Heading Back from the East

DATELINE: FLORENCE, KY, 8:00 p.m. EST

Miles Yesterday: 318
Miles Today: 522

My apologies for not posting last night. I had a long work day and was just too tired when I stopped for the night. So I'll tell you all about it today.

I slept in 'til the (relatively, for me) late hour of 7:00 a.m. yesterday, then took the time to stroll across the street for a leisurely (15 minute) breakfast at McDonald's. I took my time returning to my truck and getting ready to start my work day, and hit the road at 8:00.

'Twas an easy, 30-minute drive back to the company to which I was delivering in Newfield, MA. (Well, it was easy once I finally found a gap in the traffic in front of the truck stop big enough to allow me to make the left turn onto the busy street. It was rush hour and there was a stoplight maybe 20 yards to the right of the driveway I was making my way from.) I checked in at the customer, they assigned me a dock door right away, and I worked my way into it (small lot, had to have another truck pull up so I could get around him to my door, but not too bad). Then I had to wait. The crew at this place didn't seem to be in much of a hurry, and they had to unoad the other truck first...yadda, yadda, yadda...I was there for 3 hours.

Once they finally finished offloading their product, I hightailed it back to the truck stop from whence I had begun the day in Chicopee, MA. I had checked with my Fleet Manager during my wait and found out that they hadn't pre-planned my next pickup, so I knew I'd have a bit of a wait.

And that was a nearly 2-1/2-hour wait. At nearly 2:30 the assignment came in: drive down to North Bergen, NJ for a 5:30 p.m. pickup. Since that was about 150 miles away, and I'd have to cross Brooklyn (and the George Washington Bridge) and negotiate the NJ turnpike at rush hour, it was time to boogie.

As I was pulling out of my parking space and heading up the aisle to the exit lane, I noticed another USA truck heading out, too. Strangely, he headed along the same route I needed to follow. My truck's speed governor must be set just a little higher than his, and I eventually passed him along southbound I-91 in Connecticut, each of us giving the other a courteous wave when our windows aligned. I kept an eye on him in my mirrors, and he stayed in view for quite some time. Eventually though, I lost sight of him.

I arrived at the shipper at right about 5:30, puling up the street in front of the company. I was looking at a gate in front of me across the intersection (I was at a stop sign), pondering it and the big sign that read, "Please use our new entrance -->" (indicating up the road to the right), trying to determine which way to proceed. Fortunately, a security guy came over and instructed me. First I had to turn around and go to a lot down the street behind me to drop off my empty trailer (the assignment indicated that I would be picking up a pre-loaded one). Then I would bobtail back to the indicated new entrance, park on the street outside of it, walk in to the office trailer in the yard to check in and get the paperwork, walk back to my cab, then drive in to find my assigned trailer in the lot and hook up to it.

The empties lot was very large, but dirt and gravel and VERY un-smooth. Plus they'd had a lot of rain an/or melting snow, so all of the potholes were filled with dirty water. It made for a fun time. But I got the empty-drop completed and made my way over to check in. While I was waiting by the office, another USA driver walked up after parking behind my cab. Turns out it was the same guy with which I had left the Chicopee truck stop contiguously. AND we're both taking our new loads to the same place in Evansville, IN. I've made pickups before with other drivers headed to the same destination, but never after having left the same place to drive 150 miles to make the pickup. Pretty weird.

After completing the pickup, I had just enough hours left to drive to our terminal in Bethel, PA (including a few--30--minutes to stop for a quick dinner at a service plaza along the NJ Turnpike). Once in Bethel (I arrived at 9:45 p.m., 14 hours after I started my work day), I had just enough energy left to complete my driving log for the day, call the missus, go inside the building to brush my teeth, and return to my truck and hit the sack.

This morning I had another incidence of waking up way too early, unable to fall back asleep. Wish I knew what causes that. Anyway, today it happened around 4:30 a.m. GRRRR! And because of DOT regulations requiring a full 10-hour break, I couldn't just get up and hit the road. I'd have to wait 'til 7:45 for that. I considered hauling out my laptop, going online, and composing a blog entry, but I wanted to make it easy to try to get back to sleep if the impulse arose. I did some reading for a while, then turned out the lights and attempted sleep, but never did return to the land of nod.

Come 7:00 I finally got up, headed inside for some breakfast (a chicken salad sandwich and Diet Coke) from the vending machines, and got ready for the day, and at 7:45 was back to work. My main task for the day was just to drive as far as I could on my way to Evansville, but I had a couple other necessary stops to make en route.

First I had to get my truck weighed (the load's not heavy, but the trailer's tandem axles are set a bit more forward than usual, so I had to make sure none of the axes are carrying too much of the load). I took care of that at a TA about 30 miles down the road from Bethel, near Harrisburg (all the axles' weights were fine).

Next I needed fuel, so I hit the Flying J in Carlisle, PA, another 30-ish miles down the road for that. I also needed a shower and shave, so I took care of that while stopped at the "J", too.

Besides quick rest stops, I just drove for the next 7 hours 'til I reached Hebron, OH, just a bit east of, ugh, Columbus along I-70. I was getting a bit peckish by then, so I pulled into the TA there to eat at their Popeye's Chicken 'n Biscuits. This time I opted for their Chicken Deluxe sandwich (spicy) and a side of Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya. Tasty! Then it was back to the roads 'til I got to Jeffersonville, OH, a bit south of, ugh, Columbus along I-71. My fuel was getting low again, and the Flying J there is on USA Truck's fuel network, so it was time to hit the pumps.

Once more back to the highway, I continued to the Kentucky Welcome Center/Rest Area just south of Florence. I've been here a few times before and know it has a large truck parking lot and no infernal "No Overnight Parking" signs. (KY is trucker-friendly at its rest areas, unlike some other states.) I had enough time available to go a bit further, such as to a truck stop near Lousiville, but I was getting tired, so I decided to stop here for the night. With the sun down, rainy weather, and the road between here and Lousiville being quite hilly, it would not have been a good idea to push on through my fatigue. Besides, I don't have to make my delivery 'til noon tomorrow--CST no less--and I have less than 3 hours of driving left to Evansville, so I'm in good shape as far as my progress goes.

So now it's time to succumb to that fatigue and wrap this up and get to bed. Thanks for your loyal readership. Send me your comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.