That was a great read. TYVM.
Cracking diary … a real insight into trucking on the other side of the Pond 
Always enjoy your posts … great photos.
I enjoyed the diary you did last year when you stopped off in Vegas … I’ve been to Vegas a few times to see the National Rodeo Finals and other things 
Talk about living the dream, i was just thinking how similar it is to my job night trunking down to fradley park 5 times a week, not!That’s a top quality post, excellent stuff. I liked the San Francisco pics having been there on holiday before, that Alcatraz visit is a must do. I always wonder how many on here look into going over after reading these posts, I know I always do, sadly, for me it’s long gone. Keep them coming.
Do you have the same problem of trucks crawling past eachother on the limiter out there compared with the uk?
Do you have any pictures of the living area of your lorry?
Cheers.
Saaamon:
Do you have any pictures of the living area of your lorry?Cheers.
Yeah, I second that. I’m always fascinated by the sleepers on North American trucks.
Brilliant dairy, I really enjoyed reading it on a rainy day in Flint. Pics of your lorry interior will only upset the rigid drivers among us lol.
A brilliantly written and photographed diary. My personal favourite so far.
This is the sort of stuff that those of us who were seduced as kids by the “glamour” of long distance lorry driving believed it would be all about. Unfortunately for most of us the reality is a tad different! 
Good work though.
Excellent read, thoroughly enjoyed that.
I’ve just read( from start to finish), a similar diary by JazzAndy( on this forum) regarding his very first continental trip & that too, makes amazing reading.
All the best,
Daz
I love that fuel price - $3.94 per gallon, 4.55 litres. I make that 55p a litre! And to think the yanks are moaning about “how high the price of petrol is these days”.! 
Plenty of interesting scenery as well, and as a lover of the open road, I reckon that would get me through driving all day long on a road that just disappears into the distance…
All the differing beurocrat stuff would be the only thing to ■■■■ me off on a trip like this.
Great post! 
Winseer:
as a lover of the open road, I reckon that would get me through driving all day long on a road that just disappears into the distance…
The only problem being the speed limits and the fact that the law patrol the deserted bits just as much as in the urban areas if not more.Although things seem to be a bit better than they were during the 1980’s when it was mostly 55 mph everywhere with a few 65 mph limits gradually being introduced in places if you were lucky.Probably not quite so bad with a truck but it was absolutely soul destroying with a car with two speeding offences in one state being considered a felony offence. A bit like France is getting now. 
Great photo’s Robin, Brings back some memories. It’s been almost 7 years since I followed that route, well I mean that route but running from NY to the Iowa section anyway. Sometimes I have to admit that I miss the rest of the country, some of your photo’s taken on I-80 are taken in almost the same exact spots that I took photo’s, in particular the long decent into Utah.
Winseer:
I love that fuel price - $3.94 per gallon, 4.55 litres. I make that 55p a litre! And to think the yanks are moaning about “how high the price of petrol is these days”.!
US gallons are roughly 3.79L is i make it 68 ppl.
newmercman:
Nice one, they take some time to do don’t they? When I was doing my blog on the firm’s website it was taking up nearly all my home time.Look forward to the next one, no excuses now, that was top notch mate
Thankfully I paid attention to what you said last year about writing them in a word document. I didn’t write it on there but coped and pasted to one in case of a mishap and that definitely saved the whole thing from being lost after many hours work when trucknet threw a fit at me for whatever reason, crashed and wouldn’t let me log back in using my own IP address.
The Rustler:
Cracking diary … a real insight into trucking on the other side of the Pond
Always enjoy your posts … great photos.
I enjoyed the diary you did last year when you stopped off in Vegas … I’ve been to Vegas a few times to see the National Rodeo Finals
I can’t take the credit for that one as I’ve never been to Vegas. Some of the other boys on here have done some cracking diaries too, so maybe one of them?
Anyhow, glad you liked this one!
Slackbladder:
Talk about living the dream, i was just thinking how similar it is to my job night trunking down to fradley park 5 times a week, not!That’s a top quality post, excellent stuff. I liked the San Francisco pics having been there on holiday before, that Alcatraz visit is a must do. I always wonder how many on here look into going over after reading these posts, I know I always do, sadly, for me it’s long gone. Keep them coming.
Sometimes I live the dream, other times I live the nightmare. Trucking over here is one of extremes, both good and bad. I do try and make the most of the opportunities I do have to see interesting places because doing so makes the job that much more worth while, especially when you factor in the bad stuff like mileage pay when you’re sitting for days with no work, or stuck in winter storms etc. I know there isn’t that much adventure to be had in the UK but I do often crave the wage security I used to have when on a fixed day rate with night out money etc, I always knew what I’d earn and I’d earn it whether I did 4 hours drive or 10 hours drive a day. Here the driver is completely liable for every thing and it affects your bank account quite drastically.
It takes a long of getting your head round where you can be away for lets say 7 days on two different occasions and the difference in pay between the two can be in the many hundreds of dollars. I personally don’t think its a good and fair way to work and how could any one justify it to their loved ones, being away for x amount of days and then not actually bringing home the bacon? Some bits of the job I love and other bits I hate.
Slackbladder:
Talk about living the dream, i was just thinking how similar it is to my job night trunking down to fradley park 5 times a week, not!That’s a top quality post, excellent stuff. I liked the San Francisco pics having been there on holiday before, that Alcatraz visit is a must do. I always wonder how many on here look into going over after reading these posts, I know I always do, sadly, for me it’s long gone. Keep them coming.
Whats up with going down to Fradley Park and being shouted at by forkies and treated like a piece off ■■■■■.
Best topic on this forum by far…now that is proper trucking.
Saaamon:
Do you have the same problem of trucks crawling past eachother on the limiter out there compared with the uk?Do you have any pictures of the living area of your lorry?
Cheers.
Elephant races used to be unheard of here but in the past year or two more and more companies have restricted their trucks to 65mph. I’ve always had trucks limited to 65 but as such I was almost always one of the slowest trucks on the road. Now it seems that 60-75% of trucks are restricted and its causing huge traffic problems because most Interstates here are two lanes either way once you’re out of urban areas so you get scenario’s where there’s massive amounts of bunched up cars behind each overtaking truck and before long it works out that lane two is barely ever moving faster than lane one because of the continual domino effect of restricted trucks over taking each other. So now we have traffic chaos where before we had none, when everyone could get on their way, put their foot down and get past a slower vehicle and free the road up for those coming up from behind.
These are a few photos I took when I first got the truck about a year ago.
Winseer:
I love that fuel price - $3.94 per gallon, 4.55 litres. I make that 55p a litre! And to think the yanks are moaning about “how high the price of petrol is these days”.!Plenty of interesting scenery as well, and as a lover of the open road, I reckon that would get me through driving all day long on a road that just disappears into the distance…
All the differing beurocrat stuff would be the only thing to ■■■■ me off on a trip like this.
Great post!
Glad you liked it,
The American west is great for scenery and lighter traffic. Unfortunately I do spend much of my time in the eastern half of the country where traffic is akin to the UK and western Europe. That I enjoy much less.
The bureaucratic stuff here is simple enough and I do find that there is far less red tape here over all to stop you getting on with your job.
Pat Hasler:
Great photo’s Robin, Brings back some memories. It’s been almost 7 years since I followed that route, well I mean that route but running from NY to the Iowa section anyway. Sometimes I have to admit that I miss the rest of the country, some of your photo’s taken on I-80 are taken in almost the same exact spots that I took photo’s, in particular the long decent into Utah.
Thanks, Pat. There is certainly some breath taking scenery once you cross a little way in to Wyoming. The first few days across the mid-west are absolute boredom but what comes after does make up for it.
robinhood_1984:
Elephant races used to be unheard of here but in the past year or two more and more companies have restricted their trucks to 65mph. I’ve always had trucks limited to 65 but as such I was almost always one of the slowest trucks on the road. Now it seems that 60-75% of trucks are restricted and its causing huge traffic problems because most Interstates here are two lanes either way once you’re out of urban areas so you get scenario’s where there’s massive amounts of bunched up cars behind each overtaking truck and before long it works out that lane two is barely ever moving faster than lane one because of the continual domino effect of restricted trucks over taking each other. So now we have traffic chaos where before we had none, when everyone could get on their way, put their foot down and get past a slower vehicle and free the road up for those coming up from behind.
It was often very similar to that during the 1980’s before the limits were gradually raised from the widespread 55 mph limit.It was mainly a case of law abiding drivers of both cars and trucks all sticking rigidly to the limit in all lanes because of the inevitable state trooper presence mixed with others who couldn’t give a toss usually with more radar and laser detectors than GCHQ and long range AM CB’s with range burners.Unfortunately the hire car providers didn’t provide such essentials. 
It seems like things are gradually going backwards again.First they’ll probably limit trucks to 65 mph then you can bet it’ll be 55 mph again it’s just that this time they’ll use speed limiters instead of coppers to do it.In which case things would probably have been easier in the 1980’s under the old 55 mph limit without limiters under that regime.