After a refreshing night of sleep, I went to the warehouse early just in case I had to go to Oconomowoc, WI to snag a rail container trailer. I grabbed the last one at the warehouse location. Shortly after I hooked on to it, another driver inquired if I was dropping it off or taking it out. He needed one as well so he ended up going out to Oconomowoc (30-minutes away). I also saw another driver cruising for a rail container trailer.
I had two pickups in the Milwaukee area before I headed down to Chicago, IL to drop the container off at a rail yard. I arrived almost an hour early at the first appointment and they got me in and out right away. At the second stop, I was informed that my appointment wasn't until 1:00 PM. Great--it would have been nice if I had been informed of that. Even so, they took me within an hour of arriving (sweet!) and then I was off to Chicago.
Today it warmed up nicely the further south I headed. At the rail yard, I was told that there was no record of my shipment in their computer system. So, I had to turn around and call dispatch to see what was up. The container trailer behind me had to do the same thing. Turns out that he was the same trucker I bumped into this morning who was looking for an empty container. His load wasn't in the computer system either. The railroad yard said that they had been experiencing quirks like this for the last week or so.
Well dispatch informed me that I hadn't sent my loaded calls in when I was at the shippers earlier in the day. Oops. My bad. After doing putting in my loaded calls into the QualCOMM, about 15-minutes later, the rail yard allowed me to enter and drop my container into their yard. However, the other guy found out that he was at the wrong rail yard (he was given the wrong instructions by dispatch as to which rail yard to go to). Oh well, sometimes things go smoothly and sometimes....
I decided to go through the heart of Chicago on the way home as it was early enough to miss rush hour. There were some pockets of stop-and-go traffic, but it wasn't too bad. I heard that a major accident tied up the freeway system further south of where I was. Maybe that explained why everybody heading north seemed to be impatient (they had been stuck in the traffic jam and wanted to make up for lost time).
I got the tractor washed back in the Milwaukee area and arrived back at the warehouse in time for the beginning of Milwaukee rush hour (which is nothing compared to Chicago rush hour!).
Before I left this morning, Mr. J (day dispatch) informed me that I'd be heading to the Fargo, North Dakota area for a delivery Friday morning (since I hadn't gotten that many miles for the week). I'll start out tomorrow morning and get there by late afternoon. Then I'll deliver Friday morning and head back. I should be back in Milwaukee by Friday evening if everything goes well.
miles driven = 269
6:25:11 PM
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