10/23/08

Another day, another early morning. I made my drive across to Marcy without incident. Then when I checked in with the guard, he said that my drop number had already been used. Nice. So, for the second day in a row, I had to get my fleet manager on the phone and sort things out. He spoke with the CSR who then gave me another number to try. Another CTL driver had arrived about twenty minutes ahead of me, so maybe he had inadvertently been given my number. I would try his number and see if that worked. Nope. He had used the right number. My original number was used yesterday by a WalMart driver. So, back on the phone... 45 minutes later they had everything worked out and I got a new drop number. At least the security guys were pretty friendly. If I had to hang out with someone for 45 minutes, they might as well not be a couple of assholes.

Once I made my drop, I headed over to the industrial park in Rome to wait for whatever was next. I was #1 on the board, so the little delay really hadn't impacted me in any meaningful way. I slept away the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon before I got my next assignment. I would be picking up in the morning further north in New York and delivering on Monday in Kansas City.

So, I had to decide whether to stay in Rome and then drive up tomorrow morning or to drive up today. My stop location information said that the shipper had parking available, as long as the gate was unlocked. Well how in the hell do you know if the gate is unlocked until you get there? I chose to head out right away. My thought was that I should be able to arrive during business hours today and have a pretty good shot at finding an open gate. I really had no Plan B, so I was relieved to find that I was able to get in and park. The route that I took was all state highways winding through the hills. If I couldn't park at the shipper, I was pretty much SOL.

The drive today was pretty nice with an empty trailer. A few small towns and a few scenic areas, almost without any traffic at all. I find myself tonight without internet service (explaining the day-late posting) so it looks like I'll have to read a book and improve my mental capacity instead of shrinking it tonight. One major issue that almost came up was that of starvation. I don't keep food with me in the truck, as I simply prefer to stop and buy something when I'm hungry. There was nowhere to stop today. In a harrowing tale of survival, I clung to life by eating chocolate animal crackers. Hey, it ain't pretty but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.