5/9/08

I've become convinced that pre-plans have mystical healing powers or something. Today should have been a royal pain in the ass, but somehow it didn't bug me too much. Since we all know I'm not the most sensible person in the world, I think I benefitted by coming into the day knowing that I had a profitable weekend in store.

I headed over to the beer distributor a little before 8am and checked in. The guy took a while to get me unloaded, but it wasn't too long. Then, as I pulled out to close the doors to my trailer, I saw that he hadn't removed the big plastic bulkheads that go in the nose of the trailer. The weight on the drive tires would be too heavy if they put beer all the way in the front, so they use these big ass plastic things to take up space. I went in to see what was the story, and the guy was of course gone. So I got to lug my fat ass into the trailer and carry the damn bulkheads into the building.

Okay, that's done. On to Colonial Heights for my pickup. I ran back up US-17 into Virginia, then got to sit for fifteen minutes for an open drawbridge. Fun. Okay, past that. Up to Norfolk and onto the ramp toward US-460, another drawbridge? Probably the same damn boat. So that was another ten minutes or so. I made it up to Colonial Heights in two and a half hours, so good enough.

I went to the office with "shipping" above it to check in. The lady told me that the shipping office was around the back of the building. So, back out to the truck and around we go. I headed inside, to be told that I needed to go to a warehouse across the street and find a guy named Fred, but that Fred was probably at lunch. So I got over there, found nobody, and hung out for a while. Some people started walking in about fifteen minutes later, so I headed back inside. I was shown to a dock around the back of the building, and told to back in once the yard dog pulled the trailer that presently occupied the dock. Okay. Tick tock, tick tock. Forty-five minutes later I got to settle into the dock.

The loading took quite a while, as I am hauling refrigeration units that require special bracing and such. Once they were done, I was sent back to the office at the back of the first building. A guy in there, after working through some computer issues, printed up my bills and sent me on my way. I went outside and sealed up my trailer. Then the bill printer dude came out and said he needed to check on something. He broke the seal, hopped into the trailer, and started looking at the freight. Yep. One of the refrigeration units didn't belong there. Best part - it was in the nose of the trailer. Back to the other warehouse...

They had to unload me, remove the wrong unit, replace it with the correct unit, then reload the rest of the stuff. Then baaaack across the street to get my bills. And away we go.

I got out of Virginia in decent shape, then came to a dead stop in North Carolina. Beautiful. Right lane closed. That took a while. By the time I got to the Flying J in Haw River, I still (remarkably) wasn't too pissed at the world. So I decided to park it for the night and let my baseball team ruin my day instead of staying on the road. The way things have been going lately, I'll probably wish I was in a traffic jam by about the third inning.