Far Too Familiar (and Wet) Ground

DATELINE: VANDALIA, OH, 4:43 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 242

'Twas an early--and wet--start to the day today. Although it wasn't raining when I woke up at 2:00 and hit the road 1/2 an hour later, the skies opened while I was on my way to my delivery. In the interest of concisity (found in the same dictionary as last year's word of the year, "truthiness"), I'll just tell you that my delivery and subsequent new load pickup were both in Zanesville and both were drop-and-hooks. Which meant I had to get out into the pouring rain several times to crank landing gear and unhook and hook air line and electrical connections. And since I started so early, it was all in the dark, too. At the pickup site for my new load (more on that later), I had to first back my empty trailer into a tight spot. It was oh so much help when the floodlight in the lot turned off just as I was getting started. There were still some lights behind where I was trying to back the trailer, and they were shining right into my eyes, making visibility oh so easy. But I managed finally anyway.

My new load is headed for Oklahoma City, so I'll be on my way there over the weekend to deliver it Monday morning. After picking up my new loaded trailer, I headed west (through more driving rain) and stopped here for fuel and to have the shop fix up my air conditioner. Fortunately, the load was headed this way so I could get that done. The shop finally finished the work on my AC after about 5 hours, about 1/2 an hour before my 14-hour driving window for the day expired. So I'm spending the night here AGAIN. But that's OK. I figure I have just enough of my 70 hours to get to OKC over the weekend and make the delivery on Monday. Had I had the chance to drive more today it still would have been using up the same time against my 70 hours. Whether or not I'll have any time left to pick up another load on Monday is another question. If not, I'll get 10.5 hours back on Tuesday and get a new load. (Remember, the 70-hour restriction is for any consecutive 8 days, so as a day "rolls off", the hours I used that day are available for the next day rolling in.)

I'll be back up and "at 'em" again early tomorrow morning, but not as early as 2:00. I have my alarm set for 4:00, so I can hit the road at about 4:30. That'll get me stopped for the night good 'n early so I can get a choice parking spot. When I'm done composing this I'll have to plot out how far I'm likely to get tomorrow (somewhere in Missouri,most likely) so I can find a good truck stop in the vicinity. So look for a "MO" dateline tomorrow.

That's my story for today and I'm sticking to it. I hope you find some shred of entertainment value in it, but even if not, thanks for reading it anyway. As ever, I'd love to read your comments to my posts, so please leave some. And, also as ever, keep on truckin'