In Charlotte, NC on the way to Ashtabula, OH. Will I see snow??

A few pictures from Tamarack, Beckley, WV

A wolf in disguise.

Dining room accessory - mistakenly having the same name as my lovely wife.

And pictures of the informational signs outside of Tamarack.

Apparently the WV turnpike runs along the same route as the original "WAR PATH"

In Carlisle, Pa, 
Exercise: Peak8 stepper machine.
On the way to Alabama from Bayonne, NJ

In Keasbey on the way to Maine.

South of the Border. 

Anybody from the Northeast who has gone to DisneyLand by car knows what this place is. Words are insufficient to describe it.

Story of Harris to follow.

How does that saying go?  About neither rain, sleet, or snow impeding progress?  How about all three plus freezing ice pellets?

Big SNOW/ICE STORM HAS JUST STARTED.
 
I am setting off this morning for parts known and unknown.

Paulsboro, Nj

Sufolk, Va

Gordon, Ga

Morrow, Ga

Chattannooga, Tn

Albion, Ny

Coraopolis, Pa

then parts unknown.

At least I am heading South initially.
Unfortunately for me the legs of the plan, got pushed back due to either the customer not needing the product until a few days later or the product not quite made yet.  --both scenarios are possible.

By the time I got to the middle of Delaware, the snow had changed to rain. The 'Blue route' was closed at Mid county, so I went to I-95 via the Route 1 exit.  A whole lot of wrecks, even though it was 5 am on a Saturday morning.

As can be seen, the whole week was spent at or near the eastern seaboard. Over 2800 miles of I-95!!!

Exercised; Wii Yoga

exercised: Wii yoga

Exercised this morning, Wii yoga, 3 x 10 leg lifts with Susan's legweights, Peak8 on stationary bike.

Home for the next week.

In Charlotte, off to Wilmington, NC, gotta get some antifreeze to deliver to the Volvo truck plant in Dublin, Va.
Loaders took a sample from the bottom of the tanker and put the antifreeze in a thing that looked like a spyglass , looked in the glass, pointed it at the sun, and declared it -- "OK". I asked them what they were measuring and they told me the spyglass tells them the freeze point and it was below the required -34 def F.  So they continue filling the tanker and I am soon on my way to Dublin.

Everything is going too well!  A BLOWOUT on the trailer.

Another view.  The tread (alligator in the trade lingo) has wrapped around the axle.

So I call the Emergency maintenance and a tire repair guy came and replaced the tire.  elapsed time 1-1/2 hours.  But while I am broken down, I get the notification that the consignee can not take deliver at 0700 as scheduled, but had pushed deliver back to 1500.

When I arrived at 2:30 pm, I informed that they did not have room, but at 8 pm they would have used up enough antifreeze to just have enough room in their storage tank.

So I came back at 8, the readout for their tank indicated that to load their tank to 90% (strict rules forbid going over 90% ), they would be taking exactly 4318 gallons.  The amount per the BOL in the tanker was 4318 gallons.  WHAT ARE THE ODDS of that happening???

At the unloading point , it is dark with almost no light, cold in the twenties.  Unloading rules required the receivers to take a sample and figure out the freeze point to make sure the load was ok. So we drew a sample in a little bottle. They also have the same spyglass instrument to check the freeze point, but there no sun.  But I guess a flashlight will do, because that is what they spied into with the glass.
Here the conversation [remember this is the 2nd shift, and both of these guys do not normally do this function.  I believe that they were supervisors  also remember that the antifreeze must be liquid at negative 34]

#1 looking through the glass:  It reads negative 44

#2: Good, it is OK to unload

#1:No, it is not ok, 44 is bigger than 34.

#2: Yes, it is ok

#1: No, 44 is bigger than 34

Bob: Should I take it back and have them add water?

#1: We can add water here!.....Oh (to #2)  yeah you're right it is ok.

So we all stopped shivering in the dark and proceeded to unload.

Back in the states, off to Bayonne for some gasoline additive for some folks in North Carolina. Had to get my pump working so as to unload the gasoline additive.  Took from 6:45 to 11 am, saw Mike the expert mechanic, was to sent to tankwash to see the "new Mark", he had one of the guys try as see if it was spinning with a blast of hot water.  No luck.  Back to Mike, come back in an hour, working on somebody else's problem, Pull tractor into the open bay.  told to come back in an hour.  went upstairs and played on the internet.  Mike came running up after about 45 minutes.  Some how they had gotten it to spin. (by loosening the bolts on the housing)  Had to get it washed quick before the gunk set up again. Got the pump washed and proceeded to Bayonne.

At Bayonne, while  loading the 4000+ gallons of gasoline additive, the tank ran dry.  So  .... I had to close the tanker up and get it scaled for the amount that I had, then come back to the loading rack  for the balance from another tank.  Then back to the scale for the final weigh-in and then finally get the BOL.  However the papers must include a Certificate of Analysis.  It took a long time for the paperwork to come out the computer, due to the fact that the product had come from two different tanks.  So I finally got to leave for Salem, NC in midafternoon.  I made it just south of Washington DC before I needed a rest.  Since gasoline additive is Haz-mat and placarded, I had to take the "Francis Scott Key" bridge rather than the tunnel in Baltimore.   [Yes, You can see from that bridge!]

The next day in Salem, NC while I was unloading at the gasoline terminal, the temperature was a pleasant to me 50 deg. F, but uncomfortably cold for the assistant manager of the terminal who  has to watch the unload for safety reasons.  For conversation sake because once the unloading starts and everything is working, there is nothing to do but to watch. [like watching paint dry], I said to my shivering bundled up companion.: "Just think two days ago, when I was unloading it was 55 degrees colder".  Then we got to discuss the weather patterns in eastern North America.  Sure beats watching paint dry in excruciating silence.

Back from Etobicoke, Ontario.  Uneventful trip.  Homeland Security guy asked where I had been. I had to spell it.  He had heard of the place, but did not know how to pronounce it either.  [FYI, it is a industrial section of Toronto.]

Now I also know where they make the institutional 12 inch X 12 inch tiles in Canada at least.  Got there at 530 for 600 am appointment. Walked all around the factory looking for where to go with the tanker.  Really wierd, no locked doors, no guards, no people until 6 am..  I guess there is nothing worth stealing there.

Next I go to Monaca tomorrow and then to East Angus, Quebec, then back to Jersey, get some gasoline additive and on to North Carolina.

 Had to stop in Sherbrooke, QC.  for delivery the next morning.  This picture was taken Sunday afternoon at 4 pm.  It was about 15 deg F with blowing snowfall.  Lake effect snow from one of the many lakes in the area.

 Just past 8 am next morning. Cardboard plant is sucking the white stuff out of the tanker.  It is 5 deg F.  I have delivered here before and the fellow inside who receives the material is a delight to deal with.  He is jovial and likes to practice his English.  So I went inside, couldn't find him, but  left the sample bottle and the papers in the normal spot and went outside to hook my hose up to the pipe that comes out of the building and my tanker.    I came back in 15 minutes later obviously freezing and he greeted me by saying:  "Hey, this is CANADA, not FLORIDA!!  It gets cold here!"
    I agreed.

 The view exactly 180 degrees from the prior photo.  The St. Francis river is frozen  at the dam which is under the bridge.  It seems like standard papermill design to have a dam on a river for water and power.

Made it back to Coraopolis
When I crossed the border at Buffalo, I had the shortest discourse with the Homeland Security official.

It went like this:

Pull up to window

window opens

hand passport and paper with info about tractor and tanker

she says: Be right back

window is shut

3 minutes elapse - I read a few pages of Kindle

window opens

she says: $10.75, please

I hand her $11.00

She puts a quarter and the receipt in my passport.

She hands me the passport.

Window closes.

No questions about where I was born, whether I have weapons, what was I doing in Canada, etc, etc. etc.

I am not complaining, hopefully next time they won't have to be more thorough next time to bring the averages up.

. Had a nice chat with a Keasbey driver whom I meet up with occasionally at random spots. the conversation was about the last time we met. Both of us could not remember where, but we could repeat chapter and verse the prior conversation.
Anyway it can't be a senior moment, since the other fellow is in his 30thys. [I remember now we were at the houston tankwash waiting on the cleaning of our hoses.  The tankwash folks were celebrating Christmas early and were in a "meeting".]

after Etobicoke, Ontario and back to Cory. I am being sent to Monaca (naturally) for a tanker full of white stuff for cardboard manufacture in East Angus, Quebec.  I have been there at least three time before. -- A beautiful place.  Then I go to Keasbey, NJ for a wash.  (a not so beautiful place)

The year 2012 has not started as smoothly as one might wish.

When we originally scheduled my hometime, we figured that there was no way anyone would be loading on the 1st (a Sunday) or receiving on the holiday Monday.  But at first I was to go to Virginia on early Sunday morning  to load.  That one got canceled. (I wonder why!)

The replacement was a pickup of a loaded tanker to take to Fowlerville, Mi. for delivery on Monday morning. So I left my lovely wife at home early Sunday morning and  set out to do the job.  After battling a high wind Canadian blast of cold air complete with the usual lake effect snow squals, I arrived at the Fowlerville plant to find an empty parking lot and newly fallen snows with absolutely no tracks in the snow.  They were closed for the holdiay!!  Seems like our predictions were correct!  By this time I had another assignment to pickup a loaded tanker in Woodhaven , Mi and deliver in Mississauga, Ontario.  Some one else would have to deliver the Fowlerville load the next day..  There were other issues with the Fowlerville load in that it was too cold when I picked it up and my heating in transit had only increased the temperature by 2 deg. F.

The load to Canada was there, but the necessary papers to satisfy customs was not there. Those papers had to be faxed to me, so I could in turn do my magic (there is a process called PARS Pre Arrival Report Submittable [I think]).  Too much elapsed for me to safely get to a convenient stopping point in Canada, so I got up at 1 am 1/03/2012 and set out for my 8 am unload in Mississauga a mere 240 miles away.  The lake effect snow was intense off of Lake Huron as I ventured across Ontario.  When I  arrived at the customer, I was told that I was scheduled for tomorrow - the 4th.
IS MY COMPANY CALENDAR CHALLENGED??
It seems like my company was using the Mayan calendar and has not found a new one to take its place.

My Progress so far this year.  After I get to Cory, I am to go right a back to  Etobicoke, Ontario.