Piscataway,NJ

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early to make our last drop there in New Stanton,NJ. When you take the exit, they actually have signs for Super Valu and where truck traffic needs to go. Boy I wish that all shippers and receivers were that way! I managed to get in and get delivered and was back to the truck stop by around 0930. J managed to get some good non moving sleep and I chilled in the truck while I waited for our next load.

Finally around 1400 we get a load assignment. Deadhead about 250 miles to Springfield,OH and pick up a load going to Elizabeth,NJ by 1000 the next morning. By the time we stopped and got fuel, got the trailer washed out, got something to eat to go, made it to the shipper, got our trailer, got the correct paperwork, got scaled and FINALLY got on the road, it was close to 2200 hrs. Going through the mountains of PA was a little slow but J managed to get me 300 miles closer to destination so when he got me up at 0300 I only have 273 miles to go. By the time it was daylight it had started to snow on me. Luckily nothing was sticking and I was able to make it to the receiver with 45 minutes to spare. After getting the runaround on where I needed to go to check in, I finally get to a dock and about 3 hours later I get unloaded and we are out of there.

With no where in Jersey to really park the truck, we stopped at the first travel plaza we came to and began our wait for our next load. After a while we sent in a message that we were getting out of the truck to grab something to eat. Sure enough, when we got back in the truck we had our next load. The only problem is that it doesn't pick up until the 2nd between 1500-1700 hours and it is less than an hour away. Realizing that we were going to spend close to 48 hours here in Jersey, I set out to find a hotel that had truck parking and allowed pets. I found a place in the town that we are picking up that had truck parking but they wanted an extra $50 each night for the dog. I laughed and said "No thanks" and hung up. I then decided to go with the trusty Motel 6 website and see if they had anything close by. What do you know? They have one about 13 miles away on I-287 and it is on the way to our pick-up. I knew that they would accept pets, but did they have truck parking? Usually when we stay at a Motel 6 we are bobtailing and most don't have room for the trailer, but I decided to call anyway and check. Today was our lucky day because they do indeed have room. She even put me on hold to see if any other trucks were parked out there. She said no trucks were there and the parking lot was pretty empty so we shouldn't have a problem getting in the lot. So we rounded up and were on our way within 5 minutes. I didn't want anyone else to check in and possibly block me from getting the truck in there. It was tight getting in and I will have to back out of where I had to park to get turned around in the parking lot to get out, but we are safe and warm and tucked in for the next two nights.

I had a feeling that we would end up getting stuck here. I even told my FM that if we didn't get a load that we were going to spend New Years Eve at Times Square! Of course we didn't find out about the load until too late, but it was a good plan. There is always next year. Tonight we are probably heading to bed way before midnight. J didn't get much sleep today because I woke him up to help me find the place we delivered. If you have read my blog for a while, you know that I really dislike this part of the country because everytime we get sent here we get lost! But anyway, he probably only got about 4 hours of sleep today. I guess it is a good thing that we are having to wait on a load. The load we dropped today covered our fixed costs for the week and the next load we pick up on Friday is a darn good paying load and will all be profit. Not bad considering we are taking two days off this week!