Five Day Week To Kalamazoo.

____ A heavy load from the Steinbach yard at Monday lunchtime with the first night's destination of Osseo, ten hours away. A late finish, but with the heat gone from the day, a comfortable night's sleep. Day two is a long slog, around the bottom of Lake Michigan and up to Grand Rapids for an early evening unloading appointment. Reload is at Kalamazoo and nearly 5 o'clock before I get going; the waiting does let me avoid the evening rush hour around Chicago. A leaking brake chamber on the trailer delays my departure from the Petro Stopping Centre at Portage. The onsite repair workshop has the part in stock and after an hour's labour, I'm on my way up to Fargo and another night-out at another Petro. I'm finished by noon on Friday, after dropping the trailer in Winnipeg and dragging a load back to Steinbach.

Bikes At The Pony Corral Sunday Cruise.Vincent

Vincent 

Harley Davidson

Harley Davidson with skulls.

Triumph

Indian

New Indian Scout

Original Indian Scout

Harley Davidson

Fully Dressed Indian

Norton Commando

Harley Davidson

Harley Davidson

Kawasaki

BSA

Indian

Wisconsin And Back Again.

____ A trip of less than four days and less than 3000 kiometres. Not a good earner for me or for Penners. There was the empty running from Steinbach to Dryden; before I picked up the pulp that was destined for Rothschild. More empty miles, over to Chilton, where the load to Mississauga was cancelled at the last minute. That meant a dead-head to Manchester in Iowa, before I got re-loaded but only to Steinbach. Nights-out on the way round at Minong, Belmont, Wisconsin, and the Petro at Fargo; before getting home on Saturday morning. Only left on Wednesday; not a lot of miles at Penners this Summer.

Indy Pace Car. Pictured in the fast lane.

Manitoulin Four Axle Argosy Unit pictured in Ontario road works.

Nice blue paint scheme on Peterbilt.

Progress with the Mack.

____ With work being a little on the slow side ; it has given me some time to get to work on the Mack. Most of my effort has been concentrated in the back and the conversion to a motor home type of vehicle. After a lot of cutting about with a succession of easily burnt-out angle grinders; I have started on the reconstruction. Using a lot of stuff from the original equipment, the motor home is probably like no other. But it is strong and mostly stainless steel lined with aluminuim chequer plate. Here are a few interior pictures of the job so far.

The sink and bamboo block counter-top. The various wood-grains make a nice contrast to the predominant metal work.

One of many angle grinders that gave their lives along with hundreds of cutting discs in the conversion of this vehicle.

The knife and fork drawer [with enough room for spoons too] has a safe working load of 250 lbs and was moved out from the dining area. Fridge and microwave will go in the space above.

 A two seat dining booth. This required extensive cutting of the chequer plate and uses up most of one storage cabinet.

A small wardrobe, where the clothes hang trough a hole into one of the outside storage lockers. This locker will be for all clothing and has access through the hinged plywood seat back.

The sofa folds out into a double bed, the mattress and cover are from a Ikea futon [sold separately from the frame]. 

Two Trips From The Last Fortnight.

____ A seven day trip with the worst traffic that I have encountered for a long time. Probably due to the up-coming 4th of July holiday weekend. It was alright going over to Dryden to collect a loaded trailer of paper; no problem getting to Green Bay and  getting unloaded but from then on it was hard going. After reloading near Madison; I caught busy roads all the way across Chicago, through Detroit and across the Ambassador Bridge. It was slow going in and out of the Greater Toronto Area as I did two drops near Mississauga and reloaded for Carol Stream at Scarborough. It was touch and go whether I was going to get the Carol Stream delivery done before midday closing on Friday but as I had been there before it did help knowing where to go. I needed a pre-loaded trailer if I was to avoid a lon weekend of sitting about. The office came up with one; a long dead head to Fridley for some cardboard that was going to Winnipeg. So after leaving on a Monday; I was back home on Sunday morning.

____ I spent an extra day at home before heading out with a load of oatmeal to Indianapolis. Two days driving down to the TA at Zionsville before a five mile drive to get unloaded on the northern outskirts of Indianapolis. IT was then a thrash over to Lima in Ohio to get loaded at 1 o'clock on Friday afternoon. Hand-ball load of empty oil drums back to Steinbach. Another Sunday morning home time arrival on a straight forward there and back run.