1, 2, 3 Stops to Make

DATELINE: BARKLEYVILLE, PA, 9:15 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 305

Good evening, fans! The Reluctant Trucker is back on the road and the blogwaves. It was a far-too-short weekend at home (less than 36 hours), but I got to see all of my family, including all of us taking my mom out for lunch to celebrate her birthday, which is today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! Back to work, today has been a long day for ol' R.T., but not a long work day. Here's the scoop.

Mrs. R.T. drove me back to my truck (at the Dexter, MI TA) early this morning on her way to work. By "early", I mean we got to the truck by 4:30. I promptly sent in my "Back to Work" message, cleared my stuff off of my bunk, and stretched out to nap 'til my load assignment came in. (Did I mention it was a short night of sleep last night?) I woke up a while later, checked my watch, ad found it was 6:30. Still no assignment. So I got up and got myself some breakfast from the McDonald's across the street. (I had gotten a "Free Breakfast Sandwich" game piece in their Monopoly game last week, so I redeemed it this morning.)

Back from breakfast a while later, still no assignment. So I hit the bunk again. It took a while to drift off back to sleep, but I was trying hard to because I knew that as soon as I did, that message would come in and wake me up. Yup. Just before 8:00 the box beeped and got me a-goin'.

My mission was a pickup--well, the first pickup--in Romulus, MI, at a company where I've picked up loads 4 or 5 times before. That was a 9:00 appointment and went nice 'n quickly. After that was another pickup (it turned out to be only one pallet) in Cleveland, OH early this afternoon. And I have one more stop tomorrow morning at 8:00 to pick up even more for this load. That pickup is in Franklin, PA, and I'm at a TA at the exit off of I-80 that I needed to take to get over to Franklin, which is not far up PA highway 8 from here. So I'll be getting up around 5:30 in the morning to head over there. Hopefully they'll be ready and willing to accommodate me arriving a tad early.

After that 3rd pickup, then I'm off to Robbinsville, NJ, to drop the load at a customer I've been to twice before (both times with loads from today's original shipper). That ought to be a drop-and-hook delivery, so it shouldn't take very long--once I get there, that is. It does take a while to drive clear across PA. But I should still have a few hours when that's done to get started on my next assignment, which hopefully will come in soon afterwards.

I got here to the TA round about 5:00 this afternoon, and I spent a while playing some more poker before giving that up to report to y'all. My cards were dead most of the time, and I took a couple of bad beats, but after the dust settled I wound up on the plus side of the ledger. Not by much, but at least my bankroll nudged up in the right direction. Now let me move on to answer an interesting query from reader andy (OK, he's my baby brother):

"I spoke with our cousin, also a trucker, at the recent family reunion. His company's model is for drivers to do their routes exclusively at night, and to sleep during the day at hotels the company has national contracts with (thus no sleeper cabs). Compare and contrast, please?"

I've done a lot of overnight driving, and I gotta say that, despite the MUCH lower traffic competition, I still prefer driving during the daylight hours. Driving at night you don't get to see this marvelous land we live in as you pass through it. And the darkness really exacerbates any fatigue that might be creeping in. And it can be hard to see the end of the trailer in the mirrors when you're maneuvering in tight situations. And glare from any and all lights off the truck's windows and mirrors can make it hard to distinguish what you're really seeing. And it's hard to read signs that are not well-lighted. And when you want to pull into a rest area for a quick pit stop, they're all full of parked trucks. So to make a pit stop you have to take the extra time to pull all the way off the highway to pull into a truck stop. (Then again, the fuel islands are usually wide open, so stopping there is easier than in the daytime.)

On the other hand, staying at hotels sounds like a S-W-E-E-T deal. No need to worry about finding truck stops where you have shower credits. And if you have to get up in the middle of the night, you don't have to get completely dressed (especially fun in the winter up north) and hike however far to the building to take care of business. But having the sleeper cab is nice when I need to (and have time to) pull over for a power nap during a trip. Stretching out is much better than sleeping sitting up in the driver's seat. (Then again, the shorter "day cab"--a truck cab without the sleeper berth--would make it a bit easier to squeeze into some of the docking situations I've come across.)

So all in all, I think I still prefer my situation. Seeing the country as I roll by trumps sleeping through the daylight hours in a hotel room. But that's just my preference; other drivers may prefer otherwise.

Well, I think I've covered my activities today pretty completely. (I was gonna' write "pretty well", but I'll leave that determination up to you.) Thanks for coming back on the road with me. Drop me a line (or 2, or 5), and keep on truckin'.