Happy New Year

Lori had fallen asleep long before midnight. I celebrated the new year at the West Memphis AR OC, along with a driver I had met before somewhere.  Neither of us could remember where we had talked earlier, but we remembered each other's face.  Funny, you meet so many people in different places. He had ordered a Dominoes pizza, and offered me a slice. I ended up eating half the pizza, and he even bought me a Coke. His delivery wasn't until the 2nd, and he was just 250 miles away from the consignee.

I took off at 0300. I stopped at I-40 Exit 142 in Arkansas, just as Lori was waking up. We had breakfast at the Waffle House. I went to bed. Lori drove us on into Oklahoma. We stopped in Calumet at the Loves, and continued on down the road. I went back to bed, as I was not feeling 100%.

I awoke to Lori asking me if I had the 2004 permits.  I remember the company sending a broadcast message out in November: "DONT 4GET 2 P/U 2004 PERMITS". I remember asking for them at the OCs in Seville, Carlisle, Gary, Charlotte, and West Memphis: none of them had the 2004 permits as late as mid-December and, frankly, we got tired of asking and just plum forgot about them!  Well, Oklahoma hadn't! I was wondering why the OK scales were open. They are NEVER open.  But here it is, first day of the new year, and the states know they can rake in the $$$ by targetting us drivers who have simply made a slight oversight.  Never mind that our vehicle is registered for 2004, and they know this.  They ticketed Lori for simply not carrying paperwork showing registration. B@$T@RDS  We were the 4th Schneider truck they had nailed that we saw, and we are sure there were many more from what we heard on the CB.  Why in the world had Schneider not sent out a reminder message when the permits were actually available, rather than a month prior??  Lord knows, they message us for all kinds of useless stuff.  Why had not any of the OCs, upon admitting us at the gate, ask, "Have you picked up your 2004 permits?"  Oh, well.  $125 ticket times how many drivers?  Maybe next time, they will have their act together.  Normally, I have the permits updated at least two weeks to a month ahead of time, but Schneider did not make the 2004 permits available until too late.

Lori got us to Amarillo TX. Lori went to bed. I called Jessica. We talked for 30 minutes. I made it to Santa Rosa NM.