My new, final resting place

You remember correctly, grasshopper; I hate, hate, hate idling! All of WEL's trucks have a diesel-powered TriPac, which is one of the primary reasons I returned. Unlike my short time with PTL, my APU here has worked a lot...and continuously...without a breakdown! And the company will never go to those silly battery EPU's to which PTL was switching.

 

Putting down night roots near the Ohio/Pennsylvania line. Tomorrow, I make the last 350 mile push to drop this load and hook to another heading back to Wisconsin, about 1,000 miles. I don't keep tabs on my weekly mileage but this one will turn out to be a pretty good one.

I think it's because I might be the only WEL driver driving over the holiday.

 

I just hope that nasty weather I saw stays somewhere other than where I am.

 

I saw drizzle and fog all morning as I made my way to Allentown. Then the temp went up to 71 and it's 64 right now in Mifflinville. Tomorrow, I begin the 14 hour journey to Somewhere, Wis-CAHN-s'n. Then grab another load and head to JOE-juh.

All in all, a pretty good week's work. Now all I need is the paycheck...

 

Christmas Day. The only day in the year when you have no trouble finding a parking space at any truck stop or rest area, even if you get there late at night.

I'm at a Petro on I80 just inside Indiana for the night; tomorrow, I head for west central Wisconson and hope Walmart will let me unload 24 hours early...if they do, I then have to hope Belgioioso will load me two days early for my run to Georgia.

What could possibly go wrong...

 

I got to the Walmart DC and dropped the loaded trailer, of course without mentioning I was there more than 24 hours early. After driving around a bit looking for an empty - two yard dogs said 'I don't think we have any empty WEL trailers'- a third driver came roaring up to me (as they are wont to do!) to tell me he was just pulling one out of Door 5 and would I like it?

Why do people ask silly, one-answer questions? Of course I want it.

So I grabbed it and went to take care of the paperwork. And naturally, this being the day after Christmas and Saturday, the office was minimally staffed and on break. Eventually, I got the stamped bills and headed back to the truck and my phone.

To make The Call to Belgioioso. To see if I could pick up Sunday, not Monday.

Of course nobody answered. It's the day after Christmas and Saturday. I don't know if they were on break or just not working and asking the Weekenders at WEL wasn't a game I really wanted to play, so after a couple of tries, I gave up and departed the DC...after wrestling with a somewhat uncooperative tandem slide.

So here I sit at the local Love's, waiting out a 34-hour reset next to a PTL on one side and a HeartGordon on my other side. Kinda poetic.

Oh. And the area is under a winter storm warning. Swell. Just freaking swell.