ROUTE: Lock Haven, PA to Southfield, MI: 647 miles (429 loaded + 218 deadhead)
The pickup was schedule for 23:30 but it was a loaded trailer and was ready. The problem was that I had already driven four-and-half to drop the previous load and there was a three-and-half hour deadhead drive. I had driven eight hours that day and only had three hours left on my 11 hour clock.
I arrived at the shipper at 21:00 and left at 22:00. Even though the assignment is a drop-and-hook it still requires time to drop one trailer and pickup the other one plus paperwork that needs to be completed. The second problem is that at that hour parking becomes more difficult. The Petro in Girard, OH, always has parking and the Indian food truck across the street is opened until 02:00. I was hungry. My only meal that day was an Italian sausage hoagie at noon.
I arrived at the Petro at 01:30 just as my 11 hour drive clock was about to expire and only 30 minutes left on my 14 hour clock. I don’t make a custom of eating dinner at 02:00, but truckers eat what they can when they can.
The delivery was scheduled for 21:30 the next day and I was only four hours away. My DM tried to find me another load so I could drop this one at the terminal and have a Local Driver deliver it, but there was none. I went to the terminal and killed time with errands. I fueled the truck, went to the Post Office, the dry cleaners, had a Mexican dinner and went food shopping at Walmart. I arrived at the consignee at the established delivery time and it took them two hours to unload. I was back at the terminal at midnight and tomorrow will get a new assignment.
BOOK REVIEW: Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon (2025), FICTION – RATING (****)
Who knew Reese Witherspoon was a writer?!
The book is well written and very entertaining. Lots of twists and incorporates the use of AI cleverly, though even in fiction it seems a stretch. Unfortunately there are some twists that are for pure dramatical effect and to mislead the reader which are then not explained fully or the explanation is weak.
Nice descriptions of NYC, Dubai, Bordeaux and several other places. The operation room in war zones scenes were deficient as were the protagonist action scenes, she’s no James Bond, but they were good enough. The protagonist, Maggie, is likable but her father-in-law, Pork Chop, steals the show. The secondary characters are described well enough.
Too many subtle messages about social critique for my taste. Not a perfect Hollywood happy ending but not a tragedy either.
Overall entertaining.
