#3597 | THROUGH CHICAGO | My Trucking Life

Oh yeah. Good morning everybody. Another day is here. Are you excited? I haven't had my coffee yet, so I'm not quite as excited as I could be, but it'll get I'll get there. I'll get there. My excitement level is building. The day is beginning. I've got that empty step behind me still. My trailer. I'm going to put some freight on it. We're going to tie it down. We're going to tarp it. We're going to take it down to Minnesota like always. We're going to drop it off there for the good people in Minnesota. Once that's done, we head on down to Bristol, Indiana. I got a load of those utility trailers to put on there tomorrow. It's tomorrow, right? Yeah, I got to be down there. No, wait a minute. Day after tomorrow. Yeah, day after tomorrow. Okay, it's a little bit of a hike to get down there. So, that's good. Day after tomorrow, we put those trailers on first thing in the morning and zip back home. So, let's get going. So, I'm expecting to get one second. I'm expecting to get unloaded today yet or tonight though. They're only uh I only have to be there in the morning, but pretty sure they'll unload me tonight yet, which will be great cuz then we can start making our way towards Indiana today yet. Get a little head start and tomorrow we'll be uh not as rushed. You know, bit of a long drive down there to pick them up, but it's the way it goes sometimes. I can't grab freight from in Minnesota to take to Indiana. That would call be called interstating. That's very illegal. If I pick up freight in the United States, I have to come directly back to Canada with it. No stops, like no drops along the way. I can't pick up and drop in the States. Just like Americans when they come up here to deliver freight, they can't pick up in Canada and deliver in Canada. It's our job. Don't steal our jobs. That's the That's the way it works. Anyways, going cross borders international. I have to go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I can't doawle around in the states delivering freight. They don't like that. That's very uh not okay. So, yeah, we're going empty from Minnesota down to get those trailers and then I have to bring those back to Canada. I thought I might have a delay at the border. Thankfully, we got cleared as I was approaching Fort Francis. I can't go to the border until my customs have been cleared. So, I would have been stuck sitting there waiting either at Walmart or some parking spot somewhere. But just as I pulled into town, I got the message saying that I was clear, good to go. We had a 15-minute lineup getting into the US, which is abnormal for that border crossing, but uh little bit of a lineup, not too bad. Now, we're flying down US71. I got to go around these detours. So, instead of going down Highway 6 like we usually do, we go a little bit around uh like I was saying yesterday, we go up to the CR County Road 49, take that down through to the two, take the two over to what is that? Is that the 251? Anyways, it goes down south into Baxter and then from Baxter, you can cross over the Mississippi into Brainard a little bit around. It's about 15 20 mi further. But we're still on schedule. We're still on time. I am uh looks like I'm going to get there around 7:45, which is good because they are open till at least 8:00, but I think they got a new night shift guy now. So that means they'll be open till 10:00 minimum, sometimes even midnight. You never really know in the evenings. It's hit and miss in the evenings there. I just want to get unloaded today yet. So, if I get there before 8, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get unloaded today and then get this off my trailer, get it off my back. It's weighing me down. And then we can point our nose to Indiana. It's quite a hike down Indiana. Like I was saying before, it's a little bit of a drive, but I'm not allowed to haul any freight from Minnesota down there. So, I have to go empty to pick up that load and then go directly back. Not the ideal setup, right? I'd like to drop off a little closer to there, but it is what it is sometimes. Uh, sometimes it's just the way the cookie crumbles, you know. We often go empty from Brainer down to Burlington, Iowa, too, to grab those tires. It's what we got to do. We got to work within the law. So, we'll keep on trucking about another two hours down the road. Hopefully Ryan's no problems. Just waiting for the lights here in Walker, Minnesota. Every time I've driven past here in the past few weeks, it's just been packed. But I guess it's a little late in the afternoon or early evening here now that everyone's probably eating supper somewhere. It's a nice little town. There's a big lake off to the left. Yeah, these streets have just been crawling lately. Not today or not at this time of day anyway. It's what 6:30 6:30 in the evening. Everybody's at home eating supper, I guess. 60 more miles to go. Then after that, we sort of breathe a little bit, take our time a little bit more. We got the rest of today. I'll have another 5 hours left to drive legally, and then I have all day tomorrow yet. Heat. I'm used to going the other direction. Usually, this would be my route back north to go through Mod, but because of those detours, we're all heading south this way. Beautiful, beautiful day. Getting a little cloudy now, but that's okay. It's cooling off just nice. Rolling into town. This is Baxter. Or have we crossed the river already? No, I think this is still Baxter. Brainer's on the other side of the river. I think >> 2 km turn right. >> I shall do that. Oh no, the Mississippi River is coming up ahead here. Look at that McDonald's. It's classic. Why don't they make all restaurants like that? The restaurants they make now are so boring. They used to be so fun. When I was a kid, McDonald's was fun. And now it's just a corporate cube. Just a cube. But the fries are still so good. That's the thing. The fries get you every time. I'm still on schedule. Exactly. 7:46 p.m. is my estimated arrival time. According to the GPS, the goal was to arrive before 8. Cutting a little bit close, but 15 minutes early. Right where I like to be. >> In 800 meters, use the right lane and turn right onto South Sixth Street. >> I could do that. These bugs just keep reappearing on my windshield. Doesn't matter how many times I wipe them off, they just they just come right back. They just like me so much. They all want to give me a big fat kiss. They come flying straight at me and don't see the windshield. >> In 400 m, use the right lane and turn right onto South Sixth Street. >> Railroad crossing ahead. >> And we're going to follow the cop up ahead there. Turn at the castle tower. I believe that's a law office. Wonder if there's like Yeah, there's got to be something inside that tower. Wonder what it is. >> Now turn right. >> Yeah, I know. I got to wait for my turn now. Let him go and then I'll go. In 3 km, turn left. Gasoline price is 3.98 a gallon here today. Only got here quarter to 8. Getting unloaded. They even helped me roll up my tarps. Nice nice guy here. But uh show you. Oh, we just got two lifts left. Oh, I'm almost out of here. Okay. Well, you just got to take one of these, stack it on the other one, grab the dunage off of there. You can hear my trailer already sighing. A sigh of relief that all the weight is gone. It's nice. And then we have over,00 km to our next pickup. It's like 650 miles. I know it sounds awful. Like I was saying before, it's just the way the cookie crumbles. It's uh it's just the way we do it sometimes. It's the way it turns out. It's not ideal, but it it is what it is. Not complaining. It works out in the end. All right, we are amput. What's going on here? Why does this look like it's What's going on here? What happened? Hey, why is this twisting? Oh, that's why. Okay, we are off to Bristol, Indiana. Let's do it. I was only scheduled to get unloaded tomorrow, so I am ahead of schedule. It's where I like to be. County Road 8 northwest and then turn right. >> Hasty, Minnesota at the Hasty 183 Diner. This is exit. >> Turn right and then turn right >> 183 I 94 west of Minneapolis. I want to get to the other side of the cities tonight. Minneapolis St. Paul. I want to get to the other side because I don't want to deal with that traffic tomorrow. But we're just swinging in here for a quick little Hello. I got to use the bathroom and I want to grab a Pepsi or something if I can, if they'll allow it. >> Now turn right and then you will reach your way point. >> I am here. Yes, Mr. Bison is in my spot. Good thing I'm not spending the night here. Otherwise, I might have to do absolutely nothing about it and park somewhere else. Mr. Bison, didn't you see my name on that spot? How about my other spot? My other spot open? Mr. Payne over there to the right. Mr. Payne is in my spot. Oh, no. Yeah, he's he's in my spot. >> Route recalculated. >> Those are Canadian drivers, too. My own people. My own people throwing me under the bus, taking my spots from me. How could you? Oh, wait. There's a spot right there. One second. One second. We're backing up. No one's behind me. I'm backing up. Backing up. Backing up. Backing up. Backing up. Backing up. >> Roof recalculated. >> Actually got an even better spot. I see what you guys did. My apologies. You didn't throw me out under the bus. You didn't take my spots. You left an even better spot for me. I see what you're doing. I appreciate you. Look at this. Right up front. I'm only going to be here like 15 minutes, but it's beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay. Off duty. I am off duty. I haven't had a break all day. like an actual break just to sit in line. So we rushed down to Brainer from Canora so that we could get unloaded a day early. Then we we uh achieved that and then after I was unloaded there, I just got right back out on the road. So the only break I had was when I was actually unloading and that wasn't a physical break cuz I was untaring, rolling up my tarps, putting away all my equipment. So I'm taking 15 minutes. Okay, sue me. I don't care. I'm going to go inside and I'm going to window shop. I'm going to go and I'm going to just browse. I'm going to go and uh hopefully not spend much money. Like I said, I just wanted to stop here for a Pepsi. This place is where I get those ginormous donuts from, right? They make those big ones. Remember that big Mother's Day donut? That was from this place. And they have like big bear paw ones, but no donuts today. I already had a donut on my way down. I bought donuts yesterday and I saved them. I was a good boy. I saved some for today. So, I didn't eat them all in one day, but I already had my donuts for today. I had my desserts. So, I can't have more. That's my rule that I made for myself just for today. Maybe tomorrow. Well, maybe tomorrow I'll get a donut, but not today. And maybe tomorrow I'll say maybe tomorrow again. We'll see. That's That's the way I get myself to not do that. Wish me luck. I'm going in. I think I was reasonably successful. I didn't get a Pepsi. Maybe I should have. Totally forgot about when I got in there because I saw these fried mozzarella. Oh well. All right, let's get going. Oh, we got lots of fuel. Don't need to worry about that tonight yet. Got to undo my belt a little bit because I'm a little bit too chubby. There we go. You guys ready? You guys got some dirt on you? What are you guys doing with that? What are you What's going on here? What are you Hold on. You guys got to clean yourselves up. All right. You ready? You ready to rock? I am. I want to get going. Let's get around Minneapolis, St. Paul. I could probably make it in one day from here, but it would be a full day tomorrow then. And plus, I'd have to deal with Minneapolis and Chicago traffic. No thank you. I'll at least get Minneapolis behind me and we got to worry about Chicago. Diesel fuel here is $510 a gallon. Ouchi mama. $4 a gallon for gasoline. Isn't that just lovely? Oh, and my stuff just fell down. Oh man, my mozzarella. Man, why did it I put it on top of my cooler here and it fell. There's still one in there. One second. I think there's only like two left in there. Ouch. Ah. That was a 10-second rule, right? I guess they're almost done anyway. I hate eating food off the floor. It's really not like me, but these are really good. I just got them. Okay. That was disappointing. And we're off. Got myself turned around, but >> precalulated. >> I hate it when they build roads like that. >> Now turn left. >> Especially at a truck stop with no proper signs. Like if you're going to make an entrance, you got to make it accessible from both directions. >> 1 km, take the second exit at the roundabout onto the Wisconsin 65 South. >> But I guess it's my fault. You know, I next time I'll know. This is a new truck stop. I haven't been here. I didn't even know this place was here till today. Here we go. We were coming down there. See, they got all these thingies here that block us from turning in here. For whatever reason, Wisconsin doesn't want us turning into the truck stop. This place looks full. Anyways, I'm going to go in and check it out anyway. I'm ready to pull over for the night. It's midnight. Let's see if we can find a spot that's safe. I have my doubts. This is We shall see. Is this an entrance? It is. Now, let's go take a look, shall we? They got nice big wide spots. I like that. That's a quick trip thing. It's not like Loves where the spots are so narrow, packed together. So, I would feel comfortable parking in here if I can find a spot. It's looking full though. It is looking full. Oh man. We'll go check out the other row yet. See if we can find anything. Oh. Oh. Oh no. All these like pickup trucks. Hot shot trucks. Bobtails taking up the big boy spots. They think they're big boys, but you in fact are not. You are little. You're tiny. You are not one of us. Another one over here. Hot shot driver parking in the big boy lot. I guess he's got a long enough trailer, huh? Makes sense. Makes sense. I'm just bugging him. Yeah, there is nothing left for Trucker Josh. Oh, what's this over here? What's this over here? Oh, come on. Box trucks. A that guy over there has a load of shingles with not nearly enough securement on that front stack. Yikes. Hopefully he doesn't have to hit the brakes very hard. I'm going to come tumbling right over. Yes, I'm judging. That's what we do. Flatbed drivers judge other flatbed drivers. Don't act like you don't act like you don't do the same thing. That guy needs more straps on that load. Well, what else did I expect from Roberts, Wisconsin? They added all these parking spots here and it's still full. Like I said, I'm not even going to try the Flying Jay across the street. That's a waste of time. See me? I'm yawning. I need a parking spot. I have an hour and 37 minutes left to find one. Oh, look at this big truck. Holy smokes. Is there a spot beside him? No. There's a utility trailer parked in there. Got to be kidding me, guys. People are so rude. Like, come on. Yeah, it's full. It's just, you know, guys coming off the road after a long day need those spots. Another bobtail here taking up a whole spot. Ah. Bad words. Off to the next. There's another uh quick trip about 10 miles down the road. We'll go check that one out. And we did all of that loop and everything for nothing. Oh, well, no left turn. I see that. You put a boulevard there. No left turn. I don't want to make a left turn. Not from here. Anyways. Anyways, Josh, let's not get grumpy. Let's not get grumpy. I know you're tired. Got to be an adult. Got to be an adult. I wish everyone else would be an adult, but I guess I got to set the example. One of us has got to be an adult. Got to go around these little loopdups that Wisconsin's in love with. These roundabouts, man. Wisconsin loves these things. That guy's got his high beams on. Huh? I got high beams, too. Mine are brighter than yours. He didn't even notice. I 94 eastbound towards Oaklair. We'll go to the next truck stop. I have an hour and 34 minutes to find a parking spot. Ah, little bit narrower to get between the seats now with this new wide seat. That's okay. Worth the sacrifice. Morning everybody. We're getting ready to rock and roll. We've got the truck ready to go. We've got the trailer ready to go. We stopped here in Baldwin, Wisconsin last night. Finally found a spot here at the Quick Trip. What exit was this? It's not too far. It's like 10 miles east of Roberts, Wisconsin. Just got my coffee made for myself. I am on the road to glory. We are going all the way down past Chicago into northern Indiana, town called Bristol, or just south of Bristol is where I'll be staying tonight. Here we go. Let's get out here. Get around Mr. Amazon here right away. He seems to be slowing things down. A third party carrier. Guy was not paying attention. Traffic will be crazy in Wisconsin probably. I'm filming this on a Thursday, so some people are already jumping the gun getting out to their cabins. This is Cottage Country all the way through Wisconsin on 94 pretty much. Cottage Country, Resort Country, they got uh uh Wisconsin Dells. They have that indoor water park there that I really want to take my kids to in the next couple of years. I think that'd be awesome. That'd be somewhat of a colder like winter trip. We'd spend the best days of summer back in Manitoba obviously cuz that's why would we give that up? That's that doesn't happen that for that long. So, the best days of summer we'd spend back at home. Like I said, we're trying to get a seasonal site possibly like a camping site. But once it gets too cold and the campsite closes down usually first weekend in October or something like that, uh, starts getting chilly, maybe we can take the kids out to an indoor water park here in Wisconsin. I think that'd be really cool. We could even do that for like a not a Christmas trip cuz we want to be at home for Christmas obviously, but like maybe a winter trip. Not it's not like we're getting away from the cold that much though. Wisconsin does not get as cold as Manitoba, but you know, it's it's indoor, right? So, it's kind of like a vacation. Let's get away from Manitoba. Freezing winter. Go spend a long weekend or something. I don't know. We'll figure it out. I'm getting ahead of myself here. You know me, I like living in the dream world. It's free to dream. That's why once they start charging me for my dreams, I'm going to have to pick and choose which ones I want to dream for. You know, they're going to try to tax those one day. So far, dreams are free and taxfree. Enjoy them. I don't know if it's ever going to happen, but taking my kids to Wisconsin Dells. I definitely want to do that. Obviously, Disney World is going to happen at some point, but probably when they're a little bit older. Probably in a little bit older. Probably in about like 10 years or something. 8 10 years. I will figure it out. That's going to happen. I will make sure that happens. Just going past Wisconsin Dells right now. Have any of you ever been here? What was your favorite part of it? Why' this guy just cut me off, buddy? Buddy, my man, my boy, why you uh why'd you do that? Probably wants to exit right here, right? I bet you anything. If he exits, that makes sense. If not, he just cut in front of me for no reason. But anyways, I think we're coming up to it right here. Yeah, here it is. The uh indoor water park. It's the Great Wolf Lodge right here, I think. Yeah, those look awesome. Okay, he was turning off. That's good. Oh, now this guy's slowing down. Oh, come on, man. So, the Great Wolf Lodge right beside us here to the left. Huge place. It looks really awesome. Uh, Kalahari indoor water park. That's what it is. This next big building on the left. That's where I want to go. It's got an outdoor section to it also. But here's the big outdoors. All the water slides. That would be awesome. That would be so much fun. And they got the indoor section. Talahari Resort. And they got that section there. Some of the slides like start inside, then you go outside inside the slide, then you go back in the building. That is so cool. This guy I'm passing sped up now. Biggest pet peeve. Actually, you know what? I have other bigger pet peeves, but it's it's up there. When someone's passing you, why do people feel the need to speed up? You know, by that time it's too late, buddy. We're already passing you. You're It's too late, man. That was the place I was talking about. Anyway, looks like a lot of fun. Have any of you been there to Kalahari? Let me know how you liked it. Well, we are Slowly making it past Chicago here. Coming up to the south side on I 80. I took 39 down to 80. Got on to 80 at Lasal, Illinois. Little bit further around, but like usual, I take that uh route just to avoid the city as much as possible in the tolls. Looks like our plan of avoiding rush hour worked out. So far, this has been the heat of it. It might get a little worse yet on the other side as more people would be leaving than coming. And we still haven't reached the halfway point, but according to the GPS, there shouldn't be Oh, shouldn't be any traffic ahead like usual though. You got people going slow in the center lanes. I know in Europe you're not supposed to pass on the right. Here you're not supposed to either, but you're not really left any choice when these guys hog the left lanes. There's that guy over there. He's giving her in that lane. You know, the whole concept of slower traffic, keep right doesn't really hit home for some people. They just don't get it. >> Welcome to Indiana. >> Thank you. We're now in Indiana. It's very dark here in Indiana. What happened to your street lights? You like rationing power or something? What's going on? Why is the P power was on in Illinois, but here all the street lights are off H. Ah, yeah, I see a bit more tail lights up ahead here. This is probably where it might get a little bit more dense with traffic. I'm slowing down here. I got someone coming up beside me. Okay, I'm going to have to get around this slower traffic. Oh man. Come on, man. Come on, man. I don't want to see brake lights. Come on. Let's go. Why is it so dark here? I guess a storm just rolled through. Maybe they lost power. All the neighborhoods are dark, too, on either side. So, no one's getting power in this area. Must have had a lightning strike hit a power station or something. So weird driving through here like this though. It's been a little rainy since we got into Illinois. Uh right at Lasal as soon as we turned on to I 80. went about uh 60 miles towards Chicago from Lasal and we hit some hit some rain. Excuse me. It got pretty bad for a while. It was pretty bad thunderstorm, but we got through it. That's why I'm thinking this area here must have lost power. I can see see lights up ahead though. Oh man, these roads are always so bad. It's not all of them. It's just the bridge connections are just awful. I should be used to that. I'm from Manitoba. So, now that we're in Indiana, we're going to be going up to 94, I believe, and then taking that up to US 20 and then taking US 20 east, uh, just south of the toll road to avoid those tolls. Yeah, here's the street lights. And we got power back over here in this neighborhood. It's been a good day driving though. Good day driving. We're almost done. We have like an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes left. Probably more like an hour and a half. I'm going to stop at that uh what's that? >> 50 km take left. >> What's that truck stop called again south of Bristol in Gallops? Gallops at the corner of US 20 and the road that goes up to Bristol. I don't know what number that is. >> Lane restrictions ahead. >> The Gallop's truck stop there's uh usually got parking and it's built like a huge castle. It's pretty cool. And I think they got a McDonald's there too. Oh no. I just thought of that. Oh no. Oh temptation. I have lots of food in the truck. I don't need McDonald's. That guy has no tail lights. >> 100 meters. Use the left four lanes and keep left towards Interstate 80 east. And he's tailgating. How can people Why do people tailgate? Does someone answer that for me? Why? Right. What benefit does that do? Like in traffic like this, >> 100 meters. Use the left. Keep left towards Interstate 80. >> I don't know where I'm going. Like there in traffic like this, I got this FedEx truck in front of me. Right. >> Keep left. >> Yes. Karen. Shh. Try to tell a story. If I were to get right on his bumper, like right on his bumper, what would that help? Do you think it would make the truck at the very very very very very very front of this entire traffic go faster or would I just needlessly be putting myself at risk? It doesn't make sense to tailgate. I get it. Sometimes we get a little bit too close cuz when traffic keeps slowing down, slowing down. Sometimes you like wander up a little closer before you back off, right? I get it. Stuff happens. But when you consistently ride someone's bumper, unless if they're the problem, if they're the only one on the road, right? What's that mean? I shared on my Facebook once. If you're tailgating someone and there's someone in front of them, you're the problem. If you're tailgating someone and there's no one in front of them, they're the problem. You shouldn't tailgate either way. I got just a disclaimer there just to, you know, put that out there. Man, why are we going so slow in this lane? I want to get in that lane. This lane, this lane kind of sucks. I want to get in that lane. Of course, now it's all busy. I got to get around this guy. This This is nonsense. This is nonsense. I'm going around this guy. Why is this lane going so slow? Watch. Now, I'm going to get into this lane now. This lane's going to go slow. That's how it happens every time. I can get a couple of trucks ahead. Take my money, Indiana. Take my money. Come on. Take it. Take it. Yes. Sometimes it doesn't register and you get stuck there. That's embarrassing. We're just pulling up here. Gallops south of Bristol. >> In 400 meters, use the left lane. >> Just be on the left. Hopefully there'll be parking. I've always found parking here, so I'm not not too worried about it. But sometimes it does fill up pretty quick. And it's getting pretty late now. I don't like when they put curbs like this in the middle of a driveway. Can imagine people just nailing that in winter time and when you're clearing the snow, your blade would always hit that. Oh, well, guess it's not my problem. All right, parking is on the other side of the pumps back there. Got these guys parking out here already, which hey, kind of makes me worried. Maybe it's already full over here. Oh man, hope not. Shoot. Man, there's a lot of trucks here today. What's up with this? I've never seen it this full. Of course. Right. Of course. All I need is one spot. One spot. Oh, right here. Nope. You got cars parked in there. Cars and RVs in here. Another RV parked in there. Yeah, looks like it's right filled up. Oh boy. Okay. Oh man, that's very unfortunate. Even my spot all the way back here. Ah, we could put one more truck in here, I think. Back in right beside this All right.