From Here to There, to There, and Back Again

DATELINE: BEAVERDAM, OH, 6:28 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 346

Today I managed to use up all of my allotted 14 work hours. Unfortunately, it wasn't all in racking up the miles. A good bit of it was just waiting around.

I started early this morning by going on duty at 3:00 at the Vandalia terminal. After fueling up my truck, I hit the road north to the Toledo area. I stopped en route at a truck stop for a quick bite from the McDonald's inside. Once I reached the delivery customer, I had to wait in line for a dock assignment. That wait was only 45 minutes, so not very bad at all. After docking and unloading, it was off to another truck stop just over the border into MI to await my next assignment.

While at the truck stop I composed a message on my Qualcomm box for dispatch, then went in for Second Breakfast (it was still only 9:00 a.m.). This truck stop also had a McD's. After returning to my truck I noticed my message hadn't been sent yet. (The "home" screen on Qualcomm is a status screen that displays the number of messages waiting to be read and sent.) This sometimes happens, even though the "No Signal" light was not illuminated. The only way to get the messages flowing is to move the truck. So I drove another couple miles up the highway to the Michigan Welcome Center rest area. There I received my next assignment at about 10:00: Pick up a load in Clyde, OH at 2:00 p.m. for delivery in Montgomery, AL Wednesday morning.

I headed to Clyde right away hoping I could pick up the load early and get back to Vandalia today, for reasons I'll explain below. I got to the shipper about 11:45 (after missing the turn into the company the first time by because of faulty directions supplied by USA) and waited in a L-O-N-G line of trucks to check in at the guard shack, which I finally reached at about 1:00. There they informed me that the trailer I was to pick up was still being loaded, and should be ready at the 2:00 appointment time, if not a little early. (This was a drop-and-hook situation.) So I had to park and wait after dropping my empty trailer in their "empties" lot. Shortly before 2:00 I walked back to the guard shack to inquire about my load. It wasn't quite ready, of course. Finally, at 2:20 I got the word to go pick up the trailer from their "loaded" lot. Of course, the trailer wasn't actually in the lot, but still at a dock door. (Fortunately, since I had seen their signs regarding procedures if the trailer is still at a door, I decided that was a distinct probability and checked there first.) That caused another brief wait while I waited for a lot "spotter" to clear the trailer for hookup and takeaway. Long story short (whaddaya mean, "too late"?), I was finally outta' there just before 3:00.

Math time: 2 hours to go on my 14 for the day, 3 hours (or more) to drive to Vandalia. Hmmm. Don't think I'll make it. Fortunately I knew of a Flying J just about at the point my shift would expire. So here I am.

At this point I should mention why I wanted to get to Vandalia. My truck has become ill once more. When I started this morning, the WARN ENGINE light was on; nothing new there, it seems to do that when it's cold. However, once it got light outside, I could see the truck was blowing lots of black smoke out the exhaust whenever I accelerated through the gears. Plus it seems the power is a bit down. So I wanted to get to the shop at the terminal so they chould check it out whilst I was on my required 10-hour break. Alas, because of the delays at the shipper this afternoon, I'll have to get it in first thing in the morning (I have about an hour-and-a-half drive left to Vandalia), and I may have to give up this load in order to get it to its destination in time. Oh well, ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do. At least I'm not on my way home this time. ;-)

I think that's enough rambling for today. Thanks for your patience in reading this far. Let me know if you like this much painful, excruciating detail in my updates. And, as ever, keep on truckin'