Tues, Dec 2.. You're Kiddin' Me Right??

This morning started early for both of us. I was actually up and around at 6:30 a.m. central time! With St. Louis, MO straight ahead of us, we wanted to miss rush hour!

We have approximately 550 miles to drive today and we will try to deliver this load this afternoon vs. 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Our directions say the delivery place has "steep grades and tight turns." Great... the part they left out is there is snow/ice on the ground! Can't wait to see this place.

The snow showed up as soon as we crossed into Illinois and it got a little more evident the further north we drove. I've already checked the local weather and road conditions, so we are good to go.

All this snow and wintry surroundings made me decide to put chili in the slow cooker for dinner. Nothing like warm food on a cold day! Remember me saying earlier that the slow cooker rides in the floor of the truck? Keep this thought in mind....

We found our delivery place around 4 p.m. and steep hills and tight turns was an understatement! Check this place out!

We were in LOW gear (the gear that is never used!)... we went UP a hill, around a corner, UP another hill and there are the docks. Three sets of docks, all facing each other with trailers or trucks sitting in them. In order to get docked... up another hill, around the building, turn around and come in the opposite direction. Then wTrapper had to put the truck in a jack knife position to push the trailer in the dock!

Trapper gets us situated and goes inside. A minute later he comes out and gets some tools from under the truck. He reminded me of the wood supports that are in the trailer to secure the load.

We were carrying transformers, which were delivered yesterday, and when these were put in the trailer (in Mexico) the crew there nailed 2x4's to the trailer floor to secure them.

About thirty minutes later... and a lot of banging in the trailer... he comes back out to the truck... huffing, puffing, and sweatin'... he asks me to get my camera and come with him. Of course, I did, not having a clue what I was going to see!

As I rounded the corner and looked into the trailer, I couldn't believe my eyes! Here is what had been done in our trailer! The short boards had 8 nails each in them, who knows how many nails were in the long boards.

AND not only were they nailed completely all the way in the oak floor of the trailer, they used deck nails! Or ring nails... the nails that are ridged like screws!!!

The boards would not come up without splitting. Obviously they were put in with a nail gun. We were using two crow bars, 2 hammers, and a bolt cutter. If I had been driving this truck alone, which a lot of women are on the road alone, I couldn't have done this. I tried and only managed to get one half of one board up.

We beat and banged, pulled, and pushed... Trapper did all the hard work, I used the nail cutters to cut the nails off flush with the floor (they wouldn't come out of the floor and the heads kept popping off) then we had to bang the remainder of the nail flush and clean up this monstrosity of a mess!

We did all this so he could or would get the trailer unloaded. The dock worker wouldn't drive over these things to get to the load.

Luckily, he told us where we could empty this wood so we could get this out of the trailer and on our way.

Four hours later, we were finished.

My feet freezing and Trapper being really tired (nothing like driving 600 miles and then 4 hours of this mess to deal with), I decided it would be nice if I ran back to the truck and warmed coffee for us.

I jump in the truck, swing my legs around between the two seats, and stand up in the back... as I am doing this in one fluid movement.... my foot lands right in the slow cooker!

Realizing what I have just done, I just stood there... as red sauce splashed everywhere... I now have chili all over the floor in the back of the truck!

Having no paper towels on board today... I have a mess and nothing to clean it up with! I grabbed the white plastic table cloth cover, throw it over the bunk, and put the slow cooker there. I grabbed the only two wash cloths close by, white ones, and started cleaning this mess out of the floor.

Trapper gets in the truck and inquires as to what I am doing.... I guess so... the back of the cab looked like I murdered someone or gave birth! I was equally traumatized.

During this time, as fate would have it, the qualcomm goes off with two preplanned loads. We looked at each other with a "not now" look on our faces. I finally salvaged dinner, secured all the evidence in plastic bags, and we left for the truck stop.

Arriving at the truck stop, we sat quietly for a moment. We both needed a moment. We're wondering if Trapper will be paid for his labor job this evening. The company wouldn't reimburse a $20 lumper restacking fee... will they pay a driver remodeling pay?

Can't wait for tomorrow... neither of us will be able to move! Where is the ibuprophen?