Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Yep, right on the money. Got here at noon for a 1:00pm appointment. Was told to back into any door, 7-10. All doors 7-10 were occupied with dropped trailers, so I sat and waited. And waited. And waited.

At 3:00pm (i.e. the beginning of detention pay), one of their yard jockeys finally backed up to one of the dropped trailers and hooked it up. So I clambered into the driver's seat and waited. One of the warehouse dudes slowly walked over to where I was parked. When he finally got to the truck, he said "Soon as that guy pulls out, back in that door." That was my plan, kemo sabe, but thanks for the heads up. So now it's 3:30pm and they just came out and locked my red air line.

If I get out of here before 5:00pm, I'll be lucky.

 

Welp, I spoke too soon. Got me fully loaded in 30 minutes, and I'm outta here at 4:00pm.

 

Gotta love those pleasant surprises.

 

Dropped the volpi load yesterday and got a Greenville, SC BH for tomorrow morning. Of course I do my inspection of the trailer and the inspection has been expired since April plus looks like somebody backed into this trailer at some point really hard and the reefer indicator light is damaged and held on by zip ties and too far over behind the cab to see when looking in the mirrors to make sure the light stays green. Sitting at Loves in Wytheville waiting to get the inspection done on the trailer, 3-4 hr wait of course. Long as Im on the road by midnight Ill be fine. Hopefully nothing needs replaced when they do the inspection.

 

Last time I delivered to the WalMart DC in Gordonsville, it was a live unload. But a dude in the guard shack told me that I could request to turn it into a drop since Abilene does so much other drop-and-hook business there. So I rolled in this morning at 9:00am for my 2:00pm appointment and asked.

Turns out the other dude was incorrect. I knew it sounded too good to be true, but sometimes you gotta check just in case. So now I am sitting here at the Gordonsville Shell, awaiting my appointment time.

 

Guy was right, 3 hrs before getting me in the shop for the trailer inspection. 14 caught up since I started at 0200 this morning so burning the midnight oil tonight to SC, less stress and traffic at night anyway. Hopefully get planned for tomorrow before end of day or else my 14 will be shot waiting on them to come in tomorrow.

 

Hanging out in Raleigh, getting unloaded a day early,been a pretty good week.

 

I find that hard to believe, that operations department runs like a well oiled machine.