Good night from...

Petro near Abingdon, VA

 

Sitting in Fairburn, GA. I only have 9 hours left on my 70 since starting last friday. I am also following the rules to the letter, so lets see if I get a Tcall to the terminal tomorrow or just finish a 34.

 

Couple nights ago delivered in Houston and went to the J but it was full up. So went around the corner to Stripes. There were 3 open contiguous spots but I could tell these could be mousetraps if 4 wheelers parked out in front in their spots which were provided about 50 feet in front of where these spots were. I was able to get in OK because of the 3 spots wide. But sometime in the night a bobtail parked next to me on one side and to his credit he backed in a little extra and a flatbedder on the other side.

I tried to get out to the left (there were of course 4 wheelers parked 50 feet in front that early in the morning now) and to the right but it was not happening. Nobody was home in the bobtail, I could see the sleeper light was on and no one inside. Nobody was home in the flatbed either.

I kept working it though, even tucked my trailer in the spot behind the bobtail next to my spot and tried to get enough space to clear the flatbedder but it was no good. My next idea was to back the trailer up over the concrete curb, through the dense oleander bushes and onto the grass back 40 and go out the 2 open spots on the other side of the bobtail, before the flattbedder got dropped off by his wife and he moved his truck over for me.

I still made it to my shipper with time to spare thankfully. Got loaded and on the way. Was pushing hard to make it because the GPS said we had about 25-30 minutes of 11 left over after delivery. When it is like that the only choice is to drop the trailer and bobtail out Off Duty Driving due to Swift's rules about Off Duty at customers to save one's clock. Otherwise like in the past I just log 15 minutes for the drop/hook then go off duty no matter how long it took then had legal time to get out of the customer to find legal parking.

On the route, US 59 North through Texas I saw all kinds of law enforcement and even one truck pulled over getting inspected. Here I was pushing 69 mile per hour, I finally sent a message asking what the delivery window was. They replied 'midnite tomorrow night'. That really ticks me off. That load was 44,000 pounds and costing me a lot of fuel to run that hard plus risking tickets etc.

Well I pulled it over in Texarkana last night for a good night's sleep without an alarm clock for once in several days. Got up and meandered down the road for a nice hot shower at the TA in Prescott and a big fat sit down breakfast then delivered with just under 3 hours on the 70 remaining with 5 something coming off at midnite. So I figured to sit here in Searcy AR for a 34 hour break but lo and behold they got me a slow and low run back to Los Angeles for Monday.

 

Grinell, IA. Enrte to Muscatine, then to Portland, by way of Helena to pu a student. Trying to figure out how I am going to do this on time, especially when I do not know how he is going to be.

 

I 49 Mo.

I see thee ole Qcom is acting up again , getting " you have arrived " an hour and a half after
I left.

 

Still in SLC sad it takes this shop 48 hrs to do a simple b-service

 

Exit 310 on I-90 in South Dakota. PU student on Sunday about 9, then will have 25 hours to get 633 miles. Should be okay. Sounds young on the phone, good personality, and wants to learn all that can.

 

Everyone is going to sound "young" to you ... On 155 in MS, on my way to IN ... then P/U Monday in OH for a Tuesday AM delivery in MD ...

 

hahahahah.....

 

Hey Old Man