JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

After a night of interrupted sleep by the night crew at the boat plant, I guess my imaginary "quiet zone" placed around our truck was not visible to them, we awoke ready to take on the day, get our boats, and head to Canada. Well, not so fast there sparky. We were informed that the boats were ready, but the trailers for them were not, and I got up early to hear this why? Oh that's right, no one payed attention to my "quiet zone" circle I had invoked. So as we ate our breakfast, we watched as they loaded other drivers and we patiently waited for it to be our turn.

A few hours later we see a pickup with three little boat trailers trailing behind it. Yippee....it will soon be our turn to drive into the loading bay. Five boats are loaded onto our trailer, three to be taken to Calgary, AB and the other two to Edmonton, AB. Prior to pulling out of the loading bay, I got out to watch as Craig drove the trailer under the 13'6" sign that hangs down from the ceiling. First boat through okay........oops......... the second boat smacks the sign. Back into the loading bay they do some adjustments, Craig pulls out again and I watch, holding my breath, watching as each boat, like good little soldiers, pass under the sign. Now we sit and wait for the Customs paperwork.


Just like Patti La Belle, (for those of you old enough to remember her song), I have a new attitude. I'm just not going to worry about border crossings and Customs paperwork anymore. Either it's done correctly or not, but in either case, ultimately, it's the Broker that has to fix it. With paperwork in hand, and the ability to fax from the truck, we fax the paperwork to the Broker and make a followup phone call to make sure they received it. Then it's onto Gary, IN to the company yard for the night.


Once again, just like the day before, we didn't end up getting on the road until almost 11am. As we headed north, the clouds got darker along with the sky. We kept hearing of flooding in Indiana, and talk on the CB confirmed that I65 was being closed. I checked on my laptop for any road closures and couldn't find any, so we ventured on. The rain fell harder, the chatter on the CB continued, and we plugged along. Then near Remington, IN, we noticed there was no longer any traffic headed south. We saw the long glow of headlights off in the distance, but thankfully, it was only the southbound traffic that was being diverted off the Interstate. How lucky could we be?

Before the bewitching hour of midnight, we happily pulled into the Company yard in Gary, IN, found a spot to park and once again placed the "quite zone" bubble around our truck. This time, it did the job and eight hours later, awake and refreshed, sun shining, we were ready to take on Chicago, that is if anyone is ever ready to take on driving through Chicago. I may need a second cup of coffee!