Traveling with Trucker Tomo: A few adventures..... in a busy week!!

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July 2nd and 3rd, Tomo was in Butte, Montana for 2 days while his truck was being worked on. For the last few weeks he has been in some hot parts of the country with not air conditioning as well as other issues. In winter not heat, then in summer no air..... par for this course it seems!! Anyway he came into Anaconda, Montana on Friday afternoon and dropped off his truck. He used his own car and went into Butte and was in a motel for two days just kicking back. He didn't call about meetings until Saturday. Only then did he find out Manhattan Convention was going on. So he got up early Sunday morning and drove over to Manhattan for breakfast and morning meeting.

He had to meet a guy with a load so he then went back to the yard and got my truck. He was scheduled to make a fast run up to Calgary and be there in time for a midnight delivery. However, the driver (The loaf, in Tomo's terms) didn't arrive until 14:30. Tomo left the yard under a tight schedule and was running up north just fine until one of the trailer tire popped. Tomo then slowly made it into Great Falls, Montana and got it repaired. By this time, there was no way he would make the midnight appointment. This shipment was watermelons. Tomo arrived at the border and discovered the customs paperwork hadn't cleared. So Tomo sat at the border from 21:30 Sunday July 3rd until 09:30, Monday July 4th. He finally arrived in Coutts, Alberta at 13:00. He drove onto Lethbridge, Alberta and blew out a drive tire at 14:30.

Bang Bang Bang Happy Fourth of JULY!! Bang Bang Bang

By the time it was repaired it was 16:30. Tomo drove on to Calgary and arrived at 18:30 and was to deliver the watermelons at 04:00 on Tuesday July 5th!

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After the watermelon incident, Tomo did a turn around and headed back to Shelby, Montana to swap trailers for a load of transformer that were headed back up to Calgary. Tomo arrived at 17:30 and once again was held up at Coutts, Alberta because of paper work. Finally cleared at the border on next day at 03:30. Tomo took off to Calgary and dropped his load of transformers at 08:00.

The drop location in Calgary, Alberta was an electric supply/service company.

Transformers

Electrical Supply Drop site

From Calgary (empty) to Muscatine, Iowa.

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Taber, Alberta... trailer on it's side.... not sure why or how!

Plentywood, Montana

Froid, Montana

Sidney, Montana

Downtown Sidney, Montana

On the way down to Muscatine, Iowa Tomo took some photos to show the area in the Midwest from Floyd, Iowa to Waterloo, Iowa

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Floyd, Iowa

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Waterloo, Iowa

Tomo made his way down to Muscatine, Iowa. He had to chose his route wisely as there is still flooding and flood warnings in parts of the main routes that he would normally drive, like Minot, North Dakota.

In Muscatine, Iowa Tomo picked up a load that was relayed up from Georgia. It was Tomo's turn to take this load to multiple destinations starting in Winnipeg Manitoba, then on to Calgary Alberta, and ending in Prince George British Columbia.

In this dry van are two mini excavators and three skidsters. On Monday, July 11th Tomo will drop the three skidsters in Winnipeg,Manitoba. Then on Tuesday, July 12th he will drop one excavator in Calgary, Alberta. The final drop will be on Wednesday with the last excavator in Prince George, British Columbia which is a new spot for Tomo and it will be about 680 mi and take him about 10-12 hours from Calgary, Alberta.

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Mini Excavators

Takeuchi Skidster

Tomo left Atalissa, Iowa (near Muscatine, Iowa) Saturday morning and came drove all the way to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The drive was a total of 820 miles and Tomo said "it was a good day, I shall say!!" He barely made it to the border at Emerson, Manitoba. He had 15 minutes to spare in US driving hours when he crossed the border.

He has Sunday meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba already lined up, it is roughly 10-15 min away from this truck stop. He will drive there with his tractor. On Monday morning he will drop of his load and head out for Calgary after that.