MAUMEE, OH to LITHIA SPRING, GA: 800 miles + HAZMAT (652 loaded + 148 deadhead + $100).
Saturday August 8th, the load was only ready at 7:00pm so I had time to kill. The previous assignment ended early Friday afternoon in Mason, MI, which is just sixty miles from our terminal in Canton so I was allowed to come for fuel and spend the night. I left our terminal at 6:00pm after having a nice Mexican breakfast at a nearby restaurant. I arrived at the shipper at 7:00pm to pickup the loaded trailer. Delivery was an appointment for Monday at 6:00am so I had a day and a half to make the trip that should require around eleven drive hours. I left the shipper at 8:30pm as the sun was setting and drove half an hour to the Sheetz in New Baltimore, OH, that has easy parking and 24/7 food service and shut it down for the night at 9:00pm. Dinner was a nice salad with Cajun chicken and a chili dog on the side.
Sunday August 9th, I started my day at 8:00am with the pre-trip inspection of the truck. I drove for nine hours and shut it down for the night at 6:30pm. I stopped for lunch along the way at a truck stop in Kentucky that serves good burgers and to comply with the DOT Thirty Minute Break that impedes truckers for driving more than eight consecutive hours. Lithia Springs is just outside of Atlanta, GA, and it’s impossible to find parking in the immediate area. It’s best to park about an hour and a half away.
Monday August 10th, I started my day at 4:30am after the mandatory Ten Hour DOT Regulation Break with the pre-trip inspection of the truck. The drive to the consignee was just shy of an hour and a half so I arrived minutes after 6:00am to make delivery.
BOOK REVIEW: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney (2022), THRILLER – RATING (****)
A psychological thriller with the vibe of Agatha Christie’s Then There Were None but with some unique twist-and-turns typical of an Alice Feeney novel.
Daisy Darker, a twenty-nine year old, is the youngest of three daughters that was born with a heart condition that has forced her to live a solitary life. Nana, the family matriarch and her grandmother, invites the entire family to celebrate her eightieth birthday at her secluded home, Seaglass. At the stroke of midnight Nana is found dead in the kitchen as a gypsy had predicted many years earlier. It’s high tide and the house is cut off from the mainland until 6:00am. Afterwards another family member is found dead and the deaths continue. Who is killing off the family members and why?
Very entertaining with a surprising ending.
