Travels and Stuff

Let's see... where did I last leave off. I have no clue. I know I had delivered a load up in Baltimore and stayed the night in Jessup at the TA last time I blogged. The following day I grabbed a load in Winchester, VA headed for Tennessee. The load took me through the house and I got to take two days off. The load was to deliver in Marysville, TN at precisely 7am on the 4th of March. I was supposed to get three days off, but to avoid leaving out at midnight and not getting quality sleep to be driving on, I left on Monday and spent the night in Knoxville.

I made on time delivery, actually I was a half an hour eary, on Tuesday morning and was in and our in no time. I was lucky enough to get a quick dispatch, but first I had to take care of some other business for the company. Turns out the trailer I hauled the TN load in was a leaker and needed to be repaired. So I had to take the trailer to a repair shop up in Knoxville and then go find another empty to get my next load with.

After missing my turn and taking a slight detour I made it to the trailer repair place and dropped the trailer off. I then headed over across town to pick up my dispatched empty. I found the facility a lot easier than the previous and was in and our in no time at all. Then I was headed to the next facility to pick up my next load.

The load was headed for Harrisburg, PA and to be delivered on the 5th. So I grab and go and was headed northward fairly early on in the day. I spent the night in Radford, VA once again fearing the worst from the crazy tornado weather. Luckily it was just really windy and rainy, which of course put me right to sleep. The wind rocking my truck like a cradle, the rain pitter-patting on the roof.

I woke up the next morning before the sun did, but ended up falling back asleep and waking up way later than I'd anticipated. But once I was up and at'em I was good to go and refreshed. I drove the rest of the way to PA and made my delivery. Then I headed over to the Carlisle terminal for my break. From there, I was dispatched the next morning to get a new load and head west to Terre Haute, IN. The load was a live load in Alexandria, PA which took me on a lovely drive across the US-22 route in PA. Once I aquired the load I headed west making it just south of Pittsburg for the night.

The next morning I continued on my journey. I made it into Ohio and the rest of the day was pretty much downhill from there. The winter storm started earlier than expected. While the weather forecasters were still saying that it was going to flurry early in the day then break for a few hours and start back up in the late afternoon, it was dumping inches of snow all across interstate 70 in Ohio. I made it to our terminal in Columbus through muck and slush to fuel up and take a food break.

Once back on the road it was harey carey most of the rest of the trip. I sat in an interstate parking lot just to the west of Dayton thanks to a 4 car pile up for nearly 2 hours. Then, once rolling again the roads were pretty much shit. It was horrid. But, I just took my time, kept my distance from the other fools on the road and kept on truckin'.

I made it out of the nastiness finally just about Indianapolis. And it was pretty much smooth sailing from there on. I delivered my load at the last possible minute based on the information I'd provided my managers. I'd told them I'd deliver at 6pm... I was there at 5:59. I made the drop and bobtailed over to the nearest truck top for some much needed rest.

My next dispatch was already waiting for me on the Qualcomm when I arrived at the Pilot truck stop in Brazil, IN. I checked it out, did a little trip plan and then read a little more of the book I'm working on and then hit the hay. I was pooped.

The following morning, this morning actually, I headed down to Mooresville, IN to pick up an empty trailer at one plant. Then I took that empty up to Lebanon, IN to trade it in for a loaded trailer at another plant. When I dropped the empty I had to wait about 15 minutes before connecting to the loaded one, as they were still loading it when I arrived. But as soon as the green light by the dock door came on, I backed under the trailer and hooked it all up. I then did a brake bleed down to adjust the trailer brakes and test the air lines and such and then I was off.

Or at least I thought I was going to be off. The path to the dock where the trailer was back up to was a solid sheet of ice, so it wasn't until I was nearly at the gate on dry pavement that I realized that one set of my trailer tires weren't rolling. The brakes were frozen up on one set. This is frustrating. I tried all the tricks I had up my sleeve but nothing was working to free it up either. After entirely too many trips to the front and back of my rig, I finally just sat there for a few minutes, patiently waiting for a miracle.

And of course, in time, it happened. I heard the signature "pop" that frozen brakes make when they finally release. Yay! I was really ready to roll now.

I rolled right up to the guard shack, checked out of the facility and then headed next door to the Flying J truck stop to scale the load and grab a quick potty break.

Then... I was off. Headed east. This load is eventually to take me to Windsor Locks, CT, to deliver on the 10th. Of course, I'm curious if I'll be able to take the load the whole way myself. I already called my manager about the weather and she contacted Customer Service for the consignee and they moved the appointment back to the 11th. Plus, I am stuck in Indy for at least tonight. They pretty much shut down the entire interstate system in Ohio due to the freakin' blizzard knocking a whollop to that poor state. If things go well and the roads improve tomorrow, I'll make it as far as I can, but probably not much further than Carlisle if I'm lucky and decide to take the southern route across.

Otherwise... who knows.

The other problem I face with this is if I do make it out tomorrow and most of the rest of the way on Monday, I won't be able to deliver now until Tuesday. I am supposed to be home on Thursday, guaranteed home time to start with Friday. If I do go all the way to Connecticut, I probably won't be able to make it back to WV until at least Friday. So I dunno....

I knew there was a winter storm on the way into the midwest, but I didn't know how bad it was going to be. Or how annoying...