Fixed and Breaking

DATELINE: VANDALIA, OH, 9:35 a.m.

Miles Yesterday: 378

Yesterday was a lot longer than I wanted it to be. Although my total on-duty time was "only" 9-1/2 hours, I only had about 4-1/2 legally available. I had wanted just to drive here to USA's terminal to get my truck's health issues corrected, but dispatch needed me to go pick up a load first. It was only a couple hours away, in the opposite direction I needed to take to get here. And, of course, it was a heavy load (44,000+ lbs.), so that slowed me down, too.

In my last report I mentioned that I would be taking the load to Bethel, PA at the direction of dispatch. Well, that was the night-time dispatcher's idea. When I "phoned home" after picking up the load and mentioned that I was on my way to Bethel, the daytime dispatcher (my fleet manager) let me know that the plan was to drop the load here in Vandalia, instead. That sounded better to me, because it was a slightly shorter drive, and I wouldn't be going through mountains the whole time with the heavy load.

I arrived here in Vandalia at about 6:15 p.m., cranked down the trailer's landing gear, unhooked the electrical and air lines, and released the trailer hookup so I could pull out from under it. I climbed back into the cab, turned the key, and the batteries were dead. How's that for timing? To save you the boring details, the shop had it in and out within about 3 hours, ready to go. The truck starts just fine now, and the idle system worked as advertised all night, so I'm ready for more work. Except that I've used up my hours allotment.

So today I'm sitting out a 34-hour break. Whew! I can use it. I was pretty well exhausted last night, even though yesterday was a "short" work day. The previous few long, stressful days took a definite toll on me. But I did have a good night's sleep (9+ hours) and feel a whole lot better today. I'll take it easy today, rest up, catch up on e-mail, and get to bed early tonight so I can get back at it early tomorrow (my 34 hours are done at 4:15 a.m.).

There. Now you're caught up with the story. I hope you have a good weekend with plenty of time to read this and send me your comments. Thanks for reading, and keep on truckin'.