Come along for the Ride!

I am so glad you are here. Stay with us as we travel everywhere. I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Cannot get with it.

We left home on Wednesday afternoon. We had a pickup in Pittsburgh that was going to St. Joseph, MO. Emotionally and mentally I wasn't ready to go.
I was first to drive and drove the 2 hours to our pickup. We picked up at a chemical place although it was not a hazmat load. It took only a few minutes to get loaded and then we were on our way to Missouri.
Pops took a nap while I got us underway. I just didn't want to go yet. I didn't feel like I had enough unwind at home time.
Somewhere in Ohio Pops and I switched off and he drove while I slept. I knew that I was being quiet and not talking, but it was because my mind was in a funk. I hoped that it wouldn't last too long.
We made our delivery and was quickly dispatched on another load.
This time we were picking up girl scout cookies to deliver. We picked them up in Sioux City, Iowa and they were going to Grand Forks, ND. We were suppossed to get there around 10:30pm that evening but when we talked to the delivery person he was hoping we would wait until the next morning. But we couldn't we were predispatched on another Girl Scout cookie load.
So we fueled our truck and then stopped at Walmart for some groceries and then went to delivery. The man did show up a little after midnight. He got us unloaded and gave us some product that had been damaged by an earlier delivery. Yum Yum.
Then we drove back to Sioux City to wait for our next load.
It was a Saturday and there was no one at the shipper when we got there. We waited and waited and finally about 5 hours later we got a call saying a man was on his way.
This time they wanted us to take 14 pallets. But only 11 would fit onto our truck. So they put the 11 pallets on and then added a few additional cases of cookies on top of the pallets. We had over 1500 cases of cookies.
So off we went, clear up north to Minot, North Dakota. This time a lady called me and wanted to know what time we would be there. I told her that we would be there around midnight but that our appointment time was 8am on Sunday. She told me that she would get help and meet us there at 8am central time, "but because of the time change, it would be 8am our time." No, it wouldn't I thought to myself, but you don't argue with customers. Whatever.
Anyway we got there and parked and slept until the next morning.
She came alone, so much for help. Anyway, Pops worked hard to unload all those cookies and I helped while the woman watched and counted the boxes.
It took us about 2 hours to unload and get out of there and now we were driving the whole way to Minneapolis to our place of layover.
We took our time driving to Minneapolis. We stopped in Jamestown, ND because there is a huge buffalo statue there that we had seen from the highway and wanted to see up close. But as we got to where it was, it was blocked from view and you had to pay to get into to see it and it was closed for the season. Big deal, I'll just look at it from the road.
We reached Minneapolis and parked at a favorite truckstop. It wasn't long before we were sleeping.
The next morning we went in to shower and then waited for a load. The whole day passed and we hadn't gotten a load, we barely saw any load offers. So we slept again.
The next day we were offered a load picking up in Manitoba and going to Florida. We accepted and was put on the load. But before we even got our paperwork completed the load cancelled. Oh well, that happens; but it did make us the number one truck for load offers. Then we noticed on the computer that at least two trucks had been dispatched and we hadn't even seen any load offers, so we called our truck owner to have them try to figure out why.
The next day we got another load picking up in Manitoba and going to Scranton, PA. We accepted and got the load. We did our paperwork and started to drive north. We drove about 120 miles when we got a notification that our load had cancelled. What in the world was going on? So back to Minneapolis we went to wait somemore.
This time we went to a rest area and it was a good choice. The weather is sunny and in the 70's and the rest area had a lake next to it with a river behind it and a paved walking path the whole way around. The dogs and I took several walks to enjoy the weather.
We were still there the next day, so we walked again. You have to make the best of it even when you don't feel like, no, especially when you don't feel like it.
Thursday we picked up a load going to Ft. Dix, NJ. It delivers on Friday so that might be it for the week. Wow, I hate weeks like this.
We picked up our load and I started to drive. The day was beautiful and for once since leaving home, I felt okay. I felt like my old self was back. Things were going to be ok.

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