Edwardsville, IL - Up and Down

Today was a rather frustrating day, if nothing else. I put a trailer in for a PM last night and told them that I needed it done by 5AM. I checked at 6AM and got told that it was in the shop, but it had never even been written up as a PM. Even more amazing is that, despite not marking it as a PM to be done, it took them another two hours to finish what they were doing. I have no idea what they did, but the trailer was in worse shape when they were done; the ABS was no longer working and I'd swear the brakes were way out of adjustment. In any case, I was already two and a half hours behind schedule, so I didn't care enough to complain.

So I arrived the shipper and had a rare bit of good news: my load was on a pre-loaded trailer, instead of it being a live load. Whee! I just had to drop the one I had, hooked up to the one I needed, picked up the paperwork, and resumed driving in less than half an hour. Things were going well until I got to a truck stop to fuel and had to wait about ten minutes just to get to a fuel pump, in part because another driver deliberately blocked me from pulling up to the fuel island. I wanted to stop there for food, too, but I couldn't get into a parking space because - once again - other trucks kept getting in my way as I tried to maneuver into a parking space. Even once I gave up on it I had to wait several minutes for someone to stop blocking the exit so I could leave.

Those complaints aside, the day was pretty uneventful. I just wish that stuff like that would stop happening; I'm finding myself becoming increasingly impatient with such things. I guess that it's just as well that I will be home in about a week, if all goes well; I'm supposed to be back in Pensacola on Friday, July 4. Granted, knowing how my time at home usually goes, I'll be lucky to even be home over that weekend, but at last I have some time coming up.

One other thing: I managed to break my cell phone. Apparently I stepped on it or something, but it won't turn on. So unless I'm at an operating center or otherwise find wi-fi, this might be the last update until I get home. I'll type them up and post them later, but there probably won't be regular updates this week.