DATELINE: SPARTANBURG, SC, 8:30 p.m. EST
Miles Today: 601
Whew! What a long day, and it's not quite done yet. Y'see, I'm at our terminal here in S'burg and taking advantage of the laundry room, doing a load. So I have another hour yet before the dryer finishes up. Therefore I have some time to blog away for y'all. Hopefully I can stay awake that long, so I'd better get right to my story. But first a recap of yesterday.
Not much to tell about my Sunday. I slept in 'til seven-ish, grabbed a quick shower (but was too lazy to shave), hopped in my truck (well, after toweling off and getting dressed again) and hit the road. My mission for the day was to get close to the site of my Monday morning pickup in Freeport, FL. However, there aren't any truck stops very nearby, so I stopped in Marianna, about 75 miles away. That was good enough. When I arrived there at 2:00 p.m. (actually 1:00, since I crossed back into the Central Time Zone), I was inexplicably very worn out. I thought I had had enough sleep that night, and felt good when I got up, but for some reason I just wore down through the "short" (330 miles) drive.
But I didn't go right to bed then. 'Twas time for some food, so I answered the siren song of the "Mexican Grill" sign at the strip mall right next to the Pilot where I was parked. It didn't live up to expectations. Oh well. After that I did a little shopping for some things I needed at the Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart in the shopping center. THEN I returned to my truck and hit the sack. And I hit it hard. I was still snoozing soundly when Mrs. R.T. called me around 8:45 p.m. as she is wont to do. After that confab, I pulled down the ol' laptop for a quick update to my Facebook page and chatted some w/ my niece who happened to be online at the time. But then I couldn't get back to sleep. 'Twas well after midnight when I finally did, and I needed to get up at 4:30. So that made for a day of fatigue fighting today.
I got my work day started at 5:00 this morning by pulling around to the fuel island and filling up the tanks. Then I set off for Freeport. Well, I won't go into the story of the incorrect directions, save to say it took an extra hour to get there. Which wasn't good because my available hours situation for the next couple of days leave me just enough to make it to the delivery in New Jersey Wednesday morning on time. So I don't have any wiggle room in there for backtracking and driving extra miles. But I recovered easily enough, made the pickup, and headed north.
Naturally this load doesn't afford me any time to pull over for a quick rest, nor to stop early for the night, so I soldiered on through my fatigue and made it all the way here to Spartanburg with only 15 minutes left of my available driving hours for the day. Tomorrow I need to get as far as I can as well, which I estimate will be somewhere around Harrisburg, PA. That will leave me with just a couple (or 3) hours to drive early on Wednesday morning to reach the Flanders, NJ delivery.
So that's the encapsulated version of my last 2 work days. If I'm not too tired tomorrow night I'll write you up a report on the day's drive. Thanks for following along. Drop me a line or two, and keep on truckin'.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Runnin' and Runnin'
DATELINE: TAMPA, FL, 5:30 p.m. EST
Whew! Finally some time to breathe and blog. Sorry for missing the last 3 days, but USA's been keeping me running and, with delays at shippers and deliveries, I've just had time at night after parking to grab dinner and pop open the laptop for a quick update on Facebook. (News Flash: I now have a Facebook page. Those of you who know my true identity and have Facebook accounts can look me up.) I've been too tired each night to compose reports for this blog, so I've just dropped in quick updates via Facebook's "What are you doing right now?" feature to let people know where I get to each night. (Tip: If you go looking for a new Reluctant Trucker posting and don't find one on any given day, you can check Facebook for that info. Those of you not yet on Facebook, go ahead and sign up, then add me as a friend.) Anyway, I have some time now, though I'm tired again, so here's a quick catch-up of my last few days. Let me emphasize: This will be a QUICK update; I'm too tired to go into lengthy details tonight. But I'll let you know where I've been and where I'm going next.
Wednesday was a long day, though not by on-duty measure. I woke up early--before 6:00--though not intentionally. My delivery wasn't 'til 11:00 a.m. only 30 miles away, so I would have liked to have slept later. Oh well. But I made the delivery (traffic jam en route), then my next pickup was from the same company. That load was bound for delivery the next day in Batesville, AR (northeast of Little Rock), so I made it to Prescott, AR for the night.
Thursday morning I was up in time to get rolling as my break reached the 10-hour mark. The drive to and delivery in Batesville went fine, then I was off to Stuttgart, AR for another pickup. I arrived by the scheduled time for that pickup, but the shipper was busy and slow, so it took over 3 hours before I was done there and on my way. That load's destination was Harahan, LA (a southwest 'burb of N'awlins), due for delivery Friday morning at 11:00. So Thursday I just had enough available time remaining to get to a TA in Tallulah, LA.
Friday: Up again to roll at my break's 10-hour mark (5:30 a.m.). Arrived at the delivery just as a thunderstorm deluge let loose, so I had to open up my trailer doors in the rain. Slow unloading process; almost 2 hours from arrival to departure. But I had my next pickup location before I left: I was to pick up a load from another driver at a rest area along I-10 by Bay Saint Louis, MS. I've stopped at that rest area a couple times in the past on my way by, so I knew it. (There's a MS Welcome Center there, as well as the place to catch tours of the nearby Stennis Space Center. So it's rememberable.) It took me a bit over an hour to get there, but the other driver was already there waiting for me and the swap (my empty for his loaded trailer) went right quick. That load's destination was a company in Tampa, FL, so I hit the road eastward. I gave in to fatigue just a tad short (by 90 minutes) of my workday's 14-hour mark, and halted for the night at the FL Welcome Center/Rest Area outside of Pensacola.
This morning I got up at 3:45 a.m. (CST) so I could roll at 4:00. The load's original delivery time was set for 11:00, but it would have been mathematically impossible to cover the distance and fit in my 10-hour break from the time I picked it up. Another case of the company asking me to do the impossible. Not much I could do about it, so I just let Dispatch know my ETA for the delivery (2:00 p.m.) and hit the road. 'Twas a long drive (8-1/4 hours), but it and the delivery went relatively OK. So after leaving there I headed over to the TA in this town. My next pickup is back up in the FL panhandle (in the town of Freeport) Monday morning, so I could stay here for the night, then drive the 350 miles towards Freeport tomorrow. A bonus: This TA is one of the few on USA's fuel network since the change to nearly exclusively Pilots, so I could fill up my truck's tanks and earn a shower credit. PLUS I'll earn enough bonus points that I'll have enough of them to buy a shower when I don't have a shower credit available. (I've had that just-short balance for months now.) So I've earned 2 showers with 1 fuel purchase, and I'll be able to stay at TAs a couple times now and get cleaned up in the morning before starting my day. Cool!
And that gets you caught up with me. I apologize again for the 3 nights without reporting, but I gotta' sleep when I can. Thanks for your patience--both in waiting for a new report and for slogging through my drivel. ;-) And be sure to keep on truckin'.
Whew! Finally some time to breathe and blog. Sorry for missing the last 3 days, but USA's been keeping me running and, with delays at shippers and deliveries, I've just had time at night after parking to grab dinner and pop open the laptop for a quick update on Facebook. (News Flash: I now have a Facebook page. Those of you who know my true identity and have Facebook accounts can look me up.) I've been too tired each night to compose reports for this blog, so I've just dropped in quick updates via Facebook's "What are you doing right now?" feature to let people know where I get to each night. (Tip: If you go looking for a new Reluctant Trucker posting and don't find one on any given day, you can check Facebook for that info. Those of you not yet on Facebook, go ahead and sign up, then add me as a friend.) Anyway, I have some time now, though I'm tired again, so here's a quick catch-up of my last few days. Let me emphasize: This will be a QUICK update; I'm too tired to go into lengthy details tonight. But I'll let you know where I've been and where I'm going next.
Wednesday was a long day, though not by on-duty measure. I woke up early--before 6:00--though not intentionally. My delivery wasn't 'til 11:00 a.m. only 30 miles away, so I would have liked to have slept later. Oh well. But I made the delivery (traffic jam en route), then my next pickup was from the same company. That load was bound for delivery the next day in Batesville, AR (northeast of Little Rock), so I made it to Prescott, AR for the night.
Thursday morning I was up in time to get rolling as my break reached the 10-hour mark. The drive to and delivery in Batesville went fine, then I was off to Stuttgart, AR for another pickup. I arrived by the scheduled time for that pickup, but the shipper was busy and slow, so it took over 3 hours before I was done there and on my way. That load's destination was Harahan, LA (a southwest 'burb of N'awlins), due for delivery Friday morning at 11:00. So Thursday I just had enough available time remaining to get to a TA in Tallulah, LA.
Friday: Up again to roll at my break's 10-hour mark (5:30 a.m.). Arrived at the delivery just as a thunderstorm deluge let loose, so I had to open up my trailer doors in the rain. Slow unloading process; almost 2 hours from arrival to departure. But I had my next pickup location before I left: I was to pick up a load from another driver at a rest area along I-10 by Bay Saint Louis, MS. I've stopped at that rest area a couple times in the past on my way by, so I knew it. (There's a MS Welcome Center there, as well as the place to catch tours of the nearby Stennis Space Center. So it's rememberable.) It took me a bit over an hour to get there, but the other driver was already there waiting for me and the swap (my empty for his loaded trailer) went right quick. That load's destination was a company in Tampa, FL, so I hit the road eastward. I gave in to fatigue just a tad short (by 90 minutes) of my workday's 14-hour mark, and halted for the night at the FL Welcome Center/Rest Area outside of Pensacola.
This morning I got up at 3:45 a.m. (CST) so I could roll at 4:00. The load's original delivery time was set for 11:00, but it would have been mathematically impossible to cover the distance and fit in my 10-hour break from the time I picked it up. Another case of the company asking me to do the impossible. Not much I could do about it, so I just let Dispatch know my ETA for the delivery (2:00 p.m.) and hit the road. 'Twas a long drive (8-1/4 hours), but it and the delivery went relatively OK. So after leaving there I headed over to the TA in this town. My next pickup is back up in the FL panhandle (in the town of Freeport) Monday morning, so I could stay here for the night, then drive the 350 miles towards Freeport tomorrow. A bonus: This TA is one of the few on USA's fuel network since the change to nearly exclusively Pilots, so I could fill up my truck's tanks and earn a shower credit. PLUS I'll earn enough bonus points that I'll have enough of them to buy a shower when I don't have a shower credit available. (I've had that just-short balance for months now.) So I've earned 2 showers with 1 fuel purchase, and I'll be able to stay at TAs a couple times now and get cleaned up in the morning before starting my day. Cool!
And that gets you caught up with me. I apologize again for the 3 nights without reporting, but I gotta' sleep when I can. Thanks for your patience--both in waiting for a new report and for slogging through my drivel. ;-) And be sure to keep on truckin'.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Unexpected (and Unwelcome) Change in Plans
DATELINE: HUTCHINS, TX, 5:00 p.m. CST
No doubt the astute readers of this blog are confused about the dateline at the top of this report. It's supposed to read, "VAN BUREN, AR", because, as you all know, I'm scheduled for a training class today through Thursday. You regular readers also recall that Dispatch has had trouble getting me home on time lately. Well, they've performed equally admirably in getting me to Van Buren. That is to say, they didn't. Apparently their lone priority for company trucks is to make sure they're pulling loads (or on their way to pick one up). NOT getting drivers where they're supposed to be, even if it's for a scheduled training course so the driver can become an even greater asset to the company. Anyway, here's my story since I left off in West Memphis on Sunday.
After I completed blogging, I treated myself to dinner at the Mexican restaurant down the street from the terminal. When I got back to my truck, I had a message from Dispatch that my current load (the one with the troublesome trailer) had been set up for me to drop it there in West Memphis so I could get another assignment. Just a bit later the next gig came in: grab a loaded trailer from the West Memphis lot and take it to its 8:30 a.m. delivery in Garland, TX. Now, this was after 7:00 p.m. It's about an 8-hour drive from West Memphis to the Dallas area (Garland is a northeast 'burb of Dallas), so that meant I'd have to get rolling by midnight. Fortunately, it also allowed me to grab 3 hours of shut-eye, much-needed since I'd been up all day. (Well, I did have a couple of short naps that afternoon.)
So my alarm woke me at 11:00, I hooked up the new trailer, stopped by the nearby Pilot to weigh the truck, and headed west. By the time I reached the Texas border at Texarkana, I was feeling the fatigue, so I pulled into the Texas Welcome Center/Rest Area there and--wonder of wonders--found an open parking spot. (Usually hard to come by at 4:45 a.m.) I parked, sat back in my driver's seat, and grabbed a quick power nap of about 20-25 minutes. It's amazing how well those work. I then completed the drive to the delivery a few minutes before my appointment time. It was familiar territory, because the company is on the same street--just a block down--from another where I've delivered loads twice before.
I had just a brief wait for my assigned dock to open up. (That is, for the truck there before me to finish up and leave.) After that, the delivery went quickly for a live unload. Then I pulled over to the other side of their lot to await my next assignment. And wait. And wait. After an hour I sent in a message asking where I stood on "the board" of drivers waiting for assignments. The response: I was #57. Oy! That meant I had a bit of a wait yet. The problem was that as I sat there, my 14-hour clock for that shift was ticking away. By the time it got down to 30 minutes remaining with no assignment, the writing was on the wall. It was time to find a place to park for the "night". So I headed out and drove to the Love's in Rockwall, about 30 minutes away, just east of Dallas. By this time it was around 1:00 p.m.
Once parked at the Love's, I grabbed a Guacamole Bacon Burger (my latest favorite) from their Carl's Jr. outlet and returned to my truck. Lo and behold, my next assignment was waiting for me. It was for a pickup over by Fort Worth--at 3:30 p.m. Apparently the Load Coordinators and my Fleet Manager don't look at drivers' available hours, either, (or read the message I had sent them earlier about my time running out) because they assigned me the load even though it was designated as a "hot" one that needed to be picked up on time. I messaged in that I was on my MANDATORY 10-hour break and that I couldn't pick up the load in time. (By the way, the load was bound for CT, so I'd be able to haul it to and drop it in Van Buren when I got there for my class. It would have been an ideal solution.) My FM called to discuss the situation, and even asked if I could somehow make the pickup and then finish my break. This is my 3rd FM since I started with USA, and as far as I'm concerned he's not doing a very good job for me. He has the poorest track record for getting me home on time, and now he was suggesting I violate the DOT hours-of-service regulations. If he'd done his job well to begin with, he never would have assigned me the load. But somehow I appeared to be the bad guy because I couldn't make a pickup assigned to me. (Pardon me while I vent there.) Anyway, the down side to the whole affair was that if I couldn't make that pickup, then they didn't have any other loads they could find to get me to Van Buren and they'd have to cancel my training.
Now remember, the training class was for me to learn how to become a trainer in the company's Apprenticeship Driver Training program and, therefore, earn more money. Which I really need. So, needless to say, I was not in my "happy place" when a replacement assignment came in, which included a midnight pickup this morning just north of Fort Worth and delivery back in Garland at 11:00 tomorrow morning. That's right, a whole credited 53 miles there, and 53 more back. For the whole day. Oh, and did I mention that this new assignment was to pick up a loaded trailer from an intermodal transfer site? That is, I'd be picking up a trailer that had travelled to the site by rail car. So I couldn't take my empty trailer there. On the way I'd have to drop it at the drop yard we use in Dallas. So let me fill you in on how that whole trip went. It makes Homer's little "Odyssey" story seem trivial.
- At first, things started out OK, as I managed a couple hours of sleep before having to get started. But once underway, as I drove west towards "Big D", a thunderstorm rolled in. I mean a deluge of near-biblical proportions. So that slowed the driving down in order to be able to see. And it, naturally, was at its heaviest when I got to the drop yard and had to get out and unhook the trailer. I was worried going over there that I'd be slogging through mud (it's a dirt lot) to unhook, but it turned out that I was wading through a lake instead. So besides my pants getting wet from the downpour (I did have a semi-water-resistant jacket with hood, so my upper body stayed dry), my feet got soaked, too.
- Then, heading west on I-30, I got delayed in a jam when they closed the freeway, apparently due to flooding in an underpass area. But I found my way around that easily enough. (Good thing I've been in the area a few times and know the basic highway layout between Dallas and FW.)
- Next up was some difficulty finding the right road near the pickup because the provided directions gave the wrong exit number off of the highway. But, again due to my familiarity with the area, I worked that out, too.
- As I headed down the last road to the pickup, I asked, "so what's next?" It didn't take long to find out. As I neared the entrance to the pickup site, railroad warning lights came on and the gates came down across the road. Had it done so 5 to 10 seconds later and I would have made it across. So I had to wait for a lengthy train. BUT, to top it off, as the end of the train finally crossed the road, it stopped! This was a 4-lane divided road I was on (2 lanes on either side of a grass median), and the train had actually cleared my side but stopped while still completely blocking the other. So, of course, the gates stayed down and I had nowhere to go. For about 45 minutes.
Well, it's been another long day and fatigue is setting in again, so I'll just get on with it and stop dwelling on the "challenges" I faced last night. The rest of the pickup went OK, and the rain even let up. Because of the hour of the night (now around 2:00 a.m. this morning), I knew I'd never find a place to park at the nearby Pilot. But the road near it (the service road alongside I-35W) has a nice, wide shoulder and a lot of trucks park there. So I did, too, just for a short, 4-hour nap. I got up at 6:30 when parking places would be clearing out at truck stops. However, instead of just parking at that Pilot, I needed to get to one on our fuel network so I could get some cash, too. (We can get up to $160/week as a cash advance when we fuel up. Also, that Fort Worth Pilot used to be on our network, but isn't anymore. Curious--and inconvenient.) The nearest one is a Pilot in Weatherford, about 20 miles west of FW, so I headed over there. Besides fueling up, I took the opportunity to grab a shower and shave, since I was in need of those, too.
Once all cleaned and fueled up, I headed back east. With my delivery tomorrow in Garland, I want to be closer and not have to deal with rush-hour traffic between the two cities. So instead of staying in Weatherford (which was tempting), I opted for the Love's over here in Hutchins, just south of Dallas. (I've stayed here a few times before, largely because of the pull of their Carl's Jr.) I got here around 9:00 and headed right in for a Steak 'n Egg Burrito. Always something I look forward to on my sojourns into Texas. Since then I've mostly been at the online poker tables, having a reasonably good day at them. (Again, playing tournaments exclusively.) I increased my bankroll by over 12%, so it's now at $30.44, almost back up to its all-time high. My big score was a multi-table Texas Hold 'Em tournament with a $1.10 buy-in, in which I cashed for $3.85! That was for 201st place out of 3843 entrants. Of course, coming down the stretch of that one, once I made the money I went completely card-dead, so I couldn't come up with an even bigger score. Oh well, it's progress anyway, because I'd been mostly unable to make it to the money at all in the multi-table tourneys.
So now I think I've caught you up with my misadventures and I need to start working on catching up with all the sleep I've missed the last couple of days. Thanks for dropping by. Please send me some comments and questions--it does brighten my day when I see a number other than zero in the number of comments for a given posting. And keep on truckin'.
No doubt the astute readers of this blog are confused about the dateline at the top of this report. It's supposed to read, "VAN BUREN, AR", because, as you all know, I'm scheduled for a training class today through Thursday. You regular readers also recall that Dispatch has had trouble getting me home on time lately. Well, they've performed equally admirably in getting me to Van Buren. That is to say, they didn't. Apparently their lone priority for company trucks is to make sure they're pulling loads (or on their way to pick one up). NOT getting drivers where they're supposed to be, even if it's for a scheduled training course so the driver can become an even greater asset to the company. Anyway, here's my story since I left off in West Memphis on Sunday.
After I completed blogging, I treated myself to dinner at the Mexican restaurant down the street from the terminal. When I got back to my truck, I had a message from Dispatch that my current load (the one with the troublesome trailer) had been set up for me to drop it there in West Memphis so I could get another assignment. Just a bit later the next gig came in: grab a loaded trailer from the West Memphis lot and take it to its 8:30 a.m. delivery in Garland, TX. Now, this was after 7:00 p.m. It's about an 8-hour drive from West Memphis to the Dallas area (Garland is a northeast 'burb of Dallas), so that meant I'd have to get rolling by midnight. Fortunately, it also allowed me to grab 3 hours of shut-eye, much-needed since I'd been up all day. (Well, I did have a couple of short naps that afternoon.)
So my alarm woke me at 11:00, I hooked up the new trailer, stopped by the nearby Pilot to weigh the truck, and headed west. By the time I reached the Texas border at Texarkana, I was feeling the fatigue, so I pulled into the Texas Welcome Center/Rest Area there and--wonder of wonders--found an open parking spot. (Usually hard to come by at 4:45 a.m.) I parked, sat back in my driver's seat, and grabbed a quick power nap of about 20-25 minutes. It's amazing how well those work. I then completed the drive to the delivery a few minutes before my appointment time. It was familiar territory, because the company is on the same street--just a block down--from another where I've delivered loads twice before.
I had just a brief wait for my assigned dock to open up. (That is, for the truck there before me to finish up and leave.) After that, the delivery went quickly for a live unload. Then I pulled over to the other side of their lot to await my next assignment. And wait. And wait. After an hour I sent in a message asking where I stood on "the board" of drivers waiting for assignments. The response: I was #57. Oy! That meant I had a bit of a wait yet. The problem was that as I sat there, my 14-hour clock for that shift was ticking away. By the time it got down to 30 minutes remaining with no assignment, the writing was on the wall. It was time to find a place to park for the "night". So I headed out and drove to the Love's in Rockwall, about 30 minutes away, just east of Dallas. By this time it was around 1:00 p.m.
Once parked at the Love's, I grabbed a Guacamole Bacon Burger (my latest favorite) from their Carl's Jr. outlet and returned to my truck. Lo and behold, my next assignment was waiting for me. It was for a pickup over by Fort Worth--at 3:30 p.m. Apparently the Load Coordinators and my Fleet Manager don't look at drivers' available hours, either, (or read the message I had sent them earlier about my time running out) because they assigned me the load even though it was designated as a "hot" one that needed to be picked up on time. I messaged in that I was on my MANDATORY 10-hour break and that I couldn't pick up the load in time. (By the way, the load was bound for CT, so I'd be able to haul it to and drop it in Van Buren when I got there for my class. It would have been an ideal solution.) My FM called to discuss the situation, and even asked if I could somehow make the pickup and then finish my break. This is my 3rd FM since I started with USA, and as far as I'm concerned he's not doing a very good job for me. He has the poorest track record for getting me home on time, and now he was suggesting I violate the DOT hours-of-service regulations. If he'd done his job well to begin with, he never would have assigned me the load. But somehow I appeared to be the bad guy because I couldn't make a pickup assigned to me. (Pardon me while I vent there.) Anyway, the down side to the whole affair was that if I couldn't make that pickup, then they didn't have any other loads they could find to get me to Van Buren and they'd have to cancel my training.
Now remember, the training class was for me to learn how to become a trainer in the company's Apprenticeship Driver Training program and, therefore, earn more money. Which I really need. So, needless to say, I was not in my "happy place" when a replacement assignment came in, which included a midnight pickup this morning just north of Fort Worth and delivery back in Garland at 11:00 tomorrow morning. That's right, a whole credited 53 miles there, and 53 more back. For the whole day. Oh, and did I mention that this new assignment was to pick up a loaded trailer from an intermodal transfer site? That is, I'd be picking up a trailer that had travelled to the site by rail car. So I couldn't take my empty trailer there. On the way I'd have to drop it at the drop yard we use in Dallas. So let me fill you in on how that whole trip went. It makes Homer's little "Odyssey" story seem trivial.
- At first, things started out OK, as I managed a couple hours of sleep before having to get started. But once underway, as I drove west towards "Big D", a thunderstorm rolled in. I mean a deluge of near-biblical proportions. So that slowed the driving down in order to be able to see. And it, naturally, was at its heaviest when I got to the drop yard and had to get out and unhook the trailer. I was worried going over there that I'd be slogging through mud (it's a dirt lot) to unhook, but it turned out that I was wading through a lake instead. So besides my pants getting wet from the downpour (I did have a semi-water-resistant jacket with hood, so my upper body stayed dry), my feet got soaked, too.
- Then, heading west on I-30, I got delayed in a jam when they closed the freeway, apparently due to flooding in an underpass area. But I found my way around that easily enough. (Good thing I've been in the area a few times and know the basic highway layout between Dallas and FW.)
- Next up was some difficulty finding the right road near the pickup because the provided directions gave the wrong exit number off of the highway. But, again due to my familiarity with the area, I worked that out, too.
- As I headed down the last road to the pickup, I asked, "so what's next?" It didn't take long to find out. As I neared the entrance to the pickup site, railroad warning lights came on and the gates came down across the road. Had it done so 5 to 10 seconds later and I would have made it across. So I had to wait for a lengthy train. BUT, to top it off, as the end of the train finally crossed the road, it stopped! This was a 4-lane divided road I was on (2 lanes on either side of a grass median), and the train had actually cleared my side but stopped while still completely blocking the other. So, of course, the gates stayed down and I had nowhere to go. For about 45 minutes.
Well, it's been another long day and fatigue is setting in again, so I'll just get on with it and stop dwelling on the "challenges" I faced last night. The rest of the pickup went OK, and the rain even let up. Because of the hour of the night (now around 2:00 a.m. this morning), I knew I'd never find a place to park at the nearby Pilot. But the road near it (the service road alongside I-35W) has a nice, wide shoulder and a lot of trucks park there. So I did, too, just for a short, 4-hour nap. I got up at 6:30 when parking places would be clearing out at truck stops. However, instead of just parking at that Pilot, I needed to get to one on our fuel network so I could get some cash, too. (We can get up to $160/week as a cash advance when we fuel up. Also, that Fort Worth Pilot used to be on our network, but isn't anymore. Curious--and inconvenient.) The nearest one is a Pilot in Weatherford, about 20 miles west of FW, so I headed over there. Besides fueling up, I took the opportunity to grab a shower and shave, since I was in need of those, too.
Once all cleaned and fueled up, I headed back east. With my delivery tomorrow in Garland, I want to be closer and not have to deal with rush-hour traffic between the two cities. So instead of staying in Weatherford (which was tempting), I opted for the Love's over here in Hutchins, just south of Dallas. (I've stayed here a few times before, largely because of the pull of their Carl's Jr.) I got here around 9:00 and headed right in for a Steak 'n Egg Burrito. Always something I look forward to on my sojourns into Texas. Since then I've mostly been at the online poker tables, having a reasonably good day at them. (Again, playing tournaments exclusively.) I increased my bankroll by over 12%, so it's now at $30.44, almost back up to its all-time high. My big score was a multi-table Texas Hold 'Em tournament with a $1.10 buy-in, in which I cashed for $3.85! That was for 201st place out of 3843 entrants. Of course, coming down the stretch of that one, once I made the money I went completely card-dead, so I couldn't come up with an even bigger score. Oh well, it's progress anyway, because I'd been mostly unable to make it to the money at all in the multi-table tourneys.
So now I think I've caught you up with my misadventures and I need to start working on catching up with all the sleep I've missed the last couple of days. Thanks for dropping by. Please send me some comments and questions--it does brighten my day when I see a number other than zero in the number of comments for a given posting. And keep on truckin'.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Weekend Woes
DATELINE: WEST MEMPHIS, AR, 5:00 p.m. CST
Whoops! Sorry for neglecting you for a couple days there, gang. I have some unexpected free time now, so I'll get right to bringing you up to speed on my adventures.
I returned to work on Friday morning. (Many thanks to Mrs. R.T. for the early morning ride back to my truck.) After getting back at about 6:15 a.m. and sending in my "back to work" message, I had to wait about 90 minutes before my first assignment of this tour of duty came across. But the job was one I've done a couple times before: Pick up a load in Warren, MI and haul it down to Dry Ridge, KY, a 300-ish mile trip.
That run went just fine, and I still had 4 hours available to work for the day when I completed it at 4:30 p.m. I got my next assignment promptly; next up was a pickup in Louisville, KY at 7:00. So I just headed right over there and found the place. (It's always fun looking for new places after dark. But the directions to the company in the assignment were good, and finding it wasn't a problem.)
The pickup was a drop-and-hook and went quickly, but I had some concern about the trailer I was picking up. It's an older one, so there's always an increased chance of some problems with it. But since the pickup was at night, and my hours were running short, I couldn't give it a good once-over. But I hooked it up and headed off to find a place to park for the night, which turned out to be the Pilot in Lebanon Junction, KY, just a little ways south of Louisville. By the time I got there, I was too tired from the long day to pull out the laptop and write up an update for y'all, so I just grabbed some dinner and went to bed.
The load is (was, but I'll get to that in a minute) destined for a Monday morning delivery in the Fort Worth, TX area, so I had the whole weekend to make the drive. I planned to drive to our West Memphis, AR terminal on Saturday and the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Sunday. That would split the trip into two roughly equal portions. However, 15 miles after getting started on Saturday I came across a weigh station in KY. This load is one of those "special" ones for which I get paid an extra 3 cents per mile, so I have some placards on the trailer indicating such. Now, the Vehicle Enforcement Officers at weigh stations are required to inspect a certain number of trucks hauling these "special" loads, so while passing over the scales I got the indicator to pull over for an inspection. (An extra $.03 per mile doesn't really cover the lost time and aggravation of an inspection.)
Long story short, the Officer found a couple of substandard tires (tread depth too shallow) on the trailer and wrote me up for the violation. There's no fine involved for me, but I'd need to get the tires replaced soon. In consultation with USA's Roadside Assistance department, we eventually decided that I'd just make my way to West Memphis and get the work done there. So I completed the drive as planned, arrived at 3:00 p.m., and checked in at the shop. Of course, being understaffed and overworked, and set to close at 5:00, the shop wouldn't be able to get to my trailer that day, but they did have me unhook from the trailer so they could pull it into the shop and have it ready to get to work on it first thing this morning. At least DOT-violation fixes do get some priority at the terminals.
So I spent most of the rest of the afternoon in the drivers' lounge in one of the nice, soft, leather recliners watching college football on the big-screen TV. How nice it was to catch the surprising score of Michigan's win for the Little Brown Jug. Way to (finally!) go Blue! I have a nephew at the U of Minnesota--I'll have to get his e-mail address and rub it in a bit. (Or my sister, his mom, who often reads this drivel and also went to Michigan, can pass the "nyah-nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah" on to him.)
This morning I, naturally, woke up way early--before 5:00. The shop wouldn't open 'til 6:30, and it'd probably be at least a couple hours after that 'til they had the trailer fixed. So I killed some time trying to sleep, then eventually gave up, heated some beef stew for breakfast, attempted to take a shower here at the terminal, but the one open shower room was a mess, so I drove on over to the Pilot a mile down the road and got cleaned up there. Once back here at the terminal it was just more time to kill 'til about noon when I checked on the trailer in the shop. Verdict: they replaced a few tires but found a leaking brake valve. Of course, they don't have a replacement valve on hand, and they can't get one 'til tomorrow (Monday). So they can't get the trailer done 'til at least noon.
I relayed that news to Dispatch so they could make alternate plans for me. Remember, I need to be at our Van Buren, AR terminal (and HQ) on Tuesday for the training class, so I can't possibly stay with the load, deliver it when the trailer's fixed, and get to Van Buren on time. However, I've been waiting all afternoon and still haven't gotten word one from Dispatch since their message to "stand by...I'll check" after I let them know about the trailer. I really hate when these situations come up on the weekend, since the Dispatch staff on duty doesn't seem to have the authority to make major changes like my situation requires. I guess I'll be waiting 'til my Fleet Manager gets in Monday morning.
Anyway, here I sit in limbo, with extra time to fill you in on my goings-on. I should be taking advantage of this time to work on growing my poker experiment bankroll, but for some reason I'm not in the right frame of mind for that. Probably because of lasting fatigue (I never get enough sleep when I'm at home--too much to do and not enough time to do it) and distraction from the stress of wondering what's next. Oh well. Check back tomorrow to find out what they finally decide for me to do.
Thanks for reading today's story, and keep on truckin'.
Whoops! Sorry for neglecting you for a couple days there, gang. I have some unexpected free time now, so I'll get right to bringing you up to speed on my adventures.
I returned to work on Friday morning. (Many thanks to Mrs. R.T. for the early morning ride back to my truck.) After getting back at about 6:15 a.m. and sending in my "back to work" message, I had to wait about 90 minutes before my first assignment of this tour of duty came across. But the job was one I've done a couple times before: Pick up a load in Warren, MI and haul it down to Dry Ridge, KY, a 300-ish mile trip.
That run went just fine, and I still had 4 hours available to work for the day when I completed it at 4:30 p.m. I got my next assignment promptly; next up was a pickup in Louisville, KY at 7:00. So I just headed right over there and found the place. (It's always fun looking for new places after dark. But the directions to the company in the assignment were good, and finding it wasn't a problem.)
The pickup was a drop-and-hook and went quickly, but I had some concern about the trailer I was picking up. It's an older one, so there's always an increased chance of some problems with it. But since the pickup was at night, and my hours were running short, I couldn't give it a good once-over. But I hooked it up and headed off to find a place to park for the night, which turned out to be the Pilot in Lebanon Junction, KY, just a little ways south of Louisville. By the time I got there, I was too tired from the long day to pull out the laptop and write up an update for y'all, so I just grabbed some dinner and went to bed.
The load is (was, but I'll get to that in a minute) destined for a Monday morning delivery in the Fort Worth, TX area, so I had the whole weekend to make the drive. I planned to drive to our West Memphis, AR terminal on Saturday and the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Sunday. That would split the trip into two roughly equal portions. However, 15 miles after getting started on Saturday I came across a weigh station in KY. This load is one of those "special" ones for which I get paid an extra 3 cents per mile, so I have some placards on the trailer indicating such. Now, the Vehicle Enforcement Officers at weigh stations are required to inspect a certain number of trucks hauling these "special" loads, so while passing over the scales I got the indicator to pull over for an inspection. (An extra $.03 per mile doesn't really cover the lost time and aggravation of an inspection.)
Long story short, the Officer found a couple of substandard tires (tread depth too shallow) on the trailer and wrote me up for the violation. There's no fine involved for me, but I'd need to get the tires replaced soon. In consultation with USA's Roadside Assistance department, we eventually decided that I'd just make my way to West Memphis and get the work done there. So I completed the drive as planned, arrived at 3:00 p.m., and checked in at the shop. Of course, being understaffed and overworked, and set to close at 5:00, the shop wouldn't be able to get to my trailer that day, but they did have me unhook from the trailer so they could pull it into the shop and have it ready to get to work on it first thing this morning. At least DOT-violation fixes do get some priority at the terminals.
So I spent most of the rest of the afternoon in the drivers' lounge in one of the nice, soft, leather recliners watching college football on the big-screen TV. How nice it was to catch the surprising score of Michigan's win for the Little Brown Jug. Way to (finally!) go Blue! I have a nephew at the U of Minnesota--I'll have to get his e-mail address and rub it in a bit. (Or my sister, his mom, who often reads this drivel and also went to Michigan, can pass the "nyah-nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah" on to him.)
This morning I, naturally, woke up way early--before 5:00. The shop wouldn't open 'til 6:30, and it'd probably be at least a couple hours after that 'til they had the trailer fixed. So I killed some time trying to sleep, then eventually gave up, heated some beef stew for breakfast, attempted to take a shower here at the terminal, but the one open shower room was a mess, so I drove on over to the Pilot a mile down the road and got cleaned up there. Once back here at the terminal it was just more time to kill 'til about noon when I checked on the trailer in the shop. Verdict: they replaced a few tires but found a leaking brake valve. Of course, they don't have a replacement valve on hand, and they can't get one 'til tomorrow (Monday). So they can't get the trailer done 'til at least noon.
I relayed that news to Dispatch so they could make alternate plans for me. Remember, I need to be at our Van Buren, AR terminal (and HQ) on Tuesday for the training class, so I can't possibly stay with the load, deliver it when the trailer's fixed, and get to Van Buren on time. However, I've been waiting all afternoon and still haven't gotten word one from Dispatch since their message to "stand by...I'll check" after I let them know about the trailer. I really hate when these situations come up on the weekend, since the Dispatch staff on duty doesn't seem to have the authority to make major changes like my situation requires. I guess I'll be waiting 'til my Fleet Manager gets in Monday morning.
Anyway, here I sit in limbo, with extra time to fill you in on my goings-on. I should be taking advantage of this time to work on growing my poker experiment bankroll, but for some reason I'm not in the right frame of mind for that. Probably because of lasting fatigue (I never get enough sleep when I'm at home--too much to do and not enough time to do it) and distraction from the stress of wondering what's next. Oh well. Check back tomorrow to find out what they finally decide for me to do.
Thanks for reading today's story, and keep on truckin'.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Election Special
DATELINE: HOME, Noon EST
Hi, gang. Sorry for the silence the last few days, so I'd better get y'all caught up. I don't have a lot of time now, so I'll keep this short.
I'm at home now--got here on Tuesday. As you recall from my last posting on Saturday, I was on a load bound for delivery at 2 stops around Chicago on Monday. Saturday I had spent the night in Ottawa Lake, MI, so on Sunday morning I drove over to a TA in Gary, IN. That took all of 4 hours, so I spent the rest of the day: 1. Watching some NFL (I don't know why I ever bother paying any attention to the Lions), and 2. Playing some more poker tournaments. OK, I'll spare you the details of the latter for a change, but it was a successful pursuit.
Monday morning I made the 2 deliveries, then waited for my next assignment. I expected maybe a pickup nearby that I would drop off somewhere on my way home. It took a while, but the assignment came in a little after noon. The pickup was in Henry, IL, 120 miles away...MOSTLY WEST! Or the opposite direction from home. And the load was to deliver in Findlay, OH Tuesday morning. I checked with my Fleet Manager if I was going to drop the load off somewhere so I could get home on time (which was by that point unlikely, since I wouldn't be able to make it all the way within hours of service regulations), but he confirmed that the load was mine all the way through delivery. Grrr! Yet another instance of them not getting me home on my requested date. And this time I needed to get home so I could vote on Tuesday.
Anyway, I drove over to Henry, made the pickup (which was a live load, but nice and quick), and headed back east. It became apparent that I wouldn't get to Findlay that day, and I was getting quite tired (the stress from the "disappointment" of not getting home on time AGAIN may have had something to do with that), so I stopped at the westernmost service plaza along the Indiana Turnpike for the night. That was at 6:15 p.m., and after having some dinner and walking around the parking lot for a little while to work off the dinner, I just went right to bed.
After my 10-hour break, I got back underway to go deliver the load. Five hours later I reached Findlay and the delivery. An hour later I was done there and on on my way home. Which I reached in time to go cast my votes. (Well, there's another story there, but I don't have the time to go into that.)
So I've had a couple of good days at home now--PERFECT weather the whole time and the proper election results--and head back to my truck and the road tomorrow (Friday) morning. I expect I'll be heading west because I need to be in Van Buren, AR on Tuesday for my trainer training. Thanks for continuing to check back during the days I didn't get reports out for you, and keep on truckin'.
Hi, gang. Sorry for the silence the last few days, so I'd better get y'all caught up. I don't have a lot of time now, so I'll keep this short.
I'm at home now--got here on Tuesday. As you recall from my last posting on Saturday, I was on a load bound for delivery at 2 stops around Chicago on Monday. Saturday I had spent the night in Ottawa Lake, MI, so on Sunday morning I drove over to a TA in Gary, IN. That took all of 4 hours, so I spent the rest of the day: 1. Watching some NFL (I don't know why I ever bother paying any attention to the Lions), and 2. Playing some more poker tournaments. OK, I'll spare you the details of the latter for a change, but it was a successful pursuit.
Monday morning I made the 2 deliveries, then waited for my next assignment. I expected maybe a pickup nearby that I would drop off somewhere on my way home. It took a while, but the assignment came in a little after noon. The pickup was in Henry, IL, 120 miles away...MOSTLY WEST! Or the opposite direction from home. And the load was to deliver in Findlay, OH Tuesday morning. I checked with my Fleet Manager if I was going to drop the load off somewhere so I could get home on time (which was by that point unlikely, since I wouldn't be able to make it all the way within hours of service regulations), but he confirmed that the load was mine all the way through delivery. Grrr! Yet another instance of them not getting me home on my requested date. And this time I needed to get home so I could vote on Tuesday.
Anyway, I drove over to Henry, made the pickup (which was a live load, but nice and quick), and headed back east. It became apparent that I wouldn't get to Findlay that day, and I was getting quite tired (the stress from the "disappointment" of not getting home on time AGAIN may have had something to do with that), so I stopped at the westernmost service plaza along the Indiana Turnpike for the night. That was at 6:15 p.m., and after having some dinner and walking around the parking lot for a little while to work off the dinner, I just went right to bed.
After my 10-hour break, I got back underway to go deliver the load. Five hours later I reached Findlay and the delivery. An hour later I was done there and on on my way home. Which I reached in time to go cast my votes. (Well, there's another story there, but I don't have the time to go into that.)
So I've had a couple of good days at home now--PERFECT weather the whole time and the proper election results--and head back to my truck and the road tomorrow (Friday) morning. I expect I'll be heading west because I need to be in Van Buren, AR on Tuesday for my trainer training. Thanks for continuing to check back during the days I didn't get reports out for you, and keep on truckin'.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Busy Day, Lazy Weekend
DATELINE: OTTAWA LAKE, MI, 7:00 p.m. EDT
Oops! Missed a couple days again, didn't I? Sorry, faithful readers. Sometimes I'm just too tired when I finish a work day (Thursday) or when I finally get disgusted with my poker results (last night). I'm getting pretty tired now, too, but I finally had a good day adding to my poker bankroll, so I'm in a good enough mood to blog up. So here's what I've been up to the last 3 days.
THURSDAY, 246 Miles
Busy, busy day, with a good bit of waiting around. I started out with an hour-long drive to my first(!) delivery in York, PA. It was a drop-and-hook (D&H) delivery, I arrived an hour early (6:00 a.m.), and it went nice 'n quickly. Except it had no "Hook" part. The company didn't have any empty trailers for me to take with me after docking the loaded one I brought in. But that turned out not to be a problem 'cuz my next pickup, on the other side of York, was a pre-loaded trailer.
So that was a quick hook-up, then I was on my way to its destinations. Yes, plural. The load was bound for 2 stops, with both deliveries scheduled that same day. The first was set for 11:00 a.m. in New Castle, DE, the second in Bellmawr, NJ at 1:00 p.m. Since it is late, I'll skip the detailed version of events, but the first delivery went fine (once I found the place--more not-quite-detailed-enough directions), but I had a long wait at the second. That one took 3-1/2 hours or so.
After completing the 2nd delivery, I bopped on over to a service plaza along the NJ Turnpike. I was down to less than 2 hours left on my 14-hour clock for the day, but Dispatch did send me another assignment. It was for a pickup in Mt. Laurel, NJ, right near where I was. I was concerned that if I went over to make the pickup, I'd wind up having to break the 14-hour reg. But Dispatch told me I'd be pickup a pre-loaded trailer, so it wouldn't take long. So off I went.
I got there with about 45 minutes left on that ticking clock. But when I went in to check in and gave the clerk there my load number, he claimed it was a bad one. So I hopped back in my truck to see if I could get a proper load number from Dispatch. Well, that clock was ticking, and I needed to get to a place to park for the night before my workday hit that 14-hour mark, so I just left. Dispatch could figure out the load number problem overnight and I'd pick up the load in the morning. (The load delivers to 2 sites in the Chicago area on Monday, so a late pickup was not a problem. Getting a slap-on-the-wrist phone call from Compliance about hours of service violations would be a problem.)
I wound up at a TA in Paulsboro, NJ, 20-ish miles away. (Not a lot of truck stops in that area.) As I mentioned up top, I was just too tired from the long day and the stress about getting parked within the proper time frame. (Did I mention the TA parking lot was quite jammed, and I had to circle it a couple of times before I spotted an opening?) So I grabbed a quick bite for dinner and went straight to bed.
FRIDAY, 258 Miles
Yesterday I got up after my 10-hour break and headed back to the shipper. This time we got the right load ID (a different, apparently more on-top-of-things clerk was on duty) and I grabbed my assigned load. (Another D&H.) Since I don't have to deliver the load 'til Monday, and it's less than an 800-mile trip, I have plenty of time to make my way to northern IL. So I'm just taking shorter drives this weekend.
Yesterday I stopped at the TA in Breezewood, PA. Because I'd started up so early, it was just noon when I got there. So I used my copious free time to work on rebuilding my poker bankroll. Alas, as is the norm on the days when I have oodles of time to do so, the cards have a totally different idea. I scrapped and scraped my way through 11 double-or-nothing (DoN) SNGs, ($1.10 entry for each, $1 into the prize pool, $.10 for the entry fee) but wound up cashing in only 5 of 'em. That dropped my balance by $2.10. Grrrrrr! Disgusted, tired, and hungry after those several hours of poker stress, I logged off, went in search of dinner (a Quizno's down the street), then went to bed.
TODAY, 364 Miles
I wanted to get to bed relatively early last night because I plotted that my next stop would be here in southern MI, just 30 miles down US-23 from my house. (Going all the way up to the Ann Arbor area would be just a bit too far out-of-route.) If I'd arrive early enough, Mrs. R.T. would have enough free time in her busy day to c'mon down and meet me for lunch. So I got up at 2:30 this morning and hit the road by 3:00.
I got here--a Pilot Travel Center--at 10:00 after just a couple stops en route, one to grab some grub, the other to grab a shower. The Mrs. arrived a few minutes later, and we got to spend a little quality time together over breakfast at the McDonald's here. It's always a plus when my route and schedule allow see my better half and/or whatever part of my family is available (and willing).
After Mrs. R.T. headed back home, I hopped back in my truck to see about righting the poker wrongs that had befallen me lately. And I finally did (for the most part) get the proper distribution of friendly cards. (Aside: I have a CD of the greatest hits of the Alan Parsons Project. One of their tunes is, "The Turn of a Friendly Card" and includes in the chorus the line, "But the game never ends when your whole world depends on the turn of a friendly card." For some reason I like that song.) I played another 10 DoN SNGs, and this time I cashed in 8 of 'em. That's more the type of result I expect in the DoNs, and it grew my meager bankroll by $5, so I am much happier tonight.
Tomorrow I'll mosey on over to the Gary, IN area for my base camp for Monday morning's assault on my two deliveries. After that, I expect Dispatch'll try to find me a load to haul into or towards MI, since that's the day I'm scheduled to start another bout of home time. Or maybe they'll just let me dead head (run with an empty trailer) my way home. (Yeah, right!) Gotta' get home so I can vote on Tuesday and watch the election results through the night. I'll also have all day Wednesday free before heading back to the truck on Thursday. I'm looking forward to that.
In other news, I got word that I'm scheduled to start training to be a trainer soon. The class will be the 11th - 13th at our Van Buren, AR HQ, so I'm looking forward to that, too. Although I do rather like (and probably prefer) being a solo driver, I can sure use the extra income from being a trainer (to the tune of an extra $45 a day I have a student with me, on top of being paid my regular rate for all the miles of our dispatched miles).
The level of trainer I'm going to be is for our "Driver Apprenticeship Program", in which I get a new driver fresh out of orientation. I'll have each one for probably a couple of weeks before s/he goes on to the next level of training, which is basically being a team driver with another trainer. In the Apprenticeship Program I'll let the student do most of the driving (and docking, etc.), but I'll do some here and there to ease the burden and demonstrate techniques, etc. But neither of us will be in the bunk sleeping while the other's driving. It's called "right-seat training", so we'll stop every night just as I do as a solo driver. I'll miss the solitude of my own sleeper berth, but $omething make$ me want to $tep up to do thi$ training $tuff.
Well, it's been a L-O-N-G day now, and the land o' nod is a-calling. I expect to make full use of the extra hour of sleep afforded by tonight's time change. Thanks for checking up on me today. Please let me hear from you via comments and questions, and keep right on a-truckin'.
Oops! Missed a couple days again, didn't I? Sorry, faithful readers. Sometimes I'm just too tired when I finish a work day (Thursday) or when I finally get disgusted with my poker results (last night). I'm getting pretty tired now, too, but I finally had a good day adding to my poker bankroll, so I'm in a good enough mood to blog up. So here's what I've been up to the last 3 days.
THURSDAY, 246 Miles
Busy, busy day, with a good bit of waiting around. I started out with an hour-long drive to my first(!) delivery in York, PA. It was a drop-and-hook (D&H) delivery, I arrived an hour early (6:00 a.m.), and it went nice 'n quickly. Except it had no "Hook" part. The company didn't have any empty trailers for me to take with me after docking the loaded one I brought in. But that turned out not to be a problem 'cuz my next pickup, on the other side of York, was a pre-loaded trailer.
So that was a quick hook-up, then I was on my way to its destinations. Yes, plural. The load was bound for 2 stops, with both deliveries scheduled that same day. The first was set for 11:00 a.m. in New Castle, DE, the second in Bellmawr, NJ at 1:00 p.m. Since it is late, I'll skip the detailed version of events, but the first delivery went fine (once I found the place--more not-quite-detailed-enough directions), but I had a long wait at the second. That one took 3-1/2 hours or so.
After completing the 2nd delivery, I bopped on over to a service plaza along the NJ Turnpike. I was down to less than 2 hours left on my 14-hour clock for the day, but Dispatch did send me another assignment. It was for a pickup in Mt. Laurel, NJ, right near where I was. I was concerned that if I went over to make the pickup, I'd wind up having to break the 14-hour reg. But Dispatch told me I'd be pickup a pre-loaded trailer, so it wouldn't take long. So off I went.
I got there with about 45 minutes left on that ticking clock. But when I went in to check in and gave the clerk there my load number, he claimed it was a bad one. So I hopped back in my truck to see if I could get a proper load number from Dispatch. Well, that clock was ticking, and I needed to get to a place to park for the night before my workday hit that 14-hour mark, so I just left. Dispatch could figure out the load number problem overnight and I'd pick up the load in the morning. (The load delivers to 2 sites in the Chicago area on Monday, so a late pickup was not a problem. Getting a slap-on-the-wrist phone call from Compliance about hours of service violations would be a problem.)
I wound up at a TA in Paulsboro, NJ, 20-ish miles away. (Not a lot of truck stops in that area.) As I mentioned up top, I was just too tired from the long day and the stress about getting parked within the proper time frame. (Did I mention the TA parking lot was quite jammed, and I had to circle it a couple of times before I spotted an opening?) So I grabbed a quick bite for dinner and went straight to bed.
FRIDAY, 258 Miles
Yesterday I got up after my 10-hour break and headed back to the shipper. This time we got the right load ID (a different, apparently more on-top-of-things clerk was on duty) and I grabbed my assigned load. (Another D&H.) Since I don't have to deliver the load 'til Monday, and it's less than an 800-mile trip, I have plenty of time to make my way to northern IL. So I'm just taking shorter drives this weekend.
Yesterday I stopped at the TA in Breezewood, PA. Because I'd started up so early, it was just noon when I got there. So I used my copious free time to work on rebuilding my poker bankroll. Alas, as is the norm on the days when I have oodles of time to do so, the cards have a totally different idea. I scrapped and scraped my way through 11 double-or-nothing (DoN) SNGs, ($1.10 entry for each, $1 into the prize pool, $.10 for the entry fee) but wound up cashing in only 5 of 'em. That dropped my balance by $2.10. Grrrrrr! Disgusted, tired, and hungry after those several hours of poker stress, I logged off, went in search of dinner (a Quizno's down the street), then went to bed.
TODAY, 364 Miles
I wanted to get to bed relatively early last night because I plotted that my next stop would be here in southern MI, just 30 miles down US-23 from my house. (Going all the way up to the Ann Arbor area would be just a bit too far out-of-route.) If I'd arrive early enough, Mrs. R.T. would have enough free time in her busy day to c'mon down and meet me for lunch. So I got up at 2:30 this morning and hit the road by 3:00.
I got here--a Pilot Travel Center--at 10:00 after just a couple stops en route, one to grab some grub, the other to grab a shower. The Mrs. arrived a few minutes later, and we got to spend a little quality time together over breakfast at the McDonald's here. It's always a plus when my route and schedule allow see my better half and/or whatever part of my family is available (and willing).
After Mrs. R.T. headed back home, I hopped back in my truck to see about righting the poker wrongs that had befallen me lately. And I finally did (for the most part) get the proper distribution of friendly cards. (Aside: I have a CD of the greatest hits of the Alan Parsons Project. One of their tunes is, "The Turn of a Friendly Card" and includes in the chorus the line, "But the game never ends when your whole world depends on the turn of a friendly card." For some reason I like that song.) I played another 10 DoN SNGs, and this time I cashed in 8 of 'em. That's more the type of result I expect in the DoNs, and it grew my meager bankroll by $5, so I am much happier tonight.
Tomorrow I'll mosey on over to the Gary, IN area for my base camp for Monday morning's assault on my two deliveries. After that, I expect Dispatch'll try to find me a load to haul into or towards MI, since that's the day I'm scheduled to start another bout of home time. Or maybe they'll just let me dead head (run with an empty trailer) my way home. (Yeah, right!) Gotta' get home so I can vote on Tuesday and watch the election results through the night. I'll also have all day Wednesday free before heading back to the truck on Thursday. I'm looking forward to that.
In other news, I got word that I'm scheduled to start training to be a trainer soon. The class will be the 11th - 13th at our Van Buren, AR HQ, so I'm looking forward to that, too. Although I do rather like (and probably prefer) being a solo driver, I can sure use the extra income from being a trainer (to the tune of an extra $45 a day I have a student with me, on top of being paid my regular rate for all the miles of our dispatched miles).
The level of trainer I'm going to be is for our "Driver Apprenticeship Program", in which I get a new driver fresh out of orientation. I'll have each one for probably a couple of weeks before s/he goes on to the next level of training, which is basically being a team driver with another trainer. In the Apprenticeship Program I'll let the student do most of the driving (and docking, etc.), but I'll do some here and there to ease the burden and demonstrate techniques, etc. But neither of us will be in the bunk sleeping while the other's driving. It's called "right-seat training", so we'll stop every night just as I do as a solo driver. I'll miss the solitude of my own sleeper berth, but $omething make$ me want to $tep up to do thi$ training $tuff.
Well, it's been a L-O-N-G day now, and the land o' nod is a-calling. I expect to make full use of the extra hour of sleep afforded by tonight's time change. Thanks for checking up on me today. Please let me hear from you via comments and questions, and keep right on a-truckin'.
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