Working With A Plan

It's Thursday night and I am parked in the parking lot of my first stop in Hamden, Connecticut.  I am waiting for them to show up for work in the morning so I can get their stuff off of this trailer and I can move on to my next stop in Farmington, then hopefully I can make it over to North Collins New York and get my third stop completed.  That is the plan, and so far my plan for getting here on time has worked out.  Here's how it unfolded: last night I left Knoxville TN around 8:30 P.M. and drove all through the night to get to "The Bandit" truck stop in Kutztown Pennsylvania by 7:30 A.M.  That allowed me to get in a required ten hour break before I started for my last leg of this trip to get to this location that I am at now.  My arrival time here was 9:30 P.M. which will allow me to get unloaded first thing in the morning and I will have a ten hour break in by 7:30 in the morning so that I can get started moving on to my other two destinations.  Had I taken the liberty of a more comfortable stop at the nearest truck stop about forty miles from here I would have to start my clock before I even get here and then while I am getting unloaded my clock would be running and I may not have enough time to get everything done.  By doing this the way I did, my clock won't start until I start rolling toward Farmington, and I will be much more efficient with the management of my legal working hours.  That is how you do this stuff.

I hear many truck drivers complaining about how they can't make enough money doing this, and partially it is because they are just not willing to make the sacrifices that I do when I'm planning out a trip like this.  I often sleep right on the property of my shippers and receivers, and it makes a huge difference in how much you can accomplish in a weeks worth of work.

I was in a bit of a snow storm over at Kutztown, PA, but there is no snow to be seen here at Hamden. I'm a little concerned about the journey over to North Collins, they were supposed to have 16 inches of snow today, but it is hopefully going to be sunny and clear tomorrow.  If the roads are plowed between here and there it ought to be a relatively easy trip.

I don't know if you noticed how I have planned my trip with two consecutive nights of driving through the night, and then this last leg of the trip was started at about 5:30 P.M. which got me here at 9:30 P.M. thus allowing me to get in my required ten hour break before I start up tomorrow, but that also makes it all work out so that tomorrow I am working in the daytime so that I can get to each of my customers while they are open.  It takes considerable planning to comply with all the regulations and meet the customers requirements also.  Then when you throw in all the uncontrollable variables like weather, traffic, and road construction projects it seems any time that your plan works out right it is almost a miracle.

This was my first time to stay at the truck stop in Kutztown, but they had a surprisingly good restaurant there.  It reminded me of the restaurant at the "Spaceway" truck stop in Meridian Mississippi, in that a lot of the local people eat there - that is usually a good sign.  I wanted to eat lightly so I had a bowl of French Onion soup, which of course is always good on a wintry day, and a small serving of boiled cabbage.  This restaurant had an extensive menu with foods that you would find in finer restaurants like Prime Rib, and sauteed scallops.  But as I was looking over the sign on the wall showing their daily specials I was surprised by one of the items listed.  Take a look for yourself and see if one of those items on the list sounds like something "granny" on the Beverly Hillbillies would prepare.

I wouldn't mind eating a stuffed pepper, but that stuffed pig stomach reminded me of "granny" always talking about having possum innards for supper!