10/28/07

Somewhere in the midst of World War VII, I finally dozed off last night. I cut off the southern coastline from the Romans, so now it's just a matter of tightening the noose to finish them.

Anyhow, since I was planning to get to my destination late, I didn't set an alarm. I just let nature take its course. The thing about sleeping with the truck off though, is that the greenhouse effect acts like a natural alarm clock if you sleep much past sunrise. It gets pretty damn hot back there, pretty damn quickly. Thankfully though, it looks like summer is finally leaving us and it stayed cool enough for me to sleep soundly. When I woke up I went back to sleep for another hour, just for shits and giggles.

When I stopped in Hurricane Mills for a shower and a shave, I was debating (internally amongst myselves) whether or not I should take advantage of my fast internet connection and watch some football or just finish off the drive. As the debate raged on, the old-timer next to me motioned for me to roll down my window. He asked if I was headed north. Yes. He told me that the traffic was all backed up and I had better just wait it out. He had come from Nashville and said it was pretty bad for quite a ways up in that direction. Just then, in an odd coincidence, the side in favor of watching football won the debate.

Once I concluded that the Braves on the warpath, fighting for old DC weren't exactly going to put up much of a fight, I figured I might as well get moving. At that point I still had time to get to the customer before my 14 hours ran out. If I sat another hour or two I would have to take a ten hour break along the way and finish the run tomorrow morning. I looked over my atlas and bounced around a few corner-cutting routes, then decided just to stick with the interstate as originally planned.

Back out to I-40, sonofabitch! The old man wasn't bullshitting. It was at a dead standstill. I took a peek at the aforementioned atlas and saw a way to take the next exit and get back to that alternate route I had been contemplating. Secondary Road 50 was the official name of the road at the next exit. I was reminded more of the "Bob's Road" line from Twister. It was about eight or nine miles back to the northwest until I caught up with TN-13, which was my intended route. By the grace of God, there was no oncoming traffic along Bob's Road for that eight or nine miles. There would have been no way for a car to get past me unless we were on a straightaway, and even then it would have been awfully tight. Once I caught TN-13 and headed north, tonight's drive was actually a very relaxing one. No traffic to speak of and my light load made the hills a non-issue.

I rolled up on the customer a little while ago. Lots of room to park, just as I had hoped. And a locked gate preventing me from getting in, just as I had not hoped. Unfortunately, I had no Plan B. I may or may not have mentioned - I'm pretty lazy when it comes to trip planning. I pulled into the next driveway (which also had a locked gate) and went for a little walk. I was hoping that my favorite Italian company, the For Lease corporation, would have a nearby location. No such luck there, but... their Hungarian affiliate, Available, had a place right across the street. Beauty. There is some kind of trucking outfit in the back of this building, but I'm pretty sure I won't be bothering anyone if I spend the night up on this side.

With the log book all caught up, I'll have 5.75 hours with which to work tomorrow. Obviously I don't have high hopes for anything useful in that kind of window, but I'm optimistic that I can at least go somewhere and stage for a good run or two to finish out the month. Sitting at 5,595 for the pay period right now, I have my sights set on at least 6,500 by the time it's said and done. Once my ancillary pay for extra stops and northeast miles is factored in, this check should be a pretty good one.