Monday, May 11, 2009

5/11/09

"It just takes one of y'all to walk in here and then everybody does. Let me guess. All y'all are CFI guys and you all have a six o'clock appointment, right?" Yes ma'am. All seven of us. And thus begun another glorious day in the life of this here freight relocation technician. I got my assignment late last night and had to pick up in Richmond by 6am, so of course I couldn't get to sleep. By the time I got to the shipper and received my warm welcome from that little peach of a lady, I would have been perfectly content to go back to bed for a few hours. I told Little Miss Sunshine that I could go to sleep for a while if she didn't want to handle us all at once. "Door #4," she replied.

Door #4 had a trailer in it, but America's sweetheart had come out to the steps to yell "#5!" by the time I started walking back toward the building. About five seconds after I set my brakes at the dock, the forklifts started bouncing my trailer around. A few minutes later I was on my way. Efficiency. Beauty. No rest for the weary.

Then I got the inimitable pleasure of heading down I-95 all day.  In point of fact though, the stretch that I traveled was probably the best one on the whole road.  My shipper was on the south side of Richmond and I stopped once I got through Savannah.  From Richmond on up to the north, there's one pain in the ass after another.  Tomorrow brings Jacksonville and then the blue hairs a little further to the south. Today's drive was quite uneventful by comparison.  I did have to stop and take a pretty lengthy nap before the morning was over.  Then I needed to stop and get my fuel filters changed and tractor lubed.  By the time I was done with the T/A shop in Richmond Hill, the night was getting on so I decided to park and call it a day.

My delivery is set for Wednesday morning at 5:30am so I'll be looking to get as close as possible to Lakeland tomorrow.  Polk City looks like it will probably be my best bet.  That's a few miles up the road from Lakeland and only around five hours from here.  My delivery is a drop/hook so I would be inclined to think that I could show up tomorrow afternoon.  I sent a message today, asking if I could deliver early, and got a rather unambiguous 'no' in response.  I know that some of these consignees get all pissy if we're too early so I'll just have to get up at 5am on Wednesday and drive over there.

Too bad it's not earlier in the year.  I never have made it down to Lakeland for a Spring Training game.  I could start early in the morning from here and have an afternoon to kill in Florida if I wanted to.  One of these years...

5 comments:

  1. A word of advice, there is a perfectly nice rest area just before the Love's in Polk City. If you think the J in Denver is crowded when you didn't think it would be, that Love's is even worse. But you can take your chances.

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  2. Well my Canucks are off to the golf course very good game. back and forth.

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  3. I've stayed at that Love's a few times and never had a problem finding a spot, but it has always been pretty crowded. I have to stop at the Pilot in Brunswick on my way down I-95 and get some new steer tires. I suppose I could catch a quick shower there today and then try the rest area for parking just to be on the safe side.

    I haven't been able to watch much hockey lately on account of slow internet connections, but it sounds like that whole series was pretty entertaining. I'll probably be ill-advised to try watching tonight's game since I have to be up and at 'em by 5am tomorrow. For some reason, you guys on the West Coast don't set your clocks right. If they played the game at the real 7pm, I might have a chance.

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  4. the game was in played in Chicago at 7:00 as it was at 5:00 on the West Coast.

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  5. Yeah, last night was a slow internet issue. I was talking about tonight's game in California. It's 10pm in the civilized world. ;)

    Who am I kidding though? If my connection is fast enough, I'll probably watch it anyway. Most likely I'll be picking up paper in Palatka to get me out of Florida. I usually have time for a nice nap before I have to get those loads.

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