1/29/08

Well, I think I've set a new personal record. It usually takes a couple of weeks on the road before I'm ready to park the truck and walk away. This time I got there on day six.

I woke up at the customer and chased around a bunch of Filipino guys who didn't speak English. My appointment was 7am, so of course the shipping lady showed up at 7:20am. The dock guy was a real prick. The paperwork says it's 48,000 pounds for half a trailer. Obviously that's bullshit. It's pretty heavy, but nowhere near that heavy. The traffic from Columbus to Cincinnati was a bitch. And that was the good part of the day.

The second stop had a horseshit dock setup. The guy in the little office told me to wait in my truck and someone would let me know which door to use. Some other guy started bitching at me for sitting where I was told to sit. Their paperwork says it's 6,000 pounds for twenty pallets. Obviously that's bullshit. It's nowhere near that light. The traffic around Cincinnati and into Kentucky was a bitch. That was the part where I started to get annoyed.

Going down I-65 it was windier than shit. There were a couple of pretty intense storms that had everybody riding their breaks. I have no idea how much weight I'm actually pulling, but it's pretty damn heavy. Up and down hills. Downshift, upshift, ride the brakes. Downshift, upshift, ride the brakes. Rinse, recycle, repeat. I-65 was closed for an accident or something (no CB here) so we had to take a convoluted route through some hick town and back down to the highway. That was a fun hour of idling. People don't know how to drive. Slower traffic keep right? Nah, that's a myth. And that was the part where I became thoroughly pissed.

Into Tennessee... I would have given my left nut for about fifty miles of flat terrain tonight. Every climb, five slower cars and trucks would pass me and get in front of me. On the way down, I would try to convince myself to just stay back and wait it out. And they would get slower... and slower... so I would pass them and we would do it again on the next hill. Over and over and over. And that was the part where I had to actually convince myself not to run someone off the road.

Then it flattened out a little and I was able to set the cruise. So of course I would roll along just fine for a few miles with nobody in front of me and nobody on my left. Then I would approach a slower car and put on my turn signal to pass. And suddenly the left lane was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Every fucking time. And that was the point that I saw the bridge to Arkansas and thanked my lucky stars that the drive was over.

They say tomorrow is another day, so I guess it would have to be better than today. Hard to imagine it being any worse. I'll head to Lancaster tomorrow and then Laredo Thursday. That should give me a solid chance to get some miles in before Saturday night and wrap up a nice paycheck. The way today went though, I'm not in the mood to be an optimist so we'll just wait and see.