Yondering

I worked for a manufacturing company for many years. First as a packager, then operating machines, then as a material handler. I spent many years of my life there on the third shift. We would open the plant on Sunday night and part of my job was unloading trucks that arrived over the week end. We had two regular company owned runs, they were drop and hook, and the norm was one arriving some time during the week end. With just in time shipping in it's infancy, we had more than a few hiccups.
One Sunday night we were expecting a load of materials out of Ohio. It should have arrived early on Sunday, but when I checked the dock, the only trailer was full of outgoing product destined for Minnesota and Iowa.
The trucker finally showed up around 3 A.M. and I got right on it. With a bit of BSing on the side. The driver was new to the route. It was his first ever time picking up from Ohio, and even though the plant was just down the road from our plant there, he knew nothing about them.
Seems he arrived there early on a Friday morning. Since there were no vehicles in the parking lot, he climbed in the sleeper and set his alarm for 7. At 7 there were still no vehicles in sight. Puzzling, but he was not familiar with their plant hours, so he took another nap. About noon he got up again. this time he had to piss real bad. Since he was out of town, he didn't figure it would be a problem to just drain the main vein off in the woods back of the plant. As he was walking that direction, he became aware of people in the wood line. Horses there as well. It became quite clear to him that these were workers from that plant taking their lunch.
He had just had his first run in with Amish workers. The plant was modern, the machinery was best in class, but still these people rode horses to work, and tied them in the woods. He'd lost close to ten hours because he hadn't bothered to try the door.
Lucky for me, the product we needed right now was on the back of his trailer. I just had to stab it,weigh it, and get it up to the machine that needed it. Over time I saw that driver quite a bit. The company truck were always loaded by the day shift material handlers. They were the most senior,perk of the job. They were however, not the best loaders. On more than one occasion they stacked pallets in that were mismatched. All the heavy stuff on one side, or nose heavy to the point he couldn't slide the back gear to get it scaleable for Minnesota. The first D.O.T. if he headed north was in east central Nebraska, and by then it was too late. So if there was any reason for doubt, he just sat tight.