Life on the road: What a day...

So here I am in a totally different hotel than I was yesterday... doh.

It all started when Mike ( a friend of my trainers) took me up from portland to Pacific, Washington. We dropped his truck off at the gordon terminal and walked into a dispatch office. Picture the NASA shuttle control room with computers and kiosks everywhere. That's where all the Dispatchers dispatch us drivers to different customers and locations around the country. The weekend dispatch told us that the hotel for students coming off of trainers trucks were to go to the Val-U-Inn. So we went over there and they didn't have a reservation for me. It was 9pm and we were not able to get ahold of anyone ( kinda funny because this is supposed to be a 24/7 company...) So I just put the room on my card because gordon would for sure pay me back. Well, I gave them a call this morning and she said "You're where?" with a stunned tone. I suppose this hotel and Gordon had a falling out and no one ever notified the weekend dispatchers... hmm. She said for me to get my stuff and let the hotel know that I will be checking out early and to have them shuttle me over to the gordon HQ. I had breakfast (make your own belgian waffles rule!) and got all my junk together. I checked out and asked for the shuttle. They said "Oh I'm sorry, we don't go there anymore" hmm, now I'm screwed. It's only 4 miles away for crying out loud. So gordon arranged for a driver to come over and pick me up. Turns out it was a driver who was on "light duty" meaning he was hurt on the job (back problems) and to be still eligable for his medical benefits he had to misc. work around the terminal. He's driven for gordon for 14 years and is counting down the days until he can go back out on the road.

When i got to gordon finally I was set up on a computer to do some finishing assignments that only took 3 hours... ouch, but I 'm glad I won't have to do that one agian. They served us a lunch consisting of some gourmet pizza hut. The other hotel shuttle bus came and picked some other students and I up and brought us to here, the Travelodge Suites which is anything but a suite but rather a small room with just enough room for a bed and a bathroom...hahaha well not quite, but still, it's not as nice as the other place, plus it's a lot further to walk to everything around here. I wish I had my bike! They do have wireless internet in the room so I'm happy.

So How about some more photos?