All-Nighter

DATELINE: VANDALIA, OH, 12:30 p.m. EDT

Miles Yesterday: 562

Welcome to the middle of my 34-hour break. I won't be driving any today because I used up all of my permitted 70-hours-in-8-days in the first 7 days of this tour of duty. So I'll just sit here 'til I can get back to the grind tomorrow morning. And, so far, the operative word has been "sit".

I arrived here at the terminal around 6:00 p.m. last night after having made the trek from West Memphis, AR. I had an appointment at 7:00 for my truck's regular maintenance, so I dropped my trailer, had some dinner, called home, pulled my truck over to the shop, and turned over the key. I mentioned to them that the drive tires--the 8 of them on the tandem axles at the back of the truck--were getting a bit worn (remember my fun with the DOT inspection last week), and they told me that checking them was part of the maintenance service anyway (which I knew, but I still wasn't convinced they'd necessarily do anything about it). Then I went to the drivers' lounge to wait for them to complete the work and page me. Some good NFL action was on the big screen TV in the lounge.

At 8:30 I walked over to the shop to check on things--the service is usually pretty quick if they don't find anything else to take care of--and my truck was still where I had left it. Back to the lounge for me. Now I got to catch what turned out to be the final World Series game. Good timing for my break 'cuz I hadn't been able to see any post-season Baseball so far.

At 10:00 I checked again; this time they had just moved my truck into the shop to get started. Once more back to the lounge and the rest of the Red Sox ultimate triumph.

Once the game concluded around midnight I headed back to the shop to check on my truck. Nothing conclusive yet; they were still working on it. Back to the lounge and post-game Series coverage and SportsCenter.

2:00 a.m.: Another walk to the shop (and boy, it was getting chilly outside). This time some more definitive news: they were going to take the drive tires off and re-cap (aka "re-tread") them, they were short-handed on mechanics at that time of night, and estimated completion time would be 6:00 a.m. They offered to get me a room at the local hotel where they put up "stranded" drivers, but I figured I'd just wait it out at the terminal. By the time a cab could arrive to take me over to the hotel and I could check in, it'd be 3:30 and I'd only get a couple hours of sleep before needing to get up and head back by 6:00. Not worth the trouble. Besides, I wasn't really overly tired yet. (Kind of surprising after a somewhat short night of sleep the previous night.) So it was back to the lounge and more SportsCenter for me.

I'm sure I've mentioned in previous updates that the Vandalia terminal doesn't have the big, overstuffed, leather recliners found at other terminals--the drivers' lounge here isn't big enough to accommodate them. Here we just have metal (some have padded seats) folding chairs and a couple of round tables. It was during this stretch in the lounge that I tried putting my head down on my hands on a table and catching something approaching sleep. Boy, was that uncomfortable, and mostly unsuccessful. But I think I did actually sleep for a few minutes.

Eventually 6:00 rolled around and I took another stroll over to the shop. (It's not a very long walk--maybe 50-60 yards.) Different news this time: They were putting new tires on all 8 drive wheels AND they were replacing my driver's side windshield (a rock had put a nice round crack at its bottom a little while back--not a big problem to me, but I guess they wanted to remove the possibility of it becoming a problem). The problem was they wouldn't finish the windshield 'til around 8:00, then the adhesive would have to cure for 3 hours before they could release my truck to me. Sheesh! Woulda' been nice to know when they had offered me the hotel room way back at 2:00. So, once more into the fray--er, lounge.

Finally, at 11:15 I made one more trip to the shop. This time the mechanic was just finishing up the paperwork on the job. A few minutes later I had my truck back! Only 16-1/2 or so hours after dropping it off! And now I'm telling you all about it. Surprisingly, I'm not completely exhausted, as I should be by rights. I think I'll slog through the afternoon and early evening so I can keep near my normal (or preferred) sleep-wake schedule.

Anyway, I'm getting hungry, so I'll need to wrap this up so I can do lunch. But first a quick answer to reader Jim the Baritone's query, "Have you ever hauled a "Wide-Load'? Are there special rules for the driver, like more frequent breaks, or less daily driving time when hauling wide loads?"

No, I haven't hauled any oversize loads. We USA drivers just pull the standard 53-foot enclosed trailers; nothing oversize will fit in them. I don't think there are any special hours-of-service rules for drivers hauling such loads, but I can't say for sure.

Now it's really time to wrap up for today. Thanks for your vicarious interest. Drop me a comment and/or question, and keep on truckin'.