Vol 15 No 3 May 31, 2011

Left Daytona Beach on Monday morning 2 May and delivered in Orlando - the steel plates from Michigan (photo).

Then deadheaded 140 kms to Gainesville, Florida and loaded a Genie boom lift. We loaded at the same place last Month - B & M Equipment going to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

We had a brief meet with Joe near New Orleans, he was going east. An unexpected visit!

We delivered the Genie boom life the next morning in Baton Rouge: Aerial Access Equipment.

Then 200km deadhead to Kinder, Louisiana and loaded part of a TV tower. The area had 40m
m (1 ½ inches) of rain the night before and resulted in a very boggy gravel road which was interesting!

Delivered the TV tower segments to another project near Littleton, North Carolina, then loaded a used CAT 980 fork lift in Raleigh, North Carolina. An LTL (less than truckload) shipment. The next morning we loaded another LTL shipment: a new chiller unit (large air conditioner) in Waynesboro, Virginia. Both shipments for Ontario, Canada.

We got to Buffalo, NY late Friday night and spent the weekend at Joe and Michele’s in our motor home. It hasn’t been opened since October last year. No leaks and no dead mice, but the baits had been eaten. Not too bad, the previous years there have been dead mice.

Nice Spring weather for Buffalo, cool but sunny - we took the motorbike off the truck. Visited a few people and our favourite Buffalo area foods.

Delivered the CAT 980 fork lift to a equipment rental company in Stoney Creek, Ontario Tuesday morning, then to Toronto.

All our paperwork had the address as 400 Kingston Road, Toronto, near downtown but when we got to the address it was a vacant apartment building. A few phone calls and we found out that the wrong city had been put on all the paperwork. 400 Kingston Road in Pickering - 35 kms the eastern side of Toronto.

We had to meet a crane at 10am. It lifted the old air conditioner unit off a four storey building, then put the new one we had in its’ place.

We were running late, but still loaded in Mississauga - seven skids of flat steel, then 1½ hours drive to Cambridge and loaded one small bundle of steel - full tarp. All going to Mexico

En route, we had to cross the Mississippi River which was experiencing an historic flood. Above average amounts of rain and snow fell throughout the middle Mississippi and Ohio River valleys from January through early May of this year.

Weather.com According to the National Climatic Data Center, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania all just had their wettest April on record. In addition, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee all finished with a top five wettest April.

The heaviest rain event unfolded April 23-28. Over the course of these six days, 9 to 10 inches of rain fell in portions of southern Illinois, southern Indiana and northern Kentucky. Parts of southeast Missouri and northern Arkansas were flooded with more than a foot of rain. All of this water made its way through various streams and tributaries into the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in a short amount of time, resulting in record flooding.

We crossed the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join.

Active sandbagging along both sides of the highway on the western side, but water was still getting through. We stopped at the truckstop for fuel and the parking lot was inundated on one side. An hour later when we left, I looked back the way we came and water was completely across the highway we had just come down and reduced to one lane each direction.

More flooding in Arkansas and water was up to the highway in several places.

The shipment of steel on the trailer was “in bond”. We cleared Customs at the USA/Canadian border, but had to clear again at the Mexican border. We had no prior experience with the Mexican clearance and were a bit nervous because we had to get on the bridge that goes into Mexico and required several phone calls and reassurances that we would not end up in Mexico.

The entrance to Customs had no signage and a

narrow driveway towards a large shed. No problems with clearance, but then needed more reassurance about returning to the USA. The guard tried to get us to head to the Immigration lanes/gates, Jim was frantically indicating that we had to do a ‘U’ turn. Eventually a narrow gap in the fence was pointed out, had to cross six traffic lanes and through the gap, then down a narrow strip of bitumen in the median to get pointed in the direction we wanted to go. Quite a few anxious moments!

Delivered the steel to a trucking company to deliver in Mexico. Then we reloaded in Laredo. The first time we have hauled ‘earth screw anchors’, a whole truck load, 480 of them going to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The earth screw anchors were 10 feet long ‘augers’ used to secure items to the earth. (Two photos below of the earth screws.)

Had good weather going north, though a fierce head wind dropped the fuel economy. We ate barbecue in Texas and Oklahoma.

Trivia: The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, literally meaning ‘red people’.

Oklahoma is known as the ‘Sooner’ state - I bought a postcard with the explanation: What is a Sooner? During the late 1800’s, land runs were held in what is now Oklahoma. The name “Sooner” was used for those land runners who snuck past the territory markers prior to the actual shotgun start in search of the best land areas.

The 150 mile piece of highway north of Two Harbors, Minnesota was new for us and we had not been to Thunder Bay, Ontario before. Awesome scenery along the edge of Lake Superior on a sunny Spring day.

The highway from Duluth, Minnesota to Thunder Bay travels along the north western side of Lake Superior. We were surprised how little traffic there was and only a few small towns and industry - a large taconite shipping facility and a power plant. Mostly tourism - recreational lake activities for summer and winter. We saw cliffs, bluffs and rocky shorelines.

Internet: Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and the world’s third-largest freshwater lake by volume. It has a maximum length of 350 miles (563 kms) and a maximum width of 160 miles (257 kms) The average water temperature during the SUMMER (!!!) is about 40 F (4.4 C). Lake Superior is the largest, deepest and coldest of the Great Lakes. The lake is fed by over 200 rivers.

Trivia: The native Ojibwe call the lake Gichigami, meaning “big water”. Gordon Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” refers to “Gitche Gumee”. (The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the last major shipwreck on Lake Superior, sinking on 10 November, 1975 - all 29 crew members perished.

Storms on Lake Superior regularly record wave heights of over 20 feet (6 metres), waves well over 30 feet (9 metres) have been recorded.

There is a large solar park construction at the Thunder Bay International Airport, that was our delivery. Utilizing vacant land between the railway line and the runways. The earth screws are screwed into the ground with a special machine. About 20 cms of the post out of the ground where the rack is bolted, then the solar panels are put on top of the racks. Very interesting.

TerraFix website: Field installations using earth screws by Terrafix offers numerous advantages when constructing foundations without concrete. More economical than comparable concrete foundations, no damage to land, as earth screws are directly screwed into the ground (no excavated earth).

Reusable without deterioration, no disposal costs for waste material, time saving when inserting and changing position.

(Impressive frost the morning we delivered! It was 39 C / 102 F in Laredo when we loaded four days prior!)

After delivering, we sat at a truck stop in Thunder Bay for a few hours, hoping for a load out of there, but there were only intra Canada loads and USA trucks can not do intra Canada (from one Canadian city to another Canadian city). Same rules for Canadian and Mexican trucks in the USA. Can only haul to a foreign destination and back to their home country.

We were aware we would likely have a big deadhead out of Thunder Bay to get another load, but we had no deadhead in Laredo and the load paid well enough that even with an added 300 miles (480 kms) we would still make a profit.

Thunder Bay, Wikipedia: Settlement in the region began in the late 17th century with a French fur trading outpost on the banks of the Kaministiquia River. It grew into an important transportation hub, an important link in the shipping of grain and other products from western Canada through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway to the east coast. The port of Thunder Bay is the largest outbound port on the Saint Lawrence Seaway System, and the sixth largest port in Canada.

Forestry and manufacturing played important roles in the city’s economy. They have declined in recent years, but have been replaced by a ‘knowledge economy’ based on medical research and education.

540 kms / 320 miles deadhead but we found a load for the next day near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Loaded Wednesday, 18 May at Pentair Technology Products, moving part of their operation to Mexico. We were the last of five trucks to be loaded and only two pieces left - a machine and a skid that had to be tarped. A very light load!

Strong head winds going south! Tore our tarps. We covered all the edges and poking up bits with old rugs and carpet pieces, but the wind and tarps flapping for 2740 kms rubbed through the protective carpet and the tarp, then it tore.

Delivered Friday afternoon in McAllen, Texas to a trucking company that will deliver the machines in Mexico. 250 km to Laredo to load on Saturday morning - another shipment of earth screws going to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

On the way south, Jim spotted a barbeque restaurant south of Dallas that had truck parking Up In Smoke, we had dinner there Saturday evening. A restaurant to remember!! We enjoyed it. They had ‘texas trash’ as a side item. Not the mix of cereal, nuts and hot sauces, this one was made with corn bread, and peppers! Yum.

Jim’s log book required a day off on Monday 23rd, we got a motel room in Story City, Iowa. A small farming community, has a 1913 Carousel, and a motel with truck parking.

We spread the tarps out in the parking lot and did some patching. It was hot (40 C/104 F), windy and a dirt lot when we took them off in McAllen, not ideal conditions for the job. Warm with a gentle breeze in Iowa was much better. Also laundry and cleaning done around the truck, but we relaxed as well (and had a ‘sit at a table‘ meal).

Delivered the earth screws to the solar farm project in Thunder Bay, Ontario on Wednesday morning - another big frost in the morning!. Then dead headed 550 kms south to Fridley (Minneapolis area) and loaded an asphalt machine.

The company where we loaded has many CAT machines that it ships all over the world - a lot of equipment in the yard will be shipped to Queensland - Hastings Deering.

Our load was a CAT AP655D track asphalt paver, it has rubber around the tracks. The front horizontal auger rips up the bitumen/concrete to required depth.