Swimming Lessons

Accustom to the comforts of midwestern, middle class life in a small Missouri Town, my husband and I chose to embark on an adventure of a lifetime  and join an elite group of professional drivers known as expeditors. So, on November 29, 2010 we left the familiar to explore a whole new world.
Our first stop was New Stanton, Pennsylvania to pick up our new home, a straight truck that was ready to roll. Backtracking 150 miles to Seville, Ohio, we attended orientation on basic expectations of expeditors, and then it was sink or swim.

The day we expected to get dispatched, our Qual Com did not work! So another day passed by as we worked out the quirks of this electronic dispatch system. Then, as we settlled in for a night's rest to watch TV and shower, the Qual Com alerted us to our first load -Minerva, Ohio to Laredo, TX. Holy Cow!

After being an eager-beaver and pushing accept on the load, Michael and I then came to our senses and realized that is a total of 1,628 miles or 26 hours of driving!

Well the first thought is Cha-Ching! BUT I am not fully licensed yet, so we are still considered solo drivers. So here's the scoop:

Pickup the load in Minerva OH at 1 pm on Saturday, Dec. 4
Drop Off the load in Laredo TX at 12:30 a.m. Monday, Dec. 6
Total miles: 1,689 (from Seville to Minerva, then on to Laredo)

PROBLEM: One person can only drive 11 hours a day, then they have to recover and return from "super-hero status" to "meek human" and recover for 10 hours.

So, Michael and I had a plan. We would call and see if we could pick up the load early and then negotiate with the dispatcher to have an arrival time of 9 a.m. Monday morning in Laredo. Thank God we called dispatch! They informed us that the arrival time was wrong and 9 a.m. was the expected arrival time. Phew!

We ended up being able to pick up our load in Minerva at 11 a.m., so we were able to drive all the way to the outskirts of Nashville TN before we were out of driving hours.  Combating snow the whole way, we kept our hopes high by thinking "It's 80 degrees in Laredo!"

Well, going to sleep with the thought of warm sunshine in the near future made for pleasant dreams. However, we were then informed at 3:30 a.m. that we would be swapping in Memphis with another driving team who will then take the load to Laredo.

So, as I sit here typing in my Flip-Flops and jeans, I observe our mood is a little subdued this morning -Memphis just isn't as exotic as the Mexican boarder. . .

Overall, I guess we're not drowning, we're beginning to . . . float -wink.