HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

Saturday afternoon Craig called into dispatch to see if there was anything lined up for us to come back on Sunday.  We really weren't expecting to have to go back until Monday, but lo and behold, we had an assignment waiting for us, which would have us back on the truck and rolling towards Wallula, WA Sunday afternoon.  But first, we had a bit of house cleaning and laundry to do back at home, where by 10am Sunday, we said goodbye to our little oasis, and headed towards the company yard.

We wanted to check on the truck before running all of our errands, and I'm glad we did.  Upon checking our 12volt cooler we have had for quite some time, we found that it had cooled it's last lunch meat and diet Pepsi.  So after reviewing our dispatch, and doing a quick check of the trailer assigned, to make sure the reefer ran and the tires were good, we headed across the street to the Petro truck stop to purchase another cooler.   Eighty dollars later, we had  our new cooler and were headed to our next stop.

We fueled up the pickup, then stopped at the Starbucks for some fortification of some caffeine, before hitting the local Wal Mart.  After being off the truck for ten weeks, it took a bit of aisle walking to get back into the mind set of buying for eating in the truck.  I have been spoiled by all the fresh fruits and veggies we had enjoyed the past week when Craig was at home.

Along with the food we would consume over the next couple of weeks, we also replaced the plastic storage containers we use to store all of our food.  The previous ones had seen better days, as the drawers were cracked, and no amount of duct tape could get them to slide as smoothly as they once did.  On a happy note, the new containers are much larger than the old ones, and I had plenty of room to store the food with a container for breakfast items, one for lunch items, and the last one for dinner items.  Now all I had to do was do a thorough cleaning and vacuuming of the inside of the truck and I was ready to roll.

Our new assignment is one we have not had before.  We are picking up a container full of meat at the Tyson meat plant in Wallua, and taking it to the Port of Seattle.  We will be dropping off an empty trailer tonight, and picking up the container around 6am in the morning.  Then we have until 3pm to get it to the Port.  Seems like a nice easy load to get us started back out, after relaxing at home the last 10 days.