6/15/08

Dude, since I couldn't get back to sleep after waking this morning, I just started driving. I had lofty plans for today. I was going to get to the customer, park the truck, grab some dinner, watch some golf, maybe do a little shopping, maybe catch a movie, and just generally enjoy the afternoon and evening.

I got to TX-78 off of I-635 in decent shape. All I had to do was run north a few miles and the day was done. Oops. TX-78 takes a right turn somewhere along the way. Your blogger was not aware of this. After driving a lot further than I was supposed to drive, and without seeing a shopping center, I knew I had screwed up. So I meandered along on whatever road that was, looking for an easy way to get back on course. I managed to find a way to get back on I-635 southbound (or eastbound or whatever) and double back. No big deal. Yeah. No big deal.

Traffic on I-635 was cool, for about a mile. Then it came to a dead stop. People in passenger cars were going off the on ramps and driving up the grassy knolls along the highway to get off the road. In my 31.75 years on this fair planet, I've only seen that in Texas, but I digress. The situation looked pretty rough, so I flipped on my CB to see what I could hear. Piecing together first-hand and second-hand accounts, it goes a little something like this... A big truck and either one, two, three, or four other vehicles crashed at either 7:30am, 9am, or 10am. One, two, or all of the vehicles caught fire. The road was either closed or down to just traffic creeping by on the shoulder for the bulk of the day.

I guess they opened it back up after I sat there for about an hour, according to those intrepid CB reporters. It still was slow going for the four miles that I had to cover, but life goes on. I got back around to TX-78 and went north... again.

Now, nobody will suggest that I'm great at reading signs and following directions. I'm not the worst at it, but I'm certainly far from the best. That being said, I think the folks in Garland need some better signage for that route. I'll be damned if I didn't just about miss the turn again. I spotted it in time though, followed the right route, and got to the shopping center.

Holy shit! Well, it's a real nice place. I'll give them that much. Bringing in a tractor-trailer? Nah, not so much. So, my directions say turn here and turn there and the customer is on that side. Bullshit. Those directions left me on a crowded street that should never, from here to eternity, hold anything larger than an Escalade. Talk about an obstacle course. Luckily for me, the one thing that I actually do fairly well out here is maneuver my truck. I got out of that one.

There were no loading docks facing the street to which I was directed, but I managed to spot the customer's building, so I circled around to the other side. That left me in a spot that was almost as bad as the street from which I had just extricated myself. The loading dock was 100% impossible to access on account of parked cars, so I had to set my mind to getting out of a second tight spot without hitting anything. I made it out. Like I said, the actual controlling of the truck is my strong suit.

I guess, if I had checked my directions more closely, I would have seen the last sentence - "Don't go in early." I didn't check that closely, so I didn't see that, so I did go in early, but anyway... I had to find a place to park until the stores closed and things cleared out. Driving all the way down to Lancaster, just to drive all the way back to Garland, sounded like a really annoying option. It also sounded like my only option, unless I got lucky. Hey, what do you know? I spotted a Christian bookstore with an empty parking lot maybe half a mile to the south. I imagine they don't open on Sundays, but in any case there was room for me to pull in and park.

I got some delicious soft tacos with no lettuce from the fine folks at Taco Bell and started looking for a decent video stream of the U.S. Open. Some more fine folks (at channelsurfing.net) were happy to oblige, so I got to see the last six or seven holes. That putt that Woods hit on 18... holy shit. What else can you say? Easily the best 18th hole since Payne Stewart nine or ten years ago at Pinehurst. The 18-hole playoff on Monday might just be my favorite part about the U.S. Open. Screw TV, screw travel plans, screw it all. This game is played for 18 holes, and if you want to be the champ, you'll win over the course of 18 holes. I love it.

I hung out in that lot until 10pm or so, then headed back to try the loading dock area. That was just about the time the employees were filing out, so I got backed in within a few minutes. I decided to go for a walk and see if I could find anything to do. This shopping center has several restaurants, several stores, and a movie theater. Unfortunately, everything was closed at 9pm on Sundays. Story of life man. The theater was still open, so I got to check out Kung Fu Panda. Decent, I guess.

Now I have to wait for morning, get unloded here, then head to Arlington. Judging by where the employees' cars were parked when I got over here tonight, I'm not entirely sure how I am supposed to leave in the morning, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

PS: Tigers won and Sox lost. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...