7/21/08

Hmmm, that day was something. It was a pretty easy drive into Laredo this morning. I guess that's pretty cool at least.

Once I got to the terminal and the guy inspected my trailer, I headed up to the dispatch window in order to get on the board before I delivered my load. I don't know whether self-proclaimed badasses are just drawn to this line of work or if something about this job turns people into self-proclaimed badasses. Whichever it is, I observe more than my share of bullshit bravado whenever I spend any amount of time around other drivers. Today's example was a guy who apparently got inspected while leaving to deliver a load and received a ticket for an obstructed placard. Even if we accept his version of the 'obstruction' being a non-issue and the ticket being undeserved, it should have ended there. The following twenty minutes consisted of him telling stories to the dispatcher about how CTL can kiss his ass if they think he's paying the ticket and how he told the cop what-for and so on. All I needed to do was get to the window and get on the board. King Salami there just kept going on and on about what a tough guy he is, holding up the line for the rest of us. Obnoxious.

I finally got my turn and then headed over to the broker to drop my trailer. There was a guy waiting to make the left turn into the yard, so I pulled in behind him and turned on my blinker. Twenty minutes later, the entrance cleared and the guy ahead of me turned in. Twenty minutes after that, I was able to enter the yard. Something about twenty minutes today...

The security guard checked over my trailer and wrote "4 mal" on the part of the inspection report about tires. My Spanish ain't what it used to be, but I seem to recall that 'mal' means 'bad.' The CTL dude had indicated that they were all fine. Whatever man. Not my problem. I (luckily) didn't have to put the trailer in a door. That place was incredibly crowded and the quarters were tight, to put it mildly. He told me to drop at the far end of the yard. Then it was... go ahead and take a guess... twenty minutes until the driveway cleared and I could get out.

I hung around most of the day and finally got called in to dispatch around 10pm. The dude knew that I was getting hosed without me saying anything, so he called the Texas planner in Joplin and got me another run to back up the one that he was giving me. I have to drop in Houston at 9am tomorrow morning, to a consignee with no overnight parking. I could either stay in Laredo for a couple more hours, complete a ten hour break, and then head to Houston or I could use the eight hours that I had been in Laredo as the front end of a split. I decided that I would rather use the split, so I grabbed my trailer and headed out.

By the time I got back to Ganado, I decided to pull in and get a little sleep while I finished off the split. No parking spaces available. Nice. So, I got back on the road and started looking out for somewhere to shut it down. In rather poetic fashion I suppose, I had to drive for exactly twenty minutes until I spotted a little truck stop with plenty of room to park. I'll catch a nap here and then run the last hour or so to Houston.

My pre-planned load picks up on the other side of Houston and goes up to Kentucky, so I should get clear of any hurricane-related issues before they arise. Groovy.