5/8/08

Dude. Damn. Dude. That was a long freaking day. I've been down US-17 through Maryland before, but I don't remember that many red lights. Dude. Damn.

The quick trip to the brewery was easy. Once I got there, I had to drop my empty, get a bobtail weight, hook to my loaded trailer, secure the load, slide the tandems, scale it out, and hit the road. Standard brewery procedure, plus the bobtail weight since that was my first trip to that location. Everything went smoothly and I headed south.

NY-31 to NY-690 to I-690 to I-81 to I-476 to I-95 to I-495 to I-95 to DE-1 to US-13 to I-64 to US-17. Got all that? I managed to avoid getting lost, which is pretty damn good as far as I'm concerned. This route was way too complicated for someone who isn't real fond of trip planning. The deal was this - My paid miles were 565. The practical route (according to PC Miler) was 631 miles. The route I took was 570. Let's set aside the fact that it looks like I got scammed for about sixty miles, since I'm supposed to be paid practical miles. I would have taken the short route to avoid Baltimore and D.C. anyway. Sitting parked on the beltway for an hour the other day seems to have impacted today's route. Imagine that. Going down through Delaware and Maryland really wasn't a bad deal, but the freaking red lights. Unbelievable.

I hit Chesapeake Bay a little after 7:30pm. Across the first bridge, through the first tunnel, and onto the second bridge. I started to think to myself that ten minutes later I could have watched the sun go down over the bay. Cue the construction crew. Only one lane of the second set of tunnels was in use. So I got to hang out for ten minutes or so as the northbound traffic used the lane. I hopped out, stretched my legs, and watched that sunset that I had been thinking about. Nice.

The last reliable parking option tonight would have been the big truck stop in Virginia Beach. As I rolled down US-13 though, there were a bunch of trucks lined up waiting to get in. So I kept driving. There was a rest area on US-17 just inside North Carolina, but some dickhead was blinding me with his high beams and I couldn't see the entrance as I approached it. So I kept driving. When I took the exit toward tomorrow morning's drop, I saw a shopping center with a big WalMart. The parking lot has a bunch of signs saying that overnight parking is not allowed, but there are a few trucks parked along a side street. There are no such signs over here, so I guess this will do.

It's around four or five miles from here to my drop, so I can sleep until a decent hour in the morning. I'm due there by 8am, which most likely means that they open at 8am. Don't get me started on that one. Once I'm empty, I will be heading up to Virginia and grabbing a load headed for Laredo. I got that plan summary this morning as I was dispatched to leave the brewery in New York. Pre-plan, nice. 3,500+ miles for the week, nice. Laredo... we'll see about that one.