Long Day/Night

DATELINE: TOMAH, WI.

Gentle readers. Remember yesterday how I was rejoicing in the fact that I'd be able to run during the day rather than overnight? Well, naturally, by writing that I jinxed the possibility. It seems that I had ANOTHER glitch with my fuel card, and by the time it was straightened out, it was 5:30 p.m. and dark already. But I had to go get my load and start the long haul from Kansas City to here in Tomah. And, of course, I had USA Truck calling and messaging me (did I mention we have a satellite messaging system in the truck? I'll have to detail that in a future post) that this was an important load and it was critical to get it to the receiver by 8:00 a.m. OK, the mileage was just enough for me to get it there in under my 11 hour driving limit, so that wasn't a problem. Here's where it gets interesting (and by "interesting", I mean "stressful").

1. When I fueled up in KC, I only got a little more than 1/2 a tank full. Reason: In case I get a heavy load, I don't want the weight of any excess fuel to put me over the 80,000 pound gross vehicle weight limit. So that's OK. I made the run from Milwaukee to KC--a little longer than last night's run--with just under a 1/2 tank. The twist: last night's load was rather heavy (thought not overweight), which burned up the fuel quite a bit faster. Anyway, the route from KC to Tomah is rather sparse in fuel stops on USA Truck's network list. So as I was approaching the Minnesota state line (from Iowa), my fuel gauge was heading downward quickly. So I had to message dispatch to get them to authorize an out-of-network fuel purchase. So there was a touch of stress there.

2. As I was heading east across lower Minnesota, I looked back in my driver's-side mirror and saw orange sparks behind my trailer's back tires. WHOA! That could be possible if the spacer between the pair of tires broke and the tires/rims were rubbing. So I pulled over by the side of the highway to investigate. On my way back along the side of the trailer, I noticed raindrops (did I mention it was raining during this run?) reflecting the amber glow of the marker light at the bottom of the middle of the trailer. Hmmm. Same color as the "sparks" I saw. When I got to the tires in question, nothing was smoking, looking hot, or out-of-place. So putting two and two together, I was the victim of a cruel visual trick. The marker lights on the trailer were reflecting off of the rain and road spray, making it look like sparks. I'll need to remember that for future rainy runs. So that was stress point #2.

3. When I reached my destination, I had to endure another set of bad directions. They said the company was on the right side of the road. So after turning right at a "RECEIVING ->" sign and not finding the proper company (name withheld for privacy reasons, but it's a big, well-known company), I found it on the left side of the road. Grrrr.

4. Upon reaching the gate at the destination, I had about 1/2 hour left of my allotted drive time. I was early, well before the 8:00 deadline (I think it was about 5:30 when I got there). USA had told me that early wouldn't be a problem, since my 14-hour limit would run out before 8:00. Well, the guy at the gate at first said they wouldn't take me 'til 7:00. When I told him that I was running out of driving time, he made a call and got me right in. THEN he informed me that I would dock the trailer at a door, unhook it, park my tractor in a certain spot, then have to wait 'til the trailer was unloaded and take it away when done. Well, that was definitely going to run me past my legal limits. I contacted dispatch to see if they could get another driver to come get the trailer, but that was a no-go. So I have now run afoul of DOT regulations. Nobody better give me a hard time about it 'cuz I busted my tail to get the load here after my fuel card problems (which were NOT my fault). Without them I would have had plenty of time to complete the run with a break before delivery so I would have had time available to wait for and drive after unloading.

Anyhow, I did park and wait for the unloading to complete, managing to get a couple hours of sleep (they gave me a time to expect it to be ready) before I had to grab the trailer and run. Fortunately there's a good truck stop just 2 miles up the highway (I-94) from the receiver's site, so I didn't have to go far. I got here (I'm still at that truck stop taking my 10-hour break) at about 10:30 this morning, so I'll be legal to drive again at 8:30 p.m. On the other hand, it's new year's eve and my next assignment isn't 'til I have to pick up a load on Tuesday, 1/2 at 11:00 a.m., 100 miles west along I-94. So I think I'll spend the night here to get PLENTY of rest (more on that in the next paragraph, if you can endure more of my rambling). I'll drive those 100 miles tomorrow so I'll be right close to my pickup point Tuesday morning.

Regarding rest in the truck, I found during my training period that when I come off my on-duty shift and head into the sleeper, I can usually fall asleep fairly quickly. However, what's disturbing is that I'll then usually wake up 3, 4, or 5 hours later and not be able to get back to sleep. That happened again today, which is why I'm composing this now instead of sleeping some more. I'm hoping this activity will tire me out so I can fall back asleep. But we'll see. I hope I can lick that problem soon so I won't be a perennially fatigued driver. Fortunately, I do have the whole night tonight yet to get more sleep and don't have any time-critical appointments tomorrow (and can therefore rest most of that day, too. 'Cept for watching the Rose Bowl. GO BLUE!)

Well, that's enough for this update. Happy New Year to all, keep those comments coming, and keep on truckin'.