Still Stuck in Iowa

Well I didn't get very far. Unloaded this morning along with another CFI/Con-Way driver. After about an hour of waiting for my next load assignment, I went for a bike ride to grab some geocaches. There were 4 along the bike trail which ran along side where I was parked. The total round trip ride was only about 7 miles this time out. But I was able to snag all 4 finds. One of which posed to be very difficult, but I was able to find it at the last moment.

By the time I got back to the truck about noon, I was hot, sweaty, and hungry! I still had not yet received a load assignment yet. I saw one of the warehouse workers sitting outside reading a magazine so I stopped to talk to him for a while. I first asked him about a good place to eat in the area. Then we got talking about politics and the health care issue. We also discussed the fact that their warehouse/factory was down from 300 to 100 employees. Most of their manufacturing has been shipped to Mexico. But his day is spent unloading a few trucks once in a while, but mostly they sit around reading magazines and try to keep from falling asleep. Then I found out they are a union shop and what they get paid. $20 per hour for unloading trucks and $13 an hour for doing nothing. And they can't understand why their jobs are being shipped to Mexico!

Anyway, if I stay on that subject I'll never stop.

By the time we finished talking, it was about 1:00 and I'm STILL hungry. And I received a load assignment. I went to the truck to check my messages. They gave me a load to NORTH DAKOTA!!! So I replied back wondering why if I'm supposed to be going home to FLORIDA! Wrong direction. After a few minutes, they unassigned the load from me.

Then another 30 minutes later I received another load assignment going to Mississippi. However it doesn't pickup from the shipper until tomorrow afternoon down in Burlington, IA. So I have a day and a half to drive 150 miles. So I map out the route and write down all the info.

Now it's about 2:15 and I still haven't gotten anything to eat. I ride my bike a block down the road the suggested tavern for a burger. The bar tender tells me the kitchen closed at 2:00 and won't be open again until 5:00. Great, the only thing I've eaten all day was a donut at 7:30 AM the warehouse had.

So, I hang the bike up and head on down the road. About 30 miles later, I see a McDonald's with truck parking. I get the Angus bacon cheeseburger, fries and a LARGE sweet tea!

Then it was about another 30 miles down the road, I come across a Flying J truck stop. There I was finally able to get a shower. But wait.... there's 4 geocaches within a half mile from the truck stop! I can't let them just sit there without trying. So before I get the shower, I program them into the GPSr and go for a walk. I find 3 of the 4 caches. I found the location for the 4th one, but it just wasn't there. Another MIA cache. Now, off to the showers!

I stopped for the night here in Muscatine, IA at a small truck stop. Only about 30 miles left to go tomorrow to the shipper. Hmmm maybe there's some caches in this town I can get in the morning.

Until then, see you on down the road.