2008 Begins With %$@#*& Challenges

DATELINE: BENTON HARBOR, MI, 7:15 p.m. EST

Miles Today: 351

First things first: How 'bout 'dat Capital One Bowl, eh? Way to go, BLUE! (But do you always have to make the games so exciting?) The Wolverines finally won a "sendoff" game. Thanks for the memories and the classy, honorable way you ran the program, Lloyd. Now, back to business.

As you can tell by today's dateline, I'm back on the job, back on the road. Mrs. R.T. drove me back to my truck this morning--many thanks, I think, to her for that. We arrived at around 6:30 a.m., then I had to wait--as usual--for my first load assignment of the year. That finally came in at nearly 10:00; drive up to Bay City for a pickup at a customer I've been to 3 or 4 times previously. That was fine, except the pickup time was 11:00 and I was over 100 miles away. Oh well, that's getting to be the norm. So off I went.

The drive up went fine, except I couldn't get my cruise control to engage (that happens frequently), so I had to use my accelerator foot the whole way. The pickup was a drop-and-hook, and almost went smoothly, too. It's been too long a day after a very short night of sleep, and I'm too tired to type out the whole explanation about what was "challenging". Suffice to say that sliding the tandem axles on the trailer I picked up should not have been as difficult as it was.

Once back on the road (this load is going to Waukegan, IL, north of Chicago, almost to the WI state line), my cruise control decided to work, so I could rest that lower right leg and keep it from cramping up. The traffic was fine, and the weather clear most of the way. However, as I neared the state's west coast, the clouds moved in and I drove into a lake-effect snowstorm, just as dusk was falling, too. I looked in my side mirrors and noticed that the running lights along the side of the trailer were not illuminated (I keep all my lights on all the time when I'm rolling), and neither were my dashboard lights. But my headlights, fortunately, were working. Being on the highway in the dark, in a snowstorm, with no lights on the trailer is a hazard for other drivers, so I had to find a place to pull off to address the problem.

Luckily there's a Flying J truck stop here in Benton Harbor, where I was nearing as I noticed the problem. I pulled off the highway, into the lot, parked, and called USA's Maintenance Department for assistance. The nice young man on the other end of the line talked me through checking the fuses (the panel's hidden behind the glove box), and I discovered that the ones for the running lights and dashboard lights had blown. Actually, they're more like circuit breakers than fuses, and all I had to do was re-set the little plastic buttons on the tops. So I once again have lighting. Woo-hoo!

I had planned to go just 18 miles further and stop at the TA in Sawyer, MI, but since I was already parked, it was snowing and dark, and I was tired, I just stayed here. I figure I have about 3 to 3-1/2 hours to drive tomorrow morning to reach my delivery by my 9:00 a.m. CST appointment, so with the time zone change I can get up and rolling by 6:00 EST and get there in plenty of time--so long as Chicagoland traffic is not any worse than it usually is.

So that's the scoop on my first work day of 2008. (Happy New Year, by the way.) Check back tomorrow when I report on how that delivery went and where I'll be headed next. Thanks for checking in, and keep on truckin'.