I'm currently hanging around the truckstop in Carlisle, PA after hauling a load of four Bomag rollers and a pneumatic foam machine over to this neck of the woods.
The foam machine was on it's own little trailer and so was fairly easy to unload. The guy just put a hitch on his forklift and pulled it off the trailer after I had detached the front deck. Piece of cake.
The rollers were a bit more of a challenge. Two of them were sitting side by side on the top deck and had to be lifted off with a large forklift. The first stop took their one off the top and a smaller one off the back, leaving one on the top deck and a large one on the bottom deck.
That final stop was in Baltimore. Not my favorite city to drive in. When I got there the guy started off telling me he didn't have any way to lift the one off the top deck. I pointed to the large forklift sitting there and told him that would do it just fine. He insisted that it couldn't lift the 5,500 lbs roller and I insisted that I do this sort of thing for a living and know damn well that it would.
About that time his boss came over to find out what was going on and told the guy to fire up the forklift and stop holding me up. Of course it lifted the roller off just fine. Asshat.
Being late Friday afternoon in Baltimore there weren't any loads coming out for me to pick up. One of our customers has a load of mining equipment coming out of Cleveland Monday morning so I am making my way up there to make that pick up. That load is going to NV but I'll just be taking it as far as our yard in WI.
Last night I parked at the truckstop and walked over to the BBQ Tavern across the street. I had a pretty good time in there shooting the shit with fellow drivers and generally just goofing off. Naturally I took my knitting with me and spent the evening working on the alpaca sweater vest I've been building.
Several ladies came over to feel the alpaca wool and comment on my knitting and how cool they thought it was to see a trucker knitting and several of the guys had positive comments about it as well. One guy said he thought it was great to see a guy doing what he enjoys without giving a damn what anyone might think about it.
One guy did ask me if I am gay. I told him that if the sight of yarn makes him think of homosexuals maybe he should be talking to a shrink, and if he was just looking for a fight I'd be happy to oblige. He got the point and slinked away. I heard one driver call him an asshole for trying to start shit while everyone was having a good time. He left shortly after that.
All in all it was a good time. I left the place shortly after midnight to get some sleep. I started a DVD playing and fell asleep before the first scene.
Although it's a tad chilly it's a beautiful day here. The sky is clear and it's a nice sunny day. Perfect for just goofing off which is pretty much all I have planned for today. I'll head on over towards Cleveland tomorrow but today is strictly a goof off day.