11/21/09

If you've gotten a laugh from watching my Irish pathetically try to tackle mediocre running backs over the last several years, then you're really going to love watching the administration try to hire a new coach. The institutional indifference to football under the previous university president has yet to be fully eradicated. When they end up settling for Brian Kelly because they think he's the poor man's Urban Meyer, just remember who told you first that he's actually the poor man's Rich Rodriguez. How's that guy doing now that he's no longer the tallest midget? God help us.

Luckily (I guess), I got stuck working all day and didn't get to watch the game. When I woke and called the 800 number to see where I was on the board, the robo-voice chick said that I was assigned to a load. I guess "way more than ten hours" actually means "less than ten hours." The assignment itself was an odd one. I was to make a 504 mile deadhead to Kansas City, Kansas and pick up a load heading to Wisconsin. Once my ten hour break was up, I grabbed my empty trailer and headed northward.

I was scheduled to pick up by 9am Central tomorrow, so I tried like hell to get to the shipper's location by 11pm tonight. That way I could get a ten hour break in and then have a full day's hours available to me. I probably would have made it too, if it weren't for those nosy kids a weird exit ramp that threw me off. The ramp from I-35 to I-635 was one of those 'exit within an exit' deals, but there were no lines on the road and I didn't see the little temporary exit sign in the dark. So I had to loop around this way and that, ultimately getting to the shipper at 11:15pm. No big deal though. I would be able to use the split-logging option to make the pickup after an eight hour break and then complete the split later in the morning.

There was all kinds of room for me to park in the shipper's drop yard for the night, but I also saw that there were a handful of our trailers with seals on them at one end. I saw that the door to the shipping office was open, so I figured what the hell. Might as well check in tonight and see what they said. Beauty. It was a 24/7 outfit and one of those loaded trailers was mine. I got my bills, made my drop/hook, and got my 560 miles to Wisconsin dispatched before the pay period ended at midnight. 2,331 miles for the week and I started on Wednesday. I'll take it.

I still had a couple of hours available on tonight's 11 hour clock, so I scooted out of Kansas City and up I-35 for a while. Might as well get out of town late at night when the traffic was light. I assumed that parking would be plentiful on a Saturday night. I assumed incorrectly. I was getting down to very few remaining options by the time I pulled into the Shell station at Exit 61. It was pretty full, but there was room for me to duck off in the back corner of the lot and call it a night. So that's that.

Looks like I have around 500 miles left to cover tomorrow, ahead of a 6am Monday delivery appointment. I think I'll head straight to the consignee once my ten hour break here is over and then let the chips fall where they may.