3/17/08

I would like to start by welcoming Irishmen of every nationality on this St. Patrick's Day.

So, I got up to Manchester ten minutes ahead of my 5am appointment and was relieved to find the gate open. I pulled into the ConWay yard, but nobody was there to assign me a dock. That finally happened at 5:30am. Who would have guessed? See that picture up in the corner of the page? That's me being surprised.

After I got empty, I headed back south to the rest area where I spent last night. It was about fifteen miles away, but I didn't know of anything closer. My intent was to leave Manchester by retracing the route I had taken on my way into town. Yeah, that didn't work out. The ConWay yard is on a one-way street. Once I turned north out of the yard, it was the old "that street looks okay" routine. It turned into a bit of an adventure, but I found my way back to the rest area without hitting anything.

A few hours later I got an assignment to head a little further south and pick up a load in Massachusetts. It worked out that my route to the shipper would have taken me right past the rest area, so that was nice. I checked in and then sat around waiting for almost five hours to get loaded and get my paperwork. So I could only manage to knock out a couple hundred miles this evening before my 14 hour clock ran out.

As a result of the delay at the shipper, I'll have two long ass days ahead of me starting early tomorrow morning. I'm scheduled to deliver in Dothan, Alabama on Wednesday afternoon. On a more positive note though, I'm set to grab another run out of Alabama on Thursday morning and head for Laredo. That will put me in Laredo on a weekend, which can be hit and miss, but my miles will be somewhere between 2,500 and 2,600 for the week by the time I get there.

I stopped in Sturbridge, Massachusetts this afternoon to top off the fuel tanks. Apparently in that state it's now illegal for the pump handles to lock in the 'on' position. I had to fill up one tank, then walk around to the other side and fill up the other one. So let me make sure I understand this. The liberals in Massachusetts have enacted a law that interferes with the ability to do a job and, as a result, caused a logjam with respect to interstate commerce? See that picture up in the corner of the page? That's me being surprised.