9/10/07

Vending machine technology has come a long way. Now, when you buy something, they have some kind of photosensor to make sure the product actually drops. When I woke up today I wanted a bag of Skittles. I was really in the mood to taste the rainbow, so I headed to the machine and fed it a buck. My Skittles got caught on the spiral thing and didn't vend. But wait... bzzz... the machine turned a little further and my bag, along with the one behind it, dropped to their destiny. A two-fer! Small victories, my friends, small victories.

I rolled on to the customer in Groveport and stopped to check with the guard. My seal number was written on the bills in blue ink, but there was a pre-printed number that had been crossed out. The guard didn't know what to do. He asked if I had to go right away or if I could wait until the morning shift got there. I probably should have told him to take a hike, but I had a hell of a time trying to fall asleep last night so I told him no problem. I pulled off to the side and took a nap for an hour or so. When he came and woke me up, he told me to go inside and talk to the receiving department. The lady there basically confirmed what I thought. Customs probably inspected the load coming out of Mexico and had it re-sealed. No big deal. "I don't know why he didn't just have you drop it when you got here." Me neither lady, me neither.

After I hooked to my empty and sent in my empty call, I had to find a place to park. I was a long way from any truck stop or rest area, so I started looking for this one business that seems to have locations all over the country. I'm not sure what they do, but their employess must not drive cars because their parking lots are always empty. Since I was in an industrial park, I was pretty confident that I would find one of their locations. The place is called For Lease. I think it's an Italian phrase or something. Anyhow, they had two locations in that industrial park so I was in luck. I pulled over and lay down to get some rest. I didn't sleep for shit last night, so I needed a little shut-eye.

Ten minutes later I got beeped. Picking up 25 miles away this afternoon. Cool, lay back down. Then the "Happy birthday" phone calls started trickling in, so yeah I didn't get any sleep.

It was a quick ride down to the next pickup. After I checked in, the lady told me to pull along the curb and wait for a door to be assigned. Thirty seconds later a door was assigned. I had to back into this place with the docks set back inside a warehouse, so the left side of my truck was pretty damn close to a concrete pillar. I made it without incident and dropped my trailer, then bobtailed over to the waiting area. And waited. And waited. By the time I got loaded, my 14 hours were almost gone. My plans to get most of the way there tonight went up in smoke.

I had to find a place to shut down, so I'll have to use a full day of driving to get there tomorrow. Wasted days pretty much suck and this was one of them. Once this is dropped off, I'll be sitting at 4,100 miles with four and a half days left to go. Hopefully I can finish strong.