ROUTE: Maumee, OH to Pooler, GA: 991 miles (813 loaded + 178 deadhead)
I completed the previous assignment on Friday afternoon. The delivery for this one was only on Monday morning. The consignee was just outside of Savannah, GA, a city I’ve been to before and I love. I had two-and-half days for an assignment that only needed a day and half to complete. I could plan the trip anyway I wanted. The chosen route took me through Charleston, WV. There’s a great Brazilian steakhouse there where I planned to have dinner on Saturday night. From there it was an eight hour drive to Savannah where I planned to have dinner at Husk, a fabulous restaurant.
Saturday 02/28, the shipper was an hour drive from our terminal where I spent Friday night. In the morning I ran some errands, fueled the truck, got a mani-pedi and arrived at the shipper at 1:00pm. The load was heavy so I had to scale it at the nearest truck stop which was 30 minutes away. From there it was a five-and-half hours drive to Charleston where I arrived at 8:00pm. I barely had time to get on an UBER and arrive to the restaurant before it closed. I feasted on great dinner of sixteen different cuts of meat, salad bar and dessert.
Sunday 03/01 I started my day at 8:00am. Along the way I stopped for fuel and arrived to a Pilot truck stop just outside of Savannah at 7:30pm. It took me nine hours, an extra hour for the weight and hilly terrain. I took a shower, called an UBER and arrived at Husk at 8:30pm. Fortunately, the restaurant is opened on Sundays until 10:00pm. Once there I ordered a refreshing house drink made with gin, grapefruit juice and other ingredients to accompany the pork grinds I ordered as appetizer. For the main course I had the striped bass with tiara rice and butter beans and accompanied it with a new world Pinot Noir, West Pole from Santa Rita, CA. For dessert I had the Buttermilk Chess Pie and accompanied it with a Chateau Suduiraut 2013 Sauternes. A splendid meal. Afterwards I walked around downtown Savannah.
Monday 03/02 I made the delivery on time at 6:00am and waited for my next assignment.
BOOK REVIEW: Murder in the Crypt by Irina Shapiro (2020), FICTION – RATING (*****)
Entertaining and suspenseful. A series of clues are set forth as breadcrumbs required to solve the murder mystery. Its resolution is logical like in an Agatha Christie novel.
Captain Jason Redwood and his nine-year-old companion, Mika, arrive in a quaint British town on the outskirts of London in the 1860s. He’s checking on the estate he inherited from his grandfather, including the title of Lord, as both of his parents died recently. The day after his arrival he becomes a suspect in a murder of a passerby that occurred the evening he arrived from the mere fact that he’s a stranger in this small tight knit community. Constable Daniel Haze questions Captain/Lord Redwood in accusatory manner but soon both become friends and allies solving the murder. The rest of the characters are well described and the suspense of who done-it mingles throughout the story with a rather surprising ending.
The author subtly includes other topics that are of great importance in that era but currently as well: the US Civil War, slavery, parenthood, British customs, morality and more.
