Expect the Unexpected

Always expect the unexpected. This is my slogan for trucking.

My weekend stay at The Hagerstown, Pilot was cut short with a phone call. It was the sunday dispatcher. One of our drivers had run out of hours and needed to hand off the load to me since I was the only one near him. Actually we were just 5 spaces apart at the Pilot discussing the E-logs when I got the call.

It was the Auburn/Foxborro run that I had done just last week.
Problem 1. I needed a total of 12.5 hours to do this. I only had 11.25.

Apparently that was more than the other driver so off I went. I was bummed because I was gonna watch football and I was gonna have to take another violation. Oh well.
I got smart though I got past Syracuse, NY and parked at a Toll road plaza/rest area and watched the Saint/vikings game. Then I drove to the customer in Auburn.

Monday morning I noticed the wind picking up. As I made my way to Foxborro the wind got crazy. I was light enough I could have been blown over. 300 miles of white knuckled driving including three moments where I thought I was going over. The sideways rain didn't help either.

So I get to Foxborro where the backing is always tight. I thought I was gonna get a break because the snow that was making it hard to back in should be all melted. It was melted and replaced by two service vehicles which forced me to blindside in. After being soaked and my truck inside being soaked because I had to roll windows down to see my mirrors I traded trailers and made it to the 6 dollar a day to park truck stop. I parked just in time. There was a high wind warning in the area and trucks lighter than 20000 lbs were suggested to park. But I was out of hours anyways.

I have several credits for showers at Pilot but I was no where near a Pilot and I was needing to shower badly. So 7 dollars and an hour later I get relief. I play some video games, build my little exercise bike (basically pedals on a stand) and then hit the bunk.

Next day I sat and sat and sat. 4:30 pm rolls around. I get a message, "here's a brokered load, you have to be in Boston 35 miles away by 5pm." AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

But surprisingly I picked up a load in Boston during rush hour and managed to avoid the traffic jams of rush hour. It goes to Alliance, OH. I am now sitting at a cool truckstop called Truckworld in OH. Tommorrow after unloading I go to PA to pick up a load of baby gates going to TX. Trouble is they are forecasting 10 inches of snow in Springfield around the time I am rolling through. The guesswork of what each day brings carries on.