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DATELINE: VANDALIA, OH

Well, gang, things are back to being glitchy. As you recall from last night's post, I'm to pick up a trailer here and take it into Virginia. The pickup time on my assignment was 21:00 last night (or 9:00 p.m. for you civilians). Since I had exhausted my on duty hours yesterday, I didn't bother taking the time to look for the trailer, and did my blogging and went to bed.

I got up good and early this morning (4:00 a.m.) so I could get on duty at 4:45 and on the road around 5:00. Thus I could finish my driving and find a place to park for the night before places stated to fill up. (That's my strategy every day.) Well, after fueling up my truck, I started driving around the lot here and, lo and behold, no sign of my trailer. So I contacted dispatch around 5:30 and they told me it was on the way, 102 miles out. OK, disappointing, but that bought me another couple hours of sleep. Then I woke up at 8:00, promptly went driving around the lot again and, lo and behold, still no sign of my trailer. Dispatch this time told me it was 53 miles out. That's one slow driver.

So here I sit, my 14-hour clock ticking (I have to count from when I first went on duty after my 10-hour break, which was 4:45), taking the opportunity to vent to my loyal readers. Looks like I'll have a mad dash once I get underway today, to get as far as I can towards my destination (it's listed as 469 miles away). Then I'll have to get up early again in the morning to drive the remaining miles to the delivery, which is, naturally, time-sensitive (can't be late). So I'll have that stress to deal with. At least it'll be a Saturmorning and no rush hour to deal with.

That's enough for this morning. I'll give you another update once I settle in tonight. Thanks again for letting me vent on your time, and keep on truckin'.