2/23/09

After something along the lines of 350,000 miles on the road, I've covered almost every major highway in America. Today I got to check out some uncharted (for me) territory. My satellite beeped at some bizarre hour last night or this morning or whatever it was. Hopeless insomniac that I am, I was awake at the time. It was a pre-planned load to be picked up after I made my drop this morning. Good deal. I'm not exactly sure who was planning loads at 2am or 3am or whatever it was... but good deal.

My drive down to the consignee was less than twenty miles and didn't present any issues, once I actually got rolling. It was fairly cool last night but not too cold. Ergo, I slept with my truck turned off. When I reached down and turned the key this morning, it just spun around and nothing beeped or clicked or anything. Shit. After spending ten minutes looking (like a moron) for the screws to remove the panel and see what was going on with the ignition switch, I got pissed off and yanked on my keys as they were still engaged in the switch. How about that? The panel just snaps right out without any screws. I found some kind of plug that appeared to match up with the ignition module. Plugged it in, turned the key, yep. That was the ticket. From that point forward I encountered no issues.

I had a drop/hook at the customer so that was nice. This was one of those loads where, along with my dispatch, I got the number of an empty trailer to retrieve. This typically means that the delivery is a drop/hook. That was a brokered load though, so I wasn't convinced that it would be a drop/hook. It was. Good deal.

Then I had to shoot up to Troy and make my next pickup. My appointment was for 10am but things had gone so quickly at the previous stop that I was about an hour and a half early. The lady said that it would be around an hour until they were ready to load me. I backed into the dock and slept like a log for an hour. (See earlier about that insomnia bit from last night.) Once my trailer started bouncing I got back out of bed and thought that I would be hanging around for a bit. Nope. As quickly as they started loading me, they finished. Four pallets. 2,300 pounds. Good deal.

From Texas I had a good trip to the north. I got through Dallas well ahead of the afternoon rush. Then the drive on a sunny afternoon through Oklahoma on US-69 was calm and peaceful. Tomorrow morning's destination is Springdale, Arkansas. This destination found me heading east on I-40 and up I-540. As nearly as I can recall, I've never been on I-540 before. Pretty cool road on a sunny day with a light load. The road was mostly rolling hills with a few decent climbs where I was able to blow past the other trucks with the heavier loads. I've stopped for the night in Greenland, since my directory lists the only truck stop in Springdale as being a Pilot with a medium parking lot. 'Pilot - medium' tends to be code for 'nowhere to park.' I played it safe instead and left myself around fifteen or twenty miles to drive in the morning.

For the first time since that massive week at the beginning of the month, I wrap up my Monday with some decent miles on the books. 17 miles on the deadhead and 457 loaded miles should have me set up for a decent week. I have plenty of hours available on account of the restart that I caught while my truck was in the shop. Good deal.