A 4870 mile trip in 9 days. This was a nice trip with decent miles again. Just spending a couple of nights at home before leaving again.

Seen two bull moose, a brown bear and a black bear on this run across The Rockies. I did not manage to photograph the bears, nowhere to stop, but caught this moose.

I am currently waiting to deliver here in sunny BC and I got an internet connection so took the opportunity to post some snaps of my recent trip across the mountains.

Also using this time to catch some sun and re-arrange a few things in my cab.

Tomorrow I am taking the empty trailer to our drop yard in Surrey BC and switching with a loaded one with a delivery in Sherwood Park, Ab and Grande Prairie, Ab, both on Monday.

Parked in The Husky in Calgary tonight on my way to deliver in Vernon, British Columbia, tomorrow evening. This trip has seen me leave home Monday afternoon and deliver Thunder Bay, Ontario on Tuesday morning. I went for fuel in Thunder Bay and was lucky enough to bump into Driver Dave. http://driverdaves.blogspot.com/. Nice to meet you Dave.

After fuelling I ran empty to Cloquet, Minnesota where I switched trailers and ran as far as Grand Forks, North Dakota that night. Next day got me to Saskatoon and Thursday seen me deliver and reload in Edmonton, Alberta.

Only about 6 1/2 hours from here to my delivery and they can't take it till 20.00 tomorrow at the earliest, even though it's only booked in for 23.30.

A nice steady drive across The Rockies tomorrow.

I think this one was taken at Lokeren, the border between, Belgium and Holland.

The truck parked on the quayside in Denmark while they unloaded and reloaded trailers then set off for Gothenburg, Sweden.

The yard and house of Joe Burchall, Naas, Ireland. When things got tough at Peca Peter got me a job with Joe. Joe was the haulier for Reindear Shipping in Dublin and covered the whole of western Europe, real nice trucks at the time and by now long haul was in my blood.




Dennis Kinsella having a shave on a hot sunny morning in Gennevilliers, Paris. This was a common sight among European truck drivers, as well as bbq's and parties in the back of trailers.




A hot summer day in the south of Italy somewhere. Milan and Paris were our two most common destinations but backloads could come from anywhere.

I think this was in Modena, Italy

Gary came with me on a trip too.

I did go back and work for Peter for a while but I had a real hard decision to make when I got the chance of a job at P&O Roadtanks. I hated having to tell Peter I was leaving, he had looked after me and made sure Sue and Gary were ok while I was gone. "All part of the rich tapestry of life" was one of his favourite sayings and so I moved on.

Delivering oil to a cargo ship in Port Talbot steel works. It was a real dirty job hence the disposable coveralls. The ships delivered the iron ore for the production of steel. If you look closely you can see one of the huge cranes in the background about to lower a loading shovel into the cargo hold of the ship.

This was my first Class 1 driving job after passing my HGV, I think it was around 1986/1987???

Since passing my test I had spent some time on rigids and working for agencies.

We started doing European work with the ERF in the photo's, mainly Holland, Belgium, Germany, France but I did get to Sweden, Norway and Denmark with them too. My first trip to Europe started when Peter, the boss man, asked if I had a passport. I had never been out the country so no I didn,t. I had to go to the Post Office and buy a 12 month passport over the counter, he even gave me the money to buy it, and a day or two later was on my way to Paris with 5 drops!!!

I had lost contact with Peter until just a few weeks ago when Ian, another ex Peca driver put us back in touch.

The job wasn't about the money then, it wasn't too bad, but we had some fun working there and there is lots of stories I could tell, but won't lol.

Peter was "old school" as were a couple of the drivers that worked there, the type of people that take you under their wing and teach you the job properly. I learned how to rope and sheet reels of paper that were tested for damp at the customer, chain and carry steel, long loads, wide loads we done it all, even collecting wine from the vineyards in France for delivery to the supermarket distribution centers back in England.

The top picture was taken in Norway and the second was loading dried flowers in Holland. The other two were in our yard in Widnes.

A very quick trip to Edmonton and back this week. Left home Thursday morning and back Saturday afternoon.

It was a nice way to get to know the truck. 1900 miles, 2 nights out. Leaving again tomorrow.

Old V New
Thats the older truck closest to the camera.

I have swapped most of my gear over into the new truck and brought all my bedding home to wash it before putting it back in. Will get some pictures of the interior later today. It has auto transmission and it will be a pleasure to drive an automatic truck again after having an Eaton Fuller crash box for so long.

The new truck has a number of advantages over the old one, the auto box is top of the list, but it also has a fridge and lots more shelving and storage space in the sleeper.

Will be leaving on my first trip in this truck tomorrow.

This week was a tough week, still got my miles but had to work hard at getting them, they didn't come as easy as they normally do. My radio started acting up to and if anyone has tried doing 700 miles a day with no radio you will know what I am talking about.

Another reason that this was a tough trip was that it was my last one in this truck and I just couldn't wait to get back and swap trucks.