On the Road Again

DATELINE: SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY, 7:29 p.m.

Miles Today: 422

I'm back to work now. Many thanks to reader nancyr who gave me a lift to my truck early this morning, and helped schlep some of my stuff from the parking lot back to the truck. After she left, things went back to normal. And you regular readers know what that means...glitchiness.

When nancyr & I first got to my truck, we went in the passenger side of the cab. After I walked her back to her car, I returned to the truck to the driver's side. When approaching it, I noticed footprints in the snow at the back of my cab. Further investigation revealed that someone had made off with my battery cover. (The truck's batteries are not under the hood as in a car; they are mounted on a platform beneath the rear of the cab and covered with a plastic shell.) But the truck started OK, so all I had to do was drop by the Vandalia terminal on my way today to get a replacement.

Next, after I got my load assignment (pick up a trailer in Wyandotte, MI and take it to two stops in southern TX), when I attempted to drive off, I felt the unmistakeable tug of my trailer's brakes holding fast. GRRRR! Frozen brakes once again. So that delayed me an hour or so as I waited for a repair guy to come free up the offending brake(s).

Once on the road on the way to my pickup, after exiting the freeway and taking the surface streets, I (and many other motorists) came across a train stopped across the road I needed to take. It remained there for 15-20 minutes, delaying me even further. Once it had finally moved on, the rest of the day went pretty well. I did have another hour of delay once I got to Vandalia as I fueled up my truck then waited for the mechanic to put on the new battery cover.

So now I'm at a rest area just south of Louisville, KY. I perhaps sould have gone a bit further--I had 1 more hour of my 14-hour window available--but my last couple nights at home were rather short nights of sleep, and I am quite tired. So I'm going to finish up this update for you and get right to bed. I have quite a lot of driving to do the next couple of days to get to Laredo and McAllen, TX. I expect to blog for you somewhere between Texarkana and Dallas tomorrow night, if the roads remain clear the whole way. So keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for waiting out my weekend respite from this blog and coming back for more. Please keep your comments coming and, as always, keep on truckin'.