TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO

I thought the title was appropriate since our 11pm, kiss of the vampire, appointment time was on Tippecanoe Ave. We delivered to Stater Bros, in San Bernardino, CA, and although I have seen their trucks out and about, I never realized what a huge operation they have and that they were a supermarket. Must be a LA/regional type of store. Their distribution center is the largest we have been to and I thought we had been to some pretty big ones prior to this one.

For those of you not in the business, at some of the places we deliver to you are extorted you have to pay a "lumper fee". This is an exuberant amount of money for someone to off load the product inside your trailer. Thank goodness the company pays for these bloodsucking hard working individuals, and it's not something that comes out of our pockets. The cost at this unload was $180, not by far the highest we have ever had to pay, but pretty darn close for only two hours worth of manual labor, assisted by either a forklift or a pallet jack. Maybe I should steer Craig towards that line of work when he grows tired of trucking!

Earlier in the evening, while we were waiting for the bewitching hour of our appointment, we got beeped with a preplan for 9am Monday morning. If the preplan holds true and we are not redirected to another dispatch, we will be picking up over 41,000 pounds of dairy products in the City of Industry, CA and delivering to Fife and Auburn, WA on Thursday morning. But right now, all Craig and I can think about is driving one last time down Tippecanoe and getting back to the Company yard for some good old fashion shut eye!