9/17/07

When I got to the shipper in the middle of the night, I saw a huge line of dry vans (including a couple of CFI trucks) parked along the right side of the "holding pen." There were also two flat beds along the left. There were two empty lanes in the middle. I assumed that I was to park behind the other vans, but I pulled to the front in order to shorten my walk to the guard shack. At that time of night, I would be able to swing back around behind the vans if I needed to. I would have to do the usual CB check in face-to-face since I don't have a CB.

The guard, after writing down my pickup number, asked where I was parked. I pointed to my truck and he told me to pull in behind the flatbeds. That meant that I was in the second row of trucks to be called in when they opened. Last in, first out? I have no idea why I was special, but I wasn't complaining. I took a nap and set my alarm for 6am. Shortly after I woke up, things were moving and I went inside the lot.

I was assigned to the second dock. When I got out to my truck, there was a flatbed driver trying to back into the first dock (blocking my access route). He had a guy spotting him, but he wasn't doing anything that the spotter was telling him to do. I can only conclude that he was a student with a trainer or something. That took about twenty minutes, made worse by the impatient local drivers who kept cutting in front of the guy as he tried to pull forward. Eventually he got it in there and out of my way so I could back in. I got settled into my spot without too much trouble, aside from the forklift guys zigging and zagging around me. They loaded me post-haste and sent me on my way. In that short time span, the holding area went from about thirty trucks to around seventy. Holy shit! Being early has its advantages sometimes.

I scaled out at 78,000 pounds and headed north. The practical route to Indiana called for me to take the turnpikes all the way to Indiana and then head south to Fort Wayne. Nah, I'm tired of the turnpikes. I ran the PA turnpike to 376 then went through Pittsburgh. I'm not sure exactly why, but I've always enjoyed driving through Pittsburgh. I used to know a girl down there. Maybe her adventurous nature just makes me nostalgic, maybe not. Either way, it's a pretty scenic drive for a big city. The bridges and tunnels and hills and rivers are pretty cool. I imagine the other motorists would prefer that I wasn't going up hills at 30mph in front of them, but life's a bitch sometimes.

I caught US22 to US30 and headed across Ohio. About halfway across, my 14 hours were running low and I was feeling a little tired. I pulled into a rest area and shut it down. All of this bouncing from working days to working nights and back again has left me pretty sluggish this week. A couple more days and I'll be home, so no use complaining now.

When I woke up, I checked out my internet connection speed and found that it's pretty decent here. Hence I decided to stick around and watch the Skins (have I mentioned how awesome the guys who broadcast on SopCast are?). So far, so good. Hopefully they can wear down that Eagles defense and put this thing away. The Irish are struggling, the Tigers are slipping, at least one of my teams is doing something good. Surprisingly it's the Redskins. I would have thought they were the most likely to struggle this fall. It's a long season, but I like what I see so far. I'll get rolling after the game and set up shop at the customer until tomorrow. My directions say that they have overnight parking available, so hopefully they're right.