Weekend Break

DATELINE: EFFINGHAM, IL, 6:30 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 345
Miles Yesterday: 0

When last we met, I explained how I had arrived at the company's West Memphis, AR terminal and was awaiting word on whether or not they wanted me to drop my loaded trailer there, since I was about out of my allotted work hours. Well, I never got the word 'til 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning when I was awakened by the driver who had been assigned to complete the load--to which my truck was still attached--knocking on my door. That's always such a pleasant way to wake up...NOT! So, many thanks to the weekend dispatch crew for failing to get the word to me in advance...NOT!

Anyway, I got up, unhooked the trailer, moved my truck to another parking spot, and could not get back to sleep, even though I had been up 'til 2:00 a.m. reading and was tres tired. So I stayed up. I also waited to get word on what my next assignment would be, but that didn't come 'til mid-afternoon. Assignment: Take a loaded trailer from the West Memphis terminal to a customer in western Michigan (awwright! Back to the home state!) for a Wednesday morning delivery. That gave me the chance to complete a 34-hour break at West Memphis before I would need to get back on the road. (Reminder, the 34-hour break "resets" a driver's 70-work-hours-in-8-days clock to zero, so I could go back to those long work days and not have to keep a close eye, for a few days, anyway, on whether or not I was nearing that mark.)

So I spent most of Sunday on my "2nd job", the online poker thing, mostly taking bad beats. And I took a break from that in the evening and watched "The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King" in the drivers' lounge. That kept me up later than I had wanted, and then I had trouble falling asleep, despite great fatigue. Then the fun continued.

I woke up this morning just fine, took a shower and shaved, got back in my truck and found my assigned loaded trailer, hooked up to it, fueled up, drove down the road to a truck stop to weigh my load (this is a heavy one), grabbed a bite to eat there, and then hit the road. I had just gotten up to speed on the highway when an alarm sounded and grabbed my attention. I glanced at the console and saw the engine temperature warning light on and saw the temperature gauge reading way too high. Uh oh, not good. I slowed down to lower the temp a bit, proceeded to the next exit, turned around, and returned to the terminal to report the problem to the shop there. So I was stuck there for another 3-1/2 hours 'til they had fixed the problem. I was back on the road at 11:00 a.m., CDT, after originally starting out at 7:00.

Fortunately I had a "short" drive planned for today, to reach my current locale in central IL. It's about halfway to my MI destination, my plan being to split the drive up into 2 easy days of driving. Tomorrow I'll head for one of several truck stops in the Grand Rapids area; I'll decide on which one by whichever whim is in the forefront as I near the area. Watch for my report tomorrow evening.

I'm still a bit behind on my sleep, so it's time to wrap this up and hit the sack. Thanks for your rapt attention. Let me know how things are with you via the comments feature of this blog and, as always, keep on truckin'.