CHARLOTTE, NC to SPRINGFIELD, OH to TOBYHANNA, PA: 1,050 miles (975 loaded + 75 deadhead)
August 19th, I arrived at the shipper at 8:00pm. Originally I was scheduled to pick up this load and deliver it to Burton, MI. From there I was supposed to get another load that would deliver in the New York area as I had requested vacation time starting on Saturday the 22nd. Normally, when I travel to somewhere exotic I’ll fly out of Detroit and the truck remains at our terminal. This was a staycation so I was allowed to bring the truck with me as long as I checked on it every couple of days. I left the shipper at 9:00pm and drove to one of the West Virginia Travel Plazas off I-70 that normally has parking late at night. I arrived there at midnight and shut it down.
August 20th, I started my day at 11:00am with the pre-trip after completing the required DOT Ten Hour break. I continued my drive toward Michigan passing the West Virginia State Capital Building in Charleston that is such a pretty sight with its golden dome visible from the highway. Shortly after I got a call from my dispatcher informing me that they could not get me a load out of Michigan heading to New York so in order to accommodate by home time request I would need to swap loads with another driver. We set the rendezvous at a truck stop in Springfield, OH that was four hours away for me. It was slightly out of my way but the other driver was short on hours and as far as he could travel. We made the exchange of trailers and I headed eastbound while he shut it down for the night. I drove another six hours with a short break for fuel and shut it down at midnight at the Petro truck stop in Girard, OH, that always has parking spots even late at night.
August 21st, I started my day at 11:00am and drove six hours to the consignee arriving at 5:30pm with a stop to grab a couple of chili-dogs and a bucket of popcorn. The unload took four hours but I was in no hurry. I was still 160 miles from where I park the truck when home at the Pilot in Milford, CT, but grateful that the company had figured out a way to get me home.
BOOK REVIEW: Cold Zero by Brad Thor (2026), THRILLER – RATING (*****)
A non-stop action thriller set in the freezing cold of the isolated arctic. Another twist on the advances of Chinese technology and their threat to world peace.
CIA Agent Kasey Sheridan and her partner have the task of smuggling out of China Dr. Chen Li and his groundbreaking technology that can shift the military playing field to whoever possesses it. They manage a daring escape from Beijing with Chinese forces on their heels. On their way to New York on a fourteen hour flight on a luxury airliner. The champagne flows but no time to celebrate as the Chinese are not giving up this state of the art technology without a fight. The plane crashes unexpectedly on the frozen Arctic and it becomes a race between the Americans, Chinese and Russians to recover the goods.
Overall very entertaining with some original concepts thrown in for good measure.
