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...