Feb 7, 2010
i wanted to let all of you who have been so worried. that your prayers have worked. a big problem has been solved and life on the road will be much more bearable and more civilized. this is perhaps the biggest karma kick back i have ever received.
I CAN GET DIET VANILLA PEPSI AT PILOT TRUCK STOPS
YES IT'S TRUE. at their fountain dispenser you can add vanilla, cherry or lemon to any soda you choose. indeed a marketing genius came up with this revolutionary idea. now if we can just get all our fuel stops at the pilot truck stops life will be good. (well sorta),
we arrived in fresno friday morning around 9am. our kent load would not be ready until saturday at 4am. so we just hang out at walmart. we checked in at fedex at 2am. at 4:15 the office manager tells us the trailer for spokane was loaded with our stuff for kent, and then spokane load put on behind the kent stuff. there was not going to be enough time during their shift to unload then reload a trailer. so they said we could just take the spokane trailer and spokane would sort it out at their end. ok with us. so we contact swift with the problem and the solution.
not so fast, said swift. who is telling us kent was canceled. our kent load is on one of these trailers. and they give us the trailer numbers. we spend the next two hours walking back and forth between the truck with qualcomm and the fedex office. answering questions, asking questions. giving fedex numbers from swift. giving swift names and numbers to contact at fedex. (like that info isnt in a roll-a-dex-somewhere??) i have to hand it to the fedex workers. they are always polite, helpful and patient, even though we could tell it was becoming increasingly frustrating for them. the solution is so simple.not to mention that they were leaving. their 10 or 12 hour shift is over at 6am, but one guy said he would stay until the problem was taken care of one way or another.
at 6 am troutdale tells us that they will get with the load planners when they come in. i said what ? i dont get paid to sit and wait, what do you want me to do. just sit and wait until the load planners come in. after that we contacted lathrop told that load planner the problem and the solution and within 30 minutes we were hooked to the spokane trailer and our wheels were turning. why couldnt troutdale work it out in 2 hours. at one point troutdale told us our load to kent was on the empty trailer that we just dropped at fedex..??
the run to spokane is better than nothing. it actually wasnt scheduled to go until sunday at 4am, because it isnt scheduled to be delivered until monday at 4am. so picking up saturday means we have about 50 hours to
drive 1000 miles. hummm i hope we make it on time. but a drive to spokane means we will be driving past the shoe tree and that means another chance to snap a picture.
i talked to ~~ok texted~~a friend, we went through swift orientation together and shared a motel room for a week. we're like this you know (*cross's fingers in a sign of sisterhood solidarity) she is getting about 2000 miles a week. she will start teaming in a couple of weeks. she said she'll tough it out for about a year, then with her experience if things arent better she'll leave. i dont know that i want to wait a year.
we will be home next week for a couple of days. YEAH. i wish we could afford to stay home longer than a couple of days. sometimes i dont think we can afford to stay out on the road when we are not making money every day. damned if you do, damned if you dont, right.
love and miss you all
