On The Road With Flat Stacey



This week Flat Stacey has begun the adventure of learning about life on the road. We left our home base in Leesport Monday morning and made one delivery in New Jersey. The cargo wasn’t the usual furniture that I haul. It was…I’m not sure exactly what it was. The paperwork said it was hardware washers. The customer unloaded the trailer which is also rare. Normally it is me doing the hard and dirty work. We drove back to Leesport and got another trailer (furniture this time) and made our way to Connecticut last night.

We had seven stops today in Connecticut. These are the cities that Flat Stacey and I stopped in:

Wethersfield

Hartford (The State Capitol.)

Bristol (Two stops in this town)

Meriden

Naugatuck (Try spelling that one without looking!)

Danbury

Flat Stacey is from Philadelphia, so she is used to the city life. We saw a lot of that today. She couldn’t believe some of the places I had to put the truck- there were a few stops where I had to back the truck off the road and into a very narrow driveway. She also thought that the people of Connecticut are crazy drivers, even by Philadelphia standards. I tend to agree.

Once that trailer was empty, we drove to Holland, Massachusetts to pick up our trailer for tomorrow. There is a small parking lot in Holland filled with trailers. These trailers are brought up to Massachusetts from our warehouse in Pennsylvania. A group of drivers drives up every day, drops a loaded trailer and takes an empty one back home with them. It’s a never ending back-and-forth cycle. I wouldn’t want to do that every day because it’s too much of the same thing and there is a lot of traffic to deal with. Some guys like that routine, mostly because they are crazier than I am.

On the way to Holland, we stopped at a truck stop, so I could get a shower. Since today is Fasnacht Day, we also had a snack from Dunkin’ Donuts. I got a frosted doughnut and a coffee. Flat Stacey enjoyed some Chocolate Munchkins and a hot chocolate. Flat Stacey will soon learn that if you ride with me, every day is Fasnacht day! (I love donuts!)


 Once we arrived in Holland, we switched trailers and Flat Stacey got to meet my friends Michael and Gary. (Michael is on the left, Gary on the right.) Both of them live in the area, so this is their home base. I don’t get up into this area all that much. They always help me with directions, landmarks and such. That is very helpful. Both Michael and Gary each have over one-million miles of safe driving under their belts. That’s a lot of miles and quite an accomplishment! Before we left, Gary was nice enough to let Flat Stacey meet his bears that ride around with him in the passenger seat of his truck. They seemed to enjoy each other’s company. 




 After Flat Stacey met everyone, it was time for us to go. Tomorrow Flat Stacey will be out of her element in the countryside of Vermont. We only have three stops, but it will be a long day because it is quite a distance from Holland and a lot of driving will be done. Tonight we are camping out at the Vermont Welcome Center. We still have a two and a half hour drive in the morning, just to reach our first stop. We have to wake up very early, so now it is time for bed.



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