Last Thursday I got in after delivering in Jefferson City, MO. I basically had two runs with a total of 1400 miles. I waited all day after unloading at 9am and then was told to deadhead to the yard. Friday morning I was given a choice of leaving out Sunday or Monday. I chose Sunday and it was a wise choice because another friend/co-worker chose Monday and didn't get out until tuesday.

My first run was to Kinderfalls, IN. Within minutes of my departure I get the next assignment. Deadhead to Muncie, IN and it delivers tuesday morning to the caves of Independence, MO. The exact one in my video. Each trip I barely get there within minutes of my clock running out. When I finally got to Independence I had to go to off-duty driving at the first stoplight. I had two minutes to spare. I got parked a couple miles away and was done I thought until 5am. Nope.

When one delivers in this particular cave you have an early morning appointment, Park your truck in the staging lot and wait for security to knock on your door.Last time I delivered here my time was 1am and was wakened at that time. I figured I would be able to sleep until 5am since that was my appointment time but I was soon proven wrong. I had trouble going to sleep thanks to a small but intense thunderstorm. When I did finally get to sleep it was good sleep with real clear vivid dreams and such. Suddenly I am awakened by a knock. First thought was "Wow I slept good". After giving the security guy my paperwork our little convoy is directed into the cave with security's golf cart at the front door. As we go in I realize it's only midnight. Blah!

With help from the other drivers I squeeze into my dock and shut the truck off. This has to be the only cave that is not cool in temperature. It's hot and muggy in there. We are not allowed to idle or have our APUs on. The next three hours were hot, sticky, muggy, interrupted sleep attempts that were miserable at best. I finally get unloaded at 3am and I go back to the parking outside and cranked the A/C. I was gonna sleep until my Qualcomm or cell phone woke me.

The next morning I had a load going from independence to Waco, TX. I had to take a double take on the deadhead it was 111 miles. Thats because it was Independence, KS not MO. It was scrap aluminum. The last time I did this run it was a major pain to axle out the weight. That was on my ultra heavy peterbilt 387. But this time my nice light volvo was no challenge and I got it right on the first try. Yay me.

Again within minutes of departure I had my next assignment which went from FT. Worth back to the house. This worked out well because I had a friend visiting I haven't seen in awhile who is in the military and served in Iraq. But the company had attempts to foil this plan. Thursday morning I fuel and depart from Muskogee, OK. Within a minute my QC E-logs says it is malfunctioning and to keep paper logs. Well I am not gonna pull over just to fill out one sheet so my plan was to do it in the rest area if I get a red light at the Joplin scale. I get a green light and a phone call wondering why it was taking me 2 1/2 hours to fuel. I explain my issue to my boss. He said it was no big deal since there was no freight and I will be in at least until Sunday. So I call the wife and we coordinate the complex schedule of the weekend.

I should know better. Us OTR guys aren't allowed to preplan anything. I get to the yard and they wanted to send me to Illinois. Gaahhh! But I asked if I can keep a paper log and was told they would rather fix my truck. The shop doesn't even have any idea what it could be so thanks to the malfunction I get my weekend with 2300 miles which is just fine. Hopefully it won't come back to bite me in the butt.