6/21/09

The temperature readout on my truck only reached 108º this afternoon. This is clearly less than 110º, so I guess that has to count for something.

My overnight trip down to Lakeland turned out to be a little shorter than I expected. The final stretch that took me off the interstate was only around forty miles or so. I had only glanced at my atlas for a minute or two before leaving Indiana, but for some reason I thought that the drive would be a little longer. My delivery was actually a drop/hook this time, meaning that my early arrival didn't cause any problems. Good deal. I grabbed my empty trailer and scooted over to the Love's in Polk City to get some rest and await whatever might come next.

After a nice long nap I got my next assignment. 93 miles, Lakeland to Cocoa? Well, that ain't exactly a big revenue generator, is it? I guess, though, it was good enough just to get moving on a Sunday. I was #2 when I got on the board this morning so all I really expected was a deadhead to my next load. 93 loaded miles would serve essentially the same purpose for me. I would be picking up at the same distribution center where I made my drop this morning. So, in essence, I dropped a loaded trailer, picked up an empty, drove twelve miles to a truck stop, drove twelve more miles back to the DC, dropped the empty, and picked up a loaded trailer. It probably would have been helpful to get that new assignment before I had gone through all of the unnecessary extra steps.

Back at the shipper, my loaded trailer was ready and waiting. I was hooked up and ready to go within a few minutes. Then I had the distinct pleasure of helping one of my CTL comrades as he was struggling to get his trailer axles to slide. That aforementioned heat goes nicely with a little physical exertion, I must say. Your whole body can actually be covered in sweat within half a second. Who knew? The spring-lever thingamajig on his trailer's tandem pins wasn't freeing the pins under the incredibly heavy load that he was pulling, so I had to lift and hold the lever a few inches past the 'up' position as he moved the truck back. Come to think of it, that was probably pretty dangerous. No harm, no foul though. I'm still here and he got his axles set in the right place.

My own axles slid easily, despite the fact that my load also was a heavy one, and I headed back eastward with my loaded trailer. As I listened to the Tigers completing their sweep of the Brewers, my 93 paid miles became more like 105 actual miles (on account of my refusal to pay cash tolls). The extra few miles weren't the bitch about it though. The starting and stopping was a lot worse than I anticipated. I knew that I would catch some red lights as I took FL-50 out of Orlando. I had no idea of the actual number of red lights. Holy smokes. The overall drive took two hours and I would guess that a half hour of it consisted of a single ten-mile stretch.

I really had no idea what to expect vis a vis parking on the back end of this trip once I left Lakeland. I knew that there was a small Pilot off the freeway in Cocoa and that was about it. I wanted to get past Orlando today rather than deal with it on a Monday morning, but once this objective had been achieved I would have been content to stop anywhere. I never did see any place that had truck parking along my route. As one might expect, the Pilot in Cocoa had no open parking spaces once I got there. I headed across to the consignee's address to see what they might have to say. Sometimes the security guards can give a helpful pointer or two concerning vacant warehouses and such. It turns out that I'm delivering to a store that has yet to open for business and there's nobody around. I've pulled into the alley behind the building and this will work just fine for tonight.

They do have signs all over saying that idling is prohibited here. It was freaking 108º today though. I'm just gonna have to play the role of the rebel on this one. It would be my preference to shut the truck off before I go to bed, but it's still 92º right now. I have an early morning delivery appointment so I intend to try getting some sleep soon. This truck will be running all night unless the temperature starts dropping in a hurry.