Up at 4:40 am, off to the races. Up to the plant - and found out that the plant had not, indeed, blown up. That news that the plant had blown up was given by 3 different level managers in the company. Where they got their information, no clue. But the manager up there, that I get along with quite nicely - we talk about smoking meats and that is one of his greatest passions - said the plant was bought out and the new owners wanted every valve and sensor in the entire plant replaced, along with a lot of underground pipe.
No wonder it took so long. That plant is huge, there must be thousands of valves and equal amounts of sensors, well probably a lot more sensors. I didn't get out of the truck because another driver had said they don't want you getting out. Over an hour sitting in a hot truck and one of the guys came up to my truck window - I also know this guy, I've spent hours chatting with him in previous trips up there before the plant shut down - and he said uhh, no, you just have to have a mask on. OH really? I have a mask, in fact I have several of them in my truck. But, a friend made one for me so I use that alot.
So I went and got a fresh hot cup of coffee out of the operating control room - that is always offered - and then went outside to chat. The smoker man - John - said no, lol, we don't care if you get out of the truck, they are just mandating masks now. I said well, a certain driver said we aren't allowed to get out so I was just following the rules. Who was that driver, was it Gary? After that? I heard a lot of negative things about Gary. He gets there very late. He doesn't tell them he is going to be late. The paperwork you get with the run always has the same thing written on there, part of which states that you are to call them "immediately" after you get out of the plant and let them know you arrival time.
But the biggest complaint? Gary is full of himself. He knows everything and he is quite smug about it. Lol, well I didn't even know that he came off like that up there. He does like to talk about himself and his endeavors and how he has done this, that and the other thing and doesn't really want to hear anything from anyone else. I just said to them to advise the new manager, he doesn't seem to tolerate that kind of nonsense. And then off to smoking meats talk we went for an hour after that.
I'm pretty sociable person. I don't want to sit in a damn truck and bake my ass off when I could be standing outside where it's much cooler and chat with people that are very cool people. I'd love to work at a place like that. John knows far more about smoking meats than I do and I just gobble up his advice. He has quite the following with bringing some of his product to work for employees to taste and I have had the opportunity to taste his finished product a few times - quite good, especially the brisket. He took his gloves off when the truck was unloaded, disobeyed Faucci and offered a handshake. Yes, I don't give a damn about Fauci and "you should never shake hands again" bs. We shook and then I was out of there.
Oh, this is supposed to be their day off, so they were very happy I showed up early. John came racing up to the plant as I was sitting there waiting for security to open the gate - John opened it with remote control lol. They all left as soon as the truck was unloaded. I fought the clock today, get this crap done. I actually had full hours - it didn't take near as long as it normally does for them to unload, so I was out of there in 2 hours. 7-1/2 hours left on the drive clock. How far can I go?
Well, I'll tell you. I know this route and I can guess pretty close how far I can go with the amount of hours available to the miles I can drive. I figured I could make Newport, Alabama. With a fallback to Pocahontas - 55 miles I think up the road - as a fallback now that I saw brand new truck stop built there when I was heading to Illinois. But I made it to Newport with time to spare. No way to make it any further with any guarantee of a place to stop and since there was only 30 minutes left on the drive clock, I was comfortable with 652 miles driven.
Well whatever. I can get up at 4:00 am if I want and drive this thing out. I'll likely get up at 5:30 am and get driving by 6. But I can tell ya, if my brain wakes me up at 4:00 am, I'll get up and got. At the same time, there is no need to get up that early as this trailer isn't needed at the yard tomorrow, so I'm not setting the alarm that early.
More going on, but I"m getting offa here and putting this laptop to bed lol
