 Good Monday morning friends, it's March 7th, 2022 when I'm filming this. It's a little chilly out this morning. It's minus 17 or about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Not the coldest it's been, but a little nipply anyways. It's going to be a good day though. We're just getting going. Let's see what the plans are for today. Let's get to some trucking. We have a stepdeck attached to us today. There it is. We're going to bring this stepdeck into Winterpack and pick up a different stepdeck that has some trusses on it and we're taking those down to Moorhead or Fargo, North Dakota, Moorhead Minnesota, the same city. So we better get going, it's going to be a bit of a long day. On our way now, I don't know if I'll put something on the trailer or switch trailers rather. We're going to switch trailers that has something on it already. Going down to Moorhead and the United States needs something from up here. They're building something I think and I'm going to bring them down the materials that they need. I think it's about a three and a half to four hour ride. Once I get tied down here, it's going to be oversized so I'll have to flag it and tag it. Then we'll start making our way down. A loaded trailer. There's an empty one. I'm going to leave this one here and I'm going to take this one. It seems to me like we're attached. So this side is right even flush with this side of the trailer. We're not wide on this side. This side we're sticking over about 10 inches. What does that look like to you? A foot? 10 inches? So they always lean it over the passenger side like this because on two lane roads, I'm not hanging into opposing traffic. I'm hanging onto the shoulder a little bit. This is number one reason why we always ask that people don't park on the shoulders unless it's an actual emergency. Wide loads coming through like this. They need that shoulder space and they don't want to accidentally clip you. Just a friendly reminder. I'm not telling you how to live your life, just letting you know. Okay. So these are going down to Moorhead. I want to unload these this afternoon yet. So let's get going. Well I'm feeling legendary today so we came down to visit North Dakota. As you know, their state slogan is be legendary. They don't leave you any options. Be legendary or get out. That's your options. It's a good thing we're legendary today. About a two hour drive from here, a two and a half hour drive from here and get this unloaded. Then I have a PO number to get this truck washed at the Blue Beacon. Hopefully we can keep it clean all the way back home. All right. When you get access to a Blue Beacon you take it. I wish we had more Blue Beacons in Canada. There's just a couple in Southern Ontario but it'd be really nice if they'd open up a few in western Canada, especially around Winnipeg. They're awesome. It's an awesome chain of truck washes, right? There's like six to eight guys that'll jump out and wash your truck down for you by hand all with like wand wash. They do a pretty good job. It's actually really nice. It's really convenient and it's fast. It's like 15 minutes. Bing bang boom. In and out. Clean truck. Port of the left lane gang here right now. I'm just passing a US military convoy here in North Dakota on I-29 Southbound. This seems to be the lead vehicle. Obviously transporting stuff from one base to another US and I don't drive in the US too much anymore but I did. I did spend more time down here for nine years than I did actually back home in Canada. Most of my freight went down to the deep south of the US so I was in the US all the time. You see military convoys all the time in the US and you know they always feel good when you see them. They're the good guys and they're usually just moving troops and equipment from one base to another base. They don't have weapons displayed or rolling down the highway and tanks. Tanks they mostly transport by rail. They do that in Canada and the US and all these military vehicles for the most part. As far as I know like I'm not in the military so far as what I'm told they're just transporting equipment and people just doing different drills at different bases and moving equipment around. They don't actually travel down the interstates with like you know 50 caliber guns. Righto here we are. Moorhead Minnesota. This is our exit. 100 meters. Use the second from the right lane to turn right onto US 75 South, 8th Street South, signs for Brackenridge. Oh whoa whoa Google one thing at a time I'm a simple man. One instruction at a time. Second from the right. Second from the right lane to turn right onto US 75 South, 8th Street South, signs for Brackenridge. Brackenridge. What? Okay so somewhere around here is our delivery point. Ah it'll be right there. See that building being built back there? That's where these wall panels will be going to. Green means go. Okay I need to turn left here. That'll definitely be it yeah we're delivering to that so if you're in the Fargo Moorhead area over here on 75 right behind this mall looking building uh there's an apartment complex looks like it's coming up. Trucker Josh had a part in building that. Couldn't have done it without me just saying. But seriously if you're in the Moorhead area and you drive past this construction site hey uh I had a hand I had somewhat of a hand in it I mean I know they probably could have gotten another driver to bring it but no they they chose me I brought it. So now I feel like I'm a part of your development here in Moorhead Minnesota and I feel important don't take this from me. All kidding aside it looks like a nice building coming up over there. Green light green means go. No U-turns though they're very clear about that. Alright everybody watch my trailer swing but watch my trailer swing. Be nice. Be careful. Alright. There you go. There you go. Okay and again this lane says right up here I'm going to park on the street here and figure out where they want me and I'm going to put my international symbol for park anywhere and get away with it flashers. Thank you. I'm guessing oh no no I'm going to turn right in there. Lots of space in there. Okay. Lots of space. I don't know where they're going to want me but here we go hazards on in here too just because I'm entering our construction site. You see here here's our pass loads that we brought in here I'm guessing they're going to want to unload me over here somewhere at least I'm off the road now I'm going to go and talk to the good people here figure out where they want me and get in position and get the straps off of my load here and the flags and everything so that they can grab their stuff. This looks like a pretty big project. Cool. Talk to you guys in a bit. I've got my brain bucket on so my brain doesn't fall out while I'm here. That would be terrible. Very messy. Okay so I'm in position here I'm going to get the straps off and we'll be out of here in no time. On the way back home I'm just headed back empty so as soon as I'm empty here I'm actually going to Blue Beacon straight from here and get the truck washed. Very important. Important part of the day some might say. Then we're going home. Alright here we go. So I'm all lined up here. They're going to unload me right here and then it'll look like that when we're done with those stacks there and these stacks here and those are wall panels that'll be for the third story of this thing. Empty trailer. Today's work is finished sort of we still have to drive back and get the truck washed I didn't forget I forgot it's all I ever talk about you think I'm going to forget about getting a truck washed. Come on I annoy myself with how much I talk about washing the truck. You know for someone who talks about it so much you think his truck would be perfectly clean 100% of the time easier said than done. What? Stop beeping at me. Put it in neutral first. Works so much better that way. Alright. Let the government know I'm done unloading. There are hours and 57 minutes that remain in drive time. I didn't even get my half hour break here. Shoot. Three more minutes. We can't move for three minutes. Hopefully I won't be in the way. I've got to look busy. I've got to look busy. We've got to waste three minutes so that my half hour not driving enters in for US hours of service. Oh my receiver's name was Josh also. That's weird because my shipper's name was also Josh. So I picked up this freight from my shipper Josh and I Josh the trucker took it down to my receiver Josh the receiver. From Josh through Josh to Josh. A lot of Joshing around today. Wow. I'm told I can get out back here somewhere but there's another gate. That's pretty neat on that pickup there's like that slide out bed so you can put stuff in there and slide it out so it's easier to get your stuff. That's pretty neat. Where would this other gate be? Through the gate we go. He said around the west side of the building. I obviously can't make that corner so I'm not going that way. But he said I should be able to make it around this way. Oh someone parked their pickup right there. That's a perfect spot to get in my way. I can still make it though. Still got room. I'm glad no one parked closer this way though. I'll clean my windows and see where I'm going. There we go. Alright then. Not bad. Perfect. Hey snap fitness. I used to have a membership with snap. I would always stop at their gyms all around Canada and the US all over the place. It looks like this mall is closed down. Maybe they're renovating it. This whole driveway to turn right and we'll go back up to 94 and we'll go across to Petrol and that's where the streak and beacon is. Don't hit the snow bank. Perfect. Like a professional. Wow. Those funny intersections. Okay I kind of like these better than the roundabouts though so good for you Moorhead. I like these kind of things. Like look at this. Instead of going straight across I'm going to go over to the left side of traffic here to make my left turn onto the interstate. See we cross over to the left and now they're driving on the right and that makes the entrance and exits onto the freeway much safer. I like these a whole lot better than the roundabouts. You see there then they got the lights going through there because now they're still traffic lights so it doesn't confuse people. Grain means go. Red means stop. Simple. You get to a circle. You're like what's going on? Why is there a circle? I know some people really like the roundabouts and I understand how to use them. Just not everybody else understands how to use them as I am. Just like that. Okay. We're supposed to use the on ramp to gain momentum, gain speed so that when we hit the lane of traffic we're going the same speed as the traffic. On my friends we can do it. Oh look at this little go-kart beside me here. I actually don't need that lane. Look at that little go-kart. This truck would eat that for breakfast. Drive right over it wouldn't even flinch. Your little speed bump. That's all that would happen if you hit one of those and you got to watch out for them. They'll sneak up on you. They're usually pretty aggressive too because they're small and they feel they need to drive more aggressively to be tough but little do they know there's no way to look tough driving a little go-kart like that. North Dakota. Once again we're being legendary. So that was just a short little dip into Minnesota. Here we are just on the other side of the city in West Fargo, North Dakota. I'm going to follow these big rigs ahead here into the Petro Stopping Center different than Petro Pass in Canada. This is the Petro Stopping Centers in the US and this is where the blue beacon is. I hope the line-up's not too long. Lots of pumps here. This is a big truck stop. Transex just sitting here in front of the driveway. He's not going down the driveway so I'm assuming he's not going into Blue Beacon. I am. What you doing, bud? Not a parking spot, bud. Do-do-do-do. Blue Beacon enter. I shall. I'm excited. I haven't been to a Blue Beacon in so long. I always love this. It's like getting a massage. I know that's the truck getting the massage, but it feels good myself, too. Just like watching it. I was like, nobody in line either. No way. What are the chances? They always got these twisty, windy driveways with rocks on both sides so you don't drive over their lawn. And there's no backing out. Once you're in, you're in. You're going through. There is no escape. Stay wide to the right. I shall. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Which one do they want me to go to? Looks like the majority of people are going to this first one. I'm going to... I'll go to this one. Unless they tell me to go to the other one. Door number one. I think this is door number one. And here we go. You guys wash it on that side. And once this guy in front of me is done, he'll pull out. And then all six to eight guys will all wash this truck down real quick. And I'll be out of here in no time. They don't do the inside though, unless if you leave the windows down. We're almost done. They're just going to rinse me off. So these washes cost 58.75 or something. And I bought 60 bucks American just for a general truck wash, no engine wash. You can add an engine wash on top of that. You can add a trailer wash. You can add all kinds of different things. And just the price just goes up a little bit. When I had my own truck, I would always get the engine wash as well every time. Because I like to keep things clean up there as well. But my PO number I got only covered just a regular truck wash today, which is about 60 bucks. And just like that, steamy clean. Now let's try to keep it this way till we get back home. So I don't got to wash it again or rinse it off when I get back. You guys want to see it? I want to see it. Let's go find a parking spot real quick. And then I just got to go around and back in this direction. I want to see it too. I mean, it looks a thousand percent better. Right? Definitely looks a thousand percent better. Those rims are nice and shined up. I'm going to get those even shine here, yeah. The back. I mean, it's never perfect, right? But man, that looks much, much better. Maybe I should have gotten the trailer washed too. I have to get a separate PO number for that. I'm happy with that. Well, it's about seven o'clock right now. I just got back to Canadian Customs and Border here. Just on the other side of that gate is Canada. I have an empty trailer behind me, so it shouldn't be any problem. I don't need any paperwork. I just need my passport and stuff to cross here. And of course, all that other information that they now require. Oh, it looks like my turn. I got to roll off. And that was a long day. I got finished at 8.30. We didn't really waste any time either. I didn't even stop for fuel. I'm going to get fuel tomorrow. The only thing we had to wait for was we had to get a wheel seal replaced first thing in the morning. But they got on that right away and had it done in like a half hour after I got there. So that's just a long day. Long day. Time is now. Oh boy, late. Time to go home, have a shower, go straight to bed. That was a really nice run though. I like that. If I could do that every day or every other day or whatever, that was a nice day run. If I could just, if I would have the truck ready, because like I said, I had to get the wheel seal replaced first thing in the morning. But if the truck was ready and I could leave the first thing in the morning, I'd be back around supper time. It'd be a little bit of a long day, but it'd be a productive day. Fargo and back or Moorhead and back. It's a good run. Guess that would be a boat. Counting all the driving to Winnipeg to get the load and stuff, between 700 and 800 kilometers. Probably 500 miles or so. But anyways, I'm going to wrap it up here. I'm going to bed. I'm going straight to bed. Did I say I'm going to bed? I'm going home and then going to bed. That's where bed is. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe. More trucking on the way tomorrow.