THE THINKER

After hooking up to the dry van in Salem, OR and heading south, we made it as far as Weed, CA before Craig ran out of hours for the day. While waiting to share a plate of Chili Colorado at our new favorite restaurant, Dos Amigos, Craig called into dispatch to let them know of his lack of hours to complete the run. Being a Friday afternoon no doubt played into the voice on the other end saying, "just call in tomorrow, and let Larry handle it". Nothing like passing the buck, but I was too busy munching on chips and salsa to even give it a second thought.

Craig had set the alarm for 1am to get an early start for our Saturday. He wanted to get into the yard in French Camp, CA and drop the load going to PG&E, and then hook up to a reefer and get over to Salinas. When the alarm went off, he bounced out of bed, announcing that he had some great sleep and was ready to go, as I mumbled a few choice words, which were muffled by the covers. Craig told me as he does most early mornings, "Why don't you stay in bed?", which I in turn, thought "why not?", and mumbled to him to be sure to take the right on ramp on his way south.

While I was being bounced around in the bunk, and trying to fall back asleep, my husband, was doing some heavy duty thinking while in the driver's seat. It really bugged us that we couldn't complete the Fresh Express load to Puyallup, WA, and in the very early morning hours, while bouncing down Interstate 5, it finally dawned on Craig how we could make it work.

During one of my many comments of "where are we now's?", he informed me of his plan. It was really simple. By the time we would get to Salinas on Saturday, we could start a 34 hour reset of his driving hours. Our load was not to be picked up until 4pm Sunday, but if we could delay that a few hours, we could get a 34 in and be able to complete the run without having to do a swap. Oh......and yeah, it would require 2 nights of driving. Oh well, that's what we have caffeine for, right?

When Craig called into dispatch upon our arrival in Salinas and told them of our plan, they couldn't have been more happier, or appreciative, especially after they confirmed that we could make our 5am delivery on Tuesday morning. Well, there wasn't much left for us to do, after we had dropped the trailer at Fresh Express, than to sit back and relax.......and that's exactly what we're doing. I'll let you know all about our trip up, and how we survived the night driving, when we arrive safely in Puyallup on Tuesday morning. Now where's the nearest coffee shack?