Killed it in NYC
I was very proud of myself yesterday. The day before, yeah... not so much. Because no one respects a proper flip-out or full on panic attack. Not even the person having it.
I was assigned a load that delivered on Staten Island which was really easy-peasy. Following that assignment was a three stop pick-up that would find me in Queens, the Bronx and finally New Jersey.
And as I Google mapped each of the places on my iPhone, things quickly spiraled out of control and I found myself in the midst of a massive panic attack. Like, seriously I thought I was going to die at one point.
But after calling the places for directions and talking it over with my hubby I finally decided I was good with it. I didn't have any choice really, I had to do it so I just accepted it and moved on.
Heck, I even managed a great nights sleep at the Costco parking lot where I'd delivered that evening on Staten Island. I mean, a really great nights sleep. And when I woke up in the morning, I thought... "I'm cool as a cucumber" and started my day with a steady hand and a light heart.
The trip from Staten Island to my first stop in Queens was only 22 miles but it took me an hour and forty five minutes. I got on the free way all excited because it was smooth sailing at first. Wide open and very little traffic. But that didn't last long. No. After a few miles I hit the wall of traffic that made the rest of my trip a very slow crawl.
I was pretty excited when I found myself as close to downtown Manhattan as I've ever been. It was just across the river, big and bold and all up in my face. And since I was just creeping along in morning rush hour traffic I was able to enjoy the view.
I'm quite glad I had called for directions to my stops the night before because otherwise I'd have been back into full on panic mode because every other exit was marked with big signs saying things like "trucks over 12'6" take this exit" and "no trucks over 12' beyond this exit". But I was being passed (albeit slowly) by other 13'6" trucks and they all seemed to know these signs were bunk. So I kept going, smoothly until I got to the exit I was to take to my first stop in Queens.
The place was super easy to find thanks to the spot-on directions the guy gave me the night before. I did have to park in the middle of the street and block shit up for about twenty minutes while four pallets were loaded into my trailer, but all in all it went way better than I expected. And I was off to my second stop in the Bronx in no time.
It took me considerably less time to get from Queens to the Bronx than it did from Staten Island to Queens. It was an 8 mile journey which took only 30 minutes to make. And this place was a little harder to find because while the directions got me in the general vicinity, the final destination was hard to determine since it didn't have any signage to make it identifiable from all of the other small facilities in the long low brick building. But after a quick call I got confirmation as to where I needed to be and got docked and loaded in no time.
Then I was off to Jersey where I found the location with ease but had a bit of a snag when I got docked at the wrong set of loading docks and had to go through the whole thing again at the right docks.
Once I was all loaded up I was ready to roll west across I-80 towards my final destination in Illinois. I made it into Ohio for the first break and am now in Gary, Indiana for my second break. I will deliver in the morning and then who knows where I'll be off to next.
I was assigned a load that delivered on Staten Island which was really easy-peasy. Following that assignment was a three stop pick-up that would find me in Queens, the Bronx and finally New Jersey.
And as I Google mapped each of the places on my iPhone, things quickly spiraled out of control and I found myself in the midst of a massive panic attack. Like, seriously I thought I was going to die at one point.
But after calling the places for directions and talking it over with my hubby I finally decided I was good with it. I didn't have any choice really, I had to do it so I just accepted it and moved on.
Heck, I even managed a great nights sleep at the Costco parking lot where I'd delivered that evening on Staten Island. I mean, a really great nights sleep. And when I woke up in the morning, I thought... "I'm cool as a cucumber" and started my day with a steady hand and a light heart.
The trip from Staten Island to my first stop in Queens was only 22 miles but it took me an hour and forty five minutes. I got on the free way all excited because it was smooth sailing at first. Wide open and very little traffic. But that didn't last long. No. After a few miles I hit the wall of traffic that made the rest of my trip a very slow crawl.
I was pretty excited when I found myself as close to downtown Manhattan as I've ever been. It was just across the river, big and bold and all up in my face. And since I was just creeping along in morning rush hour traffic I was able to enjoy the view.
I'm quite glad I had called for directions to my stops the night before because otherwise I'd have been back into full on panic mode because every other exit was marked with big signs saying things like "trucks over 12'6" take this exit" and "no trucks over 12' beyond this exit". But I was being passed (albeit slowly) by other 13'6" trucks and they all seemed to know these signs were bunk. So I kept going, smoothly until I got to the exit I was to take to my first stop in Queens.
The place was super easy to find thanks to the spot-on directions the guy gave me the night before. I did have to park in the middle of the street and block shit up for about twenty minutes while four pallets were loaded into my trailer, but all in all it went way better than I expected. And I was off to my second stop in the Bronx in no time.
It took me considerably less time to get from Queens to the Bronx than it did from Staten Island to Queens. It was an 8 mile journey which took only 30 minutes to make. And this place was a little harder to find because while the directions got me in the general vicinity, the final destination was hard to determine since it didn't have any signage to make it identifiable from all of the other small facilities in the long low brick building. But after a quick call I got confirmation as to where I needed to be and got docked and loaded in no time.
Then I was off to Jersey where I found the location with ease but had a bit of a snag when I got docked at the wrong set of loading docks and had to go through the whole thing again at the right docks.
Once I was all loaded up I was ready to roll west across I-80 towards my final destination in Illinois. I made it into Ohio for the first break and am now in Gary, Indiana for my second break. I will deliver in the morning and then who knows where I'll be off to next.
Comments
I don't think you could have handled it any better. Face it, Get it Done, Leave it behind. Also a great quote comes to mind...."Its not what you look at that matters, its what you see!)
Keep on Truckin
KY Joe
You rock!