5/13/08

I expected to get beeped pretty early today, so I hopped in bed last night at midnight. I got beeped at 12:02am. Story of life. In a neat little change of pace, they actually had a bunch of options from which to choose, and it wasn't the old 'Fort Worth or Denton' routine. After hearing the dispatcher rattle off at least ten destinations and the corresponding miles, I wound up taking the first one that he read to me - York, Pennsylvania for Friday morning.

This one pays 1,837 miles and, since the practical route goes up I-35 and I avoid that route whenever possible, I'll actually drive right around 1,800. There were some runs available with more miles on them, but this one seemed best for a few reasons. First is that I've usually gotten decent runs, and quickly, when I've been empty in that part of Pennsylvania. I'm hoping for another solid weekend and I think I should be positioned well. Second is that the 600 miles each for today, tomorrow, and Thursday/Friday will gobble up all of my available hours under the 70 hour rule. I'll have to finish off the run on Friday morning, but that's better than leaving hours on the table. Third, and this is important, I could angle out on US-59 and avoid that Austin/San Antonio debacle without adding any miles to my route.

There's a funny thing that those of us who have descended from the Irish people have learned through the generations. In essence, when things are going poorly, keep your head up and it will get better. More importantly though, when things go well you should expect some serious bullshit in the near future. So I wake up this morning, I check my trailer over, I go through the wash bay, I top off the fuel tanks, and I hit the road. I head out on Loop 20 to US-59, I breeze out of Laredo, say hello to the border guys as they take a peek at my bills, and mosey on up the highway without any traffic in sight. What could possibly be wrong with this day? For starters, Houston. Houston presented what we city folk like to call a convergence. Or is it confluence? Whatever you call it, I had the great fortune to hit a massive city (1), at rush hour (2), just as it started raining (3). Three strikes you're out, I guess. That sucked, in no uncertain terms.

Out of Houston and headed past Beaumont, traffic came to another dead stop. We had made it out of the rain and there didn't appear to be any reason for traffic not to move, so I flipped on the CB. You know, I probably should have just stayed without a CB. Hearing, "There ain't shit blocking the road. I don't know why y'all ain't movin," just pisses me right off. At least without a CB I could assume that there must be a reason for the delay. Then construction in Louisiana, blah blah blah. It was a long day. I put myself on this load with a pretty tight timeline though, so I had to grin and bear it. I made it to exit 151, just west of Baton Rouge, tonight. I can do a full eleven hours of driving tomorrow, then use up whatever hours I have left on Thursday before finishing the trip on Friday.

After finishing up my audiobook today, I feel like I understand the 'okies' a little better. I had no idea how much you folks had in common with today's illegal immigrants. I kid because I care, or something like that. Seriously though, for anyone who hasn't read that one, I recommend it. Good story.

So I guess that's that. Cajun country tonight, Tennessee tomorrow night. Cheers.