3/26/08

Well, when the load is ready on time, the weather is good, the traffic is light, and the trip is only five and a half hours, I guess that's pretty cool. Things were completely stopped on I-65 into Nashville, but I hopped off on the loop and got around it with no trouble. My drop at the Nashville ConWay came with four sets of directions, all pretty similar but none exactly the same as each other. As has become my standard practice, I went with the last (and presumably most recent) directions. Nope. No good. "Take exit 212, south on Fessler." From exit 212 I could go east or west on some other road, with no Fessler in sight. I went west. Then went south on some other road. Then turned onto some other road. Then another one, and another... Somehow, as I bumbled along, I came across Fessler's Lane. Beauty.

About a half hour before I got to Nashville, I received the information for my next pre-planned load. It was to leave Nashville at 3:30am tomorrow and go to Troutville, Virginia. 3:30am usually means ConWay or beer, and I've never pulled beer out of Nashville. Troutville, Virginia seemed like an unlikely destination as well, so I assumed that I would be relaying a ConWay load there. Thus, after dropping off my loaded trailer, I didn't hook to an empty right away. Instead I sent in my forms and waited for the directions to my next pickup. Yep. ConWay in Nashville.

With no trailer and lots of time to kill, exploring seemed to be the thing to do. I asked one of the ConWay guys if he knew a good place to go for lunch. He took a few minutes and came up with directions to some Chinese buffet place. I'm not into Chinese food, but he put so much effort into his directions that I just said "thanks" and went out looking for myself. I found a Ruby Tuesday a little ways outside of town, so that was cool. Now I guess I'll try to find a movie theater or something. I really should do some laundry, but that doesn't sound fun at all.

If I keep getting these early morning loads, I'm going to have to grow some blue hair and frequent the early bird special at Denny's. They don't quite fit my style. 3:30am is usually around the time I fall asleep for the night. Oh well, it's a little over four hundred more miles for tomorrow, so that's not bad. I have to relay the load at the Godforsaken T/A in Troutville and then see where I go from there. Since I didn't work much today, I'm looking really good in terms of hours leading into the weekend.