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

Good. One less dirt bag driving a truck on our highways. Loss of truck/trailer, loss of cargo, owner of the drugs sending out his boys to collect a piece of the drivers arse, oh, and said driver looses freedom for a few years, makes for a great movie.

 

I'm sitting here in Wytheville at the 77. Before I get into my day today I just want to send my well wishes and prayers to the Schaffer driver that wrecked at the 81l77 merge at the 81mm. It didn't look good at all, I just hope he/she made it out ok.

I left Toast NC at 7am this morning. I had 255 miles to my delivery. I got there at noon and heard from the receiver that I was early for my 12:30 appt. I mentioned to him it seems much better in my little world to be early for a delivery then late. He agreed, backed me right in at this huge appliance DC and had me empty at 1pm. I had my reload info sent to me about 10pm. We can't read the screen while the truck is moving, but we can have that sexy computer voice read the info to us. When ever I am moving and have it being read to me, the first thing I listen for is the miles on the load. All I heard was "LD miles" 2987 miles, "MT miles" 59miles. Not bad, a 3046 mile trip. I figured it was a load to the PNW.

When I got backed in at the delivery I checked my dispatch. I had to deadhead 59 miles to Goldsboro at a customer I've been to once before for a drop and hook with a drop in Meridian Idaho, and a final in Kent Washington. I got to my drop and hook at 1:15 and was leaving the complex at 2pm. I only had 10 hours left on my 70 and won't pick up any until after midnight tomorrow night. I have only 5 hours left for tomorrow so I decided to get here to Wytheville and reset. My reset will be done at 5:15am on Friday. For what I have left for tomorrow, and not picking up any until Midnight Thursday, I figured waiting just 5 hours more I will have my full 70. The first drop is due Monday at 7am, the second one in Kent is 497 miles away and should be set up for Tuesday morning. That's it for now, be safe all, God Bless.

 

Well, due to the fact I'm bored, I went against my previous statement about not renewing my TWIC card and renewed it. Three year extension for half the price of $60. I haven't used mine in 3 years, so at this rate this will be a total waste of money and time. But hey, at least I'm helping the fed's line their pockets, I mean this is what it's really about, money, right?

 

I'm sitting in my truck, parked in a spot that is safe from some of these truckstop cowboys, and what happens? A cowboy comes around the corner in front of me and takes the hood off this Crete truck parked to my left, ahead of me a little bit. This is why I kept emphasizing to George about why I am very careful about parking. I can't do anything about cowboys, but finding a spot that would minimize this careless, and wreckless action only takes a minute. Not only did he rip off the hood, but he tore the radiator loose, as I'm watching the anti-freeze run out from under the truck. No matter how I play this forward and backward in my head, this wasn't an accident, it was a blatant disregard of safe driving through a truckstop. What else could it be? Clear beautiful day, minimal truck traffic, many empty spaces, and some cowboy on the loose.

 

He stopped. If he didn't I would have run out after him in the 15 degree weather in my sleeping shorts looking like who did it and ran.

 

Major change of plans. I mean big time, and believe me, this is all on me. This will never happen again. I got a phone call about 1:30 this afternoon from Bret, who handles the Boars Head account. I was told that they are taking me off my load out to Washington because they have an issue with a Boars Head load coming out of Forest City Arkansas going to Brooklyn. The load will be here about 8pm, I needed to drop my load at the Wytheville yard, hook to that one and be in Brooklyn before 2pm tomorrow. Very doable.

So, after hanging up with Bret and going over everything, this is what I've come up with. I'm giving up a 3050 mile trip for one that is going to Brooklyn and is 540 miles. I now have to stop my reset mid stride. I will get there with very little time to get out of Brooklyn to load, which is not an issue with me. Before I sleep at that hole I'll take a violation and get to a safe haven in Jersey. My 10 hour break will be up about 5pm tomorrow, just in time to fight all that traffic. I'm guessing that I'll be dead headed back to Richmond, and won't be back until Saturday morning. This is solely my fault. I was on the phone with a buddy of mine and he suggested I go up to the big rest area on the WV turnpike in Beckley. I agreed, plenty of parking, food, free showers, but instead I decided to stay in Wytheville, a mile from our yard at the J. Never again. If I went the 81 miles up to there I would have been out of sight, out of mind. My bad.