I generally hate having to go into any port to pick upor deliver. They're all a pain in the ass, but somehow the ports in New Jersey are especially ass-painful.

After picking up my truck from the engine shop in Milwaukee last Saturday morning I ran a load out East. I delivered some stuff at the airport in Manchester, NH and then delivered the rest of my load to two different ports in NJ. Both were a royal pain, made worse by the constant rain that was falling which made for miserable working conditions.

I then had to go to yet another port, the one in Elizabeth, NJ to pick up a military truck and trailer to haul back to WI. I got there just as the Lonshoremen were going  to lunch. I was there with two other drivers from my company. We all sat around in our trucks, out of the rain, while the Longshoremen took their hour and a half lunch break.

When they finally decided it was time to get back to work they loaded the trucks and trailers with large forklifts. They bent the driveshaft on the truck I was hauling. They also had a really pissy attitude towards us and more than a few heated words were exchanged between us. At one point I came very close to punching one of them in the nose for his rudeness, but the other two drivers pulled me back.

Once we had our loads secured we were directed to leave the port through a gate that was closed and locked instead of the main gate. We had to wait for security to come and open the gate and we were then escorted to where? The damned main gate where we had to walk, in the rain, to check out of the port. We could have just exited that way and not had to walk in the rain. Assholes.

All that day I had managed to keep my feet dry thanks to my waterproof work boots. While walking back to my truck after checking out I stepped in one of a myriad of puddles that turned out to be about a foot and a half deep instead of the couple of inches deep the others had been. My left boot immediately filled with water and I was more than a little pissed. Before I could turn to warn one of the other drivers he had stepped into the same damn hole and was also royally pissed. We were both lucky we didn't break a leg stepping into that hole.

Not exactly a great day, that. We all left the port and started heading for the PA line. It was rush hour at that point and the going was very slow for a while, but we finally managed to cross the Delaware Water Gap into PA. What a rip-off that toll was! It's 75 cents for cars and 20 bucks for a truck! Theft!

In PA we hit a snowstorm in the mountains and stayed in it until about a quarter of the way across PA. That just made a crappy day worse. We made it as far as The OH/PA line and by then were all worn out. We stopped at the Truck World truck stop for the night.

In the morning we split up. One guy had to go by way of Cleveland to pick up another piece, I took the toll road, and the third took the free but slower route. I didn't see the other two again until we all showed up at Fort McCoy in WI to deliver the next morning.

On a positive note, my truck is now running perfectly. Better than it has since I've been in it in fact. Perhaps it's finally fixed, but I'll not be convinced of that for at least a month yet.

Later today I'll be heading out for Washington state. A nice long run and one that actually pays pretty well. When I checked in with dispatch yersterday afternoon I heard him on the phone with one of our owner operators telling him that he had several Washington loads and what they paid; over five grand each. Nice. When he started to tell me he was trying to put together a load for me and that it was an over sized load I immediately refused it.

I don't want anything to do with an over size load on a holiday weekend. The law doesn't allow an over size load to move from noon the day before a holiday until sunrise the day after a holiday. I wanted to run not sit. I asked for one of the Washington loads, snow plows, instead. He could see I wasn't in the mood for any nonsense and acquiesced. We'll be loading the plows onto a step deck today and I'll head out with them some time this afternoon.

I'm looking forward to the trip out to Washington. It will be a nice change of scenery. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I won't run into any Spring blizzards, which happened about this time last year. Either way, I know it'll make me some much needed money.

Ah well, speaking of money, I need to do my paperwork (I hate paperwork!) so I can turn it in to the office this morning and get paid next week.