August Pictures

Finally got my pictures downloaded that I have been taking last couple of weeks. Have taken some pictures of old barns in the midwest. Starting in Kentucky and up through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Ohio. The beautiful sunset at the end was along I-80 west bound around Morris, Ill. This is west of Chicago area. The peak that looks like a nipple is of Pilot Mountain near Mt. Airy, NC. If you remember the Andy Griffith show and them talking about Mount Pilot all of the time. That is the peak that they used to name the fictional town.

I went from Cedar Falls, IA back down to Des Moines to pick up a load going over to Cedar Rapids, IA for the next morning. Then down to Oskaloosa, IA to get a load from Church & Dwight going to Church & Dwight in Old Fort, OH. Running through some good hard rains along I-80 most of the way. After delivering in Old Fort Thursday morning I picked up a load in Fostoria, OH about 20 miles away that was from a Church & Dwight warehouse that went over to Pendleton, IN. This is on the outskirts of Indianapolis. Leaving Ohio this morning going that way I had to travel over some 2 lane back roads working my way over to I-69 in Indiana.

I got within 10 miles of the interstate and the highway ahead was closed. The detour went up toward Ft. Wayne which was 20 miles in the wrong direction. So I turned south to go down to the next highway west to the interstate. I got about 8 miles south and that road was closed ahead. The only option was to turn back east toward Ohio again for 8 miles to pick up a main highway that ran toward Indianapolis. Only problem was this road wasn't much better than a pig trail. The trailer I had picked up on this load tracked so far to the right I could see the red stripe all the way down the right side of the trailer. Someone had obviously hit a curb pretty hard on the right and pulled the trailer tandems out of line. I had to drive down the center of the road to stay out of the ditch. Finally made it but was a good half hour behind when I wanted to be there.

Once I dropped that load at Tractor Supply they gave a load to pick up in Columbus, IN that was 75 miles away. The appointment was at 10am only 1 hour and 25 mins from that moment, and had to go through Indianapolis to get there. Since I have a 62 mph truck it was a chore to make the appointment. I made it one minute before 10am. It was a live load that took one hour to complete and I had a delivery appointment at 1pm in Fairfield, OH. I had 2 hours to go 95 miles, and the first 38 miles was 2 lane road and through downtown Columbus. I made it to the customer at exactly 1 minute before appointment time. Finally got to pee. Geez! Hate those loads. I will pick up another load just south of Dayton, OH tomorrow that I have to run up near Cleveland, OH and deliver by 6pm tomorrow night. Another rush job.

Manufacturers seem to be picking up since all inventories are drained, so I am doing a lot more running and there are fewer trucks now to pull the loads. A lot of them have gone under in the last year. Keeps me busy which is a good thing.