Chapter 14: How could this have not worked

It went down hill rather fast after that point. Drivers that run 4, 5, 6 hours a day past their allowable driving time. Drivers going 300 + miles out of their way to deliver. The father-in-law finally had to drive himself. Times were getting hard. It had been 9 months and the only good news is that the camping trailer found its way from my yard to a trailer park and I usually only had 1 truck in the yard at a time. Then winter came.

I am not a truck driver. I understand though the difficulty in having to drive in adverse conditions and trying to navigate a snow packed mountain trail can have its moments but if you decide to drive a big rig you should have the skill and the guts to drive in bad weather when needed. The father-in-law had eleminated driving in New York , Chicago , LA and a few other places because he didn’t like them. He was fresh out of drivers and the first of the truck repo's had just started. Now he would only run southern routes and no east coast. I told him to drive a bread truck or a school bus. Money was getting tight and he was selling what he could to pay for gas. I tried not to play the “I told you so” game but my God how could this have ever been a good idea. No experience, not wanting to run specific routs, not going above the Mason Dixon and excluding an entire coast and he can’t understand why he wasn’t getting many loads.

I came home one day and his truck was in my yard. The little white Dodge pickup was gone so I figured he went home. I also noticed one of my cars was missing so I assumed the wife took it. I wasn’t sure why as she had a new car and this was my little runaround beater. I walk into the house and the wife said,“Hello”. I stopped and just starred at her.“What’s wrong?” she asked.“Where is the Mustang?” I asked.“Outside in the driveway.” She told me. I told her to call 911 just as the mother-in-law walked up from the basement.“Why are you calling the police?” She asked. I told her someone stole my car.“Nobody stole the car.” She said.“Then where is my car” I asked.  


Did I really need to ask?