Goin' to See the Choo-Choo

DATELINE: CHRISTIANA, TN, 2:50 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 454
Miles Yesterday: 262

First of all, please pardon my lack of update yesterday. I did try to give you the news, but for some reason my blogspot login screen would not come up. Anyway, I'll catch you up with today's compilation.

Yesterday I made my delivery in the morning outside of Grand Rapids, MI. That took a couple of hours, then I drove to a nearby truck stop to wait for my next assignment. This one wasn't so quick in coming, so I had a bit of a wait for it and grabbed a bite to eat during the downtime. Finally it appeared: Bop over to Paw Paw, MI to pick up a load bound for Chattanooga, TN.

The pickup appointment wasn't 'til 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, and I received the assignment at around 10:00. Paw Paw is only about a 1-1/2-hour leisurely drive from where I was, but I plotted my route and headed there anyway. I arrived just after noon and checked in.

I was told, as I expected, that the load wasn't ready yet. However, they told me that they'd get the warehouse working on it right away and to check back in half an hour. Which I did. The load was ready for me, and they sent me to the appropriate dock to get loaded up (this site had a few buildings). 30 minutes or so later, I was on my way. I decided to head south through Indiana, rather than Ohio, for two reasons: 1. I've done that I-75 drive through OH many times, and it's quite boring, and 2. Indiana has a higher speed limit for trucks.

I stopped for the night in Fort Wayne, IN at a familiar truck stop. It's familiar because when I was in truck driving school in Fort Wayne, way back last October, when we were training on the road the instructors would often have us stop there for breaks. This time I stayed just a little bit longer--overnight.

I got up and on the road very early this morning--4:30 a.m. I wanted to get a good long drive in today and finish up before the truck stops would start getting busy. I had noticed that there aren't any in the immediate vicinity of Chattanooga, so I knew that any and all spots would fill up early.

Today's drive was just fine, without incident or traffic headaches. I could--or probably should--have gone a bit further than this place I stopped today, but I was getting a bit fatigued and this seemed like a good enough place. It's a Love's truck stop with a McDonald's and the parking lot was wide open. It's only another 100 miles or so to Chattanooga, so I'll hit the road at 4:30 again tomorrow morning to get to my delivery on time, which is 7:00 a.m.

So that's the latest news from the road. Thanks again for looking in. It's been a few days since the latest comments from y'all, so please do send something my way. And don't neglect your keepin' on truckin'.