At the plant near Morris, Illinois, 73 miles from Chicago. No, this is not a suburb of Chicago, thankfully, it's a farming community with very small population that also just happens to have this plant built out in the middle of it. I always wonder why they build these plants out in the middle of nowhere.
Anyway, I pushed it yesterday and made it 662 miles, a personal record for this run. I'm normally out of hours by the time I make it just south of St Louis and I go to an "unknown" truck stop. Well, it's known to the locals that live there, but the general trucking public never goes in to it. It really doesn't look inviting when you get off the Interstate and look at the turn you have to make and then the little road that loops around to another highway with the truck stop right there. Well, I had plenty of time left by the time I got to that exit and I figured I'd just wing it and find a place to stop.
Farmersville, IL is where I ended up at a Jack Flash truck stop. It was a decent place to stop and to top it off, there is a sports bar with decent food 2 blocks away. It was obviously a town favorite as it was full of families, versus a "bar crowd" which was fine by me. I was looking forward to having some wings - and they were out. I then decided on the Walleye special - they were out of that as well lol.
Anyway, I made it up here, the plant, much earlier than I have ever arrived here - only to find a rail car sitting at the unloading rack. That pretty much did me in right then and there. The last time that happened up here, I was sitting here for 18 hours. I was hoping to make it home tomorrow for Easter dinner. Went up to the intercom at the gate and informed them I was here and the guy on the phone said it'll be "40 minutes" before we can come get you. A ray of hope, only 40 minutes?
It turned into 2 hours unfortunately. 2 hours beyond the amount of time it takes them to unload, which is usually 3 to 4 hours. They insist on bringing the pressure in the trailer down to zero - which is neither necessary or even warranted. Often times, when they bring the pressure all the way back down, air gets back into the trailer and then, when you go to the plant to load it, they have to get the air back out of it, which can take hours. There is reason to keep some pressure in the tank and that's it. Since this product is volatile and highly flammable, the possibility of explosion is high if there is anything more than a trace amount of oxygen in it.
But, this place insists on it and that is why it takes so long to get out of here, beyond the wait to even get the trailer TO the loading rack. I can always tell when they're done unloading because they then turn on the giant flare - which makes a LOT of noise. I've been here 2 hours since I finally got the trailer in there and no flaring yet. I need a minimum of 4 hours on duty time left on the clock to at least be able to make it back to St Louis so I can make it back to the yard tomorrow. I've got 2 more hours I can sit here before I can kiss Easter at home goodbye.
Well take that back, I can use a 16 hour exception which adds 2 more hours to the 14 hour clock.
But you see, even if I can make it back to St Louis - the longer I sit here, the later in the day tomorrow I will get back. I was "hoping" I would just have to be here 3 to 4 hours and be back no later than 3:00 pm tomorrow afternoon.
I'm not really feeling sorry for myself, lol, I just like being home especially on holidays. The other contention is that there are storms I will encounter on the way back that will invariably slow progress down.
I guess I should also just shut up about the weather that continuously keeps moving over my town and dumping rain on the property. It's shrug shoulders time. April showers bring May flowers. It's April, there's showers, property will sit with zero further progress until mother nature decides to relent from the constant onslaught of raining all over everything and give me a break and opportunity to move forward. To think that I could have all of that done now and be working on everything else. You know, once the utilities, sites and driveways are complete, I can do a "soft open". I don't have to have anything else out there to get the operation up and going. Just give a reduced rate, clearly state it's just lots and full hook ups only, the rest of the park is still being built and start getting some income from the thing.
Why not? As long as it is clearly stated - there are no bathrooms, no wifi, nothing else here but the lots - all of the rest of it is being worked on, but feel free to come and stay if you need a place to park. The only thing I will need to be able to do a soft opening beyond all of above stated stuff are the picnic tables and fire rings. Well, get the grass growing as well. Kind of need that going fairly well before I want to have people there - they won't like dirt lots. Oh and the reservation system will need to be up and running, but I trust the dude that started the website will be able to do that in short order. Ooops and will need park insurance - lol all the things this operation will need even to have a soft opening. I'm told you need to start 3 months in advance to contact the insurance companies that actually do RV park coverage. They are very busy right now. RV parks are a "thing" and people are buying them up and more people are building them.
But, even a soft opening seems like an eternity away.
Oh well. Facing today's waiting time is enough for me. Plenty to read about in the news - tho much of what the news is full of right now is bleak, evil and wretched. The economy, inflation, the chaos at the border, the slaughtering of innocents in this Russian war - etc ad-infinitum.
Maybe I should just take a nap, lol. The world's evils will never cease until Christ returns.
Oh and pay. Yes, I finally got the unpaid pay deposited, it was for 2 runs. But the other day, I also noticed that they had included one of them in this week's regular pay. Like, they did that after I said something about it and instead of paying me immediately, they were just going to dump it into a regular paycheck. So now, I have been paid twice for that particular run, which was $1,700 - times two. Yup, I said something, not trying to get away with anything, but they still paid it anyway in my regular check. I made the effort to inform them of it, that's on them if they don't come looking for it back. Which would entail deducting it out of future paychecks. They won't be able to come back and ask my why I hadn't said anything if they don't catch it - I never erase text messages from work related stuff.
NEVER. It's proof of many things that have been stated.
Yes, a nap sounds good.
G'day.
