8/10/07

Today seemed like a pretty eventful day, even though in hindsight I guess I didn't do all that much.

I started off covering the last hundred miles to get to my first stop in Denver. Halfway up there, my communication system beeped with a message from my fleet manager. He said that the shop needed me in Joplin to repair my MobileMax console, so he was highlighting me for Joplin. My MobileMax has been pretty sketchy since I got this truck last year. I've had it in the shop a couple of times and it does work better than it used to, but I still have to pull the fuse and reset it every now and then. So, I have to wonder, why now? Further to that, why would the shop initiate a repair visit when I've learned just to deal with it? I'm pretty cynical about things, so I assume that this is a bullshit excuse to get me back there and turn my truck down. Since they've lowered the company speed limit to 65mph but left the trucks able to run 70mph, I've been expecting the day to come when they neuter my truck a little further. I guess we'll see.

Being highlighted for Joplin isn't a big deal to me, per se. I get paid by the mile, so they can send me wherever they want to. In addition, it's been a while since my truck had a bath and one of my drive tires is going to be due for a swap out before too much longer, so getting through there will give me a chance to have those things done. My only concern right now is centered on the fact that a bunch of drivers have headed to Joplin for tomorrow's monthly drivers' meeting. The big topic of discussion is supposed to be the Conway merger and people are all anxious to hear more about it. If I get stuck there this weekend with fifty trucks ahead of me, I'll be fairly pissed to say the least.

When I got to the stop in Denver, I was oh so pleased to see that I had to back in from a busy street lined with parked cars on both sides. I found a better way in though, pulling into my customer and then angling into the lot across the street, leaving me a pretty basic back-up into the dock. No biggie.

After they got me empty there, I headed for my second stop in Englewood. The directions were pretty easy to follow, so I had that going for me. I had to proceed past the main entrance to the facility and use the east drive back toward the docks. The damned east drive was this weird serpentine thing up a hill with cars parked on both sides. Now, this entrance was specifically built to accomodate traffic to the docks. Why in the hell wouldn't they just make it a straight driveway? It wasn't terribly difficult to navigate, but I have no idea why anybody would design a truck entrance that way. After I checked in and waited for the previous truck to leave my assigned dock, I spun around and got set up. As I rolled back toward the dock from a pretty weird angle, I heard a loud bang. Fuck! What could I have hit? I set the brakes and hauled ass to the back of my trailer. I wasn't within ten feet of anything. Then I heard the same bang again. It was freaking thunder. There was a storm a few miles to the west and the thunder rolling across the warehouse had a weird sound to it. I looked like a jackass, but hey, I didn't hit anything.

Once I got empty there, I was faced with a pretty common dilemma. It's pretty common in urban areas at least. I could drive twenty miles back into Denver and go to a crowded truck stop or I could drive twenty miles to the south and hope that the little gas station in Castle Rock had a spot for me. I chose to go away from Denver even though I had a suspicion my next load would be in Denver. The dirt lot in Castle Rock only had one truck in it, so I grabbed a spot. After I took a few minutes to use the facilities and get some lunch, I got my next assignment. Deadhead to Salina, Kansas and go on the board? That's a weird one. We don't have a drop lot in Salina. They didn't direct me to any specific place in Salina. Just go to Salina. Whatever. I'll get there tomorrow and set up shop at the Flying J until they decide what to do with me.

When I checked the route from Castle Rock to Salina, the prescribed approach was to head back up around Denver to I-70 and roll east. Here's where the little devil on my shoulder starts talking to me sometimes. As a general rule, you never take one of these trucks down a road unless you know it's okay to go there. I, however, get in the mood to fly by the seat of my pants every now and then. As I looked up at the mountains, I couldn't resist. I headed up some county road and went on an adventure. How often will I get a chance to go exploring around there with no weight in the wagon? I'm pretty sure I wound up going about twenty five miles out of my way, but it was pretty fun. I ran up and down some canyons. I saw some beautiful estates up there. I actually saw a bison ranch too. Holy shit those things are huge! I'm a city boy, so I always pictured a bison as being just a weird-looking cow. Some of them were about twice as big as the biggest cow I've ever seen. Pretty cool.

I caught up with I-70 over in the eastern part of Colorado and rolled into Kansas. Even without my little detour, I didn't have enough hours to make it to Salina tonight, so I've pulled into a rest area here with about 150 miles left for tomorrow morning. I'm not in a terrible hurry to get there and have them tell me to come to Joplin, which is probably what they'll end up doing.