DID YOU SMELL THAT?

For me, any day that starts with a Starbucks latte, can't be bad. Add some cool temperatures, a little rain, and cloudy skies, and I'm a happy camper. So as we started our day Thursday, leaving the rest area we had spent the night at near Castle Rock, WA, and headed towards the WalMart in Chehalis and the Starbucks right next door, I had high hopes for the day.

The rain let up just as we pulled into the parking lot, and we scurried into the store to fill our shopping cart with our next 10 days worth of food. With that accomplished, it was onto the Starbucks to sit and enjoy our coffee for a little while before it was time to start heading to the Fred Meyer Distribution Center in Puyallup, WA.

We arrived 30 minutes ahead of our appointment time, and after checking in, was directed to an open dock with an easy back in. Two hours later, we pulled away from the dock and parked to put in our empty call and await further instructions. As we were sitting there waiting, well...... how do I put this gently? There was a odor that was starting to fill the air. Craig and I, as I'm sure most couples do, look towards each other and basically said, "Oh no you didn't, did you"? But as if a light bulb went off in Craig's head, he leaps out of the truck and then shouts to me to shut down everything inside. That smell of rotten eggs was the work of one of the four batteries by the driver's door.

With smoke drifting upward, Craig calls into road service to inform them of the problem. Leary of the possibility of a battery exploding, they have him use caution around the offending battery, and then try and start the truck. Lucky for us, it started, and we were told to head about 10 miles away to a Peterbilt shop to have it looked at. We dropped our empty trailer and wasted no time in heading that way.

A few hours later, we were the proud parents of four new batteries, and were headed back to the Fred Meyer DC where we had a load waiting for us. It would be a repeat of a dispatch we had a few weeks ago, with four stops at Fred Meyer stores in Spokane and Coeur d Alene, ID. With time being a precious commodity, we hooked up and scaled the trailer, finding that it was within legal limits and headed out to get as far as we would before our 14 hour clock ran out.
Utilizing the split shift on the log book, we took an 8 hour break at a rest area just East of Ellensburg, WA.

Right now we are making our way towards our first drop of the morning, knowing that it will be a tight delivery to all four places within the hours we have available to use. But at least next time Craig looks at me with that, "oh no you didn't look", I can just tell him he better check those batteries. It's nice to have a scapegoat for those awkward social moments.