5/20/10

I don't know if there is a commonly accepted reaction when one wakes at 3am and learns that his 4am pickup is now a 6am pickup.  In my case, the reaction was one of relief.  Back to bed for an extra bit of sleep... I thought.  As it turns out, I was wide awake and no amount of denial was going to change this fact.  So it was time to come up with a new reaction.  This time I was reacting to the realization that I no longer would be going past Chicago before the sun came up and the roads got busy.  Much booing and hissing was involved.

There was a lot of traffic on 75th Street as I made my way over to I-355.  Then the ride was pretty decent down onto I-80 and over to Indiana.  That construction in Indiana is always a special treat and today was no exception, but I was just relieved to have Chicago in the rearview mirror.  Nothing but smooth sailing across the turnpikes from there... or something.

You know, it's funny.  At some point during every winter, I'll find myself slipping and sliding down an icy road and I'll think, "Can't wait until winter is over.  This slippery shit is for the birds."  Then at some point during the summer, I'll find myself parked in the middle of some perfectly dry road and I'll think, "Can't wait until winter is here.  This construction shit is for the birds."  Just never quite satisfied, it would seem.  Today brought plenty of construction, but one spot in particular had me wishing for some snow to send those filthy bastards home for a while.

This was the view from my parking space somewhere around Mile Marker 123.  Until I reached that point, I had been running nearly an hour and a half ahead of schedule.  Then, in their infinite wisdom, the powers that be decided to take the road from three lanes to one.  By the time I got out of the traffic jam, I was running five minutes behind.  For realsies.  That ain't so good.

I had already sent a couple of 'detained' messages via satellite once I realized how long the traffic jam was going to continue.  After I got rolling again, I sent a note saying that I would be a few minutes behind schedule in terms of making my relay.  Then, of course, the irrelevant questioning had to begin.  What time would I be there?  Where had I been delayed?  For Christ's sake,  do they not have GPS tracking on these trucks?  I was just trying to give everyone a heads-up that I was running 5-10 minutes behind.  I had no desire to play satellite message tag.

The guy to whom I passed the loaded trailer wasn't worried about the six extra minutes that he had to wait for me.  He said that he made the same trip yesterday, got the same change in plans in the morning, and got caught in the same traffic jam in the afternoon.  After a few brief words he was on his way to Rhode Island and I was on the board at #4.  Three trucks ahead of me... only three hours left on my 14... the guy who brought the load out of Aurora yesterday had to sit for 24 hours and take the back end of the same run today...  not looking too good, eh?

I went inside the truck stop to use the restroom and grab a bite to eat.  By the time I got back out to my truck, I had a new assignment.  Nice change of pace from yesterday.  My next pickup would be a drop/hook in Clyde, Ohio and it was scheduled for 10pm.  10pm would be well outside my 14 hour window, but I had been given this run before so I was fairly confident that I could pick up my load earlier than scheduled.  I made the two-hour drive back to the west and found my loaded trailer waiting for me.

At this point in the day, I had driven a total of ten hours.  One more to go.  An hour normally would be enough to get me to the service plaza before Elyria.  On my way to Clyde though, I had seen that the traffic jam was every bit as long as that which I had encountered earlier in the day.  No way I would cover the ~45 miles in an hour if I had to get through that mess.  So then what?  Just park at the McDonald's in Clyde and call it a day?  Drive to the truck stop in Monroeville along US-20 and then work my way back up to I-80 tomorrow?  Neither of those approaches really struck a chord with me, so I went with a third option.  (I had made a mental note of a Baumgardner Road as I passed through on my way to Clyde.)  I took US-20 back to the east for a few miles and then hopped on OH-113.  It was all two-lane road with a few towns here and there, but it got me all the way past the construction zone without making me sit in that traffic jam.

On the other side of those trees, thousands of drivers were cursing the very days that they were born into this evil world.  I, on the other hand, was able to roll along a parallel path without a worry.  And I got to see the town where Thomas Edison was born.  When I came to the area where my mental note told me that I would be turning back onto the freeway, I saw the telltale green sign saying that the turnpike was to the left.  Beauty.  (The aforementioned mental note turned out to be helpful, even if inaccurate.  Baumhart Road was my ticket back to the turnpike, not Baumgardner.)  I got onto the pike and into the service plaza just in time for my clock to run out.

I have to deliver in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania by midnight tomorrow night.  It's probably a little over 400 miles from here so I should have a pretty easy day.  I'm sure I won't be up terribly late tonight, since I was awake so early this morning, but in any event I won't have to set an alarm clock for tomorrow.  That's always nice.  This week's miles are starting to creep into the decent range as well.  I'll be at 2,145 once this load is delivered, with Saturday still to come.  A short easy dispatch for the weekend and a little more northeast pay would make the week just fine with me.