First days on the road

I can't believe it has been since July since one of us posted last. In short we picked up our truck from Richfield Ohio, took it home and got it cleaned up inside and out. It took us about a week straight working on it. Then we went to FedEx orientation which began on Aug 8. The training was interesting and we learned alot and forgot a lot. We completed our orientation for Surface and then for White Glove as well as our training in Hazmat, Explosives and Radioactive materials. It was nice to meet others who were just getting started and also being able to talk to those who had been in surface and were training to be in white glove. We learned a lot from them too.

So..jumping ahead to the present.....

It took a little longer for us to get our things packed and the truck box organized so we didn't go into service until Sunday, August 14th. No sooner did we go into service then we received a phone call asking if we would take a load that picked up in Cleveland and dropped off in Ontario Canada. The funny thing is that we both had said, watch our first load be to Canada and neither of us thought we would really be ready for it because we needed experience. Dispatch convinced us that we would be all right, it was one of their regular customers and it would be simple. We decided to go ahead and take the load.

It was about 7 in the evening so we decided that Jim would drive, the load picked up at 11:00 pm and needed to be dropped off at 12:30 the next afternoon, so off we went. We decided that we would drive that way so that he would be the one to go through customs on the way up. We were at the pickup in Cleveland early (can't remember exactly how early, maybe around 9:30 or so...we were excited about the first load and wanted to be on time). The shipper took us early. I think that I forgot to mention that it was also a hazmat load so that also made us a little nervous. We picked it up and then headed off to Canada. I decided that I would try and get some sleep because I didn't know whether Jim would last driving until the next morning. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep but Jim was so excited that he stayed wide awake the whole time. We hit customs really early in the am. The customs guy just asked us where we were going and how long we would be there and of course the weapon, drug whatever question. We did tell him that we had a couple of box cutters and a large flashlight that some people might consider weapons. He smiled and said you're good to go, and we headed off.

I took over driving about a half hour after we hit the border. Granted this was the first time I had driven the truck in unfamiliar territory and not to mention my only experience driving was the dump truck at school and the little bit I drove the truck once we picked it up. I know that God was watching over me because on the way through Toronto we didn't hit too much traffic although it was busy, there just weren't any slowdowns. I learned that first day how to change lanes and merging traffic. By the way...on ramps in Canada are much, much shorter than in Ohio and they also require you to go around a 25-30 mph curve before merging. So I learned to get over for other drivers and in turn people made room for me to get into traffic. Drivers there seem to be courteous and believe it or not even drive about the speed limit, so it was pretty smooth sailing. Something I didn't know before I started driving is that the trucks have to have something on them so that they can't drive over 65, that is the only way a truck can drive in Canada. Hmm....maybe they require the cars to have them too:)

We were 4 hours early to drop the load off and it was a huge plant with a gate. The lady at the gate asked for my paperwork. There had been a sign in the front of the office that said if you are coming from the US you need to pull forward. I asked the lady at the gate if she wanted me to pull forward. She then asked if I was sealed and I said no, then she said did the person at customs unseal you and look. I said no. Then she said, were you ever sealed? I said no, the shipper did not seal us. I then explained to her that this was our very first load and that Jim was driving when we picked up the load. She just gave me a weird look handed me a pass and let me go on but said that since we were early we'd have to check back with the office and if they were able to take us that was fine but it not then we would need to come up front and park. I said all right and we went back. They accepted us four hours early. I forgot to mention that when we were almost to the place where we deliver, our electronic gadget (called a qualcom- which tells dispatch where we are) went off saying that we were more than 15 minutes late for our load. I called dispatch and told them we were almost there and made sure I had the right time. She said I was fine. The qualcom a few minutes later sent us a message that said, did you make it to the border. Well what we didn't know was that we were supposed to send a message when we got to the border so the qualcom was a little behind. We got the load off the truck without any problems.

After we dropped off the load we called Expediter Services and asked them if we could take the truck somewhere and put 2 tires on the truck. They said to wait until we got back to the states and that we could take care of it in Buffalo. So we put our truck out of service. The drive back was a little more crazy through Toronto, it probably didn't help that we started going through at about 3:00 pm and there was construction. Well after sitting in traffic for about 20 minutes and things were moving pretty good, we missed our turn off. I need to mention here that Canada also doesn't mark their roads very well. There were times where the first sign I saw was at the exit and it was across four lanes of traffic. So, we missed the exit and the only way around it without getting off an exit and driving downtown Toronto was to go around and come back to the exit...so that added an extra hour of driving because we also wound up coming through the same traffic a second time. Once we were finally through the mess (which I really didn't mind other than the real need to stop and use the bathroom) we got off an exit to get something to drink and go to the bathroom. We hadn't exchanged any of our money because we knew we wouldn't be there for too long so that made us think that they might not take US dollars. Well of course they did and it was interesting to watch the register. She told us the price and then right in front of our eyes, the register changed to a different price because we had US dollars, obviously it was more because our dollar isn't worth a whole lot:) So we got our drinks and headed toward the border.

The border, I should say US customs was a first for me. I had been through in a car but not a truck. I have to share that we were probably heading back over to the states during customs rush hour because there was a ton of cars and trucks heading that direction. There had been signs a few miles before that stated that trucks would probably have a 30-60 minute wait and it also said that about the cars. So once we got there they put us in a holding yard to wait our turn. Trucks were lined up across 5 customs lines which then narrowed to one traffic line all the way across the bridge that ended in the yard we were in. The yard we were in, held a ton of trucks. There were fives lines of trucks on one side of us and each line probably held 6 trucks or so. After about 30 minutes we then made our way to the bridge. Our truck was not happy about the hill of the bridge we were sitting on, moving slowly and stopping and starting. We finally made it to the customs window where the attendant asked for our identification. He took them and then said we'll be with you in a second. I was thinking, is there something wrong already, what could it be? After a few minutes another person opened the window (I had noticed the first attendant left the booth and she had walked up but she never said anything about it) and asked me some questions. First she asked our license plate number which I had written down earlier because there is paper work that we fill out when we cross the border. So I told her. Then she asked me if there was anything that I wanted to declare before going back into the US and I said no. Then she asked me the question, "So you are heading back empty?" I was excited that she asked me that question because I was prepared because we had learned in orientation that you never, never, ever say you are coming back empty. The reason is that our box is not empty because we carry equipment with us and if you were pulled over to do more in depth questioning and they opened your truck and you said you were empty and you had equipment back there, that would raise a flag to them and they would detain you even longer. So my answer was, as I learned in class, "We are dead heading back to the states and have no loaded freight." She said all right, you may go ahead. Boy was I relieved and you know what I don't think she even asked the weapon and drug question. Both customs (Canada and the US) did ask us if we had anyone else with us. We said no and both of us had to show our passports and ids. So....we made it through customs and were off to the good ole USA.

Once we got to the states we called Expediters and talked to them about getting tires put on. (They were wonderful and part of the reason we waited to talk to them until we got to the US is because they reminded us that talking in Canada would waste a lot of our minutes because it is all roaming). So we stopped at the TA around Buffalo and got the tires changed. This was difficult on Jim because he had been up all night and hadn't gotten too much sleep because he wanted to make sure I didn't get lost and also because he wanted to help me unload and work together with the paperwork. So by the time we went to get the tires on, he was really worn out. We had called dispatch a couple of times to tell them we were still waiting. Later on they called us and asked us if we would be willing to take a short load that didn't pick up until 7:00 am and it was not too far from where we were getting the tires put on. We said that sounded good since our tires were just getting put on and that meant we could sleep all night before the load. Jim was really excited about the sleep and so was I. Even though I was the one to be able to sleep while he was driving, I didn't get much sleep too much running through my head and of course it was the first time I had tried to fall asleep in a moving vehicle and it wasn't my bed:) So a good nights' rest sounded good to me.

We both have shared that we like to travel and see different things. This trip was an interesting one with lots of different scenery. The lake was gorgeous both in the morning and afternoon. Toronto has a really pretty cityscape and something I didn't know was that they have a population over 2 million, no wonder there was so much traffic:) Another reason we decided to hit the road was to meet people, learn about cultures and be Christlike to whomever we meet hoping to be able to share a little of the Good News with some people. We met a couple of gentlemen at our Canadian delivery. Super nice people who asked us if we had visited Canada before and we shared with them that our only experience was at my Uncle Donnie's cabin at McGregor Bay. We talked about the traffic in Toronto, they smiled and asked us how that was. It was nice to hear the traditional "eh" while they were talking. Jim will post pictures once we figure out how to charge the laptop in the truck because the pics are on his camera which needs the laptop connection to load. So a little more later.

Since I've taken up so much room on this post, I think I'll start another one for the next load.

Faith, peace, hope and joy!!

Judy