2/24/10

For the fifth night in a row, I am writing to you fine folks from El Paso, Texas. That sentence, while technically accurate, is probably misleading.

I didn't even bother making any phone calls this morning. I checked out of my room at 11am and headed back over to the Kenworth dealer to see for myself what was being done to my truck. Should be ready today, I was told when I got there. Given that this was far better than anything that I had heard prior to today, I was feeling rather optimistic. Then, after a morning of listening to one obnoxious guy telling ten thousand bullshit trucker stories in the drivers' lounge, I was feeling rather annoyed.

Morning turned to afternoon and my truck was still in the repair bay. During the first intermission of the hockey game, I walked over to the service area and saw that my truck was gone. I walked outside and saw that it wasn't in the parking lot either. Interesting. Just then, my truck came swinging into the lot with a mechanic fella at the wheel. That's a good sign, I thought. The test drive usually would be the last part of the repair process. But then he drove it back into a repair bay, so maybe my positive thoughts were a little premature.

I went back to the lounge and tried to tune out the aforementioned obnoxious liar. Team USA was in a scoreless tie and, even though I couldn't hear the announcers, the action on the screen was pretty lively. Once a non-goal off a crazy bounce sent the game to the second intermission, still scoreless, I headed back to the service area to see what kind of news they had for me. As soon as I said "the black one," the service guy handed over my keys. Good to go. Beauty.

I sent in my 'back on duty' form via satellite and then headed out toward our drop yard. I would get over there and send in my request for home time, I thought. No sooner had I turned toward the freeway than I had a load assignment. I was picking up a loaded trailer from the yard and taking it to Benson, Arizona. In Benson, I would swap my loaded trailer for another loaded trailer and head back for a delivery in El Paso. Jump right in with both feet, I suppose. Get the truck back and immediately run a solid 548 (paid) mile round trip, with a slight overnight aspect to it for good measure.

The topic of paid mileage is a bit of a nuisance in this sort of case. Our El Paso yard could more accurately be described as being in Horizon City. So I got to go out past El Paso to pick up my loaded trailer, then go even further out of town to loop back over the freeway and head westbound, then return all the way back through El Paso on my way to Arizona, then proceed into El Paso for the delivery, then return all the way back out to the far side of town to drop off my empty trailer at the yard and await my next assignment. All told, the round trip was 605 miles. Mileage discrepancies don't tend to amount to much over the long run. Sometimes I leave the yard and head eastward, for example, picking up a few extra bucks in the process. The fact that our yard is a good 20 miles outside El Paso is just annoying to me.

Anyhow, the whole deal went pretty smoothly. There was some traffic on my way out of Texas in the afternoon, but the truck stop in Benson was a good place for a quick and easy relay and there was no traffic on the overnight run back into El Paso. The yard driver at the Con-way terminal (where I delivered) directed me straight to a door and then brought an empty trailer over and set it out for me to take after making my drop. Good lookin' out, my brother.

As of this posting, I'm #2 on the board, with home time requested. My 14 hour clock is about to run out, but that's more of a technicality than anything at this point. I only have 3/4 of an hour left on my 11 anyway, so it's not like I was going very far without a ten hour break in any case. Guess I'll try to get some sleep and prepare for whatever comes through in the afternoon.