Video summary
The video follows a trucker documenting his daily life while transporting a load of lumber from Cast Lake, Minnesota, back to Ontario before heading south toward Bristol, Indiana. He is driving an older blue truck that he has owned for only nine months but has already accumulated nearly 115,000 kilometers, or roughly 70,000 miles, on it. The driver notes that the odometer was not installed immediately upon purchase, meaning the actual mileage is likely even higher when accounting for the first month of driving without tracking. Despite the high usage, he expresses satisfaction with the vehicle's performance, particularly after a recent fuel stop where the truck achieved an impressive average of 7.34 miles per gallon over a long distance.
During his journey, the driver takes a scenic route through the Chippewa National Forest via the Lady Slipper Scenic Byway to save time and enjoy the view near Cass Lake. He reflects on the logistics of rail transport versus trucking, observing that while trains move massive quantities of goods like crude oil and grain, they require complex sorting at yards to separate different cargo types for various destinations. In contrast, he highlights the advantage of his personalized trucking service, which allows for direct point-to-point delivery without the need for intermediate transfers. The trip includes a stop at a Petro-Canada truck stop in Canora, Ontario, where he refuels and washes his windshield, though he complains that the provided squeegees are too short to effectively clean large truck windows.
After completing his fueling and cleaning routine, the driver returns to his secluded summer parking lot to rest for the night. He explains his seasonal parking habits, noting that while he parks in a small, service-free lot during the summer, he moves to town in the winter to ensure access to warmth if his truck breaks down. Although he had hoped to load another trailer the previous day to shorten his current trip, scheduling constraints prevented him from doing so. Despite this minor delay, he remains relaxed and confident that he is still on schedule to deliver the lumber tomorrow and continue his journey south. He concludes the vlog by thanking his viewers for joining him and promising to return the next day with updates on loading the new utility trailers and making the long drive down to Indiana.
Read the full video transcript
Good morning everybody. We got old blue
in the trailer right here. We're in Cast
Lake, Minnesota. I'm heading back up to
Ontario. Got to pick up another load, 21
ft lumber. It's going to go right there.
We're going to tie it down. We're going
to tarp it. We're going to bring it back
down here to Minnesota. Drop that off
tomorrow. Then we make our way down
towards Bristol, Indiana. So, it'll be
quite a little bit of a hike to get down
there, but that's okay. It's worthwhile
for me.
So, we'll pull this on down to Indiana.
We'll load up some utility trailers
there,
pull them back up to Winnipeg and
deliver those next week.
There we go. This trailer, I've only had
it for 9 months. We were talking about
this at the end of yesterday's video. Do
you remember?
I've only had it for 9 months. And I've
already got almost 115,000 km on it.
Springs. I think what what do we say?
113,000 km. Time flies when you're
having fun. Or should I say miles kilome
fly when you're having fun. I am based
in Canada just barely. I'm just barely
out of the US. So my brain works in
kilometers an hour. Though I do
understand both for for you new viewers.
But when I talk to you about distance
and speed, I'm always talking in kilome.
I'm not going to apologize for that, but
I try to uh convert everything to miles
as well because I know I have a huge
portion of my audience that's American
and uh you guys only use freedom units.
I understand I understand you don't
understand the metric system. Metric
system makes a lot of sense. I would
suggest just look into it. It makes a
lot of sense, but that's up to you. We
have what does it say on here? It's
actually more than 150 116,224
km.
Uh, that's probably around like 65,000
miles, 70,000 mi between 65 and 70,000
mi on this thing in 9 months.
And there's a few more miles than that
on it because when I bought it, I didn't
put that habadometer on right away. So,
for the first month, I didn't have that
clicking and counting. So, you can
probably add an extra 8 to 10,000 miles
on top of that. I guess
we'll see. We
We're doing the best we can out here.
So, let's get to trucking.
Going back up to Canora, Ontario.
All right, let's
let's give her let's give her go the
rest of the way. Had a nice little break
here.
Had some lunch or supper. Ler
and uh
ready to continue on. So, we're going to
take US 2 a little ways up the road here
to the scenic byway. I forget what
number it is, but it uh I think goes up
through Pennington, Minnesota. Is that
where Pennington? No, Pennington's up
further north, isn't it?
Whatever. It's just east of Cast Lake.
So, Cast Lake is just to our west that
way. We're facing south. Moving back
onto the two
right on a lake. I didn't even realize
that. I guess that would be Cass Lake.
Beautiful.
So, it's Highway 10. It looks like
Highway 10 and 39 that we're going up to
here.
So, it's County Road 39. I don't know
where I got 10 from before. It says 10
on there. So, it must be 39 and 10. I
don't know.
This is the Chipoa National Forest,
though.
The County Road 39. It's called Lady
Slipper Scenic Byway. It's a little
shortcut.
If you're going from Cast Lake up
towards Bodet or the other way around,
you can cut through here.
Saves you a little bit of time. You
don't have to go all the way around. I
think it's through Bamiji.
Our turn is coming up.
Oh man, I made myself another coffee. So
those yawn should disappear very soon.
Those are unauthorized.
Here it is. Yeah.
>> 100 meters. Use the left lane and turn
left onto Scenic Highway Northwest.
>> That's right. This highway goes through
Pennington. It's uh Oh, what's that
other town
way up north there? Uh that we went for
a walk through that town.
>> Use the left lane and turn left onto
Scenic Highway Northwest.
>> Starts with a K. Kildair. Killed it. No,
something up there. All right, here we
go. This is a nice little scenic turn
left
>> scenic road for us.
We are racing. the train and we're
winning.
It's a lot of lumber on there, man.
Wonder where it's all going.
How do they keep track of all those
train cars, you know? Like, it's got to
be what, like 100 to 200 train cars
behind every train at least. Maybe more.
Probably probably more than that. And
each one of them is going probably like
to a different place or most of them are
like the crude oil tankers aren't going
to the same place as the grain bins here
and the box cars are going somewhere
else than the wood. So you got to bring
them all to a train yard somewhere
and you got to separate them all put
them into different trains or like
singles and then like bring them to
where they're supposed to be. Like that
must be must take a long time.
probably why people use trucking like us
a lot more than trains is we're
personalized shipment. We'll bring it
straight from shipper to receiver. Bang
bang straight there. A train like this.
It has to go has to go through many
different
or my phone just started playing for no
reason there. Does your phone ever do
that?
My phone is constantly
it'll just start playing something or
like play my music like on my playlist
on YouTube music. I'll have a song on
there that I've been listening to. I'll
press pause and I'll clear it out. Like
I'll exit out of all my apps, right? So
I have no apps open on my phone and my
phone's off. Suddenly out of the blue,
my phone just decides to start playing
my YouTube playlist.
I be very careful what song I leave it
on
just in case, you know, if
depends on what I was listening to.
Why does my phone do that? It just
starts playing music whenever it wants
to.
We're back in Cano.
>> 100 meters. You will reach your
destination. The destination will be on
your left.
>> Going to grab fuel tonight and then I
don't have to worry about it tomorrow
morning and we can just book it on down
there and then I'll probably refuel
again in uh in Iowa. I'm thinking,
no, not Iowa. We're not going to Iowa.
Refuel again in Wisconsin.
I had Burlington, Iowa in my head. We're
not going there.
We're going to Bristol, Indiana. So,
this is Petro Pass on Veterans Drive in
Canora.
>> You have reached your destination.
Petrol Pass truck stop. Canora on.
>> The destination is on your left. I
already told them. Karen, listen. No
need to repeat me.
I wish they had longer handles on their
uh squeegeees here. Like seriously, they
have car squeegees at every petrol pass.
You can't even reach your windshield on
your truck with them. It's a truck
filling station.
You think that they would have truck
squeegee? Now, we can't even wash our
windows here unless you open the hood,
climb up on the hot motor. That makes
sense.
545
L.
What is it? 137 gallons.
147. I forget how many gallons it was.
145 545 L. Like I was saying before, I
uh operate
I'm bilingual when it comes to uh
miles and kilometers and gallons, US
gallons and liters, but it's hard for me
to just convert them off the top of my
head like that.
It was a big fillup. cost about $1,000
Canadian, probably about $800 US.
And that uh was for 1,700 km or 11,200
miles.
We averaged 7.34 US miles per gallon or
32 L per 100 km.
So, not bad. That was actually pretty
good for this old girl. That was a good
one. I think that's the best one we've
had all summer yet.
I'm going to head back to our parking
spot,
our summer parking spot. In winter, I go
park in town,
but our summer in summertime, I can go
park at our little lot.
It's just a little secluded. There's not
any services there. So, in winter time
when I'm uh parked there, if my truck
shuts off, there's nowhere warm to go
into, right? So, that's why I don't stay
there in the winter time.
Yeah, I know. My windshield is still
filthy. I know. I'm going to have to
bullnot it in the morning.
For now, I just want to get to park
already. Lay down, start relaxing.
Start navigation. We're heading to
Canora, Ontario.
So, we made it, parked, went straight
back to bed. It was a relaxing day. Uh,
just coming on up here. There was no
rush. I I
kind of wonder why they didn't have me
load it yesterday. I could have made it
back here yesterday, got it loaded
yesterday, but I I'm thinking the
appointment times probably didn't work
out. They can only load a certain amount
of trucks per day, and then the only
appointments are available the next day.
That's what I'm assuming happened here
cuz I could have easily made it down,
made it back, got reloaded and then been
on my way down already. But I guess
things just didn't line up like that for
me. But that's okay. So, cuz we still
have time. We're still on schedule. I'm
going to go load that load uh in the
morning for you guys in my next vlog and
then we'll head down to Indiana from
there. But in the meantime, it was nice
to have a relaxing day on the road. I
don't get many of those on the road, so
that was nice. I don't want to be like
that too often because I'd like to keep
my wheel turning a little faster, but
I can't control everything.
It was a good day. It was a good day.
So, thanks for joining me everybody.
I'll see you right here tomorrow. We're
going to grab that load, drop it off in
Minnesota, and then head down to
Indiana. It's going to be a long day
tomorrow. So, tune in.