Slug Life

I'd forgotten how much trucking can wear you out. Well, okay so maybe my having been a couch slug for three weeks has a little to do with it.

My first official day back in the world of trucking was a laugh-er. I had barely slept because, well... I'm not used to sleeping in a berth anymore and the mattress, while brand spanky new, is a bit uncomfortable at first. I'll break it in, in time. But that first night... oi vey!

So I wake up, find a load assignment waiting for me on the Qualcomm (on-board computer) and decide that my bladder takes precedence and went in to use the facilities at the company terminal where I had spent the night before checking it out. Once that was taken care of I then jotted down all the information for the work assignment on my handy dandy notebook (yes that WAS a Blue's Clue's reference, get over it).

The work assignment had me picking up a pre-loaded trailer at a facility in Zanesville, Ohio and taking it down to Bessemer, Alabama.

Easy enough. Now my curiosity was peaked when I noticed that the work assignment didn't have me picking up an empty trailer to trade the loaded one for, which is typical for most of the assignments I'll be getting at this company. So dummy me sent in a message inquiring if one would be needed in order to acquire the load.

Of course, they sent me out an "equipment disposition" message which told me to pick up any empty I could find at the company terminal. I searched the lot, finding only one trailer identifiably empty and sent in a message saying I wanted that one.

Only it wouldn't be that easy, would it?

No, they sent me a message back almost immediately explaining that the trailer I'd identified as an empty was no longer company property, it had been sold. Immediately following that message was another equip. disp. message with a different trailer number, allegedly on the lot.

I searched again, couldn't locate the trailer (and mind you this lot isn't that big, you can walk a lap around the outer most perimeter in less than 8 minutes). So I replied again and was sent a third trailer to find. Again, allegedly on our lot.

I did locate this trailer but it was full of parts and scrap and crap from the shop. So I sent a message back relaying that info. Finally I was sent a 4th equip. disp. to leave our lot and get a trailer just a couple miles down the street. So I headed that way. I found the place quickly and approached a frustrated looking guard.

"You're the fifth orange truck in here in the last hour, can't y'all tell whoever is sending you here that we are NOT releasing trailers."

crap

So I called dispatch and explained the situation, was advised of yet another trailer to check on at a different facility. This time it was a 30 mile drive. I arrived at the place said trailer was alleged to be. I checked in with the guard, she gave me directions to "Lot D" which is "where they keep the empties". I followed the route she specified and was flabbergasted when I got back to "Lot D" to find not one single orange trailer.

I pulled over and called dispatch again. Mid-sentence explaining the situation yet again, a guy in a minivan pulled up and said, "follow me to the place we actually keep the orange empties". I hung up with dispatch and followed him around to the place where there were indeed, orange trailers aplenty.

I even found the one I had been sent to retrieve! I checked it out, made sure it was in good shape and then promptly hooked up to it. The idiot in the minivan must've had nothing better to do so he sat and watched me work my hiney off. But I think that the hiney must've been what he was most interested in watching. As I was about to climb back up in to cab and take off he pulled up close and yelled out his window....

"Hey girl, you got a man?" he asked.

"Yeppers, husband even." I replied, annoyed, shoving my gloves in behind the seat as I climbed inside.

"He is lucky... (long uncomfortable pause) you are sexy as hell lil' mama."

Really?! I mean... REALLY?! You gonna creep on a lady trucker like that?! UGH!

And I ain't yo' lil' mama. WTF!?

Immediately the TLC song "No Scrubs" came to mind.... "hanging out the passenger side of his best friends ride, tryin' to holla at me..." haha

Anyway, I "thanked" him and got the hell outta Dodge. I had my empty and now it was time to go get that load.

The load was ready and waiting, even though it was in a yellow trailer, not an orange one. But I managed to get my empty dropped, grab the loaded one and get on the road in less than 30 minutes.

I made it as far as I could manage safely that evening. Which was only about 250 miles from the pick-up location. But that was better than nothing. My first day back was a doozy. Ups and downs, and many scenarios that were all too familiar.

And while it may have only been seven and a half hours on the e-log, it felt like a million billion years to my poor pathetic slug body.

I shut down for the night, made a hot dog and knocked out a few rows on the scarf I'm knitting. Then I called and talked to the hubby, letting him tuck me in to bed via telephone (ya know, say g'nite and lovey dovey stuff). Then it was lights out.

I slept a little better during night number two. I think it'll probably take a week or so to get used to it again. I kept waking up about every two hours or so, with something numb from laying in an awkward position, when the Qualcomm unit would start up. After about the third time the QC woke me I remembered that I needed to place an article of clothing over it so as to block out the light which was ultimately the cause of my intermittent waking.

Come morning, I hit the snooze on the alarm only three times but I'd set it for early enough that it wouldn't be an issue if I hit it five or six times. Finally unable to hold it, I had to get up and get dressed and head in to the truck stop to take care of business.

Freshened up, I grabbed a cup of coffee and set out for Alabama. The drive was as pleasant as it could be. A little windy as afternoon approached, but over all a really nice day for a drive. I managed to arrive earlier than expected, I dropped my loaded trailer off and then set off on a trip I'm still not quite sure how it will end or what the point is.

After the work assignment I just finished I was instructed to bob-tail (that is truck cab only, no trailer behind me) from Bessemer, Alabama to Morehead, Kentucky. I have no additional information and I saw about 3 other company bob-tails headed in the same direction as I am. Now I don't know if they are headed to the same place or not, but I wonder if we are being staged for some sort of mass exodus of freight from the facility I'm bob-tailing to.

I guess I'll find out either tomorrow or Tuesday morning. Right now, honestly... I don't care. I'm exhausted and sore from what little physical labor I have done over the past 24 hours or so and from sitting in a bouncy seat for two days and from sleeping on a bed that is not my own (yet). I plan on popping a Tylenol or two and hitting the bed before too long.

Ugh....

Seriously...

right now...

I'm missing the Slug Life.