Homeward Bound

Shew, finally in the home stretch. I thought it'd never happen. Patience and endurance pays off, I suppose.

I woke up this morning sure that it was going to be a great day. And despite the fact that it had a rough start, it did turn out pretty darn well. I arrived at delivery point number two this morning with the remaining rolls of paper to be delivered with fifteen minutes to spare. As my luck would have it, however, the fifteen minutes would be used fighting with a trailer door that wouldn't cooperate and insane wind that coaxed said door into non-cooperation.

You see, the trailer had a bum door latch at some point and it was replaced with a mismatched latch and rigged to fasten in place when the doors are closed. However, when one needs to open and secure the doors to be loaded/unloaded the mismatched latch didn't function correctly. The replacement latch was for a door with a standard latch much like the one kinda seen here on the right of the picture.



Unfortunately the trailer wasn't fashioned with the needed hardware, aka a chain and hook, to secure the door open with. I discovered that a previous driver had improvised with a piece of coat hanger wire, which he/she kindly left hanging on the latch.

Now, this wire worked perfectly yesterday when I made my first delivery because there was no wind. But today, the wire may as well have just been a spaghetti noodle because after one good gust it snapped in half. And thus begun the battle of wills... my own will against that of mother nature. She was much stronger than myself this morning.

I had three failed attempts at re-wiring the latch to the trailer frame, the wind was just too strong and before I knew it the door was slamming shut. I then thought of zip ties. I keep a bundle of them in my tool box and figured I'd try that... yeah... duh, if wind can snap a coat hanger gauge wire it was bound to laugh at a plastic zip tie. And it did.

Finally my light bulb blinked on and I thought, bungee cord! Yes, that would certainly do the trick! So with the help of a handsome able bodied driver who came to my aid, the door was fastened with a bungee cord. I hopped in the cab and started to back the trailer into the dock when I heard the damn door slam shut again. I was furious at this point.

When I climbed back out of my truck after setting the brakes, I found my handsome comrade standing there dumbstruck holding what was left of my bungee cord. To shreds, you say?



After a few choice curse words and throwing a tiny bit of a tantrum we were finally able to secure the door with a durable rubber bungee cord he retrieved from his own truck. It worked, and it didn't budge in the wind one single bit. I was so gracious for his help. The other idiots that were there just sat in their trucks enjoying the "pissed off little girl" show. But whatever...

Once I was docked I was quickly unloaded. While being unloaded I started receiving my next work assignment on the Qualcomm and was jotting down the notes on it when a dock worker came and told me I was done. I pulled out of the door and parked, removed the borrowed bungee cord and returned it to it's owner and then retrieved my copy of the paperwork and was finally on my way.

The next stop was Jersey City were I would trade my empty trailer for a preloaded one that was bound for North Carolina. I knew I wouldn't be taking it the whole way so I just got on the road and headed to our terminal in Carlisle to await further instruction. I was able to enjoy a nice lunch and a little relaxation before I had to hit the road again.

After grubbing in the terminal I returned to my truck to find a new work assignment waiting for me. Instructions were to swap my NC bound load with a driver in VA at a truck stop. He/she would be swapping a load with me bound for WV. So, I hit the road and a few hours later, I arrived at the truck stop and shut down for the night, went in and used the restroom and took care of some paperwork.

As I was approaching my truck I found a strange man knocking on my door. I knew right away that he was my swap driver. We both agreed that we'd rather wait to do the swap until morning and planned on a 7 am wake up call. I figure I'll be up before that, but who knows.

The load will take me about an hour west of home, but it will deliver and turn me back east to the house. I can't wait for some time off. Even though I've not really been working all that hard lately, it's been a hellacious few weeks and I am certainly ready to vegetate for a few days.