Out and Back

DATELINE: JESSUP, MD, 8:20 p.m. EST

Miles Yesterday: 453
Miles Today: 501

Even though I didn't post an update last night (I was just too tired at the end of my work day), I have a second chance from the same place. In fact, right this minute I'm probably only 20 or 30 feet from where I spent last night (and started out this morning). But I'll get to that. First, a re-cap of yesterday's truckin'.

Things started out fine as I got up and headed inside (I was at the TA in London, OH) to take a shower. OK, the self-serve kiosk for purchasing a shower couldn't connect to the network so I had to use old-fashioned human interaction at the fuel desk to get my shower ticket.

When I was all cleaned up and went back to the fuel desk to buy a bottled, caffeinated beverage, I saw through the window that it was raining--and raining hard. I stepped outside after completing my purchase and could tell that the rain just wasn't going to let up anytime soon. In fact, the deluge was accompanied by lightning and thunder. It was raining so hard there was no rhythm of the pouring rain to listen to. I had about 100 yards to walk back to my truck, so I set out, fully expecting to get a bit moist.

I was wearing a fairly water-resistant jacket with a hood, so my upper body stayed dry. But my jeans got soaked, especially the front of the thighs. So once back in the truck I had to change into a dry pair. (Well, it was time for a clean pair, anyway.) And I needed dry socks, too, because my fairly water-resistant work boots proved not to be waterproof. Oh well.

I hit the road for the short-ish drive into Columbus with the sun still down and the rain still coming down in buckets. The directions to my pickup had me approach the company from the west end of the street on which it's located. I had a couple miles to go on that street, and as I neared the company, based on the addresses I saw along the road, I came across a sign warning of a low bridge just before where I needed to go. (13'2" clearance, and my truck is 13'6" tall.) Who submitted those directions, anyway? There was a business park to the right, so I turned down that street to see if the next major street over would allow me to pass.

At the intersection of that next major street (still just a 2-laner), I looked to the left and saw another bridge, but no signs warning of low clearance. So I made the turn and finally could make out the clearance sign on the bridge itself--13'0". Sheesh! So I had to back up a bit to turn into another company's driveway to turn around. I consulted my atlas and its Columbus detail map, and headed back to the highway so I could approach the company from the east.

After all of that, I arrived 15 minutes late instead of 15 minutes early. (I made sure to let dispatch know about the proper directions so they could pass them on to other drivers headed there in the future.) Never mind the mixup at the shipper about which trucking company was supposed to take my load (someone had assumed the wrong one). I backed into their dock, got the load, then hit the road for Upper Marlboro, MD. (The rain had lessened somewhat by then.)

The rest of the day I just drove eastboud I-70 for most of the way, 'til I got to the Baltimore area and swung around the sothwest corner of that town on I-695. Then a short jaunt down I-95 to the town of Jessup and a TA Travel Center. I'd had a short night of sleep, so by the time I parked my truck, I was beat, too tired to blog coherently. Despite that, alas, I still had trouble falling asleep, so I wound up reading for a good while before finally drifting off.

This morning I got up at 4:00 to hit the shower before hitting the road. My delivery was scheduled for 6:00, and the site was less than 50 miles away. I got rolling at 4:45 and arrived an hour later. This was a live-unload, but despite the early hour and lack of other trucks delivering then, it still took them a little while to get started after I docked. But they finished up a little after 7:00.

There was a spot along the side of their driveway where I could park for a few minutes while finishing up my paperwork and waiting for my next assignment. Happily, that came in soon thereafer and I was back on the road by 7:30.

This next assignment was to head to Franklin, VA, not far north of the NC border, and pick up a load bound for Westampton, NJ (between Philly and Trenton), due for delivery at 9:00 tomorrow (Thursday) morning. It was about 200 miles from this morning's delivery to the next pickup, which was due at noon, so I made tracks. I've been to that pickup site once before, just about exactly a year ago, so I remembered the way and the procedures at the site.

It was a drop-and-hook pickup, so it went quickly. Then I was headed back the way I came. As happenstance would have it, my route to and fro--in conjunction with the distances I covered and the time to cover them--brought me right back to where I started the day as my available work hours for the day were winding down. In fact, I'm only one or two parking spaces away from last night's. Go figure.

When I arrived back here I first fueled up my truck (you need to pay to park here unless you stay less than 2 hours, buy 50+ gallons of fuel, or make a $20+ purchase in their store--last night I bought some food and a new pillow to qualify for free parking under the $20 rule), then went for some dinner at a Panda Express in a strip mall down the street before coming back to the truck to blog for y'all. And now that I've done all that, fatigue is finally setting in as it should by rights have done long ago. So I'll beg off of responding to the questions posed by readers dennis the accompanist and nancy r for tonight. Check back tomorrow for my answers to those oh-so-vital queries.

Thanks for taking a look at my trucking life today. Please follow Dennis' and Nancy's leads and send me your own questions and comments. And, as ever, keep on truckin'.