I HATE CHICAGO.

Forgive my lack of coming up with a more imaginative title for this post but this speaks the truth. It all started where on Friday I was asked if I wanted to work over Thanksgiving. I said yes because I wanted off on December 5th instead. But I was gonna need a reset so I could work through next week. No problem. So after 34 hours I was sent to Wisconsin. A good run that I have done many times. before I get there I get my next load. This surprises me because my dispatcher was on vacation which usually spells trouble. I was picking up in Neenah, WI to Youngstown OH. It delivered wednesday am. My pick up time was at 1 pm. Well that would make it tight so I try to get loaded early. Then I get my next assignment. It picked up in Perrysville, OH which was two hours away from Youngstown. It was going to Midlothian, TX with a sunday am delivery. This meant that if I pulled it off I would have Thankgiving at home.

Now in my paper log days this would have been no problem. But with e-logs I was sweating it. Only one thing could ruin my master plan. Chicago. My routing had me going straight down 94 through Milwaukee and then into Chicago. With my flashbacks of holiday driving through Baltimore/Washington DC last year I shuddered at the thought of Chicago traffic for the holiday. Now I pondered at the thought of I43 to I39 and going WAY around but I figured I was screwed once I got to I80 east anyways. So I go for it. Milwaukee was smooth sailing. So much so that I had my hopes up. Maybe I can just stay ahead of the storm. NOPE. All my hope was shattered once I hit near the airport. ( I was going down I290 because I thought that 94 would not be much better.)

Let me explain Chicago drivers to you. They are so tired of all the construction zones and gridlock traffic jams that they have become very impatient and are willing ready to risk life and limb to get the spot in front of you. When I am not in a hurry it's quite entertaining for me in a twisted way but today I need to GO! Then It starts to rain while dusk settles in the Windy city. Traffic was stop and go for a long time. Every now and then there would be a break but then a sea of brake lights would have me backing it down before we could get it rolling again.


So I get to the end of my 14 hours. I am still 67 miles away with a 5am appointment. I didn't get shut down until 11pm. So I have grab line 5 (off duty driving) at 4am. I get to the reciever. If they take forever to unload me I can blame them for not getting me out in time for the next pick up. I can't log in until 945 am and I had to be in Perrysville by 10 am? Yeah that wasn't gonna happen. This place had been known to take like up to 8 hours to unload before. The one time I needed them to take their time they had me done within a couple of hours. Great.

So now these were my choices. Drive off duty but taking a huge chance at maxing that out so it would screw up my hours. Second choice was to call dispatch and see if they could move the pick up appointment. After a phone call explaining the situation they were switched me with another load that picked up the same place with a later pick up time. BUT (here is the kicker...) it was due FRIDAY AT 5 AM.

Instead of being home for a couple of days, this gave me a whole 2 hour window to have thanksgiving with my family. And you know what? I was thankful for that because I know that a lot of drivers didn't even get that. My family was grateful as well.

I still hate Chicago. BTW.