7/31/07

The overnight run came off without a hitch. Well, mostly without a hitch. I started out from Indiana, got some fuel northeast of Indianapolis, and kept rolling north. There was absolutely no traffic to speak of. The construction on I-69 was all on the southbound side, so those of us on the northbound side had no worries.

I was a little sluggish when I left, then I got a bite to eat. That helped a little. Then I started to get a little sluggish. Then the Tigers actually played like a real baseball team for a change. That helped a little. Then I started to feel really tired for a while. Then I got some kind of second wind around 2am. Then there was a long stretch of construction barrels outside of Flint, Michigan. Passing between the barrels had some kind of hypnotic effect on me. By the time I got through, I absolutely had to get off the road for a little bit. Looking at the mile markers, I realized that I was going to be an hour early for my 6am appointment, so I had time for a 50 minute nap. That was very helpful. Then, when I got to the customer, there was nobody around until 6am anyway, so it would have done me no good to arrive at 5am.

They took their sweet ass time unloading my trailer, but I was in no hurry. It was good to get a little rest. After I got empty, I headed to the little truck stop at the end of the street. There's not much parking here, but since it was daytime I was able to find a spot. After sending in my empty call, I was number nine on the board. That's usually a good sign that I'll be waiting a while, so I went to bed. Judging by the drool on my pillow, I'm pretty sure I was out cold for a while there.

When the beep woke me up, I was full of anticipation to see what today had in store for me. Yep, sitting on my ass, that's what today had in store. So I'll fall just below 6,500 for the paycheck. On balance, once my northeast bonus miles are factored in, the money will be good, so I can't complain too much. I got a dispatch to head over to Flint and pick up a load for tomorrow morning. Then I'll have two more pickups in Ohio for a delivery at a fourth stop in Ohio. That's not exactly primo work for an OTR driver. The miles will add up to be somewhere between 300 and 400 for the day. I'll get another $52.50 for the extra stops, so that's the equivalent of another 145 miles. The day will be a productive one in terms of pay, but bumping four docks in a day is nobody's idea of fun.

So, I've had a good day of sleeping and browsing the web and watching funny video clips and sleeping and paying bills and sleeping and... yeah, boring day. But the Tigers are winning, for now. Verlander is over a hundred pitches. That bullpen still gives me heartburn.