Short, Strange Trips

DATELINE: BROOKS, KY, 6:50 p.m. EST

Well then, today was "interesting". I'd say "unique", but as you regular readers know, many things happening to my detriment in one day (well, two, since it all started yesterday) is nothing new or unique. So I'd best get right to my tale.

I didn't post anything here on Sunday 'cuz it was my off day and I had nothing substantial to write about, 'cept for a slight increase in my online poker bankroll. That was disappointing 'cuz when I have a day off, I'd like to make a substantial increase to the bankroll. But I guess I'm not allowed that kind of success. Just gotta' keep grinding it out.

Yesterday morning I got up and headed to my pickup in Seymour, IN, arriving at 6:30 for what I'd been told was a 7:00 pickup time. Naturally, when I got there, the sign on the door said shipping hours started at 7:30. Grrrr! More good info from Dispatch. So I had to wait an hour for the place to open up. But once they did, loading up went pretty quickly and I was soon on my way to the load's destination in Sidney, OH.

As I made my way north along I-65 in IN, it began to rain. And with the temperature below freezing, that made for some tricky conditions. I didn't have any troubles handling my truck, but others (cars and pickups--what we big rig pro's call "4-wheelers") did, and I had to slog through a multi-mile backup caused by a small pickup that had flipped in the median. So that put me behind schedule a bit, and I arrived at the delivery about 45 minutes late.

But nobody was concerned about that, and the delivery was a quick drop-and-hook, after which I boogied on over to our Vandalia, OH terminal. Then I had another wait. This time it took nearly 3 hours for my next assignment to come in. The pickup was 80-ish miles away in Loveland, OH (just north of Cincy) at 10:00 p.m. Now, nobody in Dispatch appears able to compute "time math" keeping drivers' hours of service (HOS) rules in mind. There was no way I could make that pickup time either within my 14 hours from the time I started work for the day (which would have ended at 7:30 p.m.) or by counting a 10-hour break from the time I finished my delivery (1:00 p.m.) before heading over there. So everybody seemed cool with me going over for the pickup after I completed my break, as long as I could make the delivery in Louisville, KY by 6:00 this morning. So I hit the sack for a few short hours of nappage before starting an overnight shift.

Because of my need to follow the DOT HOS regulations, I headed out from Vandalia at 11:30 p.m. and didn't arrive at the shipper 'til 12:30 a.m. and found the place all closed up and dark. What nobody had bothered to think of, or think to tell me, was that the shipper closed at midnight. So I wound up camping out on the street in front the place 'til they opened at 8:00. (At least I got some unexpected sleep!) All the while my 14-hour clock was ticking. By the time I was loaded and rolling towards Louisville, it was 9:00 and I had but 4-1/2 hours left to work for that shift.

Fortunately, Loo-ville is only a 2-hour drive from the Cincinnati area, so I had plenty of time to get there. But en route the heavens opened up and I had to drive through some heavy rains. I'm quite glad the weather had turned a bit warmer--in the 50s--so I had no ice concerns this time. That would be bad in the hills on I-71 in KY. But the company to which I delivered the load was small and had a quite small area for maneuvering my truck into the dock. Which was exacerbated by other vehicles--trucks in the other 2 docks, employee cars along the periphery. But I finagled my beast in there. While they were unloading the trailer, I surveyed the situation some more and concluded that, with no room to turn my truck around in the lot, I'd have to back out into the street when it came time to leave. Always a joy.

But all went well and I had just enough time left to head over to the Pilot here in Brooks, just south of the big city. Just when I got here and into a parking space, my next assignment came in. Tomorrow morning I'm heading back into town to pick up a load bound for Des Moines, IA. (I've picked up a load at that place once before, so I'm pretty sure it's going to be a quick drop-and-hook pickup.) I've yet to check the weather forecast for that route, but I hope it's free of winter storm watches and warnings.

Oh, more about today's joys. I needed to handle some paperwork for a real estate deal with some partners from my previous life. So with my free (or rather, "available"--there was nothing free about it) time this afternoon I had to call one of the partners to give him the fax number for this Pilot; wait for then pay for the fax ($14); find a Notary Public, which I determined to be at a UPS Store somewhat in the vicinity; call for a taxi, then wait over an hour for it; ride on over to the UPS Store; sign the document, get it notarized, and send it overnight to another one of the partners ($27 + change); and take the taxi back (round trip + tip: $65). Oy veh! Unpleasant but necessary to close out the whole shebang by the end of the year.

Well, I've come to the end of my sorry tale. Hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow for a change--a quick pickup and then just drive, drive, drive. The pickup's at 7:00, so I'll be getting up around 5:15 to hit the shower before hitting the road. So it's soon off to bed for me.

Thanks for looking in today. I do love to see comments and questions from my readers, so send 'em early and send 'em often. (You know, pretend you're voting in Chicago. Or pretend I'm the Illinois Governor and you want the President-Elect's Senate seat.) And, as always, keep in truckin'.