Ride Along On The Road With Old School

Great start to this new thread, Old School! I'm looking forward to future installments.

Thanks, Bud!

Hopefully some of you other flat-bedders can jump in here with a tip or two of your own at times.

I'm so grateful you are doing this thread. I'm planning on trucking as my next career (in three years at the age of 51 after a 29 year career in law enforcement). I have just recently become interested in Flatbed but was unsure if it would be two hard for someone a little older.

Hey Old School ?? If you're heading 20 east bound out of Texas tomorrow, I may get a chance to wave headed west bound. I have to stop in the Hutchins yard for service, then up to Ardmore Oklahoma.

Great thread! I love the pictures and stories. And pink construction hats are always super cool!

Hope you guys are having a blast! Definitely looking forward to more installments.

Great stuff OS! I hope your trip continues to go well.

Your "mission planning" details are awesome!

Added to favorites!!! I've yet to even step inside a truck. Planning to visit a dealer soon and really appreciating all the info and stories here!

Oh man, someone is gonna get spoiled for the next few weeks lol.

Robert made that remark early on in this thread. Just the other day Abigail asked me if Robert really knew me, because his prediction sure was right on the mark. I told her that he probably just knows what it is like to be a "dad." When you get some special time with your kids you try to make it count for at least some good memories. We are having a great time together on these trips and I hope you will enjoy learning from our experiences.

Tonight we are in Kansas City, MO sleeping at our first receiver on a four stop run that will have it's final stop in Yankton, South Dakota. Our second and third stops will be Sioux City, IA, and Lennox, South Dakota.

We spent a few days at home before we went back to Delhi, LA this past Thursday. As we were travelling to Delhi I remembered that those folks from "Duck Dynasty" are located in Monroe, Louisiana. I drive right by the exit for their place of business every time I come through here. I don't really ever give it much of a thought, but since Abigail is almost goofy about those people I decided to surprise her with a visit to their manufacturing facility. Here she is almost hyperventilating over this surprise opportunity to have her photo taken underneath the old sign on the building.

I conducted some training on Thursday in Delhi, and then we picked up our pre-loaded trailer that was laden with this four stop load bound for Yankton, SD. This is what things are looking like inside the Conestoga wagon we are pulling for this load.

We left out of Delhi, Louisiana on Thursday night, and our first stop wasn't scheduled until Monday morning in Kansas City. The more I drove and the more I thought about my route, I kept on thinking that I could get us up around Branson, Missouri by Friday afternoon, and that would leave us only about two hundred and fifty more miles to Kansas City. So I questioned Abigail to see what she thought about the two of us spending the day Saturday on a little visit to "Silver Dollar City," an amusement park in Branson. She got so excited I thought she would burst! So, Friday night we had a little celebratory dinner in Branson at an all you can eat Crab Leg and Lobster buffet, then we slept soundly in the truck while waiting to spend the following day at Silver Dollar City! Here we are on the shuttle bus that took us from the parking area up to the front gate of the park.

Here's a little tip in being creative about finding a place to park your truck when you decide to do something special like this while out on the road. We had a parking spot at a truck stop about twenty miles from Silver Dollar City, but I didn't think it wise to drop my trailer there for an entire day while I'm away. So we telephoned Silver Dollar City and the nice young man who answered told us that if we came into the main gate that an attendant there would direct us to a parking lot where we could park our eighteen wheeler. Well, when we got there we were told that they can't accommodate a vehicle that size, and they wouldn't let us in! So I immediately began looking for anything close by, as I drove away from the park, that might suffice for a parking spot for my rig. I spotted some abandoned buildings with large enough parking areas, but that seemed a little questionable - the last thing I needed was to have my rig towed away while I'm having a great time in the amusement park with my daughter. Finally I spotted an R.V. repair facility that had lots of open space, so I pulled in and politely introduced myself and my daughter and told them our situation while offering to pay them for the chance to park on their property while we spent the day together at the park. They let us park for free, and it was only a brief walk over to the park from their facility. It's always best to have permission if you need to park in an unusual situation. That is what we did, and it all worked out very well for us. This is a great example of the kind of stuff you can do when you need to take a 34 hour reset out on the road, or if you just have some extra time to kill like we did, you can plan ahead and take advantage of some of the local entertainment.

We are sleeping in the lot of our first stop tonight so that we can get unloaded first thing in the morning. I am parked in such a way that even if another truck comes in here later on tonight he can't get into the unloading area until they unload me first. The un-initiated may think this rude or inconsiderate, but any experienced driver will recognize the value of doing things like this. I can get unloaded in the morning without ever starting my 14 hour clock and if there is some unforeseen delay it won't affect us negatively. This also allows me to get on up to Sioux City, IA tomorrow in time to get my second stop done a day early which will allow me to finish this job early enough on Tuesday to turn in the paper work so that it goes on the next pay check. Continued...

Love the picture of you and your daughter. I can only imagine what that would be like with my daughter. Wishing you guys a safe and happy rest of your trip together!

Anytime you can get something done a day early like this you are just setting yourself up to be ready for another load. We speak a lot in here about how the pay on this job is performance based. I'm trying to share with you my methods and the reasons behind them so that you can see the way to success in this career. Staying ahead of the game, and having a dispatcher that understands that you are going to do what it takes to stay ahead will definitely help you stay at the top of the food chain. Don't even concern yourself with whether your company can "give you enough miles" - you just get out there and consistently prove to them that you will do what ever it takes to keep things moving along faster than the average drivers and you will have all the work you can possibly handle.

Here's a peek at Abigail standing by my truck sporting her pink hard hat and her pink work gloves. She's learning a few things from me about load securement, and I'm learning from here about things like Snap-Chat, and Instagram!

We will check back in here in a few days with an update. Hope you guys are enjoying this and we will try to keep sharing some tips and tricks as we continue to share our summer trip together with you.

Awwww ;)