DATELINE: WEST MEMPHIS, AR, 9:30 p.m. CDT
Miles Today: 461
Quick update...must get to bed...
Long, busy day...worked 10-1/4 hours (9-1/4 hours driving) in 13 hours...delivery this morning in Waverly, TN...quick unload...next pickup in Clarksville, TN...(no, I didn't take the last train to there)...live load there, but relatively quick...headed back to Laredo, TX with this load...I do like making that run...gonna get there Saturmorning...tomorrow making for Waco again.
Thanks for reading...send me something to read, too, please...keep on truckin'.
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1 comment:
You asked for something to read... when just about everything lately is bad news, it's a joy to read stories like this. Sometimes hard work, planning and dedication pay off - and not a single person hurt. Fantastic.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25499926/
Colombia tricks rebels into freeing hostages
BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian spies tricked leftist rebels into handing over kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors Wednesday in a daring helicopter rescue so successful that not a single shot was fired.
Betancourt, who was seized on the campaign trail six long years ago, appeared thin but healthy as she strode down the stairs of a military plane and held her mother in a long embrace. She said she still aspires to the presidency.
"God, this is a miracle," Betancourt said. "Such a perfect operation is unprecedented."
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Eleven Colombian police and soldiers were also freed in the rescue, the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which considered the four hostages their most valuable bargaining chips. The FARC is already reeling from the deaths of key commanders and the loss of much of the territory it once held.
The Americans — Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell — were flown directly to the United States to reunite with their families, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. Their plane landed at Lackland Air Force Base shortly after midnight Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota says the men, who worked for Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp., were the longest-held American hostages in the world.
Infiltrating the guerrillas
Santos said military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.
The hostages, who had been divided in three groups, were taken to a rendezvous where two disguised helicopters piloted by Colombian military agents were waiting. Betancourt said her hands and feet were bound, which she called "humiliating."
The pilots, she said, were posing as members of a relief organization, but "they were dressed like clowns," wearing Che Guevara shirts, so she assumed they were rebels.
But when they were airborne, she looked behind her and saw Cesar, who had treated her so cruelly for so many years, lying on the floor blindfolded.
"The chief of the operation said, 'We're the national army. You're free,"' she said. "The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we were jumping up and down, yelling, crying, hugging one another. We couldn't believe it."
The operation, Santos said, "will go into history for its audacity and effectiveness."
"We wanted to have it happen as it did today," added armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla. "Without a single shot. Without anyone wounded. Absolutely safe and sound, without a scratch."
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