Downtime for real.

Well here I sit having breakfast with my kids. I get a full two days off this week. Even though the load I'm under goes to Topeka and Springfield was out of the way, my company let me bring it through the yard so I can spend time at home. The load isn't due until Tuesday AM thanks to the holiday. So I get some real hometime for a change.

Good thing because I am burned out. Had to spend last weekend in a truck stop in the Atlanta area after running out of hours and only ran 1200 miles this week. If I am running hard I don't burn out as easily as I do sitting doing nothing. I get stressed that I am wasting time. Time is such an expensive commodity in my household.

Wednesday I picked up a load in Van Buren, AR. It was a 700 mile load going to Chicago but wasn't due til friday PM. Ick. This is also a difficult area to get loads out of on Fridays before holidays as I learned on easter weekend. But my dispatcher who was thinking ahead was gonna have me drop it it the yard and take an Indiana load that was due thursday afternoon. I told him I wanted in this weekend so he was trying to get me available sooner.

As I am rolling north on I540 I get just out of the tunnel when my engine light came on and I was losing power fast. I managed to get pulled over and called the shop. Gave them some codes my truck was spitting out and they told me to take it to Volvo in Springfield. Well, it wasn't gonna make Springfield and I limped to the Springdale, AR Volvo dealership instead. This sucked because if I didn't make it back to the yard in time for the Indiana load I was gonna be stuck in chicago. I spent four hours while my truck was fixed and barely got to the yard in time (after a small nap). I departed the yard and had to be in Kouts, IN by 5pm.

I am ten miles from making it to the customer and it's 4:30pm. yay, I am gonna make it. But then I see the dreaded "ROAD CLOSED FOLLOW DETOUR" sign. AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!! I think that's what I said. But I see another truck coming from the other end so I thought maybe I can make it. It looked promising until I got to the sign that said: "ROAD CLOSED 1 MILE AHEAD. NO TRUCKS!! $500 FINE" Yah me stupid. now came the next problem. I was at an intersection. To my left road sign telling me 12 ton limit traffic only, to my right the same. So I turn right and have to BACK through the intersection to turn around. By this time I am livid at my ignorance, and running out of time. I was literally within one mile of my destination. So after the 20 mile detour I get there with 5 minutes to spare. Whew! And I was rewarded with a back haul which has brought me my home time.

Now I sit with my awesome wife and kids, i have plans tonight and I might even get a band practice in before my work week starts. Life is good.