Finally Back Home

DATELINE: HOME! 7:50 p.m.

My apologies for neglecting to post updates the last 2 days. Wednesday night I was too tired, and yesterday I finally got home, so reuniting with my family was the priority. Besides, it was another long day and I just wanted to rest. But here's what I was up to.

WEDNESDAY
I was up early and on the road from southwest MI to southeast WI. That drive took about 3 hours with some slowdowns in Chicago rush hour traffic. The customer was in a large industrial/business park area, not far from a Jelly Belly plant. It took me a few minutes to place the aroma of the area, but it finally came to me...confectioner's/powdered sugar. Very pleasant. But I digress; back to my activities. When I checked in at the customer, they sent me to another site they have a few blocks away. So I drove over there, where they had me back my trailer against the wall of their building and drop it there. They didn't have an emtpy trailer for me to take to my next pickup, so besides my next assignment (if it wasn't to pick up a pre-loaded trailer), dispatch needed to find me a place to pick up an empty.

Mission accomplished. My next load would be waiting for me in Kimberly, WI, which is in the Appleton area (on the northern end of Lake Winnebago). An empty trailer would be available at a customer in Milwaukee that I've been to twice before, and is right on the route I would take to Kimberly. So off I went.

The empty pickup went quickly, as did the drive to Kimberly and the pickup there. My fleet manager told me that I'd just take the load to the yard where I park during my hometime, and another driver would pick it up there and take it to its North Carolina destination. While they were loading my trailer, I called my sister, who lives in the Milwaukee area with her family. I'd have enough driving hours left for the day to return to that area and spend the night at a Flying J there, so I thought a quick family reunion would be in order. Fortunately, they had some free time, so we met at the FJ that evening and had a good chat in my truck. Too soon, though, they had to head back home and I needed to get to rest up for my drive home the next day. (I wanted to get up and moving early enough to get around Chi-town before rush hour.)

THURSDAY
I woke up even earlier than I had planned and set right out. I was on the road at 4:30 a.m. I made a stop at one of the oasis rest areas along I-294 circling Chicago for breakfast at their McDonald's. The rest of the drive around Chicagoland was smooth and slowdown-free. I was a few miles into Indiana when my Qualcomm message box beeped. It seemed urgent, since it kept beeping at short intervals. So I pulled into the next Pilot truck stop to check it out. Surprise, a change of plans.

Naturally, since I had already made it past Chicago, they wanted me to turn around and drop the load at USA's yard in Blue Island, IL, a small suburb on the city's south side. Just what I should have expected when I was on my way home. To make the longish story short, the detour added about 3 hours to my workday and drive home.

I finally made it back home. Many thanks to reader jerry for picking me up in Romulus and driving me home. I get to stay home 'til Tuesday morning, so I'll have a full 4 days off. Finally a good respite from the job, especially since I'd worked every single day of the 4-week tour of duty I just finished.

Thanks for keeping up with my travels. I probably won't post again 'til I get back to work on Tuesday, so be sure to check back then. But please do send me your comments and questions. And keep on truckin'.