I am now on my way to CT and MA. Not at all my favorite part of the country, but at least I am running instead of sitting around.

Late yesterday, after getting my truck out of the shop (just routine servicing), they loaded up another piece to go with the machine I picked up in IL. It was a huge steel ring.

We had to prop it up at an angle on the trailer so it wouldn't stick out over the sides and constitute an oversized load. That was something of a circus and took a while but it was finally on there to my satisfaction. I'm the one who has to haul it so until I'm happy with it they have to keep making adjustments.

I then had to run down to Clinton, WI to pick up the final pieces, two large steel rods. It was around 10:30 PM central time by the time I finished that so I headed to the nearest truck stop for a bite to eat and some sleep. I finally got to bed around midnight or slightly after.

I got up fairly early and started heading for CT. I got a call from dispatch after about 6 hours or so of driving and was informed that the final stop, the one in MA, had a 10:00 AM crane appointment on Friday. WTF???!!!! I had planned on getting the first CT stop off Friday morning and winding up in MA early Friday afternoon.

That was a hell of a time to tell me this. I told him that was the sort of information I should have been given at the time I was dispatched, not nearly a full day into the damn trip, and it was just too late to do anything about it now considering I was currently driving in heavy rain and would soon be into snowfall and even slicker roads.

He knew he had screwed up and just asked me to do the best I could to get the CT stops off tomorrow (which is just impossible to do without breaking several laws and risking an accident due to fatigue).

I got to thinking about it after I calmed down from being totally pissed off at his lack of complete communication at the time of dispatch, and decided that the best course of action would be to simply run the stops in reverse order. I can make the MA stop by the appointed time (assuming no major weather delays) and barring any major delays there make the other two stops before close of business that day.

As I am loading another machine at that MA stop to haul back to IL I am not at all concerned about whether anything else gets picked up or not. I just don't care at this point. He should have told me everything I needed to know right off instead of waiting until the trip was half run and it's too late to adjust for it.

I haven't yet told him I plan to run them in reverse. I'll just let him sweat his screw up for now and let him off the hook sometime tomorrow.

I need to find some time to do laundry this weekend. I've been out for over two months and have pretty much run out of clean clothing. I bought a couple pairs of jeans and shirts to get me through the week, but socks and boxers will be out by then too so laundry is a must now despite the fact that I despise doing laundry in a truck stop.

Maybe I'll get lucky and find a decent laundrymat that I can get to in my rig. I'll have to ask around on the CB on my way back through.

Speaking (or rather writing) of CBs, I won a nice new Texas Ranger CB in a truck stop drawing the other day. Only cost me a buck to enter and win a $200 radio. It works very well and I can both talk and hear for several miles farther than I could with this POS that came in the truck (roughly 10 miles vs 1.5 miles). Reminds me of the good old days when I could actually afford to run good quality CB radios. I had to sell my Connex 3300 High Power for living money after the car wreck and haven't had a decent radio since.

Maybe one of these days I'll be able to afford another Connex, who knows?

Ah well, driving in the crappy weather with the idiot car drivers trying to commit suicide behind the wheel has worn me out. Think I'll pop in a DVD and get some rest. Tomorrow is another day and I have the lovely NorthEast traffic to look forward to. Damn I hate driving up there.