Birmingham Roads

There is a bit of bathroom wall doggerel that starts “Here I sit, brokenhearted…”

I won’t repeat the rest, and no, I am far from brokenhearted.  The point is, especially if you know the poem, when you plan to do one thing, and you end up only doing another, it can be frustrating and disappointing.

My frustration and disappointment is not driving the truck.  I truly enjoy driving the truck even when it gets boring, scenery wise, or I get tired.  Driving a big truck is fun, hard work.  Going to get loaded and unloaded is interesting, although it too can be frustrating and tiring depending on time of day and the timing and speed of the actual process.

Friday afternoon was an example.  I had reminded Dispatch about my home time due for May 9-12 and they said that they were working on it.  I had delivered my snacks in my “food quality” trailer and had retreated to a nearby truck stop to wait of my next load assignment.

I fully expected that I would get routed south and likely have a load that I would/could relay by stopping in Birmingham and having someone else take my trailer forward while I was on home time.  After nearly two hours, I sent a message on the Qualcomm (the Almighty) saying “any luck on my load assignment for hometime 5/9, 10, 11 and 12?”.

In a few minutes came a load assignment and a message that said “working on it, run this while we find you something”.  I looked and the load was sort of odd.  The empty run was 120 miles and the loaded run was 40.  The pickup was one that I could just make on schedule and the delivery was a logical time given the short distance.

What worried me somewhat was that they didn’t have a southbound assignment for me, and that I would be burning up precious hours on this run that I might need to get to Birmingham.  I was monitoring my log book and noting that I was going to run out of hours under the 70 hour rule by the end of the weekend if I had a long run such as Birmingham.

But, I figured, I better take this load, and they said that they are working on my homebound load.  They said.

This trip was actually interesting.  It was to an apple products maker located in a tiny village not far from Gettysburg.  Getting there was half the fun as they say, although it was tight and twisty two lane running.  I decided I better not take any pictures.

The area has several related villages, called Upper Mill and Middle Mill, and I guess once there was a lower mill, although I didn’t see it.  There were some wonderful old wood and masonry small mill buildings, tucked along the two lane and next to a big creek.  There was also a very rustic (rusty) rail line that curved in and out of view and crossed the creek, serving the small industries, but clearly not used much if at all these days.

I got to the destination and was amazed that a serious commercial producer/warehouse would be located in the rural area.  But I saw a lot of very well tended apple orchards and I reckon that is the reason.  This was not “big truck country” and I had to be careful to keep the back of the trailer between the lines, off the shoulder and not into guardrails or utility poles.  It was pretty country however.

I got the shipper and was told you are right on time and go to dock door 127.  I saw a lot of trucks in the staging yard just sitting with curtains closed, so I was glad that I didn’t have to wait.  I backed in place and figured this is going to be quick.  Not so.

I did have an interesting conversation with a Canadian trucker who arrived after me.  His company allows two days home time for 5 days work and you may take your two days after 5 days service.  We get two days home after a minimum of two weeks service.  And this fellow said that he is paid $30 per hour when waiting to load or unload.  Amazing.  We are not paid at all for sitting and waiting.  Canadian drivers by the way, operate in the US under US regulations.

After a bit more than 2 hours, I was loaded.  I was late for delivery when I started.  And I had to drive 37 miles that GPS said was going to take just over an hour.  I was going to run out of hours about the time that I arrived at the consignee, a situation that I hate to be in, because you have to drive illegally to get to a “safe haven”.

So, I set off, but it was dusk and darker by the minute, and the roads were still rural two lanes, much having 45 mph speed limits due to small villages enroute and due to alignment.  Then I got on US 30 but it was busy, under construction and limited most of the way to 45 mph as well.  Tempus fugit.

I got to the consignee right as I ran out of hours.  The place was enormous and there were trucks moving everywhere.  They had a system and it was well thought out — for them.  You got past the gate, and parked in a staging area.  After parking you walked a good quarter mile to the lumper/shipping/receiving office.  There they sent you back to get a comcheck authorization to pay the unloading fee — aka “lumper fee”. 

The industry standard is a “comcheck” which is a commercial check drawn against the driver’s (!) company escrow account.  If you fail to document for reimbursement you lose.  I don’t mind that too much, but it is “one of those things” that puts the driver at risk, if you aren’t organized and can’t keep up with paperwork.  I use file folders for every load assignment which always gets interesting looks in the truck stop when I go in to have documents scanned to headquarters.

To use a comcheck you have to get an authorization number from Dispatch.  I sent the required info: Name, tax ID, and amount.  And waited.  Finally I called because they said we wouldn’t be in line for unload till the comcheck was done.  The dispatcher that answered the phone hadn’t seen the message, although he brought it up and gave me a number over the phone.  But I don’t think he would have seen it if I hadn’t called.

Anyhow, every driver I talked to was having some problem or another particularly about not getting loaded or unloaded timely.  Great — I am out of hours and likely to have a long wait.  I got there at 9 pm, local time, and finally got unloaded and ready to leave at 1:30 am local time.  Fortunately I spotted a place that offered truck parking although paid that was almost across from the exit of monster food warehouse.

I pulled in an parked right after 1:30 am Saturday morning.  I still had no word on a homebound trip.  I was really tired and already steaming about no home bound trip so far.  But I was tired and went to sleep.  The next morning I had nothing on the “box” QC(tA).  So, I sent a message to Dispatch reminding them about home time.  I got a message in a minute with a load assignment – to Virginia.  I wrote a polite response, but pointed out that this didn’t get me home and I would be in Virginia on Monday afternoon.  I told them I was very disappointed and felt that I was being taken advantage off.  Then I said that I was going to breakfast, so i did.

The deal with the overnight parking was to pay $10 or spend money in the diner that was the reason for the parking lot.  It was not a truckstop.  The yard jockey at the monstor food warehouse told me how the deal worked, and said it was really good.  When I got out of the truck at 8 am Saturday morning, the place was packed with a bunch of trucks and a whole lot of local cars.

So, I went in and had a really good breakfast with tip for about $10.   The staff was very nice, the food was good, and the place was THE local watering hole for family breakfast.

Then I went back to the truck to find my response from Dispatch “its really not a good weekend for freight”.  My response : “Nor for drivers.”  Obviously I was not going to make home time on time.  I also told them that they had 9 days to work this out since the previous blow up about “you didn’t enter the right date in the computer”.  I realize that freight loads are not posted 9 days in advance, but I truly don’t think anyone was working on my load until afternoon on Friday.

So, I took the load assignment and headed for the shipper.  It was a good and easy drop and hook and I was ready to go in 30 minutes from arrival.  And there was a fuel stop and scale at the interchange so that was also done efficiently.  All told I was an hour from arrival to departure including drop, hook, fuel, weigh, pretrip inspection and a short break.

The trip is to a little town east of Richmond, VA and the only downside was Saturday traffic on I-95 and around Baltimore and Washington was very heavy, plus one wreck that slowed things down.  But I made it to the north side of Richmond to a truck stop that I have used before.  I parked, settled in and slept off and on for 12 hours till this morning.  I got a shower, had breakfast in the truck plus coffee and a danish and called home for Mother’s Day.  And I have been sitting ever since.  Reading and doing a little on the computer.

My load is not due for delivery until 2 pm eastern.  I will call in the morning to see if they will take me early.  I will take about an hour to get there.  And we’ll see if Dispatch has “better freight” on Monday…  I am taking a 34 hour “restart” so that I will not have to worry about hours to get to Birmingham and that will be done at 3 am Monday morning.  So, I can get home if they will find me a load.

I like driving the truck.  I miss being home.  Hometime is about the most important thing there is to a driver, other than a paycheck.  And by the way, the last couple of checks have been about equal to unemployment pay.  Sitting makes no money and sitting in a truck stop is not a fun thing.  It is very, very hard for me to believe that there is/was no freight moving toward, to or through Birmingham.  It is not hard for me to believe that my dispatchers didn’t get any for me.  I don’t have confidence in them.

John

I can’t believe it has been 5 days since I posted anything at all… 

Today is Daughter in Law Heather’s Birthday — Happy Birthday Heather!

OK, so what has been going on since I posted from South Carolina on Sunday the 1st?   I had a partial load delivery on Monday morning in Spartanburg, and then I went all the way to Miami, FL where I don’t believe I have been in my whole life.  I didn’t see downtown Miami and its glitter and glamour.  I did see a lot of west Miami and a lot of warehouses and commercial development.

Its a long way to Miami and I had to finish the trip on Tuesday morning before delivery, so I spent the night at a rest stop on I-95 about 110 miles north of my delivery point.  I got up early and made it on time.  So that was good.

Then I got a load assignment that was north of Miami in what appears to be the Everglades but is really wetlands and sugar plantations.   So, I had a sweet load, about 20 plus tons worth.  That load went into central Georgia to a major retail distribution center.  It is a long way back from Florida as well.  That delivery went without incident sort of.

It was a drop and hook meaning that I drop my loaded trailer to be unloaded later and I pick up a company trailer that is empty and waiting on the property.  I picked one out and it looked to be ok.

I got my next load assignment before I left the drop spot and it required a “food grade” trailer.  I have had that before without any problems — it has meant that the trailer should be sound and swept clean.  My pickup was in east Georgia on the SC line.

When I arrived at the shipper on Wednesday afternoon, they inspected my trailer and declared it was unacceptable.  I was 160 miles from the place where I picked it up, so I couldn’t backtrack for another.  So, I sent a message to Dispatch on Qualcomm (the Almighty) saying that my trailer was rejected, primarily because of small holes in the floor.  The worry is that in wet weather water will be thrown up from the road and get the load wet which could ruin it.

Dispatch sent me to another shipper to see if they had any empty trailers on their property that I could swap.  They were not a food related shipper so that made sense to me at the time.  I did as directed and didn’t get past the gate guard.  I had to leave the property and then Dispatch came back and said “we’ve talked to their shipping dept. and they do have one company trailer – go back and get it.”

I went back, security called their supervisor and he was very nice.  He inspected my trailerand said that they wouldn’t take it either, cause of the holes in the floor…  Seems paper shippers don’t like their loads getting wet either.  He did suggest that there was a good trailer repair place close by.

I relayed that info to Dispatch and they finally sent me to a different repair place and I found that they had about 5 of our trailers.  It turned out that they had one that would pass muster at the food shipper, in fact it would be headed back there.  I could take it and they would repair my trailer.  Dispatch said get the trailer repaired.

I was out of hours and had to race off to a truck stop to spend the night and get my 10 hour break.  I was to be back at the repair shop at 8 am to pick up the “new” trailer that they had ready.  I didn’t have time to pick it up the night before so had to come back.

I picked up the trailer and sent a status report to Dispatch telling them where and what was going on.  They told me to go back to the paper plant and pick up the other trailer.  I nearly had a stroke.  I sent them a message asking them to explain why I should risk being rejected again with a trailer I hadn’t seen when I had one that I knew would pass already to go.  Not to mention the time to go over there, dance with security – which would be a different staff and so on.  Then I put in a phone call to Dispatch and couldn’t raise anyone.  Finally someone answered an put me on hold.  After 5 minutes a message came back on QC (tA) and said “ok, take it”.  Loquacious these dispatchers…  I hung up on the other guy.

So, I took off and went for my load of “snacks” which I think were cookies.  I didn’t see any elves, although Kawumpus said that she did.  The only ones I saw were painted on a trailer at the plant.

So, it is now Thursday morning and I should have started the afternoon before.  The load was heavy enough that I needed to go get it weighed.  I found a truckstop in my little book and headed there.  Turns out you couldn’t get there from that interstate, you had to be on the other interstate.  So, I looked in the book and saw a sign that said “scales, first exit in Georgia”.  I looked up and saw Exit 1, and turned off.  Turns out that was the first exit in SC, and I had to drive all over the place to get back and turned around to the first truck stop.  Good grief!  Their scale looked like it had been through the war, but it worked, and I got weighed and was ready to go.

I drove the whole rest of the day Thursday till about 8 pm and took my break.  Then I started at 6 am and drove till noon, getting to the delivery point 6 hours later than the original schedule.

On the way north, on I-81, there was a traveler’s advisory message — tune to AM 1620.  So, I did and found that the northbound interstate was effectively closed, down to one lane, due to a sinkhole that had opened up on Thursday.  It took 2 hours to go 15 miles.  That was frustrating but interesting to watch people ignore “left lane closed ahead” signs and scoot around the line formed for miles in the right lane.  Finally the truckers (not me) blocked the left lane and wouldn’t let anyone by, including some other truckers.  Those truckers like to stay in line…

So, I got delivered today at noon, and retreated to the Bandit Truckstop near Allentown, PA to fix my lunch and wait for my next load assignment which is going to take me toward Birmingham and 4 glorious days off.  Unfortunately I don’t get paid on those day, since I am not driving, but I just want to get home and see everyone and let go of the truck for a while.

So, that is where the time went, and that is where I went.

John

I was supposed to be coming home this week but things happened…  The net result is that I am going to be coming home next week on the 9th for 4 days since I am working an additional week.

What happened is that the computer Qualcomm (the Almighty) recorded my home time as May 21, 2011.  I thought that I entered May 2, 2011.  Who knows what happened?  It may have been a keystroke error, which I truly doubt, or it may have been that I corrected an error and it didn’t register correctly, or maybe my keyboard is defective.

Bottom line, after I pried myself off the ceiling and decided not to quit is that I “reset” my home time to May 9, and agreed to work another week and get another day off.

We’ll see what happens this time.  There are all sorts of stories, rumors and opinions regarding tricks that dispatchers play to get you to work more time.  I don’t know.  But I do know that it is frustrating and if it happens again, then I think it is “shame on me”.

On Friday, I got a load assignment to go from Ohio, where I was, to take a split load (two deliveries) to South Carolina and then to Florida.  I got the SC leg done yesterday and am staying at the company terminal in SC.  I am doing a “34 hour” restart, which will reset the clock on my 8 day, 70 hour rule.  That is, you can only work (driving plus on-duty not driving time) a total of 70 hours over 8 days.  But if you take a 34 hour break, and do not work at all, then you can restart that rolling 8 day total to zero.  That is a good thing if you have been working pretty long days, say 9 hours or more per day, because you start to run out of hours each day.

Tomorrow I will start early in order to deliver the local load here in SC at 7 am then make a run for southern Florida which is a long drive.  I don’t expect to make that all the way, and will have to take a 10 hour break as close to the destination as I can get.  Then drive the rest of the trip early prior to the 7 am delivery time on Tuesday.  Good news is that it is a lot of pay miles.  Bad news is that I have non-paying down time yesterday afternoon and all day today.  But that is not all bad cause you need a break from driving.

So, yesterday afternoon from about 3 pm on, I slept alot.  Before that, I took the tractor only (bobtail) to WalMart and bought much needed groceries.  It is debateable whether I am supposed to do that, but leaving the trailer at the company terminal is about as safe as it can get.  In theory we are never to separate tractor and trailer unless directed to do so by dispatch.  But my trainers did it so I did as well.  It was logged and legal time.

After a much needed long rest, today I did laundry, read, took a nap and started the day with a real shower!  In the truck driving business showers are when you can get them and it is NOT every day, by a long shot.

Another interesting thing that I did was listen to 3 versions of the same speech made by our company CEO and CFO at 3 investment bank sponsored conferences from late 4th and early 1st quarter.  It is very interesting to hear the big picture for the company’s strategic plan as it does relate to the major changes that are occurring in the transportation industry in terms of costs, chain of supply, regulations and driver availablilty.  Basically costs are increasing particularly for fuel.  Chain of supply is very dynamic and is inevitably reducing the length of the average trip — our company’s stategic goal is trips less than 500 miles which literally is reflected in my 3 runs from Ohio to the east coast.  Regulations are related to equipment and driver safety and are in turn increasing costs. Driver availability is down, which is related to regulations (weeding out bad actors) as well as driver pay.   And our company is simply doing what a lot of “big boy” companies are doing.

If you want to read a good book about freight movement, read “The Box”.  It is about how the shipping container has changed the world’s economy and has changed the freight industry.  The book is an easy read and impacts every thing we consumers buy every day.

So, my 34 hour restart will occur at 1 am in the morning, and I will start the day tomorrow about 5 am central time with “all zeros” and a full 14 hour duty cycle which may include up to 11 hours driving.  I will need every bit of that to reach tomorrow’s goal in my trip plan.

The big issue in going to far reaches of Florida is much like the big city areas of the northeast.  There are not many places to park the truck that you don’t have to pay for.  Over night parking is typically about $12 which is not the end of the world, but I wouldn’t/couldn’t do that every night.  And I am told that the company doesn’t reimburse this cost to the drivers.

Another interesting thing is that the company will not reimburse tolls in Florida (nor in Kansas) for some reason.  I think it is because the interstates and Florida’s turnpikes tend to run parallel so you have a choice.  But on this trip, I would have more choices of places to park for the night on the turnpike than on the interstate.

I haven’t processed pictures from the last couple of days.  I did cover some new interstate routes, I-77 in particular.  I retraced some old ground since 77 and 64 run together from Charleston to Beckley WVa and I enjoyed that area again.

So, that is a recap of the slow day at the terminal in South Carolina not driving the truck.

Long View Coming Down a Mountain in Virginia

John

Kawumpus thinks we must be lost.  We keep going back and forth over the same ground.

After delivering coat hangers to Teterboro, NJ it got a bit crazy.  We went to Jersey City and picked up pineapple ”stuff” (general term) to take to Zanesville, Ohio.  Then we took beer from Columbus, OH to Baltimore.  I would have thought they had all they needed!  Then we took plywood from Baltimore to near Cleveland.

Three trips back and forth in 3 days:  Jersey to Ohio (Tue-Wed), Ohio to Maryland (Wed-Thu) and Maryland to Ohio (Thu-Fri).  It is no wonder that Kawumpus thinks we are lost and looking for something.

Actually we did use some different roads.  I added part of I-79 and much of I-68 to our list of places we’ve seen.  I think that the USDOT has a complex about I-68 — they seem to be over selling it.  They call it America’s Freeway (I think that was it) which is an Alternate to Ohio and the West.  It seems to be a throwback to the National Road.

I-68 does have some of the most significant grades that I have seen.  It is scenic and picturesque but for a big truck loaded with 24 tons of beer, it is a tough road.  Kawumpus was a mighty truck for the whole trip but we had some 25 mph hills to climb.  I don’t recommend that route for trucks if you can avoid it.

We did the Penn Turnpike (again) and I will say that when it was laid out in the late 30′s and open in 1940 (?) the engineers were thinking about trucks.  Generally the grades on America’s First Freeway are very reasonable.  Part of the reason for that is that some of the route was a “neverbuilt” railway and the grades for the rail were much more gentle.  Each time I travel the PT I see something new or different that I didn’t see before.  There are some great websites about the PT.  I remember traveling it as a child since we had family in Pittsburgh to see.  I remember the Howard Johnson restaurants.  Some of the buildings are still standing but I don’t think HoJo operates them anymore.  But the travel plazas are a pretty good place for me and K’ to spend the night and have done several times in the last few days.

When I left Baltimore with a load of plywood, I was given a Bill of Lading (BOL) that said the load weighed 46,000 pounds.  Well that is about all that me and Kawumpus can handle.  The heaviest load I have had was beer from Cartersville’s brewery.  But they make you weigh and reweigh before you leave the site.  The plywood guys are like “oh, you won’t have any problem — your guys take these loads all the time”.  So, I am like “ok, but if I am overloaded I am coming back”.  Which didn’t bother them cause it was quitting time for them, anyway.

So, I asked the dock boss where the closest scale was, and he gave me directions.  I get there and weigh and the load is nowhere close to 46,000 pounds, even though it is all there.  So, I asked the consignee folks in Ohio about it and they said “yea, it tends to run light, and they don’t use scales, they just use the theoretical weight of a bundle”.  So, anyway, I have learned that without a scale don’t believe everything they tell you.

So, here we are in a truck stop in Canton, Ohio.  I will get up early in the wee hours and go south on this trip which is a long one and will take several days.  More on that as it develops.

I am sad for the people that have been devastated by the weather of the last few days.  We have friends who have lost loved ones not to mention property.  My family thank goodness is ok.  It is absolutely unbelievable the damage that has been sustained across the south and particularly in Alabama.  Pray that these folk can carry one and will get the strength that they need.

One thing I am learning in the trucking business is that if it doesn’t happen today it may happen tomorrow.  I was disappointed that I didn’t get my trip over/under Chesapeake Bay and I didn’t get my “Sunday Drive” on the eastern shore.

I had spent the night at a truck stop north of Richmond, and had to still drive 2 hours down to Chesapeake for my final.  I started at 6 am local time to make the 8:30 am delivery and missed all but the last part of rush hour — folks going to work on the Peninsula.

I passed Williamsburg – home of some of my ancestors, the Spottswoods.  We were on the wrong side of the Revolutionary War.  When Washington cornered Cornwallis at Yorktown, our Spottswood ancestors were on the wrong side.  Interesting enough, one of the Spottswoods was a very early ironmaker in Virginia so my interest in iron and related is in my genes.  Another is that these same Spottswoods were ancestors of Colonel Keller, Helen Keller’s father.  We found them hanging in the parlor at Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, AL.  Actually their pictures were hanging in the parlor…

There is a lot going on in Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads/Newport News.  The military has a presence of course, but industry and ship related indutries as well as transportation and warehousing of which I played a small part that day.  One neat thing is the giant coal terminal where coal comes from the hills to the bay and is loaded on ships.  Much of this coal is destined for steel making, where the coal is made into coke as a fuel for blast furnaces.

Well, I did get my load delivered to Chesapeake — 22 tons of Pop Tarts which I suspect are headed for our troops.  That was on Monday morning, and then I got my next load assignment from Qualcomm (the Almighty).  My pickup was in Suffolk, a neighbor town to Chesapeake.  My next load’s route in the computer was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel — most direct and shortest — to New Jersey outside of New York.  So, I took that route, of course.  The load turned out to be coat hangers, 156,000 of them!

There are actually three bridge tunnels — I-664, I-64 and the Big One.  The two smaller ones cross Hampton Roads which apparently is the name of a body of water — the town is Hampton.  I got to do two out of three which as they say “ain’t bad”.

So, I did get to see the Bay Bridge Tunnel and the countryside on the eastern shore.  One of the reasons that I wanted to see the eastern shore is that several years ago my wife and our friends “the Other Stewarts”, (friends from church but no relation that we can find) took a small boat cruise of Chesapeake Bay.  It was great and lasted for a week with a different “port” each day.  We sailed from Baltimore at Harbor Place on a sort of miniature cruise ship that carried 100 passengers and a great dining room.  It didn’t have all the other stuff — no golf, no pool, no casino, and much of the entertainment was getting to know your fellow travelers and engaging in conversation.  We had a wonderful big lounge room like a big “common room” from college dorm days.

Anyway, we did “ports” like Annapolis and historic Yorktown, but we also did some quaint villages on the eastern shore.  I sort of thought that I would see more of that.  Unfortunately, although pretty countryside, most of what I saw was highway commercial.  So that was a bit of a letdown but a pleasant drive nonetheless.

As to the northern end of the trip, I will say that I get tired of the “closeness” of the northeastern seaboard.  It is so developed, so crowded and so busy.  It is harder to drive a truck there due to the crowding and it is somewhat harder to find a safe haven for the truck although the turnpike travel plazas are not bad.

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On Saturday I had it all planned out.  I was going to pick up a load and go to the Chesapeake area, actually to the town of Chesapeake near Norfolk.   I found that my shortest route would take me south through Maryland and Delaware and over/through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, one of the most significant engineering and construction projects of the 20th century.  Kawumpus was excited as well, as I think all Wumpuses actually like tunnels, but you can never be sure about Wumpuses…

I picked up my trailer near Philly and found two things.  One, it was full of Pop Tarts, 18 tons of them.  Two, it had a number of things wrong with it.  Under our USDOT regulations,  our equipment is subject to inspection and violations basically acrue with points againts the driver AND the carrier.  This is the new so called CSA 2010 rules that were implemented in the late fall.

In general, I am all in favor of safety for me and everyone else.  But a trailer with a bunch of violations is a problem for the driver.  Unfortunately, since we change our trailers so very often, many drivers take the attitude of “let somebody else deal with this one”.  They hope to get by without getting caught and expect to drop the trailer soon enough.

Anyway, I had a very nice Sunday drive planned out.  But when I saw the trailer with two marker lights out, and a mudflap completely missing I didn’t think I could get away with it.  So, I contacted our Roadside Assistance folks on the phone and they suggested a repair location and authorized repairs (money).  Remember it is Easter Morning…

The first repair location was open but said that none of their mechanics were likely to show up.  Time wasted.  Get to another  repair location .  They worked for an hour plus and declared that they couldn’t fix the problem — wrong tools, guy with right tools won’t be in till 4 pm. Time wasted.  So I got another repair location authorized and they declared that they could fix it.  Then we had to wait for the company to “re” authorize the work order for another vendor (Easter morning and we were short of staff as well).  Finally the computers talk, all is approved and the mechanic goes to work.  He was good, and he worked as fast as he could but time was burning up.

Long story somewhat shorter, he finally finished and I had about 15 minute margin to complete my trip Sunday afternoon to a location where I could finish up Monday morning, given travel time, hours of service rules and my requisite 10 hour break.  But I figured that I couldn’t go down through Deleware and through the Bay Bridge Tunnel.  There are not enough places to stop and if I had any problems there would not be anyplace likely to get me fixed.  So, I took I-95 going through Baltimore and around DC (which IS “through” for all practical purposes).  I was disappointed, but in our business “on time delivery” (service) is what we sell, so I didn’t want to jeopardize that.  Sounds like the Engineering business, eh?

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The trip from Napoleon, OH to near Albany, NY is history.  This trip covered a lot of territory and a number of different routes including interstates 80, 90 and inparticular 86.  We traveled through or near Toledo, Cleveland, Erie and then across southern New York State including Elmira, Binghampton, as well as Corning.

Erie was noteworthy in that I didn’t see any of the downtown area from the interstate.  We did however experience about the worst traffic jam due to construction work zone that I have experienced.  It took us 1 hour to go 4 miles or so along I-90 not long before switching onto I-86.

Traffic Jam in Work Zone

If you were to look at the map of routes that I traveled (posted recently) you would not see I-86 on the map.  It is not a heavy freight route and passes through a lot of country that is very rural.

The thing that really sticks out in my mind about I-86 is that it is in the worst shape of any interstate that I can think of.  Not over its entire length, but certainly in many places.  If this route was in Alabama, we would nod wisely and say “yep, they didn’t vote right down there” referring to the years that the Wallace administration prevented completion of I-65 in republican voting Birmingham.  Do you suppose that they do that in New York as well?

One the other hand there was some beautiful scenery along this route.  And on April 21st, it still had snow in some places and I had ice on the windshield!  Can you imagine?  Winter holds tightly to the countryside in New York – and this was the “Southern Tier” expressway of New York.  Southern my foot!

I am experimenting with other ways to put pictures into the posts — gallery and slideshow — that are offered by WordPress software.  See what you think.  Note that with the slideshow, if you put your cursor over the image, you may stop and view at your own pace.