6/18/10

I'd like to start by congratulating the great state of Nevada.  It couldn't have been easy to end Michigan's four-year reign as the unemployedest state in the union, but you've managed to take the top spot... for now.  Something tells me that we're not going away any time soon.  Don't rest on your laurels.

I think that today may have involved more hypothetical logbook calculations than any day that I've ever had on the road.  For starters, we had the D.O.T. medical exam situation to sort out.  After consulting the compliance department here at Fenian Godfather Inc., I decided against dropping my trailer in Lancaster.  I could have fit the extra stops into today, but my 70 hours were starting to dwindle.  Wasting the extra time dropping and hooking and driving back and forth seemed like a bad idea.  So I cruised into that parking lot that I showed you yesterday and found that it belongs to a vacant business.  There still were signs posted saying that I couldn't park there, but you know how it is.  Fortune favors the bold... or something.

After the clinic opened at 8am, I filled out a couple of forms and gave them back to the receptionist.  She told me that there would be a two-hour wait.  Yikes.  That ain't good.  She said that she would call me when they were ready, so I gave her my phone number and then headed out to my truck to do some calculating.  Long story short - 11am.  As long as I was out of there by 11am I would be able to reach Nogales in time, provided that there weren't any major delays along the way.

I got my phone call after 45 minutes and the exam only took a half hour or so.  Good deal.  And thus it will be another two years until I have to let another dude fondle my nads.  Back out to the road...

It's uncanny. I don't feel motivated enough to do the digging and provide you with links to all of the old posts tonight, but it's uncanny. Whenever I tell you fine people that I'm ready to head home and have a few beers, the high-paying pre-plans seem to come out of the woodwork before I get a chance to send in my home time request. Some of you have been reading this blog for quite some time, so you already know that this has happened numerous times. For those of you who are less familiar with the historical tendencies, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Yeah, again.  I was rolling across West Texas with my foot to the floor when the next pre-plan came across the satellite.  It was an 1,816 mile run from Nogales to the Atlanta suburbs.  Immediate reaction - "Holy shit!  What is that, a 4,800 mile week?"  Delayed reaction (about a half hour after I confirmed the assignment) - "Wait, what?  When does that thing deliver?"  I took another look and saw that the schedule said Tuesday at 11am.  Time for more calculating.  I have this many hours left on my 70... I'll use this many in getting to Nogales...  I'll pick up this many tomorrow... This many Sunday... This many Monday... This many Tuesday... Wait, what?
 
The schedule itself was doable.  I would have to drive full shifts every day and keep my breaks to ten hours, but I could do it.  The problem was that I wasn't picking up enough hours to drive full shifts every day.  So what gives then?  I checked the satellite forms that I've sent on the last couple of mornings, thinking that maybe I had sent the wrong hours or something.  Nope.  Everything was right.  I don't know then.  Maybe the load didn't actually have to deliver on Tuesday.  If it were an open-ended delivery, then I could use the hours that I picked up on Wednesday and everything would work out okay.  Yeah, I was sure that this was the explanation.  I ran some more calculations in my head and satisfied myself that a Wednesday delivery would make everything legal.
 
After rolling down the road a little further, I started to have my doubts.  An open-ended delivery would usually have the time listed as 00:00.  This one said 11:00.  Hmmm, something wasn't right.  So I sent a note explaining the situation with my hours and suggesting that I might have to relay the load on Monday.  I expected to get a reply asking where and when I could relay it, but instead I got a message asking when I would be able to deliver.  This seemed to indicate that the delivery time may in fact have been flexible.  Keeping in mind that I was still 600 miles from Nogales at this point, I did some more calculating.  Something along the lines of 3am on Wednesday was my best guess.  I would run out of hours on Tuesday, then pick up more hours at midnight.  It seemed that I would be somewhere in eastern Alabama by the time the hours ran out, so roughly three more hours... there you go.
 
After a few minutes, I got a note saying that the load was unassigned.  Guess that delivery wasn't so flexible after all.  A couple of minutes later I got a new assignment.  Instead of the Atlanta suburbs, I'll be going to the Dallas suburbs.  Same Tuesday morning delivery but ~800 fewer miles.  Okay then, this I can do.
 
My 14 hour clock for today was going to run out somewhere between Van Horn and El Paso.  Seeing no good parking options in that region, I decided to duck off in Van Horn and call it a night.  After a ten-hour break here, I'll have to hit the road bright and early.  I have around 500 miles to go from here.  Assuming that there are no catastrophes along the way, I should make it with an hour or so to spare.  Good enough.
 
The fact that my medical card has been renewed means that there's no longer a specific date by which I need to get home.  I had some things to do with friends next weekend, so it would be nice to get something toward home once I make it back to Texas.  It's not critical though.  The drop-dead date would be the holiday weekend, seeing as I have a bunch of explosive devices at home (and a Swedish buddy who intends to detonate every one of them).  I definitely won't want to miss that display.
 
My Tigers are spanking Dontrelle Willis at the moment, so I'm going to bed with the expectation that I'll wake to find a suitable outcome.  If only they could play these National League tomato cans every night...