Mount Vernon, TX

DATELINE: MT. VERNON, TX, 4:15 p.m. CDT

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? My dad-burn power setup for my laptop just refuses to work in my truck, and I haven't been able to figure out why. But tonight I'm at a Love's truck stop here along I-30, and they have a section of 8 restaurant booths for customers to eat meals purchased from their Subway or Chester's Chicken stands. Some of those booths have electrical outlets under the tables, and I've commandeered one of them to communicate with you, my loyal readers. (I hope I haven't lost any of y'all due to my silence the last few days.) Anyway, I have some catchin' up to do, so I'd better get to it.

Since my report last Friday night, I have been busy. As you recall from that last posting from Joplin, MO, I was on my way to deliver a load in Lake Orion, MI. On Saturday I made it to Gaston, IN, about 45 miles northeast of Indianapolis, and spent the night at another Petro. That one was smaller and didn't have any place for me to plug in my laptop and let y'all know how my day went. :-(

(By the way, I didn't bring my mileage log in with me tonight, so I don't have the numbers to let you know the distances I drove each day during my silent period.)

Sunday was a good day because I got to get some time at home! I got up early to make the 4-hour drive to the Dexter, MI TA, arriving there at 9:30 a.m. That gave me enough time to grab breakfast and a shower before Mrs. R.T. would finish up with Bible Class at church and come on down to pick me up. After she picked me up and hauled me home, I had enough time to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and get in a few hours of work in the yard. I made the inaugural lawn mowing of the year, bought and spread a dozen bags of mulch, and cut down last year's growth of our ornamental grasses. Much done, but there's still plenty to do. Sunday evening I got to sit in with my friends at Measure for Measure rehearsal and the weekly "afterglow" at a nearby watering hole, parts of my life I truly miss in this job.

Monday morning I set out at 7:00 to make the trek from Dexter to Lake Orion to make my delivery. I arrived about 30 minutes early, then determined why the appointment was set for 9:00--the dock staff was on break 'til 9:00. (It was a GM plant, so obviously a union shop.) Anyway, after waiting beyond 9:00 for direction, someone finally came along. Turns out it was a drop-and-hook delivery anyway, so they directed me to the drop yard and assigned me the number of the empty trailer to take with me.

The drop-and-hook action was simple, but when I walked around my assigned empty, which had its doors open, I noticed 2 holes in the ceiling, right in front of the doors. Long story short, I had to take the trailer to a shop in Romulus to get the holes patched. Surprisingly, the repairs didn't take long at all--less than 30 minutes. Then I boogied over to a nearby truck stop to wait for my next assignment.

That came fairly quickly, too: zip over to South Bend, IN to pick up a load bound for Glasgow, KY. Pickup time was 4:00 p.m., and delivery was scheduled for noon the next day (Tuesday). So it was time to hustle.

I got to the pickup right on time, then had a bit of a wait--about an hour--before they had an opening at their dock for me. The load went quickly then, and I started my trip south. I stopped for the night at a Pilot in Plymouth, IN, but that left a goodly trip the next morning to get to Glasgow on time. I couldn't take any more than the required 10 hour break before setting out Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning's drive went fine, and I got to the delivery about 30 minutes early. This company assigned me a dock right away, but then I waited there. It was over an hour and a half before they even started unloading my trailer, but once they did, they had it done lickety-split. They had more than one forklift operator working on it. Once they were done and I had collected my signed paperwork, I lit out for my next wait and another truck stop.

This time I had to wait over 2 hours before my assignment came in. And once it did, it promised more mad-dashing for me. The pickup was in Springfield, TN, about an 85-mile drive away. The downside was that I only had 2 hours left in my 14-hour driving window for the day, so I had to make tracks to make the pickup and hightail it to a someplace to take refuge for the night.

Which I did. The pickup was another drop-and-hook, so it went quickly. I'd made a pickup at that company once before--just a few weeks ago, in fact--so I knew their drill. And the load I picked up yesterday is headed to the same place as the last load I picked up there--Dallas, TX. Anyway, after grabbing the new trailer, I made it to another Pilot, this one in Nashville. I only had to stretch my workday by 30 minutes.

But the delivery for this load is (was, but I'll get to that) scheduled for 11:00 p.m. tonight. Nashville to Dallas is, by my atlas, 660 miles. It would take perfect driving conditions to make it that far in 11 hours in a truck that can't surpass 63 MPH, but I set out early this morning to give it a shot. However, after hitting Memphis at rush hour, that possibility was gone. I sent in a message to Dispatch to let them know I'd not be able to make the delivery on time. (The place I'm going will be yet another drop-and-hook--like I mentioned, I've been there before--so getting there early would have been no problem if I could have made it in one shift.) Eventually I got word back that they had pushed back the delivery time, so I'll just get there when I can tomorrow.

So I stopped here at the Mt. Vernon Love's after driving 560+ miles today. I'll take my 10 hours, then get back rolling at around 2:00 tomorrow morning. I have just over 100 miles to go, so I'll get there while it's still good 'n dark. But, with the delivery site in town, at least I'll beat the city traffic. Then it's wait for another assignment, and back on the road and the same ol' same ol'. I do have some shorter work days coming up because of the distribution of hours along my rolling 8-day window, so I hope I can either find truck stops with places I can sit 'n work with my laptop plugged in, or figure out why the &%#$@ thing won't draw power in my truck. Either that or I'll have to resort to spending my free time trolling for "truck stop girls". ;-) (Humor for Mrs. R.T.'s benefit.)

Anyway, that should catch you up with my latest travels and travails. Thanks for your patience during my communication troubles; I hope I can solve them soon. Please send me some comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.