Last Saturday I secured a load, a military truck, that had to be at the port in Jacksonville, FL on Monday morning to catch a ship that was sailing on Tuesday. No big deal, right?

Before I got out of Wisconsin the blower for my air conditioner stopped working. Not a good sign. Less than half way through Indiana one of my drive tires blew out taking out the tire next to it as well as the mud flap and mud flap hanger. When I tried to call the boss to let him know I needed to get a couple of tires replaced (and he needed to pay for it) I discovered that the battery in my cell phone had given up the ghost and wouldn't take a charge at all.

I had to buy a prepaid cell phone just to call and handle the repairs. By the time I finally got the repairs made and was on my way again I had lost several hours and I was under the gun to get the job done. I was not in a good mood at this point.

When I walked into the truck stop to get the prepaid cell phone I walked past a car that had just pulled in and parked. An elderly lady got out of the passenger side and went inside. An elderly gentleman stepped out of the driver's side with a very nice looking pipe in his mouth and Zippo in his hand. I suppose he doesn't smoke in the car. We pipe smokers are somewhat rare these days and I would have loved to have taken the time to chat with him about pipes and such but at that moment I had something of a crisis to deal with and no time for chit-chat.

On the way I met several delays ranging from road construction to accidents to accidents in road construction zones. All the time with no a/c blower to keep me comfortable. Argh!

Sunday night I finally called it a night at a small truck stop in Canadys, SC. I was about three hours from the port in Jacksonville. I got up at 4:00 am and headed on in. I did make it on time. Barely.

After the usual slow-assed bullshit that always holds you up in a port I finally got out of there and had to scramble to get up to Valdosta, GA to reload.

The load from Valdosta was a bunch of odds and ends some millwrights needed to ship back to Wisconsin after finishing a job. It took most of the afternoon to get it all on my trailer in some sort of fashion that I could secure it well enough to haul it. It was hot, humid, and the load was a damn mess.

I got it loaded and secured and made it up as far as Jackson, GA where I pulled in and called it a day. It was 7:00 PM by that point and I'd had a long day. After showering I wandered over to the little bar and grill next to the truck stop for a couple of much needed brews.

I took a couple of pipes with me and enjoyed some of my favorite pipe tobacco (Bishop's Move) and just relaxed for a couple of hours before returning to my truck and giving my pillow some head.

I delivered the crappy load today and am now in the hotel for tonight. I'll be putting my truck in the shop tomorrow to have the stuff fixed and then I'll be hauling an over-sized load out to Tacoma, WA (yet another damn port).

I spent some time at Applebees this evening where I had a bit of food and a couple of beers. They don't allow pipe smoking there so I rolled up some cigarettes using Carter Hall pipe tobacco. I got to enjoy my pipe tobacco without the complaints that seem to pop up when crazy people see a pipe. Exact same tobacco but somehow it doesn't cause complaints when it's rolled up in a piece of paper. Morons.

I did manage to pick up a tub of Carter Hall pipe tobacco in Kentucky. I had been out of that tobacco for several days. It's a good burley tobacco and I try to always keep some on hand. As long as I have Carter Hall, Captain Black, and Bishop's Move, I'm a happy camper. A bit of Carter Hall in a corn cob pipe is a wonderful thing.

Ok, my Bishop's Move has burned down to ash now. I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow's another day.