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

The original photo is probably not square so when it is cropped to be square it lopped off your head.

 

Its possible, i was loitering in the lounge on tuesday while my truck got worked on and spoke to a few guys there.

Are you originally from hialeah?.

 

So routine abilene experince and interesting timing considering the topics of late. Ill try to be brief but its gonna be long. But i think it adds value for those considering us.

Have gatorade coming from mtn top, so show up 2/3 tank of fuel. Sleep then off to warrenton va for live unload before 2pm, becomes drop/hook, so do that, notify dispatch, and go down the road to truck stop. Go inside for a few, come back, shortly get sent load

New load go to tappahannock va, then be in kutztown pa in the am. If all worked just right id show up 10-15 min early. Had to get fuel and travel 95 from batimore north As part of this. All worked out for ontime delivery.

Go to ts west on 78. In need of food and shower, hoping dispatch takes their time....nope. pull in and get a load. Go to nw jersey, fcfs 8-4 no appt and then head to yard. QC has random placeholder time of 1221ish am. Also a msg saying just run it to yard, nothing more. Did not have hours to complete without break.

Sweet. Hopin to get shower, but none available and 6-8 ppl waiting. So eat and off to jersey i go. Get there despite city planners not considering 53' trailers.

Call broker, she asks if im gonna make 0700 delivery in ashland va. Tell her thats not happening with how things are planned on my end and that i would call her back with a plan. While on the call she did advise that the appt time could be pushed back a couple hours if needed.

Talk to shipper, gonna be another hour at most and id be rolling. Im near 80 just inside jersey. This is day that 78 was closed in pa for crash. Every traffic update had new issues in jersey. And its early aftrrnoon. So likely to get worse.

So after consulting google maps and my route 80-287-njtp, it looks good when its time to roll. Call broker, add two hours to what rand mcnally is thinking, tell her 9am is doable. She agrees. Tell her to notidy abilene. Call dm and tell her the issue and solution, she says sounds good and off i go. No issues at all getting to petro in bordentown(shocked!), scaling, and sleeping. Rolling after ten. Arrive just before 7, then back to yard. Empty to HP, swap back to my truck from spare, grab 8001, and roll to md/de line with 1 hr to spare on 14. 9hours 8 minutes driving 521 miles on 95, 200ish in daytime even.

At the end...all partys are happy, deliveries were made, and truck kept rolling.

To quote a good friend.."clocks ticking, hike the ball and make a play"

 

Sitting at the dock at this receiver in Michigan and when I first pulled in I thought I had to be in the wrong place. Windows broken doors hanging and the place is in shambles. But nope, right place alright. Some type of customs controlled processing warehouse.

Got 4:23 left on the 70 until midnight. 4:51 on the 11 after the 30 is up. Sure hope they can get me outta here. Lol

 

Lol ... yep, this one will go back and forth for a spell.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/ata-second-thoughts-speed-limiters/

 

Wow... That's a first n trip.
Wore me out just reading it.
(Not the length but all that was accomplished!)

 

It'll go back and forth for quite a while I'm afraid. Its not the trucks that are the problem, it's the cars. Its extremely hard and almost difficult to keep a safe driving distance in any major city or highway anymore. The more space you give 20 cars feel the gap. I'll just enjoy my 70mph truck until they cut it back I suppose. Lol

 

Well after two nice solid days (3am to 3pm ... ish) running to the southern tip of Texas I finally laid down the final 420 miles this morning and bumped the dock 20 minutes early... Whew.

But doing so was a practice in patience, wandering around the lots, and calling disconnected phone numbers... Oh and two different addresses on the BOL and TO.

Finally found both addresses, one was empty (I think) and the other is named something differed and doesn't open until 9am. (So I'm still not sure I'm at the right place.)

Backing was interesting as there are docks on both sides of this little tight "strip mall" of warehouses with not enough room to park my rig and a B Truck nose to nose between the opposing dock doors... LOL

Add to that the people coming in to work, cars parked everywhere and big trash bins EVERYWHERE and none close to the buildings but rather right along the path coming in and out... After a decent back, for me that is, I bumped the dock without incident, and squared up with my nose crossed over 3/4 of the traffic flow. I hope to God there isn't another Sleeper with 53' box coming here this morning.

All in All... Awesome Trip...

PS I think I'm so far south I might need my passport to return to Texas... But lots of lovely Latinas walking to work further down the "mall" so I guess it's all good. Just hope the US Customs don't strip search my truck like the Canadian Boys did... LOL

 

I'm not gonna even touch this one lol Good luck!! Lol

 

LOL .... Sounds like whining to me.