Killing a day in Wisconsin

So I wake up this morning at the weigh station on northbound I94 at the Wisconsin/Illinois border. Just another 90 minutes of driving to get to the consignee. In the meantime, our replacement load comes in; a nice load to beeeyoootiful Laredo, TX. Ew. But it's certainly nice to have a load that actually moves over 1000 miles for a change, so I won't complain too much.

Anyhow, I get the load delivered ok and have some time to kill because it's a live load at 1500 and it's about 1000. I start bobtailing south toward my empty trailer pickup and what do I see? Held's! Yes, it's a Cheese/Sausage/Jerky seller with a handy truck turnaround on US41, exit 64. I went in there, lost my mind, and spent a good amount of money on cheese and jerky. It's going to be hard to hold onto some of the cheese until I get home, but my wife will kill me if I eat it all. Very highly recommended.

Anyway, after I part with money and put my newly purchased dairy treats in my power cooler, I finish the bobtail run to the Kohl's distribution center in Menomonee Falls, WI. I grab the empty, sweep it out, and check the lights. Whoa, missing a license plate light bulb. Thankfully, I carry extras. Snap 'er in, and I'm good to go. Haul it down to South Milwaukee for a live load, arrive an hour early, and find that the good folks at the shipper have already loaded a trailer for me and just want me to drop and hook. Darn the luck!

So I pretrip it, close the doors, lock and seal it, and slide the tandems to what I think would be a good legal place for 34,000 lbs. 7th hole should do it. I swing by a Pilot 1 exit south, scale it, and of course I was right. I'm always right. But I also always scale, JUST IN CASE. I just have to be caught wrong once, you know.

So after I get my scale ticket, a horrible thought enters my mind. In the hubbub of getting the paperwork, sliding my tandems, and getting out of the next guy's way, I totally forgot to check the tires. So I did. And of course, one's flat. I called Schneider Emergency Maintenance and experienced a miracle: no hold time. At all. As in, someone answered the phone immediately. This must be my lucky day. Even luckier, we had a tire bank just across the interstate. So I limp it over there, perform a harrowing blindside back off a public road into Wingfoot's driveway (there was absolutely no other way to do it, and the Wingfoot guys helpfully blocked traffic and spotted me), and watch this tiny little guy change the tire. I was amazed that a shrimpy guy like him changed the tire so quickly. I mean, this guy couldn't have been more than 5'4" and couldn't have weighed more than 110 pounds soaking wet. But he got me on my way, and I was definitely grateful.

Finally, late in the day, I'm actually ready to put down some miles. Yeah, just in time for Chicago's rush hour. I made it through, but I'm done. Killed my driving output- only 395 miles for the day. Should have a better day tomorrow. We'll see.