2/15/09

Well, it ain't El Paso but 40 degrees and sunny in Missouri today was an improvement over recent history. The drive itself was a fairly easy affair. The weekend traffic was nice and light and I had plenty of time for a couple of breaks along the way.

Once I got close to Saint Louis, I had a decision to make. I could park somewhere along I-70 tonight and then head into town in the morning. That would probably be the safe and conventional approach. You have probably concluded then (correctly) that I used the other approach. I headed right into town and figured that I would come up with something for parking once I got to the consignee.

I missed a turn after leaving the freeway. No big surprise there, since my directions were based on a dispatcher's look at Google Maps. They were mostly accurate, but not exactly. Apparently there were no directions to the consignee in my company's customer profile. I pulled over and turned on my computer to see what had happened. It turned out that I was pretty close to the main Budweiser brewery entrance. I've been there before and seemed to remember a good deal of open space on the neighboring streets. I was able to drive down their street and find a wide enough spot to spin around and head back in the right direction. I found a locked gate at the consignee. Damn. There's some sort of gravel or dirt (or something) area near the train tracks across the street. That'll do. Shortly after I parked here, I saw a security truck pull up on the other side of the fence on my right. I was expecting to get harassed but he didn't get out of the truck. From observing for a few minutes here, it appears that the security truck moves to a different spot and parks to keep an eye on things whenever the trains move.

Since it looks like I'm not bothering anyone, I have to conclude that it was a good move to get here tonight. Missing a turn and getting lost amid the morning traffic is an experience that I know quite well. Not too fun.

We have quite a few customers in this area so that should be good news when it comes time to wait for a load tomorrow. We also tend to have a lot of trucks in Missouri though. We shall see...

2/14/09

First vision this morning - whiteness. We're not talking about one of those misguided youth rallies down south either. It was either snowing like hell or the snow from last night was blowing like hell or something. Whatever was the deal, I went back to bed. Screw that.

The next time I got up and looked outside, I still saw largely bleached out conditions. There didn't seem to be any snow blowing across my windshield this time though. Okay then, I guess I might as well drive this truck for a while.

It took about a hundred miles to get to where the roads seemed relatively decent. It took about a hundred more miles from there for the icy patches to disappear. It took about a hundred more miles from there for the sky to open up. The rest of the trip was smooth sailing. By the time I got into Iowa I was ready to call it a day. I think I have around 400 miles to go from here, so we'll leave that for tomorrow. The week wraps up with 2,176 miles. On the heels of our Fenian Godfather record from last week, that'll do.

So I heard on the radio this afternoon that today is Valentine's Day. I know that some who read this blog may be inclined to think that your don has grown immune to the ways of that wily little Cupid and his ilk. Well, your inclination would be correct. Valentine's Day, to me, is simply the day that those savage Italians murdered a bunch of innocent, fun loving employees of the Irishmen on the north side of Chicago back in '29. This year though, I just might be in love. Part economist and part rabblerouser? Be still my beating heart...

2/13/09

Out of Idaho and into Utah, the roads were clear and dry. Through the canyons and back up into the mountains, the roads were clear and dry. All the way across Wyoming, the roads were clear and dry. The sky was sunny and the wind was relatively calm. Then the last thirty or forty mile stretch coming out of the mountains and into Cheyenne was a wicked slick pain in the ass. Fortunately, I was planning all along to stop at the truck stop at Exit 370. It only took a few Hail Marys to get me here.

I've maintained a pretty good pace to this point, so the weekend won't require any really long days of driving. I have no idea what kind of road conditions I'll face tomorrow in Nebraska. I don't recall being terribly impressed with the way they handled the roads the last time I crossed that state in the winter. It's nice to know that I can shut down early if the situation warrants.

I stumbled across something for you guys who think I'm paranoid when I say that we're getting a little ahead of ourselves with the new messiah worship. I leave you tonight with this, an actual photo taken at a Border's in Texas...

2/12/09

There's a neat little tradition that I've developed in my line of work. Whenever things go as planned, I take them in stride and do my job. Whenever plans change, I immediately try to figure out whether or not I'm getting screwed. I suppose that, once I've really earned my stripes out here, I'll be able to assume that I'm always getting screwed. I haven't reached that point yet though. For now I prefer to stay somewhere within the confines of reality.

As I slept soundly this morning, I was awakened by the lovely chirp of the Qualcomm. Yep, that screwed me over. Good luck getting back to sleep. I took a look at the message - "Load unassigned." Definitely getting screwed. A few minutes later I got my new assignment. I had a pickup in Pasco with a delivery in Pasco, followed by the original load to El Paso. Well, that wasn't so bad then. I wasn't sure what the Pasco thing was about, but I assumed that it was a local run. I could make an extra twenty bucks for a quick detour without losing any miles in the process. Clearly not getting screwed.

On the way to this morning's consignee, I turned down their street and saw a truck with its left turn signal on. He was waiting to pull into a parking lot. The lot was completely blocked by two other trucks. I couldn't see the sign on the building but I suspected that he was going to the same place as I. I pulled around him and continued down the road. The customer was said to open at 8am and I was around twenty minutes early. I had no desire to sit parked in the traffic lane for twenty minutes. Kennewick is not Laredo, after all. Getting screwed again? Eh, maybe.

As I passed, I saw that the lot did indeed belong to my consignee. I cruised around for a few minutes, looking for a way to double back. I had no idea where I was going. I just stuck with my usual principles - try to favor left turns, avoid skinny roads, that sort of thing. It wasn't too difficult to find a decent route back to the consignee's street. By the time I got back there, the turning truck had squeezed himself into a neighboring lot next to the other two trucks. I saw what appeared to be a big enough opening to insert myself into the mix and get me off the street. I got 'er in there.

The consignee opened the gate a few minutes later and we took turns filing in. As I was retrieving my paperwork after being unloaded, I got a call from someone in Joplin. They needed to know if I would be empty soon, as they needed me to pick up a load in Pasco and drop it at the ConWay yard in the same town. (This would be the Pasco to Pasco trip that woke me this morning.) The timing worked out perfectly and I got to the shipper in Pasco right on time.

Once I got backed into the loading dock, my Qualcomm chirped again. "Load unassigned. Another driver returned to work a day early." Totally getting screwed! Taking my load away and giving it to someone else? Screw him! Hang on though. There was more to the message... "I'll leave the Pasco to St. Louis load with you." (This was the one that I was originally going to leave at the ConWay yard.) Final judgment required a quick look at a map. I would be getting a little over 1,900 miles in lieu of the roughly 1,600 miles that I lost. Okay then, unscrewed.

Those guys had me loaded quickly and I was headed eastward along I-84. The weather forecast was the same as the weather forecast every damn day for the past week - snow in the mountains. In keeping with the trend of the past week however, the forecast was wrong. The roads were clean and dry all day. Not a single snowflake that I could see. This was a marked improvement over my only previous trip along that stretch of highway. I got down to Eden, Idaho and decided to call it a night. I would picture a place called Eden being a little warmer, but you know, good enough.

Tomorrow's forecast looks like I should be in decent shape crossing the Rockies. Since the forecast is always wrong though, I'll probably get screwed.