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pyro

SDAT - San Diego Adventure Trucker

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Happy Holidays to you SDAR ! As some of you may know, I've taken a break from my Adventure Riding activities to take a job as the worlds first San Diego Adventure Trucker. I turned in my KLR650 for a Tractor Trailer and a weekly pay check. It's been quite an adventure so far. I've clocked in over 20,000 miles in the last couple months running freight all over the western region. Here's a few pics from my first couple months as a professional driver:

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Here's my truck, A 2011 Freightliner Cascadia. Not bad huh?

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First week on the job. She runs good and strong.

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Pyramid Lake I think

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Heading into downtown ghetto LA at the end of week 1. 5:30pm friday. Easy to get around on a moto. Not so easy in a 70ft rig . .

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Week2 -> Deliver a load of horse bedding to a private ranch.

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Made a new friend 8-]

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Pick up 40,000 lbs of brown rice to haul from CA to WA

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Woke up to snow for the 1st time

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1st time on snowy roads in the rig

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The bridge from OR to WA

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Heading over

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Mt Shasta

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Had a great sit down meal in Weed, CA

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Parked just outside of Oakland ready for delivery in the am

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Saw this wreck just happened while heading out of Sacramento area

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Nevada tunnel to Arizona?

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Heading towards Salt Lake City

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Thermoplant

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Great Salt Lake

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Prepped for salt flat run

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Sunset on the road

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Awesome truck stop had fireworks, knives, liquor and beer!

I didn't buy anything . . .

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What more can I say?

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Sunset in Salt Lake City

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Found some dirt trails in Apple Valley, CA

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Cool bridge after delivering to C&H Sugar factory

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Has to be Oregon. I love it !

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I almost ran out of gas . . .

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Ran out of hours and almost got stuck in the mud trying to park it

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500hp got me outa trouble

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Sacramento River under I-5

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Lake Shasta

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Last week OR heading for WA

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Drove for hours in this

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No problemo (for me)

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Big problemo here. That's a rig flipped over on the shoulder . . .

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The weather continued to go down hill

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Trying to leave OR but I-5 was shut down . . .

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So I pulled off the hwy and camped out

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Found a nice spot under a tree to wait it out

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The $hit hit the fan with several multi-car/big rig accidents on the mountain passes that day . I'm glad I quit when I did.

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It turned into blizzard conditions

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Just before night fall

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Next morning looking good. The snow plows were running finally.

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Redding CA the next morning after an extreme driving experience the night before.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Ride on and Drive on forever SDAR!

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Sincerely,

-pyro

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Nice ride. Had to drink the orange kool-aid huh?

LOL

Glad you're working man. Good luck on the road. Glad you made it through those storms safe. Always best to wait out the storm than push though. Sometimes I wish I was still moving freight, the boxes don't complain and bosses understand delays better than customers.

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Very nice...

Thanks for sharing, drive safe...

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Very Merry Christmas Troy!...Great write up, awesome pics..:party:/>....This IS quite an adventure..some of those snow pics show you still like living on the edge.......think of it as "2 wheels x 9".....Be safe out there....God Bless your travels... :king:/>.....talk soon.

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I once considered trucking as a career. (That, and a lot of other jobs. too....) I'm glad that you are turning it into an adventure, and enjoying the traveling and scenery. :party:

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Merry Christmas Pyro.......

Pretty funny that my FIRST thought upon seeing that truck was, "Why isn't it Kawasaki green instead of KTM orange?" :blink::heh:

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Troy --had no clue. Nice to see you are with the "Pumpkins " Schneider is from my home town of Green Bay and I grew up with many family members and class mates working for them. It was a very big deal when in 1986 they had their own satellite and linked all of their trucks.They were the first and I think that was a jump start to get Qualcom going.

Wow how times have changed.

Keep up the good work and link us with a Spot tracker and we will ride over to meet you sometime like in Utah --LOL !

P.S I had friends working as mechanics and it was driving them nuts because every tractor and trailer was the same. All 6000 of them :wacko:

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hey Troy, good to hear from you and Merry Christmas....looks like you're enjoying the road haulin' ! Cool, thanks for sharing the pics.

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Congratulations on your paying adventure, Troy. Seems like a great gig. Enjoy and keep us posted. Very cool pics.

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That certainly is a change Troy!

I drove truck for a number of years - sand/gravel/asphalt, flowers, produce, race cars. Your photos of truck stops brought back some memories. It's a different world.

Good luck on your new endeavor.

Carl

But wait, I can see it now;

Adventure Road Truckers

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Troy,

Nice to heard from you. The next thing is to fit a KLR on the rig somehow. What are your options there? Maybe up front on an old bumper hitch. You may want one to ride out for help someday or for a layover between runs.

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The C&H Sugar Factory- if you squint and look real close, you can see my old house in the background. The suspension bridge is new, replacing a bridge built in 1927. The old "new" bridge in the background essentially duplicated the lines of the original bridge, but built of tube sections rather than the original angle iron. The suspension bridge had just opened up when we moved to SD. I am not sure I have ever been across it.

The C&H plant processes an amazing amount of sugar, and is operating at a fraction of its peak- sugar from sugar beets has taken a chunk of the market from cane sugar. I think afficiandos can go on and on about the differences, and then go on about the further abomination of high fructose corn syrup in Coca Cola rather than cane sugar post New Coke.

Anyone else need their thread to zoom off on a obscure tangent- I'm your man.

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Also- the ability to pull off and wait when conditions are dodgy, in spite of what customers and bosses might say, is to be cultivated. Spoken from someone who has trouble with that, and I wasn't even getting paid.

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Hey thanks for all your replies and cool comments and stories. I live in a very different world now its true, and it really means a lot to see all you here on this thread. Some of the best people I've met in this life are from right right here in SDAR so thanks again friends and keep on keepin' on doing your thing!

Classic to hear a little of the old school Schneider history. They are a good company and I would recommend them to any new or aspiring pro drivers out there. They've done everything they said they would do which is rare in this industry from what I've heard.

Hey by the way that bridge by c&h . . From what I recall its a toll bridge and they charge by the axel. I made the mistake of crossing, cost me like $20! Nice view though and u can see the old bridge under it as u go.

Since I made this post I covered another 10k miles or so, got a new boss and a new truck. This one is a grey 2012 with less than 50k on it! I miss my old orange one but not that much. It was a 2011 with almost 300k. When I get back on a computer and find a wifi I'll post up some more pics.

Until then,

Ride On Amigos!

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Troy, thanks for thinking of us here at SDAR and staying in touch ! Please keep us up to date on your SDAT adventures whenever you have the time.

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