1/27/08

Easy drive on the turnpikes for the most part this morning. Indiana has the automated ticket dispensers like Ohio now. That's probably cheaper than paying someone to hand out tickets, but I liked the people handing out the tickets. They made life just a little easier. I'm not a big fan of trying to get close enough to grab the damn ticket without clipping my mirror on the pole. Oh well, my opinion and a dollar...

I thought the UPS delivery might be a pain in the ass, and I guess in a sense I wasn't disappointed. You would think that weekends would always be easier since there are no UPS trucks buzzing around. This particular location was so overrun with trailers that it was a royal pain. Normally a good number of the trailers are on the road, but not on a Sunday, so I got to do the obstacle course. I had to circle around a couple times and do some super-trucker backing, but I managed to drop my loaded trailer without any major issues.

Back at the empty lot, I got to make my usual choice between a kick in the balls or a thumb in the eye. There were two empties, neither of which I thought I could get out of its respective spot. One was backed in along a 90 degree row, but there was a UPS trailer set up horizontally across from it. I started to back under it, but there was no way I could have pulled it with the UPS trailer in the way. The other was in a 45 degree row. Another UPS trailer would have blocked my (forward) escape route with that one too. Beauty. If you're wondering whether or not it's fun to back a trailer through a 45 degree parking space between two other trailers and try to leave yourself a way to drive out, the answer is 'no.' It's not much fun at all. Lots of getting out and looking, lots of cursing UPS, but I got it out (backwards).

Then the trailer was full of cardboard. I had to back up to a dumpster and clean it out. That's one of those things that isn't really what I signed up for when I took this job, but at $35 for twenty minutes of work, I won't complain too much. It seems more than fair to me.

So, it was a Sunday afternoon, I had an empty, and I needed to find somehere to go. I had come off of I-294, so I went a little further north to the service plaza and parked for a while. On a Sunday afternoon, about all I could hope for was a deadhead to set up for Monday. A few hours went by and I started to think that my hopes wouldn't be realized. Then a little before 8pm I was assigned a relay picking up a little further west on I-80 and delivering to ConWay in Cincinnati tomorrow. I decided to head out and park at the relay point tonight, rather than drive over in the morning. I knew that giving up a parking spot ("the known") and hoping to find another spot at a new location ("the unknown") can be a gamble in Illinois. Still, I thought it was early enough that I should come out okay.

My directions told me that I would be making the relay at a BP. The exit ramp signs said that the BP was to the north. I turned north. No BP. I had to go about five miles down before I found a John Deere place that looked like it was big enough for me to turn around. It was tight, but I spun it around and headed back south. Still no BP, so I crossed the highway. Maybe I had misread the exit ramp sign. Nope, no BP there either. I went along looking for a place to turn around... yet again. There was a BP about a mile and a half down, but it had no parking lot at all. I was half tempted to park there on the sidewalk and wait for someone to bother me. Then maybe I would still be pissed off enough to start a fight. I thought better of it though, and continued on my way. I eventually (6 miles later) found an intersection that allowed me to do a quasi-U turn. I made the left onto an adjoining highway, then just never straightened the wheel until I was headed back north. And back across the highway...

You know what the BP is? It's the fucking T/A. The gas pumps out front (for cars) sell BP gas. If you want to set up a relay at the T/A, just fucking say "T/A," not "BP." Stupid. By the time I got here, I found a full parking lot. I guess "the unknown" wasn't on my side this time. I found an out-of-the-way spot along the back and sat tight for a little while. As I suspected, it didn't take long until someone left and I was able to grab his spot before anyone else showed up. And thus concludes another glamorous day on the road.

The relay here is set up for 9am Central tomorrow. Then it's 300-something miles to Cincinnati. It's not a big-time day, if that's all I get tomorow, but it's not terrible either. A bunch of 350 mile days, with an occasional long one mixed in, can pay pretty well.