ROUTE: Clinton, CT to Clayton, IN: 964 miles (856 loaded + 108 deadhead)
Friday 02/06, my last assignment ended at 11:00 and I had a two hour drive to this assignment’s shipper. I was fortunate to get this assignment as I had requested home leave for the weekend to watch the Super Bowl and celebrate my birthday with my kids.
I arrived at the Pilot in Milford, CT, at 15:30 and unfortunately all the free spots were taken so I would have to pay for two nights parking. The third night the company would pay as I had a load and on an assignment. I had reserved a hotel for two nights in Stamford, CT that is closer to Rye, NY, where I would be visiting friends. I cut the power switch on the truck so not to drain the truck’s batteries.
Friday night I had dinner at a friend’s house and we reminiscence of past times. Saturday 02/07 I had some errands to do including sending via UPS some apparel I bought my son at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I realized I had left one item in the truck and went to get it, while there I ran the engine as the temperature was in the single digits. I had plans to have an early dinner with one of my daughters in New York City. We ate at Norma Gastronomia Siciliana in Kips Bay, a favorite of ours. Afterwards we went back to her apartment and had birthday cake.
Sunday 02/08 I attended Mass at Rye Resurrection Church, then ran some errands. I went to the truck to drop off my bags before the game and to my surprise the batteries of the truck were dead. They should not have been as I cut the power switch and I had run the engine on Saturday. I called the terminal to report it and see if they could get someone to jump the truck but it was Sunday on Super Bowl night. The truck was an ice box and I had already checked out of my hotel. The company set me up in a nearby hotel for the night. The heater in the room could not warm up the place and I had to sleep with my fleece and a wool hat! The next morning I was not able to shower because the water pipes froze and busted overnight. It was a very cold night.
Monday 02/09 morning I checked in with the office to see when the truck was getting the jump it needed. It took four hours to find someone to get the job done. This was going to set me back but the consignee is a 24/7 facility so I just needed to be there by Tuesday. The drive was 830 miles from Milford, CT. I ended leaving the Pilot at 16:00 and figure I could make it the Petro in Girard, OH for the night and there’s an Indian food truck across the street opened until 03:00. I arrived at the Petro at 01:30, scaled the load to make sure I was legal and sat down for dinner at 02:30. Very late but I was hungry and being Latino I’m used to late dinners.
Tuesday 02/10, my actual birthday. I started my day at 12:30 after and hour more than the minimum DOT 10-hour break. I arrived at the consignee at 20:00 and already had my next assignment picking up at a shipper two hours from the consignee. Since I was delayed in Milford, CT with the dead batteries I wanted to get to the next shipper ASAP. I also wanted a piece of birthday cake but unfortunately work comes first.
BOOK REVIEW (1): Behind a Locked Door by Sarah A. Denzil (2025), FICTION – RATING (****)
Entertaining story that left me with a lingering thought. If you do something morally correct and it upended your life putting yourself and your loved ones in mortal danger would you do it all over again if you were given the chance?
Lucy Foster is a single mother with a fifteen year old son. The boy’s father is in prison. She’s a psychology teacher in the high school of a small quaint town. Her mentor and long time psychology teacher abruptly took early retirement from her post at the school. The other teachers ask Lucy to drop off the retirement gift they got for her friend. The retired teacher is reluctant to let Lucy and her son in the house but eventually abides. Lucy hears a baby crying in the basement and finds the door is locked. All Hell breaks loose after that with many twists and turns that keep the reader captivated.
Lucy is very likable and easy to relate to. There’s some small flaws in the plot if not it would be a five star review.
BOOK REVIEW (2): The Girl in the Green Dress by Mariah Fredericks (2025), FICTION – RATING (**)
The story is a fictional narrative of the unsolved murder of Joseph Elwell in 1920. It starts promising with a locked house murder but the pace is so slow that it quickly becomes boring.
The introduction of F.Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda into the story can be categorized with the old Wall Street cliche: put lipstick on that pig. The Fitzgeralds simply clutter the narrative and feel like a desperate move by the author to make the story more interesting but it has the opposite effect. It feels cheap.
Morris Markey is a low level journalist for the Daily News. His neighbor is murdered. He’s one of the first at the scene of the crime and manages, under false pretenses, to get inside and snoop around. He then tries to keep the story fresh in the papers to enhance his career. He’s not very likable and the narrative jumps around from one possible scenario to another without keeping the reader engaged. Like every bad murder mystery a new element is introduced at the very end that is instrumental to solve the murder. So different to Agatha Christie that plays poker with the cards facing up and still manages the upper hand.
Confusing. The story runs around in unnecessary goose-chases. Fairly predictable then wanders and leaves many questions unanswered.
