Winter Layoff Chapter 10
| Winter Layoff | |
|---|---|
| Chapter 10 of 21 | |
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| Read this chapter | |
| Time frame | January 2006 |
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Locations
- On the road to Pass Christian, Mississippi
- In Pass Christian, Mississippi
Characters
Summary
Jim and Bob were finally able to get on the road the next day with the dump truck driving no worse than it had the previous summer. They were two days behind schedule and they still faced at least two and a half days of driving. They pushed on, still swapping seats every two hours like they’d planned, and for the next two days they drove, ate in truck stop restaurants and slept in the camper in the truck stop parking lots.
When they arrived in Pass Christian in the mid-morning of the third day Jim pulled the dump truck and backhoe trailer into what might have once been a convenience store parking lot, parked it and locked it. Using the pickup they located his aunt and uncle’s lot. As before, the entire area was just a field of debris with a few trees sticking up here and there. The lot had a good landmark, the big tree lying on top of and in the middle of the pile of debris.
A few minutes later they were back where they had parked the dump truck and trailer. An officious volunteer manager pulled up and after a disagreeable start to a conversation Jim and Bob informed him that they were not general volunteers but down from Michigan to clear one specific lot. The manager pleaded for a little help with cleaning up the business district but neither Jim nor Bob made any promises. They did find out where to dump the material that they removed from the lot - a sorting facility in the parking lot of a wrecked supermarket a few blocks away - and where to find out about utility hookups.
Just clearing some space to park the trailer, pickup truck, and dump truck filled the dump truck. They made their first run to the sorting facilty, met the folks there, learned the procedures and dumped the load.
The chapter closes with them driving back to Rita and Johns's lot and Bob saying ...I can’t think about how many loads it’s going to take to get just this one lot cleaned up. Jim replied Me, either... But we’re just going to have to do it.
Also Mentioned
- Aunt Rita and Uncle John Fleming
