3/4/08

Did you know you can wake up early in the morning, drive all day, drive all evening, and park at night without ever leaving a rainstorm? Yep. You can.

We have a set of ConWay runs that originate in the midwest and go to the terminal outside Springfield, Massachusetts. The last leg is the longest one, leaving from the Petro in Girard, Ohio. That's the one I got today.

The paid miles for the run are 524. It's a drop/hook at both ends. There is usually time to deliver a couple of hours early. The run pays another $25 in northeast pay. There is a truck stop right around the corner from the delivery point. Sounds pretty good, right? Well I hate it. There isn't a flat mile at all on the whole trip. The New England portion of the drive is a slow and frustrating pain in the ass. The people at the terminal are typically bitter Massachusetts residents. Today, you could add in the nonstop downpour. If it wasn't bad enough dragging that heavy load up the hills, people were passing me and then going 50mph on the way down. The aforementioned truck stop had exactly zero parking spaces open at 8pm. After I circled around a few times, someone left. So I got a spot.

When I dropped my loaded trailer, it looked pretty straight in my mirrors. I guess the rain was screwing with my perspective though, as it was actually a little crooked. Both ConWay guys that I talked to before dropping it were complete assholes, so I left it as-is. Screw 'em. Then I faced the same rainy visibility issue backing into the tight spot at the local truck stop. That took a little while. I've been doing way too much of that 'get out and look' shit lately. Maybe I've mentioned previously that I'm pretty lazy.

Anyhow, on balance it was a pretty profitable day. I managed to stay ahead of the cold front, so the rain never turned to freezing rain or snow. Despite the fact that I saw at least three other CTL trucks when I pulled in here, I was #1 on the board when I sent in my empty call. Decent enough day I guess. I can work 6.5 hours tomorrow, and a total of 16 hours over the next two days, so I won't get anything huge. There's a chance I can keep a pretty good week going though. 1,210 miles through Tuesday is a solid start, so we'll see where it goes from here.