Sitting In A Corn Field

Well, not literally, but that is pretty much what South Dakota is - at least the part I'm sitting in.  This is a major agricultural area, and they produce a lot of corn around here.

"Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota..."

So sang Doris Day, in her starring role of that classic musical, "Calamity Jane."  I'm not really feeling her sentiment at this point in time, I'd really like to get out of here.  As I write this entry it is going on fifty hours that I have been sitting here idle in Yankton, South Dakota.  You see, the manager that is dispatching us this week told me he had a load going out of DeSmet that would load on Sunday morning.  Well I, being the astute truck driver that I am, considered all the other false things this fine manager has said to me this week, and made the decision to move myself on down here to Yankton.  I cannot even think of a place in DeSmet that would be loading something for a Sunday morning, and I know that most of our back haul loads from this area come from Yankton.  There is a SAPA plant here in Yankton, and they are the only place I can think of that would be working people around the clock like that on a holiday weekend.  It is now almost noon and I have still not heard another word about this "phantom" load that I am supposedly waiting on to bring me back south to my dedicated customer.  I will let you know how my decision turned out - I hope I did the right thing.

I have sat here so long that a Robin has built her nest in the frame of my truck and laid three lovely blue eggs in it!

Okay, before you flip out and wonder what am I going to do with the poor bird's potential offspring, I'll confess...

That is an exaggeration of sorts, just to illustrate my extreme frustration about sitting here like this.  I spotted this sweet little incubating "family to be" in a broken down truck that is sitting here parked on the same lot with me.

I generally enjoy taking some time off when it happens, and I am doing my best in this situation, but it just seems so unnecessary to be sitting like this when I know full well what would have happened had my regular dispatcher been here.

I did some reading this morning, and I am about to get out of this truck and take a little walk and roust up some lunch.   I'll let you know when I get released from this Northern Midwest imprisonment.