6/14/09

That's a long haul down US-59 from Texarkana to Laredo, but I think it's going to be my standard weekend route for a while (until I get bored and try something else). The few towns here and there are just enough to break up the monotony and not enough to slow down the pace too much.

About the only thing that came up during today's trip was a technological issue with my satellite unit. It has had a blank white screen for the last day and a half. I thought that it would reset while I slept last night, since it normally shuts itself down whenever my truck is off. The truck was off for five or six hours before I got too hot this morning, but the satellite unit never powered down. After driving most of the way to Laredo I realized that I wouldn't be able to get directions to my broker without a fully functioning unit. I called our road service department, thinking that they would tell me which fuse to pull or something in order to reset the system. The road service guy told me to call the dispatcher. The dispatcher told me to call Qualcomm, and gave me the phone number along with a serial number of some sort for my unit. The Qualcomm guy sent a magical signal through outer space and everything was fixed. Beauty.

I had missed two messages during the time that my unit was non-functional. One came through yesterday, asking us not to call Joplin unless we really need to. Those messages seem to come on a fairly regular basis. Must be some lonely truckers out here in need of someone with whom to talk. The second message came through just before I got rolling this morning. It said that I was on the late board and needed to let them know how I was doing. I never got the message until I was almost to Laredo, but I won't lie to you. I most likely wouldn't have called even if I had received the message. (Aren't we always being told not to call unless we have to?) Those 'late board' messages are asinine. I took a few breaks along the way and still got to Laredo tonight, with my delivery scheduled for tomorrow morning. Whatevs.

Once I got to Laredo I expected to get on the board, lift some weights, hit the sack, make my drop tomorrow morning, and then sit around all day waiting for work. The night dispatcher had other ideas. There was one load going to Fayetteville, Arkansas for a Tuesday morning delivery. I could have it if I wanted it. Otherwise I would be getting one of the short runs in Texas that he had to parcel out. 769 miles by Tuesday morning. That would take some balls-out driving but I couldn't pass it up. I've already dropped the southbound trailer and hooked to my northbound. I'll have to hit the road as soon as tonight's break is over, drive a full eleven hours tomorrow, take another ten-hour break, and then drive the last hundred-whatever miles into Fayetteville. This will make three straight days of long shifts, which incidentally is three more than I like to work. A brother's gotta eat though. Plenty of folks are having a hard time making ends meet these days. Things seem to be going pretty well for me, so I can't complain.