I'm glad you finally checked in. I was thinking about calling the police, and having them put out an APB. I miss you and Joe when you are gone all week. Sounds like you've had another busy week. The thing I remember most about folding a wet lumber tarp, is that they are slicker than snot on a door knob, when you have to roll them back out. Not much fun with a 13 ft load, with the wind blowing. Be careful, James

Everytime I hear Nazareth I think of the band. Anyways it sounded like you had an enjoyable week. The race season starts back in a feew weeks. Over at the bristol track around christmas time you can drive on the track, because it fully decorated with christmas lights. Those banks around the curves are higher than what people think. You was talking about racing, I wish they still had the big truck races around. I'd love to see that. I never was a fan of tarping myself, but some people don't mind it. We've had crazy weather here also. Last weekend in was 4 degrees when I left for work and this monday it's gonna be 60 degrees, that'll be a nice day. Anyway have a good one.

I'm glad you finally checked in. I was thinking about calling the police, and having them put out an APB. I miss you and Joe when you are gone all week. Sounds like you've had another busy week. The thing I remember most about folding a wet lumber tarp, is that they are slicker than snot on a door knob, when you have to roll them back out. Not much fun with a 13 ft load, with the wind blowing. Be careful, James

,Yep,last time I unloaded in Orville the wind tried to blow the tarps away 'til I got them drug inside the building,this time it was the cold. The tarps still had ice and snow and salt on them,there was snow on the ground,and when you try to roll them up you can't get any traction on anything so you can't get them rolled very tight so they end up big as a small car,and hard to handle. And I don't have a lumber tarp,I carry two smaller ones. And It's hard enough to stay clean on a flatbed anyway, but when you get the salt all over everything it's even worse,all you gotta do is touch the truck or trailer and it seems to be all over you,and tarping and untarping is really bad. I'm not complaining though,I don't care for slick roads either.

And it's good to know that if I go missing somebody would actually notice-thanks!

Everytime I hear Nazareth I think of the band. Anyways it sounded like you had an enjoyable week. The race season starts back in a feew weeks. Over at the bristol track around christmas time you can drive on the track, because it fully decorated with christmas lights. Those banks around the curves are higher than what people think. You was talking about racing, I wish they still had the big truck races around. I'd love to see that. I never was a fan of tarping myself, but some people don't mind it. We've had crazy weather here also. Last weekend in was 4 degrees when I left for work and this monday it's gonna be 60 degrees, that'll be a nice day. Anyway have a good one.

I remember the band.When I was a teenager "Love Hurts" was a big hit for them. That and "Hair of the Dog" are the only Nazareth songs I could name though.

I was going down 81 to Chattanooga or somewhere a few years ago and decided to drive down by the Bristol track just to see it and it was lit up that night too,pretty awesome looking.I've still never seen it in the daytime. I guess the banking is like taking a picture of a hill,the picture never seems to show just how steep the hill is.I've seen a couple of pictures at Hank's truck pictures that looked scary steep even in the picture,but not too many.I'll try to find them if you want,you might've seen them before. But the best Bristol example i've ever seen was when Ned Jarrett had a racing show that came on every Sunday morning.He had some really interesting stuff,like what 200 mph really looked like-he was driving 55 mph at Talledega and Terry Labonte passed him doing 200+. He wanted to demonstrate how steep the banking was at Bristol,so they took a crane and lifted A VW beetle over the wall (this show came on probably 20-some years ago,before it was so built up all the way around) and set it down at the top of the banking. When they turned it loose it just rolled right down to the bottom. Good stuff!

And tarping-I've pulled flat beds most of my career and it's just part of the job,something you gotta do,so it doesn't really bother me that much, EXCEPT- it really burns me up when like i've mentioned before people want you to tarp stuff for no apparent reason. I've picked up lumber in Palmer,Massachusets before that was supposed to be tarped,and it had snow a foot deep on top of it. I told them they could unload it if they wanted,but I certainly wasn't going to climb up on a load of snow covered lumber to tarp it,and I didn't.

We used to haul lumber for Hoover treated lumber in Milford,Va. and they wanted everything tarped,year round,even though they stored it out in the weather and everywhere we delivered to did too. A lot of the steel we haul is the same way,it just makes no sense at all. Nothing that I know of gets wetter just because it's loaded on a trailer,and there's no salt on the road when there's no snow or ice,especially in the summer. I think a lot of these idiots in management have absolutely no common sense,plus they just hate trucks and truck drivers. And that's what gripes me about tarping!

We went one year and you would drive a little on the track then where the car's pit at, my mom and all the other women was like "wow look at the lights", but me and dad was like "look at the banking on this track". At the bristol drageway they have a suoer chevy show every year and man you talk about nice cars. I think some people would make you tarp the nastiest, corroded over, muddiest piece of steel out there just to be dumped in a land fill. If it was a part of my job I probably wouldn't mind it to much either, but it would take me awhile to get the hangs of things. I was starting to wonder about ya also. You usually beat me on here friday evenings. Do you get the rest of today off? If you can find those pictures it would be nice to see it again. It's been about 8 years since I last saw it.

I'm off 'til tomorrow.Neal asked me Friday when I called in empty at Orville,when he gave me my pick-up number for IDS and told me I could unload in Roanoke whenever I got there, if I wanted to talk to Todd then about a load for Sunday.I told him no,i'll just call Monday-i'm not really into working 7 days a week.I've got lots of bills to pay like everybody else,but if all you do is work,what's the point? I mean you've got to be off once in a while. I left Saturday when I went to Wisconsin,got back Friday,and left again Sunday and didn't get in 'til Saturday. This right here is my biggest enjoyment of the week.

I'm off 'til tomorrow.Neal asked me Friday when I called in empty at Orville,when he gave me my pick-up number for IDS and told me I could unload in Roanoke whenever I got there, if I wanted to talk to Todd then about a load for Sunday.I told him no,i'll just call Monday-i'm not really into working 7 days a week.I've got lots of bills to pay like everybody else,but if all you do is work,what's the point? I mean you've got to be off once in a while. I left Saturday when I went to Wisconsin,got back Friday,and left again Sunday and didn't get in 'til Saturday. This right here is my biggest enjoyment of the week.

I'd be hitting Jeff up for a paid vacation. This site is very enjoyable for me also.