#3606 | GOALS | My Trucking Life

Good morning everybody. We're here near E, Minnesota at the Anchor Lake rest stop on US 53 in Minnesota. We're getting the day going here. We're going to go unload this lumber that I loaded yesterday under the tarps here. Going to get that off my trailer in St. Paul, Minnesota. And then we're going to take this trailer down to Bristol, Indiana, and we're going to put utility trailers on it and take those up to Winnipeg. So, let's get going. Got [clears throat] the whole truck and trailer ready to go. Got my coffee made right here. I've been thinking, I asked you the other day, maybe you answered, maybe you didn't. Did you watch all the way to the end of every vlog? Sometimes I ask you a question right at the end uh just to see who watched to the end. If I got another dog for the truck, what dog would you recommend and why? And what should I name it? Should I get a girl or a boy? I'm thinking like you got to remember I I have a very tiny truck, right? Very small interior. I would love to have a big big dog. I love big dogs like Chevy, but realistically this truck is just a little bit too small for a big dog. So, I'm thinking probably a mediumsiz, maybe even a little dog. I would love to have a dog that what do they call it? Hypoallergenic. Is that what they call it? A dog that doesn't shed. So, having a little poodle in it might uh might be all right cuz they don't shed. I'm not saying I'm going to get a dog. I don't think we're going to get a dog for a few years. uh because we're down to just Chevy now at home and we sort of decided that you know what I think Chevy deserves a chance to just enjoy his life and having his family all to himself. He's never been just by himself before. We might get him a friend yet, but if we do, it'll have to be soon because we don't want to get another puppy when he's very old cuz the puppy would probably run him ragged, run him out a little bit. So, we might have to wait until after he's gone and then get another couple of puppies. We'll always have a dog in the house, that's for sure. We'll always have a dog in the house. And right now, Chevy's very healthy. He's doing great. He's a perfect guard dog for the house. He's so gentle with the kids, yet uh very alertful, very protective of them in our yard. He's a He's a good boy. So, I don't want to think too seriously about getting another dog yet cuz we're not serious. But I am curious. What kind of dogs would you recommend for a small truck like this? And I don't want it to be like a girly little Pomeranian either. Okay. I have some pride. Okay. But little dogs are okay. Little tiny dog. I I like little dogs, too. Let me know down below in the comments section what you'd recommend. Oh, excuse me. All right. Shall we? I was going to stop for a eight and two split on my logs, but I ended up staying here the full 10. Make wanted to make sure I was good and rested cuz I got a really long day today and a long couple of days after this, too. And I did the math again and I realized I was going to be super early. So, I took that opportunity and I turned it into extra sleep time. Let's get out there on the road. Back on a US53 southbound in Minnesota. Let's get this lumber off my trailer. It's heavy. I don't want it anymore. They can have it. It's weighing me down. And then we'll hike on down through Wisconsin, through Illinois, into northern Indiana. Feeling really good today. Look at the sunshine. What another beautiful day. What a great summer this has been in our area. It has been great. We started off a little bit uh intense with all the tornadoes in Manitoba. But, you know, our neighbors to the south, they keep sending up all this crazy weather. We're going to have to tax them for it. Stop sending us here tornadoes. Oh, I should have gone. Why am I so nice? Ah, first thing in the morning. I'm always so nice. Now I got to wait for all this traffic. Here we go. Here we go. I could have made it, but I really didn't want to just, you know, floor it first thing in the morning. We're just waking up. I mean, old blue could handle it, but try to be nice to her. All right, let's do it. Trying to figure out what town we're in here. This is the St. Louis River. St. Louis. St. Louis. St. Louis. St. Louis. What are the chances this river goes through St. Louis? I don't know. I'm thinking they're pretty high. What town are we in? See, I don't usually come down this way. We're on US uh not US Minnesota 33 right now. We turned off the 53 onto the 33. And I haven't seen the town name yet. It was probably on the side of the road. I probably missed it. Do you see what I see? I used to play this game with my parents all the time. Every time. I'll give you a hint. There's two golden arches. Every time I see a McDonald's. You see what I see? There it is. I can almost taste the Big Mac. Actually, I don't eat Big Macs. I don't know why I always say I want a Big Mac. I never order Big Macs. >> [laughter] >> I don't go there that often, but when I do go, I get a double quarter pounder with cheese, no pickles, the large fry, and a Coke Zero, every time. But man, is it good. Oh, it's so good. The feelings afterwards are not always so good, but that moment it enters your mouth and your taste buds first land on that juicy, juicy double quarter pounder. So good. And the fries. Oh, McDonald's fries. >> Take the second exit at the roundabout. >> I'm talking here. I'm talking. This is very important. We're all We're all dreaming about McDonald's fries right now. You know how you get McDonald's fries fresh every time cuz sometimes you get them and they're kind of old, right? That's disappointing. You want the freshest fries? Always order your fries with no salt. That forces them to make them fresh for you cuz all of their fries have salt, right? So, order your fries with no salt and then ask for salt on the side. They'll know what you're doing, but you're the customer and you're always right. They have to do it for you. Then salt them yourself when you get them. Fresh fries every time. It's a little secret that I will uh I'll share with you. You I'm sharing way too many of my secrets with you guys, but I trust you. >> In 800 meters, take the second exit at the roundabout towards Duth. Towards Duth, eh? Going down there towards Are you sure you want to take me towards Duth? Are you taking me a loop? Oh, we are in Duth. Oh, well, just outside Duth, that's why. Yeah. And I think we're going to take I35 down. >> 100 meters. Take the second exit at the roundabout towards Duth. >> Ah, these roundabouts are always fun with trucks. All right, I got to take up both lanes here cuz people do not understand that I need both lanes. This is how I do this. Otherwise, people sneak in beside you and then they get mad when your trailer almost hits them. >> Take the second exit at the roundabout. >> Second exit, huh? >> Roundabouts are never made for trucks. There we go. Well, I shouldn't say they're not made for trucks. They are made for trucks. You can get around them. It's just other people if they get impatient or if they're not real like if they don't realize the truck needs a wide turn, they'll sneak in beside you and obviously your trailer is going to come like right up to their mirror, right? Like right close to them. I won't let it hit them. If it's going to hit, it's going to be them hitting me. I won't let it hit them, but they don't know that. And then they get all mad like, "Oh, this trucker doesn't know what he's doing. This trucker keeps trying to hit me." And they then they get all mad, you know? They they run up beside me and they give me the bird and then they might jump in front of me and cut me off and break check me. You know how people are. >> Common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone's garden. >> Follow the road. >> And I got the bypass for the scale, too. Did you hear that? That means I don't have to stop at the scale. [laughter] way station next. Oh, it's closed anyway. That's no fun. It's only fun if I get the bypass and the scale is open and I can just, you know, fly right past waving. So long, suckers. There's a beautiful downtown of Minneapolis over there. It is a beautiful city. Oh, I got to turn right here. >> I think >> hoop recalculated. In 400 m, turn left onto Southeast 29th Avenue. All right, found it. Right on time. >> Stop sign. Turn right on Tacoma Avenue Southeast. Then immediate >> Ah, shush. I know where I am now. Right on time for my appointment. How about that? Ouch. Josh, stop grinding your gears. Stop grinding your gears, man. All right. Now, where exactly do I need to park here? Do I park right in the lane? Is that what I do? I think so. Or actually, they might want me to take my tarps off here. I forget exactly how this works. Well, here we are. An empty trailer. We're ready to rock and roll. I'm going to go and grab those trailers down in Bristol now. We will be uh I think I'm going to go to Ottawa again. Ottawa, Illinois for night. I like that place. It's far enough away from Chicago that it's away from Chicago. I can sleep there peacefully. It's about a 3-hour drive from there into Bristol. And then I can do what I did last time. drive into Bristol, load those trailers up, get back up to Black River Falls, Wisconsin, sleep there tomorrow night, and then I can make it home one day from there. And then I'll be home for Sunday, uh, Monday morning, I'll go deliver those trailers, get them off this trailer, and then Monday afternoon, I have to go home. We have, uh, some things to take care of on Monday. I'm excited to show you that, too. It has to do with next summer. Did I tell you already? I forget if I told you already. I'm just going to tell you if I don't remember if I told you or not. So, I'm just going to say it again if I did and I'll tell you. We traded our camper in for a new one. We're getting a new camper or we got a new camper. It's already past tense. It's already ours. We just have to go pick it up. I'm hoping to do that Monday afternoon. So, we sold the 23 ft Rockwood 2304 DS or we got rid of it [snorts] and we got a 37 1/2 ft east to west bunk house travel trailer. So, it's a lot longer. It's got bunk beds in there. Sleeps up to eight, but it'll sleep us and the kids just nicely. It'll be plenty enough room in there for our family. And uh we've also got a seasonal site up in Manitoba right on the lake. We're going to be moving that into a seasonal site next spring and building it in there all permanently and that'll be our summer getaway. So, the first step for that whole process is going to pick up our new trailer on Monday. I just confirmed with everybody, all the tees are crossed, all the eyes are dotted. They're just doing a mouse protection plan on it right now, uh, which seals up the bottom and makes it very difficult for mice or squirrels to get in. There's just an extra protection on the trailer because it's going to be parked there year round. It will be out of my shop. I'm pretty sure I told you this already, didn't I? I can't remember. If I did, I don't care. I'm sorry I'm repeating myself. I'm excited. Got a new trailer. I want to make another coffee for myself. You know what? I was about to go make another coffee before we go. But yeah, that's why I've been very excited lately. Uh, next summer's going to be awesome. There's going to be a lot of camping footage in my vlogs and stuff. We'll have a lot of building footage because obviously we got to build it in there permanently, right? So, first of all, the first things first, we got to bring the trailer there in spring once the site is finished. Right now, they just cleared the bush. It's a brand new site. We got to put the gravel, the geoexile down first, the gravel down, and then in springtime, we move our trailer in there, settle it in, level it, stabilize it because it's going to sit right there. That's where it's going to stay. And then from there, we have to probably build a skirting around the the bottom of it. That could be an extra little storage area for us. Maybe definitely next summer, we're going to be building a deck in front of it. Got to put a fire pit in. Those are our two main goals for next summer. Sort of keeping the bar low, but we do want to build a sun room and a screen screened in room or whatever off the side of the trailer, like a lean to over the deck so that that area is bug free. Uh probably another screened in gazebo towards the back of the site. It could be a little reading nook for Brit or something like that. Uh, we got to build a little area for our barbecuing. I've got to get a smoker. Smoker barbecue. You have to have a smoker at the lake. And the thing is the campsite's right on the lake, too. So, they have a private boat launch there just for members. So, being a member, we won't have a boat for a few years at least. But, uh, the thing when we do get one, we have our own boat launch right there with our own boat storage. We can park the boat right at our site even. like it's uh we're very excited about it. Very excited. I don't know if I've told you yet or not, but if I didn't, well, I just spilled the beans and now you know. So, you can expect that after winter. Uh there'll be a lot more home time diverse footage from next year as our family settles in there on the weekend. We still have our house and stuff, too. We got to take care of that. But it's going to be so much fun. And the best part about this is my wife loves the new trailer. That's the biggest part because my old trailer, my wife did not like it. It was too dark. It was too small. Uh the bed, she had good points. I know she I I should have bought a bigger one or a different kind when I did buy it, but it's not a family trailer. It's like a couple's trailer. So, now that we have a family and our dog to Chevy will be coming with us, they have a a great great campsite up there. We went there to visit it a couple of weeks ago. and uh we put our names on one of the new new sites there. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be awesome. All right, let's make some coffee and let's get on the road. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's get going. Got my coffee. this thing on. Time to go. It's time to go. I do not have a stop sign here. Why does it feel like Wait a second. Wait a second. [laughter] Fascinating. >> This isn't a road. I'll quickly turn around. Good thing they leave such a big Hawaii open. Oh man. All right. Yeah, there we go. Okay, we'll just go this way. >> Silly me. Silly me. >> Something about Minneapolis St. Paul gets me every single time. >> I'm always getting lost. Okay. We can get out this way. >> Prove recalculated. >> Okay, he's on our way. >> Stop sign. Turn slightly left onto Southeast Weeks Avenue and then turn right. >> Southeast Weeks Avenue. >> Now turn slightly left and then turn right onto Southeast 29th Avenue. Okay. Wait, what? Which which way do you want me to go? You want me to go that way? It says no trucks that way. I'm going this way. I'm going this way. Minneapolis and St. Paul. What are you doing to me every time? Do you really got to be this mean? There's people behind me. That was embarrassing. Oh, this just goes around. Shoot. No, I did. >> Recalculated. >> In 200 m, turn right onto Southeast 29th Avenue. >> I was supposed to go that way. All right, we got to go past these people over here again. They're going to see me go around the block. This is right where we were parked before in front of this white pickup. Yes, I'm back. Hello. Hello. Just doing laps. What was I? That didn't look like a truck route the other way. Okay. Well, this time we're not going to go try to go that way. We're going to go that way. Yeah, turn right. That's right. >> It's ridiculous. And there's these construction guys here that are >> next stop sign. Turn slightly left onto Southeast Weeks Avenue and then turn right. >> Hi guys, I'm back. Okay. So, we will turn to the left that way. How embarrassing. There's like thousands of people watching me on YouTube right now. He's going to go that way, too. That way just goes around, bud. Maybe that's what he wants. He probably That's probably what he wants to do. They're probably working on the road over there. So, I got to go left and then I guess turn right. Right there. >> Got to turn slightly left and then turn right onto Southeast 29th Avenue. >> Yeah, because like where that truck's coming from. I can't go straight cuz there's a no truck sign there. That's why I didn't go that way. Wait for this guy. Mr. Blue. I like my blue truck better. Oh, he's going that way. Okay. Okay. See, I can't go straight. There's a no truck sign down that road, but I guess supposed to turn down here. Okay. Okay, >> now turn right. I'm I'm >> the next traffic light. Turn right onto Southeast Pomo Avenue. I think I think we're going the right way now. Sure hope I'm going the right way now. All the flags are half masked again. What happened now? Got a bridge ahead. 14T6. That will be no problem. But here's the highway we're going to get onto. 280. >> Now turn right. >> Careful, Mr. Dodge Ram. Careful, Mr. Dodge Ram. Thank you. In >> 300 m, turn left to join the Minnesota 280 South. All right. Turn left to turn right. Gotcha. >> Mhm. Mhm. You guys got stop signs. >> Now turn left to join the highway. >> That's what I'm going to do. in 2 km. Keep left. WI. The stop is on your left. >> Love Zakuro, Wisconsin. They got some moderately somewhat not so expensive fuel for me. It's expensive, but it's the least expensive on my day. So, here we go. My fuel lights about to come on again. It's time to feed old Blue. She thirsty. She real thirsty. This place is packed. I'm glad I'm not staying here tonight. Look at this. What a mess. Look at this. Yikes. Still got another 3 hours of driving to go before we're in Ottawa, Illinois. But at least I should be able to rely on there being parking there for me when I get there. Oh, the whole tractor trailer loves. They have their own trucks now. Wow. I remember when Loe's was just a tiny little fuel stop chain in Oklahoma. Now looking at it all grown up. All right, it's going to be a big one. Oh, I am not driving. I am fueling. I hope I'm not beginning to fight something off. I just I feel more tired today than I should be. Maybe I overslept last night. Or maybe just the week is getting to me earlier than it usually does. I don't know. Let's fuel her up and let's get to the end of our day so I can sleep. We're coming up to exit 93 on I 80 eastbound Illinois. This is our stop. From here, we'll go the rest of the way tomorrow. Load up and start heading home. >> In 200 meters, you will reach your destination. >> You have reached your destination, 93, Ottawa, Illinois. The destination is on your left. >> You have reached your destination 93, Ottawa, Illinois. >> Why are you repeating yourself, Karen? >> Karen's been drinking again, I think. All right. All right. So, on the left there's the Road Ranger truck stop over the bridge. And on the right is this Oasis truck stop that I like to stop at. Same place we did last week. This is my favorite place to park. It's sort of like my uh my stop where I like to stop in uh Minnesota at the Hasty Diner. This is the Hasty Diner of Illinois for me. Gasoline price here is $426 a gallon US and diesel price is $560 per gallon. Not buying fuel in Illinois. All right, let's go find us a parking spot again. Probably in the back. the same area we parked last time. We'll see. Unless there's a nice spot up here somewhere. There might be. It's a not a bad spot right there. That guy's got a reefer, though. We'll go park in the back. I used to park back here in this area. Told you that last week. That is now private parking now. I said now twice. That is now private parking now. Now. Now. Now. Why is this guy parked here like that? That's That's interesting. This is a very dusty lot. Yikes. a lot of red trucks. Look at this. Lots of room back here. Lots and lots of room. You guys dirty again? How do you guys get so dirty all the time? So dirty people. You clean me off there. Let me just give you like a scrub there. Better Ottawa, Illinois. What came first, Ottawa Illinois or Ottawa Ontario? I can tell you what came first between Ontario and Lake Ontario since we're talking to that. Did you know that Lake Ontario is an indigenous name that means shining water? Lake of shining water. It was called Lake Ontario. Long before Canada was a country, long before the US was a country, did you know that the province in Canada, the province of Ontario, was actually named after the lake, not the other way around. They didn't name the lake after the province. The province is called Ontario because of Lake of Shining Waters, Ontario. So, it will always be Lake Ontario. Today was the day when the US president just uh made his statement or executive order or whatever changing it to Lake America in in government documents in the US. Kind of a petty. You ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all, Josh. This is disappointing that this is where we're at. You know, we turned him down. We made him angry. So, he tries to rename a lake that isn't even ours to rename. He's not getting us with that. That Lake Ontario wasn't the name that Canada gave to that lake. It was the people before that gave that name to that water. I mean, he can call it whatever he wants. the the whole rest of the world is still going to call it Lake Ontario. That's that's the name of it. That's where we're at. But yeah, in case you didn't know, that's where it got its name and that's where the province of Ontario got its name. Yeah, the more you know. Fun fact with you. Shared with you right at the end of my vlog today. I'm tired. I got almost the same parking spot as I did last week. Last week I was a few spots over that way. That guy's got kind of a loud APU. So I moved myself a little bit further over here, but I'm all alone. All by myself, just the way I like it. Have a nice night here. Uh I'm going to stop for the shortest amount of time that I'm allowed to and then we're going to head on over to Indiana, load on up. So join me tomorrow, guys. We'll have some fun together. I'm tired. Can you tell? I don't even know what to say. See you tomorrow.