ROUTE: Leominster, MA to Ubly, MI: 997 miles (910 loaded + 87 deadhead)
Wednesday 02/25 I started my day at 10:00am. I had driven the night before to the consignee so I could have all my hours at the start of the day and this facility allows for overnight stay. The shipper for this assignment was a two-hour drive and arrived at 1:30pm. It was a live load but was fairly quick and I started my journey at 2:30pm. It was 910 miles so would need 15-16 drive hours to get there and the DOT Mandatory 10-hour breaks. It was a two day trip and the delivery was set for Friday at 8:00am. I made it the Sheetz in Burbank, PA for the night and shut it down at 10:30pm after six-and-half hours driving.
Thursday 02/26 I started my day at 10:30am, there was no urgency as I had plenty of time to make the delivery on Friday so could sleep more than the minimum. I fueled along the way and stopped at an Ohio Service Plaza for dinner at Panda Express. Ubly is on the NE corner of Michigan and not many truck stops in the area but I found one about an hour from the consignee. I drove nine hours that day and shut it down at 10:30pm.
Friday 02/27 I started my day at 9:30am and drove the hour to the consignee. The delivery appointment was changed to 11:00am and I arrived right on time.
BOOK REVIEW (1): Hooked, A Never After Novel by Emily McIntire (2022), FICTION – RATING (****)
This is not everyone’s cup of tea. I can only describe it as a spicy violent romance novel. A combination of soft-porn and Soprano’s mafia toughness. The first half is weird and left me perplexed. The narrative did not seem natural. Halfway through it started to make sense and somehow I was left rooting for the bad guy.
The two main characters are Hook, a throw-back gangster with sleazy pickup lines straight out of Good Fellows. Wendy, a twenty year-old virgin who unknowingly is the daughter of a drug lord that has the appearance of a respectful businessman. Hook seduces Wendy to get revenge on her father that killed his parents when he was a child. There are a slew of secondary characters that turn out to be an important part of the narrative.
Initially I was thinking three stars at best. Then I got caught into it and was eager to find out how it was going to turn out which defines for me its entertainment value, therefore the four stars but the spicy narratives are distracting.
BOOK REVIEW (2): Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French (2024), FICTION – RATING (***)
The protagonist, Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor only makes an appearance in chapter 52 of 91! That’s 60% into the story. Calculate several chapters to introduce herself and more in the conclusion so it only leaves about 20-25% of the narrative to solve the mystery. The pace is quite slow throughout and despite a surprising ending it’s just not enough to make it entertaining.
The narrative focuses on two families in a small rural town outside of London. Charlotte (Charlie) Salter is on her way to her husband’s 50th birthday party but never arrives. A week later Duncan Ackerley, the head of his family, is found dead floating in the river. The police assumes a murder-suicide situation, or at least that’s the easiest solution to solve both cases.
Both families are torn and thirty-years pass, especially Charlie’s daughter that was fifteen then. Duncan’s two sons decide to start a podcast to shed light on what really happened thirty-years ago with Charlie and clear their father’s name. A woman is murdered outside of town and London sends Inspector O’Connor to solve this new murder and try to discover what really happened those years ago.
Though the ending is unexpected it makes little sense. Mildly entertaining.
