and headed north. When we got here we took another call from dispatch and were advised that if we would hang here, for a little while, and wait for a load back to Chicago, instead of hooking an empty trailer and going right back, that they would give a a load to Los Angeles, out of Chicago, tonight. We agreed to wait and they sent the load information. The load, out of here, Milwaukee, is to be ready at 2200.

We will leave here about 2230 or so, assuming the load is ready on time, head back to the Chicago terminal and, if the load to Los Angeles is ready on time at 0200 like they predict, we will head that way at about 0230. We shall see.

I have placed a map below so that you can see the route to Los Angeles out of Chicago. You'll notice that the route takes us south and west to I-40 rather than I-80 east to Salt Lake City then I-15 south to Los Angeles. The reason for this is weather. Dispatch runs us out of route like this, and pays us for the miles, to keep freight moving and not stuck in transit due to poor weather and or road conditions.

View Larger Map

From what I can see, the weather, and roads, in Flagstaff AZ is pretty nasty right now but I am hoping that it will have moved north east by the time we get there.

Hey, don't forget Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls. Just in time for Christmas. They are available now at Conservabid.com at the bargain price of $6.95 as an introductory offer and that even includes shipping to the continental United States of America. Check out the video.

For those of you that would rather have something other than a doll for Christmas or to give as a gift for Christmas, check out our T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. at the links below.We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

To Atlanta, Then Back to Dallas, Then Chicago Tonight.

2009-12-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

We arrived, as expected, at our DFW terminal in Irving at about 0130. We went to bed, promptly, after arriving and got a great nap. Nice and cool outside, no trucks or generators running, just quiet.

We got up about 0900 or so, got cleaned up and decided we'd have breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We are lucky enough to have one located just about 4 miles or so from our terminal and they are in an area with plenty of parking.

After breakfast, we went back to the terminal and just kinda relaxed. It was way too cold outside to do much so we just vegged inside the truck.

We took a call from dispatch at about 1600 or so and they offered us a Sacramento load and an Atlanta load, our choice. We chose Atlanta so that we could stay out of California. They hate trucks and when I left there I brought everything with me to Florida so I really don't have any reason to go back unless it is for a load when nothing else is available.

The Atlanta load was to be ready at about 2330. As usual, the load was late. It ended up being about 0045 before we got notification of the load being ready to go. I hooked and inspected the loaded trailer and went for my paperwork. Then I had to pull around to the fuel island and get fuel. I had planned to buy 205 gallons. I pumped the first 53 gallons, like the brainless wizard I seem to be at 0100, in the generator tank. I didn't want to do that but oh well. After I woke up and realized what I had just done, I pumped the other 153 gallons, in the correct tanks and then promptly dropped the fuel hose, in the on position, handled locked, on the ground and proceeded to pump another 4 1/2 gallons on the ground. Okay, so I'll take the d/a of the week award. so what?

I happened to have 20 lbs of oil dry in my tool box on the back of the truck, that I usually carry during the winter, for getting unstuck on icy parking lots. I used the 20 lbs of oil dry to clean up my unbelievably careless mistake and off we were, to Atlanta, but only after ruining a pair of boots, a pair of gloves and drenching my jacket and jeans with diesel fuel, and wasting 20lbs of oil dry. What a way to start a day.

We drove straight through, other than a driver change in Vicksburg MS, and arrived in Atlanta at about 1500 on Friday afternoon. It was cold in Atlanta too. Down to about 50 degrees of so and as far as I am concerned, anything below 68 is cold and below 60 might as well be freezing. I had chores though, so I put my insulated coveralls on and went to work. I just had to grease the truck is all but the ground is cold.

Dispatch contacted us before we arrived in Atlanta about pulling a load back to Dallas for another company. The load would be ready about 0400 and we had to go north of Atlanta to get the loaded trailer. We went to bed early and got up about 0130. I found an empty trailer to take to the customer facility and headed that way. by the time we got there, dropped our empty and hooked the loaded trailer it was about 0345 and we were on our way back to Dallas. Hutchins really is where we are going with this load. We will drop the loaded trailer and grab an empty trailer that is parked at the customer and head for our terminal in Iriving, about 22 miles to the north.

Again, before we ever got to Jackson Ms, dispatch contacted us and wanted to know if we'd pull a load to Chicago out of Dallas tonight. I didn't see a problem with that, other than the nasty weather, so we accepted the load.

We should be in Dallas about 1730 or so and the load to Chicago is to be ready at about 1700, so that should work out well. Our route out of Dallas and to Chicago will be US 75 to US 69 north to I-44E to St. Louis area where we will get onto I-55N and take that all the way into Chicago. There is a map posted here to show the route.
View Larger Map

Given the distance and the route, and if we leave Irving by about 1830,we should be in the St Louis Area at about 0630 tomorrow, Springfield Il by about 0800 and then in Chicago, if we don't make any stops along the way, by about 1200-1230 tomorrow afternoon.

We don't expect to get a dispatch out of Chicago for tomorrow but stranger things have happened. Our freight volume, despite the liberals obvious attempts to destroy our economy, has been unexpectedly high, so who knows what might happen.

Hey, by the way, did I mention Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls. Just in time for Christmas. They are available now at Conservabid.com at the bargain price of $6.95 as an introductory offer and that even includes shipping to the continental United States of America. Check out the video.

For those of you that would rather have something other than a doll for Christmas or to give as a gift for Christmas, check out our T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. at the links below.We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Off To Dallas This Morining

2009-12-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

We left Miami, the night of the 29th and into the morning of the 30th, and went to Orlando. We arrived in Orlando at about 0330 and decided that rather than sit there for the day we'd go home and check on the house, make some small repairs on the truck and just basically, relax...away from work for a bit. We got home at about 0530 and I had to have a short nap.

I got up at about 0800 and went outside to my shop to do some work on the truck. I had to replace a mud flap and an anti sail bar, then I had to repair the pigtail that hook to the trailer. We had some work done at a shop a few weeks ago, on the ABS system and they took the pigtail apart and didn't put it back together correctly. After that I had 3 slight air leaks that needed attention , my water tank was loose on it's cradle mounted to the side of the truck and I had to check and adjust the air pressure in the tires for winter driving. When the air gets cold it gets more dense and the tire pressure drops, I had to add about 10 pounds to each tire.

I piddled around in the shop working on the truck the biggest part of the day, busted my knuckles up pretty bad, ruined another pair of britches, man that makes Tina mad, truly enjoyed the day, alone, in my shop.

I had called dispatch early and found out that they were going to send us to Dallas out of Orlando and that the load would be ready at about 0500. I just wanted to make sure the truck was ready to go and will get us through the next 17 days. Yes, 17 days and counting. Out of the truck for at least 3 weeks and maybe longer. WooHoo. Oops, sorry, I tend to get a bit excited about impending vacations.

We headed back to the terminal at about 2000 last night and got there at 2200. I had to repair a tail lite problem that was discovered and reported to me by a motorist with some very colorful descriptions about our truck not having any tail lights. I found that I had inadvertently grounded a power lead by mistake. Boy, was I mad at me.

I got cleaned up and went to bed at about 2300. We got our load ready message at about 0500 and off we went. I got up made myself presentable to the world, retrieved my paperwork from the office and went to hook to the loaded trailer. I looked for the trailer and the number on our manifest didn't match any of the trailers in the dock doors. Back inside I went and found out that they had the wrong trailer number and the wrong dock number on the paperwork.

After getting the correct information, I hooked to the load, shut the doors and sealed the trailer, performed my pre-trip inspection, caught up my log book and we were off. We stopped in Reddick Florida for fuel at the Petro Stopping center and that will be our last stop, except driver changes, until we get to Dallas.

We will be traveling I75 N to I-10 west and run that to I-65N in Mobile. We will run that about 5 miles to U.S. 98 and go west to Hattiesburg MS and access MS49 North. We will run that up to Jackson MS where we will get onto I-20 west. That will take us to Terrell TX and we will go north west on 80 to I-30 and the TX 183/114 to our terminal in Irving. We should be in Irving at about 0130 I would guess. Map Below.

View Larger Map

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Now in Medley...Miami Fl, Waiting to Deliver

2009-11-30T07:04:00.001-05:00

We arrived at our destination here in Medley at about 0600. We picked our load up in Reynoldsburg OH yesterday at 0930 and headed south on 33 out of Columbus then to I-77 and took that to I-26 East to I-95 South. The traffic from Ravenswood WV where we accessed I-77, was unbelievable. The toll plazas on I-77, the junctions at I-77 and I-26 to to I-95 were terribly backed up.

Everything ranging from drivers, that couldn't drive, inconsiderate, self centered folks in too big of a hurry. You know, the good ole Christmas spirit that seems to come out of people this time of year.

Anyway, we are here now and waiting to unload. This is one of those loads that we have to wait for the customer to unload. We don't pull a lot of these but we do take one once in a while just to keep moving.

We have had some great encounters in the last few weeks with folks asking about the truck and the 912 project. Just wanting to know what it was all about and what they could do to get involved. I have a few pictures of people signing the truck and I will get them put up soon as well.

Not sure where we will be headed out of Miami, but I will be sure and post our next destination as soon as we get a dispatch.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Just a Quick Note

2009-11-29T20:07:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd better write a quick note to let those of you who check back often, as I have asked you to do, that I haven't deserted the site. We have been very busy the last week or so. As a matter of fact, since I last posted here, we have driven about 10,950 miles. Here is what the map looks like.

View Larger Map

This started in Atlanta, Ga and went to Sterling Va, then to Newqrk NJ, orlando FL, Las Vegas NV, Salt Lake City UT, Groveport OH, Irving TX one day off for Thanksgiving dinner and much needed rest, then on to El Paso TX, Groveport OH and now we are on our way to Medley FL which is in the Miami area. We are to be there in the morning to deliver and then our destination is unknown. I am hoping we can head back to Las Vegas though.

We are looking very much forward to some time off in December. We will be taking off from the 19th until sometime in January. Until I can post more details of our past few days, this should give you an idea of where we've been and why we haven't been posting here or at Stop the Destruction of America.

More Later.
In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

11/19/09 Sterling Update

2009-11-19T10:58:00.000-05:00

Our load was ready on time last night. We ended up leaving Atlanta at about 2045 by the time we got our paperwork, hooked to the loaded trailer and I performed a pre-trip inspection.

After we left, after we got well on our way and they knew we would go on to the receiver, they changed the destination to the airport cargo area at Washington/Dulles International Airport(IAD). We were about 30 miles or so from the Atlanta terminal when we got a message, via Qualcomm, that the destination had changed and then they sent directions to the new destination. Now, I believe they knew where the load was going in the first place but waited until we were gone to tell us because they know how we feel about going into airports...But I digress.

I called dispatch, and like a child, threw a temper tantrum about the change. I knew it wouldn't do any good. They couldn't care less as long as they get the load moved. I probably would have made the move anyway, but it would be nice to make that decision based on truthful information. Airports can be tough to get into sometimes in this truck because of the length. I just like to look at the facility on Google Earth before I agree to make the move if we've never been to the facility.

We arrived at the airport facility at about 0800 and it ended up being no problem. The area was plenty large and had a lot of room. We were unloaded by about 0845 and headed back to our IAD terminal.

We are now at our terminal, sitting and waiting for our next dispatch. We were assured by dispatch that they would be able to keep us moving from here, but they told us we were going to be delivering to our terminal at IAD and not to the airport too. Wee shall see.

Be sure and check out Tina's brand new, just released for the very first time, just in time for Christmas, Scream-n-Fling Dolls. Below is a slightly comedic infomercial about Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Off to Sterling Tonight

2009-11-18T18:40:00.000-05:00

Well, we took a call, actually a message by Qualcomm, a bit ago from dispatch and it seem that they need someone to run to Sterling VA tonight. The load is to be ready about 2000. We'll see.

We accepted the load, more for something to do, rather than just sit around here. The Sterling facility is pretty slow for freight too though. My guess is that we will be sitting when we get there as well.

We will travel up I-85 north out of Atlanta to Charlotte and get onto I-77 North to I-81 and then take I-66 east to 28 N to the terminal off highways 606 and 28.

We should be there about 0800 and then who know what from there. I'll let you know when I know.

In the mean time be sure and check out Conservabid.com for our new Scream-n-Fling dolls. Released just in time for Christmas. Below is the infomercial for the dolls.

Waiting For Dispatch From Atlanta

2009-11-18T14:12:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Atlanta yesterday at about 1630, dropped our trailer, and turned in our paperwork. It was raining a bit and chilly when we got here. Tina decided she'd do laundry, so she went to the driver's lounge and I sat in the truck, like any and all self respecting males might.

We have yet to get a dispatch out of here. Freight is very slow right now. We just received a message from dispatch, via qualcomm, and it doesn't look very good for today either.

Another friend couple that we know, drivers for this company, came by here last night on there way back to their house in Chattanooga, Tn. They had been in Florida for a short vacation and just happened to be coming through. We had a great visit with the couple and always enjoy their company. He is a former military cook and she used to work for Covenant as a driver qualifications verifier. They now run as a team for this company.

Tina has been making some crafts to sell, over at a friends website called Conservabid.
She has made several items but for now we are posting an item she has named the Scream-n-Fling Doll.

Below is a slightly comedic infomercial about Tina's Scream-n-Fling Dolls.

Finally, we hope that you can find it in your budget for a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Headed For Atlanta This Morning

2009-11-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

We were dispatched back to Columbus before we ever actually got to DFW on Sunday evening. The load was to be ready at about 0600 on Monday so we accepted the load and moved on. We got to DFW at about 0130 on Monday and since we had been dispatched out already I fueled the truck and checked it over.

We had some shopping we had to do to restock the truck with food so we headed to Wal-Mart. We could neither one believe how stripped the shelves at Wal-Mart were after everyone done their Sunday shopping. We were there for bout an hour and finished our shopping. Headed back to the terminal and to bed at about 0315 for a nap before our our load was to be ready at 0600.

I woke up about 0800 and called dispatch to check on the load and when it might be ready. I was told that they had about 14000#'s on the trailer then and that it should be ready soon. The dispatch on the phone said they were waiting on the arrival of some late freight. No problem, we need the sleep so we went back to bed. We got up at about 0900, worn out from sleeping, and the load still wasn't ready. I called again at about 1300 and was told by a different dispatcher that there was about 14000#'s on the trailer and that it should be ready soon, they are just waiting on some late freight to arrive. I decided I wouldn't call again. It was actually pretty obvious to Tina and I that the load wasn't going to run but they(dispatch) didn't know about the apparent cancellation.

We went to bed early, just in case they decided to call in the middle of night with the load or with something else. Good thing we did. The phone rang at about 0100 and they told us our load had been canceled but that they had a load to Atlanta we could pull if we wanted. The load to Atlanta was to be ready about 0200. We accepted the load and drifted back off to sleep for another hour.

Just as promised the load was ready at 0200 so we got up and got ready to go. I hooked to the trailer and performed my pre-trip inspection and we were on our way by about 0245. We are currently in, or near, Pelahatchie MS. There is an accident just ahead and all lanes are blocked. The Highway Patrol is routing everyone off the interstate at the exit 69 and right back on on the other side of the exit.

We should be in Atlanta, depending on how long this hold up is, by about 1630 or so. Unsure of where we will be headed from Atlanta.

Finally, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

11/15/09 On our Way to Back to DFW

2009-11-15T14:26:00.000-05:00

We kinda feel like a couple of ping pong balls right now. We have been bouncing back and forth between Columbus and Dallas for about a week or so. Now I'm not complaining, this is a good route, great weather, decent roads, other than Kentucky, but I woke up this morning and had to ask Tina where we were.

The Qualcomm, the satellite device we use to communicate with dispatch, sounded an alarm to let us know our load was ready at precisely 0600. I jumped up, looked at the clock, tried to clear the cobwebs, and asked Tina, where are we, Dallas or Columbus? After she rolled out of bed laughing, she answered Columbus. I proceeded to get dressed, cleaned up and went to the office to get our paperwork. The load was ready on time but the paperwork wasn't ready for another 1/2 hour.

At 0630 I headed back to the truck and drove to the onsite fuel island. After fueling the truck we went and found our trailer, hooked to it , performed a pre-trip inspection and we were off and running for Dallas.

I was starved to death, as you can see in any of my pictures, so I stopped at a McDonalds in Jeffersonville OH where they have truck parking and got us some breakfast. I have never eaten a McDonalds hamburger, I can't hardly stand the smell of them, but I have a nealy unquenchable hunger for their Egg McMuffins...How sad huh? We have facilities to fix breakfast in the truck but we are currently running pretty low on food stuff. We have a middle of the night shopping trip planned when we get to DFW.

We ordered our food to go and headed south again. I knew there was going to be heavy traffic in the Louisville area if we didn't get through there early because they have a lot of construction going on on I-65 south of town. We got through Cincinnati, continued south on I-71/I-75 and I missed my exit to take I-71 to Louisville. Now, never mind, I've driven this route probably 5 times in the last 30 days or so, but we were just riding along, listening to our Cowboy Church on XM radio and I just missed the exit. I ended up running 14 miles out of route to turn around and go back to the I-71/I-75 split. Okay, so I get the mindless driver of the month award.

Incidentally, as a short side note,XM radio, The Cowboy Church, Bill Mack's Sunday Social, and Enlighten is how many of us, who drive for a living, get our church. Most of us work 7 days per week and we too need refilled after being drained for an entire week so thanks I'd just like to say thanks to Dr Harry Yates of Nashville Cowboy Church, thanks to XM Radio for the broadcast, and thanks to Willie Nelson of Willies place on XM and To Bill Mack for doing his Sunday Social where he plays all Southern Gospel Country music for 3 hours on Sunday morning. Our cups, too, need refilling from time to time.

I got turned around and we are now headed south again. We just came through Nashville, TN on I-40 and headed for Little Rock where we will get on I-30 and run that to DFW. We should be in Dallas at about 0200 or so and will do our shopping then get some sleep.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW

Location and Destination Update

2009-11-14T21:43:00.000-05:00

Tina and I left Dallas this morning at about 0445. We were notified at about 0400 that out load was ready. By the time we got up and got ready to go, I hooked to the loaded trailer, fueled the tractor and performed a pre-trip inspection though it was about 0445 before we drove out of the gate at the terminal.

We ran I-30 out of Texas and into Arkansas all the way to Little Rock. We got onto I-40 in Little Rock and ran that to Nashville TN where we got onto I-65N and went into Louisville, KY. From there we will run I-71 into Columbus OH.

We were contacted early this morning about a load back to DFW, so that is where we are headed at about 0600 on Sunday morning...if the load is ready on time.

We are going to need to run out to the Flying J travel plaza, East of Columbus, to empty our waste tank after we drop this loaded trailer at the terminal. We really don't want to run out there, it is about 40 miles round trip, but the tank has to be emptied and we can't do it while we are hooked to a trailer, there just isn't room at the truck stop to turn around where the dump stations are located. Oh well, we should still be in bed shortly after midnight and get a pretty good nights sleep.

As far as routes we will travel back to DFW, just reverse the routes above and that will get you there. Assuming the load is ready on time we should be in Dallas at about 0100 on Monday and then who knows where we will be headed.

We have another 5 weeks before we take off for 2 weeks over Christmas. We have actually worked the last two Christmas', so we decided we would take this one off and spend it with family. We will, however, be on the road for Thanksgiving.

Finally, we hope that you can find it in your budget to help with a small purchase or a donation in support of our mission.
We have launched into a couple of apparel stores so that everyone can show their support of the 912 Truck. Click here to show your support, or go to www.printfection.com/912truck. For those of you that would rather have a hat or mug you we have another outlet at cafepress.com/912 Truck. You can also use any of the donate buttons on this page to make a contribution directly to our endeavor to Waking up America.
Thanks for your support.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW