Auburn, Washington

Here is where I am currently sitting. The only difference is that it is a little darker now. Not because it is later, but because it is raining more.

So here is the run down for today so far. Starting last night actually. J took over at the Washington/Idaho border and got us in last night around midnight. Since we couldn't deliver until 0800, because it was a live unload appointment, we came to our drop lot here in Auburn and crashed. I got up this morning and went inside and showered (which reminds me to call Green Bay and have them get someone to clean these showers!!) and then we headed to our drop. As I was driving there, which was only 10 miles from the drop lot, I got to thinking that we had maybe been to this destination before. Sure enough, when I got there, I remembered we had. The place is a decent size warehouse but the parking absolutely sucks. And you have to blind side back into the dock. Not fun. Luckily, J and I have these handy dandy 2-way radios that we have and they come in REAL handy in situations like this. So after I went in and found

out what dock he wanted me backed up to, J got out with his walkie talkie and guided me in. Communication is really key when you are trusting what someone says on the radio because you can not see where you are putting the trailer. Also you have to understand what they mean when they tell you how to move the trailer on the radio. We are finally getting to where we understand each other and I don't want to kill him while he is trying to tell me something that doesn't make sense. :) Because it is starting to make sense now.

Anyway, got backed in and I went in to find out where he wanted me to back the truck up and he gave me a trailer and said I could go. SWEET! We were thinking this was a live unload and it turned into a drop and hook. Hell yeah! So off we go and we head to a Flying J that is about 15 miles away. We have been on high value loads for a week which means someone has to stay with the truck at all times, so we both wanted to get a decent meal TOGETHER and not fast food in the truck. I cook a lot in the truck also, but we wanted OUT of the truck. So I head to the Flying J and this has to be the biggest joke of a truck stop EVER. Trucks are almost running on top of each other because this parking lot is so small. I decide screw that and we head back to the drop lot. Once there, we dropped that empty trailer and bob tailed over to an IHOP that was just about 2 miles away. Had an awesome breakfast. I had some of their pumpkin pancakes. They rocked. Scrumptious!

Finished eating and headed back to get the trailer from the drop lot. We only dropped it because it was easier to find something to eat if we were bob tailing. Get hooked up and we get our next load. Heading to Illinois, which is a 2003 mile run, nice. But we have to go back over the mountains. Expected that since there really is only two ways to go from Seattle and that is East or South. This load is Hazmat which will be a first for us. Well, it says it is Hazmat, but it may not be. I will have to check the BOL when we pick up the load. SO, I head over to pick it up because it says to be picked up BY 02/06 @ 0100. Now, I am assuming, and you know what they say about assuming, but I am assuming that the load is ready because it says to have it picked up BY that time, and if it wasn't ready, then why were we given the load, right? Well, I get there and they say it will be ready AT 0100. Also it looks like customer service was showing it as as AT appointment, but for some reason, it was dispatched as pick up BY. Of course, we were there at 1300 local time, which means that I am now back at the Auburn drop lot for 12 hours until the load is ready.

Ok, so given the past several weeks, you would think that would upset me, the fact that we are now having to sit for 12 freaking hours, right? Well, it doesn't, and I will tell you why it doesn't upset me. See, I checked the weather, and it appears that Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 outside of Seattle is SHUT DOWN AGAIN!!!! Yep, you got it. They are doing avalance control at the moment. There are also some really pretty pictures of the conditions, in real-time, if you go to
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/snoqualmie/ and check it out. It is also showing right now that chains are required on vehicles over 10,000. Well, that would definitely be me. But I will tell you this much. If they are requiring chains, then Mamma isn't driving over it. I will sit it out until they get the roads cleared some.

So that is what I am doing. J is in the back taking a nap. He only got about 6 hours last night. But I am going to wake him up here in a while and we will grab something to eat. There was a menu in the drivers lounge for a place that delivers Greek. I have never had Greek food, but the menu looked really good and the food didn't look wierd. So I think we may try that.

Peace out.... :)