Wander Indiana

"Excuses are like assholes: everybody has one, and they all stink!" - Coach Peeler, Richwoods High School, circa 1978


So, I finally get my first route in the spring of 2003: a 3-day run through Indiana. First day, (and I forget the times, sorry) I'd shoot out US30 to Fort Wayne, and I had 3 or 4 deliveries there. I remember a couple of them were these frozen yogurt places that we've been doing, almost as long as I've been with the company. It's about 2 1/2 hours from Chicago to Fort Wayne, so I must have started somewhere around 4:30 or 5 am, because my first delivery was at 7. Again, I'm a little hazy on the exact details. From Fort Wayne, I'd hop on US24 and head back west head towards Lafayette/West Lafayette, where I'd be delivering on the second day. I recall I had a stop in Huntington, about a half hour west of Fort Wayne, then I'd run out of time around Peru, where I'd shut down for the night.
Second day was mainly Lafayette/West Lafayette. I had four or five of the yogurt places,
all owned by the same guy, a decent enough fellow, although I remember we had some trouble during the hot summer months. I remember him going off on me a little because the
five-gallon tubs of ice cream had softened up a little, due to the crappy job the freezer compartment on my reefer had done (I'll devote a whole chapter to refrigerated units in a later
posting). I apologized profusely, and bent over backwards to help get the stuff into his freezer
ASAP. Otherwise, nothing remarkable struck me about that area, except for the Purdue billboards all over the place. I may have driven past the university, but don't remember really even seeing it. I would then head back nothbound on I65 toward civilization, er Merrillville.
I had a delivery in the Southlake Mall over there, and the owner preferred to have his delivery on that second day (Tues. or Wed., not sure) So, I'd back the truck up into the loading docks,
and unload the yogurt and ice cream out the side door, and bring it right in through the food court. As far as mall deliveries go, it wasn't half bad; I've seen worse, trust me. If I arrived mid-afternoon ( 2, 2:30 ish), there wasn't usually much pedestrian (or truck) traffic, so it was a snap. If it was later, however, then you could run into some delays. So, I'd take off for the truckstop
right afterwards, and shut down. I remember we had these old Volvos (8-speed) with a light
or "integral" sleeper. That's where the bunk is right behind the seats, with just a half-curtain separating the two. One trip I got a truck with no a/c. OMG! You have to just lay there, windows rolled down, bugs flying all over, praying for a cool breeze. Tough to sleep in those kind of conditions. I've since had trucks where the a/c has gone out, and gone through the same thing. Not fun.
Last day was actually a night shift: get up about 10pm; after coffee, etc. I'd run over to Michigan City, then back west to Lake Station and Hobart ("Ho-bert"). The pizza stores are easy because
you kinda know what to expect: you have store keys, alarm codes (hopefully, if neccesary), and the stores, while all laid out differently, basically order all the same shit, ya know? So I'd get done about 7 or 8 the third day, then all I had to do was go fuel the truck, then back to the base,
back up to the dumpsters, and get rid of all your trash and cardboard (there is a LOT of that). Just ask the dispatcher where they want the truck and bam, you're done. It was about a 40-hour run, give or take. I know I've probably said it before, but being paid by the hour, this job is the only one I know of where being efficient actually works against you. Of course back in those days, we full-timers were guaranteed 40 hours, no matter how many you worked (that policy has been done away with). So guys could work 3 days and get their 40, and have 4 days off.
Such a deal, right? Then you could ask for OT if you wanted it, do some local straight truck work, yard work, local pickups, etc.
I did the Indiana route through the spring and summer of 2003, and into the fall. I believe in September sometime they took me off it, and I was putzing around in Iowa for a bit (my current route). The guy that was doing Iowa had screwed up, or called in sick once too many times, I don't recall, but they gave it to me eventually, and I did that up until about November.
My last recollection I'd like to share here was of an incident at a truck stop in Indiana, along 80/94 around Burns Harbor or someplace. And this must have been later, when I was going up to Michigan, because I was scaling the load, and I came in to get my ticket. There was a guy there who was extremely upset and agitated about something. He was getting into it with the cashier, and after a few moments of arguing, he stormed out of the place, hollering "Fuckin' Hoosiers!" I laughed then, and I laugh now when I think of that (usually when I see a vehicle w/Indiana plates fucking up). Now, I don't mean to suggest that all Hoosiers are bad drivers,
but there does seem to be quite a few of them out there, people who don't seem to "grasp the concept," so to speak. I always go back to that angry guy: "Fuckin' Hoosiers!"

Next: Snow Hell

More Soon,

Steve