8/29/07

Well, the old midnight express rolled once again this morning. It took my full eleven hours to get to Lincoln, but I made it. The trip was a nice change of pace from all the mountain driving. There are certainly plenty of hills in Missouri, but nothing like the 30mph climbs that characterized yesterday's drive.

I got past St. Louis well before the morning rush, then around KC as the sun was coming up. The traffic on 435 up to 29 was a non-issue, which is a good thing. Any major delays and I was not going to make it to Lincoln within 11 hours. I took a little liberty with the company's 65mph 'request' just to make sure I wouldn't be late, but once I got through most of Missouri it was apparent that I would be fine so I backed it down.

My directions to the consignee referred to a route approaching from the east. I was coming from the south. I really didn't feel like going out of my way to pick up highway 6 and follow their directions, so I came up with my own. I would just cruise highway 2 into Lincoln and make a right on 70th. Nice and easy. Yeah, 70th was a 'no trucks' street down by highway 2. So I wound up having to stay on 2 all the way through Lincoln, then go up 77 to 6 and take that all the way back to where CFI's directions would have left me in the first place. Live and learn, live and learn.

The customer told me that I would get unloaded at 1pm, the time of my appointment. I had hoped to get out a little more quickly, but they had a schedule to keep and I was first after their lunch break. The guy in the receiving office didn't seem to grasp the concept that he needed to cut the seal off of my trailer before I could open the doors. "Go ahead and open it," he suggested. I told him it had a cable seal and needed to be cut. "Yeah, just open it up." With what, my teeth? Eventually I was able to get the point across and he cut the seal. They took maybe a half hour to pull the pallets off and then sent me on my way.

Now, I'm dead flat totally and completely out of hours. I just woke up from a very refreshing nap, but according to the DOT I'm too tired to drive, until midnight of course. At that time I'll apparently be rested appropriately. I'll pick up a few hours tonight, but not a lot. Then I'll get a decent amount back for the next few days after that. Normally, these mandated times sitting are annoying, but given the work load the last few days, I don't mind taking the rest of today off. I'm actually hoping for a slow weekend and, on account of the Monday holiday, I might get one. The miles for this paycheck are currently sitting at 6,556 so anything sensible tomorrow and Friday will put me over 7,000. That's better than a kick in the nuts I think.

On Saturday I'm hoping to have time to find a motel, order a pizza, and kick back for plenty of football. I'm definitely feeling the spirit:

Here Come the Irish

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