10/7/09

There's a serious void in the evening tonight. When the Tigers' season has come to a merciful end and I'm not terribly interested in the remaining matchups, it just seems like a part of my daily routine has been wiped out. This used to be my favorite time of year to sneak out of the office. I would head over to Damon's and knock back a beer (or several) and watch baseball for hours on end on their big projection screens. Day after day, the baseball playoffs provide some of the highest levels of execution in the sporting world. Tonight though, I don't have the beer as an option and watching an internet stream on my computer just doesn't have the same feel as sitting with a couple of buddies in a restaurant booth. So depressing.

This morning's trip into Jersey was surprisingly easy, given the conditions. It was raining steadily before sunrise and my eventual route had the potential to become another of my many misadventures. I had forgotten to check my directions before leaving the rest area, so I was catching glances at my atlas whenever the opportunity arose and then choosing a route on the fly. I'm not entirely sure what it means when some of the numbered roads in the atlas are highlighted and others are not. Usually it's probably best to use the highlighted ones, I assume. Today though, not so much. I just decided to go with my gut and keep my eyes peeled. Hopefully there would be signs to warn me if I was heading for trouble. The only signs that I saw referring to trucks were the ones warning of steep grades and such. If they were warning trucks about the grades, then they must have expected trucks on those roads. Good enough for me. And I didn't make any wrong turns either. Beauty. I did see a sign warning travelers to avoid Piscataway this weekend, on account of a Rutgers home game. I don't imagine that information is very useful to any of you but I thought I might as well share.

By the time I got to the turnpike, the rain had stopped. That's always nice. Once I made my drop/hook in Monroe Township I was #2 on the board. The guy who dropped right before I did must have been #1 then. (The folks at Fenian Godfather Investigations figured this one out.) We both hooked to our empty trailers and stayed in the consignee's drop lot to await whatever came next. I hopped in the bunk for a quick power nap and, after about an hour, the satellite unit's chirp woke me. After opening my eyes and getting all squared away, I realized that it wasn't my satellite unit that I had heard. It was the one in the truck next to mine. My satellite unit went off a few minutes later. Homeboy next to me got a 5-stopper on Long Island and I got one going from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that I'm glad he beat me to #1 this time around.

The trip back into Pennsylvania came well after the morning rush had petered out, so the traffic was light and my empty trailer had me ruling the hills once again. I got down to the shipper in Topton and saw that there were a couple of our trucks waiting for door assignments. I didn't get quite as lucky as I did the last time I was there, but I did get a door right away while the others continued to wait. I said it then and I'll say it again now - I'm far more important than those other drivers.

With my 30,000 pounds of freight loaded and ready to rumble, I headed back out once again. A wrong turn found me wandering down Main Street into some little town, but I got lucky and saw a sign telling me where I could turn to get on the state route going toward I-78. Then I got even luckier when there were no cars approaching the intersection as I made that turn. Oy. That one was a doozy. Nary an inch to spare, you might say.

I-78 to I-81 and southward we go. My delivery is set for tomorrow evening in Charlotte, so the schedule was plenty flexible for me. I drove down to Toms Brook, Virginia before deciding to call it a night. Might as well leave some work for tomorrow and stay on this fairly normal schedule while I have the chance. I guess it's probably six hours or so from here to Charlotte. So the miles continue to come in at a steady pace and today tacked on a bunch more of the extra northeast nickels. All in all, the week is going fairly well.

If only it weren't for that void in the evenings...