Home for the Holidays.... barely.

So I was waiting near our North Carolina terminal all day Thursday. They didn't have a load for me, so I dropped my empty and I ran errands, went to McDonald's for wifi, etc. for most of the afternoon. I did go back to the truck about once per hour to turn it on and see if there were any new QualComm messages. There weren't. I'd gone to the terminal that morning to take a shower and to talk to one of the instructors.  He'd mentioned that there was a load going to the Indianapolis area, but it delivered the morning after Christmas. I wouldn't be able to make the delivery, but that load would have at least gotten me to the terminal by Saturday. The dispatcher wasn't at his desk, so I called and left him a voicemail saying that I'd take that load if I could leave the trailer at the terminal and another driver could deliver it the morning of the 26th. I never got a response to the voicemail.  The dispatcher for that area is really terrible about returning voicemails or QualComm messages.  Really frustrating.

When it got late, I went to Walmart to rent a movie from Redbox. About halfway through the movie (past midnight) load routing and fuel stops for a new load popped up in my Qualcomm. The message saying when/where it picked up and delivered wasn't there, so I responded and asked when the pick-up and deliveries were. It was really late at that point and I needed to sleep, so I went to bed (and forgot to return the Redbox movie).

There was a QualComm message waiting for me when I got up telling me that the load should have picked up yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and delivered Friday. I drove to the terminal and picked up the paperwork. There was no way I'd make it to either delivery on Friday (especially given the nasty winter weather I'd be driving through in West Virginia and Ohio) so I called the two consignees and made new delivery appointments. They both only had receiving hours from Monday through Friday, but the first one was going to be open on Saturday because of extra hours for the holiday. The second (and final) stop wouldn't receive any freight until Monday morning.

I delivered in Ohio at 8am on Saturday and am now just sitting around until Monday morning when I can make the last stop. My delivery appointment is at 7am (about half an hour's drive from where I'm parked now) and it isn't very far to the Indianapolis terminal from there. Unfortunately, my sister had plenty of time to come pick me up from the terminal (four hour round-trip) on Saturday, but no so much on Christmas Eve. She can't pick me up until late in the afternoon, so I'll be hanging out in my truck at the terminal until then. I called the Indy terminal when I first got the paperwork, hoping I could leave the trailer in the yard and that maybe a local driver would be available to deliver it on Monday. No local drivers are working on Monday because it's Christmas Eve.

So I do get to go home for Christmas after all. Just three days later than I'd hoped.