Breaking the Silence Once More

DATELINE: HOME

Many apologies for my long silence the last 2 weeks. I've been having more, continued laptop power and/or connection issues. But I'm home now for a few days, so I can plug in and reach out to the web, finally.

When last we talked, I was sitting out a 34-hour break in West Memphis, AR. In the 2 weeks since, I've been from western TN to Springfield, OH, to Ottawa and Topeka, KS, to Vandalia, OH (where I finally got my truck serviced and Qualcomm fixed), then into Ontario, Canada (about 100 miles east of Toronto--I forget the actual town name), back to Troy and Vandalia, OH. Next was east to Hagerstown, MD, Bethel, PA, Millsboro, DE, back to Bethel, and finally home.

What made the latter part of the last 2 weeks much more fun was on Friday the 13th when my truck's air conditioner stopped conditioning the air. Being in MD with upper 80s temperatures during the day, 'twasn't fun. Plus, I'd been running overnight for a couple of days (starting with the runs into and out of Ontario), so I had to sleep during the day, with the truck under the full sun.

After delivering in Millsboro, DE on Monday this week, my Fleet Manager sent me up to Bethel to get the AC fixed. A couple of problems arose there:

1. The company's been cutting back on shop hours, so the Bethel shop closes at 5:00 each afternoon. And that's on weekdays; they're closed on the weekends. I couldn't get there after the Millsboro delivery 'til about 3:30 p.m., so they couldn't get me in that day. And in the mornings they just handle maintenance appointments, so it'd be at least Tuesday afternoon before they could get to me.

2. As I was arriving at Bethel, I got a Qualcomm message from my FM: My truck is (finally!) due for trade-in this month! I'll be getting a new truck. Now, I don't yet know if "new" means brand-new, or a less-used one than I have now. I won't know 'til I get to the trade-in, which will be at our terminal (and company HQ) in Van Buren, AR. And because of the truck's due-for-trade-in status, the shop at Bethel wasn't going to be eager to spend a lot of time and/or money to fix the AC. And they wouldn't be able to get the truck in until late in the day on Tuesday.

So, after wasting nearly 24 hours waiting at Bethel, my FM and I decided to just skip the repair so I could get a load and get on my way back home. (Did I mention that I was scheduled to start my next home time on Wednesday?) I wound up with an assignment to pick up a load in Middletown, PA, just outside of Harrisburg, at 3:00 Tuesday afternoon. The load was headed to Lansing, MI for delivery Thursday morning (4:00 a.m.!), but I'd be dropping it at the yard in Romulus where I park my truck when I'm at home. Cool!

The pickup went fine, then I stopped at a Service Plaza along the PA Turnpike for the night, before getting started early Wednesday morning to finish the trip home.

And now I am back home; I got to Romulus and parked the truck at about 12:30 p.m. By the way, I wanted to get home on Wednesday because it was my birthday. So I was giving myself a present by getting home on that day. And it was good because I got to go to dinner with my whole family (Mrs. R.T., 2 daughters, and daughter #1's boyfriend) at a favorite watering hole in town.

So that's the quick version of the story of my last 2 weeks. Again, I wish circumstances would have allowed me to keep this blog up-to-date, but that was not to be. We'll see if I can get things straightened out when I head back to the truck next week.

Thanks for checking up on me, and keep on truckin'.