Correcting the Misinformation

DATELINE: VANDALIA, OH, 8:45 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 321
Miles Yesterday: 0
Miles Saturday: 412

Pardon the silence over the weekend, and the misinformation I fed you on Friday. Well, it wasn't misinformation when I fed it to you; my assignment was to pick up a load near Des Moines on Saturday and shuffle off to Buffalo with it for a Wednesday delivery. When I arose Saturday morning, I went into the truck stop to get some breakfast. When I returned to my truck, I had a message waiting that they had given me a new assignment: pick up another load in the Davenport area (about 20 miles from where I was) and take it to Ashland, Ohio for a Monday afternoon delivery.

I didn't like the change very much, because I hadn't been to NY state yet in my trucking career, and I wanted to add that to my collection (I buy one of those state refrigerator magnets for each state I drive into or through). I haven't had a new state yet during this tour of duty. On the other hand, with this new assignment I realized that I could reach home within 8 hours and park at the nearby truck stop and get to see my family over the weekend. WOO-HOO! So that's what I did.

I reached the home truck stop at about 7:00 p.m., and my wife came out to see me and we got to have dinner together. On Sunday I got to experience some other aspects of my "normal" life: go to church in the morning and Measure for Measure (my men's chorus) rehearsal in the evening. And in a hapy coincidence, my mom had planned to take my wife and daughters out for lunch that day, so I happily tagged along and got to see her, too. (Thanks, Mom, for the lunch!) All that plus I recorded a 34-hour restart of my 70 hours, so I can work long and hard this week before heading home for official home time next weekend. Hopefully dispatch will give me one or two lengthy drives so I can build up a nice paycheck for next week.

Quick note to my western NY relations (reader mrr and family): Sorry I couldn't keep that load and get a chance to see you. Sounds like you'd-a been busy, though, as I would have been there Tuesday night. By Wednesday night I would have completed my delivery, gotten a new assignment, and probably been out of the area. So we'll have to hope for another opportunity to meet up.

As for today, my delivery appointment in Ashland, OH was set for 4:30 p.m. Since I was in the Ann Arbor, MI area, about a 3-hour drive away, I was planning on hitting the road at noon. I got a message just after 8:00 a.m. from my dispatcher saying that the customer was ready for me and I could head right in. OK, so I hit the road 30 minutes later, after getting dressed and a quick bite to eat. The drive took just about exactly 3 hours, and when I arrived and checked in at the receiving office, the clerk there didn't have me on their schedule. Figures. So I had to wait for an open dock. Another USA driver was also there in the same situation; he had a late afternoon appointment and figured he'd get there early. We both waited, and about 1-1/2 hours later, they finally assigned us dock doors. Even after backing into the dock, it was about another hour before they started unloading my truck. Sheesh! All in all, I was there for 3 hours from arrival 'til they were done unloading my truck.

Afterwards, I drove just up the road to a McDonald's with a truck parking area. After lunching inside the joint, my next assignment was already waiting for me when I returned to the truck: drive to the Vandalia terminal (170-ish miles), pick up a loaded trailer there, and deliver it in Dayton, 11 miles away, Tuesday morning. Now THAT'S a lenghty drive, eh? Really gonna pad my paycheck with that one. Well, I expect I'll get another load right after that and it ought to be a bit farther.

So now I'm spending the night here in Vandalia once more. Except this time the weather is primo! No snow & ice; no cold, arctic winds. It was in the low 70s and the sky was completely clear when I got here. It ought to be very nice for sleeping tonight.

And that catches you up with my adventures. Thanks for checking up on me, and keep on truckin'.