Adventures abound?

Yesterday, July 15th marked the first official day that I was allowed the chance to finally set sail with the husband in his "office" as he calls it. I had previously booked the entire month of July off work to go out on the truck with him and the four legged children. For whatever reason, it never worked out for several weeks, for when your making plans; life happens. So after a refreshing weekend of trying to move into the truck we left Albany after 1:30pm, the first stop was a "live unload" so after April and I waiting at the truck stop we decided to meet Christian at the drop, still after April dropped us off it was still another several hours of waiting for the unload. UGGH, thank goodness for AC esp, in the south, in a truck and surronded by concrete! Well as I am hoping as soon as this unload we are bound for ADVENTURES!! Well, as they unloaded the trailer- there is damage to the trailer, so that means we have to take the trailer somewhere to be repaired... more time spent wasted. Let me explain a lilttle as I am learning too, once you log on to your truck- literally your clock starts and although you may not be driving or technically working your still losing hours, you are allowed 14 work hours, and 11 hours of driving time. So to help make it make sense, we spent 14 hours while the driving hours where only 4 hours spent. What that means in lay persons terms is, if your not driving- your not making money. They do not pay hourly, it is strictly MILEAGE.. So technically, yesterday sucked. So after we dropped our trailer to be repaired, we message dispatch via Qualcomm, that is another computer generated tracking/ communication device like a little computer in your truck. You cannot surf the web, it is like your life life to the company terminal. So as we set and wait on return communication from dispatch, this takes HOURS- literally! So in the waiting time, we crawl in the sleeping cab and enjoy lying down, eating lunch, walking the babies or whatever we want to do and anxiously await verbal message...insert ding-"you have an important message".. those are the joyous noises! Finally, we have a load.. to pick up in Macon... Great we are moving! Take a trailer from the place that we just dropped a trailer, heading to Macon, hoping for a trip North or West as I had asked to go, not that dispatch listens but they do try to work with you. Heading down the highway....not even out of Dougherty County- insert ding "you have an important message"- so as your driving down the road, the messages are verbal and they will not show typed text while the truck is motion, so we have to stop and this is alot of work. You are not allowed to just pull off and park anywhere, so you have to find a "safe haven" to stop and read your messages, they will read it to you but it literally reads everything like the message and letters and dashes so it is hard to understand exactly what they are saying without looking at the message, you get the just of it that there has been a CHANGE to your load, and oh shit--- so are you now going the right direction? Or picking up a different trailer in a different place... Just crazy change your mind and direction in one simple "you have an important message" So after we are slotted to pick up in Macon, well that load is still on BUT, now the rules changed a little bit.. Go meet another driver at ### this location and swap loads...? WTF, really! Ok, so we make it to Macon to an undisclosed location that was as heavy protected as FT Knox, getting cleared through security.. husband says do not get out of truck<scratch my head> but ok. OH hell it gets better. Get our load and get outta town, dispatch sends another message that he must call and get briefing on load... bottom line, high potential for theft, KEEP MOVING!! NICE, I thought and we are going to where? ATLANTA ugghhh, not what I was hoping for. So we arrive at our "meeting" place to swap loads, the other driver is still outta town for a bit, as we got caught up in traffic from an accident, we are sure either he encountered the same or just hotlanta rush hour traffic, either way... we are screwed. We cannot "sit" we have to keep moving till we meet up. UGGH, so drive in and around Atlanta looking for a somewhat safe haven to kill some time or to pee or do whatever.. Yea right! Not happening. We have 2.5 hours left on clock.. There is no way we will swap loads, deliver this other guys load and get outta Atlanta in that amount of time, we knew we would be stuck there.. Guess what, dispatch doesn't usually answer too many calls "after hours" so trying to get in touch with the other driver at this time seems bleak.. and they won't answer the phone? Continue to drive around.. well lets seek out the local truck stops as we may have to stop there.. WOW, the google reviews say "if you value your life you will not stay" at this one and that one, $15 parking posted on reviews saying it isn't worth it.. We finally find a truck stop.. FULL, slam full of people- trucks- less than desirable people who readily approach your truck asking if you wanna have a good time? EWW, true story one less than desirable approached the truck, jumped up and stuck her head in the window.. I know she was going to offer a good time, until she seen me in the sleeper, HAA, then she just asked for some money "to get the hell outta here", we watched her approach one truck/ person or another. So freaking disgusting. Well after that fun, and numerous messages finally a phone call from the other driver... SCORE, we are making a drop and swap in the middle of a parking lot... QUICKLY! So as it turns out the driver we swapped with, was the first driver of our truck and he asked how it was doing, my husband unknowingly jinked us just then... He said, he hasn't had any trouble..!! BIG mistake, husband. We rush over to drop this load on time, wahoo. But we have about 30 mins left on the clock, now what? Luckily, we are blessed on a REGULAR basis as it turns out, the place where we dropped the load has some property nearby, we are granted access as a safe haven for the night!! First overnight in an 18wheeler, truck shuts off every hour due to the temperatures outside, so I awake the husband every hour to restart the truck, we are also parked VERY nearby the airport, the puppas are bed hawgs, and the bunk is NOT a full size + the non working, non removed air conditioner is in my back on the wall... SO yea! as the husband asks "did you sleep at all" hmmm, well.. doesn't really matter, my job is a passenger and requires no brain cells or sleep!! And its a good thing too!!
So we set the alarm for 0600, in hopes of a load to the North or West this am (as now it is a new day) and we get up and walk the puppas, do some morning ritual stuffs and await the message... lets go back to sleep!!! SO we did get another hour in before the notorious bleep- "you have an important message".. Good news, my adventure is rolling ? Yea ok. Heading to pick up load, the trailer is dragging? Christian gets out and checks the brakes.. hmm, nothing. Get back in and drives, still pulling. Don't know whats going on of course niether of us are mechanics! Get to pick up location, they do not accept empty trailers, you must come in as a "bobtail".. I am learning the jargon! So we head somewhere else to drop the trailer, UGGH.. dealing with fat, lazy security guards all before coffee, REALLY! Finally drop the trailer and thinking we are heading to get some coffee and heat up some breakfast, as our load will be unloaded and ready in 2 hours, coffee, yes! Leaving the trailer yard..the truck is jerking like crazy, hmmm smells of burnt rubber or something of those lines.. Coming to a stop, the truck is smoking? Just get to a truck stop, get some coffee and we will message dispatch of what is going on..Good thing we opted to get some coffee and breakfast all the while. After coffee and breakfast, no messages.. Hell, lets lay down for a bit. Nap thirty. Actually 2 hrs later, we get a message to drive truck to Atlanta terminal for repairs. So an extremely long story short, we are in a hotel tonite, while the truck is undergoing some definate needing services. Husband returns from terminal just before 5pm.. another day, no wheels going round and round. Epic suck. Shop manager is going to try to get us on road tomorrow, prayers he is successfull! Good news is the bed I am sleeping in tonite is a full size, for real!