Millis OTR journal

Wassup y'all. Tonight I'm in Jeffersonville Ohio. It feels good to feel like a trucker again. Yesterday I ran 600 miles, and today I got almost 550. And I did get my wish last night, kind of. I achieved my goal of making it through Arkansas and not having to camp there for the night. However.....the place I stayed at last night could easily have been part of a Hollywood horror movie set. No joke. Extremely creepy. And hard to escape this morning. When I parked yesterday, I was the only truck there (which added to the creepiness). When I went to bed, there were three or four additional trucks. When I woke up, it was friggin packed to the gills. If there had been someone parked on my left side, I never would have gotten out without waking a couple people up. What a mess. Chalking that one up to experience, and that place will never see me again. I would have been better off parked on an on ramp. Oh well. I got started very early this morning, and got to my final with just a couple minutes to spare. I was almost late, thanks to a traffic mess in Cincinnati on 275. I should have followed my instincts and went west instead of east. My final was the Trenton drop lot, and it was due at 1pm. I was there five minutes before but couldn't drop the trailer until around 1:15 because of all the trucks moving around in there. Including other companies, like Schneider. Why are they in our lot?!? Seriously, something needs to be done about that place, it's beyond ridiculous. We shouldn't have to drop there anymore. Just let us drop at the terminal. After I dropped my trailer Opie gave me a load that was sitting at the terminal and is heading to North Carolina. I drove for about an hour so that I could preserve as much of tomorrow's 14 as possible. My load isn't due until 5:45pm, so I don't have to leave here until 8am. Tomorrow evening should be interesting. It's a live unload, and then I'll probably have a pre plan to go get another load. I won't have a lot of time left after I'm unloaded and it'll be late-ish, so parking oughta be a blast after going to get another load. I guess I'll just worry about it later, but that situation could definitely suck. I have a lot of hours coming back over the next four days, so I'm definitely set there. And on a side note, it's nice and cool here tonight, so I can finally sleep with the engine off. It's been a while since that's happened. Alright gang, I'm gonna hit the sack and take advantage of the sleep time this run is affording me. Talk at ya tomorrow. Be safe out there in Truckerland. Peace y'all.

 

Nice job, man! Looking forward to running into you some day

 

So, I reserved a spot a few miles from here because of the time of day. When I hung up the phone I had a twinge of regret, thinking maybe I jumped the gun a little. Two hours later, still getting unloaded.....

 

Hey there Truckerland. How y'all doin? Tonight I'm in Wytheville, Virginia. It's been a weird couple days, and I'm extremely pleased that they're over. Yesterday, I had a good exercise in trip planning. I had a little over 400 miles to run to get to my final. It was due at 5:45pm and I had 7 hours and 45 minutes of driving ahead of me according to my GPS. So I had to account for a 30 minute break plus traffic around a few bigger cities and summertime weekend 4 wheeler traffic. And, according to the driver directions from the Qualcomm, I couldn't be there any sooner than 5pm or I'd be turned away. I got there a couple minutes after 5 and got checked in fairly quickly. Opie pre-planned me on a pickup about 100 miles away and I was really hoping to get there before the day was over. Not a friggin chance. Although I was docked very quickly, it took them three and a half hours to unload me. After about an hour it was apparent that I should start thinking about a place to park for the night. I reserved a spot at a Pilot a few miles away. By the time I finally got parked and did my post-trip I had 4 minutes left on my 14. Crimany. I didn't get parked until almost 10pm so that jacked me up on a start time today. I'm not used to seeing the sun until I've been driving for a few hours. I left this morning to go pick up a glass load in Ringgold Virginia then headed out. I fueled up around the corner and I was so happy that my fuel stop wasn't a little further along my route. The route suggestion had me on 220 and 460, and those roads don't exist in my world. So I wound my way over to 77, and here I sit. I stopped prematurely tonight on purpose so that I could get my run times back on track before Monday gets here. I know how it'll go if I had stayed out longer. I'll be stuck in a cycle of late starts and late finishes. No thanks. To me, it's worth sacrificing a little productivity to be comfortable. The load I have is due at the West Allis yard Tuesday morning, but I'll have it there Monday morning. Good enough. Tomorrow I'll be able to get a killer jump on traffic and avoid the car-tards while I'm in the mountains, and after the last couple days that'll be a welcome change. I haven't decided yet if I want to push to my fuel stop tomorrow in Gary or stop in good ol' Lebanon for a little sanity break. I'll figure it out tomorrow I guess. Alrighty guys, I'm out. Hope y'all are doing well. Be safe out there, keep the rubber down. Peace.