Indiana scenery

...and the reason I'm stopped in Gary, IN instead of delivering

West Virginia scenery

Whitestown, IN

My routing for this trip had me taking some US highways, and though I could have opted to stick to the interstate, I took the suggested roads. It turned out to be a really nice trip out of Virginia and through West Virginia. I took US-460 between I-81 and I-77 and US-35 out of West Virginia and got to drive through the heart of coal country (one road sign referring to a coal mine may not be the heart of coal country, but this is my world so play along). At times, the highway was snaking along next to a small river, flanked on both sides by steep, rocky cliffs. On one side of the river was the highway; on the other, tens if not hundreds of small, weathered, old houses that had seen better days. They were clustered in the valley between the cliffs, as if they had all been washed down the hillsides and ended up at the bottom with nowhere to go. There were no strip malls, no fast food restaurants, and no gas stations; just mountains, river, and houses. Really awesome.

Ohio, on the other hand, was just boring. And at 55mph all the way across, boring for a long time.

I need to get an early start in the morning, so it's time for bed.

Max Meadows, VA

So far, so good. I made my delivery this afternoon and didn't have another load assignment, so I went down the road to a rest area and tried to take a nap. A couple hours later, I got a beep and the most complex load assignment I've gotten so far. Not that it's difficult or labor intensive, but it requires two pick-ups and three deliveries. I get extra $$$ for the second pick-up and the last two drops, in addition to the mileage pay. And it's a lightweight furniture load, so it's a pretty sweet gig, really. The only potential downside is I have two drops in Illinois cities that are currently under a blizzard warning and winter weather advisory, and I'm assuming the last drop in Wisconsin will be much the same. Hopefully the roads will at least be clear by Wednesday.

Yesterday

My pick-up yesterday had a two o'clock appointment time and I was told the shipper was very particular about it and wouldn't load me early. Fair enough. I arrived at about one o'clock just to make sure I got checked-in on time and didn't have any issues. Before I backed up to the dock, I had to slide the tandems to the rear, which involved raising a lever at the back of the trailer. The lever usually sticks and this time was no exception, so I was pulling rather hard on it when, of course, it gave. I wasn't quite prepared and my elbow smashing into the trailer frame was evidence of that. Turns out that was an omen. Once I got backed in, they had me loaded in about twenty minutes. That never happens. It was another heavy load - just under 45k lbs. Being that the DOT scales were just a few miles across the Georgia state line, I decided to stop at a truck stop and scale the load to make sure everything was legal. It wasn't. I was about 250lbs overweight on my steer axle. That never happens either. I informed my dispatcher, who told me to call the broker. I called the broker, who told me to call the shipper. I called the shipper, who seemed to not really care. His initial response was, "Well, we can't take any pallets off," and basically asked me what I wanted to do. Okay, as far as I'm concerned, I should have been home Thursday night. It's now Friday afternoon, I'm about to hit rush-hour traffic in Atlanta, I've got an overweight issue, I'm 30 minutes from the shipper that I might have to return to, and I just want to be home. As nicely as I could, I explained that I didn't care what the hell he did, but as far as I was concerned, he needed to decide how to correct the issue before I drove any farther. His idea was to reload the trailer and shift everything toward the rear, away from the steer axles. That would be great if only the trailer weren't loaded to legal capacity, which was from the nose of the trailer all the way to the 48' line. Apparently, the 53' trailer couldn't be loaded past the 48' line, I'm not sure why. After presenting that option, the shipping supervisor said I would have to sign something saying I authorized and approved it. I just drive the truck, I don't enter into legal contracts with customers. So, I called the dispatcher back and ultimately, let's just say I was removed from any further culpability regarding the issue. After sitting at the truck stop for an hour, that was all I needed to hear. So, I got back on the interstate. As soon as I got on the entrance ramp, I could see the DOT scales. We have PrePass which usually lets us bypass the scales. If the light is green, we bypass. If it's red, we have to cross the scales. I'll give a penny to the first person that can guess what color it was this time. If you guessed red, congratulations. Great, I'm about to get a ticket, the DOT is going to give me a full inspection, I'm going to be here for two hours, all kinds of nightmares flashing in my mind. And then, nothing. I crossed the scales and got the "ok" light. Wow. Either the scale I used was wrong, or the DOT really does overlook the first 500lbs. Whatever. I grabbed a gear and boogied before they changed their mind.

Next up, Atlanta traffic. I think Chicago and Atlanta are one in the same - 10lbs of stuff in a 5lb bag. The last 30 miles took about an hour and it was filled with the same "let's cut-off that big-truck" type of driver so prevalent in Chicago. After some primal scream therapy, I was feeling much better by the time I finally parked the truck. I'll enjoy a couple days at home and get back on the road Monday.

Well, crap

I didn't have to deliver in Calhoun until tomorrow morning, but I decided to go ahead and drop-off this afternoon with the hope I would get another load today that would get me home tonight. So I drove out of Kentucky this morning and straight through Knoxville, right past the exit nearest my parents house. When I got to the receiver in Calhoun, I was able to read the Qualcomm message my dispatcher had sent a couple hours earlier - a load that doesn't pick-up until tomorrow afternoon. Not what I had in mind. Guess I should have just stopped in Knoxville and delivered tomorrow like I had originally planned. After I dropped the load, I grabbed an empty trailer and headed to the nearest truck stop to get settled in. Turns out I didn't have to stick around too long, though. My wonderful mother offered to come get me so I could have a restful evening away from the truck. I'll head to Chattanooga in the morning and hopefully be home for dinner.

Richmond, KY

Any day you wake up and drive around Chicago and then go to bed, not in Chicago, is a good day. I knew I had to pick-up my next load by 3pm, so I didn't feel like waiting for my noon appointment time to get unloaded. When I arrived at 10:30am, there was another Wolding driver already there getting unloaded, so I had to wait in line. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long. I backed in and was empty by 11:30am. On to Chicago. Great - forty-five thousand pounds of scrap paper. I got loaded without any major problems and hit the road, stopping for lunch in Gary, IN. In order to make tomorrow as productive as possible, I drove until my 14-hr clock was up (almost) tonight so hopefully I can drop this load early and get something that will take me home. Sunday will be two weeks out, which means it's way past time for me to be home.

Here are some pics from earlier in the week:

Fog in Kentucky

Four lazy truck drivers (mine is the second from the right)

It was a strange feeling to have oncoming traffic on the right