Time Crunch

DATELINE: PENDLETON, KY, 7:00 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 468

Well, I missed another day, didn't I? Sorry 'bout dat, but I was taking a 34-hour break and didn't have any trucking news to deliver. I did play a lot of online poker tournaments, mostly single-table sit-n-go's, with mostly disappointing results. I did win once and took second another time. But except for one 6th place finish, I took 4th place--one spot out of the money--all the other times. Sheesh! My best success was in a dollar-buy-in tournament that attracted 743 entrants. I took 17th place in that one (the top 72 places hit paydirt), more than tripling my investment.

I did get a call from my fleet manager in the morning, so he could express displeasure and/or disappointment that I had to sit out a day with no hours available to work. Never mind that I had worked long and hard for 8 days straight, and that it is driver appreciation week. I wouldn't mind a, "Thanks for the hard work, you deserve a rest" from him, but that's not really the company's orientation towards drivers. Not that I'm complaining...OK, I am. But let's move on to today's tale.

I woke up to my alarm at 4:00 this morning so I could send in my "Back to work" message to trigger dispatch to send me my next assignment. After sending the message,I went back to bed, knowing it'd be a while before an assignment came across. It took me some time to fall back asleep, but I eventually did. The message with my assignment came in just before 6:00: Pick up a load at 9:30 a.m. in western PA, roughly midway between where I was and Pittsburgh along state highway 68, and take it to extreme southern Indiana for a Thursday morning (7:30) delivery.

This is another assignment in which the math is rather tight: nearly 600 miles (12 hours) of driving, a 10-hour break to include in there, and 22 hours between pickup and delivery times. Ah, the job's joys continue.

Anyway, after getting the assignment and plotting my route, I got up and readied for the workday, then grabbed breakfast at the McDonald's across the street (gotta have those Steak, Egg, & Cheese Bagels whenever I can) before hitting the road. I got to the pickup about 45 minutes early, checked in, yadda, yadda, and was loaded and on my way at about the time I was supposed to arrive. So that bought me 30-45 extra minutes for my trip. The balance of my workday was drive, drive, drive, stop for fuel, and drive some more. If you want to plot my route on a map, I started on I-80, followed PA68 (with a brief trip up and back on PA268 to my pickup), then over to southbound I-79, to westbound I-70 to the loop around Columbus, OH, to southbound I-71, to where I am now, at a Pilot at exit 28 just east of Louisville.

Tomorrow I'll get up at 4:00 again to hit the road at 4:30, when my break reaches its 10-hour mark. It will probably take most of the 3 hours I'll have to get to the delivery on time, but at least I'll be scooting through Louisville before anybody else is awake and clogging the roads.

So that's today's tale. I hope you've found it enjoyable and insightful. Thanks for your curiosity, and keep on truckin', right after you send me some comments and questions.