12/8/09

A foolish man once wrote - "Here's hoping for no unpleasant surprises as far as road conditions go. The temperature got steadily warmer as I proceeded eastward today, so plowing and salting should be plenty effective, assuming they actually do that in this neck of the woods." Yeah, that was pretty silly of me, wasn't it?

When I woke this morning, I found that the roads were in far worse shape than I anticipated. Along US-218 I would encounter a random plow here and there, but it was a pretty shitty ride. I found my comfort zone at around 45-50mph and held 'er steady on down the highway. I am one who firmly believes that braking is by far the most dangerous part of that kind of trip, so I found myself feeling compelled to pass a few cars along the way. With a heavy load in tow I consider it neither safe nor desirable to be riding the brakes down hills and around curves. The cars in question, of course, would tend to wander over into my lane as I went by, as they were trying to avoid the deeper snow along the edges of the road. This can make for some white-knuckle driving, to say the least. All in a day's work.

I found that IA-2 was in decent shape for the most part once I got to it, at least on the eastbound side. Glad I wasn't westbound. That side looked pretty dicey. Once I caught up with US-61, it was only a few miles further until I reached my consignee. Their lot wasn't yet plowed when I arrived, so I got the pleasure of trying (unsuccessfully) to slide my trailer axles back. Then I got the pleasure of trying (successfully) to keep the trailer straight as I slid back into the dock. The forklift guy had me empty very quickly and I was ready to head back out. By the time I came around to the front of the facility, the snow removal guys had done their thing. I pulled into the customer's staging area and parked to await whatever came next.

My mother called while I was sitting there, to see if I was safe. Apparently she saw the weather reports on television and got worried, as mothers tend to do. I told her that I had scooted out ahead of the bad stuff in Nebraska and held my own in Iowa up to that point. I only needed to catch a break for a few more days and then I would be headed toward home. It's those bullshit roads out west that are cause for worry, so the best prescription would be a trip back to the east and preferably to the south. Then, even if I hit some bad stuff on the way home, I would be in the part of the country where they actually make an effort to make the highways safe for travel. Illinois and Indiana do a pretty decent job. Michigan is good everywhere except Wayne County (where all of our tax revenue is wasted on Detroit). Ohio can be hit and miss, but we've had a mild season so far. They should have plenty of salt on hand.

After an hour and a half or so, I still had not received a new assignment. There are two tricks that are guaranteed to bring a dispatch. One is to hop in the bunk and try to take a nap. That'll get you a beep in a hurry. I slept pretty soundly for a few hours last night though, meaning that I wasn't tired this morning, so I decided to try the other option. I drove down the street to a little gas station with truck parking (not listed in my directory but recommended by the security guard). Usually, as soon as I leave the safety and comfort of a parking spot, the next assignment will come through. This time, however, they waited until I was inside the store buying some food and beverages. I had a message waiting when I got back out to my truck. Good deal.

What was it that I said earlier about being glad that I wasn't heading westward on IA-2? Yeah. The next pickup was a drop/hook in Corydon, Iowa. Back to the west we go. 112 miles, all along IA-2, with an empty trailer. It turns out that the bad westbound part of the road that I saw on my way to Fort Madison was actually the good part. Holy smokes. The last fifty miles or so found me dirt-tracking my way up and down hills on completely snow packed roads. All in a day's work.

At the shipper, things didn't get a whole lot easier. I got lucky enough when my trailer axles broke free on the first try, so that was nice. Getting into the dock turned out to be quite another story. The surface was so slippery that I had to get a steady rolling start in order to maintain enough momentum to get the trailer back to the dock. That rolling start, however, didn't provide me with any opportunity to make the usual small corrections needed to steer the trailer. Any loss of inertia left me completely unable to move backward, forcing me to pull forward and try again. Then, on the first few times that I actually got backed in without the trailer sliding sideways, I would bounce off the bumpers on the dock and slide forward before I could get my damned brakes to grab. Eventually I got it in there. The ass end of the trailer was about an inch and a half from the bumpers but that will have to do.

I expected to have some trouble getting out from under the empty trailer, but that part went pretty smoothly. The trouble this time around would be getting the axles on the loaded trailer to slide forward. I gave up on trying to do so in the area where the trailer had been sitting. It was seriously like a hockey rink out there. I pulled around to the other side of the building where the surface under the snow appeared to be a little more sound. It took some cruising back and forth and jamming on the trailer brakes, but eventually I got the axles to slide. Of course I overshot the mark by a couple of feet, leaving the axles too far forward. So I had to try a few more times to get them to come loose and slide back. All's well that ends well though. I got them locked in and headed back out once more.

There is plenty of good news to wrap up this little saga though. My trip is taking me to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (That's east and south from Iowa, for those of you keeping score at home. A tip of the cap to the load planner people for that little blessing.) As I pulled back onto IA-2 in anticipation of several more hours of frustration, I found that the snow plows had gone through during my 45 minute drop/hook fiasco. The road surface still wasn't ideal but it wasn't too bad now that I had some weight on the tires. Further to the east, the air actually warmed up and it started to rain. For the remainder of today's drive I had clean wet roads with which to contend, but no slippery stuff. Nice.

I cruised into Illinois on US-34 and then caught up with I-74. After a fuel stop in Bloomington, I had just enough time to reach the truck stop in Le Roy before my 14 hour clock ran out. 473 miles on the odometer in ten hours of driving might not sound terribly efficient, but I was surprised that I was able to get that far. Given the way things looked earlier in the day I expected much worse. Hopefully tomorrow morning's drive will get me below the snow before it gets too nasty around here. I will be putting in a long day and then finishing off the trip early Thursday morning. Rain and mountains and a heavy load will provide plenty of intrigue of their own.

I'm already over 1,700 miles for the week so I think I'll go ahead and request home time once I get down to Winston-Salem. I had intended to make the request on Friday but I don't want to take the chance of a long trans-weekend assignment coming through and screwing up my plans. Whatever miles I get between Friday and Saturday should push this week at least into the $900-1,000 range. If I can get a few miles for next week along the way back home, so much the better. If not, there's a stool at Kelly's Pub with my name on it. I think next week's check should be the one with my safety bonus on it, if memory serves correctly, so it won't kill me to take the whole week off if that's how it works out. Things seem to be falling into place... for now.