1/17/10

Okay. Picture yourself spending an evening with someone. This person looks over at you and says, "Not tonight, but tomorrow, I'm gonna give you something nice." Yeah, your eyebrows are raised now, aren't they? Then, not even five minutes later, she (or he, as the case may be) says to you, "Just kidding, I meant to say that to somebody else." Well, the metaphor is a bit of a stretch, but what are you gonna do when you spend your days and nights in a fiberglass box? As I sat watching football and talking on the phone last night, I received a pre-planned assignment for a pretty good run going from Gordonsville to Laredo. Then, a couple of minutes later, I got a message saying that they had sent the assignment to the wrong truck. No pre-plan for me. Bummer.

The tradeoff for stopping short and watching those two incredibly boring games yesterday was that I had to get on the road wicked early today. It sure seemed like a bad tradeoff as I wound my way down the road at 6am this morning, to say the least. After rolling into the distribution center and checking in with the security guard, I had to drop my trailer in a door and then drive my truck over to a separate parking area. Normally this process is just an extra hassle, but today it was actually good news. Being detached from the trailer meant that I could sleep for a while without getting bounced around by the forklifts. Beauty.

I told the lady in the receiving office that my CB was broken, so she said that she would send someone out to let me know when my trailer was empty. During the lengthy time that I didn't have a CB, I found that it was a hell of a lot better that way. Instead of sitting and listening to radio chatter until someone calls your truck number, you get to relax and wait for a phone call or a knock on the door. Thus, I was able to enjoy some peace and quiet while I waited today.

After an hour or so, I was awakened by a knock on the door and that was that. Back into the office, grab the paperwork, over to the door, hook the trailer, out to the security booth, close the trailer doors, down the street to the struck stop, try to go back to sleep. Not much luck getting to sleep again, but I was #1 on the board at least.

Of course, this made last night's pre-plan revocation seem even more strange. If I was the only one in town, then... I don't know. I suppose there could be plenty of reasons to bring in another truck for that load going from Gordonsville to Laredo. Maybe someone is trying to get home. Maybe it's team freight and has to get to Laredo quickly. Maybe it's a hazmat load and I can't pull it. Maybe someone else was on the board before me this morning and the load has been assigned to that person. Maybe there was something else that they needed me to pick up sooner. Or, you know, maybe there's no reason at all. I suppose that's a possibility too. Since I enjoy being an insignificant peon, I don't spend too much time worrying about stuff that is outside my control. I'm content to drive my truck and leave the rest to the folks who are paid to think. As long as I'm always on time and I don't crash, things seem to work out fine in the end.

So I wasn't too perplexed about that one, but the way the day turned out certainly left me scratching my head. After hanging out at the truck stop all morning I turned on the football game and kicked back to relax. Shortly after 3pm, having waited six hours for a new assignment, I was sent to the paper mill in West Point to pick up a loaded trailer that had been sitting there all day. I headed over and made my drop/hook, then cut across on VA-30 toward I-95. My 14 hour clock didn't have enough time left for me to get past D.C. tonight, so I had to settle for the truck stop in Doswell. Given that I'm due in Northern Indiana by 7am on Tuesday, it sure would have been helpful if I could have gotten the assignment sooner. That way I could have driven further this evening and left a more workable schedule for the rest of the trip. I'm not sure what would be the explanation for this one, but I guess it's not my area of expertise. It's best for me just to drive my truck and take things as they come.

My last few trips along I-95 have been less than enjoyable, so I'm leaning toward heading back out as soon as my ten hour break is over in the morning. I can leave here at 4:45am and maybe get past D.C. before the beltway becomes a total mess. I absolutely hate getting up so early in the morning, but it looks like that's probably going to be the way to go. At least the week is off to a good start in terms of miles.

Guess I'll catch the end of this AFC game and try to get some rest. Maybe we can get one exciting finish this weekend.