October 2018

Been on the road since thurs with my mentor driver. First stop was York, PA got to see my dad briefly traveled through MD, VA, to NC for a load. Then passed through Philip’s territory in SC onto Atlanta, Ga drop load. I drove through AL, MS, LA to drop load again. Now its to Chattanooga, TN. Got 9 more days or so and orientation.

Been working with an 8th grade boy, who lacks self-confidence and motivation. Went to his senior brother and asked what it was that really interested him. So now I'm starting a Military Science Club at lunchtime. Hasn't been officially announced, but the buzz is already starting.

Wow. That's Fantastic!

(But do you think that you can find anyone who is qualified to mentor the group?)

Claymore wrote: Wow.  That's Fantastic! (But do you think that you can find anyone who is qualified to mentor the group?)

What do you charge per diem?

joecool wrote:

Claymore wrote: Wow.  That's Fantastic! (But do you think that you can find anyone who is qualified to mentor the group?)

What do you charge per diem?

Well, I'm cheap.

The problem is housing those 4 NSA Spooks that the Government has assigned to watch me.

I was offered & I accepted a new job Monday. I will be leaving my current employer at the end of this next week.

No more working nights for me.

I will still be driving, but it will be Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:30PM

Looks like a great company to work for & I am very excited

How is it that half the guys on this forum get paid to drive? If I had a penny for every mile I've ever driven...

How did all you guys in the SE fare after Michael?

Claymore wrote:

joecool wrote:

Claymore wrote: Wow.  That's Fantastic! (But do you think that you can find anyone who is qualified to mentor the group?)

What do you charge per diem?

Well, I'm cheap.

The problem is housing those 4 NSA Spooks that the Government has assigned to watch me.

We don't use that vernacular anymore...its "African American"...

joecool wrote:How is it that half the guys on this forum get paid to drive? If I had a penny for every mile I've ever driven...

Until "Kit" takes over they still need huMANs to drive those vehicles
Huge shortage of drivers these days is driving incentives, salaries, and companies offering to put you through school and hotel stay. Local and regional jobs wanting 2+ years are advertising just 1 year experience.

Ten days running finally get a Sat evening and whole Sunday off. We have a load that can't be dropped till tomorrow 11am. Parked at a TA stop in Kansas City, Kansas till then. Got a hot free shower and hanging out in the driver lounge to occupy my time. I attended my first truck stop chapel this morning. Thursday will finish up two weeks and hope to get home a few days and do orientation next week to go solo and make some real, "Grover Clevelands".

RRCmdrBennett wrote:Ten days running finally get a Sat evening and whole Sunday off.  We have a load that can't be dropped till tomorrow 11am.  Parked at a TA stop in Kansas City, Kansas till then.  Got a hot free shower and hanging out in the driver lounge to occupy my time.  I attended my first truck stop chapel this morning.  Thursday will finish up two weeks and hope to get home a few days and do orientation next week to go solo and make some real, "Grover Clevelands".

Hey, good luck.

You might have a boundless Mission Field, out there.

"..................The Fields are Ripe for Harvest, but the Workers are Few.............."

Well were teaching the backpacking merit to our Discovery to Exped boys. Taught all the merit reference stuff the first 3 weeks. Then we moved into getting the packs from home lined out. Then took 3 weeks to make hobo stoves. Drilling and deburring and assembling them. Then last night making some fire starters...that's when the trouble started.....

I have used my two hot plates for several years and they go low enough temps to keep the paraffin wax melted and have worked well. I used them at our Survival Action Camp a few months back.

Tonight I pulled them out plugged them and kept them under a watchful eye. One of them had a bit of wax under the burner and as it warmed up it put out some smoke. I checked it often and shut the burner down once I realized it was very lightly smoking up the small room we were in. THEN it happened. Alarms went off. I unplugged the hot plate that was putting off the little bit of smoke as the Rangers all moved outside as we waited for the Fire department to show up.

I moved the hot plate out to the back door and put a fan on to remove the very light cloud of paraffin wax smoke as we turned off the fire alarm and reset it to clear alarms. In a few minutes time.....Ozarks BEST Fire department were in our parking lot with lights flashing, sirens going and ….. well to say the least... I sighed.... it was me. Sorry.

Funny thing is I have set off so many of these alarms and 911 alarms over the years working for at&t by working on the lines.... now it was my turn to say high to Fireman as the Rangers got to talk to them.

The rest of the meeting we finished up the hobo stoves, braided Jute wax fire starters and made 3 match toilet paper fire starters and had a great time. RANGERS IS SO MUCH FUN! Our Backpacking Merit is going on 5 weeks and we will do 2 more weeks before we load them all up and take them on a exciting Entry level Backpacking trip.

I went home last night told my wife I caused all the fire alarms through out the whole church as I looked at the ground like a little boy that dropped the pie. I took those hot plates put them out on the driveway and put 2 tin cans with some water on them and cranked them up on high for about 45 minutes. Never say nothing new happens..it will. JUST BE READY!

Ok. Your turn. Let's hear a report on a Ranger Event that just got better and better and better.

Mark Jones (town cryer lost his title to "ole smokey") Life is good!

We went straight from summer to winter here overnight. Brrrrr. Went from sweating one day to wearing a jacket the next.

Phillip Gross wrote:We went straight from summer to winter here overnight. Brrrrr. Went from sweating one day to wearing a jacket the next.

At least you had a Fall. We've had a couple of snowfalls already.

FCF TREK in the morning. Over night Backpacking with pre 1820 materials. I am leaving my 3000.00 worth of comfort backpacking gear for canvas and wool blankets and some leather. Wow.... low's is 37 high of 60 no rain. Perfect weather for this Trek. We have 10 going. With 5 young bucks. It will be fun. I spent about 500.00 this past 2 weeks buying gear to make the trip period correct. Well at least look like it. It's hard to find articles made out of the old stuff anymore. Most fabrics will have a mix of materials in them. My haversack and 2 trumplines and possibles pouch and wooden canteen with water and food is 60 pounds... wow. My modern day backpack is 43 lbs with all the comforts of home.

Please pray for us.

Mark Jones

Finish my orientation Monday for P.A.M. Transport then go get our truck. I hadn’t expected to run into a couple guys from C1 school and one guy was in my class from the start asked if I team up with him. I accepted. Initially way back was going team then went solo because of concerns of not knowing the partner driver. Since I know him and we have common views (guns, politics, etc). Went from a potential $50k/yr to $70k+ /yr. The most amazing thing is they attempt to get every driver home for Christmas. Broke down they said they would even go so far to arrange flight home and back to trucks.

Good to see Philip is back! I was within “range” of Philip a couple weeks back as well as Claymore! My mentor trips went from Ohio, PA down to Ga and across all the way to Los Angeles CA.

Let me know if you come through when you can stop. Maybe we can eat a meal.

Phillip Gross wrote:Let me know if you come through when you can stop. Maybe we can eat a meal.

Sure thing definitely will. Don’t be a stranger here either haha (guilt trip...)

Visited another church tonight that had a guest speaker, an older gentleman who is a White House correspondent (works for a national denominational newspaper). His topic was The White House and Israel, and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, there were only a dozen in attendance.

Howdy guys, first week on my new job is going well. Nice getting to spend an evening at home with the family after a year of working nights.

My new employer is a defense contractor that does welding, CNC machining & laser cutting. They also do some commercial work, but 80% of their business is military.

My work mainly involves transporting parts out to subcontractors & picking them up when they are done.

What are you bringing back?

Phillip Gross wrote:What are you bringing back?

Parts

We send parts out to subcontractors for heat treating, plating or or other specialized treatments. I take them there & then pick them back up another day.

Ah, gotcha. In my world when parts make it to a sub, they get installed from there and don't get returned unless there's a problem.