ROUTE: Canton, MI to Memphis, TN: 818 miles (731 loaded + 58 deadhead)
Sunday April 26th, the trailer was ready at our terminal and the assignment required thirteen drive hours plus a minimum of a ten hour DOT Break which meant, for practical purposes, that I would be making the delivery the next day at the same time of my departure. I was asked to make a local delivery on Sunday before I left that was about thirty minutes away and should take two hours. I would get paid a minimum of four hours at the day-rate. An extra $100 doesn’t hurt and I was helping out as it should have been done by a Local Driver. The delivery appointment was scheduled for 10:00am, so if the delivery took three hours including travel time I could be departing by 1:00pm, 2:00pm at the latest. The departure time was important because the consignee closed at 2:30pm EST. The delivery took FOUR hours and there was construction on route so each leg took an hour. I got back to the terminal at 4:00pm. I was pissed! That completely screwed up my schedule as I would not be able to deliver the next day but could only deliver two days later. I was also starving so the decision was easy. I was forced to start the trip on Monday and deliver the load on Tuesday. I walked to Panera and had a Mediterranean Chicken salad for dinner. I would get paid $150 instead of the $100 for the extra two hours.
Monday April 27th, I got off to a late start and ended leaving our terminal at 11:00am and drove ten-and-half hours to just past Nashville to a truck stop I know well that has easy parking and a great restaurant across the street. When I realized I would not make it in time for dinner then I stopped at a Love’s truck stop in Kentucky that has a great BBQ diner and enjoyed a delicious beef brisket sandwich. I shut it down for the night at 11:30pm.
Tuesday April 28th, I started my day at 10:30am did the pre-trip inspection and left there at 11:00am. I arrived to the consignee at 1:30pm after a two-and-half hour drive.
BOOK REVIEW: The Terminal List by Jack Carr (2018), THRILLER – RATING (****)
An intense thriller. The author uses his twenty years experience on the elite Navy SEAL to create a suspenseful and entertaining story with realistic details on the preparation and execution of a deadly vendetta.
Lieutenant Commander James Reece’s last mission was a complete disaster from the get-go. His entire SEAL team and the Rangers that came to their rescue were annihilated in an ambush. It was not an ordinary mission and he had a bad feeling about it but had to obey the orders that came all the way from the top. Once back Stateside, before making it back home, his wife and young daughter are killed in a home invasion by a Mexican cartel gang. The only other survivor on his mission, a close friend, took his own life days later. Top brass place all the blame on him for the mission failure and death of his family. Something did not add up and Reece figures out there’s a major conspiracy going on that reaches the top levels of the Navy and Washington’s political circles.
Reece goes on a solo revenge mission to kill everyone involved in the loss of his men, family and the suspicious suicide of his friend. He uses his tactical knowledge as a SEAL to plan and take out his perpetrators one by one with a little assistance from some close friends. The first half of the narrative is slowed down by too many details of the weaponry required but the second half moves much faster as he puts in action his vendetta.
Overall entertaining, though there are scenes of torture that are disturbing.
