Self-discipline and productivity are not generally in ample supply here at Fenian Godfather, Inc. Occasionally though, such discipline can come from an unlikely source - for instance, the T/A in Prescott, Arkansas. Since I had some serious miles to cover between this morning and Tuesday morning, prudence would dictate that I drive an absolute minimum of 500 miles today. Furthermore, since I am heading toward some time at home (with plenty of money going out and no money coming in), prudence would dictate that I not blow any cash on a hotel room for what would amount to little more than a ten-hour break tonight.
So... by the time this afternoon rolled around, I was leaning toward stopping short and getting a room for the night. Hell, I could always knock out a couple of eleven hour days to catch up my schedule, right? I had received a message from the shop this morning indicating that my truck was due for preventive maintenance. After making pretty good time getting out of Texas, I decided to stop off at the aforementioned T/A in Prescott and get the work done. It was getting to be time for a lunch break anyway. Might as well kill two birds with one stone. Then I could get back on the road and knock out another few hours before settling in for the night.
Three and a half hours later... yeah, so much for that idea. The shop wasn't even that busy. Just a whole bunch of nonsense, it would seem. I got rolling again at 6pm Eastern, only an hour and a half before the football game was scheduled to start. So I was only on the eastern edge of Little Rock by the time it kicked off. This wasn't quite far enough. I needed to get most of the way across Arkansas today in order to feel comfortable with my chances of finishing the trip to New York in two more shifts. You never know when a major traffic jam or bad weather might pop up and so forth. Most people expected the game to be a blowout and before long it was obvious that this was going to be the case, so I just kept driving and listening on the magical XM radio.
Both the traffic and the weather were perfectly cooperative for the whole drive. The roads were clean and dry and it never got hot enough for me to notice that I had no air conditioning. So onward and eastward I drove... and drove. By the time the football game was over, I had covered 600 miles and decided that it was time to call it a night. Quite a productive day in the end, largely thanks to those peckerheads at the T/A in Prescott, Arkansas.
A quick review of the particulars will show that the week wraps up with 3,508 miles, $35 in stop pay, and a little over $30 in northeast pay. Right around $1,400 for the week - better than a kick in the balls. No, seriously. It's better than a kick in the balls. Glad I don't have a passport.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
10/30/09
Another day with an early wakeup call would certainly be another day destined for frustration, right? Eh, not really. Maybe my hypothesis needs a little tweaking. I got up at 7:30am and headed over to make my delivery. After sitting in the consignee's waiting room for a half hour after I was empty, waiting for my paperwork, I walked back out to my truck and found a few messages waiting. The first was the 'report to dispatch' note that they send whenever my turn comes around. The other two were a plan summary and a request for me to update my available hours. Apparently, when I didn't report to dispatch as requested, the fella took the liberty of choosing a load on my behalf.
As I noted earlier, sometimes I guess it ain't so bad to be awake in the morning. The load that I was given was a nice 2,033 mile job to New York. Technically speaking, I was already on the board last night and the New York load didn't have to leave immediately, so my hypothesis may still have some merit. I could have been sleeping when the satellite messages came through. Given the lengthy time spent at the consignee though, it was helpful to have put that delivery behind me before getting started on the next one.
I was on my way back to the terminal when the dispatcher called to make sure that my available hours would be enough to reach the consignee by Tuesday morning. He said that it looked like I should be fine. I concurred. I stopped by the dispatch window to grab my paperwork as I returned to the terminal. The dispatcher pulled out the envelope and did his obligatory review to make sure everything was right. As he handed me the bills, he sighed and told me to take a look at the weight. Great, I thought. Another freaking heavy one to drag through the hills into New York. My last several loads, with the exception of that 70 miler in Texas, have been wicked heavy. I rolled my eyes and took a look, then had to chuckle. Okay, ya got me dude. 837 pounds. The archivist at the Fenian Godfather Institute is a lazy SOB so we can't provide independent confirmation, but this is most likely the longest distance that I've ever pulled a load of less than 1,000 pounds. That'll certainly help ease the workload on my tired old truck.
In order to reach my destination by Tuesday morning, I'm going to use just about all of my available hours under the 70 hour rule between now and Monday. It remains to be seen whether or not I stop at one of the Corleone family's estates tomorrow. With my Irish playing a 7:30pm home game in San Antonio, I could certainly knock out a full day of driving and still have time to settle in before the game. I'm just not sure if I'll feel like dropping the cash to spend a few hours and then hit the road again in the morning. I don't know. We'll play it by ear. Der Führer doesn't seem to be too excited about the game in either case.
Today's portion of the drive brought me back out of Laredo on US-59 and up toward Houston. Seeing that I would be hitting the big city right around 5pm, I decided to stop in George West for some dinner and a long break to let the traffic chill out a little. I like stopping in George West for two reasons. First is that they have a SubWay at one of the little truck stops on the east side of town. I may not have mentioned it before, but I'm quite fond of a sandwich called the Italian BMT with double meat. The second reason is that I can't help but appreciate a town that decided to name itself after a backup wide receiver for Notre Dame.
After my break there, I got back on the road and cruised on through Houston. It was US-59 as opposed to I-35, Friday as opposed to Tuesday, and evening as opposed to afternoon, but... I win again suckers!
This backup on the south edge of town was only a couple of miles long but I was still glad to be on the other side of the road. My side got a little congested once I got downtown but overall the timing of the break in George West seemed to pay off. I stopped off at the big truck stop in Shepherd and found plenty of open parking spaces, so that was that for today. Tomorrow... probably waking before 10am again. Damn.
As I noted earlier, sometimes I guess it ain't so bad to be awake in the morning. The load that I was given was a nice 2,033 mile job to New York. Technically speaking, I was already on the board last night and the New York load didn't have to leave immediately, so my hypothesis may still have some merit. I could have been sleeping when the satellite messages came through. Given the lengthy time spent at the consignee though, it was helpful to have put that delivery behind me before getting started on the next one.
I was on my way back to the terminal when the dispatcher called to make sure that my available hours would be enough to reach the consignee by Tuesday morning. He said that it looked like I should be fine. I concurred. I stopped by the dispatch window to grab my paperwork as I returned to the terminal. The dispatcher pulled out the envelope and did his obligatory review to make sure everything was right. As he handed me the bills, he sighed and told me to take a look at the weight. Great, I thought. Another freaking heavy one to drag through the hills into New York. My last several loads, with the exception of that 70 miler in Texas, have been wicked heavy. I rolled my eyes and took a look, then had to chuckle. Okay, ya got me dude. 837 pounds. The archivist at the Fenian Godfather Institute is a lazy SOB so we can't provide independent confirmation, but this is most likely the longest distance that I've ever pulled a load of less than 1,000 pounds. That'll certainly help ease the workload on my tired old truck.
In order to reach my destination by Tuesday morning, I'm going to use just about all of my available hours under the 70 hour rule between now and Monday. It remains to be seen whether or not I stop at one of the Corleone family's estates tomorrow. With my Irish playing a 7:30pm home game in San Antonio, I could certainly knock out a full day of driving and still have time to settle in before the game. I'm just not sure if I'll feel like dropping the cash to spend a few hours and then hit the road again in the morning. I don't know. We'll play it by ear. Der Führer doesn't seem to be too excited about the game in either case.
Today's portion of the drive brought me back out of Laredo on US-59 and up toward Houston. Seeing that I would be hitting the big city right around 5pm, I decided to stop in George West for some dinner and a long break to let the traffic chill out a little. I like stopping in George West for two reasons. First is that they have a SubWay at one of the little truck stops on the east side of town. I may not have mentioned it before, but I'm quite fond of a sandwich called the Italian BMT with double meat. The second reason is that I can't help but appreciate a town that decided to name itself after a backup wide receiver for Notre Dame.
After my break there, I got back on the road and cruised on through Houston. It was US-59 as opposed to I-35, Friday as opposed to Tuesday, and evening as opposed to afternoon, but... I win again suckers!
This backup on the south edge of town was only a couple of miles long but I was still glad to be on the other side of the road. My side got a little congested once I got downtown but overall the timing of the break in George West seemed to pay off. I stopped off at the big truck stop in Shepherd and found plenty of open parking spaces, so that was that for today. Tomorrow... probably waking before 10am again. Damn.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
10/29/09
One more reason that I should never be forced to wake before 10am - I may get cracking as soon as legally possible, drive my ass off all day, arrive two hours ahead of my dispatched ETA, and then have my consignee tell me that they stop receiving trucks at 3pm. I've been wrestling with when exactly to put in my next request for home time. The football game in Pittsburgh is on November 14th, so I'll either take a week or so before then or a week or so after then. I've been leaning toward the 'after' approach, but my frustration level has been running pretty high lately. If it keeps up I may just have to head home a little sooner than anticipated.
The drive itself wasn't too terrible today. It wasn't good (think rain and Texans) but it wasn't terrible. The only major accident on US-59 in Houston was on the northbound side, so my side should have been cruising right on through. Gawkers had us backed up for five miles. One of these days, man... One of these days.
In late October there don't tend to be a whole lot of places in America with hot weather. There are a few though. Angling down from Houston to Laredo today, the temperature reached 92 degrees and the rainy weather made the humidity pretty obnoxious. Hey, anyone wanna guess whose air conditioning quit working this afternoon? Yeah, seriously. It was a windy mofo out there today, so rolling down the windows helped to mitigate the temperature for the most part. That humidity was disgusting though. It felt like I was sweating even though I wasn't sweating. I have been planning to get a couple of things fixed on my truck once I get back home. Better to put the truck in the shop when I'm already off work, the theory goes, than to sit in a hotel and waste my time on the road. Now I guess there's one more item on the list. Hopefully I won't get stuck in too many hot places between now and then.
I wasn't sure about the proper CTL protocol for making a live delivery in Laredo. Usually on Laredo loads we have to report to the terminal and get the trailer inspected, then head to our broker. My stop location information that came with this assignment gave me directions to the broker though. This has never been the case before, at least in my experience. Since the trailer wasn't being dropped, the inspection process didn't have to be done before the delivery. (I would have to bring the empty back through the inspection bay anyway.) So, in an effort to waste as little time as possible, I went straight to the broker. The little dude at the gate took my paperwork and we were looking good... for a minute. Then he gave back the paperwork and told me to come back tomorrow at 8am. Bummer. So, the question must be asked - from where did my 6:45pm dispatch come? Pulled directly from someone's ass, I suspect, but there's no way of knowing for sure. Had I known that I couldn't deliver until 8am tomorrow... well, something about waking before 10am today comes to mind.
I headed over to the terminal and got on the board at #35. I'm already up to #28 so I'll most likely be rolling shortly after making my delivery in the morning. This place does look like a ghost town though. Somewhere around half the trailer parking spaces are unoccupied. Just enough freight to move 28 more trucks - that's all I ask. My week hasn't been too stellar so far but one decent run for the weekend can make it all better. A shitty weekend will probably be enough to convince me that it's time to go home for a while.
The temperature is dropping rapidly as the sun goes down. That's always a plus when you have no air conditioning.
The drive itself wasn't too terrible today. It wasn't good (think rain and Texans) but it wasn't terrible. The only major accident on US-59 in Houston was on the northbound side, so my side should have been cruising right on through. Gawkers had us backed up for five miles. One of these days, man... One of these days.
In late October there don't tend to be a whole lot of places in America with hot weather. There are a few though. Angling down from Houston to Laredo today, the temperature reached 92 degrees and the rainy weather made the humidity pretty obnoxious. Hey, anyone wanna guess whose air conditioning quit working this afternoon? Yeah, seriously. It was a windy mofo out there today, so rolling down the windows helped to mitigate the temperature for the most part. That humidity was disgusting though. It felt like I was sweating even though I wasn't sweating. I have been planning to get a couple of things fixed on my truck once I get back home. Better to put the truck in the shop when I'm already off work, the theory goes, than to sit in a hotel and waste my time on the road. Now I guess there's one more item on the list. Hopefully I won't get stuck in too many hot places between now and then.
I wasn't sure about the proper CTL protocol for making a live delivery in Laredo. Usually on Laredo loads we have to report to the terminal and get the trailer inspected, then head to our broker. My stop location information that came with this assignment gave me directions to the broker though. This has never been the case before, at least in my experience. Since the trailer wasn't being dropped, the inspection process didn't have to be done before the delivery. (I would have to bring the empty back through the inspection bay anyway.) So, in an effort to waste as little time as possible, I went straight to the broker. The little dude at the gate took my paperwork and we were looking good... for a minute. Then he gave back the paperwork and told me to come back tomorrow at 8am. Bummer. So, the question must be asked - from where did my 6:45pm dispatch come? Pulled directly from someone's ass, I suspect, but there's no way of knowing for sure. Had I known that I couldn't deliver until 8am tomorrow... well, something about waking before 10am today comes to mind.
I headed over to the terminal and got on the board at #35. I'm already up to #28 so I'll most likely be rolling shortly after making my delivery in the morning. This place does look like a ghost town though. Somewhere around half the trailer parking spaces are unoccupied. Just enough freight to move 28 more trucks - that's all I ask. My week hasn't been too stellar so far but one decent run for the weekend can make it all better. A shitty weekend will probably be enough to convince me that it's time to go home for a while.
The temperature is dropping rapidly as the sun goes down. That's always a plus when you have no air conditioning.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
10/28/09
One more reason that I should never be forced to wake before 10am - If I happen to go for a walk in search of something to eat, my options may very well consist of a candy bar or a jar of peanuts from Home Depot. Later in the day my choices would have been numerous. One more data point in a well-developed hypothesis, I'm afraid.
The unloading in Hot Springs went fairly quickly, after which I was dispatched to deliver in Benton. In a pleasant surprise, the segment of US-270 looping past the south side of Hot Springs was a freeway and, while it was a little curvy compared to the interstates, it was nothing like last night's approach on AR-7. My appointment in Benton was for noon but I headed straight there. Since my day had already begun and the 14 hour clock was ticking, there was no reason to sit around. And more importantly, those retail deliveries can be a bit of an adventure when one has to navigate around parked cars. I was hoping to find an empty lot by arriving before the store had opened. The lot did turn out to be empty and I lucked out by guessing correctly as to the orientation of the loading dock. It was still a tight environment but approaching from the right direction made a huge difference.
The forklift guy said that he was busy when I arrived and that I should check back with him around noon. So we arrive at my ill-fated search for sustenance. I took a walk across the shopping area and saw a few restaurants, so I doubled back and started checking the hours of operation. 11am-..., 11am-..., 11am-... and so on. Okay then, one more trip across the complex brought me back to the Home Depot. Open at 6am, of course. Peanuts for breakfast. They were pretty tasty peanuts though, so that's good.
As I sat reading the news of the day and waiting for noon to come around, I received a pre-planned assignment. Apparently I was supposed to go back in time to pickup in Pine Bluff today at 8am and then drive 763 miles to Laredo by tomorrow at 8am. Can't confirm that schedule, right? No way I could keep those appointments, after all. Of course I confirmed the schedule. We all know how the game is played. 8am is almost always a generic placeholder, even if a few individuals are not aware of this.
Around 11:30am, the same forklift guy from earlier came out and told me that he was ready. We opened up the doors and he got to work. My trailer was empty around an hour or so later. When I hopped in the back to sweep it out, I found some sort of yellow goo that had been spilled on the floor. I grabbed a couple of shop towels and some degreaser and did what I could in terms of cleaning it out. The yellow stuff was all gone but a pretty large greasy spot remained in its place. Shouldn't be a problem, I thought, as long as I didn't have to pick up any rolls of paper. Those paper people are some picky SOB's.
My dispatch to Pine Bluff gave me an hour and a half to cover the 46 miles from Benton. The trip turned out to be more like 65 miles (to the port on the far side of Pine Bluff) and it took the full hour and a half. Good enough. I went into the shipping office to check in and found one of my CTL colleagues at the window ahead of me. His pickup number was no good, so he had to go back out to his truck and get a different one. In related news, my pickup number was no good so I had to go back out to my truck and get a new one. Armed with our correct pickup numbers, we got checked in and then proceeded to the end of the lot to await our door assignments. The loads were brokered by another trucking company and we had no appointments, so we were in the "work in" pool - first come, first served.
Sitting down at the end of the lot, I caught a glimpse of the freight that was being loaded on the trucks at the docks. Rolls of paper. Oh boy. After a while, my colleague was sent to the dock. He backed in. The forklift guy engaged the dock plate and stepped into the trailer. The forklift guy disengaged the dock plate and said something to my colleague. My colleague closed his empty trailer and drove away. Flashbacks ensued. Freaking paper mills. My turn was next, so I backed my trailer (with its greasy spot on the floor) into the loading dock. They loaded me without incident and then I got to sit in the shipping office for another half hour as I waited for my paperwork.
Keeping in mind the original goofy schedule, we arrive at the loaded portion of this trip. I sent in my information and took off for the nearest CAT scale. I hadn't received a dispatch right away so I was getting suspicious. Just before I reached the truck stop with the scale, I got a message saying that the load was scheduled to deliver in Laredo by 3pm tomorrow and asking if I could "legally" make it. Good to see that they're including legality in the communications these days. The answer was 'no,' but I couldn't type while I was driving. I just figured that I would take a minute and come up with an ETA and respond once I got to the truck stop. By the time I got onto the scale (and before I responded) I had received a dispatch. 6:45pm tomorrow. Given that the thing was supposed to deliver by 3pm, I'm not sure what I should expect when I arrive later in the afternoon. Maybe the place will be open and maybe it won't.
I was originally under the impression that the time burned up on today's 14 hour clock had contributed the issue with the scheduled delivery. After thinking it through though, this isn't the case at all. I was sent on my way at 4:30pm Central. 3pm on the following day would be 22½ hours later. The 763 dispatched miles could not, under any circumstance, be completed in one shift. Thus, it really made no difference if I could drive a full eleven hours tonight or if I could only drive three hours tonight. I would have to take a break either way. So you have to toss in a ten hour break and you're left with 12½ hours. At least one inspection plus the stop to scale the load knocks us down to 12 hours. In a perfect world with flat terrain, no traffic, no fuel stops, and accurately dispatched miles... maybe. Even then the required 63.58mph pace would be a tough one to swing. Just a poorly scheduled load, it would seem. If it had been picked up a few hours earlier, all would be well, but I was stuck in Benton this morning with a noon delivery appointment. Surely the folks assigning the loads were aware of this, no?
As it stands there's no way I can make it by 3pm. I'm going to do my best to make it close though, just in case the place is only open until 5pm or something. I had to weigh the prospect of staying on the interstates against the prospect of dropping out of Texarkana on US-59. The US-59 route would have some towns along the way, slowing the pace somewhat, but it's around 30 miles shorter than taking I-30 over to I-635 and then down to I-35. In addition, the all-interstate route would require me to get past Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio all in one trip. The odds of covering that entire route without encountering a mess would seem pretty slim. The US-59 route would involve Houston though. Pretty good chance of a traffic jam there too.
By the time I reached Texarkana, I had decided to trust my instincts and take US-59 southward. There are a whole bunch of 65mph stretches on this road and yesterday's photograph from I-35 was still fresh on my mind. I'll take my chances with Houston tomorrow and let the chips fall where they may. As I rolled down past I-20, I realized that the damned 14 hour clock was about to work its magic on my log book. I snuck a peek at my truck stop directory and saw that there was a Shell station in Carthage with a medium parking lot. If I couldn't find a spot there, I would be SOL in terms of complying with the law. As tends to be the case, the patron saint of the Fenian Godfather seems to have put in a good word for me and there was one open parking space in the back. Not lucky. Blessed.
I'll have around 520 miles left to cover tomorrow. Since I will be legal to get moving at 7:30am Central, I'm hoping that I can reach Laredo between 4pm and 5pm. It looks like I'm a good three hours from Houston as well. If there's a decent time to get through there on a Thursday morning, 10:30am is probably that time. Here's hoping that I can make my delivery whenever I get down to Laredo and then get the hell out of town before the weekend. Here's hoping...
The unloading in Hot Springs went fairly quickly, after which I was dispatched to deliver in Benton. In a pleasant surprise, the segment of US-270 looping past the south side of Hot Springs was a freeway and, while it was a little curvy compared to the interstates, it was nothing like last night's approach on AR-7. My appointment in Benton was for noon but I headed straight there. Since my day had already begun and the 14 hour clock was ticking, there was no reason to sit around. And more importantly, those retail deliveries can be a bit of an adventure when one has to navigate around parked cars. I was hoping to find an empty lot by arriving before the store had opened. The lot did turn out to be empty and I lucked out by guessing correctly as to the orientation of the loading dock. It was still a tight environment but approaching from the right direction made a huge difference.
The forklift guy said that he was busy when I arrived and that I should check back with him around noon. So we arrive at my ill-fated search for sustenance. I took a walk across the shopping area and saw a few restaurants, so I doubled back and started checking the hours of operation. 11am-..., 11am-..., 11am-... and so on. Okay then, one more trip across the complex brought me back to the Home Depot. Open at 6am, of course. Peanuts for breakfast. They were pretty tasty peanuts though, so that's good.
As I sat reading the news of the day and waiting for noon to come around, I received a pre-planned assignment. Apparently I was supposed to go back in time to pickup in Pine Bluff today at 8am and then drive 763 miles to Laredo by tomorrow at 8am. Can't confirm that schedule, right? No way I could keep those appointments, after all. Of course I confirmed the schedule. We all know how the game is played. 8am is almost always a generic placeholder, even if a few individuals are not aware of this.
Around 11:30am, the same forklift guy from earlier came out and told me that he was ready. We opened up the doors and he got to work. My trailer was empty around an hour or so later. When I hopped in the back to sweep it out, I found some sort of yellow goo that had been spilled on the floor. I grabbed a couple of shop towels and some degreaser and did what I could in terms of cleaning it out. The yellow stuff was all gone but a pretty large greasy spot remained in its place. Shouldn't be a problem, I thought, as long as I didn't have to pick up any rolls of paper. Those paper people are some picky SOB's.
My dispatch to Pine Bluff gave me an hour and a half to cover the 46 miles from Benton. The trip turned out to be more like 65 miles (to the port on the far side of Pine Bluff) and it took the full hour and a half. Good enough. I went into the shipping office to check in and found one of my CTL colleagues at the window ahead of me. His pickup number was no good, so he had to go back out to his truck and get a different one. In related news, my pickup number was no good so I had to go back out to my truck and get a new one. Armed with our correct pickup numbers, we got checked in and then proceeded to the end of the lot to await our door assignments. The loads were brokered by another trucking company and we had no appointments, so we were in the "work in" pool - first come, first served.
Sitting down at the end of the lot, I caught a glimpse of the freight that was being loaded on the trucks at the docks. Rolls of paper. Oh boy. After a while, my colleague was sent to the dock. He backed in. The forklift guy engaged the dock plate and stepped into the trailer. The forklift guy disengaged the dock plate and said something to my colleague. My colleague closed his empty trailer and drove away. Flashbacks ensued. Freaking paper mills. My turn was next, so I backed my trailer (with its greasy spot on the floor) into the loading dock. They loaded me without incident and then I got to sit in the shipping office for another half hour as I waited for my paperwork.
Keeping in mind the original goofy schedule, we arrive at the loaded portion of this trip. I sent in my information and took off for the nearest CAT scale. I hadn't received a dispatch right away so I was getting suspicious. Just before I reached the truck stop with the scale, I got a message saying that the load was scheduled to deliver in Laredo by 3pm tomorrow and asking if I could "legally" make it. Good to see that they're including legality in the communications these days. The answer was 'no,' but I couldn't type while I was driving. I just figured that I would take a minute and come up with an ETA and respond once I got to the truck stop. By the time I got onto the scale (and before I responded) I had received a dispatch. 6:45pm tomorrow. Given that the thing was supposed to deliver by 3pm, I'm not sure what I should expect when I arrive later in the afternoon. Maybe the place will be open and maybe it won't.
I was originally under the impression that the time burned up on today's 14 hour clock had contributed the issue with the scheduled delivery. After thinking it through though, this isn't the case at all. I was sent on my way at 4:30pm Central. 3pm on the following day would be 22½ hours later. The 763 dispatched miles could not, under any circumstance, be completed in one shift. Thus, it really made no difference if I could drive a full eleven hours tonight or if I could only drive three hours tonight. I would have to take a break either way. So you have to toss in a ten hour break and you're left with 12½ hours. At least one inspection plus the stop to scale the load knocks us down to 12 hours. In a perfect world with flat terrain, no traffic, no fuel stops, and accurately dispatched miles... maybe. Even then the required 63.58mph pace would be a tough one to swing. Just a poorly scheduled load, it would seem. If it had been picked up a few hours earlier, all would be well, but I was stuck in Benton this morning with a noon delivery appointment. Surely the folks assigning the loads were aware of this, no?
As it stands there's no way I can make it by 3pm. I'm going to do my best to make it close though, just in case the place is only open until 5pm or something. I had to weigh the prospect of staying on the interstates against the prospect of dropping out of Texarkana on US-59. The US-59 route would have some towns along the way, slowing the pace somewhat, but it's around 30 miles shorter than taking I-30 over to I-635 and then down to I-35. In addition, the all-interstate route would require me to get past Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio all in one trip. The odds of covering that entire route without encountering a mess would seem pretty slim. The US-59 route would involve Houston though. Pretty good chance of a traffic jam there too.
By the time I reached Texarkana, I had decided to trust my instincts and take US-59 southward. There are a whole bunch of 65mph stretches on this road and yesterday's photograph from I-35 was still fresh on my mind. I'll take my chances with Houston tomorrow and let the chips fall where they may. As I rolled down past I-20, I realized that the damned 14 hour clock was about to work its magic on my log book. I snuck a peek at my truck stop directory and saw that there was a Shell station in Carthage with a medium parking lot. If I couldn't find a spot there, I would be SOL in terms of complying with the law. As tends to be the case, the patron saint of the Fenian Godfather seems to have put in a good word for me and there was one open parking space in the back. Not lucky. Blessed.
I'll have around 520 miles left to cover tomorrow. Since I will be legal to get moving at 7:30am Central, I'm hoping that I can reach Laredo between 4pm and 5pm. It looks like I'm a good three hours from Houston as well. If there's a decent time to get through there on a Thursday morning, 10:30am is probably that time. Here's hoping that I can make my delivery whenever I get down to Laredo and then get the hell out of town before the weekend. Here's hoping...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
10/27/09
A day with 465 miles on the odometer is pretty typical out here. Such a day in which the last 20 of those 465 miles comprised 90% of the work load... well, that's a little odd.
After getting unloaded this morning, I pulled around the corner and parked to await my next assignment. It didn't take long until the satellite unit chirped at me with the sort of information that I had anticipated. Back to the same shipper in Waco for another load. This one had some decent miles on it though and it got me out of Texas, so we'll have to assume that I'm free of that regional business for now.
My plan summary said that the load picked up in Waco tonight at midnight and had two drops in Arkansas tomorrow. Given yesterday's experience, I was fairly confident that I could make my pickup this afternoon and then get to the first delivery point for a full break tonight. If I actually had to pick it up tonight and then drive until morning, tomorrow's 14 hour clock would be shot by the time I made my second drop. I rolled into Waco around noon and sat parked on the street waiting to get into the shipper's driveway for quite some time. The security guard later told me that I had been behind a drayage container from China and also a local truck delivering 14 different purchase orders. Each of those came with a bunch of red tape so I got to sit and wait.
After finally getting in and making my drop/hook, I hit the road and made it past the Dallas area before any rush hour traffic had kicked up. It's not often that I have anything positive to say about Satan's Driveway (and I'm not entirely sure that this qualifies as something positive), but I'm glad I wasn't on that side of the road...
I don't remember exactly where this picture was taken. Somewhere between Waco and Dallas. That line was a solid seven or eight miles long and those people were parked. As you can see, my side was unimpeded. Beauty.
After a nap and a shower on the eastern edge of Texas, I got back on the road to finish tonight's trip into Hot Springs, Arkansas. I took I-30 over to Exit 78 and hopped on AR-7 northbound. There are certain things that you don't like to see when you're a truck driver. On a night when a little bit of rain is starting to fall and you're pulling a 40,000 pound payload, the word "scenic" on a highway sign is generally not good news. I'm sure that it's a lovely drive and all, but I didn't see any of that beautiful shit. I saw steep hills, windshield glare from oncoming high beams, and slippery curves that seemed to pop out of the darkness without warning. I once took US-62 across the top of Arkansas through Eureka Springs (a mistake that will never be repeated). Tonight's drive was child's play compared to that trip a few years back, but those last twenty miles into Hot Springs were definitely the hardest part of this trip.
I got parked in front of the makeshift loading dock at my consignee and then walked across the street to grab some dinner. I could see the lights for some kind of restaurant from where I was parked. The place was a nice little pizzeria and lounge that closed at 9pm and it was 8:45pm when I got there. Given my history in the restaurant business, I know that only a supreme douchebag would walk into a restaurant 15 minutes before closing time. (I'm sure that I'm talking about a few of you readers out there. The restaurant workers are most certainly saying it about you so you might as well know.) I do have plenty of my own douchebaggish tendencies but this is not one of them, so I moved along. There was a SubWay a few yards away though, open until 10pm, so obviously I was far from disappointed.
Once these guys pull the first bit of freight off in the morning, I'll have to head across to Benton and get rid of the rest. Then I'm not sure if I'll be under the control of Joplin or West Memphis. Either way I'll have plenty of available hours. Let's hope for plenty of available freight.
After getting unloaded this morning, I pulled around the corner and parked to await my next assignment. It didn't take long until the satellite unit chirped at me with the sort of information that I had anticipated. Back to the same shipper in Waco for another load. This one had some decent miles on it though and it got me out of Texas, so we'll have to assume that I'm free of that regional business for now.
My plan summary said that the load picked up in Waco tonight at midnight and had two drops in Arkansas tomorrow. Given yesterday's experience, I was fairly confident that I could make my pickup this afternoon and then get to the first delivery point for a full break tonight. If I actually had to pick it up tonight and then drive until morning, tomorrow's 14 hour clock would be shot by the time I made my second drop. I rolled into Waco around noon and sat parked on the street waiting to get into the shipper's driveway for quite some time. The security guard later told me that I had been behind a drayage container from China and also a local truck delivering 14 different purchase orders. Each of those came with a bunch of red tape so I got to sit and wait.
After finally getting in and making my drop/hook, I hit the road and made it past the Dallas area before any rush hour traffic had kicked up. It's not often that I have anything positive to say about Satan's Driveway (and I'm not entirely sure that this qualifies as something positive), but I'm glad I wasn't on that side of the road...
I don't remember exactly where this picture was taken. Somewhere between Waco and Dallas. That line was a solid seven or eight miles long and those people were parked. As you can see, my side was unimpeded. Beauty.
After a nap and a shower on the eastern edge of Texas, I got back on the road to finish tonight's trip into Hot Springs, Arkansas. I took I-30 over to Exit 78 and hopped on AR-7 northbound. There are certain things that you don't like to see when you're a truck driver. On a night when a little bit of rain is starting to fall and you're pulling a 40,000 pound payload, the word "scenic" on a highway sign is generally not good news. I'm sure that it's a lovely drive and all, but I didn't see any of that beautiful shit. I saw steep hills, windshield glare from oncoming high beams, and slippery curves that seemed to pop out of the darkness without warning. I once took US-62 across the top of Arkansas through Eureka Springs (a mistake that will never be repeated). Tonight's drive was child's play compared to that trip a few years back, but those last twenty miles into Hot Springs were definitely the hardest part of this trip.
I got parked in front of the makeshift loading dock at my consignee and then walked across the street to grab some dinner. I could see the lights for some kind of restaurant from where I was parked. The place was a nice little pizzeria and lounge that closed at 9pm and it was 8:45pm when I got there. Given my history in the restaurant business, I know that only a supreme douchebag would walk into a restaurant 15 minutes before closing time. (I'm sure that I'm talking about a few of you readers out there. The restaurant workers are most certainly saying it about you so you might as well know.) I do have plenty of my own douchebaggish tendencies but this is not one of them, so I moved along. There was a SubWay a few yards away though, open until 10pm, so obviously I was far from disappointed.
Once these guys pull the first bit of freight off in the morning, I'll have to head across to Benton and get rid of the rest. Then I'm not sure if I'll be under the control of Joplin or West Memphis. Either way I'll have plenty of available hours. Let's hope for plenty of available freight.
Monday, October 26, 2009
10/26/09
I've heard of flash flooding and such but there's no such thing as a flash hurricane, right? Holy moly. I was in alarm-free dreamland this morning when my truck started rocking back and forth and the rain started pelting the fiberglass right behind my head. That'll wake a fella pretty quickly. As the storm intensified, it occurred to me that I was going to have to start driving at some point in the day. Curious to see how bad it would be, I pulled up the Weather Channel's website and took a look. I had become convinced that a rare flash hurricane had descended directly on my truck. Just a thunderstorm, it turns out.
Getting through Houston last night seems to have been a good move, since here's what the satellite/traffic mashup showed this morning.
As for my least favorite city in America through which to drive... well, let's just say that the ole Godfather was thankful not to be on Satan's Driveway this morning.
Exclamation marks are accidents, whereas "JAM" means, well, you know what that means. These people simply cannot drive. It's stunning. Fortunately for me, today's trip into Austin brought me along TX-71 from the east and my afternoon appointment allowed me to sit out the worst of the storm, along with the rush hour shenanigans. In point of fact, TX-71 turned out to be a much faster road than I anticipated and I showed up an hour and a half early. I had been expecting to arrive less than an hour ahead of my appointment. The consignee wasn't ready for me until 2pm though, so I got to sit and wait.
On the way to Austin I had received a pre-planned assignment to pick up once I was empty. Usually that's a good thing. Usually. But not all pre-plans are created equally, I'm afraid. Obviously my first preference would have been to go eastward or westward out of Austin and not have to endure Satan's Driveway. Pretty slim chance of that happening though, so I couldn't be too surprised by a 99 mile deadhead up to Waco.
The loaded portion of the trip, well, that one was a surprise. 72 miles back down Satan's Driveway for a delivery in Georgetown tomorrow morning. I don't tend to get too bent out of shape about shitty runs to start the week, given that things tend to level out by the time the weekend rolls around. I will be curious to see how this week plays out though. I've heard some disconcerting tales of people getting sucked into this short haul shit in Texas for a major customer of ours for several days at a time. Knowing that I was headed to Texas, I was hoping that the ballyhooed new CTL regional fleet would be staffed well enough to accomodate the freight by now. Apparently this is not yet the case, seeing as I am not a regional driver and here I am. I don't know though. Maybe this bang-up 171 mile round trip was just the best they could do for me today. I doubt it. Whatever. Like I said, we'll see how the week plays out. Can't jump to too many conclusions on a Monday.
Once I was empty, the drive up through Austin and into Waco was about as obnoxious one would expect it to be. Certainly not my worst day on Satan's Driveway but slow and tedious just the same. Two slow lanes full of moronic drivers while the truckless left lane was wide open. C'est la vie.
A quick and easy drop/hook in Waco had me heading back southward on that glorious stretch of highway. Since I intended to spend the night at the store where I'm delivering tomorrow, I stopped off at the truck stop in Eddy for a little break and a fantastic Italian BMT with double meat. Better to arrive at the store after the parking lot had cleared out and so forth. Plus the break gave me the added benefit of being able to traverse the last 55 miles after the traffic had died down for the night. Since I have a 7am delivery appointment, I had to be done with today's work by 9pm. So I arrived just before 9pm. Pretty clever, eh? Yeah, I'm a thinker.
The last leg of the trip was easy until I made an adventure out of the store's parking lot. I saw the loading docks and it appeared that the lot was designed to allow a truck to swing around a horseshoe-shaped driveway and then back in. Halfway into the horseshoe, it was "Oh shit" time. The manager, who was leaving the store for the night, saw me getting out to assess the situation and came walking over. He told me that we're supposed to get turned around out in the middle of the parking lot and back in around the corner. Then he bitched for a few minutes about truck drivers damaging his merchandise and so forth. I told him that I wasn't going to hit anything. In the worst case scenario I would simply have to back out the same way that I came in and then get situated. It turned out that, by sliding my axles all the way forward and shortening my wheelbase, I was able to get my trailer kicked out to the right with a few back and forth movements. Then, with the shortened wheelbase, I was able to make the turn and complete the horseshoe approach that I had begun. Beauty.
Guess I might as well watch my 'Skins finish taking their whooping from the Eagles now. Such a once-proud organization... such a train wreck...
Getting through Houston last night seems to have been a good move, since here's what the satellite/traffic mashup showed this morning.
As for my least favorite city in America through which to drive... well, let's just say that the ole Godfather was thankful not to be on Satan's Driveway this morning.
Exclamation marks are accidents, whereas "JAM" means, well, you know what that means. These people simply cannot drive. It's stunning. Fortunately for me, today's trip into Austin brought me along TX-71 from the east and my afternoon appointment allowed me to sit out the worst of the storm, along with the rush hour shenanigans. In point of fact, TX-71 turned out to be a much faster road than I anticipated and I showed up an hour and a half early. I had been expecting to arrive less than an hour ahead of my appointment. The consignee wasn't ready for me until 2pm though, so I got to sit and wait.
On the way to Austin I had received a pre-planned assignment to pick up once I was empty. Usually that's a good thing. Usually. But not all pre-plans are created equally, I'm afraid. Obviously my first preference would have been to go eastward or westward out of Austin and not have to endure Satan's Driveway. Pretty slim chance of that happening though, so I couldn't be too surprised by a 99 mile deadhead up to Waco.
The loaded portion of the trip, well, that one was a surprise. 72 miles back down Satan's Driveway for a delivery in Georgetown tomorrow morning. I don't tend to get too bent out of shape about shitty runs to start the week, given that things tend to level out by the time the weekend rolls around. I will be curious to see how this week plays out though. I've heard some disconcerting tales of people getting sucked into this short haul shit in Texas for a major customer of ours for several days at a time. Knowing that I was headed to Texas, I was hoping that the ballyhooed new CTL regional fleet would be staffed well enough to accomodate the freight by now. Apparently this is not yet the case, seeing as I am not a regional driver and here I am. I don't know though. Maybe this bang-up 171 mile round trip was just the best they could do for me today. I doubt it. Whatever. Like I said, we'll see how the week plays out. Can't jump to too many conclusions on a Monday.
Once I was empty, the drive up through Austin and into Waco was about as obnoxious one would expect it to be. Certainly not my worst day on Satan's Driveway but slow and tedious just the same. Two slow lanes full of moronic drivers while the truckless left lane was wide open. C'est la vie.
A quick and easy drop/hook in Waco had me heading back southward on that glorious stretch of highway. Since I intended to spend the night at the store where I'm delivering tomorrow, I stopped off at the truck stop in Eddy for a little break and a fantastic Italian BMT with double meat. Better to arrive at the store after the parking lot had cleared out and so forth. Plus the break gave me the added benefit of being able to traverse the last 55 miles after the traffic had died down for the night. Since I have a 7am delivery appointment, I had to be done with today's work by 9pm. So I arrived just before 9pm. Pretty clever, eh? Yeah, I'm a thinker.
The last leg of the trip was easy until I made an adventure out of the store's parking lot. I saw the loading docks and it appeared that the lot was designed to allow a truck to swing around a horseshoe-shaped driveway and then back in. Halfway into the horseshoe, it was "Oh shit" time. The manager, who was leaving the store for the night, saw me getting out to assess the situation and came walking over. He told me that we're supposed to get turned around out in the middle of the parking lot and back in around the corner. Then he bitched for a few minutes about truck drivers damaging his merchandise and so forth. I told him that I wasn't going to hit anything. In the worst case scenario I would simply have to back out the same way that I came in and then get situated. It turned out that, by sliding my axles all the way forward and shortening my wheelbase, I was able to get my trailer kicked out to the right with a few back and forth movements. Then, with the shortened wheelbase, I was able to make the turn and complete the horseshoe approach that I had begun. Beauty.
Guess I might as well watch my 'Skins finish taking their whooping from the Eagles now. Such a once-proud organization... such a train wreck...
Sunday, October 25, 2009
10/25/09
There are 119 teams that play Division 1-A college football. I have differing levels of respect and admiration for various programs around the country but I have intense animosity toward only one. I absolutely hate Boston College. How a group of people can manage to behave as such low-rent douchebags year after year, even during what had been a lengthy winning streak over the Irish, is beyond me. Their piss drunk fans would show up in their rented RV's every year and swear incessantly at the little old ladies around the Notre Dame campus. Their players have torn up the turf at Notre Dame stadium on more than one occasion. Their coaches (prior to these last two) have always been good for brushing off the Notre Dame head coach during the postgame handshake. That university and its fans are forever cursed with 'little brother' syndrome, on account of being the other Catholic school in America and (even more so) on account of enjoying a level of popularity somewhere behind the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Quincy Youth Hockey, and whatever other teams exist in Massachusetts. Thus, this comes as no surprise...
Say what you will about Jimmy Clausen and his perceived arrogance. The kid just watched that #18 dipshit put up a bunch of receiving yards against the Irish defense and tried to congratulate him on a good game. The response, well, that's why you're Boston College. No winning streak or losing streak will ever change this fact.
Okay, off the soap box now. Hmm, anything else to say? Well, I did get my first run-in with a scalemaster today, so I guess that counts for something. I didn't feel like stopping at a CAT scale when I picked up this load in Florida. Probably should have stopped anyway. I can usually judge the weight on my drive axles by virtue of my suspension gauge and then do the math to estimate whatever is left on the trailer axles. For a 45,000 pound load I look for the needle to be just on the low side of the 60psi line. That's where this one was. I was pulled into the scales on I-10 in Florida on Friday and given a green light after they made me stop and weigh, so I assumed that all was well. The Louisiana dude thought otherwise this afternoon. He was very polite and friendly though, asking me to shift some weight off of the drive axles and re-weigh. After swinging back around and weighing for the second time, I got a green light and he sent me on my way. Beauty.
I had somewhere around 575 miles left to finish the trip to Austin when I started this morning. I figured that leaving something around 200 miles for tomorrow would work out okay, so 375 would have been today's target. Unbeknownst to me, that would have left me right on the eastern outskirts of Houston. Not a big deal per se, but I decided that I would be better off scooting through Houston this evening. You never really know how much of a disaster that town will be on a Monday morning. I stopped off at the Love's on the west side of Katy to call it a night, leaving roughly 130 miles for tomorrow. With an afternoon delivery appointment tomorrow it sure sounds like I won't be setting an alarm tonight. Beauty.
We'll wrap up with a little advance notice for some of you football fans with teams hanging around the top 15. My Irish are #23 in the BCS right now. Their biggest remaining obstacle will be the game against Pitt, who will likely be in the top 10 by the time my brothers and I invade the Steel City on November 14th. If the lads can crack the top 14, you can rest assured that they will be invited to a BCS game and they will displace a more highly rated program. I'm not saying that I expect them to win out. More likely they'll lose another close game along the way and none of this will matter. But, if they do run the table, you might as well practice your bitching nice and early. Some second-tier Big Ten, Pac 10, or ACC team will be getting snubbed.
Say what you will about Jimmy Clausen and his perceived arrogance. The kid just watched that #18 dipshit put up a bunch of receiving yards against the Irish defense and tried to congratulate him on a good game. The response, well, that's why you're Boston College. No winning streak or losing streak will ever change this fact.
Okay, off the soap box now. Hmm, anything else to say? Well, I did get my first run-in with a scalemaster today, so I guess that counts for something. I didn't feel like stopping at a CAT scale when I picked up this load in Florida. Probably should have stopped anyway. I can usually judge the weight on my drive axles by virtue of my suspension gauge and then do the math to estimate whatever is left on the trailer axles. For a 45,000 pound load I look for the needle to be just on the low side of the 60psi line. That's where this one was. I was pulled into the scales on I-10 in Florida on Friday and given a green light after they made me stop and weigh, so I assumed that all was well. The Louisiana dude thought otherwise this afternoon. He was very polite and friendly though, asking me to shift some weight off of the drive axles and re-weigh. After swinging back around and weighing for the second time, I got a green light and he sent me on my way. Beauty.
I had somewhere around 575 miles left to finish the trip to Austin when I started this morning. I figured that leaving something around 200 miles for tomorrow would work out okay, so 375 would have been today's target. Unbeknownst to me, that would have left me right on the eastern outskirts of Houston. Not a big deal per se, but I decided that I would be better off scooting through Houston this evening. You never really know how much of a disaster that town will be on a Monday morning. I stopped off at the Love's on the west side of Katy to call it a night, leaving roughly 130 miles for tomorrow. With an afternoon delivery appointment tomorrow it sure sounds like I won't be setting an alarm tonight. Beauty.
We'll wrap up with a little advance notice for some of you football fans with teams hanging around the top 15. My Irish are #23 in the BCS right now. Their biggest remaining obstacle will be the game against Pitt, who will likely be in the top 10 by the time my brothers and I invade the Steel City on November 14th. If the lads can crack the top 14, you can rest assured that they will be invited to a BCS game and they will displace a more highly rated program. I'm not saying that I expect them to win out. More likely they'll lose another close game along the way and none of this will matter. But, if they do run the table, you might as well practice your bitching nice and early. Some second-tier Big Ten, Pac 10, or ACC team will be getting snubbed.
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