Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Most drivers don’t even get the courtesy call. I did. It softened the blow. My dispatcher said: “What do you want me to do? There is no freight to Florida. There is nothing I can repower right now. I see nothing at all.” This is worst Southbound freight has been in a very long time.

At the time of the call, I was in North Carolina parked next to 1100 acres of feed corn, lots of miles from the nearest interstate. It was as close to Florida, where I live, as I’ve been in a month. I was as close as I was going to get. At this gas station with a large dirt lot, there were plenty of two week old pre-packaged sandwiches and flat fountain Pepsi for sale to let me wait a day or two for a load home. But I could tell from the e-mail that I was getting from my dispatcher that getting home this holiday just wasn’t in the cards. So much for the best laid plans of men and mice.

“Well, then find me a decent run that delivers Friday so I can get something else for the long weekend. No tarp and no extra stops”, I said. It was only a few seconds later that I got a trip to transfer aluminum shapes – no tarp – from nowhere NC to somewhere else in the middle of who knows where in Michigan. The 3 day weekend I had planned for my wife and I, the shopping, the haircut, the movie, the preparing the response to the IRS and the visit to the knee doctor – all out the window. It would just all have to wait, like all the the times before. Such is the life on the road.

I texted my son. He said back, “Well good luck then.” Good luck then? What the heck did he mean by that. I know he was disappointed. My wife, who psychologically and emotionally really needs me home, was her usual stoic self. By some magical miracle, I thinks she believes I can still get home. I wish I could. If I don’t get reloaded today, the though of spending three days at the nearest truck stop – a small Pilot or a Flying J about 90 miles South of here, just does not appeal to me. Right now I’m in Marne MI right off I-96.

Funny, the new package of underwear I bought last week at Wal-Mart, to last me until I got home, is almost gone. It’s driving me crazy – tugging, pulling and "scootching" me mile after mile. I usually wash them before I wear them. But I don’t do laundry on the road. I have some bottled water left and two strange flavored yogurts in the frig. I’ve worn the same company shirt for the past three days. I need to find some new ones – actually any darn shirt that would fit would do. Wal-Mart didn’t have any in my size. I’ve seen every one of the 35 VHS tapes my wife gave me a month ago. Hey, I was planning to take care of all this stuff this weekend.

Are you with me this weekend? Did you request home time and it isn’t going to happen? Well, driver, welcome to the club. I usually try not to go home on a holiday, except Christmas, of course. I’ve had my share of many turkey buffet specials at a whole bunch of T/A’s when I couldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving. I think I missed just one Christmas since I started driving a truck. I’m almost always gone on July 4th and Memorial Day. What’s your story this weekend? Did you make it home?

Photo credit: lifethinking@wordpress.com.//