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DATELINE: CORDELE, GA, 4:30 p.m. EDT

First things first: I apologize for my lengthy disappearance. For 2 or 3 days I had trouble with this site posting my update attempts; all it would give me was error messages after I composed the update and clicked on "Publish Post". Then, frankly, I had a bit of a case of burnout and wasn't in a frame of mind to take the time to put my thoughts through my fingers onto my laptop's keyboard. I've been very busy on this tour of duty and needed some time to recharge. But I'm back now and ready to get back into the blogging swing. So here goes.

(Quick note to reader dennis the accompanist: That was the best cartoon you've seen? I'll tell you my caption story at the end of this update.)

Miles Friday: 467
Miles Saturday: 365
Miles Sunday: 370
Miles Monday: 452
Miles Tuesday: 565
Miles Wednesday: 526
Miles Today: 423

Taking you back to my last update, a week ago, I was in southwestern Virgina, on my way to a Saturday morning delivery in eastern Alabama. So on Friday I just drove, drove, drove south through the rest of VA, across NC, SC, and GA, and into eastern AL. I spent that night at a non-brand-name truck stop where my trainer & I had once stopped for a dinner break on my very first trip as a professional driver. Ah, a trip down memory lane. Oh well, enough of that touchy-feely stuff.

Saturday morning I was up early and on the road at 4:00 a.m. (CDT, the AL-GA border is the time zone boundary) to trek the last 100 miles to the delivery. The customer site was in a town well off the interstates, so this part of the trip was all secondary highways, winding two-laners. But all went well and I reached the site about an hour early. I had a couple-hour wait while they unloaded. Afterwards, my next assignment came in even before I left. Cool. Next up: Pick up a load south of Columbus, MS at midnight. That meant I had to head back north to the interstate (I-20), then zip west across AL, and find a place for a 10-hour break before making the pickup. Fortunately there is a TA truck stop in Meridian, MS, about 70 miles south of where I needed to make the pickup. So I headed there and spent the afternoon and evening hours trying to sleep/rest.

I did manage to nap for a few hours, but nothing approaching a good night's sleep. I was awake at 9:00 p.m., hit the shower, grabbed some grub, and was back on the road at 10:00 p.m. This trip was again along a secondary highway, but it was a multi-lane limited-access one for most of the way, so the drive went quickly. I was again early for the pickup, which went molto quicko, then I was on my way for one of those dreaded overnight drives that I dislike so much. This time my course was north, as the load was headed for Grandville, MI, near Grand Rapids. But first I headed east to Birmingham, AL to get to I-65, which was the most direct interstate headed my way. I-65 took me to Franklin, KY, where I stopped at a Flying J for the night at the end of my shift (I had stopped at a rest area in northern AL for a couple hours of naptime when I was getting fatigued). This load had some extra time until the Tuesday morning delivery appointment, so I could stay in Franklin until the next morning and get back onto my preferred schedule.

Monday morning I was back on the road, following I-65 north through KY and IN. At the northern end of the Hoosier state I hopped onto I-94 east and made my way to the TA in Sawyer, MI (I-94 exit 12).

Tuesday morning I awoke to a thunderstorm. I made my way into the building to shower up. Afterwards, I stepped back outside to another shower, this one of the proverbial cats-and-dogs variety, as I dashed back to my truck. On the road, the rain lessened as I made my way northwards to Grand Rapids, and it was a mere light sprinkle as I reached the delivery. When the delivery was done an hour later, I made my way to a nearby truck stop to await my next assignment. I was hoping that whatever the assignment, it would allow me to swing by my "home truck stop" for the night and see Mrs. R.T. I wasn't holding my breath on that count, because chances were slim. However, the load assignment gods smiled on me, though I'd have to make tracks to make it happen. The assignment: head up to Charlevoix, MI, pick up a load there, then take it to southern Georgia for a Thursday afternoon delivery.

Now, Charlevoix is almost as north as you can get in MI's lower peninsula, and I had about 9 hours of driving to get from Grand Rapids to there and back down to the Ann Arbor area. In a truck with a top speed of 63 MPH (USA has the engines in their trucks governed at that speed). So off I went, hoping for no traffic snarls. By my calculations, I could just make it in my available timeframe.

I've never driven up US 131 through the western part of the state before, and it's a gorgeous drive. I highly recommend it on a beautiful summer day. (It'll probably be even more scenic during the fall color change season.) As I drove north, the weather did turn beautiful, clearing up from the southland's rain.

This post is getting lengthy, so I'll sum up some:
- The drive north and the pickup went swell--I saw a family of deer crossing the street while I was sitting in my cab as the shipper loaded my trailer. Very cool.
- The drive back south went just as swell, except I drove back into rainy, stormy weather as I neared my destination.
- I reached the TA in Dexter just before 9:00 p.m., and Mrs. R.T. was able to come over and see me for a while. We got to have a bite to eat and chat in the TA's restaurant. Also very swell.
- Yesterday I drove from Dexter to Knoxville, TN, where I stopped at another TA.
- And today I completed the drive to my delivery, using up the rest of my 70-hours-in-8-days limit. So I couldn't make another pickup today after the delivery; that'll have to wait 'til tomorrow when I get another 7-1/2 hours back. I do have that assignment already, though: I'll make a pickup in Albany, GA, then head back north, this time to the Akron, OH area. (Along the way I'll sit out a 34-hour break to reset my 70-hour clock to zero.) I feel like a yo-yo on this tour of duty, going down and up from north to south and back, repeatedly. By the way, did I mention it's HOT down here?
- I'm spending the night at yet another TA. So I've spent the past 8 nights at 5 TA's (including the last 4 in a row), 2 Flying J's, and one off-brand truck stop. But who's counting?

So now you're caught up with what I did during my "disappearance". I have one more week to go on this tour of duty before I return home next Thursday for some time off for Mrs. R.T.'s and my anniversary and our nephew's wedding. I'm really looking forward to that. But I'll keep you up-to-date each day 'til I leave the truck for that home time.

I promised a cartoon caption story, so here 'tis. The New Yorker magazine runs a caption contest each week, displaying the artwork and inviting its readers to submit captions. A few weeks ago I saw one that prompted me to submit an entry. The cartoon (I think it was by Gahan Wilson), depicted a monkey at a typewriter on a desk, with other monkeys in cages at typewriters in the background. A man, apparently and editor of some sort, was standing behind monkey #1, reading the page the monkey had produced and speaking the punchline-to-be-supplied. (You get the gist, don't you?). The caption I submitted (which somehow, unbelievably, didn't make the final 3) was simple and excruciatingly funny, "You misspelled 'Yorick'." Best cartoon caption I've seen in a long time, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, that's that. Thanks for looking in, and I apologize once again for dropping the blogging ball for a week. Keep those cards and letters--er, comments and questions--coming, and keep on truckin'.