Just got back from Hickory a few minutes ago. We took the truck up to the Volvo shop. I just got off the phone with Ray. Mara and I had already decided that we were done; we had no intention of running for Ray anymore (I think he'll be as glad to see us go as we will be glad to git). So I called him about it.

Ray kicked off the conversation by bitching us out about not getting the truck up to Hickory earlier than we did. As with a lot of things having to do with Ray, a lot of that was his fault. Mara and I had every intention of getting the truck up there bright and early, but then Ray called this morning and started running his mouth at us. After that neither of us had any motivation whatsoever to be in a hurry.

Anyway, I told Ray that we wanted to be kicked back to regular fleet. His mood seemed to improve then. I guess my suspicion that he'd rather be rid of us, as well, was pretty dead on. But he turned the table on us and asked us to run a couple of loads to give him time to cover things. I told him I'd talk to Mara, but at this point I can't imagine that she'll be too amiable to the idea. For one thing, Ray has already abused us once today (twice if you count the broadside he tried to launch at the start of the conversation), and Mara is not going to be in the mood to deal with Ray in any way, shape or form. For another thing, we simply don't trust Ray. We're not sure what Ray can or cannot do, but I wouldn't put it past Ray to get us fired somehow, and there we'd be sitting in Illinois with little money in the bank and no way to get home. I don't know that either of us would be willing to risk that.

I said I'd talk to Mara about it, and I will. But I know what the answer will be. And I feel the same way. We're tired of being abused by the assholes in Bedford Park, but we're especially tired of being abused by Ray. He told Mara this morning that we had to pick up tomorrow's load by 7am. Yeah, right. At this point it'll be a small miracle if Ray gets us back into the truck at all.