1 flatbed to Columbus OH (failed)

1 trash truck to Portland OR (staged)

... spending the night at home

Rough night for both of us. BB was in bed by 7, I was in bed by 8. For a good part of the night, I was having hot sweats and cold sweats, plus a dream that I couldn't shake no matter how may times I woke up.

At some point I did get up and found a 2nd pillow, one to put on top of my head (I had left my stocking cap in the car.) If that didn't work, I was going to put on one of my jackets. But it did work and I finally felt warm and was having on-going dreams.

BB said she slept about the same but she sounds a lot worse than I.

This place only has ceramic plates so we used coffee cups to take our food back to our room. I was only going to have yogurt but the eggs looked good so I had some of those also. Plus juice.

Even though we are both dragging, we manage to get out of the hotel at 7:30. We have already talked about how far we may get today. We do need to get at least 200 miles so that we can make delivery tomorrow. More likely we will get about 350 miles, just past Indy.

1st stop is the shipper. I see the sign for 'shipping' and then I see that the gate is still locked. Then we realize there are not any employee cars anywhere. We drive to all corners of the property to see if maybe the truck was left out for me. It wasn't.

First call to dispatch ... Opps. Big opps on their part. And me too. I had posted a couple of posts on Face Book reminding all the new drivers to make sure they check both shipper and drop before heading to the load. I had called yesterday but never heard back. Dispatch had called last week and confirmed the truck was ready and no one said anything about the place being closed for the week.

There is someone answering their corporate phone today and all they know is that all plants are on shut down this week.

Dispatch makes a few more calls and it sounds like mostly leaves messages. No one calls back. After an hour I start to push back, how long am I supposed to wait? Then they mention their two closest trucks. Kansas City to TX or Cedar Falls to MN. It is decided that if we haven't heard anything back by the time the Cedar Falls truck has been confirmed that I will head to that.

So that is what we do. And it is right on the way home if that one is a fail also.

2nd stop is the Flying J in Wayland for the restroom. And some juice.

3rd stop is the rest area near Cedar Rapids for the rest room. I use that time to call. There is a great trip close to my house that I was hoping to get back to do. I know the shipper so I call them. :( They are closed both Friday AND Monday. Looks like a long weekend for us. I have already been to the drop for that trip this week and none of the top people are there so I likely couldn't have dropped the truck even if I had picked it up.

4th stop is the shipper. My contact names looks looks familiar. We used to do business with the company that was in the building 15 years ago. I think it is the same person. But the receptionist had all the paperwork so I didn't need to talk to anyone else.

It is a trash truck, but on a Ford chassis. Nice ride. It has a quarter of a tank of fuel so I head out as soon as the paperwork is signed. I will get as far as I can so the tank is as full as it can be without making two stops.

We weren't sure how far we were going to get today but once we had picked up, it looked like we could get home tonight before dark.

5th stop was the Kwik Trip in Spring Valley. I had a range of about 14 miles to 'E.' I had had enough range to get to Rochester when I picked up but I have been loosing range no matter what speed I drive.

I haven't been driving a commercial vehicle today so I do not need my break after 8 hours. Actually this truck is under 10,000# so legally it is not a CDL but if I am getting paid to drive, I log it as CDL.

No good anti-gel here so I will stop again in Inver Grove.

6th stop is the Pilot in Inver Grove. They do have one size of the good anti-gel. But the jug is enough to treat 360 gallons. I have a 40 gallon tank. Wished they had smaller bottles of this stuff.

Not thinking ... when I get outside I have to tear the seal off the jug before pouring it. I put the jug under my arm and use the other hand to pop the seal ... all over my jacket. Before I could get it wiped off it had soaked into the jacket.

7th stop is the carriers lot. There are a few miscellaneous trucks including a tanker that was sitting here last week. Only the lead dispatcher is still in the office, but they are, so I can get in and make copies and leave the keys.

I haven't eaten today since breakfast so I want to stop at Bub's. But they are closed. BB is wiped so we don't try to stop anywhere else and just head home.

Load board

US - 248

IA - 5/2

MN- 15

WI - 5

PTR - 4

As of now, we are just going to sit and get well. There really wasn't any good trips that would take four days to get to the drop and half a day home ... for when the rental car is supposed to be returned.

Next trip ... next year ?