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'.