2/3/09

I think it's high time we had ourselves a multiple choice quiz...

You walk out of a building with your paperwork in hand. As you step onto the pavement at the base of a stairway, you see an attractive young lady standing nearby, smoking a cigarette. She smiles at you. What do you do?

Option A: Ignore her. She probably wants to give you cancer with her secondhand smoke or something.

Option B: Smile back at her and say hello. A friendly acknowledgment is always a good thing in this cynical society.

Option C: Step on a sheet of ice, have your feet fly out from under you, and go sprawling arse over tit onto the pavement.

Choose according to whatever criteria you like, but I know one thing for certain. Option C will make you look (and feel) like a douchebag. I'd rather not discuss how I know this. You'll just have to accept that I know.

Hopefully you passed the multiple choice quiz. Now let's talk truckin'. The following is an aerial shot of this morning's shipper.


I had to take my empty trailer from where I spent the night (A), around the corner of the building and drop it on the shipper's gravel lot, then return to the dock area and hook up a loaded trailer. Okay, sounds easy enough. I hopped in the truck and drove around the corner. I saw no gravel lot. I saw a fenced area to my left (B). It had a few cars inside but nothing that looked like a drop lot. Going in there didn't sound too good, since there didn't appear to be a way out.

I went a little further along the driveway and saw another area to my left. This area was full of parked cars, but appeared to lead to an opening into another section of the property (C). I saw what looked like a dropped trailer through the opening. Okay, I guess we'll give this one a shot. I hung a left into there and drove to the end. Shit. Can't make a turn to the left or the right. So I got to back out of there, between the rows of cars, and try something else. Maybe I could get around to the next aisle to my left and get at the opening from there. I swung through a gap in the cars and followed the other aisle back to the far end of the lot. Oh boy. This was gonna be tight.

Hey, I'm a truck driver damnit. I wiggled my truck and trailer through the opening and into the other part of the property. Dear Lord, what had I done this time? I was now located between (C) and (D) on that original picture. That trailer that I had seen from afar was parked at a dock. There were no other docks. There was no way to turn around. Ah yes though, there was another opening leading to yet another part of the property (D).

I squeaked through that opening and saw those two trailers backed against an outdoor dock. This couldn't be the gravel lot, could it? I hopped out and walked around. Definitely no gravel. I saw a lady walking into a building so I flagged her down. She said that the drop lot was back at the end of the property where this whole fiasco had begun. Sweet. That gate below the word 'Madison' in the above picture was not functional. My only way out would be through the parked cars. Good times. Good times.

I made it by a few inches and swung back out to my right onto the main road. After heading back down to the east end of the property, I pulled into the main driveway. I looked into that fenced area one more time. It must have been the right place, but there was no damn drop lot. I got out and went for another walk before pulling in there. This time I found a guy who took a few minutes and pointed out what I needed to do. Okay, okay, I get it. There was really a drop lot in there after all.


I can't imagine why I didn't see it. Oh wait, yes I can. Here's what the drop lot looked like this morning. Al Gore is still invited to kiss my ass.

There was around an inch of ice on top of the gravel, allowing this morning's fresh two inches of snowfall to make a smooth white blanket over everything. Oh well, you live and learn I guess. There were no other trailers on the lot (as you can see) so I just blindsided my trailer in there and didn't concern myself too much with its alignment. I was backing up a little incline on solid ice so that took a few minutes to handle, but good enough. I got the trailer dropped and then grabbed my loaded trailer from the docks.

What? You mean to tell me that I still had to drive today after all that? That sucks. I am due in Laredo by Thursday morning and I'm aiming to get there tomorrow night. I needed to reach Gurdon, Arkansas today in order to leave myself one day's drive to Laredo. 660 miles from Madison to Gurdon in eleven hours would require a pretty decent pace. What was that guy's name again? Al Gore? Yeah, screw him. I'm sure that US-421 into Kentucky is normally a lovely little drive, but I have a distaste for skinny twisting mountain roads when they're covered in snow. It's just a quirk of mine, I guess. The odds of covering 660 miles today were looking pretty long while I was gripping the wheel tightly and cruising at a cool 30mph. I-71 was pretty shitty too, but the roads dried out below Louisville and I finally was able to put my foot to the floor. I hung a right onto the Western Kentucky Parkway and followed my preferred route down onto US-51 to Memphis, actually getting to Gurdon within my eleven hours today. Beauty.

Speaking of Western Kentucky, I think the residents there need to strongly consider coming up with a name for their recent ice storm. The trees along the parkway looked like someone had dropped a bomb on that area. When a weather event causes dozens of deaths and countless people are still stranded for several days, there is supposed to be a public outcry. Geraldo Rivera is supposed to show up and demand explanations. Clueless celebrities are supposed to make ignorant statements. If the folks in the hills of Kentucky can come up with a catchy name for their storm, I'm sure they'll get the same sympathy. Or maybe not. I don't know. Just an idea.