Delivering in Delaware...

Here I sit, waiting for this Wal-Mart distribution center to finish unloading my trailer. The drive through Maine yesterday was quite pleasant and relaxing, and everyone at the shipper sounded like comedian Bob Marley. I'm not kidding there.

Of course, things turned crappy once I got back to Massachusetts and got worse in Connecticut. Friggin' Northeasterners need to learn how to drive. They don't seem to understand a few basic concepts such as:

• Every lane change contributes to backed up traffic. Multiple lane changes by the same care compounds the problem.
• When entering the highway, you're supposed to be a freeway speed BEFORE you get to the end of the ramp.
  
• Traffic already on the highway has the right of way. These bastards push their way in like you wouldn't believe. Again, adding the backup.

Things deteriorated really quickly as I approached New York. Apparently, a tree decided to fall on the highway and this caused a nine mile backup to the last service plaza in Connecticut. Joy.

I took my break in New York's retarded, evil brother, New Jersey. Actually, New Jersey wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the people living there, but that's a whole other essay (or rant). In any case, I stayed at the Vince Lombardi service plaza. If I had more time, I would have taken a shuttle into NYC to poke around a bit because there's a LOT of truck parking there and I've never really seen NYC in any meaningful way. Just I95 and JFK airport. Some other time, though.

I'm preplanned to go to Chicago next. While I'm no fan of Chicago traffic, it beats the crap out of what I've been dealing with this week. This load also is another piss-poor payer, not even $1.00/mile. But there are two things that are making up for it:

• My expenses are already paid this week (and then some!), so all the profit goes directly to my bank account
• I'm getting the HELL out of the northeast!!

The bad news is that unless my fuel optimizer has a better solution, I have to go brave Washington, DC. Ugh.