Taking The Rough With The Smooth.

____Day 1: A Monday, 7.00 am. departure from the yard with the hot-tub load; taking it right through to Calgary. After a busy Winnipeg Perimeter Highway, it's cruise control on the limit as far as Redcliff, Alberta. A day of watching the geese formation flying across the Prairies.

Friday breakfast at the Brahma Grill, Neepawa, Manitoba.

____Day 2: An early start; to make Calgary by eight and straight to the wrong address for the hot-tubs. Then from last year's Western Canada distributor to this year's warehouse; right across town. When unloaded, orders come over the phone for the re-load: drop trailer at distribution depot, take eight hour break, collect trailer, drive 500 miles to Regina, make three early morning supermarket deliveries. Canadian regulations allow a truck-driver to use his unit during his break for personal use; so I go for a meal and a shower. Four hours rest on the bunk, but no sleep. Then at 8 o'clock in the evening I leave for Regina; making the Ab/SK border at mid-night.
____Day 3: Coffee stops at Tim Horton's, Redcliff, Swift Current and Regina, keep me awake. The supermarket back-doors do their job and the trailer is empty by 8 o'clock in the morning. I go round to the Husky Truckstop; completely shattered. Twenty-seven hours without sleep; I switch off the cell-phone and draw the curtains. It's all legal on the log-book, but not the way I want to work. But it is the first shit job in the five months that I've been at Flying Eagle. Let's hope it's another five before it comes round again.

95% of drivers have a Cuddly-Toy. This is Deef...[ Dee for Dog ]

____Day 4: Late Wednesday; I headed from Regina to Angusville, Manitoba, for the next load. Loaded in the morning with flax-seed, bound for Ohio; then back to the yard. Not a good weeks work; five shifts to go to Calgary and back; normally done in three. Less than 600 kilometres a day.  A switch from day-shift to night-shift and back again; very tiring. And so much caffeine!
____Overall Distance: 2945 km.

New Freightliner Coronado Condo #37 posing with Eagle One.