Pittsboro, IN

Man, oh man. Can I catch a break sometime? I would like to think that through the laws of average that I could get a good streak in here somewhere.

After a rather relaxing weekend in Concord, NC, we were back on the road and got a quick, short run to unload and then another pick-up heading to Indianapolis, IN.

I got to the first drop-off early to get a good start on the day, which started off rather good. Only to be informed by the receiver that I'm supposed to have a scale ticket, which is something the person who picked the load up should've done prior and after the shipper and left it with the trailer upon dropping it off. But as it is, mother fuckers cannot follow simple instructions so I was left to find a scale, which the closest one happened to be 40 minutes away with no traffic.

Luckily, after the asshole who told me what I needed to do and left, a cool guy came and told me of a place he worked at down the road that would scale me there. It was about three miles away and saved me a lot of headaches.

I got back to be unloaded and it took them two and a half hours, thus backing me into a tight spot for the next pick up which is 130 miles away and giving me two hours and 15 minutes to get there, which is possible with no traffic and at top speed all the way.

Of course there's construction, get pulled into a backed up weigh station, travel through small cities on the highway, and pull into the wrong place and slowly have to back out of there.

I picked up the load a half hour late and need to scale and there are no scales nearby or on the way before the scale houses so I have to back track, luckily, there's one in South Carolina that wasn't too far off track. Once done, I struggle my way to the truck stop for the night through the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains which is non-stop incline/decline and windy turns for about 8 million miles.

Finish the day, shower, relax.

Next day I start early to drop off early and get a load out of Indianapolis. Everything goes fine until the driver side steer tire blows out. I held the wheel straight and gassed it and got it safely to the side of the interstate. I message the company that I need roadside assistance and they tell me to call the road service people and let them, the office, know when I'll be back on the road and if I'll make the delivery on time. No problem, I'm about two hours from Indianapolis and the deliver isn't due until one but they got it extended until two at which time the place closes, but it gives me four hours, so if it takes two hours for someone to come here and fix it, I'll get there right on time.

It takes me one hour to get through to road service. Then a half hour to set up the deal. Then an hour and a half for the road service guy to get there. The whole thing took up the entire four hours and now had to wait until this morning to deliver. I get close to Indianpolis and stop for the night. Through this whole mess, I forgot to change my availability which I had set for this morning at 5AM, so when I return from my shower, I have a pre-plan for a pick-up the next morning (today) between 8 & 9 AM and delivering in the heart of Chicago at 1730.

This doesn't work because my delivery can't be delivered until 8am at the earliest and needs to be unloaded and could take up to two hours or more. Also, I would be out of hours at the time of the delivery and even if I'm just dropping the trailer it would push me back, not to mention it's fucking Chicago and traffic there is insane, also not to mention that the truck stops and oases there fill up like by three or four pm. I mention this to the planners and they extend the pick up time to 12pm which I could do, but I ask them if I could deliver earlier else I will not have hours. It then took two hours for them to take the plan off of me, which they didn't even notify me, I had to call them and they said, rather non-chalantly, "Oh, it's been taken off you."

Finally, I can get some sleep. Went to bed, woke up early and went to the restroom to pee, brush my teeth, and wash my face. Open the bathroom door and there's a trucker there, shirt off, pants down to the ankles, and he's washing his notty bits. And when I open the door he's doing his thing and I just say hey and go pee. He didn't even flinch. I guess he's been doing it a while and it's just something he doesn't feel shy about. I wouldn't either if it were like a public shower, like a communal one, like at the gym, but not in a bathroom sink of a public restroom. I don't know, maybe I'm just getting my panties in a bunch.

So I'm here now and waiting for a new load. Gonna read some and do something, I guess.