2/22/08

I chose to stay in a vacant lot in the northeastern suburbs of Dallas last night, rather than drive down to the terminal in Lancaster. After all, they always send me up through Dallas to pick up a load. Anyone wanna guess where I picked up a load this morning? Give yourself a pat on the back if you said 'Lancaster.' Add a self-hug if you guessed that it was at the terminal. The drive through Dallas would have been nicer last night than it was during this morning's rush hour, but that's just the way it goes for me. Apparently they had about fifteen people on the board this morning, so my rare show of initiative in delivering early and boarding last night appears to have paid off.

From Lancaster I was dispatched to a drop/hook customer in Pacific, Missouri. That tacked on another 614 miles, plus the 31 mile deadhead, bringing my total miles for the week to 2,279. Anything for the weekend beyond that would have me in "I'm not complaining" mode. And... I guess we really do get pre-plans now. A few hours into the drive, I got a plan summary to grab another load in Pocahontas and run it up to Providence for Monday morning. A bunch more miles, another thirty bucks in northeast pay, not too shabby. That moved me past "I'm not complaining" and straight to "3,500 miles? Kickass!"

How many pre-plans is that lately? I guess I could read through my old entries here and see, but I'm not nearly that curious nor ambitious. I do know that it used to be something like one pre-plan every three or four months. These days I seem to get a couple per week. Whether it's merger-related or the planners are just on the ball lately or those other 800 drivers finally quit or I'm just a righteous dude, I don't really care. I just know that pre-plans are a good thing, so they can keep 'em coming.

Today's drive was a pretty long one, but I managed to stay on the road and get to Pacific in under ten hours. I ran straight through Dallas and up through Oklahoma and Missouri without any major delays. There was a big backup at the spot where I left I-35 to shoot over to US-75, but it moved along after a short while. From what I heard on the radio today, I suspect that it may have been related to that motorcycle cop who died. I really don't know though. The 65mph truck thing hasn't really been a hindrance as far as I can tell. A few times today I might have been inclined to pass if my truck were faster, but I stayed back because I had a heavy load and didn't want to tie up the left lane. It's probably good for me anyway. I tend to get a little aggressive behind the wheel sometimes. The slower truck might help me grow up a bit.

At the place in Pacific, there was a sign saying that I was to check in at door 17 between 6am and 1:30am, Monday-Friday. Nobody there. So I swung back around and checked the sign again. Between 1:30am and 6am, it said to use door 8. It wasn't anywhere near 1:30am yet, but I tried door 8 anyway. Nobody there. I decided to park and chill for a while, thinking the night shift might be at lunch. An hour later, the place was still a ghost town. So I snooped around the (unlocked) building, looking for some kind of indication about where they may or may not have been expecting me to leave my trailer. Nuttin. That left me in a position to do what I hate to do. It was nighttime. It was a weekend. And I had to contact CTL.

I shot them a message, asking if it is okay to drop a trailer with nobody at the customer. A half hour later, having received no response, I decided to have a cigar and call it a night. In some twisted way, I thought it might be a little healthier for me to go for a walk as I enjoyed my nice dark Nat Sherman. I got around the corner of the building and saw a pickup truck pulling in near door 8. So I ventured over and, what do you know, the dude was able to help me. I don't remember his exact words and I would hate to misquote him, so I'll just tell you what the words sounded like to me:

"Go around to the west side of the building. That's the side with the skinny driveway and no room to maneuver. Over there you'll see a row of trailers on an icy, unmaintained patch of ground. Blindside your trailer into the one opening and then somehow manage to get out from under it. Then go over and hook to your empty. The turn you'll have to make from that spot, in order to get out of the ice rink, will be more suited to a Pinto than a Kenworth. You'll do fine." Yeah, like I said, these weren't his exact words.

Anyhow, I got it all taken care of. As I wrote down my new trailer number on my log book, I did a double take. Wh-wha-what!?! The empty trailer that CTL told me to pick up was actually the empty trailer that I found? I thought they just made up those numbers when they sent those "pick up trailer XXXXX" messages. They always say to retrieve a trailer that isn't there.

In true night and weekend fashion (meaning late and not terribly useful), I had received a reply to my earlier Qualcomm message by the time I got done dropping and hooking. It said that there should be someone at the consignee and I would probably just have to wait until my appointment time if I couldn't find anyone. Yep. This kind of insight comes free of charge, right over the satellite. It's awesome, I know.

So, I got dispatched to Pocahontas and made it here in something roughly resembling eleven hours of driving, within something roughly resembling fourteen hours of starting my day. Good enough. By the time this week's check hits my bank account next Friday, I guess we'll have to say The Laredo Experience is officially forgiven. Next week might get off to a pretty slow start since I'll be a little hamstrung by the 70 hour rule, but these last two weeks haven't been bad at all.