Venturing East

DATELINE, RIDGEWAY, WV, 9:30 p.m. EDT

Miles Sunday: 0
Miles Monday: 508
Miles Today: 400

Once again I've fallen behind on my blogging. Sorry 'bout that; I've had some more long days.

SUNDAY
I got up at 5:30 a.m. in order to get my shock into the Vandalia terminal's shop for its maintenance appointment at 6:00. During the maintenance checkup they found some other items that needed attention, therefore turning the 1-hour service into an 8-hour-plus wait. Since the work took so long, I decided to just complete a 34-hour break there and head to my delivery on Monday morning.

MONDAY
A L-O-N-G day. I was up early (4:30 a.m.) and on the road by 5:15 to cross Ohio from southwest to northeast (Dayton to Akron, basically) to get to my delivery. The drive and delivery went fine--it was a customer to whom I'd delivered once before early this year, so I knew the ropes there. It was a drop-and-hook, so I didn't have to wait during an unloading process, though the guard at the gate kept sending me to incorrect locations for an empty trailer. (This place keeps track of precise parking spots--which are numbered--for each trailer while it's at the facility.) I was done with that by noon. Then I had a wait of a couple hours before my next assignment came in.

Next up: Drive back to a site 45-ish miles south of Columbus (in Chillicothe) to pick up a load that would be due in northern VA Tuesday evening. That meant another few hours of driving--and negotiating the Columbus area at rush hour just to get to the pickup. I knew that this would take me close--if not beyond--my daily hours of service limits just to get to the pickup, wait through the load, and find a place to spend the night. And I was right; the load wasn't done 'til my after 14 hour driving window had expired. But I did have to get somewhere to park for the night, and the most likely places were at least an hour away. So I headed up US23 from Chillicothe to I-70. (I did pass a couple of smaller truck stops along 23, but they were full.) Finally, a bit east of C'bus on I-70 I found a parking spot at a Flying J.

TODAY
Since today's delivery appointment was for 7:00 p.m. and the site was less than 400 mile away, I slept a bit later than usual, though not as late as I would have liked. And I had been up late last night, so I have been tired all day. I got rolling around 9:00 a.m., and boy did the day drag on. Once I got into eastern OH, WV, and PA, the route got very hilly, and with a very heavy load it was hard to keep up a good speed. So it took a wee bit longer to reach my destination. Plus I had some delays when I stopped at very busy truck stops to weigh my truck and fuel up. And by 3:00 I was feeling quite fatigued, so I pulled into a service center along the PA Turnpike and took an hour-long nap.

I got to my delivery about 10 minutes early, found the proper set of docks, went inside to check in, and found the dock area deserted. I waited around for 10-15 minutes before someone ambled by. He ran off to check with someone else, who came over and informed me that I had to drive to their other warehouse about a mile away to deliver the load there. OK, so I did that, which wasn't a problem except for some tight turns on narrow roads and driveways. But once docked, the unloading went quickly.

Once complete, at 8:00 p.m., I set out for a Flying J back up the highway. Along the way my next assignment message came in, so I'd check that out at the FJ. However, once I reached the truck stop, the place was jammed--practically in gridlock. I managed to get into the lot and circle it, with lots of waiting for traffic to clear. But it was indeed filled up, so I fought my way back out. I knew the West Virginia Welcome Center Rest Area was just another couple miles up the highway, so I headed that-a-way in hopes I could find a parking spot there. And I did (it was surprisingly wide open, considering the madhouse at the Flying J), and that's where I am now.

Tomorrow morning I'll be up and on the road at 5:00 to get to an 8:00 a.m. pickup in a town a few miles south of Baltimore, MD. That load will be headed for Greenfield, IN, just east of Indianapolis, due for delivery Thursday afternoon. I should have just enough time to make that delivery and get home as scheduled that day, which is my and Mrs. R.T.'s anniversary, so I'd better not miss it.

And now you're once again caught up with my escapades. Thanks for caring enough to follow along, and please do drop me a comment and/or question or two. And, as always, keep on truckin'.