Drop and...and...and...

There are days when I almost understand what drives a painter crazy.

Northbound through the Appalachians, and there's color. So much of it. Too many shades I don't have names for.

And that's just the greens.

The afternoon sun changes things. Shadows change the texture of the hills. The trees seem to pop out of the hillsides as if I were driving a ViewMaster(tm).

Remember ViewMaster's(tm)? The binocular-looking 3-D picture viewers? If so, did you ever notice how even the photos of real places gave you the uneasy feeling you were looking at models? 3-D was their big selling point, so they emphasized it. They spaced their cameras much further apart than your eyes could ever be. Everything was TOO three-dimensional, as if you were a giant, or the mountain was made of plastic and six inches tall.

Mountain sunsets in spring can have the same effect sometimes. Spooky.

Nice relaxing day. Unfortunately. I got to my destination early in the afternoon, dropped the loaded trailer--and discovered they had no empties. And no idea when they'd get one. There were at least two other trucks from my company parked out front waiting for one. Joy.

So I told my dispatcher. He canceled my next load. Hard to load a trailer I don't have. And I sat.

Three hours later, he found me another load. Right where I was. They didn't have any empties, but they did have loaded trailers going elsewhere. So back I went, past the gate and into the huge parking lot. There I found the trailer I'd been assigned. Hooked up, pulled out--and nearly ran over a nice elderly couple driving aimlessly through the secured trailer lot.

There they were, sitting in their middle-aged Chrysler, neatly dressed, rigidly erect, driving solemnly in circles like an American Gothic car commercial. I braked just in time. I don't think they noticed.

A hundred or so yards down, two yard dogs blocked their path, and one of the drivers got out to ask what they needed.

By the time they got back to the gate I was on my way out. I never did find out what they needed. Or how they got past the gate guards...