Friday, October 19, 2007

Charlotte, NC

Thursday, 2 p.m.: I completed my 34 hour restart, I picked up my relay, and I'm now on my way to Charlotte to deliver. Since I got a much later started nine to end it, I will be there until almost 930 tonight. Since they did promise to get me home by Friday night, they have to have the envelope going towards Pensacola; even then it's going to be a stretch, since Pensacola's nearly an 11 Hour Drive by car. As much as I like to stay in Charlotte tonight, I may have to continue down the road just so I can get home in time. I do have to say one thing though: taking that restart was extremely refreshing. Then again, after working 65 hours in seven days, I think anyone would appreciate a day off.

Thursday, 3 p.m.: well, that was annoying. I wanted to stop at the West Virginia welcome center to use the restroom and send in a message requesting a new work assignment. However, they had a truck inspection stations set up at the rest area, and were waiting all the trucks through without letting them stock. As a result, though I went into the rest area, I was way through and didn't get to stop to do any of those things. I guess a lot to wait for the Virginia state line now.

Thursday, 5 p.m.: I went to get something to eat, but I forgot to take care of my paperwork. I just tried to stop at a rest area, but it was completely full. The next rest areas half an hour up the road; if I find a truck stop before that, though, I'll stop there. I'm just really annoyed at myself for forgetting to do it when I stopped earlier.

Thursday, 5:30 p.m.: thankfully, I was able to stop at the bottom the next rest area and send in the information I needed to send in. I hope I can make to Charlotte without having to make any more stock; as it is, I'll be getting there at about 11 p.m.

Thursday, 7:45 p.m.: last hundred miles or so I've been relatively uneventful. Traffic was rather hairy for a while, but it's thinned out considerably now. I also just got my next work assignment, which appears to be a relay based on the type of messages I've received. I also just remembered that I didn't send all the messages I was supposed to stand when I picked this load up; I'll have to fix that when I stop later.

Thursday, 8:45 p.m.: the trucks air-conditioning is acting up again. Time permitting, I'm going to go buy the shot and have them take a look at it. It feels almost as if it's blowing hot air right off the engine block . At least I finally found a solution for it: turn off the fan and turn on air recirculation.

Friday, 12:05 a.m.: Wonderful. Just #@*(ing wonderful. I arrived at the customer around 11PM, backed in to the spot, shut the truck off, uncoupled from the trailer, got back in to start it up... and it wouldn't start. I tried twice, called maintenance, tried banging on the starter (at least I think that was the starter), but nothing worked. So now I'm waiting for emergency maintenance to come here; even though I'm just five miles up the road from the operating center, it's going to take them an hour to arrive; it's been half an hour already.

Friday, 11:30 a.m.: Maintenance finally arrived at around 2:30. Even though I was only a few miles from the OC, they still sent an outside road service company to the truck. He tried several things, but in the end, it was a matter of resetting the ECM. Or, in other words, rebooting the computer. I quickly made my way to the operating center, ate, and went to sleep. Now, eight hours later, I'm awake and ready to make those phone calls to find out why I'm getting sent on a work assignment that will still leave me 400 miles from home.

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