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One of the interesting parts of tagging along with Mike on his Celadon deliveries is figuring out what the heck we are transporting hither and yon around the US.  This morning while waiting to get the scheduled load in Lebanon, TN, I googled the name on the sign at the facility we had pulled into.  When the company web page popped up displaying this yummy photo my stomach rumbled with hunger.  What a temptation.  Lee is always joking about us raiding what’s in the trailers we are hauling.  I wasn’t at all tempted by the load of Bud Light we hauled up here to Tennessee but those baked goods sure look good.

Last night as we approached the customer site where the beer was scheduled this morning for the unloading, we encountered the same situation as yesterday where none of the nearby truck stops had open spots.  Fortunately, by using Google’s satellite imagery Mike was able to see that it was possible to park a truck in the back of the customer’s warehouse.  The warehouse was located in a quiet, suburban Distribution Park and proved to be a better overnight spot than most of the others we’ve had.

On the way in we had noticed a corner gas station and after parking the truck we walked through the bitter cold the half mile back to the station to see what provisions we could find.  Just before we got there we saw the sign for a strip mall next to the station and one of the businesses listed was a Mexican restaurant.  Our dinner there was a welcome reward after a long day of trucking.

The baked goods now getting loaded into the trailer are going to Indianapolis, IN.  As cold as the weather is here, it’s even colder up that way.  If I had joined Mike during the summer months instead of January, I’m thinking I might have had more trouble spending so many hours in the truck.  A short time out of the truck at this morning’s fuel stop convinced me that the warm truck cab is a pretty good place to spend the day.  And we’ve got enough food stashed in the cab’s storage bins that I shouldn’t have to raid those baked goods in the trailer in the back.

It was a relief to get back on the road yesterday morning after our 3-day delay.  We left Syracuse early for our noon appointment at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Baldwinsville, NY, hoping they might be able to work us in early.  No such luck.

Six hours after our arrival the load was finally ready for us to start hauling to the destination in Tennessee.

The Qualcomm route plan wanted us to head west on the Thruway all the way across New York to Erie, PA, before turning south.  That would have us driving right through the center of the winter storm we could already see was causing major traffic backups.  Mike reprogrammed the route to head back down Interstate 81, the route that we had taken last week to get up to New York.  That would add about 100 miles to our trip, but turned out to be a wise decision given the news this morning about how bad the situation was last night on the Thruway.

Getting such a late start from Baldwinsville meant that Mike could only drive for 7 1/2 hours before he would have to shut down for 8 hours.  Truckers are held to a confusing daily 14-hour “on duty” clock that limits the amount of time they can drive if they have spent too much time sitting and waiting at a customer site.  I was a math major in college but I still haven’t figured out how available driving time works and how the driver “gets back” hours if he spends at least 8 hours parked somewhere.

For us, and countless other truckers, the requirement to be parked somewhere for a number of hours can be a major hassle.  The clock was ticking towards midnight and Mike was checking the app on his phone that showed available truck parking close to where his time would run out.  We thought we could find something at a Flying J near Winchester but when we got there the lot was jammed with trucks in every available spot and in spots I wouldn’t have considered available.  We circled the lot several times, choosing finally to back into one space that looked like it might be big enough.  It wasn’t.  Meanwhile, Mike’s clock ran out.

Our only option was a rest area 5 miles further down the highway.  When we got there the situation was no better than at the Flying J.  Every spot had a truck parked in it.  We ended up jammed in a line of other desperate trucks parked on the shoulder of the rest area on-ramp.  Not exactly legal parking and not exactly legal that we hadn’t shut down when the 14-hour clock expired.  But there was no other choice.  Consumers want their goods on time but don’t realize that having so many trucks on our highways means there will have to be places where they can stop.  There are simply not enough truck parking areas along major highways.  And, actually not enough truck parking in other places either.