Bob Sleasman's Blog, July, 2007

Bob's Blog

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007. Donna and I are in Green Ohio having our truck T-Val tested. We visited the nearby Victory Motorcycle dealership; we have been looking for a motorcycle for a while. The Victory is known as “the other” American made motorcycle. We are looking at a new left over 2004 Victory Kingpin that they have in stock. They also have a nice 2006 Kingpin Deluxe. We will see if we can make a good deal on one of them.

Received some good news this evening, we just received an offer on our camp in the Adirondacks we have up for sale. We made a counter offer, will see tomorrow how it goes. Top of page Bottom of page Blog author

Wednesday, July 25, 2007. We finished our T-Val test; we are now heading over to TSI Western Star to have some warranty work done on our truck.

We countered the offer for our camp, will have to see what happens next.

We are at TSI Western Star having the warranty work done. I also managed to talk Donna into letting me put some chrome on the truck. Everyone knows that a man has to have as much chrome as possible on his truck, got to have that BLING.

Work on truck is complete, now headed for the Expediters Expo. Top of page Bottom of page Blog author

Thursday, July 26, 2007. We are at the convention center. We worked all day waxing and polishing the truck, I have to say it looks pretty good. Will take some pictures of the truck tomorrow. A lot of the people stopped by our both, they all thought the truck was really nice looking, it made us, or at least me feel good.

For all you people just starting out remember, a clean truck is a happy truck. That goes for both inside and outside. Even more important is to keep up with the preventive maintenance. You really need to change the oil and lube the truck at the recommended intervals. I try to do my PM every 15,000 miles, my owner’s manual says 20,000 but I like to do it sooner. Top of page Bottom of page Blog author

Friday, July 27, 2007. It’s the first day at the Expedite Expo. The attendance is up from last year. There are a lot of really nice trucks on display and the friendliest people, both exhibitors and visitors you would ever want to meet. I took a walk around the show a few times and got some pretty good pictures.

Donna and I spent most of our time at the TSI Western Star booth with Bill Moore. I'm trying to be modest as I say this and at the same time very proud. Everyone who stopped by the booth just loved our truck, we received nothing but compliments. I have to give the credit for that to Bill for helping us build our truck, he did a great job helping us spec out the truck. Enough about our truck, all the manufacturers had great looking trucks. There were trucks with just about any sleeper configuration you could imagine. I saw the Speedco truck up close, it’s really a nice looking rig. I saw several APU and generator manufacturer displays. Just about anything an owner/operator or driver of an expedite truck needed or wanted is available here. I even managed to win a Garmin c330 GPS given away by Express 1.

It’s been a very long but fun day. The Expo is closing for the day, Donna, Bill and I are heading out to put some food in our stomachs and then a nice hot shower. Tomorrow, according to my super secret source is supposed to be a day with many visitors to the Expo. Top of page Bottom of page Blog author

Saturday, July 28, 2007. My super secret source was right, after we attended the Expediters Online Forum Breakfast, sponsored by Express 1 we went to our booth. At the strike of 9:00 am the doors opened and the people visiting the Expo we non stop.

Every exhibitor was hawking their products to the very friendly veteran, rookie and future expeditor. I think I wore my lips out talking to people, I know they went numb from time to time. Donna and I would take a few minutes away from the booth to see what was going on at the other booths. I managed to win a six pack of O.C.T. Energy, which is a very nice tasting energy drink. I was not lucky enough to win the Speedco truck. I visited the Chrome Shop Mafia booth and bought Donna and I T-shirts, I also bought a nice ball cap from them to cover my hair challenged head.

The day really flew by, before we knew it was 3:30pm and time for the Speedco truck giveaway. I don't know who won but they sure were happy. After the giveaway people started dismantling their booths, by 5:00pm the visitors were gone and another very successful Expediters Expo was history.

A fantastic time was had by all. We were able to put names to some of the people on the Expediter Forum. We also made some new friends in the industry from vendors to visitors. I'm already looking forward to the Expo next year. Top of page Bottom of page Blog author

Sunday, July 29, 2007. Nothing much going on today, we are at the Flying J in Youngstown Ohio . We have to go over to TSI Western Star in the morning, the muffler that was ordered came in and we need to have it installed.

I'm not happy about the judging for the Best in Show Truck at the Expo for the trucks on display at the booths. Progressive Ins., who sponsored the event disqualified our truck because it was not a dealer truck but owned by us. I don't see what difference that should make. The truck was still shown by TSI Western Star.

Progressive gave us a paper with a number on it so people could vote for it. I would really like to know how many votes our truck received. No one said we were not eligible, and they let people vote for us. When it came time to count the votes they disqualified the votes we received. I talked to a lot of people who said they voted for our truck, I really think we would have had a good shot at winning.

Now get this. The truck that won was a Kenworth W900L tractor with a huge custom sleeper on it. The weight of the truck was well over 30,000 pounds, and could never carry an E unit load. That truck should have been disqualified because it could not be used for expediting the way it was built. The truck would have had to been converted into a straight truck, and I don't think it could even make the length for a C unit. Donna keeps telling me to forget about it, but it just doesn't sit well with me. SHAME on Progressive!!!!!! Top of page Bottom of page Blog author

Monday, July 30, 2007. We are at TSI Western Star, the muffler didn't come in. Our Comfort Pro generator wouldn't cool down the way it should have last night, so we had them look at it. They ran it for a couple of hours and it cooled down just fine.

We are sitting at the TA in Lodi , OH . We have a load picking up in the morning going to Utah .

The generator is not working right again, called TSI, they noted the problem in their computer and promised to find the cause and repair it. We have to bring the truck in for some warranty issues with the paint. In August they will have the truck for about a week, and we will have them find the problem with the generator then. We can't afford anymore down time right now. The generator works, we just have to play around with the controller to get the air conditioning to work right. Top of page Bottom of page Blog author

Tuesday, July 31, 2007. We picked up our load and it’s off to the land of the Mormons. I love traveling out west. There’s nothing like riding through the plains and mountains, especially the Rocky Mountains , the views are breath taking. I wish we had time to stop and enjoy the scenery. Top of page Bottom of page Blog author