Trekking Westward

DATELINE: AMHERST, OH, 10:15 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 372

A relatively short day--only 7-1/2 hours of driving--but the job still kept me occupied for over 12 hours. That's 'cuz I had some waiting time at my pickup this morning (2 hours); almost 1/2 an hour fighting with my trailer's tandems to get them to slide after getting loaded at the pickup; and most of an hour cleaning out my trailer after my delivery then waiting for my next assignment. But I'm ahead of myself again. Here are the salient portions of my day in chronological order.

I woke up about 3:30 this morning, a bit earlier than my planned 4:00 rousing. I tried to grab that last 20 minutes of sleep, but it didn't happen. So I sent in my "back to work" message (since I was coming off my 34-hour restart) and went in to shower and shave. Once all celaned up 30 minutes later, I returned to my truck to find my assignment for the day still hadn't come in. But that wait was short as the message came in at 4:45.

My mission: pick up a load at a company in Carlisle, PA (where I was anyway--the city, not the company) at 4:30. Hmmm. Another case of Dispatch asking me to travel back in time to make an appointment. Anyway, I was to take the load to Cuyahoga Falls, OH, about 300 miles away. And the delivery time on the assignment was 7:00 a.m. today. Again they assume I can do the impossible. (I know I'm good, but they're taking it to a bit of an extreme, don't you think?) But I set out to do the best that I could anyway.

The drive over to the pickup only took 15 minutes. Checking in and getting docked took another 15, then I had to wait. Apparently the dock crew was off doing something else. But, finally, 2 hours after I arrived, I was loaded and ready to go. Except I had to slide the trailer's tandems back forward (the shipper requires that the tandems be slid all the way back for loading). Of course I hadn't had any troubles sliding 'em when I picked up the trailer empty on Sunday, and again before docking this morning. But once I had that load in there, the brakes wouldn't hold enough for the trailer body to slide on its rails over the tandem axles. To shorten the story, I finally found some wheel chocks over by the dock doors and carried them over to where I was rasslin' with the beast. They did the job, and I was finally on my way. (By the way, I keep looking for chocks at the stores in the truck stops, but they don't carry 'em. Where in the world can I obtain one or two to carry with me for just such contingencies? Maybe I'd better resort to searching online, eh?)

My first stop after picking up the load was back at the Carlisle Pilot to fuel up, then 'twas "westward ho" along I-76 towards Cuyahoga Falls (which is by Akron). Six hours and a couple of rest stops (one including grabbing lunch to go) later, I arrived at my destination. Small hangup there: they only had one dock door and there was an empty trailer sitting in it. They'd been waiting all day for someone to move it, but that hadn't happened yet. So I accepted their invitation to move it for them. Of course, that meant unhooking my trailer, hooking up to the rogue one and moving it, unhooking from it and be-bopping back to where I'd dropped my trailer, hooking it back up, and then backing into the dock. But that was better than however long I may have had to wait for someone to come move it. Who knows? I'd probably still be waiting. Anyway, the unloading there was quick.

However, they left quite a bit of debris in the trailer when they were done. The shipper had nailed 2-by-4s onto the trailer floor to hold the racks that carried their product (glass) in place. The delivery customer yanked them up to get the racks out, but left the wood in the trailer. As well as quite a few nails still sticking up from the floor. So I had to pull over to a dumpster in their yard, toss the 2x4s, and yank the nails (with a crowbar I keep in my truck) and toss them. By the time I finished with that, my next assignment was in.

I have a pickup tomorrow morning in Bellevue, OH, which is kinda' halfway between Toledo and Cleveland, but south of the Turnpike. The instructions with the assignment mentioned that the trailer must be swept out before arriving at te pickup, because it's a load of food products. So it was finally time for me to find a pushbroom to call my very own. Fortunately, there is a Pilot just off the Turnpike on my route to tomorrow's shipper, and I stopped there in search of a broom. Hallelujah! The had some for sale! So I nabbed one.

After picking up my new prize, I headed to the "Middle Ridge" Service Plaza here along the OH 'pike. I have roughly 30 more miles to go along the 'pike, then a few more south to get to the pickup, which is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. So I plan to get up between 5:00 and 5:30 and get rolling at 6:00. That should get me to the pickup fashionably early. Once I have the load on board, my destination is Abbotsford, WI. That's up in the middle of that state, roughly halfway between Green Bay and St. Paul, MN, or maybe 30 miles west of Wausau. I haven't been to the upper midwest (other than MI) for quite a while now, so this trip will be a nice diversion from the parts of the country I've seen a lot lately. Delivery is due at 9:00 Thursday morning, and it's purportedly a 570-mile trip, so I should have ample time to get there. Then again, I do have to go either through or around Chicago, so all bets are off. ;-)

I can tell by the ol' clock in the corner of the laptop screen that it's time to wrap this up and hit the sack. Thanks for your eyes (and, hopefully, engaged brain, too) today. Drop me a line or two, and keep on truckin'.