Where I’ve been – 0204hrs

Thought you might like an updated map… current as of this morning:

Rupert, ID – 0135hrs

Picking up a load here in Rupert, Idaho… yeah…. I’ve never heard of it either.  Either way… the staff is coming in special in the morning at 0600 to load us… then we’re headed to Chelsea, MA!!  Whoo Hoooo!  Heading towards home!  This load will deliver Wednesday, but we’re hoping to drop it off at out PA yard for someone else, so we can get another load into Maine to drop me off by Thursday or Friday!  It’ll be nice to have a week or so off and just chill!  Charles and his wife were kind enough to purchase a flight from PWM to Omaha for the 18th, so I even get an extra day and don’t have to deal with two days of hell on the grey-dog!  A BIG shout-out to them for that!!  Thank you!

Not much to report, it was an uneventful drive from Salt Lake City up to here… only three hours or so and Charles drove some to Ogden where I took over for my “shift”.  Now that my shift is over… time for bed!  🙂

Salt Lake City, UT – 1425hrs

Well, I woke up this morning in a different city AND state from when I went to bed… a COMPLETELY different turrain!  That was wierd!!

When I bedded down last night (rolling down the road… we were in the hills of Wyoming which rocked me to sleep quite nicely!  When I woke up this morning….I was in a frigging bowl!!  Surrounded on three sides by steep mountains and the lake itself!  (See images below)

Wanted to share with you a funny story from Wednesday morning… the morning I tested;

Charles had said Tuesday night that we needed to be out there at 0630 with the truck setup (hooked-up) and ready to test, so we got up at 0530… staggered into the terminal and grabbed a shower.

Now, of course I got the only shower with two temperature settings on the water… scalding and third-degree burns… so it was duck under, get wet, jump to the side and soap up… jump under for a second or two to rinse some… repeat as needed until clean.

So… by the time I got with my shower, it was ten past 6!!  Okay… mad rush to get dressed, shaved etc… got downstairs to the cafe area where I find Charles casually eating eggs!!  I man it’s friggin 0620 and it’s a five minute walk out to the training pad!!  Come on man!!  We’ve gotta go!!  So I said to him (and I quote)… “Meet you out there”

So…out to the truck I trudge to have a sip of coffee and a smoke before we have to check in with the testers

I’m out there a couple of minutes when he calls me on the cell phone… says “Where are you!?!?”  I tell him, “I’m in the truck!”

He says… “You have four minutes to get inside the building!”

FUCK!!

So I hoof it to the building across the HUGE training pad towards the terminal… then it dawns on me;  call him back and say “EXACTLY where in the building do I need to be?!?”

He says he’ll meet me at the door…

I get there…and we start figuring out where our communication issue came up…

See apparently he forgot to tell me… or I missed the fact that we needed to be in the SAFETY DEPARTMENT down in the basement AT 0630 to sign in… when I said “Meet you OUT there”… he heard; “Meet you DOWN there” meaning down in Safety!!!

We laughed our asses off about that one for a bit… as most all of you know… I tend to get…”frustrated” when under stress… and I was WAY stressed that morning!

In the end it all worked out and we made it on time… and I passed my test (obviously!) and now we’re doing the team portion!  It’s all good!

EDIT:  Forgot to add the pics!