8/24/07

I believe the literary term is 'foreshadowing.' I'm pretty sure that's what I saw this morning when I woke up and looked outside. I felt like I had been transported into an Arthur Conan Doyle masterpiece. There was a thick fog, such that you could only see maybe 75 feet ahead. The fog had a greenish hue to it. There was an odd smell in the air. There was absolutely no sound in the air. Dead silence. No crickets, no cars, nothing. I should have had an idea what kind of morning to expect...

I didn't get a Michael's load. Instead I was dispatched to head south to Reading for the first pickup on a WalMart run. Let's see how it went...

There was the misty rain, enough to make me use the wipers but not enough to let the wipers accomplish anything. That was nice.

There was the trying to maintain traction as I constantly had to accelerate and decelerate on slick roads. I enjoyed that part.

There were the hairpin mountain turns. Big fun.

There were the people hurrying to work and cutting me off, only to slam on their brakes and turn down the next street, over and over again. That was pretty cool.

There were the little coal mining towns where the main drag had enough room for one and a half lanes of traffic, but two lanes had to get through. I really liked that part.

There were the dubiously marked state highway interchanges that, if I missed one, would lead to a fifty mile drive down a street from which there may be no getting out. Always a plus.

There was the sign for highway 12 west, but no highway 12 east, even though I had to go east. Just as I had planned.

There were the signs directing trucks not to follow the state route through Reading, but to follow the alternate signs that just disappeared after two blocks, leaving me in a residential area and completely screwed. I always like that.

After I went through a few neighborhoods and somehow found my way back to the customer's location, there was the right turn with parked cars on both sides, where the only option was to pass up the turn, cut the wheel left, back up a little, cut the wheel right, pull forward a little, and repeat several times. People really should appreciate those more.

There was the way I had to back in off the street to a dock that was designed for 26' straight trucks, leaving my tractor jacked sideways all the way across the street. Those are pretty neat.

There was leaving the customer and having to drive a quarter mile with the doors open before I could find a spot without parked cars on both sides, leaving enough room to close them. Plenty of intrigue there.

There was the drive from Reading to my second pickup in Carlisle. While not nearly as eventful as the first one, it did take two hours to go 70 miles. I'm pretty sure they erected 150 extra red lights on US 422 in honor of my trip.

There was the 'no idling' rule at the second stop, making the 90% humidity much more enjoyable for me.

Oh, and let's not forget about the seven bills of lading that I had to enter into the MobileMax. That's a thrilling twenty minutes.

There was the rollercoaster section of PA-94 heading south from Reading. Well, actually, that was pretty fun. Nevermind that one.

There was the rush hour traffic on US-15 in Frederick. One of my favorite things.

And there was the fact that I was going to hit the D.C. Beltway right at 5pm sharp.

What was I talking about anyway? Oh yeah, I should have known what today would be like. That's right. The overriding thought going through my mind this morning was, "I didn't sign up for this shit!" All I needed were Holmes and Watson to analyze what happened and it would have been perfect.

Time out dude. I've had enough for one day. I pulled into the Maryland scales about a half hour from the beltway. I'll take a nap here, make it an eight hour break, then finish off over night. I'll be looking at one of two scenarios. Either I'll make it to the customer within the six hours that I'll have available, or I'll run out and have to take a two hour break before continuing. Either way I'll have time, since my dispatch is for 10am.

From the 'Who would really believe this?' department, I got a beep mere seconds ago. Another pre-plan. I'll be picking up about 35 miles from where I drop in the morning, then heading back to Pennsylvania for Monday. I actually have a working communications system on my truck for a change and the planners are actually planning for a change. I think I could get used to this. Hell, even the occasional Hazleton-Reading-Carlisle fustercluck could be tolerable if they kept me running like this.