ROUTE: Woodburn, IN to Woodruff, SC: 701 miles (611 loaded + 90 deadhead)
I love this route. Both the shipper and consignee are easy to reach off major highways. Both are drop-and-hook and manned 24/7. This time around there was a delay at the shipper. I was ready to go early as my last assignment ended around 15:00 and fortunately there was a truck stop about 10 miles down the road. The load wasn’t ready until noon. I hooked up the trailer and realized that the gear to move the tandem was dislodged and I could not fix it on my own. Taking it to a repair shop would mean hours of delays. The load weighed in at 70,340lbs and both axles were within the DOT Legal limit so I could technically travel with the tandem all the way back. Two issues though, that means that the truck is at its full size so more difficult to maneuver, but it was almost all highway so not a problem. The biggest issue is that certain states restrict the maximum size of a truck according to the placement of the tandems. California is the strictest, but Tennessee also abides by it and I was traveling through there. I would take my chances.
The load was due on Friday but I would be able to make it on Thursday. Unfortunately, I ended up leaving the shipper at 14:30. The trip should be able to be done in ten hours, but it took me twelve due to the hilly terrain and road work. The route entails traveling on the section of I-40 that was damaged by Hurricane Helene and that portion is one lane restricted to reduced speed. I decided to shut down at 21:30 on Wednesday though I still had enough drive hours to continue. Three things factored in: 1) The DOT Regulations convert an assignment into a zero-sum game. The more I drive on one day implies a latter start the next day. 2) The DOT 8-Hour Regulation requires that I take a 30 minute continuous break in order to drive the full eleven hours maximum, so if stopped for the night before the eighth hour I could surpass it. 3) The truck was at full length making it harder to maneuver into parking spots. The latter I drove the less easy parking availabilities. I decided to shut it down at 49er Truck Stop after driving non-stop for seven hours. It’s a mom-and-pop truck stop that I know well and normally has abundance of parking. They also have a 24/7 diner and I was hungry.
My next assignment was a shipper in Atlanta, GA going to Pontiac, MI. A quick Google Maps search estimated the travel time from Woodburn, GA to Atlanta to be two hours, but there’s always traffic to deal with. If I delivered by 14:00 and did a quick turnaround I theoretically make it by 16:30 when they closed. I pleaded with our dispatcher to move the pickup to Friday morning because the likely outcome would be that I would arrive after the closing forcing me to find overnight parking in Atlanta, which is a nightmare. The delivery was scheduled for Monday so picking up on Thursday or Friday would not make a difference. Fortunately, that was the outcome. I made the delivery at 15:00 and then went for lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant that I know well. The trip to the next shipper took me four hours, so there’s no way I would have made it on time the previous day.
That Thursday, December 17th, I had breakfast in Kentucky, lunch in South Carolina and slept in Georgia. Such is the life of a trucker.
BOOK REVIEW: Law and Vengeance by Mike Papantonio (2017), FICTION – RATING (***)
The story was suspenseful and had some interesting twists but there was something off about the narrative. It did not flow naturally and seemed assembled like an IKEA furniture. If done correctly it works but at best it’s just functional.
The characters were fairly well described and the pace was OK but many occurrences were over the top or would not occur in real life. True that it’s fiction but just too many off-ball occurrences to keep it palpable. I had a hard time relating to the main character, Gina. She went from take no prisoners hard working brilliant lawyer to a softie. There was a lot of information on her but it was conveyed in pieces and hard to grasp her true self. There were a lot of legalities but not enough explaining how Whistle Blowers cases operate and who gets the settlement.
I finished it but did not love it.
