April 29, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments
Our next entry in the Trucker’s Logbook finds us returning to Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2) and departing Russia. We’ve been driving around Russia exploring the RusMap which I’ve very much enjoyed. I recently wrote about my first impressions of this ETS2 mod add-on. While I would have loved to spend more time in Russia and explore more of the RusMap add-on, I’ve been unable to pickup any new jobs which would keep me here. As you can see from the image below, I still have a lot of roads to drive in the RusMap region. But I know they’ll be waiting for me another day.
The job we’ve chosen is to transport pressure tanks from Pskov, Russia to Lahti, Finland. Our route will take us through Estonia and we’ll travel across the channel between Tallinn to Helsinki. Our overall route distance is 497km with an estimated trip time of just under 9 hours. We are fully rested and should not need to rest during the drive.
Our route
We arrived to pickup the trailer and the two pressure tanks just after 5 PM on Friday. Total cargo weight is 12 t, which is not a problem for our Volvo truck. Our trip will consist of 420 km land distance and a short 85 km ferry ride. Again, total trip time is under 9 hours. Let’s roll…..
This seems to be the order of the day, lot’s of road construction as we navigate our way across Estonia for the first time.
Even in real life, I can’t pass up a windmill sunset photo opportunity. (somewhere in Estonia)
We arrive at the Bayer plant in Helsinki, Finland on-time just after 1 AM.
All-in-all this was an uneventful trip. We’ll rest up here in Helsinki and decide which direction we want to proceed from here.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
Jerry
April 6, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments
For this edition of Trucker’s Logbook, we’re staying in American Truck Simulator and picking up where we left off in Trucker’s Logbook #5 down in Miami, Florida. Not wanting to stick around Miami any longer than we need to, (hurricanes, alligators and really BIG SNAKES) we quickly contacted our dispatch team and managed to find a load of Miller Lite that needed to be hauled up to Raleigh, NC. The job is only going to pay $20,065…but as we have over $650,000 in the bank…it really doesn’t matter. Of course, we running the Coast-to-Coast ATS map mod by Mantrid. This is version 1.5 which now includes I-10 from LA to Jacksonville and I-95 from Miami up the east coast. This 1.5 update also includes a portion of I-35 and I-45 which I’m hoping to discover as I make my way back to California.
As I previously indicated at the end of Trucker’s Logbook #5, it was my hope to haul a load of just about anything (except alligators and really BIG SNAKES) up the east coast. While I’m out here on the right side of the country, I’d like to go ahead and explore I-95. Not sure if I can find routes all the way up to NY or Boston, but going to give it a try. But one step at a time.
We’ve arrived at the trailer pickup point on Sunday, just after 6 AM.
The fog is thick as we head north along I-95 between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida.
The fog has burned off, but still cloudy as we hammer down to the Georgia state line.
Hello North Carolina….Not far now.
Rolling into Raleigh, NC.
Another on-time delivery.
Unfortunately, we backed into a hidden object when making our delivery. I checked the forums and it had already been reported and acknowledged to be repaired in the next release.
From here I plan to make my way back towards California. But I am looking to pickup a delivery that will either take me to Oklahoma City or San Antonio where I can drive between these two cities on I-35. I’ve driven this stretch of I-35 many, many times and while I know it’s not depicted with any accuracy on Mantrid’s Coast-to-Coast map, I still want to drive it.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
March 23, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments
It’s been a while since I’ve spent much time in American Truck Simulator. As I believe I’ve mentioned before, within the first few weeks of playing I had pretty much discovered everything there was to discover within California and Nevada. ATS was released almost two months ago (2 Feb.) and at the time I write this blog posting, we are still very much patiently ANXIOUSLY awaiting for the official Arizona DLC to drop. Oh, before I continue…let me just speak my mind regarding the Arizona DLC. I’ll also just state (for the record) that my thoughts/opinions on things are completely my own. But…(again in my opinion) I would have thought SCS Software would have already released the Arizona DLC by now. I’m not suggesting it should be released if it was not ready, but I believe there was a certain amount of momentum, excitement, anticipation, drama etc. etc. built up with the build up to the official release of American Truck Simulator (2 Feb.) and it would have been awesome to ride that momentum etc. with the official release of the Arizona DLC around the first month anniversary mark. Keep in mind that I’m also not suggesting SCS should commit (or even indicate) they can release a new US state every 30 days. But I just think some of the air has been let out of the balloon. The more time which stands between the 2 Feb date and the date Arizona is ready will see the balloon go a bit flatter and flatter. But again, this is all just my opinion.
As we spent time in Europe for our Trucker’s Logbook #3 and #4, it is time we come back to the USA. Again, with no Arizona DLC…I’ve just been occasionally hauling cargo within California and Nevada. I’ve also been developing all my hired drivers and making sure they have everything they need to be successful. Our current status is much the same as it’s been the past several weeks. Our HQ is in Los Angeles and we have a garage in San Diego and in Las Vegas. All garages have been upgraded to accommodate 5 trucks/5 drivers. In addition to the three garages, we own 14 trucks and employ 13 drivers. There is a reason for keeping one garage slot open. This allows me to test (occasionally) some new truck mods. But I’ll likely fill this up soon. Overall our company is healthy and with over $500K in the bank (and no loans) we are cooking with gas.
So as I said, we are back in the USA and you may remember several weeks ago I discussed the Coast-to-Coast map. Back in late February I drove from LA to Boston (and back). In the past several weeks the maps developer, Mantrid has released many updates to this map including the most recent version (1.5) which includes several new routes. One of the new routes added includes the complete stretch of US Interstate 10 from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida. On Mantrid’s new coast-to-coast map, I-10 takes you through Phoenix, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Tallahassee. There are also routes covering a portion of I-35 and I-45 in Texas and he’s included a route from Jacksonville, FL down to Miami and up to DC.
A little more fine print
Before I get into the meat of our posting today, allow me just to re-state the following. Mantrid’s Coast-to-Coast map was a project he started for his own personal interest of driving from the west coast to the east coast of the USA. He shared his first version of the map and made it extremely clear it was a work in progress and that the scenery (when there is something to see) is mostly a cut/paste from California and Nevada. So this meant seeing palm trees in New York City. While I have been critical of some of the map projects currently under development for ATS (read this post), Mantrid made it 100% clear his map may never be 100% accurate and include 100% real life depictions of the cities and routes he includes.
As I’ve already driven the more northerly route from LA out to Boston, I wanted to pick up a route that would take me out across the southern portion of the USA on I-10. The one we chose was hauling a load of toys from Sell Goods in LA out to Charged in Miami (in a Fedex trailer). The route is a whopping 2,716 miles with an estimated drive time of 70 hours, 36 minutes. The job will pay $66,245 or $24.28 per mile.
Again our route takes all the way across the southern portion of the US along I-10 from LA to Jacksonville, Florida. Then down I-95 through the Space Coast portion of Florida to Miami.
As we did for our last coast-to-coast trip, I have opted for the Kenworth W900. It’s still dark thirty as we fuel up at our LA garage. The trailer pickup point is just around the corner.
We pickup our FedEx trailer just before 4:30 AM on Thursday morning. We are fully rested, fully fueled…”we’ve got a long ways to go and a short time to get there”.
The absolute worst part of this entire 2,700 mile trip will be the first few hours of driving 55 mph through California. Thankfully, once we cross the state line into Arizona and continue eastbound, the speed limits keep rising. (well mostly) Welcome to Arizona!
Unfortunately, Mantrid placed a red light intersection and a 30 mph speed zone through Phoenix.
Hello New Mexico!
Our first night (and fuel stop) will be near Deming, NM. We still have a very long way to go.
As I said earlier, there isn’t much to look at in terms of scenery. Miles and Miles of Texas (I-10 between El Paso and San Antonio) Speaking of Texas and I-10, US Interstate 10 is just over 880 miles from the entry point just before El Paso to the Texas/Louisiana state line at Orange, Texas. We spend the better portion of Day Two just crossing Texas. We would spend our second night just outside Lafayette, Louisiana.
The scenery just outside New Orleans with a few ships in the gulf. This is somewhat near the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (but not really depicted on this map)
After a very long day 1 (driving across CA, AZ and NM) and a long day 2 (driving across TX), the US States of Louisana, Mississippi, Alabama zipped by pretty quickly. Our third night would place us around Melbourne, Florida (along the Space Coast portion). This would set us up for an easy day 4 with less than 200 miles to drive. As I’ve said, the coast-to-coast map has a lot of cut/paste features from CA and NV. Does the image look familiar? This is in Miami, but this is also in LA.
We’ve arrived at Charged in Miami, Florida.
I continue to level up and progress nicely.
Parked up at the nearby repair shop where will plan out our next opportunity.
If it can be worked out, ideally I would love to get a route from Miami that I could haul north up to the DC or NY area. Then before I head back to Cali, I would like to head back to Oklahoma City then South down I-35 through Dallas/Ft. Worth and continue south on I-35 to San Antonio. While there is nothing to see along this route. My parents live half-way between Waco and Austin (Temple) on I-35. We’ll see if can make all that work out.
If you aren’t bothered by long stretches of open road with little to nothing to look, and you aren’t bothered with some cut/paste to populate some of the cities along the way AND you truly want to experience driving the long and open road, then check out Mantrid’s Coast-to-Coast map.
Now for a bit of good news. I really don’t follow that many of the add-on on map projects for ATS. You can get a better understanding of this by reading this blog posting. But, I do follow Mantrid’s progress. Mantrid continues to work on this map and is adding more routes, more cities and more stuff all the time. This map may never be to the level of quality and accuracy we will see from SCS or from the likes of ProMods. But it was never designed to be.
Enjoy it…or pass it by. The decision is yours….
By the way, it took me just under two hours (real life hours) to drive from LA to Miami.
Until next time…
Watch out for those bears….
Jerry
March 16, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments
Our Trucker’s Logbook #4 once again has us in Europe. I’ve been spending a little more time playing ETS2 versus ATS. As I’ve stated before, I do love ATS. But I’ve spent almost 60 hours playing since it was released a few weeks ago and I’ve discovered all cities and I’ve explored almost 100% of the map (CA and AZ). I’m hearing Mantrid is going to include I-10 to his Coast-to-Coast Map and more than likely that will force me to drive that route so I can drive through my birth state of Texas. But my feelings on the Coast-to-Coast map are mixed. I’ll just say that I prefer quality over quantity and leave it at that for now.
Speaking of quality. I recently updated my Promods ETS2 map to the latest and greatest version of 2.0.1. Also, I’ve installed the RusMap which adds 30 new cities in Russia and 12 new cities in Belarus. It’s been a while since I’ve headed east across Europe and Promods have done a lot of work on their Poland map (Poland Rebuilding) and it was merged into their Promods map system several releases ago. But this is the first time I’ve ventured out in that direction since they added it. I actually have reviews for both Promods and RusMap in the pipeline, so certainly keep an eye out for those blog pieces coming soon.
As previously mentioned, our logbook entry for today has us in ETS2. We are going to head to Russia and do some exploring around the (new to me) RusMap map mod. The job we are taking is hauling three forklifts from the Bayer company in Brussel’s Belgium to StoraEnso in Tver, Russia. The total weight of the three forklifts and trailer is 11 tons. The total trip distance is 2,454 km (1,525 mi) with an estimated travel time of 39 hours, 38 minutes. The job is paying €103,036 or €41.67 /km.
Our route will take us out of Belgium across Germany, then through Poland, across Belarus and finally into Russia.
Our day starts out on Friday just before Noon at our garage in Brussels. We have a large thermos of coffee and plenty of snacks for the trip. Our pickup location of Bayer is just around the corner from our garage.
We arrive at Bayer and the trailer and three forklifts is ready to go. We back up, hook up and do a quick inspection of everything. It’s time to roll….
As we depart Brussels, we enter into Antwerp. The snapshot below is looking at the Cathedral in Antwerp and is one of my favorite places to visit. I’ll visit here in real life this coming July and I can’t wait.
The snapshot below is more for commentary than it is to really document our trip. But somewhere in Germany I saw this ICE train rolling by. What interested me about it that it is a long train. I’m pretty sure this train is part of the default ETS2 and not part of ProMods. If my thinking is correct, and this is part of the default ETS2…they why did SCS Software give us such short trains in American Truck Simulator?
It’s been a really long day and we’ve covered a lot of miles during day 1, leg 1. It’s approaching 20:30 and we are yawning. We pull into this Shell station to fill up before resting. But what’s interesting about the screenshot is the TWO fueling points. I’ve never seen that before and I think it is WONDERFUL. With some of the larger truck stops we see in ATS, we need more than just one fuel point.
Goodnight….
Good morning! Day two begins just after 7:30 on Saturday morning. Yep…it’s raining!
It’s still raining…and while I might be hungry…I think I’ll just pass the Mickey D’s on by.
All the toll booths. We must be in Poland.
This guy was trying to tell me something. But we are just gonna keep on rolling….
Day two comes to a close and once again we are yawning our self crazy. We pull over and stop just before we reach the border of Poland and Belarus. Day three (Sunday) also starts off much like day two with rain. Let’s head to Belarus.
“Here Comes The Sun” Now where are those sunglasses?
Hello Belarus…
110 km/h YES PLEASE!!!
Rolling through Russia, we see a lot of cars/trucks pulled over on the soft shoulder. Many of the people appear to be ready to throw down with each other. Peace folks…
I was hoping we would be able to make our delivery on Sunday (mid-afternoon) without the need to rest prior. But we were held up in traffic and we would likely be falling asleep trying to drive the last 25-30 km. So we are going to have a rest here. We have plenty of time and should make our delivery sometime late Sunday night or early Monday morning.
As we wake from our rest, it is Sunday evening just before 8 PM. We have just another few hours until we make our delivery. The developers of RusMap have made sure to include some beautiful Russian architecture.
We have reached our delivery destination and they are happy to see us.
Despite a speeding ticket we received in Belarus, our job completed with excellent results.
While this job was not our longest completed. That would be our ATS Coast-to-Coast run we did a few weeks ago. This job did take much longer and is perhaps our longest (measured in time) job to date. The time required was just shy of 3 hours. But well worth it. I’m going to do mostly short-haul jobs in Russia for a few days and try to explore more of the RusMap before I pickup another long-haul out of this region. It was a of fun and I’ll be sure to get back to Russia and Belarus compliments to RusMap for providing this wonderful add-on map mod.
Until next time…
Счастливый Грузоперевозки “Happy Trucking in Russian” Or at least that is what Google Translate thinks it is.
J
March 9, 2016 / admin / 2 Comments
Our Trucker’s Logbook #3 has me returning to Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2) for some long-haul trucking. Even before the release of American Truck Simulator (ATS), it had been a few months since I spent any amount of time in ETS2. I did attempt to launch it over the Christmas holiday but it wouldn’t start and gave me an error about a mod issue with a previous game save. Come to find out this was because I hadn’t updated ProMods after an update to ETS2 was made available. After realizing the error of my ways, I have ETS2 working once again. As you can see from the map below, I haven’t spent as much time trying to discover more of the map. Actually, much of the map is new territory with the ProMods expansion into Romania etc.
While ATS is obviously my favorite, I do enjoy ETS2. My wife is from Belgium and we visit about every 18 months or so. We spend time in Belgium and England when we visit and I have really enjoyed exploring the ETS2 map.
Our job today is driving 22 tons of Canned Beef for Euro Goodies in Lille, France to Transinet in Pyce (Ruse), Bulgaria. Just to familiarize you with the truck I drive in ETS2. I own the Volvo FH with the Globetrotter XL Cabin and the 6×3 chassis. The rig has the massive 750 HP engine installed. She performs really well. The job is expected to pay €73,510 or €34.65/km. The trip distance is 2,104 km (1,307 mi) and should take approx.. 34 hours.
Our route will take us from France through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and then into Bulgaria.
We’re picking up the trailer just after 11 AM on Wednesday. We are due to delivery in Pyce no later than 01:04 on Saturday morning. We are fully rested and ready to go.
Day 1, it’s a beautiful day as we drive through France towards Belgium.
Taking an opportunity to stretch our legs, freshen up our coffee while we fill up.
I love how SCS Software gives us so much to look at as we drive. In the background an airplane is on final into Brussels EBBR.
Day 1 comes to an end as we pull over for a rest just outside of Nurnberg, Germany.
Day 2 starts early with a wet start. Rain is the general theme for much of the day. We do leave the rain behind in the afternoon and spend our second night on the road just outside of Budapest. However, we did have a minor fender-bender when a car hit our trailer. I blame it on the rain.
Day 3 starts well before the sun rises but we arrive at our destination on Friday afternoon.
Unfortunately the accident penalized use some XP and cash. But we will live to drive another day.
I then headed back to Bucharest, Romania to meet with a realtor and purchased a new garage.
I believe with our new Bucharest garage, this makes about 6 or 7 that we have in ETS2. All our ETS2 garages are just the small version and filled with three trucks and three drivers.
As we have just about covered all there is to cover in California and Nevada in the awesome American Truck Simulator, I’m probably going to spend more time trucking around in Europe and try to discover more cities. I’m also looking into adding RusMap which should provide 30 cities in Russia and 12 cities in Belarus. I’ll make sure to tell you all about it here.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
February 24, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments
No, it’s not April Fools and No, I’ve not lost my mind. It is now possible to drive from the west coast of the USA (California) all the way to the east coast in American Truck Simulator with the help of a new map mod released last week. You may remember, last week I introduced you to a mod developer named Mantrid and his Speed Limit Fixes (and more) mod. Among other things, this mod corrects two really big issues (my opinion) with the default ATS map. It adds a traffic light intersection at highways 6/95 in Tonopah and removes the traffic lights on I-80 in Reno.
Well, Mantrid also created a coast-to-coast map mod which allows ATS truckers the ability to drive from the west coast all the way to the east coast of the USA. You can download this map mod directly from the SCS Software forums. Now before I proceed, allow me to get some finer points out of the way. First, this map mod is a Work In Progress (WIP). Mantrid’s initial interest in creating the coast-to-coast map was simply to be able to drive from one side of the USA to the other. So as the map stands today, it is pretty basic. So basic that he only included a handful of cities along the way with just one primary highway route. The cities along the route are Phoenix, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. The highway route is basically I-40 all the way to OKC, then I-44 up to St. Louis, then I-70 to Pittsburgh, then I-76 etc. See map images below.
Again, I say this map mod is a work in progress. The other point I want to make, is much of the terrain areas don’t necessarily match up with the real world. Yes, you’ll probably notice palm trees in New York City. There are also a few mileage signs which appear to be in the wrong locations. An example is just out of Boston I saw a mileage sign for Bakersfield or Fresno. Anyway…just remember, this map mod is a WIP.
This blog post will be both a Trucker’s Logbook and Mod Review all rolled into one. If you are interested in downloading this new Coast-to-Coast map mod, visit the SCS Forums via this direct link. Also, as this is a WIP, make sure you check that thread for updates to the map. Oh…before I forget. You don’t need a massive amount of Long Distance skills to pickup jobs with the coast-to-coast expansion. All you need is one skill of Long Distance and the jobs should appear.
It’s just after 9:30 AM on Wednesday, and we are looking at picking up a job hauling for Walmart from LA to Pittsburgh. The load is 27,500 pounds of clothing. The expected delivery time is Sunday between the hours of 6:03 PM and 7:33 PM. The pay out isn’t the best in the world at only $22.44 per mile. The trip distance is 2,501 miles and our GPS is telling us that is a little over 65 hours of driving. A perfect delivery should earn us just over $56K. Let’s do it!
For this coast-to-coast run, we will be driving our Kenworth W900. I purchased it last week for one of my new drivers and at the time of purchase I tricked it out nicely. In the image below, we have just picked up our trailer and have 2,501 miles to go. We have approx. 300 gallons of diesel, plenty of coffee and snacks and a bladder the size of a camel.
While the amount of cities are few on this massive map expansion, the fuel and rest stops are plentiful. At least they are when you have the luxury of 300 gallon diesel capacity. I was able to drive from LA to Albuquerque on the first day. Unfortunately, the only state line sign I noticed was crossing into New Mexico (see below).
After a hot shower and wonderful New Mexico Truck Stop breakfast, we are ready to hit the road once again.
The weather on our second day of driving (Thursday), remained mostly cloudy but no rain.
Another full day of driving, we pull into another truck stop along the way. This one is somewhere between OKC and St. Louis.
Our third day (Friday) finds us hammering down I-70 as the sun rises in the distance. We are well ahead of schedule and should complete our delivery on Saturday morning.
We spend our third night in another truck stop along I-70 just near Columbus. This will set us up to make the delivery with over 24 hours to spare.
What’s this? A California Ambulance all the way out here in Pennsylvania?
Our on-time delivery of clothing items from California to Pittsburgh is appreciated
This job bumps us up to level 25.
I applied my new skill point to the “Fragile Cargo” category. The next earn point will go in “Just In Time Delivery” to level it out.
But of course, LA to Pittsburgh is not USA Coast-to-Coast. So while in Pittsburgh, we found a job hauling Lay’s Potato Chips to Boston.
Another on-time delivery from GrizzlyBear Trucking.
While I discovered a garage in Boston for purchase, I decided against buying it at this time. I’m not 100% sure how owning a garage on this un-finished map will work. I’m sure there will be upgrades to the map, so for now I’m just going to pickup a load of seeds and head all the way back to LA. This job pays over 100K. See you back in LA.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
February 17, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments
The featured trip for Trucker’s Logbook #2 is in my updated Peterbilt 579. Just a few days ago I updated the chassis to accommodate the 300 gallon capacity diesel tanks and also upgraded the Paccar engine to the 500HP model. While the rig was in the shop, I had them apply this new paint job celebrating our great country and Mt. Rushmore. In the coming weeks I’ll apply additional updates/upgrades to the truck.
Since Trucker’s Logbook entry #1, I’ve been hauling goods all over California and Nevada. But as the first entry had us drive from Los Angeles, CA to Winnemucca, NV, today’s entry will be from Winnemucca to Oxnard, CA. This haul will include 30,500 pounds of Ethane from Gallon to Chems. The job is paying $24,155 or $37.52/mi. It’s classified as hazardous materials.
I picked up the trailer at just before 7 PM. The drive from Winnemucca to Oxnard is 635 miles with an estimated trip time of 16 hours, 32 minutes. We have just over 5 hours available before a mandatory rest. Let’s get going…
Our route today will take us southwest on I-80 to I-5. Like last week, pretty much all interstate travel.
Riding off into the sunset along I-80 in Nevada
Topping up the 300 gallon diesel tanks just before parking the rig for some much deserved rest.
Goodnight…
What a great sleep. Just love the stand up sleeper. After a short weight/inspection check we are back on the road again.
Just a few miles to go, the clouds are starting to roll in near Oxnard. I wonder if we’ll get any rain?
This job only offered an 40XP parking, but I nailed it.
If you remember last week I was approaching level 16. This job brings me very close to level 20. Level 21 should be in the bag on the next delivery.
I hope you enjoy these Trucker’s Logbook adventures. Please share with your friends and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
JT
February 10, 2016 / admin / 1 Comment
I plan to occasionally document my trucking adventures in the form of a blog post with pictures. I don’t plan to document each and every delivery, but will try to post at least one each week. With this being the first entry, I decided to start at my Company Headquarters of Apache Trucking located in Los Angeles, California. After a good nights rest, we picked up our truck on Tuesday, 7:49 PM.
Our Peterbilt 579 with stand-up sleeper and 455 HP engine ready to go.
The job market out of Los Angeles is usually pretty good. I’ve had a few jobs paying upwards of 25-30K in recent days, but today we are going to haul a couple of fork lifts on behalf of Sell Goods to Walbert in Winnemucca, Nevada. The job is paying $18,660 (or $28.16/mi). The job type is both fragile and high value. The trip distance is 651 miles with an estimated trip time of 16 hours, 57 minutes.
Our route will be all Interstate travel. We’ll head north on I-5 then east on I-80. We’ll drive the majority of this trip overnight with a planned rest stop near Reno and hopefully deliver the cargo on-time (perhaps even early).
The pickup location for Sell Goods is literally just around the corner from my HQ Garage. Here we are connected to the lowboy trailer with two forklifts. After a brief walk around inspection, we are ready to depart Los Angeles.
Just outside of LA we encounter our first of two weight/inspection stations. We gladly comply to avoid the fines.
A few hours it’s time to freshen up our coffee cup and while doing so will top off our fuel tanks at this Chevron station. Fuel cost was $2.82 per gallon.
As we’re approaching Reno, NV on I-80 we pull in for our second weight/inspection check which we pass with flying colors. The sun is just starting to come up.
It’s just after 6:00 AM and we need to get some rest. We choose this truck stop outside of Reno. They have nice clean showers and great truck stop food.
After a good nights (err, I mean good days sleep) I hit the showers, grab a hot meal and finish the drive to Winnemucca where I arrive at Walbert. I accept the more difficult parking for the max 90 XP opportunity and drop the lowboy and two forklifts as requested.
Another job successfully completed with an “Excellent” ranking. Another solid drive and I should reach Level 16.
Apache Trucking is shaping up to be a solid company. I currently own three trucks (including mine) and employ two additional drivers. I own the HQ garage in Los Angeles and just purchased a second garage down in San Diego. My two drivers in LA are gaining in experience and starting to earn their keep. I think I’m going to pay down a few of my loans to get my daily loan payment under $10K and then as I save, begin purchasing three new trucks and hire three additional drivers.
I hope you enjoyed this first Truckers Logbook adventure.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
