My new, final resting place

TWI

TWIC, yes, and Western does use it for the Jersey Port, mostly, unless you're one of the Fontana crew. I do have a passport, but Western does no Canada and I have no desire to fuss with commercial border crossings, having experienced the Detroit crossing in a car...once.

 

597 miles. The exit and my HOS couldn't have met 3 miles down the road. No, it had to be here, 3 short of 600 miles, so this far, I have yet to drive 600 miles in one day. Well, tomorrow, I have 601 to go, according to Rand McNally.

We will see...

 

This is the time of year when we all see dead deer carcasses on the side of the road. Today, on my way to North Dakota, while driving through northern Minnesota, I saw something I've never seen and that made me a bit sad.

A dead black bear cub.

Somewhere out in those woods, is a mama bear looking...

 

I am no longer the 600-mile Virgin! Today, I ran 600.7, just like my RM said I would. So, for two days, I'm just shy of 1200 miles. The downside, of course, is that I drove almost 21 hours in 23 duty hours.

To say I am beat is an understatement. I feel like I'm in Double A, not quite ready for Joe's Major League, but maybe getting there. I am glad I don't have a preplan waiting and I'm in a quiet, cool truck stop in North Dakota. Sleep is needed.

 

Here I sit in the oil patch in North Dakota, surrounded on all sides by fracking-looking trucks, some flatbeds (mostly oversized), and not many vans. I pick up in the morning heading for Florida over the weekend.

As it should be.

 

Uh huh. I show that I can make a 2-day, 1,200- mile trip, so what does he give me? A weekend, 3-day, 2,100-miler. Ummm...

But the real problem was I showed up with a 48' flatbed and they were expecting a 53' flatbed. After rearranging the entire load - it's a good thing North Dakota is cool - the very unhappy dock manager finally got it all on. I have never had product from the very front to the very back, but I do now!