On the Road with Kurt Grote

Hello everyone, I have one event that has come and gone. That would be the awards banquet
in Oklahoma City. This banquet is held every year to recognize drivers for their achievements thru out the past year and previous years. The awards go to 1 million mile drivers, two million mile drivers and so on. They also give company’s awards for their outstanding safety achievements thru out the year. I was fortunate enough to get an professional drivers award last year, one of only twelve are handed out each year in the state of Oklahoma. I was also nominated this year for the top honor of driver of the year for the state of Oklahoma. Unfortunately I did not receive it again this year, but the nomination means that I am doing things right as far as safety and the way I conduct my business. Once again one out of twelve is not that bad. I appreciate all the support I receive from friends and family in my quest for the top spot. I am not discouraged or am I disappointed in the out come, all it means is that I have to work harder at what I do. To be nominated two years in a row and tobe one of only twelve drivers in the entire state recognized makes me very proud of my profession. Next on my agenda is the Louisville truck show “mats” in Louisville KY. March 25th through the 27th I hope to see you all there. Until the next truck stop you all be safe.

Kurt and Spencer

Hello everyone, I hope all of you have been well and prosperous lately! As you can tell I have been a little under the weather. I am so ready for spring!! It seems every time I wash my truck either it snows or rains or something. Such is the life of a truck driver. Now down to business. I think it’s time that I give all of you a run down of the up and coming events and dates. The first event is the mid winter conferences. This is when Oklahoma will choice their next driver of the year for Oklahoma. I am fortunate enough to have been asked to attend this years conference, in hope of receiving just a high honor. The date is February 24th of course in Oklahoma City Oklahoma. Next is the Mid America Truck Show. The 25 thru the 27 of march. Freightliner is planning on presenting us with our keys to the new trucks at that time! I also believe that we are to do something with atbs’s Kevin Rutherford as well. The next event will be the actual picking up of the trucks from the plant in Charlotte N.C. That will happen the middle to last part of April. May I think at this point is wide open for me unless I do an open house or parade of some kind, I will keep you all posted. The first part of June, the truck championships which I am hoping to attend! Are on the 4th and 5th of June! If you have a chance to be in Louisville KY please stop by the freightliner booth to say hello. I will post more dates as they come around or if you know of an event that I could attend please let me know! Until the next truck stop all of you be safe!!

Kurt and Spencer

hello everyone, I hope your week has been good and prosperous. Has you can probably tell I’m back on the road, after my little cold I was suffering with last week. Where do you think I went? Yep thats right into the northwest. You might hear me complain about this part of the world, especially this time of year however it is still my favorite place to travel. The weather can and usually is a challenge no matter what the time of year. If you are a nature lover, you would appreciate I-84. From the state line of Idaho all the way to Portland if you don’t see any wild life, well you are just not paying attention. Just in the 375 miles in the state of Oregon I was fortune enough to see the remains of an elk that just didn’t make it across the road. Herds of deer coming down cabbage. Let’s not forget coming down the Columbia river gorge!! the highlight of this drive for me was the sight of not one but two bald eagles, and two of their nest’s. How do I know it was their nest’s? Only a bald eagle could make a nest of this magnitude, with a chick in it to boot! I did not see to many boats out on the river however. Seeing the cascade locks also amazes me! The thought of holding back that much water and filling the river up stream. Those of you that drive this area I’m sure this is just business as usual, but for drivers like me that don’t do it all the time it is a pleasure. If it weren’t for the openness of the Cascadia, with it’s large windows I would have missed most of these things. What about fuel economy you ask? Well here is the run down, 76,000 lbs from Joplin Mo to Portland Or., with wind and rain and of course snow and lets not forget winter blend fuel my average, was still 6.09 mpg. Over 6 miles to the gal. With speeds of at max. 70 mph and lows of 58 mph. I think that was a money making trip. Until the next truck stop all of you be safe!

Kurt and Spencer

hello everyone, by all estimations we are in the middle of flu season. I happen to know this first hand as I have felt pretty crumby for about a week now. I did however get to spend time with my brother on his birthday in Kansas City Mo. He is but 11 months older than I am so the fun we have with one another is how should I say quit hilarious! I was also fortunate enough to meet his grand children or my grand nephews! There are three of them and they remind me of the three nephews of Donald duck. All three are pretty unique and funny as well. The reason I mention these three characters is that I believe this is where I contracted my cold. Not having grand children of my own I am not use to being around little ones such as these. I do not think it’s because of me going out in the cold with my head wet, or the fact that it only takes a few seconds to run to the back of the trailer look inside and run back in the cold without a coat. Even the fact that when I pick up produce it is never as cold as you think it is inside the coolers. These facts should never come in to play when we talk about getting colds!! it should be blamed on… of course the children for they can not defend themselves in this situation. Of course I’m being facetious with tongue in cheek my cold is do to my own stupidity and carelessness. I am going to go take some antibiotics and nasal spray and do nothing for the rest of the day. By the way I think Spencer caught the cold also so we will rest for a few days to try and get over it!! until the next truck stop you be safe.

Kurt and Spencer

Hello everyone, I hope all of you have stayed safe this week. Take a look at this picture. Does it or does it not look like things are on fire? I took this picture out of the windows of my Cascadia as I was driving on hwy 58 west bound going down Tehachapi ca., into Bakersfield ca. I was on the phone with a friend of mine and I honestly believed that the whole state of California was on fire! Not until I got a little closer did I realize that it was just fog!! In my years of travel and numerous bouts with fog. I have never seen it roll in like that before. I do understand that people that live in the area, this is no big deal. Still after all these years of driving I continually get a charge out of the sights and sounds that our country has to offer. Enjoy the pics, and I catch you at the next truck stop. Until then you all be safe!

Thank you Kurt and Spencer

hello everyone, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a happy new year! As you can see from the picture below this is what it is like in Oklahoma after the snow and ice had moved through. What a mess! Like a lot of you out there I didn’t make it home for Christmas either. The roads in Missouri were not to bad, but by the time I hit the Oklahoma state line well it all went very bad. Basically it was a one lane road from Joplin to Oklahoma city. I also know and relies that there are other trucks out there that liked far worse than mine, but this is the picture I took. I think thats why we do what we do. We deliver our freight come hell or high water. We are a bunch of dedicated professionals that just go out and do our jobs. We may not like the situation but we deal with it. I hope no matter what state you live in, you had a very nice holiday season. I did finally make it home on the night of the 27th and took the next week off, so I’m back at work now and am in northern California to deliver in the morning. I did get lucky and drove underneath the cold and snow that some of you are driving in now. At any rate I hope you all are careful driving and having to work out in that weather! Bundle up and keep warm. Until the next truck stop you all be safe!

Kurt and Spencer

I know some of you had read my blog “emergency” from august of this year. The reason for the blog was that I have had a similar situation myself. While traveling east on I-40 in New Mexico I had gotten very sick, I called the EMT’S for some help. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me, so they told me to head for home. I slept awhile longer and headed out to try and make it home. I got as far as Amarillo TX,. When I found myself pulling on to a shoulder and calling for help. The ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital and the sheriff took Spencer to the county jail. While I was in the hospital they determined that I had a brain tumor. They stabilized me and sent me to Tulsa. The doctors here in Tulsa have put me on some drug therapy to shrink the tumor. They told me, that we would do another MRI at the end of December. If the meds are working the tumor should be shrinking! Today is the 28th day of December and we did are MRI this morning, took the pictures over to my doctors office for him to read! The results came back better than expected. The tumor had shrank ¾ of it’s original size! It’s like I can move on now, start planning things again. I will still be on these meds for a while, but hopefully one day I’ll be drug free again. In the mean time I will continue to drive my Cascadia and do my blogs, that I hope you all read. I will also look forward in anticipation for the building of my new Cascadia, and driving it also!! Until the next truck stop!! you all be safe.

Kurt and Spencer

Hello everyone, boy when I mentioned winter I didn’t realize what a bag of worms I would be opening up! Not to mention just plain being busy! I hope all of you have been just as busy. I seem to think it’s the last effort before Christmas. When I hit winter I HIT winter from all the snow, ice, and sleet in west Texas, to the snow and wind across Wyoming! Of course the wind in Wyoming is nothing unusual for all the drivers that drive there on an normal bases. However I don’t know for sure if its me or the fact that when freightliner built this truck they had all this stuff in mind. The handling of this truck has been flawless! And that is putting it lightly! I dealt with the ice in Texas with a light load only 20,000 lbs in the box. I’m not going to tell you that it didn’t slip and slide because it most definitely. However the way that the truck reacted to the conditions was nothing less than amazing, I’m so proud of this truck I don’t have the vocabulary to express my thoughts. Even at that I ended up going up to Washington state and loading up there. Well first my last fuel up on that run was lake havasu city az. So from there I made all the way up Thu California and in to Washington via hwy 97. if you have never been on or driven this route before I highly recommend that you do so, you will see some of the most beautiful country you will ever want to see! I had made it all the way to Washington made my pick up and made all the way to mountain home id before having to put on any fuel. I’m sure you can do the math on that!! coming out of Washington my gross weight was 80,140 lbs. Here again is where I am very proud of this truck! As I’m going up cabbage, for those of you that don’t know cabbage is mountain that is very steep curvy and dangerous. Going east up cabbage I’m passing trucks!! know I don’t know their weight of course but I would bet not all of them were at gross or over. By the time I got to Wamsutter Wy my fuel mileage was at 6.75!! how about that folks? After fueling up my next challenge was of course elk mountain and Sherman, once again I wasn’t disappointed! For example Sherman is short and steep heading east, the first part of the hill is very steep then just ride after the top! I’m passing other trucks going up nothing below 37 miles per hour I was passing trucks like they were on jacks! I wonder if the truck will continue to improve the more miles that I put on it! Keep reading I’ll let you know. I am now in OK going to deliver in Pryor OK tomorrow and as it stands right now my mpg is 6.35 miles per gallon! I will keep all of you informed on my progress thru out the winter! Until the next truck stop you all be safe!!

Kurt, and Spencer

hello everyone, I did make it back home for thanksgiving. It was a fun trip back I must say. I started off in lake havasu city AZ. And fueled up going in to California. I went to riverside to unload, and then I headed south to Yuma AZ. I used to pick up in Yuma a lot more than I do now. But I don’t get down there as mush as I used to. My route back to Tulsa is as follows: I-8 out of Yuma, to I-10 I take I-10 all the way to Los cruses nm. I go through Roswell and Clovis nm., I end up on I-27 into Amarillo TX where I pick up I-40 to I-44 in okc OK. I went all that way just short of 1700 miles on one fill up, could have made all the way to Tulsa but the fuel is cheaper in okc OK than Tulsa. I really like having the big tanks on this truck it allows me to have the range I need to purchase fuel at the less expensive places. Even tho I don’t get the fuel mileage the other guys are getting being able to fuel where I want is a big savings. As I told you several weeks ago I was testing some products and would report back to you. An update to that is the antisiphoning devises don’t work. I like the concept but the fact is, that once installed in the tanks, and this is on my Cascadia you cant get the fuel nozzles in the neck of the tank to pump the fuel! That was a big disappointment. I was hoping that they would actually work. Spencer and are off until the 1 day of dec. we will be up and rolling again after that. I truly hope all of you have had a wonderful thanksgiving. Until we meet again at the next truckstop, I wish you all well and safe travels.

Kurt and spencer

hello once again everyone. I have noticed that Spencer has run a muck over the blog last week. I guess I will have to talk to him about that! At any rate on to this weeks blog, the question that I have is how does a truck driver know it is winter? The answer is when an other driver tells you that the road is shutdown ahead of you do to snow, ice, and an accident. However that is 200 miles up the road! I don’t know about you but me I think I will go check it out myself. I’m not saying that the other driver is being misleading but I do have to question that driver on why he would report that. I figure that the road just might be open again by the time I get the 200 miles! I heard basically the same thing in Joplin earlier in the week. the conversation on the c.b. Was it was going to snow heavily over nite in Joplin. That any driver that needed to make a delivery should go now to beat the white stuff!! as it turned out all Joplin got was a little rain.( While the Cascade handled so well last year I anticipate the handling to be much better this year do to the fact that I have had a full year to get used to how the Cascade handles.) The c.b. Can be a very reliable tool if used properly. I try not to let the c.b. In my head when the weather turns nasty. If a driver is reporting an accident in front of you is one thing, but the other is uncalled for. At that point you have to just tune it out and pick out what is fact and what is fiction. And know your truck and your ability to handle that kind of weather. Above all you must be safe not only for yourself but the rest of us on the road with you. If you are unsure than simply park it. Another thing I don’t understand and maybe one of you can help me with it, is why would you say on the c.b. That some one is going to fast and you will see him in the ditch or median on down the road? Myself I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. I for one am never really ready for winter and all that it brings, however I want to test some of the tires that Michelin has put on here for me. They are more aggressive than what I am used to running but supposed to get better tire life. I will keep you posted. Until the next truck stop all of you be safe!

Kurt and Spencer