#3600 | TRUCKING AND CHATTING | My Trucking Life

Good morning everybody. It's a good morning. We got unloaded last night so I don't have to wait in line this morning. Here's my empty step deck behind me. It's a 53 ft triacle with a rear lift. It's an extreme. If you guys are new to the channel, hi. I'm Trucker Josh. Been making videos for 15 years here on the internet of just my life on the road, what it's like, what I do. I've been everywhere from Newfoundland to Yukon Territory down to Florida, Arizona, and everything in between. I got it all in my playlists lined up by when it was filmed. Yeah, we have a big community here online. You're welcome to join. Hit that subscribe button. Come hang out with me today as we travel up here from central Minnesota into Ontario, Canada. Got to put some more freight on this trailer today. We're going to tie it down. We're going to tarp it and we're going to come right back here. So, when I started this channel, I was a single guy living near Winnipeg, Canada. And uh and I did all kinds of long haul all over the place. I'm now a married man with two kids. And I stay a little bit closer to home now. I've been doing this for, like I said, 15 years. We still have a lot of fun every day. So, I have got to hurry. I've got no time to waste. Now, for you new people, uh there's two routes I can take back up to Ontario from here. One, I have to pay a toll to go through International Falls, Minnesota into Fort Francis, Ontario. And uh the other route is this. >> Now turn left. >> Is this construction done over there? I don't trust it yet. I don't trust it. I think there might still might be construction there. I'm going around. The other route would take me through Bodet, Minnesota into Rainy River, Ontario. Very similar times, but the one with the toll is about 15 minutes shorter sometimes. Then again, now with that detour, it's not. You know what? That's right. There's a detour here now. We're going to go through uh Bodet into Rainy River. Save ourselves 20 bucks. >> I just decided that now. Usually, it's 15 minutes shorter to go up through International Falls, but there's a detour on Highway 6 because they're fixing a bridge. >> Quiet, Karen. I know she's going to be all confused now. >> Recalculated. >> Oh, now she's mad. Think I got Karen all sorted out now. I have to show her who's boss a little bit. She wanted to go that way, which is actually longer and it costs money. There's a detour that way, which adds 15 minutes because they're fixing a bridge like I was saying. So, you got to go around it. So, now going through Rainy River Bodette is the exact same amount of time, if not a little bit shorter, than going up through International Falls because of that on the way back up. So, yeah, we're going to save the money, not pay that toll because we're not going to save any time doing that anyway. Sometimes I go through that uh uh that port of entry just because it saves me 15 minutes, right? If I'm running down to the line like I am today, and then I'll uh I'll just pay the I think it's like $22, something ridiculous like that. So yeah, we're going to go all the way up Bodet into Rainy River and we've got a booket today. I've already got my coffee down here. It's all I need. This guy's washing his driveway. Don't Don't spray my truck. Actually, you know what? You want to wash my truck while you're there? I don't know what he's spraying, though. I don't know if he's got chemicals in there or whatnot. Probably not, but you never know, right? Yeah, it's going to be a good day. It's a beautiful sunshiny day. 20° C. That would equal 68 Fahrenheit. That is a beautiful morning. Probably going to heat up throughout the day yet. Caller. It's going to be good. But we have to stay focused. Have to get reloaded. >> The third traffic light. Use the left two lanes and turn left onto Washington Street. >> All right, I will. this seat that I bought. I know I've told you already, but I want to tell you again. >> Second traffic light. Use the left two lanes and turn left onto Washington Street. >> Railroad crossing ahead. This seat has completely fixed my back 100%. I couldn't be happier. Oh, sneeze coming. Watch out everybody. Buckle up. That's dangerous. Oh, go all the way to the stop line, buddy. I'm going to need all this space. >> Can I get off the tracks? Can I get off the tracks? Yes, I I had enough space. Okay, good. Kind of close. Probably make him a little nervous. All he sees is grill in his rearview mirror right now. I don't usually park this close, but I wanted to make sure my trailer was well past the tracks back there. I got like 10 ft between the end of my trailer and the tracks. I'm good. Something about it being a beautiful day. I don't know. It It is a beautiful day. It is wonderful. They going to take it super wide. You see those dotted lines? So, you want to keep your trailer on the outside of those dotted lines if you can, cuz the other side of those lines is for the other lane. >> Follow the road for 3 km. >> Got to stay focused. I'm feeling good today though. We're feeling good. I slept good. >> [clears throat] >> This route is always such a rush. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I'm behind on my editing again. Stresses me out when I get behind on it a little bit. I'm way behind. We're going to catch up. We're going to get up there. We're going to get loaded cuz that's important. Maybe I'll throw one together real quick before start heading we start heading back down. Or maybe I'll have to wait in line there. You know, that's always some time. Make use of that time. throw a video or two together while I'm waiting. Hopefully people aren't taking up the tarp shed, you know. Let's see how busy Walker is today. It's a beautiful day. I'm sure you got lots of people on the water. Look at all those trucks off to the right down there. All with an empty boat trailer behind them. Each and every one of them. Look at all that. Man, I wish that was me. I wish that was my truck with a boat trailer. One day we're working our way there. One day. Wouldn't that be awesome? If it doesn't happen, that's cool, too. We can always rent boats and stuff, but as soon as I ever mention that we want a boat, I get the same response every time. Boat. Bring another thousand. Oh, the best part of owning a boat is not owning a boat. [laughter] I get it, guys. I get it. Some of you are very against owning boats. I get it. I appreciate the concern. Look at Walker. Look at this. Just colors vibrant in the sunlight today. It is a beautiful day outside. The streets are a little bit calmer than they have been. Wonder if summer's winding down. I don't think so. I think people are just all out on the water. The big lake off to our right. Oh. Minnesota state law. We have to stop for the crosswalk. Look at those people over there on the other side not stopping. Look at that. They just keep going through. Keep going through. State law. You have to stop. Sign is right there in the middle of the road so you can't miss it. I'm not even from here and I listen to the laws better than [clears throat] the people [laughter] who live here. Oh, maybe it's cuz I'm a guest. I'm a guest, so I want to be respectful. Follow all the rules. Be a very good boy. I like coming here, so I'll follow all their rules. whatever you want me to do. I just want to be your friend. Okay, so the next town up here will be Cass Lake and we'll turn right on Highway 2 there. Uh we'll go a few miles down the road to uh the scenic route, County Road 39. We'll take that north all the way up through Pennington and that'll uh give us a little shortcut instead of going all the way around to Baiji. I think that'll spit us out. Uh, what's the highway up there? I'm trying to remember all these highway numbers. I know them like the back of my hand. Like I know where I'm going, but I don't know all the highway numbers. So, trying to make sure I make a point of remembering those numbers as well. That's why I say them in the vlog, too. Helps me remember it for next time, so that if anyone ever asks, you know, what highway do you need to take to get here? I can tell them instead of just being like, "Yeah, go to the red barn, make a right, go three and a half or so miles down. There will be a tree on your left. Keep going straight till you see the bigger tree with the funny leaves. Then make a left." Bodette. What's going on, Bode? Here's the big fish. This is where we turn. Now turn right. Follow the road. So, this, like I've been telling you guys, and for the new people, this is the border crossing that I take that doesn't have a toll. The one in International Falls, uh, it's just too expensive to go back and forth there every day. It's free to go south, but you got to pay to go back home, which is the way they do it. Weird, I know, right? But that's once we're down here visiting, they don't want us to go home. They'll charge us money to go home. So, we'll sneak past the US customs and head on over the bridge to Canadian customs. Visit again, the sign says. I will in a few hours. I'll be back. Got to go grab another load and I'll be back. >> Booth construction ahead. >> Well, you don't say. Must be Ontario. This is the Rainy River. And here you can see the border right at the top of the bridge. >> Canada. >> Welcome to Ontario. >> You pronounced Ontario wrong. Now I got to go park off to the right here and walk to the window. I can fit underneath that window. Some Sometimes they have the right side closed and I'll go under there cuz I got short stacks on my truck. But you got a full height truck or a load behind you. Uh I wouldn't go under there. Park just past here so they can see my truck from the window. I know what I'm doing. Put myself on duty, not driving. I am at the border. Okay, put my walking shoes on and I'll walk on over there. Welcome to Ontario. Still running down to the wire. So, no unnecessary stops. We need to go go rush rush rush. It is a triple rush day at least to get loaded. After that, it's just a rush rush. But, uh, triple rush right now. River Trail says, "Stop and walk on our trails." Well, thank you. Thanks for the invite. I bet you I will one day. Not today. Today I'm in a rush. Did I mention that? That make me go 40 km an hour through your town, though. That's not very nice. I'm in a rush. waiting in line. This guy should be done shortly if he's not going to bungee his entire load down in the tarp shed. But if he's just tacking it down like he's supposed to and then moving out to finish outside, I should be able to get in here in no time and I'll be out of here in half an hour. We'll see what happens. It's beautiful, beautiful day. I got to spend it working, tarping, untarping. Yesterday was a productive day though, right? In the morning, we unloaded those trailers that we picked up in Indiana. We unloaded those in Winnipeg. We drove over here to Canora, loaded up a new load, tied it down, tarped it, drove down to Brainard, Minnesota, unarped it, put all my straps away, and then I stayed there overnight. So, we did two loads yesterday, two deliveries yesterday. Not too bad. Not too bad. Show me the money. They're really pushing me this week though cuz this was a rush to get here and then I got to get back up here for another one tomorrow yet. I don't know if I can do it. I'm going to do my absolute best. I'll know more uh tonight when I stop. Like I need to know how long it's going to take me to get out of here uh once I'm tarped. then I'll have more of an accurate uh guesstimate or estimate for if I can actually do do that one tomorrow. I got to be back here before 3:00 means I've got to leave Brainer by 9 at the latest 9:30 means I've got to be there unloading before that. And there's also going to be a lineup because a lot of these guys they're going there too to unload. We'll see what happens. sitting on pins and needles the beginning of this week. Then I don't know what I'm doing after that yet. I mean, I still got time in the week for another load. Maybe they'll have something for me. They just want to see if I'm going to be able to do these three first. I really want to show them I can do it. That was one of my records. Everything just went smoothly. I got there, I got loaded right away, tied it down. like by the time he put his the last lifts on the trailer, the rest of the trailer was all tied down. Quickly tied down those last couple. Ran over to the tarp shed, got tarped, grabbed my paperwork, got out of there. That was probably one of the fastest fastest turnovers there I've ever had. So, thankfully we are on our way. We are rushing. Rush, rush, rush. Remember, it's a triple rush today. I want to get down to Deer River as soon as possible so I can shut my clock off as soon as possible so that we can get it going again as soon as possible. I'm running a split hour cycle in the US right now, so I only have to stop for 8 hours. Once I get there, that should give me enough time on my clock to go get unloaded and get back to Canada. Get back up there, get loaded real quick. It's going to be tight. Like I said, a triple rush today. We don't always have triple rushes, but this this is one of those weeks. We got to stay focused. No getting distracted. No pulling over and doom scrolling through Instagram. No. Focus. Focus. Focus. No stopping for snacks. Nothing. Going right past Sunsero's Trading Post, unfortunately, the second time in a row. Actually, third time cuz I went past on the way up today as well. I usually always stop in there and say hi and grab a thing, one or two things, but just too much of a rush today. Maybe we'll have time on the way back down on the next one. We'll see. I want to stay focused so that we can uh finish the summer off strong and that as we go into fall we can just balance everything out a little better, you know, with our savings and everything. Costs a lot of money to take time off and summer is the time we all want to take time off, right? And you got to pay for it afterwards. Before you know it, Christmas will be here. You got to get ready for that. Then next summer, next summer as we build up that uh campsite that we got, we got to build a deck in there. Got to build a leanto against the camper for a sun room, put up a gazebo, develop it, build a fire pit. We're going to be very busy next summer. So, no time no time to waste. The water's very calm today. Wow. You know what that means? It's time to go fishing. I haven't even gone fishing once this year. I did get out on the water, though, so at least I can be thankful for that. We did get out on the water for a little bit the other weekend. Next summer, I'm sure we'll get out on the water a lot more. If everything goes well next year, we should be able to get out on the water almost regularly. Well, at least we'll be right by the water. But there's a whole bunch of stuff to happen first before we can do that. This trailer's been left here for like two weeks now. Whose trailer is that? How are you going to get a fifth wheel under that? That is really low. Wow. You know, if I was rich, I'd want to buy one of these islands on Lake of the Woods. Imagine having your own island. That'd be so awesome. build a cabin, a little personal resort, just a tiny island. Not like a big island. I'm talking just like a a tiny tiny little island. Like maybe one acre of an island. Just a tiny little guy, right? Like just just enough for a little house and some decks looking out over the water. Like there's nothing like that kind of privacy. The only way to get there is by boat or by ice road in wintertime. Winter time you can drive over the lake. There's only a short period of well two short periods of the year when you wouldn't be able to get to your cabin when the ice was thin. Too thick to drive like to ride a drive a boat through obviously too thin to drive a snowmobile or a car over. So I guess then you'd have to get a plane or a helicopter. Oh, if we're talking rich, let's go all the way. If I want to be rich, I want to be rich rich. I'm going to have a helicopter. I'll just fly there in my helicopter every time. Yeah, might buy a second island just for my, you know, my stuff. Storage, you know, extra stuff just in case. I am in the wrong line of work to be dreaming that big. [laughter] Oh, only if YouTube were to explode and we would suddenly have millions of subscribers and like a million views a month. Maybe we I don't think we'd be that rich yet, but maybe we doing pretty good then, I'm sure. But nah, we've been had some steady growth on YouTube. I've been happy with it. Been doing this a long time and it's been slow and steady. And I think we built a good community. That's more important than numbers. I I like the quality. Quality over quantity. >> 100 meters. Turn right onto Central Avenue and then turn right. >> Look at this. Fort Francis has done their construction again. They redid this road last year and then they redid it again this year. It's done. Finally. They finished it today cuz yesterday it wasn't finished yet. Nice. Very nice. Fresh road. Fresh. >> Now turn right and then turn right onto International Bridge. >> Nice. And people have already hit the curb there. Black marks on the curb. Come on, guys. >> In 350 m, turn right onto International Bridge. >> It hasn't even been open 24 hours yet. There was already black scuffs on the curb around the corner there. Some guys have hit it with their trailers. Come on. Can't have anything nice. We can't have anything nice. Bridge to USA. This way. Welcome. Welcome, Benu. The sign over there says French. >> Benu Minnesota. Follow the road. >> I'm going to do that. I don't know what other options I would have. I can't fly. That would make things quicker, though. Oh, how dare you? How dare you turn red? What is this? All for a Subaru. A Subaru. I guess that's okay. Welcome to Minnesota. >> Thank you. Little late, but uh I'll accept it. I'll accept it. You direct your gaze off to the right. You'll see Mr. Paul Bunan himself. Not Paul Bunan. Mr. Paul Bunan. I got my Minnesota characters mixed up. A smoky bear. Mr. Smoky Bear himself. Paul Bunan's a big part of northern Minnesota up here, too. I got my two mascots mixed up there. My bad. I come through here. It goes every day, man. Cops. Cops. Cops. Act natural. Okay, so I have 2 hours 43 minutes left on my clock to drive. That should be enough to get me to Deer River and we'll shut her down there. So, we've just arrived Deer River. Not this street, the next street. Right. Yes. Past the fire station. That's right. This speaker not on or what's going on? Let's hope that there's parking. I have 40 minutes left on my clock, but I need an hour and a half to get down to my final destination. So, I can't quite make it tonight. Is there parking? Is there parking? Yes, there is. Nice. Thank god. Somebody parked their pickup truck in here to save their spot. I hate when people do that. I hate when people do that. Unless they own the place, then that's their right. But or if they have permission, that's all right, too. But if they're just like parking there just to make sure no one else gets their spot, that's that's cheap. All right. Am I straight? I don't think I'm straight. I am definitely not straight. All right. We're going to need to clean my mirrors. Going to straighten out a little bit so I can sleep properly cuz I won't be able to sleep if I know I'm crooked. I am straight. Very straight. I have to be straight. Absolutely straight. Mhm. Okay, I think that's good. Good enough anyway. Yeah, a little bit more. Straighten her out so I'm perfectly straight in every possible way. Straight as straight. All right. The day is over. That was a long day again. But just about 11 hours of driving. Tomorrow will be another long day. About to do this loop again as fast as we can. It's another triple rush day tomorrow. Can you believe it? Oh man, my eyes are dry. They're so tired. tired. I just want to go to sleep. Okay, thanks for watching today, everybody. I'm going to go shut everything down, button everything up so we can go to bed because I want to and I'm tired. That's why. And I have to cuz I have to be up and at it again first thing in the morning. The life of a truck driver right here. This is This is it. I need a dog with me again, though. Been thinking about it. But now is not the right time in life to get one. Not yet. I've been thinking about it.