Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me

DATELINE: HARRISBURG, PA, 11:00 p.m. EST

Well, I'm just winding up a full day off from driving, so it's time to bring you up to speed with my latest trucking exploits. I hope I can keep this report civil, because it's been one he** of a frustrating week, and though today was a day off, the frustrations continued. Since I had the whole day free, I spent most of it online trying to grow my poker bankroll. And as always happens when I have the whole day to do that, it was a complete and utter disaster. I have no idea what I've ever done to offend the Poker gods that they would treat me so badly. But you're not here to read about me complaining about my Poker misfortunes, you're here to read about me complaining about my trucking misfortunes. So I'll get right to that.

Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh yes, I was in Walcott, IA after a long day that started off with a 4-hour wait at a pickup in Louisville, KY. That was on Wednesday. Thursday started off much better, even though I did have to get up early (4:30 a.m.) to get to my Des Moines delivery by 8:00. Which I did, arriving at 7:45. Lo and behold I checked in, docked, got unloaded, and was out of there in just over 30 minutes! That's how my stops all should be. Afterwards I drove over to the Pilot a mile up the highway to fuel up and wait for my next load assignment.

Can you guess where this is going? Yup, I waited. And waited. And waited. An waited some more. It was a slow day for loads in Iowa, and I didn't get my assignment for nigh on 7 hours! I think that's a new record for futility. Anyway, the pickup was at 6:00 that evening in Waterloo, about 120 miles away. Naturally, my 14-hour window for that day would end at 6:45, but I figured I'd get there a few minutes early (which I did), get loaded in an hour or so, and bop over to one of the truck stops in town for the night.

Can you guess where this is going? Yup, loading my trailer there took over 4 hours! So it was after 10:00 p.m. by the time I got out of there. Fortunately, I did find a spot at the second truck stop I pulled into and hit the sack.

Friday morning I woke up to 2-degree weather. Brrrr! I wasn't ready for that! But at least it was bright and sunny. My load was bound for York, PA, a 900-plus-mile trip, so Friday was all about cranking out the miles. I managed 597 of 'em and finished up at a Service Plaza along the Ohio turnpike, just west of Cleveland.

Yesterday I had to crank out a bunch more miles to get to my York delivery by 2:00 p.m. And I made it there about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I'd delivered to that site once before, a drop-and-hook. But this time I was scheduled for a live unload. Can you guess where this is going this time? Yup. I don't know what it is, but all of a sudden Shipping and Receiving departments are having a hard time being prompt in their work. This time it took 'em over 3 hours to unload my trailer. Gee, short by comparison to other recent stops. But they're still supposed to get us drivers in and out within 2 hours.

Oh well. When they were finally done I drove over and parked at a nearby diner with truck parking. There I waited over an hour and a half for my next load. Lo and behold, more waiting was built into the assignment. The pickup wasn't (isn't) 'til tomorrow (Monday) morning at 10:00. Hence my free day today. The pickup's in Reading, PA and I'll be taking it to southern NC for a Tuesday morning delivery. That's just over 500 miles, so I'm hoping for a quick load so I can get on my way quickly. But we'll just see about that, eh?

So that catches you up with me. It's time for me to hit the sack, so thanks for dropping by. Please drop some questions and comments by, too, and keep on truckin'.