ROUTE: Jackson, TN to Fort Wayne, IN: 620 miles (535 loaded + 85 deadhead)
Tuesday April 28th, I started my day at 10:30am with the pre-trip inspection of the truck and headed out at 11:00am. I drove two-and-half hours to Memphis, TN and made the delivery. This assignment was an hour-and-half away but unfortunately there were no empty trailers available at the consignee so I had to drive to our Drop-Lot nearby to pick one up. It was relatively close but still a waste of an hour which on this assignment proved to be important as the consignee had a closing time of 2:00pm. The drive there took two hours as part was in small back roads. The entrance to the shipper was hidden and past it and I realized that this must be a common occurrence as I had to pull into a facility nearby that had a sign on their entrance: “NO TRUCK TURNAROUND”. There wasn’t a guard so I did it anyway. I could be driving for miles to find another suitable place. I arrived at the shipper at 5:00pm and left at 6:30pm. It was raining cat-and-dogs and I needed to fuel. There was no way I would make delivery by 2:00pm the next day as the drive required ten hours. Therefore, I headed to a favorite truck stop in Hurricane Mills, TN, shut it down for the night at 8:00pm. Then proceeded across the street to the Log Cabin Restaurant where I had a delicious 18oz ribeye for dinner followed by coconut merengue pie.
Wednesday April 29th, I started my day at noon after completing the pre-trip and taking a shower. I drove fifteen minutes to the indicated Love’s truck stop for fuel then shut it down for the night at 8:00pm after driving seven hours that day.
Thursday April 30th, I started my day at 9:30am completed the pre-trip and drove and hour-and-half to the consignee to complete this assignment.
BOOK REVIEW: The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs (2025), THRILLER – RATING (*****)
A lighthearted and amusing thriller with many twist-and-turns and a Hollywood happy ending.
Four couples live somewhere in northern USA where there are cold winters. The husbands squander their life savings in a fail-proof scheme that goes sour. Their marriages fall apart afterwards. One of the husbands, Dave, dies in a freakish accident or was it? His wife comes upon a large sum of money from his insurance policies and is set for life while the other three are living measly lives. She plans to relocate to Florida’s warm climate as all where planning to do before the loss of their wealth. It occurs to the remaining three wives to murder their husbands as they all had the same policies. Serves them right. They hire a hit-man. Unknowing to them the husbands have been embezzling money from the local casino for the past four years where two work as a means to replenish their lost savings. They’re close to reaching their goal of $10MM when Dave dies. One of the husbands, Hank, suspects that the casino’s thugs had committed the crime and made it look like an accident as some clues were left behind.
Hank works in upper management at the casino. His wife Pam is the main POV. They have one adult daughter that lives in New Zealand and they can no longer afford to visit her. She has a service dog to help her cope with anxieties brought upon by their financial situation. Dave is a low level technician at the casino who discovers the glitch in the slot machines that allows for the theft. Marlene, his widow, is basking with the insurance money. Larry is a bank manager and handling laundering the money. He has an estranged relationship with his son which breaks his wife’s heart, Nancy, and is the main point of friction on their marriage. Andre runs a courier service and handles transferring the money from the casino to the bank. His wife, Shalisa, is very unhappy in their marriage and would divorce him if they could afford it.
The side characters are quite amusing too. Hector, Hank’s barber, is a former M3 gang member from El Salvador. Hector’s wife, his confident, has recently been hired as Head of Security at the casino. Padma Singh has recently been named the casino manager and Hank’s boss. Her mom bought the casino and she’s rumored to have strong ties to the mafia in India where she lives. Farid is her problem solver man and flies to the US to investigate the discrepancy in the slot high payouts discovered by Padma. He’s a slimy creature. Padma’s mom is determined to arrange Padma’s wedding as is customary in India. Along with a matchmaker they have found three suitable candidates for Padma that will visit her in the US.
The dealings among all the characters is quite entertaining.
