2/19/08

I like my job mainly because it's the easiest job I've ever had. On the days when it's not so easy, I'm reminded of just how easy I usually have things. I started the day off, bright and early, by checking my directions to stop one. Let me correct that. I started by checking the absence of directions to stop one. Okay, how about stop two? Yep, that one had directions. It was in the same neighborhood as stop one, according to Streets & Trips, so I used the part that could apply to both stops - Go to exit 16W, north on Hwy. 120, continue onto 503 - then instead of turning right on Commerce I would turn left on Kero. Simple, right? Nope.

To get to Hwy. 120 from the turnpike, I would have needed to take the exit toward the Lincoln Tunnel. The directions didn't mention this, and I wasn't about to go tunnel scraping with my 13'6" trailer, so I went the wrong way. I had memorized the general layout of the town from my software, just in case this happened. So I went north on Hwy. 17 and then looped my way back to where I needed to be. Pretty sharp, eh? Then I got to the Hwy. 503 portion of the route. Concrete wall in the middle, no left turns. So I had to go down to Commerce, make a right/U turn, turn left to go back south on 503, and make a wicked tight right onto Kero. Okay, tight ass dock at stop one, I was an hour early and they were a half hour late, but hey, one down.

Then I needed to go back north to get to Commerce, but that pesky concrete wall wasn't going anywhere. So it was back south until I found another street with one of those U-turn things (Jersey really is like a video game). Then up to Commerce and toward the customer. I saw the sign with the name and address of my stop. I looked down the driveway and saw roughly two billion passenger cars. Then, way down at the end, I saw what looked like a few trucks sticking out among the cars. You've got to be kidding me. I checked in, even though I was three hours early, since I had nothing else to do. The guy was glad I showed up, since my 26 pallets were blocking everything that needed to go on the two trucks that were there ahead of me.

That dock... yeah. First, two local trucks had to leave the dock to give me a sporting chance. Then, once it became clear that there was no way in hell I was swinging my trailer in there, the third guy pulled around the corner. Then it was simply a matter of setting up on my blindside, using about ten pull-ups to jackknife the trailer toward the dock door, missing parked cars by about a foot or so, using about ten more pull-ups to get my tractor swung around the other way, missing the empty trailer on my right by about six inches, six or seven more pull-ups to jackknife the damn trailer back toward the perpendicular, and then a few more pull-ups to straighten my truck out. Luckily I had a couple of the other guys keeping an eye out and guiding me in. Otherwise I would have had to get out of my truck at least thirty times. That might have taken a while. Of course, once I had begun to jack the trailer back to my left, one guy was telling me to keep going. I told him I didn't think so. He said, "Oh yeah, you got it, go on." I had my tandems way forward, so the tail swing was an issue. I got out and checked. Yeah, about six inches from the trailer on my right. People guiding me into a spot are like Gorbachev as far as I'm concerned - trust but verify. So I got it in there without hitting anything.

The local guys backed their trucks in again, with some help from me. It was like a big feel-good community thing. How nice. Once I was loaded, the guy on my left had to drop his trailer to give me a chance of getting out. Then a couple of employees had to move their cars. But again, nothing hit, no worries. I was loaded and headed west.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to make my drop/hook in Ohio tonight and then look for parking (getting me on the board sooner) or spend the night along I-70 and make the drop tomorrow morning (making life easier). CTL made the decision an easy one by sending me a pre-plan as soon as I left the Newark area. I'll be picking up another load tomorrow afternoon and heading for Texas. So no need to drop this one tonight. The pre-plans continue to show up more often, so that's cool. The advantage of knowing what lies ahead is worth as much as the miles, as far as I'm concerned.

There was a sign in Pennsylvania that said, "Winter conditions exist. Drive accordingly." Now, that seems innocuous enough. Except the roads were clean and dry, and it wasn't all that windy. Sure, I assume that winter conditions exist somewhere, but they didn't appear to exist where I saw that sign. I started to wonder if they were peddling some kind of Descartes theory on me. If the conditions exist, but I don't perceive them, do they nonetheless exist for me? What if I perceive them, even if they don't actually exist? They would still exist, in a sense, within my perception. Is my own perception any less significant in my life than the presence of precipitation on the ground? It got out of hand from there. I wound up wondering why my own faith shouldn't be, in and of itself, proof of the existence of God. I have enough mental issues. I don't need to be debating this shit with myself while I barrel down the highway. Shame on you, Pennsylvania. You made the highways less safe tonight.