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

2 more storms coming across this week with serious moisture content lots of snow in lot of areas..

 

Dropped empty in Wytheville this morning then grabbed that reefer load of chemicals to Nitro. Get there and had to blind side because they use the end docks on the far side to unload the product I had. Actually hit the dock in one shot blind siding, was shocked, lol! I do love those fender mirrors for blind siding, gotta have good depth perception though. Dropped empty reefer in Groveport then got the Alpharetta load.

 

Decent day today. Picked up a load of Powerade off the Wytheville yard, delivered it to Pikeville, KY. Hooked an empty and brought it back to Wytheville. Then hooked a load of refrigerator parts for Hill-Phoenix and dropped it at the HP plant just down the road from the Richmond yard. Rolled in to the yard with 10 minutes left on my 11. 600 miles today.

 

Delivered BH from Petersburg to Groveport last night. Got a pre-plan on the way instructing me to pick up from Groveport and deliver to a distributor in Raleigh, NC. Load assignment came with a note informing me that if I could reach the receiver before 3:30pm, they would unload me a day early.

Walter gave me an ETA of 7hrs 51min for the trip, so I figured I could squeak by without having to stop for a 30-minute break. Load assignment said the trailer would be ready at 5:00am. Typically, BH is well ahead of the schedule. If it's not due to be finished until 5:00am, it'll usually be finished by 1:00am or earlier.

So I got a full 7 hours sleep and sprung into action at 5:00am. Trailer wasn't ready.

Trailer continued to not be ready until long about 7:00am.

Finally left the lot around 7:20am, with an ETA of 3:10pm to arrive at the receiver. Much tighter than I was hoping for.

Arrived at the receiver with 6 minutes left to spare on my 8-hr clock. They were shorthanded, so it took 'em about two-and-a-half hours to get me unloaded, But since the alternative would've been to wait until 5:00am tomorrow morning to get unloaded, I couldn't really complain.

Currently parked at the Oasis Lakewood Travel Plaza in Halifax, NC. Was told to drop this empty reefer off at the Jarratt BH plant, but it turns out to need some repairs that weren't obvious until I opened the doors to back into the dock. So I'll be dropping it on the yard and red-tagging it tomorrow morning.

 

After delivering to Alpharetta they sent me to the knight yard to drop reefer and get a dry van then load purple mattresses in Mcdonough then dropped that on the yard and grabbed a reefer to live load in Harrisonburg yesterday then dropped that today and got the Vegas BH run now. Dropping down to 40 of course but still watching the weather though.

 

At home till Monday,than I got to head back over to Wilson to grab my trailer,headed to Lakeland,Fl.
Hope all is well.

 

Nice crisp 5 degrees in MO this morning, lol! Amazing the amount of drivers I saw pull out this morning dragging trailers with frozen brakes, they really need to teach ppl not to set trailer brakes in winter.

 

Sunny and dry pavement until I got to Tulsa, thought I was going to miss the snow but drove right into it. Wasn’t that bad though, able to comfortably go 60 until some four wheelers got scared and slowed way down driving up each others behind. Amazing how many did not have their lights on, especially the white ones blending in with the snow. Well below freezing and pavement wasn’t covered so good traction. Ran my 70 out and at the Loves in El Reno for 34. Still almost two days ahead schedule with the 34. Might see if they will take it early.

 

Getting loaded with 45k worth of charcoal here in the boonies of West Virginia. Drove past Jarhead's town to get here. The most direct route here from where I started was listed as "hazardous" on the official WVDOT website due to the weather. I've been down that route in the summer and it's pretty squirrelly even then. Steep grades and blind hairpin turns. Adding "hazardous" on top of it did not sound promising.

So I called HQ and told 'em the safest legal route would add another 100 miles. DM told me to roll and he'd get the extra miles added. So here I am.