Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Got my truck back

Well, I actually drove my assigned truck today.  It was almost strange!  It was pretty dirty from having lots of different mechanics and tow truck drivers in and out of it.  It did sit around for nearly 2 months after all!  I put over $500 in diesel fuel in it and drove to our Sweetwater yard and hooked up it's assigned trailer.  I left it for Rudy to get loaded.  I will head back out Thursday morning around 3:00 or 4:00 AM for Waco.  I just hope everything that was wrong with it (which was a LOT) is fixed.  It has a new turbo, air compressor, air dryer, motor mounts, head gasket, cab air bag, air solenoid valve, and EGR valve.  I saw the bill.  It's about $7,500 worth of work!! 

I was at the yard working today.  Really, it was just piddling around.  I worked on some of the trucks and trailers replacing lights that had burned out, putting conduit on exposed wiring, and other odd & end things I could.  I was all done by 2:00 PM today.  I got home and worked on some pipe I have for some fence I'm rebuilding at the farm.  Since we don't have any cows right now, it's the perfect time to work on bad spots in the fence.  It got up to 105 degrees and I gave up and went inside.  I was almost out too long!  I was sure very hot.  That's a good thing to remember.  If you're ever outside too long and you stop sweating - GO INSIDE!!  I stopped sweating and that's a sure sign you're close to getting heat stroke.  I drank three big glasses of water and sat by the air conditioning vent and watched some King of Queens re-runs. 

This evening, we went to Sonic and got some supper.  We ordered Lindsey a corndog.  We didn't know what to expect.  Turns out:  she's a BIG fan of corn dogs!! 

Lindsey's 1st corndog.  Eating it like a champ!
Sippy cup drink a little upside down, but it gets the job done. 
I found some pictures from my sister from our weekend with my parents!  Here we go:


My parents.  Shellie & Roy Walker
Adam (my brother-in-law) riding Grumpy.  I'm holding Lindsey in her pigtails & I'm riding Duke.  Duke is a buckskin colored horse.  Grumpy is a bay colored horse.
The girls swimming.  My sister's girls (left to right) Emilie, Aubrie, and then my baby Lindsey.  Looks refreshing, huh?  I really wanted to join them, but that would have looked pretty silly.  They might have gotten mad at me!
The girls playing inside.  (Left to Right) Aubrie, Lindsey, and Emilie. 
We sure had fun out there.  One day, you guys will have your own kids and you will see your parents transition into Grandparents.  It's really a cool thing to happen to our families!  Our families are the one thing we will always have in our lives.  It's always good to hang out with our families.  So, do me a favor:  go home and give your mom or your dad or your grandma or grandpa a great big hug!  (Since I can't do that every day - my mom lives 4-5 hours away!)

Okay, so back to trucking.  I got myself a few new log books since we start a new month tomorrow.  It's going to be September already, can you believe it?  We have to start a new log book every month.  I grabbed an extra one for you guys & I will get it in the mail to you very soon along with a road atlas.  It has a map of all of our states and even close up maps of bigger cities. 

I also got a package in the mail from Trucker Buddy International!  They are the group that is overseeing this pen-pal type program of students learning about things from truck drivers.  They sent me some stickers for my truck.  I am going to send one to you guys. 

Well, off to bed!  I have a big day tomorrow.  I kind of have to move back into my truck.  Put my clean bed sheets back on my bed, put my hard hat, gloves, safety vest, log book, notepad, xm radio, broom, cleaning supplies, spare glasses, and some other things back in it!  I hope you guys are having a great 2nd week of school.  --Robbie

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Back from fun weekend...

I had a great weekend!!  Wow!  I hope you guys had a good one too.  There was football on TV, Rangers did well this weekend, all kinds of stuff in your city going on.  Here's a quick run-down on my weekend.

Friday went poorly for me.  I had a late start, then I had to get a truckwash (my company filmed a commercial on Monday - more details on that later).  I had to wait in line 3 hours!!  On top of that, my air conditioning went out earlier in the morning.  Oye!  It was a hot one, too.  I got back to Snyder around 6:30, it was a very long day.  Needless to say, I didn't get to leave for my parent's house because it was too late. 

Saturday, we left Snyder at 5:00 AM!  We were up at 4:00 AM just to get going that early.  It was cool, we stopped at a doughnut shop right after they opened and they had TONS of them out and they were all very fresh.  We saw the sun come up and it stayed very cool the whole ride there.  We stopped at a feed store in Van Horn, TX to pick up some horse feed for my dad's horses.  We got there at 10:30 my time, but it was 9:30 there.

Huh???  Where my parents live, it's in the Mountain time zone.  Soooo.....when it's ooohhh say 12:00 Noon in Snyder or in Fort Worth, it's only 11:00 AM there!!  Cool, huh?  I'm sure you guys will be learning all about time zones in school. 

So, Saturday we roped.  I am trying to get pictures up, they will be up very soon!  It was a lot of fun.  I used to do a lot of that when I was your age!  It slowed down in High School since we had to do more ranch work.  My sister & her husband was there and their two daughters Aubrie & Emily.  We ate some amazing food and had a great time watching the girls play. 

Sunday, we roped again and hung out some more.  The girls all swam in a baby blow-up kiddie pool.  It looked nice & cool, I was tempted to jump in!  I sure would have looked goofy in there with the little girls.  We took my sister's husband to the El Paso airport, he had to fly to Cleveland, OH for work. 

Some stuff about Cleveland:

Cleveland Browns - NFL (Colt McCoy from Texas is the QB!)
Cleveland Caviliers - NBA
Cleveland Indians - MLB
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Drew Carey Show - based in Cleveland
Bridgestone/Firestone tire company - based in Cleveland
Home of the 1st traffic light
World's 1st city to be fully lighted electrically
Airport is a hub for Continental Airlines (now part of United Airlines)
Halle Berry is from Cleveland

On Monday, we roped one more time and then left right after lunch.  We stopped in Midland, TX for dinner and then made it on home.  Lindsey didn't travel so well.  Mostly because she was tired & wasn't napping very well in the car.  She eventually took one of my water bottles and drank all of my water, and then started smacking my elbow with it and then fell asleep holding it to her shoulder.  She's pretty funny, she cracks us up! 

Tuesday.  Well, it started off okay.  I left around 5:00 AM.  I got all the way down to Valley Mills, TX just about 20 miles (guessing) from Waco and my check engine light came on.  Uh-oh. 

Check engine light!  The oil pressure was normal, 25psi at idle.  Water temperature stays around 200 degrees or lower. 
I pulled over & checked everything over.  I couldn't find anything.  I called the office & let them know.  I went on & dumped.  I started back and it started running slower.  Oh no.  The air conditioning was already out, now I had to poke along even slower!  I got sent to the mechanic's shop in Abilene, TX on my way back.  Turns out my EGR valve was stuck shut and it had to be changed out.  3 hours later, I was back in business!  Too bad they couldn't fix my air conditioning!  That's supposed to be fixed on Wednesday.  I think there's a leak somewhere because all of the freon (the stuff that makes the air nice & cold) has gone away and it blows hot.  Like 110 degrees hot! 

Interesting truck I saw while at the shop.  The wheel on the left is up in the air!  It's called a pusher axle.  The driver can 'push' it down to the ground when it needs to haul extra weight safely.  This truck hauls very heavy loads.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, and I am going to Abilene to pick up my truck - Truck 24!!  It's finally ready.  I saw them working on it while I was there, but they weren't quite done with it.  I was going to snap some pictures of the shop, but my phone died today since I was on the phone so much with the office with my breakdown.  :( 

I will try to get you guys some more pictures of roping and my family and the girls playing.  It sure was good seeing my family.  Since we all live so far apart, it's always great to be around my parents & sister when we can.  I will maybe see them all together again for Thanksgiving.  Hope you guys had a great weekend.  Rememeber, if you guys have any questions, you can ask anytime! 

--Robbie

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Moisture on my windshield... rain???

I was listening to the news this morning on my radio as I usually do and I heard them say it was raining in the DFW area.  Oh, cool, I thought.  I'm glad somebody's getting some rain.  I saw some clouds up on the Eastern horizon as I pushed on East on I-20.  Then, I took Highway 6 south towards Waco.  The clouds looked like they were in front of me.  Hmm... maybe I might see some rain, I thought.  Then, it happened, it poured down.  Between Dublin, TX and Hico, TX it came down hard!!  I had to put my windshield wipers on high!  It takes a bad drought for you to really appreciate a good rain. 

Downpour just North of Hico, TX
I was only at the shredder for 16 minutes today, and I was headed back out West.  Another quick turn-around.  Once I got back to Sweetwater, I noticed some clouds off to the North.  They were kind of up by Snyder!  Cool!  Once Rudy loaded me, I started off towards Snyder.  The winds started rocking my trailer and truck side to side, and the clouds looked serious.  Then it happened again!  Rain!  In my own county.  It was brief, but still very welcome. 


Scattered showers in Scurry County (where Snyder is).
I got back to the yard and dropped my paperwork off at the office and headed home.  When I got home, we were getting rain at the farm!  It was a brief shower, but still very nice to see.  I hope we get some more! 

I'm leaving out this evening and going to sleep in the truck (Yep, I have a bed in my truck! More pictures of that soon!) in Meridian, TX.  It's about an hour from Waco.  I am going to be at the shredder right when they open at 8:00 AM on Friday.  Then, I'll go 4 1/2 hours straight back to Snyder.  No stopping in Sweetwater.  I'll then be leaving for my parents' house in Sierra Blanca, TX.  I won't be posting again until Monday late or possibly Tuesday.  I'll try to get a few pictures from the trip.  Until then, I hope you guys have a great weekend! 

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Another quick shred trip

Today was another very quick 'turn-around' as they would say.  That means that I got unloaded and headed back very fast.  I was scaled in (meaning I pulled onto the scale at the shredder) at 9:46 AM.  I put on my hard hat and safety vest and pulled up to the inspection shack.  (It's really a small metal building where the inspector monitors all the activities of loading/unloading, not really a 'shack')  I was told where to dump and I promptly backed my truck into position.  I got out, swung the door open, and got back in my truck.  I control the trailer's dumping from inside my truck.  After dumping my load out, I pulled out of the way, got out and inspected my truck, closed the trailer door back up, and went back over to the scale to weigh out (Scale out).  I scaled out at 10:00 AM.  So, how long was I there?  Are you guys good with math?  I bet this one's a cinch for you!

I got back to our Sweetwater yard and got loaded back up.  I snapped a few pictures of the Sweetwater scrap yard for you guys there as I was waiting to get loaded.  So, remember how I told you we had pieces of junked cars that I hauled?  Well, here's how it's done...


This machine is called a 'shear', it chews anything it grabs right in half!  Today, it's junked cars.  Chuck is usually the one running the shear in Sweetwater.

Half of a truck that is being sheared or shredded.  Pile of shred cars on the left, pile of junk cars on the right.
Truck 7 getting loaded on Wednesday with shred (mostly shredded cars)
This is a 'grapple', it has 4 claws that picks up scrap metal and loads it or stacks it into piles.  Rudy is the name of the guy loading me on Wednesday. 
I hope this helps explain a little bit more about how we handle our 'shred' or 'shredder' and what it is when I talk about it!  It's good to know that everything (I mean EVERYTHING) in these old cars gets recycled.  No waste!  Hopefully, I can get my video skills put into practice & get you guys a good video of getting loaded.  No promises, but I'm going to try my best!  It might take a while!

Are you guys doing anything exciting this weekend?  My plans are to go visit my parents that live in Sierra Blanca, TX.  That's way out West near El Paso, TX.  It takes about 5 hours to drive there from Snyder.  It would take about 9 hours to drive there from Fort Worth, TX.  Texas is a huge state!!!  My sister and her 2 girls are already out there.  They flew to El Paso on Tuesday.  Her husband will join up on Friday night, he has been in Chicago, Illinois this week working.  My sister lives in Nashville, Tennessee.  Nashville is about 11 hours from Fort Worth!  So, how many hours would it take to go from Nashville to El Paso?  I know you guys can get that one!!

I will try to get some pictures of my trip this weekend.  I don't plan on blogging while I'm gone to visit.  But, I will tell you all about it when I get back home!  We plan to eat some good home cooking, do some roping, and catch up on eachother's lives.  Since we live so far apart, it's nice to catch up. 

I went to the truckstop to buy you guys a map of Texas.  But, they didn't have one!!  Can you believe it?  I guess it's a top seller and they ran out.  I did find a big road atlas.  It has a map of every state in it.  I think I'll send that instead.  I will try to find some stickers for you guys to put in there for each place I talk about.  Hopefully by the end of the year, we will have it full of stickers! 

I hope you're having a great week!  --Robbie Walker

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Got your 1st questions!

The Walker family, May 2011.

I'm glad to hear you guys got to look at my blog!  I'm also glad you guys had some questions for me.  I'll do my best to answer all of them. 1st of all, my family.  I am married to Kasey & we have been married for 6 years.  We have a 13 month old daughter named Lindsey!  We have an English bulldog named Bailey (she's a girl) and we have a huge gray and white cat named Ashton (he's a boy). 


Robbie, Kasey & Lindsey at my Grandmother's house in Nevada.



One of our cows with a calf.
Crops & Livestock on the farm.  Typically we have about 30 mother cows on the farm at any given time.  They will have calves (babies) every year.  Crops we have been growing have been sorghum (milo), sudan hay, wheat, and cotton.  This year, our fields were planted in cotton.  We have been experiencing a drought this summer that is one of the worst in history.  We haven't had any rain at the farm since OCTOBER of last year!!  The cotton didn't come up, so we just plowed it up.  Right now, our fields are empty.  Also, the cows ran out of pasture to graze on and since the drought is going on right now, there has been no hay.  Sadly, we had to sell all of our cows recently.  We started that herd with descendents from our 1st herd of cows we had on a ranch in New Mexico in 1994!!  We bred our cows to be very gentle and long-legged.  Traits that are desired for cattlemen trying to buy our calves each year. 



I do haul other things that scrap metal.  The company I work for also sells pipe.  I will take truckloads of pipe to customers all over West Texas.  I also haul copper for them.  Copper is a very valuable commodity right now, the price is high.  When it's high, my company buys and sells a LOT of it.  I usually take copper to Stephenville, TX about 3 hours away from Snyder.  I also haul alluminum for them.  Cans and large pieces.  Sometimes, I will haul an entire 18-wheeler full of old smashed up soda cans!  I will definately get pictures of that next time.  I will tell you more about my company later on.  On my own and for my family, I have hauled a lot of hay, yellow corn (for animals to eat), white corn (for people to eat), wheat, silage (immature corn that is chopped up and stored wet for cattle to eat), cattle, horses, steel, machinery, and farm equipment. 


Load of hay

Today, I made another trip to Waco.  I left at 4:30 AM and got back at 3:00 PM.  It took me a bit longer to get back because I had to get my truck washed.  We try to wash them once a week because they can get pretty gross with road grime, bugs, and dirt.  This gave me a great opportunity to get you a picture of truck 7!!  I got re-loaded with shredder in Sweetwater and I am to leave around 4:00 AM again Wednesday morning.  I am told this is my routine all this week unless something comes up. 



Truck 7 in the wash bay in Tye, TX.


Truck 7.  Anything different from Truck 24 that you notice?



I did see something interestning today.  I was following a dry van trailer for a while.  A dry van is like a great big box.  They haul lots of goods that need to stay dry and are okay with extreme heat and cold.  Things like paper, wood, clothes, furniture, and glass.  I haul copper and aluminum cans in a dry van.  I will get pictures in the future.  Anyways, after a few miles of following this truck, I noticed something on the back.  See it? 



Maybe in the next close-up picture?  It's an Alaska license plate!  ALASKA!!  All the way down here in Texas.  I'm a bit of a license plate nerd.  I have a collection of probably 80 license plates from all over.  New York to Alaska to Florida to California!  This close up is when we stopped in Hico, TX. 

Alaska plate!  Yellow on the left above the left tail lights.  Might have to really look hard. 
I really liked getting questions from you through Mrs. Hnizdo.  If you have the opportunity & permission, you can email me questions at:  robbieroywalker@gmail.com.  I think it would probably be easier to have Mrs. Hnizdo email your questions, but I will leave that up to her!  I hope your 1st week of class is going great!  --Robbie Walker

Monday, August 22, 2011

Waco Trip

Well, today was a bit different from most trips.  From time to time, we start taking a certain grade of scrap metal called "shredder" to Waco, TX.  Waco is about an hour and a half South of Fort Worth.  Some cool things about Waco:

Home of Baylor University
Soda:  Big Red was invented in Waco
One of Texas' most famous rivers, the Brazos River, flows through Waco.
Rocker Ted Nugent - lives in Waco
Ashlee Simpson - born in Waco
LaDanian Tomlinson (Running Back, New York Jets) - grew up & graduated High School in Waco
Casey Fossom (Pitcher, New York Mets) - grew up & graduated High School in Waco
Actor Steve Martin - born in Waco (moved to California when he was 6)
Actress Peri Gilpin - born in Waco (Roz in the TV show Frasier)
Texas US Congressman Joe Barton - born & raised in Waco

Well, back to business.  Shredder is tin, pieces of junked cars cut up into small pieces and light-weight metal that is put into a shredder and then seperated into smaller pieces.  It makes piles of wire, rubber, glass, rubber, and fluff after it goes through the shredder.  I'll try to get a picture of it some other time!  I was in & out in 15 minutes today, which is very fast for a big operation like that. 

One cool thing I got to do today is drive over a lake!  Yes, a lake!  Growing up in Arizona, that wasn't a common thing for me to do.  In fact, after moving to Texas back in 1998, it took some time for me not to get scared driving over Texas' many lakes.  We were used to driving over mountain passes taller than any mountian in Texas but never over a lake. 

Lake Waco out my passenger window.  You can see my trailer in the big mirror!
Highway 6 road over Lake Waco
I am also in a different truck than usual.  I have been for about a month.  My truck, Truck 24, is broke down.  It has been for about a month and a half.  I am in truck 7.  The driver that is usually in 7 is filling in for another guy that is sick & using his truck.  I'll try to get you a picture of truck 7, since I've already posted one of truck 24.  It's very similar, but I will show you some differences later. 

Today I left at 4:30 AM and got back to our Sweetwater, TX yard at 1:45 PM.  After loading there for the next day, I went home.  Sweetwater is just 40 miles from Snyder.  Today is the 1st day of school for lots of kids in Texas.  My nephews went back to school in Clyde, TX.  It's a town I pass through on Interstate 20 (I-20) all the time.  I only saw 1 school zone I had to slow down for and that was in De Leon, TX - a town on Highway 6. 

I hope you guys enjoyed your 1st day of school.  By the time you get around to reading this, it's your 2nd day of school (Tomorrow, Tuesday).  Tuesday, I will be leaving around 4:00 AM to go to Waco again.  I'm glad to be sharing things about geography, social studies, math, science that apply to my daily life as a farmer & trucker.  "Trucker Buddy" is the program we will use that sponsors this pen-pal type of program.  I know having a 'buddy' as a 4th grader seems silly, but by using a blog & emails, sharing pictures, and more modern communications, I think we will have some fun. 

Soon, I will try to get you guys a few things in the mail.  A map of Texas.  Maybe you can look at it and see some of the places I'm going and pin-point them!  A logbook.  A logbook is something every trucker uses to track their hours of service.  If I can think of something else, I'll try to sneak it in!  I look forward to hearing from my followers.  I hope you enjoy your first week of class!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Howdy!

Howdy, trucker buddy friends.  I have been assigned to Mrs. Hnizdo's class.  Believe it or not, Mrs. Hnizdo went to college with me at Texas A&M University!  I will be sharing my life as a truck driver & farmer here in Snyder, TX. 



Snyder, Texas
I drive a big truck from Snyder, TX or Sweetwater, TX to Midlothian, TX (just south of Dallas, TX) every day.  I go out 5 to 6 times per week.  I haul 4 different grades of scrap metal to a steel mill in Midlothian.  Occasionally I will haul to other locations mostly within Texas.  I plan on sharing with my class and any other followers about my travels on the road, to visit family & friends, and other things happening on the farm! 


Truck 24, my truck
I plan on posting more about me, my family, my animals, and answering questions from my trucker buddies & followers!  I look forward to sharing & learning with my new friends.  --Robbie Walker