6/17/08

As I was lounging around last night, I got a pre-plan for a load picking up after this morning's drop. That allowed me to get an idea of how to route myself and set up for today. Beauty.

When I woke up this morning, I shot a message to Joplin, asking if anyone had spoken to the consignee about the fact that I had no bills. I got a reply indicating that the customer service people had contacted the consignee, and that a delivery receipt on its own would be fine. Of course, there was still one small catch. The information that goes on the delivery receipt comes from the bill of lading. I could get an order number and load number from my load assignment. I had the information of the consignee from my stop location. I didn't, however, know what I was hauling, who sent it, or from where it came. So I called in and my fleet manager told me that it was copper from the mine in El Paso. Okay, that'll do.

It was an easy drive over to Vincennes. Once I got there, I filled in whatever information I could on the delivery receipt and headed inside. The forklift guy grabbed the MSDS and the packing list from the back of the trailer and, of course, there was a spare copy of the bill of lading. So he made me a copy and the whole issue turned out to be a non-issue.

Once unloaded there, I headed down to Evansville for my next pickup. My appointment time was noon, but it was a drop/hook location so I decided to try getting it early. That didn't quite work. The empty that I dropped when I got there and the loaded trailer that I hooked a couple hours later were one and the same. I still got out before noon, so it wasn't so bad.

Then it was eastward across Indiana and then up I-71. Just outside Louisville, I stopped to top off the tanks and grab some cheap cigarettes for my father. Another five miles up the road, traffic started slowing to a crawl. I flipped on the CB to listen. Of course, nothing on my side other than gawkers looking across at the southbound side. As I approached, it was quite a scene so I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick photo. Once I rolled past and saw what I saw, I deleted the photo. That was, man, that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. I won't get into the details of the scene, because it left me a little shaken up to be honest with you. If the gawkers hadn't been holding up traffic, I wouldn't even have looked. Now I wish I hadn't. You see a few accidents almost every day out here, but not like this. According to people on the CB, a northbound car blew a tire and flew across the median, slamming into a southbound truck.

After getting past that area, I was in one of those reflective modes that I guess we should all experience every now and then. Who's to say its not me next time? I don't know if this blog was going at the time, but I actually had a pickup truck fly across the median and land in front of me on that same road once. I was able to stop, but what if I had been five seconds further down the road at the time? He would have slammed right into me. The truck in today's instance looked to come out a little banged up, but otherwise okay. What about the driver though? It appears that he couldn't have done anything to avoid the crash. Does that lessen the impact of getting out and finding dead people at the back of your trailer, while your truck is being kept from rolling down the embankment by only a guard rail? When was the last time any of the people involved in the crash had a chance to tell their loved ones how important they were? How about the first people to stop at the scene? How about me? How about anyone reading this posting? How about the sense of relief that I felt, not in knowing that I was okay, but in knowing that I wasn't on the side of the road that would be parked for several hours? What does that say about me? How significant is my driving timeline, given the perspective of the situation?

Anyway, I guess my mental issues are my own. No need to belabor the point. It was just a bad scene. I got to the rest area north of Columbus tonight before my hours ran out. I'm scheduled for a drop/hook in Wilkes-Barre tomorrow afternoon, so an early morning is in store for me. The deadhead and loaded miles kicked me over 1,800 for the week so far. I'll have a few hours available tomorrow after my drop/hook, so let's hope the good streak continues.