I am now on my way to Baltimore after a rather annoying delay at the shipper. I was told that there would be three of us picking up at 7:00am.
I was there on time and when I rolled through the gate I saw that there was only one other truck sitting there. It was a driver I know and have run with in the past and after I parked my rig I got out to talk with him.
We shot the crap for a while while waiting for the folks working for the shipper to get around to loading the fire truck on us. I asked the other driver about the third driver, who was obviously absent, and he told me it was **** who was a new driver. I immediately figured out what was going on, he had gone to the wrong location. (Did it myself once).
Sure enough, after a while the other truck pulled in, and sure enough he had gone to the wrong factory location.
As he is new he had some questions about how to chain down the fire trucks, so I gave him a quick run through on how it is done.
The guys finally came out and loaded the driver who had arrived first. After that the fellow came over to me and told me that the one I was to pick up had developed a leak and they had to pull it back into the shop for repairs, and asked me if I minded if they loaded the other guy ahead of me.
Well, I wasn't happy about the situation, but it wasn't my first rodeo, so I told him that they needed to do what they needed to do to get the fire trucks loaded and on their way, but if the repairs to my fire truck took longer than thirty minutes he would have to buy me breakfast.
He laughed and went on his way. It was a joke but I was also kinda serious. I was pretty hungry at that point.
It turned out that I wound up waiting around for a couple of hours before my truck was ready to load.
After we loaded it I immediately headed to the truck stop to weigh the load and get something to eat. At that point I was starving. As I sat down in the diner the fellow I had been talking with at the shipper walked up and asked if he could sit down. I was a bit confused but motioned my acceptance.
He said he was only on today for the few hours that it took to load those trucks and was on his way home. He had followed me to the truck stop and wanted to buy my breakfast.
As he works for my customer I told him that I was just kidding about that remark and he didn't need to buy my breakfast. He insisted that he wanted to do so, and ordered some breakfast for himself.
Well, I happen to like free food quite a bit, just as I like free beer, so I acquiesced and allowed him to cover the meal.
We enjoyed our breakfast and had a good chat. He mentioned that many truckers, well, language not appropriate here but basically relating to complaining, whenever there are delays, he was impressed that I didn't do so.
I told him that I will be the first to complain when I think a delay is just someone jerking me around, but I have been doing this long enough to recognize a legitimate delay when I see one.
He said he understood that and then mentioned that he saw me smoking a pipe while I was waiting around. Here, I thought he was going to give me a hard time because they have signs posted all over the place that their facility is non-smoking.
Instead, he pulled out a very nice looking Peterson and asked me what kind of pipe I had been smoking. A Peterson, of course.
We spent a bit of time talking about pipes and tobaccos, and of course I mentioned SF. He is pretty much a CBW smoker (which I like too), but I encouraged him to try some other blends, especially some Latakia blends. I highly recommended a trip to Uhle's in Milwaukee for some Bishop's Move.
After finishing my meal I shook the fellow's hand and headed on my way. I think I will likely have an easy time loading there in the future.
The new guy, the one who had gone to the wrong location, called me and asked if he could follow me on the run as he had never run to the port in Baltimore before. Why not? I am a firm believer in being a team player as well as believing in mentoring others.
We met up at the yard and he followed me through the state.
Unfortunately, my IBS flared up along the way and I was suddenly stricken with a serious need to stop at a rest area as well as having all of my physical energy drained.
The rest area stop was a seriously close call, but turned out well, and we made it down to the fuel stop in Beloit. We fueled up our trucks and I told him that I was done for the day. I just didn't have enough energy left to go on, but told him to go ahead if he wanted to do so.
He wound up staying but seemed a bit confused. I walked him over to the bar across the road and explained IBS to him. It is my bane.
We had a few drinks and I got to know the fellow a bit. He knew who I was simply because of the fact that I had been with the company for so long (drivers talk), but I had no idea who he was as he was new.
He seems like an ok guy to me although I don't think he will stay with us for long. He is laid off from a union job and I expect he will go back as soon as he is called.
He has never driven long haul and has never been to Baltimore. He will be following me all the way across. I am not anti-social but have never really liked running with other drivers. I like to start and stop when it suits me and get a bit annoyed when they want to stop when I don't.
Oh well, being among the senior drivers at a company comes with certain responsibilities (if you are a team player) so I'll lead him to Baltimore and familiarize him with how that port operates even though I don't think he will stay with us.
In the meantime I will see if I can bring him over to the pipe side.