ROUTE: Mebane, NC to Newport, MI: 817 miles (599 loaded + 218 deadhead)
It was Easter weekend and it would have been nice to spend it at home to attend Sunday Mass among familiar faces. It was going to be difficult though because I was home the previous weekend to attend the NY METS game with my son. Fortunately, this assignment was bringing me back to Michigan and close enough to our terminal that I could arrive Saturday night and attend church on Sunday. The delivery was scheduled for Monday as this consignee is closed on the weekends.
Friday April 3rd, my previous assignment ended at 3:00pm on Thursday. I spent the rest of the afternoon and night at a nearby truck stop with a McDonalds. I received the assignment late in the morning and the new shipper was a four hour drive away Southbound. I get paid the same for loaded or deadhead miles. I left the truck stop at 12:30pm and arrived at the shipper at 5:00pm. It was a drop-and-hook and they operate 24/7. I left there at 7:00pm and it should take about a ten-and-half hour drive Northbound to our terminal, which is about half hour north of the consignee. I shut it down at 9:00pm that night. I had plenty of time for the delivery and I prefer not to drive at night. It’s more dangerous as I tend to be tired and there’s less visibility. Also, the later we stop the harder it is to find parking.
Saturday April 4th, I started my day at 10:00am and drove nine hours. Some days I’m fresh as a lettuce and others I have a hard time driving for long periods of time. Today was one of the latter. I made four stops along the route for bathroom breaks, take a nap or simply stretch my legs and one stop for dinner. By 11:00pm I only had an hour left on my fourteen-hour workday clock and I was just over an hour away from the terminal. It would be foolish to try to make it, run out of hours and incur a DOT Violation. I shut it down at an Ohio Travel Plaza on I-80 at 11:00pm. Mass was at noon so I had plenty of time.
Sunday April 5th, I started my day at 10:00am and drove an hour to our terminal in Canton, MI. I showered, dressed in appropriate attire, called an UBER and arrived at MASS just before noon. Took an UBER back to the terminal and then bobtailed to the Walmart which allows truck parking and there’s an Applebee’s across the street. Bobtail is driving the truck unattached to a trailer. The term comes from the similitude the sole truck appears to have to a horse or cat with a shorten tail as it is operating without the customary trailer attached.
Monday April 6th, I started my day at 9:30am, did the pre-trip, fueled, went through the truck wash and headed to the consignee that was a half-hour away. I arrived at 11:00am and completed this assignment.
BOOK REVIEW (1): Thin Ice by Paige Shelton (2019), THRILLER – RATING (****)
The writing was good and the story captivating but in the end the subplot became the main story and the supposed plot became a backdrop.
Beth Rivers is a famous thriller novelist known by her pen name, Elizabeth Fairchild. She is hiding in a small town in Alaska after escaping a three-day abduction where she was held captive in a van by an unknown man. When escaping from the moving van she bangs her head requiring brain surgery which has impaired the memories of her days in captivity making more difficult for the police to track her captor but some clues start coming back to her. The Alaskan local sheriff is the only person that knows her true identity. Her hair has naturally grayed from the trauma and she little resembles the back-cover photo on her books, granting her some anonymity.
The day before she arrived in this remote town one of the locals apparently committed suicide or was it a murder? Beth is helping the sheriff with the investigation while trying to piece together details of her capture that will help the police in her home town find the abductor. There are good descriptions of life in Alaska, the friendliness of the town folk and the natural beauty of the environment.
The ending is inconclusive but overall entertaining and the descriptions of her ordeal are very PG formatted.
BOOK REVIEW (2): 355: The Women of Washington’s Spy Ring by Kit Sergeant (2017), HISTORICAL FICTION – RATING (***)
Interesting historical fiction story that taught me some aspects about life in the time of the American Revolution, including the role women played. The pace was very slow and maybe fifty pages less would have kept the narrative more amenable.
One of three women could have been George Washington’s spy #355. Meg Moncrieffe, the daughter of a British Captain that first spies for the Brits then for the Americans. Elizabeth Burgin whose husband was wrongly imprisoned and dies in captivity due to the inhumane conditions of the decommissioned ship where he was being held. Sally Townsend, who along with her brother Robert are helping with the Rebel’s cause. The story incorporates real figures of the time which gives the narrative a sense of truthfulness. General Washington, Benedict Arnold, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton among others are mentioned.
