5/7/08

I forgot just how silent that little street in Hazleton is at night. Absent the usual ambient noise of a truck stop or rest area, I slept like a baby for a solid six hours last night. Beauty.

I headed up I-81 into New York, then wound my way through the hills and valleys, around the lakes and streams, and through the little hamlets all the way up to my destination. What is the word they use for that type of setting? Bucolic maybe? Anyhow, I had a pretty good time driving this morning with my super light trailer.

I did have to use my air horn twice along the way. The first time was pretty damn hilarious. A little fawn stepped out into the street about a hundred yards ahead of me. I started slowing down and hit the horn a couple of times to get its attention. It was a pretty skinny highway and my slowing from 55mph to zero on the downslope probably wasn't going to happen, so the little dude was going to have to move. The deer looked up at me and then tried to run. It seems that deer hoofs (or is it hooves?) are not designed for traction on asphalt. The damn thing fell flat on its face, then fell again as it tried to get going, then got just the front feet moving and dragged its ass end into the grass. It reminded me of a little beagle pup that I used to have, trying to run on the linoleum before she knew how to walk.

The second instance wasn't quite that funny, but it was still pretty cool. Something about the air horn turns us all into little kids. There was a lady, maybe 50-55 years old, standing in her front yard. I don't know what exactly she was doing. I guess, when you live up there, you just stand outside sometimes. I don't know. Anyway, as I approached, there was the universal signal. Arm up, elbow bent, tugging an imaginary cord. I gave it a couple of quick blasts and cruised by as she flashed a huge smile on her face and waved. Just something about the air horn. Of course, I often do tend to find myself on roads where you won't see a whole lot of big trucks. I guess that could be part of it.

So, on to the drop in Marcy. If you work for Schneider, I mean no offense, but you fuckers need to learn how to drop a trailer. The one open spot in my section was between two of those ugly orange things. They were both crooked. One was over the line on my left and the other was an inch from the line on my right. I may not be the fattest dude out here, but come on man. I passed up skinny about twenty years ago. Leave me a little room to drop my damn trailer.

They had nowhere to park near the WalMart DC where I made my drop. The looney bin across the street probably would have taken me, but they may not have let me leave. I asked the security guard if he knew of any places where I could hide out, but he suggested a truck stop twenty miles to the west. Nah, not in the mood to drive there and then probably get sent back east for my next load. I seemed to remember a Kohl's DC in Rome, off the next exit to the west, with a lot of room to park along the street. I didn't remember exactly where it was, but I figured I could wing it. I headed up toward the industrial park and actually managed to remember my way to the location. It's Family Dollar and not Kohl's, but you know... good enough. The parking situation worked out fine. #2 on the board, it was time to kick back and hope for some good news.

An hour later I got my beep. Anything good today? Not really. Just a 61 mile deadhead (yes, to the west) to set up for a run leaving tomorrow morning. I was getting a kick out of running the hills with only a little over 3,000 pounds coming up here, so of course I'm heading back to North Carolina with beer. This time the light trucks will be laughing at me, instead of the other way around.

I'll get a good 565 mile run in tomorrow, with quite a few of those being northeast miles. It looks like the last stretch into the customer's location may be a pain in the ass, but we'll see. Of course I'll have the usual parking issues and the rest of it. If I don't make good time early in the day, I guess I can stop in Virginia Beach for the night, but now I'm getting ahead of myself. However it goes, I'll be empty Friday morning, sitting at 1,812 miles, so a good weekend will be needed to make this a solid week.

I headed out onto the Thruway and parked at a rest area for the night. I'll make a short little hop in the morning to my pickup, drop/hook there, and head south. They enforce the idling laws in New York, but some rain just blew through and cooled things off a little. I guess that's pretty nice.