12/24/09

Didn't some goofball once suggest that Bob Stoops should stay in Oklahoma for better weather? Yeah, kiss my ass, Bubba. I don't think I'll be able to open the door of my truck in the morning if this ice keeps coming down at its current pace. At least the snow in the Midwest looks nice.

Most of the day was pretty easy before I got here though. It was pretty rainy for a while in Kentucky but the traffic was light. Then the rain stopped while I was rolling down US-51 toward Memphis. It did start raining again in time for me to cruise through the ghetto looking for my consignee, of course. My directions were pretty good though, so there were no issues finding the place.

Once I got there, different story. The place was locked up, dark, and deserted. Not a huge surprise on Christmas Eve, I suppose. Also not a huge surprise that I would be sent somewhere that was closed for a holiday. I've had this privilege at least two or three times before. I placed a call to the dispatcher in West Memphis. The dispatcher placed a call to the customer service representative in charge of that particular consignee. Then the dispatcher called me back. Once again, no huge surprise. I was to take the loaded trailer to the terminal and drop it off for a local driver to deliver on Monday.

After I handed in my paperwork for the Memphis load, I was glad to learn that my loaded trailer going to California was ready and waiting. Until global warming changes the earth's rotation or whatever the newest dire prediction will be, storms will tend to move from west to east. Since I would be moving from east to west (a head-on collision course with the storm), I wanted to cover as many miles as possible before the bad stuff on TV became the bad stuff on my window. So the sooner I got out of West Memphis, the better.

The temperature rose as I crossed Arkansas, reaching 57° and holding steady through most of the state. By the time I came out of the hills near Fort Smith, the temperature was falling and falling rapidly. That 57° reading had turned into a 44° reading in a matter of ten miles. I resolved that I would look for somewhere to park once it got to 38°. This seemed like a reasonable way to balance my intention to cover as many miles as possible against my intention not to skid along an icy highway. At the Oklahoma state line, my truck's readout said 37° and the rain hitting my windshield had turned into the always pleasant 'wintry mix.' By the time I covered the last couple of miles to the truck stop in Roland, we were at 33° and my wiper blades were encased in ice. Damn. That was quick. As of the time that this is posted, we're down to 30°.

I have all of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday left to cover the remaining miles for the trip so I don't think I'll have any major issues. I have no idea how well these people deal with winter weather, in terms of road maintenance. I suspect not very well. I've caught some icy stuff in Texas before and it was a joke. Since the weather forecast said that there was a 20% chance of precipitation in Fort Smith tonight and there is a 100% chance that it rained/froze/snowed like hell, I won't put too much stock in tomorrow's forecast. We'll just have to see how things look when I get out of bed in the morning.

I don't know if Santa is going to be able to find me here, but I'm thinking about trying to see if I can find whatever he left for me in the casino. You never know...