ROUTE: Belleville, MI to Martinsburg, WV: 467 miles (457 loaded + 10 deadhead)
I received the assignment late Sunday night and the pickup was scheduled for 06:00 on Monday from a shipper located near our terminal. Fortunately I was still awake when I received the assignment and managed to change the pickup time for 08:00. I don’t like crack-of-dawn pickups and this was a drop-and-hook so there was flexibility. The delivery was scheduled for Wednesday 01/21 at 05:00, which was not suited for my preferred working hours, but the consignee is a 24/7 facility. The drive should take eight hours so I would be able to make it on that same Monday of the pickup.
Monday 01/19 as I’m getting up at 07:00 to start my day I get a call from AD Safety Department personnel informing me that I was randomly selected for a drug screening. I’ve been with the company for three years and had never been selected, so I wasn’t surprised by it. For obvious reasons truckers cannot partake in the use of illegal drugs and fortunately I have never indulged in the practice. However, this random screening would set back my itinerary I had planned for that day. I arrived at the shipper at 09:00. There’s a diner with truck parking about 30 minutes from the terminal and on route for this assignment. After the pickup I stopped at the diner for a hearty breakfast that should hold me off until dinner after the delivery.
Normally I can drive non-stop for six-to-seven hours, but there are days that I can’t even drive two hours without a break. About an hour after leaving the diner I started getting tired. In trucking school they drilled into our brains the only solution for fatigue. It is not drinking coffee, an energy drink or rolling down windows to let air cool down the cabin. The only solution for fatigue is rest. When I realized that I still had seven hours of drive ahead of me I pulled into a Travel Plaza on I-80 and took a 30 minute nap. From there I managed to drive six hours straight and arrived at the consignee at 21:00. There were some patches of bad weather with intermittent snow flurries.
After making the delivery I settled in for the night at a nearby Rutter’s truck stop that has a 24/7 food service and I got a cheeseburgers and fries.
BOOK REVIEW: Save the Girls by Terry Toler (2020), FICTION – RATING (****)
I was disappointed on the first three quarters of the book. I was expecting a strong female lead as the synopsis indicates but she was almost a side character until the last quarter of the book where she becomes a ferocious mastermind. The plot was engaging enough to make the story interesting.
I like to start with book-one in a series as normally the protagonist in described in greater detail with some background information. This was not case. We know little about this character instead the book starts with a narrative of a romance novel comparable to a teenager’s crush. What little we know of her barely makes sense. How is it possible that a cunning female ass-kicking CIA agent compared to Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher be a twenty-five year-old virgin? That’s not of critical importance but simply does not fit the profile and therefore questions the rest of the story.
Parts of the story are fairly predictable and the initial action scenes are lame. The narrative focuses more on the plot than on the protagonist. The plot is good and noble: the rescue of women sold into the sex trade and a terrorist trying to buy a portable nuclear bomb.
It obviously has a Hollywood happy ending and sets up the second to expand on a possible romantic relationship among the protagonist.
