Let's see. How long did it take to make my first mistake today? Actually when I went to bed last night. It was 50 degrees outside, with a light rain. I went to sleep with my truck off. Yeah, it got cold. 26 degrees when I rolled out of the sack this morning. That's never a pleasant discovery to make when you're not fully clothed. (For your own sake, don't try to picture that.)
So, it probably took a while for the second mistake, right? No, not really. My intention was to drive west on US-223 and bypass the Ann Arbor area. I made the mistake of not looking at a map. I'm not sure but, in hindsight, that truck stop where I spent last night must have been on US-223. I went north on US-23 thinking that I would run into US-223 at one of the next exits. Nope. So I got to hit Ann Arbor during rush hour. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be though. The old saying goes that Michigan has two seasons - winter and construction. In today's case, winter wasn't as bad as construction. The ramps and bridges were all good to go, so the only really slow spots were right before and after the merge onto I-94. After State Street everything shook out and the drive was fine.
I pulled into the customer's lot and walked toward the receiving area to check in. There were several doors with signs that said, "Use other door." Each of these signs had an arrow pointing toward one particular door. That's the particular door that I was approaching. My third mistake of the day was litening to one of the other drivers. He told me that I had to check in at the door on the end of the dock (one of the "use other door" ones). So I walked down there and stood in the cold for a few minutes before deciding that he was full of shit and nobody was coming. Back at the door to which I was originally walking, I went inside and handed my paperwork to the forklift dude.
About an hour later I was empty and ready to rumble. I drove across the freeway to the little local truck stop to park and await my day's work. This situation, per usual when I'm empty in southeast Michigan, brought an unfortunate contradiction. I was #12 on the board and in the Taylor dispatch zone. This could have meant that I had a bunch of free time to kill at home. Maybe meet someone for lunch. Maybe kick back on the couch and play some video games. Maybe do a little shopping. I was sixty-five miles from Taylor though, so instead I had a bunch of free time to sit in my truck and look at the snow.
Around 2pm I finally got my assignment. My next pickup would be in Adrian, Michigan. Adrian is the home of Adrian College. Yeah, go figure. Adrian College was a hell of a place for a high school kid to hook up with wild college girls back in the early 90's... er, so I'm told. I also heard that it was helpful to be on a baseball team with a guy who went to Siena Heights so you would have a place to sleep after a night of partying at Adrian.
No parties or any of that today though. Just a shipper with the inside/outside dock setup. That's always a bonus. Sun in my eyes looking forward. Complete darkness looking backward. Concrete poles a few inches from my mirrors on both sides. No real way to tell if I'm moving straight back or not while I'm at the wheel. Good times, good times.
I got rolling after a little while there and headed for Texas. The down time waiting for my assignment and the time at the shipper combined to limit my driving before the 14 hour rule caught up with me. I was able to get to the rest area on the west side of Indianapolis before I had to shut it down. So once again I'll have a pain in the ass schedule to run for the next day and a half. I'll put in a full eleven tomorrow, take a ten hour break, and drive the last hour or so on Friday morning. That's one of the neat little conundrums about OTR driving I guess. When business is better, I get an assignment ahead of time and set up my schedule however I like. When things are slow, I sit all day waiting for a brokered load to come across the satellite and then have to run hard to make the drop on time. Less business = less flexibility. There probably aren't too many other industries that work this way.
I guess I'll roll the dice and grab one more load on Friday before requesting my home time. I might get burned that way but I really can't afford to go straight home and miss out on any pay for next week. We're not supposed to leave for the little family trip until Saturday. I should be okay.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
12/9/08
Bedtime last night in Connecticut - 12 degrees. Wake up time this morning in Connecticut - 16 degrees. A few minor snow flurries along the way through New York. Coulda been a really long day for the ole Godfather. In an unexpected twist though, things got warmer and warmer as I rolled west. Then the sun went down and it just kept getting warmer. By the time I stopped for the night it was 50 degrees outside. My truck obviously has a heater, so the temperature in and of itself isn't a huge deal. Since half of Penssylvania and all of Ohio were getting a steady rain today though, warmer is definitely better. I had no time for all that snowfall nonsense that I hit the last time I crossed Ohio.
I was able to make pretty good time all day today, getting past Toledo and into Michigan before my eleven driving hours were exhausted. The Pilot in Blissfield had lots of open parking. That's always nice. I have just enough time to take my ten hour break here and then finish out the run ahead of my 9am delivery appointment. About all I have to decide is whether to shoot across US-223 to US-127 and up or to stay on US-23 up to I-94. That stretch of I-94 in Ann Arbor was always a clusterfuck when I worked out there, but I haven't been around here much lately. I would like to think that the bridge construction might be finished by now. I don't know. I'll probably just steer clear of Ann Arbor and come in from 127 anyway.
Anybody think I should take this chick up on her offer and move to New York? $400 a month, hey. I'm not home much anyway. The bathroom can't be that bad. I do love Manhattan.
I was able to make pretty good time all day today, getting past Toledo and into Michigan before my eleven driving hours were exhausted. The Pilot in Blissfield had lots of open parking. That's always nice. I have just enough time to take my ten hour break here and then finish out the run ahead of my 9am delivery appointment. About all I have to decide is whether to shoot across US-223 to US-127 and up or to stay on US-23 up to I-94. That stretch of I-94 in Ann Arbor was always a clusterfuck when I worked out there, but I haven't been around here much lately. I would like to think that the bridge construction might be finished by now. I don't know. I'll probably just steer clear of Ann Arbor and come in from 127 anyway.
Anybody think I should take this chick up on her offer and move to New York? $400 a month, hey. I'm not home much anyway. The bathroom can't be that bad. I do love Manhattan.
Monday, December 8, 2008
12/8/08
A certain football team has a former quarterback guru as its head coach. This team has a defense that isn't great, but is good enough to hang around with most opponents. The team's offense started out the season very strongly and the team got out to a good record through the first month and a half. Then something happened. The team started to play without any fire. The offense went down the toilet. The quarterback, despite his obvious talent, started to look lost. The record crept downward toward the .500 mark as the head coach appeared befuddled on the sideline during games. Touchdowns became a rarity while breakdowns on the offensive line became the norm. What team is this? Notre Dame or the Redskins? Take your pick, I guess.
I stayed up and watched the game last night and then tried to get some sleep. I had my alarm set for 7am, so I fully expected someone to wake me before then. Much to my surprise, the alarm woke me at 7am. Beauty. I found a locked door at that time so I hung around until 8am and tried again. My dispatch stipulated that I was to arrive by 8am so I guess that's when the place opens. Shortly thereafter, I was unloaded and ready for another day. I pulled off to the side for an hour or so until my next assignment came through.
This trip had me deadheading up to Waterville, Maine and grabbing a load bound for Michigan. By the time I headed north, the traffic around Worcester and Lowell had subsided for the morning so the drive was nice and easy. After checking in with the shipper, I was told that the load would have been pre-loaded if they had known that my company was the carrier. Yeah, probably could have kept that information to yourself there, bub. Since I would have to be live loaded and there were three trucks ahead of me, I had to wait at the shipper for a while. They won't load a trailer while the truck is running and it was 14 degrees outside. This did not sound like a workable situation for me, but they told me that I could drop the trailer at the dock and bobtail to the other side of the parking lot. As long as I wasn't at the dock I would be allowed to run my truck while I was waiting. Fair enough.
As I sat patiently awaiting my loaded trailer, I was browsing around the good old interwebs. I got my daily e-mail from one of the employment listing aggregators and decided to click and see what's going on back home. I think I found a pretty sweet job posting. I would have thought it paid a little better, but you know... Personally, I'm not qualified, but they haven't named a replacement yet. If you've always dreamed of living and working in lovely Ypsilanti, I suggest that you send your application soon.
Once I was loaded and rolling, I had time to get to the T/A in Milldale, Connecticut before my 14 hour clock ran out. Now I'll have to keep a pretty brisk pace in order to make it to Jackson, Michigan by Wednesday morning. Oh well. A brother's gotta eat. We've almost caught up with last week's miles and it's only Monday. The extra $47 so far in northeast pay this week won't hurt either.
I stayed up and watched the game last night and then tried to get some sleep. I had my alarm set for 7am, so I fully expected someone to wake me before then. Much to my surprise, the alarm woke me at 7am. Beauty. I found a locked door at that time so I hung around until 8am and tried again. My dispatch stipulated that I was to arrive by 8am so I guess that's when the place opens. Shortly thereafter, I was unloaded and ready for another day. I pulled off to the side for an hour or so until my next assignment came through.
This trip had me deadheading up to Waterville, Maine and grabbing a load bound for Michigan. By the time I headed north, the traffic around Worcester and Lowell had subsided for the morning so the drive was nice and easy. After checking in with the shipper, I was told that the load would have been pre-loaded if they had known that my company was the carrier. Yeah, probably could have kept that information to yourself there, bub. Since I would have to be live loaded and there were three trucks ahead of me, I had to wait at the shipper for a while. They won't load a trailer while the truck is running and it was 14 degrees outside. This did not sound like a workable situation for me, but they told me that I could drop the trailer at the dock and bobtail to the other side of the parking lot. As long as I wasn't at the dock I would be allowed to run my truck while I was waiting. Fair enough.
As I sat patiently awaiting my loaded trailer, I was browsing around the good old interwebs. I got my daily e-mail from one of the employment listing aggregators and decided to click and see what's going on back home. I think I found a pretty sweet job posting. I would have thought it paid a little better, but you know... Personally, I'm not qualified, but they haven't named a replacement yet. If you've always dreamed of living and working in lovely Ypsilanti, I suggest that you send your application soon.
Once I was loaded and rolling, I had time to get to the T/A in Milldale, Connecticut before my 14 hour clock ran out. Now I'll have to keep a pretty brisk pace in order to make it to Jackson, Michigan by Wednesday morning. Oh well. A brother's gotta eat. We've almost caught up with last week's miles and it's only Monday. The extra $47 so far in northeast pay this week won't hurt either.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
12/7/08
Given that I only had to work for four hours today and that the traffic over the George Washington Bridge and through the Bronx never as much as slowed down, of course my directions would have to be wrong. I don't think I've ever gone over that bridge without at least seeing a few cars backed up at the toll booths. Today I breezed right on through. Since I had no real parking options along the way, I decided to roll the dice and head straight to the consignee. I gambled on them being closed for the weekend, since I couldn't see a 24/7 type of operation getting such a tiny shipment by truckload. If they were in fact closed, then only a locked gate could rain on my parade.
My directions said that I needed to take I-190 to Exit 4. Okay. No problem there. Then I was to proceed west on Shrewsbury Street. Uh, no. The exit only went to the east and I had the choice of going north or south on MA-12. I chose north, thinking I must need to make a left on Shrewsbury to follow my directions. Uh, no. There was no Shrewsbury Street. Massachusetts being Massachusetts, I never did manage to find a place to pull over and check my map. It was one skinny road after another as I wandered along. I would just have to go with my gut and follow the signage to find my way out of an uncomfortable situation. I followed MA-12 north and veered left on MA-140. This took me back to I-190, so at least I made a lucky call on that one.
Back on the freeway, I hit the button to have my Qualcomm unit read my directions to me one more time. Yep, I heard it right the first time. I-190 to Exit 4, west on Shrewsbury. Maybe I would have better luck approaching the exit from the other direction. Nope. Same deal. The exit only went to the east and took me to MA-12. Since I already knew that going north would do me no good, I tried going south. Nope. No Shrewsbury down there either. I hung a right on Mountain Street, since I had seen a sign on the highway indicating that Exit 3 would be for 'Mountain St / Holden.' I knew that I needed to get to the west side of the freeway. I knew that I was going to Holden. Any decent sized street would have to do at that point.
Mountain Street did get me to the west side of the freeway and eventually wound its way around to Shrewsbury Street. I hung a left and crossed my fingers. From there I caught MA-122A up to the industrial park, just like my directions said that I would. Go figure. I found that my customer did have some room for me to back up to the docks and they are closed for the weekend. There's some good news. I went to maps.live.com and did a postmortem on the routing fiasco. From Exit 4, about the only way to get here would be the way that I eventually did get here (down to Mountain and across the freeway). Shrewsbury doesn't appear to cross the freeway and the other roads to the north of Exit 4 were way too tight for a big truck. Exit 2 would have been the correct one to take, but whatever. I didn't hit anything and I had plenty of time for a little Sunday drive. No harm, no foul.
I have a nice fast connection here so I've been enjoying a pretty good battle between the Cowboys and Steelers. Then my 'Skins are playing tonight, although I haven't found a video stream of that one yet. I'll be empty with a boatload of hours available in the morning. Maybe next week can provide more than 1,825 miles for me. Maybe.
My directions said that I needed to take I-190 to Exit 4. Okay. No problem there. Then I was to proceed west on Shrewsbury Street. Uh, no. The exit only went to the east and I had the choice of going north or south on MA-12. I chose north, thinking I must need to make a left on Shrewsbury to follow my directions. Uh, no. There was no Shrewsbury Street. Massachusetts being Massachusetts, I never did manage to find a place to pull over and check my map. It was one skinny road after another as I wandered along. I would just have to go with my gut and follow the signage to find my way out of an uncomfortable situation. I followed MA-12 north and veered left on MA-140. This took me back to I-190, so at least I made a lucky call on that one.
Back on the freeway, I hit the button to have my Qualcomm unit read my directions to me one more time. Yep, I heard it right the first time. I-190 to Exit 4, west on Shrewsbury. Maybe I would have better luck approaching the exit from the other direction. Nope. Same deal. The exit only went to the east and took me to MA-12. Since I already knew that going north would do me no good, I tried going south. Nope. No Shrewsbury down there either. I hung a right on Mountain Street, since I had seen a sign on the highway indicating that Exit 3 would be for 'Mountain St / Holden.' I knew that I needed to get to the west side of the freeway. I knew that I was going to Holden. Any decent sized street would have to do at that point.
Mountain Street did get me to the west side of the freeway and eventually wound its way around to Shrewsbury Street. I hung a left and crossed my fingers. From there I caught MA-122A up to the industrial park, just like my directions said that I would. Go figure. I found that my customer did have some room for me to back up to the docks and they are closed for the weekend. There's some good news. I went to maps.live.com and did a postmortem on the routing fiasco. From Exit 4, about the only way to get here would be the way that I eventually did get here (down to Mountain and across the freeway). Shrewsbury doesn't appear to cross the freeway and the other roads to the north of Exit 4 were way too tight for a big truck. Exit 2 would have been the correct one to take, but whatever. I didn't hit anything and I had plenty of time for a little Sunday drive. No harm, no foul.
I have a nice fast connection here so I've been enjoying a pretty good battle between the Cowboys and Steelers. Then my 'Skins are playing tonight, although I haven't found a video stream of that one yet. I'll be empty with a boatload of hours available in the morning. Maybe next week can provide more than 1,825 miles for me. Maybe.
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