Random Images #5
Wings and Beer
All set for the Packer game tonight. Michelle fired up some homemade wings with Carolina mustard Bbq sauce and panko and parmesan zucchini sticks. Tried some Duke’s mayo for the first time in the Hidden Valley Ranch for dipping. Pretty good.
Not much of a beer drinker anymore but this Harvest Patch Shandy from Leinenkugel is pretty good if you like a honey weiss. Michelle went with a Miller High Life.
It’s good to be home. Go Pack Go!
Seeing Libby’s Butt
A bunch of shorties got the job done this week…and got us some home time. Kansas City to Chicago on Monday. Then Chicago dropping Wednesday morning in Graham, NC. Quickly dropped the van off to get a suspicious check engine light checked out. Got the van back on Thursday and stole a load to Ohio by underbidding another driver by $5. Dropped Friday morning and grabbed another over to Jersey City, New Jersey which we delivered late Friday evening.
Our delivery last night was very near the Statue of Liberty so we were in the middle of trying (unsuccessfully) to get a decent shot of her when the phone rang just before midnight. We ended up placing a bid and eventually winning a load from Jersey to Gordonsville, Virginia picking up early this morning.
Every load this week ended up with higher than usual rates for some unknown reason. Gotta work smarter instead of harder, right? 😁 That was good enough for us for the week so home we go for two nights in our own bed. Yay!
Gone to the Dogs
They say timing is everything. It certainly was today as we were able to deliver our freight this afternoon in northwest Missouri instead of having to wait until Monday morning.
As we pulled into the parking lot at the receiver, a young lady stepped out of the building to walk her dog. Michelle stepped out and asked if it would be possible to unload or if we would have to come back on Monday. She said if we didn’t mind waiting while she walked the dog, she would unload us when she got back. She said two minutes earlier, she might not have heard us knocking from the back office. Two minutes later and we might have missed her while she walked the dog.
Fortunately, she was certified to operate a forklift and got us unloaded. That wrapped up a pretty good week so we notified all of our carriers we are taking the rest of the weekend off to catch up on some sleep.
The cool thing was while the lady was walking her dog. Two local dogs from the neighborhood paid us a friendly visit. They had collars but no name tags, and they were friendly boys. 🙂
I Am in Misery
Wrapping up a pretty good week with a leisurely 1200 mile run from the Philadelphia area to northwest Missouri (or as we like to pronounce it…Misery).
We picked up the load Friday afternoon and have until Monday morning to deliver. Going to try to deliver Saturday afternoon if we can, but if not, it will be a hotel room for the weekend.
On a Roll
Nearly non-stop this week after dropping in Del Rio, Texas Sunday evening. Rolled off to San Antonio and grabbed a hotel room to catch up on some sleep. Then got a shorty on Monday from San Antonio to El Paso, Texas.
Delivered in El Paso Tuesday morning and got about 3 hours of sleep before winning a load to Illinois which delivers early Thursday morning.
Just outside of St. Louis this afternoon, we were able to lock in a load from Wisconsin after we drop off Thursday morning heading for a Friday delivery in eastern Pennsylvania.
Makin hay while the sun shines…as the saying goes.
Passing through St. Louis, MO
Run for the Border
Foggy, hazy view from the office window in Oklahoma this morning as we make a run for the border from the Chicago area to Del Rio, Texas.
Nice to catch one of those rare Saturday loads but kind of bummed because I’m not going to be able to watch the Packers. Oh well, I guess that’s what satellite radio is for.
Legendary Chili
We’ve all been there. Sooner or later it will happen to you if you use a public toilet on a regular basis.
Early in our expediting career, we took a load of freight to a business in southern Tennessee. We drove all night and delivered first thing in the morning. As is our usual routine, we headed to the nearest truck stop to use the restroom and then try to catch a nap before the next load comes in.
I headed for the restroom to conduct my morning business and when I enter, there are three toilet stalls. The first was occupied, the second and third handicap were not. I chose door number two and settled in.
Suddenly I hear the restroom door burst open and make out the sound of someone practically sprinting through the room to the handicap stall. A frantic struggle ensued as the poor fella feverishly worked to get his garments out of the line of fire.
A moment later I hear him take a seat and what followed was, in its own bizarre way, impressive. The poor fella grunted once and let loose a truly massive amount of gas followed by that sweet sweet sigh of relief. Then he got down to business.
While this is all transpiring, the restroom door opened and someone else, who we would in short order, find out was an acquaintance of Mr. Massive Flatulence. After a fit of laughter and apparently concerned with the well-being of his buddy, he fired off some rapid-fire Spanish which I was unable to decipher (knew I should have taken that third year of Spanish in high school). Mr. MF’s response was hilarious.
He addressed his friend in Spanish as well except for three words: “four bean chili” then proceeded to drop another massive bomb.
It was too much. His friend cracked up. I lost it. Even the guy in the first stall was laughing out loudly as the poor fella finished with a bang.
It may be childish and gross, but I’ll always remember the backlash of the four bean chili. It’s the stuff from which legends are made.
Midnight Run
It’s 10:59pm CDT Friday night at a truck stop in West Memphis, Arkansas. I had drifted off to sleep for about a half hour after dropping the phone on my face twice trying to finish a game of Candy Crush Friends. Michelle had given in a little earlier and was fast asleep. We were both exhausted from driving all night on Thursday from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to Marmaduke, Arkansas and then relocating back to the Memphis area. It was a warm, humid night so we had our portable AC set up and the muted purring of our generator outside helped lull us to sleep.
Then the Star Trek red-alert ringtone went off on my phone signalling a love/hate call from one of our load brokers. We love to get the call, especially after sitting all day and missing out on at least three loads that would have brought us back home. But we also hate to get that call when we’ve only gotten an hour or less of sleep.
“I’ve got the customer on the other line,” the voice said, “they’ve got two small boxes totalling about 10 pounds that needs to go from Memphis to Homewood, Illinois. About 512 miles loaded.”
“Pickup ASAP or in the morning?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“ASAP. Delivers direct,” came the reply. Michelle and I collectively groan. (Direct essentially means as fast as you can get it there, allowing, of course, for normal bathroom and fuel stops.)
We could have turned down the load. But when the customer stays on the line, they tend to be a little more desperate and we knew we would be in a good area for our next load so we threw in a higher-than-normal bid and hung up.
11:01pm CDT. The red alert sounds again. Another collective groan.
“Hey, we got that load. I’ll send the info as soon as I get it.”.
“Ok, we’ll be rolling as soon as we get our generator and AC put up.” Michelle is already moving as I finish the call and hang up. We throw on the work clothes, disassemble our AC setup and generator, and make a quick run to the restroom. The email with our instructions comes in while we’re in the restroom so we’re off and running 18 minutes from the initial call.
Expediting life.
It’s not just a.job, it’s an adventure. 😁
Rolling to Texas
All good things must come to an end. Our week off around Labor Day got rolling Tuesday with a medium-size run of just over 1300 miles from NC to Jayton, TX.
It’ll be nice to get a break as it seems we are often busier at home than we are on the road. Finally had the rear brakes replaced on the van as they were starting to squeel after 165,000 miles. Front brakes are still going.
A couple of doctor appointments, a Covid-19 test for Michelle (negative thankfully) and an unexpected trip to the ER when Michelle had an allergic reaction to some new medication were other highlights of the week.
Snapped a pic of the sunset in Georgia. Haze from all the wildfires out west made looking right at the sunset kind of cool.
