There has been much discussion recently of what’s going on now in the shipping world.
My case of Harrington wines from their recent sale has had an interesting journey so far.
It was picked up by FedEx in San Francisco on Wednesday evening. Many folks here have been posting about shipments just waiting at various hubs for days as, presumably, package volume outweighed truck capacity. Same here. My case made it from San Francisco, CA to Tracy, CA overnight, but then sat there from about 1pm Thursday until 5 am Saturday. Normal enough for this time of year.
Leaving there, it made steady progress, with the only odd thing being that it went the southern route, down toward LA and across the desert, rather than the more direct way through Tahoe/Reno and Salt Lake City. Given the weather, probably a good idea. But steady progress through AZ, NM, TX, and KS - all good.
But then it heads to Willow Springs, IL, where it arrived this morning at 8 am. Which, Google tells me, is suburban Chicago. So a package from San Francisco to St. Louis, going by truck, has gone from Kansas to Chicago. OK.
But tonight’s update is my favorite. The 8am update today was Willow Springs, IL. The next update is 10:17 pm tonight, and it’s in Countryside, IL. Again unfamiliar, again I consult Google maps. Again I’m told we’re in the Chicago burbs. In fact, all we’ve done in those 15 hours is crossed the Des Plaines river. Willow Springs to Countryside, Mr. Google tells me, is 3.6 miles. 8 minutes by car. Presumably it will be in St. Louis early tomorrow morning and then out for delivery later in the day, but the whole routing through Chicago and then having two check-points, right across the river but 14 hours apart - bizarre.