After the delay with the load not being ready, we finally got on the road for real Saturday morning even if it wasn't exactly smooth. We got to the Fedex facility to pick up the load that was supposed to be ready at 4am and it wasn't ready. Finally at around 9am we found out that since they trailer wasn't filled the load was cancelled. That's not a great start!
Thankfully my trainer hopped right on the phone and found us another load to take and we were off. The first stop was Dodge City, KS to pick up 41,000 pounds of beef with deliveries in Las Vegas on Monday morning and Walnut, CA on Tuesday morning. I got behind the wheel in Denton, TX and drove us all the way to Dodge City and then out of there until I was pretty much out of my allowed drive time according to the regulations and ended up with 10.5 hours behind the wheel. I was finally rolling and making progress towards finishing my training and getting my own truck!
The way the regulations work is a little more complicated but the very simplified version for a single day is that you are not allowed to drive more than 11 hours before you take a 10 hour break either in the sleeper or completely out of the truck. You also have to take a 30 minute break before you cross the 8 hour mark. The actual regulations are more involved with regards to the time you can be on duty and not driving, etc. but I won't get into those now.
It was during a stop to switch seats that I noticed something for the first time, or at least I realized what was happening. If you ever pay attention at a truck stop, you will often see birds on the grills of trucks after they pull in. They have figured out that there will be free dinner in the form of bugs stuck there so they feast on them!
My trainer took over and we ate up some more road so we could get closer to Vegas for our first drop. We ended up stopping in New Mexico for the night and I didn't get a look at the surrounding area that night but the next weekend I woke up to a pretty nice view!
We still had a lot of ground to cover so I hopped behind the wheel and off we went again. It was smooth sailing for quite a while and then all of a sudden we were in the mountains at night. Uh oh! Thankfully I was prepared and my trainer just said to take it slow and not worry about the other traffic so that's what I did and the mountains weren't nearly as stressful as I thought they might be. Sure, I probably annoyed 100 or so other truck drivers but at least we got through safely and that's all that matters.
This time I managed to burn almost my entire clock! I pulled into a truck stop in Kingman, AZ and set the brakes with 1 minute to spare of my 11 hours driving. That was cutting it too close but we made it. If I were to have crept over that 11 hours even by a single minute then I would have been facing a big fine as well as points on my CSA score (how insurance companies and the DOT decide if you are insurable or if they have to suspend your CDL) which are NOT good things to have. But that didn't happen and I managed to get a nice shot of the moon thanks to the clear skies.
Now that my driving was done for the day and we were within a couple of hours of Vegas, I hopped in the passenger seat and away we went! I had actually never been to Vegas before so needless to say, I was pretty excited when we came around a bend and there was the Hoover Dam. I tried to get a picture but I wasn't fast enough and missed it. Then a little before 2am we pulled into Vegas itself and I was finally there. Since our first drop wasn't until 5am, we just parked for the night and went to sleep. Since my trainer still had drive time left, he was able to get a nap for a couple of hours and then handled the first drop while I slept. I ended up waking right as we got to the second drop of the morning. We got there about 8am even though we weren't scheduled until 9am and had to wait a couple of hours since they didn't get to us until around 10. We were right there in the heart of Vegas though. I hopped out to stretch my legs and got a good look at what was on the other side of the street. Casino!
Once we had that drop taken care of we didn't have to be in Walnut, CA until 8am on Tuesday and that was only 250 miles away so we had time to kill somewhere. And that somewhere was Vegas! We got some lunch, my trainer took a nap for a couple of hours and then we booked an Uber and hit the strip. Since I had never been there before, it was a lot of fun wandering along the strip and taking everything in. I definitely plan on getting back there as soon as possible. Even though I am not a gambler, there will be plenty for me to do when I get back. I am still a little baffled that you can buy weed right there on the strip and just smoke it in public. I knew you could get away with a lot there but that one caught me by surprise still. I don't smoke marijuana and absolutely can't now because that would cost me my CDL (disclaimer!) but I still find it pretty awesome that you can get away with it.
After our little stroll around the Strip, it was time to get back on the road and since it was my trainer's time to drive, I just climbed in my bunk and went to bed happy and ready to wake up in Walnut, CA the next morning and ready to see and experience new things!