Longest time out on the road

I left home on December 29, 1983 to deliver a load in Edison NJ on December 31, New Years Eve. I was hesitant to accept the load.
Not for fear of working the holiday. That has never been a problem for me. My only concern was the availability of return freight, not being anxious to sit up in NJ for two days.
The broker assured me that I would be reloaded at the same location for the same customer's warehouse in Los Angeles CA. Good money too.
I allowed myself ample driving time, taking the holiday traffic into consideration. I called it a night at Sadlers Truck Plaza in Emporia, Virginia.
Elliot Sadler was still a toddler at the time, still a couple decades away from NASCAR fame, but his grand daddy was busy building a fortune with with to finance it.
The next day I travelled on to Edison NJ without a hitch. As promised, the security guard unlocked the gate to ACME Corrugated Box Mfg. and showed me which dock to back up to.
I love it when a plan comes together. Only 8 PM. Get some good sleep and be all rested up for that coast to coast run.
At 0730 I felt the trailer rocking as the forklift driver began unloading me. Time to get dressed and slip into my new shark skin cowboy boots I bought myself for Christmas. Mosey on back to the office and see if I can find a cup of coffee.
"Mornin chief" the recieving clerk greets me.
"Mornin, mornin" I respond. "I see yall are gettin after it early today. Glad I came on in here last night"
"Yeah, we're trying to get it knocked out early so we can go home and watch the ball drop tonight. We'll have these cores unloaded pretty quick and you can pull around to the shipping side.
I understand the load's not ready yet, but should be coming off the line as we speak. Be outa here by lunch at the latest. Those guys want to go home too"
"Sounds like a good deal boss" I said as I sipped on some black coffee and fired up a Marlboro Red.
Sure enough, they had me unloaded in about 20 minutes and I fired up my '81 K100 and eased around the building.

To be continued...

 

5onths at one time. Left the house right after the Fourth of July and next time I came HOME was Christmas in 1999 called I wanted to make some coin WELL I DID. Enough that my family each got 500 buck including my nieces and nephews and all my Brothers and their wives 500 cash for Chirstmas my Parents only got a grand each. Me I bought a car.

 

I can't stand to be out more than a week, even when I was young and single the most I was ever out was 2 weeks,

 

In the 80's I stayed out 3-4 weeks at a time pretty regularly. OTR and the loads were there,the money was good,and it was the norm for most OTR companies then. I guess there were companies that got you home on a regular basis but most of the drivers I know now and then stay out at least 2 weeks and more. Just the nature of the beast.

 

Backed in the door and the plate drops down already. Only 0830. Sweet. If they reload me like they unloaded me, I'll be cruising by 1000.
Decided to drop down I-95 to I-20 and run across to I-10.
I know, I know, I-78/I-81/I-40 to Barstow is the most direct way. Heck with that.
It ain't all that much quicker. I don't care what anybody says.
Besides, you get your butt caught up on Flag or in an ice storm in OK, you'd be wishing you were down on the bottom.
Besides, I have got to see that waitress in Darlington SC.
See if I can woo her into taking a trip out yonder with me. She's always complaining about her job anyway. She how bad she wants to get away.
I believe I can do it. I can tell she's just crazy about me.

Tick tock, tick tock. It's been an hour and I ain't felt the first bit of movement.
Aside from those ice sickles melting off my visor, there ain't a dang thing moving around here.
I'll give em to 10 then walk back there and see what's up.

"Yo boss. What's up?" I asked as I walked into the shipping office.
"Just a little setback driver. But we're going to get you rolling. You know what you're hauling, don't you?" he says.
"Yeah, I reckon. Boxes?"
"That's right, but these boxes have the name of the customer printed on them. Without the logo, we can't ship the boxes" he explained.
He walked ove to the corner of the office and showed me a box. The man obviously had a lot of pride in this box.
Handled it like his first born child.
"Look at this" he says as he points out the printing on the box.
HERNANDOS fRESH CALIFORNIA PRODUCE
Only the finest fruits & vegetables
"You see, Mr. Hernando has been ordering these boxes from us for over eight years. One of our best customers.
And he never complains about the price. The order has to be right every time.
I guess you noticed all the shut down plants around here? Well we plan on staying in business as long as we can"
"Well sir, I can certainly understand that. I'm something of a business man myself. Need to please the customer for sure.
And that is some mighty fine printing on that there box, for sure. I'm just wondering why they ain't being loaded on my trailer is all."
"Come on out here and let me show you. Shouldn't be a huge problem once we get the part.
Watch out for that hydraulic fluid there in the floor. Kinda slick."

 

"See this machine right here? It's what ya call an industrial ink jet printer, with a quad conveyor.
What that means is the flattened boxes come through here four abreast.
This think here comes down and does the imprint on four boxes at once. That's four boxes per second.
240 boxes per minute, which is one pallet. Which means we can print out your whole load in half an hour. We can do fifteen trucks in a shift." he tells me.
I mean this dude really gets into his job.Now he proceeds to explain what the problem is.
"What happened here is really pretty simple" he explains. "A hydraulic hose was leaking. We should have went ahead and finished your load. It wasn't leaking that bad, but what the heck.
Might as well replace the line. Gotta do it anyway. Simple job. What could go wrong?
Just like your truck. Somethings broke you fix it, right? Well here's what happened.
When Joe went to remove the fitting, the bolt stripped, just rounded off.
It's brass and Joe didn't know to use a line wrench...well anyway he ends up using some vise grips and busts the thing off.
I mean it broke inside the housing. So now he gets an EZ out to get the broken piece out.
He taps it in too hard and cracks the pump housing. See right there?
So now we can't do nothing. I call the supply house and guess what?
This thing is made in Sweden. Can you believe that? Anyway the closest one they can find is in Tacoma WA. Can have it in four days, with the holiday and all.
Obviously, that ain't gonna work. But I know this guy in Brooklyn that is a whiz at this stuff.
I know he could fix this if he would answer his phone. He could be on an early lunch but I'll keep trying.
This hurts me as bad as it does you. Just be patient with us. I will get you loaded"

I quit listening back around vise grips. Geez, why does this stuff happen to me.
If I had one ounce of sense, I would pull out of here and drive the 800 miles back home and get a fresh start next week.
This deal can only get worse. Won't be a total loss. I'll get paid for the load I brought in here from Charlotte.
But knowing that screwball broker, he will probably try to stiff me since I committed to this one.
Sometimes when you get on a bad wave, you just have to ride it out.

 

We need a smiley foot tapper here soooooo....*taps foot*. Come on Mustang! What happened???

 

Not to long for us: 46 days

Now it's never longer than 6. *smiles*

 

Geez, you're a regular slave driver. It ain't easy dreaming this stuff up.
Not to mention being a two finger typer. But I'm trying.