December 7, 2004 December 7, 2004 -- I had to wait about an hour and a half yesterday afternoon at the company's Atlanta, Georgia yard for an empty trailer. After that I deadheaded up to Cartersville, Georgia to pick up a load of beer. The problem happened once I got to Cartersville. The beer plant was really swamped with both incoming and outgoing trucks. Normally a simple drop and hook that would take under an hour to complete ended up stretching out into a seemingly endless four-hour-long ordeal. That put me behind schedule.

Once I got into Tennessee I thought I'd sleep about three hours and then head on north towards Ohio. I made the mistake of stopping at a place called "Crazy Ed's Truck Stop" -- a place I've driven by a million times but never stopped at before. Well, it turned out to be a huge mistake. When my alarm went off at 1:00 AM I found that I was blocked in from moving by other parked trucks. I couldn't move. I ended up going back to bed and waiting until daylight when one of the trucks ahead of me got out of the way so I could go. I'll never make the mistake of stopping THERE again!!!

That delay made it impossible for me to get to my destination, Brecksville, Ohio before their 5:00 PM first-come-first serve delivery cutoff point. I'll have to wait until tomorrow (Wednesday) morning to unload.

It's rainy here and extremely windy. The temperature isn't that cold but the high wind and occasional rain make it sort of chilly and uncomfortable to be outside very long.
  ¶ 11:20 PM