The Adventures of Gus the Bus: The Missing Cintas Distribution Center

6: The number of buildings on Cintas Blvd.

What a beautiful, albeit rainy, day for a barrel drop-off with Gus the Bus!

How do I describe yesterday... it definitely had its ups and downs. Early in the morning there was a HUGE spider in our little office, which is not what you want to find in a room with four ladies. Meredith, my supervisor, was able to identify it as a wolf spider. She was also able to smush it with her shoe. If she hadn't been in the office , I'm pretty sure Martha, Kaitlyn and I would still have our feet up on our office chairs.

But soon after that, Tina came into our office with some good news. Kaitlyn and I were each given our expense checks, which have been missing since August! So that was really exciting. We were both practically singing when we realized that everything was in the correct amount and all we had to do was go to the bank.

After that high wore off, it was time for Kaitlyn and me to take out Gus the Bus. We had to drive out to Mason to MedPlus and the Cintas Distribution center. We decided that I would drive Gus to MedPlus, we would "rock paper scissors" to see who had to drive to Cintas, and Kaitlyn would drive us back. I won, so I got to relax in the front seat while Kaitlyn unintentionally drove over a few curbs in the parking lot.

Things were going pretty smoothly. We got to MedPlus alright, and we found Cintas easily. Okay, that's not altogether true. We found the general area where Cintas was supposed to be. Our MapQuest directions told us to turn right on Cintas Blvd. and that the address we were looking for would be on the left. Well, there are several buildings on this street, all of which are labeled "CINTAS." So we maneuvered our way down each random driveway, hoping to find an address (which we didn't).

Where do we go?!

We had some time to kill anyway, because we were told that no one would be able to find us and the barrels between 12:30 and 1:00. So we parked Gus across four empty parking spaces, turned on the radio, had a little jam session in the truck and took some picturesque fall photos of our favorite van/truck/bus.

When one o'clock rolled around, we had some decisions to make. We were in the largest parking lot for the biggest building at the very end of the drive. So we drove around, making a tight circle around the building, until we found what looked like a main entrance. We went in and were told by the lady at the front desk to take the barrels "down by the docks."

"Down by the docks?"

"Yes, down by the docks."

"Do you have a dock number for us or something? There are like 20 docks."

"No, just head down there. Like, around the building."

"..."

When we got back to Gus, we called our contact person for Cintas, who told us to meet her by dock 16. Finally, a straight answer! Of course we hung up with her before we discovered that dock 16 was located behind a security gate. Fortunately, we were able to sit there speechless long enough that another truck came by, entered the code, and entered through the gate. So we just followed him in. I hope we didn't make anybody anxious with that.

So we finally made it to dock 16, and we unloaded the two barrels from the back and lugged them up the steps to the one door we saw. Someone was there to greet us and lead us halfway across the building to their cafeteria. (Well, it seemed like that far. It's hard to measure distance when you're carrying a huge barrel). We dropped off the barrels, and their posters for the barrels, and navigated our way out of there. We were able to tailgate another semi out of the fenced-in dock area, and we headed back to Shared Harvest.

We have decided that we will probably never be completely used to driving Gus the Bus. Every time I climb up to the driver's seat I start having heart palpitations. Still, it gets a little easier every day!