2008 in Review

First of all, I promise myself I will update this regularly. OK, now about '08. We started out blazing, the first half of the year seemed like we were doing great. And in gross dollars, we were. I didn't have a full grasp on what the fuel prices were doing to our profit margin. I didn't pay enough attention to it because at FECC we get a fuel surcharge so I erroneously assumed our margins were the same. Came to find out our fuel expenditures to gross revenue ratio had gone from averaging 25% in '07, to 35% in the first half of '08, meaning we were clearing 10% less profit than I was expecting. And we were grossing enough that it wasn't immediately noticible. Now we know. Of course, now diesel prices are about at the lowest point since we started doing this, but I expect that will change when the economy recovers, freight picks back up and demand will rise, thus raising prices.

'08 brought some memorable deliveries. We picked up a truckload of bales of alpaca hair (!) in northern New Mexico and delivered to San Angelo Texas. We hauled our first radioactive device, and a guy came out in full hazmat gear and a geiger counter to inspect it upon delivery. We went into Louisiana following hurricane Gustav delivering chain saws and into Houston, Texas delivering cell phones after hurricane Ike. Also delivered into Orange, Texas after Ike which was the worst damage that we actually saw with our own eyes. We delivered spacecraft parts to Vandenburg AFB in California and ground penetrating radar to the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey that was on its way to Iraq. While unloading, I got into a conversation with a guy and he said they were working on some experimental non-lethal weaponry and would I like to have a look? Well YEAH! They were developing "sonic cannons" that could be used in crowd dispersal situations. We delivered sound stage equipment to Panama City Beach for a 3 Doors Down show during spring break. We delivered cabinets for a high rise condo in Manhatten that was just a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, which we passed on the way in and out. We made our longest, most profitable trip of our trucking career, delivering items from Toronto for a jewelry store in downtown San Francisco (3000 mile drive!). On the negative side we delivered to the SeaRay Boat plant the day before they were shutting down production temporarily due to the economy and the Sterling Trucks plant that was closing permanently within a few months.

The weather was memorable on a couple of occaisons. After spending much time in the mid-west, we spotted our first tornado leaving a minor league baseball game in.....Hagerstown, Maryland! We spent the night in -11 degree F in Montreal, and drove in blizzard conditions in Ottawa Canada on the same trip. In addition to the aftermaths of Gustav and Ike we saw a lot of the midwestern U.S. flooding that occurred in '08.

The fun stuff of the job was good in '08. We spent the day on the beach in Malibu, California, and got to visit with my step-daughter Terri in L.A. We went to minor league baseball games in the aforementioned Hagerstown MD, Syracuse NY, Scranton-WilkesBarre PA, Altoona PA, Akron, OH, Toledo OH, Cane County IL, (suburb of Chicago), and Sacramento CA. We attended our first major league game in Denver at Coors Field on Memorial Day weekend, which was great. In past years we have also hit Durham NC, Salt Lake City UT, Albuquerque NM, Tulsa OK, Columbus OH, and have visited the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville, IA. We also got to tour Lambeau Field in Green Bay (a personal dream come true!). We continued our "Eatin' our way 'cross the USA" Tour, hitting the usual favs such as Ragin Cajun in Houston, Crawfishtown USA in Breaux Bridge LA, and made a new fav in LuLu's in Gulf Shores AL. We continue to try to get to JazzFest in New Orleans every year but it never seems to work out. Maybe this year.

So we enter '09 following the worst month in terms of gross dollars we have ever had (December). It took us several days just to get out of Atlanta, but our first load picked up about 5 miles from our house and went to Brownsville, TX. We hopped over to South Padre Island, something we had been meaning to do everytime we get down that way but never had, and had a good afternoon playing on the beach and then found our first new restaurant of '09, The Coconut Shack, on the Intercoastal Waterway side of the island. We relocated to Houston after a pickup in the area cancelled and had dinner last night at Ragin Cajun, having our first boiled crawfish of the season. AHHHH! So here we sit. A load opportunity just came over our Qualcomm going to Kissimmee FL but another truck with more dwell time got it. As I said earlier, I will update regularly this year, I promise!