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

I was making a Hillphoenix delivery today at the new Heb store #744 being built in Washington Ave Houston, Texas.
It is the first time that I have seen a Heb store being built differently.
Whoever thought of it was truly a genius in my opinion.
This Heb store is on the second floor and the other floors will be apartments with parking space!
I wasn’t able to get more details but this truly is a very smart way of having permanent costumers that can do there food shopping very easily and pay Heb there rental money!

 

Pretty sure that was “Dancing Queen”

 

Delivered in Laredo, Tx Friday and got reloaded to AL for Sat then from there went to Byhalia and dropped in Jacksonville this morning after a reset then got a reefer and picked up vidalia onions in Lyons, Ga headed to Groveport, Oh for tomorrow. Betting I get a BH load after dropping there, lol! Hope it goes west....makes sense to keep me out there since I take all my home time in Yakima, WA where my fiancé is anyway.....I keep telling them I don’t mind the NW, even in winter when no one likes throwing chains. I don’t mind it, I got it down to 30 min, lol!

 

{unpacks & hangs up the old disco ball}

 

LOL!!! That sure ain’t me! Since I got old, I can’t move like I used to.

 

You don't say.

 

Today's amusement:

Rolled into the Love's near Hagerstown, MD to get a shower.. The newish one off I-81, Exit 10. Inside, sitting on a chair, was a very cranky and animated individual holding an icepack to his forehead. His name was Graham.

Graham had apparently been walking through the parking lot back to his truck after fetching lunch for himself. And Graham had apparently walked into the little bar/gate thingy that blocks off the Tirepass(tm) lane. Graham had somehow managed to walk into the Tirepass(tm) bar in such a way that, despite being about chest height on your average trucker, the bar nonetheless managed to clock him in the forehead.

Now me, if I walk into something and bonk myself in the head, my reaction is going to be "Christ, I need to pay more attention to where I'm walking!"

Not Graham, though.

Graham was most vexed by this turn of events and was loudly haranguing the hapless staff at the fuel desk, letting them (and everybody else in earshot) know that he was JUST WALKING TO HIS TRUCK and he had JUST BOUGHT HIS LUNCH and he had a CAT INSIDE HIS TRUCK WITH HIM and he HADN'T DONE ANYTHING BUT PUT HIS LUNCH BACK IN HIS TRUCK AND THEN WALK BACK TO THE STORE and ALL HIS CELL PHONES WERE OUT IN HIS TRUCK and on and on and on.

The store manager, much to Graham's surprise, called an ambulance. He wasn't expecting that. They filed in while I was waiting for my shower and quickly ascertained that Graham was in no danger of...well, anything really, except possibly being loud and obnoxious.

I couldn't quite figure out Mr. Graham's angle. Was this some sort of attempted insurance fraud? Surely they've got cameras liberally festooned all over the place which would reveal that whatever happened, it was Graham's own fault for walking around a truck stop parking lot with his head up his ###.

But then they announced that my shower was ready, so I did not get to see the conclusion of this drama. As I was heading back, I heard him describe his cat as an "emotional support animal".

Later, after I'd finished my shower, I happened to catch the manager of the store in conversation while I got myself a cup of coffee.

The manager's theory is that Graham is malingering and doesn't want to drive today. Graham made sure that both the manager AND the EMTs called his company to talk to "Babs". He insisted that they explain to "Babs" that he MIGHT have to take the rest of the day off until he is feeling better. Turns out, the guy comes there all the time. Not only was this NOT the first time he's had some kind of medical "emergency" while at that Love's, it wasn't even the first time TODAY. Apparently he'd "slipped" earlier in the morning. The manager said that when he called Graham's company and spoke to Babs, there was an audible groan on the other end of the phone as he was explaining the situation.

Clearly that cat has its work cut out for it.

 

In other news, I will finally get some use out of the "N" endorsement on my CDL. I had dropped a trailer off at the Wytheville yard and was waiting for further instructions when my DM called. Asked me if I had a tanker endorsement.

I immediately begin thinking of those two AMX tankers I'd seen on the Richmond yard a month or so ago, and informed him that, as it just so happened, I did have a tanker endorsement.

Turns out I won't be driving a tanker, but will instead be driving a dry van full of large containers of liquid. IIRC, the cutoff for hauling drums or tanks in a dry van is 110 gallons, so these will be some fairly hefty containers.

Perhaps I will feel THE SURGE! We'll see.

 

….may the surge be with you...……….."

 

Now that’s a country song...

“Not as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was”.... or something... lol