The Long Ride Home, MN

My apologies for not keeping you up to date with my travels. I am home now in Red Wing. I arrived yesterday late afternoon. Getting from Kansas City to Red Wing was anything but a straight line or the shortest route between two points. Let me elaborate.

Monday, October 1 - I arrived in Kansas City around 10:00 am and had my load of beer taken off the truck. I was then sent to. ,MO where is was to pick up a loaded trailer and take it to a WalMart Dist Ctr in Beaver Dam, WI just a little northwest of Milwaukee. When I arrived the load was not ready so I had to wait 3 hours to be loaded. I had only 3 hours of driving left and was able to maked it to just north of the IA-MO border.

Tuesday, October 2 - Departing at 4:00 I drove through IA and into IL and diagonally up into WI and arrived in Beaver Dam at 12:00 pm and was quickly able to drop the trailer and pick up an empty. My hopes were that I would be sent northwest to Mpls-St Paul, but to my disappointment I was sent up to Escanaba, MI, 200 miles straight north, to pick up a trailer of paper rolls. After picking it up I would then need to drive 400 miles to the Twin Cities. I had only 4 hours left before I had to stop for the day. To add insult to injury I wouldn't be able to drop it off until midnight Wednesday night-Thursday morning. Which meant I wouldn't get home until Thur aft sometime. That would be almost 2 days later that I anticipated. I talked to the dispatcher seeing if they had any alternatives that would get me back sooner, but this was the only option. So, I headed north. I was able to get to Escanaba by 5:00 pm Tues night.

Wednesday, October 3 - at 6:00 am I picked up the trailer of rolls of paper in Escanaba and headed west into WI and the northwoods. It was beautiful. The air was cool and clear, the leaves were turning and there were wonderful small towns placed every 15 to 20 miles. I was encouraged, mostly because my team leader arranged to have the driver replacing me make the delivery at midnight. I just needed to get to Blaine and drop the truck off. I drove for 7 hours and finally got into the Twin Cities in the middle of the afternoon.

So, to make a long story very short, what I thought would be a day and a half journey from Kansas City to the Twin Cities (450 miles) turned into a 2 1/2 day ordeal from Kansas City to Beaver Dam to Escanaba to the Twin Cities (1200 miles). For the two week period I drove 6850 miles which was about 700 miles over my average. Oh, the travails of a trucker.

So, I am home now resting and eventually preparing for my move to a condo in November.

I hope your week is going well. I'll be back with my Travel Blog in a week. - James (Jibs - Dad/Papa )