LAYOVER IN PORTLAND / FIRST SNOW OF SEASON

Goodness, how time flies! It's been a week since my last update. This is starting to sound like a Catholic confession. I've just been keeping busy with other things lately - like getting extra sleep. Typically, at 2am, I wrap up my driving shift. Victor takes over & I retreat to the sleeper. After typing a short email or two, I'm in total sleep-mode. Nothing interests me more than buckling-in & extinguishing the lights. Then, it's been taking 9 or 10 hours to feel properly rested. Sleep is a sacred thing in this industry, so I won't apologize for taking as much of it as I need.

We are on a 24 hour layover at the Portland OC. Our customer opens tomorrow, at 6am. The load we are babysitting can't be relayed to any other team. We have todeliver it tomorrow. While the freight isn't necessarily valuable, our customer deems it to be really important. As usual, I can't be specific about what I'm hauling until I've actually delivered it.

I drove through my first round of snow of the season, yesterday evening, over Cabbage Pass, in Eastern Oregon. 35-40 mph was as fast as I felt safe driving. With only 13,500 lbs of freight in the trailer, I had to exercise extra caution on the slippery & windy slopes. Lightly-loaded trucks are the most likely to wreck in wintry conditions.

More winter weather is forcasted for this region. Let's hope we can move Eastward, so we can be home for Thanksgiving.