Shingles and a Trip

Week before last was to be a full week set aside for driveaway. But after a weekend of golf, where I both came down with shingles and blew out my back, I had to use the week for recovery. And for the curious, shingles are just about as much fun as most people say they are, although I'm pretty sure I ended up with a relatively mild case of them.

Since that week was set aside for driveaway, that meant this week was to be set aside for bus trips - and I had several, including one very long one to the state fair in Richmond, a trip of about 195 miles one way. After missing driveaway the previous week, and since I had Monday and Tuesday off this week before doing bus duty, I decided to call dispatch and see if they had anything that would work for Monday and Tuesday, and have me back home no later than Tuesday night.

As usual, they were able to come up with something. They offered a rental from Roanoke to New Bern, NC, cab ride to Havelock, NC where I was to pick up a small Ford F450 bucket truck and deliver to Altec in Frederick, MD. That sounded doable, so I agreed.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Since I hadn't called until Monday, it took a little while for dispatch to get the rental car reservations made and the paperwork faxed to me. But even with that, I was at the airport for rental pickup and on the road by 10:15 AM. Turned out it's a really long drive to the small airport at New Burn, NC, where I was to return the car and get a cab to Time Warner to pick up the truck. Got there about 4:00 PM. Was lucky and got a cab quickly and he knew how to get to Time Warner. I had previously called my contact there and he said he would have the truck ready and meet me in the parking lot. Sure enough, he did, and I was able to pre-trip and be back on the road by 5:00 PM. I was already fairly bushed from driving, but wanted to get as many miles under my belt as I could given that I needed to get to Frederick, MD, about 400 miles and back home, another 200+ miles by Tuesday night. I drove until about 8:00 PM and stopped for the night at a Days Inn near Roanoke Rapids, NC. The truck was driving great, and it was easy to make time with it.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Up and on the road by around 7:00 AM. Trip was going well, but each truck has to throw some kink in the trip, just to keep you awake. This one threw in a new wrinkle for me - a hood latch problem. I had noticed that, after checking the fluids, it had been mighty hard to get to relatch. So when I hit a big bump on the big bridge next to Richmond on I-295, it decided to release. Thank goodness for safety catches, because I was going 70 and it would have folded over the windshield. I-295 wasn't overly busy, so I pulled to the side and slammed it the hardest ever, it latched, and I didn't have any more problems, other than the worry, with it.

I had been debating with myself (a fun activity while on the road by yourself) ever since I left Roanoke whether I wanted to try to find some way around Washington or at least time it to miss rush hour, although that seems to generally be a 24-hour per day afair. I initially had decided I would get off I-95, take 234 by Manassas and then route 15 to Frederick. But as I approached that area about 9:30 AM, I chickened out and decided to test Washington one more time. Turned out to be a good choice. For the first time possibly ever, I was able to get on I-495 and get around Washinton DC without a major holdup. Arrived Frederick around 11:15 AM and turned the truck in.

That's where it got a bit dicey. Dispatch had trouble finding a rental car anywhere near, including as far away as Baltimore and Washington. They were about to give up and put me on the hound, which I would have missed the 12:35 departure, but a last second location of a Hertz office that had just re-opened in Frederick saved the day. Got a cab there, picked up my rental, and was headed home by about 1:00 PM. I almost kissed the guy contracting the car. I was so sure I wasn't going to make it home in time for bus duty on Wednesday and/or I was going to have to take the hound through Washington, and that is especially ugly.

Got home in good shape by 4:30 PM and was able to get rested up for bus duty on Wednesday for a trip to Clifton Forge, and on Thursday, for the long trip to the state fair - an experience all its own.

Purchases, Identity Theft, and Trips

We finally closed on the house in Choteau, MT last Monday. It had been an ordeal pending approval from the seller's bank who was taking a bath on the sale, but it finally went through. I'll be heading out there on September 6 for a week to settle things and, hopefully, get a contractor started on fixing it up.

Also, over the weekend, I checked my credit card balances as I often do online and found a note from Citibank highlighted in red noting that unusual activity had occured on my account and for me to call them immediately, which I did. Turned out, someone has made a duplicate of my card and made purchases at at least 3 stores totalling about $300. I visited 2 of the stores on Monday, got a copy of one receipt that had not my name but a Jesus C. Diaz. One store had a video of a gas purchas at the pumps and the Krogers had them on video. Citi indicated this would be turned over to their security department but likely they wouldn't do anything except to cancel this account immediately and issue me new cards. I called the local police departments, they took the info, but I don't really expect them to do anything. Since my card has been in my posession the entire time, it's hard to figure how they duplicated it. I understand there are now several ways to do it.

I worked on that mess and the final clean-up on the closing on Monday, then called dispatch to let them know I could do a several day trip this week. She said she could put me in a rental car to Creedmoor, NC to take an Altec truck from there to Millbury, MA. That seemed interesting to me since it would be a fairly long trip and I'd visit a couple of new states in driveaway.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

My wife dropped me off at the airport bright and early to pick up the rental car, head to the Raleigh airport, then a taxi to Creedmoor. Since I was an hour early, I had to wait a while before they could produce the car. Had a quick, uneventful trip to RDU, then a quick taxi on the 30 or so mile trip to Creedmoor. The taxi ride was sort of interesting, since a past college statistics teacher from Moraco was driving. He was muslim, had lived here 12 years, and yes, loved this country. However, he wasn't too complimentary of our middle east policy especially as it relates to Iraq. Oh well, you can only solve so many problems in one driveaway trip.

Found the truck, a new IHC 4300 6-spd in the bullpen quickly, but naturally no keys or paperwork. An hour later, those were finally produced.

It was unbelievably hot in NC and VA on Tuesday. I was confident that since this was an Altec truck it would have A/C. Much to my dismay, upon checking it out, I found it didn't. So I was already wringing wet by the time I finished pre-trip and was on my way about 1:00 PM. Not only did it not have A/C, but I couldn't get any good air circulating in the cab. For some reason, I guess due to the way the cab is constructed and the framing around it for the boom, I could get zero air to come through the windows, even though they were wide open. And of course, the vent blew increasing hotter and hotter air. It was over 94 degrees with humidity which must have been over 100 as I passed through Richmond and on toward Washington. About half way between the two cities, I was melting even though I had been chugging water the entire time, and decided I just couldn't face the Washington DC parking lots on I-95 and I-495, so pulled off just above Fredericksburg for the evening. That Days Inn turned in to be pretty much a dump, but it served its purpose for refreshing me for the evening.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I had decided not to take the most direct route straight up I-95 from Washington DC to Millbury, MA. That route would have taken me through Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton, New York City, and other burbs, so I was planning to take I-83 up into PA, pick up I-81 and I-78 or I-84, and sort of go in the back way. I left very early, about 6:15 AM trying to get around DC early, but that was a joke. I hit stopped traffic 15 miles south of the city and it didn't improve until two hours later as I headed out the north side. I just don't see how those folks put up with it.

I took a break at the MD rest stop and let dispatch know where I was, at which point they said there was an "emergency" need to get 5 trucks to FL due to the hurricane, so they needed me to take this truck to Carlisle, PA, stage it at a Flying J there, and pick up a truck there, along with 4 other drivers, to head to FL. I wasn't thrilled, but said I'd do it. So I headed to Carlisle up I-83, sort of along my planned route.

I arrived at the toll booth in Carlisle about 11:00 AM, and as often happens, my cell phone range right as I was pulling in - a time where I can't deal with it. So I paid the toll, asked for directions to the Flying J, and headed on in to Carlisle. I then called dispatch, who told me to just ignore the previous request and head on to Millbury as planned. OK, I think I will.

Drove the rest of the day up I-81 to Scranton, hung a right on I-84, and drove all the way across PA, the tip of NY, and, for the first time, in to CT. Dispatch wanted me to go ahead and deliver there late, and pick up another truck for a short trip back to Tolland, CT. I said that would be a no go. It was approaching 5:00 PM, and I'd about put in my hours for the day, so I stopped about 30 miles short of Hartford, CT for the night - another Days Inn dump with a desk clerk that had an attitude. I've had good luck with Days Inns before, but not on this trip. But I was still accumulating my TripRewards points, so who cares, right?

I had wanted to make sure I got to my room in time to see the ABC News 20/20 special on global warming, because my good driveaway buddy and guru, Dick Williams, was doing a segment on the migration of armadillos from the south now as far north as MO. For real, he'd been interviewed by an ABC producer to do a segment in his truck where he talked about armadillos.

Well, I got to watch the special. It had 8 or 10 segments on different ways the earth and/or the universe were going to kill us. Everything from astroids to Yellowstone NP (one of my favorite places) burying us in ashe. They saved Dick for number 1, the last segment, and he and Al Gore regailed us with tails of global warming and migrating armadillos. I loved it, and Dick did a much better job that Al.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Again, up at it early in order to finally get this truck, after 773 miles, to the Altec location in Millbury, and pick up the next for the short trip back to Tolland. I arrived Millbury about 8:30 AM, but the directions didn't exactly match the roads, my Tom Tom was trying to turn me around, and I wasn't having much luck finding Altec. I stopped and asked for directions (a very unmanly thing to do), and found I had already been to the right spot except about 100 yards short. The road was so small, pot-holed, and overgrown, that I couldn't imagine there was an Altec location there, but sure enough, if you have guts enough to take a boom truck on in, there it is.

Quick drop off, picked up faxed paperwork for the next truck, and it was staged in front of the Altec office. It was a slightly used 2005 IHC 7300 Digger Derrick truck, one of several of these I've now driven. It checked out pretty well, the only light was the Check A/C on, and since the weather was wonderful in MA and CT, I didn't care about that. It was sucking fumes, though, and even though it would only be about 50 miles back to Tolland, I had to find fuel - not easy, but doable, in Millbury. So I fueled up, made the usual wrong turns in trying to get back on to the toll road I-90, and on to Tolland. I arrived there about noon.

Tolland was a nice location to be leaving the truck. Dispatch, thankfully, didn't have anything else they felt they had to make me do, so they got a rental car for me at the Hartford/Springfield airport, and I ordered a taxi. Couldn't find anyone who was interested in making the trip to the airport, and I had to wait about an hour for the cab. I was glad to be heading home, as usual. It had been a long trip, and there was an approaching hurricane that I didn't want to have to drive through on Friday. I started out from Hartford about 1:30 PM. I wasn't sure I could drive the whole 600+ miles that evening, but good music and some talk radio got me home about 11:30 PM. I was covering some territory.

I'll now be able to finish up some stuff around the house and get ready for my return to Choteau, something I've been looking forward to since we were there in July. It will be different to have a house to worry with and for my wife to not be along, but I think I can make it - assuming the armadillos haven't moved in.