 Morning everybody all booze a little bit dirty to start this week off. It's Monday morning That's okay. Maybe we can get her a bow on the way home. I'm in Where am I Iowa Burlington? I'm in West Burlington, Iowa. I just loaded up my freight. I'm ready to hit the road We're heading to Langbank Saskatchewan, which is about 1,700 kilometers away or 1,100 miles We're gonna get there tomorrow sometime deliver the next morning and we'll see what we have after that Towards the end of this week. I have to be back home Because we have to sign papers with lawyers and stuff for our new house So I'm still talking about that because I'm still excited about it It's coming real soon come real soon Are you as excited as I am? I doubt it. I doubt it. I doubt it. I parked in a puddle Because that's what I do I've already gotten out of here once before I can do it again. I want to show you guys my load Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa we won't whoa It's on my shirt. Okay. I'm gonna leave this door open. I'm just gonna Send it just Splashed myself Well Sacrificed my ankle For you guys to show you this Got myself all wet to splash myself And so we're all tied down. We're ready to rock and roll another puddle another puddle All the way to the back here And these fine Tyres are coming with me all the way to Saskatchewan There are farmers out that way that I'm sure will be very happy to see these I can see the styrofoam sort of lifting up there already. I Can't get up there right now But they put that styrofoam underneath the straps to protect the paint on the rims from my straps, right? Yeah, it'll be fine It's good. It's being held down by the two straps there They definitely don't want anything because the rims here are like poking up a little bit on top of the tires Right, we have to be very careful like I always say whenever you take a load It's not just your responsibility to get it to the destination to the people who bought it It's also your job to make sure you get it there without damaging it We always got to put protection. I always use protection It's trucker Josh's slogan right Always use protection Want to protect the straps? And also protect the freight We're all set and ready to go There's two four six eight ten twelve fourteen sixteen straps on this load. I Just retightened them. So we're ready to rock and roll. Let's get out there. I want to go home Now I got to get back in the truck Things I do for you guys Okay, how do I do this before? Okay, so we step in just a little bit these shoes are so old. They're all little holes Here my foot over here grab over there and See I'm like spider-man. Oh, I stretched my back a little funny Josh. You're in your mid-30s Careful what you do. You're not spider-man I'm trucker spider-man. Hey, so everything's all set paperwork is all Where it should be It says Pepsi on it, but it's actually a coffee From the highway 34 truck stop here in West Burlington very nice people here Got supper from them last night and you know, let me show you they're building a little bit here from the outside anyway Last I'll call her coming in here right away. Anybody want some bacon? I'm hungry now Why'd my mouth start watering hmm? Bacon, okay highway 34 truck stop It's like a ma and pa privately owned truck stop is not like one of the big chains or anything great food in there is a great restaurant and Nice little convenience store as well. You guys ready to rock Once one more time making sure my trailer breaks engage and disengage I guess I'll wait for this guy. We got to go around that way. So I guess I could go through here Okay, I need to go left from here So I can't turn here Look at this 2500 brand-new 2500 GMC Sierra Wish I'd be taking that thing home with me right now She's a beaut part that little bump there. Oh look at this The pig pan It's too cool to park with the rest of the trucks in a parking spot Parked over there instead. Okay. It doesn't bother me. Well, there's another 2500 Sierra over here The white one though, I don't like that as much like the black ones better. I was like black vehicles I don't know why maybe because it makes me feel important. No The president drives in black vehicles all the time. I Don't know. I just I like it better. I think it looks more classy. That's just me though Some people think white looks more classy. I Know black shows dirt really quickly and shows scratches very easily and dings but Meh It's what it is, right? Nobody coming from that way. Nobody coming from that way. Nobody coming from that way and nobody coming from that way check twice These stop lights are still flashing red. So it's just a four-way stop. Oh, we can go straight ahead here Is that a truck route? Yeah, it's okay. I can just go straight through it'll take me right to the highway Okay, that's what we'll do. I thought I was turning left This will work better Engine brake ordinance in force. That's a good sign that it's a truck route. I Don't know many four-wheelers that have engine brakes There might be some It's also another truck coming right there. I Guess when I see the engine brake sign, I should actually turn my engine brake off That would be the good thing to do just inside Minnesota on I-35 month bound It's time for a little break. I'm debating whether or not to take my half hour here Sort of want to go somewhere where I can get a coffee for my half hour But I don't really need a coffee yet So maybe we'll make this our half hour and then just quickly stop for a quick one down the road if I need it So in the meantime while I'm here, I'm gonna clean off these mirrors 30 no bulls not treatment down here Where's my visible? It's visible There we go sit for a second soak in No, yeah, I do it. That's what I use Just a little squeegee Got off Amazon Side there doesn't get everything quite off. He's still got to take a Microfiber to it, but Majority of it off of there egg here stubborn I'm just gonna wait for it to dry See see it drying there to wipe off. There you go See you guys look great Pat yourself on the back. You're looking good today I'm happy to see that every single tire is still on the trailer Still coming with me. That's good news. I Need all of them. So the way we tie these down is we tie them over in an X pattern So this strap is over that way this strap was over that way that forms an X on top And that holds them in place You crank them down pretty tight so they don't bounce as you know tires. They like to bounce And then we have that styrofoam like I was telling you before On the top underneath the straps to protect the paint on the rims From my straps rubbing on them smaller stacks up in front and it gives a pretty Even flow of air we've been getting great fuel economy with this load the air just slips around us It doesn't have too many gaps where it can go in and catch like in here It's where I got my tarps You can sort of see the air just sort of slips right past the trailer It was up over my truck Over these first couple of tires Right over the back. So it's it's a really good load to have And this is why I waited till all the way through the weekend till Monday to get it. So I've just been Walking around here waiting It's a beautiful beautiful evening out here and I want to enjoy this as much as I can because apparently Apparently we're expecting snow back at home this coming week Yes, wouldn't be nice if I could just stay down here, but this isn't home The snow and the cold that's home. It wouldn't be the same if I Didn't have to live through that once a year. I Don't mind it. It's not that bad Yeah, we complain about it, but it's the cold's not bad week. It's 2023 We have so many things that can keep us warm well insulated homes Multiple different ways of heating our homes and keeping ourselves warm keeping the truck warm So it's more of an inconvenience, but it's one that you sort of You learn to live with it's just part of who we are Winter's coming In fact, I'd actually argue that cold is a good thing For national security and safety personal safety at home Because it gets down to minus 50 minus 60 in wintertime There's a lot of riffraff out there you might call it a lot of people who cause trouble You'll notice that crime goes down in the cold months of winter Because even the criminals are hiding inside keeping warm staying out of trouble It's also in the interest of national security. It's much much harder to invade a country when the country is frozen solid There's not many other people around the world decides from you know Well, Europeans and Russians that are used to this cold weather like we are and equipped to fight wars in it So even our military like they have military bases all the way all the way up north and so does the u.s and alaska We're all equipped for cold weather fighting, but Usually when winter comes you can You can sort of rely on the fact that things will probably cool down And calm down, especially if there's been unrest in the streets sort of like there kind of is now not not so bad at where we are, but You know winter's coming and that means everybody who's causing problems goes home to stay warm Stay set of the streets so really It's not that bad the cold weather also kills off all poisonous animals So we don't have any poisonous snakes or too many poisonous spiders, especially around where we are The cold weather kills them all every year is wonderful Hey, happy list I see you made the news again the other day. I saw you everyone's always so happy. What's going on up here See I want to turn on the i90 i494 Westbound eastbound not here Slide right on i494 west and then five I see flashing lights again Oh, they're right in here. Okay, let's slow right down for them because I got to go right past them here Slow down traffic just a little bit for that officer there Because you know people will just go flying right past them So this is 494. It's actually kind of nice. It just turns into an actual lane Up ahead, but To get up to speed and then get into traffic beside me on my left Oh, it exits because there's only three lanes on the 494. So seeing that there's four here Well, one of them is going to end It's most likely there's one on the right. I remember it exits here somewhere No blockades on the freeways here or anything today. I just want to sneak through here. There are some protests In minneapolis here just yesterday and they were blocking freeways or highways somewhere. Maybe it wasn't on the 494 But uh there and i'm running out of time No, no, no, we're gonna go see if there's some parking for us here Right on to my right here and it's raining just a little bit which makes it This is where I go in wow they've already done this Wow lots of parking here planes It's windy and cold I'll show you more in the morning once the sun comes up, but we made it here Found a parking spot I'll see you guys in the morning I have a feeling it's going to snow overnight Yay tires I checked the tires on the other side on the Way into the building this building is amazing here huge So this truck stop has been completely renovated It's a marathon Massive inside there. They've really done a good job redoing this. I haven't been here in years apparently So we got here last night. We got here pretty late About 11 o'clock I stayed here for a good night More than my 10 hours because I know that even if I would have stayed here for my mandatory just 10 hours There's no way I would have made it to my customer tonight before they closed I would have been there like six o'clock tonight anyways and they close at four so we already Determined that we're going to be delivering it tomorrow morning So I uh said you've got a little bit of work done And uh went inside there this morning and explored around a little bit and let me tell you these american truck stops. There's just There's nothing like it You just walk in there. You just want to wave a big american flag and just go america There's so much better Like i'm sorry to the truck so i'm talking about the prairies of canada too. I mean like I get it out east. There's some pretty nice truck stops in canada Eastern canada gets all the nice stuff all the time right, but uh They still don't compare to the convenience of these massive stores here in the u.s What is rattling here? Are you kidding me? Hey, let's not start the day like that Hey, steering column. We've had this discussion before my steering column likes to Rattle sometimes. It's just the cover around here, right? Eventually. I want to replace it, but It's not broken. It just rattles So yeah, uh, what was I talking about the truck stops down here What I find now, this is just my personal opinion What I find is that truck drivers in the united states get treated like kings and queens It's incredible the services that are available to them. The only thing that's not available to them That's available to like drivers in europe from what i've heard. I'm not european, but uh, i've never been to europe don't know anybody, uh, don't Don't have any family in europe. I do have friends in europe but They're telling me uh, that they have gyms in some of the truck stops I think that would be a fantastic idea to add into the north american truck stops instead of a driver's lounge Where drivers can just go and sit. We sit all day. That's all we do. We need to be active So instead of having a driver's lounge where we're you know, you just continue to be Inactive Have a gym That drivers can use have it like members only or something you got to have like your pilot flying j-card or your ta card or something Or maybe even a monthly membership if that's what people want to do But that will discourage people from using it and you want truckers in north america to use these gym facilities Here's a trucker josh idea for you Turn these like maybe keep a driver's lounge because sometimes guys got to wait for a shower somewhere You got to have somewhere to sit but truck stops You're doing everything in your power in the united states to impress the truck drivers. You're doing a very good job with me I am very impressed Now how about this What would you guys think about adding like a gym Into your truck stop for the drivers to use on their time off So that's the end of our day. We could park go inside get a good workout in Then go have a shower then go have a nice supper in your restaurant And then go to bed wake up in the morning buy some fuel from you and we're on our way I don't know that Do you guys know of any truck stops in north america that have a gym? Or anything that promotes healthy living to truck drivers? Because truckers in the u.s. They're treated like gold. They're treating like treated like kings and queens to the point where They Live such a comfortable lifestyle that they have to do so much Little physical work that it's very very unhealthy for a lot of them For all of us. It's very unhealthy being on it's hard to be healthy Why don't we try to start pushing towards being more healthy? And of course when you first put them in there, you're going to get the naysayers like, uh, look at jim Who's going to go use the gym? Make it you you go use the gym And then the next driver sees you in there and he's like, oh He's using the gym Maybe I'll try it out too and then you have two drivers in there and then two more drivers drive walk past and I'm like, hey That's a good idea. I wouldn't mind a good workout before I go to bed You know gets the blood pumping gets you in shape After a long day of just sitting You go have a shower you go have supper grab some fuel go to bed I don't know. What do you guys think you think it would be a you think it'd be a hit in north america? I know I know a lot of people would be against it for whatever reason because That's the way it is but So I want to thank you for joining me today. Thank you for hanging out with me on the road I appreciate it. Remember when you're on the road think of me and think of all the other truckers out there We want to get home safely to our families And if you're the trucker remember everyone else out there On the road and those small cars they want to get home to their families too And our trucks are very heavy and their cars are very light We could do a lot more damage to them than they can do to us So let's remember to be careful out there and uh try to keep our tempers cool I know that's a challenge. I'm speaking to myself too. Is going to keep our tempers cool You know if you got to yell at something yell at your windshield Don't don't roll down your window and road rage at the driver beside you Just you know road rage at your steering wheel if you have to I get it I get it, but just keep it inside your truck and don't let things escalate I've been watching a lot of youtube videos lately of road rage and like fights breaking out and like people driving Erratically and like putting everybody else on the road in danger I know that when your mind goes into that mindset of anger and road rage I know you you forget about everyone else on the road except for that guy that you're mad at I totally get it But in the meantime while you're road raging All these other families are out there on the road around you And you're putting all of them at risk For what? For what? What are you gonna do when you catch the guy you're mad at? You're gonna pull them out and you're gonna beat them up in the middle of the highway? Is that what you're gonna do? You're gonna go to jail for that? Oh I know it's tough I don't like some of these drivers out here either. They make me really mad, but You know what I find it's it's satisfying sometimes just to yell at your windshield Instead of yelling directly at them, you know, just let it go let them get out of your sight Give it five minutes and you're on to the next thing and you're it's it's gone It's not risk. It's not worth the risk of getting yourself into trouble I've been watching a lot of youtube videos lately of this crazy road rage. People are crazy, man. They're crazy You've seen them too, right? No, if you haven't just go on to youtube and and look up road rage Man You got to wonder like what's going on in these people's lives that they're so angry So easily right at people. They don't know for the simplest things Oh, well I'm gonna end it here though. Remember everybody. Please drive safe out there. I'll see you tomorrow