After dropping my previous load, going to Pocatello, ID and making a mad dash to deliver some emergency response generators to Indy, I am now back in WI and back on the Pocatello load.

While I was gone to Indy they removed the part of the load going here in WI and had one of the local guys deliver it and replaced that stuff with three generators going to Washington state. That really adds some financial gravy to the load.

Today was a very cold and tiring day. I picked up some steel in Chicago (yuck). I had to be at the steel plant at 7:00 am to pick up and, according to dispatch "you have to be on time for the pick up". Ummm, yeah, Chicago morning traffic.

I had spent the night 30 miles from the steel plant, got up at 5:00 am, grabbed some coffee, and took off. It took me from 5:20 am to 6:48 am to drive that 30 miles into Chicago. No bad weather or anything, just normal morning traffic. How can anyone want to live there and do that every single day???

Naturally the steel had to be tarped (full trailer load) even though the stuff was already wrapped in plastic. Whatever. After the stuff was loaded and I was placing my straps some idiot middle management type walked by and asked me if I knew it had to be tarped.

I guess the guy was bored or something, I don't know. I just nodded and told him that I had already been told that "but thanks for interrupting my work to point that out to me" and went on about doing my job. I have no idea what his reaction was to that comment because I just ignored him after that point and he wandered off to bother someone else.

The one nice thing was that it was all indoors so I wasn't out in the cold and wasn't having to fight the brisk wind to get my tarps in place. They also had these really nice rolling stairs which made getting on and off the trailer much easier for an old fart with a bum hip.

When I got the steel to the machining plant in WI it was unloaded indoors as well. Nice and warm in that place, almost too warm for the way I was dressed. The guy there was great and he not only helped me get the tarps off the load but helped me roll them up as well. Nice guy and I really appreciated it.

The one bad thing I did was strain my back a bit lifting one of the tarps to put it back in the side box of the truck. Just as I lifted it and started to straighten up I lost my balance a little and felt the back muscles complain. I'm feeling it now that I've had time to sit for a bit. Gonna hurt a lot come tomorrow morning I think.

I took a double dose of Aleve right after it happened, and will take another when I go to bed. Hopefully that will allow me to sleep comfortably and possibly allow those muscles to relax and not be too bad in the morning. The morning will tell.

All I know right now is that I've been doing some serious rushing around for the past several days and am pretty well tuckered out. I've had a nice hot meal and am now going to hit the sack and get some much needed rest.

I have to get up early again in the morning to go back to the yard and finish securing my load. I left it half finished as it was well after dark, I was frozen, tired, sore, and hungry. I decided I'd just plain had enough fun for one day.

It's just shy of 1,600 miles to Pocatello from here. The generators have to deliver in WA on Monday. If I get after it early in the morning and run hard all day tomorrow and Thursday I should be able to deliver in Pocatello around lunch time on Friday, and that will give me all weekend to get to the first stop in WA for Monday morning. That's less than 800 miles from Pocatello, so it will make for some easier driving and even some sleeping in time (which I really need).

The time zone differences will work in my favor on this one and I can sleep kinda late and still be there early according to their clocks. I always love it when it works out that way.