Changing Course

Sometimes in this job you get a message in the middle of your trip saying that they need you to switch your load with another driver that is in the same area as you are.  That is just what happened to me on the load of copper that I was to deliver up to Norwich CT.  I had made my way up to Effingham, Illinois and was spending the night there when I got an e-mail that said they wanted me to switch loads with another driver and that he would be contacting me in just a little while.  Sure enough the driver called me and showed up about an hour later and we swapped trailers with each other.  So my course was changed to delivering two aluminum coils up to St. Paul, MN.

But before this happened I had the opportunity to spend part of a day and the night in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  So, I took the chance to contact my dearest old friends the Rogers who reside there.  It is always good to see them, they have both meant so much to me through the years, I've known them for more than thirty years now.  Jim and I had lunch together at one of those good old Tulsa Bar-be-que houses, and then I went to their home in the evening for some really good homemade spaghetti - the food was really good, but the most pleasant thing was just being with the people that you love.

Isn't that just the cutest picture of Virginia?  Beside my wife, she is the sweetest gentlest woman I have ever known.  It was very nice seeing them.  She was having some trouble with the brakes on her walker, so I was able to adjust them for her while I was there.  They are definitely getting on in years, but Jim still drives like Mario Andretti through the streets of Tulsa, I thought he was going to make me car sick for a little while, but I managed to take it all in stride.

So, I took my new load up to St. Paul and delivered it on Saturday morning.  It is unusual for me to have a Saturday morning delivery, and with that and the new dispatcher I have, I wasn't sure of what to expect next.  My old dispatcher has never left me stranded over the weekend without something to accomplish, and I had sent my new dispatcher two messages on Friday that I would appreciate having a load to work on over the weekend.  Well, I had to sit and wait for about an hour or so, but finally I got an e-mail with a load to pick up in Ft. Dodge Iowa.  It is a sheetrock load that is going to Onalaska, Wisconsin which is only about a 500 mile run, so that gives me a chance to put in a 34 hour break this weekend which will re-set my seventy hour clock and give me some more flexibility in managing my time next week.  I managed to pick up my load and get about 180 miles from my destination before I had to shut down for my break.  I can now leave about 5:30 in the morning Monday and be right on time with my delivery and still get the benefit of resetting my seventy hour clock.